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I picked up my new (2008) Kona Ute today. Wouldn't you know that it was the first heavy snow we had on the west side of Cleveland? The Ute rode like a dream through about 2" of snow.
My son, Gus, and I like to ride our bikes around the duplex. He has a Specialized Hot Walk and mine is the B.U.S.S. (Big Urban Single Speed). I wasn't sure how the Ute's extra-long wheelbase would go in our tight space, but it really was quite agile. Don't try this with a kid trailer...
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
Giant TCR ADVANCED SL TEAM (ISP)
Not to be outdone by the bike of two weeks ago (Specialized SL2) - Giant's top-of-the-line TCR ADVANCED SL TEAM is every bit the high end competitor.
Again, ultra-light carbon fiber frame, Dura-Ace 7900 and Shimano handlebar system, excellent use of aerodynamics and specific weight-saving parts, one of the finest wheelsets available, and so it goes.
The Giant is $500 cheaper (at $8000) than the Specialized - plenty of wiggle room for pedals and a computer. Enjoy:
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
SPECIALIZED S-WORKS TARMAC SL2
This sweet baby is crazy light and loaded for bear. Zipp 404 wheels; über carbon frame, crank, handlebar, stem and seatpost; and the remaining components are 2009 Dura-Ace 7900! This configuration makes the SL2 about the most amazing stock bike available.
The LBS scale barely tipped 15lb for the standard build. I can't think of any improvements - for $8500 you ought not have to think very hard about improvements. Feast on the beauty and "hors pro" racing utility.
Oh, BTW, if you have a spare eight-large, I can come up with the five-small...
Found these links on the excellent bikecommuters.com site:
The Picnic Table Bike
The Drum Bike (long, but catch the first dance scene at the art gallery!)
A great story about bicycle commuter advocacy in the Washington, D.C., area. Includes interesting perspectives from advocates, commuters, government and those who see the problems of too many bicycles on the road.
Video profiles from bicycle commuters in various communities would make a great project... Please send me your link if you've already created one!
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
SPECIALIZED HOTWALK
This commercial version of a balance bicycle is the bomb! There are other options - including super expensive Finnish wooden ones and super cheap toddler bikes with the training wheels and cranks removed - but this was at the LBS and Boy really liked it.
We bought a Giro "Mike and the Bike" helmet for him as well. Great fun - he wanted to wear his helmet to the pizza shop and to bed. That's my Boy!
It is on order and should be here by Christmas. LBS is really loving our family right now...
I'm moaning right now.
I called by local bike shop (LBS) manager today and he informed me that he has the Kona Africabike Threes coming, but they won't be here until March/April 2009. For a measly $50 he'll reserve one for me. I think it is a done deal.
Wife will have her dream: a step-through, basket in the front, rack in the back, bicycle when the snow stops melting.
The big moan however is that he also has a 2008 Ute in the window that he is selling for an insanely cheap price. Its specifications are basically the same as the 2009, just a different color and one set of bags instead of the HUGE bags.
The price is so low (and he said he'd even go lower if I bought an Africabike Three), it is basically the same as the conversion cost for an ExtraCycle... I can buy this bike, a set of big bags, add a child seat to the deck and still pocket a few Benjamins for beer money with the difference.
Moan. Groan. Temptation.
OK, I had some big "suit" type meetings early this week and the weather was Cleveland pre-winter slushy-snow-freezing-rain crap. I drove the car two days but slogged out in it today. I stayed really dry thanks to my Performance "Ultra" rain jacket and seam sealed pants.
The temp when I took off this morning was 34 Fahrenheit with a 20+ MPH wind at my side along with the freezing rain. I guess it is sort of like jumping into cold water - the first time is the hardest.
Also picked up some sweet new Ergon grips. Nummy (oh yeah, so my hands don't get numb-ey):
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
KONA AFRICABIKE
OK, this consumerism desire has a "noble" purpose - providing bikes to African home health care workers. Bicycles allow these workers to reach many more patients in a given day - helping give care and comfort to those who don't have access to a hospital.
The project is especially important for HIV/AIDS patients who are stigmatized for being in public...
Plus it is a really nice looking around-town bike. Kona will donate one bicycle to the project for every two purchased through standard retail outlets. Or/and you can adopt a bicycle (below the production cost) for just $100!
Coaster brake in three speed for $449 USD or single speed for $375 USD - includes fenders, rear rack, front basket, and rear wheel lock.
The MOST IMPORTANT bicycle you may ever buy! 
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
I missed last week while I was moving to Cleveland. Saw the Kona Ute 2008 in the window of a local bike shop. Really cool. Then went online and saw the 2009. Holy ****! That is a lot of bike for $899.
