Posts tagged “modal”  

Those of us that travel with bikes know it’s an arms race with the airlines — how much they charge came up earlier this year when Pam and I got popped $175.00 per-bike-one-way by Northwest Airlines. As Mark wrote in response to our trip

Ask about and everyone has a tale of how a friend of theirs flew a bike for $5 blah, blah, blah…. Let me tell you, there was a period of time where I logged 100,000 frequent flier miles over two years. I know about flying with a bike … nothing beats the S&S system for flying a 700C wheeled bike,

We know how to fly with bikes too and got charged on that trip because we flew with Scicon cases that say, “bicycle” and are in the shape of a bicycle. Normally we fly with S&S and also with Bromptons and Dahons. The advantage of all of those folders is that they either go into a case that squeaks under the airline surcharge for oversize baggage — pack it light to keep it under weight — or go right into the overhead.

Until recently that is.

Reading with interest your adentures with the Modal project bike, and curious about what you’d think about an adaptation I’ve been wanting to try with a slider dropout bike (should I ever get one.) My most recent frame was built with 132.5 mm dropouts at the builder’s recommendation (Moots) to run 130 or 135mm hubs. In normal derailleur “mode” I run 130s (or Bullseyes with extra spacers to be 132.5 exactly), but I also run a 135mm Rohloff hub without having to force the dropouts apart. Nice. But would this work and be better: build a slider frame with 135mm spacing and run stronger 135mm wheels for touring and general riding. But when road racing or in any other situation where borrowing a spare or panic-bought wheel might happen replace the stock sliders (the sliding aluminum parts) with another pair that have dropouts spaced 130mm (and the derailleur hanger positioned to match). That is, offset sliders. Whaddaya think? Thanks, —Eric

Dear Eric Your Modal bike concept sounds interesting and in concept seems workable. However, there a few more things you should consider.

Wore the Novara Kit on a relaxed downtown Seattle ride yesterday. The caption on the shorts says, “Never a Bad Time to Ride.”

I was on the Modal in Nexus mode. Without a cyclo-computer and a smooth internally-geared drivetrain, it was just a relaxing ride.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Drop-Bar Nexus

The Modal is a Bike Hugger travel bike concept that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. Our latest mode is internally geared with a drop-bar Nexus setup. 

This wheel was built by Hed for us with Nexus 8 Speed Premium "Red Band" attached to an Ardenne. The Nexus connects to a Jtek bar-end shifter.

The initial ride report is smooth and what we'd expect from the setup. Mark geared it to cruise along the flats and climb Seattle's steep hills with a 39 x 21. Note that the drivetrain works like a bar-end shifter connected to a Rapid Rise MTB derailer: moving the levers has the opposite effect. It's reversed.

The shifting is responsive, tight, and feels like Ultregra. You can palm the shifter for quick shifting and I got used to the reverse setup within a few shifts. Other internally-geared hubs require you to stop pedaling to shift. The Nexus Red Band does not. I ran through the gears up and down and J-tek's indexing is audible enought to hear the shift: not vague and sounds solid.

Mechanics have always hacked various drivetrains bits, including various drop-bar setups. While this is technically a hack, it doesn't shift like one at all. The Nexus of course adds weight, but nothing that noticeable. It doesn't feel like there's a boat anchor attached to the back of a reasonably light road bike.

We'll spend much more time on this bike going into the late Summer and Fall. The next challenge is to travel with it.

More Drop-Bar Nexus Setups

• Dynamic's Alfine Road Bike: The Synergy
• Ecovelo: Alfine equipped Casseroll
• Hubstripping
• Bikeforums
• Hiawatha Cyclery
• Flickr Photos
• Modal Tag

I've posted before about my own travel bike, a custom Sycip with S&S couplings. I designed the bike for maximum versatility. By changing out handlebars, rear wheels, and other peripheral components, the bike can become a road fixie, a TT bike, a touring bike, or a road racing bike. Someday I'd like to do a cyclocross race with it, just to say that I've done it all with that bike. I've been almost 20 countries with it, and it's outlasted two relationships. It's a great formula that inspired Byron's Davidson Modal bike, but my bike did have a predecessor.
Here's my current Sycip in front of the predecessor, just yesterday.

The Modal is a travel bike concept that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. This wheel was built with Nexus 8 Speed Premium "Red Band" attached to a Hed Ardennes. It's for internal-gear mode and we're building this up now with a drop bar.

Bike Hugger Modal tags.

And thinking about Fall, travel, single-speeds, Nexus, and our next project bike.

This weekend we’re off to Hang out with Hincapie Sportswear and blog the USPro Cycling Championships.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Back from Shanghai and finally, mostly over the massive jet lag, I toggled the Modal from single to geared. Despite the f’ing rain, I found that most enjoyable because there’s zen in working quietly on a bike and going out for a ride. It took me about an hour to switch and Mark does it in about 15 minutes.

A few updates:

• Refined the process to just swapping bars; original thinking was a bar/stem combo so I could use a different stem for an urban setup. Now I just pull the faceplate and switch between single-speed bars and geared-bars using one stem.
• With another set of DA cranks, it’s much faster to pull the crank than change out the big chainring for the chainring protector and vice-versa.
• Getting over scratches, dings, and tweaks by rationalizing them as a “travel patina” was a good idea!

Note: The Modal is a travel bike concept that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes.

