Beware Man with Torch

Sold!

2007-06-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

The Quickbeam has been sold, thanks to everyone for your interest.

Quickbeam Frameset For Sale

2007-06-16T11:17:00.001-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that I'm really burned out on the Rivendell thing - the Koolaid just isn't as tasty as it used to be. So, in order to become Riv-free, I'm selling the QB frame/fork/headset for $425. Frame size is 58cm and the bike has seen approximately 2000 miles of use. Pictures of the complete bike are for reference (complete bike IS NOT for sale, just the frame, fork and headset).

Time Flies

2007-02-09T16:11:00.001-08:00

Wow, I've really been burning up the blog-world. Almost 4 months since my last post.
Good thing I'm not depending on this to pay the bills. Oh well, I started this blog to
document bikey stuff - there are enough ranting and raving blogs, I don't need to add
to the mix.

The big change in bikes has been with the Trek. Since I got the Quickbeam
(1500 miles and counting)the Trek just hung in the garage. Since I have other bikes
that I enjoyed riding more (not that there was anything wrong with the Trek), I decided
to sell it to someone who would use it properly. I can happily say that it found a good
home back east, here's some shots of the initial build:

http://hiddenfortress.org/bikes/trek500-2/

Alan did a great job and I hope the bike gets a lot of riding in the coming years.

Quickbeam at 600 Miles

2006-10-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

The Quickbeam has quickly taken over the commuting duties. In a little over 5 weeks I've put on 600 miles - the rest of the fleet is literally gathering dust. There's something about singlespeeding that, for me, makes it perfect for commuting. Just get on and ride....

In stock form the QB is almost perfect. Of course, I have a need (compulsion) to tinker and modify my bikes so I pilfered the Carradice, Honjos and dynohub/light from the Trek and added the lugged stem from the (since sold) Atlantis. Kool Stop salmon pads improved the braking performance and a orange bell lets me alert trail users.

I was initially going to remove the freewheel and fixticate it with a track cog but I've found that I really enjoy the gearing as is. I'm also a little nervous about no lock ring provision on the stock hubs and a relatively low bottom bracket - I don't like losing the chain or heel strike - those things tend to put a crimp on the ride.

All in all the first 600 miles have been absolutely great - even in this evening's pouring rain. My rain cape, well, that's another story.....

Mark 1, Mod 1

2006-10-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

I've put in just under 500 miles on the Trek and, while it's a very nice bike, it just didn't feel "right". A little rearraingement of the set up was in order. Off came the Midges, on went a set of Albatross bars and a really cool set of Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tires in creme. Now it feels "right" - and looks stylie too. The A-bars are a perfect fit for this bike, perfect for a weekend ride to the coffee shop with my bride.

A Stem for the Miyata

2006-09-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to finishing a stem that has been in work for about 15 or so years. Actually I've only had it for about six months, it sat in a box in Bryan's shop for 15 years before I got it. The story is that Bryan was helping out a local builder by brazing on the binder bolts and doing the finish work after Sherwood G. tig-welded the stem. From what Bryan tells me, the batch that this stem came from was the last they did together - quill stems went the way of the dodo when threadless stems came on the market. So this stem was tigged by Sherwood, binder bolt brazed by Bryan and the cable guide and finish work was completed by yours truly. The powder coat was done by a small shop here in Folsom when Bryan took his porteur rack in for a coat of black.

Much nicer than the clunky Nashbar "comfort" stem that was on the Miyata.

Another Orange Bike

2006-09-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday afternoon this beauty showed up on my door step:

The Quickbeam is my latest Rivendell purchase, the saddle and saddle bag were the first two things I purchased from Riv way back in '98 or '99.

I'll post more photos and my thoughts about the QB towards the end of the week, I can't take the 28.8 dial up any more, cable is on the way.

True Goo Tire Sealant

2006-09-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered that the Stelvio's on the Rambouillet are not quite as flat resistant as the other Schwalbe tires I'm currently using - my flat magnet was back. At least Bryan B. was able to give me a large ration of fecal matter when I flatted on our last ride, he'd get bored if I didn't give him something to rib me about.

