DIY Seat Bag QR

I love this kind of stuff. DIY, that doesn't look DIY, doesn't look geeky. I saw this video over at the Epicuran Cyclist and thought it was worth sharing. Great idea about how to make a quick on and off set up for classic style (Carradice in this case) seat bags using a boat cleat. Brilliant.

Camping

Went camping this past weekend and had a great time. A bunch of our friends headed up to one of our friends parents house/cabin just outside of Delbourne. An incredible quarter section of land with river front on the Red Deer River. Nothing on the agenda except take the kids for tractor and quad rides, play in the pool, throw a foot ball around, play some cards and drink some beer. The making of a fine weekend for sure.

This is the view from the house with morning fog in the valley

We saw 3 moose( 1 bull –massive!- 1 cow and her calf), numerous deer and some incredible birds. I had my camera along and so did my good friend (we’re photo nerds) and we spent some time wondering around with our telephotos see shooting birds at the bird feeders. Other than that, loaded up on pictures of the kids. I think there were 8 kids under the age of 5. Had tons of fun during the day just hanging with the kids, and getting them to wonder around in the woods, and some great campfires and games after the little ones were sleeping. Good friends are hard to come by, and worth all the effort it takes to find them.

Another view from the house

A few bird pics. Humming birds are hard to shoot (with a camera of course)

Here is my oldest climbing his first 'mountain'

What a great weekend it was.

New (Used) Bike

Last Thursday I scored a nice classic. The highly reviewed Miyata 1000LT touring bike. Back in the day, this was probably one of the best stock touring bike you could buy off the shelf. Kind of wish they still made it. Splined double-butted tube set, braze-ons galore and check out those uber long chain stays. This bike screams fully loaded touring stability. Only bummer is, it’s way too small for me. But, it fits my wife quite nicely.

I’ll be going over it for the next several weeks and get everything cleaned up and tuned up.

I figured if nothing else, for the $80 I paid for it, it was worth the Shimano bar-end shifters, 600 aero brakes, and the decent 700C wheels for another project I’m collecting parts for.

All in all I think this bike should be pretty sweet once it’s all cleaned up. The nice thing with touring geometry, is that it’s also great for cruising country back roads on Sunday afternoons, and very stable. Even if not fully loaded for long trips, I think that touring bikes are a great choice if your riding is other than racing, which is the case for most people.

Buying bikes is way too fun. Even if they’re used and not for me.

To Serve and Protect?

Will lend tools for tools

A bit ago, a co-worker gave me a splined bottom bracket tool for fixing up his MTB.

Today, another co-worker gave me another (different) BB Tool because he bought the wrong one. Funny thing, the BB Tool that co-worker #1 gave me was the BB Tool that co-worker #2 needed. Instead of returning the tool, he gave it to me. Sure I built up a SS commuter bike and gave it to him a year ago, but boy, this getting tools from co-workers for free is great.

I’m always willing to lend out my bike tools, and they’ve been getting lent out a lot lately. Just a small thing I can do to get people out on their bikes. It’s really paying off in a big way.

Foggy Fixie Commute

Alarm went off at 5am, out of bed at 5:45. Morning ritual: head over to the living room window and check the weather. No wind, huge fog. Nasty wind might have stopped me, fog had me second guessing. I ride. After a few miles, was rewarded with the feeling that I did the right thing and enjoyed the morning. I can’t help but think that I am having so much more fun and enjoying my day more than all those people cooped up in their cages. Even when I’m cooped up in a cage, I know that I could be have much more fun. Glad I did today.

The night before I’m planning on riding to work, I am always totally stoked. I lay out all my gear, have my riding clothes set out, my change for at work and everything dialed. I try to leave only pumping up the tires and loading the packs for the morning. If I don’t I’ll take at least ½ hour longer than it does at night when my protons are already firing. The thing in the morning is, I have no motivation. I’m tired. That changes when I start sweating. Too many a nice days have I wasted in the past because I let my lazy old mind get the best of me. I’m trying to change that.
Rode the fixie again and tested out the rear rack I built. Worked well. I figured I only needed one pannier today, and figured that would be a good test for its strength. When you’ve got a pannier on each side, there is even pull on the rack. With just one, there is more weight pulling to one side, and in theory, add a bit more stress to the rack. That’s my theory anyway. It’s not a vertical load that would stress this rack, it’s the torsional stress that might cause one of my welds (brazed joints) to break.
Everything work well. Of course it’ll take miles and miles and even years to tell if this is well built, but so far it’s there. The old twist it with your hands test has to be worth something too right?
1 ½ ride to work. I took a route that I hadn’t taken since last year, because I was chased twice by a big nasty dog. No sign of the dog today. This route has more gradual hills too, which is nice on a fixie. While the hills are longer, at least there are no moments of standing, hammering pedals just to keep forward motion.

Based on this route, the fixie is actually a really good candidate for commuting. I held a nice average speed of 28kph (17.4mph) for the 26 miles. Certainly not much slower than my average on a geared bike.

Love that bike.

