Two Wheels

Weight Training - One Shovelful At a Time

2012-02-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

I am a little sore and tired from shoveling wet, heavy snow.

After all of the driveway and sidewalk shoveling, the past couple of days, I have some sore muscles. Today, I dug out the Dodge, just in case I decide to go somewhere in it, any time soon. I figured it was best to have it dug out before I want to drive...

While I was at it, I cleared off the wooden lawn furniture. It doesn't need to have all of that snow melting into it.

My new glasses get quite dark in the wintry glare. Even so, I am still squinting into the sun!

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First Impressions are Lasting Impressions - My First Ride on The Mukluk, and a Comparison to the Fat Sand Bike

2012-02-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I built up the Salsa Mukluk (finally), and finished it about the time the sun went down. I would have been done in time to get some decent photos and take a ride, but the build turned into an illustration of Murphy's Law. Still, I persevered and got the darn thing together. Today, I set it and the FSB out for some family photos.

I couldn't get a real good angle to take a "comparison" photo of the Fat Sand Bike and the Salsa, today. There is so much snow piled up on the yard and at the edge of the drive that I was a little constrained on positioning. The two bikes are very similar in layout, with the cockpits being almost identical. The FSB has a slightly higher bottom bracket height, and, of course, the extended rear triangle.

I ordered the same handlebar, for this bike, that I have on the FSB - The Surly Open Bar, in the flat configuration. However, I was shipped the 40mm rise/drop model. I set it up at the height I like, and didn't worry about it. I actually like the look of it, with the drop, a little better than the flat bar. It just required a couple of extra headset spacers.

It took me a while to find someone selling Shimano-compatible SRAM GripShift shifters. Everyone seems to assume that if you are running GripShift that you are also running SRAM derailleurs, and they only stock the X-series shifters. I don't care for the SRAM derailleurs, that much, and they have a reputation for being problematic if you space the cogset out to cure chain/tire clearance issues. Since I may have to do that, I wanted to stick with Shimano derailleurs.

So, I chose to go with a Shimano Deore 9-speed rear derailleur. The new design looked odd to me, at first, but I kinda like it, now.

I went XT on the front derailleur, simply because that was the only Direct Mount front derailleur I could find. And, I would have probably done so, anyway. I have always been pickier about front derailleurs than rear, anyhow.

The Truvativ Hussefelt Crank (and the correct Howitzer bottom bracket) are also SRAM products. I like the 22/32/bash-guard combination on the crank. I don't foresee needing a big ring, a whole lot, on this bike.

Promax disc brakes are a knockoff of Avid BB5s, and actually use the same brake pads. I suspect that they are made in the same Taiwanese factory as the Avid brakes, with just enough detail differences to avoid a lawsuit. (The front ProMax actually seems to work better than the front BB5 I have on the FSB, actually.)

A 90mm FSA stem gives me a nice reach to the bar, and seems plenty stiff for good control.

WTB headsets aren't sexy like a Chris King, but at $16.99, shipped to my door, it cost about 15% of what I would have paid for a King.

The front wheel has a 135mm Surly New Hub, originally spec'd as a singlespeed rear hub, and the rear hub has the Salsa Mukluk 170mm hub. Considering that the Salsa hub sells for $199.00, the Graceful Fat Sheba 80mm rim sells for $38.00, and spokes are about $15.00 per wheel, the $225.00 I spent on the rear wheel seems pretty cheap, compared to the cost of the components.

The 100mm rims on the FSB give the 4" Innova tires a sidewall width of 4-1/2 inches. The 80mm Fat Sheba rims give the 4" Origin8 Devist8er tires a sidewall width of 4 inches, on the nose, according to my calipers. This gives the bike a slightly less "monster truck" feel, when rolling, I think.

And, even though the Origin8 tires are known to be pretty heavy, the bike seems to accelerate a bit more easily than the FSB. Of course, other things could factor into that, as well, such as the internallly geared hub on the FSB versus the derailleur and cog system on the Salsa, the weight of the bikes, etc.

Speaking of the IGH on the orange bike, I think it is a good idea for sloppy conditions. I did have a bit of chain skip, today, after riding through slushy areas and getting ice in the cog stack. But, the Salsa is incompatible with any commonly available IGH, as far as I know.

The hub on the FSB has been excellent for the terrain, here in town, so far. I have never used either the lowest of the highest gears during normal riding, which means I have some reserve gearing for unusual conditions in the city. And, I have enjoyed being able to shift under all circumstances - pedaling, coasting, or stopped at an intersection.

But, I think the wider range of gears and higher efficiency of the derailleur and cogset system on the Salsa will make up for the differences.

One interesting thing about alternating between the two bikes is dealing with the shifters. Both have a twist-grip shifter for the rear. But, they work in opposite directions. The Nexave shifter on the FSB requires a twist to the front in order to go to an easier gear. With the standard GripShift and derailleur, that direction takes you to a harder gear. I predict that backward shifts will be fairly commonplace for me...

I put the bar mitts on the bike, and swapped the seatpost/saddle/bag from the FSB to the Salsa, and took off to the coffee shop, this morning. After coffee and a scone, I hopped on the bike and headed north. I rode through Wash Park, again, and I was pleased that I was able to ride through a bit of deeper snow that had stopped me, yesterday, on the other bike. Better weight distribution and knobbier tires probably account for that.

I continued on to the Cherry Creek Trail, which I was disappointed to see had been plowed completely clean. I didn't get much input about snow riding from the trail. I had ridden on plenty of hard-pack and slush on the way through the D.U. neighborhood, though, and I was pleased with the snowy-road performance of the bike.

I rode to the REI Flagship Store, at Confluence Park, and turned back toward home.

These are the slushy conditions that the IGH would handle better than the cog stack. This kind of stuff also underscores my need to get some fenders figured out.

I rode with the air pressure in the tires at 10 psi, front and rear. I checked the FSB, this morning, and I had ridden it, yesterday, with 6 psi in the front, and 10 psi in the rear tire. I could probably have dropped the pressure on the Mukluk to 7 or 8 psi and gotten a little more traction in the snow, but it was bouncy enough on the clear pavement at 10 psi, so I left well enough alone.

The Fat Sand is obviously a more "cruiser" style bike, and the ride and handling reflect that. The Mukluk seems much more like a mountain bike, albeit a mountain bike with some big shoes. I look forward to getting it on some singletrack trail, this summer, and rolling over whatever gets in my way!

I am still debating whether to keep the Fat Sand, or sell it. I could use the money, but it works so well as a commuter that I hate to give it up. If I keep it, it will get fenders and a rear rack for workhorse duty. I think I will keep the Mukluk in more "offroad" trim, sans fenders. Though, I might put front and rear racks on it and do a little bike camping with it.

Fat, my friends, is where it's at!

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Teaser

2012-02-03T19:47:00.001-07:00

Since I ended up not flying to Pittsburgh, today, I decided to work on this:

More about it, tomorrow, along with better pictures...

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The Good, The Bad and the Snowy

2012-02-03T14:10:00.001-07:00

I am going to get out of order, here, and address the "bad" first. My flight was cancelled, and my sister and I agreed that it didn't make much sense for me to try and get there, tomorrow night, only to come home on Monday morning. So, no trip to PA for me.

The good? I got a snowy bike ride in, on the orange fat bike. I rode down to Kaladi Brothers and had some coffee, then took off for a frosty cruise around the Washington Park area.

The city now contracts with private snow-removal companies to do a cursory plow down the center of neighborhood streets, when we have a "snow emergency". So, the roads were perfect for the fat bike. I dropped the tire pressure down, and it tracked fine. (I don't know exactly what air pressure I was running. I just lowered it until it felt good).

This was the snow in front of my drive. I did a little experimenting, while I was out, and I confirmed what I had read about these bikes: If you are post-holing through knee-deep snow, you won't be able to ride through it. You need packed snow, such as tire tracks, snow mobile tracks or even cross-country ski tracks to give you a surface the big tires can "float" on.

The snowy? Well, everything. I did a little shoveling, before I left, but the new snow covered over it, pretty well, before I got back.

You can see how deep the snow was, on the drive, by looking at the scooped-out spot where the bike is parked.

I shoveled the walks, the drive, and the street in front of the drive, where the bike was standing in the snow drift in the earlier picture (the shovel is on my front walk). That should make it easier to get in and out, in a couple of days.

That was a nice little workout, by the way.

My new bottom bracket for the Mukluk showed up in the mail, today. So, as soon as the heater takes some of the chill out of the workshop, I will go out there and (hopefully) complete the build on that bike, barring any other complications. Then, I will be able to test it and the knobbier Origin8 Devist8tor tires on the snow, tomorrow.

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Weather Luck and New Glasses

2012-02-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

I am scheduled to fly to Pennsylvania, today, to go to my nephews' high school musical, this weekend. Both of the boys are in the play (probably the only time that will happen), so I figured I would just take a long weekend and fly out.

After a week of above-average temps in the high-50s/low-60s, a Winter Storm moved into Colorado, last night. This is the view from my front door, this morning:

I was originally scheduled to fly out at 8:20, this morning, with a connection in Chicago. Southwest Airlines sent me a text, yesterday, and advised me to change to a direct flight. So, now, I leave at 2:25, this afternoon.

In the meantime, the tv weather gal says it is snowing 3 inches per hour, right now. I am hoping that my new flight doesn't get cancelled...

In the meantime, I picked up my new specs, yesterday:

I was a bit bored with metal frames, so I went with these.

If I have time, I will ride around in the snow on the big fat bike and see how that goes. But, I haven't packed, or done anything else to get ready for flying, yet, so I may not get to. I will have to leave fairly early to get to the airport.

Here's hoping my flight goes out on time!

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Poor Customer Service is Annoying

2012-01-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tree Fort Bikes, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, has moved to the bottom of my list of bicycle parts vendors. I won't declare, "I'll never buy from them, again," because the day may come that I need something that is only available from them. I won't cut off my nose to spite my face.

But, they will be the last place I check for availability.

As you may remember, I recently bought a Salsa Mukluk frame from them. I also ordered a 100mm shell-width bottom bracket and a crank from them, a few days later. On Saturday, when I started to assemble the bike, I found that the crank hit the frame, when installed on the bottom bracket spindle.

I called Tree Fort Bikes, and spoke to the only guy there, apparently, on Sunday. He and I looked at the Fat Bike BB/Cranks page on their website, and he told me that he had no idea why the crank and bottom bracket weren't compatible with my frame. He advised me to call back and talk to one of the "Fat Bike experts", on Monday.

"Cool," I said. "I hope if I need another bottom bracket that I will be able to return this one..."

"Oh, yeah! We'll take care of you. I can't imagine why there isn't more information here, so we'll definitely take it back if you need the other one. This Fat Bike stuff is so new, it's like the Wild West out there. Nobody has any experience with these things, and not many people know what's going on."

"Well, I certainly don't," I said. "I am learning this stuff as I go, on this build."

I thanked him for his help, and rang off. I entered Tree Fort Bikes into my contacts list on the phone, so that I could call the Fat Bike expert, later.

On Monday, I did just that. Once again, I got on their website page, as did the Expert on the other end of the line. Once again, I was told that he, the Expert, had no idea why I was having a problem.

"Let me do some research and I'll call you right back," he said.

That was Monday. Today, I called him, since I never heard back from him.

"Did you figure anything out?" I asked him, after being on hold for 5 ot 6 minutes.

"Yeah, and I have no excuse for not calling you back," he said.

"No problem," I said. "What's the deal?"

"Well," he replied, in a dismissive tone, "it says right in the description that the crank only works with the Howitzer Bottom Bracket."

I was, once again, looking at the website as I talked to him. Even after he told me that, it took me two readings of the description to find where it said that. Still, I had suspected as much. The Howitzer is an external-bearing bottom bracket, so the spindle is longer.

"I'll just order one of those, then," I told him. "What do I need to do about returning the other bottom bracket?"

"Oh, you can't return that," he said. "You installed it in your bike. If we did take it back, you would have to pay a restocking fee."

I thanked him for his "help", and rang off. It isn't going to ruin me, financially, to have a $45.00 bottom bracket I can't use, and I didn't feel like pulling the old "irate customer" act. But, I wasn't particularly happy.

So, I ordered the correct bottom bracket, moved Tree Fort Bikes to the bottom of my preferred vendors list, and started writing this post in my head. I am not saying that you shouldn't buy from them, or that they ow me anything. I just think that, if two different employees can't look at the website and spot what my problem is within five minutes, that it is poor customer service to refuse to exchange the incorrect part I inadvertently ordered...particularly after the first guy assured me that they would, in his words, "take care" of me.

If you do buy from them, make damn sure you order the correct parts if you can't afford to eat the cost of a mistake.

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Relativity

2012-01-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

The coffee shop I go to (Kaladi Brothers) is about 2.2 miles from my house, on my bicycle route. I head down Warren, cut through the D.U. campus, hit Warren where it resumes and then go up the alley to where Kaladi sits on Evans Avenue. It typically takes me 10 to 13 minutes in either direction, on a bicycle, depending on whether or not I have to wait for cross traffic at either Colorado Boulevard or University Boulevard (or both).

Today, I rode to Kaladi on a bike I had built up for Kris, the painter. I built the bike up in trade for the Fuji Touring bike and some unspecified painting to be done in the future. If I get a motorcycle re-sprayed, or want wet-coat on a bicycle, Kris will do it for me.

Kris walked from his house, and rode his bike home. I planned on hitching a ride with Randy, since we had made plans to meet for coffee, this morning. Due to some mix-ups and missed communications, we never got together for coffee. I had left my phone at home, accidentally, and thought Randy would just show up. He was trying to get ahold of me, and never came down since he couldn't confirm with me.

Life in the Information Age.

So, I ended up walking back to my house. I followed the same route home that I had biked, earlier, and was interested in the difference between walking and biking the route. You see a lot more of surroundings when you slow from driving speed to bicycling speed. And, you gain just as much when you slow from bicycling to walking speed.

I now know, for instance, that the entire length of Warren has sidewalk along the north side of the street, except in front of one mansion-style house. (I walked on their grass, because I think that they are no better than anyone else, and should be complying with the zoning ordinance which requires the sidewalk to be there.) Also, the first three houses on Warren, west of Colorado, have dates stamped into their walks and driveways indicating that they were built in 1961, the year I was born.

Useless information, for sure, but interesting to me in that context.

The walk took me about 35 minutes. I was strolling, doing the walking equivalent of the riding I usually do. As I have left my 30s farther and farther in the rearview mirror, I have found that my average speed on the bike has dropped. Some of that, admittedly, is the result of aging and a loss of strength due to the passage of time. But, a great deal of it has to do with the fact that I have developed a certain...I hesitate to say "mature"...attitude toward speed versus enjoyment. I tend to ride, and walk, at a pleasurable pace, now, rather than a "training" pace.

But, even as slow as my bike riding is, it seems fast relative to my walking speed.

If I had the ability to just pull up stakes and take off on an long-term adventure, I would like to walk from one coast to the other. Then, I would get on a bicycle and ride back to my starting point. Imagine how fast the bike trip would seem, after having walked across America.

Perhaps I would then ride a motorcycle to the opposite coast and fly back. Each consecutive trip would be quicker, and the rewards would dwindle with the increase of speed. But, having the opportunity to directly compare those four modes of transport (foot, pedal, motor, airplane) would be pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, I will have to leave that to a younger, less-encumbered adventurer (or a trust fund baby) to do. I'll just read the book and watch the Travel Channel show about it, I suppose.

Or, maybe I'll get invited along.

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Not That I'm Obsessive, or Anything...

2012-01-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

...but, this is what I do when I am waiting on stuff I've ordered. The first column is "Shipped", the second column is "Received". Everything is on its way.

It's like waiting for Christmas, as a kid.

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Bilbo

2012-01-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

This is what a Carradice Nelson Long-flap (Medium) looks like when the temperature on the way home is 40 degrees warmer than it was on the way to work...

It was 21degrees (F) when I left for work, and 61 when I got home. The wind was up little, on the way home, but I still had an awesome ride (particularly for January 25)!

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Awesome Job!

2012-01-24T17:21:00.001-07:00

I got home, this afternoon, to this box waiting on my front step:

That's a Size Medium glove, for scale.

I opened it up, and this is what I saw:

No packing peanuts...no wadded up paper...just the tiny little box with a WTB headset inside it.

I'm thinking that the mail room could have saved a little postage by putting this in a smaller box, or a padded envelope. (Or they could have put something to keep the headset from rattling around inside the shipping carton.)

Oh, well...I guess they felt that they had to justify the $6.00 shipping, somehow!

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Rolling Along

2012-01-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

I finally got on the rollers that came back to me, recently. I had loaned them to a fellow, a couple of years ago, and he brought them back about 5 days after I had bought a new set. Luckily, I hadn't opened the box on the new set...

I set the wheelbase to match up with the Handsome, and got on for a reaquainting ride. It has been about 5 years since I rode on rollers. Once I was dong the everyday commute, I didn't feel the need to train in the living room. It took me about 15 minutes to get comfortable on them, again.

Man, my spin has deteriorated, through the years! I was riding at anywhere from 95 to 110 rpm cadence, and I really had to concentrate to not bounce up and down on the rollers (a sure way to launch the bike off of them, by the way). I got myself nice and sweaty, and worked the old cardio-vascular system pretty well, though.

Sweaty, but feeling good!

It's A Sickness, I Tell Ya...

