Kona Ute: Week One

I really lucked out this week: After a warm weekend, and some heavy rain, most of the snow melted away and my first week on the Kona Ute was nearly snow-free. The roads were a little icy most mornings, and the Ute sat outside my office in a heavy rain most of the day Tuesday, and I rode home in snow yesterday. Nonetheless, it was a pretty good week for riding a new bicycle to work. I even rode it to my dentist appointment Monday afternoon.

Here are my first impressions:

The Ute is a comfortable bicycle and is going to make a great commuter. The fat smooth tires on big wheels make for nice ride. I used about 40 psi in each. The road shoulders and bike lane on my commute are piled with gravel and chunks of asphalt that have been pushed out of the giant potholes in the road. In some places the debris on the shoulder was so bad I was forced out into the lane. Of course, in those same places the asphalt in the lane is completely broken and some potholes are nearly a foot deep. So far I've survived it, and so has the Ute.

The swept-back handlebars are comfortable, and the upright position is nice in traffic. I rode to work in an extreme headwind one morning, and found myself wishing for dropped bars, but I think that the Ute bars will be great most of the time.

The brakes and shifters work just fine. They are rather "low-end" components, but seem perfectly adequate. Some reviewers have complained that the Ute's Hayes mechanical front disc brake doesn't have the power it should, but I have no complaints. I had to do quite a bit of tweaking to the front derailer when I got the Ute. It wasn't set up quite right and the chain was rubbing the derailer in most gears. I moved the derailer up a couple millimeters and adjusted the angle. Now it shifts perfectly through all gears on both rings. No complaints there.

The bell works quite well. Of course, some folks can't seem to hear it.

The Big Ute Bag works pretty well, and carries lots of stuff. Nothing's fallen out, and it hasn't fallen off. I can quickly drop my computer bag into it, fasten it up, and ride away. I'm keeping a few tools in one of the zippered pockets on the lid flap, and my bicycle lock in the other. I've been buckling the inside fasteners of the pannier, which means the lid flap isn't held down (see the photos in the previous post). I'd like it better if there were separate fasteners for the flap and the interior compartment so the bag could be held closed inside and the flap could also fastened down. Having the tools and lock in the flap seems to keep the flap from flapping.

The Big Ute Bag hangs from the Ute frame rack on three big hooks. There are two elastic bands that hold the bag down and keep it against the bike. It moves a little on giant potholes, huge chunks of asphalt, and rough railroad tracks, so I'd like to attach it to the bike more securely, I think. However, for the all-day rain, I pulled the bag off the Ute and brought it (the bag) into my office so it wouldn't fill with rain, which would be more difficult if the bag were secured to the frame. A quick-release system like the Ortlieb panniers have would be great.

Hanging all the load on one side of the rack isn't ideal, so I'm considering ordering a second Big Ute Bag for the other side. They're pretty expensive, so I'm waiting until I've used this one for a while first to be sure I like it. I've looked into trying to mount baskets on each side of the bike. I think I'd like having a 25 to 30" basket on each side, mounted pretty low, as long as they looked decent. Stainless wire would be best. I'd rather not do the milk crate thing. The Ute bag could still hang as it is designed, and it would sort of be inside the basket. I can't find any such baskets, however. Wald doesn't make any that large. Custom made stainless baskets could be had, but for a very steep price.

In the mean time, I've been hanging my Arc'teryx Transit bag on the right side of the Ute, with the Big Ute Bag on the left. For the last couple of years I've worn the Transit on my back with my computer inside it. My lunch, clothes, and tools have ridden in one or two panniers. Now I've simply tied a couple of loops of webbing to the left side of the pannier, and a couple of 'biners from our rock climbing days clip the bag to the webbing. A bungee holds the bag against the frame. It works well, but it's less convenient than I'd prefer because it takes a few minutes to get it all secured.



As I mentioned above, the roads here are a mess. The grit that comes off wet tires in the morning is terrible. When I got to work Monday morning, I tried to lower the kickstand, but there was so much sand and mud on the kickstand post, that it was difficult get it to fall into position. Even with the Cascadia fenders, with their extra long flap, the grit was coming off the front tire and packing into the kickstand hinge, as well as the bicycle bottom bracket. I solved that problem Monday night with the addition of an extra flap on the front fender. I've often added a longer flap to the fender on my commuter bike to keep my feet dry and to keep the chain cleaner. It works well. For the Ute, I cut a section from an old Zefal fender, and bolted it to the Cascadia flap with two little stainless steel bolts. This modification makes the fender swing a little more side to side, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems. It helps tremendously to keep things clean and dry.



I also added a little flap to the front of the kickstand to further keep grit out of the mechanism. It's a little kludgy, sort of like a milk crate pannier, but it's not very visible.



I was a little surprised that the Kona Ute will wobble or sway side-to-side a little with a big load on the back, but it really only does it when starting from a stop if I try to stand up and pedal hard. This is a common issue with touring bikes when heavily loaded in the rear. I'm not referring to high-speed wobble, but a low-speed oscillation. Like a tail-wagging-the-dog, sort of thing. My Soma would do it with two full panniers. We noticed a similar tendency for our tandem to waggle last summer when we had the panniers and trunk rack packed full on the rear rack. If I tried to stand up to crank up a hill, the tail end would seem to sway side-to-side. A bike like the Ute, which is designed to carry a heavy load, is more resistant to this side-to-side sway, but it's not completely immune. The rear is built sort of like an aluminum bridge truss, and it appears that it would be rather inflexible, but maybe up front there's some twisting under load. I'm just guessing - I'm no frame designer (although I can always dream). Maybe the front of the Ute should be built more like the front end of our Cannondale Tandem MT800. Those are some gigantic tubes!



It may be that the bicycle frame isn't flexing at all. Perhaps it's simply that it feels like it because each time you try to lean the bike to the right, you have to move a big load from left to right on the rear. Simple inertia. So maybe it would be better to get the load lower in the back. The higher the load, the more it has to move side-to-side as the bicycle moves.

I don't think the potential for a little sway is a huge issue. I've read that others have had some sway on Xtracycles and even the big and stout Surly Big Dummy. It doesn't really seem to affect the handling, and it's quite controllable. It works best to keep your butt on the saddle and spin smoothly, which is easier to do with with clipless pedals - something I'm trying to avoid on my everyday bicycle. When moving down the road at 10 to 15 mph, the Ute is really quite stable, even with my commuting load on the back. Regardless, it's probably unwise to go screaming downhill on a cargo bike with a full load.

I'm still convinced that the best way to haul really big loads on a bicycle is with a two-wheel trailer. We've hauled some monster loads in our old Burley Solo, including a big pile of pumpkins. I guess if I were going to use a bicycle to haul really big loads all the time, I'd use a trailer. Even loaded with 60 pounds of pumpkins, the Burley trailer has no discernible effect on the handling of the bicycle, although some increased stopping distance does result.

In conclusion, while I'm still trying to figure out the best way to carry my stuff (and I'm leaning heavily towards a second Big Ute Bag), I think the Ute is going to make a really nice everyday bicycle. That's just what I wanted.