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Tag Archives: bike commute

Backup Bike

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bicycle, bike, bike commute, Miyata, Sealant, Stan's, Stumpjumper Pro, tubeless, Whidbey Island


Sometimes life throws you a lemon.  Don’t get me wrong – first world problem hit me today.  I’m chilling on Whidbey Island for the week, and my wife and daughter went back to the mainland for a cat feeding, and shopping expedition (the cat stays home in Seattle).  I wanted to ride to the local Ace Hardware to get a steelhead jig for shore fishing.  I planned on doing the ride with my Toussaint, but when I went to get it from the garage, I found the front tire nearly empty.  It appears that one of my rides to the beach brought it in contact with a shell shard that caused a slow leak.

Not Lemons...

Not Lemons…

These tires are in a tubeless config, but I haven’t added any sealant in about 8 months, and that seems to be too long (a friend refills every 6 months or so).  I pulled the shard and spun the wheel a bit after pumping them back up, so we’ll see if it holds, but I’m doubtful.  Lemons.

Needs more sealant

Needs more sealant

Did this stop my jaunt to Ace?  Hell no.  I just jumped on my backup bike!  I have my old Stumpjumper Pro from 1991, and the tires had air.  No fenders, but it is cold and clear with no water on the roads, so no worries.  I was out and back in less than an hour, and even felt that old early ’90’s rigid mountain bike feeling sensing even some of the same smells I remember from riding my first real MTB.  The brain is a weird organ.

I read a lot of folks talking about getting an “extra set of wheels” or a “different cockpit” for different kind of rides. In my experience, you can often pick up a whole bike to do what you want for the same price as the parts to rebuilt your existing frame into something else.

More time to see the barns!

More time to see the barns!

Having another bike gives you more time to ride.  There are less excuses needed.  I read a great statistical analysis of Seattle commuters using the Fremont Bridge route. One of the points was a look at how rain affects commuting (spoiler – it does).  If you had a backup bike, say like a “beater” that had fenders and tough tires, you would have less reason not to bike in the rain, right?

In my case, most all my bikes have fenders, but I find myself pulling my Miyata out for rain duty more often than my other, nicer bikes.  It still rides like a dream, and looks great with the hammered Honjo fenders, but I don’t mind if it gets soaked, muddy, put away wet, etc…

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Image

Pronto

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Tags

bike commute, bike share, commute, Pronto, Pronto bike share, Seattle bike share


BH-6.jpg

I tried out our new bike share service in Seattle.  It’s called Pronto, and has dropped a fair amount of bikes – 500 at 50 stations throughout the downtown, Capitol Hill, and U-District areas.  I noticed a station that’s about 2 miles from my home on my commute home last night, so after getting a ride in this morning, I opted to try Pronto for the commute home.  My expectations were that it would be a better substitute for a crowded bus ride home.

I purchased a 24-hr pass with a key for ten-bucks at the kiosk a couple blocks from my office.  I didn’t need to “rent” a helmet as I brought mine with.  After inserting the key in a station and waiting for something to happen, I thought my key was broken.  I tried another bike, and it unlocked right away.  I forgot my foolproof way to raise the seat to the proper height (seat in armpit raised until outstretched middle finger is at center of crank), so I ended up raising it a few times in the first few minutes.

BH-3.jpg

Starting up the new 2nd Ave bike lane, I weaved my way through the city taking the “flat” way home via south Lake Union, riding through the parking lots along the lakefront.  After crossing the Fremont bridge, I continued on the Burke Gilman trail along the north lakefront, and rode through the UW campus before dropping the bike off at the UD-01 station at Blakely and 24th.  Ironically, the first station I tried to lock my bike back into didn’t work, so I docked it in another one which accepted it immediately.  Some gremlins to work out?

My initial observations:

  1. The bike is small, so it would work really well for someone in the lower 5′ range.  I had to boost up my seat quite a bit to avoid the bent-knees, low power pedal stroke.  The bars felt really close, so I felt like I was riding a kid’s bike compared to what I’m used to.  That said, I generally ride a big bike in a fairly stretched out position, so most folks would feel that it is sized just fine.
  2. The bike is solid and sturdy, but not too heavy.
  3. It has a 7 speed range, and shifts are fast and solid.  Shifting to a lower gear is sudden, and I popped my foot off the pedal several times getting used to the shifting.  In the highest gear, I was traveling about 15-17mph on flats with normal cadence.  Not a speedster, but not bad.  I never used the lowest gears.
  4. It is really stiff, and the tires are of the sturdy type – great for folks up to 300lbs, at least.
  5. Fenders work – could use a flap, but adequate and appreciated for the few puddles I went through.
  6. Lights!  Didn’t really need to use them, but great that they are there.
  7. It has a skirt/kilt guard for the ladies and Scots!
  8. There is a small bungie and rack for a small bag or case.  I just carried my musette.  No problems if you have a bit of luggage.
  9. The seat was not great for someone of my size – too squishy, smallish, and angled for folks that are smaller.
  10. The cost structure is not yet ideal for someone who needs the bike for more than ½ hour.  Buying the day pass gave me unlimited rides up to 30-minutes, but anything over 30 minutes adds charges.  My 45 minute ride cost me an additional 2 bucks.

