Critical Mass NYC Rider Attacked by Cop

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.

First Ride Post

No time to write - gotta ride. 20.2 mi Pekin/Lower Springboro loop on the Litespeed.

Fredder is Better!

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

Transformer Bicycle

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:

Ticket to ride

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:

...Not on My Bike

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.