three times

Whew!

Holidays are almost over. I love the holidays, but this year it seemed like just a huge amount of work. So much so, it seemed kind of like a whole drag on the whole holiday thing. We had relatives come stay with us for a week with their 20 month old daughter. She’s a sweetie. Loads of entertainment. It was a good visit for my baby boy.

Being around another slightly older baby exposed him to new things. He picked up some new things. It reminded me of when I was a serious musician, between bands. There were times when I start playing the same sort of stuff over and over, and only really break that cycle when playing with new people. Anyway, he’s saying a few new things, and learned to clap his hands.

<> I wasn’t able to get out on the bike to do a real ride. Yesterday, I ran out three times for quick trips to the store for assorted things. Head to the store, got a few things, came back home. Oh, wait. We’re out of diapers! Gravy to finish off the last of the turkey. Always something. Sounds like a hassle, but I actually enjoyed it. It was good to get out, even for two miles at a time. The only rub was my new pannier bags, while loaded down with grocereys, got sucked into my rear wheel. It wore a hole in the bag, and trashed a box of Annie’s pasta, but other than that just annoying. I am going to have to figure out some kind of reinforcement to the backs of these bags so they can’t suck back into the rear wheel. I could imagine a bag sucking into the wheel causing a total lock up at speed and a bad accident. No thanks.

<>I got a quick spin around China Camp this morning on the MC29er. Fun stuff. I didn’t feel as out of shape as I thought. Even my knees were feeling less sore after the ride. The trails were pretty sloppy. Man, that bike is fun. I only rode for an hour and change over 12 miles. Not a big ride, but a good spin.

Junk in the Trunk

Originally blogged in mid November….

So I’ve been reading SelfPropelledDevo’s blog. You just gotta admire the guy. The guy ditched his car nearly a couple years ago, and he not only manages to get just about everywhere on a Surley Pugsley, an Xtracycle, and/or public transit, he is living the lifestyle. I would love to be able to exist that way, but (insert excuse excuse excuse).

Reality is, with a wife and ten month old baby, bike commuting everywhere would just eat up too much time. As it is, I leave for work when my baby and wife are still asleep, and only see the baby for about an hour during evening bathtime and bedtime books. I would only see him on weekends if I commuted every day.

But I gotta start doing something. I think of the example I want to set for my little boy. What kind of world are we going to leave him, and what did I do to prevent it. Am I part of the problem or part of the solution?

I started thinking of building a townie out of my old Giant Yukon about six months ago. I used to have it built up that way, but ended up stripping it for parts to build the wife’s bike (which she never rides), and to build my old beater Trek Singlespeed. I also built a road bike around this time, and was thinking this was going to fit the bill. It does, for certain uses, but not for any kind of hauling. I’m also working on a much lighter bike for the wife that fits her better. Nice used frame, new paint and stickers, good parts from the parts bin. I am a recovering gear whore, a packrat and a picky cyclist. That equals lots of unused parts in the bin. I actually sold off a bunch of stuff, but still have tons left.

The benefits are threefold:

1) get rid of junk, or put it to use
2) create a usable utilitarian bicycle that looks like a beater as to not attract thieves. Only I will know that it’s really that functional.
3) if it gets stolen I won’t feel too badly about it, unlike all of my other bikes that I have actual money invested in.

So I’m down in the carless garage (too much junk to park the car in there) and scanning around for stuff to use. I got a parts bin overflowing with parts that only want to be used:

Tektro V-Brakes from my MonoCog29er
7 speed beater wheelset from the Wife’s overweight mountain bike… which is stripped
7 speed rapid fire brake lever combo shifters
Cheesy riser bars
an old compact 5 arm 110 bcd LX crankset with no-level Shimano square taper BB
26/36/46t chainrings… good for townie riding. A 48t big ring would be nice.
Hutchinson Pythons… worn down to a smooth center tread. I knew I didn’t throw those out for a reason (and that reason was a combination of being a pack rat and shear laziness).
The crappy but usable headset from my MonoCog29er. We’ll see how long it lasts in real world use.
rear rack
One shopping bag sized pannier

One rack top trunk bag. I think I should find one of those old luggage mini padlocks to keep my tire pump and multi-tooll from getting ripped off.

