Studded tires

I've finally gotten around to putting the studded tires on the Xtracycle. It's taken me a while to get at it as I've been mostly riding for fun lately. Those rides only require about 1/2 block of riding on streets before I hit the canal path and then gravel. The Karate Monkey does fine on these conditions, but without studded tires, any riding on streets is pretty iffy.

This is the 4th year I've had this set of studded tires, and I'm amazed at how well they are holding up. The rubber still has that almost greasy feel of brand new tires and the studs are still in decent condition. If I were buying studded tires right now, I'd probably opt for the newer Marathon winter tire, but at the time (4 years ago), this was the easiest winter tire for me to get my hands on. They're still stocked at MEC, and compared to non-studded tires, the traction difference does justify buying a set.

I'm still considering a set of ice-spiker's for the Karate Monkey. If I did, I'd also add some fenders and end up with a great winter errand bike. But then again, I'd lose it for the service of exploring and the fun rides. The one issue I have with the Xtracycle is that with the longer tail, weight distribution is more concentrated on the front tire. I often spin out going up short steep hills and when I'm taking off. I've even rode around with dead weight in the Xtracycle, just to aid it's traction issues. I suppose for the shorter distances that I have to go in this small town, a little back wheel slipping isn't a huge issue.

I've started adding stickers to my deck

These are the Specialized Nimbus EX tires that I run on the Xtra in the summer. I can't say enough good about these tires. Fast, smooth (enough), and they have amazing traction in rain. Again, after more than 4 years of service, they're in pretty decent conditions still.

I have't even lost one stud.

Finally ready for winter

I'm trying out a new two-flasher setup on the front.

Xtra recycling

After cleaning the basement, and doing some re-organizing of my creative space (the basement is where I edit photos, blog, and mess around with different studio lighting equipment) I needed to get out for some fresh air.

We had been saving up our corrugated cardboard for a while to take to the local recycling facility. Feeling the need for a little ride in the nice warm weather we're having, might as well do some chores at the same time huh?

The Xtracycle is such and enabler. Prior to having it, I'd most likely have to drive a car to the recycling yard. Now, a large (this time light) load isn't an issue. Having this bike around is so handy, and gets me out on the bike more. I love that about it.

Winter cometh

I had my first ride in the snow yesterday. I had planned on picking my son up from school and taking him for lunch in the car, but I left the keys in the Van, and my wife was in Calgary for a few hours. Kind of a happy accident. Warm headgear, gloves and go.I'm pretty sure I'm instantly a "cool dad" with all the school kids when I take my son to or pick him up from school on Soots. All the kids come up and are all like, "oh, that's so cool, sweet!" My son just grins.
Did a little riding around the park to avoid construction on the way home. Without the studded tires on, and no weight on the back of the Xtra, it's a whole lot of slip and slide. But a whole lot of fun too.
I'm so stoked to get in winter riding mode. The invigoration that comes from the icy air is like none other. I'll be shodding the wheels with studded tires soon and then, bring on the cold n' nasties!

(not much traction offered in snow)

The driest part of the commute

Snow does,nt remain snow when temps are 10C (50F). It turns to water. Lots and lots of water. The planet bike cascaidas do a great job of protecting me from that former snow.

I'm having to take the whole lane was I enter the industrial park in this little town of ours. There are simply two wheel ruts, and the rest is sloppy coated ice. Nice and brown. It's okay though, with only water on the pavement in the wheel ruts at least I can sustain a decent clip and keep the motorheads from getting too ticked at me. Besides, if the motorheads are sick of being behind me......blame the town. It's their roadway and it's their job to clear it. I even pay them handsomely to do so. Strathmore is becoming notorious for not clearing roadways when it snows. At least that makes me not feel so bad about holding up traffic.

Morning ritual.....

.....shoveling snow. Kind of a warming up of the Soots' engine if ya know what I mean.

and the winner is.......

....Soots!

Soots is the new name of my Xtracycle. Soots was one of the names submitted by Rebecca. Thanks Rebecca. I've got your shipping information and the bottle in on the way! BTW, Rebecca choose the sport bottle, as she'll be using it on her bike, of course.

