I’ve had these for a long time, and they cracked a couple years ago. The other day they dropped a piece on the road. The down side is the fact that they also welded themselves to the cranks about a year ago! I can still use two sides of this one, and four of the other, but I don’t see these lasting more than three or four more years…
That’s also the ugliest pedal deck I’ve ever made. It’s a prototype for a mud-shedding deck that might be a hair lighter. It’s stupid.
Eat, Sleep, Ride is English journalist Paul Howard’s account of riding the Tour Divide mountain bike race in 2009.
I was pleased to see this book at my library, and picked it up. I’ve followed the GDR and Tour Divide off and on for several years, much more than I’ve followed any other bike racing, but had only read Kent Peterson’s Dirt Rag article peoples’ blog posts on it.
I recommend this book to people who’ve never heard of racing the Great Divide, and to people who follow it year-to-year.
Paul Howard ups the suspense of whether he will finish the longest mountain bike race in the world, by admitting he had never owned a mountain bike before the trip, and downplaying his cycling experience and fitness.
The book jacket calls the book “hilarious,” but I don’t hold that against the author. The book industry appears to be in the grip of a Humor Bubble; I’m reading a much funnier book now, which the jacket has to describe as “occasionally hysterical.” I would call Eat, Sleep, Ride “witty in a pleasant English way.”
Howard brings a sense of history to the land he’s cycling through. The stories, some of which I knew (the cannibal ones), complement the experiences he and his ad hoc group of racers have on the Trail.
While the Tour Divide is a solo race, riders of similar ability clump together for mutual morale and social support. Sharing physical support would get them disqualified from the race.
We get to know some of the riders he rides with and encounters, focusing mostly on the underprepared, which is inspiring and interesting, but slightly disengenuous. I’d do a little more research before making my plans for next year’s race. Non-super humans complete the race every year, but I wouldn’t approach it lightly.
I would have liked to see more on the leaders Matthew Lee, the winner, and Jay and Tracey Petervary in third on a tandem. Since Howard finished second to last, his group’s interaction with the leaders was mostly hearing that they’d passed through a town a week before, or that they were “only” one state ahead.
I also wanted to know more about Deanna Adams, and her experience in the race. She is the first (and only, so far) finisher of the Tour Divide on a fixed gear bicycle. I ride fixed offroad some, and I’ve been disappointed every year that the fixies had to scratch. I think riding the route on a fixed gear is even harder than it sounds, and this is the category I’m dying to see inaugurated. Unfortunately, Deanna was relegated (disqualified from official standing) for a route error. The next finisher will be referred to as the “first official fixed gear finisher.”
Recommended.
I liked this book, and now I want to see the movie “Ride the Divide” that Kent promotes on his blog.
This is the series of stuff what don’t fit other stuff; what we call Esoteric Equipment Mismatches, or EEMs. In this episode, we realize that our kick-ass Jethro Tool, which I love except for the gratuitous and stupid bottle opener, does not fit the super-long nuts* on my Sturmey Archer S3X three-speed fixed hub.
This is me poking at it monkey-style. (“??”) The design of the Jethro Tool is very cool and interesting – the interior void is not one nut-shape all the way through; it’s two nut-shapes perpendicular to each wrench face that intersect in the middle. So it only works on nuts of normal track-nut depth, and the hypertrophied bell housing of the S3X is too deep to mesh with the wrench.
Ever since I switched tires (I got a sidewall cut riding with Scott and Chloe, and had to boot the tire with a dollar bill, which was the only tire-changing paraphernalia I actually had), I’ve had a heck of a time keeping the darned axle from slipping. I blame the pinner engagement of the anti-rotation washers, but the axle’s been fine for months, so I really don’t know.
Anyway, Jethro Tool no good for this application; I definitely need the 15mm line wrench I want. The cutout in the wrench would go over the cable, and the six-point engagement would keep from rounding the nut.
I don’t mind trimming them down, and carving a notch, but the mounting lip isn’t wide enough or deep enough to secure the pad. Too bad.
Angelina has ridden this bike for about 13 years. She’s never had a drivers’ license, so this has gotten a lot of useful use, and a lot of useful upgrades.
