Windy Wednesday

When I dropped the little dude off at the sitter's house this morning, the wind blew my skirt up around my neck so I knew I had to wear something else for the ride to the office. Thank goodness I have this trusty pair of jeggings. They aren't something I would wear to the office, but they are opaque, they roll up nicely and are easy to fit into my pocketbook. When I got to work I just swapped the jeggings (Cody calls them jights) for the skirt and strolled to my cubicle.

While the wardrobe switcheroo may have been simple, the actual commute was much more difficult. I had a nice westerly wind at my back for the ride into town. I felt like all I had to do was stay upright while the wind pushed me along. The ride home was a real challenge, though. That west wind that helped me so much this morning was the bane of my existence this evening, and I really had to fight to get home.  When I got here I was exhausted.

How a grocery run went wrong

Beautiful day today. Had a great commute. Tall boots over slim khakis with a bomber and a scarf. Easy peasy. I may have flashed my shapewear to passing motorists, but whatever.

When I got home Cody was working on our taxes, and I needed to run to the store for a baguette and some bananas. Since Cody was busy I loaded the little dude into the station wagon and drove over to the Hy-Vee. I'll just say here that it is not easy to wrangle a toddler at the store. My boy loves to stand up in the cart, touch things on the shelves and beg to be held so a quick run to get groceries can be exhausting.

When we finally got home I was trying to get the groceries out of the car while herding the boy into the house and so I was a little distracted when I slammed the trunk door straight down on my own head so hard I bit my tongue. I have a nice goose egg now and am in a terrible mood.

This never would have happened if I had just biked to the store. I'm not sure I'm confident enough to take the little dude on the bike by myself, but if I can save myself a goose egg it'll be worth it.

Winter Project: Ready to Ride

Booyah!  I finished restoring my 1980 Peugeot Course over the weekend.  By the way, I did some research on the bicycle's serial number and am now confident in the year of manufacture.

I received my new chain and bottom bracket on Thursday and pretty much immediately swapped out the ill-fitting bottom bracket and added and adjusted the chain.  I was much happier with the shorter axle length of the new bottom bracket.  With the drivetrain components in place, I ran cables and housing and adjusted the derailleurs.  The final touches included clamping on my brown leather Cardiff Cornwall saddle and wrapping the bars in matching brown bar tape.  Once it was finished, it looked pretty much exactly as I had envisioned it.

The bike rides very smoothly.  It's lightweight and comfortable.  And the frame is just the right size for me.  I'm getting some notable wobble in the front wheel, so I'll have to do some truing, but other than that, this machine is done.  I think I've just finished building my new daily commuter.

Let's talk gloves

It was pretty chilly and pretty windy on Friday so I chickened out on biking to work. I did take a walk to meet Cody for lunch, though, and came across another cyclist with the best idea. 

She was wearing some day-glo mittens.

I was so mesmerized by the sight of them that I didn't realize this cyclist is an acquaintance of mine. She later told me she was wearing some hunting mittens. This is so great for several reasons. Firstly, they're extremely practical because nobody will see you signaling your turns or merges into traffic if they can't see your hands.

Secondly, they're pretty inexpensive and easy to find. You may not be able to find them over at the Target, but you can find them at the local Bass Pro or probably Menard's and several places around the Information Superhighway. Like here:

These you can find for $13 at Sears.

These you can find for $12 at nulime.com

These you can get at Amazon for about $40.

And these you can get for $19 at starruniforms.com.

Way Better Than Trial-and-Error

I'm a little late getting around to this, but PedNet is offering a Bicycle Mechanics College program.  It looks like a good series of courses if you're interested in learning how to effectively work on bikes.  According to the PedNet calendar, the series started at the beginning of February and goes through early April.  The class is held on Tuesdays at 6pm at Walt's.  Although you can sign up for the entire 8-week series of courses, it would be pretty pointless to do that now since they're already several weeks in.  But you can still sign up for each class individually.

As of now, I can't really attest to how worthwhile this class is.  However, if I have time, and if Gina lets me show up without registering, I may try to sneak in next week to see what the class is like.