And this is for good man Roman Holiday who was kind enough to send me some of his bitchen stickers he did up. I finally found them again (stuff gets so shuffled during home renovations) and graced my top tube with it. This bike is special to me, and this is the one and only sticker on it. Roman did a great job, and I love that phrase “straight chain love”. Thanks again Roman.
Peace.

LHT Killer????

Well maybe not, but man am I ever glad to see this bike coming out from MASI. Should hit stores in the US beginning to mid November. I was previously eyeing up a MASI Cyclocross bike to set up for long distance commuting, but I think this Randonneur would fit the bill even better.

The Speciale CX from MASI would be a great candidate for long distance commuting but the first thing I would be doing would be changing out the STIs for bar-ends. No need with the Randonneur, it comes with bar ends! Top all that with a MASI leather saddle (looks great anyway, but a Brooks would still probably beat it) and the gorgeous paint, and this is a bike I want.

With a MSRP of only $1,145.00 and they have the LHT close to beat in my mind. I guess the LHT is still probably a better rig for major long haul touring, but I do like to see more bikes like this enter the market at an affordable price. Other than custom or semi-custom, it's hard to find bikes like this. The more that come out, the better for us, the cycling consumers.

Boy, that Volae is living in dangerous times…..

Lunch Run

Not a run to get food, an actual run. 5 miles.

I've got to start getting in shape for the goofy challenge I'm doing in January. Why not start a running blog huh? Just so much harder to carry a camera when you're running than on a bike. Oh well, much of my energy will go to training for the 1/2 marathon followed the next day the full marathon that make up the goofy challenge. Still, bikes will remain #1.

Cheers.

Fixie is heating up

Rode the fixie home yesterday. When I left work it was 35C (95F) with a tail wind for ½ and a head/side wind for the other half. There’s something about riding a fixed gear bike that is beautiful. On the flats it seems easier than a geared bike. The pedals complete the circle without your force. Make spinning seem more nature and easy. Down hills aren’t too great. If I ran a brake it would be different. I can’t get going too fast, and must keep regulated back pressure on the cranks to maintain a sustainable speed. Spun up to 45kpm (27mph). Running 45/17 makes for about 127 rpm on the cranks. Maintained for several minutes, until the bumping out of the saddle was controlled. All legs. Good training. Hammered the hills. At the top of the 3rd and final big hill I had chills. Sign of heat exhaustion. Too bad my water was gone already. Still 12 miles to go. Eased up a bit for the rest. Average speed was 30.5kph or 19mph for the whole ride. Not bad for 26 miles on a fixie on one of the hottest days of the year so far.
I keep wondering why I don’t ride the fixie more, and after rides like yesterdays I really wonder. That’s it, more fixed gear for me. Wheels spin, legs must also. Need another gear up that hill? Forget about it. You’ve got no choice. Makes riding a lot easier. Less time thinking about the bike, the gears, etc, more time thinking about life, the beauty around you and the way you can feel your legs and lungs. There is beauty in riding a fixed gear bike.

Like that 2L pop bottle shrink-wrapped to the seat post? It's the new style. Or simply the makings of a wasp trap. Being as we drink zero soda in our house, I had to steal and empty from work to make the trap out of. Kind of got me thinking about home made hydration systems though. Especially after my camel back ran dry.

Long Walks in the Country

I love living in a small farming community in the middle of nowhere. Saturday morning, up and had some waffles as a family, 2 cups of coffee and then we all headed out for a nice 5 mile walk. Just because we wanted to . Beat the heat by about an hour and saw all kinds of neat bugs and birds to keep the boys entertained. Most of the time they were in the Chariot that I was pushing, but they just needed to stretch their legs. In the time that it took us to walk 5 miles (1 1/2 hrs), 3 cars passed. I love that. Not much going on, but a whole lot of living…..the good life! Everything I love is was in front of the lens of my camera for this shot (my cute little girly girl was in a snuggly wrap with my wonderful wife).

Tour de FAT seems to be nothing new....

Mini Velo

Kind of an interesting segment. Big in Japan, not so much here. They do look fun though.
These are bikes that I would love to get the chance to try sometime.

Comfort/Speed: Pick One

No thanks. I'll actually have my cake and eat it too thanks.

My ride home is consistently faster than the ride to work. Constantly 20 minutes to ½ hour. It’ kind of nice just because at the end of the work day is when my time is the most limited. I can get up as early as I want to and lallygag on the way to work if I wanted. I don’t’ but I could. After work though, time ticks away. The boys have their bed time, my wife and daughter like to get to sleep at the same time every evening, so I want to make sure I don’t waste those precious evening hours to spend with my family. It works out great that I get home in less time than it takes to get to work. It seems to make bike commuting fit into my life easier. Add to that the fact that it’s generally much much hotter during the late afternoon hours when I ride home, it’s nice to have the lay of the land working in your favor. Love bike commuting. Cheers.

