Tuna Casserole Surprise

Tuna Casserole Surprise.  What an odd name for a bike?  I got the idea from a good friend who reminded me of the Tuna Casserole phenomena from years gone by.  A good tuna casserole was made up of anything found in the fridge + a can of tuna and a bit of time in the oven.  That perfectly describes this bike. 

Frame: Surly Troll, 20” with the rear canti studs sawed off for tire clearance.  “S”, “U”, “R” and “L” stickers have been removed.  They’ve been replaced with really cute Hello Kitty stickers.  This bike will need all the help it can get in the cuteness department.

Fork: Surly Puglsey – 135mm, non-offset hub spacing

Headset: King

Stem: Zipp Service Course 90mm (will likely be swapped for a 100mm)

Bars:  Zipp Service Course 44mm Ergo road drop.

Shifters: Ancient Ultegra 2x9-speed STI

Brakes: Avid BB7 MTB disc brakes with 160mm rotors and Problem Solvers Travel Agents to make them work with the road levers.

Front wheel: WTB rear disc hub laced to a Surly Rolling Darryl 32-hole rim.  Surly Endomorph 26x3.7” tire with a Surly tube and 13psi in it. 

Rear Wheel: Chris King single speed hub laced to a Mavic 823 DH rim.  4-speed cogs (17-23t).  Maxxis Minion DHR 26x2.7” tire with 23psi in it.  I can’t go much bigger with the tire, but I can go wider with the rim. 

Front Derailleur: Shimano STx Top Pull

Rear Derailleur: Ancient Shimano Ultegra (similar vintage to the shifters).

Cranks: Race Face Turbine with 32/20t rings and a Spot bash guard

Bottom Bracket: FSA Platinum Isis.

Seatpost: Thomson 330mm setback post.

Saddle: Ancient WTB SST.  This saddle has spent more time with my ass on it than virtually any other in existence.  If I had to estimate a vintage, I’d guess that it is from the mid 1990s.  It has been in use for virtually all that time.

The end result of this set-up is extremely odd.  Riding it is a dream.  It weighs a little over 37 pounds and rides the way you’d imagine a 37-pound monster bike would ride.  Nothing about the bike is dull or boring.  

One of the more interesting things is people’s reactions.  I’ve sworn that the bike has caused a few “Exorcist Moments” where peoples’ heads spin all the way around in order to watch the bike ride by.  What adds to the odd visual is that I ride the thing in the drops almost all the time.  It is the best way to get good brake performance out of the setup.  Climbs better that way too.  It loves rocks and seems to really enjoy steep sections.  Creek crossings and soft river banks are easy. 

Road riding is kind of odd with such large tires.  I pump up the tires a bit more to reduce rolling resistance a little.  It really doesn’t change much, but it makes me feel better.  32x17 is not a tall enough gear to really go anywhere with it.  The longest ride I’ve done with it is a 38 mile hill workout. 

The bike is already got changes in the works.  I need to buy a front hub that will work with the Puglsey fork.  I might try to modify a 6-cog cluster so that it will fit on the King SS hub.  That would allow me to run 30/42 rings with a 6speed cluster with some taller gears so that it rolls better on the road.  I might go to a triple up front.  Who knows.

Eventually the bike will go back to its original fork and switch up between 26” touring wheels and perhaps some 700c fixie wheels.  It will get racks to haul stuff and I’d love to get one of Surly’s trailers. 

Surly’s description for the Troll ends with this line: “Build it up, ride it for a while, then reinvent it.”  That pretty much describes what will happen with this bike on a regular basis.

New Build Begins.

It doesn't really have a name yet.  I've got a lot of great ideas for what this bike will be and luckily they can all come true pretty easily. 

I've been trying to replace my Van Dessel WTF for 7 months now.  I was heart broken when that frame just didn't work out for me.   I think the Surly Troll might just do that. 

The last line of Surly's description of the Troll states this: "Build it up, ride it for a while, then reinvent it."  I'm gonna do that from day one.  It will start life as a drop-bar, full fendered fixie with disc brakes.  Racks will come soon after.  Then things will likely get fatter... likely much, much, fatter.  My goal is to see exactly how fat they can get.  :D 

I'll get a trailer to pull behind it at some point.  For now I'm gonna ride it and enjoy it. 

Frame arrives early next week, I am guessing.  Jan at Bikenetic has been AWESOME helping me with this build. 