What goes into picking a name; I have no idea. I compiled a list of all the names submitted, went through all of them over and over again, and Soots just really struck a cord with me. It’s quick to say and write, which is nice for when I’ll be making mention of it on my blog and in real life, and I think it could be turned into a pretty sweet logo. That's the next step. Design a logo around the name Soots. Wait a minute, hhmmmm…..logo design contest for another bottle…..hhhhmmmmm. I suppose I still have two more bottles to give away........

Anyway, below is the list of the different names that were submitted. Some very creative and excellent work on everyone’s part. Thanks to everyone helped out, I really appreciate it! A quick count shows there were 80 names submitted!


Names Submitted:

big blue butler
the loaded ninja
black Zephyr
Black Borealis
The Juggernaut
The Sherpa
Bertha

Christa had a whole bunch of names to submit:
· Framer (like Cramer but related to bicycles and photography)
· Black Magic (I'm assuming that's a black frame.. if not, substitute colour of choice in list)
· Black Devil
· Blackie the Good
· Good Steed Blackie
· Bicycycycle (bye - si - si - sickle) - for the stretched out in the middle thing
· BottleBaby (obscure reference to the contest, and fun to say)
· Pronghorn
· Workhorse
· Cruisemeister
· The Pickup
· LongHaul
· The Semi
· The Btrain
· The Wasp (esp if you get more yellow gear.. but also 'cause our bikes are wasp-waister)
· Stretcher
· Rickshaw
· Velocipede
· Phaeton
· GoTrain
· GoBuggy
· GoSter
· Hauler (Holler/ Holla')
· Lank
· Lanker
· Lanky The Wonder Bike
· Anything with "The Wonder Bike" attatched at the end
· Submarine (got there from 'substantial' - these are substantial bikes :)
· Sim (like Simple, but simpler)
· Puddlejumper (checking out your blog posts tagged "life is good" {life IS good} and dig the photo of green boots in a puddle)
· LTT (Long Tail Trucker)
· Antioxidant (Free Radical?)
· The Makeover (change your look, change your life)

Rebecca also came up with a bunch:
· Felix the Cat
· Soots
· 8-Ball
· Beast of Burden
· Jackass Jenny (Jenny is another name for "donkey".. apparently.)
· Chunky Monkey
· Beetle
· Beetle Juice
· Cat in the Hat
· Rufus
· Charles
· Steely Dan
· Blavod

There was :
· Black Beauty
· Mr. Wiggles
· The icegields Flyer
· THe colonel
· Muleteer
· Almost Vintage
· lil’ lugger
· Herc
· The Iron Lama
· Black Capsule
· Green Man Machine
· Gorilla
· The Black Canary
· The Merry Crankster
· Thumper
· Smudge
· The Black Duck

Elaine had a few:
· Black Beauty
· The Hauler
· Cargotronic
· The Hornet
· Frankenstein
· and she calls her X the behemoth

Rounding out the submissions were:
· The Black Station
· Black Magic
· Igor
· Adrastea - Greek goddess whose name means “unyielding”

As you see, there are some excellent names beyond what I've chosen. With my mind drawing a blank when it came to naming my Xtracycle V3.0, I'm so glad there are others, who can be creative at will.

Again, thank everyone for your input!

Cheers.

Studs on the Xtra

Last night I made a little time to install the studded tires on the Xtra. I wasn’t necessarily going to run studded tires on the soon to be named Xtra, but with all of the snow we’ve recently received, and the fact that the roads and sidewalks is pretty much solid ice, I needed something with studs. Either that or drive........ Yesterdays ride on the KM proved this. 3 wipe outs on the way home for lunch. 2 on a busy road. Not my idea of a risk worth taking. Also, seeing as the only set of studded tires I’ve got are 26”, and the only 26” bike I’ve got is the Xtra, I didn’t really have much of a choice. The studded tires that I run are Schwable Snow Studs. I don’t think they make these tires anymore. I think they’ve been replaced by the Schwable Marathon Winter. I do like these Snow Studs I have though. While they’re not aggressively studded, they do offer that extra little bit of bite that aids in keeping the bike vertical. I’ve been eyeing up the Nokian 29er 294, with its 294 studs. Those on the single speed Karate Monkey would make for a very well planted bike on the winter roads around Strathmore. However, I think that once the ice is gone, the studs would wear down really quickly. At least the ones in the center band of the tire. One thing I really like about the Snow Stud is that I can pump them up to 65PSI, and the studs are clear of the road. Obviously cornering will bring them into contact, but you just have to remember not to corner very fast. Last night, I put 35PSI in them, and that lets the center of the tire flatten out, and brings the studs nicely down to the icy surface. Where these Snow Studs really shine is when everything starts to melt. Slush and slop pose no issues for these tires. The tread pattern sheds slush, snow and mud like crazy. I’ve never seen a tire as good at shedding mud as the Snow Stud.

