TRDL R3 Forum member and R3 Army Lt. Akua sent us another fun care package, this time chuck full of non-consumable awesome. Highlight was this notepad. GO GO BICYCLE. And all the WTF below that, had me rolling. You know how much I love a grammawrong.

The package also included a cool hobbyist mag (I used to read these in JH when doing a lot of anime models) and HOT BOT ACTION!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. WRONG : Man arrested for having sex with a BICYCLE.
2. bicycle gear hall of fame
3. SF’s bicycle improvements – headed in the right direction?

Lung and I got to take one of our treasured bromantic fixie-crawls this past Saturday AM, an activity that was, until recently with the birth of my botlet, a regular ritual. But these days, a free morning is hard to come by, and horse-trading occurred in my loft to yield a negotiated 3.5 hour window of awesomeness time. And so we took it, meeting at Flora Grubb’s for coffee, cat fancy and some foliage admiring. Then, we were off into the foggy, windy San Francisco summer morning, to ride and bullshit around, and also, to visit bike shops. Lung has a few projects cooking, and my goals were two-fold: check out a few parts for the Ye Blacke Death build, and look at bar options for Fix-e. I very nearly decided to sell of Fix-e last month, as the frame is a bit small, and the cranks are lower quality than I want to use now… I thought, thin the herd a bit… but then, when I actually pulled it down, I couldn’t let go. It was my first project, and it stays. But I knew my annoyance with the bars was getting untenable. It’s had long bullhorns for about a year, leather wrapped, and fairly recently the bar end brake lever was joined by a finger lever up top. But the bar end lever kept popping out, the tape was a bit weather beaten, and frankly, it was just time for a change.

I was originally looking at three types of potential bars for Fix-e, and two shapes for YBD. Though I saw these at American when I visited, I was more taken by the steep drops they had in stock by NITTO. It’s funny, some stuff you can totally piece together by imagining it, checking dims, and ordering online or sourcing through ebay or whatever. But some things you need in hand. I knew I wanted to look at track drops, but I wasn’t sure what they would feel like. I mean, I’ve ridden on conventional and aero drops for my road bikes forever, but I never really examined the popular ‘pursuit’ drops popular with the alleycat types these days, given that I don’t race around town in the drops and such. But one thing I continue to enjoy is a narrow bar width, for negotiating traffic and a, fr lack of a beter description, different ride experience than my road bikes.

I quite liked some of the drops I saw, especially NITTO’s B-123 which comes as tight as a murderous 34cm width. And I realllly liked how that felt, even though there’s definitely compromise at the top, where I often rest my hands, even more so when utilizing an uncool brake lever. But I just wasn’t convinced among the three bar styles, and left empty-handed, to ponder. Additionally, Fix-e has always been my experiment bike. From builds in the first place to specific components, I try stuff out there, then commit to them on other projects. Wrongbike benefitted from several choices made through Fix-e experimentation. So, I was a little alarmed at the idea of using a $75-100 NITTO bar on an experiment. As I dwelled, I realized that the OTHER thing I wasn’t feelin on these drops was that they are proto-fixie style. You see that geometry EVERYWHERE online. And that’s fine, they rock, and if you’re an alleycat type, power to you. But I realized I wanted something different. I ruled out the third bar (a bar Lung turned me onto, called the Sparrow) and so I was set. But gosh, wish I could actually have them in hand in order to execute!

Fortunately, I got my chance, as I got Mr. Mhom duty for the later afternoon for about an hour, while Wifebot was at the salon. I was just driving around looking for a good place to park so I could get the botlet into the chest carrier and take a stroll, when I thought to myself, self? Why not the Mission… where there just happens to be another track shop… and bless her, the botlet stayed mellow while I was in there, long enough to get both the bars I wanted AND the necessary grips, and out before mcFussin got going.

It took some research to figure out how to apply the grips, however. I read about several approaches. I can tell you, direct application does NOT work. But I decided to experiment with two suggestions I read about in the track bike forums, and they worked perfectly. You soak the rubber grips in hot water, shake them out, then scoot them onto the bars that have been doused with Windex. The Windex and water evaporate fast, and the grips hold. PERFECT.

