Reviewing the Priority Continuum Onyx

In September, my frame cracked and I found myself in the market for a new bike. Wanting a belt drive, I settled on the Continuum Onyx from New York City-based Priority Bicycles and have put about 750 miles on it so far.

I had begun to look for a new bike some months before. My key consideration was maintenance because every 4-6 months, I would wear out a chain and usually a cassette too, and would find myself out of $100-200 each time. I have seen a few belt drives and determined that a belt driven bike would pay for itself in 2-3 years. I found two price points, about $1,000-1,200 for an 8 speed or more than $2,000 for an 11 speed, and while I would have enjoyed more gears and range, my budget would not have. I settled on two bikes, the BMC Alpenchallenge Nexus 8, and the Priority Continuum Onyx. The Priority was more for commuting and came with a dynamo-powered headlight which appealed because my old one needed replacement. It was also cheaper $1,000 versus $1,200 and came with a 30 day return policy.
The Ride
I ride about 8.5 miles each way every weekday and found the bike to be a great ride, with super smooth shifting, no noise, and can go reasonably fast. I love adding a lot of pedal power without gear slippage. It is great to shift both while stopped and while in mid-stroke pedaling to add more speed quickly. There is a little man on a bike which goes flat when in high gear and ascents a little hill when in low gear. Constantly twisting your hand to shift took some getting used to. The bike feels fast and absorbs the bumps reasonable well although I did add a cheap seat-post suspension. The silence is something I did not anticipate but love. Even with two paniers, there are no rattle noises, just the tires spinning on the pavement. Also, the belt has no grease so tucking in a pant leg or finding random grease spots on hands later in the day is a thing of the past.

I took the Priority bikepacking and found it a good tourer too. It carried a lot of gear without complaint and still handled smoothly and silently. The only issue I had were the grips which tired out my hands quickly.

The bike has a mix of high end components and extras and a few less high end ones. The grips, rims, tires/valves, and fenders feel a little cheap but this may be Priority trying to meet the $1,000 price point and all except the rims could be replaced cheaply and easily. The seat, headlight, clip-on rear-light, brakes, kick-stand, and pedals are definitely on the high-end. The pedals have threaded studs in them and provide fantastic grip, even in the rain, and take full advantage of the belt’s lack of slippage. The Priority logo and a few other gray lights are reflective. The black paint is smooth and has a matte finish rather than a glossy one, which looks super sharp.

Assembling the bike was relatively straight-forward as the company has a Youtube video telling you exactly what to do. The tools are all provided and the most difficult components are pre-assembled.

Positives

• Riding the Priority is a silent endeavor because the NuVicci hub makes no noise. Shifting is smooth, the NuVicci hub quickly adds or removes power with a twist of the handlebar grip. There are no gears but several balls which translate into about the equivalent of an 8 speed internal hub. While stopped, it will shift through about half the gears. The silence is neat and calling one’s pass is essential because the only sound is the tires and occasional braking. Creeping up on people walking and running is fun but discerning for them. One recent morning, I heard an odd sound and thought it was the hub only to realize that it was my new tights crinkling. While a bike chain may slip a cog or two a couple of times during a ride and more so as it becomes loose, the belt slips a cog maybe once or twice a week.
• The hydraulic disk brakes provide a lot of stopping power and like the belt, are high-end and low maintenance.
• The dynamo headlight projects a fantastically bright beam.
• The bike itself looks super sharp and the shift cables are routed through the frame.
• Mounts for front and rear racks plus water bottle holders. 
• Great price point with some high end components and extras. 
• The flatbars had plenty of space for my GoPro, speedometer, Loud Bicycle horn, and flashing light.

Negatives

• If you are looking for a wide range of gears, internal hubs generally have less range than a typical chain-powered one. The Continuum’s NuVicci hub has 330% which means its highest gear is 3.3 times steeper than its lowest gear. This means that at about 20-22mph, you start to spin out, meaning you cannot pedal any faster to attain higher speeds. The lowest gear is a little taller than a chain-powered bike but this is less noticeable. If you regularly go faster than 20-22mph, look elsewhere, but the vast majority of commuters do not regularly attain those speeds on a hybrid-type bike. Hopefully, Priority will add an 11 speed equivalent at some point or even a 14 speed one someday when prices come down ($1,400 will get you a 14 speed hub alone). 
• Flatbars are fine for shorter commutes but longer ones and touring rides, different hand positions are helpful which could remedied with bar end inserts. The stock grips are not great either, they feel thin and cheap, and I recommend replacing them. 
• The bike has a slick black matte coat of paint. However, it chips easily, mine fell on a sign pole and dinged up, but Priority includes a tube of touch-up paint which on one hand, is very thoughtful but on the other, an acknowledgment that their paint chips easily. 
• The twisty gear shifter is a throw-back to my old kid’s mountain bike and my wife’s Schwin Cruiser. Twisting up and down frequently will wear out hands until muscles and skin get used to it. While I miss the trigger mechanism from my old bike, the NuVicci’s lack of gears would not match with a trigger. 
• If you love rims with presta valves, the Priority has Schraders just like a car and most low end bikes. Replacing the rims would be expensive because the front wheel has a dynamo while the back has the NuVicci hub. The only major difference is that presta valves supposedly lose less air than Schrader valves. Speaking of rims, I also miss my Schwalbe Marathon tires because the stock Continental tires will not last as long. 