After a season away from the studded tires, you forget how big of a difference the do make. Especially after abandoning my bike ride back to work after lunch yesterday I really notice the difference. If you think you may benefit from running studded tires on your bike, I’d say give them a go. You’ll be amazed at how much it helps. With the current conditions that I’m commuting in right now, I’d say that I couldn’t ride my bike to work safely without studded tires.

(This is the way home for lunch today. Warmed up to a balmy -16C!)

Now……..I’m seriously second guessing my decision not to buy a set for the Karate Monkey……

1 less minivan

As seen on the 12hrs blog, loaded with 2 hockey bags, to hockey players, and 2 big smiles! These things make everyday things like hockey practice for my 5 year old way more fun! Good conversation between father and son. I even put a little ding ding bell on his stoker bar. It's his job to ring it when we're coming up to vehicles. This is the stuff that great memories are made of, and I'm soaking it up! Live simple, live well.

Photogs love Xtracycles.....

This morning I woke early, to try a few shots I'd been thinking about. The Xtracycle is the perfect vehicle for this. When I arrived at the place where I wanted to do the photos (it was outside) I was already in the environment. I was already familiar with the location. I imagined what it would have been like if I drove a vehicle, and then opened the door and stepped out into the cold morning air.

Somehow, I feel like I had an advantage this morning. Kind of hard to put a finger on it, but you can hear everything, you’re far more aware of what’s going on (if anything) at the location, and you make much less noise getting there, so as to not disturb any animals or other people there.

Xtracycles and photography mix very nicely.

Theses were some long exposures that I wanted to try. I was trying to make myself look like a ghost. I even hauled that old prop suitcase in my Xtra. These were simply edited for color in lightroom. No photoshop trickery. It's amazing what can be done when you use full control of the camera.

The shot of the Xtracyce was a 30 second exposure. I took of my planet bike 1W LED head light and used it to "light paint" the work Xtra. Took a few tries, as I was facing the camera and had to write it backwards in the air. I covered it up in the palm of my had while switching between motions. It's so weird to think that I was in front of the camera, writing Xtra in the air with a flashlight, and you can't see me at all. Long exposures are fun! You should try them.

The history of my Xtracycle: a brief run down

Since this bike is now in it’s 3rd iteration, I thought I would quickly run through where it’s been, and how it came to where it’s at.

I first received my freeradical bolt-on kit from my sweet wife for Christmas, 2007. By the end of Boxing day (returns day to my American friends) it was put together and I took it out for a test ride. At the time, I was living in Rockyford Alberta, and I worked in a combine repair shop, literally 1 block from my house. I was building an office building (all by myself, and I even designed the trusses, layout, every aspect of the building). After the design was done, I built the thing myself, inside of a shop. When it was -30C outside, I was sure a spoiled ‘framer’ to be inside a shop with in-slab heating. During this time, I used my Xtra to haul my tools between work and home. I had a crazy home renovation going on at the time, and needed my tools in both places. I could carry some significant loads of tools with me on the Xtra. Only rarely would I have to use my pickup truck. The few times were when I was hauling my table saw and air compressor, and other really heavy stuff. Essentially, I was contracting with my Xtracycle as my truck.

Now, while I didn’t log too many miles on the Xtra, I did use it every day, and it saved huge wear and tear on my pickup truck.