So just to see where I was, I started bolting stuff together. Bottom bracket in frame, hunt around for chainring bolts, put together the crank arm and chainrings, bolt cranks to BB, bolt rear brakes to frame…. found matching front brake… try to tap crown race off of my rigid MonoCog29er fork… oh, can’t do that without waking the baby. No way to quietly remove a crown race, at least not with the tools I have at my disposal.

One of my goals here was to actually build a bike without buying any more parts. I think I can actually do it, except for brake cables and cloth rim strips. I might need a non-QR seat collar. I might hit Bent Spoke in Berkeley for a rigid fork. Suspension forks suck for this kinda thing. They don’t put pannier bosses on suspension forks. A good rear blinky is in order too.

This got me thinking about all the stuff I buy, and how to bring that to a minimum. Everything we as people buy has to be made, then we use it, then we have to dispose of it in some way. All of that takes energy. Energy and materials to build and dispose when we are done, vs. the amount of use we get out of it, and is that a good use of the energy, is the real question.

Part of me is starting to think our system of capitalism in this country is looking more like a giant pyramid scheme designed to line the pockets of the richest 0.1%, and the more I think about it, the less I want to contribute to it. Thanks Reagan. You’re a real pal. Thanks for monitizing EVERYTHING. 27 years of Reaganism to undo 35 years of Roosevelt’s New Deal that built the middle class, and now the middle class is quickly being converted into working poor. Not sure how much of that is anti-consumerism related to the bicycle industry specifically, but it just makes me want to spend less. I know nobody is really getting stinking rich in bikes. Reuse and recycle. Use less, do more. And like that.

Don’t get me started on Christmas Season. I just found out my sister is going to be in the poor house for a year because my niece had a baby and still is doing her best to pay off the medical bills 3 years later on her wage slave income. My sister is helping my niece out and won’t be doing presents this year. Fine with me. I don’t need more stuff in my life. Ugh. Pisses me off, tho. Dollars before people in this country.

Okay, rant off.

I’m thinking front and rear panniers so I can grocery shop in the thing. Load it down with 40 pounds of groceries. Do some real work. Trailers end up on craigslist all the time, maybe I can do one of those. Figure out a good lock system, and I can load up at the corner store with some good fresh food, and leave the car at home.

sea slaughter preride

This last Saturday, JRM and I made the trip down to Laguna Seca near Salinas. We met up with Sparky, Michael and Winona (aka Crazy Cat Lady) in the Laguna Seca parking lot. Winona was a local, but moved to the UK last year. She was back in the neighborhood to visit friends and family or something. While here, she was kind enough to meet up with us for a ride.

I have been debating the upcoming Sea Otter Classic race. I have been racing geared class in previous years. The last two years, I have been racing Sport class. Last year, I got smoked. I mean really smoked. Packed into a bowl in a cinder block walled dorm room while pirated mp3s of Dark Side of the Moon play, and smoked…. and then drank the bong water. I came in something like 95th out of 125 racers, or something embarrassingly bad like that, and that was without the excuse of a crash or mechanical.

The good news is I learned the course (at least last year’s course, this upcoming year’s race course is not finalized yet) is very ridable on the singlespeed. I ran a 32*20 gear ratio on a 29″ wheel, and it was a good balance of being able to get up most of the climbs, and still be tall enough to spin the flats. There were a few climbs I had trouble grinding up, but I don’t think an added tooth or two in the back would be enough to help.

The newer Sea Otter course goes up the back of the Three Bitches, reversed from the older course. In that direction the first bitch is so painfully steep I can hardly get up it without the crutch a super low granny gear. No worries. I’ll just hammer up as far as I can get, get off, hoof and run. There was one other climb after the sandy downhil that required some footy time.

My moving time was around 2:15 without really going race pace. That was not including some rest breaks, one instance of getting lost, and cutting out a short section that was not marked well on the map. In contrast, my finishing time last year was around 2:15 using gears. Total ride time was around 3:30.

