Smooth Fatties

I really like my Panaracer Rampages on the Juice. Cushy, nice and grippy especially in the snow and slush we've been tolerating lately.

However, I might want to take that sucker out on the road. Knobbies just won't cut it there. So, I invested in a couple of 'smooth fatties'...Schwalbe Big Apples. These are 29 x 2.35, same size as the Rampages, but a lot smoother. No knobbies, but there is some tread. It's a similar pattern to the Marathons on the Ramby, just a lot wider.

I'm anxious to check out how these work on the pavement, and I'm planning on running the Juice up and down the Wabash a few times. Should be a nice, cushy ride!

-Dwight

Bom Bom Bom, Bom Bom Badil!

Patrick sent me a whole pile of Bombadil pics!

Here's a nice downtube shot, including the decal

Front headtube view

A rear view shot, complete with seat bag. I don't think the bike's laying on its side! I can also make out the familiar tread profile of Schwalbe rubber.

Sigg water bottle with a nice bottle cage

The whole enchilada! Niiiiiice!

Patrick was also good enough to include a list of tasty bits...

Build list:
Nitto s83 post
NItto Technomic Deluxe stem
Nitto Noodle bars
Shimano Dura-ace 9speed bar end shifters running INDEX!!
SHimano Tiagra brake levers
SHimano 585 (I believe) canti brakes
Brooks B17 honey
Brooks Honey bar tape
Sugino xd-2 triple
Crank Bros 50/50 platform pedals for my size 16 shoes!
Phil bottom bracket
Tange Levin headset.
Keven's Saddle bag
Front Wheel: Velocity Synergy 36, Phil Wood touring hub, DT comp spokes
Rear Wheel: Velocity Dyad 40, Phil Wood 7 speed freehub with IRD 7 speed freewheel
SRAM chain
XT rear derailleur
LX front derailler (it's an icky blue color.Only using until I find a better one with high swing. this one got me riding.
King Iris bottle cage (the only one that doesn't brutalize Sigg bottles)
Shimano cables and housing
Schwalbe Marathon 46mm. Dont remember the model number. The newest touring fatty.

All this adds up to another happy Rivendell owner...

Awesome ride, Patrick!

-Dwight

Wacky weather

Thursday, the temperature was bumping up against 50 degrees.

That's balmy, this time of year. Of course, I managed to sneak out of work early. Me and Ramby managed to get 20 miles in.

Today, it's 3.

I'm patiently waiting for spring...oh so patiently. In the meantime, there are a couple of projects in the works. Of course, the Ramby needs a bit of a tune-up. I noticed the rear wheel needs a bit of truing, and I made a few rear derailleur adjustments. My 10mm solid rear axle and axle nuts arrived for the Juice. If you recall, I had an issue with the rear hub moving in the dropouts when I torqued down hard on my pedals. But first, I had to try my brute force method, clamping down on my QR as tight as I could.

It seems to have worked. I rode the Juice around town a couple of nights ago and no axle movement. However, I'm not certain that this will be a long term, reliable solution. Eventually (and certainly before Leadville, if that ever comes to fruition) the new axle is going in.

There are a few other bikes that need my attention. With the Ramby on-line, the Schwinns are certainly feeling neglected. Another project I've been toying with is a wheelbuild for the Turquoise Tempo, once I decide on a wheel/hub configuration. And it's been awhile since the LeTour's been out.

Right now, the wife and I are bundling up and heading for Des Moines to eat a bit of Chick-Fil-A, amongst other things. It's good to get outta Dodge every once in a while.

-Dwight

La La La La La La Bombadil!

Currently, my blog is mainly focused on bike builds...namely my own.

The basement is filling up with bikes, and space in my downstairs "wreck room" is getting ever scarcer. I could put another bike up against the wall in my garage, but a one-car garage with a car and other miscellanous junk doesn't leave a whole lot of room for extra bike stuff.

What the heck do I write about if I'm not building a bike?

Patrick to the rescue! I received three nice pictures of Patrick's new ride. And boy, is it ever a ride! He's just acquired himself a new Rivendell Bombadil frame and it's a beaut!

Such a nice frame, and the double top tube is certainly unique. On this table, I can see a nice honey brown Brooks saddle, assorted Nitto bike jewelry including bars, stem, and seatpost, what appears to be a Sugino crank, Schwalbe tires, a nice orange Rivendell cap, and some other assorted bits and pieces. It looks like it's all ready for assembly. Do I see Phil Wood hubs on 36 spoke wheels? Phil Wood bottom bracket as well?

A nice sideways headtube shot, showing the headbadge, lugwork, and unique powder clear coat finish. I'm not sure, but is that a Chris King headset? This bike will definitely turn heads.

A nice headbadge shot, including a few nice bits Patrick's acquired for his build. Schwalbe Marathons? Ja sind sie schwer und stark aber gut! Good choice!

I'm expecting more pics as the build progesses!