2012-01-20T16:42:00.001-07:00

I think everyone has figured out, by now, that I really like my fat bike. But, I just can't get comfortable with the thought of using the long Fat Sand Bike frame on tight singletrack, with the switchback turns that the trails around here commonly feature. And, while I really like commuting on the big tires, I want to do some epic-ish off-road rides on the fat bike.

So...

Brad sent me a link to Tree Fort Bikes, who had last year's Salsa Mukluk framesets on clearance. After hemming and hawing for a while, I bit the bullet and ordered the frameset. It arrived, today.

I think it's pretty, even though it isn't orange.

I had planned on swapping parts from the FSB to the Salsa but, apparently, the Salsa frame is not compatible with internally-geared hubs. So, I have to get, at least, a new wheel, cogset, derailleur and shifter.

Things are never as simple as they seem, at first.

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New Bars On The Fat Bike

2012-01-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

I was talking to Carol, the other day, and I said, "I love the fat bike. But, the more I ride it, the more I dislike the handlebar."

"Well, change it out," she said.

That made sense to me. So, today I went over to Cycle Analyst and bought a no-rise Surly Open Bar, and installed it on the bike.

The Open Bar is 666mm wide, and has a pretty good backsweep to it. This puts my hands in a much more comfortable position. The original bar was killing my wrists.

Here is a comparison of the two bars. As you can see, my reach remains pretty much unchanged. But, the backs of my hands are rotated out, preventing the torsion on my wrists and elbows that I felt with the mtb bar.

It seems odd to me that I find the mtb riser bar so uncomfortable, now. I put many thousands of happy miles on similar bars, back in the day. I suppose I have just been riding on mustache-style bars for so long, now, that I have acclimated to them at the expense of the traditional mtb set-up.

All the cool bikes have kickstands...

I rode the fat bike to work and back (17.3 miles, round trip) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. By the time I was halfway home on Friday, my right wrist felt like there was a needle sticking into it. I suspect that these bars will fix that.

Now, to figure out what to do about fenders...

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Fat and Snowy Commute

2012-01-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

I worked eleven hours, yesterday. When I left work last night, on the motorbike, it was still 60 degrees F at 5:30 PM. Overnight, a cold front moved through. It was 30 degrees and snowing when I left the house, this morning. I worked almost 12 hours, today, and left the lab at 6:30.

The temperature was 15 degrees.

One thing I noticed, this morning, was that the fat bike needs some fenders, if I'm going to commute with it.

The bag catches a lot of spray from that huge tire, and I don't like that. At this point, there are no fenders available for these bikes, commercially. Surly Bikes is making noises about coming out with some, but I may just have to come up with something on my own, in the meantime. (Notice how the tail light points down toward the rear tire, due to how the bag hangs.)

I stopped on the way home to take this picture. My phone told me that I couldn't use the flash "due to cold weather". Good thing I stopped under a light...

Before leaving the lab, I used my big brain to come up with some cutting-edge technology to solve my droopy-light problem.

I had a good ride home. There was quite a bit of the churned-up snow, which I now refer to as "dry slush", that I usually hate so much. But, the fat bike rolled right over it. That makes me even more glad, now, that I pulled the trigger on this bike. Now, if only one of my friends would come up with one so we could ride together...

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This Is How You Do a Title Sequence

2012-01-09T20:05:00.002-07:00

I went to see "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", on Saturday, with Sir Randall of Caley. The movie was good, with a few significant deviations from the book (mostly in order to keep the length of the movie manageable, I think).

Anyway, the movie was good, the title sequence was awesome.

I guess you have to go to YouTube to watch it on Full Screen.

Winter! Bah!

2012-01-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

I have had a cold for about 6 days, now. I am a lot better, but not quite "well", at this point. Because of that, I really don't feel like riding a bicycle. So, it was somewhat annoying when it snowed, Saturday night. I wasn't sure if the roads would be clear enough to ride the motorbike to work, today.

Luckily, the roads were okay. There was a bit of ice on the street leaving my neighborhood, and some patches on the frontage road along I-70, as well as one nice big patch of inch-thick ice below the overpass, on Holly.

The worst conditions, though, were in our parking lot, at work.

This is the view across the lot, looking at my bike from the perspective of my normal parking spot. Apparently, our snow-removal company didn't bother to come out, so the shady side of the lot still had two inches of snow on it, this morning. By the time I snapped this shot, the cars driving through had compressed the snow into ice. It was pretty treacherous to walk on, so I really didn't want to ride the Scrambler on it.

There was still a bit of ice in the shady spots on the road, as I came home. But, it was pretty rideable. I got home with no problems, in any case.

I'll be glad when Spring comes...

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Eyes Wide Open

2012-01-03T17:02:00.001-07:00

Christopher left a comment on Saturday's post which read, in part, "I am glad that you are still enjoying the bike, I have not heard many good reviews of that bike, vs. the Surly or Salsa, but if anyone can make it work it's you."

So far, I am enjoying the bike a lot. I suspect that, if I had bought the bike with the intention of competing in snow-bike races that it probably wouldn't compare to well with the Surlys and Salsas. I will probably take it up to the snow and find some snowmobile tracks to follow, and see how it works in the snow. I figure that the extended rear end will limit the traction on steep climbs (though some Surly Nate tires might take care of that), and it does weigh a few pounds more than the more expensive bikes.

But, for commuting on snowy days, and just knocking around for the fun of it, I don't know if paying more than twice as much for a bike would get me twice as much enjoyment. I'm having a ball just riding around town on the thing!

Speaking of commuting, I took the fat bike to work, today. Obviously, the roads are pretty clear, and I didn't need the big tires. But, I wanted to take it in and show it to some of the guys in the lab.

As you can see, I transferred the Nelson Longflap saddle bag over from the Handsome, and mounted some lights on the bars. I was concerned about how long it might take to get to work, but it ended up taking 39 minutes, door to door. That is within a couple of minutes of my normal time on the Handsome (counting stops at lights, etc.)

EDIT: My morning route is 8.3 miles, and slightly downhill, overall. I forgot to time my ride on the 9 mile route home from work.

The weather was nice for commuting. The temperature was 41 degrees F when I left the house, at 5:20 AM. This was my front-door thermometer reading when I got home, at 4:15 PM. No wind, partly cloudy skies. Not too shabby for early January in Denver.

It seems to me that you could fab up a big rack for the back, and mount some Xtracycle Wideloaders and you would have a heckuva nice heavy-duty camping/adventure bike.

All that being said, if I do see a bargain on a Mukluk frameset, I will probably jump on it, just to get the shorter wheelbase. I have the parts to build it up, courtesy of the Fat Sand Bike, after all...

I am considering changing out the handlebars. I am no longer a big fan of mountain bike bars. I'm thinking something akin to mustache bars (there's a surprise). The bar has to be compatible with mountain bike components, though, so that I can mount the twist shifter for the Nexus hub.

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The Scrambler Gets Some Love

2012-01-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

I bought some Progressive Shocks for the Scrambler, a while back. Today, I finally got around to installing them.

I don't have a motorcycle lift (yet), so I used my swingarm stand to lift the bike, then I placed those asphalt paver blocks under the frame. I put a piece of plywood between the top block and the frame, then pulled the swingarm stand out. That took the weight off of the rear wheel so that I could remove the stock shocks and replace them with the Progressives.

This is one of the stock shocks. The damping on these leaves a bit to be desired, and that is why I replaced them. I went with the stock length, on the replacements, so the stance of the bike is unchanged.

The black body of the Progressive shocks looks cool next to the black swingarm. And, the nitrogen gas-charged body should provide better damping on bumpy dirt-road conditions.

It's a subtle difference, visually, but I like the look of the new shocks. Riding around the neighborhood, I don't feel any difference in the ride. But, with a load of camping equipment on the bike, out on the road, I expect the bike to behave a little more nicely.

While I had the motorbike and the fat bike both in the drive, I just had to do a comparison of the tire sizes between the two bikes. The rear motorbike tire wins, size-wise, but the front fat bike tire appears wider than the front tire on the Triumph!

I am still quite amused by the new fat bike.

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Evolution

2011-12-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

The fat bike continues to take shape.

I took the black Brooks B-17 saddle off of the ti Funk, and mounted it on the fatty. The comfort level immediately jumped up about 1000 points. I also aired the tires up to 20 psi, front and rear. I had ridden down to the coffee shop, and back at 10 psi, and I wondered if the low pressure affected the feel of the bike.

D Funk test-rode it, while we were leaving, as did Dave from behind the counter. Both of them mentioned the weird "dropping to one side" feel that the bike had, just as you initiated a turn. After I aired the tires to 20 psi, though, the handing became much more normal. Plus, it rolls a bit more easily, now, as well.

The Shimano Nexus 8-speed rear hub shifts nicely. I have never owned an internally-geared hub with more than three speeds, before, and I am pretty impressed with the operation of the hub. I may eventually put a 2 or 3-ring crank on the bike to give me the ultra-low granny gear I would want to ride up some of the Front Range climbs, but the current set-up seems fine for around Denver.

I replaced the saddle on the Funk with a brand-new Honey Brown B-17 that I ordered from Nashbar, a while back. A combination of sale price, one-day-only price reduction and free shipping got the saddle to my door for $69.00. I had to wait about 12 weeks, because they were out of stock, but at that price I won't complain. Eventually, I will rewrap the bars with some brown tape, or something. Maybe some Ergon grips...?

I also put these new pedals, from Performance, on the Funk. They have a lower profile than the older model, but with the same size platform. They are quite a bit lighter in weight, and the color matches the ti frame a bit better than the old black pedals. I bought these for this bike, after swapping the older pedals over to the fat bike.

So now, with the addition of the fat bike, I have 11 bikes on which I have to take at least one epic ride, this year. Tomorrow is new Year's Day, but I haven't really planned my annual ride. I think I might keep it solitary, this year. Turnout has been pretty light, the last couple of years, anyway.

I think I might just take the fat bike out for the afternoon, and get acquainted.

x

Need...or...Want...Got!

2011-12-30T15:35:00.002-07:00

A while back, I wrote a post on this blog called Need...or...Want, which was about my desire to get a "snow bike" or "fat bike" (depending on which term you prefer). Then, last Thursday, we had a snow storm which made me actually need one of those bikes. But, I still couldn't afford to buy a Pugsley or a Mukluk. And I certainly couldn't afford a custom bike.

Coincidentally, a bike rental shop in Florida was selling off its fleet of Fat Sand Bikes, on eBay. They are a cheaper alternative, with a bit different design (particularly the long rear triangle). But, at $820.00 shipped, I could justify it as a Christmas gift to myself.

So, I ordered one up, and it was waiting for me when I got home from Tennessee, last night.

I put it together, today, but not in the exact set-up that they sent. For one thing, this weight-lifting equipment that they call a seat and seat post had to go:

I'm not sure what happened when I loaded this photo onto the computer. Maybe the gravitational field of the thing bent the light, or something. Anyway, that set-up weighs 6 or 7 pounds, so I stuck another seat post and an old Flite saddle on it, for now. It may end up with another seat. We will just have to see.

I also put some better pedals on it. I like the heavy-duty bmx pedals from performance, so I screwed a pair of them into the crankarms.

It has no front brake, out of the box. But, I had an old Avid BB-5 lying in the parts box, so I jacked it on. I had to put spacers behind the rotor to keep the caliper from pinging the spokes, but otherwise it went right on.

The fork actually allows for dual discs on the front. But, the fork is flexible enough that I don't know if that's a good idea. Plus, the single disc on front , along with the band brake built into the 8-speed IGH seems to stop the bike pretty well.

The long rear end makes wheelies a bit difficult, and that might come into play on a trail ride. If you need to lift the front end to get over an obstacle, it might be a drawback.

But, it is a blast to ride around, so far.

When I first decided to get a mountain bikes, I was in a similar frame of mind to how I now feel about the Fat Bikes. I wasn't sure how much I would use one, and I couldn't throw down the bucks for a high-end bike to find out. So, I went to Sam's Club and bought a Motiv, which was a pretty good beginner-level bike, at the time. As it turned out, that bike was a springboard into a very important part of my life.

My thoughts about this bike are that, if I get seriously into riding this kind of bike and the frame design becomes a hindrance, I have all of the parts I need to build up another frameset. So, I might end up buying a Mukluk frameset, in that case, and swapping parts over. I did that same thing when I got into riding 29-inch mountain bikes, too, and it worked out nicely.

Happy trails!

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T16:30:00.002-07:00

I am spending some time in Tennessee, with my mother, for the holiday. I hope that you all are with loved ones, as well.

x

Fun/Not Fun

2011-12-22T21:28:00.002-07:00

As I left the house, this morning, there was about 10 inches of snow on the street. For once, the weather guessers got it right, and we actually got the big storm they had been promising. But, even though the snow was deep, it was rideable, and I had a fun ride into the lab.

My return trip, however, was no fun at all. During the day, the auto traffic on the streets had churned the snow up, in places, rather than packing it down. I ended up pushing the bike about as much as I rode it. In fact, I had to carry it for a block, at one point, because I couldn't roll it!

It took me over two hours to cover the nine miles between the lab and home. I was not happy, when I got here.

Thousand yard stare...

I had shoveled the walk and part of the drive, before I left this morning. During the day, we got a few more inches of accumulation:

You can see the tracks, above, where I rode the bike into the driveway. Notice the footprints where the cranks dug down into the snow. The snow is almost up to the bottom bracket on the bike, which is 13-1/2 inches high, since I converted the bike to 700c wheels:

I am heading for Tennessee, tomorrow morning, to spend Christmas with my mom.. I am hoping it won't snow while I am there. I have already had enough of this for the winter, and the snowiest months are yet to come.

x

Follow-Through

2011-12-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

About a week and a half ago, I wrote a piece on the story blog about Moots Mounts. Here, if you want to read it.

Today, I was thinking about the challenges that I am facing with getting brakes installed on the Fuji Touring, with 700c wheels, and I was inspired to look at the Problem Solvers website. I figured that if anyone was going to have a similar product, it would be these guys. Unfortunately, they had nothing like the Moots Mounts.

But, they did have a page on which you could request a product which they don't already have. So, I sent off a request for a Moots Mounts-like item.

Tonight, I saw that I had a reply from Ben, at Problem Solvers. He assured me that he would run it past the Product Manager, and get back to me.

Fingers crossed!

x

Art of Dubious Taste

2011-12-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in such, check out my new piece...

x

Need...or...Want

2011-12-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

Do you ever decide that you want something so badly that you come to feel that you need it, even though your life is perfectly fine without it?

I have (on numerous occasions).

Currently, the "need devil" on my shoulder is whispering in my ear about a Fat Bike. You know; a Surly Pugsley, or a Salsa Mukluk, or something similar.

There is a couple of things keeping me from running out and buying one. The first is cost. These bikes range from $1599 to close to $2000 new, and used examples are rare as hen's teeth (and not much cheaper than a new one, to boot).

Now, I could come up with the money, if I really wanted to. I am no stranger to robbing Peter to pay Paul. I could sell some stuff and finance the purchase. But, the other consideration, the thing that actually keeps me from pulling the trigger on purchasing one of these bikes, is that I have absolutley no real use for one.

When I bought my Handsome XOXO, I justified the cash outlay by deeming the bike to be a commuter. And, I have used it as such. Every time I ride it to work, the cost becomes that much less of a concern to me.

But, the Fat Bike would be nothing but an expensive toy. I couldn't really use it as a winter commuter. The problem we have in the winter is not deep snow on the road but, rather, ice on the road. No matter how fat the tires, if they aren't studded they are going to slip on ice.

And, it's not like I have a bunch of friends going snow-biking all winter and leaving me behind. I would be the only person in my acquaintance who had one of these, and I would end up riding alone (and therefore, not very often).

So far, I have managed to stay logical and hold on to my money.

But, man, that new Mukluk is awfully cool!

x

Five Below Zero

2011-12-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

That was the temperature, when I left for work on the bike, this morning (20 below, for you Celcius-heads...). I wore my thick Alpaca sweater, rather than my usual thin wool sweater. Plus, I had my snowboard gloves, with liners, inside my bar mitts, and ski socks over my bike socks. Otherwise, I just wore my usual gear, and I was quite comfy. My feet were just beginning to get cold as I arrived at work (38 minutes).

The top layer snow on the roads is too cold to pack down, and it's a lot like riding through sand to push through it, though the snow from the previous two storms is packed pretty nicely underneath. We have had three Arctic cold fronts move through Denver in the past week, it has snowed on 4 or 5 occasions (depending on what part of town you live in), and our temperature has not gotten over the freezing mark since last Wednesday.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to hit 40F, here in town. I hope I don't have a heat stroke on the way home.

I have to admit that I am glad we've had all of the snow. It gives me an excuse to ride the bike, and no excuse to not ride the bike. And, I need to ride . While I don't want to go back to the "bike every day, no matter what" mode, I miss the fitness benefits. So, this week has been good, if somewhat tiring, so far.

One thing I don't miss about the every day bike ride, though, is having to go to bed early in order to not be dragging my butt in the morning. That is one of the big benefits of riding the motorcycle to work: I can watch Letterman, if I want to.

But, the big downfall of tht is that I had to let my belt out a notch, after Thanksgiving, and I haven't gotten it back to the original notch yet. Hopefully, this week's activity will help with that!

x

Snow! This Entire Mountain Is made of Snow!

