Nexus 8 - Laying back (Part 9)

Forenote: If you are a framebuilder, or frame connoisseur of somesort - look away now!.

I originally bought an extra long adjustable stem off ebay for fitting to the Hopper. But whilst it was sitting around waiting I thought I'd see what it would be like on the Nexus. The result was a bit of fun, but not really rideable on a daily basis on busy roads. The main problem being that the higher handlebars aren't compatible with the seat tube angle. It creates a strange kind of feeling where you feel like you are pedalling behind yourself. 

The solution (as Mr.C pointed out would be the case) is a slacker seat tube angle. i.e to have the saddle further back from the pedals. But thats not going to happen without starting over again with a vintage frame, or just buying a Dutch bike of some sort. The other option is a layback seat post. 

So £8 found it's way to an ebay seller and and I was the proud owner of a 'new old stock' 25.4mm layback seatpost to continue my Frankenbike Experiment.

The original seat tube angle on the frame is approximately 75.5 degrees. With the layback post the effective seat tube angle goes down to 70 and in the process makes the much taller handlebars viable.  The head tube angle was already around 70 degrees, so effectively the two angles are now parallel

This was originally just an experiment to see how it turned out, but it's so much nicer to ride that I knew I'd be keeping it setup like this after the first day's riding.

I'm under no illusions that this equates to the geometry of a classic Dutch bike, but it gives a nice mixture of the angles - which seems to work for giving that relaxed riding position but respecting the crappy vehicular context in which it's going to get ridden most days of the week.

Here's a little before and after animation, then a couple of random pics to illustrate seat angles because it's difficult to see what's going on without seeing the angles measured.

This is an aluminium Gazelle Touche, which measures at the same 70/70 that my bike is now roughly equivalent to.

Apologies to Amsterdammers for stealing & graffitiing their pictures. I'll make up for it one day by buying a bike of you.