Novel Ways to be Visible

I'm in the process of creating a list of ways to make
bicyclists more visible.
Aside from conventional headlights, blinking tail
lights and safety vests, what else is there?
Let me know and I'll add them to this list:

Reelight
Pedalite
Sweetskinz
Hokeyspokes

Along those same lines, I have an idea to create a
lighting device that makes cyclists
look larger than they already are.

In a brainstorming sort of way, I'd like to invent a device
that would project a halogram
of a semi truck around a cyclist.

Since that's not happening anytime soon, I'm trying to come
up with other ways to get that effect. 

Overheard in Traffic

The other day, while stopped at a traffic light on my bicycle, a guy pulled up next to me, pretty close, in a car and said, "Hey, you're not a car."

"I know," I answered in a matter-of-fact way.

Because he pulled up so close and I've heard the same comment from others in the past, I expected trouble. I turned to look at him and he said something else, although I couldn't understand it. So I asked him to repeat it. Asking a guy who just confronted you to repeat something is a sure way to escalate an already tense situation, but I truly did not understand him.

Most guys know about this. It's like when Joe Pesci plays a mobster and asks, "What are you lookin' at?"

But he didn't escalate. He asked me if I was one of those bikers who flip people the bird. I told him that I used to, but I stopped that a few years ago. I added that I don't think anything good comes from that. He smiled and nodded. His girlfriend laughed a little and they drove off as the light turned green.

I rode off too and thought about the little conversation for a long time. It's stuck with me although it really had no substance. Maybe it was that I expected something regrettable to happen and it did not. Was he ready to make trouble? Or was he just one of those guys who talks to everybody?

I don't know the answer, but the exhaust from his lowered '80s Maxima was dreadful.

The Fine Taste of Exhaust

My new commute takes me through much more auto traffic than my previous route. I used to ride a bike path along a creek that led to a bike path along the Mississippi River that led to a road ride through a few sleepy St. Paul neighborhoods. I rarely sat at stoplights and rarely sucked exhaust fumes.

My new route allows me plenty of chances to belly up to the smoke and fume bar. After a couple of weeks inhaling auto exhaust, I've developed a taste for it. I've grown fond of the taste of exhaust from old Camaros that need a ring jobs. And the taste of ethanol fumes is delicious. I look forward to a world where most cars are fueled by E85.

A rare treat is being stopped behind a diesel Golf running on waste vegetable oil. I think I'll carry two water bottles from now on. One will contain white wine and the other red. Then I'll have the perfect accompaniment for any flavor of exhaust. White goes with standard gas exhaust (better with a touch of burning oil) and red goes nicely with ethanol blends.

What goes with waste vegetable oil you ask? Beer, of course. That's where the big, dorky Carradice-style bags come in handy. I can easily haul a 4-pack of Guiness along for the ride. I think I should look into a handlebar bag though. That'll allow a quick-draw style of drinking while in traffic.

I think I'm developing the ability to tell how many miles are on a car based on the taste of the exhaust. Mmmmm.

Wrestling

Someone in my office is a real sicko. This miscreant arranged my little fake lego guys* in a way that makes them look like they're "wrestling." I describe it as wrestling, because there's a chance young, innocent eyes are reading my blog. I doubt those same eyes see the comments though.

This pose was struck a few months ago and I took a photo of it with my crappy cell phone camera back then. I just downloaded it today and thought some of you might find the sight of fake lego guys wrestling to be funny. I thought it was very funny, but my boss didn't. He fixed it right away. He's got a great sense of humor, but he doesn't want anyone to be offended around here. You never know how the other folks will view such wrestling poses.

* These are not real Lego guys. They are the knock-off brand Mega Blocks. While writing this entry, I couldn't remember the name of the fake ones so I googled for them. I found this link about fake legos. The fact that I found this entry while conducting a random search is pretty frickin' remarkable, because the guy who writes Primate Brow Flash is a prime suspect in the case of "Who posed the fake lego guys." Actually, I'm just about positive he's the one who did it.

