Wrenching on the Fixie

I spent a little time of the fixie last night.The biggest thing I wanted done was to get the 700-38s mounted, in anticipation of the spring roads coming soon. Gravel on the shoulders will be the name of the game. I also added a front brake. Even though this was a 27" bike, I'm able to get away with std. reach calipers 0n a 700c wheel. That's nice, because I've got about 5 pairs to choose from in the parts bin. I ended up going with some dia-comps, just because they have a quick release mechanism.
With this nasty weather we're having (it's -20C, -4F) I've been forced to work in a little corner of the basement rather than my unheated garage. I've got a little shop set up in one room, and use other rooms for staging bikes. I thought the gritty old fixie wouldn't mind spending time in a bathroom I've recently ripped apart.

Fixed Mission

"That's the craziest thing I've seen all winter"

That's what was yelled at me by two kids walking past the lake on their way back to school. "You know it" was my reply. I headed over to the Kinsmen lake for some laps on the ice spiker. When I was in town over the weekend, I noticed that there were some gents on quads with snow blades clearing skating paths that went all over the lake. Lucky for me.

I was exhausted by the time I got to the lake. We've had about 4 inches of snow in the last 24hrs. I think that screws coming out of the tires add massive rolling resistance. It's brutal to ride this thing around town. Traction is superb though. Once on the ice, I was more than impressed. I crashed a few times, but never due to lack of traction. Just due to riding too fast into a snow bank, somehow thinking that I would casually roll up and over it. It was good.

I (heart) icebikes.

New Project

Started a new project this past week. Not bike related. I’m remodeling my parents bathroom. They are spending some time down south (PHX mostly) and figured now was as good of time as any. It’s nice not having to live the mess or leave it livable at the end of every day. I won’t fill up this blog too much with the details after this post. But I’ll get the before and after up when it’s all done.

Jacuzzi tub was here

Shower was here

Toilet was there. Demo is well underway.

Kind of inspires me to tag back into my house renovation that's at a bit of a lull right now.

"Man's best friend" on "man's best invention"

Hairbrained?

I suppose it is what spawns innovation.

De-branding the LHT?

I’ve been thinking lately about removing the decals from my LHT. I’ve read up on it, even on the LHT and CC Google group, and from what I’ve learned, it’s really quite easy. Any thoughts on whether or not I should do it?

The reason I’m thinking of removing the decals is this; the LHT is such a great classic looking bike. The decals don’t help that at all. I think the go very much against the look of a classic bike. I removed the decal from the dealer that I bought the bike from already. I hate it when they do that. I didn’t get any special deal, and even the service left a lot to be desired, why would I let them advertise on my bike? I mean come on, give me 10% off accessories when I’m buying the bike or at least have it ready for me when you say you will. The first and second time you say you will. If you can’t do those things, you can’t advertise on a bicycle that I paid for.

With my LHT, it’s not so much that I don’t want to advertise for Surly. They make great, no non-sense bikes and make them affordable. I honestly can’t really think of a bike out there like the LHT, other than the LHT. It’s a great platform from which to build a nice touring bike. Very capable of meeting the task it was designed for, and compared to bicycles of a similar skill strength, it’s cheap. I’m quite happy with my LHT and think it’s a great bike. But there is the whole issue of the look of the bike. The color could be dubbed as a classic color, the tubing size, geometry look great, but the decals just don’t work. Especially if you want to “Rivendellize” your LHT. Some of the Surly Pacers have a nicer looking decal. I wonder why it got a different decal?

I’m not totally convinced I’m going to do it yet, but I think I might just de-decal the LHT. We’ll see.

Checking out the trails

I figured I was due to see what the trail out to Eagle Lake was looking like. I also checked out the local recycling yard, but not a single bike to be found. For some reason, all photos in this post are Sepia. The trail has a center hard packed section from foot traffic. It's nice that it's hard packed as the rest of the snow is very deep, but, it's also ridiculously rough. I mean sitting while riding is painful. Standing up absorbs more bumps, but even that gets fatiguing very quickly.

The beginning of the trail to Eagle lake

Obligatory bike in the trees shot
The trail back to work

Trail behind me, this afternoons tasks ahead

Quite a casual, but relaxing ride. Bikes are fun.

Rivendell Reader # 41

I'm sure most have checked it out already, but just in case, issue 41 of the Rivendell Reader is for download. Check it here.

Get it while you can, once it goes to print, it's no longer free and you will have to pay to have it mailed out you.

Xtracycle De-commissioned

I've been searching for a frame with which to re-build up my Xtracycle for sometime now. It seems that finding decent steel MTB frames in size large is a very difficult task. Last Fall my drive train finally gave out on the existing build, and it has been sitting in my garage ever since. It was about 10 years old, so it has held together quite well. I have the new drive train, and pretty much every single other component to re-do the Xtra on, but I wasn't prepared to stick it all onto a frame that is way too small for me. I'm very excited about all of the components that I've gathered for the next build, but I just can't seem to locate a decent frame. I don't want to go out a buy a brand new one, so I'll just have to keep waiting for the right used one to come along. I'm sure that some time during this summer, I'll find a great one for free at the local recycling yard, I seem to find several decent ones every year. For now, I must simply wait. Being a new cheap bastard, I don't want to dole out more than $100 for a frame.

