Stick on decal? Not quite.

I may have mentioned in earlier posts my downtube decal issue.

The downtube decal on the left side of my frame is a bit frayed. I knew this before I'd purchased the frame...the owner was very forthcoming and honest about the condition of the decal. Apparently, he'd transported the bike in his van and the left side of the frame rubbed against the seat. It was a minor issue to me, since the blemishes were minor and appeared to affect just the decal, and not the paint.

Not the best picture here, but you can see the discoloration on portions of the decal. You can actually feel the surface of the decal around the edges, a slight fraying. Nothing huge and something I absolutely wasn't concerned about. The bike is still beautiful and rides like a dream, frayed decal or not.

I was a bit curious, though. Could I easily replace the decal? I contacted Miesha at Rivendell, asking if I could obtain a decal and installation instructions, if possible. She got me in touch with Keven, who asked how the decal was damaged. Unfortunately, decal replacement isn't easy. Apparently, the frame is clear coated after decal installation and the only way to have the decals replaced is to strip, repaint, re-decal, and clear coat.

So much for a simple stick-on decal replacement. I don't think I'm ready for a repaint, just having assembled my bike. There's nothing wrong with a bit a beausage, anyhow!

-Dwight

The Quickie Blue Fixie

It was an impulse buy.

Last winter, my wife and I were visiting Kansas City for a little respite. I was on 'sabbatical' at the time (read: unemployed), and I was on the verge of finishing my Masters degree. Can we please just say I was a student? :>)

In my internet travels, I'd stumbled on a little bike shop in downtown KC and decided we should stop by and take a look. At one time, Acme Bicycle Company of Kansas City http://www.acmebicyclecompany.com/ was a Rivendell dealer but now hand crafts custom steel frames of their own. The shop is located in an 'artsy' district of downtown KC, and once we were in the neighborhood was fairly easy to find. A large gathering of old bicycles and bicycle art surrounds an otherwise nondescript and aging cinderblock building.

From the moment I entered the cluttered but accessible shop, I was blown away by the variety of vintage bicycles and hardware of every imaginable brand, condition, and vintage. Tons of vintage lugged steel bikes and frames parked and hanging everywhere, and various display cases, racks, and shelves full of used parts. One rack held a stack of old Rivendell Readers for sale. I saw a frame in a vise in the process of fabrication, bare metal, brazing and torch marks clearly visible. I felt like a kid in a candy store!

Behind the counter, I noticed a well-ridden Rivendell custom. This bike was the owner's daily transportation, and she was nice enough to discuss the bike, bike riding, frame fabrication, and their philosophy of bike building at length, and in bike-nerdish detail. It was so nice of her to spend so much time with me I just couldn't leave without buying something.

Against one wall, I spied a blue fixie conversion for sale, vintage lugged frame, bullhorn bars, single front brake. It appeared to be the right size, and with a quick measurement confirmed the seat tube length was 62 cm. The owner cheerfully agreed to let me take the bike out for a test drive..."now this is a fixed gear bike, have you ridden a fixie before?" I'd been riding my QB fixed for at least a year up to that point, so I figured I was qualified enough to take this bike for a quick spin. A quick tire inflation and I rode up and down the alley adjacent to the shop, and the bike felt just fine.

There was a little voice in the back of my head saying, "Now what are you going to do with this bike?" It sounded a lot like my wife's voice, actually :>) I really didn't have a good answer, except for the fact that I still had space in the downstairs rec room and maybe I could use this bike for a nice 'round town bomber. Yeah, I wanted it...and the voice actually agreed with that notion. So carpe diem, I heated up the credit card and stuffed the bike in the trunk of our Malibu.

I submitted some pics to cyclofiend.com, take a look!
http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg/2008/ssg152-dwightdau0408.html

I've pimped this bike out since the pictures, adding a cheap Pletscher rack knock-off and some Planet Bike black clip on fenders. Someday, hopefully, I'll use this as a commuter bike. Right now, it's just my fun bop-around town bike. I've ridden it on some longer rides, but she really isn't the best long distance runner. It's a blast, though! I just have to remember to keep my feet on the pedals.

-Dwight

Shellacked!

I didn't like the color of my bar tape. I thought it would be closer to Ramby's color, but it was just far enough off it really didn't match well. Unfortunately, my LBS didn't have any natural cork tape on hand, only the blue color. My Quickbeam has natural cork tape shellacked amber, matching the Brooks B-17 Honey Champion saddle almost perfectly.

So what the heck. Let's shellac the blue tape and see what happens. Start with some Zinnser Bulls Eye Amber shellac, using a disposable foam brush for minimal cleanup. You can see the small sample of bar tape I used as a test. It looked fine, but I really wouldn't know the results until I saw it on the bike.

