Minneapolis Silvio

[Emeljay]

Buy your chains in bulk, saves lots of money in long run. Here is a link, there are lots of bulk sources besides this:
.
http://t-cycle.com/chain-in-bulk-c-116/?zenid=nqg3dl8oj2hbml4sfn70k43fm3
.
I also use pariffin wax (use pwax for my skis also) from grocery store, heat in old Crock-Pot used only for waxn cleaned chains, sonic cleaner sounds interesting compared to my putin chain in plastic box with cleaner and a shakin it and shakin it until arms fall off! I clean chain twice second time with fresh cleaner kinda like a rinse. Then pull chain out, rinse with hot water and dry, put in crock pot with preheated (liquefied, takes couple hours do it on low) wax and let bake for a while so to speak, in my mind to let wax get into all the little spaces inside the hidden chain parts, then pull chain out with a wire hook and hang it up to cool, I wipe excess wax off just after I hang it. Good to go now when needed!

 

[Bruce B]

How much a pound?

About $3.00/lb..

 

[hoyden]

After a few days OOT vacation I am back in the saddle. Stopped by Tangletown Bike Shop to have a couple of links taken out of the chain; that's 4 so far. I pedaled most of the 44 miles (14.3 avg mph) in the large chain ring. The lower gears work well but the chain still sucks in the four smallest cogs. I will investigate taking out two more links. Otherwise the gear shifting worked well and I am feeling much more confident on my ride.

I can push off with either foot without having to think too hard about it. I made 3 out of 4 U-turns on my route without having to stop. Also making progress with less handlebar death grip. Here is the Minneapolis Silvio out in the wild. The large Bent Up bag fits well. The purple towel wrapped around a 4" diameter foam core gives me a bit more upright. Someday I may be able to ride declined.

 

[hoyden]

In spite of an unpromising weather forecast I got in a 3 hour ride this morning. Low 60's, cloudy and little wind. My best effort; 46.2 miles at 15.3 mph average.

I can fasure say I am much more comfortable riding. U-turns are getting easier and even if I can't complete it with feet on pedals I can sit up drop the feet and turn pretty sharp. I could not do that on the Azub. I can also develop more pedal power.

 

[hoyden]

"Can't put it off another day...Time has come today"
The Chambers Brothers

Time to step up to clipped in. Following directions generously provided by ratz at http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/vendetta-v20-build-diary-2016.10189/page-2#post-119653 I full floated the "Frog" pedals from Speedplay and installed the cleats.

I was pretty careful on my first ride and unclipped when I needed to turn around or if the trail got manky. I made one u-turn and felt that little bit of pucker that cautions against getting cocky.

These are much nicer pedals than the ones I use on my Azub. Much easier to clip in and out. Hmm...I see Q rings on the horizon...

 

[1happyreader]

Hmm...I see Q rings on the horizon...

Some will accuse you of drinking the kool-aid,,,, welcome to the group ??
later,,,, bye

 

[hoyden]

Yesterday's ride got cut short at 17 miles with a flat. My first Silvio flat, and of course it was the front tire. I did not have a spare tube so I started to walk home; about 6 miles. After about a mile I called Uber and got a ride the rest of the way. The hole was a 1/8" slit on the inside of the tube along a seam on the same aide as the spokes. It's a mystery to me how the hole happened there. The patch is holding but I am hesitant to go out on it again until I get a spare tube. I didn't want to try and patch out in the wild because I wasn't sure what I would find when I took the tire off. The tire appears unhurt so I am going to continue riding on it. I do miss having a nice fat 1.5" wide tire under me.

Today I rode my Azub Max. My first ride in over 3 weeks. The word that stuck in my mind during the 3 hour ride was ponderous. The bike weighs about 45 lbs, has an Alfine 11 IGH, 26x1.5 tires, so not in the same class as Silvio. Over 3 hours and 41 miles I was about 2 mph slower at 13.5. Still faster than casual riders, DF's towing baby trailers, and trikes. I look forward to getting back out on Silvio soon.

I also had a brief afib episode about a half hour into the ride where my HR went up to 225. I pulled over and relaxed in the saddle, feeling the rapid heartbeat for about 4 minutes and then it dropped to less than 100. The rest of the ride was uneventful. I have a theory that the leg muscles are scarfing up some essential nutrient or chemical in the blood, and the heart, being a muscle just like the leg ones, goes sideways. Legs get cramps when they are worked, my heart goes afib. I have stamina to ride for 3 hours in the 130-140 range, and 1.5 hours at 145 without nutrition. I have checked it out with Dr's and they say the heart is fine.

 

[castlerobber]

The hole was a 1/8" slit on the inside of the tube along a seam on the same aide as the spokes. It's a mystery to me how the hole happened there.

