LHT Baja Setup

Fishigator's LHT

This nice looking LHT was posted on Bike Forums.

Family Values

I found this great pic on the Calhoun Cycles site.

Too Much Gear

I'm working my way through my sports gear. Figuring out what I still need/use, what I can sell and what to give away.

Geek Alert

You know you are a bike geek when you find yourself at a rave in the Mojave desert reading the latest issue of Bicycle Quarterly!

Dahon Bling

This tricked out Dahon was posted on Bike Forums. Very nice! Just needs a hot pink saddle, grips and some pink wheels...=-)

Challenge Replacing OC Bars

Copied from BROL:

"I've gotten a couple of e-mails from Challenge owners about broken open cockpit handlebars. One of those owners just forwarded me a response from Challenge where they explained that they would be offering replacement bars to Fujin owners. If you have a Fujin with open cockpit steering (as pictured) contact your dealer."

I'll have to see what they say about my used Fujin SL's OC bars.

Update:

Before lunch I fire off an email asking them how I get a replacement OC bar since the dealer who my Fujin SL was originally bought from is no longer in business. I come back after lunch and Paul has replied that he is FEDEXing me a replacement part...=-)

I can't really ask for better service than that.

Dahon - REI Fly By

Jun turned me on to this Dahon folder that will be sold at REI in 2008. Click on pic to jump to the Bike Hugger site where you can see a video about this machine.

Pat's Journey to the Arctic

Pat has an interesting journal of his ride from Seattle to the Arctic Ocean posted on crazyguyonabike.

LHT w/ Rohloff

A little bike porn for those Long Haul Truckers that fantasize about a Rohloff hub.

Photo from Cheeky Monkey.

Birdy Anthracite 9 Speed

I figured the suspension on the Birdy Anthracite shown loaded up below was worth looking at naked. Very cool.

Fully Loaded Folder

Wow - I found this FULLY LOADED fully suspended Birdy folder on the Cheeky Monkey site. This guy isn't fooling around. I'd use the same amount of Ortlieb luggage for an around the world tour on my full size touring bike. Apparently size doesn't matter...=-) Note the Rohloff internal gear hub.

HiCom

Stunning new CF highracer from Velokraft....=-) Posted on BROL by NoCom AA.

REI Safari

Although I am not a fan of all of REI's Novara bike line they do at least put out some interesting machines at very reasonable prices. I've been seeing quite a few Safaris pop up on the net and their owners seem pretty satisfied with them. REI has a 20% off coupon for members that is issued twice a year and is valid for any of their Novara bikes. If you become an REI member you get a 15% coupon that you can use of these bikes.

Photo by The Figment

BQ - gimee mo'!

I was so pleased with my first year of Bicycle Quarterly that I renewed for 2 more years. It is the best bicycle magazine I've ever read.

BikeE Freebies

Update: these items are gone....

I found these BikeE accessory brackets in my spare parts bin. If you send me $12US/CDN [the parts are free you are paying for shipping] and a picture of you with your BikeE that I can post on this blog I'll mail them off to you.

Breezer @ Community

I saw my first Breezer city bike in the wild today @ Community Natural Foods. It had a suspension fork, suspension seatpost and an internal geared hub with a partial chain case. The suspension fork looked a bit out of place, but other than that it was a nice practical bike.

Thorn Sherpa Redux

My recumbent rando craziness this year left my Thorn Sherpa out in the cold. With no tours on the immediate horizon and my LHT performing superbly I didn't get around to doing any more work on this bike. My initial setup left me less than enthused and I knew it needed to be adjusted further. Seeing as my Fujin is dialed in nicely and the weather is about to turn ugly it seemed an appropriate time to tackle a number of projects involving the Sherpa.

First off I wanted to make sure I was happy with the fit as there wasn't much point investing time into this bike if it wasn't comfortable. I've come to really enjoy my riding position on the LHT so I started by copying the cockpit layout of that bike. I had put a Brooks saddle on the Sherpa as Sarah has been riding this bike. This worked out well since it is the same saddle I use on the LHT. I raised the bars so that they were level with the saddle and adjusted the saddle to get the same reach as my LHT. I also rotated the bars up slightly and moved the brake levers higher on the bars.

The end result felt familiar - which is a good thing. I took the Sherpa out for a spin to drop off some recycling and grab some groceries. Overall the ride was pleasant with the exception of the tires. I love the Marathon XRs on my LHT - they are comfortable and fairly fast. However, on the Sherpa they seem slow and give a very harsh ride. This seems odd as I run my 35-700C XRs at 75-80psi and my 26" x 1.75" at 50psi. It would seem to me the wider lower pressure XRs would be more plush, but they are not - weird. The only other difference is the 700C XRs are kevlar bead and the 26" XRs are steel bead. I'll try lowering the pressure to 45psi and see how they feel.

I have a number of other projects for this bike I want to undertake this winter including:

• installing an ESGE double leg kickstand
• installing fenders
• replacing the cranks [42/32/22] with some Nashbar Trekking cranks [48/38/28]
• replacing the square taper BB with an ISIS unit needed for the Trekking cranks
• mount a Surly Nice front rack and fit some Ortlieb front panniers
• install a second stem and mount an Ortlieb handle bar bag to it
• confirm stem height and cut steerer tube
• installing a B&M mirror
  
• start collecting the parts for a pair of heavy duty wheels
  

The end result will be a bit of a tank, but it should be a great go anywhere touring bike.