50cm frame, $120 (shipping is extra, but I can deliver it locally from Portland to Salem). If you’re interested, please email me at philip (at) biketinker (dot) com, or use the contact form.
The tires are dirty, but have plenty of tread. Your bike shop probably carries this size of tire (EA3, ISO 590, or 1 3/8″), so don’t worry.
These are the first wheels I ever built. They’ve held up really well for 7 years or so. I may never have tried wheelbuilding at all, except for these. I kept replacing the horrible galvanized spokes on the original wheelset, until the last time, I started out replacing five and ended up replacing TWELVE SPOKES. I figured “if I can do that, I can build a wheel.” It ain’t rocket science. Rocket science probably isn’t that hard, either.
It’s a nice bike; it rides great. Highly highly recommended with the Bobike front-mount childs’ seat. My kid spent three years in one on this bike, riding 100s of miles. Put some panniers or fold-out baskets on the back, and you can shop the hell out of the Farmer’s Market.
A kind reader pointed out that Angelina wrote a blog post about this bike, under the title “Favorite Things: My Steyr Bicycle.“
bontrager bar tape, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.
I’m really enjoying the ‘halfsies’ bar taping. I like it. It’s extra-festive. One roll of orange Newbaum’s, one roll of blue, with a little of each left over.
1999 Bontrager Privateer, On-One Midge bars, and Suntour bar-end shifters. I like the stem color, but it’s the chunkiest thing on the whole bike.
If I find a more graceful stem with similar rise, I’ll paint it blue, too.
I’m not just a bike nerd – I’m a Rivendell bike nerd. Grant Petersen, the owner of Rivendell, just put up a blog post that could be called “in defense of double top tubes.”
Some people like the second top tube, some people hate it. Some people could go either way. I’ve been looking at them for a while, thinking it would be a great place to put a frame bag. I made a little mock-up, and I’d say that the idea of a nice bag between the two tubes makes me like the extra “undertube” a lot more.
“Max’s” new bike
, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.So far, it’s set up for me, while I “iron out the kinks.” This bike is really nice. I want to drop the levers a quarter inch, and run the cables higher on the bars, but it’s pretty well dialed. Dingle setup, 36×14 and 32×18. Flared drops. Flat pedals. I haven’t tried the low gear, but I bought a new ring just for it. Coasting is actually pretty fun!
I like cassette hubs, and I like disc brakes. And threadless headsets. The two-tone bar wrap is also pleasing me a lot. You’ll see that again in a little bit.
It’s a Gary Fisher Utopia hybrid my friend Jim (coincidentally a fan of CycloFiend’s bike gallery) gave me for my 10 year old. I thought (and Max still thinks), “Dude, it’s a grown-up bike!” But at 43cm, it’s the smallest 700c bike I can find, and the same size my LBS recommended for a kid’s first ‘full size’ bike. The only issue is getting the bars low enough, but a short stem, inverted, and the seat slammed all the way, puts the bars and saddle in the same relative position as his Redline Junior.
I replaced the Metro shock with a rigid Kona Project 2 fork, and got some 42cm Salsa Woodchippers from a friend. The bartape is Newbaum’s cloth tape, from Rivendell.
So far the kid is sticking with the Redline Junior BMX bike he’s had since he was 5. That works for me, since I haven’t ridden another bike since I set up the bars. Stop me before I put a rack on it!
newport-cruiser, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.At the end of June, I went down to Anaheim for a trade show. My internet friends David and Doug were kind enough to take me on a bike tour of their area – Irvine, Newport, the beach.
I didn’t take my camera, since I didn’t know the bag situation, and drew this beach cruiser from memory. I’ve been around Beach Cruisers my entire life, but never saw them in their natural habitat. I’ve always lived an hour or less from the Pacific, but always where the hills arc out and drop into the ocean. Beaches are colder, windier and foggier, and either back up to cliffs, a highway, or a parking lot. I realized at Newport Beach that this was why beach cruisers are called beach cruisers!
Enough of the epiphany. Everyone else in the world already knew it.
The ride and cameraderie were great! I’d only ever known David and Doug from internet bike forums, but none of us turned out to be axe murderers, and I like them even more in real life.
