seatbag organizer bag

 

A year ago, I made a seatbag organizer bag custom fit to that extra-large Topeak Aero-Wedge bag that I (along with a number of other Free Wheelers of a certain age) like to carry (we're past the point where we're trying to get by on the lightest of bikes and baggage, and well into the "rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it" mindset).

Although it fit nicely into the seatbag, there were two things I never liked about it. The first is that I'd made it just a bit too small to get everything I like to carry. The other is that I'd used a brass blue-jeans zipper, and it never worked smoothly. Over the weekend, the zipper simply locked up; I had to tear the bag open (although I could still sorta use it), so I resolved to make another. 

Having the old bag, I could use it as a pattern. I made the shaped sides about 3/8" longer. The sides are held together by a long, narrow rectangle of fabric. On the first one, I made that 1" wide plus the seam allowances; this time I raised that to 1 1/2". And I had a plastic zipper in the drawer that hadn't been used on a project that I thought better of before I'd actually bought the fabric for it.

Above, from lower left: one side cut apart with the zipper installed, the other side for the new bag; the side of the old bag that I'd used as a pattern. (Note to self: that right-side-to-right-side-and-fold-it-over zipper trick works a treat.)

The outer rectangle is sewn onto the side with the zipper in the picture above; the other side is at top, under the orange-handled trim shears.

Above, same as the previous picture, but other way up.

 

All sewn up in the picture above. I need to trim the outer rectangle piece (measuring around those curves is a PITA; I decided I'd just make the piece long and trim the excess. Your sewing teacher would not have approved). The piece is worked inside out; leave the zipper open and turn it right-side-out when done. You can see the finished product, filled, in the top photo.

What's in it?

The stuff on the right. From top:

• Tire Glider tire tool*. Theoretically better than just levers for removing and replacing tires (and it is, when it fits, but see below).
• Crank Brothers M19 multi tool. It includes a chain tool and spoke wrenches, as well as the Allen keys, screwdrivers, and a common Torx size, but the Allen keys and screwdrivers are sometimes too short. When somebody finds a multi tool that includes all this stuff, with regulation length screwdrivers and such, that is NOT made by Silca or some other bicycle jewelry company, I'll get one.
• A CO₂ cartridge.
• A box from a tire patch kit, that actually contains quick links for 9- and 10-speed chains (I know from experience that I can use a 10-speed link to repair an 11-speed chain). I've used 'em twice for others who have broken chains en route. (I find tire patch kits are useless at roadside, despite the many recommendations. Use 'em if you're doing self-supported touring; otherwise, use Uber. YMMV.)
• Another CO₂ cartridge.
• Lezyne aluminum tire levers. They're beautiful, and stand up to tight tires better than the plastic ones. (I'm lookin' at you, Continental Tires...)
  
• Genuine Innovations Air Chuck CO₂ inflator. I've tried a bunch, and seen more. This is one of the original designs, and it works. Period. 
• Lezyne spoke wrench. I bought this at Wheelfine Cycles when I'd spent far too much time picking Michael's brain and wasting his time, and felt I needed to part with some cash to justify it.
• House keys. (I also have a set in my wallet. And in the car. There's a story in it.)

 NOT in the bag are two tubes (shown), a set of Allen keys, and some tire boots.

I like this bag way better than the old one. 

*Tire Glider. It's worked sometimes, and the theory is great, but the notch that the wheel wall goes into when the tire is being replaced is too tight for some wheels. I've recently come across the Tire Monkey, with a wider notch for the wheel wall, and generally beefier construction overall. I've not used it yet, but I have high hopes. (Your best bet might still be the Kool Stop Tire Jack. I've got two. For the really reluctant tire, I've used the Tire Glider to keep the bead from falling off with my left hand, and the Kool Stop jack to force the tire on with my right. Don't get me started on Continental tires and tubeless-ready wheels.)

too soon to tell, but suggestive, nonetheless

To satisfy a nagging little suspicion, I had my doctor send me the heights they had on file for me for the last three years.

There was no change in that little bit of time, but I'm an inch shorter (about 25mm) than I was in college. I'd thought I was still that height, but I'm not.

Over the past two weeks, I've lowered my saddle height by 10mm. Today, with no carbs for breakfast (just a couple hard-boiled eggs, and the quart-and-a-half of coffee I have every day), I turned in this ride:

Holy bananas; 15.6 average. That about a mile-an-hour faster than any ride I've done recently.

The sample size is too small, of course, and correlation is not cause, but this result is suggestive, nonetheless.

bad idea carbon fiber bike parts

 

See the original on YouTube. 

Carbon fiber has a far better reputation than it did when I was building the titanium Yellow Maserati, but I still avoid it (link goes to the site at Busted Carbon, although I doubt any carbon-fiber fans will click on it). It turns out that Francis Cade, who's far from a retrogrouch like me, posted a video with expert opinion on parts that should not be carbon fiber.

I'm stickin' to my opinion: I don't ride no plastic bikes.

best-laid schemes

 

Steve S has a car engine in the back of his SUV for a project with his son. Ask him about it; you won't be sorry, because it's a great story.

