This Cycling Life

Katie going single

2010-01-26T16:39:00.006+10:00

No, not like that; like this:

For her 10th birthday we picked up this sweet Fuji Ace 24. 24" wheel road bike, aluminium frame and $AU 449 RRP. I've got a lot of time for Fuji - for one thing, they're one of the very few companies still making a traditional touring bike. They live up to that expectation by choosing a really sensible set of equipment: small handlebars, small brake levers, 150mm cranks.

Most importantly Katie loves it, which means I've just got to get Viv back stoking on the tandem!

Stiffer up Front

2009-12-11T01:16:00.005+10:00

I did mention earlier that I felt that there was a bit of flex in the front of the Tikit. I suspected that it came from the aluminium riser tube that was used. When converting to single speed, I took the opportunity to play with this.

My parts box had a nice long quill stem from an old mountain bike with 1 1/8" steerer. So out goes the aluminium riser and ahead style stem. Slip the quill stem straight in the top of the hinged steerer. Since the steerer is designed with a slot so that it can be clamped tight onto the aluminium riser, you can't use the internal expander bolt, so I discarded that and just used the external clamp to hold the stem firm.

... and yes, it's a lot stiffer.

Depending on your riding style and the length of the hinged steerer, this might not work for you. I'll grab a photo of the whole bike as soon as I can so you can see the sort of handlebar height that I end up with.

One-Way Tikit

2009-12-11T00:55:00.006+10:00

I'd specifically had this Tikit built with Rob's adjustable dropouts because I like to tinker. With a Pocket Rocket to ride at other times, I finally decided that the Tikit was going to do pure commuting duty and that single-speed made sense. Sometimes I'm commuting when I'm feeling tired and the option of freewheeling down some of Brisbane's hills led me to go with single speed rather than fixed wheel.

I've continually been disappointed with the durability of nine-speed equipment and shelling out $40+ for a chain and $50+ for a cassette with a life span of about 3000 km is just irksome. And it's worse than that because it starts to get those grungy stretched chain noises well before then. The single speed uses a SRAM PC-1 chain ($15) and a $12 Shimano BMX cog that will last tens of thousands of km.

It's a straightforward conversion: the BMX cog just goes right on the existing freehub. I used a selection of cassette spacers to adjust chainline. A nice quality 48T chainring and quality 1/8" chain finishes it off.

Sure, the wheel would have better bracing if I used a single-speed or track hub, but these 16" wheels are so tough already that I don't think that's an issue. More important is the fact that the cogs for a standard cassette go down to 12T, letting me use a nice compact 48T up front. As far as I know, there's only one brand of screw-on freewheel that goes down to 15T, it's not cheap and I'd still have to use that big 60T ring up front to go with it.

Lighting Upgrade

2009-09-27T13:43:00.010+10:00

Given the reputation of Sydney drivers, I am thinking about a boost to the lighting I have. Weisan queried my earlier post about my home made lights . Specifically he asked about cost effectiveness. For sure they are cheaper than any comparable commercial set. But the real payoff is that it's all standard components, assembled simply. When poking around the Jaycar store I found some new LEDs for MR16 downlight application. So I can just go and buy one of these and plug it in.

More specs on Jaycar's website here.

The cost of moving up from 160 lumen to 270 lumen? $AU60. I don't think there's any chance of such a cheap upgrade with a commercial light set.

A Tikit to Sydney

2009-09-27T13:29:00.003+10:00

Looks like I'll be spending quite a bit of time in Sydney, so I've already taken my Tikit down and stashed it at the office. It confuses people when I tell them there's a bicycle in the server room and they can't find it. :-) (It's still in the suitcase). Look out for upcoming photos of Tikit in front of the Opera House, Tikit on the Harbour Bridge, ...

A first real trip for Katie

2009-08-15T23:29:00.015+10:00

April 2009 BBTA Easter Tour Murwillumbah

An ideal starter for Katie - a two day tour around Murwillumbah in the Tweed Valley. This whole area is the remnant of a giant volcano about 200 km across. The ring of steep hills around the edge being part of the side of the volcano and the Tweed Valley passes through the eroded, central crater. Mt Warning in the middle is the hard, volcanic plug from the middle of the volcano.

We took the train down to Nerang, rode from Nerang down past the Natural Bridge across the NSW border and down that lovely descent through the Numinbah valley to Murwillumbah.

The Natural Bridge:

Photo courtesy of Gold Coast Info

Viv and Mei drove down and we got ourselves a B&B in Uki, about 15km south of Murwillumbah.

