Sweetbike (.org)

Same deal as before but playing with widths to accommodate drop bars better.  Above are a 9 inch version and a 10.5 inch version – both more narrow than the previous version of the roll (12.5 inches).  I added a little red stitching on one of the rows to demark where I suggest you mount it to the bars.  It’s just a suggestion though.  Use whatever works for you.  

Pictured is the 9in version.  It worked better than I expected.  As you can see it doesn’t interfere with interrupter levers if you’re into em (fuckoff if you’re not) and hangs back far enough to stay out of the way of shifter blades on a set of brifters if you have them (pictured aren’t brifters but you can use your imagination if you have one). In practice you’d probably want a slightly more narrow roll for more shifter room – I just rolled up some towels to simulate a load here obviously.  But that’s a pretty trivial thing to work around.  

I think it could bind up on a long front canti or centerpull brake cable a little bit, but my sense of it is you’d have to really load this thing up before it became an issue.  

The front pouch there was $13 from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QAIFT2/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The two rear pouches were $15 ea from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BEWSY2E/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Onward.

It feels so typical.  I think it’s the first thing everyone who learns to sew does – they start trying to rock a pouch.  Guess what I’m doing right now.  I’m sitting here, and I’m wearing a pouch.  What the hell.

Today has been more sewing.  Nothing revolutionary, just getting more familiar with the mechanics of it all.  I made a couple more handlebar compression rolls of varying widths and will be giving them to friends for product testing purposes.  I don’t know why I’m going about it like this but I’m having fun with it.  Funniest thing – the hardest part about the roll is figuring out how to strap it to the bars.  So dumb.  I made it so easy – any old strap should work – and yet I can’t find a solution that stays tight enough.  Velcro straps work very well, but the hook side of the velcro tears the hell out of the webbing, so I’ve been trying to figure out other methods.  It’s more tricky than you might imagine; Can’t use ladder buckles because of the way the bars press against it, it just loosens back up.  D rings the same way.  I’ve never found cam buckles that were worth a darn.

Bah.  So close.

Anyhow, I made this little doohicky today.  It’s a molle-pouch belt adapter – a means to attach carry my EDC bag while biking or camping – or any small molle gear actually.  

Seriously? A pouch? Jesus.

I”ve reorganized the blog some, adding pages and whatnot.  I’ve had some pretty intense database catastrophe that’s deleted whole months of posts.  I’m perpetually finding posts that have disappeared.  For example, the post about Gretchens stolen bike I just realized is missing.  I’m torn if I should recover and repost it, or just write it off and try to just do a day  forward approach.  It’s immensely frustrating.  The backups I thought I was keeping weren’t keeping it turns out.

The reason I chose a provider to host my stuff was so this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.  And here it is, happening.  It’s a shit blog I’ll admit, but it’s my shit blog.  I record the dumb crap I do because I want to remember it.  I record the dumb crap I do so I don’t have to remember it.  Here goes my blog, and my memories with it.

Bah

Time to build a rack.  Or have a rack built.  Sorta dumb, sorta not – I printed up a copy of this and then markered the crap out of it to give me a sense of shape and dimension – will get me 90% of the way there in terms of measurements and angles.  Once I have a working design I’ll take it to Colin and finish the design with him.

This is Freds new rack.  I’m likely to copy parts of it:

I will say I think there’s something to this low-trail frontloading thing Fred and Alex have been on about.  Now that I’ve been riding it, I see the appeal – and this janky VO rack with a basket business I don’t think is long for this world.

In related news, I threw an infinite setback seatpost from an 80′s mountain bike on and put a B-17 on the Voyageur.  The B-17 does not set as far back as most modern saddles – relying instead on a slacker STA.

Well this has a slack STA but it’s still not enough.  Using a 130mm stem I’m still at 52mm of setback which is pretty insane.  With the low bottom bracket the overall fit of the bike it’s practically French-fit.  (That’s about half the amount of seatpost I’m accustomed to).  But a short top tube, a long torso, and short reach handlebars like the Cowbells I prefer are what they are – so here I am.

Alas here we are and I’m learning more about saddle fit than I expected.  For example I didn’t really appreciate that the saddle works on an arc.  I can move the saddle backwards but I have to lower the seatpost to maintain reach, or I can move the saddle forward but that requires raising the seatpost. I guess I knew this already if I thought about it – I just never thought about it before.

Re: sewing – I’m having a good time screwing around with it but I am not a good sewer, and my technique is pretty sloppy.  Fortunately all I’m sewing is webbing so game-on I guess.  Still, I just broke the sewing machine Rogelio lent me last night while working on more compact versions of the handlebar compression roll.  So now I get to fix or replace his machine, and probably buy one of my own.

Projects are expensive, but camping season is upon us.  These projects are their own reward but if they pay off camping, so much the better.

Onward.