Lose the shirt, get some tan, add it on top of the seat cushion

This set up is working quite nice for comuting while packing light

More Glamor Shots

Well, actually she's a bit dirty right now and needs a little cleaning. But, she still looks great int he pics.

eeny, meeny, miny, mo

In my deliberations of whether or not to keep my volae or sell it, I’ve been wondering ultimately if the bike would suite my needs for a long distance commuter. Being that my ride to and from work is 26 miles each way; I do care about having something fast. I’m not a speed freak and don’t get all anal regard the grams of one component to another, but I do want something that is going to be not slow.

I’ve been recording very closely my times, weather, efforts of my commutes on both my Volae and my Sequoia. They are both very different bikes obviously, but they could both be very well suited to a long distance commute. The only one really up on the chopping block though was the Volae. If the Sequoia didn’t come out number 1, it’d still be kept as a touring bike, or to change it up with the Volae for commuting. It also makes for a great bike to head out on a Sunday afternoon with a camera.

If the Volae didn’t come out on top, I was going to sell it and use those funds to buy a Bike Friday tikit folding bicycle. My theory was that I could use the tikit for days when I can’t commit 1.5+ hours to getting to work and 1.5+ hours to getting home from work. My in-laws live about 7 miles from my work, and I could just drive to their house, leave my car and ride my tikit the rest of the way.

So, who won you ask? Well, in a way neither. But the Volae did come out as the fastest most comfortable way for me to get to work under my own power. I am consistently 10 minutes faster on the Volae, and on all except the steepest hill on the way to work, the volae was actually faster! Maybe I’ve just really developed a good set of ‘bent legs’. I’m not sure. I was quite surprised when I was motoring up the hills faster than on the Sequoia and with what definitely felt like less effort. The sequoia certainly does the job very well also. Just a wee bit slower and a wee bit less comfortable. If I had never ridden a recumbent though, I don’t think I would ever know this.

There is one monster hill for about 1km that the sequoia does out-perform the Volae on. I’m sure that has something to do with the fact that the Volae is about 8lbs heavier than the Sequoia, and I can and do get out of the saddle and hammer the hill when I’m on a DF bike. I do now and then hammer it on the Volae, but it’s a bit different than on a DF bike.

Comfort; this was a hard one too. I’ve said before that the Sequoia rides like butter and I’ve set it up with very relaxed geometry. That being said, there is still less area of contact with the bike as there is on the Volae. Less contact area means higher contact pressure. I don’t think you could ever get a DF bike to be as comfortable as you could get a recumbent. Obviously proper fit has a huge role to play, but that goes for both DF bikes and recumbents. The Volae fits me very well, so does the Sequoia.

So, I’ve decided to keep the Volae. I’d still like to make a few changes to the way that I carry gear on the bike, but that’s about all I want to change. The bike feels so good when I ride it. I’m also quite interested in putting on a dinohub, but that’s down the road.

As for the tikit, I’ll have to wait for a while until I save the pennies. On the other hand, I found a car mount bicycle rack at the recycling yard and it fits and works well on my car. So, I don’t have the excuse that I would have to take my truck to my in-laws if I wanted to ride just the 7 miles on a DF. Hey, I’m thinking this might just be the perfect task for my lately all too neglected fixie.

Nice bike. Hey, thanks.

Will work for tools

A buddy of mine here at work was in need of some technical expertise to get a bike back in running condition. Don't know why he came to me but whatever.

Bikes are really incredibly simple machines and very easy to work on. I suppose if you're not mechanically minded, that might be a different story, but I did an apprenticeship re-building turbines and 10 cylinder diesel engines where I could crawl into the crankcase. My Dad is also a Millwright and I spent hours and hours as a kid messing around with him in the shop, building all sorts of things and fixing our cars. Maybe their not so simple to everyone, but I find them incredibly easy to understand and work on.

Anyway, the person who had the bike previously didn't take care to make sure that the cranks were properly tightened. I'm sure they kept coming loose and they'd get out their trusty Ukrainian socket set (crescent wrench) and tighten it up a little and figure they were good until next time. With the square taper axle, this will wreak havoc.

SO I took it out so he could take it in to get a new one. The crappy thing was that I didn't yet have a splined bottom bracket removal tool. I buy my tools on a need to use basis, and in all the bike messing around I've done, I still haven't had to change out a splined bottom bracket. Until now.

He ended up going into the shop to get the bottom bracket after we measured it still in the bike, and I told him that if he would pick up on of those those BB splined sockets, I'd use it on his bike and pay him for it. Always looking for an excuse to buy tools, and I don't get to bike shops all that often.

He came back with all the parts (new BB, chain rings, and crankset) and I put it all back together for him. When I was done I asked how much I owe him for the tool. He told me, "it's yours for all the work you've done." Sweet!! I'll take deals like this any day. I had also adjusted his derailleurs, brakes and headset, so it's not like it was just 15 minutes. In all I spent about an hour on the bike.

I was just doing it because he's my friend and it's one way I can help promote cycling and get people out on their bikes. I give free tune ups all the time to people at work and my neighbours, but to get tools for doing it? Pure gravy.

I Live in Heaven??

Nasty winds take their toll.