When I read the AP item a few days ago that Gene Hackman was injured in a bike accident, I was concerned for him but also aggravated by the reporting. It referred to his lack of helmet, being airlifted to a hospital, and no charges or alcohol being involved. Sounded quite a bit like his injuries were his own fault for riding helmetless and that the accident was unavoidable.

http://www.theurbancountry.com/2012/01/ … n-his.html

I came across this article this morning, underscoring the same media bias that had concerned me. As they point out, Hackman was hit from BEHIND by a truck. There is no helmet law in that state. And he was airlifted because he was on an island.

I agree with the writer above: the press about Hackman’s accident illustrated the typical media bias about bike-related issues. Lots of misdirection and manipulation, likely very little of it a conscious effort on the part of the writer or editor. I’m the first to argue that helmets should always be worn (even when I skip it riding to coffee like a fool) and there’s no doubt in my mind that going down without one is of higher risk than going down with one. But the focus on his lack of helmet suggested that his injuries were his own fault, AND that they were head injuries, neither of which is necessarily true. The article takes the position I read all the time in accident reporting: no alcohol was apparently involved, so the driver couldn’t possibly be at fault because only impaired drivers assume responsibility. We are otherwise conveniently flawless behind the wheel.

Disgusting.

But get well soon, Royal!

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Lisa and Alfie are familiar faces for the Aids Lifecycle crowd. They pretty much wrote the book on fixed-gear ALC, and where the folks, as Team One, that I contacted before our own fixed-gear participation to ask about their experiences and gear ratios. Great folks, and the type of people that always impress with their adventurous exploits: climbing mountains, double or triple century 24-hour rides, constant uploads of photos of nature, food and gear from various bike and moto trips… the kind of people you look at and think hey, not only are they living their lives to the fullest, but they’lll live forever, too.

Lisa suffered an aortic dissection the night they returned from their Thanksgiving weekend trip, sending her to the ER with chest pains in an ambulance and Alfie into a justifiable panic. 7 hours of open heart surgery later, she’s on the mend, very slowly. As someone who has had a family member have open heart surgery, I know first-hand the kind of stress Alfie is under, both during the operation and the long recovery period to follow.

Team Lope wishes Lisa and Alfie the very best and a speedy recovery for Lisa. We will see you on a ride as soon as you are able!

Read more on the harrowing tale here: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/golisago/

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If you read this for WENCHERY, you’ve been led astray.

So I’ve been talking with Mannie Rabara about helping him out on his fixie commuter for a few months now, but our mutual kid-management and work schedules have prevented either of us from getting to the other’s houses. Mannie rode Aids Lifecycle with us last year, and is the older brother of Maynard, the rad dude who donated his old Mixte frame that became the first Zoe Carrier. Mannie and I both went to Cal Poly for university, at different times. Anyway, he bought a Factory Fixie awhile back to get his feet wet, and decided it was time for, as we say, UPGRADES. I have a copious overstock of bike parts perpetually being sold, traded or stolen, so I hooked him up with some Sugino cranks and a shorty black stem (again, wrong site, for some of you)… the problem was merely getting it done. The plan was to install them for him and show him how to do it.

I had an opportunity to take Wee Z out for the morning to give her mombot(tm) a break, so I shot over the bridge and down to Oakland and met Mannie near his office. I’ve never actually BEEN to downtown Oakland before. It reminds me of Chicago: wide streets, similar heights and construction style of much of the buildings. No private place to work, so i said, what the hell, let’s do it on the street, the Team Lope way! (again, perhaps wrong site)

Zoe was eager to help, right out of the gate, and was wielding my field tool kit. It was a bit too heavy for her, admittedly.

Along with my regular tools, I brought everything needed for a full overhaul, since I wasn’t sure yet what to expect and I wanted him to be be able to ride away. Drivetrain tools, cog and lock ring tools, chain, Phils Lube, WD-40, and so on.

Downtown Oakland isn’t really sketchy, just more like upper lower Market, lots of homeless and dudes wandering around, mixed with working folk. I parked in front of a sweet Thai joint and set up in front of the MINI. I was aware of the spectacle, but hey. It must be done!

It went very well. His bike was new enough that there wasn’t a lot of junk in the bolts and the lube was still good for the most part so it came apart pretty easily. Which is what you want, doing field repairs. I pulled off his generic cranks and noted that his no name bottom bracket was probably not much different than the basic Shimano BB I brought, so we decided to leave it in place. I cleaned and mounted the new cranks, lubed and added his pedals and toe straps, and the tightened it all down. Reset the rear wheel, and sent him off to test it. I had brought extra cogs so we could change gearing if needed, as he was moving to a 46t chainring on the Sugino cranks, but he liked it as it was. Retightened after his test ride, gave him a 12mm key and some 2-day tips (you know, re-check and tighten everything after two days of riding) and he was good to go. He took the stem for later use, and was generally stoked to be able to ride back to work with his new gear good to go.

