Winter Bicycle Maintenance FAIL

Today was finally the day I got around to doing a little winter maintenance on my fleet of bikes. I don't have enough space to allow for a dedicated "bike garage" area for a bike stand and such, so I had been putting off working on my bikes for various reasons... bad/cold weather, bad lighting, too late, too tired, yada yada yada. Really these were all just excuses to put off something necessary.

Finally, today my day ended early enough, the sun was shinning, and I was in a good enough mood that I felt like tackling the rust and crud that had built up over the last three months of winter riding. I had not completely neglected my obligation to my stable, as I had prepped all three bikes for winter weather conditions.

But apparently that didn't matter for the poor bike pictured above. That sad chain is on the used mountain bike I purchased this summer. After taking it out on the trails a few times over the summer I had put it away in its stable (by that I mean the back yard) for most of the fall. It was only when the weather turned really bad and the roads extremely icy that I once again graced its saddle. For about two weeks during this winter's worst conditions I made good use of it, but as soon as the weather turned and the ice melted I once again ignored the poor thing. Sitting unnoticed in the corner of the backyard ever since, it wasn't until last week that I found the copious amounts of rust on the chain.

And so today was the lucky day that my bikes got cleaned up in the hopes of continued good weather and being able to show off their shinny parts in the morning glint off the sunrise. With copious amounts of beer, chain cleaner/grease, sweat, and music I got down to the work. And lets just say that the levels of rust seen on the chain above requires a lot of chain cleaner to get rid of (hide from view). I'll also mention that the liberal application of industrial cleaners and beer make for an interesting buzz.

Of course all these concerns about keeping my bikes clean and in good operating condition could be addressed if I had a convenient space to perform maintenance. I don't think I could ever reach the perfection of Doug from Minnesota that has been cleaning his bike every day after his commute home, but at least I wouldn't be embarrassed by riding a dirty bike everyday.

Or I could just be like the guy that took the photo below... and I could simply start bringing my bikes inside and sleeping in the same bed. But that would become complicated trying to figure out a rotation a la Big Love to share equal time with three bikes so as not to make one jealous.

Riding in a Winter Wonderland

The snow has finally accumulated sufficiently in Missoula to have made the last month of getting around town a little more difficult on a bicycle. Snow, ice, freezing fog, slush, gravel, and de-icer all combine to make the roads just that much more treacherous, not to mention the limited amount of day time light and the confined roadways from piled snow that force cars to basically take over the bicycle lane on certain streets.

I have given up riding the fixie for now and switched to the used mountain bike I purchased this summer. The wide, aggressively treaded tires work great on the snow, ice, and had pack that dominates most of the side streets in Missoula ( you must understand that Missoula, being a town with not much money to spend on snow removal, concentrates on the main roads with the most traffic that are critical to moving people around and so the side streets are left to be turned into hard-packed public ice hockey rinks).

The only problem comes when my tires hit a patch of semi-packed snow that has warmed above freezing. This stuff is not yet wet slush and still has the consistency of snow, but when the front tire hits a patch of it, the weight of the bike pushes the snow away from the tire and your then forced to quickly try and regain your balance before your front tire goes out from under you. In these conditions I talked to a lot of people or heard conversations that involved "my hip hurts" or "I ate it hard around a corner." Luckily I have yet to fall, though I have been forced to put my foot down more than a few times.

Predictably the miles I'm putting on my bicycle have plunged (I'll have an updated millage figure within a week) as I have switched to the bus in the most horrid of weather - below zero - and have cut out trips from just not wanting to deal with riding other than for essentials, such as commuting and to get to the grocery store. And of course I haven't been on a bike for the last week since Ashley and I made our way up to her parents for the holidays; I couldn't imagine a better time to be on a bike getting in some exercise than during this food heavy time of year.

However, with all the extra hazards that you face as a cyclist during the winter, there is nothing quite like riding through a few inches of freshly fallen snow. The soft crunch the snow makes under the bicycle tire and the muffled silence of the world newly peaceful really does create a different and wonderful world to be riding through.

Random Bicycle Crap Fridays

Usually I post things relating to the ridiculous on Fridays, but today I want to highlight something inspirational, something that could utterly transform the usefulness and practicality of bicycles, and a few things seen around Missoula. Enjoy.

