I love this:
Sweet mod on a Kona UTE from Oz, as seen on Kona world blog
New Year
January 28th, 2010 by geoff ( 1 comment)
Wow, January’s almost over, and it occurred to me that I’ve been pretty passive about this blog. I also realize that there are probably millions of blog entries out there that start in this same vein.
Some new talking points:
- it got cold! It got dark! Unfortunately the latter of the two forced me to stop riding. My commute is too far to deal with night time traffic, and adding in the cold just didn’t make it worth it. I’ve still been taking the kids on Saturday morning to german school by bike, no matter the weather. This makes the outing a bit more of an adventure, and last week, we hit the playground for the first time in a long time. And with Monday’s rain washing away and melting all the snow, yesterday was a perfect day to ride.
- I got some Bar Mitts off of eBay, and have to say they worked very well. The main issue is not my hands getting cold, but them getting too hot, THEn too cold. With these, I had on thin xc gloves, and if they started feeling a little warm, i slipped them out of the covers and they regulated. The only problem with them is really the lack of hand locations: it was cold enough that i wanted to keep my hands in there, but i couldn’t get 100% comfortable. that said, it’s a tradeoff, until it gets back above freezing.
- I finally “finished” my Fuji rebuild. I had originally chosen some nice big 27″ 1 1/4 Schwalbe tires, and once installed realized they might be too big to still use fenders. If i want to make this the wonderful riding bike I know it wants to be, I think might need to change the handlebar form moustache to drop and from 27″ to 700c to fit in some fenders. i also need a rack. but these all cost money, and since it rides and i have other bikes, there’s no rush.
I hope to put up some pictures soon, since i’m very happy with how the fuji’s turning out…
37 degrees and a-okay
October 20th, 2009 by geoff ( 2 comments)
We’re having a cold October here and I’m able to try out some of the warm weather gear I got last spring. It’s not insane yet, so I get to ride in the cold as it’s getting colder. My problem was always the feet and hands, as enough wool on the arms and body and there’s never any problem.
Planet Bike Borealis
I got some Planet Bike borealis gloves, and am not sure what i think of them. They have fleece inside and that just makes my hands sweat like crazy. I figured 37 was cold enough for winter gloves, but by the time i got to work (1.5 hours later), the gloves were wet on the outside from soaking through. I think I’m going to look out for some wool/nylon based gloves.
Pearl Izumi shoe covers
I also wore some of the XXL pearl Izumi shoe covers over my very summer weight Shimano SPD shoes. And my feet were still a little cold. Fortunately I just won a used pair of SIDI Dominators on eBay and hope that they fit as well as I want them to, especially with one or two nice thick pair of wool socks. We’ll see if these shoe covers even fit over those.
Walz wool cap
I also just ordered one of these and hopefully it’ll be a little more comfortable and a LOT more stylish than the Pearl Izumi headband/ear-cover I have.
Xtracycle updates
October 8th, 2009 by geoff ( 2 comments)
I thought i’d post some more pictures of the xtracycle trailer setup. It works great and the only downside is that the kids are so far away that I can’t really talk to them while we ride!
Riding with my kids
October 8th, 2009 by geoff ( 5 comments)
My twin girls are 4.5 years old and a few years ago, I saw a tandem trail-a-bike on craigslist for $40. It was being sold ‘as-is’, and when i got there, i knew why it was only $40. But since I was willing to put the work into it, and a new one costs over $300, I was quite excited. Immediately after I got it, I tossed the rusted-solid chains and removed the wheel, scrubbing all the rust of it, repacking the bearings and making it all nice and smooth and shiny. Then the thing sat there.
Over the summer, I went to the Larz Anderson Bike Swap Meet and got a bunch of little things that i thought would work great with the trail-a-bike to pimp it out, including some old english three speed bars and some pink pedals and most importantly, for me a brooks b-17 for $50. I ended up being wrong on some of the measurements, but a trip to the LBS, and I got new seatposts, new shiny silver chains, and pink grips! About a month ago, I decided to pull down the frame, finish taking everything off, clean and repack the bottom brackets and put it back together. I destroyed my crank puller (the cranks are equally hard steel and the threads were stripped), but again the LBS helped out. Finally, after procuring a replacement seat-post-connector, we were ready to ride. The girls were unsure at first and I had to lower everything down to the lowest setting, but here you go: a little test ride around the neighborhood.
I have given them a Dahon 20″ rear rack and a cute Dutch saddle bag I got off ebay for them to store their backpacks on the way home from school. Also on the rack is a blinky light. More pix soon.
Right before I had built this up, i also decided to try putting the stoker bar onto my xtracycle, and the girls seem to love that too, but the current configuration (and my confidence in them) only allows one kid. I might have to fix that as it’s easier than the trail-a-bike.
This was just a pose -- we didn't actually ride with both yet
Zipping along!
See, both girls got a chance. This was me going to pick up the gear for the trail-a-bike
back in the saddle
September 23rd, 2009 by geoff ( no comments)
After the appendectomy, I wasn’t supposed to ride for 2-3 weeks. A of yesterday it was 2 weeks and 3 days.
Well, I did my commute yesterday for the first time since the surgery and I had really been missing it. Here’s how it goes: I get up at 5:30, rush to get dressed and ready, eat a little bit of food, then hop on the bike by 5:55am. I ride the gorgeous green path down to the Charles River. It’s pretty dark that early in the morning, but I just got some Sigma Karma lights (more on those later) super powered bike lights, so I can see anything and everything now. Riding along the river, I used to be able to see the sunset, but now that fall is here, it’s just the smoldering glow of the pre-dawn. Seven miles from home, I arrive at North Station, where I hop on a train that will take me north through the worst part of the commute, while conveniently shaving 12 miles off the commute.
View Larger Map
(this is only an approximation, since Google Maps doesn’t show shortcuts!)
I arrive and start riding through the suburban industrial center which slowly changes to true backroads suburbia. It’s not the greatest biking, but it works, and I’ve gotten used to it. There aren’t that many cars, and that early, they seem to still be courteous. That’s about another 12 miles or so to work.
I was able to take it pretty easy, go slowly up the hills, and arrive in a very comfortable state. Man, it’s good to be out again! Next week, I’ll take a bunch of pictures. This time it was way too cloudy.
cape cod camping 2009
September 9th, 2009 by geoff ( 3 comments)
In my last post, I was talking about how crazy the camping was this year. well, the craziness didn’t stop.
We got all the bikes packed up with all of our gear — we were able to bring EVERYTHING for our family minus the food and cooking equipment thanks to the trailer and xtracycle combo which worked out wonderfully! We met everyone along one of the major bike trails in Boston and got everyone together.
Here's a nice long view of some of our gang.
We had an adventurous 8 mile ride with 10 bikes and almost as many trailers going through downtown Boston during rush hour traffic. We just took the lane and held steady and made it without incident to the Ferry Terminal. The folks on the ferry were very accomodating to our large amount of stuff and people and made us feel very welcome.
Upon arriving in Provincetown, we got some lunch and then proceeded to ride to the campground. The road is fairly flat with rolling hills, and even though I was carrying much more weight that I had in previous years, I felt totally comfortable and was in the lead group the whole time. We set up camp, went to the beach and enjoyed the absolutely perfect weather.
Saturday is usally the day where we pack up again and go on a longer bike ride through some pretty hilly terrain down to a beach on the bayside fo the Cape, where the water is a bit calmer and warmer. I woke up with some intense stomach cramps, so I ended up not going, which got me pretty depressed. I slept and tried to chill out all day, but by the time the friends came back, the pain was worse. We finally opted to borrow one of the cars of the people who had driven and go to the hospital 1 hour away. (Even though I was a bike camping purist, I’m now grateful that there were cars there!!). Long story short: I had appendicitis and this was the end of my bike trip! My wife came down after putting the girls to bed and stayed with me the rest of the night and day while I recovered from surgery. Our neighbor from Boston drove 2 hours out to come pick me up and take me home — what a life saver. This also meant, much to my enjoyment, that the wife and kids got to continue their camping/biking fun. The biggest worry was who was going to ride my extra-sized xtra-cycle. It’s a 25″ frame, which fortunately one of the guys with us could fit on a ride home. When he pulled up on monday evening he said, “wow, that’s a lot more comfortable to ride than I thought i would be!” Damn straight.
I think we’ll try one more bike camping trip in October whne the wife is away in Florida, but for now, there’s no biking for me for another few weeks. sigh…
This is what my steed looked like this year.
Magazines
September 3rd, 2009 by geoff ( no comments)
In addition to the insanely huge RSS feed of bicycle links that I go through each day, I also like to read printed matter as well!
Bicycle Times Issue #2, I just have #3
I heard about the magazine Bicycle Times from Russ over at Epicurean Cyclist, and recently subscribed. I got the recently got an issue of Bicycle Times and have to say that I love it. I’ve never been one to get BICYCLING magazine, since I’m not so much into the racing thing. I’ve been a longtime subscriber to Bicycle Quarterly and Adventure Cyclist. I occasionally pick up an issue of Momentum at the LBS, but I have to say that Bicycle Times is a great new discovery. Go check it out!
Bike camping
September 2nd, 2009 by geoff ( 1 comment)
The summer of 2009 was not the “great summer of camping” I was hoping it was going to be. I had such high hopes!
We went on a Memorial Day camping trip pretty close by in a park with miles upon miles of wonderful bike trails. That turned out to be a lot of fun and met some new people, but we also had to deal with a downpour of such an extreme that it broke our tarps with the weight of the water. Fun, but wet.
I had hoped to sneak away, just me and the girls for some bike camping at a campsite about 12 miles outside of Boston. We had gone there last year and it was fantastic. I had a smaller backpacking tent that would keep things light and we’d cook dinner together and it’d be fantastic. It rained the two open weekends we had available, so scratch that.
July 4th, we hauled our asses up to northern Vermont to camp near Lake Carmi and ride on the Missiquoi Bike Path (pdf). We had tons of people with us and it rained the entire weekend. Everything was drenched, and if it weren’t for the wonderful company and the one short and one long bike ride we got it, it would have been frustrating.
We also flew out to California (where I’m from) to visit family and go camping in Yosemite for two nights. That was fantastic! And as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that we actually have done quite a bit of camping, but our two big trips were just so wet.
So, here we are on the eve of our annual Cape Cod Bike Trip and the weather looks as if it’ll be fantastic. The wife will have 4 panniers, and I’ll be loading down the Xtracycle and pulling the kids in the trailer. Very exciting.
Wish me luck!
My light Lemond commuter was used on our first trip, where we drove with all of our stuff.
Last year, we were able to carry all of our stuff, and the kids were a little older. For that I brought my Panasonic city bike with front panniers.