I’ll tell you what, I think the new drops look AWESOME. They ride well too, but I do think I’m still in for a taller stem. That aggressive a riding position works for awhile, but you need to be able to sit up and admire the EHPs too, you know? But super stoked. Different cranks and tyres and I think Fix-e’s got a new lease on life!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Over the Moon
2. Bike Build Process Log: Fix-e 3.0
3. Bike Build Process Log: Crook- Drop it Like it’s HAWT

Ye Blacke Death is a sloowwwww project. I have a botlet now, and she gets 99.99% of my free time. I’m working on this bike in bits and pieces as I can. Unlike wrongBike(tm), where I assembled ALL the parts first, and then put the bike together, this time, I’m sort of using the Lung school, and piecing it together as i go. Partly, this is just for fun, and partly because I want to test my assumptions and plans and schemes as I go, so I can course correct when needed. Like all of my projects, this one will have details that will change before it’s done (and already has) but that’s the fun of bike builds… they’re kind of organic in a design sense.

I pulled the old wheels off the frame and test fitted the new ones, this time around. This was for two purposes: I wanted to absolutely verify that I hadn’t misremembered the spacing on the frame (I bought the wheels on my iPhone while at my in-laws, without the frame at hand to verify) and it did. Additionally, I wanted to see how the silver finish of the rims was going to look. I had originally planned a very dark build: gunmetal parts where possible. This may still happen, if I find a suitable means of shooting a ‘smoke’ finish that won’t peel off without primer (why can’t Tamiya build stuff for BIG kits?) But my research into building wheels in a gunmetal look from scratch proved that approach to be too expensive and ultimately imperfect. I could get the rims dark, and maybe the spokes, but not the nipples or hub. I also looked at anodizing, as I posted about separately, but again, the brass nipples get you there. So I decided to focus on technology more than aesthetics, and choose the wheels based on how they work, not how they look (as related to my original concept)… but until I mounted them, I wasn’t sure if the silver was going to distract.

Nope, it’ll work juuuuuuust fine.

What i DID learn from this quick test was crucial to the future of the bike, however: the rims are light, but I want to simplify the look of the wheels. That mean no gumwall or all-gum tyres as I originally planned. Now I’m going all black. And in the arena of non-racing-slick tubular tyres, that’s harder to come by. More next time…

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Wheels Down
2. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Wheels Selected
3. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Rubber Side Down

pixieCross is adults racing each other on little kids’ 16" bikes.

HERE’S video of the downieville pixiecross championships from this year.

and HERE’S the chico state cycling team pixieCrossing.

this looks TOO fucking fun.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. sweet georgia brown’s blog – give her some internet love!
2. TdF 2010: the Armstrong vs. Contador Thing
3. early tour de france sounds hard. also, awesome

i’ve been trying to find other red light report comics online all day today, to no avail. but at least there’s this one. the concept of these comics is that whoever the artist is, draws out actual conversations s/he hears … at red lights.

two things loved…

"you can eat a bag of dicks." (i often tell people to eat a bowl of nuts.)
"i don’t think you understand how this thing works." (this is funny cause i GET what the motorist was saying. by the cyclist "holding up" the motorist, the motorist was wasting gas. and because it was the cyclist’s "fault," it was the cyclist who was wasting gas. but still.)

via BIKEJERKS.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. "ride civil" is the new critical mass
2. SF Gets YELLOW Light to Proceed with Bike Plan Improvements
3. Whither the Bike Light, Woodsy Edition

veteran trials rider CHRIS AKRIGG (six-time national bike trial champion) recently got a fixed-gear from his sponsor, mongoose. he had never ridden fixed before. so he documented his progress on film.

the RESULT is that in 3 minutes and 20 seconds of video, he owns every single fixed-gear freestyler out there.

the first minute and some change is him learning the basics. then it’s on for another two minutes. pay special note to 03:11. it looks simple, but pay close attention to what he’s actually doing. it’s INCREDIBLE.

