Ever go into a shop and check out bikes only to find they’re out of your price range? Well, if you’re an insensitive ass, there’s a place for you online. I say “insensitive” because I’m being nice. I say “insensitive” because those places online are murdering local businesses, murdering those who want to provide good service and product and want to feed their families.

I’ve heard of it many times, but for some reason I’ve always neglected to visit the site. I will admit, I am pretty shocked at how inexpensive bikes are at bikesdirect.com. What am I missing? How are they able to sell these bikes so cheap? There’s an Ultegra equipped titanium cyclocross bike for 1700 dollars. Isn’t that insane? Do these bikes fall apart or something in a few week’s time? How is this possible?

Photo courtesy of bikesdirect.com

Two things. This bike is ridiculously priced. I’m almost tempted to buy one it’s so cheap—it almost beats any discount I get at the shop. But I won’t, because I want to support the shop I work for, I want to support the local economy and help feed the families around me. I’d rather support those around me who at least care about bikes in ways other than in a money making capacity. And here’s the second part: look at those levers on the handlebars. Is that just perspective, or are they really wholly misaligned? I’m a stickler for details because I think the multitude of minor details in any system contribute entirely to it’s successful operation—no matter the subject. To me, those levers are a major oversight that shatters any confidence that these people know what they’re doing. What else is wrong with the bike I can’t see in this picture? To photograph a product you’re selling, publish it, but not have the sense to make sure the product is correct speaks to me as pure apathy for your product. And that is something else I just can’t support.

* _{If you want to visit that site, feel free, but you’re going to have to type the URL in yourself.}

I’ve been wanting to modify the B.O.B. in a few ways since I picked one up. I love that trailer, I use it three to four times weekly, so this isn’t to say it’s lacking in any way. It does a great job exactly how it’s designed, it’s just that when you don’t have a car, and rely on bike for hauling cargo, sometimes modification is something that needs to happen.* This accessory offered from B.O.B. brings many other ideas to mind. The most recent mod I’ve been tinkering with is introducing the ability to tow a bike or two. 

I’ve tossed a bike in the trailer before, but it always required a few too much futzing with bungee cords and usually resulted in a little too much of a balancing act. Even with a folding bike it was cumbersome. Installing a fork mount to the trailer and allowing the towed bike’s rear wheel to trail behind seemed like a viable solution.

Last week I built a prototype that worked pretty well. One of the features I’d like this modification to offer is removal. The assembly should be removable because when it’s installed, it adds clippable width to the trailer. Clippable meaning running the risk of the arm clipping and catching onto objects on the road that I may ride too close to. Manageable when towing a bike, but the extra width could be easily forgotten when not.

The other issue I’ve foreseen and experienced is when only towing one bike with the wide option is the resulting swing of the trailed bike going into the B.O.B.’s wheel. I countered this swing reasonably well by wedging the bike’s separated front wheel into the trailer, pushing outward onto the towed bike. The random pothole or the like caused this remedy to not work so well. Surprisingly however, ’’the towed bike recovered it’s track and stayed mostly in the correct position. Never did I have to dismount and correct, hence the wedge remedy working “reasonably well”. The best solution that I’ve considered so far is using a bar across two bikes—or from the towed bike to the trailer itself. Something like Saris’ Bike Beam would be an easy store-bought solution for this. This would make the towed bike more rigid to the trailer, preventing most undesired swing all together.

My next plan is to limit the cargo to a single bike only. Probably mounting the fork hitch at the top of the B.O.B.’s suspension tower, or down next to it somehow. Should be interesting when I get this figured out. I plan mostly on being able to tow an extra bike to polo, but this will also be helpful in bringing an extra bike to the shop for repair, or that new bike I’ve been neglecting to build and bring home.

* _{I’ve considered the consequences and am pretty sure these modifications void whatever warranty came with the B.O.B. trailer. Keep that in mind yourself if you plan on trying any of these “modifications” yourself.}

Just finished reading this review from Velo News online about these new “cables” Wrenched and Ridden. Bah! I honestly don’t know why I read that site at all.* 

The article is a review about the new product called Power Cordz™. These are replacement cables for your derailleurs and brakes, but they’re more like a woven cord than they are like a cable I guess, hence the name Cordz. I’m not sure what technical feature they hold that entitles the intentional misspelling. Mabye Z’s are more aerodynamic or something. 

