Jessica's Bike, Updated

Here is a quick and much overdue update on Jessica's bike:

Last year, after about a month of having the bike and riding just about every day, Jessica put her foot into her front wheel whilst riding one day.  This resulted in what must have been a spectacular ejection from the bicycle.  She is fine, though she jacked up her shoulder a bit and got a small cut on her temple from her eyeglasses breaking when they were crunched between her head and the concrete.  That was near a year ago, and her shoulder is fine now.  The bicycle frame held up fine in the crash, but the fork didn't fare so well.  When I was building the fork, it took about a four foot lever to bend the steel fork blades to put the rake/curve into the tubes.  When Jessica crashed, her foot/leg/body served as about a 5'2" lever on those fork blades, taking darn near all of the rake out.  Perhaps I could have re-raked the fork, but I figured better safe than sorry, and I built her a new fork.

The bike has since had a rattle-can paint job in "Fern" green, had the black fenders replaced with silver, and I made a stainless steel front rack for it.  The platform of the rack is just big enough to support a six pack, and with the low riders, can also mount panniers.

If You Weren't Out Riding This Morning, You Missed Out

Ok, bear with me here.  I can't be bothered to edit videos--I already spend too much of my life in front of a computer, eh.  Also, I think your biking videos with whatever music you think is cool at the time can often be a bit lame, but...

Try this:

Load this video (the first one below), but pause it before it plays.  Set the volume on this YouTube video to about 25%.

Then, in another tab (or below), load this video (the second video below), ensure the volume is at 100%, and your speakers are cranked.  Skip the ad if there is one, and once the music starts playing, go back to the first tab, hit play, and perhaps put it to full screen.

Make sure you adjust the volumes as directed.

If you do this correctly, you will see a biking vid whilst listening to music.  If you don't like my music choice, pick your own!

Enjoy.  You should have been out riding at Lebanon Hills this morning--it was great.

Homebrew Studded Fat Tires

Last winter the fat bike rolled on a set of (the now discontinued) Surly Endomorph tires.  Whilst they were a great, fast rolling tire for hard-pack dirt in the summer, they did suck a bit in the snow.  This winter I decided to get some knobby tires, so I put a Surly Bud up front and an Origin 8 Devastator UL in the rear.  I figured this way I wouldn't have to worry about my front tire washing out in the corners, and I would get some much needed traction in the rear.  Combining an Endomorph with my 2x1 speed Hammerschmidt drivetrain often left my rear tire to slip when going up hills in the snow as I don't have as low of an easy gear as your average multi-speed bike.

Having switched to the knobbies for the winter, there was an immediately noticeable increase in rolling resistance.  It was enough that I would have increase tire pressure or change my rear cog.  Or use a different tire.  After riding my Endomorphs on the dirt during the summer, they were 1/2 shagged, and not worthy of use in the snow anymore.  I also rode a lot of icy trails last year, and was wishing I could have some studded tires as well.  The thought to stud out the Endos had occurred to me, but the knobs were small to start with, and now they were half worn out.  I wanted and aggressive stud, and I didn't think the lugs would support much.

Here is what I came up with:



50 studs per tire, adding 1/2lb per tire, and costing a smidge over $25 per tire.  The studs are not in the lug of the tire, but through the casing, between the lugs/knobs.  If I do say so myself, they are supurb for hardpacked/groomed trails and ice.  I have got to say it is rather fun being able to rail the corners while others have to take it easy.  If you have inches of fresh snow, they are terrible.  I will probably have a second set of wheels for next year with the knobby tires mounted to them so I can change out tires quick and easy depending on the days conditions.  One would not want to ride these on anything but snow or ice.  Not across the parking lot to the trail head, not on streets or paved trails, and not across the exposed rocks on the trail, if you can avoid it!

Also, I have only tested these on about a handful of times in the last half of this winter.  The front tire seems to be fine with my construction method, but the rear needs some improvement as I have lost about five or so studs from the tire.  One was lost when I attempted a log ride, and in realizing my rear tire was going to slide of, I locked up the rear brake in trying to save myself.  When the tire slid off the log, with all of my weight still on the bike, one of the studs grabbed in the log, and pulled out of the tire.  The other missing studs... well, I can't say what happened to them, but they are no longer in the tire!

Riff on this approach if you are interested in making your own homebrew studded fat tires, eh:

Gather your supplies.

1) 100 steel caulks (50 per tire).  Caulks are apparently used in the soles of boots for lumberjacks and jills.    I got a pack of 100 to do both tires from these folks: http://www.labonville.com/Steel-Spikes--SS1_p_267.html $18.95

2) A spike wrench.  You could do it without one, but you wouldn't want to have to.  And they are not expensive.  http://www.labonville.com/Pro-Wrench-for-Spikes--SW2_p_268.html $5.95

3) 100 nuts (50 per tire).  The Caulks have a funny thread to them that is not commonly available.  The ones I purchased were M6x.75.  Coincidentally, this is the same threading as a presta valve nut, though I wouldn't use these even if you had 100 of them as they would be difficult to fully tighten.  McMaster-Carr had one option for M6x.75 nuts, of which I purchased two 50 packs. http://www.mcmaster.com/#91415A040 2 x $7.39/ea

4) Caulk.  Not the spike caulks previously mentioned, but the kitchen and bath kind.  This is to cover over the nut on the inside of the tire so the tube isn't punctured by any sharp edges.  There is probably a better product for this, but I happened to have a tube open and available in my shop.

