Monday, November 28, 2011

Renovated saddle bag









Steph's bike - toe overlap



toe overlap is a bugger
but it's also easily avoided
e.g. stop pedalling when you need to turn the front wheel sharply.
still
it's a good thing to avoid.
toe clips help.
these VO clips needed bending
but now everything's ticketyboo.
for some reason the left crank comes closer than the right
?

Steph's bike - leather mudflap


homemade leather mudflap


ground clearance


leather off-cut from Leffler's Warehouse
$1.00/sq. foot


secured with two 10mm allen bolts



 soft focus poster for your bedroom wall






Mecca for the bike nerd




Sunday, November 27, 2011

A convincing argument for the artist as hero




not just because he uses bikes in his artworks
but because he just got out after 81 days of detention
by the Chinese Government
and he's still willing to stick it up them.
will he become the Chinese Mandela?
we can only hope.


Ai Wei Wei.







Friday, November 25, 2011

stowage







Steph's bike - new shifters and levers


shimano silver canti brake levers from hard rubbish.
suntour accushift levers from fleabay.
gear changes are now faster and quieter.


velo orange 'kraton' grips


there was a little ratchet problem with the bike's original set-up
it just wouldn't stay on the third rear cog.
problem solved with friction.
the beauty of these is if you have any problems with gear changes when riding
you can usually solve them without having to stop
let alone get off the bike or heaven forbid
enter a bike shop.


anyone want a pair of these in good nick?
from now on I know to steer clear of integrated shifter/brake combos

Monday, November 21, 2011

Steph's bike 3


steph's metro now has the deer-head derailleur
which was the precursor to the
deore, which became shimano's top-of-the-line
mtb gear system


it has partially resolved a sticky gear problem with the old
SIS/Altus rear derailleur
but part of the problem is in the indexing ratchet of the shifter.
so that will have to go.
been finding in my research that 
early mtb indexed shifters 
even of the deore group
-supposed quality-
were notoriously prone to not working properly.
and the integrated shifter/brake assemblies are also unreliable, 
expensive and rare (because so few survived in working order?)


anyways
a bit of soft focus for you to enjoy
inspired by the clement weather

Velo Orange half clips


velo orange deep half clips are nice
but a bit too open to be effective
so I recommend bending them back somewhat


this gives a better "wrap" around the toe 
for security and lift
and also can reduce toe-everlap
with the front wheel.



Sunday, November 20, 2011

Ostrich pannier



Excellent equipment of Pack and
Carrying Gear for All Cyclists At Heart
Ostrich
The Big Bicycling


this is what it says on the leather patch
classic japanese product blurb


big enough for everything 
yes some heel strike
but only if you pedal with a totally flat foot
beautiful
completely repairable
if and when they ever need it.
will find out soon how waterproof
although that's not a major concern.







Stronglight 104 crankset with drilled rings



Peugeot Super Vitus racing forks



eBay sellers and their packaging - an occasional series


classic brown jiffy
with label collage