Sputnik Hub Coming in for a Landing?!

Sputnik Hub as she sits today.

In a previous post about trying to take apart a flip-flop wheel for sew-up tires, I tell of my foolishly conjuring up a disaster hub. I called it my Sputnik hub, because after removing the nipples and the rim I couldn't remove the spokes! They were jammed in by the freewheel and fixed cog.

Above is a photo of our friend, Kian, holding the monster Sputnik hub I had conjured up. He and his sister got quite the giggle out of my absurd misfortune!

Goofy me, I'd had a hard time removing the freewheel and fixed cog, so I preceded with spoke removal without finishing that step.

Oops. That meant that once I'd removed the tire and rim, I no longer had any leverage for removing the freewheel and fixed cog. When I last left this story I was headed off to a local bike shop. That was about nine months ago.

The bike shop guy told me I was out of luck. He also told me he only worked there once per week, and if I hung around for a while the owner would be back soon. The owner, he said, was much more experienced.

But alas, the experienced owner said I should resolve myself to the fact that I had a very beautiful paperweight. Nothing to be done but accept the lesson learned. Grrrrrr.

So, I've been ruminating on this for some time, and last night while watching Apolo Anton Ohno win his final Olympic medal (I used to get my hair cut at his Dad's hairdressing shop!) in my basement bicycle lair I hit upon it! I brought out my VAR vintage axle vise (VAR is a venerated French bicycle and motorcycle tool maker), and clamped in Sputnik.

Venerable VAR #117, Axle Vise

With a chain whip and freewheel remover, I was able to get leverage on the fixed cog so I could remove the freewheel. Voilà!

The photo at the top of the post is where I stand today. I can imagine ways to remove the cog somewhat violently that will leave my hub intact now, but I'm not giving up. I believe I can yet remove the cog with both the hub and cog intact if I can just get the right leverage.

Stay tuned: restored hub and fixed cog OR paperweight?

Keep it venerable,

CurioRando

Sunny Sunday Ride!

Rock bottom testing along the Green River.

Green River from the bridge. Hello Steelhead!

Tickle battle.

Tickle Truce.

Newly re-forked Fuji.

Keep it on the sunny side of the street,

Curiorando

Reforked Fuji

Newly reforked Fuji. Had to get the fork crown race seat ground to accept the headset crown race diameter. Boy, the cycling dimensions sure are squirrely, aren't they? Nice to have an appropriate fork remounted!

unabashedly

the wheels run round
and the world unfurls
new energy is found
from muscles and whirls


why don't bicycles
unabashedly  
earnestly
abound?






amid squirrels that chatter
the wind sweeps away strife
old priorities scatter
on wheels a new life


ought not bicycles
unabashedly 
seriously
matter?






down hills with great glee
uphill sweat soaking shirt
once more learning to see
that all growth starts with hurt


don't bicycles
unabashedly
teach us
to be?






we are challenging old forms
while some still charading
creating new storms
yet environment degrading


can't bicycling
unabashedly
model
new norms?






i'm cycling through time
and realizing i'm changing
can i help ring the chime
for priority rearranging?


on bicycles
can't we  
unabashedly
climb?






in the end it's the feeling
of our hard-pounding hearts
at our community's reeling
we can each do our part


doesn't bicycling
unabashedly 
help us 
with healing?

A Beautiful Spring Brevet...Except it Wasn't a Brevet or Nearly Spring!

Due to Dr. Codfish's invitation to ride the 0749 Lacey-Adna-Capital Forest-Lacey Permanent on what turned out to be a great weather day, ten or so of us rode what felt like a beautiful Spring brevet.

Crows seem to be following me lately, so the giant one above was a little disconcerting, but otherwise we just had fun, fun, fun. At least that's what I heard from folks.

For me, I pushed it harder and faster than ever before on a 200k. I joined up with faster riders, and it felt great!

We encountered this large heard of elk crossing the road near the Centralia Steam Plant. Maybe 75+ Elk altogether crossed the road while we watched. Quite a scene. One didn't cross. He/she got spooked and instead galloped rather frantically on a course parallel to ours for nearly five full minutes.

The Centralia Steam Plant, a Permanent 0749 landmark of sorts.

