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.