some simple math based on his blog post dates put his ownership of this bike at ONE MONTH at the time the video dropped. this is just proof positive that if you’re a good biker, you’re a good biker and that’s that. it doesn’t matter what you’re on — you’re gonna own.

and please note — NO STRAPS OR CLIPS.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. kimori fixed-gear adapter
2. steven jensen lands the first fixed gear tailwhip
3. No Gear

I’m telling you right now: Lung was scheming to do this last year. First! But since he was resistant to the use of a hard sole insert, didn’t know how to ride clipped in just yet, and was working under a pharma haze, it’s pretty good he didn’t go through with it.

Still, he got there first in his brainstem!

http://www.candycranks.com/archives/3030

:::

Of course, as referenced in the comments on that article, nothing beats this hotness:

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Fashion or Fixie
2. Another Testament to Clip-In Shoes
3. More Custom THAN Custom Brooks Saddlery

I was speculating on this the other day: it’s a shame no one came up with a quill stem where the connection is actually two piece, not one piece, but the bolt connection occurs at the underside of the clamp, recessed. The top of the quill runs along the full horizontal length and tapers to a clean, radiused point to cap the stem.

I mean, sure, in an accident, if that bolt failed, you’d have a metal spike launching into your cranium, but since when has THAT stopped us. I mean, Gage was still pretty handsome…

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. awesome tech tip for single-bolt quill stems
2. livery design’s fillet brazed/CNC quill stem
3. rapha 3-piece cycling suit — JUUUST a bit over-the-top

My original concept for the Ye Blacke Death bike build was to push every component as close to gunmetal as possible. I wanted that dark, greasy metal look… without, you know, being that greasy. I wanted to cut down on the shiny glittery silvery bits that are so stand-out on WrongBike(tm). However, I ran into some problems. For one, everyone’s ‘gunmetal/ charcoal/ light black’ is different, and most are paint finishes, which just don’t look that good. I mean, they do, if you are aiming for a nonemore modern track bike look… but not for old timey. I’ve come to realize that I need to let some of that stuff just be what it is, silvery or not. The other aspects of the build will draw attention away anyway.

However, as part of my research, I looked into custom aluminum anodizing. I thought it was a far-fetched prospect, being small part one-off projects that would be hard to fit into the production like of a large shop. As it turns out, I was wrong.

I was looking at 2Dye4 Anodizing last week, reading up on process and getting a sense of what might be possible, cost and lead time excepting. They’re in Northern California, which is nice for us here, because we can bring stuff TO them, etc. Anyway, I dropped a feeler just in case. I got a note back from Stephanie there and she encouraged me to call her to talk about the project potential. She’s simply awesome. The shop is completely down with small projects, and is familiar with bike parts. They can do just about anything, as long as it’s all aluminum. Turnaround time, 24 hours. Price, extremely reasonable. The only hitch for this project is that my wheels are built-up, and while the bearings and axles can be removed, the spokes are in with brass nipples. It’s not really worth tearing the wheels apart for this application. But now I know where to go for a future build, and to quote Stephen Colbert, so can you!

2Dye4 Anodizing, Inc.
707-921-8500

By the way, I mentioned they had some familiarity with the ways and means of bike parts? One of their main clients: ENO Industries. That’s certainly a solid endorsement for this guy.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log- Rapscallion: Minding the Gap
2. Interview 2: Wrongrobot
3. Bike Build Process Log: Rapscallion – Live Load Test Ride

sweet. THIS site is a comprehensive collection of bikes and bike stuff for sale all over the nation, searchable by state or price or brand … even COLOR.

for instance, the banner pic — a raleigh step-through with matching painted metal fenders, a rack, stem shifters, springer seat, gumwalls, and a sweet swept-back bar — $100 in sacramento, ca. i found that in like .03s of searching.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. The Comfort of an Old [Red]Coat
2. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Bars and Saddles
3. Bike Build Process Log: Ye Blacke Death – Rings and Things

« More Current — Less Current »