Anyway, reading this review, I am truthfully left with much more knowledge regarding alternative materials for stringing up a bike’s gears and brakes. That’s testimony towards the author’s writing, well done. It’s not the article that I’m writing about here it’s the cables themselves. How much is sixty grams? A bit over two ounces. How important is that saved weight to you? Is it really worth $70? 

Take all this with a grain of salt of course, I don’t race, but honestly, I’m tired of all this talk of weight savings. I’m tired of hearing about it, but mostly I’m tired of it being pushed on those who don’t race, or those who realistically shouldn’t care about a mere sixty grams. These products (their advertisements, and I guess their related reviews) seems like they’re being foisted on people.

Power Cordz™ will work on ALL types of bikes including dirt, road, bmx, track, unicycle, you name it! If it can be raced Power Cordz will make it faster.

How many cables are on a track bike? So if some dude’s bike doesn’t have cables made out of these gossamer strands of moonlight then he’s not going to get on the podium on his way to work. If the bike weighs somewhere around nineteen or twenty pounds then great! Less? Fine, but for the regular everyday rider it doesn’t have to be.

I know, I know, too cynical; I know the article is mostly directed to those racing; so sure, every advantage, no matter how small, can help you place. But at what cost? One thing the article does give me the impression of is how tenuous these cables seem. Dangerously so actually. Great care needs to be paid when installing any brake cables, but these sound especially difficult to ensure a safe and properly pinched cable.

…cords crush when clamped in place (cannot easily be re-clamped).

Are stainless cables really that prone to friction? Hasn’t steel been pretty sufficient all these past ninety or so years? Innovation I guess is another driving force for these cables, so with that I’ll have said my peace and shut it. 

But not before I say this: Never would I or have I suggested something so specifically light and performance driven to a customer, before I did that I would suggest they first lose a few hundred or so grams themselves. In all actuality though, the tinkerer in me tells me I would actually want to check these cables out personally—to see for myself how tenuous or not they really are. 

* _{I do know why I read it, basically to keep abreast of as much things “bike” as I can. No matter how silly or unnecessary to probably 95% of those who ride bikes it is.}

I rode my polo bike today. It’s an interesting ride. It’s a ton of fun, it’s more upright and casual than any of my other bikes; I’m glad that I put it together with “getting around” town in mind.

For all intents and purposes, it is a single speed (as a good polo bike should be, in my opinion) but I’ve kept the triple chainring, and simply spaced out a freehub with a few smatterings of cogs. I’m not sure where I saw this before, or what, but to keep the chain tension I kept a derailleur in place. That’s not unusual for a bike like this, but I actually kept a cable in it to keep the derailleur tensioned too.

What’s great about this—and “great” is definitely subjective I know—is that this bit of cable is actually adjustable at the barrel. Not widely of course, but just enough to be able to trim between a couple of cogs when I need to.

The handlebars have nothing but a single brake lever on them. This is another part of the bike I enjoy, it’s simple and clean, and oh, so comfortable. So how do I “trim between a couple of cogs”? I stop riding, dismount and twist away on that barrel, adding or subtracting tension. For a real good time, perhaps on a hill climb, I’ll reach down and nudge the chain off the middle chainring and drop to the granny gear. (Getting it back up to the middle ring requires stopping and dismounting). It’s a peach.

What's more interesting than the beer can in the spokes is the use of 10spd chain and cogs.

 

Riding it all day today, I had a thought regarding those “flip flop” hubs that are so popular nowadays. How often have you flipped your hub to get a different gearing? Or switched from fixed to single-speed? This is something they used to do in the golden days of the Tour. Get to the top (or bottom) of a hill, dismount, detach the rear wheel and flip it for a different, favorable gear. Two options—manually chosen and implemented with tools and all. None of this 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 speed nonsense. Since the inception of derailleurs and such, stopping and getting your hands dirty to switch gears has become so passé. Well you know what? Nothing’s too passé for me! If you’re not utilizing all your gears, or the flip flop feature of your rear wheel, why do you have them? Why are manufacturers making them? So many unused features of components or entire components themselves seems such a shame. Doesn’t it?

I guess I’ve asked for it. Admittedly though, I’ve been calling it an experiment per se. Today I got a flat. First one in well over two years. That’s a pretty long track record I think. The pisser about it is I was towing the trailer. Full of groceries.

