I have to say that just love new bikes, which includes used bikes new to me. I just bought my first new bike since 2009 so it has been two years. I have six bikes now and the only one I would ride in the winter salt of Wisconsin is the 45 pound tank of a cruiser I call Elvis that I built about 17 years ago. All the others are just too nice to accelerate the corrosion factor with daily salt spatterings. So, I bought a new bike to ride in the salt which does not really make sense except that it is designed for it and the only steel on the bike is hardware and the fender stabilizers. I got a new Globe Daily 1. Globe is an offshoot of Specialized and this line is being marketed worldwide which means that is not meant (or styled) for just the USA market. This means that (at least to me) it is far MORE appealing aesthetically. This bike is very simply styled which generally appeals to me. It is a single speed with a flip/flop hub which is threaded for a bmx freewheel on one side and a fixed gear/lock ring on the other. I have had a very nice Pinarello Bassano track bike since long before the fixed gear craze hit but it is a beautiful bike that I am not going to subject to the rigors of salt and daily winter commuting so I have gone trendy with this little single speed. I discovered today that there are lots of choices available for the bmx freewheel which is good because this bike was not spec-ed with the 18T freewheel that Globe/SBC lists but a 16T freewheel which is too tall for me in Madison which is hilly. I discovered that there are dual cogged bmx style freewheels available for this type of hub which means that potentially this bike would be a three speed, although you would have to remove the rear wheel and flip it to the fixed gear to utilized all three. I like this. So for city winter riding where the combination of surface, cold, clothing and tires create more resistance you could run a relatively lower 'gain ratio', without too much trouble you could loosen the wheel but not remove it and switch to a slightly higher gain ratio (2 teeth) on the freewheel and if you really wanted to go where a fixed gear would serve you remove the wheel and flip it for the fixed gear. So, three speeds on hub that is still way lighter than any internal three speed hub or derailleur/ multigear freewheel setup not to mention all the complexity and weight of the control apparatus (shifters, cable/housing etc.). I know this level of detail is geeky and I don't care. My blog, nobody reads it anyway.
I have to give props to Specialized/Globe now so read on. In the early nineties I worked at Wheelsmith in Palo Alto CA and the store carried Specialized. Since then I have been consistently impressed with the quality of engineering, quality of build and customer service. I have an all mountain bike by SBC: the Enduro and it is amazing. So the Daily 1 is in it's own way just as well thought out and executed. I know I will like this bike more as I ride it. My first bike with a basket.
Posts
