Comments on: The First Warm Day…

By: feddo

feddo — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:14:33 +0000

Speaking as a customer, I would have to agree.

I am writing this on an iPad by the way, so on the whole Geek thing: hi, I am Pot, and I am calling you black.

By: henry

henry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:46:47 +0000

Feddo, I revel in my bike geekiness and our customers are very happy to have such obsessive nuts designing and building their bikes.

By: Feddo

Feddo — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:06:06 +0000

Just to confirm from an outside perspective: you guys are definitely (bike) geeks.

By: henry

henry — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:10:33 +0000

Anthony,
Either that’s not as geeky as you think, or I’m just as much of a bike geek. I’ve done quite a bit of similar experimentation, measurement and sketching. However my research suggests that you might run into some problems with your proposed setup. Firstly if you use a 50mm stem your handlebars will have to be very high to provide both knee room for you and space for the child’s legs behind the handlebar.

In any case I intend to take the project somewhat further, also mounting the child seat several cm further forward over the steering axis to reduce the moment of inertia on the steering. That’ll require a special stem and probably handlebar too. I also want to get the seat as low as possible, requiring 26″ wheels. Since I’ll to ride this bike with two kids in the near future, long chainstays, very low bottom bracket and a step-through frame are also important.

The 29′er frame idea is an interesting one but it won’t cover all of these bases.

By: Anthony King

Anthony King — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:11:43 +0000

Henry,

In my earlier comment I was embarassed to admit the depth of my bike geekiness had included playing around in BikeCAD on a sport touring design to accomodate the Mini. My solution was to take my usual 58cm tt/110mm stem and change it to a 64cm tt/ 50mm stem and slightly high bars than usual.

After baby number two came along my interest in the project dwindled, although maybe I could lengthen the chainstays on the same design to accomodate a Maxi rear seat. Sport touring two seater?

I don’t know how common 29er mountain bikes are in Europe, but they often fit the Mini well because they have to have very long effective toptubes to make room for 700×60 tires. Getting a frame and building it up with drop bars and road tires could be a decent low cost alternative to a custom frame.

By: ubrayj02

ubrayj02 — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:37:46 +0000

Henry, I’ve been having “papa days” twice a week for almost two years now, and they are all thanks to one of your bakfiets I bought from Rain City Bikes way back in 2007. Your bakfiets made my life worth living. I can’t imagine what it would be like driving my daughter to all the parks and shopping trips we’ve done together, here in Los Angeles. I probably would have just called it quits, driven into a wall, to escape the drudgery.

This post just brought a lot of good memories of raising my daughter in a bakfiets. Papa days forever!

By: henry

henry — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:00:56 +0000

28T. Climbing mountains on touring bike with a year old child between my arms (i.e. no standing) in a 39 x 28 is enough for my knees so you can win the gear pissing contest.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:38:50 +0000

39T? Depends, what’s your rear cassette’s largest? I think I rode Amstel Gold Race in a 39×22 setup. Could have been a 42×22. Who’s tough now?

Glad you know the book, my kruisframe is even in there. I love the details and background drawings.

By: henry

henry — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:27:07 +0000

Feddo,
It’s funny you comment about the triple on my papafiets. It doesn’t actually work yet. Why? I added the inner chainring but the derailleur can’t move far enough inward to shift off the middle ring. It just needs a longer crank spindle but the bottom bracket is seized and can’t be removed without destroying the threads and then reaming and retapping it with Italian thread… when I find the time to deal with that.

Thus I’ve been riding in the mountains on a heavy bike with a child and panniers in a 39T chainring. Aren’t I a tough guy?

By: henry

henry — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:34:28 +0000

Feddo,
Yep, that book is already one of Pascal’s favorites and I understand exactly what you’re talking about: it’s filled with drawings of bikes from our and our colleagues’ websites!