tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186769992024-03-17T20:03:24.130-07:00Kent's Bike BlogJust a spot to dump various bicycle related thoughtsKent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12906603746565831689noreply@blogger.comBlogger1136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-84626211523835928532023-05-16T15:20:00.002-07:002023-07-13T21:04:25.986-07:00Talbot’s Syndrome<p>You made a mistake when you stole my bike. You are probably wondering how I tracked you down, where all this blood came from, and why there’s a severed deer head here instead of the bike you stole. I’ll explain, not because I owe you an explanation, but because I want you to think twice before you go out to steal another bike. You came very close to making a fatal mistake and I want you to know just how close you came. I’m a believer in second chances, I hope you’ll make the most of this one.</p><p>I know nothing about you, but I can make a guess. I’m not sticking around to see if that guess is right, I’ll be long gone with my bike by the time you read this note. I’ve got to get on with my life, I suggest you do the same with yours. It’s a gift, don’t waste it.</p><p>I’m guessing that you’re a junky and you didn’t want my bike, you wanted a fix. You figured you could stash the bike and take it to a pawn shop in the morning. I don’t think they’ll give you anything for the deer head.</p><p>OK, I get it, you’re fighting a hard battle. We all are. I understand that, it’s why I’m cutting you some slack. Now I’m going to tell you my story, so maybe you’ll understand.</p><p>We all get breaks in life, some are bad, some are good, and a hell of a lot of them are what you make of them. And we all get our share of obsessions, beats me where they come from, but sometimes they save you and sometimes they destroy you. When I was 16, I had a lot of buddies who got into street racing and drinking and I probably would have too if it hadn’t been for the fact I had one other buddy who got into mountain biking and he loaned me a bike for a ride in the woods. First one’s free, I bet you understand that. Anyhow, I got hooked on something that’s mostly healthy and I guess that saved my life.</p><p>I said mostly healthy because I don’t think anybody thinks of broken collarbones or Alpha-gal Syndrome as healthy things. I’m the guy who broke his collarbone and my pal Nick is the one who got Alpha-gal Syndrome. Alpha-gal is something I’d never heard of and it’s not some high-status chick, it’s a disease like Lyme Disease that you get from a tick bite. There are a hell of a lot of ticks in the woods. You probably want to be careful around that deer head I left you.</p><p>Anyhow, Alpha-gal Syndrome is a weird-ass disease. It turned Nick vegan. No shit, something changed in his blood chemistry and now he can’t eat meat. I thought it was about the damnedest thing that could happen to somebody. And then I got bit by something that makes Nick's dietary restrictions look like nothing.</p><p>It happened like this. If you’ve ever had a job then you know that it can really cut into your day. I was still very into mountain biking so I got myself some lights and I’d ride the trails at night. Some say it’s spooky, I say it’s peaceful. Yeah, there’s animals but you know they are mostly more scared of you than you are of them and riding a trail by the light of a full moon is pretty much a magical experience.</p><p>One night a few year ago I’m riding one of my favorite trails and a deer comes crashing out of the brush and slams into my front wheel. Right as we both go down a big gray dog jumps on the deer and tears its throat open. Because I’m an idiot, I try to smack the dog away and it takes a nip at me. Then it looks me right in the eye and I belatedly realize that this dog is a wolf and I figure I’m dead. But the wolf scowls at me and leaps away.</p><p>I was worried about rabies so I went to the doc and got the shots. Four shots over fourteen days and the doctor said I’d be fine. There’s a whole hell of a lot doctors don’t know.</p><p>It was a month later that I knew I wasn’t fine.</p><p>The first thing was the fever. I’ve had fevers before, but nothing like this. Feeling like I was burning up doesn’t even begin to describe it. I felt like I was baking in my own skin. I also felt like it was damn important that I get away from everybody. I ran out of the house and into the woods, tearing off my clothes as I went. That’s the last thing I remember.</p><p>I woke up naked, covered in blood and next to a dead deer. Physically, I felt fine, better than I’ve felt in years. Mentally, I was a wreck.</p><p>It turned out I’d run miles into the woods. It took me all damn day to find my clothes and find my way back home.</p><p>The same doctor who’d told me I’d be fine still said I was fine. I’d told the doc about the fever and running off into the woods, but I left out the part about the blood and the deer. I didn’t want to get locked in the loony bin.</p><p>I was pretty sure I knew what I had. I mean, I’ve seen my share of horror movies. It’s all just good entertainment until it happens to you.</p><p>I eventually found another doctor, an old guy from the old country. It turns out they actually have a name for what I’ve got and it’s kind of the inverse of that Alpha-gal thing that Nick has. They call it Talbot’s Syndrome and yeah, it’s transmitted by the bite of a werewolf. Doctor Simic tells me it’s chronic and incurable, that’s the bad news. The good news is that’s it’s damn predictable. Once a month, like clockwork, I turn into a wolf and have to kill. But I don’t have to kill a human.</p><p>So it really hasn’t changed my life that much. Once a month, just as it’s getting dark, I hop on my bike and head for the hills. I have a system and it works pretty well.</p><p>Except last night, I stopped at a 7-11 on my way out of town. I was thirsty and stopped in for a root-beer. I thought I had time. I didn’t think some junky would pinch my bike in the couple of minutes I was in the store.</p><p>Of course I was pissed. I’m still pissed. And I was running out of time, the moon was starting to rise. I ran for the woods and you’re damn lucky I made it there and found an unlucky deer. Once I got the bloodlust out of my system, I turned my attention to the problem of recovering my bike.</p><p>There are certain advantages to my wolf-state. It was an easy thing for me to track your scent and it brought me straight to the bike. Wolves aren’t exactly built for pedaling, so once I had the bike located, I went back to the deer carcass in the woods to finish eating and wait for the sunrise.</p><p>I decided to bring the deer head and leave this note as warning.</p><p>I don’t know how to get off junk. You’ve got a problem that I don’t have and I’m sure that’s a bitch, but dude, I suggest you stop stealing bikes. Folks tend to be quite attached to their wheels and not everybody has as much practice keeping their rage in check as I do.</p>Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-18727439238332763512022-09-16T12:50:00.004-07:002022-09-17T08:35:15.395-07:00The Evolution Of My Schwinn Fixed Gear Bike<p> Last month I picked up what my lovely wife would call "yet another bike" and while I've typed various pages about it over on my other, more active blog at <a href="https://seldomspeedy.blogspot.com">https://seldomspeedy.blogspot.com</a> I figure it makes sense to post the full story of the bike's evolution here.</p><p>Now I should be clear, I didn't strictly need this bike. I'm retired, I have three perfectly good bikes and to be honest, one would really do just fine for the riding I'm doing these days. But here's what happened.</p><p>Christine and I get around town by biking and walking and in walking and biking around I'd seen this old Schwinn World Sport locked to a lightpost a half a block from our house. The bike had been locked to the post for at least a month. Now I should note that this is something that make Superior, Wisconsin different from Seattle or Portland or Eugene. Here in Superior, you can leave a bike locked to a lightpost with a flimsy lock and it will stay untouched for a month. In those other cities I mentioned, the bike would be stolen or stripped within hours.</p><p>Anyhow, after about a month I happened to walk past the bike in a course different from my usual direction and I saw this sign on the lightpost:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipfUeZvIO22L9QpCaA8u7WPKg8ApS99WVBEyAaNjTsNVlC45ntmycJ2tCpBQILG88Zo1h7keY2xOEnADnwNUIvB_TtunagCXmJUY7GXmtjXi4ZEbIaaGnhTcOfOV-XZN5-8WBraFCznX2XFLHBssGavk1OHZxmxpAysoSrUfzgIrij3o4WZUY/s3867/IMG_20220808_103314.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3867" data-original-width="2562" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipfUeZvIO22L9QpCaA8u7WPKg8ApS99WVBEyAaNjTsNVlC45ntmycJ2tCpBQILG88Zo1h7keY2xOEnADnwNUIvB_TtunagCXmJUY7GXmtjXi4ZEbIaaGnhTcOfOV-XZN5-8WBraFCznX2XFLHBssGavk1OHZxmxpAysoSrUfzgIrij3o4WZUY/w424-h640/IMG_20220808_103314.jpg" width="424" /></a></div><br /><p>Holy crap! Fifteen dollars! A bargain I could not pass up. Even so, I ran the purchase past Christine and she said OK. It was a nice bike. I called the guy up, met him at the corner, took the bike for a test ride and bought it. I didn't even try to dicker on the price because $15 is a screaming deal.</p><p>This is how the bike looked when I bought it:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivfn8wpl9hVuhuoOBPHiWGNP-tRnfMbjYeFgKf6PzI8GMElHhseBIa6rWFKlnA_ocolLwTxWLPQKVs9Mop2lbAMYOmwQQqtNspg70rQpeD-QUm_hz9LRoQ4MpZtnAMkIttU8ANb8ef4K7TfhDvxHSMiO5lc1aTeMSJzx2-_ELNDzE0LxH_dPM/s4608/IMG_20220808_103323.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivfn8wpl9hVuhuoOBPHiWGNP-tRnfMbjYeFgKf6PzI8GMElHhseBIa6rWFKlnA_ocolLwTxWLPQKVs9Mop2lbAMYOmwQQqtNspg70rQpeD-QUm_hz9LRoQ4MpZtnAMkIttU8ANb8ef4K7TfhDvxHSMiO5lc1aTeMSJzx2-_ELNDzE0LxH_dPM/w640-h480/IMG_20220808_103323.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>It was basically in working shape. The shifters and brakes worked and the (worn) tires held air.</p><p>The Schwinn World Sport was a not fancy but decent sport touring bike of it's day. The lugged frame was made in Taiwan for Schwinn and the main triangle is 4130 ChromeMoly tubing. The internet help me decode the bike's serial number and told me that it was made in 1984. The dealer sticker told me that the bike had originally been sold by Stewart's Wheel Goods, just over the bridge in Duluth.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhtarzR3LPsLbPThuguH1F3Hlw_6zsV0LkohOOZ3R8mvILHudb2noO3bknOReZvH2Cjp6Gk4EkwCAB8EnqhFX466evwWTrxinVoryXHxkhU1pRyvWHzCJw8MqSZJQNQ85FWWDj84fQ4vPYoScJ4FW3RsEdQJsztWvxjXXpUC0o7LAjJ7_IMNs/s4608/IMG_20220808_185208.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhtarzR3LPsLbPThuguH1F3Hlw_6zsV0LkohOOZ3R8mvILHudb2noO3bknOReZvH2Cjp6Gk4EkwCAB8EnqhFX466evwWTrxinVoryXHxkhU1pRyvWHzCJw8MqSZJQNQ85FWWDj84fQ4vPYoScJ4FW3RsEdQJsztWvxjXXpUC0o7LAjJ7_IMNs/w480-h640/IMG_20220808_185208.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><p>I pretty much always wind up modifying my bikes to suit me and I have a big pile of bike parts and tools and I can usually do the modifications without having to buy much in terms of new parts. Since I'd gotten this bike for so little I wanted to keep that frugal trend going and see how little I could spend.</p><p>I knew I wanted to change the handlebars around and my first attempt was something I'd done with bikes in the past, chopping off the lower portion of the drop bars and then inverting them to make cowhorn bars, an operation known as the "clip and flip"</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUeu4yhyseAXsXjaJoOYBDDUmMRUhI3_6p6OtQGIbPRHbB9QQoXhSHU-ffuAFrkTwpRfy1pAyynpAozStaIEAMNQh6-LkM9f3lRJ-yhozGTMj_zizoadCnkJ-aqEuVqawBvw7fGpcY_IfxuvqS1N3n9WJrFRp3riSuWemQmVKB2en9E5Gzr8/s4608/IMG_20220808_185054.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUeu4yhyseAXsXjaJoOYBDDUmMRUhI3_6p6OtQGIbPRHbB9QQoXhSHU-ffuAFrkTwpRfy1pAyynpAozStaIEAMNQh6-LkM9f3lRJ-yhozGTMj_zizoadCnkJ-aqEuVqawBvw7fGpcY_IfxuvqS1N3n9WJrFRp3riSuWemQmVKB2en9E5Gzr8/w640-h480/IMG_20220808_185054.