Fixie project update...

It’s sweet what you can do with some tools and an old bike. My fixie project has been moving slower than ever, but the bike is ride-ready. Still more to do with it to make it a complete project, but that will probably happen in the spring if I happen to have any money. And we’re only talkin’ like $60 buck, but hey, there’s lots of other bills and this is an unnecessary project. Anyhow, here is it, a ‘70’s vintage Schwinn le Tour, converted to one fixed gear. Had to re-space the rear axle and re-dish the wheel after taken the old geared freewheel off, and since their was no provision for a regular, reverse thread lock-ring on the hub, I cranked down a normally threaded lock ring off an English thread adjustable cup bottom bracket against the track cog. Wow, that was a lot of shop talk. Sorry if you don’t care, but I’m proud that it worked. I've tried to post pix of the bike, but so far something isn't working. You'll see it soon. More on that project as it slooooowly progresses….

Fixin' for some sweet rides...

I worked on my fixed gear bike tonight. It's still not completely built up as I want (got no money), but it's rideable. I through on the mustache bar Edward gave me, and it's lookin' very retro. I took it for a short ride in the beautiful weather tonight (freezing rain), and it was totally fun. Needs fenders though, I had a nice streak up the back at the end of the spin. And it's definately getting an e-brake installed. Fixies can be death traps in town. Motorists don't know what it's like to ride a bike anymore. And I guess I can't blame them for not expecting cyclists out in craptastic weather, but still, I don't think people pay much attention when they drive. It's a bit unnerving. But anyhow, the fixie is sweet, and I plan to work on it further, and do more riding with it until the snow stays, then it's definatley Surly time. Off to bed...

Git your cooling on...

Stayed up 'till two last night, and my van's cooling system is FINALY working properly, at least for now. Replaced the old thermostat, which was busted clean in half, and the associated gasket had turned to a gooey pulp, not really looking much like a gasket at all anymore, so the repair was needed. The fix was a mess, cuz my radiator has no draincock, so it's lower hose had to be pulled, resulting in no good way to drain in a organized way. Fluid everywhere; sucky cleanup. But anyhow, that problem is fixed. Now I have to figure out what is grinding/clunking when shifting into gear, and sometimes when I start/stop. Scarey. I don't think it's the motor/transmission mounts, so it could be something internal. Yikes. Gotta buy a new vehicle. Hopefully this one can limp for awhile, but if not, I have my Surly, and it doesn't hate me like my van does. More later...

Why Buttons?!

Usually clothing isn’t a much discussed topic on my blog, but today I decided that on a long sleeve button-up shirt, their should be Velcro at the cuffs and not friggin’ buttons. I don’t know about you, but it takes me forever to get the buttons on my cuffs together, because one hand is useless in the process. Is this efficient? Surely not. Would Velcro be easier, although not fashion appropriate, yes. I don’t need to be fashion appropriate. The elderly have wonderful clothing. It’s designed to be comfortable and easy to manage. The only thing wrong with it is that it’s usually cotton, and merino wool or synthetic fibers would be a higher-performance material, but the elderly aren’t typically doing much performing. I dig their Velcro and easy straps though.

Van?

We'll I'd anounced my van was dead, and I may be temporarily wrong. I went in to Dietrich's yesterday (the bus station I work at part time), and the mechanics and I poked, prodded, kicked and shook the van to the point that we got it started. The alternator seems to be charging again, and we now suspect bad connections rather than the alternator itself. So, at least temporarily, the van is rolling down the road. I'm still saving for something else, cuz I no longer trust this vehicle after it has broken on me repeatedly in the past couple months, and is at an insane mileage on the first engine. Although, the engine itself seems to be the best thing left on the van. Anyhow, I may try to replace the thermostat today or tommorow, since that's under 10 bucks, and we'll just see about the clunky transmission mount. I haven't figured out if I need a lift for that or not. Man, bikes are so much simpler, and less costly. But cars don't make you show up to work with a sweaty crack. Nasty. I'm sorry I did that to you.

Singletrack at last...

Well twice now I’ve authored a marvelously entertaining blog entry for you all to read, and while posting it my trashy internet connection has sent it off into the black whole of computerized frustration (I don’t know what happened to it.) So anyways, I went riding today at TR with some friends. Brought the geared Trek and singlespeed Surly. Fun. Dang fun. Like I said, I had a great entry written, but it’s gone. This is all you get. Deal with it.

nice commute...

