bike hauling

So, the new bike is still waiting for its replacement fork. That should arrive Tuesday, and I should be able to ride the new bike home Tuesday night.

Since I wrapped up another Tool School session today, I figured on bringing home my repair stands (both of them) and my tools that I took to share so that we would have enough tools for some of the lab sessions. I pulled my Safety First trailer (since it will connect to my Vanguard) to the store in the morning rather than drive my truck.

During the day, Jenn called me, laughing, to report that her front brake on the new bike worked a bit too well. Her new bike has its first bit of road rash--a scrape on the corner of the basket. Sad, but it's over with--it's no longer pristine, so she might as well enjoy using it now!

As I readied for work this morning, I started thinking about whether I could haul my Raleigh home using the trailer. I had an idea that might work, but I was going to have to test it before riding home. It wasn't quite crazy enough to appear on www.thatwillbuffout.com, but it was a bit inventive.

I started by mounting one of my repair stands in the trailer, with its legs spread as far as they would go. I secured them to the back end of the trailer, both to keep the stand down in back and keep the legs spread to support them on the trailer frame. I then tied the stand to the cross bar on the trailer, and put the bike frame in the work stand clamp. I used some of my new inner tube bungee cords (with the IT-clips mentioned in a prior post) to tie the bike's wheels to the front corners of the trailer frame. I turned on every flasher I had, and hit the road.

Since it was dark by the time I left the store, I didn't really get to look at the expressions on folks' faces as they passed me. At one point on my ride home, I was followed by a tow truck for a quarter-mile or more--I can only imagine what the driver was thinking ("Huh! A tow bike!"). 

Aside from a couple of tense moments, it went just fine. One of the tense moments was when I was looking for a place to get off the road, as a police car was going to overtake me very soon. The motorist going the other way at the time had stopped too close to where I was, and I needed to get up the road a bit before I could reach a driveway. The cop passed me with his engine in full song. Since his was the third cruiser to pass me in a couple minutes, I figure that there was something pretty exiting happening. Not really needing any extra excitement, I opted to go my own way rather than see what they were doing--I of course could not have kept up with them had I wanted to follow them.

The other tense moments had more to do with traffic than the load--there is something about a bike being carried by some nut riding another bike that gets overtaking motorists to give said nut a bit more room in general, but some motorists still don't "get it." One passed me with plenty of room, but took a LONG time to get back in the correct lane, earning him a honk from an oncoming motorist. 

Anyway, that it worked as well as it did gives me an idea that might work for getting the new bike home Tuesday evening. I can pull the trailer to the store with the Raleigh, then pull it home carrying the Raleigh with the new bike.

Might as well break in the new bike right, eh?

Well, DARN

After getting some actual revenue-generating work done yesterday, it was time to build a couple of commuter bikes. I toyed around with some of the accessories (the locks, taillights and hooks mentioned in my last post), then started unpacking Jenn's new bike.

Boy, is it purty!

I teased her a bit with some cell-phone pictures as I put stuff together. She arrived shortly after closing time so that she could see it first hand.

One of the things I like about her bike is that the internal gear hub (IGH) is silent. Coupled with the Gates belt drive, it will be a nice quiet bike. Jenn likes that she won't feel it necessary to tie back her pant legs (at least most of the time).

Jenn also likes that this bike is rock-solid stable, unlike her Peugeot had been. That old bike had never been but so stable.

Once I got hers together, I started on my new Vienna. The color was the shade I was expecting--sort of a tan-gray mud color. Most of the bolt-on stuff already on the bike was black. When I added the fenders, bottle cage, disc lock and rack to it, the black accessories turned out looking pretty good.

Then I tried to install the front wheel. Wait a minute--the wheel isn't going into the fork correctly. Drat--the fork end got bent in shipping! Can it be straightened? Probably not--it's a pretty bad bend, but let's try levering it out a bit with this prybar SNAP!

A call to Specialized's warranty department yielded that they had no spare forks, only complete bikes from which to scavenge parts. So, on Monday they will ship me another bike, and I can either pull the fork from it and install it on my bike or build it and repackage the bike with the broken fork. I think it will be easier to swap forks at this point--besides, I got to spend a little time last night installing more of the accessories on the bike I already have on hand. I should get to ride the bike Tuesday. I was hoping to ride it some this weekend, but I have no real desire to have the front wheel come off the fork while I'm riding. I've seen pictures of what happens, and it isn't pretty.