When I re-do the Xtra, I want something that is a little more capable of some longer distances. Particularly the 26 mile each way commute to work. I'll be switching between mustache and a few different drop bars to see which I prefer, but the key ingredient, as with any bike......a frame that fits well. All the parts now relocated to the rafters of the garage. It's a shame that frame is way too small for me. It's a Trek Antelope 920, and I really like it. Maybe I'll bring it back as a MTB for my wife.

Weekend Projects

This past long weekend, I figured I should try and make something of some of the parts I have kicking around. I've thought about an ice bike for a while. I had an old wheel set with some gnarly screw-studded tires on them. I matched up a frame that I thought would work, and single speeded the cassette with a cheapo spacer kit from Bow Cycle. I've had all of these parts kicking around for several months, some of them a year or two, so it was nice to finally built them up into something.

I did some testing on the shear ice roads in town, and it's incredible. I had a hard time standing on the roads and walking, but these screws bit into the ice very well. Not once did I loose traction. Even while hard braking and trying wheelies. These will make for some fun lunch time rides at a lake near where I work. The town plows pathways on the ice for ice skaters, and now it's for cyclists.

This is the front wheel.

This is the rear wheel.

S/S Chainring up front (I've had this kicking around for about 3 years.) It's 38 tooth. Cassette spacer kit with 16 tooth cog.

Second project was just an old steel MTB. I got it from my friend Cory, and I always like to have bikes that I can ride, and not worry too much about. Mostly just for little jaunts to the grocery store or Lions Meeting. A bike that I will never lock up, and won't feel like I've lost a fortune if it is stolen. What's more is that I'll probably never ride this bike any distance that would be a big deal if I had to walk if it was stolen. Just a good old steel bike, tuned up and running nicely.

I'll be installing my Swalbe Snow Studs and some fenders on this bike to make it a little bit more practical for all seasons. It is actually a very comfortable bike with a very classic, upright feel to it.

A touch of Class

These would sure go good with my favorite socks. Pricey though. Good to see cycling in the classy, traditional vein, with some modern technical progressions incorporated. Well suited to Tweed Rides.
And speaking of tweed Rides.....

Love Socks

My favorite present I’ve ever received. These socks. My wife made them for me by hand. The fit is perfect, 100% merino wool is fantastic and the bicycles on them are great. Can they get any better?....She even spun the yarn herself. Wow.

These socks mean an incredible amount to me. Just imagine, every single strand of yarn, came in a big pile, passed delicately and precisely through her fingers, being twisted from a loose fiber, to a strong strand. Then, after making a whole whack of the yarn, She painstakingly knits the socks together with needles made of wood. 4 or 5 needles being used at any given time. I tried knitting once, but I could not imagine how to make designs, and make socks that fit like they were formed around the foot that would wear them. In very few items have I ever seen craftsmanship and quality like this. And, she did it all for me. I’ve never felt so special while wearing any garment as I do when I wear these socks. Life is good. So is my sweet Wife!

Pisco Sour

A few weeks ago, my dad went to Chile. I heard a bit about a beverage they enjoy over there. Pisco Sour. I asked my dad to bring me back a bottle. Today, I got it. From what I understand, it tastes like strong lemonade and has a similar effect as tequila. I'm saving this for a nice hot July afternoon. Should be good.
I'm also starting to figure out the how to set my DSLR for various lighting while shooting in full manual. I have to say I'm quite impressed with this picture. No lighting other than the florescent tubes that light my office.

Lunch Time Run

I went for the first run since my marathon weekend. A nice easy 4.5 miles. Felt great. I think I finished up those races without injury, so that's always a bonus.

I'm thinking about alternating between cycling and running for my lunch time routine. It's easier to get a consistent work out regardless of weather conditions when you're running than it is cycling. But cycling is more fun and much less impact. Combining the two should make for a decent training regiment.

My Cycling State of Mind

With the looming economic crisis, our family, as I'm sure with most everyone else's, have started to really cut back on our frivolous spending. We're even going farther than cutting back on our spending, we're trying to rid completely all of our debt. Everything. Including the Mortgage. While it's a good looking plan, and it will come to fruition in the foreseeable future, there are definitely certain sacrifices that are being made in the in term. One of them being the amount of money being spent on non-necessities. In my particular case, bikes. I've got plenty of great bikes, and I pretty much have a decent bike for any type of riding that I may want to to. So why would I have to keep spending anyway? Well, like most bike geeks, there are always little tweaks here and there, new products to try and upgrades that can always be made to the collection.