Spring hasn't sprung yet

It was gorgeous out today. Really, it was. But it was also windy, and spring hasn't quite sprung yet. After standing outside to take my picture, I decided it was just a little too blustery for a light trench, sheer dress and tights. So, I threw on a hoodie underneath the trench and subbed some boots for the ride and I was pretty comfortable. Also, this is the dress Cody gave me for Valentine's Day. I love it.

This is my haircut. Again.

I only went in for a trim. I told the stylist I was growing my hair out, but needed a slight trim and maybe a few layers to give it some shape. She turned me away from the mirror and when she turned me back around my hair looked exactly like it does in the above picture, except the bottom most layer was as long as it was when I walked into the salon.

It was a rat tail.

So I asked her to cut the tail off and now I'm stuck with the exact haircut I had when I decided to have long hair again. I spent a year growing this out.

I'm turning 30 this summer, and I had big plans to have long, sexy curls for my birthday. Now, I'll have awkward, in-between hair. If I haven't been crying over it, I've been pouting about it ever since I left the salon. It's a fine cut, but I wasn't prepared to lose so much hair.

I had just discovered some very cool, helmet-friendly easy updos that I was planning to share with you, too. Guess you'll have to wait another year for my hair to be long enough for it again.

So, it was with a heavy heart that I got ready for work today. I thought if I wore a brightly-colored miniskirt it would distract from my hair. It was roomy enough to bike in comfortably, and my opaque tights saved me from flashing any motorists. Also, it was another gorgeous day so my spirits were brightening by the time I got to work.

After work was another story. When I got out to my bike I realized my bike lock key was missing. I retraced my steps, but found it nowhere so I called Cody to come rescue me and loitered out by the bike rack. While I was chatting with another commuter I learned that someone turned in my key to our lost and found. The lady in charge of that poked around a couple of departments asking if anyone recognized it, but she never notified anyone in the department I work in, which is why I ended up getting a ride home.

Here's Cody rescuing me. He has said only nice things about my hair. I'm lucky to have him.

Rule #1 about biking in a dress...

One of the first things I learned about biking to work in a dress is this: Never wear a wrap dress. It's essentially a slit up to your waist, and any slit is bound to fly open without a moment's notice. There are a couple of ways to get around this. You can safety pin the the thing together, you can wear bike shorts or leggings underneath or you can wear a heavy coat that conceals any wardrobe malfunctions, like I did today.

Also, I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but it was an absolutely beautiful day today. On the way home I took my time, rode a little way off my regular route and enjoyed myself.

Winter Project: It Was a Productive Weekend

The Peugeot Course is starting to come together.  In fact, it's beginning to resemble a real, live bicycle.  A couple of weeks ago, I picked up some cheap Kenda 27" gumwall road tires, along with tubes and rim strips.  I put them on the mint condition aluminum Araya rims that came on the bike and bolted the wheels onto the frame.  I should mention here that Tom, the guy who gave me the bike, is obviously skilled at repacking hubs, as the wheels spun wonderfully and I was glad to not have to do it myself.  With the rear wheel on the bike, I was able to get a good look at how the chain rings lined up with the freewheel.  It was not good.  A really shitty chain line would've been in store for me.  This was just as I suspected, so I put in an order for a new bottom bracket with an appropriate axle length.  And that's the end of work on the drivetrain until I get my new bottom bracket in the mail.

Next, I put a stem and barset on the bike.  Because the frame is just a shade large for me, I decided on a very short stem that I had lying around The Tinkery.  The old bars were pretty beat up, and the brakes that came on them had suicide levers on the flats, which I absolutely hate.  So I bought some new-to-me drop bars from Klunk, along with a pair of beautiful, still-in-the-box, NOS Dia-Compe brake levers.  With these bolted/clamped on and the wheels back on the bike, I was pleased with the progress.  Oh, and I also stuffed the old seat post back into the frame, even though I'm considering buying a new seat post and clamp.

The next day, I was out in The Tinkery realigning the rear wheel of Ginger's Raleigh Sports.  The boy watched me do this, and when I was finished, he obviously decided I had done an inferior job.  So he snatched the 15mm wrench from my hand and went to work.  That's when I snapped this picture.

