A Cyclist's Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

This is one of my very own personal beasts I use for daily errands around Tenerife. Here’s my review:

By far the best thing about this bike is the power transfer. This baby has 37.4cm chainstays which are quite possibly the shortest in the industry (for a 57cm frame anyway). Delivery of power through the bike’s rear triangle feels instantaneous. The only down side to this is the extremely limited chainstay clearance; with such short chainstays, you must remember to keep your feet in line with the bike, otherwise the heels of your shoes hit the frame on every pedal revolution. This is an old frame (~10 years old?), which I recently bought new on ebay. It was made when Klein was 100% committed to aluminium, so there is no carbon fibre anywhere on this frame. Compared with a modern-day monocoque carbon frame, comfort is practically non existant, but then I only use this bike for a maximum of 10km (1000m ascent) of climbing.

The only thing I don’t like about this bike is the relatively slack head tube angle (72°). It is essentially a full-blooded triathlete bike, which explains this weirdo geometry setup. So despite the  whippy chainstays, the front end feels sluggish while climbing. Having said that, the stability when coming back downhill is amazing! It holds a line like no other bike I’ve ridden. Descending on a bike with a 73° head tube angle feels nervous in comparison. There are essentially no flat roads here, so I can’t tell you how it performs on the flat.

I must be the ONLY person crazy enough to own and ride a single speed bike here in Tenerife.
I’m running a 34T chainring & I believe that’s a 16T rear sprocket, with 650c wheels. I wanted to go to 18T, but that means running a half link. When I get one that works alongside the wipperman connex link, I’ll be swapping over to that. Because the 16T «climbing gear» makes this clean-enough looking bike AN INSTRUMENT OF ABSOLUTE TORTURE to ride around this place.

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