Bike Tinker

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  • Brooks repair question!

    Brooks repair question!

    Does anyone know how to get the nose bolt out of a Brooks saddle? The ~14mm nut seems to be attached to the bolt, and the whole thing turns and turns. Nothing seems to be unscrewing from anything else, and there’s nothing to grab onto that isn’t the nut.

    Brooks B72 saddle repair, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.

    I intend to put a new frame on Angelina’s Brooks B72. I bought the saddle from a fellow on the RBW list, broke a rail, fixed it with a sleeve, broke the other rail, fixed it with another sleeve, and then the whole bottom part gave way. Another fellow on the RBW list gave me a B72 with wrecked leather.

    It’s finally time to put the two saddles together, so I drilled out the rivets and got ready to do it, but I can’t figure out how to remove the nose piece.

    I don’t want to drill out the nose rivets – I’d like to move the nose, bolt and hardware right over to the other chassis.

  • Utopia dragster

    utopia, originally uploaded by BikeTinker.

    The Gary Fisher rigged up for Max. With a longer stem and the seatpost extended, it fits me pretty well, but it’s supposed to be for my 10 year old. I’m going to de-un-singlespeed-ify it before I try to convince Max to ride it, though.

    The Redline Junior has been his bike since he was 5, but now he’s 10. The Redline is highly recommended – I wish I had a 15 lb bike! Standover is very different, but I hope it won’t be an issue. The contact points are pretty close to the same between the two bikes; seat’s a bit higher on the Utopia, which is fine. Cranks are longer.

    20 pounds with the new (used) Kona PII fork. Here’s how it looked when Jim owned it (cooler).

  • 100th post

    I didn’t see that coming! It kind of threw me off my stride, looking at my stats for the first time, to see I had 99 posts.

    The Hundredth Post Big Retrospective and Giveaway Post

    I asked my wife, who reads blogs for a living, “isn’t that supposed to be a big deal? The Hundredth Post? In the blog world?”Apparently yes, but she heaped scorn upon all the things people normally do to mark the occasion, like “flashback episodes” and giveaways, so I’ll sneak those things in later when she’s not looking.

    I was thinking, though, that it’s a little weird that now I have a semi-pseudo alternate identity as “Bike Tinker.” I haven’t had an internet “handle” since before the internet, after growing out of and throwing off a succession of teenage BBS and young-adult art-making handles. I’ve been participating in the internet under my own name for a long long time. Google me, you find me. I’m the one who owns Dickies pants the pants, not Dickies Pants the company (“hook me up, bra!“).

    The reasons I have a silly bike name are few and boring:

    1. I wanted a bike site to sell bike stuff (Identity through Commerce – like opening a cafe that plays Edith Piaf 78s and has a lever-pull espresso machine, or a bar with only Johnny Cash on the jukebox and all the drinks come in pint glasses or shot glasses).
    2. I read the Bicycle Quarterly, and all the old French cyclists that wrote of their exploits have great ‘noms de velo’ like “Velocio” and “Cyclotard.”
    3. Half my internet friends also have killer noms de velo! Cyclofiend, cyclotourist, Protorio, Pondero. Some of them have one for bike lists and a whole ‘nother one for Flickr. I felt a little envy, maybe.
    4. There are a LOT of “Philips” in the bike world.

    Seriously. Any bike nerd who isn’t named Jim, Mike or Bill is named Philip. There are a disproportionate number of Joels, too. Which is my middle name.

    Cases in point:

    I met an online acquaintance at a bike show, and said, “Hey! I’m Philip – from the nerdy bike list!” and she said, “I know about FIVE Philips.” I was like, “yeah, you would, huh.” Kind of killed that spark of recognition.

    I called a bike magazine about an assignment I was working on, and the editor was like, “uh… this is weird, but I’m expecting phone calls today from three different Philips. When they transferred the call… they didn’t say which one you were!”

    About a month after starting the blog, I showed up at the Oregon Handmade show and introduced myself to someone who said, “Oh! BikeTinker!”

    Ah, that’s more like it!

     

  • Amphibians?

    Amphibians?

    simpleonesWhat are these shocked twin amphibians staring at, as if to say “Good Lord!” I wonder.

    Could it be… the Rivendell Simpleone is approaching? The Simpleone is the rebirth of the Quickbeam – new name, new paint, same geometry.

