The itinerary for tomorrow is grueling. I need to go to the bike store and buy a bike computer and a second installation kit for the two bikes I need to have, plus replace the gloves that were stolen with Blue and buy the comfy seat for the other new bike. That’s in Plano on the far north side of town then a train ride to catch the bus to the metals store southwest of Downtown Dallas to get the correct size tubing for the seat post for the other new bike, as well as the rest of the tubing to bridge the gaps between the head tube and the seat post, and the bottom bracket and the swingarm mount. That is not a lot of tubing, but especially the bridge between the bottom bracket and the swingarm mount for my personal bike, or rear triangle for the hardtail version. That’s because the bridge tubing is an odd size and shape, 1 * ½” rectangular. Then it’s back from the metals store to WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, for a total of 5+ hours on a bus or train or waiting for a bus or train. Mrs. the Poet has said she’s not coming with on this trip because she would not survive all that time sitting around , her back is not in condition for that. Her back problems are the exact opposite of mine, she can’t sit and I can’t stand.
I’m having so much fun with this new bike and I haven’t even made the first weld yet. All I have done so far has been setting up the jig for the hardtail version that is going to a customer for use as a camping bike to take for the quarter-mile trip from the campsite to the hot showers (I camp there too, and I measured the trip). I think I mentioned the jig settings for the two bikes earlier, so I won’t cover that again. As I mentioned I have to cut and weld a piece of rectangular tubing between the bottom bracket and the rear triangle, part of what makes the bike “crank-forward”. Well I also have to put in a chunk from the rear triangle to the seat tube to meet up with the new chunk between the head tube and the seat tube. That chunk will most likely be from the donor bike that provides the rear triangle and head tube and fork. The full-suspension version I’m building for myself has a donor swingarm from a wrecked bike, a front suspension fork from a wrecked bike, a spare adjustable coilover from someone’s spares box for a worn out bike and a head tube from a donor bike. The fun part will be finding a place to connect that coilover to the frame while trying to get the pivot point as close as possible to the chainline to minimize pedal induced “pogo”. There is a maximum amount I can raise the top tube because of the head tube being restricted by the steer tube on the fork. This in turn restricts how high I can mount the frame mount for the coilover, which restricts how high I can mount the pivot of the swingarm. Everything is linked.
On something other than bike building, I will be doing my annual shaving of my head on the 23rd of the month, or two weeks. The idea is to get the hair under the trees at church in time for nest-building season for the migratory birds that hang around the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. I can’t do much for the birds, but I can do this. I stop cutting my hair and beard in October so that I have a little more insulation during the winter and usually I have a nice head of hair by March that keeps my noggin warm with only a light balaclava even when the temperature drops into the 20s. But in the summer I don’t want to keep my head any warmer than I have to so that hair has to go. This way I adjust for the seasons and do a small thing for the earth. As I said it’s a small thing but it’s a thing I can do, so I do it. I will try to document it via camera phone pictures. I have already adjusted my phone camera to take pictures that are set to the width of the column of the blog, so I just send the picture to my e-mail, and then from my e-mail to my laptop, then from the laptop to my blog media storage, and into a blog post. I just need to find someone to take the pictures while I get sheared. 😉
And as I wrap this up Brad Keselowski just won the Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas when Jr. had a slight hiccup in his fuel feed coming off of turn 2 on the last lap of the race handing the lead over to Brad. Jr. recovered to finish 2nd and retain his points lead. This looks to be Brad and Jr.’s year as they are currently separated by a single point in the standings with Jr.’s 2 second place finishes making the difference. Of course this was only the third race of the season, Bristol is next week and we all know that track is almost as much of a wild card as Talladega. Sure a lot of the time a good driver will win when driving a good car, but the speed and close quarters of the World’s Fastest Half Mile will sometimes combine to produce chain reaction wrecks just like a superspeedway. That can really ruin your day when back markers get together and take out the leaders.
And I have meandered on long enough today. Go do something!
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 