Humbled

It's spring around here.

How do I know for sure?

For one the neighbors are doing their best to hasten the end of this record setting winter by taking snowblowers to their lawns to that they can hurry up and get on with the lawn mowing.

The sunny mornings are reasonably pleasant, even in the sleep deprived, strung out, finals week state that I am operating in,

and the returning waterfowl have been able to find flowing water upon which to float.

And most telling is the return of the commuter (Cat6) race season.

During the long dark winter Cat6 races are even fewer and further between than the commuters are,
but now that the the sun is shining things are changing.

This guy totally smoked me off the line, then settled in just far enough ahead of me that I knew the he was the man.

What you don't see (because my camera battery died right after this picture)  is the DUI commuter and former coworker  of mine that I blew out of the water later in my commute.

Why?

Why is it that bike I least care about having the brakes perfectly adjusted is the bike on which the brakes end up perfectly adjusted without me even trying?


Why BB7s?  .   .    .    .   Why?

DIY Footsie Details

A couple folks asked for more details on the DIY footsies, so here you go.

Allman donated a chunk of leftover 3/4inch copper pipe he had after some DIY running boards he made (possibly more details on that later).

I cut the pipe into 8 inch lengths (same length as the Xcycle footsies).

I used some scrap plywood I had in the garage and cut a footish shape with the skillsaw.
I cut it with a 30deg bevel just because I thought it made it look a little classier.
I put a few coats of weatherproof stain on the plywood, drilled through the wood and pipe and bolted everything together.

I canted things toward center so it rested solidly on the halfmoon chainstay section on the Dummy.





I plugged the ends with some champagne corks I had laying around after last fall's Turkey Man event, and shellacked the corks to increase their longevity.
I used nylock nuts for an extra secure connection (I'll probably cut the excess bolt length off eventually). I used 1 1/2 inch bolts, I don't recall the diameter.

I screwed a short strip of double sided velcro onto the heel of each footsie to secure them in place when riding without a passenger. Xcycle does the same thing on theirs and it seemed like a good, simple, way to keep from losing one when riding around without someone on the back.

Honestly, these were a relatively crude hack I assembled in what spare minutes I have in my life.
Were I to do it again I might make the platform a little bigger, but for now I'm pleased with the finished product considering the limited amount of time and $ I've invested in the project.

I toted GSC around for a while Friday evening, and we bumped into Clyde Oak who was rather impressed and concluded he might need to consider a Dummy for his brood.

Nah, I Don't Want to Borrow the Keys

Gas is $4.27 /gal dad, I don't want to borrow the truck.

Do you mind if we take the Big Dummy instead.

Photo courtesy of GSC

Longer Than Expected

Because when doesn't a tire change turn into a wheel truing, hub adjustment session?


All that to say studs are off 2/3 of my bikes.

A Little More DIY action

$65 plus shipping was a little more than I cared to spend for Xtracycle's footsies.

So I thought I'd take a crack at it myself.

Plywood

Weatherproof stain

Copper pipe

a few bolts

a bit of double sided velcro and

2 champagne corks






I'm pleased with the finished product

2year and 2weeks

That kid turned 2 years old not even 2 weeks ago, and riding together put huge grins on both of our faces.





Looking forward to many more years of riding.

It's Official

Snowiest winter in Anchorage's recorded history.

Record snowfall in Alaska is no joke. Giant berms, roofs collapsing, irritable moose. . . I love it.

Next we get to see about flooding.

There was lots of great riding (and plenty of pushing) this year.
My biggest regret is that I wasn't able to ski more of it.

Spring Gravel Grinder

This winter the DOT and municipality of Anchorage spread approximately 40,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel around town.

Now that the snow and ice is mostly gone from the roads much of that gravel has migrated to shoulders and bike lanes, turning my typical rides around town into a lot of gravel cruising.


It won't be there for too long though. Thanks to enforcement of the Clean Water Act there is a June 1st deadline to have all the streets in town swept (and in general they get swept twice by then).
Last year the city had a $1.8million street sweeping budget, and will likely spend closer to $2mil this year.
A significant change from the ~$70,000 budget they had for street sweeping back in 2005.

Makes riding bikes nicer.



I spotted this thing abandoned on the bike path on my way home yesterday. Still had gas in the tank, so I wonder what the story was.

Of all the days to not be riding the Big Dummy.

It was gone by the time I cruised by this morning.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Here the end of winter is more commonly referred to as 'breakup' rather than 'spring'.

It's a sloppy, dirty process, but slowly you get to see all the things that have been buried under piles of snow for months.


Like benches along the bike path.


Or the center-line of the road to the university.
That's right, only half the street has been used for months now. The snow berm begins in exactly the middle of the road.

Rubber Boots and 12inch Wheels

Little got out for his first outdoor ride of spring.

He preferred puddles with icebergs to dry sections of pavement.

Fat Bike, Fat Fender

DIY downtube fender for a fat bike

What's Another Word for Pirate Treasure?

I think it's booty . . .


. . . That's what it is.


The annual bike swap was today. Had a good time met up with LO'L and Allman and saw GSC briefly. My quick interaction with GSC resulted in my searching the interwebs for 48 hole rims to pair with a Phil hub he graced me with.

To paraphrase Allman, the swap was basically the same group of people that sell parts to each other via craigslist all getting together in one place and selling parts to each other.

Tires.
EVERYBODY had tires to sell.
I actually bought a pair. 2 for $1. Going on Mrs.' cruiser.

Little wrider had a fine time running amok and testing any pumps people had for sale.

Assessing the days booty back at the car.

All in all a fun day, and 7 bikes in the household benefited from the swap for less than $100.