Here is a pic of me with a paper clip replacing my sunglasses screw and half of Josh's head. Try as I might I couldn't seem to get a good pic of the two of us. Sorry Josh. It took Josh to figure out that a paper clip might work. I was too trashed from hanging on to his and Rick's wheels to think straight enough to come up with a solution. Thanks for the repair idea and execution, Josh!

For a ride report that better captures the feel I think we all had, check out Doctor Codfish's ride report. He really captured this surprisingly fabulous day.

For me, it was all about riding harder and faster while feeling stronger and injury-free. A great combination and it's still only February. Come on, Spring!

Much thanks goes to Dr. C for inviting, cajoling, organizing and staying patient in the lead-up to this ride. You gave us Spring-bustin' out randonneurs a great gift, Dr. C!

Much thanks also to Narayan Krishnamoorthy for his patience and keeping us organized and legit. We appreciate all the volunteer efforts of Narayan and Geoff that make our permanent randonneuring possible!

Keep it with a spring in your cadence,

CurioRando

Needed: Calls/Emails to Make Cycling Safer!

I posted a little while back about the effort in Washington State to win Vulnerable User legislation to encourage automobile drivers to be more responsible around vulnerable users such as cyclists, tractor drivers, et al.

Well, Good News! The bill has passed out of committee, but it needs your help. Especially if you live outside of the Puget Sound area, your voice will matter a great deal (Puget Sound folks, please weigh in too!).

See the notice I received today from the Cascade Bicycle Club updating me on the progress of the bill, THANKS for taking action!

Thank you for sending a message to your legislator in favor of the Vulnerable User Bill! Your voice, along with 2,200 others, are part of what will make Washington's roads safer for everyone.



The bill squeaked through the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 5-3 vote last Friday afternoon. You can read more on the Bike Blog here.


We will still need the help of more Washingtonians outside Cascade's traditional service area to pass the bill through the Senate, since legislators are hearing from so many people in the Puget Sound Region. For example, some legislators around Lake Washington have received 200 or 300 of your messages, while some east of the mountains have only received one.


Please continue to educate your friends about the bill, and send them to our updated Action Page to send a message. Once again, your help is crucial to passing the Vulnerable User Bill.

The pic above is of three activists with compelling stories to tell, but who didn't get heard at the committee. If you have a story, please do contact your legislator for sure, and hook ukp with Cascade to help them make the most of your story. In my experience, stories for legislators matter.

Pass it along!


Keep it civilly active,

CurioRando

On the Trail of a Fork...I Found One for the Perfect Trail!

About a year and a half ago I rammed my 35 year old Fuji into a tree and cracked the joint between my front fork and the dropout. I wasn't riding the bike; the bike was riding on the roof of our Explorer as we were pulling up to our little cabin on a forested mountainside. A low-hanging, and evidently stubborn, pine bough met the bike. Crunch and ouch!

I took the Fuji into Elliott Bay Bicycles and Bill Davidson pronounced my fork dead on arrival. He said that the original builder hadn't fed much meat from the dropout into the fork end, so it was inherently weak. Couldn't be fixed, so they ordered a generic replacement fork.

I'm always bummed when I look at it. It is a reminder of my carelessness, but also: the replacement fork is raked differently. The Fuji now has more trail than the way it was built, even though I now ride the bike with a handlebar bag. At the time, they encouraged me to look in the used parts bike shops for a replacement, but with an implied "and good luck" because the steering tube is exceedingly long and rare. (It's not that I'm so tall at 6 feet, but I originally bought too large a bicycle.) I did an initial search with--as expected--no luck.

So imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a near exact twin while pawing through used derailleur bins! The fork on the left above is my oldie. If you look closely--it is near impossible to discern unless in person--you can detect that the "new" fork is stouter. The fork rake is different too. Same overall amount of offset, but the arc of the curve is different. The crowns are also different, and the paint that remains is slightly darker. The chief thing is that it will restore the original trail of the bike.

As I've posted previously here and here, I am having a new randonneuring bicycle built up, so this old Fuji will be my backup. So what does it matter if she is equipped with an generic fork or original equipment? It's probably a good deal about sentiment. I do feel as if I'm at least partly restoring her back to what she represents: a solid Japanese bicycle imported into the U.S. for sale on a college campus at a time when bicycling began to capture the imagination of Americans again. And of course, she is also the bicycle upon which I've toured, commuted and first tasted randonneuring. As we all know and I said here, our bicycles are much more than the sum of their parts.

