This is the dictionary definition of a circular post, but Yumi, creator of the ‘self-moving bicycle’ kanji decal I use on Crook and Redbike (in it’s current incarnation as back-up Zoe Transporter) checked in and was stoked to see Crook posted with his work. So he posted same on his own blog, New Bohemia. Ha! Team Lope Honory Member for Life, I says!

http://neobohemia.wordpress.com/2010/11 … vehicle-2/

If you want this decal, it’s buyable via Mission Bikes very affordably.

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Man, I never thought of that
SOLID!

http://gizmodo.com/5656850/i-want-to-ri … de-my-bike

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This bike, formerly knows as RedBike, formerly known as That Wobbly Goblin, now known as RedCoat*, received an important upgrade and revised mission statement. What was once my city bar-bike, then my coffee carrier, is now my wee Z transport velocipede 1 (of 2). Thanks to Friend of TLTC Carey Woo for donating the seat, to Bell (now owners of the Co-Pilot brand) for special stay adapter clamps for this bike, and Ace for four other specific small items (bolt/nut/washer sets to replace dubious metal screws on this Monkey Wards frame)… the bike is done and ready for Z’s maiden voyage!

*This name change came about today. I was riding Crook through town, pretty fast, wearing a bright red collared Dickeys-style work shirt, and a guy on the side yelled ‘the Redcoats are coming! The redcoats are coming’ and it was awesome. Now, Crook ain’t red. But THIS bike is, so there we are.

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So this morning, I left my house, off of Shoreline, and headed into Mill Valley. At that time of the day, this time of year, the sun is low on the horizon and directly in your face as you head to Tam Junction from Four Corners, so, in other words, in the face of the drivers heading my commute direction.

As I rolled between passing, opposing traffic, along the crosswalk there and into my lane, with a pedestrian behind me, a white car barreled through the crosswalk at speed. Missed me by two feet or so. Given how many drivers on Shoreline are actively hostile to bikes (60% as of the latest data) and how many are just dicks who don’t want to give anyone any room at all regardless of vehicle (ie. don’t let cars in, don’t stop at crosswalks even when you stand with your baby in arms, etc; 29% as of the latest data) I hardly noticed this grievous act. I just continued on my way. So, later, on Almonte, beyond the morning tangle of bumper to bumper traffic at Tam Junction, I see a car pull up next to me as I come over the top on Crook. He’s trying to say something to me, so I look over. It’s the same guy, with his kid in the passenger seat. I brace for vitriol. In fact, he says "I’m really sorry I cut you off back there! The sun was on my windshield and I swear I didn’t even see you."
I was kind of taken aback, and waved and said ‘not to worry!’
He smiled and drove on….

I was struck by how my mostly-daily rides, and certainly any of my DRIVES, make me assume the worst in people, based on experience. Geez, not everyone’s an arrogant, ignorant or vindictive beast behind the wheel!

:::

Counterpoint, today on the way back to the office from Peet’s on Redbike the Wobbly Goblin, I had a controlled left at an intersection at Miller. In other words, everyone has stop signs but me. So I roll through, and I’m even signaling with my arm, which I feel like hardly any cyclists even do… and what happens? Well first, a contractor enters the intersection and makes a left in front of me, sort of opposing me. Not a big deal, he doesn’t come to close, but I looked and he didn’t see me, Then as I pass through the gauntlet, what happens? A maroon SUV illegally blows through his right turn, no stop, and barrels right at me. He misses me by inches. He’s now driving alongside me in the lane. Feeling charitable from my experience this morning and my birthday upcoming, I waved him on and let it go. As he accelerates past, I hear "Get outta the fucking road!". OK. So I’m thinking to myself, that guy doesn’t understand the vehicle code. And what happens? As I approach my next left onto Sunnyside, also a controlled left, and I’m signaling, a Marin Transit bus pulls to the intersection, rolls his stop, and crosses left RIGHT in front of me, causing me to slam my sweet, sweet coaster brake, the coffee in my little rear coffee carrier splashing scalding vengeance down my leg. The SUV may have just crippled me, but the bus would KILL me.

Now, you’d think that would really piss me off, and some days I’d have come back to the office fired up about the assholes out there risking my daughter’s father’s life. But today? the two experiences sort of evened out. Equilibrium… I’m still happy to be riding at all, and happy to have ridden. And survived.

But lets aim for imbalance, favoring the good experiences, from here on out…

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So after lamenting a series of aborted rides during and in-between storm deluges, I decided, literally ON THE WAY to lunch, that I had to ride. So I jogged back to the office, changed, sent Lung an ‘if I don’t make it, you can have my stable’ email, and was off. I have a set of riding gear here at the office, along with a repair and supply stash and dupes of certain things like gloves, arm and leg warmers, shoes, etc. So I was good to go. What was atypical and fortunate, however, was that I had a bike to RIDE, on a day I drove because of baby-pick-up requirements later. Normally, I ride in on a bike, or I don’t, but now that I live near the office, I don’t have one or more bikes here at the office on stand-by as I used to. I mean, I have Redbike, the Wobbly Goblin, but that’s another thing altogether.

