I still have this frame. Some years I ride it, generally as a summer commuter/road bike, some years I don't. The latest build, for summer 2006, was a far cry from the original setup, featuring a Midge handlebar, V-brakes and a 1x5 drivetrain. For 2007 the Volpe is not built up because it is not compatible with a Chariot Sidecarrier child trailer. I am riding my Surly Karate Monkey (with the same 1x5 drivetrain) instead.
See below for a copy of the original 2001 Volpe web page.
I just spent a weekend in Central Oregon with my two bikes, a boxful of cogs and several PC-58 chains. I am pleased to report that both of my bikes are now SS off-road capable.
Here's what I did to the Volpe cyclocross bike. As you may recall from last week's post, for commuting I had alrady set this bike up in a 48:18 (2.67) gear using the large chainring and a DX cog in back. With the DX sprocket it is totally bombproof (as opposed to the ramped cog I used at first), and I completely trust it to stand up to my hammering in traffic. I leave the derailleur on the bike - just shifted out of the way - because this is my road bike too. As if my weekend wasn't busy enough, I spent Friday morning doing my annual road ride around Crater Lake. That would be WITH gears.
Anyway, off-road riding with this bike was going to call for some VERY different gearing than I was using for commuting. As you might have guessed, I wanted to do the same kind of "double-single" thing that I did on the mountain bike. I ended up pairing the 38t middle ring with a 23t cog (22 would have been closer to the "standard" 1.7 ratio, but 22s are fairly rare and I don't have one), and the 28t small ring with a 32t cog. This gives me ratios of 1.65 for the ordinary gear and 0.88 for the climbing gear. Here's a pic of the drivetrain:
A close eye will note the rubber band drawn across the jockey wheels of the derailleur. Whassupwithat? Well, I noticed on my commute that with no chain tension across them, the pulleys rattled around, making a horrible racket. The rubber band solved the problem cheaply and effectively.
and the bike:
(by the way, that front tire IS as fat as it looks in the pic: it's a 700x45 Panaracer Smoke. Good God!)
Oh boy, big problem: ramped cogs. On the SS'ed mountain bike they work just fine, but that's because I'm using a tensioner. On this bike there is no tensioner, and I threw the chain a couple of times attempting to climb the very difficult Windy Lakes trail (Crescent Ranger District). This setup is just NOT suitable for honking my way up steep, technical climbs. If I do, I will get hurt. Bad. I've done my best to center the chainrings, which has helped, but I still can't hammer.
I've seen descriptions on this board of various methods (pie plates next to the cog, etc.) to keep the chain on, and I may have to experiment with this. But even without that, maybe that's gonna be OK. Mostly I'm going to leave the really rough stuff to the mountain bike, and use this bike on mellower trails. As it is, I rode the Oldenberg Lake trail (same trailhead), using the climbing gear for the ascent and the "regular" gear for the descent. Even though there was LOTS of fencepost-sized deadfall to hop over, I never threw the chain once.
It may be that I'll decide I don't need the low gear on this bike since I'll probably take the mountain bike if I know I'll be facing a long, grinding climb. In that case, I'll go back to a single gear using a DX sprocket in back. I experimented with that setup too this morning (busy weekend!), using the 18t DX that I alread have. 28:18 is a bit low, with a ratio of 1.55, but it works fine and is rock-solid, so I may have to invest in a 17t or 16t. No pic of this setup?for off-road, but it looks pretty much the same as the commuting arrangement shown here:
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