upcoming projects

Stuff I’ve been doing instead of bike tinkering

1. I’ve been working on some bike-y things, but not bringing them to fruition.
2. Spending a lot of time prepping and photographing non-bicycle art for sale on Etsy. Sold a couple pieces, which is very gratifying.
3. Lots of time with the family (birthday, thanksgiving, birthday), which will continue on into 2011 (birthday, christmas, new year, birthday, anniversary).
4. Also, quite a bit of reading (The Lost Cyclist, Surface Detail, Spook Country). My son asked me “what’s your favorite thing?” And I said, “reading, probably.” He said, “My favorite thing is doing things with you and mom, like going out to eat, or playing games with you.” I said, “ouch!”
5. And going to bed at a reasonable hour, which is kind of novel.

Bike projects hanging fire

1. Take apart the Sachs Automatic, and adjust the spring so it actually shifts. I got some great information off the Bike Forums from a guy who learned to wind his own springs(!!) to get the exact shifting he wanted. Hopefully I’ll just have to rotate my spring 90°.
2. Someone sent me pictures of the bamboo bike they made, with lots of custom details. I need to put up a post on that.
3. I cut up some skateboards to modify road quill pedals, but haven’t finished that project.
4. I freshened up a Gary Fisher Utopia for my son, but he thinks it’s still too big, and he still loves his Redline Junior. So I need to take some pictures of the bar wrap, figure out why the dingle setup skips in the high gear (horribly embarrassing), and figure out what the bike’s purpose will be.
5. I may actually shellac some bar tape, which I’ve resisted for years. I may also mount a basket with zip ties, as an experiment. I feel zip ties are just a good way to lose your basket and beer, and crash, but people swear by them.
6. I have some ideas for a couple of novel bike racks.