nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category cycling

Bike Rack

March 6, 2008

Danielle’s Townie and my bike on my car.

Today the gigantic box containing the Thule 917 T2 bike rack which I had ordered from backcountry.com arrived today. Upon opening the box I found that the contents were a bit disshoveled and the instruction manual was missing. Also, a few of the parts were scratched a bit, and there was a rather scuffed up, but spare, pipe end cap in the box. After looking the rack over, based on the wear on the nuts, I figured that someone had purchased it, assembled it up to the point where it had to be put on the car, then put it back as it was, and returned it. This meant that it really didn’t have any wear except. The parts kit hadn’t even been opened.

The scratches (example) aren’t too bad, and being a car part I figured it would eventually get a few scratches on it anyway, so I decided to go ahead with assembling it.

I finished putting things together, fit both Danielle’s bike and mine on there, then used a plumb bob (really, a washer and some sort of high tension fishing line I found in a park) to measure the distance between the end of each wheel and the center post. I then moved the bike racks side to side, and now both bikes fit, nicely centered on the vehicle, with plenty of clearance between them.

All in all, I’m quite happy with it. The rack doesn’t take a standard hitch pin, instead coming with a bolt and lock washer which should hold the rack very securely in the hitch. One particularly great part is the fit of Danielle’s bike. Because of the fender on it I was afraid that the mechanism for holding the front wheel down would require removal of the fender. Well, as can be seen here, I was able to securely fit the clamp in front of the fender where it still securely holds the wheel. Yay!

If you’d like to see more photos of the bike rack on my car, please take a look at then end of this page (photo gallery retired) and all of this page.

automotivecyclingmoved from livejournal

Bike Rack

February 24, 2008

So, now that Danielle has a bike, I need a bike rack for carrying them. I can’t really use hang-on-trunk rack, nor do I want a roof rack. After seeing ‘s experiences installing a hitch on his Civic I think a rear hitch mount rack would be best. But, what kind?

There are two kinds of hitch racks; those which the bikes hang from and those which cradle the wheels. With Danielle’s bike not having any horizontal pieces, I can’t really get a hanging type. That leaves me with the wheel nestling type. Unfortunately those all use a bar to hold down the front wheel, which may have issues with the fender on Danielle’s bike.

That all said, I came across these photos of someone using a Thule T2 wheel-nestling-type-rack on a Civic Si. I think this is the bike rack I’m going to end up with, even if I have to sort things out with the fender.

This should be good for taking bikes up north, to local parks, or things like that. It’ll cost a bit more than I wanted to spend (about $450 total), but it should be nicely usable. And, thankfully, the rack can be moved to other vehicles in the future.

automotivecyclingmoved from livejournal

Danielle’s New Bike

February 23, 2008

2007 Electra Townie 3

Here’s Danielle’s new bike, a lime green 2007 Electra Townie 3. That is, three speed, internal gearing, with a rear coaster brake and a front V-brake. It also has the optional black plastic fenders fitted, which I think look great. The thing I particularly like about the plastic accessory fenders is that should something happen to them, they can be replaced. Bikes which come with metal painted to match fenders would be really hard to replace should they get scraped / scratched / bent.

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal

Second Honda Music Link For Auction

February 17, 2008

1Honda / Acura Music Link for Auction

After a rather complex day (good wandering around at the park, bad DIY experiences not at my house), I came home and went for a nice 5.11 mile bike ride around the neighborhoods, condos, and sidewalks around here. I was a bit limited by some non-cleared areas which still had 6″ of slush on them, but otherwise things were pretty good. I finished it off by riding one lap around my neighborhood as fast as possible, which left me plenty winded when I got home. That was nice.

After rather slowly carrying the trash out I headed downstairs and took some pictures of my original Honda Music Link, the one which prompted the Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review and, to some degree, caused me to learn quite a bit about electronics, firmware programming, etc. Listing the auction was really simple, as I used my previous HML auction as a template. Here is the current auction, #290207606818, if you are interested.

Now I’m just sitting here sipping a tasty beer, which will be the subject of another post… Then maybe I’ll watch some Trailer Park Boys.

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal

Still More Bike Stuff

February 16, 2008

Shimano SH-MT40 Mountain Bike Shoes

Today Danielle and I headed out to some bike shops attempting to find other places which would have the Electra Townie she wants. We didn’t have much luck, but did end up at REI, where a bunch of stuff was on clearance. I ended up getting that pair of bike shoes seen there for $54.93.