I had just inflated the tires the day before. This is where the “experiment” comes into the conversation. Inflating tires on this bike is a big deal to me I guess. I don’t do it very often. Yesterday’s starting psi (pounds/square inch) was a mere twenty. That’s 90 pounds shy of where it should be. I’m always amazed and vocal about it whenever I discover how low pressure I run my tires. It’s not for performance, I know that it rides slow when they’re low, but I get lazy. It’s the “cobbler’s shoes” all over again. Yes, I’ve been neglectful, this time with consequences. 

Well even still, on my way to the grocery store I had the sensation of the tire rolling. At the moment I thought it was probably frame flex with the trailer, but later the truth was evident. Rolling down the street with groceries in tow a different sensation was not only sensible but also audible. And this is where the other part of the experiment is introduced. That rear wheel has been missing a spoke and has been suffering from being out of round and true for the greater part of that two or more years. Riding it with a dead flat sure makes that flat spot more pronounced.

If only any of my distributors would carry 25′s I’d be set. I still swear by those tires. Schwalbe Marathon Plus, when you absolutely don’t want a flat. Or as they say on their site: 

Punctures become obsolete with the MARATHON PLUS!

Just think, I wonder how long I’d have those tires had I been taking care of them. The overall experiment has been more in line with how much neglect and abuse this bike can take. I’d say things are going as expected at this rate. I’ll tow the bike into the shop tomorrow and see what I can do about that wheel; I have a feeling it might be the end of the road for that. 

I'll have to reverse these two bikes for the tow tomorrow.

 

* _{The title of this post has very little to do with it’s content, just what popped in the mind when the word experiment was conjured. Experiment Zero is the title of one of my favorite albums by Man or Astro-Man? More information than I ever knew about them here and here.}

ValuMarket on Bardstown Road, just picking up a few items for dinner. Not my usually my favorite grocery store, and it didn’t fail to disappoint today at the register.

It wasn’t the expected question of “paper or plastic,” but rather this mildly insulting dialogue:

Cashier, “Ugh. What is this?”

Me, “Tofu”

“Is it food?”

“You put it in your mouth and chew it.”

“But is it… uh… real food?”

{At this point I decide to bow out of this discussion, I begin to load groceries into my messenger bag.}

{Not to be out of the game though, she volunteers with audible shock} “Oh, you’re putting it all in there?”

“Yes I am.”

Were I in a vindictive mood, perhaps I would have talked to a manager about this impolite, insulting, and obviously unprofessional cashier. Whose ignorance about product was revealed by another query of the same bluntness: “What is this?” (The item in question being a  head of cabbage, and the tofu was clearly labeled. I’ve worked in grocery, it’s not hard.) 

With jobless rates so high nobody should be so ignorant and rude to a customer. Furthermore, there are thousands of skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable people out of work that would thankfully fill that position. Before you’re sent out to interact with customers at least minimally know the product you’re selling. And in a grocery store, leave the surly, pirate attitude in the break room.

On the bike side of things, people expect a good deal of knowlege and expertise from us; make sure you can provide it. I try to deliver succinct options and objective descriptions of quality. Don’t know the answer to what something is, most shops at least have a Sutherland’s laying around, or hit up the internet. Attitude? Well sometimes, if you’re lucky, service can be given with just a dash of surliness—enough to be entertaining, but not alienating and of course, only to select customers—just don’t be too much of a dick and people usually love it. With this economy though, it can be a fine line. Tread carefully.

I’ve been exploring the gray areas of this town. I typically ride generally the same route everyday to the shop. I was getting to certain intersections, stopping, and looking up the cross street as far as I could. Now I take the turn and see where it goes. Connecting the commonly trafficked streets with themselves has been interesting. Discovering where one familiar road leads to another familiar road. “Hey! I’ve been here before.” What’s in between them are the gray areas. Seeing what’s in between them is, for some mundane reason, really neat. This town is still new to me I guess.

Working six days a week tends to limit your leisure biking (as well as leisure anything) so this exploratory “commuting” has been my best method of getting interesting miles in. Generally the same route everyday, but widened per se.