No mechanicals on the trail, no crashes or injuries. One rider was bonking a bit, but other than that, it was a perfect ride.

details

I’m finishing off the City Bike. I know, always a work in progress. I’ll be finished when I either sell it or die of old age (or some other cause). Bike are transitional in so many ways. It is hard to resist the upgrade-itis on this thing. I have a lot of nicer parts in the bin, but I don’t want to attract attention to this bike. Things grow legs in this town, even when locked up.I stole bike computer from wife’s stripped Giant Boulder (bought at the same time as this Giant Yukon back in 2000). Side note: My bike : ~3000 miles, her bike 27. I’m surprised it actually had that many miles on it. I don’t blame her. It was a 34 pound bike with city bike gearing. It sucked to climb anything on that. It was 1/3 her weight.I bought another computer, but ended up paying way too much for it, and felt like a dufus. It’s still in the box, and is going back tomorrow. I’ll get the wife another computer to replace the one I stole when I build her new bike up.Swapped some 1.25 slicks from the tire pile for some 1.5 Panaracer city bike tires. Nicer. More cush.Tried to re-use some old innertubes. I made a small slice in each one and injected some Slime, then patched. Then they would not hold air. Grrrr. I’ve done this trick a bunch of times, and never had problems with patching afterwards. In the trash. Fooey!I took off the Hutchinson Mosquito tires. Those things were deadly on pavement. Thin casings will also be very prone to flats. I hate to throw them out, but they have to be the most useless treads I have ever bought. Suck on dirt, suck on hardpack, suck on pavement. I guess they rolled okay. I can’t imagine any tire designer thinking these were a good idea to put in production. I was debating taking a razor knife to the knobs, but sanity prevailed. Good thing I only paid $10 for the set at a swap meet.Brakes honk like a flock of geese. All the toe-in in the world won’t seem to adjust it out. Maybe I’ll try some harder brake pads. I have a set of new LX Parallel push brakes, but again, they look blingier.My old cheap Zefal plastic fenders took some McGuyver-ing to install since I had none of the original hardware, but they are on.I was hoping to get it together enough to commute on it tomorrow, but that is no longer realistic. I still need to work out a couple of bugs on shorter local trips.

waffle iron

I’ve been wanting a waffle iron for a while. One of my Sunday routines is to make breakfast for the wife and kid, and I usually rely on frozen waffles.

But no more!

The church on the corner was having a rummage sale. Waffle Iron – $2. ‘Oh’, says the lady at the cash box, ‘we’re doing half off! Proceeds go to some Russian Orphanage!’

‘If I gave you two dollars anyway, would you turn it down?’

“Oh, thank you! That would be great!’

Heh, I never understood that in garage sale type situations. Oh, that’s a buck… I’ll give you 75 cents! Oh, I dunno, a buck is a pretty good price. Okay, 80 cents! SOLD! :rolleyes:

Greeeaaat. You just stressed over twenty cents.

Heh, an extra buck to get a bowl of rice to a Russian orphan. That dollar hardly means anything to me, but means a lot more to somebody else.

So I get the waffle iron home. It’s one of those electric kinda ones. I was actually hoping to get a stovetop one, but they are harder to cook with. The plus side is that you can just throw the thing in the dishwasher when you’re done. That’s cool. For $2 I’m not going to complain.

So I was up last night finishing my city bike. I broke my promise to myself and actually spent money on a new Voodoo rigid steel fork for $40. I got the rest of it bolted together, headset and gears adjusted, tires mounted…. DOH! I forgot my German exchange student stacked this bike years ago and I never ironed out the rear wheel. A bit of spoke adjusting later, and it’s straight again.

But why the nasty wobble? Oh, yeah. These cheapo rims were cut slightly too big, and the tire bead doesn’t lock down properly. The tires aren’t centered. It makes for an interesting roll. Gotta fix that too.

So back to waffles. I cook up a couple of waffles, and only then do I find out we are out of OJ. Okay, we were out of milk too, so I made the waffle batter with soy milk. Hope this doesn’t taste weird.

City bike activate!

I took the bike out and rolled up to the local grocery store. Nice! Apart from the tire issue, this is a nice comfy bike to ride. I load in a half gallon of OJ, half gallon of Odwalla pomegranate juice, quart of milk and a couple pounds of bananas right in the grocery pannier bag. Roll home.

This is going to work out nicely. I need to center the tires and maybe get another grocery bag sized pannier, maybe a couple of bottle cages. Other than that, I’m stylin’. Add a sticker from Tip Top Bike Shop in Oakland. It looks like the Raider Nation stickers that seem to come from the factory with every single SUV in the area. This one is ‘Rider Nation’ and instead of the pirate in a football helmet, its a bike helmet and a couple of bike forks for the crossed bones. Love it.

Waffles with maple syrup and butter, OJ, and dry Cherrios for the baby. Life is good this Sunday morning.