Big Dummy Redo

After riding the Big Dummy all over the place, with the bare minimum maintenance straight into the ground since I built it up in 2008, it was high time to give it the overhaul it deserved. I want to thank my buddy Steve Pickle at 30th century bike in Iowa for helping me with some advice and sourcing some xtracycle bits for the rebuild, and old friends Mellow Velo for helping me get the bike in the first round of Big Dummies way back in twenty-ought-eight

Pre redo, I think all I have replaced is the disc brake pads 3 or 4 times over since I built it the first time

The original snap deck had seen better days

Stripping it down, time for that ancient bluemels metal fender to go

Down to the frame, re frame savered, new rings, shifters, cables, chain, matching planet bike fenders

Holy Roller Tires to replace the well worn big apples

Flight Deck and Hooptie added, new xtracycle bags as well, also new glowing green grips

Neighborhood kids aboard

Aida Likes it, me too

We can get along pretty well on and off road, and use it for establishing hiking basecamp

She can't nap on the back, but a towel and some shade is all we needed

Still does the hauling

With the addition of the magic carpet seat pad, we can do some reasonable mountain style bicycling

But it carries the recycling nonetheless

All and all I still love this bike, it has now entered its new life as even better family adventure hauling mobile. I am soon to add a dyno hub and a special front hauling addition. Stay tuned.

Picking stuff up

Had a good month of finding stuff on the wheel.
I found a nice 14mm Made in USA Craftsman Socket over near work (3/31/14):

Then I grabbed a couple big rounds from a Chinese Elm tree off the curbside on my way home. It was a reasonably smooth ride home from there all loaded up on the big dummy (4/2/14):

I found this excellent Hairy creature jaw on a run in the canyon near the house. I stashed it nearby in a somewhat relocatable place hoping the insects clean the bones for me by the fall. Or I will forget about it and never see it again (4/18/14):

Then I had one of the best single road find days of my life on Tuesday April 29th, 2014. I found a big honking 4xl reflecty safety jacket in the middle of the road at 7am on my way down to white rock for training. Then I took a lunch break out at the overlook and found a lacrosse ball on the way back to class. Lacrosse balls are excellent to juggle with and really satisfying to hit with a baseball bat, but I don't really endorse that activity in a neighborhood or in close quarters...
Scene from lunch at the overlook

Then after an afternoon of unsatisfying training activities, I took the long way home from White Rock, around the bandelier loop, and while climbing slowly out of a canyon somewhere, I looked over to the side of the road and saw this gleaming out at me amid the detritus of some recently removed trees:

I stashed it in my musette and kept on riding.

Then at the top of the long climb before the back gate, I saw an excellent pink Pedro's tire lever waiting for me on the side of the road. I picked it up as it began snowing reasonably hard. I took a break, put on my jacket and rode on home through the snow flurries.
4/28/14, the dubious collection of the road find day of infamy

It was a good day.

Belgian Working Cyclists

Grumpy ones at that.

Cops and post cyclists:

I was in Ghent a couple weeks back and happened upon some excellent working cyclists.

This postcyclist graciously let me take her picture, but refused to even crack the hint of a smile. Check out those paniers.

These two cops barely nodded in assent when I asked to take their photo, then they refused to actually look at me. This quashed my plan to see if I could trade them something for their awesome jackets. Cop on the left was busy lighting a cigarette, cop on the right was avoiding me.

If you like huge photo dumps (well labeled though), click over to my belgium flickr set. Lots of bikes on the street, cobbled climbs, bicycle bars and cyclocross to be found.

Not really a working cyclist, but I enjoyed watching the variety of child carrying bakfiets in use. The only thing that keeps you from getting run over by street cars is your own self preservation.

Lots of things from last week

Scored yet another arrow (number 4 or 5?) and whole pile of marking flags.

Arrow found right at the intestine and diamond on the lab side. I imagine someone realized they were heading to work with some weapons and jettisoned them out the window. Alas it had been run over, it now is carbon trash. Flags found in bike lane on canyon. Picked em up mostly so they did not become pokey wires in the bike lane.

