Dingle All The Manner – Bike Snob NYC

In the event you’ve been paying consideration or at the least managing to remain awake, you understand I’ve been conducting type of a half-assed Dated Singlespeed 29er Shootout. (Although as I sort that I understand I don’t have to specify “dated” as a result of singlespeed 29ers are inherently dated.) After becoming a budget bike with a cowhide saddle and bamboo bars, I felt I’d narrowed the hole between them significantly, which I confirmed once I obtained again on the costly bike and located I wasn’t blown away by how significantly better it was:

I imply it was nonetheless higher, however not by so much.

However there’s extra to a motorcycle than the way it rides. In the event you journey one-speed mountain-style bicycles, you’re conversant in the Singlespeeder’s Conundrum: how do you gear the factor in order that it’s enjoyable to journey on the paths however not ponderous to journey to the paths? To be completely trustworthy, for a few years I used to be not vexed by the Singlespeeder’s Conundrum, since I lived in the course of Brooklyn and the closest place to journey mountain bikes was Cunningham Park, which was like 15 miles away:

Gears or no gears, that’s a sucky journey, until you want vehicles and visitors lights, so I at all times simply drove locations to go mountain biking as a substitute. So for me there was no conundrum: I simply geared the bike for the paths, and that was that.

However now, not solely do I dwell a lot nearer to mountain bike trails, however the journey to them is kind of nice, and I may even get there a lot of the manner on filth. In truth, since shifting to the place I dwell now I nearly by no means drive to go mountain biking, and I’ve come to seek out the very thought distasteful–not for smugness causes, however as a result of if I’ve obtained time to journey I’d choose to spend all of it on a motorcycle versus spending a few of it in a automotive. Nonetheless, this does imply I journey my singlespeed mountain bike lower than I as soon as did, since for those who’re going to journey to and from trails it’s good to have gears, and for those who’re the busy father of seventeen (17) youngsters who’s obtained schoolbuses to satisfy, bathrooms to wash, and many others., spinning your legs off on the flats simply to keep up a velocity of like 8mph tends to eat up quite a lot of driving time.

This in fact raises the second-most requested query in all-cycling after “What stress you operating?,” that being…

…say it with me now:

WHAT GEAR YOU RUNNING?

Most just lately that’s been a 34 up entrance:

And a 20 within the again:

The paths north of the town are fairly hilly, so this gear a bit greater than I’d choose, however it makes getting there just a bit extra bearable.

In fact, within the everlasting quest to unravel the Singlespeeder’s Conundrum, some riders have turned to the so-called “dinglespeed,” that being a singlespeed with two units of chainrings and two units of rear cogs, thereby yielding each a transit gear and a path gear. Now, you could be considering that the concept of a “dinglespeed” is antithetical to the complete singlespeeding ethos:

You may additionally be considering, “‘Singlespeeder’s’ Conundrum?’ Being within the unsuitable gear 99.9% of the time is what you signed up for. Suck it up, or get a motorcycle with gears.”

Honest enought.

Nonetheless, I’d argue that devising workarounds is what orthodoxy is all about. Simply because the observant Jew may make use of a “Shabbos goy” to conduct his enterprise on the Sabbath, so does the singlespeeder devise sneaky strategies to reap the advantages of a number of gear ratios with out resorting to a derailleur. All of that is to say I’d been contemplating dingling the Engin for awhile now, and at present I lastly determined to do it. So I fished out a bunch of cogs and chainrings and started working:

Now, I ought to make clear that, when carried out correctly, the dinglespeed mustn’t solely provide the rider two gear ratios, however it must also enable the rider the flexibility to make the swap between them with out altering the place of the rear wheel. Sure, you’ve obtained to take away the wheel to get sufficient chain slack to make the change, however for those who use the proper mixture of chainrings and cogs they need to each take up the identical quantity of chain and never require you to reposition the axle. As such, the rocker dropouts of the Engin make it a very good candidate for this, since when you’ve set the chain pressure, eradicating and changing the rear wheel is an easy matter of opening and shutting the skewer:

In the meantime a budget singlespeed makes use of good old school horizontal dropouts, or I suppose technically “monitor ends,” that are clearly easy and efficient, however which additionally require you to make use of a wrench, after which transfer the wheel ahead, after which re-tension the chain once more when you’ve modified gears, and so forth and so forth, none of which is a extremely huge deal, however nonetheless, you need the dingle change to be as shut as potential to a turnkey operation.

