A Rivendell ought not, ought not indeed, to feel sluggish!! Something is wrong!
How is the QB set up compared to your other bikes? A much higher bar not only increases wind drag but can prevent the use of powerful muscles - glutes? Back? -- in any event, it is a commonplace the a certain amount of bend - 45* is commonly talked about -- increases power; something I can feel whenever I go into the hooks. You don't need low bars to take advantage of this; while my Rivs have the hooks as low as I can comfortably ride in for several miles, my Fargo has the bar slightly higher than the saddle, with the hooks giving me a position similar to the hoods on my Rivs. I don't feel sluggish unless I sit bolt upright, with hands on the flats. Tires: the JB Greens I had on the briefly owned Sam Hill felt nice and fast, but if the Blues are belted, they may be indeed slower: Jan Heine put tire rolling resistance as second only to wind resistance as a factor in the amount of speed you get for a given output. I do know that the Kojak 35s, 559 and 622, roll very well despite *their* belt, but I find, for example, Pasela Tourguards to be real dogs. The Sam Hill certainly didn't feel as fast as my customs but it didn't feel any more sluggish than the Fargo with similar tires. (I just didn't like its handling.) Mr Tuffys? Horrible, evil things -- they immediately rob you of 35% of your speed. Cyintifik fakt. Seriously, they do make the bike feel sluggish. Even worse, diabolically worse, are "thorn proof" tubes. Binding freewheel? Perhaps, but if the QB feels sluggish when pedaling, that's not the cause. Dragging brake? And, one more: too tight a chain? I recently re-installed the wheel in my '03, fixed gear, and rode it and didn't notice until I stopped that the rear wheel was not spinning smoothly as usual: the culprit was a binding chain -- this even though I had carefully adjusted the wheel at the outset. There is a technique called "walking" the rear axle to the right position, whereby you alternately tighten the nut on one side after adjusting the wheel until you have just the right position -- a good technique to learn with a sliding axle. Me, I felt sluggish on the way home just now but that was because of an annoying headwind -- we are getting into NM's windy season, tho' it's pretty windy here year 'round. Let us know what, if anything, works -- there has got to be a reason; I can't believe a Riv model as such simply feels sluggish. On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 12:48 PM, Peter Pesce <petepe...@gmail.com> wrote: > I've really been loving the single speeding simplicity of my new-to-me QB, > but it's not feeling particularly quick. > I was expecting a slick, efficient, butter-smooth feel to the bike, but it > seems a bit more like I'm riding through peanut butter. I'm finding I need > to pedal on slight downhills that my Sam and LHT will accelerate while > coasting down. Sluggish is about the only way to describe it. > > There are a couple of things I'm thinking, and would appreciate any advice: > > 1) This is my first experience with an Albatross bar and the upright > posture may be increasing my (already considerable) wind resistance more > than I'm used to. > > 2) I added a Dos Eno freewheel and it's got a pretty hefty amount of drag. > When I have the bike in the stand, and spin the rear wheel in the forward, > freewheeling, direction the cranks spin right along too. This doesn't > happen with my cassette-equipped bikes. The wheel also doesn't coast (in > the stand) nearly as long as my shimano cassette equipped bikes. Maybe this > gets better over time? It's a brand new freewheel. I had a Shimano > freewheel on it for a while, and the bike felt better, but could the Dos > Eno really be that slow? > > 3) The Jack Brown Blue/Open Sport wheels on the QB are close enough in > weight to the Kojak/Dyads on my Sam that I don't think I'm noticing a > radical difference in inertia. Tire pressures are checked and fine. > > 4) This is my first ever single speed (if you don't count the Schwinn BMX > bike I had when I was 12) - is there any trick to setting them up that I > may not be aware of? I read all of Sheldon's advice on the topic... my > chainline seems fine (wouldn't matter coasting anyway) and the tension > seems OK. The wheel is straight.... > > Thanks in advance for any help, > > Pete in CT > SingleSixtySidepullSam... and Quick-ish-beam > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/4wwVI1dXlOYJ. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW http://resumespecialties.com/index.html -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. 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