running errands

Josie and I ran some errands by bike today.  I don't have any pictures from the ride to the playground or to supermarket, but here are some shots of the ride from the supermarket to the bakery to get a (belated) birthday cake for my wife.  I know I'm the worst.

The Tradesman with the Burley D'Lite.  The Tradesman has "hooded" dropouts, so the Burley standard hitch won't work on the bike, without using one of these:

The Hitch Alt Adapter works perfectly!  Do have to get a lock washer or locking nut to keep the nut from backing off over time.

Here are some more pics from the morning ride.

Josie's portrait of her and I:

Standing next to her trailer, she gets mad if we have to go in the car.

My Keen Coronado II's love these shoes.  Much more comfy than Chuck Taylors.

And the date nut cake from Dick's Bakery in downtown Berea.  Wifey's favorite sweet.  And some cookies for the kids.

Fun day, more to come.....

broken

Luckily not me, but bike parts. 

Texted up TimBob on Monday, wanted to see if he wanted to do some mountain biking, just like we used to.  Jobs, families, lots of stress hasn't let us ride as often as we want, so plans were made, and actually followed through with.  We decided to go out to Findley State Park, one I've ridden before, but never on my FixieMonsterCross.  About a mile in, I notice a clicking noise coming from my crank area.  Check the chain, nothing in it, thought it might be my pedals, or that my Chris King bottom bracket finally needs some grease.  Then I start to notice that the noise only happens when my right foot is going down.  I stop the bike and look, one of my chainring bolts is missing.  Damn, I should have checked those last night when I was lubing and tensioning my rusted ass chain.  Well, at this point I'm about a third of the way through the trail, and about the furthest point away from the car.  So I kept riding.  A mile or so later, the teeter totters are right in front of me, and I roll over one.  I hear a crack, don't know if it was the wood hitting the ground or something on the bike.

And its the crank, two nice little cracks on the spider.  Shit.  Well, have to ride out.  Don't really take it too cautiously, still riding over stuff, still standing and crushing up the hills.  But the sound is getting louder.  It has changed to a metal rubbing on metal sound, almost grating.  Didn't take a picture, but the one arm by the beaver's tail is cracked through and displaced.  We get to the road and decide to cut off the last 2 miles or so, and pedal softly back to the car.  I decide to see if I can rip the arms off of the crank, so into the parking lot with all the speed I can muster, get on the grass and...

Nothing.  Doesn't budge.  Skid stopping with the right foot forward didn't do it.  Well I got to try it again,left foot forward this time...

And the bike comes to a complete stop, arm ripped off all the way through and the chainring (which needed to be replaced anyhow)...

Done for.  I guess all in a days work.  Well better than work.  Next up is to see if anyone would like to buy the Hunter FixieMonsterCross, for a good price - minus the crank.  Or if nobody does, time to get a new crank, chainring, bolts, and chain. 

88bikes and bike_cle

Bike Cleveland had a little social get together last night down at the Market Garden in Ohio City.  It's not too far away from my house, but getting there by bike can put you through some sketchy areas.  So I rode.  It makes no sense to go to a bike social hour to hear about an organization that give away bikes to children in impoverished areas by car.  So I decided to give the Tradesman it test on a longish ride, so here I go:

Yep, that handsome piece of work is ready for the 17 mile commute to Cleveland's Ohio City area - a   great, historical section close to downtown.  Home of some of Northeast Ohio's microbreweries, restaurants, and the West Side Market.  So, out the door, and on to the section of the park system that I ride everyday to work, past where I turn off, a couple of more miles on the bike path, and turn right to go up a really shady hill to the main road.  I follow this road all the way into the Ohio City neighborhood.  My only regret, not stopping at Steve's Hot Dogs for a little snack.  Copy of my route: here.

I lock the bike up and go inside, people are starting to arrive, and I'm hungry, so I order some pork tacos and a beer and wait.  People start showing up, I talk to a few people, have another beer, things get too loud for me, so I go outside and take a picture of the bikes locked up outside. 