Could possibly be a defective tube, if you didn't find any spokes sticking up or misplaced rim tape. I had a couple of Schwalbe tubes go out like you describe on my Q several months ago. One of them happened in the LBS while I had it there for a tuneup in March.

 

[hoyden]

Yesterday another flat after 42 mile ride. This Time only a half mile from home. Time to retire the tire. The panaracer almost made 700 miles. They were less than durable for me. I replaced the 25mm with a 28mm Kenda front and rear. They fit with a few mm to spare. It'll be interesting to see how they work out. I've used Kenda tires on my other recumbentS and folding bikes with satisfactory performance.

Beside getting practice with tire repair/replacement I am also getting comfortable and confident with the ride. I am really liking my Silvio.

 

[Bill K]

One thing you can do to help prevent flats is to scan the tires for embedded pieces of glass and dig them out before they have a chance to work their way through the tire and into the tube. I have prevented a bunch of flats by doing this after every few rides.
If you can't dig it out easily, let some air out of the tire to make the glass pop out easier, then pump up the tire.

And congratulations on getting comfortable and confident on the Silvio. It only gets better...

 

[DavidJL]

I have found that many flats are caused by failure of a seam in the tube. Consider going tubeless...

 

[bladderhead]

And congratulations on getting comfortable and confident on the Silvio. It only gets better...

Yes.

 

[hoyden]

Q rings... Put them on Wednesday and after 90 miles they feel normal. 1035 total Silvio S30 miles to date.

 

[castlerobber]

Q rings... Put them on Wednesday and after 90 miles they feel normal.

That's a good sign. How's the shifting?

 

[hoyden]

How's the shifting?

With RD on the bigger rings the shifting is slow and somewhat erratic; sometimes shifting two cogs or falling back and not staying in new cog. It was like that before Q rings. In the big ring big cog there is some slight rubbing that was there on round rings. I need practice learning how to set up smooth shifting.

 

[ratz]

1) setup bike so you can pedal and shift without a rider, by standing next to it
2) Put in 4-th cog on the cassette. Make sure shifter is also in fourth
3) Use the finger twist adjusters for cable tension to get it running dead center.
4) Shift to 5th cog on the cassette. mirco adjust if it off a little.
5) Shift to lowest gear make sure L-stop does not prevent the chain from getting in to that big cog cleanly; tweat b-screw if needed
6) Shift to highest gear makre sure H-stop does not prevent the chain from getting in to that little cog cleanly

Shift over the the entire range. smile and go ride.

With practice you can do this in about 3 minutes.

 

[hoyden]

Pedal extenders are wonderful. I installed two 22mm and they eliminated my heel occasionally striking the chain stays. Another benefit is my thighs are no longer slowly rubbing the paint off the frame. I seem to be able to turn a bit sharper with my clipless pedals because my legs have a bit more leg room to pivot with the front end without getting wrapped around things. I hypothesize the pedal extenders line up my biological bottom bracket with Silvio's BB. I do notice a bit more pedal steer reaction but I think I can learn to adapt.

Next up, try Ratz's 6 step shift adjustment sequence.

 

[hoyden]

2,069 Silvio 30 miles since May. Needless to say, I like this bike. Silvio 30 is faster and more fun to ride than any other recumbent I've owned. Silvio 30 is also the most challenging bike I have ever ridden. I took my time learning to ride with confidence rather than speed, and I continue to learn on every ride. I still have plenty of opportunity to improve, especially with respect to slow speed sharp turns.

I have spent far more time customizing Silvio 30 to tune the bike for optimum comfort and overall performance handle bar/brifter orientation, Q rings, pedal extenders, swapping out the slider for a bent one, and reimplementing the head rest. In the process I have learned much more about bike mechanics. The folks in this forum have provided excellent advice and shared experience.

I learned from the fitness thread the difference between aerobic and anaerobic workouts and how higher heart rate isn't always better. I don't ride with a power meter but I do ride with a GPS and heart rate monitor. I developed a simple algorithm to measure the quality of my ride, Q, that can be computed as average speed * 10 / average heart rate. The Q value varies around 1.0 and increases with lower heart rate and higher speed. I have a noticeable higher Q riding Silvio 30 than I have riding Azub Max or Strida.

A few months ago I couldn't have imagined liking above seat steering more than under seat steering. I started riding recumbents in 2000 with a Vision R40. The Cruzbike design integrates upper and lower body dynamics with its above seat steering in ways cannot happen with USS.

 

[hoyden]

4,218 miles since early May. The bars are set and wrapped, cables trimmed, and overall the bike tuned to my ride. Silvio 30 is my daily ride. With the onset of Winter I will transition to Kreitler rollers, usually by early November.

 

[CruzLike]

4200 miles. That's impressive. Way to go.