Take It Off!

Last night I finally found some time to put on the 2.0" Schwalbe Big Apple on the rear of the Madsen.  I had trouble seating the tire, so I swapped the rubber rim strip for some cloth rim tape, which seemed to help.  Many spokes were very loose, so I tightened them.  Attention Madsen owners: I know the bike is awesome, but it should still be serviced periodically.

When I visited Madsen Cycles in SLC, Jared assured me that this tire would fit with the stock fender, but he added that one must clip out the crimped section of the rear fender with tin snips to accomodate all that rubber. Most plastic fenders are missing this section anyway.  I was able to hack it without removing the bucket.

However when I took the kids to the library today, I found that the chain now rubbed a bit on the hacked fender when I used the large cog.  And the taller tire caused the kickstand to float just a bit too high off the ground, which allowed  the bike to roll when parked - not cool.  The bucket needed to come off so I could finish what I had started doing half-assed.  Typical.


Removing the bucket is easier than I had thought it would be.  You must only remove three screws.  There are two small nutted screws at the bottom of the bucket that hold the bucket to a cross bracket.  Then under the rear seat, there is a screw-type hose clamp that holds the bucket to the round top-tube of the support rack.  That's it.  I pumped the tire to max pressure (70 psi), adjusted the kickstand down (the kickstand is held in place by what is essentially an upside-down seat post clamp), then reduced the tire pressure a bit to soften the ride.  I trimmed my fender hack job, then adjusted the v-brake pads while it was convenient.  Note the blue sticker that indicates that this is one of the discounted "scratched" models.


While I had the bucket off, I also took a few measurements.  Using the highly accurate "bathroom scale" method, I found that a 2-seat bucket weighs 24 lbs, and the bucketless kg271 (with aftermarket VO saddle and fat Schwalbe tires) weighs 46 lbs.  I rode the bucketless bike around the block and found it to be as zippy as my 50 lb Xtracycle.  Yes, zippy is relative in this case, but you'd be amazed how well these longtails can lurch out of the gate.

I would also say that the Avid BB5 front brake I put on the Madsen (upgrade from the stock Promax brake caliper) works about as well as the Avid BB7 on my Xtracycle when the bikes are unloaded (160 mm rotors on both.)  However, the BB7 allows far better control and stops the loaded Xtracycle much better.  Madsen owners, if you are contemplating an upgrade to the brakes, go with the BB7.

It's taken me 8 months, but I finally have the bike dialed in the way I wanted it.  I was really pleased with it on Day 1, but a few simple upgrades and comfort modifications have made it one of my favorite bikes to ride.  And for the second time this month, I talked to someone outside the library who already knew about Madsen Cycles, but stopped to chat because he was completely shocked to see one in Tacoma.  Most of the folks who ask me about the bucket bike think it's a home-made hack and are surprised to find that I bought it fully assembled (without ever seeing one in person!) and ready-to-ride straight out of the box.  Hopefully these recent encounters with other bike enthusiasts indicate that the cargo bike wave is finally headed for T-town.  Any of you shop owners want to hop on the Madsen dealer train?  C'mon!

Learning about Bicycles

It's been a while since I've spent a 36°F night out in the garage working on bikes until I can't feel my fingers. Today my dad brought over two 20" kid bikes that he aquired while helping someone move, so I had an excuse to do some wrenching in the cold. We've done this a few times before where he finds the needy bikes, I fix 'em up, and then we place them in a good home. The problem is that some bikes are worth working on and others are not.



Yes, the fork of the blue one was backwards. Both also had bent brake calipers and other borken bits here and there. I took the broken stuff off, then adjusted seats and bars, aired the tires (all were good, I was shocked), and flipped them over to inspect the tranny.

The orange one was fine, though the hub needed adjustment. I'm sure someone thought the front hand brake was a good idea, but I doubt that it ever helped to stop the bike any faster. I ditched it since the coaster brake worked ok. My first BMX bike only had a coaster brake and I remember it stopping on a dime (though it likely did not.) On to the blue bike.

The blue bike was problematic. When coasting, there was a horrendous high pitched grinding noise that seemed to come from inside of the hub. I thought maybe it just needed the outter cone adjusted, but that was not the case. So, I just took it apart completely. Why not?

