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Tag Archives: Edelux

2014 Redux

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling, Northwest, Randonneuring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

100k, 200k, 650b, a. homer hilsen, acorn bags, ahh, bar tape, bicycle, bicycle commute, brevet, commute, compact double, compass, cyclemeter, Cycles Toussaint, cycling, cypres, diamond wrap, dynamo, dynamo lighting, Edelux, fenders, Gran Bois


An auspicious year for this family of horses, 2014 was pretty nice.  There were a few epiphanies, and a lot of riding.  I’m sitting around resting a nagging medial knee issue that has kept me off the bike for the past week or so.  I’ve been wanting to get out and do one last permanent to finish off the 2014 season, but better judgement is telling me to wait until the knee feels normal.  I know from past experience that the best way to heal is to go easy for a while.

Cycle Distance Stats-MonthlyWhile I didn’t do much more mileage this year, it was still a full year of riding with 3,111 miles (just over 5000 kms) so far.  Last year I did just over 3000 miles, as well.  I did most of my brevets early, with the organized rides over at the end of March.  That month was also my first 500-mile month.  I rode my first solo permanent in April, and did some Moab mountain biking over spring break.  July brought the Entmoot, and as usual, a lower amount of riding as I seem to slow down in the summer months.

cycling speed and distance aveI picked it back up in September, and peaked in November with a late season 200k permanent around Whidbey Island.  I am loving this island’s smooth hilly roads, and have a few more brevets and just general rides planned for the future.  My average speed has not budged in the past 3 years, so I may work on my fitness in the new year and see if I can’t bump that up with some interval training.  I am still hedging on the longer rides (over 300k) – I’m just not sure if I would enjoy them.  The Entmoot ride was an eye opener this year, and I feel like unorganized rambles have a special attraction with exploration and time for photos and camping with friends being great short vacations.  The planning and anxiety around an organized brevet sometimes feels like work.

BH-2.jpg

As for the mechanical side, I am slowly gaining more perspective and opinions on what works for me.  I really like the Cycles Toussaint experiment with low trail and plump 650b tires.  Tubeless has worked out well, too.  I appreciate the extra cush on the rides, and less worry about flatting.  I still enjoy the Hilsen’s ride with the 32mm Compass tires, too – they are almost as compliant with significantly less air volume.

I’ve come to feel that the 42cm Noodles are the right cockpit for me over the long distance.  I continue to enjoy the Selle Anatomica saddles, and Sidi shoes.  I am not bothered by having 7 or 8 speed cassettes, and index and friction both work, but on the longer rides, I appreciate the simplicity of indexing.  I have bar-end shifters on the Toussaint, and downtube shifters on the Hilsen, and both are set up indexed at this point.

BH-8.jpg

I really enjoy the centerpull brakes on both bikes, but the post-mounted Dia-Compes on the Toussaint have amazing modulation and easy setup.  I appreciate the simplicity of the older brake style.  I think a great project would be to have centerpull braze-ons added to the Hilsen, perhaps with a low-trail fork, S&S couplers, and Compass Mafac copies added.  Hmmm – perhaps when it’s ready for a re-paint, I can convert her over to 650b as well?  Probably a silly experiment better addressed by a custom.

If I were to have a custom built at this point, it would be a titanium or ultra-light steel tubed, low trail 650b all-purpose bike.  I really feel like this is a do-all, go anywhere bike.  The Rivs would remain my country and camping bikes, and the Toussaint would be backup brevet and city porteur bike.  It would be great to have a lugged Weigle, MAP, or Pereira.  Maybe a Bantam?  Still dreaming of good rides ahead…

48.009537 -122.525983

Hilsen Lighting v 2.0

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a. homer hilsen, Biologic, dynamo, dynamo lighting, Edelux, randonneur, Reecharge


ProfileCockpitFrom aboveWiring SideWaiting for a dynoLighting under the rack
Chainring Light BracketReecharge MountedPanda?WiringWiring Route Joining at the forkCable Routing
Under the bottom bracketAnd upAnd up to the lightAt lightReecharge WiringFrom the top
Another View

Hilsen Lighting v 2.0, a set on Flickr.

In my quest for light and power perfection, I added a charging setup, as well as a new mount for my headlight on my rando bike. The plan is to power it all via dynamo hub…

Via Flickr:
I added the BioLogic Reecharge adapter, and set up the light to mount under the rack so as not to interfere with the platform. This was about the only place I could fit a mount on the Mark’s Rack keeping the light under the rack bed.

Rack Mounting Variation

29 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

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Tags

a. homer hilsen, DIY, Edelux, front rack, Mark's Rack, nitto, platrack, porteur, rivendell, strut


Original PlatRack

This is a picture of how I had originally mounted my front Rivendell/Nitto PlatRack on my bike.  I have always liked having the larger platform of the Platrack on my AHH, but disliked the long struts that stretch down to the fender mounts by the axle.  I had removed the rack for the rando season a few months back, but have wanted to put it back on a few times, because it is so handy to have the extra load surface when commuting.