How great is that?  I can't wait until he's old enough to help me out with these projects for real.

It can't get better than today

Fifty-five degrees in February. Really.

If you don't like the weather, wait a day or two

It amazes me that in one week we can go from a commute like this:

To one like this:

Missouri weather, eh?

Cody and I did have an fun week, despite the rain and snow. For Valentine's Day Cody got me a new tripod and a springy dress I begged for. I got him an e-reader that he didn't beg for, but got anyway.

In other news, we are working on some fun-type stuff that you can join us on this spring. Details will be forthcoming.

Also, there are reports of adding Phase II of the Ash/Windsor Bike Boulevard, a $460,000 proposal that would include a bike boulevard from the MKT Trail to the Parkade Plaza. Exciting things are afoot for the Como bike community.

Cody's Reading List: Bicycle Repair and Maintenance

Maybe you're a weekend racer.  Or you have a hybrid leaning against the wall of your bedroom.  Or you're a  burgeoning bicycle restoration guru.  If you've got a bicycle, you can probably count on dropping some money into repair and maintenance at some point.  And you can definitely save some of that money by doing the work yourself.  This installment of Cody's Reading List will help you find the resources you need to get the job done.

Although there are some good references out there on the information superhighway, it doesn't get much better than learning from an experienced bicycle technician.  For me, that person was my father, who is quite adept at bicycle repair and maintenance.  He definitely showed me the ropes and taught me to take care of my bicycle.  But now that I have my own garage of bicycles to keep in good working order, I sometimes need some quick guides when I come across a problem that I haven't encountered before.  And phoning up my old man isn't always an option.

If you've ever done a Google search for anything related to bicycle repair, you've probably come across Hugh's Bicycle Blog.  This site can be a good resource if you are able to wade through several years of regular blog updates to find the information you need.  The guy seems to be pretty capable and takes on some pretty interesting projects.  What's more, the work that is included in his posts ranges from the most basic, here's-how-you-inflate-a-tire-with-a-pump tasks all the way up to intensive rebuilds.  There's one notable catch, and that would be Hugh's writing.  His posts can be pretty rife with grammar and spelling errors and he seems to have some sort of infatuation with improperly used hyphens and quotation marks.  But other than that, it's a good blog and I am a regular reader.

If you want a website that moves a little more toward an easy reference guide, Sheldon Brown's website is it.  Sadly, Sheldon passed away in 2008, but to this day, professional mechanics will still reference his site when recommending sources of information on bicycle repair.  This guy was a true expert on everything bicycle-related.  His site is fairly easy to navigate, with various subjects separated onto their own respective pages and the ability to browse or search the site.  His explanations are very straightforward and there's even some occasional humor thrown in.  The information on the site can get very technical, and includes lots of tables on sizing, threading, pitch, and other measurements for modern and older bikes, as well as now-defunct parts.  This is often particularly helpful for those of us who like to work on vintage and classic machines.  If you are at all interested in bicycle repair and maintenance, you must bookmark Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info.  No exceptions.

Lastly, there's the all-out quick reference guide option, brought to you by Park Tools.  The Park Tool Repair Help site is probably the most comprehensive and easy to use bicycle repair site out there.  You simply highlight the area of the bicycle diagram that you're interested in and click.  You're then given an extensive list of common repair and maintenance how-to guides.  The individual articles are step-by-step procedures and there are clear pictures and diagrams that accompany nearly each step, almost like a set of instructions.  For common issues related to bicycle repair and maintenance, this site is indispensable, and I used it quite regularly as I was learning some of the more advanced repairs.

Speaking of Park Tools, I should also mention that I received the Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair for Christmas last year.  I haven't had a chance to crack the cover yet, but if it's anything like their repair website, you can bet that it's pretty much invaluable.

This is the day I biked in a snowstorm

I've said it many times, I do not bike in the rain. It's just too messy.

But how bad could biking in the snow be? Turns out it's not that bad. It wasn't that cold this morning, and with a pair of sunglasses to shield my eyes and makeup from the precipitation, it wasn't what I expected. When I got to the office I felt great and grabbed another one of my kind and photographically gifted coworkers and begged him to take my picture.

