Evolution
When I first got the love bike, it looked like this...
But it had short cranks, made for Japanese legs. The single front chainring was too small - severely limiting top speed, and the solid steel cranks would have made a great boat anchor. So some friends sent me a set of longer mountain bike cranks, with a larger chainring. A bit of creative assembly gave me better gearing, tho it was prone to the chain falling off - but still a definate improvement...
Also added were various accessories, a better seat, and some decent brake pads. Still a lot of room for improvement, however. So before I came over this time, i spent a bit of time shopping on ebay, putting together a box of bits and a grand plan. The result being -
the Love Bike Type-R...
The drivetrain is now 100% mountain bike.
Secondhand 3-chainring Shimano Exage cranks up front. The bottom of the barrel rear derailleur has been replaced with a new Shimano Alivio unit.
An SRAM X5 front derailleur was "creatively modified" to fit - it was designed to fit a 31.8mm tube, but the Love Bike has a 38mm seat tube. Surgery was successful and despite sitting further back that ideal, it is working well.
A neat trick I discovered was to take out the bottom bracket and reverse the axle - its asymmetric, with one side sticking out further than the other. This allowed me to get the chainrings in closer to the frame, much improving the chainline alignment and eliminating the problem of the chain falling off.
Finally, a pair of Shimano RevoShift grip shifters do the job of gear selection.
The overall result is great fun to ride, with good high gearing on the flat, and enough low end gearing that I could ride up a vertical wall. :) Still a few tweaks that could be done, but its a different machine to what it was, and I'll be venturing out into the mountains on it at the first available opportunity. In the meantime, I'll just put the seat way back, turn the bass up and and cruise the main street of Chichibu in style :D
But it had short cranks, made for Japanese legs. The single front chainring was too small - severely limiting top speed, and the solid steel cranks would have made a great boat anchor. So some friends sent me a set of longer mountain bike cranks, with a larger chainring. A bit of creative assembly gave me better gearing, tho it was prone to the chain falling off - but still a definate improvement...
Also added were various accessories, a better seat, and some decent brake pads. Still a lot of room for improvement, however. So before I came over this time, i spent a bit of time shopping on ebay, putting together a box of bits and a grand plan. The result being -
the Love Bike Type-R...
The drivetrain is now 100% mountain bike.
Secondhand 3-chainring Shimano Exage cranks up front. The bottom of the barrel rear derailleur has been replaced with a new Shimano Alivio unit.
An SRAM X5 front derailleur was "creatively modified" to fit - it was designed to fit a 31.8mm tube, but the Love Bike has a 38mm seat tube. Surgery was successful and despite sitting further back that ideal, it is working well.
A neat trick I discovered was to take out the bottom bracket and reverse the axle - its asymmetric, with one side sticking out further than the other. This allowed me to get the chainrings in closer to the frame, much improving the chainline alignment and eliminating the problem of the chain falling off.
Finally, a pair of Shimano RevoShift grip shifters do the job of gear selection.
The overall result is great fun to ride, with good high gearing on the flat, and enough low end gearing that I could ride up a vertical wall. :) Still a few tweaks that could be done, but its a different machine to what it was, and I'll be venturing out into the mountains on it at the first available opportunity. In the meantime, I'll just put the seat way back, turn the bass up and and cruise the main street of Chichibu in style :D
posted by ben at 11:15 pm
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