This one seems to shift gear when you kickback. Most kickbacks work in such that you kick it back slightly to get to high, then full kickback to brake and then you are in low. You start in low, then kick back to get to high. Yes, you shift the gears by backpedaling (aka “kicking back”), in the same way you’d brake with the coaster brake. The thing that I’m still getting used to is the two speed kickback. Dynamo lighting means (mostly) not having to worry about batteries and charging. Having a good front brake is useful and puts my mind at ease. Great! It’s a fun bike to ride around, and now much more practical (and safe). I find that these German hard-mounted battery powered lights work quite well and last very long. No, it’s battery (using two AAs) since I didn’t feel like getting a dynamo version for now. And attached to the rack is a nice rear LED tail light.My old “Back Roads” black rear rack with rat trap is now in use again on the bike.So…how about a two speed kickback? I found a generic (KT) branded one built into a rear wheel on eBay over the winter for a good price. I thought about finding a three speed wheel (pre-built 26 inch coaster brake versions are out there), but wanted to keep it simple and go different. For the rear: The old single speed coaster brake was fine, but I’d been thinking for a bit about putting more gears on this thing.And I have an old basic Busch und Muller LED headlamp connected to dynamo, mounted to front basket strut (a Wald, of course!).Alas, they stopped making Nordlichts a few years back for some reason, so the AXA HR (which is what I have on the Crested Butte) is now tops I guess… Also attached to the canti post is a bottle dynamo! It’s a Nordlicht, a German model considered the “best of the best”******* when it comes to these.Attached to those canti posts is a front brake! It’s a generic Shimano, with a scavenged Dia Compe lever.The black goes good with overall color scheme of the bike. Well, there’s that front fork! An old mountain bike fork works well.So, what are all the changes to make this an improved bike? He moved over to River City, so I went there to get the work done.******Īnd at the end of May, I picked up Heavy Duti 2.0! I had been talking to Jeremiah about the Heavy Duti when he was working at Velo Cult last year. So he shipped it out to me.Īnd thankfully, I had someone willing to work on such a silly project. Thankfully, somebody heard me whining about the bike over the years, and decided to do something about it! Spencer out in Upstate New York dug through his parts stash and found a fork off an 80’s mountain bike, one that had that funky 21.1 size.***** The steerer tube was longer than what I had on the Heavy Duti, but steerer tubes can be cut. But the question remained: How to go about it all? And I decided that yes, I like this bike and it was worth it to plunk down some more money on it. I started to ride the bike more over the past winter. The big problem here was the funky old American size stem (21.1) made the search difficult, especially if I wanted to have something with canti bosses.**** I would make some vague and vain attempts to search for either solution, get discouraged, and give up.Īnd of course, the deeper question was: Was it even worth it to go down the rabbit hole? Did I like this bike enough to go through the trouble? I only paid $80 for the bike and spent way less than $200 in the years since I got it on maintenance and parts. This was mostly because it was such a daunting task no matter which way I sliced it: The front fork was a replica of a Schwinn blade fork, having no way to mount a sidepull brake, and too thin to put cantilever bosses.* I could put a drum brake wheel on there, ** but they were not easy to find, or cheap.*** The other solution would be to install a different fork, one that brakes can be mounted. I had made noises about adding a front brake for years, but didn’t do anything about it. I just didn’t feel safe riding a bike that had only a coaster brake. Most of this was because of it lacking a front brake. But then it became the bike I used the least, going through some pretty long stretches of disuse. This was mostly due to it being a “fun” or bar bike. Unlike the Crested Butte, which has gone through numerous changes in the almost six years in my possession, the Heavy Duti remained pretty static. At almost four years in my possession, it’s the second in longevity in my stable, behind the Raleigh Crested Butte. I’ve owned my Schwinn Heavy Duti since October of 2014.
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