I am going to like this bike, though. It looks good, despite that the color is kind of drab. I'm thinking about going to a sign store and having them print a panel of reflective vinyl roughly the color of the bike, so that I can make some reflective bits for it that will blend in in daylight but show up when struck by headlights at night. Just because I can.

IT-Clips

Here's something to make use of those tubes that you have patched until they can't be used any more: IT Clips!

This unassuming little gizmo (actually two pieces) creates an adjustable-length bungee cord out of old inner tubes. The packaging comes with two metal hooks, so that one can go from complete loop to hooked-end cords in a couple of snaps:

I got a couple pairs of each size (road and mountain bike tubes) for testing with Jenn's new Globe Live 3 Mixte's front rack. These are pretty cool! I haven't put them to use as of yet, but they seem pretty sturdy. I'm glad to know these are available. Let me know if you want me to get you some of them!

Bike stuff

I ordered the bikes the other day. They arrived at the store today, as mentioned in my last post.

As I was examining the Crosstrail, I noted that it had threaded sites for a disc lock--those oh-so-Euro locks mounted (often) on the underside of the seat stays that immobilize the rear wheel, quite independent of locking the bike to a relatively immovable object such as a lamp post. My Vienna has similar threaded inserts, judging from the online images. Jenn's Live doesn't seem to have them, but I haven't had opportunity to examine the actual bikes yet. That comes tomorrow some time (after getting some work done--there are some repairs awaiting my attention when I get there in the morning).

I looked at the online catalogs for a couple of our primary parts vendors, and found this series of such locks at one. There is a model that has as accessories either a chain (with a fabric sleeve) or a cable that mates with the main lock. Here's the lock:

And here are the optional cable and chain:

I opted for the cable, as it's a shade longer than the chain (and likely lighter). I don't know if the little pouch will come with it--I expect to receive what I've ordered tomorrow morning some time. Anyway, here's a shot of the combination in use:

All three images are shamelessly copy/pasted from the Abus web site, by the way--I like the concept of these locks, but not enough to plagiarize the images.


The locks come with self-tapping screws, should the bike on which they are mounted not have pre-installed holes. I also have the ability to install threaded inserts into some frames, and may be able to do so if necessary here, just to make the installation a bit tidier. These locks are not cheap, nor are they light, but they seem a bit more practical than some I've seen--out of the way when not in use, easy to put into use and so on.





Jenn's bike comes with fenders. Mine did not. However, I have a set ready to mount, along with a rack for the rear. What I don't think I have is taillight mounts to go on the racks (Planet Bike makes a gizmo that bolts to a reflector bracket and accepts the SuperFlash taillights), although I think I have the rest of the odds and ends I need to make these bikes commute-ready. I'm not ready to buy more headlights this month, so I figure to move light sets from Jenn's Vanguard and from my Raleigh to the new bikes for the nonce.





Having read about them in another blog--probably Tex's Luavull Cycling--I've decided to try a different taillight than my standard Planet Bike Super Flash. If memory serves, Tim is quite hot on the Portland Design Works Radbot 1000 lights.

I know of brighter taillights, but given that these and my long-time favorite the SuperFlash are both visible at over a mile, I don't see the point. I honestly think that if the taillight is TOO bright, overtaking motorists will get target-fixation and run me down (or run me down to make the bright light quit flashing in their eyes). I don't see many bicycle commuters on my route, and the two or three I see on occasion are usually going the opposite direction, so I don't have time to look at their visibility profiles.

I guess that since I work in a bike shop, I tend to like having a tricked out commuter rig. I also want my wife to have her own tricked out rig. I don't just settle, in other words.

Transportation pictures

As I noted here and here (among other places), we've been thinking about additional options for commuting. The bikes arrived at the store today. More on them in another post.

Of course, I had scheduled the day off, thinking I was going to a Mayor's Budget Forum, and got the dates wrong! The Forum I thought I was going to attend is actually scheduled for Monday, which I have also scheduled as an off day. There is another Forum scheduled for next Tuesday (8 March), and I plan to attend it as well.