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIqCOoCEGz1Mxe4-VyBuBZin7LaJgfvDhOxQPGwLw_gr12TixkJJZp8X5smbZnZIeNEfK7eGiUm3us2b7fE_IGmVkfJW_U1BCwkyC-IavmHfb_83VqC5VWjTt288fkOFkDdIz82HnGXOyX2KLwdbhIUQj74Fni8n6QTSLE-uiCZ1kfi9EJdsA/s3760/IMG_20220808_185018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2586" data-original-width="3760" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIqCOoCEGz1Mxe4-VyBuBZin7LaJgfvDhOxQPGwLw_gr12TixkJJZp8X5smbZnZIeNEfK7eGiUm3us2b7fE_IGmVkfJW_U1BCwkyC-IavmHfb_83VqC5VWjTt288fkOFkDdIz82HnGXOyX2KLwdbhIUQj74Fni8n6QTSLE-uiCZ1kfi9EJdsA/w640-h440/IMG_20220808_185018.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>The two pictures above show my first cut at customisation. The mirror, the bell, the light, the yellow cable housing, the bar tape and the Jandd frame bag were all things I had in my bike shed. I really wanted to make the bike into a fixed gear, but it turned out the one thing I didn't have in my parts stash was a fixed cog. But when I posted about my initial conversion on my blog, my pal Steve in Minneapolis dug through his parts stash, found a 16 tooth Surly fixed cog and dropped it in the mail to me.</p><p>My initial riding with the bike still in its 12 speed configuration told me that I'm no longer as young as I once was and the cowhorns had me too stretched out. The bike handled great, however, very stable and I could go no-handed for blocks if I wanted to. One upgrade from my parts stash that's not obvious from the photos is that I upgraded the 40 year old brakepads to an unused set of Scott-Mathauser salmon-colored brakepads that had been sitting in one of my parts drawers for the past decade. I knew they'd come in handy some day!</p><p>I did have the proper freewheel puller in my tool kit to remove the freewheel, but I didnt have a bench vise for leverage. I did, however, have a big wrench and the seatmast from my Bike Friday Pakit that worked great as a cheater bar. A casual observer of the work in progress would think that I was building a unicycle.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCHC1lP13nENsc6RPhw3N7jHDFeGHtsAt-IOUcc7TyJULjiPZYoa3kVO7SEZFOI4ozsLhagcomEwROdCDNlYwBWsqIUlXecnldWcY3Ws4l6VMM27v0onfrlydv4wEbl464buZlkoll6k5vYaODI6QEgkmZ7mIBg_KyVBj2Dem7QxDQtoq2TM/s4092/IMG_20220810_093059.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2255" data-original-width="4092" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCHC1lP13nENsc6RPhw3N7jHDFeGHtsAt-IOUcc7TyJULjiPZYoa3kVO7SEZFOI4ozsLhagcomEwROdCDNlYwBWsqIUlXecnldWcY3Ws4l6VMM27v0onfrlydv4wEbl464buZlkoll6k5vYaODI6QEgkmZ7mIBg_KyVBj2Dem7QxDQtoq2TM/w640-h352/IMG_20220810_093059.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Steve's gift cog came in the mail and I mounted it to the wheel using loctite. I'm not one of those hipster kid fixie riders who run no brakes and skid stop so the loctite should be sufficient. I have both front and rear brakes with really good brake pads and I use them PLUS my legs to slow down and stop.</p><p>I did have to swap a big spacer on the rear wheel from the drive to non-drive side and re-dish the wheel. There were just enough threads on the spokes to do this. I also replaced the flimsy rubber rim strip with a double layer of gorilla tape and I repacked both the front and rear hubs and trued both wheels.</p><p>I reached the point where I had to spend some more money on this project so I rode my Allant over the bridge to Duluth. The Schwinn has old style 27" wheels which are no longer a common size, but Twin Ports Cyclery had a variety of tires in stock because they know some folks like to keep the old things going. I got a nice pair of kind of knobby cyclocrossish tires for $20 each. I also needed a 1/8" single speed chain, but the ones at Twin Ports were a bit fancier (and fancier priced) than I wanted, so I rolled over to Stewart's where I got a chain and a spare tube for a total of $18.</p><p>Back at home I installed the tires and chain. I had already removed the derailleurs and shifters and they are now in my parts boxes waiting for some other project or to be traded away. The bike now looked like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-a9m4RL3wfIBgiD0Z8vzfH0rCsU3qFNUtblbzayGYJjfBQ7uMY2cLKWeFDL_gkhRXCl-8GjvU877KOgejhfdumjcMh4bkB9PvhSZZ4IzlDnrA6SXwJVr3-fQviki_X7QKw_kmSBrLxxqzEbNoICACSljKsJY3OnMh58RI_SQSkmhH6FMDEU/s3906/IMG_20220812_154709.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2523" data-original-width="3906" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-a9m4RL3wfIBgiD0Z8vzfH0rCsU3qFNUtblbzayGYJjfBQ7uMY2cLKWeFDL_gkhRXCl-8GjvU877KOgejhfdumjcMh4bkB9PvhSZZ4IzlDnrA6SXwJVr3-fQviki_X7QKw_kmSBrLxxqzEbNoICACSljKsJY3OnMh58RI_SQSkmhH6FMDEU/w640-h414/IMG_20220812_154709.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I tipped the bars up a bit more and trimmed off a bit more of the cowhorn, but things still didn't feel right.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikWy54SzJArFTdsll-bfpkX8OR29c8ywC1snM2rWSUi32j68_zOak_PxcIbWQHYzbm-T8FVhskJIjCHbvQyMsS1u8pEEjVkEGDorNWdRA0Dv6lYvXMwM5T7nRVNBWGbtQtOJdpxFadiQ9Jj0j8fjjY_66DmJF3m0tirDxJ2kaVO6XvhWWMMJo/s3712/IMG_20220812_154719.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2344" data-original-width="3712" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikWy54SzJArFTdsll-bfpkX8OR29c8ywC1snM2rWSUi32j68_zOak_PxcIbWQHYzbm-T8FVhskJIjCHbvQyMsS1u8pEEjVkEGDorNWdRA0Dv6lYvXMwM5T7nRVNBWGbtQtOJdpxFadiQ9Jj0j8fjjY_66DmJF3m0tirDxJ2kaVO6XvhWWMMJo/w640-h404/IMG_20220812_154719.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Then I got an idea:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6TtWC28uN8T5Es8mNdQXhs9B_qoE-vCeDVFb06UpJFmb0eW3UTvkTCtp-_fTCv7IwVjRXyP_W5dfqKEl9eoHT22QeCd8kivSHlvgVptSdZ-EnhfYxf0TzlCjJnpMltmu_IjhN6DV-MwXeeLruAv1YtESCneaElycFRk6SD4oKgVe9Npa2YQ/s3159/IMG_20220812_163327.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1995" data-original-width="3159" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6TtWC28uN8T5Es8mNdQXhs9B_qoE-vCeDVFb06UpJFmb0eW3UTvkTCtp-_fTCv7IwVjRXyP_W5dfqKEl9eoHT22QeCd8kivSHlvgVptSdZ-EnhfYxf0TzlCjJnpMltmu_IjhN6DV-MwXeeLruAv1YtESCneaElycFRk6SD4oKgVe9Npa2YQ/w640-h404/IMG_20220812_163327.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfzU1vMIjxaXmgTfk_pnuiVbOGCttB_HRPfuBWXzRa8VfXFRnl5ai_CKX37n8McUor-v0qNwMUV3i8ykZBgHFSs9RWB2K6yLqCOur1VuMN_CnB-nG3gICBMmPkVY_ewgPqxPNRzBz5vWNs6LyEEuheaofncwATL946SzP80GEdOf8bOIXWkw/s4132/IMG_20220812_163337.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2608" data-original-width="4132" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfzU1vMIjxaXmgTfk_pnuiVbOGCttB_HRPfuBWXzRa8VfXFRnl5ai_CKX37n8McUor-v0qNwMUV3i8ykZBgHFSs9RWB2K6yLqCOur1VuMN_CnB-nG3gICBMmPkVY_ewgPqxPNRzBz5vWNs6LyEEuheaofncwATL946SzP80GEdOf8bOIXWkw/w640-h404/IMG_20220812_163337.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I really liked the way the brake levers worked in this position, I can apply them with either my index or middle fingers or both, and with the bars swung back towards me I was in a more comfortable upright riding position. I was getting closer to having things dialed in.</p><p>Now things were really starting to come together. At the Goodwill store I found a perfect little blue bag for two dollars and I knew what to do with it, I made it into a handlebar bag.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEist61RMabE6gqllTSlYuwGYwIW9oR9siIO0RcE28FYvl5NoZ1f5_4gKXANZG-49oA1DFb5h-JiIPsEviXp6JxOCN7OLLdb38Aju-Ov2o9gZvv_DxKmpJeRXBjDrTnbeKGvpxFeQhu0GogdLX2b6sBTfhW1y59Mp6GSZcn3HveyujXJB3qR4no/s3601/IMG_20220818_092441.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2289" data-original-width="3601" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEist61RMabE6gqllTSlYuwGYwIW9oR9siIO0RcE28FYvl5NoZ1f5_4gKXANZG-49oA1DFb5h-JiIPsEviXp6JxOCN7OLLdb38Aju-Ov2o9gZvv_DxKmpJeRXBjDrTnbeKGvpxFeQhu0GogdLX2b6sBTfhW1y59Mp6GSZcn3HveyujXJB3qR4no/w640-h406/IMG_20220818_092441.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIQKYn261RUArmuRnBhWWcoypyEkC7FjxQmeN4Zi9lNEWiVyZr0NvYSBoE7SOo7KGrhiv3kODr4EAvT2nohRfh7rxRyYpYFSbHHxEvrbcd3ru3eBAUD1z_2LAayX5c_wWU9RR8fsgm4EdC_5pUYe8pqJwFJAaGtK8WS6N-XB7puuV26-6_EQQ/s4361/IMG_20220818_095654.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2663" data-original-width="4361" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIQKYn261RUArmuRnBhWWcoypyEkC7FjxQmeN4Zi9lNEWiVyZr0NvYSBoE7SOo7KGrhiv3kODr4EAvT2nohRfh7rxRyYpYFSbHHxEvrbcd3ru3eBAUD1z_2LAayX5c_wWU9RR8fsgm4EdC_5pUYe8pqJwFJAaGtK8WS6N-XB7puuV26-6_EQQ/w640-h390/IMG_20220818_095654.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvFGXnlPwKpceBJ6JuSViq9n6FO_CBkH1qnKYKypxodCgE_iZkxh5SYL417K4ISdSDfX9sGjHsL0Vk32EvVibIH_CRx9cE2eo9g86koHX4hOqVnXAY6Uyf6VIS9IRNuAAPIC6nc5bcIk2MtcwfSKnocDO_06-lMPrm_8ahGJd9A5lG5HXpFc/s4608/IMG_20220818_095606.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvFGXnlPwKpceBJ6JuSViq9n6FO_CBkH1qnKYKypxodCgE_iZkxh5SYL417K4ISdSDfX9sGjHsL0Vk32EvVibIH_CRx9cE2eo9g86koHX4hOqVnXAY6Uyf6VIS9IRNuAAPIC6nc5bcIk2MtcwfSKnocDO_06-lMPrm_8ahGJd9A5lG5HXpFc/w640-h480/IMG_20220818_095606.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I also found my Orp in my parts pile. The Orp is an electronic horn & light combo that I used to think was too loud but given how distracted everybody is these days I've decided it is damn handy.</p><p>I made the mount for the handlebar bag out of coroplast and zip-ties. I have a big stash of coroplast and zipties in my bike shed and I also made a set of mudguards for my bike. The rear is a full coverage fender and the front is a splash guard that runs along the downtube together with a small bit that extends over the front brake</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAvYDufrmSdHS9Fvywnt_nwyF9CX_krDbOfUg3BIgRFAZa8Sk4WcfRdp1IUKhl55ajFf2JOUsEcv2ihVhnxQMybz5wXYRITNOCDqmbLMfoQbRwxSdVvEItOimO2NyPHsQGCG8QHhk8ZzU9a1pFI4fcgXDCC1gB3wlOTOQFIaG0jHv0Ft9F_NA/s4152/IMG_20220818_101037.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4152" data-original-width="1776" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAvYDufrmSdHS9Fvywnt_nwyF9CX_krDbOfUg3BIgRFAZa8Sk4WcfRdp1IUKhl55ajFf2JOUsEcv2ihVhnxQMybz5wXYRITNOCDqmbLMfoQbRwxSdVvEItOimO2NyPHsQGCG8QHhk8ZzU9a1pFI4fcgXDCC1gB3wlOTOQFIaG0jHv0Ft9F_NA/w274-h640/IMG_20220818_101037.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_4kPAzxqz_1YMducxWP2SlJzFSddfzXyUeuHyaKR3AGmHPAfujIhvrZgK1iONvGmsXn_fbvfwpFDz27_Ro6fSgVB06bWpAUGwaA9bnnoFkNUSxh3Ox0tWUO4VEZ5GtQaXU4sPqWXYTUABoZ3DCPmkiWeOU80KG4_xJ0GPwhNo6CjIIAaLj5M/s3866/IMG_20220818_101025.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2460" data-original-width="3866" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_4kPAzxqz_1YMducxWP2SlJzFSddfzXyUeuHyaKR3AGmHPAfujIhvrZgK1iONvGmsXn_fbvfwpFDz27_Ro6fSgVB06bWpAUGwaA9bnnoFkNUSxh3Ox0tWUO4VEZ5GtQaXU4sPqWXYTUABoZ3DCPmkiWeOU80KG4_xJ0GPwhNo6CjIIAaLj5M/w640-h408/IMG_20220818_101025.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOSbft45syjGdWPQU9dPadyJsfhzVWEi9OTCGzxYzR8Fr9BQ_srdXwOsRhQqpCrAdMxN0wn7Jpbr-AFxoGCGHN0BRqgWjLLn6-yhlEcXuj_bW9Ocyk1ahjrdMmHxT7Wt9SmfvqJJZnDyCwSs2OV1cUCSS9aeglPX0b5JjTsGg0W2Tv3s23iU/s3517/IMG_20220818_101020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2773" data-original-width="3517" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOSbft45syjGdWPQU9dPadyJsfhzVWEi9OTCGzxYzR8Fr9BQ_srdXwOsRhQqpCrAdMxN0wn7Jpbr-AFxoGCGHN0BRqgWjLLn6-yhlEcXuj_bW9Ocyk1ahjrdMmHxT7Wt9SmfvqJJZnDyCwSs2OV1cUCSS9aeglPX0b5JjTsGg0W2Tv3s23iU/w640-h504/IMG_20220818_101020.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiAJz5dcjQ-zTLIdUz5C9IfDvPgPsTwa4XYQ7M7x7dxr1RqyuyEYWR9cFQDcubcw4k9UzjzQWdlG7zUELj_u-TSjgBP7_UCDY0gGtKmPRZqVN8IpUKoaJxDJW-LfXqIAKY6ITQWGCsu5kw8uR_M8kuSVDjLrc_-1_yYMIx7rUZFQxyE1kXG4s/s3196/IMG_20220818_100959.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2928" data-original-width="3196" height="586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiAJz5dcjQ-zTLIdUz5C9IfDvPgPsTwa4XYQ7M7x7dxr1RqyuyEYWR9cFQDcubcw4k9UzjzQWdlG7zUELj_u-TSjgBP7_UCDY0gGtKmPRZqVN8IpUKoaJxDJW-LfXqIAKY6ITQWGCsu5kw8uR_M8kuSVDjLrc_-1_yYMIx7rUZFQxyE1kXG4s/w640-h586/IMG_20220818_100959.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I figured out that I wanted the portion of the handlebars that swung back towards me to be a bit longer and in my eclectic parts pile I had just what I needed to make that happen: an oak wood dowel and some JB-Weld.