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Trails, fenders, snow

I went and checked out the trails off of High Drive. Where there's no snow, there's mud. So, no surprise there I guess. I got right off after about 20 feet. It looks like a lot of foot traffic is still on there.



The Shogun 2-speed now sports drop bars: much better. But it doesn't have fenders, which I intend to follow through with. This bike will be fenderless. But looking at how trashed my coat and pants and shoes get from just 10 or so miles of tooling around on wet and muddy pavement, I am thankful for the other fendered bikes in my garage. By running full fenders with a flap, you can avoid almost all road grime.

This guy rules (click for big):

Clearing stuff out

"We" have a goal this year of not buying a bunch of new bike stuff, to buy used whenever possible, and if buying new, to sell off old stuff to fund the new stuff.

So, my first round of stuff is pictured above. 

• The brifters are Shimano 600 8-speed: $50
  
• There's a lil'loafer Rivendell canvas bag there: $70
• A bendix 2-speed kick back, red band hub: $50
• A Fatty Rumpkin 650bx42 tire (about 200 miles on it): $35
• A Velo-Orange Ostrich handlebar bag (decaleur attachment not included): $80
• Brooks B-67 (reshaped after being soaked): $35
• Atlantis fork for a 700c wheel: $150

If you are local and any of that stuff looks interesting, contact me and you can come over and inspect. I hate trying to describe how used stuff is on email. My "good" is ususally other people's "fair." This isn't fire sale pricing here, but hopefully I'm not too deluded in my ideas of worth. 

Not pictured is Liza's RB-1 frameset. It's a 1994, 53 cm frame. Fun bike. Frame/fork/headset: $300. This frame is in really good shape.

Another option for a north ride

View Larger Map

My dad and step-mother live up on the Kettle River. It's fun to ride up there and there's lots of routes. For a quick version, it's an easy century ride straight up 395. Another route I've done a couple times is to go up to Springdale via Tum Tum, go west over the little pass to Hunters, then go north on the west side of the Columbia. That's a great day ride.

There's a lot of mountain and dirt road just north of Spokane/Deer Park in the corridor between 395 and the Hiway's 2/211/20 route. I think I'm going to focus on that area this year. The route above is sort of an intro route that ends up at my dad's place.

Civic Update

Three items of note.

#1 Public Meetings for pending Spring roadwork.

These meetings are really important to attend. There is sort of a stubborn defense of the status quo in the bureaucracy of our city's engineering department. The idea that moving as many cars as fast as possible still guides decision making and street "design" here in Spokane.

But, when citizens speak out and question the designs, they can be modified to make walking and cycling better. It's not trivial to modify design and you can meet a wall of half-truths, technical obfuscation, and resistance. But the fact is, good design can happen and money can be found if the will of the people is strong enough.

These upcoming meetings are actually scheduled at times when normal working people may be able to attend.

Meeting #1: Southeast Boulevard from 29th to Perry.
Tues, Jan 27th, 6:30-7:30 pm
Hutton Elementary, 908 E 24th Ave

Meeting #2: Alberta St. from NW Blvd to Francis Ave and Cochran St from NW Blvd to Alberta St.
Tues, Feb 3rd, 4-6PM
Shadle Park Presbyterian Church, 5508 N Alberta St

#2 Local Transportation Stimulus Priorities

Thanks to the BTW site for pointing to the SRTC site where the big doc (pdf) is stored.
The doc linked there lists the potential "shovel ready" projects for the federal stimulus money.

The "non-motorized" projects include:

• Fish Lake Trail: Sunset Highway to existing trail to the south -- this is paving the rest of the FLT. There may be some connection-to-downtown work included here too, but this does not include the bridges over the tracks.
• Freya St. Sidewalk: 57th to Aquatic Center
• Bike Routes Downtown: Jefferson, 4th Ave, Howard, Spkn Falls Blvd, Riverside -- this is a big loop around downtown, bike lanes mostly, but also some interesting work on 4th Ave to move bikes against the one-way traffic.
• Wandermere Road Pathway: Wandermere Road
• Historic Iron Bridge Rehabilitation for Pedestrian and Biking: this is the bridge that crosses the river by the Iron Bridge condos and hooks into East Central/Sprague area.
• Ben Burr Trail: Liberty Park to Erie/Riverside-- this connects Ben Burr trail/Liberty part to Trent with bike paths, lanes, and signage. This really becomes useful with when coupled with the Iron Bridge piece above.

My favorite is the "Historic Iron Bridge," which just opens up East Sprague/Central to downtown. And sets the stage for my pet route.

#3 Final MBP Public Comment

You are receiving this e-mail because you have expressed interest in Spokane’s Master Bike Plan. We wanted to let you all know that the most recent drafts of the Master Bike Plan, Planned Bikeway Map and Comprehensive Plan Changes are now available on our website: http://www.spokaneplanning.org/master_bike_plan.htm

Please take time to review the documents. On January 28th 2009, at 5:00 p.m., in the City Council Chambers, the City of Spokane Plan Commission will hold a public hearing to receive public testimony on proposed Master Bike Plan. The Planning Services Department is proposing that the Master Bike Plan be adopted as an emergency amendment to the Comprehensive Plan as provided in Spokane Municipal Code Section 17G.020.010.E

Loaner Bike

This is the bike that Alex leaves at work for me to borrow when I come to town. I really enjoy riding it. I think it's a 1983 Trek 620, as for components, it is just standard goodness: fly rack, Noodle bars, B-17, Sakae compact double crank (45/28 I think), Suntour barcons, and bitchin Avocet Fasgrip tires. These are great tires. I don't think you can find them anymore, which is a shame, because they feel very close to the Grand Bois Cerf to me and they were about 1/2 the price.

I use this loaner to go from work to the hotel, which is only a mile or so. I try to get in at least one ride with Alex and/or a ride to family or friends for dinner. Last night I rode to Woodinville, which is about 10 miles on the Sammamish River Trail. It feels great to ride hard on a long flat run like that. Especially after the last few weeks in Spokane, where I've spent a lot of time huffing and puffing through the snow or carefully picking over icy streets.

Next step: ride

I finished the big-kid bike today. Turns out that when I reassembled the hub I put one little piece in upside down. Oops. That made the hub a freewheel, instead of a coaster brake, and it broke the 2-speed feature. And it exposed some bearings weirdly. I had to un-assemble and reassemble the hub a couple times to figure that one out. I feel pretty good now about overhauling and reassembling a Sachs Torpedo 2-speed kickback hub. 

An unidentified employee at REI squeezed the rear fork ends down to 117 or so. He even aligned the front forks. Nice unidentified guy that he is. 

I took the bike for a quick spin in the dark and it seems fun. I may have to fuss with the stem. It's got about  100 mm on there now. But with the semi-swept back space bars, I may want a tad more reach. Maybe I'll just lower the bars a bit and see if that does it. 

It will be fun to get good at using this hub. Liza rode the old Raleigh 20 quite a bit when this hub lived on that bike. She got pretty good stopping, then being in the right gear for take off. 

I'm running 36/17, which gives me about a 56" low gear. That puts second gear at about 76 gear inches. While I won't win the tour with that gearing, it's pretty perfect for cruising and getting up just about any hill in town. And it will be fair for trail riding.