It was pretty fun. Best part was that I had a total of five different people stop and ask for my card, thinking I was a mobile bike tune-up kit. There’s definitely a market there. Everyone seemed into the idea that someone could come and help them with their bikes on their lunch hours, and you know, with the free time necessary, it could be fun to do just that, much like how Mike’s has a mobile mechanic out on the bike path during certain events and ALC training days. Mostly, I got a lot of interest from other passerby that just hadn’t seen bike repair in front of a Thai restaurant before.

Zoe slept through the whole thing.

I think Mannie’s fixie is on the fast track to customization and personalization, just as ours are. He already has the bug. What’s next? He has a new wheel and cranks and stem… possibly bars… maybe frame? And then he’s doomed! Nice to see Mannie and fun excursion in the middle of the 24-hour triage of newborn management…

Forgot to mention my work isn’t covered in the event of nuclear detonation, however. Oops.

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It took me years to get here, but I’m now one of those: I have a kid trailer.

I got this after sitting in the hospital and holding my newborn son and doing the calculus on transporting two kids by bike, which I absolutely will be doing as much as possible. Sure, Matteo is 9 months or so away from that, but I was thinking also about how much I needed to spend more dedicated time with Zoe during this difficult transition, which would normally translate to lots of fixed-gear cargo bike riding. But as we enter our colder, wetter winter months, it was clear that would be a more narrowly possible scenario.

I chose the Cub by Burley for a number fo reasons. It’s one of the most inexpensive trailers on the market, yet offers the same quality of construction as Burley’s more expensive offerings. It’s basically a stripper. While the double-price models allow for conversion to a stroller via the use of a roll bar that becomes a handle and a third wheel that mounts in lieu of the tow bar and the like, this model does precisely none of that, which suits me well: I dont use strollers. I carry kids on my shoulders or on my chest or they walk. The lack of frills keeps this model down to 19 pounds, which is pretty amazing. The Cub also folds flat enough to fit in the Clubman for family adventures, fits within a bike lane comfortably and carries up to two kids, fifteen puppies or one SG. It’s also yellow.

Lung came out for the maiden voyage on a cold day with menacing waves of storm clouds overhead. This was the kind of ride day I was preparing for, when my wifebot(tm) wouldn’t tolerate the idea of the kid on the front of the bike like a masthead cutting through the storm. It wasn’t a long ride, but it was a successful mission. We rode the highways and byways, we hit the park, we had lunch. It worked out great. The UV and wind/rain protection keeps the wee one safe while you ride, and the nature of towing allows you to use any bike, such as my road bike, and go for long distances as desired.

I think Zoe and I both prefer the stem-mount front view bike seat, but this trailer allows for the flexibilities. All in all, a fine addition to the stable.

http://www.burley.com/home/bur/page_307/cub.html

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Readers not suffering from short-term memory lost (and now traveling the streets of their unfamiliar neighborhood with tattoos of their grocery lists ont hem looking for payback for a murder they aren’t sure even happened) will recall that in preparation for the Levi Leipheimer Gran Fondo, I cobbled together a road bike the night before, and then had it explode on the ride.

You can read that ride report here. I called it the Gran Fondo Fireball.

After locking up the rear derailleur on the way down from the biggest climb of the ride, I was left with this:

And this:

Now, SRAM was a sponsor of the ride, and the local rep actually pulled up and gave me a new used rear derailleur, so I was at least not re-buying that part. With a baby imminent, my shoppe time is next to zero, so in order to get the bike going again, I dropped it off at Performance for a derailleur tune and more importantly a safety check. Right out of the gate, I forgot my new 10-speed chain i had purchased, so I was going to be picking that up there. They noted that the derailleur hanger that I had acquired from derailleurhanger.com was not correct. My frame seller was able to work with BTI and figure out the required part, and I had that shipped from the always sweet-as universalcycles.com. So, back to the shop for a second time, to replace the wrong hanger with the right hanger (this brings the famous ‘no wirrre hangerrrrs!’ to mind)… anyway, they thought they’d be able to finish the bike that day.

Late in the day report: not going to make it, some issue needing more time the next day, a Saturday. That wasn’t promising.

