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13may2003

I got one of these on eBay. Gotta figure out what bike to put it on - I'm loving the ones I've got around Just the Way They Are.

Sparky suggests making it a good bike-tow-er by installing one of those truck-bed quick-release axley-things.

Mine doesn't have the skateboard top, for whatever reason.

Skunk's into having an xtrachopper - I'm game (but not with this one). Wouldn't that be about awesome? And tall, potentially...

20may2003

A offered the backup Cannondale =)

I get to learn how to replace/reseat tension springs! Rear brakes would've needed work, but I'm going to use the linear-pull brakes from one of the trashpicked MTB frames.

I found my rainbow "FAMILY TRUCK" bumper sticker. Definitely.

Skunk sez dig around in the drawers for the axley-thing. Sparky sez he installed his by adding braze-ons.

04jun2003

Aargh, where are my Special Nuts?? xtracycle phone folks say this is the made-in-Ca model that's real sturdy but doesn't match the online manual. No Special Nuts, this model.

For future reference, those fork mount things are $20 retail from BikeTight, maybe $12 on eBay.

The Cannondale is too tall for me. Its derailer remains dull and lifeless. Sorry.

Putting it on the Trek was a disaster.

(Foremost problem, I tore the head off the kickstand bolt and haven't the heart to drill the thing out. Problem 2, it's an older model and my parts packet didn't match the online pdf manual list. Problem 3, the screws didn't fit through the mounts - but that was a paint or welding problem, and they drilled out fine. Also, the Trek's forgey dropouts don't seem to like the attaching hardware; the washers don't sit real flat against them. 11jun, I've finally put the derailer, brakes, rack, fender, & wheel back on.)

So tonight I'm going to take Sparky up on his offer of the Giant in his basement.

06jun2003

No, too tall, and bottom bracket real hurtin'. Which we found out after a certain amount of work on the rest of it. So, the back to the pretty purple pacific that was going to be the linear-pull brakes donor anyway? Ugh, not a Toys-R-Us bike. Chop that.

What's in the basement? This old Columbia mtb - no, its chainwheel wants the heavy chain =/     Hey, funny, I forgot, I have a Giant - maybe a reasonable size but with its bottom bracket falling out even worse.

11jun2003

Found a 17" Mongoose frame in the projects dumpster, hauled it out and tied it to a post, carted it off to the bike cage at work a couple days later, brought it home last night. This should do. Well, I mean, it's black...

Started putting the Pacific's linear-pull brakes on here. Just like before, extra paint or something is getting in the way. Sanded off the brake braze-ons, much better. Between the P's front and rear brakes, there are probably enough parts to make one good set. (Park Tool linear-pull brakes repair page.)

I wonder how quick-release you could make an xtracycle. I mean, what if it had its own separate set of shift/brake levers and to use it, you'd just bolt it on, switching the rear wheel back. You'd have to disengage the bike's rear brakes, tuck up the short chain and QR the new chain on, and make sure to use the new levers, but that's not so bad. The bike's rear derailer might be in the way...

Someone pointed out in the xtracycle site forums that if you install a bike-hauling fork-mount attachment, it should have some play, or it'll come unscrewed. Like I was thinking, maybe use an old QR front hub. Saw one on an abandoned bike with a destroyed rim on a ride with Bellwether today near HU, didn't stop to snip it off...

15jun2003

Thursday at work, figured out A Name for the Band: Rikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo, aka the Longoose. Cross between Rikki Tikki Tavi the Jungle Book mongoose and Tikki Tikki Tembo etc. the boy with the inconveniently-long name.

Friday coming back from aikido, skunked a Schwinn MTB frame in slightly better shape, with some components still on. But then I couldn't use the name - what to do??

Put the Concord Junk Swap toe-clip pedals on. Put the Columbia's old front wheel (reflectors port=red, starboard=green) and fender on.

Longoose needs: 26" rear wheel, front derailer, rear derailer, front brakes, brake levers, seat, front shift lever/cable/housing, rear shift lever, stem, bars.

Okay, the Schwinn's nice Shimano derailer wants some stops the Mongoose frame doesn't have. The Sachs-Huret rear derailer I picked up in some trade is that one kind of screw-on, such that the Xtracycle long stay gets in the way.

27jun2003

Went to Cincinnati, went with the folks to the Seven Hills Store, a Catholic school's thrift store, closing for the summer that weekend. Bikes were marked down to $2, and then everything was 75% off on top of that, so I picked up a Giant Rincon for $.50. (Hmm, maybe I should've tried to talk my Mom into the 3-speed, now that I got Dad's Schwinn Suburban 5-speed back on the road.) My folks were especially awesome/flexible about us taking the time and trouble to stuff it in the trunk (they're very cool, but this required substantial extra optimism, I was thinking).

Recall the Mongoose has nothing on it but a front fork and bottom bracket and crankset. So this Giant looks all right except it has like an inch of down tube that's simply _missing - otherwise I'd feel all guilty about scrounging off it and dumping the frame.

