Today I rode the 41 Shelby Gambles Hiawatha later than expected. This bike started out as a wreck picked up 10 yrs. ago in Idaho. All of it was there except for the wheels/fenders, there was no tank. I've kept all of it. Today it sports the heaviest wheelset in the shootout with a S3C Sturmey 3 coaster, and the 52 Sturmey drum, both 36h. Straight gauge/brass nips. It weighs a lot, didn't measure it not wanting to know. It has a 45" wheelbase, 12.5" BB height and slack as can be. (not measured)
Rider Fit. This bike fits me well with the long 13/16 seat post sending me way back over the rear wheel, long, wide, sprung saddle that is pretty darned comfortable while smoothing s out the road debris, very functional Torrington Longhorns that stay out of the way of the legs and body with a gazillion hand positions. It has a long reach and laid back slack feel that wanted me to slide back on the seat, hang on to the bar ends and lean the bike over hard while pedaling. The high BB allows pedaling waaaaay leaned over without hitting the end of the Torrington 8's, which are a nice platform pedal original to the bike. Being able to move your feet around on a longer ride is a good thing. 4.5 on the fit.
Moving out. At the start in the flats, the Shelby feels smooth and solid, getting up to speed slowly and deliberately gear to gear. 1st felt really spinny and I didn't use it much unless 1st starting up or when sitting down & slowly crawling up a short climb, where it was super effective at pulling the heavy bike up and out of low-point holes, albeit slowly. The 48/22 sprocket/cog combo in neutral with the 33% High/Low encouraged a fast foot speed that seemed to be the best way to keep the clearly heavy wheels turning. When trying to push a bigger gear or faster pace, the wheels would complain, so you settled in for what they allowed. I had to work noticeably to keep a 15/16 mph pace out to the coast against a light breeze. The bike is Dead Quiet when powered up which I like mucho. I ended up moving forward on the saddle and bars to get better power down to maintain the 16/17mph speed. I noticed there are a lot of seat, hand and foot positions that were available, but unfortunately I also heard a lot of chain and hub noise when I paused pedaling. I give a 4.0 on moving out.
Mechanical Highlights. Well, this Black and Chrome Shelby as I call it is well equipped. I have recently laced in a new Sturmey rear hub shell as the bearing race non-drive side was showing pitting and we can't have that. I also had a mysterious slipping clutch that crept off the planetary gear pins, constantly jumping out of third gear. I resolved it with another set from a spare hub. Sturmey's are finicky, and this one gave me a bunch of trouble although I have it running nicely now. The 1952 (I think?) Sturmey Drum brake is always a bonus on any old bike and adds some performance braking to a high-mass bike. It is skip tooth drive for the cool factor, but some repositioning of the guard away from the chain is needed and soon. The shelby is well equipped. I give it a 3.75
Performance. Well, what can I say here. This 7-bike experiment is a performance related test, and this bike does have some additional performance over it's orignal beginnings. One, it has a gear option, but is for the most part the convenience of the Three speed coaster for slow speed climbing abilities that stands out performance wise. The wheels are pig-orama, even with the light casing, high pressure CST metro tires on them. You simply have to slow down, sit up and sit back on this bike and it clips right along when brought up to speed. This looker bike would be really comfortable (and is) on long rides at a lesser pace being fully sprung with a bailout gear. The bike is very slack and smooth riding also with the Shock Ease, 3-spring seat and heavy spinning hoops, so it "glides" over everything. It felt like the heavy, wound-up rotating mass of the flashy wheels limited the affects of headwind like they had kinetic energy in them. Hmmm....3.5
Stealth Factor. Well, powered up this bike is very smooth and quiet and I like that a lot! Silence please! But...if the power was let up on during shifts or bumpy sections that I rolled through without power on the chain, it banged around on the guard the entire ride. The Sturmey also made some weird clicking sounds when in neutral, shifting up & down or unpowered but still spinning the cranks. Once power was applied, the hub silenced itself, the road bumps didn't bang the chain around and all was well. I tried to keep it powered up more knowing it would completely shut up the chain banging and finicky hub. A 3.75.
Another great ride today on the beautiful Black and Chrome Shelby, a sentimental favorite simply because it's smooth, flashy and confident, something that may not score well in the performance shootout, but the bike doesn't seem to care really what I think. Keep riding Cabers!