Cargo capacity, disk brake, sittin' deck, upright setup, KICKSTAND! I'm in love...
Dang - one awesome urban assault ve-hicle!
I've been in Cleveland now for almost two weeks and have gotten my bicycle commute down pretty well. It is 7mi each direction and mostly flat except for the bridge shown below. My main streets are Madison, Grace and Detroit - Detroit being a main thoroughfare between the city of Cleveland and the western lakeside suburbs.
Because I need a little Grace every day I take a left on it:
Then a right onto Detroit - here is my view heading east at the stop at 117th Ave, the dividing line between Cleveland and Lakewood (my fair city...)
As friend Warren Waldron noted - "when you live on the west side of Cleveland your commute is into the sun both directions." How true!
One of the curious things you get to think about when bicycle commuting - restaurant names. Please say with me three times quickly, "pho que, pho que, pho que..." ;) 
After 6 miles comes the prize - the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge. Not steep but fairly long:
After that it is a quick shot through Tower City and onto Prospect Ave for my arrival at the UCC Headquarters.
The B.U.S.S. (big urban single speed) needed some professional wheel attention but other than that has held up well.
That's it for now, more sights later...
Peace!
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
My wife has indicated she might like to move away from her mountain bike and toward a more urban/commute friendly setup.
Looking at what it would take to transform her MTB into the same it is probably going to be a better idea to replace it. The frame is something like an 11" MTB frame with a very short wheelbase - no room for racks and not really given to an upright riding style.
Enter the Giant Suede Coasting DX rig. Pretty cool specs and cool looking:
Seems to have a similar auto-shift mechanism as the Trek Lime. If you added fenders and a rack to the Lime I'm guessing these would be fairly similar machines.
Not one of my finer moments.
In a fit of unmitigated anger/stupidity I chucked the B.U.S.S. (Blue Urban Single Speed - sorry Bianchi...) into the trees alongside a paved path. There was a silly crash and I lost my cool.
I also lost a few bucks as the B.U.S.S. came down hard on the rear rim and tacoed it pretty well. Not only did I have to suffer the indignation of loosing my cool in a major and public way, but I had to undo my rear brake to even get back to the car. Thawup, thawup, thawup it went for about four miles.
Evidence of my silliness:
Found a compatibly sized rim and re-laced it myself. I'll probably have a shop check my true/dish but it is pretty close.
Uh, OK Campagnolo... I've been a fan for a very long time. I put Nuevo Record derailleurs and shifters on my first race bike - a 1984 Kabuki. (Sorry, but Modolo D-brakes were all the rage back then...)
I have two current bikes with your gear on them: a Litespeed Ghisalo with full 10 speed Record (except the FSA Carbon Crank) and a GT cyclocross frame with full 10 speed Chorus. I love your stuff, no doubt.
But seriously, $1100 for your 11 speed crank? $625 for ergopower levers? $550 for a rear derailleur? $250 for a front derailleur? Come on - I know this is your top of the line "Super Record" setup but it makes my blood boil!
For the price of your crank, levers and rear derailleur we can buy any other pro-level kit in its entirety! (Dura-Ace & SRAM Red)
I'm all for R&D. I'm all for saving weight. But when your kit price DOUBLES IN PRICE with one revision - something is wrong.
You can be sure that as I purchase new bikes and/or replace groupos on old frames I'll be looking elsewhere.
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
Bianchi Commuters - single speed and fixed gear.
This sweet 2009 Bianchi Pista mod has flat bars and brakes. Available in blue or chrome!
So cool. Must have.
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
Trek Lime
I understand that new for 2009 will be a belt drive. Super Sweet!
Nice article by Mark Benjamin of Salon.com on carless living in Washington DC. 200lbs on the XtraCycle - you da man! Here is the accompanying video:
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
Surly Big Dummy by XtraCycle
My goal of carless living is much closer pending a move to the urban Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Lakewood. The Big Dummy is the perfect companion for shopping, kid hauling and commuting with a load.
The build provided by XtraCycle looks pretty good. Not sure you could do any better piecing it together on your own.
An alternative would be to convert my already SS converted Gary Fisher Paragon with the XtraCycle Free Radical Kit. Staying with a SS would be a fun exercise for an XtraCycle...
Well, I had a chance to test ride the SWOBO Del Norte at the Roll shop at "The Greene" in Beavercreek, Ohio.
The Greene is one of those manufactured "urban" shopping and living districts. Lots of cobble lined streets, a clock tower in the center of the "town", boutique shops, parking ramps, office space and condo units. Up until two years ago it was a corn field...
