Team Lope Tyre Clubbe » chain

Crash Death Crisis: It’s Not About the Bike

TRDL thom — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:53:02 +0000

I’ve said very little in the wake of the recent political furor over the cyclist in San Francisco that apparently plowed through a pedestrian crosswalk against the light and killed an elderly man. This has elicited an overwhelming anti-bike and anti-illegal-riding response, with which I agree with the latter and not the former. As a rider well used to rolling stops and riding illegally when it suited me (within reason, and safely, always) with the change in my lifestyle that led me to have a brilliant and OBSERVANT toddler on my bars, I’m now a rider that TRIES to break those habits, certainly with her, and even alone. There’s never any defense when you break the law, regardless. But the backlash against cyclists in the wake of this incident troubled me. The cyclist’s publicly-displayed attitude was disconcerting, but overall, the idea that the rising terror of out-of-control cyclists had become some sort of crisis that needed to be crushed? Myopic to say the least.

This article today in the Examiner captured my thoughts exactly. Bike kills pedestrian, it’s a social crime. Car kills pedestrian? Oh, that’s just the price of progress.

Cyclists have to not only work at not striking cars, pedestrians and so on, even in a completely legal riding environment, they ALSO have to work actively to avoid being struck by inattentive or belligerent car drivers. Car drivers do not. It’s like a food chain of vehicle-related violence. I am quite seriously routinely yelled out by drivers because I’m riding on the road NEAR where they want to drive, though my legal right is to do so. Drivers break the law and threaten me with their cars (nudging, swerving, sudden breaking) and yet when we have car vs bike accidents, almost always the driver is let off without charges filed. It’s enough to make a cyclist bitter.

But I’m not. As my pals at drunkcyclist said a few weeks back after the Oakland incident, we ALL need to chill the fuck out. I think there are many factors involved psychologically in why car drivers threaten or actually injure/kill cyclists and pedestrians unnecessarily, let alone other car occupants, including inattentiveness, frustration, numbed empathy, delusions of invulnerability, denial of personal responsibility in our social contract, bitterness over the behavior of OTHER people, drivers and riders and walkers alike… but a different but equally important set of factors apply to cyclists: some are inexperienced, others distracted, others belligerent and defiant. And pedestrians can be some of the worst, leaping out into traffic, walking staring down at their phones, jumping lights, whatever. The point isn’t that any one particular group is at greatest fault (though the car driver, capable of the most harm, SHOULD be the most responsible, even if the authorities, and the media, ignore it) but rather that we all need to take a deep breath, get out of our own headpspace, and think about others.

I try and drive/ride/walk like those with me and those in vehicles around me are all my daughter or my son. All of them. I try to imagine how their lives would be impacted in our collision. When I get pissed at other drivers, other riders, anyone on the road, I TRY to remember my perspective. We’re all human, we’re all someone’s family, and we all ave everything to lose by being at war with each other rather than take personal responsibility, and a few extra minutes, to navigate the road defensively.

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Team Lope Ride Report : Primavera Metric Century 2012 02

TRDL thom — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:42:40 +0000

This is a companion report to the detailed, dare I even say thurra, ride report Ironlung posted this morning. The Primavera event is probably one of my favorite charity rides in the area, largely based on what Lung pointed out in his write-up: excellently supported, beautiful views at the reservoir, and close enough to home to keep it from being a travel hassle. In previous years, I took a road bike, so my perspective was shaky as I planned for this year’s run on a fixed-gear. I remembered the Calaveras Wall but that was about it. Anyway, Lung and I basically rode a variation on what we took to LA in Lifecycle, and ride every day, basically: him on a Cinelli X MASH Bolt, me on a Cinelli X Mash [sceond gen]…we were set up a little differently from each other. He used drop bars, and I had bulls. Our gearing was a bit different too: he ran 44/16 for a 72 inchgear as his base, and 44/20 for the steep climbing sections, yielding something like 57 inchgear. I rode a deeper 48/17 (77 inchgear) with a 48/19 (67 inchgear) for climbs. Previously, neither of us had used bail-out gears on our bikes. We brought cogs on Lifecycle but never used em, and on all of our rides in Marin and the like, we muscled through climbs with what we had, and avoided the super-steep stuff altogether out of practicality (if one may use the term when discussing fixed-gear bikes in this context)… but here we were facing climbs that were part of a regular regional loop for roadies, and those climbs were spread out over a good distance, so attrition would also be a factor. As any cyclist can tell you, you can go all out and ride farther and longer than you thought possible… on one climb… but that’s it, you’re not going to recover. To sustain for a whole day you need to see the long picture. We knew this was going to be the most climbing we’d done fixed, and early in the riding season to boot, but we were all in.