Saturday's 100K Ride

I told myself that I needed to do a long ride in preparation for something or other. I stuck with it and rode 101K on Saturday. I started by doing the Hiawatha Cyclery ride. Only a handful of stalwart lads showed up for that.

Then I rode home to install a pair of chemical foot-warming devices. My feet were too cold during the HC ride and I knew without some assistance, my feet would not make it through a longer ride. The foot warmers worked perfectly. I never thought about my feet again until at the end of the ride I removed my shoes and found the warmers stuck to my socks.

I rode up the chain of lakes and out the Midtown Greenway to St. Louis Park. Then back on the Cedar Lake Trail. Each time I take this route, I enjoy the smell of the Ovaltine factory. The steam coming out of the pipe in the photo is a chocolatey emission from Ovaltine production. It's a bothersome smell if you're hungry. Actually, I'm not sure if it's Ovaltine. That's what I've heard.



I also saw some vandal art. It made me laugh. He's a friendly looking robot, don't you think?



I jumped onto Wirth Parkway and rode north to Victory Memorial Park Drive. They've repaved the bike path and it was excellent riding.




More sculpture. This is the Lumberman.

I continued east to the Mississippi River where I found the Port of Minneapolis.

Washington Avenue is lined by old, industrial buildings in vary states. This one was the most interesting.


I stopped at the Aster Cafe again. I like that place. It's a real cafe, not just a coffee shop.



The downwind side of the lakeshores are covered with ice sculptures.




I rode one extra lap around Lake Harriet to get my 100K.

My New Commute

My cue sheet worked for me, even in the early morning darkness.

I enjoy the new route. It reminds me of all the things I took for granted about my old, very scenic route. The new route is busy, lots of traffic lights, stop signs, cars, and pedestrians. My route takes me along Cedar Avenue to the West Bank area of Minneapolis. That's where part of the University of Minnesota is located.

The thoughtlessness of the pedestrians is only exceeded by the cab drivers.

I go north out of the U of M area via the 10th Avenue bridge. Somewhere along the line, it turns into 19th Avenue as it crosses the Mississippi River. I'll learn to accept the silly road name thing as soon as I have the ride directions ingrained in my brain so thoroughly that I don't think about them.

I then go east on Como Avenue. Before this route, I thought Como Avenue only existed in St. Paul. Then I zig zag across a few roads (29th Avenue, Larpenteur) and get on Industrial Blvd. It's not as scenic as West Mississippi River Road, but it looks better than my next road, Terminal Road. I got honked at while I was riding in the middle of the lane avoiding giant potholes on Terminal Road. It's located in an industrial park. I'm sure it's difficult to maintain a road that mainly carries semi trucks. I hope there's nothing prophetic about the name Terminal Road.

There's always a tasty smell in the air at the industrial park.


The new building I work in has a shower. The old place did not. I thought it would be difficult to give up the wash-cloth baths, I mean they are so personal. Well, the warm water coming from the shower head is pretty nice too. No photos of this part of the route.

I took the long way home last night and found the ice forming on a little tree. The tree is located on the east shore of Lake Calhoun. My toes felt the same.

New Place to Work

The company for whom I work, just moved locations. They were polite enough to tell me the new address. I tried to ride there on Sunday and it was a disaster.

I got lost in NE Minneapolis. The streets are crazy up there. In my part of Minneapolis, the avenues go north-south and the streets go east-west. In NE Minneapolis, the avenues go all directions. This sort of thing is an example of what threw me off.

I'm usually very good at meandering around on my bike and finding where I want to go. That didn't work yesterday. I was so lost, I started riding around to find a horizon that showed me the skyline of downtown. The clouds were low, but I found downtown and meandered my way back there and rode home. It took 2 1/2 hours and I only got close to my new workplace. My feet were very cold when I arrived home. My wife even began to worry, she said.

Today, I consulted a map, a little more thoroughly, and found a good looking route. I used it to get to work in my car. That's pathetic, yes.