So I even brought the wheels, checked baggage back to Boston. But grr the Xtracycle's long stays stick out so wide they won't take the QR rear wheel! I guess I can swap wheels around with the Trek. This one's probably in better shape, so that's no great betrayal.

The cool tricky thing about getting the wheels here is they can barely fit in a box that suits Delta's baggage size limit, W+H+D <= 62". Right? They're something like 24" with the tires off, then stacked minus the skewers they want about a foot deep. That's 60" already, and 2" isn't much leeway fer lookin in the basement for a box. Somehow Dad finds the perfect size box, wooHOO!

Uh-oh - [checks..] - all right, whew, this derailleur should work.

29jun2003

Everything was tedious this morning. The QR rear wheel won't fit on this, but I can't get the other one off the Trek. But I just had it off for repair! I must've been feeling vicious. Anyway, I get the wheel off the Trek and get the other one on - but I've got the rear rack screwed to the wrong set of holes, so it's in the way of the QR. So, okay, move it to the other set of holes 1/2" away. Apparently, amidst some difficult wrenching, earlier, the screw head got scraped up some - the allen wrench won't quite fit in. Can't get it off with pliers and liquid wrench, so eventually I just pound the allen wrench in with the heel of my hand. I like to think I would've tried the rubber mallet before the back of a hatchet if that had failed. It goes in, screw comes out, wheel goes on, brakes okay, Trek is back on the road.

Everything's still in the way of getting the back wheel tightened down on the right. It wants a socket wrench - what, I'm going to carry one of those in my roadside repair kit? Or I should take the derailleur off every time I have a flat - ugh!

It's amazing how much more far along (and worthwhile) this project seems now that it's got wheels on.

Derailleurs are going on, now, with much reference to Barnett's Manual on line. Really thorough - thanks to NoWay for the link.

For $5 at a garage sale, yesterday, I picked up (a set of generator-lights and) a sweet ergo Velo saddle that matches the red stem and black bars pretty cute.

07jul2003

Everything about the rear brakes is still wrong (they drag, wrong levers for linear-pull, adjuster barrel broke), but that's all. (Well, plus I want to change the original pedal out.) I took it on the road - UGH! Saddle's way too far forward, and the thing handles like BRC Summer, the opposite of steering like a cow. The shifting is ..unobjectionable, but somehow not quite right.

I didn't even notice whether I dug the saddle.

The (bent) seatpost is off the brutalized Schwinn Panther frame from the Charlestown projects dump. The QR bolt for it is off the Diamondback MTB I, uh, bought for $30 the other day [and later traded to DC for his crappy-shape folding fuji - then he ran it into a truck].

20aug2003

Picked up 2ndhand linear-pull brakes and levers from a fellow down the road. They're in the todo bin.

27sep2003

This ship couriered mad supplies to the Fort for SCULympics because YellowBug with a trailer? was just too scary. This involved somehow getting an extra-long milkcrate in one of the side bays.

03oct2003

I am so psyched. I just gave ConCarne a ride home from the fortwarming at Fort Windsor - maybe 2 or 3 miles? Not easy! Granted, she's light, but I RULE. Um, RTT needs pegs and a platform BAD.

14oct2003

Got the XL milkcrate IT'd on the rails - just right for a 9"x13" lasagna (potluck@4TinMen). Also came in mega-handy for TG, nov.

25jan2004

This bike is getting no attention from me, lately. I'm way too into the 520, and there's not so much trashpicking in winter around here.

Worst of both worlds: poor old bike, it's been the winter beater especially since I gave the 520's drivetrain a thorough cleaning and a new chain. It could use some TLC.

01feb2004

SCUL screenprinting day - got the SCUL logo in white on the drive-side pannier!

Threespeed gave me a decurbsided lazy suzan for an idea I'd had about trailers - I wanted to mount a pivoty thing on the back of a bike in order to carry long items with one end in the trailer and one end resting on the pivoty thing. Pivoty sling, or something. He points out that the industrial bearing-set is about $3 a half mile from home.

This is terrible weather for no rear brakes, and the front ones have just gotten looser - unkinked or slipped or something? Might be time to switch in the ones I bought from that fellow down Hudson. I'm sick to death of the straight bars, too, and I think I might replace those w/three-speed bars - I'm sure there are some in the basement.

apr2004

K, moving, gave me a better lazy susan - ugly, real bearing set. Trashpicked a lazysusanless bearing set, gave away the Threespeed one.

17jun2004

Harvard U Recycling/Surplus center has bikes this week. Figured out how to carry a couple. My backpack is strapped onto the left side with IT..

26jun2004

Free plywood in Medford, 3'4 x 6'4! Kiteboard time!! Took the trailer. Put some clamps around the edge (padding with thin ply and some odd strips underneath) and tied down to those. Biked the mile home with no incident, except for some snarky pedestrians.

Oops, it's 3/4". No kiteboard. But, ooh, birch veneer both sides - see if H's bass-player wants it.