I have had an idea to do an alternate strut configuration rolling around in my head for the past few months, and finally decided to take action.

Multiple Bends Needed

After watching one of the Rivendell videos on mounting a rear rack where they bend the struts with a couple of good hammer whacks, I was inspired.  I bent and shortened the long struts to join at the mid fork braze-on where the other struts from the Mark’s Rack join.

Both Struts Now Attach Here

It is likely “not quite” as strong, and I’m sure it’s a warranty voider in Grant and Nitto’s eyes, but I don’t carry much more than 10 lbs on the front.  In any case, it feels solid as a rock to me.

View from the Front

Because of the imperfect hammer-bending technique I employed, I found that the fender line needed a bit of work after the first mount try.  I loosened up the strut screws where they met the Marks and Plat Racks, and try to cold bend it into the proper position to get better alignment and keep the whole assembly as non-stressed as I could make it.  I also took the opportunity to move the Edelux light to the hole that was off-center.  This will move it out of the line of spray if I’m in rain and there is water coming off the front of the tire.

Showing the New Top Bend

I’ve now ridden with this setup on numerous commutes and a 20 miler.  I also removed the saddlebag and went with just a front rando bag with the tools consolidated.  My Acorn is stable and rides on the rack well, even though it is a smaller footprint.  The bike has been stable for no-handed riding, and with less weight on the saddle, it seems to have less speed wobble with this setup.  I also feel like I get more active suspension from this setup, as it leaves the front fork’s lower half free of additional struts.

Final Shortened Bent Strut

If you have thought about trying something like this, I would encourage it.  It was a simple procedure that just required a mallet, hacksaw (for trimming the longer strut down to size), and some patience.  I basically eyeballed the bend on one side, and tried to do the second strut in the same angles.  It took a total of an hour or so to get what I wanted.

 

Building a Dynamo Wheel

28 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

dynamo lighting, Edelux, New SON 28 Hub, proper tension, rivendell, sheldon brown wheelbuilding, son 28, wire routing


I decided to document a recent wheel build to try to capture my thoughts while going through the process.  Ever since I bought my Rivendell in 2009, I planned to add a dynamo lighting system to it.  I experimented with one last year on a “winter” bike, and decided it was awesome for a number of reasons.  It takes all the thought and worry out of riding at night.  You will have a light, and it will not gradually fade out like battery systems.  With the modern German lights made by Busch & Muller or Schmidt Maschinenbau, the beam pattern is wide, bright, and generally much more usable than what I was used to with the round, unfocused beams on the battery lights I have used.

New Hub

I have built a couple mountain bike 26″ wheels in the past, so I felt like I needed the practice.  The front wheel is just a 2-3 hour job for me at this point, and the hardest part is getting the wheel laced up correctly.  In the end, this went pretty well – I just sat down in my office with the parts and a few books (Jobst, and Zinn), as well as the Sheldon Brown wheelbuilding web site.  I had used beeswax on the spokes in the past, but this time I went with linseed oil as was recommended by my local bike shop.  I lined up the wheel, and got all the spokes laced up with 5 or 6 turns of the nipples.

New SON 28 Freshly Laced

At this point, it was on to the Park truing stand for tensioning and truing:

In Stand and Ready

I used a Park Tensiometer to bring the spokes to a proper tension, and found that plucking them for tone was a great way for me to get them consistent.  The rim I used, a Velocity Synergy, is the same as the back wheel from my prior set.  I found it to be simple to lace.  It was also quite true once the spokes were tensioned up.  I didn’t have to do too much fiddling with this rim to get it right.

All Unwrapped and Freshly Mounted

Next up: mounting the Edelux light on the front of my Platrack.  I decided to mount it front and center keeping the light low to give good relief to the road irregularities.  I’ve read that most dynamo lights are designed to be at fork crown height for optimal beam.

Edelux

Here are a few pictures of the mount and wiring:

Showing the Light Mount

From the Bottom Showing Rear Wiring

Front Cable Run Along Rack

Joining Fork

Looped Once at Bottom and Connected to Hub

Rear Light Wiring at Front

Joining Frame Along Brake Cable

Routing on to Seat Stay

Down Inside of Stay

Routed Under Fender

... and Out to the Rear Light

The trickiest part was finding a way to route the “too short” rear wiring in a way that would work.  I used Shoe Goo to glue the wiring under the lip of the fender.  It worked out just fine, but I would have rather had an extra foot of wire so I could route it along the downtube and chainstay.  Ultimately, this setup works really well, albeit with a bit less tire clearance in the back 🙂  The lights are on whenever I need them, and I don’t have to worry about batteries.  The beam on the Edelux is wonderful, and easily as bright as any of the other lights I’ve used (Planet Bike 2 watt, EOS, B & M IQ Cyo).  Happy rides!

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