2011-12-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite scenes from Better Off Dead is when Charles De Mar (played by Curtis Armstrong) makes the exclamation about the snow, and starts snorting it off of his tophat. It is a totally absurd scene, in a movie full of them.

I rode to Kaladi Brothers, and back, in the midst of a large amount of snow this morning. It was the first time I had been on a bike in a couple of weeks, and it felt good.

I could have ridden in the snow going to work and back, Thursday and Friday, but I was out sick. I had a heck of an allergic reaction to something, and ended up with a hives-like rash (Allergic Dermatitis, as the doctor said, yesterday) on my neck, wrists and groin. It felt a lot like someone had poured gasoline on me and set it on fire.

The doc asked if I had worn any new clothes, used a new detergent or shampoo, etc, trying to find an explanation for it. The only new and/or unusual thing in my life was my little fir tree that Joy sends me for Christmas, every year. I noticed that my head stopped up, immediately, as I pulled it out of the box, last week. I ended up putting it on my table in the front yard, Wednesday night.

The tree looks pretty cool with the snow on it.

The rash is better, and the antihistamines, plus prescription anti-itch cream have allowed me to finally sleep through a night. So, hopefully, I am done with that nonsense.

Looks like I will get to ride on some ice and snow for the next few days. I'm looking forward to it.

x

RoadBlock

2011-12-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Many of you recognize the fact that my Fuji Touring bike was built for 27" wheels. Of course, I wish to convert it to 700c. I've done this with dozens, maybe hundreds, of old road bikes throughout the years. Some have been a straight swap of the wheels, adjustment of the brake pads and ride away-type conversions.

Others have involved various levels of modification to the brakes, or frames. Most have not involved cantilever brakes.

The last touring bikes I got ahold of and converted to 700c were a couple of Panasonics. Luckily, the cantilevers were mounted in a spot on the frame and fork which allowed the smaller wheels to be run with a minimum of adjustment.

You probably have figured out, by this point, that this is not the case with the Fuji.

Here is a close-up shot of the new brakes and new wheels on the bike:

At the lowest setting of the pad, it hits the tire. So, it would seem that the pad needs to be lower.

With that in mind, I clamped the brake arm into the drill-press, and punched a lower hole to mount the pad. (So much for any warranty...)

Unfortunately, even with the lower position, the pad still hits the tire. The cantilever mount on the fork (and the frame, on the rear) is too close for the brake to swing through a decent arc, with these rims.

Since I can't move the pivot outward, I decided to try a narrower rim. These rims are 25.4mm wide; a full inch. I really wanted to use them, since the burly cross-section makes me feel more comfortable on mixed-terrain rides.

I have a set of wheels with 19mm Wolber rims on them, and they seem to work, though just barely.

As much as I love the look of these brakes, I may have to try something else. Even with the narrower rims, they are barely useable, and the fit certainly doesn't leave much room for knocking a rim out of true, or out of round, on a rough ride.

Stay tuned.

x

How Many Bikes Do You Have?

2011-11-26T13:35:00.001-07:00

Get yourself a drink, and settle in. This is a long post.

How many bikes do I have? That is a question that I hear dozens of times a year (if not more). People find out that I am a bicycle enthusiast, and they automatically ask how many I have. I really have never known how to answer that question, though.

For one thing: What constitutes a bike? Do I only count the ready-to-ride examples, completely built up and with air in the tires? Or, do I also count the disassembled (or yet to be assembled) frames and parts that would be a whole bike if they were all attached to each other? How about bare framesets? Are they "bikes".

Usually, I end up giving some long-winded answer about whole bikes/partial bikes/frames...or I just say, "I don't really know."

Recently, I came up with a plan that will allow me to answer that question, without any qualifications.

I have ten bikes:

My criteria for whether or not a bike is a bike:

1. It is complete, with all of the parts.
2. I am planning on keeping it for my own personal use, and it actually gets used.
3. It's not for sale, and not for display (like the Iver Johnson, and the Pink Bike).

Recently, I mentioned on the story blog, that I had a bike plan for next year which would serve two purposes. I will get back to riding for fun, and I will be better able to keep my fitness up and my weight down.

I don't plan on going back to the daily bike commute. That was fun, while I was doing it, but I am over it. I will bike commute, when I feel like it (and as convenient training), but I really want to get back into bicycling as a fun pastime, as well. When I commute every day, I really don't have much desire to go out on the weekends and ride my bikes with my friends. I'd rather do something else, something I haven't already done 10 times that week.

So, my plan for this coming year is simple:

Ten Bikes, Ten Long Rides

I plan to ride each of these bikes on a century ride, at least once, through the course of the next 12 months. If I am riding off-road, I will accept a half century (50 miles) as sufficient, for this goal.

I have a tentative order in which I plan on riding the bikes. Here it is, along with an explanation of why each bike falls in its relative position (subject to change):

1. 2010 Handsome XOXO

This is a relatively easy bike to ride, and I will be in probably the least-fit shape of all for the first ride. So, it makes sense to ride an accommodating bike. Plus, it is relatively new, and I have never done a long ride on it. So, I want to break it in with a century.

2. 1992 Bridgestone XO-2

This is another easy-to-ride bike, and it is a known entity. I have done a few long rides, including more than one century, on this bike and it will be accommodating as my fitness is still in the relatively low range. Plus, I will get to compare it back-to-back to the XOXO, which is a fairly close copy of this bike. It will be interesting to see if I notice a performance difference between the two bikes.

3. Prototype FUNK Titanium Daily Grind

This is the bike I designed for FUNK Bicycles, as a go-anywhere, do-anything all-rounder. I am hoping to get one of those late-winter/early spring good-weather windows and do a gravel grind on this one. I will be content with a half-century, for that ride, if it comes about.

The order may change on this one, because Dave Webb and I are considering doing an organized Gravel Century that one of the shops in Parker puts on.

4. 1989 Specialized RockCombo

Yet another 26"-wheeled bike made with road bike geometry, back in the day. I am thinking that the ride for this bike should entail a preponderance of gravel road. So, if the titanium bike switches out of order to do the organized ride, then this becomes the Spring gravel-ride bike. (If the ti bike stays in order, I will just do two gravel rides in a row.)

5. 1974 Peugeot UO-8 Fixed Gear Conversion

By the time my 5th long ride of the year rolls around, I should have enough fitness to enjoy the fixed gear for 100 miles in a shot. This is one of the smoothest-riding bikes I own, and I am looking forward to this particular ride. I rode fixed almost exclusively, for a couple of years, and just got away from it for a while. Now, I want to put it into the mix, again, but not to the exclusion of my geared bikes.

6. 2008 Raleigh XXIX Singlespeed MTB/Monstercross

I have found that I don't particularly care for riding singlespeed 29ers with mountain bike tires on them. But, with 38c or 42c cyclocross tires and off-road drop bars, they are a lot of fun. This is one of my old commuters, put back into service as an off-roader.

Hopefully, by the time I get ready to ride this bike, the mountain trails will be snow-free, and I will be able to get a good 50-mile off-road jaunt in.

7. 1988 Specialized RockHopper 700c Fixed Conversion (Snow Bike Commuter)

After an off-road singlespeed ride, I should be ready for an off-road fixed gear ride. This bike started as a 1988 RockHopper, which I converted to a dedicated singlespeed "vintage-style" path racer for Brad. Brad later gave it back, and I converted it to 700c wheels, and I run my studded snow tires on it during the winter, for icy commutes.

I will stick some cyclocross tires on it, and probably follow the same route that I ride on the Raleigh, just to see what a difference going from a freewheel to a fixed gear will make.

8. Mid-80s Fuji Touring

Back to the road/mixed terrain world with this bike. I may work some gravel in, along with pavement, just for fun. This bike will be set up quite differently by the time I take its ride. I plan to install my Campagnolo Racing Triple stuff, from the mid-90s, and some mustache-style bars (of course) on this bike. It should make a heck of an all-rounder, at that point.

9. Late 80s Nishiki Ariel

I will be changing out the bars, shifters, tires, pedals and saddle on this vintage elevated chainstay mountain bike before I take any long rides on it. But then, I will take the vintage mtb on a vintage mtb ride. Moab, or Fruita, or Crested Butte...some place like that will be a good setting for an off-road jaunt on this beast.

That is all of the bikes in the picture from the driveway. So, what is the tenth bike?

10. 1995 Rideable Bicycle Replicas Boneshaker

I have ridden many rides of 65 to 80 miles on this bike, in the past, and I know that it will require the highest level of fitness, so it gets the last century ride of the bunch. I'm not sure where I will ride this one. I may even go out on the eastern plains of Colorado and ride the relatively flat, though windy, terrain out there, just to avoid the repetition of the bike path loop here in Denver (where I have done most of my long rides on this bike). Maybe not...I'll figure it out, when the time comes.

So, that's the plan for getting some fun rides under my belt, increasing my fitness, and utilizing all of my bikes during the riding season. Like I said, all of the plans are flexible. If I get a chance to go to Fruita in March, then the Nishiki Ariel may get used a lot earlier than I have laid it out in this post. Or, if the roads stay snowy late into Spring, then the knobby tired bikes may see paved road action rather than waiting to ride the mountain trails...

Anyway, wish me luck. At my age, I need it!

x

Telling Secrets

2011-11-19T16:32:00.001-07:00

Well, I don't want to be too mysterious, so here's the new bike project:

It's a Fuji touring bike, mid-80s from the looks of it. I swapped the wheels, before I took these pictures, but other than that, this is the "before" shot.

I love Fuji bikes, and I love touring bikes. So, when I got a chance to trade for this, I jumped at it. The bike has a lot of cool tuches, like the chromed and pantagraphed fork crown...

...the stylized Mt. Fuji head tube badge...

...and quad-butted tubing. It also had the chainstay-mounted extra spokes, which act as a chain-slap preventer, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Next time...

It has a little wear and tear on it, including this little shallow dent in the downtube. But, overall, it is in good shape and has a pleasing patina.

I am hoping that my new brakes will allow enough adjustment to line up the pads with the 700c rims on these wheels. If not, I'll make them work, anyway. I would just prefer that it be easy, for once.

I bid on some 8-speed Campy bar-end shifters, on eBay. I was really hoping to get them, and round out the drivetrain with Campy parts. But, even though I bid a stupid amount for them ($122.00!), I still lost the auction. I just bought some Shimano Ultegra bar-ends to put on, instead. I'll run friction, at half the cost.

Now, I suppose, I need to sell the Nishiki road bike with the gold SunTour cranks to someone. This bike will take the place of that one.

x

Gimme a Brake

2011-11-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

I have a new super-secret skunk works bike project in the works, and I have begun to gather the parts I don't already have in the shop.

I got these Tektro high-profile cantilevers from Niagara Cycle Works. They supposedly are pretty powerful, but I bought them mostly because they will fit the aesthetics of the frame I am building up.

I will be using my old Campagnolo Racing Triple drivetrain. I am trying to decide whether to use the Campy ErgoShift levers (brake and shifter combo), or to use bar-end shifters and separate brake levers.

I like the Ergo levers, but they don't really go with the frame.

Decisions...decisions...

I'll post more info, including photos of the frame, soon.

x

I Didn't Do This...

2011-11-08T19:07:00.002-07:00

...but I sure wish I had.

x

I Guess I'm Getting Lazy

2011-11-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much bicycling, lately. For most of the summer, I was nursing the Achilles Tendon on my right leg, and didn't ride at all.

Now, I am riding again, but I am only riding back and forth to work. And, I am only doing that when the weather is bad.

Having broken my consecutive-days streak at 838, I find myself unmotivated to ride when the weather is nice. I jump on the motorbike, and putt back and forth. The advantage to that is that I get home a little less tired and sweaty, and I have more time and energy for some of my other pastimes (music, in particular).

But, the lazy thing is that I don't even get on the bike, for fun, on the weekends. Though, I have to admit, that a great part of the reason for that is that I don't have anybody to ride with, generally. Most of my old gang, with whom I rode constantly, 10 years ago, have moved on in life and don't have as much time for riding.

Babies have been born, other babies have gotten old enough that they have a lot of activities that need to be attended, health issues have cropped up (such as my tendonitis, as well as other things for other people)...We just aren't as young and active as we used to be.

I don't have the kid situation affecting me, and my health is good enough to allow a lot more riding than I have been doing, lately. But, I just don't enjoy riding alone as much as I used to. I actually blame that on the long-term daily commuting.

An hour and a half a day, every work day, for four years was plenty of solitary riding to suit me.

Maybe I need to join a club, or form a club, or club myself over the head with a seat post until I feel the need to ride alone. I don't know.

I really have a desire to go mountain biking since I didn't get to do much, this summer. But, a lot of the trails in the mountains are already snowed in. And, again, I have no desire to go out by myself.

Boo hoo for Jon.

I was going to upload some pictures from last week's snowy commute, but the computer doesn't seem to like the files.

Oh, well...

x

Weather Dot Com

2011-11-01T16:57:00.000-06:00

I feel like that's what I have become, since I only seem to post when I want to talk about the weather.

We have another snowstorm approaching Denver. This one is supposed to ice the roads up, here in town, unlike the last one.

I got the snow bike out, this afternoon, after work and swapped the 49 tooth chainring to a 36 tooth ring. I rode with my "summer gear" on the bike, last week, which was fine since the streets stayed mostly dry. But, I find that I like a pretty low gear if I am pushing through a few inches of snow, especially on the uphills.

I'm looking forward to a snowy ride. I enjoy that.

x

Snow Ride...Take it Easy...

2011-10-26T17:06:00.000-06:00

If Foghat was around, that's what they would be singing.

Of course, we didn't get quite as much snow as predicted, but we got enough.

It was snowing lightly as I left the house at 4:25 A.M. As I went north, the rate of snow, and the size of the flakes, increased. There was a slight north wind, but nothing bothersome. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant ride. The snow in the parking lot was about as much as I saw on any pavement.

On the way home, there was plenty of snow on the grass. But, the roads and bike paths are still clear. but wet.

The trees are catching the brunt of the storm. This one has already lost it leaves, but those which are still leafy are bowing in obeisance to the snow gods. There were plenty of small limbs, and a few big 'uns, lying in the road, or in people's yards, on the way home.

The bar mitts kept my hands toasty in the 28-degree weather. Wool pants sweater, along with a breathable waterproof jacket kept the rest of me warm and dry.

The warm weather, of late, kept the pavement too warm to accumulate snow. The temperature is supposed to drop to 18 degrees, tonight, though. So, I suspect that the roads will be a bit icy, in the morning. I suspect the studded tires will come more into play, then, than they did, today.

x

First Snow

2011-10-25T20:30:00.001-06:00

We are supposed to have 3 to 6 inches of snow on the ground, by the time I go to work, tomorrow morning. It was 80 degrees, two days ago, and 55 degrees, today.

Fall, in Colorado.

Yesterday, when I got home from work, I swapped the studded tires onto the fixed gear commuter. Then, I made sure all of my necessaries were in the panniers, and hooked the charger up to the headlight. The replaceable batteries in the flashing headlight and the rear blinky check out. Once I had the bar-mitts strapped on, I was prepared.

I rode the motorbike to work, today, just because I probably won't get to for the rest of the week. Tomorrow morning (and afternoon, if we get the total of 12" of snow they are predicting) should be fun.

Of course, the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-60s, this weekend...

x

Funny

2011-10-20T16:50:00.000-06:00

Check out this picture I took, on the way home, over on my Tumblr.

x

Points Of Interest About My Handsome XOXO

2011-10-18T17:19:00.000-06:00

When I built up the XOXO, I used the 175mm XT cranks that I had taken off of the titanium FUNK. I took them off of the ti-bike because I was having a severe problem with pedal-strike in turns. I had accidentally specced the bottom bracket height a bit low, on the FUNK, so I figured that the cranks were just too long for the bike. I replaced them with 165mm XT cranks, and put these aside for later use.

Now, I have the 175 cranks on the XOXO, with a standard 12-1/2" bottom bracket height. And, I am having problems with pedal strike in the turns.

Now, I will admit that any crank/pedal combination can be touched down, if you are riding aggressively enough. I'm hitting the pedal on the pavement as I turn from one street to another at 12 or 13 mph!

Take a look at the picture, above this paragraph, and note the wide Q-factor (distance between the pedals) which is produced by a combination of the outboard bottom bracket bearings and the profile of the crank arms.

Yes, the pedals are fairly large, but they are actually a bit smaller than the pedals on my Bridgestone XO-2 (which also has 175mm cranks), and I don't have this problem on that bike. The XO-2 has a standard bottom bracket, and lower-profile crank arms.

I plan to try to just adapt my riding-style to mitigate the problem, but I may end up replacing these cranks, yet again.

You can see, by the amount of material removed from the pedal spike, that when I say I am grounding the pedals, I don't mean that they are just brushing the pavement. When this happened, it kicked the rear wheel up into the air, and I almost crashed.

Another interesting point about the bike concerns the drivetrain. I originally built the bike up with a 9-speed SRAM cogset, 8-speed Ultegra shifters and this SunTour XC Pro derailleur. I planned on using the shifters in friction mode, so the mismatch of the components didn't matter. But, I didn't like the 9-speed cogset for a friction-shift bike.

I found the 9-speed cog spacing to be just a bit too close for me to easily get good clean shifts. I am used to 7 or 8 speed cogsets, in friction mode, and I wasn't enjoying having to spend so much attention to the shifting. (Yes, I am a lazy bicyclist.)

