Cranks

Posted on October 28, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Mechanical | Leave a Comment

Spent a quiet evening at home by myself, reading about gear ratios and learning about cranks – planning what I want to do with this new bike.

Click the more link to read about cranks and whatnot…. —>

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Bike bonk bloke lands on sex offenders’ register

Posted on October 26, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Misc | Leave a Comment

We here at Sweetbike.org always like to see true incidents of bike porn occuring…

From The Register

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/26/bike_incident/

“A man who was caught in flagrante delicto attempting sexual intercourse with a bicycle has been placed on the sex offenders’ register, the Telegraph reports.”

“Depute fiscal Gail Davidson told the court: “They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply. They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down. The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex.”

“Stewart on Wednesday admitted to sexual breach of the peace, and was placed on the sex offenders’ register. Sentencing was deferred until next month.”


CRITICAL MASS TONIGHT – HALLOWEEN STYLE

Posted on October 26, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Critical Mass, Events | Leave a Comment

Seattle Critical Mass – TONIGHT
10.26.07
 at 5:30pm.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend because of my recently screwed up arm. Bah.


Introducing my new Trek 400

Posted on October 25, 2007 -- Edit Post
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So I took some pics of my new bike – and the dirty dishes in my sink too apparently. This is my new $100 bike.

http://blackcannon.org/gallery/v/bike/trek400/

I interspaced the pics of my bike with the pics from that refurbed 400 that look so nice. I need to get a real camera but the truth is, the bike isn’t that far off and is in good shape…

Strange thing about it – it has an oblong chainring made by a company called Ovaltech…? A brief glance through the forums shows people actually like them alot, and evidently Sheldon Brown does too but haven’t found where he says that myself yet. So I dunno – maybe this is a good thing.

Edit: Found it
http://sheldonbrown.com/biopace.html

From Sheldonbrown.com…

“What Are They Good For?

“Biopace chainwheels are particularly suitable for touring cyclists and time trialists, or any application that involves a steady, fairly constant cadence. They allow healthy, efficient pedaling at slower cadences than is possible with round chainwheels. They are especially suitable for triathletes and mountain bikers. The triathlete benefits because the motion is a little bit closer to that of running, making the transition easier.

“The mountain biker particularly benefits, because the Biopace design somewhat smooths out the delivery of power to the rear wheel. In climbing on loose surfaces, the limiting factor is often traction. The rear wheel tends to break loose during the maximum power phase of the pedal stroke, wasting most of the cyclist’s energy. The Biopace chainwheel works like a storage device, storing power during the main power phase of the stroke as the feet accelerate, then delivering the stored power to the rear wheel during the “dead center” phase when the cranks are near vertical. The same average amount of power is delivered to the rear wheel, but in a smoother, less pulsating flow. All the energy is used to propel the bike forward, without the high-power peaks spinning the rear tire or causing the bike to “wheelie.”

“Conclusion

“Biopace chainwheels were made by Shimano and were also made under license by some other manufacturers. The shape of genuine Biopace chainwheels is not a simple ellipse, but a more complicated shape which Shimano describes as a”point-symmetric egg curve.” Other crankset makers have made similar designs, generally of simpler shape (pure elliptical) but oriented in a similar manner to Biopace chainwheels. ***Examples are SR’s “Ovaltech”*** and Sugino’s “Cycloid.”

*** Ed Note: Thats what I have – an elliptical oval shaped chain ring.

“Non-round chainwheels remain controversial, especially among racers who think that everyone should ride racing bikes, but, in my opinion, they are of real value for the vast majority of non-racing cyclists.

Unfortunately, this useful option has become all-but-extinct.”

http://sheldonbrown.com/biopace.html

So I guess that answers that.


New bike and a busted arm

Posted on October 24, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Mechanical | 2 Comments

Good news and bad news.

I got a new bike, but I broke my arm.

Found a killer deal on Craigslist. Well killer I guess depending on who you talk to – but for me, well I’m pretty proud. I don’t have any pictures I’ve personally taken of it yet – I’ll explain why in a moment. All I have are the Craigslist pics. Here you go.

Its a Trek 400. As I understand it, this is the first road bike Trek came out with. And its a beauty. Its actually steel – and strangely it weighs almost the same amount as my aluminum Trek 7.3, or it feels like it – Haven’t put it on a scale yet, just the blind mans test. Here are the specs as detailed in CL.