-Dwight

Big Wheels Rolling

I've been a bit remiss as far as posting is concerned. Usually, I post a couple of times a weekend. However, I've been a bit busy...maybe it's because the Juice is up and running! Yes, I finished the build Friday evening after I returned home from work.

Of course, I had to take my latest creation out for a test drive. The weather has been a bit warmer as of late. The temps were in the 20's Friday night, along with a decently stiff wind. If this sounds chilly, it was -19 last week, with a wind chill in the -40's! Definitely frostbite weather, and not good cycling weather unless you're a polar bear or your skin is leather.

At my first spin down the street, I was sold on the 29'er concept. This thing really rolls easy, and it's very stable. I rode over snow and slush packed streets, including a few short drifts with no problems. My nice, new, shiny, clean bike sure didn't stay that way for long! The Panaracers grip really well and they're plenty fat and cushy.

Of course, there were a few adjustments and one problem, hopefully minor, which I believe I can readily solve either with brute force or a few extra parts ($). The Soma Juice is designed as a singlespeed frame, with horizonal dropouts. When I crank hard on the pedals, especially uphill, the axle in the right side dropout tends to slide forward. Kind of irritating, especially when the wheel cocks in the frame and starts rubbing against the seatstays. However, with a bit of research I found that the 10mm hollow QR axle could be replaced with a solid axle and nuts. You lose the QR capability but the solid axle will hold the wheel tightly in place. Funny, my fixie Quickbeam has a QR on the rear wheel and I've never ever had an issue with the axle moving in the dropouts, ever. Some say older style skewers hold better, and I'm using the XT skewer that came with my hub. Using the brute force method, I put the Juice on the bike stand and cranked it down as tightly as I dared, and I'll take it out for another local test drive to see how well it works. If not, then I'll wait patiently for the solid axle and nuts to arrive. Of course, hub axle replacement is more blog fodder!

My basement is a mess. Mess of bikes, mess of snow, sand, and brackish water being tracked in and out, newspapers thrown down to catch drippings, boxes scattered willy-nilly. I've thrown quite a few boxes out, but it seems each parts order continues to breed them. I'm going to have to take some time for clean up, if I want to keep peace in the family :>)

BTW, Patrick has promised pictures of his new Bombadil frame and build. He e-mailed me to let me know his long-awaited frame is on its way. I'll be posting on his build as well, once he gets the pics to me. Can't wait to see it! A few pictures of my own of course, for your viewing pleasure and entertainment...enjoy! -Dwight

nice and clean

in the garage

drivetrain closeup

inaugural snow ride

want some chilled Juice?

Derailed!

The Juice build went great this weekend!

In fact, if it weren't for one little glitch I'd probably be riding it. But these things happen, and it's just best to be patient and roll with it. Maybe I should throw a few pics out there for your perusal!

Of course, I had to install my new tires on my new wheels. They are Panaracer Rampage 29'ers, 2.35" wide. They are FAT...they remind me of the dirt bike tires on an old Suzuki 250 my brother owned.

You'll also note here I've installed my disc brake rotors on the rims. Note: Avid brake disc mounting bolts take a Torx size 20 bit, and I was lucky and happened to have a set. Don't put too much torque on it, or you'll twist and strip the bit. Also note the strategic placement of the tire prior to the camera shot. This is what happens when you have limited space and a combination laundry, shower, shitter and bike assembly room. Of course, the close proximity of all these fixtures make bike work and beer drinking quite convenient.

I also installed my FSA 44-33-22 crankset. I got this as a new bike take-off so it was significantly less expensive than buying new. The install was fairly simple, although since it is an external-type bottom bracket I had to buy a special tool to tighten it up. Just another addition to my continuously growing pile of mostly-working bike tools!

Rear brake calipers installed. Since the Juice has horizontal dropouts, there's a bit of an interference issue when removing the rear wheel. If I loosen the caliper mounting bolts, I can get the disc far enough past the caliper to remove the wheel. I'll just have to remember to carry my portable tool kit with me when I ride.

I couldn't resist mugging for the camera (and the wife), whilst showing off my massive crescent wrenching skills. I'm enjoying my new wool cap, courtesy of Rivendell...this works great underneath a helmet during a cold ride.

Can you spot the problem here? Note the position of the clamp relative to the water bottle mounts...in order to position this derailleur in the proper position, the clamp would need to be positioned directly on top the the mounts. Not good. Why? This is a high mount clamp (something I neglected to notice when I ordered it), and what I really need is a low mount clamp similar to what I have on my Bakfietsen. The new derailleur is being shipped as I type.

The Soma Juice in all it's semi-finished glory. I still need to add derailers, brake cables and housings, shifters with cables and housings, and chain. Did I forget anything? But I can at least sit on my bike now, so I can get a really good feel of how it's going to fit me.

The maiden voyage is near!

-Dwight

Cabin Fever

Ah, winter weather!

Cold, wet, snowy, slushy, freezing winter weather! The temp outside was 33 degrees. It had just snowed Friday night, but the roads were clear.

