Xtracycle

My buddy Jon has been borrowing our xtracycle for about the last 2 years. We've really not missed it much. It's a great bike for hauling family-grocery loads, as in, the family and groceries. When Maddie was a toddler, we'd go shopping every week: she's sit on the front, and we'd load it up with a week's worth of groceries.  Then Fresh Abundance moved in down the street and changed our shopping habits. We never do the weekly thing anymore. About the same time we also got the tandem for Maddie. Around the same time I also discovered the joy of hauling crap on a front rack. So, the xtracycle became sort of redundant. About the same time, Jon needed a way to haul two kids or a kid and crap, so he was keen to borrow the xtracylce.


About 2 weeks ago, we took the xtracycle back so my brother could borrow it while he was in town. It's been great having it back. Not so much for hauling stuff -- though, I'll be hauling the P2P booth down to the Bike to Work breakfast tomorrow morning -- but for the kid-hauling value that the xtracycle excels at. For the short tooling around we do: to Maddie's school, to the Scoop, to Fresh Abundance, to the park, etc, the xtracycle just rules. Especially since Maddie is not hugely bullish on riding her own bike at the moment. It's funny, because she still prefers riding on the front toddler seat instead of the snap deck on the back. 


For the skinny; the dirt; the poop on my xtracycle, dig my out-dated, but mostly accurate, web page on it. 

Mica denied

Willy and I had planned to get up to Mica Peak (Washington, not Idaho -- we're pretty sure there are two Mica Peaks) via Henry road today. Weird stuff, private property, scary dog, and a freaky vibe going on up there. We did some stealthing and creeping around in an attempt circumvent the freakiness, but after a while we decided to back out. 

So we came back over Saltese Flats, up Linke, then Sands, Bruno... this route should sound familiar to a handful of cyclists. Good ride. Lots of climbing and wind. I'm tired.

Triple

The Resurrecto is evolving. After my last mixed-terrain-lots-of-climbing-ride (hereafter referred to as a "mixter") on the hacked RB-1, I decided to put a triple on it. 



I sort of feel bad doing this, since it makes my Rawland a bit redundant. The Rawland will still be my proper mountain/rough-stuff bike and deep snow bike, but I think the majority of my long mixter rides will be on the RB-1. Compared to the Rawland, it just feels a lot more spry. Especially on a mixter where more than half of the overall mileage is paved. I guess it might be a good thing that the RB-1 can't take the new quasi-motos and the Hetres. I always must have a bike that can take the Hetres.



Anyway, I've had this bitchin' Sugino PX crankset in my stash for a while. It's obviously a clone of the TA Cyclotouriste -- very French/classic looking. I originally got the crank set to make a 44/30 double, but I'm flush in those normally-hard-to-find cranks (86 BCD, the PX, and 94/58 bcd compacts) at the moment. So I can use the PX as god intended it to be used: as a triple with 48/36/26 rings. Set up with a 11-26 cassette, I'm good to go. A 12-28 would make a tad more sense, but 11-26 is close enough.



I had to add about 3 mm of spacers to the 122 mm bottom bracket to get the cranks to work, and it's a tight fit. A hair less tolerance than I like, but I can live with it.

Bloomsday 09

Liza jumping rope to get her "weight-bearing" exercise for the day: 1400 jumps a day plus 1200-1500 mg of calcium keeps the bones strong. That's Tiger the squirrel hunter peeking in.

I added a stay to the front of my fender. There was some rattle and movement that was annoying. This will make this bike near perfect. Next up: generator lighting with an IQ Cyo. I love this bike. And I love these full Honjo fenders. I'd do a commercial.

RB-T. They don't make them like this any more. I took this out on the highdrive trails this morning. I'm always amazed at how this bike allows me to climb the really steep, rocky, and twisty switch-backs. I can't stay on the bike for most of those tight corners on my other bikes as consistently as I can on this one. For sure the knobbies help, but I've also got the weight distribution worked out on this bike better than I do on other bikes.

Arrowleaf Balsamroot are beginning to bloom on highdrive trails. That means Lupin are forthcoming. The trails are in perfect shape right now: firm and not too dusty.

The BAB booth at the Bloomsday trade show. Nicest one yet. With lots of room for maps. The key is getting a space at the end of a row. 