*Trek 400 56cm 18 speed road bike
*700 quick release wheels, Shimano Deore components
*4130 Chrome Moly Double Butted frame
with a 32 inch stand over height, ready to ride

I’m 5’10″ with comparitively short legs (29 inch inseam). This bike fits pretty good top to bottom. I’ll have to do something to extend the reach a little, but its not bad at all.

So. What happened?

I drove out there after work, met John. Heck of a nice guy. So I get on the bike and take it for a ride but by the time I get there its dark. No biggie, I brought my Cateye light. So I strap the light on and take her for a spin. She feels good! Damn good. The components aren’t great but they’re pretty good and newer Shimano Deore stuff. Good enough. Shifters though need some tuning. I’m not getting good clean shifting. Lotta wiggling to get gears to settle.

Anyhow, I get it to the end of the street and the chain completely locks up. I lost the chain and its locked between the cluster and the dropouts on the back wheel. So I stop, work at it for a few minutes and finally pull the wheel off and get the chain free.

Its dark and it takes me a couple minutes to get the wheel back on.

I bike back towards the house, stop a couple times to do deraileur adjustments. At one point I slow to a near stop and really throw my weight into it to see what kind of pickup I can get off a near stop.

And there goes the back wheel.

I must have not gotten that back wheel on as good as I thought there in the dark, because I torqued it right out of the drops, and that bike dropped me like a sack of rocks. And onto my right arm.

One of the bright points is I wasn’t going fast at all – in fact I was almost at a dead stop and had just thrown all my weight into pushing off for a sprint. So no road rash at all! The bad news is I was throwing every ounce of my body weight and strength into getting a sprint going – I might have been two pumps in when all hell fucking totally broke loose and sent me to earth.

So you know how I screwed up my left arm and spent 6 weeks healing and getting better and whatnot right at the end of summer there? Yeah. Now my right arm is fuggin trashed. I can barely move it without screaming in agony. I sat on the side of the road under a tree in someones lawn with my knees up waiting for the pain to pass with this bike in two pieces in the middle of a dark and deserted street, my lonely cateye headlight shining straight up into the heavens and I’m wondering how I’m going to get this thing back to the house, how long my fuggin arm is going to take to heal this time.

In the end, I bought the bike for just a smidge over $100. Its a good bike and I liked it alot while I was riding it. I bit it because I screwed up when I put the wheel back on in the dark and didn’ t tighten that back wheel enough, but the bike wasn’t damaged. Things like shifter tuning are overcomable. The frame is rad and good sized. Its clean, the paint almost immaculate. Theres no rust and its straight. It felt good to ride and its surprisingly light – and yet made of steel. Which is also something I was interested in, going steel.

So I have admittedly mixed feelings about it all. The drive home was agony, I broke out my wrist brace from two months ago and now have it on my right wrist and am alternating hot and cold compresses and pounding pain killers. But I have a great new road bike I got for a very good price and am excited to ride…

In another fugging six weeks.

GAH.

Until then, check this out. This is a refurbed Trek 400 – same color scheme and everything. They did a really beautiful job.

http://www.vintage-trek.com/Trek_galleryBS.htm

More later.

Edit: Its later and I just got back from the doc. Cracked my elbow. Out of the game for 6 to 8 weeks.

!!!!! FAK !!!!!


…damn

Posted on October 22, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Mechanical | Leave a Comment


Weekends and rainbikes

Posted on October 22, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Mechanical | 3 Comments

This weekends long ride up to Woodinville was a bust. Weather was sucky and really didn’t have the heart to do it on my own. Went on a couple short jaunts here and there, but that was about it. Went hill climbing briefly this afternoon and lost my chain 4/5ths the way up the hill. When I put it back on I found that every 1 and 1/3rd rotation the chain was skipping. When I got home and threw it up on the rack, I found I had a kinked chain.

So tomorrow heading over to Vincents to borrow his Park CT-5 Chain Tool and learn how to fix this sort of nonsense. Its been said before and I’ll say it again – a six pack of beer might be one of the most valuable tools in ones tool chest.

In other news my friend Chris has posted a picture of his Rain Bike which I like a great deal.

A Rain Bike is either

A.) A beater bike that you don’t mind bangning up in bad weather – maybe put fenders on it but really you don’t give a damn about it really.
B.) A really nice bike you sink a bunch of time and money into, expressly for the purpose of navigating and dealing with inclement weather.

