Triple Threat

It’s been very dry round right here, our bodies of water however:

The draw back of the dryness has been plenty of brush fires:

However the upside is that path circumstances are optimum:

Currently my most popular trail-meandering bike has been the Roaduno:

[Photo was taken a week or two ago. Note how the color has drained from the landscape since then.]

Since receiving it I’ve made varied adjustments, probably the most vital of which have been the swap to drop bars and the unlocking of the internal chainring to realize a two-speed setup, and I’ve been extraordinarily happy. Nonetheless, a part of the enjoyable of a unusual bike like that is experimenting with it, and I’d been considering it could be good to have one thing a bit of greater than that 38-tooth ring, so I made a decision to impress all people who’s already offended by the entire “dinglespeed” factor and go all the best way by changing the bike right into a “thringlespeed.”

Clearly I may have achieved thringle-fication by including a 3rd ring to the crank that was already on there, however as a substitute I made a decision to change it for this:

It’s the Suntour “Microdrive” that was on the Softride–or at the least the drive-side half is. The opposite half appears to be a Sugino:

But when your crank arms aren’t mismatched are you actually don’t sq. taper proper?

I’d say no.

Because of its Micro-ness, along with the 42-tooth outer ring, I’d additionally get a teeny-tiny 20-tooth internal ring, which is significantly smaller than the 26-tooth internal ring on the Silver crank:

It’s a beautiful crank in each method, and a 26-tooth internal ring is lots small, however keep in mind, we’re experimenting right here.

Normally once I tinker it winds up being a debacle, however on this case every part went easily regardless of my finest efforts. Luckily the prevailing backside bracket was an excellent match, although as you may see there’s not a lot room between that teeny-tiny ring and the underside bracket lug:

In addition to that it was actually only a matter of adjusting the restrict screws on the entrance derailleur, and earlier than lengthy I used to be out using:

The very first thing I seen was the distinction in each stiffness and Q-factor of the mismatched crank arms:

Simply kidding:

I did actually just like the triple, although. The bike already had a low gear, however now it has a low gear, as little as I may probably want. The center ring is sufficiently small to get me virtually every part else, and the 42-tooth outer ring is an actual enchancment on the flats. And it’s all managed by a easy downtube-mounted toggle swap:

“However what’s the purpose of all this? Should you’re going to show a singlespeed right into a three-speed, why not get an internally-geared hub or one thing?,” it’s possible you’ll be asking.

After all I perceive that the front-shifting functionality of the Roaduno just isn’t for everyone. Nonetheless, the great thing about it’s that, not like an internally-geared hub, when you do determine to reap the benefits of it, it you need to use all that outdated crap you’ve already acquired mendacity round–shifters, derailleurs, freewheels, fastened hubs, and so forth. (And when you don’t have bins stuffed with that crap you may get a lot of it for subsequent to nothing.) Then when you get bored with it in frontally-geared mode you may rapidly take away every part and make it a “correct” singlespeed once more. An internally-geared hub is a complete different proposition–clearly they’re nice, however they’re not conducive to spur-of-the-moment tinkering the best way derailleurs and stuff are. I did all this on a whim earlier than heading out for a journey, which is an enormous a part of what makes the bike enjoyable: