This Space for Rent

Mar 28, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

Dust Mite under the microscope

Under the microscope


Ready for a nice long ride in the country

the born-again Trek with the new rando bag

The pink heart is very important!

Mar 25, 2014

bicycle picture of the day

The GT at Office Depot

The GT sits at Office Depot, with new handlebar tape (I switched handlebars to a pair that had angled drops and while I was at it I replaced the cloth tape with some lilac cork tape I had lying around), a temporary tool roll, and no bicycle pump.

The temporary tool roll & lack of a pump is because when I went to the store Sunday night some entrepreneur decided that my pump + toolroll would look much better on his bicycle. Drat. Pumps are annoying to replace and it took me about half an hour to sew up the toolroll.

Mar 24, 2014

Salvage!

A SE "draft lite" carbon-steel frame

Found in the trash, and worth every penny; a rebadged “SE Draft Lite” frame, in glorious high-tech carbon steel, and now sitting in my basement waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

Mar 22, 2014

This makes me very happy

The Court finds Regnerus’s testimony entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration

Hon. Bernard A. Friedman, in the case of DeBoer vs. Snyder (Civil Action No. 12-CV-1028,21-Mar-2014)

Mar 21, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

Tower of mite, with bonus theropod

Lord of all it surveys.

Mar 18, 2014

Restarting a long-delayed project

Weighted companion rando bag mockup 2

After a considerable delay, I’ve restarted working on the born-again Trek’s weighted companion rando bag. This is going to be a much stripped down rando bag; I don’t use front pockets for very much or rear pockets for anything, so they’re not going onto the bag. It’s going to have a map pocket on top (a small one @ ~6.5×6.5 inches) as is traditional, but I’m going to use pockets (on the front corners) and stretch webbing (to loop around the tombstone) to hold the bag down instead of velcro strips or loops to thread toestraps through.

It’s not really going to be suited for anything longer than a fast 300k (there is almost no room for layers, so unless I took several ultralight windshells I’d end up freezing my butt off on overnight segments) but I can carry a saddlebag if I want to take the born-again Trek out for a 400+k loop (or sew a larger bag for those longer rides.)

Or just take the midlifecrisismobile for those loops (though I need to sew a rando bag for that machine as well!)

3 comments

Mar 14, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

Truing a Dust Mite

Trying to postulate a spherical Dust Mite of uniform density.

1 comment

Mar 09, 2014

Project of the day

Short axle end for White Ti hub

I needed to respace this hub so that I could fit it into the rear dropouts on the born-again Trek (I want to build up a wheelset for the pair of ztr 355 rims that I was given last december) and it’s not possible to get axle ends for this ancient White hub anymore. So I made one myself, using my drill press as a poor excuse for a lathe. No axle stub (I’m going to Sheldon the thing – if it doesn’t work I can always drill the axle hole wider and press a length of SS tubing into it) and it’s a hair too small in diameter (if it doesn’t work I’ll turn the insert down a little bit and press a length of SS tubing onto it.)

Mar 07, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

12x15 rack, #2

Dust Mite models a large (12×15) porteur rack.


Whoa.

Today's gently used bicycle parts(2)

The rim off a rear wheel I salvaged from the free pile at the bike shop (WTF bikes) next to Brooklyn Pharmacy. I didn’t think that a rim wall could fold over like this without immediately disintegrating, but it turns out that I was wrong.

It’s an awe-inspiring sight.

Mar 05, 2014

Rain

Rainy day born-again Trek

Not enough rain to keep me off the bicycle today, but enough to be annoying. Warm+rain is one of the nastier combinations, since a raincoat that’s stout enough to keep the rain off is also unbreathable enough to convert the inside into a bit of a sauna.

Mar 04, 2014

“New” fenders

Resaddled & refendered

Well, new on this bicycle at least; I sacrificed a set of VO Zepps to the dark gods of 650b (reshaped them down to 650b, which gives me a set of fenders large enough to cover Col de la Vies and maybe even things like the Pacenti Pari-Moto (assuming I can borrow a pair from a friend; I know that Hetres work, but I don’t like their ride, but the Pari-Moto is supposed to have a casing much like the Hutchinson Confrerie.))

—30—


orc@pell.portland.or.us

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