I’ve commuted to work twice now with Dionysus, on Friday and again today. I had a couple of issues Friday morning. First, I hadn’t tightened up the seatpost properly after adjusting the brakes, and the saddle kept sliding down. I ended up feeling like I was pedaling with my knees up about my ears. But I finally got that sorted out.

The second issue was the derailleur needing extra coaxing on the upshifts, and on a particular gear being very noisy and occasionally jumping to another gear. I realized that when I’d reseated the wheel, I’d changed the relationship between the cogs and the derailleur. I checked it after getting to the office: the high and low limits were fine, but the B adjuster — the gap between the largest cog and the top jockey pulley — had increased. And it turns out this derailleur is very sensitive to this adjustment. With that out of the way, the ride home Friday evening was pure pleasure.

This morning everything went well (apart from the traffic, which was heavy and held up by construction in various places). The derailleur worked exceptionally. The thumb shifter makes quite a loud clicking sound, but that’s OK. The larger gap between gears (compared to Kuroko’s 2X set-up) is noticeable, but not objectionable on my basically flat commute. The lack of cleats means I don’t have to worry about clipping and unclipping. But the trade-off for this is totally uncontrolled foot placement, and at times I found my right heal striking the chainstay (which has a chain protector on it, so no harm). I have to point my toes in a bit, and it sometimes takes a try or three to get the placement right.

I had extra time when I neared the office, so I decided to ride downhill into Nikotama and then back up the hill to office. In doing so I ran the full range of gears. On the downhill I worked up into the smallest cog and topped out at 45km/h (while probably spinning in the 120-150rpm range). On the way back uphill I shifted down into the largest cog and maintained 9-10km/h while still spinning at my usual rate of about 90rpm. I’m guessing that I can go as low as about 6km/h if I drop to 50-60rpm, but that’s really grinding for me.

Meanwhile, the light wheels and 28mm tires mean Dionysus accelearates quickly and climbs well, compared to Kuroko. On the other hand, the tires transmit every bump and ripple of the pavement — even paint stripes. By contrast, Kuroko’s high-volume tires (at half the pressure) soak up the minor irregularities and make for a much more comfortable ride for the long haul. One thing I learned on the way home this evening is that I have to watch out for drain grates in the gutters with Dionysus, while Kuroko rolls over these with aplomb. There’s no danger of the wheel going into the grate on Dionysus, but the experience is a lot more unsettling and potentially could result in an unscheduled “gravity check.”

Overall I’m extremely pleased with how Dionysus has turned out, and the experiment with 1X gearing is a success overall. Very suited to commuting, so I only have one shifter to work with and don’t have to think about what gear I’m in at any given moment. But not the best solution for all-day tours where the closer spacing of a good 2X set-up results in finer control.

Everything is not quite perfect yet. The brakes are still a bit soft, especially in the rear. The tension is good following the adjustment, but the stopping power could be improved. The problem is with the smaller wheels — the brake pads are at the lower end of the V-brakes, giving the smallest leverage advantage. They just don’t have a lot of travel at this location. In order to get the best braking advantage, I’m going to have to adjust them very close to the rims, which means the rims will have to be perfectly true and centered. (They’re damn good as it is — we’re talking about sub-millimeter improvement.) I also need to check if I’ve got extra play in the rear brake cable following the new cut during the recent adjustment. The alternative would be to find V-brakes with shorter arms, meaning the same pull on the levers would result in a greater displacement of the pads. Which is a very geeky bike thing that I wasn’t aware of until well after I’d bought the brakes. Shimano doesn’t offer any but Tektro has some options. Alternatively, I could go to a nice pair of Tektro cantilever brakes, if they are available.