Bottom line, this is a fantastic bike for the money and I would definitely purchase one again. If you commute and do not need a huge range of gears but are sick of frequent and expensive maintenance, the Priority Continuum Onyx is for you.

Bikepacking the Greenbrier River Trail

Bikepacking combines long distance bicycling with backpacking. My wife and I made our first bikepacking trip on West Virginia’s Greenbrier River Trail.

While I had been backpacking and taken overnight river trips, I was not sure what to expect for bikepacking. I did order panniers and between two bikes, we filled two pairs plus one bike basket with our camping gear, strapping our sleeping bags and one air mattress on top. We encountered another cyclist with a trailer load of gear including a large tent and pillows so it is possible to pull along more stuff. However, this cyclist opted to leave his gear behind during the day whereas we were able to pack things away and pedal to a new site.
The Greenbrier River has 13 primitive campsites along the trail which typically include picnic tables, a tent platform and/or shelter, filtered water via hand-pump, trash cans, and outhouses. We spent our first night at MP 63.8 (mile post) and our second night at MP 69.6. The tent platform was occupied at the first site so we pitched our tent outside the shelter (it was a little dirty). Our second site had two tent areas, a platform next to the shelter, and a larger site on moss, the latter is where we set up camp. Both sites were relatively wild, the former was next to a quiet farm field and the second night had an even more remote feel. On the East Coast, railroads mostly pass through populated areas but the Greenbrier is in rural West Virginia and passes through a state forest and a state park so we heard only deer, owls, and other animals at night. We even stored our food in a tree which previous campers had done but it was unclear whether it was necessary. Compared to other long distance trails, the Greenbrier has relatively well-developed trailside camping.

Riding during the day was extremely straightforward, at times almost boring, and getting lost was impossible. There are nice views of nearby hills and relatively few homes immediately adjacent to the trail. We passed through one short tunnel and two bridges over the Greenbrier and passed a couple of neat old railroad buildings. The few road crossings have very light traffic. While we spend nights in wilderness areas, during the day, we would often pass old farms and a few homes, and then pass through small towns such as Marlinton.

 Marlinton has a couple of trail-oriented businesses. There was an artist’s co-op in Marlinton’s old railroad station. We had lunch at the Dirt Bean, a café and bike shop a block off the trail. While it was late fall and a Saturday, about half of the lunch hour customers were cyclists, albeit about six of us. For all the ballyhoo about cyclists spending lots of money along trails, there were only a handful of us on a Saturday. In fact in three days, we saw about 55 cyclists, a pair of horseback riders, and a pair of backpackers. About half of cyclists had camping gear. Thinking back to the Adirondack rail versus trail debate, despite being a premiere trail, the Greenbrier lacked hordes of cyclists I expected. In fact, I could not find any reliable estimate on how many cyclists and others used the trail or even recent economic impact studies.

The trail is a well-maintained crushed gravel with two trackers for wheels, encouraging side by side riding. Lots of leaves softened the tire noise on the gravel. In terms of bicycle type, I had 700x32c tires and a suspension seatpost, and was very comfortable. The Greenbrier River valley is fairly flat, in fact the river has no major rapids, which makes for a relatively flat trail. While the Cass entrance is 734 feet higher than Caldwell, that drop averages to about 9.5 feet per mile. The trail has lots of shade but some open sections too. There are several shuttle options but they require meeting the shuttle driver at the trail’s end and then riding an hour and a half to the trail’s start. In Maine for about the same amount of money, the shuttle will drive your car to the end of trail for you.

Bottom, I highly recommend this trail, especially if you have never been bikepacking before.

If you go;
Additional information
NY Times

6th St or 9th St: Which street will get a protected bike lane?

While the District Department of Transportation has pushed back the Eastern Downtown Protected Bike Lane project to 2018, they have also narrowed the project down to two options, alternative three on 6th St NW and alternative four on 9th St NW. I compared 6th and 9th street options to figure out which I prefer.

6th St NW would place a cycletrack or two-way protected bike lane on the east side of the street. 

9th St NW would also place a cycletrack or two-way protected bike lane on the east side of the street. 

