Reid Welch
1 MW
This is not an ebike, but it could become a candidate for a front-drive ebike. Not likely I will ever do an e-conversion.
This thread, I did not know where best to place it, being a review-dissection of a manual cruiser bike.
ADMIN: move this thread if you feel it is in the wrong place, please?
I wanted a manual bike of unusual (quirky), yet solid design;
a spare bike to use when my ebike is down for "reidrepairs"
((I like to break the Stealth Cruiser I call DOM)) add one "o" and you've pegged me and that bike
So I got a Trek Lime: a slow-seller, a fine little Edsel for future collectors.
HERE is where I acquired the bike,
and why I chose the LIME over the myriad of surely-better e-bike-conversion choices.
~~~~
repeated link from another thread: the Trek Ipod-like sell-a-blurb:
http://www.trekbikes.com/lime/
Mouse over "Meet Lime" after the page loads.
See "how it works". Look at the cheap but simple color accessory options ($20US kits) My Lime is ALL black.
Remove the rubber hub covers: bright chrome hemispherical hub covers: sharp looking against the gloss black.
The Lime owner can go chrome or black or green or pink, etc. I like to go bare chrome hub covers for now.
~~~~
The rear hub internal geared unit is the tried-and true Shimano three speed, with, I think, internal coaster braking;
I don't know these things yet. No pictures found yet of the basic Shimano three speed guts;
does it use wedging-tapered-hard-steel-shoes like the fixed-gear, coaster brake, Sunkruiser?
The Lime: IT IS NOT DEAD SILENT when coasting: a click click click of ratchets and pawls: a minor let down, that slight noise.
On the other hand, my Sunkruiser with its 1908-style internal expanding brake shoes, is ratchet-free,
does not make a sound, and does not slip, and it will not wear out, I just about bet you,
because I have made it grease-able at will, at any time, no take-apart again, ever
(thin, white, lithium grease, injectable from time to time, to flush the internals of wear products and water or grit).
A Shimano or other new-tech internal geared hub is not so easily servicable.
Perhaps not to be considered for regular take-downs, but the Shimano brand can be serviced if that's ever needed;
How many gears do =you= need? Multi-gearing, even if it were only a low and then high gear, is a help in any manual bike,
and vital if you have grades, hills or headwinds to beat, and no e-power assist.
I can actually do just great with a fixed gear coaster here,
although, two gears are better, and three is like the magic number for this time-flattened, old Florida guy.
Here's the real deal, though about internal multi-geared hubs, great article by the late, great Sheldon Brown:
http://sheldonbrown.com/internal-gears.html
~~~~~
I like a silent coaster brake bike, like my Sunkruiser e-conversion single-speed rear hub:
absolutely silent and without drag at all;
the old lore of draggy internal-brake hubs is somewhat false;
my Sunkruiser's cheap, century-old rear coaster is powerful braking, and no click,
no noise, no drag.
OK...Shimano, the practical, affordable, multi-speed rear hub. No derailleur crap-ola.
No rim brakes to wear out your rims. No disk brake. Works in the wet as it does in the dry: skids the rear tire just grand.
LEAN BACK when you brake a rear brake-only bike, and want to stop PDQ (pretty damned quick).
But the Shimano, or any other brand of internal geared unit,
even the olden-time Sturmey-Archer, etc, three speed, must be quite complicated,
relative to the fixed-gear Sunkruiser coaster brake.
See how the uppah-crust seven and eight speed Nexus hubs come apart and go together here below?
Click next and next and next, of Sheldon Brown's superb reproduction of the official Inter-Eight Nexus manual?
Looks like a barrel of rocket science fun, huh? (I joke).
This is high tech machinery, to enter into only by the brave, or the foolish, or for the very well-versed senior mechanics:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus8/pages/02.htm
Click next and next and nexus...many fine pages of pictures and procedures.
_______________
enough for an opening post...