So I trotted into the office, changed from boots to ballet flats and got to work. After a while I looked over at my boots and saw this.

Gross, right? That's what I thought, too. But I suppose it's understandable considering my lack of fenders and the wet road conditions. At least the boots protected my pants from road goo.

My pocketbook wasn't so lucky.

Again, ick, but not so terrible. It's a leather bag and an easy cleanup.

And then I looked at my coat.

And I remembered why I don't bike when it's precipitating. It's going to take forever to get this shit off of my coat.

And look at my poor bike. This cleanup might even take longer.

In other, happier news we have added some additional items to the shop, per some requests. There is now a messenger-style bag that actually appears to be in stock, some glassware and also some black shirts. Cheers!

Stringer Fleet: 1972 Raleigh Sports

 

The current crown jewel of our garage has got to be Ginger's 1972 Raleigh Sports.  The Sports was a hugely popular and superbly well-made bicycle.  Many of these bikes survive today and so when Ginger expressed an interest in a roadster- or cruiser-style bicycle that would provide her with a more upright riding position than her road bike, I had no problem finding an old Sports for sale.  I picked up this particular bike in small town outside of Kansas City.  It hadn't been ridden in many years and had been living in a chicken coop; and was therefore understandably covered in bird shit.  I brought the bike home and started taking it apart and cleaning it up.  I snapped this picture when I was nearly finished with the breakdown - I decided to overhaul the headset as a kind of afterthought so the fork is still attached in this picture, and I also had some trouble getting one of the cotter pins out, so the crankset didn't come off until a few days later.

I cleaned and degreased everything that was to go back on the bike and then took a trip to my LBS for the parts that were not.  New parts that went on this bike included a Brooks Flyer saddle, leather grips, nickel-plated chain, rubber and tubes, and of course cables and housing.  Other minor additions included new cotter pins and a new shift housing stop.  Usually I try to do all the work for these rebuilds myself, but since I was reusing the old cotter cranks, I had to have the guys at Klunk press the cotter pins into place with a specialized cotter press.  In the end the bike came together beautifully and I was - and still am - very pleased with how it looked.

Since the above photo was taken, I've added a small basket to the handlebars on my wife's orders.  I was hesitant to do this, as I thought it might detract from the elegance of the bicycle.  But instead, it really added a nice touch.

Here are a few random thoughts on this bike.  The old Brooks mattress saddle that came on the bike when I bought it was probably perfectly comfortable, but nothing beats that beautiful honey-colored Flyer.  This particular machine was manufactured in Malaysia (or at least the frame was).  Initially this was a concern for me, as I thought I had maybe paid too much for an inferior bike.  But after some research, I've discovered that these bikes were built to last and are every bit as mechanically sound as the Nottingham-made machines.  I do, however, have one issue with this bike, and that is with the old Sturmey-Archer 3-speed rear hub.  The integrated freewheel is a bit of a nuisance and does not turn freely at all.  I've heard that this is an unavoidable and common problem with these old hubs, but it's a problem nonetheless.  Other than that, this bike is proving to be a real beauty and a true workhorse for Ginger's daily commute.

No, That Is Not a 27 Inch Bike

I spend a fair amount of time sifting through the 'Bicycles For Sale' section of Craigslist looking for potential projects, bike parts, and accessories on the cheap.  I've noticed that a lot of sellers will include information on the "size" of the bicycle.  It usually says something like this:  "For sale is a 27" road bike..." and so on and so forth.  And when I look at the accompanying image, it looks like a perfectly average size bicycle.  The problem is that this is what a 27" bicycle looks like:

That's a ridiculously huge bike frame.  I wasn't even able to find a frame size chart that went to 27", but if you extrapolate from the chart here, a rider requiring a 27" frame (or approximately 68 cm) would be approaching 7 feet tall.

So when someone says they have a 27" bike, where are they getting this number?  This is most likely the wheel size of the bicycle.  Older road bikes were commonly equipped with 27" wheels, while modern road bikes normally have 700C rims and mountain bikes have 26" wheels - or sometimes 29" or 650B.  And if this is not the correct way to describe the size of a bicycle, what is the correct way?  The generally accepted frame size measurement is the seat tube length.  To do this correctly, the measurement should start at the top of the seat tube where it intersects with the centerline of the top tube, and should end at the center of the bottom bracket.  For more information on bicycle sizing, check out Sheldon Brown's thorough discussion of the subject.