So, I found some 8-speed cogsets and chains at a good price, on Amazon. When they came in, last Thursday, I installed an 8-speed SRAM cogset and chain.

Cool. Now the friction-shifting should be easier. Just for kicks, I set the shifter to "Indexed" mode. I knew it wouldn't work, because SunTour derailleurs are not interchangeable with Shimano derailleurs.

Except, apparently, in this case. The combination of Shimano Ultegra shifter, SRAM cogset and Suntour XC Pro derailleur indexes perfectly.

Weird.

I wish had another of these derailleurs, to see if it would work, or if I just have an odd derailleur.

I think that, maybe, this is a 7-speed derailleur, and the Suntour 7-speed cog spacing must have been very close to Shimano 8-speed cog spacing. Anybody out there know if this is the case?

I have ridden to work, the past two days, despite the fact that my Achilles tendon still hurts. I figure I will just have to get a referral to a foot-and-ankle doctor and see it the specialist can help me out.

In the meantime, I am digging the bike and enjoying the ride.

x

It's Been a While

2011-10-15T16:27:00.000-06:00

I put up a new post over at 52 Card Pickup, today. It is about building a new cigar box guitar.

Check it out here, if you are interested.

There is a bike part on the guitar, so I think that makes it okay to post here. ;-)

New Links

2011-10-10T13:03:00.001-06:00

As many of you know, I like to play guitar and ~~screech~~ sing the occasional song. Lately, I have added to my enjoyment by building cigar box guitars and playing them. Oddly, since I started building and playing my own instruments, my store-bought guitars have gone almost completely unused.

Anyway, if you check the blog links to the right, you will see a link to the Cigar Box Nation site and also a direct link to my video page on the The Nation.

Give them a look-see if you are interested.

EDIT: I also added Myles' Rat Trap Press Tumblr, as well. He is using it, as I do, for those random pictures he wants to share, but not necessarily blog about. I have fun with my Tumblr, I hope Myles does, as well.

x

I Am Easily Distracted, Once Again

2011-10-09T16:47:00.000-06:00

I had the best intentions of installing fenders on the Handsome, yesterday. But, I got distracted by my Raleigh XXIX. I had disassembled it, last year, and used the parts on other bikes. It hung in the shop building as a frame and fork for way too long.

Eventually, I decided that it needed to become a bike, again. So, I ordered some wheels, and started setting parts aside. As I sorted the parts in the shop, preparing for the yard sale, I found a stem here, a seatpost there...I had a set and a half of Avid BB5 disc brakes that I had gathered up one caliper at a time, and some mismatched levers, etc.

I ended up with everything I needed except for a cartridge bottom bracket. I had an old-school bottom bracket, but it just wasn't appropriate for the bike.

Last week, I ordered a UN-54 bottom bracket off of Amazon. Yesterday, it showed up in my mailbox. So, I stuck it in the frame, to keep it from getting lost. One thing led to another, and I did a 90% build on the bike while I was at it.

Today, I put a headset together out of the bottom half of a threaded headset, and the top of a threadless, and cabled up the brakes.

It ended up with an original-version Gary Bar, with the shallow drop, my old Frankensaddle that I repaired a couple of years ago, after the nose tore off, and 42c Kenda WormDrive cross tires. I am running it with a 36/20 drivetrain (48 gear inches, approximately), which should allow me to ride both offroad and onroad, without too much difficulty.

Hopefully I will get a bit more use out of it now that it's back on the road.

Now, maybe I can get started on the fenders on the Handsome...

x

Decisions, Decisions

2011-10-08T10:19:00.000-06:00

Since I have had the Handsome XOXO built up, I have debated with myself about whether or not to put fenders on it. I think all "everyday" bikes (commuters, grocery getters, whatever...) should have fenders, but I really like the look of the bike without them.

Plus, it has been warm and dry and I have not been bicycle-commuting on a daily basis since I built the bike up. Therefore, fenders, or lack thereof, were somewhat meaningless.

Today, I got up to a skim of snow on the back yard, and a steady, fairly heavy rain was falling. I wanted to ride down to the coffee shop but, the XOXO has no fenders, and I don't like spraying road grime all over myself! So, I pulled the RockCombo off of the hooks, out in the shop building, aired the tires up, and rode it to Kaladi Brothers.

That pretty much made the decision for me. I keep the commuter in the house to avoid having to pull a bike down for casual rides and errand-running. So, the XOXO is getting fenders, either today or tomorrow, depending on how my other projects pan out today.

x

Drill Press

2011-10-01T21:02:00.000-06:00

When The Denver Spoke went out of business, they sold off their shop tools and supplies. I bought a big load of tools, including a nice drill press. Since I have had it, I have had it sitting on a stool, in the shop building. It was usable, but its perch was somewhat pecarious.

Recently, at work, we got a new triaxial chamber for our resilient modulus machine. It was shipped to us in a nicely-built plywood and lumber shipping crate. After I unpacked the chamber, I started looking at the crate, and my imagination took hold. I asked my boss, Paul, what we were going to do with the crate. He told me that it was destined for the dumpster, and that I could have it if I wanted it.

Yesterday, Paul hauled the crate to my house for me, so that I wouldn't have to drive the Dodge to the lab and back. This morning, I got the power tools out and went to work. I sawed the panel out of one side of the crate, bolted a couple of the 2"x4" shipping braces to the sides and then cut a plywood shelf to sit on top of them.

Then, I screwed the top back on, and bolted the drill press to it.

Voila:

I have my drills stored on the bottom shelf, with bits on the upper shelf. On top of the stand, I bolted my bench vise down next to the drill press. Behind the press, I have the batteries of my rechargeable drill charging up.

The shop building is slowly coming together.

x

I Am Growing Weary of Straightening Up the Shop Building

2011-09-25T19:46:00.000-06:00

I spent another 8 or 9 hours of working on getting the shop building rearranged and organized, today. Counting all of the time I put in sorting parts and whatnot, as I got ready for the yard sale, I have put well over 40 hours of labor into it!

The motorbikes fit in there a lot better now that I have opened up the floor space a bit. Most of the stuff along the back wall will go into another building, or it will be given away. That will open up even more of the floor.

The top of my work bench is still a mess, but the areas to either side are good to go.

The shelves are organized neatly, and I am actually able to put stuff where it goes, now.

I put a few pictures on the wall, as I worked. I had come across a lot of photocopies of snapshots, and such, when I was cleaning the house and sorting stuff for the yard sale. I figured I might as well hang them up, rather than leave them in a folder, somewhere.

Hopefully, I can get this chore completed by the end of this week!

x

Thanks, Jeremy!

2011-09-22T17:22:00.001-06:00

You may recall that I sorta broke my camera when Brad and I went on our motorcycle camping trip, last month. I managed to fill it up with enough dust that the lens was jamming, rather than closing, as I would turn it off. Even though I eventually got it to take pictures, again, uploading was a hassle and the picture quality seemed somewhat lower than before the trip (dirt behind the lens, perhaps?).

Jeremy read my blog post about the camera woes, and offered to send me a camera he no longer needed. I asked him to let me pay for it, or trade for something, but all he would accept was an Association of Caffeinated Wheelmen pin!

Today, I came home to find a box on my doorstep. Inside was this:

So, I thought it appropriate to take a picture of taking the first picture with the new camera. The Scrambler is always photogenic, so I pointed the new camera at it:

Thanks, again, Jeremy!

It seems that I meet the nicest people on Two Wheels...

x

My Tax Dollars at Work

2011-09-19T17:25:00.001-06:00

They finally repaved my street, for the first time in 28 years (so I'm told).

Brand-new, smooth as glass, black as my soul pavement...it just doesn't seem like home, now. I think I preferred the old scabby, patched-up, character-filled, pitted surface to this.

Change is hard, sometimes.

x

Busy Weekend - Good Yard Sale

2011-09-19T05:19:00.000-06:00

I had a good turnout at the yard sale, and sold about 90% of my stuff. But, that leaves me with a few boxes of parts to dispose of. I suppose I will take them to the Bike Co-Op and donate them.

I was so tired, last night, that I went out to dinner rather than cook. I lived on bagels and cream cheese, Saturday, and had the same for breakfast, Sunday. Then, I realized I had not eaten or had anything to drink, all day. So, I hit Poppies, down the street, and had a nice celebration dinner.

I got home, took a shower and fell into bed. Out like a light...

Got up this morning to a message from Carol, on my phone, "Story, tonight?" it read. The time-stamp was 8:30, last night (while I was in the shower).

"Dammit," I thought. So, I wrote two stories, this morning. I am still averaging one per day, at least...

x

Sometimes I love The Shuffle Mode on the iPod

2011-09-17T19:17:00.002-06:00

Treat Her Right,

by George Thorogood...followed by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Skunk .

Yeah!

x

Scenes From the Yard Sale

2011-09-17T15:24:00.000-06:00

Here are a few shots of the spread, just before it started raining at 3:00 PM:

I had already sold five bikes before I took this picture. Three of the bikes in this picture are consignment bikes, which probably won't sell...

I had sold four or five good-sized boxes of parts out of this stuff, too...

Brad's Raleigh XXIX (brand new, never ridden). I t will probably sell for $500 (half retail)...

Five frames.partial bikes already gone..

Man, I had a lot of stuff!

x

Getting Ready For the Sale

2011-09-15T19:43:00.000-06:00

Built up a few bikes, today, for the yard sale.

This is an Iverson ten-speed. I got it as a junk bike, with drop bars and down-tube shifters. I swapped bars and stem, threw on some tourist-style brake levers, friction thumb shifters, and new tires/tubes, then topped it off with gold metal-flake Schwinn grips and an Electra sprung saddle.

It is a lugged frame, but the rear dropouts are attached with the crimp/spot weld method that you see on old Huffy bikes. The alloy Bluemels fenders are probably worth more than the bike, itself. But, I love that green paint, and I think the bike will work well as a neighborhood cruiser.

I picked this Schwinn World Sport up for a guy who ended up finding another bike without telling me. In the old days, I would have converted this to a fixed gear or single speed. It has horizontal drops and a bolt-on rear wheel, so it would lend itself to conversion. As it is, I am trying to build bikes I can sell at yard-sale prices, so I just cleaned it and tuned it.

This little 53cm SOMA (no connection to the currently-available SOMA brand) came to me on a trade. Some cleaning and lubing, a few adjustments, and some bar tape got it ready to ride/sell.

I figure I'll mark the green bike at $100, and the other two at $50 each. That gives me room to bargain, and still get my labor time and parts cost back. As I said in my Craigslist ad, the "flippers" are going to love my sale. I have stuff priced so that someone could buy it and resell for a profit.

I think of it as Craigslist Wholesale...

I have a couple of mountain bikes to get ready, tomorrow. Then, I will be as ready as I will get for the yard sale.

x

Despite My Camera Woes

2011-09-11T18:11:00.001-06:00

I have figured out a way to post some pictures. My broken camera will still take pictures (though I think the quality is degraded a bit), but it won't upload them to my computer.

So, I take pictures, then pull the SD card out and put it in this cheap little $25.00 video camera I have, and use it as a disc drive to load the pics onto my Mac. (Why can't Apple just put a slot for SD cards in the damn computer?)

Here, then, are some pictures of my life, at the moment:

I have been clearing the house out, for a week, getting ready for a yard sale. Today, I started in on the shop building. I plan on getting rid of most of my bike parts and partial bikes, as well as some junk guitars and such.

The parts in the back of the truck will possibly be used to get derelict frames up and rolling so that I can sell them as bikes. What I don't use will just be for sale as parts.

These boxes are random items that will be for sale, cheap. I plan on pricing stuff so that nothing will be left over.

The pile by the door is a "keep pile". The tubes need to be inflated and left, overnight, to see if they leak.

I have sorted through the first two shelf units, and I've started on the third. The tub on the floor is full of things which will end up back on the shelves, once I am done. The Honda is going up for sale on Craigslist, later this week.

The stuff on my workbench is "keeper" stuff. Tools, art supplies, etc. I dread getting into this side of the room, even though I've already cleared the bench and gathered up all those mountain bike handlebars.

I started on this at about 10:30, this morning. It is now 6:00 PM, and all that stuff is sitting outside. I have to figure out where to put it, until Friday. I don't want to move it back into the building...

I am getting rid of a lot of stuff. I got into that "my possessions own me" mode, so I am fighting back. I don't want to sell a bunch of stuff on Craigslist, because it's just annoying to do so. eBay charges too much, nowadays, plus I don't want to pack and shipp 100 different items.

So, I am having a big yard sale. Wish me luck!

x

New Phone - New Blog

2011-09-06T20:26:00.000-06:00

Two things coincidentally happened at almost the same time: I got a new Android phone, and I broke my digital camera.

On the motorcycle trip that Brad and I took (where I broke the camera) I played around with posting photos to FaceBook. Now, I don't particularly like FB, but a lot of people I know check it out regularly, and they never see my blog.

However, I realize a lot of you blog-readers don't care for FaceBook (or just don't want to send out "friend requests" all over creation). So, in order to be able to show those of you who want to see the random off-the-cuff photo posts like I make to FB, and because it is a royal pain in the ass to get photos from the Android to the Mac, I started up a Tumblr account.

Check out So Many Voices in My Head, if you'd like. Not everything on it will hit FaceBook, and not everything I upload to FB will hit SMVIMH. But, I hopeyou find it entertaining, anyway...

x

Back In the Saddle

2011-09-06T16:43:00.001-06:00

I rode the XOXO to work, this morning. I had the Nelson Longflap bag loaded with clothes, lunch and rain gear (due to the weather forecast) and never really noticed it was there, as I rode. I like the relatively compact load, as opposed to carrying panniers on each side. I think it's going to be a good system for me.

I had a bit of a headwind, but I got to work in good time (32 minutes, door to door). I might have been riding a little harder than normal, since I was pretty excited to be back on the bike. It remains to be seen how my Achilles tendon will react. So far, so good.

I had a tailwind on the way home, and cloudy skies with temps in the 70s but no rain.

So, I am back in the saddle and writing blog posts that, I suppose, only another bicycle-commuter could find interesting, at all!

x

"New" Nishiki

2011-09-04T15:19:00.005-06:00

I picked this 1983-ish Nishiki up as part of a barter deal, recently. The rear wheel was bent, so I stuck some 700c wheels in it (which I wanted to run, anyway), with 45c tires on it. I didn't figure the tires would fit into the frame, but it's easier to store a bike with wheels than without. Imagine my surprise when the wheels actually spun. The tire clearance is minimal, but they do clear.

I know you can't see a great many details in the cell-phone camera shot, but I wanted to get something up about it. I'll post more photos once I have a real camera available.

I finally found a bike to use the gold SunTour crank on. I picked it up at VeloSwap, a couple of years ago, becase it was, well, gold and because it is a SunTour rather than a Sugino. I don't see many actual SunTour cranks, around these parts.

I retained the SunTour bar-con shifters, but I installed them on a mustache bar/dirt-drop style stem combo, with new Aztek cables and housing. I swapped the high-normal (if you remove the cable, the derailleur shifts to the big ring - high gear) front derailleur for another vintage SunTour unit which is low-normal (remove the cable, and the derailleur shifts to the small ring - low gear), because I hate the backwards-shift thing on the front, with the high-normal version.

Origin8 racing-style saddle, Deore DX platform pedals from the late 80s, a new seatpost, a handlebar-mounted water bottle cage, new brake cables and housing, and Cinelli "natural"-colored cork tape rounded out the build. New brake pads will soon be installed, to replace the 25+year-old pieces that are on there, now.

Plus, I found an old Zefal frame pump in my parts pile, and used an Agfa clamp to mount it to the seatpost.

Dave Webb and I rode down to the bike race, last weekend, and I took this bike on its maiden voyage, then. It rode nice, even if the tires seemed to roll a bit sluggishly (I will probably drop down to 35c, or so, on it). The racing-style seat was really comfortable, even with street clothes, which surprised me.

I love the color of the paint, and the trim. The patina of age adds a certain "beausage", as Grant Petersen would say, so I won't be repainting it. I will shellac the tape, pretty soon, though.

So, now I have an actual road bike in the stable, once again...

x

Rock Hammer

2011-09-03T20:48:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, something will just catch me off-guard, and I am stunned by my reaction to it. Tonight, as I sat trying to come up with an idea for my Bike Stories blog, I had the iPod playing on Shuffle. Then, a song came on which totally took me out of the moment, and put me in a completely different place.

The song was a little ditty by the name of "Rock Hammer", by a group called Dick and the Gonads (my shot at a punk band, back in college). On this particular cut (which I wrote as an homage to Joan Jett, by the way), I am playing lead guitar, Johnny B is playing rhythm, my sister is playing "drums" (actually Tupperware, but it got the job done), and Taylor Davis is singing.

Long-time readers may remember that Taylor died a couple of years ago. He had a heart attack, and it was a sudden and unexpected passing, which made it that much harder for me to process. I still feel bad that I didn't get together with him, while I was home that summer.

Anyway, I was sitting here, surfing the net and wondering what to write my story about, when I heard Taylor start in on "Rock Hammer", and it just froze me in my figurative tracks. I sat, motionless, and listened to my friend, 30 years ago, belting out the lyrics I had written, and it struck me hard just how lucky we are all are to still be around...still able to sing, and live, and love. And, it struck me, how sad it is that so many of our loved ones are gone.

Enjoy your labor day weekend. I hope you are able to be with those you care for.

x

Bikes

2011-08-28T18:09:00.002-06:00

I have figured out a roundabout way to get photos from my phone to my computer, so here are a couple of little glimpses into my world, of late.