See, I normally wear boots. For the last 12 years or so, my standard shoes have been issue US military combat boots. They are comfortable, wear very well, and (now) are rather padded with cloth uppers and Gore-Tex lining. While I’ve been wearing them for biking, they really aren’t the best choice, so I had hoped to get some running or trail shoes. When at REI I decided to try on some bike shoes and ended up deciding to (eventually) purchase a pair of these Keen bike sandals. While wandering around and getting ready to leave I ended up coming across these Shimano SH-MT40 shoes in a size which fits me (12.5, of all things) at a rather nice discount.

It’s a bit odd to me to be wearing normal shoes, especially biking ones, but they seem pretty nice. They are snugly comfortable width-wise with the (expectedly) very solid sole, with mounting for cleats. I’m tempted to get some manner of pedal / cleat setup for it, but I’m not quite sure what I want yet. Shimano makes a nice looking platform / clip in combination pedal which I think would work well for my type of casual use. There’s also the reasonably priced Crank Bros. Eggbeaters at the other end of the spectrum, but I’m not sure about those either. If any of you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

I also ended up picking up a pair of Ergon GP1-L handgrips. After playing with these a few months back I’d been wanting them, and as expected they are really comfortable. I went for a short ride around the neighborhood after installing them and it’s just simply a lot more comfortable than using normal soft rubber grips. Here is a photo of those grips on my bike, without the endcaps fitted.

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal

More Bike Stuffs

February 9, 2008

Bike in Stand

Today I ran by Fraser Bike with Danielle and picked up second bottle cage for my bike. While there I asked if they also sell the stands used on their floor models, and it turns out that they do, for $41.99. This stand, the RK-B RAKK STORAGE STAND is just a nice, simple roll-in stand which is extremely stable.

You can also see the rear rack, snap-in bag, light, and second bottle cage there.

I questioned getting the rack and bag (and basket) for a while, but it’s pretty light weight and seems to work out quite well. Unfortunately that bag there, the Topeak RX TrunkBag EX, is the smallest one which will latch into the rack. It holds everything I’d want to bring with me (spare tube, pump, Cliff bar, multi-tool, patch kit, phone, wallet, keys, lights, etc) with plenty of room to spare, so (for now) I’ve had to stuff a inflatable packing bubble thing in there. At least it’ll be good when going for multi-hour rides down the trails near here. I can stick a sandwhich or whatnot in there and stop to eat a bit before continuing on.

Now I think it’s time to go get some dinner. I’m thinking some decent beer, and maybe pizza… although… that’s not sounding so hot either. Hrm.

acquired thingscyclingmoved from livejournal

Creaking Bike

February 3, 2008

Also, I need to figure out why my bike is creaking. The sound appears to be coming from the center of the top tube when weight is shifted between the seat and pedals. Online research is saying that it may be a seat post in need of lube.

cyclingmoved from livejournal

Winter Cycling

February 3, 2008

56 minutes, 8.1 miles, most of that through snow, about 1/4 of that through snow-covered fields and front lawns where people don’t have sidewalks.

I’m a bit winded.

Only bottomed out once, where a pile of snow along the edge of a curb dropped about 16 inches to the road, and I got stuck on it.

cyclingmoved from livejournalweather

VG’s Bike Rack

January 19, 2008

So, the note I sent to VG’s yesterday? I got a response this afternoon, and it’s good:

Dear Mr. Vigneau....

Thank you for your email. Your request is an excellent one. It seems that in the scramble to get the store open, we missed installing a bike rack. I have ordered one and it should arrive at the store within the next week or so. We'll get it installed as soon as it arrives. We look forward to having you shop at the store and thank you again for the great suggestion.

Have a good weekend!

Regards....

Bill Ogle
VG's Food Center

phone 810.629.xxxx
fax 866.706.xxxx

This is excellent. Here is the route from my house to there, and as you can see, it’s pretty darn short. Very, very bikable. I will be avoiding riding in Schoenherr, as it is a 50MPH road with no shoulders (only curbs) and loads of people driving really, really horrible. (If you know this area, you know the sort… it’s >60% SUVs and trucks, swerving around the people making turns, with ~20% of drivers talking on cell phones.)

But, anyway, yeah. This is good!

Today Danielle and I did a bunch of running around as well. I ended up getting a rack for the back of my bike, the Explorer w/ disc brake mounts. I was going to get a smallish bag for holding the small, necessary bits, but instead I think I’ll get the RX Trunk Bag EX instead. It’s only about $10 more than a small underseat bag and should provide plenty of room for lunch or whatever.

Then again, there’s always the possibility of folding grocery bag holders…

UPDATE: Oooh! This, a basket which clips right into the rack I just installed, is $25.80 via Amazon. I think that’ll do. That should hold a hand-held basket full of groceries, which is exactly the quantity I normally buy when going shopping. Yay!

cyclingmappingmoved from livejournal