Swing Bike ADD

Remember when I was going to make a swing Bike? Well for some reason it seems like a good time to piece one together. Even though I'm in the middle of another project.

I found this old Roadmaster in the basement and decided it might be a good frame to hack apart and use for a swing bike project. Holy Smokes Batman check these welds! They almost seem to defy logic. I know I'm ignorant about some things, maybe even more things than I know, but something is just not right here. It's obvious the bike was though some abuse, and yet has not come apart. Maybe the logic here is, it can't come apart, if it was never together to begin with.


Yes, that's a Wear your helmut safety sticker . . . Gee Why? Is it because the welds are below the surface of the tube? Does the tube even touch the head tube? Did a team of hampsters wel this thing together from the inside out?

What? . . . Why waste time mitering tubes together? This is what was revealed to me when I hacked the downtube off. That hole is the bottom of the seat tube.

Now time for a picture of some quality at Benetti's.

Well here it is so far. That's a fork steerer sweated into a piece of 1-1/8" 4130, brazed to the seat tube. Nothing fancy. Brazing together old tubing is not fun. It's hard enough to clean new tubing, let alone painted, rusted tubing.

ChainStays pt.2 ... Double Vision & Such

A regular chainstay, and my Chainstay.

Double Vision.

How about Civia Cycles, Loring? This bicycle is really nice. Brooks saddle, Avid DISC brakes, Mavic Rims, Truvative Stem, Post, & cranks, bamboo fenders. It's an internal 3 speed. As you all know, I'm no stranger to the 3 speed. For a Cargo/Commuter I'd have liked it to have a 5+ speed, but a 3 speed will work just fine.

Check it Bleed! Bamboo for the rack panels.

How about this? Combined with the double kickstand, this spring will keep the wheel straight while it's parked, so your bike doesn't tip over and you loose your cargo. Now that's thinking outside the box, before long we are going to see these types of add-ons everywhere. as Banksy says, "Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f'ing sharp knife to it."
— Banksy

A Banksy picture that pretty much seems up the currect global conciousness.

A BMX Kinda Weekend

Well . . . First things first, or First thing's second. I placed 2nd at the Redline Cup Central Qualifier at Raytown BMX.

I was in First place going into the first corner, but I wasn't able to hold off a more skilled rider from St. Louis. The tracks today are not what they used to be, they require more finess than they used to.

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The name of the game is preservation of momentum. You have to know how to use the backsides of the jumps to maintain speed. You have to compress your bike and body weight.

Oh heck . . . . let Barry here show you, He make it look easy, Its smooth relaxed bike control. You can see how he compresses the bike on the backside of the jumps to propel him over the next set of jumps.

Sunset at OTC from BarryNobles on Vimeo

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Out of all the tracks in the central United States, Raytown BMX was also chosen for the Finals in October. We had people from all over the Midwest today. It was good to see, and got to see some old friends come out of the woodwork.
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Also one of the guys bought this PK Ripper Fixie a couple days ago.

Some people don't like it because its trendy, but I kind of like it, maybe it has something to do with being born at the time these things came out. I don't know, I'll let you decide.

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Fluted seatpost is an interesting add on. but the original seats had a red and yellow lighting bolt, If I remember right they did fade a bit in the sun, but never to a point that they were white. -

I didn't get a good picture of it, but the spider has a cheap appearance, it's polished, it's anodized, but it has a pitted surface, it looks like something that comes on a department store bicycle. I think they should have something different.

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But I have to say . . . These are way cool. I think it's a pretty cool bike.

Entry

Why we ride.

We ride for the different perspectives the view from the saddle can give us. Sometimes the view presents us with a puzzle or optical illusion of sorts.

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Sometimes it can throw us back to a different time
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Sometimes it just captures or curiousitys
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I saw this today.

