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.

Fall, Project MB-1 Heading to Paint

More and more the fall colors are coming to Portland. With the fairly dry weather, so far, it has been pleasant riding, seeing the leaves on the ground to break up the otherwise boring grey of concrete. The color variety is nice, especially knowing that bare trees and an overall grey landscape is not far off.

While most of my neighbors mow and rake, I think the yard is quite lovely to look at with the mix of leaves from the neighbor's birch. Plus it helps the hide the brown-grey of my hibernated grass from our hot, recent summer heat.

Riding is changing as well. A tad fewer cyclists, definitely fewer others out jogging or walking or wandering along the Eastbank Esplanade, most definitely fewer in the mornings. On the days I ride with Evan until his school (only a bit over a mile away) the bike commuting crowd traffic is heavier, I guess because it is also at rush hour, 8ish. I do also have to admit to playing some Cat. 6 games, but, hey, commuting should be fun after all.

Project MB-1
The bike has been in disassembly for a while and I have been researching, getting estimates, researching, bidding on some "vintage" parts, mentally designing and redesigning to create a new old bike that is me.

I'll likely swap some parts with the SUB, since I purchased some good, quality items and put the MB-1 parts on the SUB, which are still good. For sure the MB-1 (still working on a new name, but maybe it will be the new SUB, or SUB par deux), will have drop bars, the 170mm crankset. I think as I start putting it back together I'll figure out the smaller details - cable housing colors and that sort of thing.

I went ahead and ordered up a new wheelset, having them hand-built in Portland by Sugar Wheels. I won't go into details until they are done and I'll accompany the description with pictures. They will be nice, for sure.

The other big time consumer, and a few dollars more, will be the re-painting. I decided to stick with the original color and design (pearl tusk) and the decals will be embedded under clear coats for better durability. I thought about a color, but that seemed to "blend" too much with all the other bikes out there. I thought about a purer white like the SUB, but, then, I already have a bike with that color, huh.

To make it unique, I'll be building it with, are you ready, down tube shifters! So, while it is stripped of paint, I am having the cable stops removed and shifter bosses brazed on. For starters, I'll use friction shifters to manage the 7 cogs in back, unless I find an amazingly great deal on a good set of 8 or 9, but I'll be running a crankset designed for a 7 speed chain,. Down the road, mayhaps.

I am looking forward to getting all the bits and parts together and the fun of watching it all come together. I am especially looking forward to the first ride! WooHoo!

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?

Fall Has Arrived

Yep, that's right, Portland is seeing the changing of seasons. Just when I was really enjoying the sunny, warm weather, which seemed to come so late this year. We have had some rain, more clouds, but at least we still have reasonably warm weather, though I must admit it does feel cool at times.

The changing seasons has been fun to see how the videoing changes. You know, things like wiping the rain from the lens once in a while. I've also been taking my new DSLR around so I can learn all the nuances and controls (the picture above was taken with it). Maybe I'll also have a chance to try out the video mode.

Our Bike Commute Challenge month was a lot of fun! Our work team really was awesome, and looks like everyone had a really good time. I know I enjoyed seeing all the new commuters, getting to meet people at work who I've not really met before. Sometimes, it takes more than just work activity to bring you and your coworkers together! Oh, we ended up with 500.5 trips for 5,314.80 miles for a bike trip rate of 8.3%.

To recognize the team, I put this poster together and placed it in our lobby area at work. The nice thing is that others are seeing what the team has accomplished and are very positive and supportive.

I must be feeling a lack of bike projects as I ebay'd another Bridgestone project bike, a 1992 MB-1, highly prized in Bridgestone circles (Bridgestone's top of the line at the time). Here's the posting picture:

This is the same size as my SUB, 1 year older, and lugged versus welded joints. Weight-wise, the MB-1 should be a bit lighter, will run it on my scale and see where it starts at. Who knows, Evan may get the other bike as an all weather and I will build this up as my new SUB all arounder. Stay tuned.

Enjoy your season change and, who knows, maybe I'll see you out there on the roads.

Bike Commute Challenge, Sunday Parkways, and More

September has continued our amazing summer weather! September also kicked off the Bicycle Transportation Alliance's (BTA) Bike Commute Challenge month. Our work team was off to a fun start and we have been enjoying not just the official competition, but we are also having a fun team competition using "jersey" awards. We have the GC yellow jersey, new rider white jersey, sprinter's jersey, mountain polka dot jersey and we have weekly stage winners (1st to 3rd) and awards for those doing 100% commute rates. My self and one other are co-captains so we have excused ourselves from the awards.

To add to the recognition we have a "wall of fame" where we post each week's results for every one's view. What do you think?

