Bucks County by Bike
Topic: RIDE REPORT
10/17/06

Having been riding for several weeks with the crowd from the Scotch Plains bike shop, The Bike Stand, I took my Lemond -- rebuilt with old-school downtube shifters -- on the Covered Bridges ride, a 63 mile trip through rural Bucks Co., PA. It was an excellent ride and there were several thousand people in attendance, most of them experienced cyclists. I saw Cannondales, Raleighs, Orbeas, Treks, and numerous other new bikes, as well as a few other steel Lemonds. There was also a great deal of vintage steel lugged frames, and the winding roads and decent amount of hills made the ride exciting -- and a visual treat. I am not ashamed to say that towards the last ten miles I became somewhat tired, despite riding daily on my track bike and taking my Lemond on 40-60 miles weekend rides. But it was a good fun ride, and that night I slept the sleep of the just.

- Elvis

GT fixed geat mtb -- for the town
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT

Took the road parts off my GT mtb frame, and built it up like this: v brake up front, 26" mtb rims, 42x16t gearing. The perfect around town bike, after the fashion of the old-school messenger (pre fixed gear/track) bicycles, when they old rode rigid mtb's for urban use. Around town, this thing shines, though waiting on street tires the knobbies are slower than I want to be.

- Elvis

Folding in MA -- the fix goes on!
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT


Took my fixed gear Dahon -- rebuilt -- to MA this past weekend. Only got in an hours ride but it was fun, Brookline is full of cars and trucks and trolley tracks...

- Elvis

Tales from the batcave.... er, garage...
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT
6/01/06 - the other day I stripped the panel ("BIANCHI") decals off my pista, leaving the tiny decals -- the"pista" on the top tube and the headbadge, as well as the two small stickers near the bb welds. I then clearcoated over it tho I had to use several coats. The texture isn't perfect but it shines up nice.

The only other mod was to tighten the chainring bolts which were a tad loose, and install plastic frameguards -- a small patch on the downtube where the barrel adjuster of the front brake kept threatenign death to the chrome finish, and a long one on the nondrive side chainstay to guard against nicks from rocks and stuff. Under this one I put a few tiny stickers such as "No stinkin gears" and the "lucky strike" bullseye logo.

Then came the bmx project. With a thunderstorm blockin' me in from my evening ride, I took an old bmx bike and set to work. I'd been toying w/ the idea for some time and finally did it: built a
fixedgear bmx bike! Freewheel removed off of another bmx r. wheel as my freewheel removal tool won't fit over the extra large axle of the stock rear wheel. 18t (only one I had to spare) track cog screwed right on. No lockring.

No brake lever yet but kept the brake and cable intact so the cable end is rubber banded to the handlebar. Bike only has a rear brake and it's mounted on the chainstays so I'm keeping that one, esp in light of the lack of a lockring -- tho as I said my fixed mtb runs no lockring (and only a f. brake) with no problemos... Seatpost is absurd 25.6mm and barely long enuff. Seat is a junk find like the bike. Thing is all black except for rim sidewalls and seatpost.

I assume this'll go in the wrong thread on the bicycle fora (such as www.fixedgeargallery.com/forum), but just for sh!ts and giggles it should be fun. I figure the low gear/wheels makes a brake almost pointless and I'll probably be able to ride backwards on it... not sure if it's practical but building it beats doing those number crossword puzzles ev'ryone's into...
- Elvis

Campy Record...
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT
5/20/06 - First day with my new old Campy Record (175mm, 144bolt pattern) cranks installed ont he Tempo fix.

They are vintage, Italian, and quick.

They are on my everyday bike not some fancy restoration.

They got me to get an Italian to English dictionary...

...enough said.

- Elvis

Pista arrived!
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT
3/21/06 - Picked up a Bianchi Pista at the NJ Bike Show on Sunday 3/19/06. Rides great but needed some tweaking... Now it's set up with black vinyl griptape, a road seat and a front brake w/ a cross lever. I put on a pair of old school ultegra pedals and swapped the stock 48t chainring for a 42 to give it 42x16 gearing... after 2 days with the fast but hard-to-get-going-from-the-stoplight 48x16 it's an improvement. Oddly enuff the bolt spacing appears to be 130 not the usual bigger track width, and the bike -- tho it came with a singlespeed chain, did not come with track width drivetrain.