I’m taking the Modal with me to Shanghai in single-speed mode and looking forward to some very interesting riding. We’ve heard from the Shanghai Crash Test Dummy and Labici Bike Shop about riding with us. Googling Shanghai, I found

• Chongming Island Race
• A Guide for Bike Riders in Shanghai
• An article defending the bicycle in Shanghai
• The battle of the bike in Shanghai
• Fueled by Rice

Besides the planned rides, like Beijing and Taipei, we’ll just get out into the city and ride.

Photo uploaded by lemonade

Update ###

Dahon is supplying us with Mu XLs during our stay in Shanghai — so the Modal in single mode is staying home for this trip.

Add another mode to the Modal and that’s performance. When it was built, both Mark V and Bill Davidson commented that the Modal would perform, if needed, and perform well. In my previous trips, I was either riding it in singled-speed mode or geared and just touring. I rode to Hana with a Carradice seat pack last time we were in Maui and mostly just rolled it, but did observe

“The Modal in geared mode performed as expected — very well. It’s built for performance riding and adept at climbing, cornering, and all-day riding … I’ll adjust the sliders for more road clearance and swap cassettes to a 27 next time.”

This time, with racing starting next week, I came here to train harder and added some intensity. For the past 5 days, I’ve ridden Upcountry in the hills with lots of rollers and climbing; bombed down descents over very rough “Roubaix roads”; rolled roleur style, staying on top of the gear with a tailwind; added fast tempo, sprint intervals, a recovery spin; and a bonus trip over the lava fields.

With the cold, sunny days in Seattle (cold for us at least), we shot this video riding around Alki Beach and the University of Washington.

Bikes and gear shown include

• Batavus Flying D
• Bike Hugger Bettie
• Bike Hugger Modal
• Ibex Clive Jacket
• Crumpler Complete Seed

and the audio sample is Lyrics Of Fury from Tricky.

Just in time for the Maui rides, the Bike Hugger decals arrived for the Modal …

The decals include chainstay, seatstay, and a badge for the fork.

Hugger departs next week for our annual Maui ride. We’ll ride to Hana, upcountry Haleakala, and more for about 28 hours of ride time. If we’re feeling good, we may just ride around the whole island. I’ll have the Modal with me.

Posts and podcasts to follow.

Earlier in the week, the conditions were just right — a side tailwind across the bike, “lifting” the wheels — and I rode the Modal fast. As “a roleur” type of rider, I get a rush from the momentum of a bike, from getting on top of the gear, and holding it there. Riding a tailwind for me, is like a surfer dropping into a big wave and with 60 mm of wing surface, the Jet 60s catch that wind and roll almost effortlessly.

Last week Mark toggled the Modal to geared mode and I videotaped the process. The Modal is a travel bike that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. In geared mode, I’ll ride it around Seattle and trips where I’m touring, training, and riding longer.

Switching between single and geared took about 16 minutes (without the cassette change, we’re clocking it at around 15 minutes).

Note: the time is compressed in the video.

Spatial relationships and analysis are important when packing a travel bike (at least to me they are). Where Pam spent about a 1/2 hour packing her bike, I spent about 2.5 hours making sure everything lined up, the space was used to its potential, and the package would arrive safe and intact.

Both bikes did arrived safely and with no damage. However my packed items shifted all over the place and Pam’s was in pristine condition. I’m now deconstructing what possibly went wrong with my pack and she’ll just pack like whatever next time. I explained to Pam that it was a guy thing to do the perfect pack and I had to get it right.

Texas style bike lanes are featured in the fifteenth episode of the Huggacast. I think this is a token bike lane painted to get federal funding. It’s about 34 seconds long.

What’s the most ridiculous bike lane you’ve ridden?

Bike Hugger was in San Antonio test riding the Modal, a travel bike concept that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. Besides this ridiculously short lane, San Antonio did have a good system of paths and roads on the Mission to Mission ride.

Update

Google Videos ongoing sketchiness results in sometimes the 34 second bike lane is available and sometimes not. You can download and view it from directly from our servers.

Riding in San Antonio is pretty much like Austin and I don’t know if it’s the Lance halo effect or what, but the people we met were very nice to cyclists, even giving us a ton of room on the road. When the Modal was built, we also converted Pam’s Davidson to S&S, and this was our first trip with them. We wanted to spend time with the bikes, assembling, learning how to do it, but two late meetings later and a couple business crises, we were slamming them together to get out and ride. And it went pretty well.

Pam’s bike took about 1/2 hour and the Modal was about ten minutes less because of the single speed configuration. We both struggled with the chain master links. Probably some secret bike shop knowledge we haven’t been blessed with yet, but after several tries and techniques, we got chains on both bikes. As I noted in my comments on another Modal post, riding a single speed is liberating. Where we had to stop several times to adjust Pam’s derailleur and fiddle with the master link, I was set.

The Modal at the Alamo.

Mark built up the Modal in Single Speed Mode this week. There are lots of bike geek details to share and I’ll cover what I can and add a travel report from Texas this weekend.

One of Davidson’s specialities is S&S Coupling travel bikes and Mark has traveled with them more than 30 times, all over the world, in various configurations. From Mark’s experience, Davidson’s direction, and creative input from me, we began working the Modal Concept in May of this year. The Modal is a travel bike that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes.

Under 4 pounds isn’t racer light, but for a travel/touring bike with S & S couplings and Paragon dropouts, that’s really good.

Update

Total bike weight in Single Speed Mode is under 18 pounds. I’ll post the details of the built bike in another ready-to-ride post.

from the Bike Hugger Photostream.