I got a Carradice Nelson Longflap bag for the rear of the XOXO, and a small Nitto front rack. I plan on using this as my fair-weather commuter, this winter. The bag on the rear is capacious, and will take my lunch, a pair of pants, shirt, socks and underwear, in addition to repair and flat-fixing tools. I am kinda tired of the whole rack and panniers scene...

And, here's the artsy-fartsy shot of my Scrambler, reflected in my coffee, that I posted to Facebook, this morning. A true "cafe bike"! I flipped it, from the original orientation.

Tomorrow, I'll try to get a shot of my "new" 1983 Nishiki that I built up, yesterday.

x

Broken Equipment

2011-08-27T21:49:00.000-06:00

I never realized how photo-dependent I am, when it comes to blog posting, until I broke my camera on our little mountain tour. I still haven't replaced the camera, but I will be doing so, soon.

Until then, there probably won't be a whole lot of new content, here.

x

Boxing With Jack

2011-08-21T22:20:00.000-06:00

I was going to post this here, but it was a lot simpler to post it to Facebook and link to it. (My camera is broken, and I can upload directly to FB, with my phone...)

Click on this to see Jon Palooka.

You have to watch for the right cross, when boxing with Jack.

x

Weekend On the Scrambler

2011-08-15T19:50:00.000-06:00

I came home from work about an hour early, and made my last-minute preparations while I waited for Brad to show. Once he was here, we finalized the packing of the bikes, and had Carol shoot a picture of us, as she picked up my dogs.

Ready to roll.

Brad had decided that the low-mount Zard exhaust he had installed was just too loud. So, he reinstalled the stock system for this trip. I hope he gets the baffle situation figured out on the Zard, because it really looks cool on the bike. (That's the same exhaust that the Hammarhead Jack Pine has on it.)

We took off right in the middle of rush hour, and our first 15 miles took 45 minutes. Eventually, we broke free of traffic, and headed south on Highway 85 to Sedalia. Then, we headed west, over to the South Platte River, and followed it south to Woodland Park. From there we headed west on Highway 24.

We stopped in Divide, Colorado, and filled up with gas. I was impressed that I had gotten 53 mpg out of the Scrambler, even sitting in rush hour traffic.

We consulted our map, looked at our watches, and decided to try to reach Buena Vista before stopping for the night. It's not that far, but we wanted to get off the road before it was fully dark, because of the deer and elk which make a habit of walking out in front of vehicles, at night.

We got to Salida just as the evening turned to night, and stopped at the Coyote Cantina for dinner.

The bar is open, in Buena Vista.

After dinner, we bought a couple of beers from the World's Friendliest Liquor Store Clerk, and headed back up the road about a half-mile to the KOA Kampground. Just about everything around B.V. is private land, so we bit the bullet and rented a campsite. They initially told us there was no room at the inn, but they eventually put us in an "overflow" site.

There were no trees, so I attached the top of the jungle hammock to a fence rail, and rolled out the bedroll. After spilling about half a beer in my lap, I went to bed. The moon was shining down like a spotlight, and I didn't have a sleeping pad under me, but I slept like a rock, anyway.

The next morning, we broke camp before I even thought to get a picture of my improvised shelter.

The view from camp. That is the fence I attached my hammock rainfly to...

We made the run down to Salida, 25 miles south, to get some breakfast. While we were ruising around looking for a breakfast joint, I spotted this:

I haven't seen a Pinto Cruising Wagon on the street, in years. I had to pull out the camera and get a shot of it.

We eventually ended up at Cafe Dawn, a local coffee shop.

There was quite a selection of two-wheeled conveyances outside the shop. Mountain towns are pretty full of bikes and such, usually. Salida is no exception.

After breakfast, we hit the road and headed for Gunnison. Neither of us had ever been to Gunnison, so the adventure part of the trip was officially on.

Up and over Monarch Pass, I got in a groove, and was really digging the curvy road. Later, after we got to Gunnison, Brad said, "I thought you were going to stop at the top of the pass, especially when I saw all of the other motorbikers standing there. But, you just blew on by them and kept going..."

I didn't really even think of stopping there, since we had been there, before. I was excited about getting to new territory.

In Gunnison, we parked the bikes and walked around the downtown area for a while. Eventually, we ended up in a coffee shop (GASP!), where we got some fresh fruit juice, and relaxed on the sidewalk bench for a while.

I wanted to find a mount so that I could put my camera on the handlebars of the bike. After coming up empty-handed at all the bike shops and motorcycle dealers in town, we stopped off at Radio Shack. There, I got a flexible tripod and wrapped it around the handlebar. With the addition of a zip-tie, it was ready, steady go.

On the way north, toward Crested Butte, I got a few riding shots of Brad on the road.

After repeatedly taking pictures of the bikes sitting on the side of the road, it was nice to get some photographic evidence that we were actually riding the darn things.

We got to Crested Butte, and walked the street to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is incorporated into the Crested Butte History Museum, and it was pretty cool to see some of the bikes and parts they had on display.

There was the first Cunningham bike ever built...

and a chrome-plated steel Ross which was an obvious copy of the aluminum Cunningham.

These were the prototypes of the Rock Shox and Manitou suspension forks,

plus ephemera from the early days of the sport.

After touring the museum, Brad and I walked up the road to a pub and had lunch.

From my seat on the shaded patio, I could see these two crows on the top of the old Town Hall building.

There was a picture of this building, at the museum, with a large hole in the side of it. The local firemen, finding their hoses frozen during a fire in the early part of the 20th century, had used dynamite to extinguish the flames. The display noted that "much of 4th street was destroyed in the blast."

I looked over at the street sign next to the pub, and noticed that the old Town Hall was on 2nd Street. If "much of 4th Street was destroyed", and a hole that you could drive a truck through was knocked out of the side of a building on 2nd Street, what do you suppose happened to 3rd...?

After filling up with food at the pub, and $4.00/gallon gas at the Shell station, we headed up Kebler Pass.

Much of the Kebler Pass Road is dirt...

some is paved...

but all of it ...

is awesome!

Not long after this picture was taken, the camera got enough dust in it, that it was only semi-operational. That was the end of the action shots.

We eventually reached the highway, and decided to head north to Carbondale. That would give us a short day on Sunday, and let Brad get home to his ladies early enough to see them before Noella's bedtime.

We rolled into Carbondale late in the afternoon, and stopped The Blend, for iced vanilla lattes. We got into a conversation with the guy behind the bar, and he told us there was camping along the creek, in the trees, along Prince Creek Road. So, we had him cook us up some paninis, and grabbed a couple of beers each, and headed back south to Prince Creek.

Unfortunately, all of the campsites in the trees were occupied, so we continued up the dirt road, gaining elevation as we went. We finally found a spot, but it had no trees. I talked Brad into riding farther on to see if we could find something in the trees.

After about an hour rough jeep trail riding, in and out of Public Lands, we eventually ended up back at the spot with no trees. Oh well, at least I got a bit of dirt riding out of it.

I have to admit, though, that the lack of trees was worth it for the views.

I used the bikes as tent poles, and set the hammock up on the ground, once again.

The sun went down...

and the bright-ass moon came up. How bright was it? I shot this picture with the flash, because if I shot it with no flash, the shutter stayed open and I got this:

These two pictures were taken about a minute apart. That was a bright-ass moon, people!

But we still enjoyed a campfire, and ate our dinner before bedtime.

The next morning, I noticed that Brad's bike was a bit dirtier than mine.

I suppose that's because I am running a full-length fender, while Brad is using a shorty version

After we were packed up, I noticed that my chain was a bit slack. So, I busted out the tool kit and adjusted it. Then, I did the same to Brad's bike. Once adjusted up, we ran back down to The Blend.

There, after breakfast burritos, we donned rain pants (40% chance of rain), and went across the street to fill up with gas. We figured up our mileage, and I got 63 mpg on he $4.00/gallon gas! I guess you get what you pay for.

Then, we headed out toward Aspen. We blew through Aspen, and headed up Independence Pass.

I will say, right here, that I have never had any more fun on a motorcycle than I had riding over Independence Pass. I got into a zone where riding the bike was like carving turns on a snowboard. I wasn't going particularly fast, but I was getting a good lean on, going into the turns, and not hitting the brakes. It was smooth, and cool and exactly why I ride a motorbike.

Looking back at where we just rode.

We did stop at the top of this pass.

My new computer wallpaper.

From there, we went down the other side of the pass, and on to Leadville. The Leadville 100 crowd made the traffic a bit heavy in town. We stopped and filled up with gas. 66 mpg.

From Leadville, we could smell the barn, so we hightailed it for I-70. After a pee-stop at Copper Mountain, we hit the superslab back to Denver. After a bit of harrowing time on grooved pavement, and a little rainshower as we came into town, we were home.

Brad continued down 6th Avenue, as I peeled off onto I-25, and headed to the house.

As I entered my neighborhood, I stopped at the gas station. We were 100 miles from Leadville, so I figured I might as well fill up.

76 mpg!

I mean, I know it's downhill from Leadville (10,200' elevation) to my house (5400'), but still...!

When all was said and done, I had put 535 miles on the bike, pushing my total over 2,000, since I bought the bike in April.

It's been a cool summer (despite the temperatures).

x

Back, Safe and Sound

2011-08-14T14:05:00.000-06:00

I will post some details later. Right now, I am tired and in need of a shower, plus I am experiencing camera woes and can't upload the shots from the Nikon.

In the meantime, a teaser shot: The view from camp, this morning, looking north:

More, later...

x

Heading Out, Tomorrow

2011-08-12T00:10:00.000-06:00

Gonna go up into the hills, and here is the load...

So, How Does This Work? EDIT

2011-08-10T16:23:00.001-06:00

This came in the mail, today...

A nice, twine-bound little package....

...direct from Hong Kong. (Thank you, Chow.)

While I suppose those are Hong Kong Dollars, it still looks like a good bit of postage.

This was inside. It is a swiveling flashlight mount for a handlebar (light not included).

Here it is, with a light in it, mounted to the nearest handlebar. (Obviously, it is for a bicycle, I just put it on the motorcycle for illustration's sake.)

Now, for the part I don't get.

I bought this off of eBay, a few days ago. I hit the Buy It Now, and got Free Shipping. The Price, you ask?

99 cents!

How do you sell something for 99 cents, and mail it from Hong Kong to Denver, for free?

Is it some sort of evil method of gathering mailing addresses for future nefarious purposes? Will a man with a folded newspaper bump into me at the train station, and demand the microdot? Will I end up being a pawn in some international intrigue?

??????

I just don't understand the economics of this transaction...

EDIT: These are back on eBay, now for $1.99 plus $1.00 shipping. Still a bargain, if you ask me.

x

Cabin Fever

2011-08-07T10:01:00.000-06:00

Not the bad kind, but the good kind. Like..Boogie Fever, only with a cabin.

Went up to Brad's family cabin, yesterday, for the annual get-together. I didn't have a dog-sitter avilable and, therefore, I couldn't camp out, as usual. So, I loaded the Dodge up with a cooler full of ice, food and drink, threw the Handsome XOXO in the back and the cigar box guitar in the front and headed up for a day-trip.

This was my first foray into the mountains with the Dodge, since I got it, and I was interested to see how it would act in the hills. I switched off the overdrive gear, for most of the drive, and had the A/C running. It still got 14.5 mpg on the mountain roads.

Brad and I built a couple of stick boats, for Noella, and floated them in the creek:

The Old Man and The Sea

Brad's boat...

and mine. (You probably need to enlarge the picture, to see them...)

We got out on the bikes for a short ride, before dinner. Brad was riding a borrowed Raleigh XXIX, with the belt drive. He is supposed to write up a review for the Treads Bicycle Outfitters site, soon. So, I got some action shots of him to post up alongside his review.

Faster than a speeding bullet.

After eating way too much, and playing some music around the campfire, we took our leave and headed back down the hill. Home by 11:30, and the dogs were glad to see me.

The ride didn't seem to hurt my ankle, which is a good sign that the Achilles tendon may actually be healing. But, it didn't help the apparent pulled muscle in my back. Lots of stretching, this morning, has helped, though.

I'm really hoping the back gets better before the motorbike trip, next weekend...

x

Handsome XOXO Built (Finally!)

2011-08-01T17:03:00.000-06:00

Usually, I err on the side of quick turnaround when it comes to building up a new bike for myself. I get the frame one day, and I am riding the next. The Handsome XOXO, though, has languished in the land of the partially-built for weeks.

Not long after I got it, I slotted in a crank , seatpost, and stem, stuck a bar on it, wrapped some tires and tubes on the rims and bolted on the brakes. Then, I hung it up and left it alone. I was busy with preparations for the trip to Pennsylvania, and I wasn't riding much, due to the problem I am experiencing with Achilles Tendinitis.

Plus, I wasn't sure what bar I wanted to use, and I was waffling on the drivetrain. I considered pulling the rear derailleur and cogset off of the KHS hardtail mountainbike that I haven't ridden in 2 or 3 years. But, I wasn't too hip to crippling one bike, to get the other on the road.

Peter wouldn't appreciate being robbed, no matter how much Paul was pressuring me for payment.

In the back of my mind, this whole time, was the nice SunTour XC Pro medium-cage rear derailleur I had picked up, a couple of years ago, for the XO-2. I ended up using matching Shimano parts on the Bridgestone, so the XC Pro was sitting on the shelf.

Friday, I made up my mind to get the damn thing together. So, I pulled the XOXO down from the hooks, and put it on the stand. A quick trip to Performance for a chain and cogset, and it was time to get to wrenching.

Here is the result:

I got it all put together, Friday night, after a real struggle with the headset. For some reason, the brand new alloy Vantage headset I had bought for it would not adjust up. I ended up replacing the top half of the headset with an ancient, first-generation, Dura-Ace model. Perfect, after that,

I rode the bike to Performance and back, then back from dropping the Dodge off to have the steering looked at. Altogether, I put about 2.5 miles on it. Big ride...!

The handlebars are a no-name mustache copy that my buddy Dan gave me. I had the black seatpost, so I figured that the black bar was okay. I wrapped the ends with natural-color Cinelli cork. I'll shellac it, once I am sure I am keeping the bar.

I have a cyclometer for it, but I have yet to mount it. No hurry, I suppose.

Nexave hubs are a real bargain, nowadays. They are marketed as Hybrid Bike hubs, and the 1998 version was the first modern disc-brake hub that Shimano marketed. I used the disc version on my 29er for a few years, including two 24-hour races, with no problems. So, I figure these will be fine for the intended use of this bike.

The brakes and brake levers are 1997 Shimano XT V-Brakes. These things were real game-changers, when they showed up. I put new pads in the original holders

The shifters are Ultegra 8-speed bar-end shifters mounted on IRC thumbie-style adapters., set to friction mode

Friction mode allows the use of the SunTour derailleur, 9-speed SRAM cogset and chain. It actually shifts well in indexed-mode, but it skips the 8th cog. I like friction shifting on a bike like this, anyway.

The front derailleur is a newish LX which I picked up at a yard sale for $5.00, a couple of months ago.

The crank is the 175mm XT that I had on the 29er, before switching to 165s on the big-wheel bike.

The orange decals on the French-made rims match the paint on the bike. I know...I know...

The seatpost is a brand I don't recognize, but it was inexpensive on eBay, and it has a two-bolt clamp.

That clamp is holding the Brooks B-17 that Michael Johnson (Apertome) so graciously sent to me. The seat had stretched to an uncomfortable shape for Michael, so he passed it along to me to see if I could use it.

I tensioned it, quite a bit, and spent a good bit of time to get the tilt just right. On my short little jaunts, Saturday, with no bike shorts, it seemed perfect to me. A longer ride will tell the tale.

Thanks, Michael!

Now, I have a pair of two-wheelers which are modern interpretations of classic designs. I guess the next thing I need is a Mini, or a new Challenger...

x

The Perils Of The Back Yard

2011-07-31T19:10:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure what hit me in the leg, as I was running the string-trimmer in the back yard, but it sure did hurt. I looked down, a few minutes later, and this is what I saw.

x

I Have a Baby Cthulhu Living in My Office

2011-07-26T16:06:00.000-06:00

Even the Elder Gods are cute, when they are babies...

x

Yardsale Skate Find

2011-07-22T15:53:00.002-06:00

Found this little guy for a dollar, today:

The paint is, unfortunately, pretty much worn off. It is a Roller Derby Skateboard, from the early 1960s. This was the first commercially available skateboard to hit the market.

The bearings in the steel wheels are still in pretty good condition.

But the trucks are loose on the deck. Plus, they were riveted on, rather than bolted, and one rivet is missing. So, even if the deck looked like it would hold me, I still wouldn't ride it!

I wish it was in better shape, but it's good enough for my small collection.

x

Home, Sweet Home

2011-07-14T11:35:00.000-06:00

Got into the big bird at about 4:20 (duuuuude!), EDT, yesterday and hit the ground running in Denver at 5:25 PM, local time. It's nice to have the time change condense a 3 hour flight into 65 minutes on the clock.

The last week, spent with my mom, sister, brother-in-law and nephews went too, too quickly. But, I have to admit, it's nice to be home.

Brad came back, last Friday, and I shipped his bicycle out on Saturday. Once it is back, the trip is as over as it will ever be.

Speaking of Brad, he sent me a message saying that he had gotten the new and improved JINXED blog up and running.

