Things and Stuff

April has been amazing, and I've been getting some riding in.

Rode to the post office with Little to mail a birthday present to my brother in-law.

I had to hit up 3 different LBSs to find an AK shop t-shirt for a birthday present, but I was really pleased with what I eventually found.

Noticed this sign while I was locking up to the bike rack.

I'm pretty sure it's entrapment to install a bike rack where bicycling is forbidden.

Vic inspired me to experiment with some hose clamp, stem mounted water bottle.  Little saw what I was doing and requested on for his trike.  He and I were both pleased with the results.

LoL came by this weekend with a sweet new fork for his Moonlander.  It's amazing how light this hunk of plastic is.  

 

Fortunately I have an irrational fear of crabon that keeps me from investing large sums of money in shiny plastic bits.

Ocean Air Cycles had their t-shirts on sale for cheap.  Nice looking shirts, funky, small US bike company, how could I resist.  I was even happier when the package arrived with more than just a t-shirt.  A few stickers and some beautiful postcards were just above and beyond.

Like I said the April riding has been amazing. Blue sky, warm (above freezing) day time temps and smooth snowy trails are hard to beat.

Neither this guy, nor myself were in too much of a hurry this afternoon, so we spent a while checking each other out and sharing the trail before we both went peacefully on our respective ways.

The trails were holding up pretty well, even as the temps approached 50deg F.  Nice to be out riding in a short sleeved jersey and shants.

 

Things were a little punchy and deep if you had to dab off the packed trail, but there are worse problems to have.

 

Stumbled across this old run down cabin in the woods.  Less than two miles from our house, but on a little used trail that I had never explored before.  Would have been a pretty sweet place to live back in its day.

  

I persuaded Little to help me slap the Big Apples back on the Dummy and ride to the park with me.  He did an awesome job hanging on to the back of the Big Donkey.  I still plan to build a proper seat for him or something, so that he and I can both relax a little bit while he's back there.  As it was I was rolling slowly and constantly seeking conservation that he was still hanging on with both hands (most of the time he was).

 It's really fun to have him out of the trailer and to be able to maintain a conversation while we roll along.  4 fun miles together this evening.  His only complaint was that he hurt his bottom when we practiced riding off a curb at low speed.  I'll set him up with a magic carpet or something similar soon.
I'm really excited for this next chapter of family riding.

Q & A

First there was a question and I had an answer:

From rootsradicals@yahoo.com cargo bike listserve,

"I'd like a tire that can handle some off-road/gravel/hard-pack/maybe some mud, but which will also be fairly low rolling resistance on the the street. Right now I think my Xtracycle will see mostly street duty, but I'd like to have tires on it that will serve for those times that I might ride on the rough stuff. Also, after seeing some blog posts by a guy who uses his Big Dummy to carry equipment out to his research sites, I've been inspired by the idea of maybe using my Xtracycle to get out to do camping, birding, carrying my boat, etc."

So replied with this,

As a guy who has written "some blog posts by a guy who uses his Big Dummy to carry equipment out to his research sites"  I'll throw my two cents out there. 

(I don't know for sure if it was my posts that you read or not, but if there is somebody else hauling research equipment with a Dummy I'd love to have the link and the chance to pick his brain.)

First off I see you bought the Kendas.  Looked like a great deal on a quality tire, I hope you enjoy them and report back when you've got some miles and an opinion on them.

As for my set up, I am a tire tinkerer.  I enjoy experimenting with different tire/rim combos just to see what happens.  On the BigDonkey I've tried a number of things including:  2.4 Maxxis Holy Rollers, 3.7 Surly Endomorph (up front only), 3.0 Nokian Gazzaloddi, 2.1 Bontrager 'generic style mountainbike tires', 29x2.35 Schwalbe Big Apples, and my favorite set up 26x2.35 Big Apples.

All of these tires were run on a widish (~44mm) Alex DM24 rim, and a couple also spent time on a modified Sun Ringle Double wide.