I really like the ride of the Stelvio's so I thought I'd try a bottle of my friend Glenn True's sealant, True Goo. I had used True Goo when I was in Colorado and riding mostly off-road - it worked well at keeping the goat-head thorn induced flats at bay. I had kind of forgotten about it since I haven't seen it locally (sorry Glenn). When I used it previously the biggest problem was getting it into presta valve tubes. It's a matter of removing the small nut on the presta stem and holding the tube so the core doesn't fall in - not exactly easy. Schwalbe, my favoritest tire company, makes their presta valves with a removable core, it's as easy as removing the valve core from a schraeader valve tube:

Did I mention how much I dig Schwalbe? Anyhoo, two or so ounces of sealant in a road tire works really well, four ounces takes care of a mtn bike tube. I used the same tube that flatted without bothering to find the puncture(s). 100 psi and a good spin to distribute the sealant and it was good as new, the pressure was still at 100 this morning when I checked it.

My previous experience with True Goo is that it will seal punctures that the Brand-X stuff won't, holes up to 1/8 in diameter. Another plus is that, unlike that green stuff sold in most bike shops, True Goo won't clog the valve stem. Clogged valve stems are the single biggest reason I stopped recommending Brand-X years ago.

True Goo is available online in bottles, quarts, gallons and pre-filled tubes. The prices and shipping rates are very reasonable, check 'em out and, if you order, tell Glenn I said hi.

Why I love my Carradice

2006-09-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Lunch box, work clothes, shoe box (a petite pair of mens 12.5 touring shoes), ditty bag, sunglasses and a wind breaker (not shown). There was still room for some small stuffables on the inside corners of the bag. The longflap feature on the Camper comes in handy when you have to haul more than you thought you needed to.

The Zavitz at 98%

2006-09-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Cousin Steve and I spent a recent Saturday morning building the Zavits - I did my best to stay out of the way and only give help when it was truly needed. Steve's first complete build came out great. We'll need to complete the final touches once the remainder of the parts get in - the stays for the Honjos were inadvertently lost and it was decided that the bike must receive a Brooks mud flap and a Brooks saddle bag (black, 'natch). Here's a shot as she is currently configured, more (and better) when it's complete:

My Orange Bike

2006-09-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

My addition to the BOB list orange bike thread:

Recent changes include the handlebars having been replaced with Jitensha randonneur bars (44cm), the tires are now Schwalbe Stelivos and Honjos are residing on the Trek. Hiroshi's new handle bar is great, I actually like it better than the 48cm Noodles they replaced. Since this bike doesn't see commuting duties I didn't mind giving up the fenders - at least until I looked at this picture. There may be a trip to Jitensha in my future....

Schwalbe

2006-08-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has ridden with me more than once knows, I tend to attract flats. I think I'm actually a magnet for goat-head thorns and those nasty little chips of brown bottle glass. I went through a period where every (and I do mean every) ride that Bryan and I went on, I had a flat. I'm pretty sure there was one ride where I had two. I tried Panaracer, Avocet, Continetal, WTB, Kends, they all had about the same rate of flatification. One a whim I ordered a set of Schwlabe Marathon tires for the Miyata. After about 1 month of riding, I realized that I hadn't had a flat. So I got a set for another bike - same experience.

In the course of six or seven months, all four of my bikes recevied a set of Schwalbe tires. The fleet is currently set up as follows:

Miyata, 26x2.0 Big Apple - big, plush and reasonably fast

Rambouillet, 700x28 Stelvio - the fastest of the bunch & ride great, to my pea-brain they seem similar to a Roly-Poly. I only have a couple hundred miles on these so the jury is still out

Steamroller, 700x30 Marathon Slicks - these have been good allround tires, fast and plush. The tread is thinner than the regular Marathon so they are not as flat resistant

Trek, 700x32 Marathon - heavy duty, wear like iron, not bad speed wise (just don't expect to run them at your next criterium ;-))

I commute almost every day, and at 6:00 am I'm really not paying much attention to roads debris, and on the bikes with fenders I can't brush the tires anyways. The grand tally of air leak experiences since swapping over to the Schwalbes; one pinch flat (hit a pot hole at 40 mph on the Sierra Century) that caused a slow leak, a glass shard in the tread and a goat-head thorn in the side wall in the Marathon Slicks and one metal shard in the Marathons on the Trek (not surprising since I ride the bike through the machine shop at work). That shard caused a very, very slow leak, ten strokes with the pump were enough to get me home.

Now, for some people 4 flats in 6 or 7 months of commuting may be an unacceptable amount of flats, for me that's as close to trouble free as I could ever hope to get. The best thing is that they weren't instant loss of air type flats, they were the really slow leak, give lots of warning type of flats.

