On the move

Well actually, in the move. No biking for me right now. Just trip after bloody trip with my pick up and car trailer to our new house. Being as I worked some serious OT on my little trip to Oakland, it was only fitting that I take today and tomorrow off to make up for it. I ended up going into the office this morning to get a few things ready for SWA's first flight on their new ticket counter, and like any time you just stop into the office for a minute, it was almost noon before I left. I got there at 7:30! Oh, well. The move is going well, but it sucks! Moving is always a biatch! Don't dig it too much, but I love the town that I'm moving too. I think I'm going to love my bike commute too. Tomorrow is on it's way and I better get some rest. For tomorrow, I have a piano to move! Oh joy.

Fixing a BSO

Well, this is one that I could have put into my idea of one time having a blog dedicated strictly to maintenance, but I'm beginning to wonder if there will ever be a post on there. Whatever.

Way back a while ago, I told my buddy that I'd fix his daughters bike for him. A year went past and then we mentioned it again. I said sure, bring it over. So he did. Yesterday. I'm moving this weekend and I knew that if I didn't get it done right away, it'd be a while so I decided to put in a late one last night to get this off my plate.

I was told it was a bent derailleur hanger. No biggie I thought. I twisted it (with incredible precision I must add) back to straight and went to put the derailleur back on.

Precision adjustments look just like this

This is was it looked like. Completely twisted! Unusable. No biggie there either, I dug around my parts bin and found one that would work with the Shimano grip shift and off we go.

Just a bit of a twist huh

Mounting the wheel was a breeze. Give it a spin, and holy crap! 2" of wobble in one specific spot! Off it goes and up on the truing stand. After getting no-where with it, I thought I'd fight fire with fire. I loosened off a select few spokes, propped it up on a two by four, and jumped on it. Then I stomped the liven crap out of it. To my surprise, it was pretty close to good. Back on the stand and we have an uber straight wheel again.

Once again, everything going back together and while I was trying to dial in the shifting, I notice that there was a certain spot that the chain seemed to jump like crazy. After looking down it, I saw a major twist in a couple of the links! What's more, the cassette had some bent teeth! I've never seen a bike damaged like this from anything other being run over by a car!

I was able to remove the bad links and end up with correct chain length as the derailleur I installed was shorter and had much smaller idler wheels. I took a hammer and pin punch and tapped the cassette teeth back to straight (cassette off the wheel of course) and it actually worked!

After re-adjusting all cables, brake pads and lubing up the chain, I was absolutely amazed at how smooth this thing ran. Once I realized everything that was messed up, I wondered if it was even salvageable. Especially being a Raleigh Matterhorn, which is pretty much a BSO.

Pardon the mess, I'm moving

After letting him know that it was done, I found out that indeed, it had been run over by a car while backing out of the driveway. Good thing I didn't know that when I started. I probably would have decided that the bike was unfixable.

Just Lovely

Well, I wasn’t expecting this white stuff this morning. I heard weather man threaten snow, but who believes him any way? Went to bed to the sweet sound of rain on the roof, woke up to scrape 5 inches of snow off the roof. Heavy, wet snow. Temps hovering just below freezing didn’t do anything to the roads, but they sure make it rough on the trees.


Unfortunately I’ve de-studded my commuter bike and my mountain bike is in my new house in Rockyford. This would have been a great chance to get one last (maybe not, who knows) winter ride in. The 4 bikes that I still have in my house that I’m moving out of the end of this month are shod with slicks. Slicks don’t stick in snow. So, fire up the 4X4 and off we go. I usually don’t drive the same route I use when I’m on my bike, as I prefer scenery over directness on my bike, but this morning I decided to drive the way that I would have ridden a bike. Man would a Pugs be nice about now. Oh well.
My current hood is new with no mature trees. Going through the established part of town showed just what the snow has done. Trees down everywhere. Some places have no power. Some places in the city are without traffic lights (what a great commute that would be).
It is still snowing. I’m sure that by tomorrow, we’ll be back to sunshine and May-like temps. I haven’t checked with the weather man yet, I still don’t trust him.

Jerome

I know, it's not a bike. But I like it

Well, after a last minute rip down to Smudgemo's part of the world, Oakland area, I'm back home. Being as I had to drag my computer and a bunch of drawings down there with me, I had to drive a car into work today to bring them into the office with me. I wanted to ride my bike, but I had to ask myself what would be the next best thing.