It was also one of those rides where there were very few hitches. I got out of the house 15 minutes ahead of schedule, we arrived about 20 minutes ahead of our plan, and had no delays in check in. We ditched the start and got right on the road, didn’t dilly-dally at the rest stops, had great food throughout and at the end, and never needed SAG or field support. No llama drama. And Lung never had tripleCramps and my bike didn’t become, like a helicopter, a cluster of components traveling in unstable formation, which was all in all a nice change.

Yep, my gearing was too brutal to make it up the wall without stopping, but not for long.

It wasn’t devoid of challenges. I got two hours of sleep before the start, thanks to a sweltering heat wave. Team Lope vet Jeff Muadib Marks met us on the route, living thereon) and made it up Calaveras before suffering the SAME EXACT MECHANICAL that knocked me out of last year’s Gran Fondo, a rear derailleur shattering that I had never even HEARD of before.

Here’s Jeff examining his SAW III type deathtrap derailleur

Lung’s salt tablet deployment system was getting a little surly, and I dropped my chain on the rollers due to bearing race issues in my rear axle, though quickly resolved. There was some saddle soreness. I had suffered a pretty bad wrist wrenching on Mt Tam a few days prior that i was nursing at the start of this, which was at full bore inflammation by the end, so the final descent was very painful. BUT. It was the descent after the final climb, after a full effing day of climbing and riding so I was stoked. And like Lung said, it was great to burn your candle on a long day like that but walk away (literally) without injury or recovery issues, feeling like you could ride the next day. You never know, especially when pushing fixies on these things.

The Calaveras reservoir area was my favorite. Thanks to Jeff’s misfortune, we got to enjoy it longer than in previous years.

Anyway, it was a great ride. I will say that I wasn’t as well equipped as Lung, partly avoidable and partly not. For one thing, I chose to keep my 77 inchgear as my main drive, rather than gear back down to the 72 we both generally ride… had I switched back, I would have probably felt better as the day went on, because of the muscle work I was essentially wasting. I mean, it’s a compromise, right. Go to 72, spin more, ride slower. But at 77, ride faster and work harder, sooner. I needed to swap cogs sooner than Lung, and I was suffering more at the end of the day. My bail out gear was a 67, which was not enough. It was sure as hell better than the 77 but it was still too steep for these climbs, so while I DID successfully ride all the climbs on the route, I stopped a number of times to recover.

Interesting snake whip skids coming down to Rest Stop 3 at speed…

But man, we had a blast. Skidding all over the place, flying along those rollers, great conversations on the route and at the rest stops with wide-eyed riders that marveled out our general madness, and I can’t reiterate this enough: AWESOME ride support. Strawberries and pineapple and all sorts of carbs at every stop, fudgecicles, ICE for the water bottles, effing ROOSTERS for no reason, more SAG vehicles on the road than I can remember ever seeing, even when you consider the smaller scale of this event compared to the rider count of something like the Gran Findo or the Marin Century. It was just a great time all day, even when it wasn’t.

That’s the last of the unreasonable fixed-gear assaults on event rides for this year, as Marin Century and Gran Fondo both warrant road bike use (I mean, warrant it MORE) and we missed the Wine Country Century (and gave up on Solvang due to travel time)… but we’ll continue to ride our unreasonable fixed-gear bikes up unreasonable climbs in Marin and around the bay area year-round, so wave or holler if you see us…

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team lope ride report : primavera metric century 2012

ironlung — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:17:14 +0000

despite being pretty grueling, the FFBC PRIMAVERA METRIC CENTURY was one of the best event rides that i’ve ever been on, and WR and i agreed that it was one of the best that TLTC had participated in, ever.