Potential conflicts

6th St has three public parking garages, one alley leading to a parking garage, a fire station, and a Hampton Inn drop off lane, all of which are high conflict zones for cyclists. In comparison, 9th St has three garages but two are residential and one is for a hotel and combined with two narrow entrance and exit curb cuts. 9th St also has a gas station with two curb cuts but DC gas stations are an endangered species so I do not expect this one to be there in five years. While 6th St is two-way, 9th St is one-way for about one-third of its length which forces cyclists heading in the opposite direct to stop at a disproportionate number of traffic lights (which occurs on 15th St today). Despite that and in terms of conflicts and curb cuts, 9th St is the clear choice. See chart for more detailed comparison.

Neither option has major conflicts with bus service. 6th St only has one block of northbound bus service with no official stop. 9th St has only southbound bus service which would stop on the other side of the street. For only block between Constitution and Pennsylvania, there is a northbound bus stop and layover parking, but since buses only turn right into the facility and right to exit, the bike lane could between the bus lane and southbound traffic lanes.

Factoring impacting bike lane
Factors	6th St NW	9th St NW
length	1.6	1.7
Curb cuts	16	13
average curb cut per mile	0.1 or 528'	0.13 or 690'
Street intersections	20	19
average intersection per mile	0.08 or 422'	0.089 or 472'
Bike lanes intersected	6	7
Bus impact	minimal, D4 northbound for 1 block would only require a small pedestrian island or removal of a stop	minimal because all southbound except between Pennsylvania and Constitution bus stop requires curb separation as buses come in only from right and exit right
Northern connections	Florida Ave traffic sewer	U St and 9:30 Club
Southern connections	Constitution Ave midblock	9th St Expressway
Direct connection to mall	no	no
Number of churches' eyes poked	2	0
Number of church curbs touched	1 (Springfield Baptist Curch)	1 (New Bethel Baptist Church)
Destinations along route	residential, offices, and few restaurants/businesses	More restaurants and businesses and convention center
Future connections from MoveDC	4	4
Number of cars per day upper	11,600	14,800
Number of cars per day lower	15,700	13,600
Metro entrances	0	1
Number of bikeshare stations within 1 block	4	9
Existing bike to work (2013) by census tract (%)	5.6%	5.1%
Existing bike to work (2013) by census tract (#)	554	689

Connections

Both options have the almost the same amount of connections, 9th St connecting to New York Ave and 6th not. However, neither have a direct connection to the Mall which is a key destination. 9th St has an underground expressway and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture in the way. 6th ends midblock at the National Gallery of Art although it is easier on 6th to use Pennsylvania Ave to go one block and two traffic lights to the 4th St bike lanes. Making the same connection on 9th requires two more blocks and traffic lights or crossing over three lanes of expressway traffic to follow a narrow sidewalk. Widening this sidewalk would impact the Smithsonian Butterfly Habitats and putting one in on the other side of 9th would impact the maintenance access to the Pavilion Café. Any of that work is beyond the scope of the project and would require difficult negotiations with multiple federal stakeholders.

At the north end, 6th St dumps cyclists onto the Florida Ave traffic sewer although the blocks across the street have relatively calmed traffic. In terms of people biking to work per the 2013 American Community Survey, 554 or 5.6%, of residents whose census tract touches 6th St bike to work. While outside of the project area, 6th St connects to Howard University which has the census tract with the highest number of people riding to work in the entire city, 18.6% or 412, and there are several other tracts with high numbers nearby. In contrast, 9th St dumps cyclists onto Florida Ave and U St and also continues north. Future expansions could take it north along Florida Ave to the 11th St bike lanes. U St is a popular destination. 5.1% or 689 residents bike to work in census tracts touching 9th St, higher than 6th St. But in the downtown portion of the project, this drops to 0.4% and 0.6%, indicating that those areas are not at all bike friendly.

Given those factors, I think 9th St is the best option. There is less potential conflict, more businesses to attract riders, and a larger untapped rider base along its route. We will see what is eventually built.

For more:

http://dccycletrack.com/preliminary-alternatives.html

http://www.wemovedc.org/resources/Final/Part%202_Plan_Elements/Bicycle.pdf

Yellow=6th St
Blue=9th St
Red dots=Capital Bikeshare stations
Light green=bike lanes
Dark green=Pennsylvania Ave protected bike lane

Restoring the Inland Route

Until 2004, Amtrak trains ran between Boston, Worcester, Springfield and Hartford to New York and Washington, running inland instead of hugging the coast. While FRA recently rejected a plan to reroute high speed trains along this corridor, restoring regular train service between these cities is feasible, at a reasonable cost and for reasonable outcomes.