I have realized I have not taken as many still photos recently because I have been playing around with my POV video camera. Also, I am learning about video editing and cutting and stuff. Some of my shareable stuff is here - My Vimeo Videos. (Of course, I have plugged my video site before - haha).

To help encourage my photography (that's my story and I am sticking to it) I upgraded my old Pentax *ist D to a K5. Wow, so much more to learn, including the DSLR's video capability. Truly, so much change to photography through technology. I still fondly remember my pro-slide film days, though and am still convinced there is not a medium that shoots at the same depth and color.

The lead-in photo up above is from my point and shoot and is a stitch of 3 individual shots. I took this of the Portland skyline across the Willamette River along the Eastbank Esplanade on one of my morning commutes. I have been roaming on Flikr and Vimeo and picking ideas on different shooting styles and techniques, so I am looking forward to some experimentation while learning my new camera - yippee!

The final Portland Sunday Parkways 2011 started with a drenching! I headed to the event from home and shortly after leaving the downpour started and lasted over 5 minutes. Glad it was at least mildly warm! The sun peaked out here so it was still enjoyable and I can now say I have one year where I rode all of the year's events.

I love the mural at The Community Cycling Center - so bright, fun, cheerful. What fun if all commercial buildings had something like that! Here's more photos I took, My Flikr Sunday Parkways NE Pictures.

With the rainy season upon us I am busy getting out the wet gear and I am planning out getting the SUB and my son's bike winterized. Seems like a while now since the last time I had to plan out for rain, but at least I know what to do since I started all this commuting smack dab in the middle of our winter wetness. The days are getting shorter, I do miss the daylight.

Well, happy riding to you all!

Sunday Parkways SE, More Helmet Cam Fabrication

Wow, this year the SE Portland edition of Sunday Parkways was not as much fun. Oh, it was cool to see all the people and the diversity of people out. With the huge growth over last year, maybe the time has come to break out of being hidden away along narrow side streets and really duplicate the Bogata event by closing off main roadways like our SE Hawthorne and a section of E Burnside. This seems even more needed if part of the message is to increase awareness that bikes are more than just for "play time" to the masses.

Evan and I, where there were any people, were basically nearly stopped and using the bikes more like scooters with seats. Some sections had too many parked cars which narrowed the neighborhood side streets. Near the parks, some of the vendor booths were set up in the street so not only was the road narrower, but with booth visitors in the street there was little to now room. Time for a different event for us? We'll see.

I do think it is great to see so many people out participating, and not just the cyclists. Pedestrians and families, really awesome. I have more pics on my flikr site:

My Sunday Parkways SE PDX Pictures

Warning: Geeky, nerdy content ahead ...

I have some editing to do on a bunch of my test videos, but I can share some more lessons and thoughts. Based on some internet research I had been shooting 720p/60fps as this is suppose to make for smoother playback. Out of curiosity, I switched over to the highest setting of 1080p/30fps. Wow, in addition to having the full ultra-wide angle (142 degrees), I think the imagery is better, smoother. So, I've been shooting at that setting this week on my commutes and will do some test editing. I've run my handlebar mount and have re-designed my helmet mount.

Why re-design? Based on both the bike and helmet mount I have found the key is to create an extremely non-flexing system. Bike-wise, I have better results using my home-made mount over the parts from the ultra-mount. The reason is that on a bike, there is so much vibration transmitted during riding that any of the rubber cushioning of the bought mount transfers additional shake to the camera head. Using an absolutely rigid mount and 30fps creates a very stable image.

Now, applying this same learning to the helmet mount was a bit tricky since there is always a bit of looseness between helmet and head and it is amazing how much shake your head takes, even on smooth roads. Again, changing to 30fps helped quite a bit. I also picked up some helmet pads (thanks Bike Gallery!) for free and fine-tuned the head to helmet fit. I then tried a few different mount designs and placements.

The above picture shows the camera mount and camera head in its current set up. With the ultra wide angle, I can get a portion of the helmet in the image and still have a lot of image space for my surroundings. The final test will be tomorrow's full commute ride versus the up and down the street test I did today.

The bracket itself? An earlier mount I made that I curved to create more surface to contact the curvature of the helmet. I then stuck a piece of no-slide rubber so the mount would not move around on the smooth helmet surface. I used a shock cord and slide clamp from an old pack to cinch the mount snugly to the helmet. Note the mount can be ever so slightly twisted to align it with the helmet center line.

Notice the turn knob on the left? I have a slot so I can adjust the vertical and rotation of the camera head. Using the knob I can make adjustments during my ride (after stopping to the side of course). There is actually enough space I can also turn the camera around and shoot backwards (something I am thinking of trying).

Looking forward to testing this new setup tomorrow. So far, with the setting and mount changes, the images are much better and more satisfactory to this perfectionist - lol.

