Mild Winter Means Great Riding

Portland has been having an extremely mild winter - no extreme cold and, even, not a lot of rain! We have had some moody foggy mornings which is kind of cool, I like the imagery of fog - is that weird? The morning commutes are, like last year, providing more solitude which is nice for mellowing the mind before thrusting myself into the hecticness of the workday.

Each day is a different day including the scenery that surrounds me. Even during my second year of bike commuting, there are times I just have to stop to take a picture and enjoy the light, shadows, calmness. Occassionally I will wonder if those passing think I am a rookie commuter, snapping pictures of, to them, just another day. See, that's why I need this, to distract my constantly fleeting thoughts.

One would think project SUB (MB-5) is no longer a project ... well, not quite. I decided to use it for test lab as I plan out another MB-1 project (Project MB-1.2). Here I am testing a variation on the drop bar, On One Midge bar and playing with a set of balloon tires, Schwalbe Big Apples (26" x 2.15" = 55-559).

Riding around on this set up is actually enjoyable and fun. The Midge bars are much better than the Moustache bars, since they have actual straight tops and the brake levers are not completely horizontal, and there is some drop to them. The balloon tires are quite different and not as slow as one might think. The last time I rode around on tires that took such low pressure (currently running 30psi) was way back in my childhood days on the Schwinn single speed!

Okay, so when I build up MB-1.2, I'll use the Midge bars and Schwalbe Big Apples. Having two MB-1s will be fun and they will be fairly different for different riding purposes, but both will be fun riding bikes. SUB will be re-converted to the errand bike, the one I can use panniers on.

There seems to have been quite a few Bridgestones for sale in and around the Portland area recently. Given that, you would think I would see more Bridgestones on the road, but that does not seem to be the case. So, the other day, I stopped at City Bikes on my way home to check their used parts bins for some brake parts. While paying, someone came in and asked, "Who owns the MB-1?" I said, "It's mine." He said, "Nice bike."

When I left and as I unlocked my bike, I realized why he asked. There locked to the next over rack was a Bridgestone MB-0.

The MB-0 is on the right. Cool, a first for me!

Project MB-1 Progressing; SUB Back to Drop Bars

I will start in reverse order of this blog's title. After a couple of days I had to swap out the moustache bars and put drop bars back on the SUB. My wrists were not happy with the limited positions and I really missed the tops for cruisin' and climbin'. I guess I am just a drop bar girl.

Next week our Team NWEA tshirts should be ready for pick up so I can finish up my team captain duties. In some ways, I feel a void as far as bike commuting support, since we are basically back to "normal" bike commuting. As the weather has changed I have noticed fewer bikes at work, but that's cool.

I continue to be loving the fall colors and the cooler temps, I guess I was ready to  have a change in the color of the scenery, and riding without totally sweating out on the ride in. With fewer folks out in the mornings I can relax and sort of meditate on the way in to work.

Project MB-1 (uber SUB)

I am looking forward to starting the assembly part of my project. The frame is off at Rad Finishes (Portland, OR) and work will be starting on Monday with stripping. I am having a brand new wheelset built, also in Portland, by Sugar Wheel Works. So, I have unbusy hands right now, well only if you exclude all the internet researching, so I am mentally picturing different ideas, products, and such. Also, building up the list of odds and ends to not lose track of. Some of my new parts will come from swapping with the SUB, which will save some dollars and, yet, not totally make the SUB unrideable.

See, this is what it looks like inside my imagination ... "I could do this, and if I do this, then I could do that ..."

Key highlights will be:

• Drop bars - the good ones from the SUB (which I have already taken off and put the other Cinelli ones on the SUB).
• New Tektro brake levers in silver (SUB still has her black ones).
• Down tube shifter bosses w/friction only shift levers.
• This allows me to see if I can get 8 or 9 cogs on the back with the original derailleur.
• Oh, paint wise, I am going with a reproduction of the original pearl tusk (slightly off white base with a red pearl overcoat).
• The new wheelset will consist of Velo Orange hubs, Velocity Synergy rims and wearing Continental SportContact 32-559 (26x1.3") tires - yep, it will have locking skewers, too.