I started to apply the shellac to the twine and tape on one side...see the difference? I think it looks much better.

After applying shellac to both sides, the bars look like this:

After the shellac dried, the bars took on kind of a greenish antique patina. I'm thinking they would really match the dark green B-17 saddle well...not that I'm going to run out and buy one but that's just an observation. It would certainly be much cheaper to find and buy some natural cork if I wanted to match my saddle perfectly, but this looks just fine to me and is a unique look amongst all my other bikes. So I'll go with it for a while.

More pics on the way...

-Dwight

Wrap them bars right! Footwear optional!

I decided the black tape I used to temporarily hold my bar tape in place for the Ramby's maiden voyage was horribly ugly, and just completely out of place. Looks nasty, doesn't it?

I'd purchased some hemp twine from Riv some time ago, and this was the perfect opportunity to give my bars a good wrapping. To start my wrap, first I remove my shoes and socks :>) I make sure my wedding ring is clearly visible so my wife doesn't think I'm 'straying' whilst perfoming bike maintenance :>)) Then, I make a loop with the free end pointing toward the outside of the bars. I start wrapping from the outside towards the stem:

Once I've finished my twine wrap, near the end of the bar tape wrap, I thread the end of the twine through the loop...

Then I grab the free end of the twine I left sticking out toward the outside of the bars, and pull tight.

Trim the loose ends with scissors, and this is the result:

If you do both sides, it looks MUCH better....

This really isn't difficult to do, with a bit of practice and it looks and works a heck of a lot better than plastic tape!

Stay tuned and watch me give these bars a good shellacking!

-Dwight

Ron Burgundy, The Legend

Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Classic quotes:

Ron Burgundy: I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly...

Ron Burgundy: Don't you know I'd never say f*ck. F*ck.

Ron Burgundy: [after jumping into the grizzly bear pit at the San Diego Zoo] I immediately regret this decision.

Ron Burgundy: Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.

Ron Burgundy: I'm gonna punch you in the ovary, that's what I'm gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker.

Ron Burgundy: The only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show... [kisses his biceps]
Ron Burgundy: and see if she likes the goods.

Ron Burgundy: [to Veronica Corningstone as the news has just gone off the air] You're a real hooker. I'm gonna slap you in public.

Ron Burgundy: [to Veronica Corningstone] I'm gonna shoot you with a BB gun when you're not looking. Yep, back of the head.

Ron Burgundy: I'm proud of you fellas. You all kept your head on a swivel, and that's what you gotta do when you find yourself in a vicious cock fight.

Ron Burgundy: [after smelling the Sex Panther cologne] It's a formidable scent. It stings the nostrils. I'm gonna be honest with you, Brian, that smells like pure gasoline.

[addressing someone off-camera, who we can't see]
Ron Burgundy: How are you? You look awfully nice today. Maybe don't wear a bra next time... No, I was talking to you. No, not her. I don't know her name. What is it? Lanolin? Lanolin? Like sheep's wool?

Ron Burgundy: [doing voice exercises] The arsonists feet were oddly shaped.

A trip down memory lane on crappy bikes of yore

I was discussing a bike build with a fellow rider, firing off some long lost odd neurons somewhere way back in my psyche.

I remembered a couple of old bikes from days past. When I first learned to ride a bike it was an old hand-me-down from three older brothers, a blue Sting-ray type bike (I don't think it was a Schwinn, but maybe a close copy), banana seat, wheelie bar and everything. I learned to ride it in the back yard. I'd have to admit, I learned to ride a bit late in life at the ripe old age of eight.

When I was in my early teens, the country was in the midst of the 70's bike boom ten-speed craze. I wanted a 'real' bike, but for some odd reason I didn't want a 10 speed. We lived on a gravel road and I was afraid that skinny ten speed tires wouldn't cut it. My 12th-ish birthday present (or maybe Christmas, I don't quite remember which), I got a campus green Schwinn Varsity with fat tires and a 3 speed Sturmey-Archer hub, completely pimped. Full steel fenders, Pletscher rack, Cateye bottle generator with a tailight and this huge square headlight, and a big plastic mechanical Stewart-Warner speedometer that went way up to 50 or 60 mph. Rest assured, I never got the bike going nearly that fast, especially not on gravel!

I must have ridden that bike up and down that gravel road past our house at least a million times. It was extra cool to ride at night, bottle generator whining against the rear tire. If I felt extra adventurous I'd ride up the hill to the next intersection and ride on the dirt road. When I was in eighth grade, a friend with a 10 speed and I decided to take a road trip. We hit the county roads...in fact some of the roads I ride regularly today. I'd say we probably rode at least 40 or 50 miles that day, the longest distance I'd ever ridden up to that point. The Schwinn performed quite admirably.