View from the breakfast table at the B&B:

The second day we met the group back in at Mur'bah and rode back up the scarp via the Tomewin road to the Queensland border - that's about a 350m vertical gain from the flood plain to the border.

We certainly enjoyed the ride back down and rejoined Viv and Mei. Since Katie proved to be a super stoker, we had to take a stop at "Stoker's Siding" for the
photo opportunity.

We ended up covering a solid 80-90 km on each day and had a great time.

What it's all about ...

2009-08-15T23:09:00.004+10:00

(January 2009)
Heading back home after one of the BBTA's regular Saturday morning Wynnum rides.

Scored me a Pocket Rocket

2009-08-15T22:55:00.006+10:00

(Feb 2009)
... on E-Bay. I'm always nervous with ebay purchases, but looking at this: it's candy apple red - the same as our Tandem Traveler XL; there's a Rolls seat; there's a 62T chainring - one of the few sizes I don't have; so, at the bidding price I was pretty well covered even if it proved to be a set of spare parts only.

Had to wait a few weeks before I had a trip to Sydney to pick it up, but that suited both the buyer and I. So I made the trip down to Sydney with an empty Carlton suitcase. The seller was kind of intrigued by me packing it in the case - he'd bought it a while previously and had never seen it packed! The bike had clearly been unused for some time - the chain was rusted solid, but the rest of it was in good shape.

I enjoyed that cathartic task of completely stripping down, cleaning greasing and rebuilding. I was very impressed with the ride - much stiffer in the stem than either the Tandem Traveler XL or the Tikit, really enjoyable to climb with, it feels really responsive.

It looks quite smart now: I'd had some translucent red brake cable outers that I bought years ago from Kraynick's in Pittsburgh, black tape and trim. Will post some pictures soon.

Keeping it simple

2009-08-15T22:43:00.004+10:00

28 December 2008
This cycling life is - riding down to the park with the kids.

Katie has no shortage of focus when it comes to learning something new...

Black Friday Built

2009-08-11T16:05:00.008+10:00

(4 Jan 2009) I've completed the build of my new Tikit - with derailleur for the moment. It's much the same as before, just all in black. I did take the opportunity to put on a SRAM trigger shifter since I never really liked the gripshift changer.

I also got Bike Friday to pack in some Primo Comets - as a change out from the Schwalbe Marathons, they really fly. Took the bike out for a Sunday morning spin with the BBTA. We wound it up over the last 5 km to see who had it. Most of the others were gone pretty quickly, but it took a bit of effort (and the 60x12) over the crest of the last hill for me to drop the last young gun and press on to the coffee stop.

Black Friday

2009-08-11T14:10:00.000+10:00

24 December 2008. Just in time for a Christmas holiday build, my replacement Tikit frame arrived in my doorstep in Australia - less than four weeks after reporting the problem to Bike Friday in Eugene.
A brace of Tikits...

You can see a few changes between the 2007 frame and the 2008 one: the beak shaped piece that forms part of the unlocking mechanism is now shaped like a dinosaur's head and is beefier than before. The older frame has a small set screw that limited the swing when folding. This could be backed off to allow an extended swing to help get the bike into a case. That's gone from the new frame.

Those adjustable dropouts look very sweet. Each dropout is fixed to the frame by two chainring bolts. The dropout pivots around the upper chainring bolt and secured in place by the lower chainring bolt, the set screw gives you very fine adjustment of the dropout position. Under load, the dropout is prevented from being pulled forward by the set screw, not by the friction of the chainring bolt.

Quite apart from offering flexibility to tinkerers like me, they would offer some production efficiency to Bike Friday. The rear triangles can be made standard and customer preference handled by bolting on the requisite dropouts: single speed, hub gear or derailleur. Different hub widths can be accommodated by fitting different spacers between the dropouts and the frame.

...and I do like that gloss black. Now, what better way to spend the holiday than tinkering with a bike?

A problem and a great response

2009-08-11T13:25:00.000+10:00

28 November 2008. The Tikit had been feeling a bit "soft" and I hadn't been able to rectify that by tightening various parts of it. Unfolding the bike when I got off the bus this afternoon it was clearly sick and I could finally see why. On the drive side of the black bottom bracket shell you can see where a weld has broken. It's clearer on the second photo taken after separating the two parts of the frame.

There were also signs of the crack in one of the stays supporting the main seat mast. This has now been reported by others and Bike Friday have issued a retro-fitted brace for all Tikits of that generation.