For me, it's my Marlin. 1965 Rambler Marlin originally purchased in Sunnyvale California. I've even got the bill of sale and a Polaroid from the day it was purchased. This is a pretty rare (some would say ugly) car. I like it because its mine. I admit it not the most beautiful ride on earth, but when I turn the key, the dual exhaust and 327 cu inches make some pretty sweet music. Now I know the type of blog that this has turned into, doesn't really seem to be one that would sing the praises of the big honken motor, spitting out fumes and burning up gas like it doesn't cost anything. I also don’t think that an engine being the sound of music would be agreed to by the intended audience of this blog. This car is defiantly not a means of sustainable transport. The thing is, back in 1965, I don't think they knew then what we know now. This car a piece of history. I like the way it looks. I really like classic cars. The reason I own it, is because it' old. I rarely drive this thing, but I do before you go haten, remember, people are walking into car lots, buying almost un-garageable SUVs and driving them miles and miles a day. Have a classic car in my opinion, isn't such a bad thing is it? I do believe in the benefits of non motorized vehicle and I certainly do ride my bike any chance I can, but now and then, it can be fun to drive a car. Well, certain cars anyway.


Jerome

Can't Sleep, Clowns will eat me

I wish I had some good photos or something to write about here, being that I can't sleep. For some reason, I'm wide eyed and bushy tailed after going to bed 2 hours ago. I'm bored and wished I could blog about something.

Then I remembered a button that I found several years ago while working under a conveyor at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank California. I ended up making a T-shirt out of this little button. Gets a lot of looks, and surprisingly many folks do acknowledge their agreement with the phrase.

So here it is. A post when there's not much to post about.

By the way; I am afraid of clowns.

If a little is good, a lot must be great

I enjoyed sharing my work space with my bike. Being distracted for a day. I thought I'd keep it up. The work down stairs isn't going away, just getting dirtier and louder! This might be a permanent thing, bikes in my office. Gotta love the view.

Get fixed, Ride free

I just can't say enough how much I love riding my fixie. Great ride to work today. I'm toying with the idea of adding a front brake to this thing when I move to my new house. My commute will go from a measly 3 miles, to 23 miles and I like this bike the best. So why not ride it? Well, there are some serious hills between here and there and going up isn't my concern. Sure it might be slow, or I might even be walking a bit of it, but I don't want to have to labor hard just to maintain control on the way down. We'll see. I put a drop bar on over the weekend, and ended up taking it off. This bike is just to perfect the way it is.

Ride yer bike!!

Haven't lost it yet

I rode into my work Thursday night to work on some parts for a custom wheel-chair caster I’m building for a good friend of mine. His wire suffered from Scoliosis and last year right before Christmas, was paralyzed from the waste down. With two young children (super good kids) and being an active family, they certainly wouldn’t want to give up camping, soccer games and general outdoor actives that most of us take for granted. She had a titanium wheel chair made up, but none of the manufacturers have much in the line of accessories that bolt onto a wheel chair, to give a larger from wheel, to accommodate rough terrain. That’s where his idea and my design and fabrication come in.
I started working at the company I’m at 10 years ago and got my journeyman Millwright license. I’ve since moved up (moved at least, not yet convinced that it was up) into project management and don’t get any time on the tools anymore. My biggest fear when I accepted the promotion was that I’d forget everything that I’ve studied and tried so hard to become good at. As a tradesman, I felt very confident in my skills and there were very few things I couldn’t do. As project manager, I was completely ignorant. I hope that I’m learning and getting better at it, and so far, 3 years later, I still have a job. I hope that’s a sign that I’m learning. There just seems to be so much less gratification in office work. When I come into my office every morning, there’s a desk, papers, and a computer. The same is there when I leave. It’s a different feeling when you start build something (in my case airport baggage conveyors) and at the end of a project, you actually see people’s bags moving on them. I guess you get the same feeling, but you just get it once per project, instead of every day seeing something built and steady visual progress.
These brackets below are what I machined to be the connection point to the wheel chair. Being that this is a custom made titanium ride, I certainly didn’t want to botch something together that would affect the chair, and I wasn’t about to weld or drill any holes on her ride. This is the long way to do things, but I’m convinced it’s the correct way.
I think that I’ve got about 10 more hours on this and I’ll be done, and I’ll post some pictures up with the final result.


Jerome

Eat your peas.

A sure sign of spring is when the county opens up the flood gates for the irigation canals. It must have been sometime yesterday or early this morning. Yesterday, dry. Today, swollen. I like them.
My parents live on a farm about 20 miles from here, and this same canal goes by their place. In my younger days, my friends and I would have our parents drop us off at Chestermere lake, and we would ride these things for about 3-5 hours on inner tubes. We'd usual get out at one of their parents farm. It was a fun way to travel. A few months ago, I was snowmobiling on them. Lots of fun to be had.
I think that the no swimming sign is simply a suggestion though. It's government brainwash. Pay your taxes, don't jaywalk, register your cars, eat your peas, yadda, yadda, yadda. What's next? Uniforms? No swimming in canals? Eating your peas? I certainly hope not.