I'll post photos as the bike starts to take form.

Hugs and kisses,

Pete

15th Street Parking-way

Sorry I've been away a bit.  I was sick and hammered by work and blogging didn't make it up high enough on my ToDo list.

The 15th Street Cycleway in northwest DC is a pretty cool thing.  It is on the street, but separated from automotive traffic by a series of fiberglass poles.  Unfortunately some contractors waiting for access to the White House grounds think it is their own personal parking place. 

So today I send out a hearty UP YOURS to the wonderful people at Welch and Rushe Inc. Mechanical Contractors and Boland Heating and Air Conditioning. 

Actually that's a bit harsh.... I don't really mean to say "UP YOURS" to them.   Next time please park somewhere other than the middle of the cycleway.

Hugs and kisses,

Pete

Riding Planet Gwadz

I needed a mental health afternoon, so I took half of Friday off to chase a friend around downtown DC on his cargo bike.  I've known Joel Gwadz for years, but hadn't really ridden with him.  Gwadz is a major fixture in the DC cycling community.  His Blog, Gwadzilla (www.Gwadzilla.blogspot.com) has been documenting the cycling lifestyle in DC with great photos and commentary for years.  You can tell Gwadz is seriously into the community because pretty much everyone we met on Friday afternoon at least tipped their hat to him.  The afternoon was perfect and I was really looking forward to follow Gwadz around with a camera aimed at him. 

I arrived at the Occupy DC encampment at Freedom Plaza about 10 minutes before Gwadz.  I put the dummy up on the center stand and just pedaled away for a few minutes.  I chatted with people and snapped a few photos.  The Dummy is a great conversation starter and it was particularly easy with the Occupy folks... they totally get it.  It also made it easy to strike up and get them talking about their experience in Freedom Plaza and what the future holds.  My few minutes with them was enjoyable.

Before long Gwadz rolled up and we were off.  We rode around town, shot photos and video and delivered a bunch of stuff to the Occupy group at Mac Square.  Over the years I've adopted much more of a "Live to ride another day" style of cycling downtown.  I am much more relaxed and I don't mind waiting for lights and traffic.  I just sort of roll in a very mellow way.  That changed the instant I struck out with Gwadz.  I chased him through the city and the old instincts for traffic and pedestrians came right back.  It was a serious blast.  There were no "oh shit!" moments.... just 2 guys on cargo bikes winding their way through the city.  

More on the rig Gwadz was riding later.  

Hugs and kisses,

Pete

 

 

Cargo Bike Intervals: 11/14/2011 1630 @ Haynes Point

Looks like we'll be doing cargo bike intervals again this week.  I will need a little power work after eating a lot on Sunday. 

Let me know if you're interested in joining in.  Monday afternoon at about 4:30pm.  I'll be on the east side of the Haynes Point loop... I'll wait there for a few minutes.  If you make it by and I'm not there, hang tight, I'll be by while on a lap in a few minutes.

See you there!

Pete

Robo-Gate gets more press. :D

It is interesting what people latch onto.  Interesting, and kind of a good contrast of local news "outlets".  

Here's the original video that I posted on Youtube:  http://youtu.be/wI331Rsrqb4

For approximately 6 seconds during the video, I hake one hand off the handlebars, goof with the toy a little, then put my hand back on the handlebar.  That 6 seconds of video has caused a bit of a stir with people complaining that I was riding while distracted.  I admit that the video is very unclear as to how much of my attention is devoted to goofing with the robots, VS the task at hand.  I'll say that the amount of attention is on par with what it takes to scratch your ear or shift gears on a bike or car.... and nowhere near the realm of texting while driving.  It was a silly video that I put out that wasn't dangerous at all to make and was done in a place and at a time where no-one was in danger... not even me.  

Honesty, that's not what I wanted to write about.  I really wanted to compare the treatment of the video by some of the local news organizations.   

The Bad:  Arlington Now just kind of lobbed it out there, posting a link and a brief comment, knowing that it would elicit a bunch of negative comments from their regular readers and that some more level headed folks would chime in and a Internet food fight would result and they would get a bunch of hits on their web site as a result.  That's what I call Journalism While Distracted.  They didn't have anything to say, they just posted it out there and let the mayhem be the story.  (I'm not gonna post a link because I don't really want to reward their effort with hits.  I'm sure The Google can get you there.)

