my new relationship...

…with my bike, Windy!
A while ago I wrote about how buying a bike reminded me of falling in love. I’ve spent some quality time with Windy now, and she’s not perfect, but she’s been a good pal.
I had a little trouble with some of the Simcoe‘s features. For a very scary month it even seemed there could be  intermittent problems with clicking and skipping in the Shimano Nexus gear hub. Intermittent problems are the worst kind of problems because they never occur when at the mechanic’s. But since the first of two free tune-ups, included in the purchase, recommended a month into ownership and again after the first year, the trouble seems to have cleared.

So, let’s get all the unpleasantness out of the way first. The paint “powder-coated for extra rust resistance”gets a lot of mention in curbside ‘s write ups about this brand, but mine hasn’t fared too well at all. My almond milk coloured paint job has a lot of little nicks and chips around the body from where the u-bar lands  every time I park, even though it was designed to be “locked up next to metal poles all day”. For some reason these marks don’t bother me at all. They don’t threaten the bike’s structural safety. They give it that well-used, well-loved, hard-knock life feel I can identify with. And the rust matches the colour of the decals and script on the body exactly!
The kickstand is thin and wobbly, and after a bit of wiggling and twisting, it still doesn’t get into a position where it’s of any actual use without careful balancing, at least not with a basket on the front, because it doesn’t keep the bike upright enough. And it seems to be connected to the fender in a way that makes it difficult to replace with a different kind of kickstand.
This 3-speed doesn’t come with a luggage rack, and the seat is too hard and pretty cheap;  you can see the staples from underneath.

I’ve made a few adjustments to make Windy more comfortable and practical. I changed out to a wider handle bar with a better angle for the wrists, raised it a bit and brought it closer by changing the stem. The cockpit was probably a bit too big for me, even though I’m tall, but it is a really huge bike, which it had to be, if the seat was going to come up high enough.
I would say altogether I’ve spent about 200 dollars on top of the price of the bike, not including the accessories I transferred from my previous bike.
You’re probably wondering why I chose a Simcoe, if it falls so short of filling my needs.
I test-rode a lot of bikes, and most didn’t come close to what Windy offers in the way of ergonomics, durability, quality where it counts, winter-heft, and yes …elegance. I would have had to make expensive adjustments on any bike.
I think the Simcoe ends up being a really amazing vehicle.
I love what we can do together – the way she responds to me now that she fits, the way I can move around and balance on top of her and be prepared for anything,  the way we wiggle around through the snow together.
But she’s a hard ride! Its “lightweight cromoly [sic] tubes” are very unforgiving.
What’s chromoly anyways!  Apparently, it’s a type of steel, but stronger, so less material is needed, hence a chromoly bike weighs less. I guess the strength makes it more rigid. I shudder to think what riding an aluminum bike would feel like.
A little bit now about the  55 dollar seat I bought: Elastomers, are not springs! And Royalgel’s “unique tridimensional gel structure”… “guarantees  the highest level of comfort” for my tender sit bones, but maybe it works better in its native Italy where the temperature rarely drops below 10°C. It does have a useful quick dry surface that’s non slip as well. The slightly sticky top coat can be good and bad, bad when you’re fidgety and you need to adjust your position with a skirt on. I also have to add, that snow and ice get stuck in its little “ass” crack and is very hard to remove from the weird rubbery coating, so I have it wear a shower cap when it’s sleeping. The cap is black and white leopard print. I bought it at Dollarama for a buck 50 and can’t believe no one has appropriated it yet.
I spend a lot of time bouncing around the pre-PanAm construction ridden patchy pavement, hovering just above my seat so my boobs don’t fall off from the relentless impact. I have very strong thighs now.
But the new luggage rack is a beauty! Solid! Came with a reflector attached. I forget the brand. I also love the chain guard. It means I don’t have to tie up my pant leg.
And my favourite part: Those gorgeous grippy hybrid slickers/winter treads. Winter’s almost over now, and there’s not much we can’t do.

after

three speed

My last bike, a ca. 1973 Raleigh Cruiser had three speeds, but only the second gear worked after I owned it about a month. I just stayed in second gear. I did that for almost a year, summer, winter. I stopped missing the other gears. I forgot all about them.
My previous bike had seven. Seven was perfect! The old Miele got me up hills whistling effortlessly, where before I was gasping for air and finally getting off and pushing. Broadview, you know that first hill right before the view of the valley and the city scape on the left, and then that second even steeper hill, no view, and even if there was, you couldn’t enjoy it, you’d be busy pedalling, balancing, and breathing so hard.
I also think the Miele had a broader range than my previous bike – meaning lowest gear was probably a little bit easier than lowest gear on my 5 speed, my previous previous bike. But I found myself changing gears all the time on the Miele. It became a habit, not a necessity. I’d had it fitted with one of those beautiful ergonomic Shamano thumb shifters.
That was seven speeds. It was a luxury. It meant never having to pedal too hard, or too fast.
So then, what’s the deal with 12 speeds? 18, 24, 27 speeds? Do you even need twenty-seven speeds?  Tell me what’s really the difference between 18th and 19th gear? I wanna know!
The real question is, does first gear on a 12 speed get you up a hill easier than on a 7 speed? What city even has a hill steep enough to need what first gear on a 27-speed bike theoretically promises you can easily climb?
So I did a little research. The range between lowest and highest gear can differ from bike to bike no matter how many speeds it has. But what I also learned from reading this article is that with all these speeds you can’t, or shouldn’t even use them all. The cogs can stack up quite wide. If your chain is on the largest sprocket in the back and on the smallest at the crank, it runs diagonally and covers more length from rear wheel to chain wheel. That way you stretch the chain, and wear it out too fast.
The main advantage to having that many speeds, or as many speeds that requires two sets of cogs is that you can choose which side to shift depending on whether you need to skip a few speeds.
Still not sure, how many speeds you actually end up using.

So for a year I made do with only second gear. Now I ride a three speed, a brand new bone coloured Simcoe, named Windy, built for Toronto Winters, with internal gears, nice treads, customized handle bar and stem for the perfect angle, and a new Selle Royal seat, that took me two weeks to get comfortable on. I rarely change gears now, just stay in second most of the time. But every now and then I wish I had something between second and third gear. One speed is fine. Three is somehow not enough.