"The new blog is right over there...in the blog roll."

He should have his version of the ride in Indiana up soon. Check it out.

I got up, this morning, and rode the Scrambler down to Kaladi, to have coffee with Brad. It was nice to get back into the routine, a bit.

I took today off, from work, even though I got back yesterday. Daddy passed away a year ago, today, and I just didn't feel like going in. I wanted to stay with family, but I just couldn't get the schedule to work out with my time away from work.

I got back from the coffee shop, and tackled the yard mowing. Having been gone for two weeks, with rain every evening, apparently, I was looking at a jungle, in the back yard.

I tried to get Jack to go out into the grass, for scale, but he wanted to stick close to me. Still, I think you get the idea. Add the rain we had, last night, to the height of the grass, and you can imagine how much fun it was to mow.

An hour later, it looked like this. My little electric mower earned its keep, today.

The front yard is so shady that it doesn't grow nearly as fast as the back. I forgot to shoot a picture until I was halfway through with the mowing. The chair is sitting in the un-mowed portion. Cutting this took about 10 minutes.

Tomorrow, I go back to work, and ease into the routine. One day back at the office, before the weekend, shouldn't shock the system, too badly.

I'm sorry that the trip is in the past. I looked forward to it, for over 6 months, planning and anticipating. It turned out to be way more fun than I had even hoped.

I think I need to get out of town, more often....

x

Five days On the Road - Part Last

2011-07-10T18:11:00.001-06:00

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast at a Bob Evans restaurant. Then, once again, we followed the giant green pin on the map to Starbucks.

We got on the road, and discussed our plan. I was to drop Brad at his dad's house, and then go to Petey and Jen's house to spend the night. They are friends of mine, from back in the time I lived in Columbus, and I had not seen them for 20 years. I was pretty excited at the prospect of seeing them, again.

We got to Ohio, mid-morning, and rolled up to the senior Click's abode at the stroke of noon. After a little bit of visiting, I called Petey and got directions to his house, and made my goodbyes to Brad and Harold. We planned on meeting at the AMA museum at 10:00, the next morning. So, I headed to Pickerington.

Hanging with the Robertsons was a hoot. Their two-year-old daughter is 22, now. When she answered the door, it was a bit odd. I had seen pictures of her, but seeing her in real life was something else.

We cooked out, went to the 4th of July parade, where their two boys marched with their Cub Scout Troops, shot fireworks and then watched the Pickerington City fireworks from the driveway. Petey and I stayed up late, watching a movie and just gabbing, then I collapsed into bed. Another 18-hour day down...

Petey, Jen and I went to Panera for breakfast, the next morning, and then they headed for work. I drove about a mile down the road to the motorcycle museum, and waited for Brad and Harold.

Once they were there, we all went in and started the tour.

A recreation of the original Benz cykle...

I love this logo.

Rod brakes, on the Triumph. Motorcycles are, after all, related to bicycles.

Leather plate chain/belt.

The Click boys contemplate an Excelsior.

Factory production drawing.

BSA, or British Small Arms, logo.

I am a big fan of drum brakes on old racers.

This tank has been modified to hold more gas, for Enduro competition.

This is the bike that has the enlarged tank.

Scrambler...for real!

I hope to break my new boots in like this, eventually.

Streamliner.

I wonder if I can use this in my airplane...?

After the museum, the three of us had a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel. Our waitress was apparently related to the girl from Seinfeld, who had the bad laugh. Once or twice, I though Harold might stick a fork in her eye, as she brayed out her extra-loud ha-ha-ha's.

Brad and I took leave of his dad, then drove over to Pataskala, in order to look at my old house. All of the trees are gone, and there is a garden shed sitting on the spot where the raspberry patch was. I was a bit sad to see the changes. I guess, though, if I didn't want someone to change those things, I shouldn't have moved out.

From there, it was back onto the Interstate (I-76), heading north. At one point, we passed a completely burned-out (new) VW Beetle on the other side of the highway. The fire trucks were still there, and there was about a 5-mile backup on the highway. I was glad we were heading north, instead of south.

Other than passing a car parked on top of a motorcycle, in Mansfield, the rest of the drive was relatively uneventful. We rolled into Mercer, and my sister's driveway, at about 6:00 PM. Five days on the road, 1750 miles of driving, and we were finally there.

x

Five days On the Road - Part 3

2011-07-08T20:46:00.000-06:00

The Ride!

Brad and I woke up, early the next morning, in the basement of the Johnson home. We could hear movement on the floor above us, so we each got dressed and made our ways upstairs. There, we were greeted by the sight of breakfast mostly on the table, and the smell of good coffee.

I can't over-emphasize just how gracious a hostess Sarah is. She cooked up a breakfast buffet to suit all tastes, and presented it to us as though we were family.

I won't go into a mile-by-mile description of the ride. Michael, Tim, Asher and Bill have each written fantastic reports of the route we took, the hills we climbed and the conditions we encountered. I am unfamiliar with the road names, and the area in general, so I would only be repeating info from their blogs, anyway.

I picked this bike up from a coffee-shop friend, with no idea what size it was. iIwas hoping that it would fit me, but when I saw it, I immediately realized it was too big. I posted on the blog, about the bike, and Bill commented that he would like to buy it.

So, I tuned it up a bit, and replaced a broken spoke, rewrapped the bars, etc., then loaded it into the Nissan for delivery. I was really hoping that Bill would like it as much, in person, as he had on the internet. I think that the smile on his face might mean that he did.

I was really glad to finally meet Bill. He's one of those bloggers I immediately felt a kinship with, the first time I chanced upon his blog. I have a feeling we will ride together, again.

I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with Ashers's blog, before we met. He's an interesting guy, easy to ride with, and enthusiastic about training and racing. His borrowed bike was a bit of a pill, throughout the day, but he rode it strongly and without complaint. I like guys like that.

Tim is a monster, on the bike. I gave him some kidding about beating his chain up (after he broke it), but it was only partly in jest. He rode strong, all day, and ran away from me at the end of the day. He's one of those Long haul Trucker guys...

Michael's LHT.

My traveling companion presented a dapper appearance, as usual.

Sometimes, I love the challenge of riding off-road and taking photos or video, at speed. It makes me feel like the Cinema Verite' guys, with their hand-held movie cams and jangly viewpoint.

Box turtle? Terrapin? I don't know. But, it was, without a doubt, the most photographed reptile in Mellencamp Woods, on Sunday. We all descended on him like the paparazzi on Sean Penn, although we managed to get away without getting punched-out. At one point, I think six of us were either taking pictures of him, or of each other taking pictures of him.

We said our goodbyes to the Ninja turtle, and continued on.

I raced to the bottom of a hill to try and get some snaps of the other guys. Here, I display my awesome photograhic skills with which I can make a simple snapshot of my best friend look like a Bigfoot sighting...

I think Asher was aware that I was attempting to steal his soul, with my magic box. Luckily for him, the humidity prevented the transfer of aether, and he rode on with his essence intact.

One of the reasons that Brad and I wanted to ride with Michael, in his home territory, was that Michael's photos of his rides are so compelling. The terrain, the vegetation, the views and the roads all look like Oz (L. Frank baum's Oz, not the land down under), on his blog. This is about the only photo that I took which came close to capturing a little of that.

I can tell you, though, that even Micahel's photos don't do total justice to just how lovely the countryside is. Brad and I live in a place that people travel to from around the world, in order to have outdoor adventures, but both of us were somewhat in awe of the area we rode through. It seems that, no matter what kind of natural beauty surrounds you, there is always more to found in this world.

Kinda makes me think I'm pretty lucky to be able to sample even more than what I live with.

This is the kind of stuff we just don't see, at home. Sure, we have the Rocky Mountains just outside of town, and desert riding a few hours away in Fruita and Moab. But lakes, with deciduous forest leading down to the water's edge? Not so much.

We both lived in a similar environment, for years, but we didn't appreciate it until we left it. At least, that's how I feel.

Dave told me that the northernmost cypress knees in the country were growing in the backwaters of this lake. I looked for alligators, but I didn't see any.

In my younger days, I frequented some dive bars in the South which had trough urinals. They looked just like this water basin, but filled with ice cubes (not the rapper - real ice) at the beginning of the evening. I thought of this as I filled my water bottle and drank it dry, a couple of times.

I didn't hear any blues guys moaning in the background, or any bikers ordering Buds, so I figured it was clean enough. The water was cold, clear and tasty, too.

Nothing makes you feel quite so secure as looking down at your tire and seeing the creek 15 feet below your feet. We had this kind of bridge around the area, when I lived in central Ohio, and I never really liked them. At least my fat tires were less squirelly than the 27x1-1/8" tires I rode with in Ohio.

Bonnie and Clyde took a lot of pictures, while on the run, which looked similar to this. From the left: Brad, Dave, Tim, Asher, Bill, me, and Michael.

Also from left to right: Bridgestone XO-3, Motobecane 29er, Cannondale MTB with Lefty fork, Surly LHT, Cannondale Headshok MTB, Surly LHT, and an arc of the tire on a Specialized Tri Cross.

Dave, praying to the pump gods...

Michael, apparently thinking about Aerosmith. (Well, that's what puts that look on my face...)

At one point, the guys had pretty much ridden me into the ground, and I lay down to die. I figured that the local turtles would have a feast, that evening.

Actually, even though my legs were cramping, I was happy. I had gone out a bit too hot (especially on the fat mountain bike tires I had on the 29er), but the ride was so awesome, and the experience was even better than what I had been anticipating for the seven months leading up to this day, that I couldn't worry too much about it.

I dream of rides like this (I may be dreaming of one, in this picture, actually).

Once back at the hacienda, Lady Sarah, the librarian to the gods, hooked us up with food and drink, like the Vikings we are.

Mighty warriors, at the end of a day's marauding.

Eventually, everyone said their goodbyes. Soon after, Brad and I got cleaned up, and loaded up, ready to roll. After an abortive attempt at fixing the wheel on Michael's Fuji (replaced one broken spoke, then found another), we hit the road.

I had gotten an email from Joy, requesting fireworks for the kids (after we drove past all of those dealers in Missouri). So, we stopped in a defunct Hollywood Video, which was being used to peddle explosives, and spent about $80.00 on boomers, whizzers and other items of destruction.

Then, we made our way to I-70 and headed toward Ohio. I was hoping to make the State Line, but I was just too tired. So, we stopped in Springfield, IN, and checked into a hotel. Then, after driving all over town in a vain attempt to find an open restaurant, we ended up noticing an open bar and grill, across the Interstate from our accomodations.

As we walked in, we were both shocked to see/smell people smoking cigarettes inside the dining area.

Welcome back to Marlboro Country, boys!

We ate, then went back to the room. I wrote my story for the day, then fell asleep. Another 18-hour day on the road was behind us.

The next day, we would head for Columbus, Ohio, to see family and friends.

Five Days On the Road - Part 2

2011-07-07T21:44:00.000-06:00

Breakfast at the Coulmbus, MO, La Quinta was, to say the least, a major disappointment. Brad got the last cup of coffee in the air-pot, and I was bit disappointed to be left out. Then, after he took a sip, I saw the look on Brad's face and realized that he had taken a breakfast bullet for me. Apparently, the coffee-like liquid which came out of the pot was unfit for human consumption. Couple that with the fact that the waffle-maker was out of batter, and I was done.

I told the desk clerk that the La Quinta breakfast experience was less than satisfactory, and we went back to the room to get our stuff. As we rolled the bikes through the lobby, the desk clerk made some comment to me, which neither Brad nor I could make out. I wasn't sure it was friendly, though. I thought that I might just be overly sensitive.

Then, when we got out to the truck, Brad said to me, "Clerk-boy didn't seem too happy with you." So,maybe I wasn't being paranoid.

Once again, we headed out in search of the big green pin on the Starbuck's locator app. After a breakfast sandwich and some real coffee, we headed east, once again.

The miles melted beneath our tires like a crying child's ice cream on a July sidewalk, and it didn't seem to take long to reach the outskirts of St. Louis. After a bit of aggression from a St. Lunatic in a Chevy pickup truck, we rolled across the Missouri River.

"Get on your phone and find the exit for Donelson Cycles," I said. Brad picked up the iPhone and started tippy-tapping. Eventually, he found the directions and told me the exit number.

A few miles down the road, I drove past the exit, then took the next one and backtracked. This was an unrecognized omen, when it came to my driving on this trip, but we didn't know it, at the time.

Shortly, thereafter, we reached Donelson's. I hadn't told Brad why we were going, so he was bit surprised to walk into a Triumph dealer and see this:

Donelson Cycles has a pretty nice motorcycle museum in the store.

This bike has a vintage example of a tool bag, very similar to the one I installed on the Scrambler.

The admission to the museum is free of charge, so we bought a couple of t-shirts while we were there. Then, we headed out for the Interstate, again.

Once in the car, we crossed the Mississippi River, and sailed down I-70 toward the land of the rising sun. After a while, we stopped at a Subway store, and had lunch. I had a chicken salad sandwich, and asked for spicy chipotle sauce on it.

"Really?" asked the girl behind the counter. "Are you sure?"

"I'm reasonably positive, that's what I want."

Then, once again, back into the truck, and headed east.

We drove along for about an hour and a half, creeped through a couple of construction zones and eventually drifted into that too-many-miles-in-too-few-days torpor and fell into an easy silence. After a bit, though, I grew uneasy. Something didn't seem right, and I wasn't sure what.

Eventually, it dawned on me that the sun was coming in the window, from the right, and making the inside of the truck hot. If you stop and think about it, if you are actually heading east, the sun should either shine into the windshield or the rear window.

"Brad, I hate to say this, but I don't think we're on I-70," I said, breaking the silence.

"What?! Nooo!"

Just then, we passed a sign: I55 North.

What the...? How the...?

Neither of us has yet figured out what happened, but we were almost as far north as the Champagne-Urbana exit, so we took it when we got there. Brad got onto the good-ol' iPhone and mapped us out a route, and we started our scenic tour of central Illinois.

The unintentional detour cost us a couple of hours, or more, but I have to say I wasn't too upset. We drove some two-lane, and saw parts of the countryside we would otherwise have missed. So, it wasn't a total loss.

Eventually, we made it back to I-70 and then to the turn-off to Bloomington, Indiana. Once we were off the interstate, I called Michael Johnson up and told him that we were heading south, but running late. We were still an hour and a half away from Bloomington, and it was already past the time we had expected to roll in.

Michael assured me that everything was cool, and we motored on. Along the way, we passed more mowed, groomed, acreage than either of us had ever seen. People in Indiana, apparently, feel the need to mow anything that isn't heavily wooded.

We got to the Johnson home, and knocked on the door, a little apprehensive about showing up late. Michael answered the door, and all apprehension melted away. Michael and Sarah welcomed the two of us into their home as if we were long-lost relatives.

Despite a healthy dose of the "Jon and Brad Show", Sarah was the most gracious hostess (and librarian) I have ever met, and Michael matched her in friendliness.

We all went to a local pub (I think it was The Crazy Horse), and I annoyed a waitress while she flirted with Brad. I ordered my burger with jalapenos, pepper-jack cheese, and buffalo sauce.

"Really?", asked the waitress, Abbey, as though I had ordered a bit of horse poop on it.

"Yeah, really," I said. Apparently, I choose odd condiments for my sandwiches.

After dinner, we repaired to the Johnson castle, and arranged our sleeping quarters. I wrote my daily story, and then lay down on the bed.

I switched off the light, and I was asleep before the last photon from the bulb dissipated.

x

Five Days On the Road - Part 1

2011-07-06T16:49:00.000-06:00

Friday, July 1: I drove the Clampettmobile over to Brad's place at about 7:30 AM and picked him up. I had the truck fairly well loaded, already, and by the time we added in his XO-3, I was but one rocking-chair away from full Beverly Hillbillies-dom.

We headed east, out of Denver, bound for Mercer, PA. The truck and the motorcycle were headed for a new life in Keystone State. So, our plan was to take a leisurely drive to Mercer, and fly back.

We started the trip off by stopping in Limon, 90 miles outside of Denver, for a big truckstop-breakfast. many eggs and pork products were consumed. Then, we headed out for the real driving of the day.

The heat, in Kansas, was astounding. We would step out of the truck at a gas stop, and the wind would hit us like the draft of a blast furnace. As we approached Kansas City, we decided that a Starbuck's stop was a medical necessity. That, coupled with how badly I needed to use the restroom, made me pretty anxious to get to the coffee. Brad and I had gotten caught up in a batch of stopped traffic on the Kansas Turnpike, so more time than usual had gone by since our last rest stop.

Brad whipped out the iPhone and pulled up the Starbucks locator app, and directed me to take the next exit. I did so, and we had our choice of two different locations; one south of the road, one to the north. We picked the southern shop, and drove toward it.

It was quite a way to the location that the iPhone was giving us, and by the time we got there, I pretty much had to go. The problem was, there was no Starbucks there. The app had led us to a garden Center. No problem, I figured. They are bound to have a bathroom.

I went inside and was struck by what a nice store it was. There was a ton of merchandise on display, but the big showroom didn't seem crowded, at all. It was like the polar opposite of a Lowe's or Home Depot...

I used the restroom, walked out, and found Brad browsing through the store. I joined him, and we talked a bit about how nice the place was. Then, I saw a product I had never before seen.