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXlvK8fDoiMiRYgVGpd5hrZ9hragDGfBUojxIP5kWEocRGfot_-BOyvg7Cs8PkrekJTevIAMmPAhH3XN-QhXVkozBhGfTE1jA2FQggzF-tK1UlKV5t-3HDGrX4_8hJ_6rpcTl4yABU6eB2oepTQheBjpal79WRZu3htg9DuWf_MMyRmgBgL4/s3456/IMG_20220823_160446.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="3273" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXlvK8fDoiMiRYgVGpd5hrZ9hragDGfBUojxIP5kWEocRGfot_-BOyvg7Cs8PkrekJTevIAMmPAhH3XN-QhXVkozBhGfTE1jA2FQggzF-tK1UlKV5t-3HDGrX4_8hJ_6rpcTl4yABU6eB2oepTQheBjpal79WRZu3htg9DuWf_MMyRmgBgL4/w606-h640/IMG_20220823_160446.jpg" width="606" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0o2bfRHzlbqwBvuSxbI0WpTvwglPl67pOjFIezJ7WZEr6bEeEiRxpzsqWAe804YcAHR_KpByOCcu3AbY_4sJHSNWbSYVkPnPanwKUQ8mzX_hLNdbvAsbakdKYY7wNGRMGqbUZ6Fkbgg8sb4VEnym5yNZfiOYQ9mU6cFDc3Ml0NKwbCRJKH8/s3849/IMG_20220823_160814.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1776" data-original-width="3849" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik0o2bfRHzlbqwBvuSxbI0WpTvwglPl67pOjFIezJ7WZEr6bEeEiRxpzsqWAe804YcAHR_KpByOCcu3AbY_4sJHSNWbSYVkPnPanwKUQ8mzX_hLNdbvAsbakdKYY7wNGRMGqbUZ6Fkbgg8sb4VEnym5yNZfiOYQ9mU6cFDc3Ml0NKwbCRJKH8/w640-h296/IMG_20220823_160814.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I let the JB-Weld set for 24 hours and then re-wrapped the bars with innertube rubber for padding and then cork tape.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivyGs4M4awmCrp6kUi75jWc4z0DSsSptUK4ljRwn2uJ_C_1ykrEGgvyr6ISRNSyOVHilnvHx0jBSU5macylqunB8t7BujV8BBkJpOPtlVWGYoNtJERNxLbrlEaLTp1qVz7Tx8_etEmCxfWKZ6I6driP6ScOhdbUhLzAKt7w-PfkklO8C_A7zs/s4271/IMG_20220824_122039.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2137" data-original-width="4271" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivyGs4M4awmCrp6kUi75jWc4z0DSsSptUK4ljRwn2uJ_C_1ykrEGgvyr6ISRNSyOVHilnvHx0jBSU5macylqunB8t7BujV8BBkJpOPtlVWGYoNtJERNxLbrlEaLTp1qVz7Tx8_etEmCxfWKZ6I6driP6ScOhdbUhLzAKt7w-PfkklO8C_A7zs/w640-h320/IMG_20220824_122039.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QvTwjHaPThQays8GymBw22vO9aLDiycaMtH49MaKo25Mk3aoHc3873M7uSkdlsXjWHa2Z93RsyhO-Fo_R1eXVq0pJmp9c7vKLfY2kGPRhj6tZQS41aHT3NupnnunKh98Hkuth45Hv3paCDXHL5POgwmCyPS4S090NgNNX7jJnwnUaoLb_t0/s4608/IMG_20220824_123318.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2228" data-original-width="4608" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QvTwjHaPThQays8GymBw22vO9aLDiycaMtH49MaKo25Mk3aoHc3873M7uSkdlsXjWHa2Z93RsyhO-Fo_R1eXVq0pJmp9c7vKLfY2kGPRhj6tZQS41aHT3NupnnunKh98Hkuth45Hv3paCDXHL5POgwmCyPS4S090NgNNX7jJnwnUaoLb_t0/w640-h310/IMG_20220824_123318.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I was also chagrined to find that while I had various water bottles in my stash of parts, I had no bottle cages. Naturally I made one from coroplast, zipties, and a bit of plastic tubing I had left over from my backyard pond project.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHoiNXLXza6wpqPdPHZVgzF0Wa1M0L0CN-8Ab1QU32iAp-IBLCtUfENU3F0Hwx8nSDxConpoQ78BK_T_UPRWe-rS1kgs1Yw-zVsI2czLRTOethldcjX8u-l4uhPTsTwvfIvbLL_1CKvtm-DYK_KETfZnt7PrNx7Yn4bCOOUCj25_xWo330xto/s3928/IMG_20220825_134217.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2509" data-original-width="3928" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHoiNXLXza6wpqPdPHZVgzF0Wa1M0L0CN-8Ab1QU32iAp-IBLCtUfENU3F0Hwx8nSDxConpoQ78BK_T_UPRWe-rS1kgs1Yw-zVsI2czLRTOethldcjX8u-l4uhPTsTwvfIvbLL_1CKvtm-DYK_KETfZnt7PrNx7Yn4bCOOUCj25_xWo330xto/w640-h408/IMG_20220825_134217.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I also figured out that the front bag would sag too much when loaded with my bike tools, but I fixed that with small support cords running from the front fender to the stem.</div><div><br /></div><div>The last bit I added to the bike was a rear rack. I found this in the Bike Cave, a non-profit DIY free bike shop over in Duluth. I donated some of my extra bike lights and tools to them (I had way too many lights!) and I took this nifty rack home.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5l8KUNAWQEs9lKuqf3GZA56QAr3cQZGPORDwTTIfCwVHdf8lzS5FHpON4NZ582HvuhQTcnsLa2iRpAE3QHzgB4hwmUmiOmsfWDjKx5NSLYuwikXB_bkWNpiw2KunxWvZRPgzwzPLT45uiES3NLmozkcv-bZohOyMfp7rwltUhgPFvghuvUEI/s4608/IMG_20220828_152306.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5l8KUNAWQEs9lKuqf3GZA56QAr3cQZGPORDwTTIfCwVHdf8lzS5FHpON4NZ582HvuhQTcnsLa2iRpAE3QHzgB4hwmUmiOmsfWDjKx5NSLYuwikXB_bkWNpiw2KunxWvZRPgzwzPLT45uiES3NLmozkcv-bZohOyMfp7rwltUhgPFvghuvUEI/w480-h640/IMG_20220828_152306.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div>It mounted quite nicely to the bike with some p-clamps and rubber spacers. The toe-strap running to the straddle rails helps take some of the stress off the p-clamps.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnXYdAcKF7BgrhI8D4VjKfougrXKx0JUyeUXBnOGuxjzcQ8aqmscPeEpx03m4dsNF7GowJKyEhNJBhxNbUOIhtqLsRU2xtBMkTfp1clhBFV7efQZs-MgIarl7NWgg7jV2EXtckljxEjc7IyuW_e9X8pATQl882vs6qeICUAymOelXPTfz-50/s3188/IMG_20220828_165134.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2964" data-original-width="3188" height="596" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnXYdAcKF7BgrhI8D4VjKfougrXKx0JUyeUXBnOGuxjzcQ8aqmscPeEpx03m4dsNF7GowJKyEhNJBhxNbUOIhtqLsRU2xtBMkTfp1clhBFV7efQZs-MgIarl7NWgg7jV2EXtckljxEjc7IyuW_e9X8pATQl882vs6qeICUAymOelXPTfz-50/w640-h596/IMG_20220828_165134.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitakls3u03vzZzZ0q_PT6DEuzjh9HsEIGKtk6bIi6e986XryUK4cLQeBNAkazONwm0KWVD_YI9UXbdwHUw7ER8PP22NW-LL1nIMweCHEokOhRV_LUjrWcipVGE7h2v7mRNroHT24ge7Fjl3xQKmM0DVK6rPuNFJ0jfvmyFuBm3OQY1lbRR7IU/s3958/IMG_20220828_165122.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2523" data-original-width="3958" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitakls3u03vzZzZ0q_PT6DEuzjh9HsEIGKtk6bIi6e986XryUK4cLQeBNAkazONwm0KWVD_YI9UXbdwHUw7ER8PP22NW-LL1nIMweCHEokOhRV_LUjrWcipVGE7h2v7mRNroHT24ge7Fjl3xQKmM0DVK6rPuNFJ0jfvmyFuBm3OQY1lbRR7IU/w640-h408/IMG_20220828_165122.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>The fixie Schwinn is currently my favorite bike to ride, For those of you who care about such things the gear ratio is 40*16 which seems just about perfect to me. And yes, I'm running stupid flat heavy rubber block pedals on it with no toe clips or straps and no my feet don't fly off the pedals and yes I can go up and down hills without dying.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have a weird accounting method in that I don't count the cost of anything I already owned when tallying up what I've spent on a bike. So I don't count my bike lights and coroplast and zipties and other bits I had laying around. So by my accounting this what the Schwinn cost me:</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">The bike itself: $15</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Two new tires: $40</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Singlespeed chain: $10</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Spare innertube: $ 8</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Handlebar bag $ 2</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">-------------------------------</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"> $75</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div>I think it turned out to be a pretty good deal. And oh yeah, the bike has a fair amount of what Grant Petersen calls beausage. It's a nice looking bike, but I don't have to worry about getting it dinged up.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKcfkAWEBqRhr0AgkXOrYcqF4R6V8G6WxUqQlBv2FC58kxHV0cqwuykXAix0FC2C0vIrBfAijNwV-qFIP6UzI2v7j2sUjyy49ecqXVxGf3SvbeDDlnUmzoF9YH1fdpPfIy67Cj4zGGNubg68zzAoBgq8_V5BDLJwOYBxkPihjo3vwLm8s4uU/s4608/IMG_20220819_155940.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKcfkAWEBqRhr0AgkXOrYcqF4R6V8G6WxUqQlBv2FC58kxHV0cqwuykXAix0FC2C0vIrBfAijNwV-qFIP6UzI2v7j2sUjyy49ecqXVxGf3SvbeDDlnUmzoF9YH1fdpPfIy67Cj4zGGNubg68zzAoBgq8_V5BDLJwOYBxkPihjo3vwLm8s4uU/w640-h480/IMG_20220819_155940.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SWR4FJRBLkniH6CoOHvF32W0BVkuzo8HxOGGRkVi2irpCEjRLdlS2ZTbhYm7qSHLyHnjyi0Sh4UYts3gavgnjMFP9quGCvjgGoox9riTEntBRyp1s55aYED5mYuKfhLrU-Qpkf8Qq4i5pNy89ED1dbNXI3fAAvHQCpRX31cERW4nEx5V1vY/s4216/IMG_20220903_100635.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2559" data-original-width="4216" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SWR4FJRBLkniH6CoOHvF32W0BVkuzo8HxOGGRkVi2irpCEjRLdlS2ZTbhYm7qSHLyHnjyi0Sh4UYts3gavgnjMFP9quGCvjgGoox9riTEntBRyp1s55aYED5mYuKfhLrU-Qpkf8Qq4i5pNy89ED1dbNXI3fAAvHQCpRX31cERW4nEx5V1vY/w640-h388/IMG_20220903_100635.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-27019923892364215492022-08-21T08:15:00.002-07:002022-08-21T08:15:42.674-07:00Inexpensive Biomotion Taillighting<p>The other day I read <a href="https://bikerumor.com/project-flock-unique-biomotion-cycling-taillight/">an article on BikeRumor!</a> about a Kickstarter project for a biomotion taillight. Basically, studies have shown that if you highlight the motion of a cyclist's leg motion, drivers identify the object ahead of them and register it as human faster than if they are just seeing a conventional bike taillight. This makes sense to me, and for years companies have made pedal reflectors and reflective ankle bands with this idea in mind. The new element is active illumination of the cyclist's legs.</p><p>While I am in favor of any innovation that will decrease my chance of being run over, the Kickstarter light is a bit beyond my price range and it won't ship until September/October of 2023. "I bet I could build something," I thought.</p><p>It turns out that I didn't have to build anything, I already had what I needed in my pile of parts. Back in March I'd seen a really good deal on USB rechargeable bike taillights on Amazon. I've gradually been replacing my lights that use disposable batteries with USB rechargeable ones. and these lights were very inexpensive in a batch of six:</p><center>
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</center>
<p></p><p>They can be toggled to either flash or constant lighting of red or white LEDs and they come with a little rubber mounting strap. They are quite small and I mounted one on the back of my helmet and a couple of more on the back of a couple of my bikes. And I still had a couple left over.</p><p>All I had to do was cut a small rubber shim and I mounted one of these lights on each of my fixies two seat stays, pointing forward and just under the brake. It looks like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaW06U5isbxY5vNNkI9HMXUL92gan6EZQcAru5VE2gX1QPRmm0d4Zow-chbSCKW33t6BBgVma3iZ_5kN0giIyo5AyikTHg4c49rjIblAlc1XIP2tJZ3tYBYcSA60Ew7SGADUE1dZ1F6y82gJiPlfkmkwW9iZHpPLwfuYYbj7sfWaMl7qGjTU/s4608/IMG_20220821_090119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaW06U5isbxY5vNNkI9HMXUL92gan6EZQcAru5VE2gX1QPRmm0d4Zow-chbSCKW33t6BBgVma3iZ_5kN0giIyo5AyikTHg4c49rjIblAlc1XIP2tJZ3tYBYcSA60Ew7SGADUE1dZ1F6y82gJiPlfkmkwW9iZHpPLwfuYYbj7sfWaMl7qGjTU/w640-h480/IMG_20220821_090119.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkRjwRNBXW8cwaoim_340ZEIH9zC00QwxlKjN85rYzdNQ0IG8o1efhyzUAdjdjIV2_PkzHYdEHwq-HTnTMhqpjafjjMN1fgUtW9WjWhwmvpKhKJdz0LqUcoUF5KWRc_e2rLMPyg0ehH3LOZtAwrPXuSyGPKZRw7uuozDWbf7JnAWeZh5qMxc/s4608/IMG_20220821_090126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkRjwRNBXW8cwaoim_340ZEIH9zC00QwxlKjN85rYzdNQ0IG8o1efhyzUAdjdjIV2_PkzHYdEHwq-HTnTMhqpjafjjMN1fgUtW9WjWhwmvpKhKJdz0LqUcoUF5KWRc_e2rLMPyg0ehH3LOZtAwrPXuSyGPKZRw7uuozDWbf7JnAWeZh5qMxc/w480-h640/IMG_20220821_090126.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p>The white lights shine forward and down, illuminating my rotating calves and reflective ankle bands. I think the effect is quite eye-catching.