If this works as my short tests have shown I may actually use the helmet mount as my primary. This is much easier to switch between bikes, since the mount is on my helmet and allows me to shoot what my head is pointing at rather than just where the bike/handlebars are pointing.

I will on getting some of today's and yesterday's test rides edited and uploaded to my Vimeo account soon. Really.

Week Off From Commuting - Fun with Video - A Great Ride with a Friend

No working this week, so no bike commuting pictures either. I could definitely get use to all this free time - just need to figure out this whole everything costs money thing - hahaha. Portland has been having a dry summer and I have to say I am getting spoiled. I don't have to carry or wear the rain gear, I can carry way less stuff and I don't have to wear layers since both morning and afternoon are very comfortable on the bike.

Even with more people out in the mornings, it is still my favorite time to ride. The heat has not built up, yet and I tend to ride a little easier since I do not want to be all sweaty at work. Helps that I wear my work clothes commuting - have I mentioned I do not like changing clothes multiple times in the day?

Me being me I have been spending time trying to refine my POV mounting for my helmet and the bikes. What a CHALLENGE! Helmet mountings - did you know they do not design a helmet with helmet cams in mind? Well, they don't. Trying to attach a flat adaptor to a non-flat surface is utterly frustrating, not to mention near impossible. When I finally found a pretty good spot, I learned a couple of key lessons: 1) even super snug the helmet moves and jounces around; 2) I move my head a LOT! Both of those learnings have led to less than ideal videos, they are okay, just less than ideal.

Now, I do like the helmet mounting because as things come up (read cars and other road hazards) I can turn and capture 'em on video. Watching the videos one has to be careful about causing vertigo and nausea, though - lol. Also, when mounted without any static item such as the edge of helmet, the image seems a bit boring, the floating camera syndrome, I guess. That's true even when bike mounting the camera.

Now, the bike mounting is great, because I know what is being captured and the image is a bit more stable. A low mounting, such as on the fork is too low except for a few moments. So far, my favorite mounting is just behind the stem to have part of my handlebars in the video. Below is the latest version.

The goal was to have something relatively simple, stable and easy to remove and/or adjust. Because the camera head is small and light, I can use less materials and still have the camera head stable. The mount is a hybrid, using some parts from my custom mounting bin of parts and a piece of a store bought clamp system. Removing one screw I can take the camera head off, and the clamp mechanism allows me to easily adjust the direction of the view. Oh, that lens hood is a home-made one, since VIO does not make a lens hood. Surprise, surprise it is made from a piece of PVC plumbing pipe.

Oh, if you want to see some of my practicing videos, I have added a link over there on the right ---> titled, My Vimeo Videos (yep, that's right, a shameless plug).

Last Sunday (8/21) I rode downtown and met up with my friend, Sandra. We walked around where the Portland Century riders were coming in - looked like a lot of hot, tired people. Kind of miss that. Makes me, almost, want to do an organized ride. We'll see, should be a few rides, yet, to come. From there we walked over to the start/finish linefor the Giro di Portland criterium, next door to the NW REI. Some pretty fast riders out there. Lot's of men riders, only about 25 women racers. Hopefully that will change and we'll see more women racers so there will be more races.

Wednesday I had a great ride with Sandra. We rode out to the new Cartlandia for a lunch stop. Cartlandia is a parking area for food carts and there is also a bike shop there to help with minor repairs and such. Cartlandia is right on the Springwater Trail where it crosses SE 82nd Ave. Springwater Trail is really nice and I am very impressed with how well it was put together. I really had a great time riding with Sandra, such a wonderful change from either just commuting or riding in those huge Sunday Parkways events (don't get me wrong, I enjoy them, too).

Thursday I rode downtown with my son, Evan. We were off to see an exhibit at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center about Hapa (part Asian, part something(s) else). We also walked around the permanent internment exhibit. Evan saw his late grandfather listed with his family and where they were located at Minidoka (Idaho).

Fortunately, the center is just a block and a half from work, so we parked our bikes there. We also got lot's of ice water, as it was pretty hot and fairly humid. On our ride he got some lessons about what to watch out for as we had a car cut us off by turning left. She was talking on the cell phone illegally and I guess did not feel like yielding to two cyclists crossing the street. Traffic was stopped due to a light, oh well. These are always good opportunities to help him be safe and defensive as he is out and about on his bike.

Phew, I think that catches up on what's been bike happening. Oh, yeah, next week (Thursday) is the start of our Bike Commute Challenge month through the BTA. Hoping we get some more new riders and get a lot of participation. This Sunday is Sunday Parkways SE Portland so Evan and I will be heading over, probably leave home around 11am (at least earlier rather than later). So I will get some good fun riding in before starting back to the commuting riding Monday.

Hope you all have been out enjoying the summer riding and for those areas hit with mega temps, hope you are all staying hydrated.