Rain a coming ... or so they say

Well, rain or snow/rain or some snow is being predicted for the second half of this coming weekend. Well it feels cold enough to be close, at least. For now, we had a great week for bike commuting -- it was dry! There were some great mornings of awesome city views, and there was some east wind which was cool for the ride home, which of course added to the joy of going uphill into a headwind, right?

These two images show the change from day to day, with a little difference in my ability to get a good point-and-shoot camera exposure and getting use to my DSLR - lol. The second image was a morning with a bit of fog and shot with the point-and-shoot. The first image I used my Pentax K5. That is one pretty cool thing about Portland is you can go out day after day and come back with a different sense of the same image, in this case Portland - Willamette River - Hawthorne Bridge.

Project MB-1? The MB-1 is doing great and I am loving the ride! The fit is good, I think I have pretty much dialed in seat position and that lines up well with the handlebar position. The Dura-Ace downtube shifters are doing their job and working out nicely. I am getting the hang of friction-only shifting, though I only seem to miss when I am downshifting going uphill - why is that, anyway, haha?

I did do a small update to my wire routing along the top tube rear brake cable set up. To eliminate the need for the zip ties and just clean up the look a bit, I ran a longer piece of spiral wrap that extends a little past each brake cable boss. This keeps the wiring lined up nicely.

Now, there is no more white zip tie on either end and the line is cleaner. The following picture shows how I bridged across the cable boss.

You can see the single wrap around the cable, then a couple wraps around the wiring, then the wrapping around both the wiring and cable housing. This keeps everything nice and tidy. The other thing is that, should I change my mind, which I often do, I can easily remove everything for re-use and without having to undo the brake cable.

Happy New Year, Project MB-1 Continues

Happy new year, everyone!

Our January 1, 2012 began with some great, for winter, weather. Some clouds, but also some sun shining through. Because we  had some afternoon family activities planned, I decided to do a solo, new year day ride. I should note the wind was blowing pretty good from the east (17 mph), which is not unusual for our area. National Weather Service showed gusts up to 24 mph.

Rather than head toward Portland (west) because of the wind, and the fact I ride toward Portland every work day, I planned out an eastward journey. This would also give me one more shake down ride of the MB-1 before it begins its daily commuting duties. This would also be the first test of the the Shimano Dura-Ace shifters which replaced the Silver ones. The Dura-Ace ones  have more friction which should prevent the auto-shifting I experienced on the xmas eve epic ride.

At the junction of the I-205 bike path and the Springwater Corridor trail, seeing the graffiti was a little saddening. I mean, really, not even creative nor artistic nor anything. Just plain ugly. The last time I was east of this junction was the Sunday Parkways way back when.

I stopped at a crossing of Johnson Creek to see some of the restoration work going on. While there, I saw the only other cyclists I would see on my route, 3. I guess most were waiting for the in-town rides. I enjoyed my new, recreation ride - even with all the wind. Part of my route included taking a tour through my old, old neighborhood where I grew up (ages 1 to 16). Structurally everything looked mostly the same. I rode by the house and could see some of the very original structures my Dad had built - side concrete for extending the off-street parking, the back patio roof. Ah, some cool memories.

After that, I enjoyed a helpful push home from the east wind. Ah, yes, a good way to bring in the new year with that first day, sunny, fun ride.

Project MB-1 : Headlight Wiring
As with most projects, at least for me, Project MB-1 is an on-going exercise in my pursuit of perfection and aesthetics. One of the goals was to minimize excessive cable and wiring, to maintain a focus of attention on the frame rather than a lot of the "accessories."

One challenge for me is how to connect the headlight lithium battery pack to the headlight without the wiring being in the way or looking overly "just stuck on." I solved the rear light issue by buying the DiNotte 300R with the battery pack built-in. Since I wanted a smaller profile headlight, that also meant a separate battery pack.

With the battery pack mounted under the seat stay, the wiring would run along the top tube and rear brake cable. Now the trick is how to keep the wiring from flopping around?

Well, after some sitting and staring at the wiring, I figured I needed something that would allow me to use the brake cable to securely attach the wiring. Whatever I used, I also needed to make sure the braking was not affected. As you can see in the picture above, the wiring is routed above the brake cable and there are 3 white, spiral cable wraps. Now the wiring will stay in place and there is no negative affect on braking.

Of course, after I made my own spiral wrap I found a place on-line that has just what I need. I did place an order for some black, spiral wrap (1/8" inside diameter).

I started with a piece of tubing taken from my old refrigerator thermostat sensor (see, there is a value to keeping things around for a little while). To make the spiral, I began snipping at an angle and just kept snipping for a while.

Once I had enough length, a purely, scientific guestimate approach, I test installed a piece to figure out what length I needed for each attachment point. I ended up with approximately 2 wraps on the wiring on either side of a long wrap around the wiring and brake cable.

I guess it is true, necessity is the mother of invention. Now my wiring will stay in place and maintains a fairly clean line along the top tube. Just in time for daily commuting.

(Oh, the on-line store that has a wide range of spiral cable wrap is, Cable Ties And More).