Environment aside, I called ahead to see if the Del Norte was available in 53cm. The friendly shop staff (Matt) said he would build one up for me. When I arrived it was ready as promised. A little adjustment of the chain and seatpost, a helmet fit and I was off.
The first thing to note about the Del Norte is that it isn't light. That isn't to say it's terribly heavy - it just isn't light. It is designed and marketed as a rugged urban commuter. I had no doubt from the first pedal stroke that this bike would hold up to most anything I could dish out.
Double sided Wellgo pedals allow for flat footing and SPD riding. If this bike were mine these would be replaced with a standard track/road pedal with toe clips but the design was usable overall. The right pedal seemed to creak a bit, but it could have been a number of things including the crank or an overtightened chain.
Handling was excellent. Like I said, this is a solid rig and the ride over the cobbles of "The Greene" proved to be comfortable and decent handling for its mass. I liked that it had a freewheel and two brakes. It comes with a flip-flop hub so adding a fixed gear and lockring is simple.
I used to race on the velodrome so I'm no stranger to fixed gear riding - skidding, hopping, etc... However, the brakes added a level of comfort while blowing through these streets where people were definitely not looking for cyclists.
The gearing was a little lower than I like but spinning isn't a bad thing. I took the bike up the three story parking ramp and down again. It climbed just fine and descended well. Did a no-fear/no-brake left hand turn out of the ramp and lived to tell the story.
So the folks at SWOBO know how to build nice riding and functional bikes. But how does it look?
I liked the powder coat "Matte Grayeen" frame and fork. Coupled with some nice flare such as the red chain, hubs and rims it is a looker. The only bling to be found is the chrome steel handlebar with chrome bar tape (SWOBO visited the department of redundancy department for this idea!)
The saddle with bottle opener is a great idea because I can't even count how many times I've been doing a city dash or critical mass event when I suddenly pulled over for a six of Sam Adams and had no way to open it other than wedging the bottle cap in my front chainring. Unfortunately the Del Norte comes with a front chainring bash guard so that little technique is out of the question - hence the seat rail mounted bottle opener.
The welds on the frame are really nice - I know these aren't hand built frames but there is tig welding and then there is TIG welding. This is the latter, and it looks like attention was paid to making nice clean welds with smooth even beading. Dropouts are adorned with dual fender/rack mounts making rigging the bike up as an über commuter easy work especially given the ample clearance for fenders and wider tires.
Added touches like the shopping cart laser etching on the hubs, stem and seat binder - not to mention the metal SWOBO badges - remind you that SWOBO is as good at marketing as they are at design. Not obnoxious, just a little overstated.
My only beef with this bike is that it is set up "slower" than I'd like. The gearing is 42x17 - I think a 46x16/17 would be better for my type of commuting. The 32mm tires are a little large and soft - though they did handle well. A 28mm tire is plenty for my commuting needs. Not sure if it is intentional, but the weight did seem to be a bit high. I'm going to guess it came in at 24-25lb stock.
My single speed mountain bike (sans rack and fenders) weighs 24lb. I'd think SWOBO could do a bit of trimming but maybe a weight to durability ration was their biggest concern. In any regard, for flatlanders and those who don't mind humping a bit on the hills these are nits to pick on an otherwise nice bike.
Thanks to the folks at Roll for entertaining me and letting me know my purchase options, including a nice 9 month no interest plan. At $739 the SWOBO Del Norte isn't the cheapest SS commuter out there but it does have a lot to offer including a great design, good materials and manufacturing, and a quality stock parts list.
Try building a similarly equipped SS bike and you'll hit $739 before you add in the cost of a frame and fork! As such the Del Norte is a good value unless you need everything custom-custom. The hipsters will think you are a sellout for having purchased off-the-rack but you'll save some dough for skinny pants, trucker hats and PBR if you do (and have a great serviceable bike for years to come...)
lust, avarice, gluttony, envy = sweet bikes
The SWOBO Del Norte 
Oh - ye of red rims, hubs and chain - how I long for thee...
Uh, I'm no civil rights attorney and I'm definitely not a Critical Mass devotee but this cop (Patrick Pogan, age 22) is going to lose his job over this...
See the NY Daily News writeup on this incident.
No time to write - gotta ride. 20.2 mi Pekin/Lower Springboro loop on the Litespeed.
Polly (the single speed Paragon) had two tweaks since the last post.
First, I adjusted the chainline using Sheldon Brown's (may he RIP) excellent article.
Pretty easy using the spacers included with the Forte single speed kit. The whole thing runs a lot quieter now that I adjusted for nearly 6mm of offset that my "eyeball" method had come up with.