David loaned me a silvery-blue custom Rivendell All-Rounder for the ride, and Doug is the best tour guide ever. His knowledge of 100 year old scandals and current interest gave great depth and texture to the ride. Why is the surf so awesome at Newport Beach? How much of this will survive a 3 foot rise in ocean level?
We rode the Balboa Ferry, visited FunZone (“There’s always money in the Banana Stand!”), and ate at Charlie’s Chili. The whole time I was thinking “so THIS is why there are Beach Boys songs!”
I got an awesome sunburn (bright red bearded guy remind you of anyone? “Hmmm? Satan, maybe?”) – Portlanders beware the sun! It was completely worth it, and I’d do it again.
All photos courtesy of cyclotourist
Bruce Gordon Cycles is putting on a “Bike Show and Framebuilders Garage Sale Handbuilt Whoop-de-doo,” at his place in Petaluma, with a bike ride beforehand. The rides (18 or 27 miles) leave at 8am sharp. June 26, 2011, from 409 Petaluma Blvd South.
I sure would like to go – I hope some of my Northern California friends will be able to make it.
I was looking at Goeland bikes and trailers on EBykr, and saw an ad for the Zigo bike stroller/bike bike. At first I was irritated by the fit, stylish, child-portaging package. I don’t like strollers, and I’m not (that) fit or (all that) stylish. But I am fascinated by the concept and the technology. I think it’s a cool design, and I’d like to see one in person.
You can convert the Zigo from a child-truck trike, to a separated jogging stroller and regular (ish) bike. It seems very useful and cool, if you don’t already have a bike to hang a Bobike seat on. My kid is done with the “kid as cargo” stage of his life, but a modular utility bike would be fantastic. A more open-ended setup, or set of modules that extend the function beyond child-carrying would really put this over the top.
During and after your five years of kid use, it would be fantastic to use the bike for local errands that might take a car, otherwise.
Ride to the nursery for bags of soil, starts, etc. Maybe even tools? Use the detachable part as a garden cart when you get home. You could use it for runs to the U-pick vegetable farm in canning season, and roll or ride right into the fields.
A grocery hauler you can use in the store as a shopping cart. Also gives you a shopping cart at the farmers market. You have the advantage of in-store smugness: people would know you biked to shop, even if they didn’t see you in the parking lot.
Bare bones, but with an awning that could unfold into a tarp for protecting larger loads. Attachment points for dividers or bins, depending on what you deliver. Mailmen could use them, if they had a lower storage and upper ‘next deliveries’ area. Square bottom footprint for square boxes.
My friends Mitch and Ari have a fantastic farmers market stall setup with a custom rickshaw and a trailer. They built these things so they could ride to the farmers market, and pop everything open into a stall. From the customer side, they don’t even look like bikes.
Something like their setup would be cool (and niche-y): hard shell boxes with good storage that fold out extra display shelves, and allow for an awning or umbrella to be raised. You could even detach the bike and use it as a pedestrian-powered pushcart.
Attach a power-takeoff to the drivetrain and make smoothies to sell from your little stand…
Go check out the Zigo blog to see how they work for real people: http://blog.myzigo.com/
boneshaker, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.
Here’s Mitch on Jason (Red Fox Bakery)’s boneshaker. He seems to be a natural.
I rode it. These things are really frickin’ hard to ride. When I got out in the street I knew I’d done something wrong. The thing wanted to throw itself under a car. I stayed in my lane through sheer force of refusing-to-die. There’s an anti-intuitive steering thing going on that I can’t quite figure out. It’s a little bit like a bad dream where you’re running but can’t get away.
You look at the oncoming car, but turning away from it makes you head toward it! Agh! Maybe the weirdness is related to the vertical steering axis, or the fact that you’re pedaling force is connected directly to your steering… Don’t know. Hated it. I had to jump off in the street and walk it back.
Jason told me that Red Fox does a Friday night pizza party at the Saturday market cob oven. Free get-together, and we’re talking about having a bicycle show there.
Friday Night Bike Party in McMinnville?
One of my RBW list compatriots recently took the position that quill stems allow for more and easier bar height adjustment. By the time I finished my rambling rebuttal, my session had timed out, so I put it here instead.
