This Space for Rent

Sep 30, 2014

On Broadway

The GT on Broadway

No neon lights, but the stem is garishly yellow so that counts.

Sep 26, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

Tea Mite

Dust Mite has gotten into our tea storage!


‘tis only a flesh wound!

Only a flesh wound

This Enderman is sad because its arm fell off

Sep 23, 2014

Photo of the day

Invisible paw

My (fractured?) left hand being bombarded with high-energy photons. (I was left-hooked by a bike ninja last week and my left hand has been hurting ever since; I went to a doctor yesterday and they suggested x-ray photos, which I went out and did today. The lab didn’t say “yes, it’s broken” but they fairly strongly suggested that it might be broken. Sigh. Stupid bike ninjas.)

3 comments

Sep 19, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging

Stem Mite

Dust Mite is attracted to brightly colored objects.

Sep 18, 2014

Not quite clones

Trek vs MLCM

I lined up the midlifecrisismobile and the born-again Trek so I could compare the geometry of my low-trail 700c rando bike vs my medium-trail 650b rando bike.

The trek is noticably smaller; I’ve got easily 3cm more saddle to bar drop on it than the mlcm has. That, I suspect, is the largest benefit of 650b for me; I can ride a machine that doesn’t look like a folding bike, but still have enough breathing room for a comfortable saddle to bar drop and fenders (w/o a horrible case of toe overlap.)

I’m reaching the time of year where I can start to do comparisons between the trek and the mlcm, too; the rains are coming in so I’ll need to swap off machines depending on which one has fenders (at least until I lay up some carbon fiber fenders for the trek.) I’d say it’s unfortunate that there are so few good 650b tires out there, but aside from my dalliances in the tubular tire world the only 700c tire I’m using these days are Resist Nomads, which makes for fewer 700c tires than 650b tires (in 650b I’ve got Confreries, CdlVs, and Pari-Motos to play around with) in my collection of good tires.

And, yeah, the Trek has an excessive amount of carbon fiber on it now; it’s teetering on the edge of being under 22 pounds, which makes almost no difference in how fast I can ride on the thing, but which is very amusing in the “you have a front rack and leather saddle on what!?!” department.

Sep 16, 2014

Trolley picture of the day

Blue/Green sails over Division, the Espee, and the ORHF yard

I was detouring to the 99e bridge (a UP freight had blocked 11/12th & 8th) and Blue/Green came sailing by as I was climbing the ramp from Division to the bridge.

Sep 12, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

Salad Mite

Dust Mite salad mix.


Compare and contrast

Two 650b randonneuses, #1

The GT and the born-again Trek side-by-side in the front yard. Both high trail, both with “narrow” 650b tires, but still pretty different machines. After going out on the born-again Trek, the Lauterwasser bars on the GT make it feel as if I was riding a machine with ape hangers.

Sep 09, 2014

The weather forecast claimed a chance of showers …

New rack, same old fenders

… so I had to braze up a new rack so I could put the front fender back on. An ~11×11 rack this time instead of a 9×9, so I can carry more groceries without them slopping over the edges.

Sep 07, 2014

Tweaks

Half disc brakes & Lauterwasser bars

Tweaking the GT a bit – higher trail disc fork, disc brakes to go with the fork (the front is the only functional one right now; I need to fabricate and braze mounts for the rear brake), and Lauterwasser bars to hold the existing brake levers (they need to be recased in drop levers, but until I do that a pair of mustacheish bars will keep them from flopping around and getting tangled up in the wheels.)

5 comments

Sep 06, 2014

Cute baby picture of the day

Silas & Buckeley

Silas uses Buckeley as a pillow.

Sep 05, 2014

Friday Dust Mite Blogging™

Dust Mite & rando junk

Dust Mite inspects a taillight I found when out riding this morning.

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