Cat's Eye View of Bike Maintenance

Testing Dynohubs - BQ

Bicycle Quarterly did a comprehensive test on bicycle dynohubs that is available on their website here or as a PDF here. It is well worth a read if you are thinking about investing in a new lighting system.

Thanks to Eric from BROL for reminding me about this article.

De Volksrant

More folders on tour. This time in Africa. Click here to see the original Dutch site.

Folders ride the Icefields Parkway

I found a blog report of a couple folders touring the Icefields Parkway. This is such a beautiful ride. Click here to read about the trip.

No wonder...

..trike riders are always smiling! I had no idea about the Trike Babes...=-) Click on the pic for her contact info.

Folders ride Pai, Thailand

There is an interesting article here about riding folding bikes in Thailand.

Jonathan's Thorn

Jonathan built up a Thorn Raven Tour frame with a Rohloff hub.

Looks like a very nice bike...=-)

My Virtual Bikes

My name is Vik and I have a bicycle problem. There I said it. I like trying new bikes - especially odd new bikes. The kind my LBS wouldn't ever stock. In fact the kind that my LBS is hesitant to even special order. As a result I end up buying new bikes on a regular basis. I got clever and got my last few bents used saving a lot of money and allowing me to resell them when I want without a huge loss. I even sold 3 bents in 2007 making a bit of room in my apartment. The trouble is I'm buying new bikes faster then I am selling the old ones.

So I've got a cunning plan to mitigate my problem - I'm going to buy loads of brand new bikes spec'd out just the way I want them and I'm going to tell you all about them on this blog. How is that cunning? Well I'm not going to actually buy them I'll just virtually buy them. A virtual bike costs way less than a real one, rides just how I expected it would and stores very easily. I can change the colour or spec or whole bike anytime I like. Sweet!

Moulton Sticker Shock

I've been interested in Moulton bikes [top and bottom pics] for a while and my recent experiences aboard my dual 406 Dahon have reinforced how much fun small wheeled bikes can be. I knew Moultons were expensive, but I was blown away to find out that they cost between $10,000.00 - $14,000.00CDN - yikes! That's more than my truck is worth.

A little more investigating led me to the Pashley TSR30 [middle pic] which is a Moulton design built under license by Pashley. This is the affordable Moulton. I was still shocked to find out that a complete bike [w/o fenders, racks, etc...] would cost $3600.00CDN. That's some serious cash for a licensed copy of a bicycle.

The good news coming out of all this sticker shock is I won't have to find room in my way too crowded apartment for a Moulton or Pashley. They are some pretty cool looking bikes though!

Young Dahons...

...being built up in the UK.

Rich & Amanda's Budget Touring Bikes

The high cost of touring bikes getting you down? Rich and Amanda recycled some old steel mtn bikes into capable inexpensive tourers. Check out their cycle touring site here and their VW van expedition here.

Taipei

photo by Billy Wang

Folder Angel

Photo by Frank Jackson

I've joined the fold...

I can definitely see why people are into folders and travel bikes. I haven't broken any PRs, but I've had loads of fun. My little 7 speed folder has a surprisingly good ride that allowed me to comfortably keep pace with the group. It was fun to pass other folks on full size bikes and gauge their reactions to my "little bike". It is also really handy to be able to ride to the nearest subway station fold the bike and get on a train for a cross town jaunt and then rapidly be mobile again. The riding position on the Dahon was comfortable for our 30km ride yesterday without any modification from stock. With a Brooks saddle and some small bar ends I could see myself riding 100kms on this bike as long as I had enough time to go at a moderate pace.

Photo by Vic G.

Vic G's OHPV Ride Pics

Vic G posted his pics from the OHPV ride here. It was nice to finally meet you Vic - love your bent...=-)

Steeker's OHPV Ride Pics & Video

Steeker has posted his pics and some video from the OHPV ride on his blog. It was great to ride with you again Steeker!

OHPV Ride

Getting on the bus was easy with my folder, but that didn't stop me from taking the bus in the wrong direction. Luckily I built in a "dumb move" time cushion and was not late. A woman came and sat behind me so she could quiz me about my bike. She even wrote down the Dahon website URL saying she'd get her kids to look it up for her.

Urbane was bustling with odd people and nice bikes...lol...or is that the other way around?...=-) I was delighted to met a few more internet folks and got to check out some cool machines.

We almost had our own critical mass ride as we worked our way through downtown TO towards the water.

But the motorists couldn't get mad at a group that had so many kid stoked triplet bikes on it.

I'm sooooo glad I don't have a garage or I'd be tempted to own a velomobile. This one looked amazing gliding down the road and it would be so comfy on those cold Alberta days. I just gotta remind myself it is worth more than my truck.

We had just about one of every kind of bike represented.

Keili says "Hi!"

Heading out to the light house.

Roman's nice Corsa.

Carey's Bike Friday NWT

Vic G aka "The Smiley Pirate"

I really liked Vic's HPV Street Machine.

Click here to see our general route. Although we strayed far afield as we went in search of food after the ride.

Timmy's bike parking explosion.

A nice homebuilt CF trike.

My beast getting ready to fold down for the subway and bus rides home.