Quill stems allow for far easier (and far more) bar height adjustment, which is why I prefer them. I also prefer threaded headsets because I can remove the bar & stem from my bike and not have the fork fall out onto the floor. Threadless headsets were invented by an industry that was lazy and wanted to make more money (by only having to stock a single fork/steerer combo), and were a solution in search of a problem… especially at the beginning. Sure, now they allow things like CF steerer tubes, but there’s no way in hell I’d run one of them, either.
Except about carbon fiber steerers – there’s nothing sadder-looking than a ‘cross racer trudging out of the mud with a broken-necked Scott, bars dangling free, slung over his shoulder.
I find it easier to make large changes to bar height and reach with a threadless stem. I now have more (functional) bikes with threadless stems in the garage than quill. If you count my friend’s dumpster bike, it’s a tie. Once I learned that you tighten the star nut and THEN tighten the stem, it’s pretty easy to change height. Add in faceplate stems and you’re 100% ahead of the game when it comes to messing around with your cockpit. Spacers are expensive at $2 each, but takeoff threadless stems seem to just appear. $10? Free? The last quill stem I bought was $20 used, and I’ve never used it.
Dialing in the bars of the Trek Belleville and the Fisher Utopia has had me fooling around with spacers and stems, one for max height, the other for minimum. The Belleville is done, and the only problem is the ugly black spacers I had. With the black Brooks, they’re starting to look okay, and with black grips, they’d be invisible.
I never change stem height once I’ve dialed in the bike’s fit. The three main quill-bearing bikes (one just out of service) have had their stem height changed about twice each in the past 7-10 years; all three down a little, and back up to the maximum height. I can’t get any more height out of them without deciding the risks are worth the visible Max Height mark, but since I don’t change height, the ease of downward adjustability isn’t an advantage, and the impossibility of upward adjustability isn’t a disadvantage.
It took three stems and two bars to dial in the fit on my Quickbeam, but the Fisher can fit me (6’2″), or my kid (4’10”), by moving spacers and swapping stems. A quill stem that could do that would have a hinge in the middle. It would be hideous, and heavy, but the Fisher’s long stem is prettier than any quill stem I’ve ever owned. It’s light, silver and shiny, and doesn’t match the Army Surplus aesthetic of the bike at all.
I find I disagree with the “lazy industry” comment, too. A lazy industry wouldn’t make any changes – it would just price itself out of the market. I don’t feel greedy or lazy, but my time and money are finite resources. I hope that every time I see a way to make a process easier, faster, or less prone to failure, I do it. I hope everyone does.
Kevin Dwyer of Salt Lake City designed and built this amazing bamboo and carbon mixter. He sent me the pictures a while ago, and I went looking for them tonight to show them off.
He says, “Attached are a couple of photos of my last frame. The handlebar and leather grips are also custom by me. The frame has structural carbon inlays on the down and seat tubes in a sweetpea vine fashion. The dual top tube bridge is reinforced with tarantula web (no shit!) composite.”
“The inlays are “keyed” into the bamboo creating a superstructure, dramatically stiffening the bamboo. Also, they are cross laminated with the carbon fiber at the joints. They vary in depth, fiber orientation, length and width depending on application, with some, but not most, going all the way through. The inlays were sketched/transferred to the surface then carved out with a variety of tools (mostly power) and methods.”
Even aside from being handmade and innovative, it’s a nicely built-up mixte with a unique look. Caliper front, disc rear with an internal gear hub, it might take you a minute to register that it’s made out of bamboo.
More pictures and specs are on Drunk Cyclist: http://drunkcyclist.com/2010/01/26/i-got-ya-bamboozle-right-here-sweatpea/
Kevin’s blog is here: Spoke(n) about Bicycles
38.5 lbs of dogfood, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.
This was my second grocery run of the day. Taking the car to the second store would have been wasting the 2 Mile Challenge, since the two stores are right next to each other. Go to one by car, shoulda gone to both.
The saddlebag holds four M6 hex screws. It should be holding some flea medicine, but isn’t.
The first run of the day was pretty good, too, since it involved a half-rack of beer and 6 bags of chips. Almost everything went into the saddlebag, some in the basket next to the beer, some in a bag on top of the beer case, and then the 6 bags of low mass, high volume Kettle chips in another bag out front.
The cheese, mushrooms and beer are mine. Everything else is for the child. Even the coffee.