This is will be a fun project, really looking forward to that first ride. A bonus has been to get to know the local folks, who know other local folks in terms of bike builders, painters, wheelbuilders. I am glad I made the choice to buy local for the service work.

Project MB-1 Begins, Mild Change to SUB

The "new" MB-1 arrived home this past Thursday. Excitedly, I opened up the shipping box to see what lay inside. Overall condition is good, the previous owner(s) seemed to have put miles on it. Many worn areas on the frame, scratches here and there on the components, replaced front hub and brake levers. Well, I did know it would be a project bike, haha.

After taking some baseline pictures it was time to tear it down, get an upclose look at things. Oh my, seems like a lot of internal coating of rust - was this dunked at one time? Headset bearings look good, looks like they were recently regreased, but wet, brown grease coated the stem and seat post. Hmm, what's a good paint job these days. And if I paint, do I keep it original or make it mine, all mine?

Gee, so many options and choices - wheels, handlebars, colors.

With the bike completely disassembled, the first thing I did was to remove any external rust spots, then totally WD-40 inside the frame, I mean I drenched it. No dents in the frame, though, that's good, just lot's of paint chips, no paint in big sections along the chain stay and bottom near the rear axle.

Well, while I decide on paint, and I have a few requests for quotes out in email, I figure I can clean up some things to get a better look at 'em. Let's start with the derailleurs. Suntour XC Pro - good stuff based on some internet research. That's cool, saves me some money.

Okay, front derailleur, pretty dirty, not a lot of maintenance done - at least relative to my OCD maintenace - lol. Pass 1, spray down with WD-40 (sorry, don't mean to plug a specific product). Let soak, wipe, wipe, wipe. Next, disassemble and clean up pivot points, in the nooks and crannies (yep, those are official terms, okay, my official terms) and more wipe, wipe, wipe. Cotton swabs work pretty good for the tight spaces.

Except for a few surface rust spots on the cage itself, they scrape off easily, the derailleur is in pretty good shape. Polish up the aluminum sections with rubbing compound, grease up the pivot points and reassemble. It's a keeper.

On to the rear derailleur. Some scratches, probably lay down scratches versus crash scratches. Same plan, spray and disassemble. Cool, roller bearing jockey wheels, hopefully they are still in good condition, though I noticed you can still find replacement bearings. Probably first time this has been super serviced.

Separate cage from main body, clean and waterproof grease it, clean, clean, clean everything. Mild polish, grease and reassemble. Good to go. Put both into plastic baggies, just waiting to be reunited with the frame.

Here's my Flikr set for Project MB-1. So far, only the pics of the bike as I received it. As I progress, I update the changes.

One crazy(?) idea I had was should I go from the MB-1's flat bars to a moustache bar. There seems to be only 2 schools, love 'em and hate 'em. Well, to see, I have put one on the SUB. I'm really a drop-bar girl, so the nice drop bars will go on the MB-1. The SUB, I figure, will be the short errand bike so the moustache bars should be fine there.

Well, there's the bar. The nice thing is most people have to convert their shifters to bar-ends. Since I  have my custom stem mount for them, I just had to install the brake levers. Cool. Oh, I did swap levers between the left and right lever mounts. The Tektro levers are assymetric and the curve did not feel right, so I switched them. Now the curved section is at the bottom and is a more comfortable, natural feel when using the brakes. Weird, since it was not a problem when the levers were in the standard vertical position.

I did a test ride today, maybe 3ish miles. I miss the "tops" of my drop bars. I would not want to do long rides with these, but for errands, I think they'll be fine. I can also probably survive commuting, just not as much fun and definitely not as many different  hand positions. We will see tomorrow, heh?