Hey folks. I'm sittin' in the good ol' Tabula coffee house in between work at the sim lab. Mmm...coffee. I rode the Surly to work today, as I am carless. It's not so bad. Inconvient at times, but really only when I don't plan well. If you plan out your day ahead of time and give yourself realistic time frames to get things done, biking to work can be great. The wind is howlin' from the south today as it does often in Grand Forks, so the ride to the lab was super easy. Not sure how the return trip will turn out, but I can work it and get sweaty going home if I need to. I might go out for some more riding tonight too, but I'm not sure yet. I'll see what's going on. The bike forum is starting to get going, with more people signing up. We're up to six, which is very small, but every fire starts with a spark. Just looking at the bike racks as I commute around campus, I can see some sweet bikes, and I know that riders are out there; the word just has to get out about the forum for it to be sweet. Sunday should be good, as I posted a Turtle River State Park ride, and got some people together for some singletrack. Might take the singlespeed for a few laps, but I think I should ride my poor Trek 8000 that has been suffering from a hard case of prarie-induced lack of riding. Someday I hope to take it home to the moutains. Anyhow, stuff to do; more later...

Short cities trip...

Well I ate like I’m spoiled this weekend. Steak for free, good coffee, and I even experienced a “chocolate fountain”. Yeah, didn’t know those existed, but I’m pretty sure I want one. Alison and I went to a fall banquet thinger at the place holding our wedding reception, in order to decide what everyone will be eating. I expected little samples of various food options, but nope, I get to my plate and wham!, a whole New York strip steak as just one of the things to eat. A the chocolate fountain- it’s this crazy heater fountain machine that cascades warm chocolate down three tiers, and you dip fruit or pretzels or cream puffs or whatever into it, and it’s mighty tasty. You might just see one of those at the wedding, but we’ll see. I think I should just buy one and go into the chocolate-dude industry, cuz they rent for a pretty price. Anyhow, the food tasty was delicious. Then today Alison and I had our engagement pix taken at a waterfall in the cities, which was really cool as the leaves are all fiery this time of year. And to top things off we did make that trip to REI and did their gift registry thing, and that was fun. So yeah, I felt spoiled this weekend, but, , I had sure had a good time…

Sorry for the delay...

Wow, I need to get on the ball here with the bloggin'. Lazy month. I've actually been doing some work at the airport, and my van has needed so much attention that I've been lazy with other things, such as this site.
I think my van situation can be compared to a game of Jenga. We're on the last few block pulls, and it's all gonna come apart soon. I've had motor/transmission mounts failing, a nasty power steering leak, a bad thermostat, a bad radiator cooling fan motor, and now I'm getting random indications of alternator problems. Time to push it all into the river, I tell ya. Vans are supposed to be retired before this kind of 200,000 and beyond mileage. It's time to start building a van retirement fund, so it can stop working after all the years of service to society. And my word has this van served. Here's a photo showing you just how hard.

Not many vehicles can handle six bikes, three full packs of camping and climbing gear, plus an Edward full of Krispy Kremes. Impresive.

On the bike front, I've decided to try and be proactive in getting more group rides going in Grand Forks, in order to try and make the town more interesting for those of us who ride. I found a sweet free forum site, and started this:
http://gfbikeforum.suddenlaunch3.com/index.cgi
Hopefully people will use it and it'll get things rollin' here on the prarie, even through the winter. I know there's some more crazies out there who ride snow. More on that project later.

On the wedding front, Alison and I are doin' well, getting everything going for the big day, which is Feb. 4th, 2006. Not to far to go. We're heading down to the cities tommorow to sample reception food and get the engagement pix taken. I think we might do some window shopping at REI too, so that should be fun. MMM....toys. I can't spend though.

Anyhow, it's off to work a while, then hopefully get some fall weather singlespeeding at the end of the day.

55 degrees, rain, and almost seven hours of riding...

Such was the Headwaters 100 this year of 2005. Some might think this would not be called fun, but some are quite wrong. 700 riders registered this year, although I heard only 600 rode. Rain is just water. Water is life-sustaining. And 55 degrees is not cold when you're riding. The only times I got cold on the ride were when I stopped at the food stations to eat way to many cookies and linger too long while talking to the old folks of the little towns that the stops were in. Nice folk. I'd have taken pictures while at these rest stops, but because of the rain, my camera stayed in my van, which, in other news has been sick. 208,000 miles sick. I feared the worst, but through some wrenchin' and feelin' manly, I've got 'er up and running again, at least for a while. She's got to last a bit longer, until I get a job that pays me. I'll let her retire someday, after all the great trips she's driven. Anyhow, I'm always blogging when I should be sleeping.....