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On a tight budget I tried to modernize the Royce Union folder and give it an internal hub gear.
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This is the end product. You can see I:
- bought new black Kenda 20x1.75" tires ($10 each)
- bought Koolstop brake pads ($20 for front and rear)
- took the front wheel from my son's Mongoose BMX bike; luckily it had a slotted 3/8" axle which fit the 5/16" fork dropout;
its OLD was also slightly less than 100mm, so I didn't have to spread open the fork much.
- salvaged a rear brake from a girl's Mongoose bike,
- salvaged the rear brake lever from a vintage Columbia Sports III
- salvaged a Shimano 333 hub from the Columbia Sports III
- took the rear wheel from the girl's Mongoose bike and rebuilt the wheel with the Shimano 333 hub.
- replaced the 18T cog with a 16T cog from a S-A hub.
The total cost was around $50 for the various cables, cable housing, Shimano 333 doo-dads, etc.
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Here's the bike folded-up. Not quite as compact as a modern folder, but it still fits in the trunk of my Honda
Accord.
The bike as modified rides pretty nicely. Despite the super long reach brakes (probably around 95mm), the Koolstop
pads and the alloy rims stop the bike with confidence. The gearing is decent for in-town. 1st gear is for uphills,
and 3rd gear is for downhills. So, 2nd gear which is direct drive is used most of the time. One interesting advantage
over my Dahon Boardwalk is that I can ride this bike with no hands. I can't do that on the Dahon; I suppose this has
to do with fork geometry.
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I know that the Shimano 333 hub is not as highly regarded as the venerable Sturmey-Archer AW hub, but it did have the
following virtues:
- it was free
- it was a 36 hole hub; most S-A hubs are 40 hole
- its OLD was 110mm; the AW hub is usually 114mm.
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