As one might imagine, the best way to determine whether or not a bike is a good fit is to take it for a test ride.  This is especially true since you most assuredly can't count on Craigslist sellers to provide you with an accurate frame size.

It all started when I broke my tripod

A few weeks ago I broke my tripod. It was a cheap little thing, and it endured a lot of abuse so I can't say I was surprised when it bit the dust.

Instead of just going out and buying a new one I've been planning my outfits ahead of time and forcing Cody to take my picture on Sunday afternoons. It's worked out fine, but last weekend I found myself uninspired.  The outfit I planned for today featured this really cool scarf I found on Pinterest and made on Saturday, some black lightweight pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt and heels.

Temperatures hovered around  freezing today so I knew I had to wear some heavier fabrics. The lightweight pants and t-shirt got swapped for some lined wool trousers and a sweater over a different t-shirt. I kept the scarf, though, because I'm proud of it.

The heels are another, more complicated story. Last week, while wearing my favorite BCBG pumps in the driveway, I stepped just the wrong way, rolled my foot and did something awful to my left big toe. It hurts to put any weight on it, but yesterday I thought I'd just walk on the outside of my foot and wear heels anyway. Bad idea. I only succeeded in walking weirdly and hurting my ankle. So the heels got swapped for flats.

The heels are going to stay in the closet until my toe and ankle feel all the way better, which means all my pants will be slightly too long.

All that to say that the outfit picture Cody took of me on Sunday didn't at all match how I really looked today so when I got to work I grabbed a coworker who happened to arrive at the office at the same time as I did, shoved my cell phone into his hands and begged him to take my picture, all while thanking my lucky stars he is both a professional photographer, and also kind. Thanks, Ryan!

Who can bike to work in February? You can!

It was six kinds of foggy outside this morning. The weatherman said there was about a mile of visibility  so I wasn't about to take a chance with an all-dark outfit. For the trip in I wore a bright pink fleece over this getup and a layer of leggings underneath because it was only about 32 degrees outside. It was much more beautiful for the ride home so I skipped the extra layers. 

Cody's Reading List: I Need to Meet This Guy

Okay, so here's the plan:  I'm going to occasionally post links to other blogs, websites, books, etc. that I recommend for anyone who might be interested in vintage bikes, bicycle repair and maintenance, or whatever.  The idea is to lump similar resources into a single post and sort of compare them.  So, for example, I might have a post on vintage bicycle restoration in which I'd share links to several blogs and discuss what I like or possibly dislike about each one, and why you should consider following each link and checking them out.

For my first "Cody's Reading List", though, I'm not going to do that.  In this installment, I'm going to focus on only one blog:  Vintage Bicycle.  Because the author of this blog is just in a league of his own.  To lump this guy in with any other half-ass vintage bike blog out there would be to undermine just how awesome his blog is.

Before I go any further, I should mention a couple of trivial things that I dislike about this blog.  First off, and perhaps most importantly, is the page layout.  The dude takes great photos and is kind enough to post them at high resolution on the site, but the page is laid out in such a way that the images fall across the sidebar and off the right side of the page (without altering the browser zoom).  A little nitpicky, I know, but it's a bit annoying.  The second problem - if you could call it that - is the pace of updates.  When I really like a blog, I want it to be updated at least 2-3 times a week.  Just looking over the past few posts, this blog seems to be updated more like once a week.  Not too bad a pace, but I'd love to see more.

Now on to the good stuff.  As best I can tell, the author lives in the UK and has a particular interest in vintage British and French touring bicycles.  He also has a number of posts that focus on pre-war era roadsters, safety bicycles, and velocipedes.  The old roadsters in particular are really quite amazing and he does a great job of restoring them.  He also posted this update recently, which he filed under the category 'cycling curiosities,' about the Wall of Death with bicycles.  But really it's his restoration work that I just can't get over.  It's uncanny and his machines are true pieces of art.  I hope he keeps the updates coming for a good long while, because this is one of my favorite blogs out there.  And with only one post a week, I definitely start jonesing for a new one after a day or two.