5) Duct tape.  This is to cover the caulked caulk nuts.  Just to be sure I don't puncture any $16 fat bike tubes, eh.

6) A drill bit and drill.  If you don't already have these tools, wtf are you doing making your own studded tires?

7) 10mm socket on a ratchet, probably with an extension.

8) Several beers and several hours of free time to kill.



The instructions are even easier than the supplies list.  Drill undersized holes.  Curse me and my stupid idea as you struggle to get those damn caulks inserted into the tire.  Use the spike wrench and a clockwise twisting motion.  You really do not want the drilled holes any larger than they absolutely have to be.  Hand thread on the nut, then really tighten the heck out of it with the ratchet and spike wrench to ensure the caulk is fully installed.  In my case, the threaded stud of the caulk was flush with the nut when fully tightened.  Cover nutted caulk with caulk - make it smooth!  Allow caulk to cure (took me two days).  Cover caulked caulk nuts with a square of duct tape.  Sweep up all the little bits of drilled rubber off the living room floor before your old lady gets pissed at you about it.  Put your tools away.  Install tires on wheels, as per usual.  Go ride a bike, eh!



P.s. these bad motha truckas are sharp as can be.  I had a get-off whilst attempting to ride in a few inches of fresh snow (not recommended, see above).  When I went off trail, my bicycle stopped, I kept going, and my knee hit my front tire.  Normally not a big deal, unless of course, you have 3/8" needle sharp spikes in your tires.  If you stud your tires in this way, you are pretty much guaranteed to either draw blood, or destroy a nice, fancy piece of expensive technical clothing.  Consider yourself forewarned.



Disclaimer:  You are an adult, you can make your own choices.  Go ahead, jump off this homebrew studded fat tire bridge because I told you to.

I Am Officially Commited

I will build a fat bike tandem.  I have purchased parts that I can no longer return--there is no turning back now!



What you see here are a couple of Weinmann DHL 101 double wall 32h rims that have been relieved of over 1/2 a pound each.  A one inch end mill on my buddies Bridgeport made quick work of the rims.  Get a good look now, because this will be the last time these cut outs see the light of day.  These puppies should still be plenty strong for tandem duty, yet save some of that rotational mass.

A Special Serial Number

Ok, so I have a little catching up to do.  I promised my next post wouldn’t be another six months wait, as it was last time around - and it’s not!  It is a mere five months since the last post.

The story goes like this:

I had given myself a deadline of when I would have Jessica’s bike ready for her, and it was sneaking up fast.  I somehow let most of the summer go by without getting much work done on the frame and fork, so as the end of August (2012) rolled around, I found myself spending just about every night in the shop, working till midnight or so.  Jessica didn’t know of this self imposed deadline, and wasn’t paying much attention to what I had been doing in the shop figuring it wasn’t of much interest to her.  Little did she know...
On D day, I drove to work (instead of biking) because I had to bring the frame and fork in for final prep, chasing and facing, and assembly of the bike.  I worked till 4pm, and spent another two hours getting the bike ready.  It wasn’t going to be painted, but it would be otherwise complete and ridable.  I drove home with her bike on the back of the Subaru, and to my surprise, her car was in the driveway, cluing me in that she was already home from work.  I quickly snuck the bike into the garage without her noticing and went inside.  It was kind of a crummy day out; overcast and threatening to rain.  However this was more than just an average day, it was also three years to the day since we had started dating.  Once inside, I suggested to Jessica that we bike from our place in Northeast Minneapolis to Sea Salt Eatery to have a nice meal and a couple pints in celebration of three years together.  Sea Salt has become one of our favorite destinations for a good meal, and is a nice nine-mile ride from home, typically on our tandem.  She wasn’t feeling it though, mostly because of the weather.  “What if you got to ride your bike?” I asked.  She knew instantly I was talking about the bike I had been building her, but couldn’t believe it was (finally) ready.
We went outside, and I showed her the bike.  She had never ridden a modern road bike before, so I put it in a bike stand and was going over how the shifting worked as well as all of the other features of her new ride.  When I had covered it all, I pulled the bike out of the stand and said “Oh yeah, there is one thing I almost forgot to show you.  You have your own custom serial number stamped into the bottom bracket shell.”  I flipped the bike over in the grass so as not to scuff up the saddle or bar tape and knelt beside it, pointing at the brass plate with the serial number in it.  She had to look close to read the serial number, which read “MARRY ME”.
And she thought the surprise of the day was that she was getting a new bike.  Ha!  So after initially laughing in disbelief, she did say yes.  We never did make it to Sea Salt that night as we had parents to call and faceplace relationship statuses to change and whatnot, but we did go for a short ride to get a late dinner, and she got to ride her bike.