Tonight at the Hatertown Compound / Cat Ranch I’m hosting a wheel building night (it’s been nicknamed the Circle Jerk).  I don’t mean that I’m giving a class, I mean that I’m providing the facilities and some guidance and folks are coming over to work on wheels.  Last night was all about getting the classroom in shape.

I know there will be a couple virgins in the bunch and that’s fine, but there will be others here too.  New fire ring out back and a cooler full of beer – this is going to be legit and I’m looking forward to it.

I should pick up a handle of whiskey.

Bikepacking has been growing in popularity in recent years.  Unlike traditional rack & pannier bike touring, bikepacking is a way to carry gear without racks by distributing gear in bags that attach directly to the bike.  This type of gear loading is especially popular amongst mountain bikers, who’s bikes often don’t have brazeons for racks to begin with.  The handlebar system I’ve been working on is one such example of a bike packing component.

This is a list of bike packing manufacturers, largely kiped from http://gypsybytrade.wordpress.com/tag/bikepacking-bags/

reposted here, largely for my bookmarks.

• Oveja Negra Threadworks; Lane Condell and Monty Wilson (Leadville, CO)
• Bedrock Bags and Packs: Andrew Wracher (Durango, CO)
• Bolder Bikepacking Gear; Greg Wheelwright (Boulder, CO)
• Hans Bagworks; Paul Hansberger and Jessica Noe (Missoula, MT)
• Revelate Designs; Eric Parsons (Anchorage, AK)
• Porcelain Rocket; Scott Felter (Victoria, B.C., Canada)
• Cleaveland Mountaineering Jeremy Cleaveland (Grand Junction, CO)
• WIldcat Gear; Beth Barrington (Brecon, Wales, UK)
• J Paks; Joe Tonsager (Denver, CO)
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks; (El Paso, TX)
• Carousel Design Works; Portland Or

There’s also this big forum thing where folks talk about bikepacking.

• http://www.bikepacking.net/ - forums are really pretty active
• http://www.woodcraftwanderings.org/index.html - this isn’t bikepacking specific.  Just all around good woodsmanship info.  Very smart.
• http://www.yamamountaingear.com/gear-room - these guys are doing interesting stuff with light weight tents and the like.

So it goes.

Onward

I ordered some commercially available molle pouches to test the viability of my handlebar system.  That was the whole idea afterall.

Works perfectly. Fits like a glove.

The pouches for those interested were 2x MA77 pouches on the rear

and 2x larger MA64 pouches on the front.

But there are many many options on the table.

As you know, here at Sweetbike/Tehschkott Heavy Industries we take ourselves pretty seriously.  So of course within minutes of Rogelio teaching me how to use his sewing machine, the first thing I did was start production on my secret hidden strategy for getting rich, the Tactical Pencil / Towel / Fork / Picnic Roll.  aka the TaPeToFoPoRoLoLoLoLoL

We take our picnicking very, very seriously.

Though specifically designed to carry forks and pencils and towels, I suppose you could use it for camping too if you were into that sort of thing.

Now, you may have asked yourself, what the hell is MOLLE and what are all those straps on the roll.

MOLLE = Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment

It’s a way to securely strap gear together in modules.  You can read more about it, but the plan (if it isn’t already obvious) is to build the roll using MOLLE standards, and then purchase things like external pockets and grab bags and the like separately.  Want a grab bag for your camera?  No problem.  Extra water bottle?  Yep.  Flashlight, map bag, goodie bag?  Totally.  First aid kit?  Boosh.

AMAZON LINK TO MOLLE GEAR

As stated, this is the 3rd version of this roll, the improved version of which my friend Laura and I cooked together a couple years back.

Previous blog post about this can be found somewhere around here – will edit this when I find it.

Edit: couldn’t find the post.  Here are a few notable shots re: 2008.  Gallery HERE

Onward.

Start here

Big rubber (35c)
Fendered (45mm)
Low trail (44mm)
Shimergo (11s Campy brifters, 9s Shimano drivetrain)

Here it is, the 1983 Schwinn Voyageur SP all built up.  Rides great.  Looks ugly.  Still needs some finishing work, but it’s shifting and rolling and pretty awesome to ride.  I’ve  been referring to it as “Secret Bike”.  The 11s Campy with 9s Shimano drivetrain works surprisingly well.  I am a huge fan, but it was not an intuitive connection.  Fred had to point it out to me.  After much skepticism, I’m glad I did.

Low trail profile is as follows (lower is better for front loading weight):

28mm tires – 42mm trail
32mm tires – 43mm trail
35mm tires – 44mm trail

The light bracket there is an arm from an old centerpull brake.  The mount is the leftover steerer tube after I trimmed it off.  I put a star nut into it so I had a way to mount it to the arm.  Works great.

Also found a bar light mount that doesn’t look too stupid.  Turns out that Philips won’t fit around a 31.8 bar, and a dyno light will go where it’s living right now, shortly.

Anyhoo.