Ha, faceplant!

http://www.cafepress.com/+bike_bike_fun … id=2529374

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We rode the velo so fast we smoked the tyres on acceleration!

That’s mah story.

http://comfort-eagle.tumblr.com/post/6644330326

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When I was transporting our frames to and from the framebuilder for the coupler projects (they weren’t used, ultimately) it certainly appeared like we were a pair of Steelers fans. Half right!

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So, on the Carpetbagger coupler bike project, I’m using a Velo Cru seatpost from Velo Orange for the first time. On my other projects, I’ve used Thomson seatposts, and a few generics here and there (and Ergo Posts on the Looks) and this one offered something new, in addition to the nominal setback for Brooks saddle use (and I mean nominal… it’s not much): the rail clamp is on a hinge, which makes mounting and adjustment really easy because you’re not trying to manhandle that nut AND the saddle AND the allen key all at the same time. Pretty awesome concept.

Speaking of awesome concepts, these travel bikes built with S&S Couplers fit in the hardshell case designed to protect them from the rigors of air travel when broken down and sandwiched. However, both Lung and I went with the soft bag to carry them, for a very important reason: pull the bag off the luggage carousel at the terminal, wrench the bike together, and then compress the bag and wear it as you ride away from the airport. AMAZING. I love it. And I haven’t even used it yet. I saw Lung’s packed up and it looked rad.

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Yes, that’s no illusion. Matching his and hers tees with octopi riding fixed gears.
Have a great Father’s Day, allyall!

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Yeah, the answer is ALL OF THEM… but if we have to choose, and we’re the asshole driver… I’d say the one that is a COP.

Sorry this wasn’t a Team Lope Bike Grrl, Lung…the title was sort of misleading.

http://girlonabicycle.blogspot.com/2011 … rt-of.html

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Wrongbike, my old Vista road bike conversion, was supposed to be the seed of Carpetbagger originally. For years I would scour the framebuilder list on the Sandsmachine website, talking to guys here and there about having couplers put on Wrongbike, meeting frustrating walls or lack of interest, or frankly, steep price estimates. When Lung got inspired to build a coupler, I took another look and lucked out on finding Tom at 4130, who turned out to be a savvy and honest craftsman, who in turn informed both of us that our frames of choice were ill suited for the project: Lung’s was awkwardly formed, and mine was old and soft. So, we got new frames, and built the coupler bikes around those. This freed each of us up to resume bike projects with the frames of the bikes we stripped in the first place. This is the first report on the new Wrongbike.

The Walnut Portage Strap is something i picked up from an Etsy seller and architect about 18 months ago, with no real project in mind. I mean, it was originally envisioned to go on an old timey build that would be my baby carrier, but since I used a Mixte frame there, that was out.

Next up was Carpetbagger. However, I sussed out a really obvious problem with that once I was assembling the travel bike: the strap is designed long enough that it reaches beyond the coupler point, thereby making coupling impossible, or rather, decoupling. I had thought the coupler could slide right out from under it but the lacing is too tight.

Thusly, Wrongbike became the recipient. This dovetailed nicely with a few other tweaks to this project that push it away from contemporary fixie ride set-up and make it a little funkier. There’s already plenty of warm leather on this bike, so the Portage Strap works perfectly.

I have to say, it was much harder to lace up than the elkhide bar wraps I’ve been doing. It’s much thicker, tougher leather. The waxed thread was stiffer. The inflexibility of the leather made threading difficult, and pushing the needle through made my thumbs pretty raw over those hours. But dammit, I got it done. And t’s GREAT.

What’s a Portage Strap? It allows you to carry the bike over your shoulder comfortably. And, in Wrongbike’s case, it also covers one of the cable boss braze-ons that always jabbed me in the whose-it. So awesome.

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Many components of the Carpetbagger coupler project are reclaimed from other projects. It’s half the fun. This shot is of some of the small parts that were pulled from other bikes, cleaned with liberal amounts of WD-40, and ready for reuse. I have acquired three or four degreaser/cleaners for bike parts over the years, but you know what, for me, it’s all about spraying the hell out of it with WD-40 and buffing it out.

The bottom bracket spindle, plastic cowl, bearings and cups are from a Sugino 75 bottom bracket I got from Magnus from his ALC09 Mash build. The cog, chain, masterlink and crank bolts all came from Ghostal. There were a number of other parts being cleaned in a second round, for wrongbike’s rebuild but this was just for Carpetbagger. The rest were either new parts, or didn’t require a chemical bath.

It’s one of my favorite parts of a build, cleaning old stuff, especially parts right off of an old rustbucket. Which is interesting, since I generally dislike my hands being caked on with grime, grease or clay. But I find it very relaxing. I’ve learned to do it in very specific, controlled environments these days, though. I lost a bottom bracket cup on the first wrongbike build when it launched off of my loft deck into the hinterlands below, and I lost a few small items through the deck slats out back of my current place when working on one of the Crook builds. Now I’m slowly learning to protect the work area, ha. Dolt!

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Hereabouts.

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Got $1500 and a small stature?
Get that RAAAAAAAAADDDDD one-off Vig from the Mash ToC run now!

http://mashsf.tumblr.com/post/6493879905/one-off

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