Good to see that some other people had the idea to ride to a bike event.  Back inside, another beer, and after the program being delayed for technical difficulties, Dan Austin stepped up to the microphone to talk about his organization 88bikes and how bikes are one of the only things that people have happy memories about, and how that is the way to get more people on bikes.  Here is a story from a local TV station with info on upcoming events with Dan Austin while in Cleveland for the rest of the weekend.

Time was getting short for finding a different way home, one hopefully a little safer than the one to the event.  I left soon after the talk was done, rode a little way with a guy name Chris who showed me how to get to the road I wanted to be on, and was lucky enough to do all my direction finding in the daylight/dusk.  I paused to call my wife and hopefully tell the kids goodnight, but missed by 10 minutes.  Was able to snap this pic of the sunset

 
before diving down into the park for the rest of my 20 mile ride home in the dark.  That route, here.

All in all, a great night, no problems, got to meet an interesting man with a great organization, and a fun ride doing it.  Look for more events in my future with Bike Cleveland.....

well...

Well, lack of posting can be one of three things - either I'm riding my bike, work is crazy busy, or I'm lazy as hell.  Mostly a mixture of the last two.  This awesome Spring weather has brought tons of people into the shop, so we've been pretty busy.  And I've been pretty slack on the posts.  I have some posts started, just trying to finish them, as well as get pictures taken.

On the news front: nothing much.  Commuting is going fine, only two days driven this year so far.  Mostly on the Tradesman, but occasionally on the Hunter FixieMonsterCross.  I have good faith that in the sometime near futrure (maybe this week) my long awaited matt chester will be here.  When that gets here and built, the webisphere will be some of the first to know.  Expect lots of pictures and stories.  Also thinking of a lighter kick around town bike for the kids, something I can use with a Burley trailer and for the possibility of the Allegheny Passage with a cargo trailer this Fall.


Along with the mc, I have started to get together a plan of attack for bike rides to be done this year.  I definitely have an overnighter bikecamping trip planned with the wife and kids for this Summer, as well as two longer trips planned for myself.  Just need to figure out times.  I also am going to sign up for the Ohio Gran Fondo this September.  I really don't like big group rides, but this could be a fun training ride - and I could get a cool water bottle. 

Well, until next time, hopefully with some good news and numerous posts.....

more tradesman

Been riding the Tradesman almost everyday here - feels weird riding a coasting bike with gears - and really enjoying it.

Here is the latest incarnation of the bike:

I decided to go with a basket on the front platform for right now, it was relatively inexpensive - so if I don't like it, no biggie.  The basket I added to the front is a Wald 157 basket.

 
It's freaking huge.  Designed to carry a lot of stuff, it makes just shoving things in really easy and simple to get out.  The dimensions at the top are 21"x15"x9", and taper slightly to the bottom.  The platform is slightly larger than the taper of the basket, but the top matches the dimensions of the platform almost exactly.  The basket came with brackets to attach to the front end of a regular non-suspended bike (and I kept the other brackets in case I switch it to another bike), but here I just zip tied the crap out of it to the platform.

Things are kept in the basket by strategically loading things in stuff sacks, and kept in with an elastic net that hooks on the grid pattern of the basket. 

That's is a big bucket of pretzels, as well as my lunch, rain gear for the ride home, lock, and a waterproof bag for my phone and i-Pod.  Still plenty of room for other things, shopping load to be tested later.

I also added a rear rack to the bike, last years version of the Backrack I.

 Why last years?  It fit better on the frame, lower above the rear wheel, and to accomplish  I had to use the same mounting holes as the fenders. 

 
Not as clean as I like it, but because of the way the seat stays come down, it was something that needed to be done to get it to work properly.  I tried the new rack on the Tradesman, and it stood to high above the wheel - the threaded height adjustment of the older one allowed me get everything at an acceptable height.  The rack allowed me to get my Radbot 1000 off the seatpost and far back out of the way.

The addition of the rack, and the reposition of the light, allowed for the OLD Jandd Mountain Wedge 1 seat bag for 2 tubes, a mini pump, multi-tool, and tire lever.  I'll try a smaller bag, once I get my frame pump attached to the front rack.

The other reason for the rear rack, is to put on panniers or a rack top bag or basket to carry more thing.  Especially a set of grocery getter panniers.

More to come.......