I've never taken a coaster brake hub apart before, so it took a while to figure out. Late in the game, I remembered reading somewhere that you should use a bench vise to hold the wheel on one side. Bingo. I cleaned everything up and tried to understand it's workings. I reassembled it twice, wrongly thinking I had found and solved the problem. I finally deduced that the spring which controls the un-braking mechnism needed to be reshaped a bit and heavily greased. I'm glad I bought those cone wrenches ages ago when they were on sale.

With the bike returned to it's upright and fully locked position, I returned to the house for a cup of tea and some cookies.

Dude, where's your car?

You may have noticed in the numerous bike photos taken in my garage that there is never a car in there. Don't let me mislead you, Reader, into thinking that I don't own and use a car regularly.

My wife and I each had a vehicle. They fit nicely in our two-car garage. Then I started bussing and carpooling the 14 miles to work in 2003. By late 2004, we had sold the pick-up and kept the hatchback as our shared vehicle. It was great. We saved tons of money on insurance and car payments, and surprisingly put less miles on the hatchback every month than we were before.

However, with our first child on the way in 2005, we decided that we needed to add a vehicle to our fleet with more modern safety features. And, to be honest, we weren't sure how we would juggle commutes and daycare dropoffs with just one car. It didn't seem possible, and, without changing where we lived or worked, it really wasn't possible.

After only 9 months running car-lite, we were back where we started. Two cars. It was easy. We drove more.

But, where are those cars now, you might ask? Well, in the late summer of 2007, after nearly two years of shuttling our daughter to daycare and with a second child on the way, my wife decided to reduce her hours at work and stay home more. After a few months of consistent bike commutes and carpools by me, we proved that the little hatchback was now excessive and sold it to a family friend. When child number two arrived we traded to a minivan so we could haul more people/kids/dogs/things at once and combine more trips. It works for us.

We have been a car-lite, family-of-four for just over a year now, and I can't think of a single time where we were put in a bind because we didn't have a second vehicle. Like many folks, we borrow someone's truck now and then for big hauls, but that's about it.

A few more personal opinions on automobiles and their energy consumption:
1. Not everyone needs to drive an automobile for every trip, even if they own one. We take the bus downtown with the kids on weekdays to the Children's Museum to avoid parking hassles and to teach our children about public transportation. It takes a few extra minutes, but we notice more about our city from our chauffeured seats on the bus.
2. I don't bash on folks that drive inefficient vehicles. Not everyone can afford a new, gas-sipping car. And let's try to look at the big picture here (or at least one interpretation of it) and agree that all cars pollute, even the ones with batteries. Driving a used car into the ground may be a better solution in some cases.
3. Ethanol is wasteful to produce and consume. If you think that running out of crude oil sounds bad, let's imagine running out of food because we eventually become so dependent on burning it to get to the grocery store.
4. I'm not worried about global warming in the short-term. I'm worried about the immediate impact of your tailpipe emissions on the health of my family.
5. The City of Tacoma should charge every resident a fee for on-street parking in the city. It could be collected when you renew your vehicle registration.
6. I worked for an oil company in a group of seven employees. On any given day, four of us vanpooled, carpooled, biked, bused, or telecommuted to work. When friends and relatives would inevitably ask me, "So, why are gas prices so high?" I would have to ask them, "Well, did you drive somewhere today?"
7. Not driving a car from A to B is very patriotic.

How's it lookin' back there?

I usually do my big grocery shopping trips at night after the kids are in bed. There's less traffic, both on the road and in the isles, so I can usually get more done in less time.

From Xtracycle

After returning home from a recent trip, I began to wonder about my night-time visibility to cars approaching from the rear, since I can at least see what's coming at me from up ahead. I always wear a reflective vest at night as well as a blinkie on my Bell Metro helmet. The Xtracycle also has a bottle-dynamo driven light set, but it's the many added reflectors that seem to be doing the most good.

Day...(notice LED standlight)

From Xtracycle

Night...

From Xtracycle

I think adding some reflective tape to the corners of the H-racks would seal the deal...

Garage Time

With my wife working nights and me home all day and night with the Little Ones, I start to feel a little cabin fever now and then. Last night I moved all of the crap in the garage to the middle to make a track. Tonight, I tuned up my Cross Check brakes and tested them out...



Here's the damage...

From Garage

I know, you can hear the cantis chirping and you're thinking, "I thought he said he tuned up the brakes?" Well, it's 32°F out there and I had beer to drink. Plus, the squealing just gives everyone a little extra warning that I'm coming in fast.

And now, back to my Snow Cap and your regularly scheduled programming...