This is a picture of a picture that was at some booth at the Bloomsday tradeshow. I don't remember the booth. But what's the deal with those bikes? The whole drive side is on the wrong side of these bikes. I know Sheldon did that with some bikes, but I've never seen that before in the wild, but there's two bikes in this pic with the chain, rings, derailleurs, etc are on the left side. At first I though it was a developing issue, where the negative was flipped. But that stuff is on the wrong side relative to the people. Have I lost it? Is it me? Is there some obvious explanation here that I'm oblivious to? What the hey?

Saw this Sugino with an integrated chaingaurd on a Kona up at Wheelsport on Thursday. You get all three chain rings + a chain guard on a servicable crankset. The chain guard just screws into a chainring with threaded holes in it. Nice.

Maddie. Proud cyclist on Wednesday morning. Back on her pink bike.

Not a good day

On the way to work I nearly got hit. Closest I've come in a long time. Totally my fault. I was taking heading west on Second Ave. My target was the new coffee shop, Taste, which is on the west side of the street. After I turned right onto Howard, I proceeded to U-turn to lock up in front of the restaurant. I didn't check before I U'd. Of course, a car had also taken a right onto Howard right behind me, and he was now gunning it to overtake me on the left. yowsa. Close call.  

Good lesson for me. I think I'm a pretty good and safe rider. That's a new scenario for me to be aware of.

On the way home, I approached a curb that I bunny hop about 4 times a week. I do it so often that I've apparently stopped thinking about it. I apparently think the bike is going to jump on its own. Because today I totally shanked my rear wheel on the curb. Lame. Lame. F'ing Lame. 

There's a huge honkin dent in my rim and it's totally out of round and it sucks and I'm mad at my lazy self for being so out of it. I was able true it up to ride it home, but there's a huge bump in the ride. 

And of course not a single bike shop in Spokane stocks the Velocity Synergy rim. Errg.

More pics

Tool kit comparison
Maddie's new-to-her bike
Willy cruising
Beecraft
Next Willy adventure: tandeming!
Mobile post

Mid-week update in pictures

Before the photo show, there are a couple nuggets to share.

1. There will be 10 new bike racks in Spokane soon. Thanks to DSP and the Spokane County Commute Trip Reduction Program. These are the standard inverted-U racks. They were made here in Spokane, at Tipke. Home of Glen of Elephant fame. They are only $50 for qualifying businesses (mainly the business needs to be in the general downtown area defined by GTEC). The cost of these galvanized, then powder-coated beauties is around $280 -- so $50 is a great deal. And if you are in the Business Improvement District (core downtown basically), then the rack is installed by the DSP people. And... Out There Monthly gives away an 1/8 page ad to each business that installs a bike rack. Five businesses have already bit and there are only 5 more racks to go.

2. Start taking pics of cars that park in bike lanes and posting the pics (with visible license plate numbers and as much context as possible to show the car in a bike lane) to http://spokane.mybikelane.com/. In the past, this was a nice way to sort of get the annoyance off your chest, but there was no other reason to do so. But things are going to change. Lieutenant Drollinger of the Traffic Enforcement division of the SPD was at the BAB meeting last night. He is going to work out a process where the COP stations will monitor mybikelane.com so that letters are sent to people that park in bike lanes. Serial offenders will get a visit from Spokane's Finest. The system is not going yet, but he is enthusiastic about fixing the issue and he's the guy in charge we've been looking for.

So, with that: some pics...


Standard Maddie-on-the-way-to-school picture. You'd think that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. But you're wrong. The point of these is to show the fashion skills of Maddie. This outfit is really coordinated in a way that is unusual for Maddie. Fluke? or Maybe she's trying to match more.



On the way to Piccolos with Jon. Or an alternate title: "Road photos: how to make friends with garbage truck drivers," or, "The last picture John ever took, may he rest in peace."



Lunch at Piccolos. When I whine and moan about how "I'm not feeling good about my fitness level" for CX, point back to this post. Good food. Mine was a meatball sandwich. Jon went for the soprasada.



Running at Playfair. Every Monday and Weds at 12:15. That's my running deal. Though lately my knee has been bugging me so it's been pretty quick. My buddy Travis joins me some days. You can too. The Playfair track is really soft and spongy.