Statrix Redux

Here’s another short film, this one about a NY legend, “Kamikaze” the bike messenger…

Here’s an excellent little film on bicycles…

As part of my workplace’s move to new technologies, we’ve implemented a corporate blog about our commitment to being green! I was on today and even posted something about my commuting to work on my bicycle over the last year or so.
I almost immediately got a response from a coworker congratulating me on losing 70 pounds. I don’t really think I’ve “lost” any weight at all. I know where it all is…on the roads all over Honolulu. 🙂
In any case, she’s training for the upcoming Honolulu Century Ride which is coming up on September 27th. I’m still on the fence on this one. I like my solo time, probably because I’m so slow. Still I do get where I’m going and, probably even more importantly, I get back too.
If, on the other hand, you are interested in the century ride, just click the image below!

Registration is due by September 14th. If you are later than that you won’t receive all the goodies that come along with the price of admission!
Ride safe!

A week or two ago I received an email from BicycleR Evolution, they’re the company that produces the trailer portion of the Bike Friday Travel System.
The email was a notification that there was a problem with the axles that could lead to failure on a trip. Luckily I have no trips planned immediately. Here’s the text of the notice:

BicycleR Evolution is the company that manufactures the trailer frames that convert the suitcase to a trailer. We have been experiencing a problem with some of our trailer axles. In these instances the solid center rod has come loose from the the axle tube. This results in the axle (with wheel attached) falling off. The failure is due to faulty bonding materials.
Bike Friday and BicycleR Evolution have devised a test to check your trailer axles before heading out on your next trip. If you purchased your trailer between November 08 and June 09 then we would advise doing the following test as demonstrated in this You Tube video.

I performed the test and lo and behold I had a problem…

As you can see, one of the axles came apart.
Well today I spoke to BicycleR Evolution and was very impressed by how well they are handling the situation. I’ll be receiving new axles pretty quickly. As I said I don’t have a trip planned so I declined speedy shipping, allowing that USPS is plenty quick enough for me.
Indeed I was impressed enough that I ordered a hitch to use the system on my other bike. I have a couple of plans along those lines.

First off I’d like to use two bikes to get to the airport. Currently I’d have to pack my Bike Friday NWT at the airport if I were to use the trailer system. The airport isn’t very far from home and I could easily bike it in under and hour, but I’d hate to add the time to pack the bike up too. So…
I figure I can pack the bike at home and use my other bike to tow it all to the airport. For short flights it would be easy enough as I wouldn’t need a lot of other luggage and I have racks and such for all of that.
My other idea is to use the trailer for shopping with either bike.

In any case I’m very, very pleased with how BicycleR Evolution is handling everything. Sure I wish things were perfect from the get go, but they have a long track record of good stuff, this seems to be a tiny blip on the radar and they’ve handled it just right so far.
Aloha!

I was reading an article called “12 Cool Urban Bicycles Ready to Replace Your Car” on the Lighter Footstep site and a really nice Fuji caught my eye.

I went and read about it on the Fuji site and it seems like it might be just a wee bit too small for me even in the largest size, but I’d have to try it to be sure.
Aloha!

Yesterday I was giving my Bike Friday NWT a once over as I’d ridden it to Kailua over the weekend and wanted to clean it up a bit. As I was doing this one of the balance screws on my rear brake simply dropped off along with the associated spring. I couldn’t quite put it back on without bracing the bike better which prompted me to look at the other side of the brake…and noticed…

Yep! The bit of the brake that the screw threads into is broken on that side of the bike. What to do?
Well putting in the first screw really unbalances the brake so I simply left it off for a start. The bike, and brake, work okay that way; it’s the rear brake so it doesn’t provide the majority of the stopping power. Still I’d rather have it working well.
I went to my LBS but they didn’t have a direct replacement so I turned the Yaksters; Yak is the mailing list for Bike Friday owners.
I got a few answers, the most complete of which I’m putting here for posterity…thanks Alex!

Not really a big deal. All the screws do is adjust the spring tension. You only really need one side to get the brake pads centered over the rim. With only one screw you may need to make a couple of adjustments before using it to center the brakes. The first thing is what you already did, which is to try to use the existing screw to center the brakes. Are the brakes leaning more towards the side with the broken screw or towards the side with the good screw? That will decide what you do next. What you want to do is get more spring tension on the side opposite the way the pads are leaning. Start off by undoing the noodle so that the brake cable hangs loose. Lets assume the pads are leaning towards the side with the good screw. What you would do is look at the cantilever stud on the frame. You will see that at the base of the stud there is a semi circular plate with three holes in it. The end of the spring will be inserted into one of these holes, probably the center one. What you want to do is move the end of the spring so that it sits one position higher. That will increase the spring tension on that side. To do this loosen the mounting bolt and carefully left the arm out just enough to move the end of the spring. Then tighten the mounting screw back on. Put the noodle back on and then check the centering again. Now the pads should be leaning towards the side with the broken screw. Tighten the screw on the good side and that will pull the pads over. Stop when centered. Apply the brakes a few times to make sure they stay centered.

I’ll be giving that a try tonight when I’ve got a bit of time!
Aloha to all!

I’d been searching for this site, admittedly not too hard as it was quite easy to find. Here’s a link to Bob Robinson’s site. He’s the author of the Bicycling Guide to the Mississippi River Trail, my intended destination.

One of the important things I wanted to find out is whether there have been updates since I got my copy and, sure enough, there are. I’m glad I found them as I’d hate to miss the Effigy Mounds in Iowa. 🙂
Aloha!

I’m already regretting my decision to try for Kailua again tomorrow. It’s not that I have something better to do, it’s just that…I’d like to sleep in.
I need to leave around 4:30am so that I’m in Kailua around 7:00am. If I go I have something to do at 8am that makes the trip fun. Plus if I get there at that time I can get a ride back. So…we’ll see.
I would hope the weather is nice so I can have a swim while I’m there. Actually even if the weather is a bit off I can still have a swim, I just won’t enjoy it as much.
Anyway, that’s the plan as it stands right now.
Aloha!

The Hawaii Bicycle League just sent out a link to the Draft Oahu Bike Plan on the Oahu Bike Plan resources page.

Aloha!

I’ve decided to try to actually map out the MRT according to the guide I have. I’m only posting the first section here, you’ll have to get the book itself to get the full route.

So far it’s a bit more difficult than I’d imagined. I’m working in MapMyRide which I support as a premium member. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to do a great job mapping county roads. The roads are there but they are hard to identify. Google Maps is, oddly, no better. For this job it seems MapQuest is best choice. Thus I find I’m moving back and forth, checking the route on MapQuest, then going to MapMyRide and doing the actual plotting.
So I finished the first section, but I’ve no idea if it’s actually correct according the guide, though it seems pretty close. I’ll have to see what happens when I start hitting some of the real tiny roads down the path.
As I said, I’m not going to post each section on my blog, just go buy the book! I do hope I can find someone who’s already done all the work though.
Aloha!