</p><p>Kent Peterson</p><p>Superior WI USA</p><p>P.S. My typed posts on a wide range of subjects show up daily on my blog at <a href="https://seldomspeedy.blogspot.com/">https://seldomspeedy.blogspot.com/</a></p><p><br /></p>Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-55168699371467005482022-08-01T11:07:00.002-07:002022-08-01T11:14:45.577-07:002010 Tour Divide Call-InsBack in 2010, I was a rider in the Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race. I blogged about it extensively at the time and you can read my blog entries on this blog from June of 2010, you can pretty much get the whole story. The story actually starts in 2005 with <a href="http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/Turtle/MountainTurtle.html">The Way of the Mountain Turtle</a> and concludes with <a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/12/return-of-mountain-turtle.html">The Return of the Mountain Turtle</a> which I wrote at the end of 2011.<div><br /></div><div>While the blog posts, write-ups, and pictures captured much of the experience, another part of the story was told in the racer call-ins, which, through link-rot have disappeared from the internet. I was unaware that all the audio was lost until yesterday, when prompted by a query from someone who had been quite moved by my final race call in and was looking for the audio, I started hunting around and realised that I didn't have those files either.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, I am very fortunate to have a meticulous friend in Mark Canizaro who, together with my wife Christine, served as "Mission Control" for my 2010 ride. And Mark did still have audio copies of my ride call-ins and he sent them to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Blogger doesn't like MP3 files, so I spent this morning converting them to MP4 files, which appear below as seven pictureless videos. So now, in the interest of historical completeness, you can here a younger me dispensing advice I still stand by: Get out there and ride.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kent "still answers to Mountain Turtle" Peterson</div><div>Superior WI USA<br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyiXX-NixQ15cYDFC7ZKhJt1pqEB6Z3KU0Qv9YMSt7Ca3bn5mTyL9Sx4zkmwOJW2RRf4YT2ILWhSe8' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwUih9b5V_FInssbl4iRcyGl_50BBKcGtyZfUPUtXJHcVd6gq6W0U1E45ixhvUm2fYpEYOYxzg8SHM' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy0piXVk2yQwMqn9D0QxNzrdTK9mcQA-b5vgNCp10KmY2YTXRiRbZ8kzSHh8iCQEAw9pMJr18De3SQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyXxvh2zZHOIbx_LmvWvR6G2izf-syHnEvvHyj5qaLwMrHejTpGgX71NzWAqaQhSosR4JlxxV7Qzd0' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzdJU4wRR9A_2giLRPXweoD5tGtyJY2nWd_1zl7SHe80c50dpuei-7ITR_tRCGk_nv6XDFdt9VxHgc' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy-elZZ7ThyfnMaR1EAe_8eGJA9AyW2acw2YMIdqTHCTl1VoxBwevHfNtqjNv3Fg9G0twzNEyNwDgE' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dws3pn2uGVMD7RE8ii_djg77yXGaG3F_eBAcRtWHhb_A8R08VCCsPAE9XCSf0gK-GfmRkv8fQG-LfQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-64929345874649412892022-06-17T10:48:00.003-07:002022-07-14T19:47:50.854-07:00Back To Blogging<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwHX1z0DWpdlYdiKie111dl7QSqztizM29fQpVOyKSIh7gnhvN5bjro4_wDgQdrPrGb8wCENgJnFYEUGlw2NrdrAQng8P6JLfof0b21BtMu3TLwPPXVxi5_Iq-Rg8APGRcFsq1bAwJ1g5i_zDd4uzRsDctbImyWlOg0_Dzu9U2EiRB6dWQJA/s2011/IMG_20220617_124029.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2011" data-original-width="1956" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwHX1z0DWpdlYdiKie111dl7QSqztizM29fQpVOyKSIh7gnhvN5bjro4_wDgQdrPrGb8wCENgJnFYEUGlw2NrdrAQng8P6JLfof0b21BtMu3TLwPPXVxi5_Iq-Rg8APGRcFsq1bAwJ1g5i_zDd4uzRsDctbImyWlOg0_Dzu9U2EiRB6dWQJA/w622-h640/IMG_20220617_124029.jpg" width="622" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-78911627357953277442020-07-23T13:24:00.002-07:002020-07-23T13:25:18.601-07:00One Typed Page<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxW77MkBbisB5H1S5gywdMyRinee_iDOkJKBIxH94kl-VkbO1mA1KXfzsaqd7m-5y-e9Tq-NsuCu2O28i0m1D_OadXt_MELlwTAHKbg6zcWcLE5w6KCzciSOxpp5Oei3IGVJFPOw/s1600/20200711_084254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="1600" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxW77MkBbisB5H1S5gywdMyRinee_iDOkJKBIxH94kl-VkbO1mA1KXfzsaqd7m-5y-e9Tq-NsuCu2O28i0m1D_OadXt_MELlwTAHKbg6zcWcLE5w6KCzciSOxpp5Oei3IGVJFPOw/s320/20200711_084254.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Along with bicycles, one of my interests is old typewriters. I have several friends I trade typed letters with and for the past couple of months I've been contributing to the One Typed Page website at:<br />
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<a href="https://onetypedpage.wordpress.com/">https://onetypedpage.wordpress.com/</a><br />
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It's an eclectic mix of things posted by various folks and my daily postings there sometimes include bicycles.<br />
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If you've been wondering what's the latest with me or what I'm thinking about on a given day, One Typed Page is a good place to check. I have basically given up on social media but One Typed Page is just social enough for me.<br />
<br />
Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USA Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-25916512006997094902020-06-16T08:11:00.000-07:002020-06-17T20:20:36.235-07:00E-bike Range: How far can I go?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic892LmjnYjgOQv571yM2xjXrgW0qIoqL8Pb4Xat7tatSo0sRKg_0QDjLM2sT9VbLHlQz2Vt_KCKmOs-EbVPuItenVa4v7qM0C6Jgu7dimUxP_3WQuI2S3YAiBVOvYaaqv9xdawg/s1600/20200517_104412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic892LmjnYjgOQv571yM2xjXrgW0qIoqL8Pb4Xat7tatSo0sRKg_0QDjLM2sT9VbLHlQz2Vt_KCKmOs-EbVPuItenVa4v7qM0C6Jgu7dimUxP_3WQuI2S3YAiBVOvYaaqv9xdawg/s320/20200517_104412.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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One of the most common questions anyone asks about an e-bike is "How far can I go on a single charge?" While this sound like a simple question, a variety of factors go into this calculation and the most accurate response anyone can give is "it depends".<br />
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Micah Toll is an e-bike writer and rider and he dives into the various considerations in detail in an article at:<br />
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<a href="https://electrek.co/2020/06/12/how-far-can-an-electric-bicycle-really-go-on-a-charge/">https://electrek.co/2020/06/12/how-far-can-an-electric-bicycle-really-go-on-a-charge/</a><br />
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Now Micah is a very experienced e-bike enthusiast and he is a fan of going fast, powerful motors and throttles. As he admits, he's not a fit cyclist but he does a pretty good job in his article of trying to get into the fit cyclist perspective. But that is fundamentally not the perspective he comes from when it comes to e-bikes.<br />
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Alan Scholz, Bike Friday's founder, and myself do come from the fit cyclist perspective. We're both in our sixties now and have been lifelong cyclists. Our approach to e-bikes, and hence Bike Friday's approach, is to keep things as light as possible. We figure that the motor is there to be an assist to human muscle power, not a replacement for it. Therefore, Bike Friday builds Class 1 e-bikes (with no throttle).<br />
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Now much of the e-Bike industry has a "weight be damned, you've got a motor" philosophy and in the industry one quick rule of thumb is that they will quote an ebike as using about 20 WattHours per mile. Micah ups that number to 25 for his style of riding but in his article he does an experiment of riding at a very low assist level, laying off the throttle and putting in a lot of human power into his ride. Doing this he was able to only use 3.1 WattHours per mile on a 29 mile ride. But he admits he was exhausted at the end of that ride and doesn't recommend riding at that level every day.<br />
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Now Alan and I do ride pretty much every day we're nerds so we've used recording Watt meters to tell us how many WattHours per mile we are using. Alan and I have remarkably similar results. On a recent moderately hilly ride, with my e-assist set to levels 2 or 3 (out of 5), I used 214.7 WattHours to go 37.7 miles. My arage speed was not super fast but not turtle slow either, I averaged 13.6 mph. My bike has a modest 250 Watt motor and a 12.5 AmpHour 36 Volt battery. On my ride the maximum peak power the motor put out was 151.9 Watts (for a short time on the steepest climb).<br />
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Now let's do some math. 214.7 WattHours total divided by 37.7 miles tells me that I used an average of 5.69 WattHours per mile. This was not at a "grind myself into the ground" pace effort. This is my standard, "I'm going on a bike ride" pace. My battery has total capacity of 36 Volts times 12.5 AmpHours which equals 450 WattHours. Therefore based on this sample ride I would estimate my e-bike's range to be 450 WattHours divided by 5.69 Watt Hours per mile which equals just a bit over 79 miles.<br />
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Now again, I can't stress enough that your mileage will vary. Going up hills takes much more power than riding on flat terrain. Heavier bikes and riders use more power than lighter folks.<br />
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Our Bike Friday travel bikes use airline legal <a href="https://www.ebikes.ca/product-info/ligo-batteries.html">LiGo batteries from Grin Technologies</a>. Each LiGo holds 99 Watt Hours. Our bikes typically ship with 3 or 4 LiGo batteries. So let's say I have a customer who uses 10 Watt Hours for each mile they travel. That person would have a range of just under 30 miles for a 3 LiGo system or 40 miles if they opted for 4 LiGos. And some of our customers buy multiple sets of LiGos to increase their range.<br />
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The "How Far Can I Go?" question is a complicated one. A lot of folks trying to sell you something will give you an easy, optimistic and probably wrong answer. The longer answer is "it depends" and I hope Micah's article and this one give you the information you need to determine what the true answer is for you.<br />
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Keep 'em rolling,<br />
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Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USAKent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-1700855773484694602020-04-11T15:19:00.001-07:002020-05-13T18:02:15.095-07:00The Galvanic Velocipede<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUmtZt0IQb-6DzWwYyGE1ugQb8Y8dgUKtaYY_p_rYQzxvPJRzg3Lppevu62LQpcmSVia2KRUBVQ7QXIPPE6ma6rYyFWTLu_HkJuLYUCGOPRJdEuY8a4Q3MbGDCTjjWuz-naHGNg/s1600/The+Galvanic+Velocipede.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1051" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUmtZt0IQb-6DzWwYyGE1ugQb8Y8dgUKtaYY_p_rYQzxvPJRzg3Lppevu62LQpcmSVia2KRUBVQ7QXIPPE6ma6rYyFWTLu_HkJuLYUCGOPRJdEuY8a4Q3MbGDCTjjWuz-naHGNg/s400/The+Galvanic+Velocipede.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<i>Please note the following is a work of fiction. Before you write me pointing out some factual or historical error in the tale, allow me to preempt your action by recounting this anecdote that the great Ray Bradbury often told:</i></div>
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A few years back, one dreadful boy ran up to me and said, “Mr. Bradbury?”</blockquote>
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“Yes?” I said.</blockquote>
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“That book of yours, The Martian Chronicles?” he said.</blockquote>
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“Yes?” I said.</blockquote>
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“On page 92 where you have the moons of Mars rising in the east?” </blockquote>
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“Yeah,” I said. </blockquote>
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“Nah,” he said. </blockquote>