As my ol' pal, Bobby B, wrote:
...The best laid schemes
o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley.

I was planning to do Steve S's a-little-under-40-mile-ride from Cranbury today, with Ralph and Naveen.

 

... but Naveen noticed a bulge in Ralph's front tire that turned out to be the tube coming out of a cut in the sidewall. Ralph booted up the gash...

...and then we adjusted the route to go to Ralph's to switch bikes, and then I got a message that made me change plans. I wound up with about 20 miles. Better than no ride at all, of course, and I'm glad I met Naveen. I'm sure I'll ride again with Ralph and Steve, and I'll have to plan to go on a ride that Steve leads, just to prove that I CAN finish with him - after all, we don't want this to become an omen, do we?

on affordable bikes

 On a recent ride, several of the Insane Bike Posse were discussing how many bikes we had. The range was pretty wide: one rider has, I think, nine (Edit: I've been informed the number is five). I was the low end; I have two: the Krakow Monster, my gravel/monstercross bike, with two-inch-wide tires, built on a heavy steel Surly Cross Check frame; and the Yellow Maserati, my titanium road bike.

Knowing about my love for mechanic work, and for the beautiful lugged-steel frames, my co-riders found this hard to believe, but it’s true: I don’t have any other bikes. (We’re not counting the road bike and the hybrid that my wife has; I don’t ride those.) So the next question was about my parts collection.

I thought I had about seven wheels that were not attached to bikes (I just checked; there are actually nine, and two rims that haven't been built up into wheels yet), along with:

• Two sets of cranks;
• Three pairs of pedals;
• Four sets of shifters, including a pair of lever shifters that can be used on downtube bosses or as bar ends;
• A set of road caliper brakes;
• At least one vee-brake (supposedly a rear, but vee-brakes are interchangeable front to rear);
• Two saddles;
• A seatpost;
• Three rear derailleurs;
• Two front derailleurs;
• And various and sundry accessories I’ve picked up here and there. As well as whatever stuff I’ve forgotten to list.

None of this includes the tubes, cable, and housing that I keep for my mechanic business.

The sense of the meeting was that these do not count as an additional bike, because there’s no frame to hang them on. But it did provide a way to start this post, which has been percolating for a long time (as you'll be able to tell by its inordinate length).

I’m friends with a rider who has a collection of bikes, mostly steel-framed, all Italian, all beautiful. They are lovely machines. I could probably afford a bike like that, but, given the limited space I have, I’m going to forgo owning one.

Other riders maintain their bikes, or collections, to have the lightest bikes, or the latest-and-greatest components (these are not always the same as the lightest!), or what the winningest pros ride. Or to have bikes for every different kind of riding they do, or ever might consider doing.

Those aren’t my interests. My bikes, and the parts I’ve collected, are really about bikes that are affordable – about a balance between cost and performance.

The titanium frame I got is a brand you’ve probably never heard of (the decals were ugly and started to wear off, so I removed ‘em). My first road bike was an aluminum Giant with a carbon-fiber fork. The fork got a scratch, and, in those days, carbon fiber had a reputation for “catastrophic failure”: breaking suddenly (often without warning), possibly causing injury to the rider. (The website at "busted carbon" hasn't been updated in more than a decade, but it was scary at the time...)

I replaced the fork with a steel fork…

...and then decided I could build up a bike myself, starting with the components from the aluminum bike, and swapping out the parts bit by bit until I had the bike I wanted. I found the titanium frame for less than $1000, with geometry and measurements I could deal with (I knew a lot less about bike frame geometry than I do now; I was lucky that the frame worked out for me as well as it did) (and the frame is still available for about $1400; some of the older model are still at the original price).

The groupset I used was a SRAM Rival set, on which I got a great price. After a few years, the shifting started getting dodgy, and I replaced it with the Gevenalle set I have now, which places modified downtube-lever shifters outside the brake levers. They’re light and inexpensive, and they also change to friction-shifting mode, which I’ve been using for a few years (and they have a few other advantages, about which I’ll happily bend your ear if you give me the slightest provocation).

I’ve also tried the Sensah Empire 2x11 groupset, a mechanical groupset from a Chinese manufacturer, which I’ll put on my wife’s bike the next time her shifters need adjusting.

All of these groupsets are reasonably-priced, and they all work well. Now I see that even lower-end components for the big groupset manufacturers are going to electronic shifting. I think this will raise the entry price for bicycling… and I hate that.

All those parts I listed above? They’re mostly things I’ve tried (like the Sensah Empire set), or things I have in stock in case replacement parts for the bikes I currently have become unavailable. (My favorite saddle was a Specialized Body Geometry that the stopped making. I wore out two of ‘em, and only replaced the last one when I fell in love with the Selle Anatomica’s that I have on both bikes now. And since manufacturers either go out of business, or change models, I have a spare Selle Anatomica saddle in the box. I hate it that bike stuff just disappears.)

I’ve got no interest in upgrading to disk brakes, or electronic shifting, because I don’t want to have to buy the new frame to hang them on, and I don’t think they’ll make me a better rider. To me, they are additional expense, without improvement for the kind of riding I do.

