Nopsa-26 [photo]

Not that long ago, it seemed on every bike,
there was something new and interesting. Now,
often there isn't any such thing to be found.
Often - but not always!

Here is another interesting bike, a Nopsa-26.
It says "Strada" on the head tube which sounds
like Italian for street.

Photo:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/nopsa.jpg

The frame doesn't have a top tube! But only
a thick, down/diagonal tube.

Tires are 44-584 or 26 x 1-1/2 x 1-5/8.
Inflate to 35 psi or 250 kPa. As always,
units(1) on my computer disagrees and tells me
35 psi ~= 241 kPa and 250 kPa ~= 36 psi.

The bike has a lovely color by the way. On the
photo it looks mostly brown but in reality it
is shimmering brown-red-goldish (?).
Very stylish!

On top of the headset, to squeeze the split
tube or possibly prevent water from getting
in (?), as well as where the seat stays meet
the saddle tube, there are clamps with small
white levers. They look sort of like CRs but
are not. They are attached to an otherwise
regular 13 mm nut.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On Fri, 14 Jul 2017 01:06:49 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Not that long ago, it seemed on every bike,
there was something new and interesting. Now,
often there isn't any such thing to be found.
Often - but not always!

Here is another interesting bike, a Nopsa-26.
It says "Strada" on the head tube which sounds
like Italian for street.

Photo:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/nopsa.jpg

The frame doesn't have a top tube! But only
a thick, down/diagonal tube.

Tires are 44-584 or 26 x 1-1/2 x 1-5/8.
Inflate to 35 psi or 250 kPa. As always,
units(1) on my computer disagrees and tells me
35 psi ~= 241 kPa and 250 kPa ~= 36 psi.

The bike has a lovely color by the way. On the
photo it looks mostly brown but in reality it
is shimmering brown-red-goldish (?).
Very stylish!

On top of the headset, to squeeze the split
tube or possibly prevent water from getting
in (?), as well as where the seat stays meet
the saddle tube, there are clamps with small
white levers. They look sort of like CRs but
are not. They are attached to an otherwise
regular 13 mm nut.

The single, large, frame tube frame is quite common here on Chinese
made "Cheap bikes" usually sold in large department stores. I saw some
for sale for US$ 44.00 last Sunday.

The combination seat stay and seat tube clamp, is also fairly common.
See http://www.framebuilding.com/NEWPARTSPAGES/lugs.htm

--
Cheers,

John B.

On 7/13/2017 9:33 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 14 Jul 2017 01:06:49 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Here is another interesting bike, a Nopsa-26.
It says "Strada" on the head tube which sounds
like Italian for street.

Photo:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/nopsa.jpg

The frame doesn't have a top tube! But only
a thick, down/diagonal tube.

The single, large, frame tube frame is quite common here on Chinese
made "Cheap bikes" usually sold in large department stores. I saw some
for sale for US$ 44.00 last Sunday.

That design feature has been used on quite a few bikes. It's very
common on folding bikes or other small wheel bikes.

Here's a Raleigh 20, a very unsophisticated utility bike that's been
"hot rodded" by an expert:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/raleigh-twenty.html

And here's a modern Bike Friday New World Tourist:
https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-b...world-tourist/

The design sacrifices some rigidity and/or adds some weight, but for
some purposes it's a useful compromise.



--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski wrote:

The design sacrifices some rigidity and/or
adds some weight, but for some purposes it's
a useful compromise.

If you do not count folding bikes and small
wheel bikes (this is a 26 or 584), is there any
advantage to it?

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On Fri, 14 Jul 2017 05:43:31 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Frank Krygowski wrote:

The design sacrifices some rigidity and/or
adds some weight, but for some purposes it's
a useful compromise.

If you do not count folding bikes and small
wheel bikes (this is a 26 or 584), is there any
advantage to it?

My guess it that it is cheaper to make as there are 2 fewer welds that
have to be made and, possibly, one large tube might be cheaper then
two smaller tubes.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 7/13/2017 11:43 PM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:

The design sacrifices some rigidity and/or
adds some weight, but for some purposes it's
a useful compromise.

If you do not count folding bikes and small
wheel bikes (this is a 26 or 584), is there any
advantage to it?

Historically it (or some similar design) was used to allow women to
pedal while wearing a long skirt. But these days I think many are used
to make it easier to mount. This can be important for people with
limited hip mobility, who find it difficult to swing a leg over a tall
saddle.

http://tinyurl.com/y7hxdm9r


--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski wrote:

Historically it (or some similar design) was
used to allow women to pedal while wearing
a long skirt. But these days I think many are
used to make it easier to mount. This can be
important for people with limited hip
mobility, who find it difficult to swing
a leg over a tall saddle.

Yes, that's what you say of the woman's frame,
most of which have top tubes.

Perhaps there aren't any advantages to it?

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On 2017-07-13 16:06, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Not that long ago, it seemed on every bike,
there was something new and interesting. Now,
often there isn't any such thing to be found.
Often - but not always!

Here is another interesting bike, a Nopsa-26.
It says "Strada" on the head tube which sounds
like Italian for street.

Photo:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/nopsa.jpg

The frame doesn't have a top tube! But only
a thick, down/diagonal tube.


I would never ride that bike because it doesn't seem to have a front
brake. All it takes is coming down the hill, the chain flies off for
some reason and you are toast. Also, braking will be very sluggish if
you get into an emergency situation if no front brakes.

Other than that those single-tube designs were popular with folding
bikes. My mom had one but, of course, that did have a front brake. Here
is an example:

https://www.evanscycles.com/brompton...-bike-EV204181

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On Friday, July 14, 2017 at 7:11:50 PM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
Snipped

I would never ride that bike because it doesn't seem to have a front
brake. All it takes is coming down the hill, the chain flies off for
some reason and you are toast. Also, braking will be very sluggish if
you get into an emergency situation if no front brakes.

Snipped

Yet MILLIONS of rear brake coaster-brake only bicycles have been sold and continue to be sold and those bicyclists do NOT have those problems.

In all my years of riding a bicycle, reading the various Newsgroup related to bicycling, or reading bicycling forums, I have NEVER encoutered anyone who thinks bicycling is as dangerous as you (Joerg) thinks/posts it is. Almost every thread, if not every thread, you enter has you posting something that says that bicycling is a very dangerous if not life threatening activity to engage in.

Cheers

Joerg wrote:

I would never ride that bike because it
doesn't seem to have a front brake. All it
takes is coming down the hill, the chain flies
off for some reason and you are toast.

You can always put your shoe to the front
wheel, just below the fender

Most of the bike's I see that are single speed
do not have hand brakes.

The bikes with gears, three or five, sometimes
they don't have it either. But they should
according to the law and when they rolled out
of the factories they had. So it has been
fiddled with since.

This one I'm pretty sure never had one.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573