    Why a new name? My theory that Grant and Co. have a big bag of awesome names they’d like to use up, was, apparently, wrong. The story goes that, at the request of the Tolkein rights holders (not the film company),  Rivendell agreed (in a non-legally-non-binding way) to stop using certain Lord of the Rings names, including Quickbeam, Baggins and Legolas.

    Also, these bikes are made in Taiwan, not in Japan by Panasonic, and they have fancy headtubes and plainer graphics.

    I would like a 62cm, please.

    Simpleone frame on Rivbike.com

  • Renovated JR Jackson

    Renovated JR Jackson, originally uploaded by capnahabnick.

    Man, that’s cool. Look at that machine. Click the picture and look at the whole set. Clearance to spare, hubs, rims, flared drops. Kickback(?) Fichtel & Sachs hub. White hoods, beautiful old saddle.

    And you probably missed it, but if you look closely you can see the barber pole seat tube. Too good. How many other bikes could carry that off? (The answer is “none.”)

  • Even fatter tire equivalencies!

    Except… the fatbike/snowbike tire has a larger OD than anything else you can buy! Is this true?

    559 (26″ mtb) 584 (650B/27.5″) 622 (700C)
    92mm 76mm 56mm
    92mm 76mm 56mm
    743mm OD 736mm OD 734mm OD
    3.8″ Fatbike 3″ 27-five 2.55″ 29er

    Dialing back the fatbike tire, so we have some equivalencies. The 650B still drops out of this race.

    559 (26″ mtb) 584 (650B/27.5″) 622 (700C)
    87mm 74mm 56mm
    87mm 74mm 56mm
    733mm OD 732mm OD 734mm OD
    3.45″ Snow 2.8″ DH 650B
    		 2.55″ 29er

    This might be taken as an argument for 24″ fatbike tires… a real fat snow tire in 24″ (iso 507) would be 507+90+90=687, or the same Outer Diameter as a 32mm road tire and a 2.5″ mtb tire.

  • Wheel diameter with different tires

    Now that I have a bike project underway involving disc brakes and decent clearances, I sat down and did with a purpose something I’d done a couple times just for fun: figured out tires for 700c, 650B and 26″ rims that give equivalent wheel diameters*.

    Now it’s inscribed in the immutable internet, and I can refer back to it later.

    Narrower. In my circles, the 42mm 650B “Hetre” is the most-hyped tire… well, ever. I’ve never ridden it. Of these first three, the 2.1″ mtb tire is the only one I’ve ridden, and I’ve worn them bald. It’s a good size. I’ve also ridden a 590×37, which has a similar OD to the 650B, (and can be boughten or ordered at any LBS). It was also a good size, for the bike it was on.

    559 (26″ mtb) 584 (650B/27.5″) 622 (700C)
    53mm 42mm 23mm
    53mm 42mm 23mm
    665mm OD 668mm OD 668mm OD
    2.1″ MTB 42mm 650B 23mm 700C

    Plumper. I’ve only ridden the 32mm tire. Good for everything but deep gravel, which is just sucky no matter what.

    559 (26″ mtb) 584 (650B/27.5″) 622 (700C)
    63mm 50mm 32mm
    63mm 50mm 32mm
    685mm OD 684mm OD 686mm OD
    2.5″ MTB 2″ 27-five 32mm 700C

    I do not know of anyone who’s actually set up a bike with interchangeable wheelsets in different sizes, but it must’ve been done. It’s probably common in some circles.

    * The rolling diameter is important-ish, because a big mismatch can affect the handling, standover, pedal clearance, etc. I’ve happily and comfortably run 25s through 40s on my Quickbeam, but that’s the best bike in the world and can do anything.

  • Gazelle – Ladies Sport Luxe

     

    Gazelle – Ladies Sport Luxe, originally uploaded by montclairbobbyb.

    My friend Bobby B, of the Renaissanced Bicycle group just showed his in-progress Gazelle.

    He’s changing the wheels to a modern 3-speed with drum-brake and a drum-brake dynamo. I don’t think the fork-crown is even drilled for a brake, since it used to be a coaster-brake one-speed.

    He modified the chaincase to allow for the rear shifter mechanism, and also removed the chainwheel cover to show the leaping gazelles.

