Tag: Gear

new bike

Good news: just put a new leather seat and small seat bag on my 1960s french road bike (a.k.a. “the little bull”), and rewrapped the handlebars.

Work evening: cutting soles out of special sneakers for recessed pedal clips, installing new leather saddle and Pitlock security skewers, re-taping handlebars. Dangit, sheared a bolt by over-tightening.

Bike-mounted growler carrier (the need for straps is inelegant) (PDX)

Rarely-in-stock Acorn Bags will have some bags on sale tomorrow morning

It all started when I wanted to replace the completely functional plastic-coated downtube shift levers on my old french road bike: With some slick-looking shifters a friend gave me: Should be easy, right? Just cut the existing cables, replace the levers and string a new set of shift cables… wrong. The old shifters and threaded bosses on the frame were an unusual, non-standard thread, M5x1.0mm, which as far as I can tell mainly existed on 1970s French bicycles and is no longer made. The standard metric screws near that size are M5x0.8mm or M5x0.5mm (the same diameter, 5mm, but a different thread pitch). I knew from Sheldon Brown and previous work on the bike that old French bikes are “special” and, for example, one of the bottom bracket cups is threaded in the opposite direction from pretty much every other bike ever made. But I didn’t think this applied to even small-size, standard-looking screws. ...

Pattern and details to be posted at some point, but this evening I finally finished making the pair of panniers I’d been working on on and off the past few months. Time for the next project.

Fabricated: New & improved custom pannier made from marine upholstery, with compression straps, spring-loaded rack hooks, simple removable-for-security external pockets for wallet/keys/cell phone, and reinforced with webbing in key areas.

Custom bike panniers in progress. Prototype 1 is lumpy, but it’s a start.

[ It’s all about getting on the bike and riding: I’ll try to keep this blog 90% about the rides, but there will be an occasional side notes about gear or bike-related projects and events. ] It’s the rainy season in San Francisco, though there’s also something fun about riding in cooler weather. Here are a few tips: After the first few storms of the season, the road is especially slick, as oil floats to the surface– be careful. And metal in the road (manhole covers, grates) and some kinds of paint can be even more slippery. Grooves and patterns in your tires don’t really improve grip. But wider tires and/or lower tire pressure give you more contact area with the road, which should improve traction– try dropping your pressure 10-20 psi. Tap your brakes periodically while riding, to make sure they’re still working, to get a feeling how your bike’s behaving, and to clear some water from the rim. For weatherproof gear, a poncho plus safety pins work in a pinch, and a $15 fender or rack will keep your tire from throwing a “rooster tail” of dirty water up your back. ...