Wednesday, 6 March 2013

Make Mine A Hub Gear


I like hubgeared bikes; in fact I don’t think I’ll ever buy a bike for my own use that isn’t. A hubgear is one where all the cogs are enclosed within a cylinder that forms the hub of the backwheel. They have been around a long time – since 1896 or so, and were very popular up until pushbikes were started to be seen as only for leisure or as toys, when everything went derailleur (where all the cogs are on the outside) – in the 1970s. Probably the best known and most familiar to many of you is the Sturmey Archer 3 speed (this one I bought for a tenner on ebay to practice taking apart and putting back together):


Others include: the Sturmey Archer 5 speed - currently on my bike:


And the SRAM i-motion 9, 9 speed - the one which broke (and would cost about £400 to replace):


Main advantages include:

1) Greatly reduced maintenance due to the cylinder/drum (whatever you wish to call it) enclosing the working parts.

2)  You can change gear when stationery, so therefore they are better for town biking where you may need to stop at a traffic lights and therefore need to change down to a lower gear to start up again when the lights change.

Disadvantages include their weight (relatively heavy), tend to have a lower ranges (the exception is the Rohloff) (so may be at a disadvantage on hilly areas; this is why not many road bikes (racers) and other sport bikes have them). Those with more than 3 gears are also complex, making them difficult and expensive to fix (as I found out), especially in this country, where they are comparatively rare and nobody knows how to repair them. However, this seems to be changing as more models become available from the major manufacturers, Shimano, SRAM and Sturmey Archer; and slow cycling through towns becomes more popular.

I prefer hub gears not just for the advantages in maintenance and urban biking, but also because I just like the look of them: there’s something neat about that little drum with all the working parts inside it tucked away. For me, they evoke images of a leisurely urban cycling lifestyle of the past and of Europe – especially Holland and Denmark. This is still quite rare in the UK (outside of London) where it is mostly head-to-the-handlebars seriousness, cycling shorts and shades. They’re almost an obsession: whenever I see pushbikes, I look straight to the rear wheel to see if it has a hubgear!

Hub gear manufacturers:

Further info:

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Art Deco Font And The Golden Age Of Cycling. Or Not.

Have you ever been motivated by and persisted with an idea or perception that you found was incorrect?

You may all have noticed the distinctive lettering in the header of this blog and may wonder what it was (if you didn’t already know). It is Parisian Art Deco font.

What is Art Deco? Well, it’s a style of art and design – more details on the link – not that I’m into high brow arty stuff or anything, I just saw it around, liked it and somehow associated it with what I thought was the golden age of cycling, especially urban cycling – transportation and utility, bikes and accessories; mostly what this blog is about. This style originated and was popular between the wars (1919-1939). To this end, I decided to use this font and feature in this blog's header.

And then I found that the golden age of cycling was between 1890 and the start of the First World War...so I was about 20 years out...

With regard to art styles, the period from 1890 to the start of the WW1 was the the Art Nouveau period, in which case, the header font might look like this:


Which I do like, but I prefer the Art Deco lettering so intend to keep that style on the blog header; my entitlement to a bit of artistic license, if you like.

Anyway, personally, I think that we are entering into a new golden age of cycling – officially endorsed by government building cycle lanes everywhere, major success in sport, and, which really appeals to me, lots of great new bikes and accessories for urban cycling, which I intend to cover on this blog.

Looking forward to it.