Bought a 8" wheeled A-bike.

Today, I bought a A-bike from a B.C. Canada hobby shop. The price was better then what I have seen on E-bay. I want to see just how well this bike works. It also gives me a chance see how this bike holds up over time.

I looked at the specs for the bike and found out the final drive ratio is 5.66 to 1. The bike has a total of 44.6 gears inches. This is on the low side. I figured this out by taking the gear ratio and multiplying it by the diameter of the 8" wheel. When compared to Strida folding bike http://ridethisbike.com/products/Strida/version-5-o-folding-bike.htm, the Strida design has 56 inches inches. This allows for a bit better speed when pedaling it.

In order to try out how a fixed gear 44.6 gearing inch equipped bike would feel as far as speed goes, I used my ride bike and picked out gear setting that would give this amount of gearing. I used the 42/ 25 gear setting on the bike to get the same amount of gear inches that is on the A-bike and started to pedal without shifting. I looked at my cycling computer and noted the speeds I was getting. I was achieving 19 KPH (11.7 MPH) and the pedaling speed as not too high. Looking up an old cycling chart I have showed me I was doing 80 R.P.M. In order to get up to the claimed 15 MPH (24.3 KPH) a rider would have to get a cycling RPM of 110 to get that speed. That can be done but only for short bursts. A more realistic speed for this bike would be 12 MPH (19.47 KPH) for a cyclist that is used to maintain these speeds. For a cyclist used to only doing about 60 RPM would maintain a speed of only 8.2 MPH (13.3 KPH). In this regard, I am guessing that the design of the bike will meet the needs of a short range commuter. How well it works on real roads is something I am looking forward to trying out.

I am looking forward to getting this little bike to try it out. I think it will be fun use. When compared to riding the road, mountain or a folding bike with 20" wheels, I know that the A-bike will have very different feel to it! When I get the bike, I will post a number of pictures of it. It will also allow me to see how the drive train is set-up and see if a recumbent can be worked of it. The small folding recumbent drawing I have posted would be nice to see built into a working bike.