First, the Revolution:



Second, the Inspirational: A group of High School students in Florida have started their own "bike Bus" to school with amazing results.

High School Bike Bus from Keri Caffrey on Vimeo.

Third, something seen at Target:



Fourth, seen in downtown Missoula, who needs a bus stop when you have:

Game Changer

It is here... winter that is. Until a week ago Missoula seemed to be experiencing a prolonged summer, with temperatures in the 80s up until the beginning of October. Now this morning it is 20 degrees out.

Not a big inconvenience, but the cold isn't helped by the unique topography of the Missoula valley. This time of year, as the suns declination declines in the sky, our favorite Mountain in Missoula seems to get in the way of the suns warming rays. Its 8.30 and the sun is just visible, but over at campus, which is right under the mountain, it will be another hour before the sun starts to warm the area.

Still... this means its that time of year to start layering clothing for the morning commute. I think I might also have to start riding something other than my fixed gear, since the only shoes that feel comfortable on that bike are not necessarily that warm.

This is just the beginning of a long winter, lets see if I can keep up this carfree thing when it hits -30 degrees.

Oops

I was debating even writing about this, but since I wanted this blog to chronicle the highs and lows of being carfree, and this is certainly a low that I am ashamed of.

Yesterday, right after getting to campus, I hit a pedestrian with my bicycle just in front of the Adams center. It was a fairly low speed impact and I didn't even knock the man down; he looked like the kind of person that plays a lot of sports and so was just going to take the pain and walk it off without complaining.

What happened is that I had just transitioned onto the side walk in front of the Adams Center on my way across campus. I saw the guy walking in the same direction as me as well as an on-coming cyclist. The guy was walking with his head down and so didn't notice the other cyclist until he looked up. At that point I was already going to might right to go around him, but when he saw the on-coming cyclist, he stepped into my path. I couldn't go anymore right, since there was a big-ass sign I would have hit, so I tried to veer to the left but there was no room and I would have hit the cyclist. So, in the end I hit the brakes hard and then hit the pedestrian. I made sure he was alright and he just kept walking and ensured me that he was fine, so I headed off to my destination.

Like I said before, I'm ashamed that this occurred. I guess if you bike long enough things like these will eventually happen, as I've been hit by a car. I don't feel like I was riding dangerously, but that doesn't change the fact that I fucked-up just a little.

If anyone out there knows a big guy that likes to work out at the gym on campus that had a run-in with a cyclist yesterday, let me know because I think I owe him a drink.

Don't Always Trust Free Shit

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday, one that almost cost me my fixed gear bicycle. Good components are important, because shitty ones will blow up on you.

Riding around Missoula trying to have some new prints ready for saturday's market, I started to hear a strange noise. At first I thought it was just my ipod headphones not being plugged in all the way, thus creating interference, but the noise kept getting louder. With my earbuds out there was a series of clicks, pops, and grinding coming from my bike; lets just say this scared me a little.

Flipping my bike over, the chain was extremely tight, and when set in motion would almost immediately come to a stop. At first I just thought my chain was binding up and being afraid to ride anymore in case something were to happen, I threw my bicycle over my shoulder and walked the mile or so to the nearest place I could get some help, Sports Exchange.

On getting there, the owner and I flipped the bike over out front of his store to take a closer look. We soon found a seal popping out of the bottom bracket at the beginning of the crank arm. Trying to pop off the crank, the internals of the bottom bracket were loose and moving around. At that point I decided to venture to a full service bike shop where they would have all the right tools for this job.

I hit up Hellgate Cyclery and they helped me out right away. Within two minutes they had the bottom bracket apart and found that the bearings in the bottom bracket had flown apart. Not only that, but it was a French bottom bracket in an English setup (the male/female threads are opposite - damn French).

Let me explain the history of the bottom bracket. When I was searching for a frame, I had come across a Nishiki with a bottom bracket already in it. At the time I had debated whether to replace it or not, and figured why buy something new when the part is already there and seems to work. The frame had obviously been through a few owners and setups as it had multiple pain jobs that I had to strip away. Someone had slipped (maybe not the right word since it would have been a real pain to get the bottom bracket in) in a French bottom bracket without knowing what they were doing.