One issue I had with the Xtra in this configuration was that the donor frame was really too small for me. It was originally my mom’s bike, and a decent Trek Antelope Cro-Mo frame, but simply too small. After I started working back at my other (and current) employer (our slow season was done) I had a 26mile commute each way. I tried several different bikes for this commute; a recumbent, which was actually a great option for this commute. I rode my fixie quite a bit and also bought a beautiful vintage specialized sequoia, which again was too small for me. Finally I got my LHT. All during this time, my Xtracycle sat unused. The frame was simply too small and the components were pretty much junk. During the time I was hauling tools, I pretty much used it as a single speed. When you’ve got weight, and 1 block to go, one low gear is all you need.

I wanted badly to have a nice frame on the Xtracycle, to make it an option for longer rides and in particular, a longer commute. So I started searching. At the time, I didn’t want to spend any money on a frame, and even in it’s current rendition, the frame was a freebie. I picked up a Giant frame for $20, and even though it wasn’t the great quality, I liked the large size and built it up. Now, there is something to be said for actually having a liking for a bike. If it fits you, but you just don’t like it, you’ll never really enjoy the bike. I learned that. After building the Xtra up on the Giant frame, I had something against it that I just couldn’t get over. I don’t know what it is, but it was like a smitten puppy or something. Didn’t like it, didn’t like to ride it, and even though it did its job fine, it never got my seal of approval.

What to do, what to do. After purchasing my Karate Monkey S/S 29er MTB, I realized that I no longer needed my 26” S/S pink bike. Now this pink bike, I had a real attachment to. I don’t know why. It’s not spectacular and I don’t even know the make. I do know that it is built with Tange Cromoly, and there are a few lugs in the frame construction, but it’s not a completely lugged frame. This pink bike, would become the platform for the Xtracycle as it is today.

I sanded the pink bike down, painted it, repacked all the bearing with grease and gave her a complete overhaul. Painted it semi-gloss black to pay homage to the original inception of my Xtracycle.

The drive train came from a sweet Miyata 100LT that I picked up for $80. Even though it was a 48cm frame I couldn’t turn down a bike like that, at that price. The frame went off to Conneciticut, where it’s currently undergoing a transformation to 650B. The gent who bought the bike only want the frame (triple butted, splined tubing) so I kept all the parts.

While first re-doing the Xtra on the Giant frame, I even used the Shimano bar-ends that came off the Miyata, but on this past re-build, I opted for the riser MTB bars. Some cheapo Shimano thumbies are playing very well with the Deore derailleur, so I’ll let them keep playing together. I like these cheap thumbies. They’re comfy, and they’ve got the friction option, which is nice. Currently they are set up in ratchet mode and working very well. I even sent a set over to my friend Smudgemo, when he was needing a set. I think these thumbies are highly under-rated, and should get some serious consideration when looking for shifting options for commuter or utility bikes.

So, now that I’ve had a few days of riding the new and improved Xtracycle, I will say I think I like it’s current set up. The frame is comfortable, and I like it. Sizing is good, while I could stand a larger frame, it’s not to the point where I’m concerned about it. I feel like this is a bike that I can ride for hours, and I hope to get some long rides in next summer. As for the winter, I’m not sure I’ll run studded tires on it. I’m in the process of converting the Giant into a Single speed winter beater with Studded tires, as it once was, just without the extreme DIY studded tires. However the Xtra might just turn into my main commuting bike over the winter. Studded tires may just find themselves on the rims one day. I love the fact that I can keep a lock, patch kit and some other supplies tucked into the pockets at all times. I love that I can wear a warm coat to work in the morning (this morning it was -2C) and on the way home, just throw it in the Xtra and enjoy the last of the T-shirt weather that is disappearing quickly.

Need to swing by the store to grab some groceries? Not a problem. Need beer for some friends coming over tonight? Covered. This freedom that the Xtracycle brings is really quite incredible, if you’re a person who loves to ride bikes as much as you can. Handling isn’t any better with the freeradical on, and only marginally worse. It’s a lot slower for sure, but last time I checked, the idea of having a bicycle replace a car has never been about speed, and the accelerated rate that we can do things, but rather about the quality of life we can live. The quality of my life is better because I ride my bike to work and don’t drive. The Xtracycle enables me to do that a whole lot more, and also ride a bike at times when before, I would have had to take a vehicle. If you’re wondering about getting an Xtracycle do it. You will not regret it.