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So I hit him. I’ll be damned if I’ll be bullied by bright children.</blockquote>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Galvanic Velocipede</span></u></b></div>
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copyright (c) 2020 by Kent Peterson</div>
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I’d just returned from riding my wheel over to Fitchburg when my lovely wife Elizabeth said “Oh, you missed your friend Harris. He was just here looking for you.”</div>
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“I didn’t miss him at all,” I replied as I dismounted the machine, “and he’s really not my friend. He’s more of an irritating acquaintance.”</div>
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Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. “You grumble about Harris, but you must admit that he is always up to something interesting.”</div>
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I held my position, “I am NOT his friend. Harris once said to me ‘I have no friends because I’m always right.’ I tried to point out to him that there are far more reasons than that, but he would have none of it.”</div>
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“Well,” Elizabeth countered, “you may not count Harris as a friend, but it is well known in town that you are, in fact, his best friend.”</div>
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“No!” I exclaimed, shocked at this assertion.</div>
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“It’s true,” Elizabeth said. “It’s because you’re civil to him. Everyone else is either openly hostile or better at avoiding him than you. Waldo has banished him from his house. Henry moved into that cabin in the woods just to escape him. But you…”</div>
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Elizabeth was unable to completely tell me exactly what it is I do because at that moment Harris came bounding up the path to our house.</div>
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“Ah, there you are,” he wheezed. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”</div>
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“I took my wheel over to Fitchburg,” I explained as the portly Harris caught his breath. “The machine has been a bit sluggish of late, so I had Mr. Scott over there examine the bearings. It seems I’ve been negligent regarding their lubrication.”</div>
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“I bet he charged you a pretty penny for his work and advice, too,” Harris said. “You should have let me take a look at it. I have a complete workshop, you know.”</div>
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I was, in fact, quite aware of his extensive workshop. Harris’s</div>
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grandfather had designed and patented a particularly clever machine for weaving cloth which made his family fortune. First his father and now his brother supervised the operation of various mills and other acquisitions. Harris had declared himself to be the inheritor of his grandfather’s design genius, although each of his “improvements” to his grandfather’s original machines either decreased their efficiency or led to catastrophic consequences. After the “unfortunate incident” in which the Manchester mill burned down, Harris’s brother, a shrewd businessman but also a loving brother with finite patience, suggested that Harris needed “a place far from the distractions and bustle of daily commerce, somewhere that would give him the uninterrupted time to pursue his research.” Thus Harris decamped to our peaceful village with a generous stipend from the family business to establish his “laboratory of mechanical invention.”</div>
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Harris’s laboratory is by far the most striking building in our village and it contains the most advanced machinery our 19th century has to offer. Harris had a channel dug which diverted a portion of the river to spin a massive mill wheel, and he also erected an enormous Dutch-style windmill atop the three storey structure. Finally, he installed a massive furnace connected to a brass steam engine. An elaborate series of belts, cogs, springs and levers convert these various sources of mechanical motion to spin lathes, saws, looms and machines whose purposes that I confess I am ill-equipped to guess.</div>
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Harris also subscribes to a wide range of scientific journals and maintains a far flung correspondence with various keen minds of our day. Our postmaster, Mr. Davis, tells me that Harris gets more letters and parcels in a single day than most of the rest of us receive in a month. And at least once a week you can be certain that some large crate with machinery or supplies will arrive at the train station addressed to our enterprising Mr. Harris.</div>
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“I know that you’re a rather keen wheelman,” Harris said, “so you will have the honor of getting the first look at my latest invention. I’m unveiling it publicly tomorrow, but I’d like you to come to my laboratory now to help me figure out the placement of some final components. It’s a bit of a puzzle and I could use another brain on the problem.”</div>
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It is so out of character for Harris to ask for help with anything that I was momentarily struck speechless. “I, umm….promised Elizabeth…” I looked to my wife for help.</div>
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“That you’d be back from Fitchburg in time for supper. And you are, but the roast has at least another hour to cook, so you and Harris go off and work on your whatever it is. Make certain that you’re back here by six. Mr. Harris, of course, you are welcome to join us.”</div>
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Harris beamed at this suggestion, “That would be lovely. I shan't keep him long.”</div>
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When we arrived at the workshop I saw that Harris had added an additional level of complexity to the machines therein. Harris, of course, was his usual professorial self and proceeded to explain the workings with only the occasional “uhm”, “er”, or “of course” from me.</div>
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“You’re familiar, of course, with Galvini’s work on animal electricity?” Harris began.</div>
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“Of course,” I echoed, “Frog twitching and so forth…”</div>
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“Quite,” Harris said, “Well then I’m sure you know that Volta’s work diverged from Galvini’s when it came to the origin of the electrical fluid, Galvini believing it to be a function of the muscle and Volta believing it to be a metallic property.”</div>
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“And you…” I prompted.</div>
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“Well, obviously I think Volta is correct and his work developing batteries is quite impressive, but it seems to me that he’s become so enamored of the physical nature of electricity that he’s neglected to fully explore the biomechanical applications of such power. That’s what I’ve been working on.”</div>
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Harris went on to explain, in more detail than I can adequately convey here, exactly how each of the various machines in his laboratory connected together. As best as I could follow, the mechanical motion of the mill wheel, steam engine and windmill were all connected together to spin two large counter-rotating disks. The disks were partially covered in copper and metallic fingers brushed the plates as they spun. Wires ran from the fingers to two metal spheres while miniature lightning bolts sparked between them. Harris informed me that such a device is called a Wimhurst Machine.</div>
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Harris harvested the electrical fluid in Leyden jars, which he also called batteries. He tried to explain some advanced storage principle he was using but by this point I could merely nod and say things like “I see.” This was a true statement. I did see. I did not understand, but I did see.</div>
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“But,” I asked, “what do you intend to do with all this stored electrical fluid?”</div>
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“Well,” Harris said with obvious delight, “that is where I have made my breakthrough. I can convert the fluid back into mechanical motion!”</div>
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“So you’ve made some kind of electrical motor, like a steam engine that runs on the electrical fluid?” I asked.</div>
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“Not directly,” said Harris, “although that is an interesting notion. See here, how do you propel your wheel?”</div>
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“By the force of my legs, of course, but..”</div>
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“But your legs only have your own strength, your own will,” said Harris. “Galvini first observed muscles reacting to electrical stimulation but he didn’t follow through. I have.”</div>
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“You have what?” I asked.</div>
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“I have built a Galvanic Velocipede!”</div>
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At this point Harris dramatically unveiled his modified machine. It was much like my own wheel, a front wheel approximately as tall as Harris’s shoulder, with a dinner plate sized wheel in the rear, the design the English call a penny-farthing. But Harris had added a clockwork mechanism behind the saddle and some sort of holsters behind the clock. Wires ran forward to the steering bar and below the bars hung what looked to be brass spoons with leather straps. A lever on the bar was connected via mechanical linkage to the clock in the back.</div>
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“What…” I began but quickly amended, “How does it work?”</div>
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“Let me show you,” said Harris. “Hand me one of those batteries, will you?”</div>
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As I reached for the battery, I heard Harris shout “No! Not like that!” but my fingers were already too close to the terminals of the Leyden jar. A small bolt of lightning leapt from the jar to my hand and my arm, independent of my own volition, snapped backwards. My outstretched and thoroughly surprised hand collided with Harris’s jaw at a high rate of speed. The Leyden jar crashed to the floor.</div>
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Harris and I both said some rather un-Christian and intemperate things, but after a moment to regain our composure and ascertain that neither of us had sustained permanent injury, said “Sorry” simultaneously and laughed in the way gentlemen do when they have recently escaped disaster. “Well,” Harris chuckled, “you’ve experienced first hand the problem I’m having. A fully charged Leyden jar is a dangerous thing. I need to have them mounted on my machine in such a way that they won’t jostle and discharge prematurely.”</div>
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His original scheme involved the holsters which were supposed to hold a grand total of six Leyden jars, but this seemed precarious at best. When going over a bump, the leather holster could flex and the cells either contact the metal frame of the velocipede or each other.</div>
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“A basket.” I said, “You need a basket. With individual compartments, like what Potter uses to ship eggs.” </div>
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“Brilliant,” said Harris. “We can mount it on the back, on springs. But isn’t it getting near time for us to return to your home for dinner?”</div>