I'm going to as many of them as I'm able, simply to make it clear to Mayor Fisher that bicycle infrastructure is important to me and to my friends. I have long said I'm not a fan of poorly-designed bike lanes, but I believe in the need for well-designed ones as a way to encourage folks to ride more--whether for pleasure or utility or whatever. Cycling for ANY reason is an important part of our transportation picture, for reasons that both of my readers already know well. Sadly, though, work realities will keep me from attending every one of the forums. I've missed one, already, for example. I look at it as sort of like voting--in the "Vote early, vote often" sense.

There are many things I think that we as a community need to do, and not enough money for half of them. However, I think that investment in public transit and other alternatives to single-occupant motor vehicles will pay far greater dividends than investment in more lane-miles of interstate.

I got to hear portions of a program on NPR the other night titled, "Back of the Bus." I intend to sit for a while and listen to more of it if I can figure out how to make my computer play the audio. If not, I'll read as much of the transcript as I can. One thing I heard in the ten minutes or so I was able to listen the other night was that when MARTA, the light rail system around Atlanta, was being built, a lot of poor neighborhoods were bulldozed to make way for the project. In the three or four decades since, however, one important factor has arisen as an indicator of real estate prices--proximity to a MARTA station. Where poor neighborhoods were razed for MARTA, new owners have increased the property values many-fold, so that the poor who were displaced by MARTA now cannot afford to live close to it.

Atlanta was not alone in this. City after city leveled houses and shops in less-affluent areas creating space for limited-access freeways that would allow folks to live in segregated suburbs and work in the city, not having to live in integrated neighborhoods. In my own lifetime, I remember the "white flight" of folks leaving Jefferson County due to a school desegregation plan that had me graduate from a high school twenty miles from my home in Middletown instead of one six blocks from my back door. Much of Oldham County's growth in the 1970s and 1980s was due to this phenomenon, and its growth continued right up until the housing boom went bust a couple years ago as folks figured that Oldham schools were better than Jefferson County's, Oldham County neighborhoods were more homogenized, and so on.

Cheap gas and faster roads contributed to this, of course, and the latter is discussed in "Back of the Bus" as well.

Of course, now that gas is getting far more expensive, folks are starting to think about living in town rather than "out in the 'burbs." Some are predicting that many suburban neighborhoods will soon resemble areas of blight now only seen in really poor areas of our west end, with many abandoned large McMansions boarded up to keep out the miscreants. I don't see it happening in the next five years, but I may be wrong--there are certainly pockets of suburbia in other metro areas where clusters of houses sit vacant due to foreclosure after folks lost their grip in the economic downturn.

Along with this, folks are starting to realize that they don't HAVE to take little Johnny to ball practice across town--there is a league down the street that will do. Little Megan can take music lessons within five miles of home instead of fifteen miles away--her success is largely determined by her own diligence, anyway. And who

I think this is an important group of concepts for our local politicians. It will take political will that reaches far beyond a term or two, and I doubt that we will see it happen in this era of tea party nutcases like Rand Paul and the current (mis)governor of Wisconsin--both seemingly determined to give even more wealth to the already-obscenely-wealthy. One of the things I was glad to see when Jackie Green ran for Mayor was that he forced some discussion over how transportation figures into the future of our community.

The Reason for the Season is Axial Tilt!

Before I forget (again): I had noticed one day last week that the sky had not gone completely dark by the time I left work. Last Friday, I could still see the remnants of the sunset (or, well, at least a little light) when I left the store. I didn't see any sunlight when I left Monday, in part because it was raining hard when we closed for the day and in part because Jenn came to get me and didn't get there until almost 7:30, after first going to Middletown to get some food for one of the cats.

Still, it's nice to have seen some light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel, telling me that spring is on the way.

Oh, and, while I did get a ride home this evening, I rode to work this morning. By the time I get to work on Wednesday, I should have over 900 miles for 2011 year to date!

Snow bike, revisited

Now that it seems to be no longer snowing...