Bike Video Camera Going Serious Now ...

Mornings are still my favorite time, riding in to work, quiet, fairly peaceful and serene. Here's Portland on Thursday morning and, as I would later discover, with the sun serendipitously reflecting off "Big Pink" onto the Willamette River. The downside? Actually having to go inside a hermetically sealed, atmospherically isolated office building (read: no opening windows for fresh air ventilation). <bleh>

My experimentation with mounting my point-and-shoot camera on the bike's fork has been interesting. They are so handy for typical point-and-shoot (duh) picture-taking but only if you are holding them in your hands. When I shoot while riding, and holding the camera, I can feel the auto-focus point, pause for just a bit, then take the picture. I found I can't as easily tell when I am at the auto focus point which means the camera is not well focused to take my 4-shot set.

Case in point, the above is one of 4, all of them not quite in a level of happy focus. Taking video with that camera was  bit better, though because of its mass, it tends to create a bit shaky videos. Here's a sample I threw together as a test of mounting my camera.

Fork Mount Test at Vimeo

It's not all bad, I did get a few good shots in there - reminds me of my 35mm film days, take a lot to get a few good images.



Here the camera is mounted on the right side fork. Same as when I hand-held my moving wheel shots.

Here is a shot from a different day, but with the camera mounted on the left hand fork. I like these better since here we ride on the right, this just lets the wheel be the framing device rather than parked cars and curbs.

All this while and for some time now, I have been researching the various portable video cameras, also called POVs (point of view) and helmet cams. The one I really liked was also the most expensive - bummer. Well somehow I came across a discount gear site and found one at 40-some percent off - too good to be true? Turns out it was an open box unit and was missing a couple of cables, but those are cheap, so I done bought it. What is it? A V.I.O. POV HD.

I test rode it mounted to the bike on Friday. Will do some helmet mount tests. The one thing I find with a bike mounted camera is I can only shoot in the direction the bike is going. Will see how I like a helmet mount which would give me move shooting directions. I'll do up a test set - ha, when I get some time.

It's been fun to have a creative project, it's been quite a while since I had photography goals beyond taking pictures of my son. Okay, I have been taking commuting pictures, but this latest activity has me pushing beyond the "stop the bike, look at scene, take the picture, get back on the bike" scenario.

Well, that's the highlights, hope you all are out enjoying some great riding and other adventures!

You know you are a bike geek when ...

99% enjoying our warm, dry summer weather - starting to get spoiled for sure. That 1% is dealing with being more sweaty than I would like when I get to work - and I've been pannier'ing it to help. I'm just sweaty - I am trying to ride easy in the morning, too, really.

Well, I have to lighten up some more about judging cyclists who do not respond to my hi greetings, I just encountered the same thing at work with an unknown co-worker. I said, "hi," he said nothing. So, therefore, it appears it is a people phenomenon and, again, not a transportation thing. Hmmm.

Okay, on to the reason for the title of this blog entry. Actually I have two proofs, ha.

1. Felt there was too much black around the stem/handlebar area because of my thumb shifter mounts, soooooo - I sanded off the top of the clamps removing the powder coat. Then I fine grit sanded to smooth them up and then I hand polished them. Oooo, me like much better as there is less black showing. Cool.
   
   
2. With my experimenting with low angle photography, I felt I needed something that was a bit safer, sooooo - I built a custom mount for my camera, big surprise, huh? With another armrest clamp, more aluminum flat stock and a ball head, voila'. Oh, just for my own sense of safety, since the fork is tapered, I used a fender strut to act as a stop to prevent the mount from sliding downward.

Now, I can have the camera ready and just reach down and push the shutter button. I can also set the camera for video, but the image is pretty shaky. What I have been doing is using the multi-shot mode, set for about 5 consecutive shots. Once I have done some fine-tuning/tweaking then I'll clean it all up and paint it up black.

And that's getting my bike geek on ... hahaha.