It's a SE fixed gear bike with woodgrain finish. Officialy know as the Lager -Wood Grain I had two people walking behind me comment about how they like the finish. That toptube pad has a zipper

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Heres a close up. I think anybody could emulate this. I'm not sure what to think. One one side I expected it to be more high-tech, but then I kind of like the primative method they used

(Guess I need to trim that cable some . . . Oppps)

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Seat with Woodgrain effect.
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Viw from the cockpit. I might have to setup my bike with pursuit bars. It's kind fun.
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You never know what you'll find at Midwest Cyclery

How about this.

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That "this" has to do with this "this"

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. A set of Campitello, fur lined, winter cycling shoes.
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Back in the day cycling shoes had wood soles.
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and cleats used to look like this.
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You had one bolt that would maintain the cleat's position, then you would nail/tack the cleat to the bottom of the shoe. That's right, better get it right.

A Fat Tire, Cruiser kinda day

I got to assemble three of these cruisers for New Belgium this weekend.

Fat Tire Amber Ale, A feat of balance.

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I think the most striking feature about this bike is the front hub. It looks like an old Campy C-Record from the late 80's . . . AKA the Sheriff's Star.

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We also got to sample some of their seasonal, Mighty Arrow beer.
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Yep . . .

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. . . and that's the way it looks.

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I think it's pretty good, and it's unique in the fact it has a honey malt base, which is promenent from the get go. I guess you can say it's like a cross between a Pale Ale and a Mead. If you want to try something new, then give this beer a try.

Last Week's Ride

Well . . . I had 3 people show up for the ride. I thought since I put up flyers at the coffee shop and rolled back to milage to 12 miles I might have gotten some more local participation. I could have got more participation if I posted the ride on Bike Info, JCBC , or other calenders, but it would have yielded the same local turnout I'm afraid. One rider did turn out though. I really strong rider named Seth. He says he does a lot of riding, and his performance prooved that, not that we were going fast since it was the 12 miles of leisure. It's just since there were 3 people we rode at a pace the whole group found comfortable.

Hey WunnSpeed I still have those glasses. I believe it was at the Cruise the Blues that I robbed these baby's from you because I forgot my sunglasses. As side from turning my nose bridge green they work perfect.

Click this sentence, then Scroll down to "Base Metal" and learn why your skin turns green.

What no Colnago? . . . Nope, Got Bob's Kona, King Zing

It's a cabon fiber frame. I suspect the whole bike weights around 15Lbs. Since it's Carbon fiber they can manipulate the tubes on the frame into different shaped to flex in certain ways. For example this is not your typical Chainstay shape.

On the otherside note the shark fin action. I'm sure they have a reason for this other than making it look really neat.
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Full Campagnolo Record . The performance of the group is flawless, and resistence to wear is Epic.
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FSA Carbon Bars, Stem, and Post.

Like Johnny Rotten says "This is what you want, this is what you get"! It's really Light, It's Stiff. It works really well. It's a race bike . . . Period. Contrasting this bike to the Colnago I was riding last week, I found the steering more stable, I found the Colnago was more twitchy. However I found this bike ride very . . . Dull. I'm going to give it another week, since it rained all last week and I had to ride the Raleigh. Plus I will add the frame is a tad too big.

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Manufactures talk about frame flex, component flex, whatever. If you buy into all that. I think most of it is in your head. The Colnago was Steel, with a square taper Bottom Bracket. The Kona is Carbon Fiber with external bearing Bottom Bracket. I could not get the chain to rub the front deraileur under stress any differently on both bikes.

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I like to go into bike shops and soon enough the guy will try to sell me a bicycle, and soon enought he's using the phrase "Transfer of Power". Look. I bet the difference in lose of drive train power between my Raliegh, and Kona is not much over the whole entire ride. . . . Call me "Crusty" . . . Call me old and grumpy. You will feel it when you out of the saddle and giving it H.E. Double Hockey sticks, but what percentage of the ride is that? . . . but that's just me. Ask anybody who knows me, I'm king of the phrase "Run What you Brung" . . . or is that "Broughten"?

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The real difference is ride geometry. If I can couple the steering performance of the Kona, to the ride perfomance of the Colnago, I'm golden!