As soon as I was old enough for a learner's permit, the Schwinn went into the shed. I had cars and motors on the brain, typical rural farm kid mentality. I never thought about bikes again until I hit college.

I had a car in college, but of course you couldn't park on campus. Plus, it was a long way to walk from my off-campus dive to school. I could take the bus, but of course I would be tied to their routes and timetables.

A bike! Lots and lots of bikes on campus. No need for a parking space and plenty of convenient bike racks placed right where I needed to be. One of my roommates and myself went to the Bike Barn in Boone, Iowa and picked up a couple of bikes. His was a brand new bike, an expensive Italian brand. I cannot for the life of me remember what brand of bike it was, but it was shiny and red and really nice. My ride was a bit more pedestrian. I picked up a used Zebrakenko Golden Sports 10-speed, black, with stem mounted shifters and a huge shiny chrome pie plate. I think it set me back about 125 bucks.

His bike was stolen approximately 2 weeks after we bought them, chain cut and bike gone. He then proceeded to buy a 70's vintage Honda 750-4 motorcycle, which of course was much more difficult to carry off :>)

My bike lasted through 5+ years of college (Leisurely curriculum). I locked my bike up as well, but the Zebrakenko wasn't nearly as interesting to potential thieves and the cheap chain I used to lock my bike was more than sufficient to keep it secure. The bike recieved much gratuitous abuse, curb jumping, left out in the snow and rain...all the normal things an early twenty something might do. Maintenance consisted of squirting WD-40 on the rusty drivetrain, hopping on the bike and riding it.

Even with all the indifference towards the care of my bike, it never let me down. I may have made a couple of minor adjustments, and certainly changed several tubes, but it was always ready to go. I rode the crap out of that bike, but I never really rode it for pleasure. It was a transportation device and for that, it definitely paid for itself and then some.

When I got my first real job out of college, I took the bike with me when I moved to Kansas City. I even attempted to ride it to work several times. This proved dangerous and impractical, and I ended parking the bike under the stairs of my apartment complex where it promptly sat and rusted. When I moved, the bike stayed. For all I know, it's still there!

I wouldn't even think of parking one of my bikes outside now, and I've tinkered more with the bikes I have now in the last couple of years than I ever tinkered with that old Zebrakenko. I'm kind of wishing now I'd kept that bike, along with the old green Schwinn.

Maybe I'm just a bit sentimental, after all!

-Dwight

Dive bombed

I was taking a short detour from one of my usual weekend routes, where I ride down the "Old Stone Arch Trail". Good paved path and nice scenic route through some woods, past a few cornfields, and then a bridge crossing over a creek into a nice wooded picnic area. I'll typically rest, stop on the bridge, peering over the edge to look at the creek, then back to my starting point to rejoin my route.

On my trip back, a large flapping noise in the trees startled me. This wasn't just a small bird, or even a flock of birds...this was a LARGE bird. I actually ducked.

A few moments later I saw a hawk emerge from the trees and climb towards the sky.

This, of course, reminded me of an incident that happened last summer. Riding a different route, I was on a highway moving west past a grove of trees. This is a regular route for me, and I didn't really expect anything unusual. I've always noticed large flocks of birds living in the trees but I never really paid much attention, other than the fact there were a lot of birds.

As I was happily pedaling along, watching my own shadow I noticed a small shadow moving with me, to the right and a few feet behind. I had an eerie sense of something being quite close to my head but I dismissed it, continuing on my path.

I heard a screeching noise. Not a tire screech or a brake squeal, but a rapsy, high-pitched bird type screech. The shadow briefly moved closer, then moved away. I turned my head left and right, but didn't see anything. Then the shadow moved closer, and closer, then...

Thunk! Something bashed into my helmet. It wasn't super hard, but it was forceful enough to make me lose my line, wobbling across the lane. I went down into my drops and ducked down, pumping harder, quickening my pace. Screech! Screech! I watch the shadow as it bobbed up and down, moving closer then darting away.

I was under bird attack! And what the heck did I do to tick this guy off? I was simply riding on a highway, adjacent to a wooded area. I wasn't walking or riding through the woods, taunting birds with a shotgun in my hands and an Elmer Fudd hat perched on my noggin.

I kept riding, ducked down as low as I could get. After a hundred yards or so, my attacker lost interest and flew away. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my way.

Later on, after my ride, I did a bit of research. There are many red-winged blackbirds in this part of the country and the males are quite aggressive during mating season. They will attack almost anything they feel is encroaching on their territory and might cause a threat. My white Trek cycling helmet bobbing up and down must have looked like something like a low-flying predator, so I got dive bombed.

I'm sure it's a natural occurrence in the wild, but it was really kind of freaky while riding a bike on a highway. I hadn't experienced anything like that before or since.

I expected my bike helmet to protect me from impacts, but not bird strikes! :>))

-Dwight