I’ve been on more than one ride on which electronic shifting has failed due to batteries not being charged. I enjoy complaining about that, but that’s not a real reason to avoid electronic shifting. After all, I’ve also been on rides where mechanical shifters have had problems – for example, when cables have parted. My real objection to electronic shifting is the additional cost, without (as far as I can see) substantial additional benefit.

And I really have no interest in a carbon-fiber frame. I’ve been in discussion with someone who crashed on one, and who is considering having it sent for x-ray to see if there’s unseen damage that may cause one of those catastrophic failures to which I alluded earlier. I had a pretty bad crash in 2015 on the titanium bike. There’s a dimple in one side of the top tube that’s the only remnant of that mishap; I expect that the only reason I’ll have to get rid of this bike is when I’m physically unable to get a leg over it. I’ve worked on a number of other carbon-fiber frames: two of them have wear at the chainstays as if the tire had worn off the paint layer and was cutting into the plastic that holds the carbon fibers in place. Tapping with a coin does not show weakness on those frames, but I’ve not seen anything similar on metal frames. And I’ve seen what appears to be clearcoat and paint flaking off an older carbon frame. On a metal frame, this is just cosmetic damage. Are we sure that’s the case with carbon fiber?

When I bought my titanium frame, the seller said my grandchildren would ride it. He was unaware of my childless condition, but the case is still made.

It helps, too, that I like doing the bike mechanics. I don’t do that just to keep the bikes affordable (not with the amount of money I have invested in bike tools, truing stand, bike stand, various and sundry chemicals…), but it does mean I can do things for myself in order not to have to buy new much of the time.

I wrote a post some time ago about continuing to ride a bike you love. If you have beautiful bikes, and love to ride them… I hope you ride them forever and are very happy with them. If you love the latest-and-greatest gadgetry, or the stuff that the most successful pro’s use, and you have the financial wherewithal to support those habits (and let’s face it: among the people with whom I ride, many do!), then enjoy them.

But I think cycling should be available and enjoyable to people who are not wealthy (as I am not wealthy). My bikes and equipment will be affordable, based on my interest, abilities, and cashflow.

I hope there continues to be a place for them.

Edit 1/1/23: I just found (again) a post I wrote eleven years ago on more-or-less the same topic; at the time I called it "bicycle cheapskate".

philly bike expo 2022

 

I don't go to the Philly Bike Expo expecting to buy anything in particular, although I've never walked out with al the cash with which I entered. I don't go expecting to find anything I can use in my cycling, although I have found useful items. 

I go to be surprised, appalled, and delighted with the world of cycling.

We'll get to the pretty bikes later (of course we will!). I wanna rant for a little bit first. 

I can't believe I didn't get pictures, but Silca had a booth. Silca makes cycling accessories, and the accessories they make are beautiful and expensive. Silca, for example, made pumps years ago, that were high-quality, rebuildable, and expensive for the time. The company stopped production; the name was resuscitated, and the Silca pumps you get now start at $150 and go up to $500. This is not just a pump; this is jewelry.

But Paul Component Engineering had a booth:

...as did White Industries:

Both make beautiful, if expensive, components that are actually used. I'm just a sucker for the fine machine work.

Other companies are making interesting components: this AARN is making sculpted chainrings:

... and Ignite is making similarly sculpted (and colored) cranks.

Advocacy groups take a number of the booths, and it pleases my anti-capitalist, anti-misogynist, homophilic soul to see them. 

Above, promoting African-American men in cycling. Not to be outdone...

A personal note: I volunteer at the New Brunswick Bike Exchange, and we partner with this Girls in Gear program, getting young girls on bikes.

I'd met Gabrielle, but introduced myself again at the booth. She was so taken with the support we offer that she gave me a "Boy in Gear" hat as a supporter. I was touched. I now have headgear I will wear regularly when I'm at the Bike Exchange.

OK, more neat bike stuff. This Golden Velo is a source for new old stock.

The folks at Bike List see their venture as a bike-specific alternative to Ebay.

But I mostly go to see the beautiful bikes. There wasn't a lot of carbon fiber this year (I didn't see many of the big manufacturers), nor were there any e-bikes that I noticed (I suspect the e-bike manufacturers are established now, and know that this show isn't really their crowd). But here's some of the steel bikes:

Above: Drillium!

That bike above, with the tall frame and the suspended, crocheted saddle, is a modern remake of a bike that was manufactured last century. I wish I could remember the name of the original. Edit 11/1/22: The originals are Pedersen bikes. I feel better for having found out!

There will be more steel bike pics... but I was also taken with the number of titanium bikes:

If you've got way too much money, and want to hide some by giving me a huge gift certificate to Merlin Bikes, I promise to play along.

And just because I can, more steel bikes:

So I didn't see the specific stuff I was looking for. I still wound up spending way too much on a portable tool set and note cards. (Yes, I still use note cards in 2022. I also wear neckties, wear a wristwatch, and listen to dead white guy music.)