for the most part, this was the kind of ride we love and do with regularity — dozens of miles of long, winding rollies. that’s my favorite kind of ride because you have to be on your toes (cornering) and you can’t pussyfoot (climbing and descending the rollies takes effort), but you don’t kill yourself. you put in good work and you feel like you’ve had a ride, but you’re not blown out and useless for a day.

however, on this ride there were two distinct factors that we knew about going in. one was the heat. it was fucking desert hot. the sun just crushing you with almost tangible weight. this also means that you’re covered in sunscreen, which makes you filthy, and when it runs into your eyes, blind. the other factor was the climbs. with 3786 climbing feet over 63.5 miles, it SOUNDS like it would be a challenging but not necessarily backbreaking ride. but keep in mind that 2300 of those climbing feet are in two individual climbs — "the wall," at mile 18, and another at mile 50. because we knew we were going to be facing these challenges (and because i’d had a throat infection for a week and was still on antibiotics), each of us had outfitted out bikes with a bailout gear, like so…

my regular gear ratio is 44/16, which is a nice middleground 72.3 gear inch. the bailout shown above takes me to 44/20, which is a 57.9 gear inch — baby’s first climber. please note that i also carry an extra couple chain links to accommodate this bigger cog. my chain is outfitted with a master link, as is the extra section, so swapping doesn’t take me long at all. it proved to be a good decision. "the wall" is 1100 feet straight up, over barely 2 miles. "not for babies," as our brothers of HYPE down south would say. it stops guys on full cassettes, and we were fixed. given that fact, coupled with the heat, and trebled with the fact that we’d still have another 40-some miles to go afterwards, we didn’t even try it on our regular gearing, we just swapped at the bottom and proceeded. and even with this climbing gear, i was beat up at the top of that climb. covered in sweat, pushing hard, and moving slowly. but we both made it, and that’s what counts. then we flipped back to the other side for the next 30 miles or so.

we’d hooked up with TLTC supersoldier jefe, who was ghosting the ride, just before the wall, and he made it up and over with us (on his fucking BADASS klein road bike), as well as another few miles before he had the same catastrophic derailleur failure that WR had on the grand fondo some months back. his derailleur caught in the spokes and was torn upwards and apart in a millisecond. luckily for him, it happened on an ascent rather than a descent. we pulled over and endeavored to convert him to a single-speed so he could at least limp into the next town, but his shit was HOSED and it wasn’t happening, so we begrudgingly left him there with a promise to call his old lady once we got a signal, which WR did. jefe also lucked out when SAG brought him down into town, despite the fact that he wasn’t a registered rider. so everything worked out great there.

the only other mechanical we had was when WR threw a chain. turns out his axle bearing race (which is a misnomer, as he has sealed bearings, but it’s still called that because it has the exterior locknut) had come loose on his last wheel swap, allowing for his axle nut to loosen up over a few miles. once we identified the issue, he was good to go in a matter of seconds.

at mile 50 we hit the second climb, which was a different story. it was also 1000 or so feet of climbing, but this time was over a more realistic 5 miles. as such, we went into it without the intent of switching gears. we pushed up a mile or maybe even two, muscling along in our standard gear inch. we pushed and pushed, but every single time we’d round a corner, it kept going. there was never an end in sight, and that gets to you mentally. for me, it was when i finally got to a point that i could see a good 100 yards ahead and it was still going up that i decided to switch gears. ordinarily that would fuck with me but not push me to bail out. it was because at the terminus of that 100 yards, where it turned another corner, i saw a cyclist coming down the hill, whipping around the corner at speed. that meant that there was even more. and keep in mind that we’d been going for 50 miles in 90-plus degree heat, plus the previous climb. and it was a good thing that i did pull over to switch because i needed to take off my helmet & cap, as well as open up my jersey and down half a bottle of water. i was more burnt than i thought. additionally, after i did switch, there was no more shade till you got to the top. that’s a big deal. had i kept pushing through that on my regular gear, i’d have opened myself up to heat stroke.

at the top, once again, we swapped back to our regular gearing, which would take us all the way back to the start for another road ride conquered by the TLTC west coast commanders in a fixed fashion. we’re killing it these days, and getting known for it, and we fucking love it.