An emailed set of photos and a quick phone call to Bike Friday got the right immediate response - that it shouldn't have happened and that they would fix it up for me. They would follow up with details in a few days. A few days later I called and they advised that because of the distance between Eugene and Brisbane (Australia), they would simply send a new frame - what colour did I want? Full marks to Bike Friday's customer service.

Now I've always liked fixed wheel, but I wanted to hedge my bets with the bike. I've said before that the Tikit is the closest bike to one bike for all purposes. Rob English mentioned that, not only had he developed an adjustable dropout for the Tikit, but also had just prototype a variant with a derailleur hanger. Ever happy to be a test pilot, it sounded just what I wanted.

(...and I chose black)

Gold Coast Ride in the Premier's Peloton

2009-08-11T12:36:00.000+10:00

"Would you like to ride with the Premier?" was the question asked by my CEO's personal assistant. Bicycle Queensland's Brisbane to the Gold Coast Challenge is the largest mass-participation ride in Queensland (I think it got 8000 starters in 2009). The Queensland Premier had run with the idea of a "Premier's Peloton" - sort of like a corporate fundraiser only on your bike getting fit rather than at a dinner getting fat. So with my CEO nominated and then finding himself with an overseas flight booked that afternoon, I got myself down as the one to ride.

Of course it was a chance to push the envelope of what the Tikit could do.

Our smart Queensland maroon "Premiers Peloton" jerseys and the corporate hospitality were great: with a dedicated tent at each stop and plenty of food, drink and a masseur at the finish it was the five star way to do the ride. It was certainly the first time I've had a domestique (the thoroughly dependable Dave Winter). I particularly enjoyed the hammer session after I flatted - a quick change of tube and then Dave and I were on as a two-up time trial on country roads through the cane fields to get back to our group. There were more than a few comments from people surprised to be passed by the pairing of a classic Joe Cosgrove Frezoni and the tiny wheeled Tikit.

I think there was a degree of scepticism over the small wheels, but that was gone by the end of the ride - that's the Premier Anna Bligh and I at the finish.

...Oh and I rode about half way back home to rack up 150 km for the day.

Winter Lighting

2008-12-23T22:09:00.002+10:00

Apr-2008

Seriously, in the first twelve months of owning the Tikit, I've used my other bikes about six times. Fair enough, virtually all of my riding is the commute, to which the Tikit is well suited, but I've also taken the Tikit with me on business trips to Perth and Melbourne and happily ridden it with my old racing buddies (the "Old Hairy Legs" of the University of WA Cycle Club) and surprised a few people on the St Kilda Beach road on a Saturday morning in Melbourne.

For these trips, the Tikit, together with shoes, helmet, tools and a change of cycling clothes goes into the Samsonite Flite suitcase and squeaks under the 20 kg airline weight. It is literally a 10 minute job to unpack the Tikit. It takes a little longer to pack it (since you do want to try to make the packed bike likely to withstand airline baggage handling!).

As we go into winter (and I've not wanted to limit my choice of bikes by moving my trusty halogen lights from my fixie) I cobbled together a surprisingly effective headlight.

Now I know there's a bunch of information on the web from people (mostly mountain bikers) who've put together some very neat light systems, but I wasn't prepared to invest quite that much time and thought. However, I also wanted to avoid investing hundreds of dollars in a commercial set up. So here's what I found, mostly courtesy of Jaycar (). A single-LED intended to be a plug-in replacement for MR16 halogen down-lights: it runs directly off 12V and is well sealed inside a sturdy heatsink (with quite a cool-looking shape). $35. It takes a choice of lenses. I chose the widest spread, since my main objective on my commute is to be seen. So add a switch and build it into a 25mm PVC conduit end-cap; power it with a 12V sealed lead acid battery ($15), which I strap under the handlebar stem in a bag that I had lying around. Total maybe $65. Punches out as much light as $150 to $200 setups and all with simple, easily replaced components.

Tikit Hyperfold Upgrade

2008-12-23T21:38:00.000+10:00

Jan-2007

I had my first serious hitch with the Tikit, when I managed to pop open the head clamp when starting off. The clamp is sort of pac-man shaped in cross-section and it has become more opened out. In this case one of the twin cable also failed. The bike was still (very gently) rideable because of two sensible design choices: one being the use of twin cables, the other being the direction of the hinge, so that ones weight the handlebars (particularly when braking) tend to keep the hinge closed.

