Bicycles

Spring has sprung, the cycling networks in Québec, the Route Verte and other regional or municipal paths, are now mostly open.

I can hear a bad bearing again, but in my infinite wisdom, I didn’t bother to write down what types of bearings this motor uses the last time I had it disassembled. So here I am again, trying to breathe some new life into these rusty mofos - hopefully, by the time I need to do this a third time, I’ll have clean, new replacements ready for all of them.

Winter project nearing completion, but I am having decision paralysis on the last few pieces. I'm thinking of a honey colored Brooks saddle and color matching bar tape (shallaced cotton maybe). Then some tan sidewall touring tires. Which in turn would all match the honey colored leather of the bag.

I'd had my Centurion LeMans RS since 2019, but never really got a bike fit adjustment for it. I thought my issues -- getting tired easily, hand pain at the palms -- were technique and fitness issues, but a few bike fit adjustments made a huge difference!

Also $4.99 x 12 = $59.88, but first year "only" $59.99.

How much meat is left when the knobs are gone? 🤔

Had a crash on mountain bike back in January and couple ligaments snapped in the ankle, time for a fix and upgrade in a form of some braces there.

Grabbed the bike for 80eur from a local online market with all original parts and swapped on some stuff found laying around at home like saddle, bars, Tioga levers, 10sp cassette and derailleur and pedals.

My commute was 25 miles each way, 1400 feet (426m) of ascent each way, with no transit option. Last winter, a surprise blizzard rolled in during the week. My ride home took me 2.5 hours, rather than my usual 1:40, but I managed to stay upright the whole ride despite riding on slicks. Fixies and foul weather, better together!

TL;DR: this was my very first road bike, purchased new in 1986, and it came back to me twice.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the help! I’ll probably be adding some more inexpensive ebikes that aren’t over $1000 because 90% of people won’t spend that much on an ebike.

Snow Warrior is a love letter to the splendour of winter. It captures the beauty of a northern city through the eyes of a bicycle courier named Mariah. We see her ready herself and her bike for a gruelling day’s work of racing through the snow and traffic to get her deliveries into the hands of her customers.

This past Sunday's ride, a view across the water from Alki Beach in West Seattle.

In New York and other cities where congestion pricing policies, bike infrastructure projects, and car bans have been put in place, cyclists are finding the streets more welcoming.

Not a local but sharing the word since this is highly needed.

Today I revived My Summer Bike!

Ibis used to put this brake housing stop on some of their frames.

This Raleigh Raveino 4.0 is the first road bike my partner ever bought. She used this for everything: touring, triathlons, commuting, grocery getter, and joy rides. It was in desperate need of love and had been sitting neglected in favor of her mountain and gravel bikes. She was making some comments about just giving it away since we don't have space for things we don't use. We recently reached a place in our lives where road biking is back on the table. She wanted a new road bike, but nothing she test rode really spoke to her, regardless of budget. This bike has a lot of sentimental value for her, so I low-key encouraged her to hang onto it. I stealth-asked a bunch of questions about her component preferences with the intent of surprising her with a whole new modern group, but she still holds this bike as her platonic ideal of a general road bike for flogging. No major component changes, got it.

The bike has over 7,000 km on it, and this was still the original front tire, while the rear one has already been replaced twice. I got lucky - the tire I had been eyeing on was 60% off, so I managed to get two for the price of one.

The world’s best-selling vehicle model is a Chinese bike

Bikepacking on the Buffalo Bicycle

No hating on my mods allowed. Yes, it's duct tape.

For the vast majority of winter I get by perfectly fine without studs simply by having wide tires and running so low pressures that the gauge doesn't even register. However, there's that handful of trips, especially towards the end of the winter, that I could really use the extra grip you get with studded tires. I decided to continue on the custom / diy theme with my bike mods and used 13mm self-tapping screws instead of dedicated tire studs. It's ones with a wide, flat base but I'm still considering taping over them to protect the tubes.

In 2023, my goal was 4,000 miles, and I made it, so I started with the same this year.

Had a 2000km goal. Have a 3000km goal for this year.

There floated over the hamlet of Ville neuvye-la-Garenne, the other afternoon, in mid-air, a balloon. Suddenly it appeared to burst and fell rapidly toward the earth. Fearing that a disaster had occurred the terrified folk ran to the spot at which they expected the aerostat would reach the ground, when to their amazement they saw a parachute detach itself from the car and descend gently. Immediately the earth was touched one of the passengers jumped upon a small bicycle which he had brought with him from the aerial regions, and he disappeared in the direction of Levallois, in the neighborhood of Paris, as rapidly as the machine could carry him. The explanation of this singular occurrence is simple. The balloon was the Caliban, and the ascent was made from Levallios by Captain Capazza and M. Hervien, the latter being the cyclist. Their object was to test the possibility of a balloon being used for carrying war dispatches, and they assumed that an enemy succeeded in destroying it. Yet they proved that by means of the parachute they would be able to make good their escape and to outdistance their pursuers with the aid of a portable bicycle.—London Telegraph

Recently a bicycle race from Bath to Kensington, 106 miles, for the (captaincy) and (subcaptaincy) of the Middlesex Bicycle Club commenced in the Bath Market-place, the competitors being Mesate, Pearce, Leaver, Goulding, Percy, Tyne, Spencer, and Walker. The diameter of the driving wheels varied from 45 to 52 inches. The first six miles of the race, which was over a capital road, were done in a very short space of time. At Newbury, which is about midway, the first two riders to arrive were Walker and Tyne. Here the wheel of Tyne's machine collapsed, making him lose two hours in the first half of the race. He went on again, but was quite out of the running. The race was won by Mr. Walker, of the Middlesex Bicycle Club, who started at ten minutes past five a.m. and arrived at Kensington at fifteen minutes past three p.m. - the greatest speed on record for the distance.

I didn't think aluminum rims or clinchers were a thing all the way back then.

Shifter is a youtube/peertube channel with lot of great insights on cycling.

Edit: I want to thank eveyone for their generous help. I ended up getting the Advent X groupset and got it installed. Although I still have some tweaking left.

I don't know why roofed bikes and bike-caravans have appealed to me so much for years. They are expensive and take up a lot of space at home. I probably won't buy one. And yet I'm always looking to see what's new in this area.

Just the other day in regards to the bike made with vape batteries people were saying that homemade electric bikes were dangerous due to the expertise required when dealing with batteries. Electric bikes are fantastic, but your lives are even better.

Ifixit take on current bike/e-bike manufacturers.

Nice read about a trip on the buffalo bicycle (which was posted about here some time ago), with an interesting view on the "world bicycle relief".