There was a display of squirrel repellent, for bird-feeders, which was hot pepper-based. I read the label of the bottle, and it said that the birds loved the taste, but squirrels and other mammals would be repelled by it. Being a mammal who happens to love hot pepper sauce, I wanted to see how the stuff smelled.

I opened up the bottle, and took a sniff. It didn't really smell like anything. I squeezed the bottle, gently, to push the air out of it and see if I could smell it. Unfortunately, I didn't squeeze gently enough, and some of the sauce plooped up out of the bottle and got on my right hand.

"Don't touch your eyes," Brad said, as I looked for some place to wipe the stuff off. I didn't want to run right back into the bathroom and draw attention to us, so I just sort of trailed my hand under the water of a few of the display fountains on the sales floor.

Once outside, in the blast-furnace wind, we saw the Starbucks, across the highway we had followed down, on the opposite corner of the intersection. We rolled over to it, only to find that there was a boil-alert for the county water system, and the Starbucks was closed.

We walked down a few doors to a yogurt place, which was open, and I went into their bathroom to wash my hands, well, with soap and water. Then, we took off for the other Starbucks, north of I-70. Nothing was going to deter us from finding coffee.

Then, I rubbed a small itch at the corner of my right eye, and immediately knew I had made a mistake. Despite liberal doses of soap and water, and a thorough scrubbing, the squirrel repellent was apparently still embedded in my skin.

Either that, or Brad pepper-sprayed me while I wasn't looking. Come to think of it, it was my right eye, and he was sitting to my right....

My eye immediately swelled shut, and copious amounts of tears began to flow.

"I think i have a problem," I said.

"Touched your eye, didn't you?" Brad replied.

We motored on, me with one eye and Brad directing me to the other Starbucks. By the time we arrived, I could open my eye, and even see through it. So, I figured there was no harm done.

We rolled up to the target store, inside of which was the Starbucks, when we saw this, across the road:

After we got our coffee, we just had to go get a closer look. It turned out to be a restaurant/"adventure" in an outlet mall. The restaurant was called "T-Rex", and had a paleontological theme.

We looked around, snapped a few pictures, and then headed back to the truck. As we walked to the street, a couple of local geniuses drove by in a truck and yelled a racial slur at us. Since neither Brad ,nor I, is African-American (and I tend to be mistaken for a friendly ghost, at times), we were a bit confused by the whole incident.

Once back into the truck, we made our way to the Interstate, and continued heading east. I had made a hotel reservation in Columbia, MO, and we were running a little late, after our adventure.

The next couple of hours passed as we listened to the soundtracks to Purple Rain and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (which Brad had compiled on his own, since the soundtrack was never released as a package), while commenting on all of the fireworks stands and permanent stores along the highway. I told Brad that I had decided against buying any fireworks to take to my nephews, since I wasn't sure my sister, Joy, would want to deal with them.

Eventually, we made it to our hotel, at about 11:30, local time. As we checked in, Brad asked the desk clerk if there was somewhere good, nearby, to eat.

"Oh, yeah!" she enthused. "Appleby's is right across the road, where you got off of I-70!"

Brad and I just looked at each other. If Appleby's is the "good" joint, neither of us was going to ask about the sub-par restaurants!

We went to Appleby's (neighborhood bar and grill), and had some hot wings and beer. Brad, at some time or another during the day, had said he didn't know if he had ever had "good" whiskey, so I ordered us a couple of Crown Royals for dessert.

"Now, you've had good whiskey," I told him.

We went back to La Quinta, and unloaded the three bicycles from the truck, and took them inside along with our bags. Our first day on the road was done, after 15 hours and 725 miles.

After we wound down, a bit, and I wrote my story for the day, we went to sleep. I was looking forward to the next morning's free breakfast.

x

Finish Line

2011-07-05T22:29:00.001-06:00

Brad and I made it to PA, today. Over the past five days, we drove across half of Colorado, all of Kansas, Missourim Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and part of Pennsylvania. I drove 1700+ miles (more than I drove in all of last year), and had a great time.

Details later. I am beat.

x

Two days On the Road

2011-07-02T22:59:00.000-06:00

Brad and I have reached Bloomington, Indiana, and are safely esconced in the home of Michael and Sarah Johnson. Tomorrow, we are going on a 50 mile ride with Michael and a few other guys.

I'll post details on the trip and the ride, later. Right now, I have to be up in 5-1/2 hours, and I have been up for 19 hours (much of which I spent driving all over Illinois like a moron).

Good night.

x

Road Trip

2011-06-30T22:09:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow morning, I'll swing by Brad's house and pick him up. Then, we head east, to Pennsylvania. I have my nephew's motorbike strapped into the back of the Nissan (which goes to my sister), and a ton of other stuff to load in the morning, including Bill Lambert's bike.

We'll spend some time with Bill and Michael, riding mixed-terrain in Indiana, then mosey on into Columbus, Ohio. A bit of visiting family, for Brad, and catching up with old friends for me will happen on the Fourth.

Then, it's on to Mercer, Pa., and my family.

I'll do my best to keep you posted.

x

Grand Ride

2011-06-27T21:37:00.000-06:00

I decided to take a little jaunt on the Scrambler, this evening, since I was close to 1,000 miles on the odometer. I really just didn't want to hit the grand on my commute, tomorrow.

As I walked out to get on the bike, the sun was shining brightly, and big, fat raindrops were bombing down out of the sky.

Click this picture for the large version, and you can see the teacups of falling water.

Undaunted, I donned my helmet and headed north. I figured I'd hit Common Grounds, over at 38th and Lowell, for a cuppa. I soon ran out from under the rain, and enjoyed the relatively cool temperature. It's been in the 90s, for a few days, and it is supposed to top 100 in a couple of days, so the 80-degree day we had, today, was nice.

As I crossed I-25 on Speer, the odometer on the Scrambler rolled over to 1000.0 miles. I was able to snap a shot at the next red light.

Seemed like a milestone to me. Kind of a goofy picture, though, when you think about it. Oh, well...

I cruised around a bit, and eventually ended up at Common Grounds.

I sat at a window table, and enjoyed a really nice cup of coffee. I don't know what the brew was, but it was very smooth and easy to drink. The joint was pretty full, but it was quiet, almost subdued. It was a nice change from the hectic din of Kaladi Brothers.

As I rode home, I stopped and took a picture of the Mother Ship coming in for a landing:

I stopped and filled up with gas, on my way into the neighborhood. I am amazed by the mileage I am getting. This tank netted 62.1 mpg!

Now, the bike is safely tucked away in the man cave, and the dogs and I are sitting in the back yard feeding the mosquitos. Once I close the laptop, I'll spend a little time watching for bats. I saw four, last night (or else, I saw the same bat four times, not sure which).

Either way, it beats the TV all to hell.

x

14,110 Feet

2011-06-25T23:13:00.002-06:00

I left the house, early this morning, and stopped at Kaladi Brothers, as usual. Not as usual, I was on my way to Colorado Springs on the Scrambler. I planned on riding south out of town on 85 (Santa Fe), to Sedalia. From there, I would turn west on 105, and ride to the South Platte River, then turn south to go through Deckers to Woodland Park. Then, down the hill to Manitou Springs.

I wasn't sure what I would do, from there. I had hoped to meet up with John Ryland and some other guys, from Classified Moto, and we had made vague plans to meet up for a burger. But, the details never jelled. So, I was flying by the seat of my pants, but I knew I would enjoy the ride regardless of whether I got together with those guys, or not.

One of the fun things about the ride from Sedalia to the South Platte is the few miles of dirt road, which includes one 15% grade. That gets a little sketchy on the way down.

Just before heading down that 15% grade, I pulled off the road and climbed to the top of a bank on the side of the road, about 20 feet up. There was a nice view from there, but I mainly just wanted to try going up and down the steep slope.

I eventually made my way to the paved road along the river, and turned south toward Deckers and Woodland Park. The road along the river is winding, and scenic. The speed limit is sort of low, but I rolled along at a good, fun speed, enjoying the fact that there was very little traffic.

I passed through Deckers, and continued south. Eventually, I caught sight of Pike's Peak.

The Pike's Peak Hillclimb is tomorrow. I had a vague plan to, maybe, ride up and see if I could spot a few race bikes or cars. But, I wasn't even sure if the toll road was open.

I stopped at a little diner, close to the toll road, to get a milkshake, and this Ducati was in the parking lot. Its owner had ridden it from Wisconsin (I believe that's what he told me), to be a pit crew member for a racer friend. I liked the BMW bags, mounted on custom-machined frame adapters.

I decided to check and see if the toll road was open...

It was, though the traffic through the gate was a bit slow. I took this picture just past the sign announcing that the gate is 0.3 miles ahead. It took about 20 minutes to make that distance.

Once I was through the gate, it was smooth sailing. I made it almost 3 miles before I overtook slower traffic. I passed the first of about 10 cars I would end up going around before I got to the summit.

Interestingly, I had heard that the road had been almost totally paved. The last time I went up it, 15 years ago, the pavement ended a few miles past the toll gate. So, knowing that it had been partly paved, I was confused when the road turned to dirt at the same spot I remembered.

A couple of mile farther on, the new pavement began, and it went all the way to the top. I wonder if they started at the top, and paved down. Whatever they did, the plan seems to be to have the road completely paved by the end of the summer.

The new pavement made it easy to speed up the mountain, passing slower traffic as I went. At one point, I hooked up with a couple of Ducati riders, and we had a little 3-bike joust up the hill. I can tell you that, on some sections of that road, riding along at 50 or 55 mph is quite a thrill. Even though I was keeping my eyes on the road, I couldn't help but notice the 300-ft drop to my right, two feet past the edge of the pavement.

Eventually, I made it to the top, and parked. Like usual, the Scrambler attracted a group of guys who quizzed me about it. One of those guys was going to be racing a KTM SuperDuke, tomorrow.

He was riding this KTM, today. His buddy was on the Ducati. There were quite a few bikes, up top...

Guzzi...

Ducati GT set up for the long haul...

Harley V-Rod (switchbacks must be fun on a drag-style bike)...

some aging hipster on a Scrambler...

this Ducati, which I calculate to be bad to the power of ass...

a few more Ducatis (A club, I think. They took a group picture of the riders)...

lots'o bags on this Motard...

There were a bunch of Diavels up there...

The pace car for the race made an appearance...

As I walked back to my bike, this guy came up and said, "Nice paint job!"

I was just about to point out the fact that it's just the factory gloss black, when he pointed at my helmet.

"I have the first helmet Roland decorated. It was an old Italian lid, and he marked it up with a Sharpie. The Bell guys saw it, and asked him to do a design for them," he continued.

Then, he introduced himself. It was Mark Cernicky, the rider of the hammarhead Jackpine, in the video I posted yesterday!

"Is the video any good?" he asked. "I never got to see it before I had to leave town."

We chatted for a bit, and I wished him luck, tomorrow. He will be racing a Ducati Multistrada in the 1200cc class.

After Cernicky walked away, I took one last look around:

I headed down the road, coincidentally riding behind Cernicky and another rider. I managed to keep them in sight for almost a mile, then they faded into the distance. I actually met him as he was coming back up, and Cernicky gave me a big wave. Nice guy.

After I got back to town, I filled the tank on the Scrambler (52.2 mpg). I then filled my tank with chicken salad on marble rye at a deli in Woodland Park. Then, it was back to Denver.

All told, I put in about 250 miles, and had a great time. Then, when I got home, I built the bicycle for Carol's niece. It was a long day, but a good one.

...or bust!

Desert Sled

2011-06-24T17:31:00.000-06:00

If you are interested in this, you've probably seen it. It's rad enough to post, just so I can watch it more easily, in the future...

I'm going for a ride, tomorrow. Probably won't be quite this cool, but I'll try my best.

x

Soul's Tess

2011-06-22T18:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the so-called "longest day of the year". That always amuses me, as I am pretty sure it was 24 hours long, just like every other day. But, the great part was that the sun was above the horizon for the longest period of the year!

The Summer Solstice is a funny thing, for me. I love the long day, but I hate the fact that, now, the days will begin to "get shorter". That's okay, though. I'll enjoy the long days of Summer while I can. I can really understand why the solstices were big events on the Pagan calender.

Last night, I was feeling restless. I had one of those evenings when I couldn't sit and relax, but I really didn't feel like doing anything constructive, either. At about 8:00, I decided I would put the motorcycle in the shop building, and start getting things ready for Bike To Work Day.

Here in Colorado, we ignore National Bicycle Month, and National Bike To Work Day, because we have too much of a chance for snow and rain in the month of May. So, we bump everything back until June. And, today was BTWD, for us.

Anyway, I went outside, and noticed it was still light out. That's when I remembered it was the solstice. I went back inside, put the dogs out, and got my jacket and helmet. Then, I did something that I haven't done in quite a while: I went for an aimless, no destination, motorbike ride.

I puttered around for about 45 minutes, just turning when I felt like hitting another street, and heading to nowhere in particular. I ended up riding past Cherry Creek Mall, down Speer (the creek was over its banks and covered the bike path), down Broadway back to Evans and to the gas station at the edge of my neighborhood.

I filled up, and checked my mileage on the Scrambler (52 mpg, this tank), then rode home and put the bike up. By then, it was finally dark, and I got down to business packing the panniers and making lunch for today. I can only imagine how restless I would be up above the Arctic Circle, where the sun never set, yesterday. I'm sure I'd be one of those guys who stays awake until they go psycho, or just pass out from exhaustion.

x

Random Weekend Bloggity

2011-06-19T19:46:00.000-06:00

Time seems to speed up, the closer you get to a deadline. In this case, my deadline is the first of July, when I will be leaving to visit my sister, her family, and my mom in Pennsylvania. I've gotten the major stuff done (I put a new tire and a stock air breather on Kyle's motorbike, which I am taking to him, and I got a bunch of overdue maintenance done on the Nissan Frontier I am taking to Joy), but lots of little things remain.

I have bikes to build for people, tons of stuff to get squared away at work, and the million little things it always takes when you are going out of town. So, I just plug away and try to get what I can get done, every day. This weekend has seen a few small projects either begun or finished. I did some bike repair for a girl I know through Tony (and got paid in chocolate-chip cookies! YUM!), started work on a bicycle plant stand for Carol, and got a small start on the Handsome XOXO.

I got the wheels trued and tensioned, and mounted up the tires. I am going with the same Schwalbes I have on the XO-2. I can always put some fatter rubber on, if I decide to do any heavy-duty mountain biking with it.

I'm still not sure about the bars and stem. The bars don't extend as far forward as a mustache bar, and the stem is sized for a mustache. So, the cockpit is a little short. I'll ride it, a bit, then decide what I want to do.

In the meantime, it's coming together slowly. I'm in no big hurry to get it together, what with the whole Achilles tendon thing...

For now, it is hanging in the Orange Section of the rafters.

Last week, I decided that I would like to have a tool kit on the Scrambler. Triumph is so confident in the Bonnevilles, I guess, that they don't include a tool kit, at all.

There is no good place to stash a tool bag under the seat, so I hung a tool bag on the frame rail behind the shock.

It's a leather handlebar bag from Electra Bicycles. I had it on a fixed gear bike, a few years ago, and I have one like it on the XO-2, now. It just happens to be a good size and shape for this application.

I put together an 8mm Allen wrench, and 8" adjustable wrench, a pair of pliers, 8, 12 and 14mm open-end/box-end wrenches, and a 4,5,6mm Allen set which includes flat and Phillips screwdrivers. I don't have a plug wrench, but if I need one, on a trip, I'll buy it when I buy the plugs.

They all roll up in an old bandanna, and the roll fits snug as a bug into the bag.

Anyway, enough rambling. Gotta get ready for work, tomorrow. Have to pack the panniers on the fixed gear.

Thunder is rumbling, outside. It's supposed to start raining, tonight, and rain all day tomorrow. So, I'll be taking the bicycle to work. Don't want to ride the motorbike in the rain.

x

How About Some Bicycle News?

2011-06-17T18:21:00.000-06:00

When I got home from work on Wednesday, this was waiting at the door:

Inside, was a 56cm Handsome XOXO frame and fork:

Pictured here with a direct ancestor.

The XOXO is basically a copy of the 1993 Bridgestone XO-1, although it is tig-welded rather than lugged, in order to keep it affordable. So, it really is a closer copy of my 1992 XO-2, if you think about it.

Although it does have a nice lugged fork crown...

...and quite the nice mustache.

I think I have everything I need to build it up, except the headset. I'll probably run down to Cycle Analyst, tomorrow and grab one.

I'll be using a mix of newer and older parts, some pretty classic and some newer style; some black and some silver. It's a vintage-style ride, but not true vintage (kind of like my Triumph Scrambler, if you think about it). So, I don't think v-brakes and an external bottom bracket will be bad things. I really just want this bike to work well, on-road and off. It's going to get some riding...

I have another bike to build, this weekend, as well. I'll be putting together a mixte for Carol's niece. And, I have a gal coming over for some tune-up work on a three speed she just bought from Tony Gallagher.

And, I may be going mountain biking on Sunday.

I only rode the bicycle to work two days, this week, and I rode the XO-2 both times. My Achilles Tendinitis is getting bothersome. After the 40 miles in two days, it was inflamed and pretty painful. Oddly, it feels as though I have a big blister running up my heel, when it gets inflamed. But, the skin is fine. For some reason, the pain inside my leg registers on the outside.