    Beautiful, spare lines, and I think the rear rack is lovely.

  • Bicycle Einstein(s)

    Joe Kochanowski builds crazy-looking homebuilt recumbents that have “good ramming capacity in traffic.” My son Max calls this guy “bicycle Einstein.” “Who’s smarter than that guy? The answer is ‘no one.’ There’s no one smarter than him. In bicycles.” Linked from Wallingford (wallbike.com)’s blog.

    From the same site as the Joe recumbents, (Jim Gallant’s Human Powered Vehicle page) is this kid-first triplet tandem, called a “trandem,” which gets the Max Nod of Approval as well. “That’s such a great word. ‘Trandem.’”

    Kid-first triplet bike where the stoker is the captain. Who wants a five-year-old steering?

     

  • My new Kona P2 fork

    My new Kona P2 fork

    On its way from SpeedGear’s eBay shop. It was exactly the length I needed, with no extraneous canti bosses. I’m going to put it on the Quickbeam.

    speed gear used forkBahahahaah! No, really, it’s replacing a bitchin’ Rock Shox Metro hybrid fork on a project bike. If that bike doesn’t work out, this is still a fork I’ve wanted for a long time. Except the 26″ canti-post version, of course. This one is 18″ from axle to crown (463mm), disc-only, for a 29er. Steerer is actually longer than the current fork, so I might be sourcing more spacers. I don’t want to cut the steerer, since the kid’s only 10.

    He might grow.

  • Half-pimped Trek Belleville

    Half-pimped Trek Belleville

    Swapped out the cranks on Angelina’s new Belleville, and added her Wald fold-out baskets to the sweet rear rack. The stock cranks and pedals are horrible. When I mentioned that we could lower her seat 5mm, because the stock cranks are 170s and her old Ritcheys are 175s, she was like, “Oh! So that’s why it feels like my legs are spinning tiny circles!”

    trek belleville, folding pannier baskets mounted

    Seriously – I’ve had arguments with people who say you can’t feel 5mm of crank length. If my wife, who likes her bike (Angelina “do you like kids?” my dad: “I like my kids…”), but appreciates most bikes at a remove (because I like them, analogous to the way I know what a peplum is), can tell the “microscopic” difference in cranks, then those people can just STFU appreciate their lack of hyper-sensitive OCD detail-noticin’.

    Next up – the saddle. I need to re-mount her B66 leather on a new sprung frame. By new, I mean used and free, from the RBW list charity drive. And I’m totally stealing Jim’s white rubber block pedals… how’s he going to know?

  • Clipless Mary Janes?

    Yes.

    cool shoes

    It turns out that one of our clients at my day job (Toy Store Website Designer) has a blog, which came up on the phone. “Oh you have a personal blog? Me too, it’s called Re-Velo.com. I make bags out of inner tubes.”

    “That’s cool! I have a blog called Bike Tinker. It’s about, um, about tinkering with bikes.”

    “My housemate’s a bike mechanic! He repairs carbon bikes. Do you know anyone else who does that?”

    “Yes. But it’s a pretty rare skill!”

    Anyway, it’s a funny small world, and I really like her shoe-remake, and I’m trying to get her cast off shoe tongues for bike mudflaps…

     

  • Pedal Nation PDX

    Pedal Nation PDX

    I visited the show with some friends – really nice to circulate, show each other stuff and talk about bag designs. I got some really nice feedback on my bike, which was gratifying, and met a fellow named Tony who had a really nice green-themed fixed gear in the Pimp’d area.

    Jim bought a $10 “bucket pannier” kit – everything but the buckets. I think that’s a dynamite idea, especially if you’re buying by mail. Buckets are almost free, but not to ship. The guy said CityBikes carries them, too. Jim’s going to make some luggage that works on both his CETMA rack and his dual-sport motorcycle. I want to get some of that hardware to turn all kinds of weird things into panniers and rack-mounted luggage.

    The show was much more about stuff than bikes, but there was a bike fashion show, guys on bikes jumping massive gaps, trials and roller racing. Also, there were some bikes. The standouts for me were the mixtes – English, Vulture and Linus. Vulture admittedly outside his normal range, “It’s not a one-speed 29er!” and English as well, being a time-trialist and HPV record-holder.  Linus – I just saw two of their bikes randomly parked inside.