Another thing I have noticed about Schwalbe tires is that they wear like iron. It takes several hundred miles before the mold flashing wears off. I've heard stories of Schwalbe tires lasting 7, 8 9,000 miles or more, I'm beginning to believe that kind of mileage is possible.

The down side? These are not tires for the weight weenies, although the Stelvio's are a respectable 355 grams in a wired bead (28's aren't availabe in folding), the Big Apples run around 850 (!) grams a tire. But drop the pressure down to about 30 psi and, man, are they plush. They also tend to be a little more expensive than most tires, especially when Nashbar has Pasela's on sale. Availability can be a problem. Wallingford carries them (and they're a fantastic shop to deal with), Rivendell can order them (they carry a 650B Schwalbe) and, of course, Schwalbe will be happy to sell you a set. I'd expect that, as the word gets out, they should become more available.

If I really wanted to eliminate flats completely, I'd look at some of the Marathon Plus tires, however I can't get past the ~1000 gram weight in the sizes I run.

Overall, I've been very pleased with Scwalbe tires and highly recommend them (Schwalbe tube are great too).

Mark 1, Mod 1

2006-08-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

The initial version (Mod 1) of the Trek is complete. Yesterday Bryan B. helped with the head tube and fork crown facing and headset installation, thanks again Bryan.

I finished the build at home and promptly took the bike for a spin. I was pretty sure that the bike would ride nicely - the geometery is very close to that of my Rambouillet - and the in initial ride shows that it is a NRSB (Nice Riding Steel Bike). It feels to be a little less stiff than the Ramboo but nothing that seems to effect the handling. The Schwalbe Marathons feel slower than the Stelvios on the Ramboo but they did give me confidence that I would get home when I realized I had forgot my pump (and cellphone). Flat resistance good, pushing bike bad. The bike felt right at home from the git-go and I'm looking forward to many more miles. Here's a couple of shots from the first ride, I'll post detail shots later.

Frenchy Blue

2006-08-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

I played hooky today, no special occasion - I just didn't feel like workin' :-). The day off did allow me to pick up the frame from the powder coater without having to run over on my lunch hour.

The frame came out great, it looks like we were just having a bad day Wednesday. The color came alive with the clear coat, I'm really pleased. The fresh coat of Frenchy blue also brought out a few of the dings that I missed (or ignored), but since this is a rider, not a show bike, I'm not too worried about it. A couple of shots straight from the shop:

I reamed the seat tube so the Nitto seat post wouldn't wind up like the stock post and started installation of everything I could, less the headset and fork. The infamous Bryan B. is going to help with facing the head tube and pressing in the headset cups (it's great to have a friend with a Campy tool set), we'll probably do that in the next day or two.

I'm still debating the handlebars. I love Midge bars set up high so I can cruise in the drops, just like Matt Chester recommends, I'm just not sure that they'll look "correct" on this bike. I'll start out with the Midge/riser setup and if my anal-retentive side can't stand it, I'll swap over to the Nitto bar/stem combo. However I find, as I get older, my lower back says "screw style, gimme comfort". I won't be suprised if my back wins....

Arrrg!

2006-08-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

I dropped the frame off for powder coat on Saturday. The nice thing about this shop is they have a ton of colors, the bad thing is they didn't have the colors I wanted (an extra $100 charge for ordering powder was not an option). Fortunately they have a large selection of in-stock colors and, with Cheri's help, I was able to find an appropriate color.

I got the call today that it was ready and I could pick it up at any time. Cool, bike building time! Unfortunately when I got there and they brought the frame out it was immediately apparent that something wasn't right - the finish was off, it was very dull with no shine. Turns out the painter forgot to clear coat it. That's the bad news. The good news is that I was able to see that the definition of the lugs was good, too often powdercoating will fill in the edges and the lug line is lost. So, no frame today, it's back for a re-powder and clear coat. This shop does frames for a local builder and they also did my Steamroller (excellent job, btw) so I'm hoping that we just had a bad day and that things will be squared away when I go to pick it up tomorrow.

Not much else to report on this bike or the Uber-Commuter (the "Zavitz"). I did receive the Trek decals yesterday (love the old style Trek logo) so that bikes parts list is complete and the parts are ready for the build. The components for the Zavitz are still trickling in, start of the build is held pending wheels arriving from New Hampshire.

