Once more but with feeling!

Early this summer I bought a 1x1 frame set off craigslist. Specifically I bought a Race Face crankset with a Surly 1x1 frame set attached to it. The plan being, upgrade the crankset on my 1x1, and sell the frame set for what I had into it back on cl.

oh the plans of mice and men.

I brought the parts home and commented on the nearly new condition and my loving wife says "I would like a 1x1 too." Which is the truth. She's always borrowing my bike. rides it everywhere. 

So with a heavy heart I said goodbye to the crankset and we started collecting parts.

I had a gordo rim built around a schimano hub, but not disc. It came with the Instigator, which I switched to disc last summer, but had just picked up a new wheel for. SOOO, this dust collecting double walled beast of a rim made the cut for a new bike. So I tore that apart and rebuilt it around an sram x9 cassette hub. I built a second gordo rim onto a shimano disc hub with a three leading three trailing spoke pattern.

We went with bb7 brakes, partly because I am familiar with them and partly because the older 1x1 frames don't have brazons that play nice with hydraulic brakes. Mostly the familiar bit. I didn't think of the compatibility bit until I was actually running the cables. My fear of change seems to have saved me headache for a change. I called it a win.

Geared at about 2.15x1 the bike is a little high for riding single track in Lebanon Hills, but great for ambling around the city. No stalling on those crappy hills St. Paul has every four blocks. We had some 2.25in Kenda tires handy.  I'd like to put something a little nicer on like nevegals or minions, but that'll be later. 

The bike is light and zippy. The wheels feel great. She really likes the new bike, and now we have black and white 1x1s. And they are pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.

the dirty old man

The oldest bike we own is also the most belligerent.

A couple weeks ago I changed the tires on Frenchie. Since Sir Walter died this spring the SBR has been swollen with new components.  Not that most the parts were brand new, it's that the parts were new to the reserve.  Including a pair of brand new Panaracer tires, I've been putting the same Continental Ultra Sports on the bike since 1999 (a tire I don't think they even make anymore...) and have worn quite thin.

So I put the new tires on, and they are awesome, except that they are slightly wider than the continentals.  So I rode home from work the first day with a millimeter of fender clearance. It was like riding with a break on every time I needed to push it.  When I got home, two seconds with a vise grip  fixed a problem I have been too lazy to fix for three years.  

Then last Monday we went to Redwing and biked to Cannon Falls. 

reviewing the list of original parts on the 1972 Peugeot UO8 I ride:

-frame

-fork

-threaded headset

-quill stem

-bottom bracket cups

-seat post

-brake cable guide

-seat post bolt and nut

I still have the original rear wheel, but in storage.  Nothing too impressive and I don't much care for the wavy lines.

The seat post bolt is breaking I think.  I could not get the seat to stay. Every mile or so it would sink about a quarter inch. But I had already used my spare seat bolt on another bike, and had not replaced the one I keep ziptied to my rack! damn and blast!

Phil the gap

A while back my boss had a new wheelchair made with Phil Wood hubs.  And they are amazing.  I've never seen him so happy with a set of wheels.

And I was poking around on craigslist, and found a tandem hub from Phil Wood for 45 dollars...

So now I have a hub without a bike.  I'm not even sure if this counts as strategic reserve since it has no rim...  to say this was bought half cocked is only the beginning.  Who the hell puts drum brakes on bike anyway?  I don't even need another hub right now, I've already got a spare wheel running around that doesn't fit any tire I own let alone a bike.  

What I am currently lusting after is the 48 hole tandem rear hub with a disk brake attachment.  I think the combination of drum and disk is sufficiently bizarre. Then again the hub did not come with the brake, so I might not pursue the drum.  It might just be too weird.

I need to learn how to lace wheels.

spend Spend SPEND!

The days are getting shorter.

And I think something needs to be done for light.  

I've got a cat eye head light for Frenchie, but it never seems to be very bright.  I can kinda see about 15 feet in front of me, but the light is more for being seen than for seeing.