Tomorrow, I'll roll right in with my cue sheet in hand. If I'm lucky the forecast for snow will come true.


On a related note, I installed new brakes one week ago. I rode them 6 days, mostly in the rain and the brake pads are worn out. Yesterday, they became ineffective even with all the slack taken out of the cables. When I arrived home, I inspected them closely and found they looked like someone pressed them against a belt sander. They were Shimano M pads that have a terrible reputation. I replaced them with Serfas pads. I hope they last a little longer. Brake pads are about $12 a pair and I don't want to replace them as often as I have been lately. The grit of wet conditions really eats them up.

Has anyone commuted with disk brakes enough to tell me if they are an improvement? I realize that installing disk brakes requires a new bike. But that never stopped me before.

"The purty tires don't look so nice now, do they boy?"
As you can see, the bike needs a bath. With wet conditions forecast all week, I'll wait until a sunny day arrives. That'll be soon enough.

Yoda

My seven-year old daughter was playing with a light saber a few minutes ago and asked me if I knew what Yoda looks like in the shower.

I admitted that I don't know and asked her why she wondered.

She told me all the girls love him because of his big muscles. I felt a little relieved given her answer.

Dirt Drops

I installed the dirt drop bars last Thursday night and rode them Friday and Saturday. That was enough riding for me to know I like them. I wish I could mount them on my 29er. I think that would be ideal. The wide hooks give me plently of power to control the bike, but I'm bent over enough to feel comfortable. When I get another 29er, I'll install dirt drops right away.

I'm also applying shellac over the cotton bar tape. I like the look of shellac. I've applied two coats and am going into the back yard in a minute to apply another. I'll post a photo of the completed bars.

The new stem the bars require uses the correct size bolt that allows me to use my Inoled light mount. This picture shows the setup. The Inoled bolt replaces one of the bolts used to hold the stem face on. It's a really slick arrangement that saves some room on the tops of my bars for my hands. That's why they call them handlebars. Next, I'll try to mount my white blinking LED light on my helmet. My bars will be clutter free.


This bike is starting to look good to me, at least. If this bike didn't have such an ugly saddle, I'd be tempted to put nice fenders on it.

Just What is Argyle?

Today's HC ride had a theme -- argyle.

Our ride leader took us to the Aster Cafe on the Mississippi River. If I'm not mistaken, this the St. Anthony Main area. I've also heard it called St. Anthony on Main. The streets are cobble stone and the area has a nice personality compared to a construction zone on Lake Street.


Our ride leader found his way through the fog. I could see about 20 feet ahead of me. Then I realized my glasses were covered with moisture. I took them off and then I could see about one block. People with better eyesight claimed there was no fog. I'm going to stop drinking Windex before rides.
Here's a quiz.

Q: Is this argyle?
A: No. This is the side of Ray's head, but he's wearing an argyle headband/do rag thing.



Q: Is this argyle?
A: No. This is Pete's foot. He wearing argyle socks though. He should consider a career change to footwear model. His ankle is quite fetching.



Q: Is this argyle?
A: No. This is my tie. It is not even an argyle pattern. It's merely plaid turned 90 degrees. I bought it at the Gap about 10 years ago. I should take it back. I wanted argyle.

Wikipedia has a little article on argyle. It says, "The argyle (occasionally argyll) pattern is one containing diamonds in a diagonal checkerboard arrangement. The word is sometimes used to refer to an individual diamond in the design but more commonly refers to the overall pattern. Most argyle layouts contain layers of overlapping motifs, adding a sense of three-dimensionality, movement, and texture. The over-lapped argyle design is claimed to be the oldest known attempt at three dimensional spacing in history.

The argyle pattern is said to have been derived from the tartan of Clan Campbell, of Argyll in western Scotland."

That explains my inability to previously recognize argyle -- I'm Welsh and we don't give a dam about fabric patterns. As long as it's cheap, I'm happy.