Late Saturday, same call. Even less promising. Understand, when I brought it in, I hadn’t done a THOROUGH inspection due to my family situation. But it looked like there wasn’t significant frame damage, and since the only substantial damage I saw was the hanger, I was hoping they’d be able to do a quick review for safety issues (one drawback to aluminum: when it cracks, it’s over) string the rear derailleur back up, and call it a day.

Then I got a call Monday that things were ‘very bad’. Fortunately, I feared this meant the frame was a loss, but in fact, not THAT bad. But the cassette was trashed, the spokes were jacked, the rim was creased, and some other smaller issues. I was kind of disappointed, because it was not my plan, when I built the new bike, to be frankensteining it with a bunch of new parts. However, it was what it was. I did a little price-checking, then authorized them to swap out a new SRAM 10-speed cassette (this time 12-27, so i lost the range of the old one at the bottom (in other words, the old one was a custom set-up from 11 to 27, giving me a great big AND little cog, with less steps between the two) and went in on new wheels. I could have had the old rear wheel respoked, but it was a cheapie from several years ago, and not really worth the labor and materials. Plus, the bearings on the front were getting choppy. So what the hell.

Picked it up, and it was as good as new. Better than before, actually, thanks to the much, much lighter new wheelset.

I was actually kind of overwhelmed with it last night after I picked up the bike. I was frustrated. I’m no regretter, as you may know from my posts, but I was starting to think, you know, had I listened to to my wife’s bad feeling that I shouldn’t build the bike for the ride etc, that this wouldn’t have happened. I’d have taken Crook Type 3, bombed that ride on a fixie (except for walking up that 16% gradient) and had a great ride, instead of sitting in the rain waiting for SAG for hours, damaging a new frame, destroying pretty much everything that wasn’t already new… at a time when I needed to manage costs.

Then I did some course correction: I suspect I might have had a calamity anyway, at some point. My chain was one link short, based on the discrepancy between SRAM tech notes and the install guides (the difference between one link being one outer and one inner, or just one outer OR one inner, as I thought it was) so there was going to be trouble when it chained big to big, which would happen eventually, despite my efforts. There’s some question about what failed when in the damage… the cassette may have already been bent in the biggest cog, from my previous problems having strung Villain together and riding that for a year. Anyway, it was sub optimal, and when it collap, it collap BIG. At the time, I fixie skided to a stop on a descent. But had it been the crabon frame, I’d very likely have lost the rear triangle, judging by the marks all over the back of the Cinelli and the damage to the wheel. I’d have gone down AND lost the frame. So, while the escalating repairs were unexpected and unfortunate, and the fact that I felt it better to let them keep whacking at it rather than sit on it in the shop for a few months and then start messing with it later, at least it was throughly vetted. And now it’s very rideable. In fact, better than ever.

But it was just hard in that way it’s always hard when you can point to a decision and think, had I not done that, I wouldn’t be in this mess. Even if that isn’t really true. With my first Look theft, and even with Lung’s lock-the wheel-without-the rear-triangle thing, sure they were errors but we had false expectations of security in each case. No sense in regretting that. Each led to newer, bigger, better builds.
So, in the end, this calamity COULD have ended in serious injury and worse damage, instead of ending in a sweet, sweet bike.

PS Zoe tried to pick out yet another wrongrobot-approved ride for herself. I said ‘now you have 3 bikes already. Only Daddy needs a stable of 8 bikes. It’s excessive.’ to which she broke into a toddler wail. Pretty funny, being commentary both on her bike denial AND on my excessive rides.

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Powerful, polo-playing bike grrrls seen.

http://menstrualcycles.tumblr.com/post/ … e54a3aedc4

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This year’s SF Bike Expo will the best yet. Why? Because of that dope poster. That’s why.

You can read more about the event here:
http://sfbikeexpo.com/

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Wow now you can just take all your fancy leaves and pikachus. I’ll take a bike rider in my coffee thanks.

http://menstrualcycles.tumblr.com/post/ … ur-morning

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for those not in the know, MOLLE means "MO.dular L.ightweight L.oad-carrying E.quipment." it’s a military acronym that describes any piece of equipment that employs PALS webbing ("P.ouch A.ttachment L.adder S.ystem"). this is a standardized grid of webbing that leaves equally-spaced loops all over the surface, allowing the user to attach a seemingly infinite number of pouches of various utility to their equipment. the US military has been using it for years.

so R.E.load bags, who i like a lot, just announced their MOLLE ROLLTOP BACKPACK, and while i love the idea of versatile and personalized pouch placement, i can’t help but wonder why one wouldn’t just go to the army/navy store and get a proper military MOLLE bag for what i’m gonna guess is like half the price? these messenger/urban bags are costly shit, and decommissioned military shit is really kinda not.

i guess my question is … what’s the point?

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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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