ordinarily when we show up on "fixies" to road rides we are met with a mix of admiration and indignation. some people condescend to us with passive-aggressive observations like "that’s just stupid," or "why would you do that?" others tell us that we’re awesome, or, as on this ride, "animals." we take it all in stride because we’re just out to have fun and challenge ourselves. we try and remain good-natured about it when people are shitheads, and we try to normalize it to others when they contend that we’re doing something impossible. but on this ride, it was extra nice because we didn’t really get any of the indignation. we were the only two people doing it fixed and we got a lot of props for it. people cheered us on and congratulated us and even wanted to talk to us about how and why we were doing it. it was really nice, a very cool community on this ride.

one of the greatest things about the day was the support and organization. with the possible exception of ALC, this was the best-supported and organized event ride i’d ever been on. there were enough SAG vehicles, the rest stops never felt overcrowded, nor were they ever out of any food/liquid supplies or medical/mechanical aid. it was really wonderful. nevermind that we had access to a pretty large meal at the end. lasagne, hot dogs, salad, fruit, juice, brownies, cookies, whatever we wanted. very awesome.

the one improvement that we offered as a suggestion was that they could have used a bit more clear route direction, but that was suggested with a caveat — the route WAS marked clearly, it was just marked on the road surface with spraypaint rather than on trees and such with signage. not everyone knew to look to the pavement rather than to signs. i figured it out early on and had no troubles at all, but others didn’t know about it, so we suggested that they just make that better known.

i was also happy to have made a new friend on the ride. this guy here saw me taking pictures of him so he strutted over and regarded me…

a great day and a great ride. and stay tuned to this link, because i have video at home that i have to edit down and post.

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The Flexibilities and the Silences

TRDL thom — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:38:19 +0000

So the Primavera Century is coming up this weekend, and Lung and I are doing it fixed. At first, I was gung-ho without much attention tot he details only because:
a) we ride fixed everywhere, frequently climbing
2) we rode to LA without an issue
d) fackit

But I started thinking about the last few times I did this event… the Calaveras Road section has ‘the wall’ which is just one of three big climbs of the day… I remember this being an issue for many of the road riders, let alone a couple of dorks on fixies. I got through it, and the other climbs, using my usual double-ring road bike config, but in thinking about muscling up those on a fixed gear, three details emerged:
a) it’s one thing to muscle up a climb, as we often do. It’s another thing to blow that much anaerobic resource on a long day of riding, headwinds and heat and other climbs to follow
2) I recently upgeared to 76*
d) ohfack

Additionally, I haven’t overhauled Crook Type 3 pretty much since I built it up after ALC… and that’s far too long. I rotate through bikes (at one point, 8 of them) in my commute, so the more rigorous overhaul isn’t as necessary for me or as frequent anyway as it is for Lung, riding the same bike every day with few exceptions. And I’ve done several maintenance and corrections evenings, spot-overhauling parts of it. But the creaks int he bottom bracket were joined by some ping-pings recently, and my brake pads were stubs. So it was time to do it up.

I didn’t COMPLETELY overhaul it in the sense that I didn’t break it down to it’s complete extrusion photo level of strippage, but I did the primary stuff: complete drivetrain overhaul, brakes, all bolts and major adjustments. All I didn’t do is pull the 17 off, as I recently put it on, and I didn’t break down the headset.

I’m now whisper silent. I mean, I still have the minor chatter of chainline issues, but the bike itself is a ninja again (a green and white and elkhide and chainline-chattering ninja)… it hasn’t been this quiet since I built it. So smooth. And it’s of course all thanks to judicious applications of my best pal in the shop:

Ole Phil never lets me down…

As far as the Primavera goes, what I ended up electing to do is keep the 76 on the one side, and add a 19 cog on the other, which gets me to around 67. So the total rig is not as nimble as Lung’s 72/03 (or whatever that 21 gets him) but at least we both have a climbing gear to fall back on as needed, one way or another.

I rode the hills by my house a few times on the new cog to get cinched, per the usual routine, and rode in on it, which was sort of torturous, not unlike trying to spend much high-cadence saddle time on Rapscallion with it’s 20 cog (baby bikery) but I really wanted to give it some time to settle in. I will say it’s nimble to climb with it.