My lovely wife and I were sitting on the couch. She was on her computer, logged in, and working (Yes, WORKING, on a Sunday) diligently. In the meantime, I was crafting an e-mail reply to my good friend Patrick. Patrick is patiently waiting for his new Bombadil frame, and I'm just a bit jealous. Plus, I've got two perfectly good Rivendells sitting in my basement and they haven't seen much riding time lately. So I'm ordering parts for bikes, building bikes, reading about bikes, writing about bikes, thinking about bikes...and I what I really should be doing is RIDING bikes.

I ripped off Harley Davidson's latest ad campaign and said "Screw it, let's ride". I got out the cold weather gear, layered up, pumped up the tires on the Ramby and hit the road. I was just so damn happy to be out riding my bike it really didn't seem that cold at all.

Snow? We don't care about no stinking snow!

Layer up and get out there!

-Dwight

A wheel or two

A few more parts showed up at my door in the last week or so. All my drivetrain parts arrived, including my long-awaited spokes. So this last weekend, I had a wheelbuilding day. And let me tell you, it was the WHOLE day. But not a bad way to spend some time!

I've gone into some great detail on my Ramby wheel build...but here, not so much. It's sufficient to say the build was pretty much the same, except for the spoke quantity. Only 32 for these wheels, but they are still cross-3 lacings so the same rules apply.

It didn't take me quite as long to get these wheels laced up this time. I still referred to Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding web page (I'm not building bike wheels every day), but my memory served me well. I can definitely say wheel building is a science, a skill, and an art and by no means am I an expert. Hence the reason why it took me an entire day (and then some) to get these wheels built. It was more important for me to take my time and ensure I did the best job possible within my limited skill set :>).

Building wheels, to me, is a delicate balancing act. There are three basic parameters, lateral trueness, vertical trueness, dish, and tensioning. The first parameter I'd naturally focus on would be lateral trueness. However, you have to balance that with all the other parameters as well. This time, my method would be to tighten all my spokes to an even tension. I purchased a Park Tool spoke tensioning gauge for this purpose, and it works very well. I tensioned all my spokes to an even 20 on the gauge, then checked lateral trueness. Of course, it was off but at least I had a good starting point. I alternately tightened an loosened spokes appropriate to bring the wheel into lateral true, or a least a good approximation. Then I checked my vertical true (roundness). I tightened and loosed adjacent alternating spokes appropriately to make my wheel 'less lumpy'. After all this was done, I checked my dish using my dishing tool. At this point, it was probably about 1/4" or so out of dish.

So loosening spokes on one side of the hub, and tightening on the opposite brings the hub closer to center. And after getting the dish close to where it's needed, guess what? Lateral and vertical true needs to be readjusted. After alternately loosening and tightening spokes for hours, I finally got my wheels to a state of decent trueness. The front wheel trued up very nice. The rear took a bit more effort. I rounded off several nipples and had to cut those spokes out and start again, but that's why you always order a few extra, right? :>)

Like I said, it's a science, a skill, and an art. Throw in a bit of luck as well. I'm sure professional wheelbuilders do wheels in just an hour or two and do several sets in a day. I'm definitely not a professional, and I am definitely slow, but I try to be thorough! Picture time!

72 291mm DT Swiss Competition spokes, in black, ready for lacing

Starting the lace-up

Truing up

On the bike

Happy New Year!

Hi all,

Happy New Year! And it's time to start making good on all the New Years resolutions you made, right? I have a few goals I'd like to share for my New Year, and I'm going to try to do my best this year to make them happen. So here's my 2009 resolution list:

Be the best husband and father I can be.
Number one on the list. My wonderful wife and daughter deserve the best I can give them. Spend as much quality time as I can with my loved ones.

Ride bikes, a lot
Obviously :>). My Leadville goal (see below), is going to require lots of miles in my legs. If I can't be on the bike, then I'll be in the gym.

Ride a lot of bikes
I'm working on number 8 right now. Shouldn't be a problem.

Sign up and train for Leadville. Lose some weight.
Leadville sign up deadline is January 31st. The first challenge will be getting in...they only allow so many participants and they choose applications lottery style. The ride itself will be a big challenge. If I can get some weight off, that's just that much less lard I have to haul up the mountain. That means I have to focus on training for the next few months, and get some good miles in my legs. I'm getting older, and if I don't at least try to do this I'll regret it. So I'm going to take a shot.

Maintain a good balance
Work to live, not the other way around. Work hard, but play hard too.

Be healthy
Exercise and eat right. Keep moving. Don't make excuses.

Bike Commute!
I started bike commuting last year once the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge was completed, and I loved it. I'm going to bike commute often in 2009, whenever practical.

Be positive, be nice, be appreciative and give to others
Keep a positive attitude. Be kind to people, lend a helping hand. Do nice things, and appreciate nice things others do for me. Write a thank-you note. Be a solid citizen.

Be happy
My wife makes me happy. Make the wife happy. Tell a joke. Laugh. Smile. :>)

-Dwight