All gripes aside – these bikes are great for the casual tourist, or someone who wants to take the long way home like me on occasion.  I would also use this to get to a lunch spot that may be a bit too far for a walk.  Pretty nice to have an easy option to “rent a bike” and there are stations all over the place.  I could also see someone stuck on foot choosing this as a faster option.  It took me from downtown to the UW in about 45 minutes.

BH-5.jpg

It’s nice to have options when I don’t have my bike handy.  I will likely resort to this in the future.

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Initial Velo Routier Notes

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

4130, a. homer hilsen, B&M Luxos, bar-end shifters, Berthoud, bike commute, Boxy Rando, Cycles Toussaint, cypres, double butted, Gran Bois, Hetre, low-trail, nitto, noodles, planing, randonneur, Rawland, rene herse, rivendell, rSogn, shimmy, SPD, Velo Routier


BH-1.jpg

I’ve been riding the Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier for a few days – have about 50 miles on it so far.  I wanted to collect my thoughts as this is a new geometry and tire size for me.  As for the rest of it, it’s very similar in size, weight, and materials (steel) to my A. Homer Hilsen.  I’ve used a nearly identical build for the bikes, as well.  Both have Nitto Noodle 41cm bars wrapped in cotton tape, both have the Rene Herse cranks, and both are within a few millimeters of dimension for fit.  the main difference is the wheel size, tires, and geometry with the Velo Routier being a “low trail” and the Hilsen a “mid-trail” ride.  OK – getting to the gut reaction first.

BH-4.jpg

BH-1.jpg

The Hetres really smooth out the ride on my rather bumpy commute.  Although I’m on bike trails most of the time, my commute has a number of rough spots with roots pushing up the pavement on the trail, as well as general poor road maintenance in other spots.  The Hetres feel smoother as you would expect.  They have more air volume, and I have them pumped to 40psi rear, 30psi front.  Comparing this to the Cypres tires on the Hilsen at 65psi rear and 45psi front, it should be more forgiving.

BH-3.jpg

The bike feels just as fast.  This is gut, so I will watch my commute stats over a longer timeframe.  The first few rides are inconclusive as I’ve been more tired than usual. The ride times between bikes are within a few minutes out of an hour commute home.

BH-2.jpg

I can really feel the handling differences in the low-trail – and it is not as disruptive as some of the lit I’ve read.  The closest analogy I’ve heard is that “you steer with your bars” on the low-trail bike, whereas  on the Rivendells, you “steer with your hips”.  This seems accurate to me.  I can ride this bike no-handed.  It’s not easier to do this than the Rivendell – if anything it is just slightly more apt to wander around, but this may just be my lack of experience on this type of geometry.  The interesting part is the feel with a front load.  It is much more planted with a bag and a few pounds up front.  It also wanders less when going slow, and of course there is much less issue with wheel flop when the bike is stationary.  The ride feel is subjectively better with this setup for me.  I really like having a front rando bag for longer rides.  I can do nearly everything I need to do with all the gear within easy reach.  This all said, I was doing fine with the Hilsen and the front rando.  I just feel that the Toussaint “feels” more planted with this setup while riding.

BH-5.jpg

As I said earlier, the Hilsen and Velo Routier are set up proportionally identical for my fit.  Both bikes feel like a good steel bike should.  Solid, compliant, light enough.  Both are also beautiful in their own way.  The Hilsen will win this battle, but the Toussaint is very nice looking in white with stainless Berthoud fenders and subtle red/yellow decals.

BH-3.jpg

I haven’t had any shimmy issues with either bike.  The Velo Routier tracked like a steam engine on a 30+ mph descent, and I rode shimmy-free no-handed from 15-25 mph.  This seems to be the sweet spot for shimmy.  I know the tubing on the Toussaint is double-butted 4130, with  .9/.6/.9 top, seat, and down tubes on my size “large” frame.  The smaller sizes are .8/.5/.8.  This is not the “ultra-light” planing grade tubing that Jan Heine tends to like, and some of the Rawland bikes are built to, but I’ve ridden an rSogn, and it felt as stiff as this frame.  Perhaps I need more sensitivity training.  In any case, it rides really well, and I feel totally comfortable on this bike.  A longer test ride is due, and luckily this is all set and ready for the upcoming brevet season starting next week!