Excelsior!
*I’ve been saying it was 77 but I checked and it actually rounds to 76, my bad. 48/17

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Crook Rollout

TRDL thom — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:54:15 +0000

This morning was my first ride on Crook after the new wheel, cog, and tyres.

Thoughts:

1. The cog is not as attractive as my Sugino system, which had a nice orangey-tint to the gold finish. But it’s still gold. Halo brand. 17t. Dira Ace lockring.

2. The hub is not as attractive as the previous hand-built hub, thanks to the former’s gold finish that matched the cog quite well. But I’m back in black, at any rate. And whole rear wheels with H+Son and All-City hubs for $160? Can’t beat it.

3. This was my first time ratcheting down a cog and lockring designed for skidding from the get go. All of my previous conventional cog wheels I just cinched the cog down, cinched the lockring down, rode out, re-tightened the lock ring once, and was otherwise good to go. Because, you know, no real backward forces except for back pedaling. But introduce those forces to a bike like that and the weakness in the set-up is immediately apparent. Witness Carpetbagger on first ride with Lung. He hoped on that fresh build, did some skid, and loosened the cog and lockring. So the cog could have gotten a hair tighter, and thus when it did get tighter as I rode over, the lockring was no longer snug against the cog, so when he skidded, he unwound them a bit. Same with the previous wheel on this bike, with the Sugino system on it. All my other bikes I’ve been retightening the lock ring throughout each ride to be safe. Anyway, here, I did a different method: hand tight cog, then chain whip tight, then only modestly tight lockring just to keep it in place. Then I rode up the hill by my house aggressively twice. Then came back, tightened the lock ring, and went to work.

4. I’m tightening that wee fucker all day. I felt some slip after my first long skid, but the cog seemed in place, so I tightened the ring more. Again, when I got to the office, after only a modest skid. Again before I took off this afternoon to do some little downhills around here. Now the lockring is tight and not moving. Still felt a bit of slip. Can’t see the cog going anywhere though. I’m keeping my eye on it.

5. Those tyres are glorious. I’m skidding nice and long now, and it’s easier to get out in front of the bike now. FUN!

That is all! We’ll see if I have a gloomy report tonight, or more good successes to follow…
I still want to take a chain whip to this cog again at home, just to see. It stands to reason that torquing it up hill was more force than I’m going to muscle it, but there was that pernicious microslip I felt. I may pull the switches from the bars and flip it and do the chain method.

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more NAHBS – unique concepts

ironlung — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:51:41 +0000

next category of NAHBS builds for you is "unique concepts" these are bikes which stood out as … well, unique. things i hadn’t expected or things i hadn’t seen before or just really imaginative things.

first up is the EVIL DEAD BIKE, which i gave it’s own post already.

next up is this crazy madness, a reconstruction of what’s called a "whippet," a bike which was very successful from 1885 to 1888, before the invention of the pneumatic tire. this was made by a frame builder who worked from a line drawing and some museum photos…

since bikes of the time had solid rubber tyres, they were super uncomfortable, and the whippet attempted to compensate for that with details such as a front shock…

and a mid-body shock…

the brake was a crazy contraption which utilized a lever that pushed on a bar that wrapped around the body of the bike (the silver bar just above the frame’s top tube)…

to a metal lever and plate in the back, where the plate rubbed against the solid rubber tyre…

apparently they were very uncomfortable to ride because they were too squishy, and since they had a total of seven pivot points in the design, tensioning the chain would gradually cause the two head tubes to become misaligned, resulting in the front scissor linkage losing functionality when the bars were turned. but still. a crazy bike.

next up is this WTF track bike…

personally, i can’t see any functional reason for this bike to exist, but this is a show, so there you go. it may look like the steering column is fixed, but in fact the stem (polished) is separate from the frame (gray), which is why there’s that other little connection point going from the head tube to the top tube.

next up, the "mudbike." i fucking LOVE this bike and it’s only real unique concept is the paint job. it’s a CX bike that is painted to look like it’s got mud spray on it….