Aida and Wink256 took a chariot ride around the block. Wink did not freak. Aida might be a bit happy

Got even more wood. Mostly Cherry and Apple. Will need to season the living crap out of it before it goes in the fire, but it will burn for a long time. Spent about half an hour cutting it down out of a massive brush pile on the other side of the neighborhood. Pretty easy 1/2 mile ride back to the house afterwards.

Went to the opera in bandelier last saturday night. It was fun. Aida was entranced for 10 minutes and then happily played in the dirt for the rest of the hour and a half. We got to take the bus 4 times on Saturday, Aida was thrilled about this too. Click the panaroma to see on flickr.

Found this feller on my road bike. I thought is was a big wasp, but I think it is a black and yellow party beetle:

After studiously avoiding a smartphone for a while, I have to say, I am digging the iphone and all the photo options. I also like having the pocket GPS, I have been using Run Keeper to log walks with Aida and neighborhood cruises and I jumped on the Strava moronwagon to help log the local punishing climbs for both running and riding, helps me be a bit more rigorous in my self monitoring. I don't really care to share em, nor will I facebook spam out all my rides, but I will be making up dumb new segments for myself, as I am pretty sure there are a couple road bike rides and runs that that no one else does. The greater quality pocket cam will help on the blogging documentation probably, see gratuitous coffee picture:

Alive and Former Trees

As promised, in the continuing wood gathering series:

Scored a ponderosa pine youth from the landscaper across the neighborhood. Ferried it home in the pouring rain and muddy trails. Planted it on the outskirts of the .18 acre homestead.

A big burl that dropped off a ponderosa and blocked a neighborhood path. Aida and I cleared the path and fastened the rest to the chariot for the burning.

Previously
Aspen
MOAR WOOD
More Wood Hauling
Wood Hauling

Aspen

Nice big lump of aspen grabbed on the way home from work. May go back tomorrow with a saw and cut down some of the bigger stuff to decent size to haul home. I will post it if I do.

Pretty much going to change the blog subtitle to "pictures of curb score wood on the big dummy"

Previously
MOAR WOOD
Wood Hauling
More Wood Hauling

MOAR WOOOD!

By far my favorite use of the Big Dummy, swooping in and getting some curb find wood. Some nice clean burning aspen today. Saw it on the way home a couple blocks up the road. Asked the owner about it, he gave his blessings. I rode on home, got the Big Dummy, flew back up the road, loaded up everything and was back home in 15 minutes. Good for a couple days of heat at least. Woo. Anyone else in Los Alamos want their wood removed via bicycle, please let me know.

Previously:
Wood Hauling
More Wood Hauling

Big Dummy on the Roof of a Hatchback

One way to carry the big dummy when it must be carried on a small car.

Going criss cross over multilple roof racks was much more sturdy than I originally thought.

I was almost able to lay it straight with the tire on the roof of the car and strap the chainstays to the rack, but it did not seem to be that sturdy.

This way let me drive from my house to the ski area parking lot, 7 miles and 2000 vertical each way. This was to haul a bunch of camping supplies, water and tools up into the Santa Fe National Forest for a trail maintenance party a few years back. I was just discussing how to haul the big dummy on a car with a pal, and thought I should share...

UPDATE,5/15/12:
From the comments, check out Big Dummy Daddy's solution More permanent like...

Daughter Road Runner Pugsley Unicycle

Been hiking a bit with the fierce young lady.



She has been looking for bugs and chipmunks and squirrels. And monkeys! To take home with her. Alas, we only got bugs. She was unreceptive to the idea that there may be no monkeys to be had in the forests here. But we did see a rare Los Alamos Road runner. They usually stick to lower altitudes, but this is the third I have seen in town since I moved here. This one in the western area (our neighborhood).




Took some stuff up a couple hundred feet to a bbq at the park this past weekend.


Got some wheeled goodness to bring home.


Anyone got some spare fatbike rims (32 hole) tires and tubes they don't need? The unicycle is a vintage schwinn to borrow until I learn how to ride it. The pugsley is mine all mine.

Future plans may include daddy and daughter at the park on the grass while she masters two wheels and I master one.