BH-7.jpg

Other comments on the build?  I had no problems getting the build done – there were no flukey gonzo issues like misalignments, or gummed up threads.  The hanger was straight, the fenders were already mounted, as were the brakes.  I ended up tightening up the fender alignment to match up the Hetres as it originally had 38mm Somas on it, but that was the biggest time suck.  I honestly had the thing built in a few hours, and I was taking my time.  It helped that I had a cockpit set up from a previous build – nice not to have to wrap the bars.  One note – I originally had SPD pedals, but put VP flats on it for the beginning of the season.  I want to try these on longer rides to see if I have a knee issue that bothered me last year with the clipless pedals.  I also migrated the 9-speed cassette and downtube shifters back to an 8-speed setup with bar-end shifters.  Oh, I also put the B&M Luxos dyno light on this bike for the season.

BH-10.jpg

One more item I forgot to add – I was very worried about what kind of front rack to use.  The center-pull Dia Compe 750 brakes leave very little room and the normal rando-standard Nitto Mini rack wouldn’t work.  Luckily, Cycles Toussaint has this figured out.  They have a special rack made just for this bike.  I exchanged emails (actually, blog comments) with Evan at Cycles Toussaint, and ordered it after I got the frame.   It arrived a few days later just in time for my build.  It fit perfectly with rear mounts that fit to the fork crown mounting screws.  The rack holds my Tall Boxy Rando bag from Acorn at just the right height – the top even with my bars.  Super happy with this.  It is also possible to saw the rear arms off, bend the lower support arms, and mount the rack to the fender at two points if you want a lower platform and a more “constructeur” touch as Evan did with his personal bike.

BH-7.jpg

Now it’s time to put some miles on this guy (and try not to forget my other bikes in the process).

GX7 Commute Challenge

17 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bike commute, commute, commuter, cycling, Hunqapillar, Olympus 45mm, Panasonic GX7, Seattle


BH-1.jpgBH-2.jpgBH-3.jpgBH-4.jpgBH-5.jpgBH-6.jpg
BH-7.jpgBH-8.jpgBH-9.jpgBH-10.jpgBH-11.jpgBH-12.jpg
BH-13.jpgBH-14.jpgBH-15.jpgBH-16.jpgBH-17.jpgBH-18.jpg
BH-19.jpgBH-20.jpgBH-21.jpgBH-22.jpgBH-23.jpgBH-24.jpg

GX7 Commute Challenge, a set on Flickr.

These are pictures from my 2nd day of testing the new Panasonic GX7. Today I used the Olympus 45mm lens, and stopped for a couple hundred pics. Needless to say it was a slow commute. Notes from the rides:

1. There are some really big propellers near the trail in the shipyards by the Ship Canal trail.
2. I finally saw the fire training area being used!
3. The harvest is happening – grain freighters have been loading at the terminal for the past two weeks.
4. I have a really beautiful commute! Must never move…

Enjoy!

Commuting Balance

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

200k, bicycle, bike commute, randonneur


I’ve got both of my regular bikes dialed in pretty well now, and have been trading them off for commute duty.  I am also thinking about the upcoming Rando season, and have been trying to get  in an occasional longer ride in on the weekends.  Timing with family duties has been tough, as always.  I find that I need to commute to get my “bike on”, and when I try to save energy for the weekend rides by not commuting, I start to get pretty miserable fast.  This must be a special condition built up over years of conversion to a bike commute, so when I don’t do it for a few days I start to go through withdrawal.

I’m not sure if others have this problem.  I get the feeling that most Randonneurs are more of the weekend warrior type that have a hopelessly long commute and just ride on the weekend.  I am quite sure that’s bunk, and there are folks all over the spectrum that have the rando kind of crazy.  Anyway, I’ve been doing about 150-250 miles/month in commutes, and have gradually started to take a longer, less crowded route to work.  I look at it as the “scenic route”, but also view it as “base miles” that I need to keep my fitness at to even attempt the longer rides.  I know that by doing this, I’ll be able to finish a 200k if I bring enough food/water, but I certainly won’t be in the top 20% time-wise without more dedication.

Do I want to dedicate the time to that?  Sure.  Eventually.  When my daughter wants to spend more time with her friends.  When the house projects are back to the single digits.  When work isn’t a primary focus for me?  You can see where this is going.  I think I’m a Randonneur like I’m a Fisherman.  For me, it’s an outlet, and I want it to be enjoyable.  That’s the plan…

Rando or Commuter?

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