First ride then. I took it into Staines and a couple of miles down the towpath. Gearing set on 48x20.
So it’s not a
fast bike. What do I mean by that? It doesn’t take a lot to push it along, but it doesn’t want to go fast. It’s not like my
1938 Parkes which is springy and zips along. It’s happier just ambling along at a steady pace. It’s quite difficult to haul around when out the saddle, but this might just be the short stem and shape of the bars.
Steering feels quite old fashioned - it’s got that 26” roadster feel about it. I guess a contributor to how this feels this is the short stem and very narrow bars. I wouldn’t call it nimble like my Parkes is, but it feels perfectly sure-footed flying round roundabouts at speed. It soaks up the bumps extremely well.
So all in, I could see this being a pretty pleasant ride once loaded up and making use of the gearing, just pedalling along at a sensible pace.
The 48x20 gear was a bit too twiddly for me and it was cross-chaining ever so slightly and occasionally catching a tooth on the freewheel. When I got back I swapped it down one to 48x18 which is closer to the gearing I normally ride (about 72gi) and the chainline is improved. It definitely made a difference to the ride quality too.
So next on the list is to see what I can do to sort out the derailleur and reinstate the gears. After I’ve had a bit of a ride though.
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