So, now that the part had eaten it, my frame was potentially no good if the threads couldn't accept a new bottom bracket. At this point I wondered off to a bar a few blocks away to drown out my thoughts of having to find a new frame. They worked on the thing trying to salvage the frame and an hour later I checked back in.

Luckily, upon returning to Hellgate Cyclery, my fixie was all put back together again. I have to thank those guys for really saving my ass. Now every time I am able to hop on my bike, its all thanks to them.

Random Bicycle Crap Fridays - Bicycles of Missoula Vol. I

Missoula has some great bicycles to be found around town. In the last few years a lot of vintage Bicycles have come out of hiding, adding a lot of variety to the streets of Missoula. Here are just a few.

This first one isn't vintage, but a custom fixed-gear build by Cody Gould. He sent me this photo after he saw a photo of my fixed-gear, joking that one of us was the evil twin since we had such similar setups - though I don't have wood grain wheels like Cody. The frame is a custom hand-built frame from a friend of his out of Helena.

I like the colorway of this next bike, but I think the bike is a little naked with that puny chain locking it up.

This bike was setup for a father - daughter ride. I don't know if people can make it out, but the second seat has a second crank that a little child can reach, although the little girl could only reach it with her toes.

I really had no idea what the lever was for, I just thought it was interesting

The handlebars caught my eye with this fixed-gear, also looks like custom paint.

Good example of the vintage style that is showing up in Missoula

Clean fixed-gear build, props for the color coordination

Bicycle Themed Music Videos: New Trend?

So... I usually hold this stuff in until Fridays, but I already have a post planned for then. Plus this is just too good of a bad music video to pass up. I mean its got everything the bike culture has to offer: fixies, road bikes, wannabe triathletes, bicycle clans, bad fashion, and trackstands.

Is this a new trend? I'm sure BSNYC will let us all know soon enough.



Via @Cyclelicious

What NOT to do With a Car Door and Stupid Bicycle Tricks

This post is a little scattered, just like my life right about now. But I'm going to get to the business end out of the way and leave the funny till later. In the following video, I don't think a bike helmet would have helped, but a brain for the car passenger would have.

Warning: Sensitive subject mater




The above scene is a tragedy, and an awful example of what can happen when people in cars don't take people on Bicycles seriously. I saw this yesterday in the local bike shop and everyone watching couldn't believe what they saw. The automatic response was anger at the idiot that was trying to door the bicyclist. Obviously the kid doing the dooring realized he fucked up big time, but remorse for an action is not good enough.


Many motorists still feel that cycling is a joke, and that somehow they have the right to ostracize and harass bikers simply because we are not in a vehicle of equal size and killing power. At a recent group ride in San Jose that my cousin took part in, along with 1500 other bikers, participants were repeatedly spit on and had things thrown at them by motorists. That is the type of behavior that prompts cyclists to be agressive and militiristic in their approach to asserting their rights to the road; if motorists won't respect us and share the road, we'll take our share of the road.

The San Jose Bike Party:

Now for something lighter on the stomach: Spot the Lame video

Two videos I came across the other day, both involving fixed gear tricks, but very different styles. Both are kind of lame, but only one actually displays some crazy skills with a fixed gear.

The first video is pretty amazing to watch, but the music and the setting makes me feel like I'm watching Olympic gymnastics, which I can't stand. The second video seems to have all the elements of a sick video with some crazy tricks; urban setting, fixies, high speeds, and some catchy music. However, all you really see in the teaser is a bunch of kids braking on their fixies and balancing. If I remeber correctly from the time long ago when I learned how to ride a bike, those are the first two things you learn as a child. So, if the tricks in the first video could be combined with the style of the second, fixed gear tricks might be cool.

Puzzling Appeal

This is a photo that I posted to my Flickr account well over a month ago on the first Saturday market of the season. It is really the only photo of mine that continues to get views everyday and has just become the most viewed (usually a photo gets heavy traffic right after posting that dies off within a few days). I really don't know what it is about the photo, but maybe it is the subject matter?

Could it be the fixie, and people are searching for images of fixies because they really have no idea what one is, but they hear about them more and more? Does the girl have something to do with it; maybe there is a blossoming fetish involving girls and their fixed gear bikes?

If only I had tagged the photo as hot college coed on fixie (don't worry this is not an adult site, just what I found when I typed that into BING), then I would have gotten 20 times the traffic.