As the primary ordering person for the shop, I ordered a Crosstrail Disc for display, thinking that if nothing else it would end up as my icy-roads bike. I really wanted to look the bike over closely, as there were some details I could not ascertain by looking at it online, and I didn't really know what questions to ask the tech folks at Specialized. I do like the Crosstrail--it's a versatile bike, a bit more street-friendly than the closely-related Hardrock 29 Disc with which it shares the component group and price point. However, as I examined it in person, I found little details that made it a bit more challenging to outfit as my icy-roads bike. To wit: the suspension fork on the lower-price model lacks a lockout function, AND lacks fender eyelets. The chainstay has a brake cable routed along its length, complicating (although not preventing) connection of one of my trailers (and the disc brake prevents using the other trailer--more on that in a moment).

An email from a potential customer got me looking at the Globe line (sort of like Saturn's line from GM--Globe is part of Specialized) in a bit more detail. I had already found a 2010 Globe Live 3 Mixte bike as a potential bike to resolve some of Jenn's questions, as noted recently. I looked a bit further down the page, and noticed that the Vienna from 2010 was still in stock in several variants, including (dant dant dah!) the Vienna 3 Disc!

We had gotten a Vienna in our initial order of bikes from Specialized in October of 2009. It finally sold a couple months ago. I liked the bike in several ways--the rigid fork made it lighter than its Carmel stablemates, for one thing, but the color on the one we had in the store just wasn't right for me. I was disappointed that it didn't sell well for us. I hadn't realized until today (or had forgotten) that there was a disc-brake model (even though I had noted disc brake tabs on the frame of the one we had at the store... DUH!). In short, this bike "fixes" the things that kept me from being sold on getting that Crosstrail--it has a rigid fork (I don't really feel a need for a "boingy" front end on a bike) that has fender tabs at the ends (no fabricating fender stays to meet the oddly-placed threaded holes two inches above the axle on the suspension fork on the Crosstrail), and it's a tiny bit cheaper to buy, due to its being a 2010 bike instead of a 2011. It even has slightly nicer drivetrain components, AND better brake calipers (Avid BB5!).

The color is not a reason for excitement--it's a sort of brown/gray that approximates oily mud--but that's okay. This is not going to be a show bike. It's going to get dirty in its use patterns. However, it will accept fenders, racks (both rear AND front, should I decide to install a front rack on it), any of three types of kickstand (center mount, center-mount double (Esge), or rear-mount proprietary from Specialized), and all manner of lights, bells and whistles to make it comparable to my Raleigh in night-time utility. The one slight downside is that trailer hitch thing I mentioned earlier. The cable for the rear brake is routed in a way that I have to be careful how I attach the Safety 1st trailer. The Burley trailer won't connect to the bike as it is configured (I may be able to find a work-around on this, but it's hard to say), due to the Burley hitch that connects to the chain stay AND the seat stay near the frame dropout and the placement of the disc brake caliper trying to occupy the same location. Once upon a time, BikeE offered a hitch conversion that allowed one to use a Burley trailer with the BikeE frames, and there was once an example of this little kit in a bike shop in town, but I haven't been in that shop in a couple years and don't know if it's still there. I may have to go look some time soon, and if it's not to be had, I'll have another reason to keep the Raleigh around.

Oh, and I can have this new bike in time to say an early, "Happy Birthday to me!"

Knickers

So, Why Ride a Bicycle? I found this article at the Bicycle Fixation web site, which also happens to have other cool stuff about bicycling (go figure).I happened on it during a search for knickers other than Lycra.

As I am getting nearer to my fiftieth birthday, I have been pondering the style I've seen on some friends who cycle for utility. I've long admired Joe Ward's ability to wear cycling knickers of tweed or corduroy, and never felt "cool enough" to do so myself. A web search on the topic led to these, these, and these, any of which would serve well as I ride the Raleigh (or, perhaps, the bike my Raleigh admires, Kirk's Pashley), not to mention these others that could work for some folks, those that are trying a bit too hard, and that pair that just are not for me. Even Chrome, known perhaps more for their messenger bags, has a couple options, like their Loop Pro and Telegraph models (which I must admit look like they would better serve bike messengers than me). I do like that the Loop Pro has a special loop that allows one to pocket a u-lock while riding--something I reckon would be very useful for a bike messenger. I also found some knickers from SWRVE, but while they have some interesting features, are probably better-suited for the younger guys without the "lunch muscle development" I have.