it may not look like much in that picture, but upon closer inspection, you can see that each individual dot is hand-placed using a spoke nipple dipped in a different shade of brown and then touched to the frame. it has over 1500 individual dots over the frame and fork, entirely hand-done…

another one i just absolutely loved was a tandem specifically designed for a parent and child to ride, but unlike other kid bikes, this one put the kid in the front…

now look closely at how that works. the kid’s handlebars are fixed, they don’t do anything. the parents’ handlebars are what turn the front wheel, as on a front bucket cargo bike. but the kids’ pedals turn in conjunction with the parents,’ as on a proper tandem. i LOVE this bike. i’m a huge fan of the kid being on the front (as a rule), because they can actually see what’s going on and begin to feel what it’s like to ride independently.

next up is a crazy and unique brake detail that i noticed on an otherwise simple build…

i don’t know what’s up with that dodgy swede, but note the brake "levers." the brake cable is strung between two fixed points (with the housing on the inner point, as per the usue), but it has beads on it. so when you grab the beads and pull, you’re actually pulling the cable itself. pretty trick.

and finally, the deLorean bikes. these bikes aren’t made by DMC, obviously. they’re homage to the classic stainless steel, gullwing-door sportscar which may or may not be capable of time travel…

they had a sweet, simple city bike with a belt drive and an internally geared rear hub…

and a beautiful roadie which, while boasting questionable wheels, did have a sweet champagne cage on the seat tube…

stay tuned for more NAHBS image posts. i think next i’ll post up the fat tyre bikes.

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UPDATED : intitial thoughts – selle an-atomica saddle

ironlung — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:48:15 +0000

there’s a bunch of physical impact that cycling has on the body which may make you pull over and have to rest. muscle fatigue, elevated heart rate, and lack of oxygen are some. and while i’ve had to pull over for elevated heart rate before, it’s pretty rare. but there’s one thing that will drive me to the shoulder faster and more frequently than any other thing — SADDLE SORE. i don’t know if it’s because i’m a lean dude so my sit bones are closer to the surface, or if it’s because i just can’t find a saddle yet that’s right for my physical makeup, or even if it’s because i haven’t got the right cycling shorts, but seriously — 30 miles is about all i have in me when it comes to this dreadful pain. on the way up to sacramento, my ass was BATTERED, specifically because i was carrying a full pack on my back for 70 miles, which would have hurt even without the pack. and at the risk of revealing TMI, i also battle with the perenial pressure thing on saddles. i need the groove or i can’t … uh, perform. so needless to say, i’m perpetually looking for a saddle that works for me.

because your pelvis tilts side to side as you ride, the key to solving this is to find a saddle which gives under pressure. not one that’s squishy, in fact it needs to be pretty firm, but one that has some play. and that’s why one thing that works for many cyclists is leather saddles. leather has a lot of give and can be suspended like a hammock over a frame, allowing for your body’s movement to push down on one side without crushing the sitbone. this is why brooks has been so popular for so many years. but recently a saddle called the SELLE AN-ATOMICA was released which piqued my interest, because it was a combination of two things that brooks only offers separately. it’s a low-profile saddle (no tall sides) like the brooks swallow, but it has a split down the middle like the brooks imperial (which has tall sides). and the split is way longer than on the imperial. it was like the best of both worlds and i was very interested.

so at NAHBS, the selle an-atomica people were there and they had a bike on a trainer, where you could test the saddle, albeit riding in place. now remember that i was pretty battered down there from the ride up, and in fact, even the 10-block ride to the show was hurting me, both days. but i sat on this saddle and pedaled on the trainer for a while and i felt nothing but comfort. i could feel the saddle giving way to either side as i turned the cranks. rather than my right sitbone hurting when my right foot was down and my left sitbone hurting when my left foot was down, the saddle just tilted with me. as i pedaled, it moved with my pelvis. it was perfect. it was also $190. yeesh. the show special was no tax, which was nice, but i still hesitated.

