box bike
Carrier Pigeon Diary 15
I finally got around to swapping out the cog on Big Beef as planned. Thank goodness for Joe (at Joe Bike) for sending over his mechanic to my office today to perform the final swap of the cog. I had the tools and the stand, but not the confidence to deal with the hub effectively. [...]
Carrier Pigeon Diary 14
A brief update that the pigeons are still performing very well. I have yet to swap out the 23t rear cog for the 25t, though Joe Bike was most gracious in hookin’ me up with a pair for the tomato-twins. Several weeks ago I installed a Mr. Tuffy tire liner on Goliath’s rear wheel, to [...]
Carrier Pigeon Diary 13
A point of clarification to my Carrier Pigeon diary entries: I’m riding the very first Carrier Pigeons delivered to Joe Bike in Portland. I very specifically asked Joe to build these bikes to the absolute stock specifications as provided by the manufacturer so I could provide very real-world tests on out-of-the-box product. Against his better [...]
Carrier Pigeon Diary 12
This Sunday I swapped out Big Beef’s stock bottom bracket for the venerable and highly affordable Shimano UN54 square-taper bottom bracket. The UN54 is far superior to any OEM (original equipment manufacturer) bottom bracket. Fortunately, the Carrier Pigeon uses a very standard 68mm x 118mm, 24tpi bottom bracket, so replacing said OEM component is a [...]
Finally, a photo of the Carrier Pigeon
Odd that I speak so much about the bicycles yet I don’t have any pictures. Well, the wait is over. :)
Carrier Pigeon Diary 11
The pigeons have been running grand, albeit I am looking forward to throwing the 25t sprocket on the rear, for a wee bit of extra low-end oooompf. The Sturmey-Archer hub is performing nicely, displaying a very unique ratio curve. You see, the hub has a 1-to-1 1st gear (one revolution of the crank translates into [...]
Maximizing the Sturmey-Archer hub
The 8-speed XRD8 Sturmey-Archer hub that comes standard on the box bike is a fine hub and a good value (retail less than $200). This being said, the XRD8 is at its core a Sturmey hub and subsequently carries on the company’s eccentric tradition, albeit the better parts of the company’s heritage. Now made in [...]
Carrier Pigeons Diary 10
I called Sturmey-Archer’s California office today and my call was quickly fielded by a very friendly and knowledgeable chap who provided great help. He directed me to their distributor for new 25T rear hub sprockets (to lower my gearing from the 23T currently on the bikes) and offered to mail a new brake arm to [...]
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