This new bailout package intrigues me.  The idea of getting money from the government for biking to work is exciting.  I'm kinda thinking about getting a cross-check built up and if I can get some of the money reimbursed...  

So far what I am thinking I want from the bike is a dynamo hub in front so i can have reliable light.  And a crank geared something like 48/38/__.  right now Frenchie is 54/48 and a bitch on hills.  I want wider tires, and studded tires.  And a pony.

I don't think I can walk away with this under a grand.  and the idea of a travelers check is intoxicating.

which puts everything closer to 1700.  

and next summer since we bought a car.

It would be really easy to put something like this on the credit card and pay it off over the course of months.  But with the interest rate on the card at 12% that makes an expensive bike way more than it would need to be.  

What we as a country seem to have gotten used to is having things right now and buying on borrowed money.  Look at the commercial paper debacle.  Companies being lent money on the very short term, rather than having the cash flow.  What pisses em off is that executives are being paid in bags of money, when the company is having trouble making payroll.  Now that is fiscal irresponsibility of the worst sort.  

I have said since I graduated that I would never know the retirement my Grandparents enjoy.  But if these companies don't quit dicking around, no one else will either, even the folks who have been frugal and saved all their lives.

I would like to buy a new bike, but I would also like to stay out of hock.  I keep a nutella jar with money in it. just a matter of time.

Bloody hell

I'm glad it waited for a work day and didn't break a couple miles outside Haistings. God that would have been terrible if the spoke broke coming down that hill...

So yeah, another spoke broke. I am now inclined to start thinking about having the wheel rebuilt. And then I think... I wonder how smaller wheels might feel... would certainly be easier to get the back wheel out of the frame.

IN THE MEAN TIME

maybe what I'll do is put a rack on the three-speed and pump the tires up.

There is something wrong with Frenchie

I've been riding my trusty french bike for so long I think I don't notice how quirky it really is.

Shannon thinks it is squirrly. She hasn't used the word squirrely, but the handleing is kinda...*waves arms.*

Tonight I test-rode a Long Haul Trucker.  And it was not squirrely.  When I turned, it turned; when I went straight it went straight.  Which leads me to two conclusions:

1. The Peugeot is sick

2. A LHT is sick (as in cool)

3. The cat has found catnip and is very clingy.

perhaps a new bike is somewhere in the future.  But I have new questions.

I have been using 27in tires and like the larger wheel, maybe, should I try out another bike with 27in tires and see if I like them better than the 26in tires I rode today.  

What about the Pugsley I test rode last year?  I seemed to be pretty gaga for that too.  what the hell, am I just excited to buy something new?

How am I going to come up with the extra thousand dollars.

The difference in size of wheel might be enough so I don't feel like I am buying a modernized replica of what I already have, or like Jim said in the shop: "you could make it [Frenchie] a single speed." tempting.

The trouble with me buying an expensive mountain bike is: I don't mountain bike.  winter commuting by bike might be just as easy with Nokians. (I dunno, but thats what I hear).

1.???

2. Profit!

3. buy bike

Strategic Bicycle Reserve

On Planetary Gears I just commented that I have a Strategic Bicycle Reserve (SBR).  

This is completely the truth.

[eyes bug out]

Sitting at the coffee shop down the street from work I just watched the price of a gallon go from $3.58 to $3.72.

Balls.

[/distraction]

I used to rebuild bikes for friends from garage sale wonders.  Back in the mid and late ninties mountain bikes were the rage and old road bikes were 10-40 dollars or FREE.  A cheap hobby it was.  And I have kept a box of parts from the left-over bits.  Spare handlebars, deraillures, cranks etc.  Which make up the SBR, for those times when bits are needed in a pinch.

Now I have a spare frame: an old Schwinn Continental.  

You never know when a spare something will come in handy.  Shannon says there is no such thing as a spare frame, that it makes up too much of bike to considered a "spare part." I say anything that is not ridable for want of other bits is a spare part.  This frame lacks a front deraillure and wheels, making it unridable.  

Maybe if I took the handlebars off she will accept it as a spare part...