One of the nicest things about Bike Friday is that you can always get hold of someone who really knows what they are talking about. In this case I emailed over some photos and a phone call got me Tim, who immediately said that what was needed was the new, upgraded head clamp, hinge and cable. They are now calling this really cool folding arrangement the "hyperfold" to distinguish it from a simpler (but slower) arrangement they call the "Model T".

I had the new parts on my front door in Australia four days later. You can see below how much the hinge has been beefed up (the new version is on the right).

Note the "P56" serial number on the old head arrangement: they've changed where they put the serial number on the newer bikes and I'm kind of sorry to be losing the original serial number - "P" for "prototype" or "pre-production"? 56 would be about right for it being the 56th Tikit.

You can also see how much chunkier the clamp on the hinge now is:

Tikit Tidying...

2008-12-23T21:27:00.000+10:00

I've always previously advocated the traditional cycle-touring model when it comes to carrying stuff: "carry it on your bike, not on your body". I see a lot of commuters with a bag full of stuff on their back, and in a lot of cases I suspect that the thing stopping them putting a rack and bags on the bike is because then the bike won't look like Lance's.

The Detours bag that I have on the Tikit is pretty good: it's fairly quick to put on and off. However, I have to say that for a multi-modal commute, having a bag on your back works pretty well. The bag just stays on your back while you fold the bike and stow it, rather than being another thing that you are putting down and picking up.

Generally folding bikes seem to present some extra challenges for bags and I found it tidied the bike up to cut down on the under-seat spares requirement using these neat bar-ends from Tranz-x.

There's a different set of tools in each side.

Pimp my Tikit

2008-12-23T21:04:00.000+10:00

May-2007

Of course having now got a Tikit: a bike which is first and foremost designed as a commuter, I naturally set about turning it into something slightly different ;-)

I think that I've taken the "pre-production" description of this particular bike to heart and am keen to find out just what it can do.

My commute doesn't see any big hills and my riding style is to get out of the seat and hammer over them, so round one was about tweaking the position and tightening and lifting the gears.

Scoring a 60T chainring from Kraynick's in Pittsburgh was one of those things you do because you "just never know when you'll need it". A $10 price tag probably helped, too. Seven years later ... I needed it! Match that with 11-21 on the back and I've got some reasonable gears again.

Postion dialled in by dropping the bars, a longer stem and bar ends to get me stretched out. And add the fairly minimalist Selle Italia Nitrox seat.

(In these photos, I've still got the 53T ring on there as well as the 60T. You could do this to retain a set of lower gears for hilly riding, but I've really only kept it on there because I didn't have any single chainring bolts to hand!)

The bar ends (and longer stem) do compromise the folded size a little and this wouldn't be ideal for a commute that involved public transport. However my commute is a mix of cycle and a company shuttle bus, so it's not a problem for me. I guess a folding bike has the usual trade-off of any bike: the tradeoff that can be summarised as "light, strong, cheap: choose any two". A folding/commuting bike adds another triangle to be balanced: "fold fast, fold compact, ride well". My demands rate ride and folding speed over folded size.

I got a Tikit to ride

2008-12-23T20:46:00.000+10:00

Easter-2007

The Bike Friday Gathering in the Adelaide Hills worked out really well. The girls have a ball riding the triple or tandem (triple on the first day, just the tandem on the other two). Most of the riders were pretty wowwed by the sight of the three of us out of the saddle on the climbs.

Hanna and Peter from Bike Friday had brought along a pre-production model of one of the new Tikits.

At the final night's dinner, Mei was and Katie were happy to be getting a prize from Hanna:

But, since we were fortunate enough to be sharing a table with Hanna, that gave me pole position on getting my hands on the Tikit when Hanna offered it for sale.

So having left Brisbane with one bike in two suitcases, we returned with two bikes in three.

The Tikit makes a really neat package in the suitcase.

Why "This Cycling Life" ?

2008-01-26T06:48:00.000+10:00

The term lifecycle is overloaded from use in everthing from biology to engineering and sotware processes. Which of course means that all the first names I tried were already taken!

For me, its about the fact that cycling is is a part of life, not just a sport or recreation. The bikes and riding that interest me reflect that. This is riding that lets me spend time with people I like: both friends and family. It's riding that replaces motor-powered commuting. ...and it's racing, too. Sometimes.

And, for Australians of a certain age range, there's a nod to Roy and H.G.'s "This Sporting Life" program on JJJ.