If you were posing this question regarding a non-longtail setup, I would hands down recommend the Holy Rollers (which I've run in the summer on couple different bikes, including my Surly 1x1), but a cargobike is a different beast.
This spring a gypsy I crossed path with traded me some Holy Rollers he had for the Big Apples I'd been running on my Dummy.  A few thousand miles later he was switching to full on fat tires and offered to mail my Big Apples back to me, to which I enthusiastically said 'yes'.  I swapped the Holy Rollers off and slapped the Big Apples back on and everything was again right with the world.  Not that the Holy Rollers were bad or lacking, but I just find the Big Apples to be a little nicer, a little quieter, a little smoother and a little more pleasant to ride.

The Big Apples plenty of traction for almost all of the trail riding I do on the Dummy.  The long, stable cargo bike isn't getting rallied through corners quite the same way a regular bike would so cornering traction isn't a huge issue.
The flat protection from the tires is fantastic and the ride quality is super plush.  I think Gypsy Nick rode something like 3,000 flat free,  loaded, touring miles on my well used Big Apples before mailing them back. 

A flat tire on a loaded cargobike could be particularly inconvenient.
Knock on wood, but in the past 3 years I've had no flats on the Big Donkey that I can recall.
I have however shifted the chain off the top of the cassette a couple of times and learned how annoying rear wheel repairs in the field can be.

I've had more than one instance of slamming hard into an unavoidable rock and feeling my rim make contact with the rim.  Not only have I escaped without pinch flats, but I've also not had to true the rims.
It looks like the Schwalbe Fat Franks would also be a excellent option and perhaps provide a hair more traction.

Just my thoughts, no more right or wrong than anyone else's, but I'll put them out there for what they're worth.




Then I had a question I sent out to Allman and Gypsy Nick that went something like this:

Subject:  Thoughts?

6 miles through the woods to school. 

4 miles on paths home.

2 hours later, in the garage, rear tire is flat . . . tear at the valve stem (presta).

2 nights in a row.

Additional information available upon request.

I have a theory or two, but would be curious if you had any additional insight.


After all the holiday thankfulness I have to say I'm thankful to be able find answers to bike questions on the internet.  Not too long ago things were a lot different. 
Resources and answers were quite limited by today's standards, I try not to take it for granted.

Boxes From Bozeman, Fish Tales and Dirty Laundry

The Big Donkey hasn't quite been itself since I traded its tires to  Gypsy Nick.  I still had one Big Apple for it, but I still couldn't found a satisfactory arrangement using any of the tires I had around the house.

So when Gypsy Nick offered to mail the Big Apples back to me I could hardly say no.  He also refused to let me cover the shipping, so you can count on that sort of bike geek karma being paid forward.

Big Apples are back

His transition back to full on fatties was made in Montana and this week a box arrived from Bozeman, nothing in it but my tires with about 3,000 bonus miles on them.  I have to say they looked pretty good considering the long, loaded trip they've been on.

I wasted no time tossing one of them back on the Donkey.  Cruising around town feels right again (it hasn't hurt that it's been sunny and I've kept a spinning rod strapped on the back of the Donkey for the last little while).

Quick stop to catch a few rainbows on the ride home.

Noticed these tracks while I was locking up by another fishing spot.

Apparently after working on his trike for a bit the little one noticed how dirty my DIY footsies were getting and thought it might be worthwhile to toss them in the wash with some of my dirty clothes.

    

Glad I noticed before I started the cycle.

I'm Busy, but Here Is a Photo

Happy Monday

Big Dumm Flat Tires

Rear wheel flat tires on the Big Dummy are kind of a pain.

I'm just saying.

Big Dummy Got Shingles

We had a pretty good windstorm on Thursday.
Friday Little wRider and I cruised over to the hardware store for some replacement shingles and roofing supplies.


With careful route selection it wasn't TOO sloppy, but as you can see you couldn't just blindly follow the bike lanes.




Studs just came off, so nice to be rolling on the Big Apples again



Blue skies and reasonably warm temps dictated that we take the long way home.
Happy Friday indeed.

-wRider