What I had, today, was Villain, my 82 inchgear crabon bomber. I tend to think of this as a flatland bike because of that gearing, though I can take it up Sausalito Grade with effort, after putting stokers on the bars for leverage. But still. So I set out to just get some saddle time in. But once I was out, I couldn’t resist the lure of Paradise. My office is close to Camino Alto, so I took a left and headed up what we call Reverse Paradise, which puts the steeper climb at the front, and the rolling hills at the back.

Things That Were Awesome:

- I bombed the climbs. I was very pleased, being January, asthma-encouraging weather, and a big gear fixie under me. I was certainly standing up for the first leg, some of it quite slow, but then got into the saddle and found a pace I could push seated, and did the rest of it, for the most part, in that position, as I prefer. I was using this pace to really focus on form, because long distances, and certainly climbs, on fixed gear mean plenty of opportunity for losing form, from exhaustion to laboring on too hard a gear, etc. Being mindful of my treacherous knees, I kept the legs in and my beat correct, and it paid off. I felt, and continue to feel, GREAT.

- I took Chapman down from Camino Alto, which is a steeper, windy residential single-lane street, which was an interesting challenge fixed, though I suspect Lung would have tried to do the whole thing as a power skid. There are a couple of switchbacks that are kind of dodgy when you can’t raise a crank arm.

- I felt solid heading up the Tiburon side. The flats were fast, because of that gearing, much more like doing it on a road bike. Climbed that first section past the school, and then seated.

- Deer crossed, but chose not to kill me.

-Completed the climbing portion of the loop with not only success, but feeling solid, fueled by nuts and enthusiasms.

Things That Were Not Awesome:

- I flatted on the way up the Tiburon side. Not only, I flatted in the rear. So I had to break my zone, tear the wheel off (bringing ratchets was helpful. Big win on the fixed ride kit), pull the chain, and get then replace the tube. All in all, one of my faster tube changes. I hate changes tubes. Hit it up with CO2 and I was off.

- I flatted AGAIN at the top. Now, first I assumed it was a thorn or something I missed, but it wasn’t. This time it was that weird, mushy back end of a pressure leak, but not an outright blowout. I pulled the wheel again, checked the tyre over, no penetrations. So I hit it with more CO2, and it held. SO it was a slow leak, but that’s not good when you’re still way out in Tiburon, and it’s January, and there aren’t any other riders. Just today, I commented to Lung about the advantages of the buddy system. Of course.

- That slow leak would not relent. I got maybe 500 feet before I would lose enough pressure that the back end would get mushy, which isn’t your friend going up OR going down, and Paradise in this section gives you plenty of both, even technically past the highest point where I consider the ‘top’. So I was doing this thing where I would get way forward and put all my weight on the front end to try and lessen the pressure on the tyre in the back, and once it got too low to risk that, I would stop, add more CO2, and continue. Repeat. I got as far as that abandon detour that gets you back to Blackie’s Pasture. No more CO2.

- Here’s a fun fact. Some CO2 designed for whatever’s the opposite of the bike industry is whimsically free of THREADS. I was just commenting to Lung that I read this awesome tip online that you can save a bundle by buying paintball CO2 instead of bike-branded CO2. This just in: look for those threads. Of course. So, I was now officially out of tubes AND out of CO2. And guess who’s been experimenting with running with just CO2 and no micro-pumo? Or who WAS. (I don’t know that I would have been able to keep up with the pace of that leak though, reGARTless)

- I walked for awhile up that next hill, and finally saw my only rider of the day, who will be known as The Unknown Ti Climber. He was great. He called out if I needed help, which is something I do, and note most roadies seem too important to do the same, ha. Bastards. Anyway, The Unknown Ti Climber pulled over, and checked his stash, and HAD a space 16g CO2. We laughed that both of us headed out with two CO2s and no micro-pump and that based on my experience, we both needed to reintroduce the micropump. Anyway, rad. That 16g CO2, combined with lots of that repeating cycle of front wheel, charging the tyre, front wheel, charging the tyre, etc got me to about half way down the rec path towards Blackie’s. And then I was cooked. Plus, man, that’s a LOT of out of the saddle work. And worse, try speed limiting by back pedaling on a descent while in the FRONT and not tipping over and standing. GUH.

- I walked as far as Strawberry drive, then realistically assessed my journey ahead, threw in the towel, and called the office, and one of my associates shot over the hill and picked me up. My feet and calves were pretty blown, so that was nice. I was warned that I was to expect mockery from the other partner, but I disarmed him with ‘I hear I am to expect mockery from you. OK, I’ve set my watch, go:’ and I think that took the fun out of it.