I'll post pics of the frame once I get it. In the mean time, here's a shot of son Nick's project bike (more on that later):

Uber-City Bike

2006-08-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

Cousin Steve has been wanting to build up a city bike for commuting to the office and, after exploring many different possibilities, he purchased an early 80's Specialized Sequoia frameset. This bike is a great expample of the quality of Japanese bikes from that era, it appears to be built every bit as well as my Rambouillet (rumor has it that Toyo built for Specialized back then).

Since this bike will see commuting duties it is being outfitted with Albatross bars and a Dirt Drop style stem for an upright riding position. Paul's components is helping out with Thumbies for shifting and a Flatbed for briefcase carrying duty. Generator wheels and a Lumotech headlight from Peter White will provide light for early morning commutes while Honjo fenders will keep the grime down. Here's a couple of shots of the progress to date, more as it happens.

Road Trip

2006-07-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 7/29, saw a full Yukon full of Karen's pastries fueled bike junkies road tripping to San Francisco and Berkely. While a reason is really not required, we did have a purpose to this trip. Brian C. was looking forward to picking up his new Soma Double Cross frameset from American Cyclery, Bryan B. was on the look out for parts to equip his next project, the Markeleyville Ascent Vehicle (MAV), Cousin Steve was looking to outfit his recently acquired Specialized Sequioa, I was looking for handlebars, Bob R. was scouting for a Campy pedal dust cap and Bob G was just looking (his wallet was the safest - the rest of us were flirting with financial disaster). Filling out the third row was Bob G's son Ryan and Bryan B's boys Levi and Arron (hope I spelled that right).

At American Cyclery, Brian C. was the big hitter. After debating colors and sizes he decided that the in-stock color (black) was not what he wanted. He placed an order for a British Racing Green 62cm Soma Double Cross , delivery is scheduled. Brian has been intriqued by Bryan B's talk of touring the Lost Coast. This is his first step into the touring waters, he's already one hell of a road rider. Bob R. found his dust cap, we sold one of Bryan's boys to fund it. Steel Campy Record dust caps ain't cheap. I left with a set of my favorite handlebars, the On-One Midge.

We had lunch at a burrito place on Haight, just down from Amoeba Records. Absolutely the best tamale I've had in California, and from the looks of it the burritos were pretty darn good too. Any place that sells Mexican Cokes (no high fructose corn syrup!, Coke like it used to taste) in a half-liter bottle is OK with me. Amoeba is an incredible store and I need to return when time (and money) isn't an issue. Cool find at Amoeba; a vinyl copy of Krafwerks "Tour De France" album new in the wrapper for $6.99. It is now part of Bob R's. TdF shrine.

While at Jitensha, Bryan B. added to the stash of parts for the MAV. Rims, seat post, cable hangers and randonneur bars made the trip home. The bars were so nice that both Bob G and I picked up a pair. Cousin Steve is getting a set of Honjo's for his b-day (Steve, don't read this) from his sis.

We had a special treat while at Jitensha, Bob R's friend Tom T. dropped by to show us his new Toie. An absolutely beautiful bike, the custom stem and rack were especially nice. Pics here.
We also had the pleasure of seeing the Ebisu that was road tested in the latest issue of Vintage Bicycle Quarterly. Hiroshi's bicycle builds are on a completely different level and have to be seen to be appreciated. Another bike that had me wishing I had been born rich instead of.... no, wait. Wasn't born good looking either. Damn.

We wrapped it up with coffees at Coles in Berkeley (Cokes from Safeway for the coffee dis-inclined) another place I won't be able to pass up when I'm in the Bay Area. They make an excellent cup of joe. All in all it was a great day spent with great friends.

Fit Checks

2006-07-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

It's been hotter than the gates of hell here and the heat has been keeping my motivation for filing and sanding to a minimum. 115 degrees F. in the garage will do that. Before it really heated up I did a fit check of the fenders and a few of the miscellaneous bits. I was hoping that the fenders from the Rambouillet would fit without major modifications or purchases of new stays/fittings. Except for a bit of trimming around the chainstays, the fit was perfect. The bar and stem in the pictures are take-offs from a recently sold Atlantis, I would not have splurged on a lugged stem for this bike. I'm still debating the final choice of bar/stem, I may go with a riser stem and On-One Midge bars, the bike budget will determine the final choice. The saddle and post will be replaced with a Honey B-17CS and Nitto seatpost.