Existing conditions

Massachusetts’ three largest cities, Boston, Worcester and Springfield lack decent rail connections. While there is substantial commuter service between Boston and Worcester, only one train, the Lakeshore Limited, runs between Springfield, Worcester and Boston. Trains can only go 60mph, below the 79mph default for most track, and the line has a lot of curves. As a result, the train is slow, taking 2h15m-2h26m to go 98 miles, when driving can take about 1h30m without traffic. However at rush hour, the drive slows to 2h15m. CSX also heavily uses the Springfield-Worcester segment, meaning that any upgrade will require good negotiation skills to avoid costly CSX demands. Further down the track, Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven will soon receive hourly commuter rail service.

High potential demand for train service

Cities such as Worcester, Springfield and Hartford are ripe for additional service due to their size and proximity to larger cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. There is also demand between them as well, a recent study estimated some 428,000 passengers between Boston and New Haven, and that study did not include extending that service further down the NEC into Philadelphia and Washington. Also, these numbers were generated using conservative travel time and as a result, ridership and revenue is likely conservative. The study also estimated revenue to be about $18 million with fares average $42 but only for trips between Boston and New Haven and points in between.

Those larger cities’ effect can be dramatic. If trains are extended from New York through Springfield to Boston, revenue and averages fares would substantially exceed the study. When Virginia extended one Northeast Regional train from Washington to Lynchburg 2009, the train earned back its operating costs almost every year since. Its fares average about $60 which indicates that many passengers go beyond Washington to points north. However, attracting those passengers requires faster service than today’s infrastructure provides and extending trains from New Haven all the way to Washington. Amtrak dropped the service because it could offer 6h45m-7h35m service from Washington to Boston via Providence and adding back the service today without upgrades would result in an noncompetitive 9h travel time. See map below

Recent investments in other parts of the corridor will benefit this project.

·         In 2012, CSX sold the line between Boston and Worcester to MBTA and improvements are ongoing. For example, a 1 hour, nonstop commuter train began service between Boston and Worcester in 2016.

·         River Line between Springfield and Vermont is owned by commonwealth of Massachusetts and was recently upgraded

·         Hartford Line between Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven is being substantially upgraded for more trains

·         Springfield Union Station has been restored and has capacity for additional trains.

Additional investment

·         Boston-Worcester, 44 miles, 60mph top speed, 1h-1h15m, 35-44mph average speed

Raising the top speed to 79-90mph and modestly banking curves could reduce travel time to 45m, increasing average speeds to 59mph. Additional trains would have to run at off peak hours as South Station is close to capacity.

·         Worcester-Springfield 54 miles, 60mph top speed, 1h15m, 43mph average speed

Raising the top speed to 79-90mph and modestly banking curves could reduce travel time to 50m-1h, increasing average speeds to 54-65mph. While 39% of line has two tracks, heavy freight usage would require some sidings and second track although the line previously had two tracks and retains the old track bed and bridges. While the line is curvy, the curves are fairly broad, making banking easier. Unusually, there are only a handful grade crossings and none on major roads, providing substantial savings on crossing gates. 

A June 2016 study estimated $273-309 million in infrastructure costs.These costs can be broken into segments. An initial segment could restore a few trains without major travel time improvements and allow the state to gradually increase speeds and add trains as it obtains more funding. Given that Massachusetts has no problem spending billions on the South Coast Line or the infamous Green Line expansion, spending some transportation dollars on a project which connects the central part of the state may be politically feasible. See below for some cost estimates.

Note that Palmer station costs are estimated to be $12-14 million for a mere 9,600 riders.

The table below breaks down the cost of restoring a second track. Running few trains initially would reduce the amount second track needed.

 

Tables from study.

Typically, studies also include new railcars and locomotives as part the initial cost. I excluded that cost because initially, Connecticut and Massachusetts could pay Amtrak to extended some of its Northeast Regional trains from New York, just as Virginia did to get Amtrak into Lynchburg.

Service outcomes

Today

·         1 train between Boston and Springfield, 2h26m, averaging 40mph (Lakeshore Limited to Chicago)

Intermediate future

·         4 trains between Boston and Springfield, 2h3m, averaging 49mph, and continuing to Washington, 8h33m, averaging 54mph.

Far future

·         1 train between Boston, Springfield, and Albany 4h (Lakeshore Limited to Chicago)

·         1 train between Boston, Springfield, and Albany 4h

·         1 train between Boston, Springfield, White River Junction and Montreal 8h30m

·         2 trains between Boston, Springfield, and Brattleboro, 3h15m

·         5 trains between Boston and Springfield, 1h35m, averaging 62mph, and continuing to Washington, 8h5m, averaging 57mph. This travel time could be cut further by skipping some smaller Connecticut cities.  

Bottom line

Restoring the Inland route appears to be cost effective, especially if the study is as conservative as it appears to be. Eastern Massachusetts has successful commuter and intercity train service and sharing some of that success in the central and western part of the state could be politically feasible.