Still, I'm hoping that backing off a bit on the commuting and continuing my ankle exercises will clear it up. Fingers crossed.

x

They Call Me Mister Lucky

2011-06-10T20:18:00.000-06:00

That's the first line from one of my favorite John Lee Hooker songs, and I've always felt that it applied to me. So, when I decided to custom-paint a helmet to go along with my bike, that was my theme.

I started with a flat black Bell Custom 500 open-faced helmet...

...seen here being modeled by the Great Gazoo.

It took a few steps to get it done:

I did the numbers first. Lucky 13! I outlined them in gold, to reflect the lettering on the side covers of the bike.

Then, I masked the letters and the field around them, and sprayed it.

After that, I spent a few hours adding the skulls with a paint pen. I wanted a design that looked almost like paisley, from a distance, which would be quite different up close. I'm pretty happy with it.

Once I sprayed the clear coat on it, the flat black became glossy. And, the thing became very hard to photograph. You can see the horizon reflected in the helmet, no matter what I do. (I'm not much of a photographer.)

Now I look as lucky as I feel.

x

I'm Calling It...

2011-06-05T18:26:00.001-06:00

After more than four years, 828 consecutive work-days, and 14,327 miles of bicycle commuting, I am calling the game. I have achieved every goal that I set for myself, and made bicycling my "normal" way to get back and forth to work.

Tomorrow, I am riding the Scrambler to work.

I have developed a case of Achilles Tendinitis, in my right leg, which makes it painful to walk. I am doing calf-lifts and toe-stands in an effort to strengthen that area, but the constant pedaling is not letting the leg recover.

So, before the doctor tells me to stop riding, completely, I am going to cut back on the daily commute and see if things improve. Bicycling will remain my "norm", but I am going to give myself the "out", when I need it.

Much like getting the first scratch or door-ding on a new car, the first day of non-biking seems like it will be the hardest. I have enjoyed the unbroken streak of commutes, but I am not defined by it.

So, Friday was the end of that. From now on, I will have some flexibility on the commute. And, I hope to get a few more things done around the house, on the days I don't ride the bike. It seems like I should be a little more lively, on those days.

I need to get Kyle's bike ready to take to him (new battery, new rear tire and brake pads, new speedometer and a stock airbox and filter), and get the truck ready for the trip, as well. That trip is less than a month away, so time is ticking down quite quickly.

I hope I am not disappointing anyone (but I also know that this is not near as big of a deal to anyone else as it is to me).

Thanks for reading.

x

Shiny

2011-05-31T18:52:00.000-06:00

I didn't want to leave the Scrambler as dusty as it was, after yesterday's ride, for too long. I have to take it in for the first warranty service, on Friday, and I hate to hand someone something dirty, if they are going to work on it. So, today after work, I washed it off and shined it up.

My neighbor, Reed, is a Harley guy from way back, and he swears by the Show Time spray cleaner/wax. He buys it by the case, and says it is better and cheaper than the HD-branded stuff. He brought me a can to try out, Sunday. Today I put it to use.

It puts a nice, quick shine on everything. And, it's supposed to prevent water-spots. With a black-painted bike, festooned with chrome and polished aluminium, that is a big sell. We'll see how well it works.

(As an aside, I think one of the best things I have done to this bike is to remove the rubber tank pads. They don't bother me on the other colors, but having a big patch of matte-black rubber stuck in the middle of all that shiny black paint just didn't suit me.)

I walked over to Reed's house to get some pictures of this:

It's the remains of a 1969 Honda CB-350. It was a show-winning Custom, at one time. Reed tells me that it was built by a buddy and his son, and won First Place in the first show they placed it in.

The son later committed suicide, and the dad lost all interest in the bike. I suppose it harbored too many painful reminders of better times...

Looking at it in this condition, after years of sitting derelict, one can only imagine what it must have looked like in it's glory, with the psychedelicious paint and all the chrome. (Even the frame-mounted tool box is chromed.)

Sadly, that is the actual mileage on the bike. No one ever got to enjoy riding it. Now, it is a shipwreck of a motorcycle, with the engine locked up, one carb hanging from its cables, and every thing that hasn't rotted is rusty. No matter how much you customize a bike, polish, paint and chrome it; it's all for naught if it never gets ridden.

Well, that's my opinion, anyhow. That's one reason my bikes tend to be dusty more often than shiny. I prioritize the riding over the polishing.

Just look at my Trident, sometime...

x

Dusty

2011-05-30T16:25:00.000-06:00

It was windy, today, but I had been unable to get out on the bike for any any real amount of time, all weekend. So, I took off at about 10:15 and headed south. I rode down Santa Fe to Sedalia, then cut over to Highway 105 to Monument, then gassed up.

From there, I went east to Colorado Highway 86, and went north to Franktown. Then, west through Castle Rock, back to 105. From there, I took Jackson Creek Road up to Rampart Range Road. It had been a while since I climbed up Jackson Creek, and even longer since I rode a motorbike on a gravel road. So, I wasn't particularly fast, but I had a lot of fun.

The cell phone was obviously having trouble with the exposure levels on this sunny day.

I took Rampart Range Road north to where it hits Pine Creek Road (67), then turned back east to return to Sedalia. From there, it was back up Santa Fe, to Denver and home. I pulled into the driveway at about 1:15.

All in all, it was a nice ride, though a bit windy. I put 150 miles on the bike, and got it a little dusty. At least it will look like it has been ridden when I take it in for the 500-mile warranty check, this week.

x

Bikes, Trees and Tomatoes

2011-05-27T20:07:00.000-06:00

It's been a pretty full day. Dave showed up at about 8:15, then Carol showed up at about 8:45 and we rolled out on the bikes to do a short coffee shop tour. I rode my orange Peugeot fixed gear, Dave was on his DeBernardi fixed, and Carol rode my XO-2. We stopped at Wash Perk for coffee and scones, headed up to the REI flagship store and had Starbucks iced tea there. Then, back down the Cherry Creek trail to Steele Street, and back around to my house.

Dave headed home to do some yard work. After sitting around a while, and eating, Carol and I were inspired to do some yard work as well. We went over to the garden center, on Iliff, and Carol bought some ground cover and a tomato plant for her house. I bought a maple tree, and a tomato plant, as well.

Carol planted the tomato plant for me, in my upside-down planter, while I planted the tree.

I planted the tree right-side up, though. All the rain that we've had, lately, had softened the ground up pretty well. So, I was able to get the hole dug, easily, and the tree was in the ground within 45 minutes.

When I moved into the house, seven years ago, there wasn't a single tree in the back yard. Now, I have volunteer aspens, from the neighbor's tree, the maple I just planted, and some sort of "weed tree" that I dug up from beside my front door, a couple of years ago.

I'm going for the Sherwood Forest look.

x

Fixed, Again

2011-05-24T18:25:00.000-06:00

I decided to ride fixed, for a while, on the commute. So I got the snow bike down, and prepped it for summer riding.

I swapped the studded tires for the 700x35c SpeedMaxes that I had originally bought for the Panasonic MTB 700c conversion..,

I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out this racy leather saddle.

It is branded as Origin8. It is a Cardiff/Velo Orange/Whoever Else Needs a Private Label Saddle from Taiwan. I like the standard Brooks B-17 copy version, so I thought I'd give this one a shot.

The saddle comes laced from the factory. This is a good thing with the short-trimmed skirts.

I rode yesterday, and realized that I had gotten interrupted as I was getting the bike ready for dry roads, and I forgot to re-gear it. I was riding with a 34x18 ring and cog combo, spinning 120 rpm to go 15 mph.

So, after work yesterday, I swapped the old Dura-Ace crank with the 45 tooth ring back on, and mounted a 20 tooth cog. That puts the gear at somewhere around 67 inches, just about right for the terrain around Denver.

I had forgotten how much I like riding fixed gear.

x

I Don't Really Have a Use For This

2011-05-20T17:50:00.001-06:00

...but, I picked it up, anyway.

It belonged to a gal I know, down at the coffee shop. Her son rode it, when he was in college, but doesn't want it, now. She needed to get rid of it (needed some cash), and really didn't want to try to sell it on Craigslist. So, I offered her what I thought it would be worth to me, and brought it home.

Unfortunately, it is a 60 cm frame, about a size or a size and a half too big for me. I can ride it, and I'm sure Grant Petersen, at Rivendell Bicycle Works, would approve. But it just seems big to me.

Unfortunately, the original flat-crown fork has been replaced. At least the replacement is a high-quality fork. I find it amusing that the sticker specifies "Front Fork", just in case you aren't sure what to use the piece for.

The same goes for the crank. This is a Specialties TA half-step-plus-a-granny touring crank. It's probably worth as much as what I paid for the bike. I may pull it off, reinstall a Sugino (which the bike came with) and sell this crank.

The wheels are 8-speed Shimano 105 hubs laced to Mavic Open 30 rims. The shifters are SunTour Bar-Cons, which control Suntour XC derailleurs. Other than the Bar-Cons, I think all of those parts were "upgrades", back in the day.

It's a cool bike, just a bit big.

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3, 2, 1...Ignition!

2011-05-20T17:29:00.000-06:00

The Triumph Twins (Bonneville, Thruxton, Scrambler, etc.) have an oddly-positioned ignition switch. It is located on the left-side headlight mount/fork shroud. To me (and a lot of other people, apparently), that just doesn't look right.

I say that a lot of other people must not like it, because there are a number of adapter kits that you can buy to relocate the switch. Recently, I bought a Joker Machine relocation kit for my Scrambler. Today, I decided to install it.

The JM kit is kind of pricey, to me, particularly in light of the fact that it doesn't include all of the hardware that you will need to install it. I had assumed that I would be reusing the allen bolts which hold the switch in the stock mounting bracket, in order to mount it into the JM bracket. But, the new bracket is drilled and tapped for a smaller bolt. Luckily, that smaller bolt is commonly used as the water bottle mounting bolt on bicycles, so I had some lying about.

Other than that, the installation was very straightforward. And this is good, because the entire wording of the installation instructions was, "Use blue Lock-Tite on all hardware."

Once it was done, the installation was very neat and clean. It puts the ignition switch in the same place as the switch on my Honda CL-450, so it seems familiar and convenient to me.

Unfortunately, I don't have my new headlight, yet, so I can't pull my fork shrouds off. That means I still have the ugly mounting bracket hanging off of the fork. After thinking about it for a minute, I figured out what I believe to be a pretty good temporary fix.

I pulled my British tax-disc holder off of the Trident, inserted a picture of Bettie Page, and bolted it to one of the ignition-switch mounting holes on the bracket. The disc is just the right size to cover the bracket. I was looking for a way to stick a little cheesecake on the bike, and I think this works well, for now.

The new front brake fluid reservoir, which I installed last week, and the relocated ignition switch really make a difference in the look of the bike, to me. I am almost through with the planned modifications. I am waiting for the new headlight to arrive, before I can do anything else.

Slowly, but surely, she is becoming mine!

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Catching Up

2011-05-16T20:28:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a week flies by. This past one certainly did. Nothing of any great import went down, in my life, so the only blogging I did was the daily story and helping out at the MG.

Saturday, I ran into Brian G at the coffee shop, and we sat for a while and caught up with each other's lives. Brian asked me what had ever happened with the guy who knocked me off my bike, in March. As I told him, I realized that no one else really had heard the story. So, I figured I'd pretty much just restate what I told Brian:

When the DA refused to prosecute the assault, the police talked him into signing off on a misdemeanor Careless Driving in the school zone. With that charge, I was told, the driver could not plea bargain it down, and a court appearance was mandatory. I was also told to wait to be subpoenaed as a witness. Court date was set for April 25.

I never heard anything else. Misdemeanor charges, it seems, don't require a personal appearance, if you plead No Contest or Guilty. Your attorney can show up and handle everything. (So I've been told. I'm no expert.)

Anyway, I've decided it's just water under the bridge. People keep telling me I should sue the guy, but I don't know what I'd sue for. I am fine, the bike was unharmed.

If I had found myself mentally unable to commute, any longer, I might go after him for "Pain and Suffering", or something. But, I have commuted straight through, even after the crash. So, I really don't see that I have been "harmed".

I feel this way particularly in light of today's fatal hit-and-run against a cyclist on his way to work, not far from where I work. I think I'll avoid clogging the courts up with my little crash, so that maybe they will have more energy to go after whoever killed the cyclist, this morning.

Sorry for the downer post. It's been a bit of a downer day. I heard about the hit-and-run as I left for work, and found out the details when I got home. In between, I was hoping that the rider was okay.

Be careful, my friends.

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Night Rider (Remember me when you look at the night sky...)

2011-05-07T22:49:00.000-06:00

After working on the bike, today, I just couldn't help going on a ride. The sun was down before I left the house, so I turned west and headed for one of my favorite nighttime rides: Lookout Mountain. The road is temporarily closed, near the top, so I pulled off at the last overlook before the closure and took in the city lights.

There was fellow rider there, when I pulled in. We were talking bikes when a third rider pulled in on a KLR 650. He was a young guy, just out of college, and he told us that he was going to Alaska to be a fire fighter. He is going to fight fires in order to make the cash to fund a ride to Argentina on the KLR.

He took off, after making a phone call, and the first fellow and I kept talking bikes for about a half an hour.

It was a fun ride, even though Brad and Randy were both unable to join me. It would have been nice to make it a Scrambler run on the mountain. As it was, the weather was fine, traffic was light, and the bike was awesome.

I love warm weather!

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Drillium

2011-05-07T19:27:00.000-06:00

I finally drilled the heat guards and polished them and the alloy fender.

Not perfect, but pretty good. I prefer them to anything else I've seen.

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More Work on The Scrambler

2011-05-03T19:23:00.000-06:00

I put some different handlebars (modern motocross bars) on the Scram, today. They are lower, and have less pull-back. Plus, they are black.

After I got the bars on, I started looking at the front fender. For some reason, the front fender has never really suited me. I was thinking that I might do a shorty front fender, like the Deus bikes always have. But, I wasn't sure it would really suit the Scrambler profile.

I had a Royal Enfield front alloy fender sitting about, so I test-fitted it, then drilled it and mounted it. I think I like the longer, skinnier fender better than the stock one. It looks more "vintage"to me than the stock unit.

Now, I just need to figure out the rear fender.

Fifty Years Old

2011-05-02T22:21:00.000-06:00

...and I got a Barbie for my birthday!

Those who know me understand...

I'm a huge Joan Jett fan, and this Barbie just cracks me up! I've wanted one, ever since I heard they were coming out.

This is the kind of thing my dad never really got...

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Four Years Old

2011-05-01T08:13:00.000-06:00

It was four years ago, today, that I started my daily bike commute. Since then, I have ridden to work 808 consecutive work days, for a total distance of close to 14,000 miles.

Tomorrow starts Year 5 of bike commuting.

People ask me how long I plan to keep it up, and I don't really have an answer. I'll do it as long as I enjoy it, I suppose, and I have no idea how long that might be.

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Exhausted

2011-04-30T13:19:00.000-06:00

I love my new Triumph Scrambler! I have not been as excited about a motorcycle since I got my first Triumph (the Trident, which I still have). And, one of the things I am excited about is personalizing the bike, and making it my own. This will consist mainly of cosmetic changes (I don't plan to hop the motor up, or anything), cleaning up the profile of the bike.

One of the things I am changing is the look of the exhaust. I like the stock set-up, except for the awkward-looking heat shields. Specifically, I do not like the misshapen pie plate just below the rear of the tank, and I don't like the over-sized guards on the mufflers, at the rear of the bike.

Here's a view of the stock heat shields (and also my new mirrors, mounted beneath the bars, to clean up the top of the handlebar).

I took the pie plate off, yesterday, and rode around running some errands. I never even noticed it was gone. My leg crosses over the pipes well behind that spot. So, I figured that a smaller plate, mainly there to just cover the mounting bracket welded to the pipe, would be sufficient.

Yesterday, I went to Ace Hardware and bought some 2" x 1/8" aluminum stock. Today, I set to work.

I pulled the big guards off of the mufflers, as well, and cut pieces of the stock to cover those brackets, as well as one to cover the pie plate bracket. Then, I drilled the mounting holes and test-fitted them.

I then marked off a radius on each end of the new guards, and went to work with the angle grinder, bench grinder and metal file. Once I had them fairly close to the finished curve, I mounted them up and did a bit more filing while they were in place.

So, here are the new heat shields. I still need to do a bit of finish work on the edges, and polish them up. But, even in this semi-rough stage, they look 1000% better than the stock shields, to me.

What do you think?

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Quite Random

2011-04-21T21:43:00.001-06:00

Saw this, on the way home from work, last week:

Oddly, one of the stickers in the window is from WHBQ AM, in Memphis. We listened to Rick Dees in the morning, after he hit it big with "Disco Duck".

Nice pinstriping, though it's a bit hard to see in the crappy cell-phone photo...

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My Daily Project Chugs Right Along

2011-04-16T22:16:00.000-06:00

I just realized that today's story was Number 100.

So far, the well has not begun to run dry.

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New Motorbike!

2011-04-15T15:24:00.000-06:00

I finally broke down and bought a Triumph Scrambler. I will readily admit that I am being "follow-along-Jonny" on this: Both Brad and Randy have Scramblers, and I was coveting their bikes.

I traded the big Suzuki V-Strom in. I got a little less than what I was trying to sell it for, but it's gone and I don't have to deal with Craigslist people, any more.

So, I once again have two Triumph 900s in the fleet. They are as different as can be, but I loves me some Triumph iron!

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Dollar Menu

2011-04-09T22:52:00.000-06:00

In circulation, around Denver...

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