An earlier search on "wool knickers" led to many golf wear sites, as apparently golfers still wear things like "plus twos" and "plus fours." The thought of wearing argyle-pattern knickers is a bit more than I can stand, though, despite that I would probably wear a wool kilt whilst riding at times (and have often worn one or another of my Utilikilts on the Raleigh).

Yeah, well, I do tend to go my own way, don't I?

Is Jenn getting a new bike?

I got to ride to work four times over the last week wearing short sleeve jerseys. This morning was a bit different--I awoke to outdoor temperature in the 35F range. It's probably 50F outside as I type this. By the time I get on my way home (after store hours and Tool School), I'll still have the right combination of layers to get home comfortably.

On a slightly different front, Jenn and I talked for a while about her employer's lack of bike-friendly facilities. When she rides to work, she goes in by a back/side building entry, ducks into a restroom off the cafeteria, and changes clothes/does her hair, etc. The building dress code is "business professional," meaning that jeans are a no-no (save for special events having to do with United Way programs), shoes must meet a standard, and so on. Bike clothing is not approved. At all. There is no locker room, nor can she keep clothes at her work station and change closer to that site in the building. She lugs her panniers upstairs after changing, then lugs them back down when she gets ready to go home. It gets aggravating, and makes it a drag to ride some times.

As much as Jenn likes to ride her Vanguard to work, it's a hassle to deal with the lack of facilities at the work end of the route.

It's always a fine line between being avant garde on green transportation and looking like a weirdo to a careful company like hers. As much as they talk about careful husbandry of resources, saving money by not using a car as much is not encouraged actively.

To that end, we talked about her bike a bit. She wants some flexibility that her Vanguard doesn't really support, like the ability to ride to work wearing a skirt, or ability to deal with snow on the roads. Desirable features include a step-through frame and disc brakes. Being that I work for a Specialized dealer, I found this:

It's a Globe Live 3 Mixte. Yes, that's a Gates belt drive, pulling a Shimano Alfine 8-speed internal-gear-hub. Those are hydraulic disc brakes, too. The integrated front rack has a 25kg weight capacity. The double-leg Pletscher kickstand comes with the bike. I suspect that it would have mounting points for the euro-style rear wheel lock. Too cool!

800 miles

By the time I arrived at work this morning, I had logged a bit more than eight hundred miles of bicycle use for the year to date. To compare to last year's numbers, by the end of March of 2010, my total bicycle miles were 800.7. When I got home tonight, I logged my commute and have 814.7 miles. It's two-thirds of the way through February or so, and I'm five or six weeks ahead of last year's mileages.

It's starting to sound like I'm aiming for some record here. I want to be about more than a single goal--whether that goal is how many miles I can ride in the course of doing my thing this year, or some other manifestation of that concept. There is more to me than how many miles I ride instead of drive.

At least I hope so...

It's getting warmer

I've been able to ride to work twice this week wearing short sleeves instead of a jacket. Spring isn't far off!

This morning's ride also featured pulling the Safety 1st trailer, so that I could haul a repair stand with me. I have a Tool School class starting tonight, and wanted to have both of my stands at the store. The next decision is whether to leave the trailer at the store for a week and a few days, and use it to haul both of my stands and my tools home after the class is over--the alternative being pull it home empty tonight so that it's not in the way at the store.

The trailer always gets some funny looks from motorists--especially this time of year. People think I'm insane for pulling a kid in traffic, or something--one motorist actually took the time to pull over and yell at me for putting a kid in dire peril, as his wife had been hit by a car on that road (Frankfort Avenue). I didn't have time to ask them whether she was riding as a vehicular cyclist or as a bike ninja, since he only wanted to yell at me rather than discuss anything.

I've often said I want to get an infant-sized or toddler-sized manikin and toss it in the trailer--with no clothing, of course--so that I can enjoy the reactions of the occasional attentive motorist.

Not that I'm one to play head games or anything...

February miles to date

Here it is, the seventh of February, and even before I log today's commutes to work and back, I've logged more miles this month than in all of January of last year.

over-technical geek gear woes

Sometimes, technology gets in the way of people's acceptance of technology. Witness the 3G/4G Hotspot we got last summer.