Lessons:

- get the micropump back into the ride kit.
- possibly a third CO2
- check those CO2 heads for threads
- perhaps a third tube?

Bonus round: I noticed, towards the end, that my bottom bracket is unthreading again. So my drive side crank and chainring were slowly mowing through the tape padding I put there before I had fixed this condition. Mark it Unfixed. In other words Not Fixed.

All in all, a great ride though. I hate when you can’t finish what you started, but I got the loop pretty much done, certainly the climbs, and on the big gear, and with the exception of all the attrition from that front end business (good skid stop practice) I feel GREAT! Rain permitting, the same tomorrow!

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Readers of Team Lope Tyre Clubbe’s pages know well that I’ve been jiggering a coffee carrying assembly for work for like two years now. It’s current form is a pair of steel tumblers with long L-shaped handles, configured side by side and bound in a cardboard containment platter and secured by copious quantities of packing tape. This was intended as a prototype only: I adjusted the arrangement and configuration, tried different things, and sorted them out on different bikes. It was always with the intention of migrating the concept to a permanent material scratch built later. I even have parts! However, I found that the slight flex of these handles, when slotted over the bars of most of my bikes, and held onto and adjusted/buffered by my left hand, made for the best shock absorption. Because while riding one -handed with a coffee in your left (my left anyway) on the way back to the office is dodgy but effective, riding with two presents serious complications due to road shock. It gets messy. All the manufactured products of this type? Messy. My attempts to engineer a firmer assembly? Also messy. So the prototype has remained in use thereafter.

Today, I brought in Redbike to be my new work bike. It was intended as a city bike back when I was in SF, so maybe I could minimize giving away my previous other rides to thieves. Now that downtown Mill Valley IS city to me on a day to day basis, it just made sense. I ride another bike in most days anyway, and commuting on Redbike gets annoying because you can’t go fast enough. But for townie errands? SWEET. So, in the office it goes, and todayit began it’s new assignment.

And then it hit me, on the way out the door for a coffee run. I couldn’t put the coffee carrier prototype on here because of the (usually) three A-OOGA horns on the bars. But where… but where… SAYYYYYYYY how about resting on the rear fender, slotted onto the rear deflector braze-on? So I rode to Peets and it stayed on. So far so good. More importantly, I added a coffee cup and fund I could wedge it just so, so that the cup is held in place by the underside of my big ass seat. The cantilever action that adds destructive interference to the bounce of the carrier when normally held rigid and not buffered by my hand is gone. The bounce of my big balloon tyres adds some cushion. But the proof would be in the return journey. I figured I’d arrive with a slight mess, a big mess, a scalding hot leg, or no coffee at all.

To my surprise NARY A DROP SPILLED*

So, I’m quite pleased.
Carry on.

*I DO cap the lid with a Splenda

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One of the things I’ve long envied about Lung’s work situation has been that since he lives and works in San Francisco, he can bike commute pretty much every day if he wants. I used to be able to do this, some six years and change ago, when I worked downtown, and made the most of it, though back then, social occasions and other relationship-related stuff would happen after work here and there and I’d ride whatever other days that I could. Given the relatively short distance of that commute, I would sprint it and get the most out of it I could. After that, however, these recent years I’ve been commuting into Mill Valley from SF, which has been AWESOME. What a great way to get saddle time in throughout the week, riding through the city, the Presidio, over the bridge, and into Marin. Solid! Except, funny thing, attrition sets in. Stacking a full workday onto that ride meant that if I did it more than three days a week in the best case scenario, I’d be too exhausted to really enjoy it. As it was, the ride in would be great, the day would drag and I’d be tired from lack of sleep and whatever, and then sort of dread climbing out of Sausalito to get home. This commute was merely part of any usual weekend distance ride, but suddenly, when you have to do it just to drag your tired ass home in order to make dinner and such, it feels a little more like a chore on certain days. Particularly late summer when the wind and wet on the bridge and the climb to it were pretty brutal. But still, even though it could be a mixed-bag, it was still an awesome ride, and a great opportunity to get on the bike for two hours each ride day.

Then I moved to Mill Valley.

Suddenly my long ride opportunities disappeared. We have a baby at home, so i don’t have the luxury of before- or after-work climbs up Tam. I’m on duty all the time. So now my riding is limited to work commuting and the occasional lunch ride. I lost those miles, that saddle time, and the journey I loved. HOWEVER, loss and gain can go hand in hand. While I lost some ride time, what I gained was a return to the bike commuting schedule I used to have, where I can ride, like Lung, as many days of the week I want to, and this has been a boon. Where 6 years ago I had one bike and one bike only in my possession (the Bianchi Veloce dubbed Toro, was the ride at the time) now I have upwards of 7 of my own in various stages of rideability. So while I have been changing out bikes every few days on my longer commutes in months and years past, it’s always been a strategic decision: which bike to take? What’s the weather going to be like, what’s my cargo, how tired am I? I’m happy to say that over the last 18 months I got very comfortable riding even my big-gear fixed-gear on that commute. But I still had to think about it.

