Oh & Oh & Oh

I took the ex-e-bike for its first ride beyond my mailbox, and it was a ride of revelations. First, I noticed it is geared pretty tall, and then a half mile into the ride, I realized, it's geared as though designed for electric assist. Yup, that makes sense, and it seems like a pretty good match, with the middle gear slightly bigger than what I progressed down to for my single speed. That works!

With the battery no longer there, look, 

a cosy little cubby for my spare tube!

Ok, shut up and ride, with the emphasis on shhh. I don't consider a chain, especially one on a single speed, with its straight, ideal chainline, particularly noisy, but yes, the belt is a bit quieter than that. The difference? I noticed that even slick tires can generate a fair amount of road noise. And don't forget the self proclaimed "silent clutch" rear hub, it is a bit more hush, hush than all my other bikes. Maybe it needs some loud paint! Why is it that commuter bikes, the ones for which visibility in traffic could be a life saving advantage, are so often black? I considered making a snide quip about hearse-tone, but no, that feels too wrong for even me.

Picking up a little speed, I shifted to the top gear of three. Nope, that was too soon. Note to self: if debating an upshift, with the jumps between just three gears, don't, it is too soon. I can learn that, no big deal. Now the reverse shift actuation, where pulling and feeling tension increase on the cable when upshifting to a harder gear, that goes against some long standing programming in my brain. Decades ago, Shimano had sold, very briefly, a line of rear derailleurs under the marketing name of "rapid rise" with similar backward actuation. During their brief time on the market, they were extremely unpopular, thus the brief time.

But aha, I had managed to mentally reprogram my mind to accept that my upside down rear thumbshifter was switched to the left, so how hard could it be to switch my thinking about cable pull. But aha, even easier, I could just pretend that rear internally gear hub shifter that is on the side where my front shifters now live is, well, a front shifter! Cable pull is the opposite for a front derailleur, so once I thought of it that way, I never missed another shift.

But those shifts are big with just three gears, and I'd frequently end up pedaling in a bigger gear than usual. When I stopped, oof, that was an even bigger gear when starting again. Wait, one of the proclaimed advantages of an internally geared hub is that it can be shifted when stationary. I could stop in the big gear, then shift, then start again! Or I could, once I remembered.

I genuinely think I like it, but the three speed internal hub is a more different riding experience than I anticipated. With a single speed, I just needed to stand and pedal really hard until I dismounted and pushed, or there was also a bit more coasting when the slope turned the other way, but there wasn't anything new to learn. I'll need to actually learn to efficiently integrate my riding to the hub with integral gears. That's could be a good thing for keeping my brian pliable. It's bound to be better than the single speed for my knees as well!

It's officially mine.

Saddle stripped of padding 

& drilled to ziptie my ride-wide pole.