since it’s a family-owned business (a husband, wife, and two sons) and the lady was there with one of the sons, i talked to her for a minute while i was testing it. i explained what my problems were, and she said that the family set out on this project because they wanted the sons to ride comfortably. she said that she’s never gotten a complaint, and that in fact, she’s gotten "most comfortable saddle ever" a number of times. she said that many people like me, who’d been looking for their entire cycling lives for a saddle that didn’t hurt, had thanked them for finally making one. i talked to the son who was there, who said very convincingly that after a few miles you don’t even know it’s there any more. but still, $190? then i remembered that i’m getting a fat bonus from work on this upcoming friday and thought fuck it and snapped up the black with gunmetal brads.

when i left the show, i swapped the saddle out there on the sidewalk and rode it back to my hotel. HOLY SHIT. the streets in sacramento aren’t as pitted and deadly as in SF, but there are plenty of opportunities to go over bumpity-bumps, and i took every one. it’s amazing, even with a sore ass, i felt nothing. not to mention i could still feel the saddle giving and moving with my body as i pedaled.

so needless to say i’m REALLY pleased at the first go. only a proper ride will tell and i’m still too sick to ride back to SF so i probably won’t have that opportunity till next weekend, but i intend to take it. and if it doesn’t work out, they’re totally cool about taking it back. they said i have 30 days and if i don’t like it, no questions asked. very awesome.

of course now i have to finally cave in and do that chain-wrapped-in-inner-tube thing to keep my fucking $190 saddle in my possession, but hey, whatever. i’ll make it work.

/// UPDATE \\\
i can finally say with confidence that this is the best saddle i’ve ever owned. i took it on the primavera metric century this past weekend, and experienced absolutely zero saddle sore. ordinarily, i’d have been feeling it around mile 30-40, and it’d have been becoming unbearable after mile 50-60. this saddle? nothing, after 63.5 miles.

i’m definitely going to get one for my road bike. cost is no longer an issue to me. in my opinion, this is the best saddle on the market, of those that i’ve tried. and i’ve tried bunches.

10/10 CLANKS!

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more NAHBS – cargo bikes

ironlung — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:38:25 +0000

i figured it’d be easiest if i split up my huge load of NAHBS pictures into categories of bike so that i can post them a little more slowly and efficiently, so here’s your first dose of custom awesomeness, the cargo bikes.

we’ll start with my very favorite bike so far, this ultra sweet bike/trailer combo. note the R3-approved colorway…

here’s a beautiful detail shot of the wooden insert between the frame tubes…

here’s a detail of the trailer, in which you can see that it has it’s own disc brake, somehow activated by that shift lever on the trailer mounting bracket (midway between the rim and hub of the bike’s rear wheel). i imagine you use it with your foot somehow, though that doesn’t seem very efficient. an exceptional detail, however, is the chris king headsets used to allow the trailer to swing side to side through turns, as well as to tilt laterally over uneven road surfaces. very savvy…

here’s another detail of the trailer itself. just gorgeous with the dual fender-mounted tail lights, the tarp covering, the wood platform — a real piece of art…

here’s a final shot of the bike, from the other side, so that you can see the double kickstand. one assumes that you use one stand when the bike’s on it’s own and another when you have the trailer attached, for further stability. very sweet…

i’m sure you can quickly figure out why i love this particular cargo hauler…

this is a BEAUTIFUL long bucket hauler. note the belt drive, the sweet little leather pouch between the frame tubes, and that interesting chainguard concept…

i just love this next one cause it looks so fun. mismatched color tyres, reverse trike frame, just really colorful and wonderful. i like that lashing that holds the canvas of the bucket to the frame of the bucket, too…

that’s it for now, but don’t worry, i have lots and lots more pictures from yesterday, and i’m sure i’ll get some more today. if any more cargo bikes come up, i’ll add them to this post, but in the meantime, stay tuned for the next installment, which will be "unique concepts."

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your NAHBS teaser – "evil dead" bike

ironlung — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:16:13 +0000

ok listen, i’ve got like 40 pictures from one day of this and resizing, uploading and posting all of them is going to take for fucking EVER, so here’s a teaser, and i’ll get the rest up as soon as i can.

in the meantime, please accept this "evil dead" bike by way of a holdover. and yes, that chain HAS been made into a chainsaw blade.

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SUV Collision Deterrent

TRDL thom — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:17:39 +0000

This happened in Russia, but it’s about to happen in Mill Valley.

http://urbanvelo.org/from-russia-with-love/

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