More Wood hauling

My neighbor at the end of the block took down a pretty good sized piñon tree that was blocking the view around the corner. He also took out a juniper tree. I saw my chance, gave him a call got the blessings to go wood scavenging. I got two really heavy loads of piñon and juniper and I am pooped. Piñon is the heaviest and sappiest wood I have ever worked with, it burns hot and long and completely cruds up your chimney, but it is a NM staple. This tree was half dead and probably predated the manhattan project, but at least it will keep me warm this winter.



I did grab a few piñon nuts from a cone to see if I can get them to grow. The birds and squirrels are amazingly good at eating all the good ones. I opened a few, but they were all shriveled. I have a seedling growing in my yard that I planted a few years back. It is doing pretty well. Most of the piñon below 7000 feet in the area have died off in the last 15 years due to prolonged drought, but the few that are in town here seem fine.



The ride was less than a quarter mile to get the wood. the first load was a bit tough, the second one was half piñon and half juniper and it was a cakewalk. I probably will just walk up there with a wheelbarrow and trim the remaining branches with an axe to get some good sappy kindling.

I was able to score a small haul of cottonwood earlier this summer. Cottonwood and aspen are the anti-piñon, they burn hot and fast and clean. I think wood hauling is my favorite use for the big dummy thus far.





Including a big batch of elm that the tree owner would not let me haul off on the bike (he insisted on delivering it to my house via pickup), I probably have scored a cord or so of free wood from the neighborhood over the past few years. Good stuff.

previous wood hauling on the big dummy

Never gets old

A couple of chairs for the yard. this should be the standard x-tra cycle backyard king carrying attachment.

Wood Hauling

More short hop large load hauling. Some neighbors two blocks up the street have had a pile of cut wood in their lawn for at least 5 months. I saw them watering their garden earlier in the week and asked if they minded if I hauled that off. They did not. So I saddled up the dummy yet again and got two good loads of wood for the winters burning. I will need to do some chopping and splitting, but that is good fun. It was way more wood than it looked in a random higgledy piggledy pile in their yard.

First load:


Second load:

Maybe a third of a mile each way?

First load again:


All I know is that it is much easier to load (and overload) the big dummy with split lumber as the last time I scored some free firewood:

Play Structure Hauling

My neighbor around the block, and fellow bike nut, Albert has a daughter a few years older than Aida who outgrew her awesome play structure. He offered it to us and after a visit to see how nice it was, I spent three hours overhauling the big dummy (taking off the studded tires, putting on a new chain, new disc brake pads etc) and then saddled up the big dummy and returned with three loads of play house and slides and such. Thanks Albert and family!

First Load:


Unwieldy when off the bike:


Second Load, the most aesthetically pleasing one:


Aida tries out the piece parts:


Third and final load with bonus cat:


Riding with that third load;



It is pretty big put together:


Aida likes it!:


Three trips, probably quarter mile each way for a mile and a half of work. It is good to be riding the big dummy again with a chain that shifts, brakes that work and smooth tires. It is also good to have friends like Albert. thanks again pal.

The James Black Cycletruck (taco) experience

A few weeks back I was in Santa Barbara for a meeting/family visit, but we flew back through LAX, so I took the opportunity to FINALLY meet with James Black and try out his Cycletruck. I think this has been in the works for 2 years, I had a bunch of interviews in LA in 2007-8 and I was plagued by flight delays that prevented this test ride from happening. Until now!

First. The man and the bike. James designed this pucky, iterated it with David Wilson who built it. James got it and has been riding it around for about 2 years, David seems to have moved on to non-active building.


Click over to the new cycletruck to get the full scoop from James himself.


Second, note, Tacos Por Favor. In Santa Monica no less. Delicious.


Also, for reference, James is hitting a taco joint a week around the LA basin, and blogging it, so please check out cincuenta taquerias. See the relevant review here. I think I have met James face to face now twice. He is a dedicated individual in search of truths of various type and well equipped with both motivation and vernacular to achieve these trooves. I am impressed. Especially since he used some architecture theory description (which I should have wrote down) to describe his preference for tacos arriving pre salsed from the taqueristas. I am not sure if he was kidding or not, but good stuff nonetheless.