All that is being put on hold for a while, and it's actually quite liberating. I'm finding myself forced to the parts bin more often to re-use old items, and quite often I'm surprised at just what I have in there. Stuff I've forgotten about for even years. I'm learning to make due with what's on hand, built from scratch other items and generally just using more of the stuff that I already have. It kind of makes sense.

Sure sometimes there are certain upgrades that make a big difference and you need to adjust this and that to find the right fit and function, but often, I change things for the sake of change. That's a little crazy. I don't know of a single bike or bike component that I've actually worn out (except for tires). I've begun to notice that I was devoting more of my time, researching, upgrading and fussing with bikes than I actually was riding them. It is obviously easier to spend more time thinking about bikes than actually riding them, but when is that ratio out of balance?

Does it make sense to spend hundreds of dollars changing a bike, countless hours working on it and tweaking it numerous times, and only a fraction of that amount of time riding the thing? I don't think so. I'm starting to tell myself, "Just ride the bike for Pete's sake." Bike tweaking and modifications shouldn't become the primary activity that makes up your cycling life should it? For me, it all comes down to this simple questions: What does a cyclist do?

Rides a bike. Simple isn't it?

Good Reading

As previously posted, I received some great cycling related presents for Christmas. I’ve been meaning to share those, but seem to have been rather busy and sick the last month or so. So I guess we’ll start playing a little catch up.

I along with other true bike geeks, love cycling books. I’ve never really had any decent books on cycling. My collection of various motorcycle manuals, encyclopedias and history books is quite large, but nothing really for the bicycle. So I added a few to my Christmas list. Everyone loves giving books for Christmas. Somehow you feel like your spreading intelligence or something. First off, the Paterek Frame Building Manual. This might not interest every bike geek, but the true obsessive bike geeks, the bike geeks who wonder about geometry, and why one bike handles one way and another bike so differently, and how different changes to a fork will make the bike handle better with a large load, those bike geeks would certainly enjoy this book. Even if you weren’t planning on ever building your own bicycle, this is a very interesting read and there is much to be learned about the bicycle from reading a book such as this. I do intend to get into building some frames, but first I want to have theory in my head. Memorized. A part of my brain. My hopes is that I would at least understand while I’m building the bike, how every detail will affect the outcome. Of course much of this has to come from actually building bikes, but it can’t help to have the theory there in the first place. This book is an excellent book. If you don’t want to fork out the cash (it’s not a cheap manual) you can download the 1st version free here.

Second book; 100 years of bicycle component and design The Data Book. This is a very interesting book. It’s a chronological look at the history of the devices that we use on our bikes and add to them. Starting with the simplest of brakes that were not much more than a lever and a string, to some very complicated means of stopping the bike and changing it's gears. Some work better than others, but it is very interesting to learn the thought process that has gone into the design of bicycle components. To certain levels it helps you understand why we are using the components that we use today. You can see where they came from. To improve things in the future, it helps to understand the things of the past. A very interesting book. I’m careful to not call it a read, as it’s mostly pictures and diagrams. My kind of book for sure.

Lastly, and probably the most universally interesting books is the Classic Age of the hand build bicycle. This book is spectacular! Incredible photography and history. This book will take you through the early designs and styles of bike in the beginning of the 1900s through the modern handmade bikes of the 80s. I’ve learn more about cycling, and the history of the sport from this book than any other. I’ve read the whole thing cover to cover twice since Christmas and I can’t get enough. I realized that my style of riding suites the style of the cylotourist and I have been unknowingly setting up my bikes to perform to that end. This book will captivate even your non-cycling friends when they come over for coffee or dinner. A book that should be left out on the coffee table. Great to read from cover to cover, or simply peruse through pages at random. While this book is not cheap, it is worth every single penny and then some. I’m so glad that Vintage Bicycle Press has done the work to get books like this together.

Also from Vintage Bicycle Press, I received a one year subscription to Bicycle Quarterly. Wow. I used to buy Bicycling Magazine, and sift through it for the little nuggets that actually pertain to the cycling that I like to do. Steel frames, practical bikes, cargo bikes, generator hubs, carrying a camera on your bike. Not much of that can be found in carbon cluttered, lycra-clad mainstream cycling press. Vintage Bicycling Quarterly is a great, great publication with pages of informative, entertaining articles. What can be learned from these volumes is priceless. Practical tests on everything from Rando bikes, cargo bikes, brake pads, tires and dyno hubs. What a great collection of information. As with these other books, I’ve been picking this magazine up over and over since Christmas, and haven’t even had the urge to buy an overly glossed up mainstream mag. If you don’t get this magazine yet, you should.

If you've been searching for some good analog content on the practical bicycle, check out any of the above. You will enjoy them.

Cheers,

Wish I had one of these right now

I rarely get sick, but I've been hit with a bad one. Hope to be up and riding soon....