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I consulted my watch, which seemed to have stopped. Harris explained: “An unfortunate consequence of your brush with the electrical fluid, I’m afraid. I’ll buy you a replacement, of course.”</div>
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At dinner Harris explained the operation of his machine. The clockwork mechanism released pulses of the electrical fluid at a rate that was controlled by the lever on the steering bar of the velocipede. The tighter the grip on the lever, the more frequent the pulses.</div>
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“But where do the pulses of electrical fluid go?” asked Elizabeth.</div>
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“Why directly into my legs, of course.” Harris replied. “That’s what the brass spoons are for. Strapped to my quadriceps and buttocks, they channel the electrical energy straight to my body’s largest muscles.”</div>
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“Do you mean to say you voluntarily apply the lightning I experienced to your own body?” I asked incredulously.</div>
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“You yourself experienced the force a small spark gave to your arm,” Harris noted.</div>
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“As did you,” I reminded him.</div>
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“Yes,” he said, rubbing his jaw, “and if a small spark can provide that much power to your puny arm, imagine what it can do to larger muscles.”</div>
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Harris went on to explain that he had challenged Waldo to a race, at noon tomorrow, in the town square. “I’d like you to be my second,” he added, making it sound more like a duel than a race.</div>
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“I wouldn’t miss it for all the lobsters in Maine,” I assured him.</div>
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Harris and I worked late into the night preparing the Galvanic Velocipede. The rear basket seemed solid. The next morning we did some low-speed tests, which seemed promising. Harris would grimace each time the clock-pulse of power would course through his legs but the velocipede was clearly accelerating quicker and moving faster than I had ever seen any machine move.</div>
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Just before noon, we, along with most of the town, gathered in the square. Waldo was there, not with a velocipede but rather his horse, Lightning. Lightning, it was generally agreed, was the fastest horse in the state. Waldo’s previous horse, a docile old bay, had perished when it unfortunately twisted its ankle in a groundhog hole. Waldo had been down south on a speaking tour at the time. He returned from Kentucky with Lightning, an all black stallion with a white blaze on his forehead. Lightning was named not only for the jagged white mark, but for his remarkable speed.</div>
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Harris and I had spent the latter part of the morning charging a dozen Leyden jars. Six were mounted on the velocipede and six I held in reserve in case the race required a second heat to be decisive. Based on how fast Harris’s machine had gone in our early quarter-speed tests, we doubted a second heat would be required, but we felt it best to be prepared.</div>
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A few minutes before noon, I helped Harris onto his machine and strapped his feet to the pedals. The pedal straps were another of Harris’s innovations, ensuring his feet would not fly free of the pedals at high speed. I also carefully strapped the brass spoons to Harris’s skin, much to the amusement of the crowd.</div>
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Harris and Waldo were exchanging heated predictions as to the outcome of the race. Harris asserted that a man, plus the mechanical advantage of the wheel, plus the Galvanic power of the Leyden jars, would prove to be double that of even the fastest horse. Waldo countered that at best Harris and his contraption would prove to be equal to half a horse and not, he noted, the half where a horse kept his sense. The crowd roared their appreciation at this quip.</div>
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It was at this moment when things went awry. Instead of the measured “One, Two, Three, Go” we had all agreed to, there was a high-pitched whistle. It took a fraction of a second before I identified the source of the whistle, a woodchuck running in terror at a high rate of speed. The woodchuck was being rapidly pursued by Henry, who was wielding a hoe like an axe and yelling something about the woodchuck having eaten his last bean.</div>
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At the sight of the woodchuck, Lightning bolted, perhaps recalling his predecessor’s unfortunate rodent-related demise. Waldo could do nothing to calm the frightened beast and was looking rather nervous himself.</div>
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Seeing Lightning and Waldo take flight, Harris jammed the lever of the Galvanic Velocipede to its maximal point of engagement and he and the velocipede took off in pursuit.</div>
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I have never seen such frantic acceleration. In those few seconds Harris and his machine resembled nothing so much as a meteor streaking across a summer sky. The Galvanic Velocipede flew past Waldo and Lightning as if they were a stone statue in the square instead of a pair of breathing, fleeing creatures.</div>
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Just past edge of the town square, the road turns, to run along the west edge of the pond. The road turns. Harris did not. Harris and his machine flew directly into the pond. There was a great flash as the Leyden jars hit the water.</div>
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Two seconds later, Lightning, being possessed of horse sense, skidded to a halt at the pond’s edge. Waldo, being possessed of momentum, did not.</div>
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Waldo can swim. Harris, strapped to his machine, cannot.</div>
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Possessed with a courage I did not know I had, I rushed to the pond’s edge and dove in. At the center of the rapidly expanding ripples indicating Harris’s entry point to his potential watery grave, I took a deep breath and dove under the surface.</div>
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The water was murky, but by feel and providence I somehow managed to find and free Harris. I pulled him to the surface with me and dragged him to shore.</div>
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I was coughing water out of my lungs and Elizabeth was doing her best to revive Harris. He looked like a beached whale. Waldo, who had dragged himself out of the pond, had the presence of mind to flop Harris on his stomach and use his bulk to force the water from his lungs.</div>
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Harris was blue and not breathing. “He’s gone,” Waldo said.</div>
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“Wait,” I said, “Elizabeth, go fetch the spare basket.”</div>
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She was back in a flash with the second basket that Harris and I had made just the night before. Having learned my lesson, I carefully extracted one of the Leyden jars.</div>
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“Flip him on his back, and open his shirt.” Waldo did this quickly.</div>
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I took the Leyden jar and touched the contacts to Harris’s bare chest, just above his heart. A spark flew, his body convulsed, his eyes fluttered open and he coughed.</div>
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All I remember after that is the crowd cheering and Elizabeth throwing her arms about me. And then I passed out.</div>
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I caught a fever and spent several days recuperating. Elizabeth never left my bedside. Waldo called in Boston’s best doctor to supervise both Harris's and my recovery. The doctor was fascinated with the Leyden jars and took one back with him to the city when he left.</div>
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Harris recovered a bit quicker than I did and he came to visit me and offer his sincere thanks. True to his word, he gave me a beautiful watch to replace my broken one. He kept saying “I can’t thank you enough.”</div>
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“It’s nothing,” I said. “I couldn’t very well let my best friend drown, now could I?”</div>
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At this Elizabeth gave me one of her sweetest smiles.</div>
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“There is one thing you can do,” I said.</div>
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“Anything,” Harris said.</div>
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“How about if you leave the Galvanic Velocipede at the bottom of the pond?”</div>
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“Certainly,” Harris said. “It was a flawed design after all. Under full power, the jolts caused all my muscles to spasm. Including the muscles in my hand. I couldn’t back off the power and believe me, I tried.”</div>
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He continued, “I don’t think direct muscle stimulation is the future of transportation. I’m thinking about what you said about an electrical engine. Perhaps something involving magnets…”</div>
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“Later,” Elizabeth said, “You men should rest up tonight. Tomorrow will be soon enough for you to start building the world of tomorrow.”</div>
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Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-49382976583106630662020-04-08T07:59:00.001-07:002020-04-08T07:59:22.603-07:00Bill Walton and Friends Inter-Galactic Bike for Humanity Event<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 20pt;">Bill Walton and Friends Inter-Galactic Bike for Humanity Event to Benefit Victims of Coronavirus and Healthcare Workers<u></u><u></u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 20pt;">Set for Saturday, April 25<u></u><u></u></span></b></div>
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Basketball Hall of Famer and San Diego native <b>Bill Walton</b> is teaming up with community leaders and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://events.com/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNGNUSz6ED3FmM3Rw3ik7yVcHsKElA" href="https://events.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>Events.com</b></a> to host an inter-galactic initiative, <b>Bike for Humanity</b>, on from 9-11 a.m. PT on Saturday, April 25.<u></u><u></u></div>
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One 100 percent of all net proceeds from the event will benefit victims of the Coronavirus pandemic, along with healthcare professionals who have so valiantly treated them during this devastating crisis. Those proceeds will be distributed among four participating nonprofits, Feeding America (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.feedingamerica.org/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNH8VlueBiwXyMpcYc_NwgLA2JRu9A" href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>feedingamerica.org</b></a>), the leading organization in the fight against hunger in the United States; Father Joe’s Villages (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://my.neighbor.org/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNFeKS3_bN4pNbctVonIJxONdarErQ" href="https://my.neighbor.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>my.neighbor.org</b></a>), one of the largest homeless services providers in San Diego; #GetUsPPE (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://getusppe.org/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNHAU-HtvBEyFcYKyaWeRWxh7EKipQ" href="https://getusppe.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>getusppe.org</b></a>), an organization that shares information and connects the community to help healthcare providers receive Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); and Champions for Health (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://championsforhealth.org/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNHbSoQCQVnsf42izlW7hMB9XVJ14w" href="https://championsforhealth.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>championsforhealth.org</b></a>), a San Diego-based organization whose mission is to improve community health and wellness, access to care for all and support for physicians through engaged volunteerism.<u></u><u></u></div>