Not a bad tradeoff for a $10 bargain sitting around a used parts room.


Keep it on the lookout!

CurioRando

Casting Shadows Again, Hot Diggity...

Dog Diggity!

Dartre and I took the 15 minute ferry ride over to Vashon Island for a 40 mile tour and the sun came out, and all the world took on a happier face. It felt glorious to have the sun on our backs and to be casting shadows once more! But wait, could this be foreshadowing six more weeks of Winter per that rough-furred little rodent? We'll see.

What follows is our photo collage from a January 31 Winter day of cycling. Be prepared though. There are plenty pics of us posing. We just couldn't get enough of that sunshine.

See the bicycle in the bottom right corner of the building? Does it get covered in saltwater when the tide comes in, or does that floating building still float?

Dartre didn't get enough miles in on our planned ride so she knocked off another 10 miles on the stationary bike at the Vashon Island Gym!

If you're unfamiliar with Lutefisk, check it out here.

The shrine of the ancient bicycle. When I grabbed the handlebars for a photo I got a big shock...as in electrical shock. Is it possible that the tree stored electricity that got passed through the metal bars into my bare hands since I had metal cleats on, or...?

Our good friend the setting Sun is reflected in the ferry's wake as we headed home.

Keep it sunny,

CurioRando

Ooh My, What Lovely Scalenes You Have!

Well those may not have been my physical therapist's exact words, but she was impressed with my scalenes. Well frankly, who wouldn't be, right?

She told me my scalenes were highly toned, even waxed on to say my scalenes might be the most well-developed scalenes she's ever seen! Concerned she might swoon, I offered her a seat on the PT table. She declined.

But come on now, my neck muscles? I would  love to hear about my highly developed hammys (I wish!) or my quads (Nope) or even my calves (uh uh), but no such luck in the actually-making-a-bicycle-travel-forward muscular department.

My physical therapist (she's actually the substitute PT, so what does she know anyway?) hypothesized that it might be that cycling and keeping my head up is what has sculpted (my word, not hers) my lovely scalenes. My wife (DartreDame when she posts here) postulated a different idea. She claims that when I am stressed out or put on my stubborn pants, that I "set" my jaw in that certain way, and that it requires lovely scalenes for proper "jaw setting".

The only consolation I have drawn from this is that at least I now know that with proper training (holding my head up or stressing out) I do have the ability to tone my muscles. That is news, and from that I will draw hope that even my muscles are potentially toneable.

When I was about eight years old or so, my older brother started a gym club in our basement. From a few Weider weights, a whole bunch of muscle mags, "Willie's Gym" tee-shirts, and a healthy dose of imagination my brother launched his endeavor. But to give you a sense of our family genes, my brother drew a picture of an arm attempting to flex its bicep right under the words "Willie's Gym". The bicep, however, was completely flat and the tricep drooped down pathetically, the antithesis of a sculpted arm.

We were building our "mushles" we claimed. We had enough self awareness, even then, to know we'd never be mesomorphs, so like ectomorphs the world over we tried to make up for our wimpiness with wit of the self-deprecating kind.

But at least I have muscles to be admired, and I don't even have to take off my clothes. Just get those scalenes in the right light and with a little jaw flexing I'll be admired by all those with discriminating tastes in muscular elegance.

As for my substitute PT, she is a good one. As with my regular PT, I gain a great deal of knowledge and...well challenging exercises. Everything but neck exercises. Come to think of it, if I extrapolate from all the body parts for which my regular and substitute PTs design exercises...let's see now...yes, my neck is the ONLY muscle they haven't tried to improve! And as for my butt...my regular PT tells me repeatedly that my butt is underdeveloped. Great! Underdeveloped butt, and overdeveloped neck. Sheez!

Pictures courtesy of Wiki. The lower pic actually features the scalenes in red. But according to Substitute PT, my scalenes are even better than the Wiki guy's!

Keep it sculpted,

CurioRando

Paris Brest Paris 2011 Website!

I knew there was a brochure for PBP 2011, but I didn't know the website was up. There's more there than in the brochure, so check it out: Paris Brest Paris 2011!

Keep it much anticipated,

CurioRando+