Now, I have a wonderful embarrassment of riches in the bikeBasement, as you may have seen in other posts: I have a series of hooks in a beam so that all the bikes can hang like, as Lung put it, a sweet bike wardrobe closet. So in the new digs, I go down there in the morning with the luxury of not knowing which bike I’m even going to take on any particular day. I’m using the same pedal system on each bike, so I can just drop down there in my shoes and pluck a bike off the rack and ride it, whatever strikes my fancy for the day. It’s great. As wee Z gets a little older and has a schedule that will allow me some longer rides, i’ll get the exercise back in, but in the meantime, at LEAST I get to start each day the right way: on two wheels!

Currently, only four bikes are rideable: wrongBike, Villain, roadLook and redBike. The fifth, Fix-e, is currently partially decommissioned as I sold Lung her wheels. Nothing’s more pathetic than a bike with no wheels. So that carcass hangs on a hook like that scene in Good Fellas with Jimmy Two-Time, waiting for another ressurection. The sixth, Ye Blacke Death, is way early in the project, and has a ways to go. The seventh, Ghostal, is very near road-ready, just waiting for a few final hours in the bikeBasement to finish up the wheels.

Good stuff!

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A few weeks back, on one of my redBike commute trips into work, I was riding around town, all upright and smiling and fingerbang-pointing to random people in that everyone-loves-money kind of way, when I came across redBike’s friend, redFriend.

Someone’s got impeccably good taste, I says!

What i liked about it was that I felt like I had accidentally time traveled. It’s like futureThom put a Brooks saddle and a baby seat on the redBike and went on a rideabout.

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After I fiddle-faddled with the headset cups with one Lung, I didn’t get to touch the bike for a few days. We had made enough progress in the bikeBasement that I could maneuver and get the bikes in and out, and that meant repairing each of them, as nearly all my bikes fell out of commission during the move. The road Look flatted out for the 33rd time and I promised myself I wouldn’t change the tyre again without replacing the Gatorskins. The Villain suffered a mysterious and increasingly dangerous bottom bracket creep, pulling the chainring into the frame. WrongBike had a rear tyre flat, and I decommissioned Fix-e in preparation for Ghostal. All that remained functional in the days after the move was ole trusty RedBike (the Wobbly Goblin) and I rode it a number of days until we sorted the basement out properly.

Anyway, the really annoying thing about it is that after I managed to perform the necessary service work on those other bikes and return to Ghostal, I could only make incremental progress each night. I’d sneak in there either briefly after work but before wifeBot got home, or after she and wee Z had retired. But each time? I’d get a little ways in but have to stop because either a part was still missing, a tool was still missing or I’d run out of time and have to walk away for the night. This half-unpacked business is stymiying. More on that later.

My next task after the headset cups was the bottom bracket. This was a sealed cartridge Sugno BB, 107mm, and I lubed and threaded on these cups and mounted it straight away. I mounted the drive crank and then discovered… you guessed it… missing parts: the crank bolts. The Sugino BB is apparently either one that does NOT ship with bolts, or this one was missing them. ReGARTless, I like to swap out for hex bolts, but I thought I could at least mount the cranks with the stock bolts while I looked for the cool ones. At any rate, no bolts of any kind, so I stopped that task.

Next up was the seat and post. I’m using the broken in honey Brooks Swallow from the road Look because I didn’t feel like forking out for yet another Brooks until I pay down some of the move-related debt. Of the three seatposts I had around (and two more that are still packed somewhere) none were the required size, save the one from Fix-e, so I used that for now, while waiting for the new one to arrive that i got for a song online. It gave me a nice taste of what the bike will look like, the saddle being one of the only color elements on the bike.

The rest of that week was dedicated to sorting out the remaining missing items from inventory. I had gone through every inch of this project in my mind, making sure I had everything I needed before starting. However, with things missing in the move, and a few small items unaccounted for, I needed to re-plan the project and see what needed finding and what needed replacing. Interestingly, while sorting through the part bins I HAVE unpacked, I found enough spare parts to make Lung quite proud. I could almost build another bike, and probably build Fix-e back up anew. So, I ordered a few more items, made a hit list of things to find, and closed the project down until the following week, as the weekends are packed with post-move business…

Onward!

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This is a gallery of Fix-e(tm) bike build project photos. Click any image to enlarge it and make clucking sounds of approval!

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