These definitions seem to be at opposing ends unless you think about it for a moment. As the weather gets crappier, I’m coming to realize theres real logic to this and have started perusing Craigslist for something cheap.

Stay posted for details.


Pedals

Posted on October 19, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Mechanical | Leave a Comment

Ordered new pedals from webcyclery.com.

The Shimano PD-M520. I’ve already have the shoes for it – I purchased those when I purchased my bike. But now my left pedal is going out, figure this is as good a time as any to bite the bullet.

Funny conversation yesterday about shoes….

(3:58:09 PM) Vincent: new pedals come with cleats
(3:58:13 PM) Scott: ah
(3:58:14 PM) Scott: slick
(3:58:18 PM) Vincent: multi release cleats are bullshit
(3:58:21 PM) Vincent: stay away from them

Today I find this

“Among otherwise-compatible cleats, there is an important distinction between black cleats (“single release”) and silver cleats (“multi release”). The former can only be released from the pedal by twisting the heel outwards, while the latter can also be released by a sharp pull upwards and are therefore easier to use for novices. Mountain bikers occasionally refer to the multi release variety as the “sissy cleat”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimano_Pedaling_Dynamics

HA

(9:44:08 AM) Vincent: the standard cleats have postive engagement
(9:44:34 AM) Vincent: they disengage at only one point
(9:44:39 AM) Vincent: the multis are, well multi
(9:44:50 AM) Vincent: so counting the upwards, they release at five different points
(9:44:55 AM) Vincent: OH THATS NOT CONFUSING
(9:46:10 AM) Vincent: I think its fine if you have issues with the black ones to swtich after you get the concept
(9:46:29 AM) Vincent: but starting with the mulitis will just make you gunshy and stupid about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimano_Pedaling_Dynamics


Bike ride invite

Posted on October 18, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Events, Maps | 2 Comments

This Saturday I’m riding to the end of the Burke Gilman Trail. I don’t know what the weathers going to be like, and I don’t really know if theres anything to do once we’re up there. But I have rain gear and would like to try before it gets too shitty. So the plan is this.

Saturday morning at 9am, anyone interested in coming with should meet me at the University Inn near Gasworks Park. We’ll get breakfast, hit the road about 10. We should go sooner, but gahd thats about as early as I can get up on a Saturday. Its 22 miles to Woodinville. At 10 miles an hour thats 2.2 hours one way. Figure in delays and rests, figure we’ll get there around 1pm, maybe get something to eat for lunch and head back. Should get back no later than 4pm.

I can only imagine we’ll make better time than that, but I’m being super conservative. Its possible/likely we’ll make better time than 10mph. Starting at Gasworks, we’re also not doing the entire 22 mile trail.

This is a blanket invite. Anyone who’d like to come is invited – nay encouraged – to come with. I mean I’ll bike up there by myself, but its easier and more fun to ride with people.

You can reach my by Phone/SMS , or email me scott@sweetbike.org

Maybe we’ll see you Saturday!

If Critical Mass is happening this month, it’ll be on Friday.


For my aspiring cyclist friends…

Posted on October 14, 2007 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, How-To, Mechanical | Leave a Comment

Excellent excellent excellent tools list advice - reprinted from my friend Vincents blog. I’ve reproduced it here. Its also prompted me to create my own tools page, based largely on this to begin with. What follows is Vincents post.

===

I was asked to look over the following list for consideration on a “home bike tools set”

Home Bicycle Mechanic’s Tool Kit

Park HCW-15 32/36mm Headset Wrench
Park HCW-13 36mm Fixed Cup Spanner / Bottom Bracket Lockring Wrench (inner 2 dawgs can be ground off to fit more rings)
Park Green Pin Spanner For Bottom Brackets
Park BBT-2 Tool For Shimano Bottom Brackets
Park CWP-6 Cotterless Crank Puller
Park CNW-1 Chainring Bushnut Wrench
Park Cable / Housing Cutter
Bondhus Ball Hex Key Set (1.5 – 10mm)
Park HCW-16 15mm Pedal Wrench / Chain Whip (Sprocket Tool)
Park Hyperglide Cassette Lockring Tool
Park BBT-5 Bottom Braket and Cassette Lockring Tool for Campagnolo
Cyclo Rivoli Chain Tool
Park Multi-Size Spoke Wrench
Eldi Tire Levers
Dualco Grease Gun
Park DCW-1 13-14mm Cone Wrench (2)
Park DCW-2 15-16mm Cone Wrench (2)
Park TL-1 Tire Levers (3) (These are by far the best we have ever used.)
Sears Metal Tool Box

Before just dismissing it out of hand because I have personal issues with Aaron’s various ideologies and just leaving everyone to the sage advice of Sheldon Brown. I decided I should do a line by line on why I think this list is excessive for your average unexperienced home user.