The Good:  Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA) 's Wednesday Morning Commute post put it out there, mentioned that it had caused a bit of a stir, but that they thought it was funny.  It was short, sweet and made a statement.  Like it or hate it, they put it out there as information that people might want to know.  http://washcycle.typepad.com/ (Scroll down to the Wednesday Morning Commute)  

The Awesome:  The Washington Post's Express newspaper made reference to the video in editorial by DC Rider (Vicky Hallett) in the intro and conclusion on an article about the need to pay attention and not live distracted.  It was a cool little article that touched on the safety side of things, but also talked about the need to spend a little time alone with your thoughts.  I particularly liked the "Besides, your thoughts probably miss you" comment.  Very well done!!!  If 10 people see that and it makes a difference in their lives, then I don't mind one bit being the poster child for a crusade against cargo biking while distracted!  http://www.expressnightout.com/2011/11/look-up-now/

Thanks WABA and Express (DC Rider in particular) for paying attention.  Y'all rock!

Love

Pete

 

 

Perfect Commute

Days like today don't happen often enough.  I'm happy for every day on the bike, but today was special.  Everything was perfect!

Weather was perfect... It was in the mid 40's with fairly thick fog.... Thick enough to be interesting, but not thick enough that people can't see my lights and reflective gear.  The weather was visually interesting as well as physically pleasant.

I'd been asked by a friend to stick some of my cold weather gear (mainly my Moose Mitts) in the panniers so that the next time I bump into him he could test fit them on his fixie with bull-horn bars.  Low and behold as I made the turn onto the Custis Trail, I run into said friend and we both had time to stop and see how things fit.   Upping the cool factor, a third guy came along... someone who'd been lurking on the Bike Arlington Forum, but hadn't posted yet.  He'd been wondering about Moose Mitts, but hesitated to buy them without trying them on his bars first.  He stopped, introduced himself and we included him in the impromptu demo of winter gear.  Cool chance to meet someone new.  

After a few minutes the three of us started rolling east.  It wasn't long before a dude on a LOVELY Colnago C50 rolled by.  I admired it.  He hug with us and chatted with each of us for a while as we rolled to the office.  Added a new friend to the list of riding buddies.  

I switched on the video camera to get some footage of a friend riding down some of the serpentine hills that make up my commute. The video ended up being kind of cool... the fog and following the friend through the turns on his fixie was a cool perspective from the cargo bike.  I'll post up a few snippits this weekend.  

It was nice enough that I decided to turn south and ride with friends instead of going directly to the office.  The trail was lovely.  The conversation was interesting.  The morning continued to NOT SUCK!  

My ulterior motive for heading south was to inspect a trail intersection improvement that the National Park Service executed at the intersection of the Mount Vernon Trail and the 14th Street Bridge.  Basically they took an intersection made up of 2 narrow trails meeting and widened it out nicely so that people can travel in all 4 directions in high traffic without smashing into each other.  It will save a lot of headaches and accidents.   I seriously approved of the upgrades and I hope they weather well.  

I'd heard that the DC WWI Memorial had been reopened after a year of painstaking restoration.  It is a monument that I've always loved for its simplicity and beauty, but I've always had to overlook its rundown and overgrown nature.  That is no longer a problem!!!  I think DC kind of felt that having the Memorial to Dr. King across the street might increase the foot traffic to the monument, so they'd better fix it up.  They did a lovely job.  It is like seeing an old friend after a long time apart.  Truly lovely bit of stonework that has withstood the test of time.  One of my favorite things in DC and the foggy morning was great to photograph it.  

I did a loop around the Washington Monument to see if they'd re-opened the grounds around it.  They had not.  The earthquake damage was bad enough that it will be closed for quite some time.  That is quite a shame, because that is a big draw to the DC area.

While I'm gushing about how much I enjoyed my commute, I have to comment on a few other things:

1) I never could have had any of these experiences if I'd been in a car.  I'd be locked in a 3000 pound metal box, isolated from those around me and frustrated to be sitting in a line of cars that were barely moving.  

2) I got to share this joy not only with those with which I rode, but also anyone bored enough to read this blog.  and

3) The attitude totally carried into my day.  I've had a great morning which I really needed.  I've had many breakthroughs on projects that drastically needed to happen.  

This morning didn't suck in any way.  I can't wait to go play in the rain this afternoon!!!!

Here are photos from the whole commute to work:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrogringo/sets/72157627972015291/

Hugs and kisses

Pete