Cheers.

Distraction

If FGG wasn't a big enough distraction at work, I've just created another one for myself. Usually I park my bike just outside of the lunch room at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to my office. Right now, they are doing some additions here (including a new office for me! Yippee! Yippee!) As a result, there's a little dust and dirt floating around, as well as they would end up moving my bike, and goodness knows they don't understand that you can't just lean the speed demon against any wall, all willy-nilly. So, I brought my bike up to my office. Problem is, my computer is in the opposite direction, and it makes it really hard to write emails while looking behind me. Oh well. I am enjoying the view.


Jerome

Whatever works

I'm lucky. I don't know when the last time I've used a bike lock is. I don't really leave my bike out in public ever (I guess I do wish I did that more). I generally don't stop anywhere on my bike, unless I'm taking pictures of it, or something else while on it. At home, I have my garage and at work I leave my bike inside, and even bring my road bike into my office (curiosity of others drives me nuts!)
I have researched locks and for some reason always read a review if I ever see one. I want to make sure that if I ever to get a bike lock, it's going to be a good one. I'd hate for it to be this easy. I saw this on the make blog, and this is one way you can do it.
I just hope the cops doing this don't actually need to contain an unruly criminal while their bikes are being restrained.

Cheers.

Shake up, wake up.

Well, today was an incredible ride into the office. So nice, I decided to head off the road and to the local kinsmen lake here in Strathmore. I've take some pics of my winter fixie on this little dock, and thought the road fix is quite deserving also.
I propped my pedals against my laptop bag, and started shooting. Walking ever so gingerly, not to rock the dock. I decided I should get off the dock for some shots with all of the trees in the back ground. This was an iffy notion, but figured I could be careful. Wrong.
Just as I got onto the grass, I heard the sound of a bike hitting the dock behind me. First of all, you should never turn your back to your favorite bike when it's balanced like a feather. Second of all, it was just a dumb idea. I was so lucky it didn't fall into the water, and I was suddenly more conscious of everything around me. It felt like I had just woken up. Bad way to wake up. I even remember when I was propping the bike for the pic thinking what I would do if I lost the bike to the murky depths. Okay, it's only about 3 feet, but I actually was thinking that she might fall into the water, and I still did it! Dumb, dumb, dumb.
After picking up my beast (and apologizing to it) we continued on our way and I shall certainly not be so careless again.

I figured a riding pic would be a safer alternative.

Ride yer bike!

It's really Unfortunate

Bad news. One of the great bike commuters, whose blog I frequent, was struck by a muppet in a jeep on Monday and required surgery. Head over to his blog and wish him well. Steve, we all hope you have a speedy and complete recovery.

Jerome.

Justice

Well, Mr. Muppet (who I actually passed on the way to work today) has been given a stunting ticket, for pulling up on the right hand side of a motor vehicle (me on my bike) at a stop sign and for passing a motor vehicle (again, me on by bike!) illegally. He can fight the ticket and go to court, but I would think that him being a Principal of a Catholic School, it might save him some face to simply pay the fine. Stunting here in Canada, is quite a fine. I've been threatened with it in my younger days on my crotch-rocket, but those were the days of my youth. I miss them.

It feels like Justice might have been done. On that note, I've recently read a great book my Richard Maybury. Whatever Happened to Justice? You won't find it in your local Chapters or Barnes and Noble, because some would consider it offensive, on several fronts. I won't go into those. I will say that I agree with most of what is conveyed in the book. An easy read and after getting it from the library, I will actually be ordering this book for myself. He also has several other books that are very well recognized. Most notable would be Whatever Happened to Penny Candy. It is said that no other book can explain, economics in such a simple and understandable manner. Often a required reading for certain economic majors. A great author, and if you can find his books, I recommend you by them.

Jerome.

Let it go!

Well, I'm still on the kick of the OIFS dude. I'm certain that Planetary gears is him. Today, he made reference to an article that he wrote. I believe that it is this article about fixing Flats for Jesus. I know, I should just get over it, but for some reason or other, I need to figure it out. I bet that there are many folks out there who know and have always known what's gone on, but I thought that I should still try to figure it out. I think I'll let this rest now.

Pure Riding

I think this goes well to show the beauty of the fixed gear bicycle. First class production! Found it on Snakebite's blog.

Enjoy

Makes for a good Spoke Card

Thanks to FGG.