Rainy Day

I've always wanted a rain cover for my helmet. While preparing to leave work today, I realized I could make my own. I grabbed a plastic shopping bag, scissors, and packing tape. The result is what you see. It worked great and I had a good chance to test it.

The rain was a very light mist at the beginning of the ride and turned into a mild, soaking rain by the end. My head was dry. That was the only part though, as my wind pants have very little water resistance in them.

I received a call from Target Corporation. They want to pay for advertising.
I stopped at the Hub Coop on the way home also. They moved into the building next door and have much more room. Some of the funky factor is gone, but they made up for it with indoor parking for my bike.

I bought some new handlebars for my commuter (the one with the politcal sign fenders). The bars are dirt-drop style, but they were only $19.95.

Mr. Cheapo approves.

I'll try to install them in the next few days. I intended to put dirt drops on my 29er, but as you may know, that bike is gone. I bought some red cloth tape to go on the new bars. I'd like to shellac the tape also. I've never done that and it sounds like a fun project.

What Makes a Good Commuter Bike?

I think having two bikes ready to ride to work is a good idea. If one breaks, the other is ready to go. By "ready" I mean the bike must have the following abilities:

The bike must carry a bag big enough to hold my work clothes.
The bike must quickly accept at least a headlight and a tail light.
The bike must have fenders.
*

Those are the things I like. On the other hand, I have a friend who uses a messenger bag to carry things so he doesn't care what the bike holds. He believes in stealth riding. That is, he doesn't want to be seen and he slips through traffic like a ghost, or at least that's his explanation so he doesn't think lights are worth the effort. He likes fenders for wet conditions, but not all the time. It seems to work for him and he doesn't own a car.

What do you consider the minimum necessary to ride to work or use your bike as a practical machine?

*As soon as a lightweight, destructive laser beam is invented, I'll include that on the list also. I'd use it to blast joggers off of the bike paths.

Blogger Question

Do any of you know how to change the order in which posts appear?

Sometimes, I write a draft and don't publish it for a few days. Then I publish it and it gets stuck down in the list in chronological order. Obviously, I could cut and past the draft post to a new entry, but I'm hoping there's a simple way to change the order.

Dirty Chain Hell

During the winter, I broke a shifter cable on my blue commuter -- the one with the yellow fenders. I took it in to my spacious and luxurious workshop for repairs. I also found the rear wheel was grinding and difficult to turn with my hands.

I wanted to ride to work the next day, so I resurrected the bike that has the political yard signs for fenders. That was several weeks ago.

Today, I got around to starting the necessary repairs on the blue bike. The chain and cassette are orange with rust. I removed the chain, cassette, rear derailleur, and crank for a thorough cleaning. Here's the point of this post: I soaked the parts in Simple Green. I read a few years ago, that some riders believe Simple Green causes chains to break. I thought those guys were nuts. How could something like that cause a chain to break? I've used Simple Green since the early '90s and had no problems. I worked at a shop that used it for everything. I even brushed my teeth with it.

I followed all the links I could find by searching in the rec.bicycles. and alt.bicycles. usenet groups. This led me to the simple conclusion that if metal is allowed to soak in a bath of Simple Green it may weaken. I've never left parts to soak in the stuff.

Here's a link to a usenet discussion that sums up the Simple Green topic nicely.

Here's a link to a few Velonews tech letters that are helpful.

My conclusion is that it's fine to use Simple Green, but don't soak your parts in it and rinse them thoroughly after cleaning.

I did that today and my laundry tub is a big mess, but my bike parts are very clean. I've just about reassembled the bike. I plan to install some nice riding, supple, fatso tires and ride that baby again soon.

Question 1: What do you use to clean your chain and parts?

I'm taking suggestions for fat, supple, nice riding 559 tires. I'd like 32 to 40 millimeters, please.

And I made the part up about brushing my teeth with Simple Green.

Working at Home = Fat Guy

I'm not sure if working at home is a good idea. I made this bag of cashews disappear over the course of the afternoon. I even made a cabbage and cashew burrito with them.