The second tweak was to get a more stable right front fender mount than zip ties. Here was effort #1:
The Rock Shock SID Race XC fork does not come with fender mounts. But if you are willing to possibly scratch your $500+ suspension fork, a hose clamp works fine. I bent the loopy part of the fender mount to match the fork angle, cut a bit of old latex tubing and fastened it all together like this:
Top:
Bottom:
Now that is FRED!
Oh yeah, total cost of new stuff needed to convert this bike to a single speed commuter:
Single Speed Tensioner/Cog Kit: $21
Fenders $20
Tires: 2x$8 ($16)
Bell: $7.95
Hose Clamp: $2.25
Misc Screws: $1.89
Total: $69.09
The transformation is complete. My Gary Fisher Paragon (circa 1995) has been a great bike. Aside from new rims and a SID Race fork in 2001 it was pretty much all original. I did some off-road racing on it and began cyclocross racing with this bike.
Its parts were a bit weary so I decided it would make a GREAT fixed/single speed bike.
I had raced fixed gear on the velodrome and wanted to go that route first but cost and time were prohibitive.
Fixed gear chain tensioning is normally accomplished with horizontal dropouts on a bike, but derailleur based frames like mine have vertical dropouts...
The only reasonable option to have this frame be a true fixie is to use a neat hub from White Industries called the ENO. It has an elliptical axle offset that allows the variable chain tensioning required for fixed gears.
The next option was to use my existing freehub and a chain tensioner - similar to a single-cog rear derailleur but with no motion. I ended up going to the nearby Performance Bicycle Shop for their Single Speed Conversion Kit. (Sorry LBS friends, it is the best bike shop around - see an older post below about that.)
Well, I tore off the derailleurs, shifters and cables. I removed the cassette and made a guess at alignment (more on that later.) I removed the front granny and inner chainrings and moved the outer 42 tooth chainring to the inner position to help with alignment.
The single speed kit came with three cogs: 16, 18 and 20 tooth. I made the chain length compatible with the 20 tooth cog so that it can be used. The tensioner seems to take up the slack when using the 18 or 16 tooth cog just fine.
Enough talk - we want pictures!
Sweet ferrules - rear brake cable running down the middle (no front or rear derailleur cables needed!)
Chain tensioner will allow 16-20 tooth cog on the back. The 42-16 is being ridden day to day but with the Burley attached or with an XtraCycle conversion the 18 or 20 will be handy:
Starting to get a little Fred (definition #2) with these repurposed blue anodized aluminum chainring bolts! (Note the chainring mounted inside, where the middle ring would normally go...)
Fender mount #1 (actually a disk brake mount...)
Fender mount #2 (zip ties == duct tape for bicycles...)
And a bell - even more Fred! (Note the lack of shifters on that clean bar...)
The complete SS machine with 20+ year old Blackburn Mountain rack, Forte 1.5" city tires and Freddy Fenders installed:
We live in perhaps one of the most bike UNFRIENDLY towns in the US. To be fair, the mayor has commissioned and initiative to look at expanding the possibilities for bicycle commuting. Yet, for the past 100+ years that had not been part of the plan - hence the lack of access and understanding.
A few years back a local bicycle shop (since closed) asked if they could purchase and install bike racks at the junior and senior high schools. The school board turned them down because they were using busing as a leverage point to obtain more funding for operations.
(i.e. The school board STOPPED busing kids for a period of time claiming a "budget crisis" which forced parents to all DRIVE their kids to school and get fed up enough with the inconvenience to pass a tax levy... Coercive?)
I've been trying to defy this unfriendly bicycling tone by riding anyway - even pulling Gus around in the Burley trailer on the safer roads (lots of alleys actually.)
Decided to trek to the grocery last evening - rack and single pannier attached:
Not a bad haul and only 20 minutes of biking round trip. It would have taken the same time to drive:
I've seen this commercial before. But in the context of watching the first stage of the 2008 Tour de France (and contemplating our upcoming move to facilitate year-round bicycle commuting) it seems a bit counter to the aims of cycling. I understand the need for advertising dollars but this commercial ultimately discourages kids from finding transportation that doesn't involve internal combustion:
Good for the kid though - repairing a heaping Gran Torino so he can get around at 10mpg and not ride his bike to Autozone any more... Oh yeah, he'll be going back to Autozone A LOT with that PoS. ;-)
Good luck passing the emissions test!
Not really an unexpected commercial as the auto industry struggles to keep "the feeling" and nostalgia of classic muscle cars alive both literally with new high-power gas-guzzling models and metaphorically as in this commercial.
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