So here we go, the * in front means I actually recommend it, or am recommending a replacement, otherwise its just a description of the part.

Park HCW-15 32/36mm Headset Wrench: Unless your dealing with threaded headsets daily, its hardly worth the expense. Just get a decent crescent wrench, or better yet a HCW-5 and if you run into real issues, call your bike friends to look at the problem

*Park HCW-13 36mm Fixed Cup Spanner: also known as the HCW-5, I have a generic one that doesnt have the center pin on it, and guess what, its also a 36mm wrench that works on headsets.

Park Green Pin Spanner For Bottom Brackets: This is a big maybe, I used to use this in a shop very little and only on way older bottom brackets only. in a pinch you can just use a red spanner.

*Park BBT-2 Tool For Shimano Bottom Brackets: Pretty much needed for bikes from 90-2004 this has been replaced by the new outboard bearing style bottom brackets, which requires a different tool.( bryan I have a bb2 you can have )

*Park CWP-6 Cotterless Crank Puller: required for removing tapered shaft crank arms.

Park CNW-1 Chainring Bushnut Wrench: I have NEVER owned or used this tool, at the shop we just bastardized a cheap screwdriver, or used a regular one.

Park Cable / Housing Cutter: I am on the fence with this one, I went years just using sidecutters, unless you plan on installing a lot of brake housing, skip it and borrow a friends.

*Bondhus Ball Hex Key Set (1.5 – 10mm): Overkill, get a decent pocket folding tool that goes really small, and maybe a decent three way allen wrench if you feel thrifty.

Park HCW-16 15mm Pedal Wrench / Chain Whip (Sprocket Tool): borrow a friends.
Park Hyperglide Cassette Lockring Tool: borrow a friends

Park BBT-5 Bottom Braket and Cassette Lockring Tool for Campagnolo: know what campy stuff is? No? then skip this tool.

*Cyclo Rivoli Chain Tool: worst chain tool ever, I swear they make these things to keep people coming back to bike shops. get a Park CT-5

Park Multi-Size Spoke Wrench: NO, if your brave enough to start messing with wheels just do your self a favor now and buy real spoke wrenches, the park red one is for most older bikes. the black fits most newer nicer wheels, and every other odd ball will be the green wrench.

Eldi Tire Levers: crap buy a quikstik and never hate tire levers again

Dualco Grease Gun: why? just get a tube of phil wood grease and use your fingers like man.

Park DCW-1 13-14mm Cone Wrench (2): borrow a friends.
Park DCW-2 15-16mm Cone Wrench (2): borrow a friends.

Park TL-1 Tire Levers (3) (These are by far the best we have ever used.): crap buy a quikstik or two and never hate tire levers again

Sears Metal Tool Box: sure whatever

Stuff thats missing that I can remember:

A set of simple screwdrivers, you really only need the long skinny flat head and one decent phillips, but its nice to have options.

I mentioned a three way allen wrench above, but you should also have a three way “nut wrench” usually 8, 9 and 10mm they are super handy.

cheap decent crescent wrench that can open at least 36mm

one, 10mm open ended wrench. get it cheap as possible, cause you will lose it.

one enamel hammer, never hit your bike with anything harder, unless its a rubber mallet.

TRIFLOW! or dumonde tech lube. the former is cheaper. NEVER PUT WD40 on a bike for lube, IT IS NOT A LUBE, and will attract dirt and dust.

cheap plastic dial caliper.

EDIT: THINGS I REMEMBERED LATER

I took for granted people would have a pump, get a silca pista. Everything else is a waste of money, ask around and look in shops, I am not alone on this opinion.

If you really like standard tire levers and can’t figure out how the quik stik works, then try something like the soma steel reinforced levers. I found a unbranded version at a LBS and they worked great till they got lost. Quik stiks come in obnoxious colors so you don’t lose them.


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