So arguably, by advantage of the sophistication dropouts alone, the Engin is a superior bike…although in fact whether or not or not that sophistication is definitely worth the time and expense of getting a customized bike is an entire different dialogue.

The opposite factor that makes the Engin simply dingle-able is the rear hub:

Sure, it’s a singlespeed hub, however it’s a freehub that takes a splined cog versus a threaded hub that takes a freewheel, and there’s sufficient room on there for multiple cog:

Sure, you will get a dinglespeed freewheel to your threaded hub, however you’re huge cash:

[Via White Industries]

That’s to not say the standard of the White Industries isn’t value it, however for those who’re not sure what gearing you need it’s far simpler and cheaper to fiddle with the spare cogs in your elements bin.

So far as sustaining the place of the rear axle, the best resolution gave the impression to be to make use of the identical complete variety of tooth for every gear mixture. Sure, as smarter folks than me will level out, it doesn’t work precisely. However I hoped if the cogs and chainrings weren’t too far aside in measurement it could work properly sufficient.

As I discussed, I’d been utilizing a 34×20, which was only a bit tall for the hillier trails. So for the interior/path gear I went for a 32×20, and for the outer/transit gear I went for a 34×18. Right here’s what a 34×20 seems to be like in gear inches:

[Via Sheldon Brown Gear Calculator]

And right here’s what my dingle would give me:

Clearly I wouldn’t be utilizing them “crossed over” so solely the excessive and low numbers apply. Anyway, as you’ll be able to see, it’s a reasonably small distinction, however hopefully it’d be sufficient to noticeably enhance each the journey and the journey to the journey.

For the cogs themselves, I had some nicer Surly ones in addition to some generic ones. The Surly ones are flat on one facet and type of beveled on the opposite, which implies they’re “stackable” and you should utilize multiple collectively:

I solely had a generic 18-tooth cog, however due to the profile of the 20-tooth Surly I might place them each collectively, and due to the flatter profile of the generic one I used to be nonetheless in a position to get the lockring again on there with out fishing round for thinner spacers or something like that:

All of this took perhaps 5 or 10 minutes, after which it was perhaps one other 10 minutes to put in the entrance chainrings, most of which was spent fishing the suitable double-ring bolts out of my elements bin.

(By the way in which, having the choice to make use of multiple chainring, or to place the chainring on both the skin or the within to tune your chainline, is a superb cause to make use of a multi-ring crank as a substitute of a flowery devoted singlespeed one in your singlespeed bike. In truth you could possibly make the identical argument for utilizing a daily geared hub in your singlespeed and simply utilizing spacers, although at the least the singlespeed hub ends in a touch stronger wheel.)

As soon as I obtained all of it collectively, I rummaged round within the care package deal the nice folks at Dumonde had been form sufficient to ship me awhile again and grabbed some chain lube. As I utilized it, I used to be stunned to seek out it smelled strongly of mocha, and solely after noticing this did I feel to take a look at the label:

I have to say I owe a debt of gratitude to Dumonde. Whereas I can’t communicate to the espresso stuff but (moreover the scent that’s), I’ve been utilizing the opposite chain lubes they despatched they usually’re incredible–they final a extremely very long time, and for those who’re the lazy sort who doesn’t clear their chain like I’m they don’t gunk up the drivetrain the way in which some others do. I’ve additionally gotten quite a lot of good use out of their liquid grease:

I’ve breathed new life into cartridge wheel bearings in seconds by drizzling these things on there, and I’ve even used it to unlock my sticky automotive hood latch.

Their freehub oil additionally just lately helped me out of a (literal) jam:

My son has appropriated the Normcore Bike as his commuter, which implies it’s gone from being an indoor cat to an outside cat and all that entails After the bike hung out locked up within the rain the freehub seized up, and I used to be all set to start out combing eBay for a substitute. However the savvy residence mechanic is aware of you must at all times attempt the simplest resolution first, and after squirting freehub oil in there as finest I might I’m happy to report it’s been working fantastically each since.

So yeah, the Dumonde bike lubes are nice, particularly for the lazy bike proprietor. As an adolescent I labored in a ironmongery store, and when my boss used to make me clear the cabinets or the fluorescent lighting fixtures he used to admonish me to make use of “extra juice and fewer elbow grease”–in different phrases we had tons of cleansing merchandise available, so it irritated him to see me waste an excessive amount of time doing precise scrubbing. With Dumonde, I’m in a position to apply this “extra juice, much less elbow grease” to my bicycle upkeep by simply drenching stuff again into performance, and for that I’m grateful.

As for the dinglespeed, it appeared to return collectively properly: