October 20th, 2009 by geoff ( )
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.
October 20th, 2009 by geoff ( )
October 8th, 2009 by geoff ( )
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!
October 8th, 2009 by geoff ( )
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