Bits and Pieces

2006-07-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Trek came with top tube cable guides, I’m not of a fan so they were the first things removed. I added stops at the 7:00 (ish) position along with a pump peg (I like full size pumps).

Adding the little bits and pieces is when I realized just how a person’s background/training affects how a problem is looked at and solved. My buddy Bryan is a real life rocket scientist. One of those lucky guys that's paid to design and test rocket engines. He's also a really talented framebuilder. For holding fittings when he’s building, Bryan made specialized tools. Me, I’m a former Marine, an aviation ordnanceman. Improvise, adapt and overcome was a way of life. Since I didn’t feel like making a tool (and annealing spring steel, forming the steel, etc..) I used safety-wire to hold the fittings in place (having been a Phantom Phixer I learned ALL about safety wire....). Flux, locate, safetywire to hold, braze, clip the wire and on to the next one. Not very sophisticated, or re-usable, but it worked.

Since it gets hotter than hell here, and I don’t like to dehydrate, I added a set of bottle mounts on the seat tube. How we survived with one bottle cage back in the day, I don’t know. To finish it up, I added bottle cage fittings to the fork crown and seat/chain stay bridges for fender and light mounting and stops for the derailleur cables. Unless I think of something else, I’m done with the braze-on’s. Now the fun work starts; filing and sanding.

Brake Studs

2006-07-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

Part of the plan for this bike was to convert over to cantilever brakes; the stock brakes weren’t worth spending time on and adding canti-studs gave me another reason to fire up the torch. After finagling the numbers, I set the studs on the stays/fork blades and held them in place with this hi-tech, sophisticated jig:

I was pretty happy with the final location of the studs. On the first bike I built they were positioned a little too high on the seat stays necessitating the brake pads being at the very bottom of the slot. This time I was right in the middle and I’m OK with that. A couple of shots with a little bit of finish work:

Spread 'em

2006-07-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

The wheels I'm using on this bike are spaced 135, the bike came spaced at 126 so getting the stays spread was the first thing on the agenda. I initially thought that I'd try the Sheldon Brown/Archimedes 2 by 4 method but, for this Aerospace Quality Engineer, it didn't seem precise enough. Here's what I did:

I got a section of all-thread rod, some 1/4-20 nuts and fender washers from Lowes. I locked a fender washer between two nuts in the middle of the all-thread rod, I used this washer to center the section of all-thread between the dropouts. Before I put the rod into the drop outs I ran a nut and fender washer on each side, the washer went up against the drop out and the nut was run up against the washer. Keeping the middle washer centered (I used dial calipers) I ran the nuts out until I got scared. I then backed everything off and checked for movement, it took a couple tries. I think I had the dropouts spread over 200mm in order to wind up at 132(ish). The all-thread was bowed and the stays were way, way out there, I was afraid that the seat/chain stay bridges would pop. I've found that finesse has its
place, moving steel isn’t it. The spacing wound up right at 132, good enough for road and mtn hubs. Here's a a couple of shots of what the process looked like:

Gotta Start Somewhere....

2006-07-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

OK MGBP, here goes my attempt at joing the blogosphere - I thought I'd start out with a documenting the Trek 500 refurbishement. Since I always like to have a project (or two,or three) I thought this would be a good way to "join the club".

Here's how it looked when I found it:

According to Vintage-Trek it's a 1983 model, second from the bottom of the line. The overall condition was poor; 27 inch wheels were wobbly, the tires were dry rotted, the freewheel was shot and the cables had long since rusted in place. What caught my eye was that underneath the grit and grime was some very clean lug work, Reynolds tubing and a straight frame. It didn't hurt that it was my size. My "I can fix this" instinct kicked in and, after a couple of minutes internal debate, I brought home my latest project.

My plan for this bike is to add a bunch of braze-ons (bottle/rack mounts, brake stops/cable hanger, canti studs) and set it up as a uber-commuter (dyno hub, fenders, ect..) similar to Mike Godwin's Trek 614 posted on the Cyclofiend site. Currently the bike has been stripped to the bare frame and fork and the stock components have been boxed up for long term storage (i.e., off to the recycling bin). A closer inspection revealed that the frame was silver brazed, quite a nice touch on a bike that originally sold for $335. Good job Trek.