As a kid, you're bike seemed to be one way to measure how cool you were, and back then a set of plastic pedals screamed junk. If you didn't roll up with a big set of nasty beartraps covered in teeth you might as well not have anything at all, fast forward 15 years and all of a sudden plastic has been made a comeback! I was hesitant at first, mostly concerned with the obvious, are theses things really going to give me any grip? Are they going to hold up?  Well actually I have been more than happy with them so far. There are quite a few advantages really, they're light, they're cheap, and the provide plenty of grip without attacking my shins like a cheese grater, I can't count the number of times I've slipped a pedal and thanked myself for having these. There are a couple disadvantages, one, don't ride them with wet shoes because then they fell like someone covered you feet in grease, and two, the bearings aren't sealed so they don't last forever, but they do seem to hold up just as long as the unsealed aluminum versions. I picked up a pair from Eastern, but Odyssey has been making them for years, and Primo along with most other major parts manufacturers have all released a version, even some with removable teeth. These would also be great for non-BMX bikes as well, it would be a good addition to any commuter or cruiser where you just want to hop on and ride. While not for the ripper who wants his feet totally superglued to his bike and dosen't care what happens to his shins should they happen to come unstuck, I'm not that tough and dig my plastics.

After watching a number of videos, I decided that I needed a freecoaster hub, rolling backwards without having to backpedal seemed like it could be pretty cool. Used mostly in flatland, freecoasters seem to have made more of a presence in street lately, with 14mm axles and big sealed bearings, it opens a whole new bag of tricks. For my wheel I decided to go with the KHE Reverse, there are a whole bunch of options with this hub, left hand drive, right hand drive, a choice between 14mm and 3/8 axles, and depending on availability a bunch of colorways. Since I originally wrote this review there have been a couple updated versions by KHE, like the Geisha Lite, and the Reverse ACB, a number of other companies also produce there own, but many use the KHE internals. All of the KHE hubs have slack adjustment springs which allow you to customize this engagement to your liking, I found the engagement on the reverse to be faster than that on the Geisha out of the box. I've ridden both the Reverse and the Geisha, and found for my needs riding primarily street and parks that the reverse is the hub for me, the Geisha might be better suited for flatland, but I like the big axle and the faster engagement on the Reverse. So far I have been pretty happy with my hub, I"ve added a couple of slack adjustment washers and replaced the bearings in the driver which wore out pretty quickly, an issue KHE claims to have solved with the Reverse ACB. So get one and go ride your bike backwards!

 

 

As I write this it is around 22 degrees outside and quite windy. Granted it is night time, but we aren't even into December yet mind you. Looking back we had a pretty decent year out on the trails up here in Maine. There were a couple wet stretches that sogged up the ledge and clay topography that is the norm for the area, but all in all there was some good riding this summer.

 

Coming soon to the trails near Bikeman HQ

Fiat Lux. I took four years of Latin in High School. Although I don't consider it a total waste of time (calculus takes that cake) I'm able to intersperse little phrases like fiat lux into my daily life. It basically means "let light be made." So as we creep towards the bike commuters darkest time of year, I would like to share my initial thoughts on bike lights. You can check back to my last year's blog post for the lights that have failed me in the past. I also got some great recommendations from readers as well. But this year, after some research online and asking some folks at the shop, I think I've found a great lighting system.

Dinglespeed:

A type of bicycle that uses has a single cog in the rear and a double ring set up on the crank. A chain tensioning device, such as the Paul's Component Melvin or old derailleur, is required to take up the chain slack. The use of a front derailleur is optional.

Looking for an excuse to build another bike?

Do you have an old frame or bike languishing in a corner somewhere?

Then slap a Melvin or old derailleur on there and dinglespeed that bad Larry

thats what I did to my old 1983 Fat Chance

There have been a lot of changes around the Magoon household in the past few weeks. New baby, new job are a couple of big ones. But the biggest one in terms of biking is my conversion to fixed gear. I know I've been writing about how my freewheel has been crudding up due to the weather, well it totally died, violently. So I was all ready to get a new freewheel, but since the Redline 925 came with a flip flop hub, I thought I'd give it a try.

My main concern was not the constant "if the bikes moving the pedals are moving" concept. It was pushing an even bigger gear with studded tires. For some reason they decided to put a 16 tooth on the fixed side. Oh man, total beating with those big meaty tires. I just couldn't take it (wimp) so I swapped out the tires for the summer slicks and slapped on the fenders while I was at it.

Another stellar week for bike commuting. Monday was clear and fairly warm with temps in the 20's so I actually got out the road bike and took a longer route in. It was nice to see some of the old summertime haunts along the way. It wasn't so nice not to have the studded tires because I did come upon some icy corners that scared the crap out of me at 20mph--ooops. No down time though, so that was good.

I want to seriously promote these two products for winter commuting and riding. The first is the Lake Winter Mountain boots . These things rock. The BOA lacing system is easy to dial in a comfy fit with its push-pull tension adjustment wheel while two velcro panels conceal the laces and provide a great weather barrier.

The leather uppers are soft and supple and I applied the (provided) NuWax right away to ensure a little more water-proofness and guard against salt and sand. Another great feature is the Vibram sole that completely recesses the cleats so that when walking. It's all rubber--a nice feature when pushing the bike on ice or snow or walking on pavement.

Well I did it! I pulled the trigger on a new bike. Al and the gang at the shop dug an '07 Redline 925 out of the bowels of inventory and it happened to be just my size. Gravy. So far, I have a good 50 miles or so on it and here are my initial thoughts.

It's the ideal commuting bike for me. The big selling point was the price. Retail I think is in the $550 range, but with my Bikeman discount, I was able to get it for less which was nice. The parts are pretty standard: Tektro road brake calipers and levers, FSA cranks, flip flop hubs, Welgo flat pedals (which I swapped out for Crank Brothers Smarty), Planet Bike fenders.

My lights suck. There, I said it. I have the Sigma Exo X system . When I first got them, I liked them because they were so bright. But about a week into using them (last year) the battery could only hold a charge for 20 min. so I was sent a new battery and charger in hopes that it was just a bad combination. That seemed to work pretty well at first, but I noticed this year that my low-battery red warning lights would come on about 15 minutes into the ride home.