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Individuals are encouraged to get out and ride their bikes for up to two hours in an area where they can practice social distancing at a minimum of 6’ 11” in honor of Walton’s true height. Current CDC guidelines recommend a minimum of six feet of social distancing in an effort to stem the pandemic. It is <b>CRITICAL</b> to note that Bike for Humanity is <b>NOT</b> a group ride and riding clusters are <b>PROHIBITED</b> due to Coronavirus. Interested participants can ride anywhere in the galaxy as long as they are in a location where they can practice social distancing.<u></u><u></u></div>
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“I love my bike and I love being alive,” said Walton, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, of his reasons for helping to create this one-of-a-kind event. “These seemingly inseparable aspects of my life are great privileges, privileges that not everybody has, even in the best of times. However, with that privilege comes responsibility, obligation and duty. And with the global health Coronavirus crisis changing everything for everybody these days, we are doing something about and for the exacerbated challenges that so many of our communities now face, not the least of which are food and medical care.”<u></u><u></u></div>
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There is no charge to sign-up or participate in Bike for Humanity. However, there are multiple opportunities to donate and become more involved.<u></u><u></u></div>
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Participants who make a $25 contribution will receive a Bike for Humanity medal through the mail. Those who make a $50 contribution will receive a medal and a T-shirt. Participants who pledge $250 will receive the medal and T-shirt, along with a personally-signed “Thank You” photograph card from Bill, and they’ll be entered into an opportunity drawing for exclusive prizes, including Electra bicycles and an all-expenses paid trip to San Diego to ride with Bill. And for $5,000, riders will receive a medal and T-shirt, along with an all-expenses paid trip to San Diego to ride with Bill. Details on all the packages are available <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://events.com/r/en_US/registration/bike-for-humanity-virtual-event-san-diego-april-784115&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNH-9m_7MSBXLBqD6XwCCxMSfpxQrQ" href="https://events.com/r/en_US/registration/bike-for-humanity-virtual-event-san-diego-april-784115" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #4472c4;">HERE</span></b></a>. And it’s important to note that for people who are unable to participate on April 25, Bike for Humanity is an ongoing initiative and outdoor enthusiasts should be proud to don their Bike for Humanity T-shirts and medals and get out and safely ride their bicycles when conditions allow.<u></u><u></u></div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://events.com/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNHJcuNyAPl39k_Kp4N9GsUtSCFzgQ" href="http://events.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration-line: none;">Events.com</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"> </span>is planning a live-stream of the event featuring Walton and other interesting people, however it will air on a delay from 1-3 p.m. PT giving participants plenty of time to get home following the ride to watch.<u></u><u></u></div>
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For more information or to register for Bike for Humanity, visit the event’s official website, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bikeforhumanity.com/&source=gmail&ust=1586444158774000&usg=AFQjCNE1Iz22nzwEIW2yUjn08QDTZN6K2g" href="https://www.bikeforhumanity.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><b>www.bikeforhumanity.com</b></a>. <u></u><u></u></div>
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Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-85149098546056113382020-03-16T07:59:00.001-07:002020-03-16T10:22:00.975-07:00Adjusting to New Realities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVPmax2NPATvSL6j2nVGAo7UFoCZY6kQ8nODMsb9nA2selw9_R6OeuMty11F9R3hFDWpLGPLF6IdDzURmxHJn4ndm1o_IuIow8JcH16Firbu8p3VWciFFMkpJ8FrDsPAkUtc7PIg/s1600/20200316_053854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVPmax2NPATvSL6j2nVGAo7UFoCZY6kQ8nODMsb9nA2selw9_R6OeuMty11F9R3hFDWpLGPLF6IdDzURmxHJn4ndm1o_IuIow8JcH16Firbu8p3VWciFFMkpJ8FrDsPAkUtc7PIg/s320/20200316_053854.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My friend Jan Heine wrote some very wise words over on his blog:<br />
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<a href="https://www.renehersecycles.com/adjusting-to-new-realities/">https://www.renehersecycles.com/adjusting-to-new-realities/</a><br />
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Here in Eugene, Christine & I spent this past weekend hunkered down at home with our cat, Inkling. As of today, my place of work (<a href="https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/">Bike Friday</a>) is still in operation and the main business impact of COVID-19 has been on the supply side of the business (we have had various delays and availability issues around getting parts), but with all the travel restrictions and economic shocks (not to mention the serious medical issues), I am certain the demand side is going to drop precipitously. Our main business is travel bikes and there will be a lot less travel happening this year.<br />
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Various businesses in your town having to cope with difficult circumstances. This article has some good advice on ways you can help:<br />
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<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/15/success/small-businesses-coronavirus/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/15/success/small-businesses-coronavirus/index.html</a><br />
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Stay safe, friends and do what you can to help each other through this.<br />
<br />
Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USA <br />
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<br />Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-72434975113008446552020-02-26T14:45:00.000-08:002020-02-26T14:45:05.781-08:00Drive FastToday is Ash Wednesday, a Christian Holy Day of prayer and fasting. While I don't particularly care what (if any) faith a person follows, I do think the idea of abstaining from certain things is a valid way of exploring different ways of living. About nine years ago, I wrote a post proposing the idea of a "Drive Fast." I still think the idea is a good one. The original post is here:<br />
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<a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/02/drive-fast.html">https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/02/drive-fast.html</a><br />
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Keep 'em rolling,<br />
<br />
Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USAKent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-28681966147763269602020-02-16T08:21:00.006-08:002020-02-16T17:23:30.748-08:00The Bike Friday Ever-E-Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's a new bike in the works at <a href="https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/">Bike Friday</a> and you can read about on the Bike Friday Blog at:<br />
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<a href="https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/creating-the-new-ever-e-day-electric-cargo-bike">https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/creating-the-new-ever-e-day-electric-cargo-bike</a><br />
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I had a tiny bit to do with the development of this bike, but most of my day to day work involves converting customer's existing bikes to E-assist. We also do full maintenance & factory repaints on our older bikes. So whether you want to keep an old bike rolling smoothly, want to add e-assist, or want a nifty new e-bike, <a href="https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/">Bike Friday</a> can probably help you out.<br />
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Kurt Vonnegut once pointed out that one of humanity's problems is that everybody wants to build but nobody wants to do maintenance. Well, at <a href="https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/">Bike Friday</a>, we do both.<br />
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By the way, the little dog that shows up now and then in the gif at the top of this post is Gertie. Brad, our Service Manager, is Gertie's roomate and she comes to work with him several days a week.Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-42473620195885445932020-02-04T14:01:00.002-08:002020-02-04T17:39:25.799-08:00My Somewhat Solar Life<br />
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<br />
“It’s not a very solar day.” My lovely and long suffering wife is by now used to my gloomy
pronouncements on cloudy days. Also, after decades of marriage, she is used to my
committing to some random goal (“<a href="http://www.carsstink.org/peterson/NorthRoad/NorthRoad.html">I’m going to ride my fixed gear bike back to Minnesota!</a>”)
and then seeing me devote what many folks would think of as an unreasonable degree of
time and energy in pursuit of said goal.<br />
<br />
My latest obsessive project began when I somewhat <a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2019/04/i-didnt-need-or-want-ebike-but-now-im.html">reluctantly got an ebike</a>. In my work
at <a href="https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bikes/">Bike Friday</a> I wound up doing more and more ebike work and my boss Alan gave me
enough parts and encouragement that eventually I pretty much had to add an electric assist
system to my own bike. The purist in me felt guilty about adding an e-assist to a bicycle that
I was perfectly capable of pedaling around 100% on my own but I did have to admit that the
e-assist was handy and useful.<br />
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To assuage my guilt, I came up with a plan: I would vow not to plug my bike into the main
electrical grid. Any e-power I would get would come from the sun. That was last April and
since then I’ve stuck to my vow. Along the way I’ve learned some things and I quickly
added items to my “no grid power” list. Since April my phone, laptop, radio, Kindle, ebike
lights and the ebike itself have been 100% solar powered.<br />
<br />
My first attempt at solar power I documented in a post I called <a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2019/04/running-ebike-on-solar-energy-sheddy.html">The Sheddy Kilowatt Story</a> and
the solar shed still forms the basis of my solar system. As time has gone by I’ve learned some
things and made some changes and I figure this update might help other folks who might be
interested in lessening their dependence on the main power grid.
<br />
<br />
First off, I don’t claim to be 100% grid-free. Christine and I are still (semi)normal people who
have a fridge, stove, washing machine and other big power items that plug into the wall. I just
figured I’d see how much stuff I could manage to run on a fairly small solar power system.