Lunch Time Ride

I rode the Davidson 650B conversion. It's a nice riding bike.

I chose the airport ride. It's pretty quite at lunch time and I stopped to take some photos.

An old building at historic Ft. Snelling.




Those are parking garages they're building in the back. The power lines are for light rail trains. The photo was taken on the edge of the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. Everything in this photo is directly related to transportation.

A Post about 3-Speeds

I found a blog that includes scans of an old Sturmey Archer service manual.

Because I attended the 3-speed hub overhaul class this past weekend, I find the service manual really interesting.

I also rode a 3-speed bike to work today. We didn't have any ice so I didn't need the studded tires. It was a very nice ride today.

Stolen: My Redline 29"

Someone stole my Redline 29" Monocog Sunday afternoon from my open garage. It was special because I added a Shimano Nexus 8-speed hub and 170mm cranks to it.

Here it is.

Sunday Ride

I had a chance to ride on Sunday afternoon.

I first stopped at a coffee shop, because I missed yesterday's HC ride.



Last year, the city connected two trails and I'm still really pleased with the result shown in this photo. They connected the Midtown Greenway with the River Road bike path.



Blue sky.



Are they adding a little band shell at Lake Harriet?



You really should use fenders if you pull a trail-a-bike thingy, unless you like to hear your kid scream. This video doesn't really show it, but this kid is totally soaked with dirty water.

3-Speed Hub Overhaul Class

I spent my Saturday morning in a 3-speed hub overhaul class put on by Hiawatha Cyclery. Mark Stonich of Bikesmith Design taught the class. We took our hubs apart, inspected them, and reassembled them.

Mark has an encyclopedia of Sturmey Archer hub information in his head and shared lots of his knowledge with us.

For fun, I took a few photos of my hub. It's a Sturmey Archer AW made in 1966. It has 28 holes and I have a set of 700c rims that it will go with very soon. This will be the start of my new commuter bike.
Did you know that most of these hubs will accept two cogs? That gives me an idea.

Snowy Ride Video -- very boring

Here's a really boring video of a snowy ride a week ago or so.



I promise to only post interesting videos from now on or none at all. This was just a little experiment.

Video Test

This is a jumping exhibition I saw on Sunday at the Minneapolis Bike and Travel Fitness Expo (did I get the title right?).

Bicycling Law Quiz

A Minneapolis Star Tribune blogger posted a quiz about local bicycling laws. The comments are pretty predictable.

Take a look.

I posted all my immature thoughts.

Hey, St. Paul! We'll Store those Horses Here in Minneapolis.

This story made me laugh. The City of St. Paul wants to build stables for their police horses in the city. Currently, they transport the horses from a far-out suburb. Instead, they want to use Como Park (located in St. Paul), but the neighbors don't want it to happen.

I have a suggestion if they can't find a suitable location in St. Paul. Use one of the many closed libraries or schools in Minneapolis to store the horses. Minneapolis is much closer than any suburb. Maybe they could add a horse car on the light-rail connector route between St. Paul and Minneapolis. That would allow them to move the horses to St. Paul without wearing out their hooves.

A Snowy Day

We've had some snow around here over the last couple of days. I've spent some time walking and riding in it and I brought a camera.

Yesterday, I rode to Lake Harriet on the bike path. It was fun to ride along side the snow shoers and skiers. When I reached Lake Harriet, I couldn't go any further, because the path was drifted shut. I'm not sure this photo shows the drifts very well -- not enough contrast.


On Thursday, I walked to a coffee shop. Here's Chicago Avenue at about 50th Street.


During yesterday's ride, I paid attention to the slush building up in front of the front fender. As the tire rotates, it pulls a little snow out to the leading edge of the fender where it accumulates and rides on top of the tire. When I stopped it remained sitting there. During the ride, it grew and shrank, but it always hung on. The bike was full of interesting snow buildups. The brakes had snow fins on them like a 1950s era Cadillac.