While probably not every mechanic works six days weekly, I have heard of a common theme amongst bike mechanics. The irony that we don’t ride our bikes as much as our customers do. Sort of contradicting in a sense, right? I think it sort of sucks actually. I really enjoy riding my bike, when I’ve had an hectic morning, my ride in clears my head, loosens up the muscles, and generally sets me straight. After the day is done, same deal, hop on and watch the aggravations shake off. It’d be nice to get out and enjoy it in a non-commuter way more often.

Six days makes my weekends pretty short. I’ve managed to get into a routine of cramming in errands, chores, and a relaxing breakfast with my wife on Sunday mornings so that I can enjoy bikes more personally on my “day off”. Typically polo. However, this weekend I’m hoping to enjoy a group ride that’ll really hit up the gray areas of this town, should be a good one.

The other day, riding home from work, standing waiting for the light to change (or the intersection to clear), I saw a woman doing a number of things at the same time. Not only did she have a cell phone plastered to her ear/face, she was taking a hearty pull from her cigarette (mmmm, cancer). This lady was also watching the road, she may have been watching her kids too and I can imagine her also listening to the radio. What mostly stood out was that cell phone and the cigarette, they were the obvious clues as to how multi-tasked this woman was, as she was also simultaneously operating a large SUV—cell phone in one hand, cigarette in the other. Dude. At thirty-five miles an hour, in a neighborhood, can’t we at least get one hand on the steering wheel?

It seems lately I’m reminded of the multi-tasking responsibilities that exist in a bike shop. Business has picked up (albeit minimally) and other “administrative” duties are occurring. Lately it’s about checking in inventory, data entry, managing repairs, helping customers, and dealing with “upper management”. It can be a challenge at times, but like I’ve iterated here and elsewhere, I’m thankful people’s lives are not exactly at stake with my decisions and actions at the shop. Being a mechanic or a shop manager or whatever in a bike shop isn’t the same as being a doctor. Nobody’s bleeding femoral artery is dropped off needing life-saving cauterization. But hey, it’s only mid-April and there’s a whole summer ahead of us, right?

What’s a shop like without the banter and joking conversation amongst a group of mechanics?

It’s boring and it’s probably wintertime. It’s more or less what I’ve been experiencing the past several months at the shop I’m at. New shop, just me and the owners, and not a lot of customers. Ugh, but I’ve made it through; I’m glad now to finally have some help with a personality; and the banter has so far been good.

Conversation in the back end of a bike shop has, in my experience, always been an enjoyable part of the job. The subjects that come up are probably typical to what you’d hear in a kitchen or any other kind of workshop.

In a bike shop the talk does have the expected basis of bikes but other subjects do come up especially with NPR playing in the background or when ever a customer is included in the conversation. Current local events and politics arise and differing levels of politcal/economic angst and disenfranchisement get discussed. It can sometimes be interesting.

Some recent and/or common topics in no sensible or deliberate order:

• general hunger
• fixed gear kids and their fascination with colors
• beauty of Campy craftsmanship
• beauty of old school Suntour/Shimano craftsmanship (cast logos on derailluers and other attention to detail)
• shows attended in the past
• drunken episodes in the past
• how mechanically apt oneself is 
• paying taxes (or not)
• how badly things are being run
• the cobbler’s shoes

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Not much has really happened lately that’s worth posting.

Yeah, that’s not true one bit. A lot has been happening and that’s really why I’ve not written anything. I’m busy as hell managing the shop* and just honestly haven’t had the energy at home to 1) open the laptop and 2) think and then 3) write and finally, because I’m a bit of a freak this way, 4) edit and make sure everything is the way I want it written.

On that subject for a moment. I fully admit I am a stickler for things done “correctly”. I even quote that word because I’ll admit, what’s correct in my mind might not be correct in everyone’s; but in my mind, it’s more the route travelled that’s important than the resultant outcome. If a keen attention to detail is paid en route, then all is well. (Especially because I feel if that is done, the result will likely be the correct one.) †

Studebaker ‡

Bah. The real reason for my even bringing this stickler subject up is I realize it can be difficult to cope with. Personally. I realize that not everyone can, or will, live up to those expectations (not that I think they’re unattainably high). But with that realization, I’m working with myself to alter my rigidity a bit and accept debate and fluctuation of what is “correct”.

* _{More on this subject at some point down the road.}

† _{I’m mostly talking about wrenching on bikes here, but I feel this is generally applicable to most situations in life.}

‡ _{This photo has nothing to do with this post.}