Saturday, October 27, 2007

Older bikes


I have two bikes that I'm currently riding. Both are about the same age as me. Most of the time that's great, I've got bikes with history and character, and in the case of the Raleigh, really cool lugs that newer bikes don't have (unless you've got the money to go with something from Rivendell or Vanilla). I don't have that kind of money, so I went old school to get bikes with character. Sometimes, it isn't so great.

Case in point - last Wednesday on my morning commute I hit a staple and killed the rear tire on the Schwinn. No big deal. I've patched tires before. Since I don't have a pump on the Schwinn (which is dumb and will soon be remedied) I waited until I drove to work and brought the bike home to work on the tire. After patching two holes in the tube (from the staple) I tried pumping it up. It wouldn't hold air. I had been dealing with a slow leak in the tube almost since I'd gotten it, so I figured that was the problem. I resorted to the way I learned to fix tubes as a kid (fill the sink with water and look for bubbles) and was astounded by what I saw. I only ran about 25% of the tube through the water, but almost all of the section I looked at was bubbling. It looked like the seam was bad.

So how does this relate to having an older bike? The Schwinn is an old three speed, similar to the Dutch bikes which are so in vogue. Because it's old (1974, going by the date stamp on the S-A hub) the wheels are an odd size, which makes getting new tubes a little more of a challenge than normal. That, and the fact that I live in a bike-unfriendly place like Baltimore, means it will be a few days before I can get the Schwinn back on the road. That leaves either stuffing my clothes into my messenger bag and riding the Raleigh or driving.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Connection issues

I've been without a non-work internet connection for the last 10 days or so, which is why there have been no updates. I'm back online and will be posting more after I finish repairing a popped rear tire. It fell victim to a large staple gun staple and left me having to walk the second half of my morning commute in a light rain/heavy mist yesterday.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Housekeeping

I will probably post one or two items a day, in the afternoon or evening when I get home from work. Also, I have comment moderation on and will be approving any comments at the same time as new posts. It might seem like a bit of a pain to deal with the character recognition tool and comment moderation, but my hope is that this will be something worth reading and commenting to and one way to help with that is to limit the spam comments. Finally, yes, I am a libertarian and a firm believer in the First Amendment, but in this case that applies primarily to me. If you want the flame comments or just be a pain I will censor you. Please don't make me.
joel

Why?

I like being on my bike. If I could have things my way I would have a job and live in a place where I could just walk out when the mood takes me and go for a nice ride. Unfortunately I work for, and live in, the city of Baltimore. That means that I have to work the traditional eight hour day, and getting to a decent place to ride can be a little bit of a challenge. So instead, I ride vicariously by reading about cycling and chatting with cycling friends. This blog is intended as an extension of that same idea.
I ride both for pleasure, on a mid-70s Raleigh Super Course, and as a commuter/utility cyclist, on a 1974 Schwinn Speedster three speed. I also have a Surly Long Haul Trucker touring frame which I plan on having built into a rig for loaded touring over the winter. I will be talking a little more about my stable in the future, including some detailed information about the LHT build as it progresses.
In addition to the cycling (to paraphrase Dave from The FredCast, I'm a cyclist not a biker) I will undoubtedly find places to thrown in posts about politics (I am a "small l" libertarian) and Buddhism. I also will take some time in a later post to explain why I named it as I did.
That should be enough to give you a good idea of what you can look forward to here over the coming weeks. If you have any thoughts please email me with the link above. I look forward to having a semi-one-sided conversation with you over the time ahead.
joel