Update (February 12, 2012):  I ended up emailing the author of Vintage Bicycle (his name is Tim and he lives outside of London) to let him know that his blog was the subject of a post here.  And also to just get in contact with the guy since I was so impressed with him.  Well, after some brief back-and-forth emailing last week, I am no less impressed.  He was really appreciative of my feedback and was a super-nice dude.  In fact, he took my critique of his blog format so seriously that he experimented with a new format that would stop his hi-res images from bleeding over into his sidebar.  He emailed me this afternoon to let me know that the changes have been made, and I've got to say, the new format is damn fine.  So there you go:  a badass blog that is authored by an equally badass dude.  I'm really looking forward to a continued dialogue with Tim and hope that someday we can have a beer and/or go for a ride together.

Winter Project: Starting the Rebuild

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on an early-80s era (possibly late 70s?) Peugeot Course road bike over the winter.  I hope to have a fully functional machine by spring, and my intention is to use the winter to find good deals and sales on the parts that I need so that the build will be relatively inexpensive.  My first order of business was to trash the old Motobecane center-pull brakes that had been added by the previous owner.  These were replaced with a pair of inexpensive Nashbar long reach road brakes.  I've always been a little wary of Nashbar products, as I've heard a number of horror stories from friends, but I have to admit that I've never had bad luck with any of their house products.  And at $29.99 plus shipping for the brakeset with all necessary hardware, including shoes and pads, I just couldn't pass these up.  I had to do some drilling on the frame to open up the brake mounts to make these fit - evidently modern road brake mounts are a bit different than they were 30 years ago - but within minutes I had the new brakes on the bike.

Next, I took a trip to my LBS, where I picked up some new headset bearings and a bottom bracket.  Interestingly, when I took the headset apart last fall, I found that the top bearings were caged while the bottom bearings were loose - or maybe vice versa.  I decided to go ahead and replace both sets of bearings with brand new caged bearings.  With the headset and front fork installed, I moved on to the bottom bracket.  A little elbow grease was required to get the cartridge bottom bracket threaded into the shell, but once in place, getting the original Peugeot cranks bolted on was a snap.

This was the point at which I ran into my first major problem:  it would appear as though the taper on the old BB axle is not the modern JIS square taper.  Because of this, the cranks did not slide as far up onto the new axle as I had expected and I'm worried that I'll be left with a really poor chainline once I get the rest of the bike put together.  As for now, though, I'm going to go ahead and leave the bottom bracket alone until I know for sure that it won't work.

I should also mention that I purchased a new saddle for the bike.  It's a Cardiff Cornwall in tannic brown.  I picked it up online for a fraction of what I would've paid for a Brooks, but I've read that the quality is notably poorer than even the bottom-of-the-line Brooks saddles.  Once I get the saddle on the bike and put a few miles on it, I'll address this a little more thoroughly.

Shop like a Stringer

"This is rad," Cody says.

We have opened our very own CafePress shop so you too can own an 'I Bike CoMo' shirt, tank, bag or even a coffee mug .

Cody got the men's fitted t-shirt in small, and I got the juniors jersey t-shirt in large. We also got one tote bag, but it appears that we will be fighting over who gets to use it most because we both love it.

We are very pleased with the quality and the fit of our shirts so far, but if we notice any problems with shrinkage or any other issues we'll let you (and CafePress) know.

We will make a tiny little profit from the sale of these things, and we'll use the proceeds to join PedNet. Anything beyond that and we'll probably start buying memberships for some of you! Pretty rad, right?

Don't see exactly what you're looking for? Drop us a note. We can add just about anything you want to the shop.

The cycling cape

I made a cape over the weekend. It's a simple circle thing with a lining, a collar, some holes for my hands and a hook closure covered up by a brooch. We took these photos right after I finished it.

My husband says, "It's a little decorative for me," which means he hates it.

I'm not totally certain about it either. I like it in theory -- especially when paired with the elbow-length leather gloves, but I might have to work up to wearing it in real life.

I'll keep you posted.