Flatted out the rear tire so I just swapped wheels - thru on my suzue hub/mavic open pro combo with 36 spokes and a 25c duraskin. Mad improvement. Fin tuned the seat position to spare the fam jewels and adjusted the handlebar tilt, then tightened up the headset. It's now awesome and rides ten times better - tho it rode great already. Frame is very quick in traffic.

Been riding it nonstop since to work etc. and am itching to take it on it's first longer ride now that it's got a more manageable 42x16... I did ride it to grab a cup of coffee a few towns over and got the usual stares from non bike people who must've been surprised to see a chrome bike with no gears.



- Elvis

The Hip -- and the Hipsters...
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT
3/13/06 - Today's Monday. Last night I removed the braze ons for the shifter bosses from the downtube of the Tempo. Well, the right side one. Came out a-okay. Will do the other side soon. Saturday, the 11th, I went for a long ride using my new drivetrain... over to Summit, down the long way, and then back around and along Mountain Ave... the harder gear ratio made some of the hills difficult but I kept going!

When I stopped for a cup of java in Summit, I ran into a few locals. One dood asked me, how does a bike without gears work. I explained and he said "ah, it's a fixed gear? I've seen them like that down south," and then he added "it seems to be a trend with the college kids, they can't have gears."

This made me wonder, come to think of it, is it a "trend" to ride? Possibly; most bike companies are now offering a singlespeed or fixed gear bike -- some are even offering track bikes -- and not all those bikes arew intended for the 'drome. Some will hit the streets. Companies like Surly continue to make gear, cogs, and wheels for fixed gear riders. Is this a "trend"?

People think that because something is a trend, it's bad. This isn't always true. Crack cocaine was a bad trend. Fixed gear bicycles might be a good one! Moreover, just because late comers take to riding fixed because it is perceived as cool -- the so-called "hipsters" -- that doesn't remove from the originators of the hip-ness, the original riders, their own motive, which has nothing to do with looking cool and is all about fun riding.

Moreover, trends have a way of lingering. Some are addictive -- both crack and fixed gear riding come to mind. Obviously a crack addiciton is a bad thing -- it interferes with a person's quality of life, clouds their mind, and may kill them.

A cycling addiction, however, is fun, provides some measure of exercise and gets people out of their cars and officer cubicles into the air outdoors where they can relate better to each other and the world around them. It's a good trend, and anyone who stays in the "trend" will not remain a "hipster" very long. Once they see how much fun riding is they will keep it up even if it's hip-ness fades and it is no longer the "cool" thing to do.

- Elvis

Cold Tempo....
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT
2/21/06:


Schwinn Tempo fixed gear, 165mm cranks, 42x18 gearing.

Been riding this lately in under 35 degree weather. Enough said.

- Elvis

Back in the fixedgear groove....
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RIDE REPORT
2/01/06 - The past few days saw improvement to my Schwinn Tempo road fix. Removed the rear brake and hooked up a modern Shimano aero lever to the front one. Taped the barrel adjuster of the front brake so it wouldn't bang the downtube and nick the paint. Had to discard the grip wrap because the Fizik I had on their ripped when unrapped, so I rewrapped it using another sort of Fizik grip tape that was re-used. There wasn't enough fer the whole bars so I did the top parts because that's where I mostly ride and also it'll prevent the bars fron dinging the frame. Routed the aero brake cable under the tape and its all good.

Also installed 165mm cranks on the thing; they help me spin and do a number on cornering clearance. Who'd a thunk 5mmm would make a diff?!

Only other change was to move the h20 bottle cage from the downtube mount to the seattube one. Waiting on pics...

- Elvis

Test ride!!!!
Topic: RIDE REPORT
1-27-06 - Took the fixed Specialized offroading yesterday mornin' and it was a beautiful day for it -- just a tad cold.


Couldn't be happier with this thing.