Bike
I have a bicycle. I like it a lot. It is a 2008 Flying Pigeon
Roadster with several upgrades. This page is about the current
state of the bike; some details on how the bike was before I made
changes are on the news page.
The bike, after initial assembly and before any upgrades
Wheels
Both wheels I purchased from the good folks at the Dutch Bicycle Company. The rims are
622mm Van Schothorst stainless steel, Westrik pattern. Front hub is
a Sturmey Archer X-FDD, drum brake and dynamo. Rear hub is a SRAM
T3, three speed (186% range) and coaster brake. Both wheels are 36
spokes. Tires are 40mm Nokian A10s with carbide studs.
Update 3/2009: Rear hub diagram
Brakes
Brake levers are Phillps-style roller lever 'rod brakes'. The right
brake lever controls the front stirrup rim brake, the left brake
lever controls the front drum brake.
Detail of the front brake assembly, showing rod brake
linkages. Ignore the placement of the light in the picure; I was
testing it there, but decided I didn't like it.
Back-pedaling triggers the rear brake.
Saddle
The saddle is a tripple sprung Brooks 66 style saddle. It may or
may not be made of leather. If it is not, then it is leather coated.
Racks, etc
The bike came with a sturdy (heavy) steel rear rack that bolts on at
the seatpost cluster and the axle. I currently have this rack
supporting a single yellow 1980s Cannondale pannier on the left
side.
Lights
On the front I have chrome bullet headlight that I retrofitted to
take a Cree R2 WH-tint LED rated for 120 lumens @350 mA. I'm
driving it from the dynamo (3W, 6V) through a bridge rectifier.
Dissipating heat with a kludgy copper wire soldered to the led's
aluminium star and poking out the bottom of the light.
Detail of the front light.
On the back I have a Blackburn Mars 3.0 LED blinky. It's pretty
good, though knowing more about lights now I probably would have
gone with the Planet Bike Superflash.
I have front and rear white reflectors, pedal reflectors (on MKS
3000 pedals), as well as tape (silver SOLAS and black).