Anyhow. The bike:



James generously let me ride his bike while Elena, Aida, Carmen and James chatted on the corner.



Aida found the conversation tedious and fell asleep, but Elena enjoyed meeting bike friends of mine, yet again, I am sooooooooo lucky.

So the bike riding was great. I probably did a mile or two of riding about, stopped to talk to James a bit betwixt mini rides. Here are the perceptions:

1. Nice overall wheelbase. It had that subliminally trackstandable geometry that I associate with a shorter wheelbase and a load that helps you damp out the nervousness, kind of like balancing a broom on the handle end vs. the broom end.

2. It rode smooth. The fact that the rack was fixed to the frame was weird (you can't see the front wheel at all). But I got over that pretty quick. It rode like a bike. I had the James Pizza Bag on it with assorted James detritus within. I would guess 10-15 pounds on the front rack maybe?

James' watchful eye and excellent pizza cargo bag:


3. It shimmied a bit when riding no handed and one handed. I rode it one handed with a light touch and it hit a low speed resonance. No handed it continued to the point that I was not ready to crash James' bike to see how far it went. James claims it is mild and ridable in the condition that it was in, but it can be much worse with more weight strapped on tight, even with two hands on bars. I believe him
No issues with the rack clamp says James. Also, James rides with nice shoes:


4. Nitto Promenade bars are cool and all, but way too narrow for my taste, especially on a cargo bike. This is the only hardware change I would feel obligated to make if I rode this regularly. I think Honking wide swept flat bars would be my initial choice. I probably would put much fatter bmx freestyle high pressure tires on it as well, but the bike rode great as is.

5. James probably has slightly longer legs than me and likes his seat at a messed up angle. Personal preference. The seat was an extra cool fuji-approved japanese leather saddle with white stitching around the skirt. Very nice.


6. The little Bendix-torpedo 3 speed shifter was a revelation to me. It was shifting a Sachs dreigang 3 speed in back. This was the best IG trigger shifter I have ever used and is absolutely better than the twist shifters that come on newer Sachs/SRAM 3 speeds. Anyone know if these shift sachs 3 speed coaster hubs of later vintage?


7. Overall it was a great bike. I wish I had a week in LA to ride it and play with the loading, but it was sweet. Big thanks to James for letting me ride his Cycletruck 001.
the grin of bicycle happiness:




8. The bike has a dual position fork. Lets call this one the JimG moneyshot:

James claims it makes little difference in the shimmy. I think my general experience jibes with this. If the frame and loading induces shimmy, you can probably change things a bit via load and damping, but the steering geometry (within reason) is not a good parameter to play with. James claims the biggest change in shimmy is with tightly lashed loads v. loosely lashed loads. L^3 better than t*l^2.

The Tacos:

I had three initially. The recommended chorizos con queso, the al pastor and the carne asada. Those that have come before me claimed the chorizos con queso was the thing to get, so I got it. It was great. but really, no where near as great as the al pastor. They were sublime. The carne asadas was right up there with the chorizons con queso, but man, the al pastor was just great. I was still hungry and got another al pastor and another taco. I have forgotten what the other was. The al-pastor was that good. I was really impressed with this taquaria. Their salsa rojo was also excellent. On a taco-taco head to head battle with Super-rica in Santa barbara, recently visited, I think Tacos Por Favor wins hands down. Super-Rica has great specials and other non-taco stuff, but their tacos are unaccompanied with salsa or cheese and do not quite meet the standard of excellence of los Por Favoritos. In battling Por Favor v. Taquaria San Jose in fruitvale/oakland (which I have not stepped foot in for a dozen or so, but last I did, I was eating there 1-2 times a week) I would declare it a tie. The pickled carrots and peppers were probably better at S-J, but the al-pastor was so good at P-F. I think the tiebreaker would be a throw-down between the lenguas and the sessos tacos at each place. In retrospect I am not sure I saw any organ tacos at all at P-F, they did tout their healthy lard free menu. So maybe S-J wins on a technicality...

Post tacos Elena and the baby had a disco nap on the ridiculously plush median on Olympic Blvd:



And then driving back to the airport we saw a Rock Racing escalade in Venice:

Rock on LA.