When we moved to the new-to-us house last summer, we took our time dealing with moving the land-line, eventually simply dropping it altogether. By the time we had made that decision, however, Jenn had been sold on using the aforementioned hotspot for our home internet connection. I was skeptical, and said so, but went along. And have never really felt that I was right to go along. The thing gave me roughly 67% dependability--two out of three times I went to go online, I would have to reboot the device and/or disconnect it from the desktop computer I prefer to use (which does not have a wireless card--the hotspot plugs into a USB port, which also serves as the power supply for the little black box) and/or also reboot the computer. The ONLY thing reliable about this device is that it would piss me off--often.

After my numerous and increasingly heartfelt threats to toss the thing across the road from the house (escalating to "at the next locomotive that I see"), she finally got the idea that since she had wanted the darned thing so much, SHE was going to have to get it fixed. She took it to the Sprint store, and they waved their magic screwdriver over it or something and declared it working. It came home, and never worked any better than it had. Jenn eventually got a USB2 card for me to add to the computer, figuring that was a factor, and WOW!! an actual improvement! While online, I got dropped far less often (I would be in the middle of, say, typing a blog entry and find myself disconnected from the 'net). I still would have to restart the Hotspot two out of three times I went to get online, but, well...

I had more troubles with this thing in a given month than I had had in several years of having a DSL connection. "State of the art," indeed.

The "reliability" index went up to four out of five times about a month ago, and on every reboot I would see a message that an update was available for the hotspot. A several of failed attempts at downloading the update later, Jenn took it to the Sprint store again, where they force-fed it the updates and told her that it should work better now.

Sure enough, the reliability index went to over 95%. Almost every single time I wanted to get online, I found it necessary to reboot the hotspot. Over the two-week period after the "fix" was made at the store, I got online one time without having to first turn off the hotspot and restart it. I made some time to work with Sprint on Friday evening, figuring I'd be spending at least half an hour just getting to the point I would be speaking to a live person that could imitate a sentient being. Since getting to that point required that I be shunted from person to person to person, I was having a horrible time hearing what the tech was trying to say, so she called me directly (reluctant as I was to release a line, given the trouble I'd had connecting to her in the first place). I need to talk to the Sprint people about changing some protocols on my phone, too--in the middle of all this I received a text message which fouled things further--I want to switch it so that incoming text messages do NOT override everything else happening at the moment.

Long story short (I know--too late for that), Sprint is sending me a replacement Hotspot. I figure it will arrive Tuesday or Wednesday, and while I'm getting it working I will be insisting that we deserve at least three months' credit for having to deal with this piece of garbage. I'll settle for a two months' worth, I suppose.

We'll see how it goes.

It's that time of the month again!

It's time again for Car Free Happy Hour!

Even cooler is that I get to be there this time! Come discuss getting places without gasoline over a micro-brew or some other celebratory beverage!

January numbers

I finished January with a half-commute. I rode to work, but since Jenn was in Middletown with the truck and it was raining and below 40F, I opted out of riding home.

That's okay, though. I still had more miles in January of 2011 (473.2) than in five (!!) months of 2010. As mentioned, I also beat out my January and February 2010 miles combined. I fell short of besting my March or October 2010 miles by seventy-five or so, and was only forty miles shy of my November 2010 mileage.

Okay, so beating my June 2010 miles wasn't such a big deal--I spent almost two weeks out of town working RAAM that month, plus we moved at the end of that month. We spent much of May preparing to move, so I wasn't on the bike much then, either. I spent a week in December driving to work due to icy roads, and was off a few days over the holly-daze, so I didn't ride as much then as I might have otherwise. Besting my January/February 2010 miles has largely been a function of lowering my temperature threshold, although I recall there being a fair number of days those two months in 2010 that saw icy roadways as well.

On to February! I drove on the first--again, due to rainy weather. I rode this morning feeling that if I'd had a bit more of a sail to deploy I could have not pedaled at all. I was glad to be going downwind, and concerned that I'd be fighting that same wind intensity going home. The wind speed lessened a bit--from low- to mid-twenties to about fifteen knots by the time I was homeward-bound--and I chose my route to take advantage of some known windbreaks (rows of trees) instead of fighting the headwind all the way along Westport Road.

Jenn was out walking the dog when I got home. She came inside, fixed dinner, we ate dinner, and now we are both winding down before heading to bed.