Please, please, add your thoughts, pro or con, as you please; your experience is wanted here.
This thread, I did not know where best to place it, being a review-dissection of a manual cruiser bike.
ADMIN: move this thread if you feel it is in the wrong place, please?
I wanted a manual bike of unusual (quirky), yet solid design;
a spare bike to use when my ebike is down for "reidrepairs"
((I like to break the Stealth Cruiser I call DOM)) add one "o" and you've pegged me and that bike
So I got a Trek Lime: a slow-seller, a fine little Edsel for future collectors.
HERE is where I acquired the bike,
and why I chose the LIME over the myriad of surely-better e-bike-conversion choices.
~~~~
repeated link from another thread: the Trek Ipod-like sell-a-blurb:
http://www.trekbikes.com/lime/
Mouse over "Meet Lime" after the page loads.
See "how it works". Look at the cheap but simple color accessory options ($20US kits) My Lime is ALL black.
Remove the rubber hub covers: bright chrome hemispherical hub covers: sharp looking against the gloss black.
The Lime owner can go chrome or black or green or pink, etc. I like to go bare chrome hub covers for now.
~~~~
The rear hub internal geared unit is the tried-and true Shimano three speed, with, I think, internal coaster braking;
I don't know these things yet. No pictures found yet of the basic Shimano three speed guts;
does it use wedging-tapered-hard-steel-shoes like the fixed-gear, coaster brake, Sunkruiser?
The Lime: IT IS NOT DEAD SILENT when coasting: a click click click of ratchets and pawls: a minor let down, that slight noise.
On the other hand, my Sunkruiser with its 1908-style internal expanding brake shoes, is ratchet-free,
does not make a sound, and does not slip, and it will not wear out, I just about bet you,
because I have made it grease-able at will, at any time, no take-apart again, ever
(thin, white, lithium grease, injectable from time to time, to flush the internals of wear products and water or grit).
A Shimano or other new-tech internal geared hub is not so easily servicable.
Perhaps not to be considered for regular take-downs, but the Shimano brand can be serviced if that's ever needed;
How many gears do =you= need? Multi-gearing, even if it were only a low and then high gear, is a help in any manual bike,
and vital if you have grades, hills or headwinds to beat, and no e-power assist.
I can actually do just great with a fixed gear coaster here,
although, two gears are better, and three is like the magic number for this time-flattened, old Florida guy.
Here's the real deal, though about internal multi-geared hubs, great article by the late, great Sheldon Brown:
http://sheldonbrown.com/internal-gears.html
~~~~~
I like a silent coaster brake bike, like my Sunkruiser e-conversion single-speed rear hub:
absolutely silent and without drag at all;
the old lore of draggy internal-brake hubs is somewhat false;
my Sunkruiser's cheap, century-old rear coaster is powerful braking, and no click,
no noise, no drag.
OK...Shimano, the practical, affordable, multi-speed rear hub. No derailleur crap-ola.
No rim brakes to wear out your rims. No disk brake. Works in the wet as it does in the dry: skids the rear tire just grand.
LEAN BACK when you brake a rear brake-only bike, and want to stop PDQ (pretty damned quick).
But the Shimano, or any other brand of internal geared unit,
even the olden-time Sturmey-Archer, etc, three speed, must be quite complicated,
relative to the fixed-gear Sunkruiser coaster brake.
See how the uppah-crust seven and eight speed Nexus hubs come apart and go together here below?
Click next and next and next, of Sheldon Brown's superb reproduction of the official Inter-Eight Nexus manual?
Looks like a barrel of rocket science fun, huh? (I joke).
This is high tech machinery, to enter into only by the brave, or the foolish, or for the very well-versed senior mechanics:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus8/pages/02.htm
Click next and next and nexus...many fine pages of pictures and procedures.
_______________
enough for an opening post...
Please, please, add your thoughts, pro or con, as you please; your experience is wanted here.