Who among us hasn’t sheared their knuckles trying to remove a persnickety cog lockring? (Among those of us who actually work on their bikes)

I was looking for an image of a tool the other day (the Trixie, a necessary staple of our ride kits discovered by one Lung) when I stumbled upon the Stein Un Fixie Cog Remover.

Talk about a product that looks worth it’s weight in gollllle. Too rich for my blood right now, but it’s like someone glommed a breaker bar to a lockring removal tool, then tried to beam it over to the wrongRoom(tm) and it had a teleporter accident. I love it. BEEFIER than the beefiest bottom bracket, I tell you what.

You can see some great review pics of the tool at Gears n Beers,,,

Best random semi-related note: I also saw THIS image, which reminded me very much of Lung’s early days of ride kit preparation:

WANT! (well, the Stein, anyway.)

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i like keirin more and more every day.

from ESEHAMA’S FLICKR.

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So my parents, lamenting the great distance between them and my infant daughter, gifted Chez Wrongrobot with a Canon Vixia HF200 HD camcorder. This is for the purpose of taking copious videos of wee Z eating feet and giggling and so on. But on the SIDE, we now have one more means to capture ridery, along with the pre-existing Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 pocket cam. As Halloween Critical Mass is quickly approaching, some experimentation is in order. Glad I got to this, because Experiment 001 yielded what, in military parlance, might be FOXTROT ALPHA INDIA LIMA!

;;;

Besides the cameras themselves, the other new component to to the mix since our previous such documentation of rides past is the addition of the Universal Helmet Mount, sold through Photojojo.com. I picked up one for Lung and one for self. Please note the fine folks at Photojojo know the value of detail in customer service. Same people who had that little robot greet me when I was filling out my registration on their site. Now? A small gift included in the package received. Nice work!

;;;

So, I assembled the helmet mount in the trial position, and immediately decided that it needed more support. This is a system designed for phones and pocket cams, not full-on handicams, albeit ones as small as the Canon. So I needed to account for the weight a bit more than the two straps included, and did so with some zip-ties. I knew that the major uncertainties would be:
a) camera-shake from loose mount (it includes an adhesive component, but I’m not using it yet)
2) camera angle wonk
d) mount breakage and camera death

The primary purpose for this morning’s experiment was to attempt to gather preliminary data on the first two, and sort of test the waters on the third. The resulting 11 minute video has been clipped down to a short sub-30s clip as seen in the link below, exclusively for the purposes of understanding how the images look, and what I’m in for on Experiment 002.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrongrobot/4053834602/

Post-Mortem:

What we’ve learned in Experiment 001:

a) camera-shake: I understand the helmet mount to be the second best method towards mitigating camera-shake (excluding the features of full-service action camera systems with different lensing and anti-shake technology aimed at moving footage) next to holding it while you ride. I think part of the issue here is the mounting: I didn’t use the adhesive component, and the strapping is sub-par for the weight of the camera, I think. This can be addressed, even without the adhesive strip, through better mounting efforts, ie. a few more full-on straps binding the camera firmly to the helmet. Commercial, and DIY, handicam mounts for helmets (unlike this lighter weight system) usually involve metal angles and permanent fasteners. I’m trying to accomplish more than what was intended with this system. But I think, with a little bit more firmly secured camera, less jitter may occur.

2) camera angle wonk: This was as expected. I knew the wonk would occur because I wasn’t taking into account the specific angle of the helmet while riding. The curved form of the road helmet doesn’t make it easy, either, as you need to secure to vents that are long channels. Different points along the curve are harder to secure without tertiary supports. Anyway, next experiment will include some test fits to find the proper position. To make matters worse, I rode sort of head-down, thinking the camera was aiming at the sky, as has happened in the past with bar-mounted cameras using the GorillaPod.

d) mount breakage and camera death: So far so good. I used ziptied secured to the strap of the camera in this experiment in the hopes that if the mount failed, the camera would dangle long enough for me to dodge SUVs and pull over. Next, I’ll go a little further with the tethering to be safe.

Onward! For science! We have two days!

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off of flickr and onto their own server comes TLCC fave THEFIXFIXFIX.

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another good VIMEO starring bikes, SF, and MASH crew.

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what’s THIS?

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THIS video’s not really any better than anything you’ve seen on MASH or macaframa, but i’m SUPER into massan right now, and oak street is not for suckas — i’ve bombed it many times and it’s no bullshit — you could fuckin die out there.

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about a year ago, i made the switch from proper road tyres to city trekkers. i used vittoria rubinos, mistakenly thinking that they were what the MASHSF guys had been reccomending. what i was wrong about was that it was actually vittorias RANDONNEUR tyre that they’d been touting. more on my rubino tests HERE, and the initial rando purchase HERE.

so i’ve been riding the randonneurs now for about 3 weeks, and that’s ALREADY a win, considering that the rubinos were burning through at right around day 8, to the THREADS. but these randos are amazing. they last and last, they skid REALLY evenly, and when you get through the outer rubber shell, you’ve still got a whole puncture-resistant plane to get through before you’re on the threads. i don’t even KNOW how long that might last, but i was riding on the puncture strip for at least a week, skidding as if nothing were different. (see banner pic — that reddish patch in the middle of the tyre is the punctureStrip showing through where the rubber is burned away.)

these tyres are also kickass in the rain. like car tyres, they have a rain channel running down their middle, with offshoots out to the sides. the intent is that, again like car tyres, the rain will channel through all those little grooves and keep more rubber on the road instead of whatever the bike version of hydroplaning is — dying, i guess. and with all the rain two weeks ago, i had a lot of opportunity to discover that these stick pretty good in the rain.

overall, i get why the MASHSF guys reccomend these particular tyres…

+ they’re notSticky enough that you can skid em without tearing your hamstrings in half, as with road tyres.
+ they’re sticky enough that they actually slow you down when you skid.
+ riding a commute 5 days a week, twice a day, in addition to riding for transportation 7 days a week, and generally not using a brake except in emergencies, they live about 3 weeks. and you still won’t be through the integrated puncture strip.
+ they’re beefy enough (minimum width is 28c) that even at their low pressure max (85psi!!!), they’re good and solid, and they take potholes and other cracks and whatsits with no problems.

super impressive product, and at a price point that’s only about $5 more expensive than the rubinos, you’re getting three times the lifespan. it’d be silly NOT to use them, if your frame’s chainstay clearance can handle 28c.

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(SG)f’s bday is today, and so this weekend was a big celebratory thing — nothing very public (with the exception of a surprise dinner with all her cousins), but days long and fun.

one of the things that i did was to look up online how to give a pedicure and then to go to bed, bath & beyond and pick up all the shit i needed to do same. one of the things that i didn’t necessarily NEED, but wanted, was one of those foot spa things. rubbery sea grass on the bottom, undulating heated bubble ducts, the whole nine.

big box though. so big, in fact, that it took up about 90% of the available 2000 cubic inches that my messenger bag holds. and that, while sticking out the top and preventing the bag from even closing. i had to take everything out of the bag, stick the box in there, and then stuff everything back in, around the box. note that i had to actually take my raincoat OUT, and lash it to the outside of the bag.

so i rode home with this on my back…

it was big and heavy and it was tough to manage, but it was secure and i made it.

fuckin a, man, this bag rules.

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OK, I’m used to envying the sprinting or climbing or balancing or what have you skillz in pro roadies… but this is going too far. Too far, Milano Fixed!!!!

http://trackosaurusrex.com/pblog/index. … 023-101335

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