    And… I always love the bikes locked up outside. I think the Pimp’d bike part could be made much much bigger – basically indoor valet parking, with the valets ‘curating’ the churning show.

    And, some bad pictures – I’m seriously shopping for a new camera (a NEX-3 or 5 for my beautiful antique lenses), but I don’t expect it to make my shots any better. I just like tools.

     

  • Cop Chariot

    Cop Chariot

    Spotted this strange machine after dropping off the bike for the Pimp’d Bike area at PedalNation (only half an hour late). It’s like a Segway without the “Seg.”

    I chatted momentarily with Rob English of English Cycles. His beautiful blue mountain bike is on display at the OBRA booth, and he built a townie for NuVinci, which is “something of a departure” for him.

    His personal road bike is 11.5 lbs and is a little bit more like this:And… the setup for Pedal Nation looked good, but like a nightclub during the day. Or a tradeshow before the guests arrive, which it was.

  • Tightening and fussing

    Tarzan tired.

    Morning time, Tarzan take Boy halfway school, turn ’round when him feel sick like Sloth Bear. Take Boy back hour later when Jane say “WTF? Did he throw up?” Me say “No.” Me pick Boy up three hour later when him still feel sick.

    Tarzan work. Tarzan make website. Tarzan eat so-so flauta and gummy tamale.  Tarzan talk on phone.

    Tarzan do hard Kung Fu class, sweat like hippo when she dance opera “La Giaconda.”   Tarzan ride bike home slow.

    Tarzan have beer. Maybe two beers, mess with bikes, write short post and go to bed.

    ______________________

    Tarzan? Where did HE come from?

    From reading the Far Side book with the Boy, probably. Maybe I’ll channel Captain Ahab tomorrow.

    I fooled around a bit tonight, tightening the Quickbeam’s cranks, skateboard pedal decks and raising the chain tension. Still some lash in the hub, but a little better. The axle nuts were loose like I never tightened them.

    I want a 15mm line wrench to tighten the S3X axle nuts.

    I have a single-ended 5/8″ Proto, and something similar in metric would be pretty cool. The gap would fit over the shifter cable, and the six-point wrench would give a really good grip.

    line wrenches are apparently also called 'flare nut' wrenchesI just put in a nice 40 minutes reading about wrenches and screw-head driving patterns. I didn’t know Phillips screws were SUPPOSED to cam out.

    Tomorrow we go into Portland after work to drop the bike off at the PedalNation event, meet Angelina at Powell’s and go to the Kennedy School.

    scan it with your fone. you know you want to.Tonight I started moving (reluctantly), Angelina’s old Wald fold-up baskets from her Steyr mixte to her oh-so-pretty Trek Belleville. I put bar tape on the painted rack at each of the attachment points and started squeezing the misshapen mounting bands into some semblance of shape, but realized they were too lame to use. I’ll buy some hose clamps on Saturday morning and get the bike ready to ride to the McMinnville Saturday Market. We get produce there from Growing Wild Farm and Denison Farm.

  • PedalNation PDX bike show in Portland

    Does anyone else think it’s weird that Portland identifies itself by its airport code? Like the only thing going on is the entry and exit? Vancouver PDX. “Yo, Mill Valley SFO in the HOUSE!” Weird, but I should talk; I live in McMinnville WTF (“Did I really see an “88” sticker and VANITY PLATE on a big white truck?”).

    My bike is going to be on view in the “amateur pit” this weekend at the PedalNation show in Portland.

    PDX is the only… no, you can ride a bike to Oakland from OAK, too, but I’m not that certain of where Oakland is. It’s pretty trivial to leave the Portland Int’l Airport and suddenly be in the actual city, though, even on foot. The airport is a more integral part of the city than most I’ve experienced.

    Anyway, I’m pleased to show off my bicycle, I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing the bikes and goodies (custom leather walnut holders?), and wandering around with beer with my friendses. I usually go to these things stag, much as I ride my bike usually alone, so I’m hoping for some character-building. It will probably be like my bike rides with friends – it usually only happens once. “You’re a dick. That wasn’t even a fucking trail. Do you LIKE carrying your bike more than riding it? Why didn’t you wait for me? What took you so long? I think you’ve never been here before. At least you came back when you heard me crash.”