<br />
<br />
The first thing I learned from my solar shed was that my cheap flexible Chinese no-name
solar panel was, in retrospect, too cheap. It claimed to be a 100 Watt panel but it never even
came close to generating half that and a spring wind storm somehow mysteriously killed it. I
replaced it with a heavier, rigid, name-brand <a href="https://amzn.to/399ioi4">Renogy 50 Watt panel</a>. The <a href="https://amzn.to/399ioi4">Renogy panel</a>
consistently puts out more power than its predecessor ever did.<br />
<br />
My <a href="https://amzn.to/2OtrOwJ">Floureon Power Bank</a> is the heart of my solar system and it continues to perform like
a champ. This is one of those products that is so nice I bought it twice. I’ll explain more about
the second one and how I use it a bit later on.<br />
<br />
As solar skeptics like to point out, solar energy is variable. On a bright, sunny day you get a
lot of power, at night you get none, and on cloudy days things are somewhere in between.
But if you have a lithium ion power bank hooked to your solar panel, what power you get
can be stored for when you need it. Most of the devices on my list have their own internal
lithium ion batteries and charge via mini USB ports. The bike and the laptop charge via
their wall chargers which I plug into the 120 VAC inverter on <a href="https://amzn.to/2OtrOwJ">Floureon Power Bank</a>.
<br />
<br />
For charging small things, like a phone, the 50 Watt panel is overkill.
<a href="https://amzn.to/373MD8J">Renogy makes a little ten watt panel with a little lithium ion power bank</a> that is very
reasonably priced. I wound up getting several of these when I had delusions of going
into the solar business but I quickly figured out that I am not really an entrepreneur.
I’m more just a guy who explains things. I wrote <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQL0FilqF2256ywXPfeYY1XyogJo_EE5vZRMqB1JkSkTKBCWhk9xhLbM8NMToQaNsiD0QUW7Bv1ooP7/pub">a little paper about how to charge your phone off solar power</a> and decided that I was not a businessman.
<br />
<br />
My stock of those <a href="https://amzn.to/373MD8J">little Renogy panels</a> are great when dealing with the one big problem
I have with my solar shed. The problem is this: it doesn’t move. In the spring and summer,
this is no problem, plenty of sunlight lands on the shed’s solar panel. In the fall and winter
I’d figured that I would get less sun due to cloud cover but I’d inconveniently forgotten the
basic fact of the earth’s tilt. In the dark months the days are shorter and for the bulk of the
daylight hours my shed is in the shadow of my house. Oops!<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEietWs_aFNiHwNCyOG1-g0UYsOwVgiQQ0-cf5cGLYn4k7gkQvljRjX3ovBKmsQXSEOYwZPM6MBUW0ZzO0Asj1SdNo_pyNgMkD6Ddm_BGiZ1vCYAkRsAk879C_pIrc3q1XUv9ib3cA/s1600/20191129_115444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1229" data-original-width="1600" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEietWs_aFNiHwNCyOG1-g0UYsOwVgiQQ0-cf5cGLYn4k7gkQvljRjX3ovBKmsQXSEOYwZPM6MBUW0ZzO0Asj1SdNo_pyNgMkD6Ddm_BGiZ1vCYAkRsAk879C_pIrc3q1XUv9ib3cA/s320/20191129_115444.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
The shed still manages to crank out just enough power to keep the ebike charged if I don’t
go too wild with using the e-assist. I’ve decided that this is one of the great lessons of my
solar experiment, I am living within my solar means.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4arCo2Tis3FZlGFT7h7lkcCP2IR2bCII0RJUBHnipQfTO_pk6Sa9osxXq3ed987np0nvfIAeMxpf692TCSAbkCuwC0tF5Y95sNTMQ29Y-Vb3o0rusuAVYX61tsCZ0-sQTqQz_Vg/s1600/20200202_141053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4arCo2Tis3FZlGFT7h7lkcCP2IR2bCII0RJUBHnipQfTO_pk6Sa9osxXq3ed987np0nvfIAeMxpf692TCSAbkCuwC0tF5Y95sNTMQ29Y-Vb3o0rusuAVYX61tsCZ0-sQTqQz_Vg/s320/20200202_141053.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
I can move those little <a href="https://amzn.to/373MD8J">10 Watt panels</a> to where the sun is shining. I have one on my backpack
and when I get asked about it on cloudy days I say it is there because I am an optimist. And
then I explain how it charges my phone. I have a couple more panels stuck to my south-facing
bedroom window where they and the cat look out at the squirrels who feed in the morning sun.
<br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiJA-nNchbfjpSoD1vdez2FP2mTwX43VK-53LgnOs85ezyWDZvJ5AqNDbdrDierj4yx2laqgkH3a2Rize3L9e0ePjS5M9BbgZ1HTL7gweh5nHmXMAIKy8ExrEWYsBDfM32Bod4Q/s1600/20191128_115305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1352" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiJA-nNchbfjpSoD1vdez2FP2mTwX43VK-53LgnOs85ezyWDZvJ5AqNDbdrDierj4yx2laqgkH3a2Rize3L9e0ePjS5M9BbgZ1HTL7gweh5nHmXMAIKy8ExrEWYsBDfM32Bod4Q/s320/20191128_115305.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
My darkest day (literally!) was the winter solstice. My shed generated zero Watt Hours but I’d
socked away enough juice in the various power banks that I didn’t go empty. The little
south-facing panels put out enough to keep my phone and other little gadgets going. The days
are getting longer now.
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJz0SeS9IvATz7j7wmAhYfESj-STEA0yvN4CWDDyp_kTDM54unSJ4yxOMM_0g73Bc_3esCocHcLvrvCLqwffUKAaBmwKMKW_-VNyjB34YDfhLZhBiyA0CD7c_h9WypBbQ1pbKFw/s1600/20200202_133103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJz0SeS9IvATz7j7wmAhYfESj-STEA0yvN4CWDDyp_kTDM54unSJ4yxOMM_0g73Bc_3esCocHcLvrvCLqwffUKAaBmwKMKW_-VNyjB34YDfhLZhBiyA0CD7c_h9WypBbQ1pbKFw/s320/20200202_133103.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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The last piece of my solar puzzle fell into place when I realized that the <a href="https://amzn.to/399ioi4">50 Watt Renogy panel </a>
is actually small enough I could fit it on a bike trailer. A <a href="https://amzn.to/399ioi4">50 Watt panel</a>, an inexpensive
<a href="https://amzn.to/374iaY8">Allen cargo trailer</a>, a <a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-25-Gal-Latch-and-Stack-Tote-in-Black-206131/303099674">storage bin from Home Depot</a>, and a second <a href="https://amzn.to/2ubdmmm">Floureon power bank </a>
combine to give me a mobile solar e-bike charging system. So now I have a solar bike
shed and a solar bike trailer.
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDef9ObXM5GLCxoblEAZh0xfjzlLoZ-Lgbx2ySZdngcqeFG-CJrr8R0PcXTxpwCxZatwW1wuuPO9S7SSz19GIoDLt4foZcDr1dd2KepIURwn5pE1Xf44vsUzaB0VoddjDm9CEZQ/s1600/20200131_130933.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDef9ObXM5GLCxoblEAZh0xfjzlLoZ-Lgbx2ySZdngcqeFG-CJrr8R0PcXTxpwCxZatwW1wuuPO9S7SSz19GIoDLt4foZcDr1dd2KepIURwn5pE1Xf44vsUzaB0VoddjDm9CEZQ/s320/20200131_130933.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The trailer is handy for grocery shopping and I can use it to keep my ebike solar powered on tour.<br />
<br />
I may not be 100% solar powered (yet!) but my somewhat solar life is rolling along.<br />
<br />
Kent Peterson<br />
on a not very solar day in Eugene, OR USA Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-57980062824431174152020-01-29T17:32:00.001-08:002020-01-29T17:33:10.822-08:00A Good Set of Be-Seen Lights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0slVDFAV1g1j-SFB2KyW19gVsVOcdLDSwX5ULEDLx5e5fodexbUe6h9Gm0kMHSgF3bCkxYAKXqdgzrwa70TUDtxZ7dznVlnrZZKwJZmjpXOT8xsjP1Ug9SZlw8eVYUR86s0Ox4A/s1600/20200129_161533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0slVDFAV1g1j-SFB2KyW19gVsVOcdLDSwX5ULEDLx5e5fodexbUe6h9Gm0kMHSgF3bCkxYAKXqdgzrwa70TUDtxZ7dznVlnrZZKwJZmjpXOT8xsjP1Ug9SZlw8eVYUR86s0Ox4A/s320/20200129_161533.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I divide bicycle lights into two classifications: Seeing Lights and Be-Seen Lights. A seeing light is a light you use to see where you are going. A be-seen light is one whose purpose is to increase the odds of someone seeing you.<br />
<br />
For seeing on my urban commute I'm pretty happy with my <a href="https://amzn.to/2O7zncw">Wildken Smart Headlight</a>. It has a great beam pattern and the amount of light it puts out is based on how much ambient light there is. It auto-dims when there is an oncoming light, and auto brightens when I ride through dim underpasses.<br />
<br />
On kind of dank, rainy days, however, the Wildken needs help. The "smart" light rightly figures that I have plenty of light to see by, but I want to help the drivers behind rain-smeared windows see me. For that I use a couple of <a href="https://amzn.to/2S35cUH">Ascher USB rechargeable lights</a>. I got these little guys as an impulse purchase, something I added to another order to reach a free-shipping threshold.<br />
<br />
I've been pleasantly surprised by them. They cast a broad, diffuse, bright light. Lousy in terms of helping me see the road ahead, but perfect for drawing attention to my bike. They are not blinding to oncoming traffic and they last a good while on a charge. And while they are inexpensive, they don't feel or seem "cheap". They come in a nice little box with extra rubber mounting straps and so far they've held up fine to a damp Oregon winter.<br />
<br />
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Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-15658412544596905412020-01-24T06:57:00.003-08:002020-01-24T06:58:16.285-08:00Let's Blame The Cat For This Bad Joke<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FdFdk8c5_IVXaKSZedyUoBVsTaoPWjxTTug60c3Q6Fq8Vy3jVuEvyZjwmaZj8FkyZly9tJSXvGDmea3kjOaxXFxZaTv0HiImxVYOS6-aVS8bEyh5FupIcmsrh-pjKeHJxK9XwA/s1600/CatJoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="700" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FdFdk8c5_IVXaKSZedyUoBVsTaoPWjxTTug60c3Q6Fq8Vy3jVuEvyZjwmaZj8FkyZly9tJSXvGDmea3kjOaxXFxZaTv0HiImxVYOS6-aVS8bEyh5FupIcmsrh-pjKeHJxK9XwA/s320/CatJoke.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
You can find more bad jokes from this cat <a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/cat-meme-joke/?utm_source=smartnews&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic">here</a>.Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-49177942204334537432020-01-20T12:51:00.001-08:002020-01-20T12:51:03.901-08:00Bike Theft Can Happen To Anyone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWbcAVbekcGvqqplPSZEQyAUtkiUKdSzIlGh1-PgIpdR3LTppCztJj1lHQNc1v2NMtK-X1bWQ8y3AoGyl5CgA82Oteo2xmLYoJBUKfCKfv3dRfvaWt1uWhgtrV-mUD7MwkC2WJA/s1600/portland-bike-theft-po-sanders-ppb-bttf-twit-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWbcAVbekcGvqqplPSZEQyAUtkiUKdSzIlGh1-PgIpdR3LTppCztJj1lHQNc1v2NMtK-X1bWQ8y3AoGyl5CgA82Oteo2xmLYoJBUKfCKfv3dRfvaWt1uWhgtrV-mUD7MwkC2WJA/s320/portland-bike-theft-po-sanders-ppb-bttf-twit-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
As a <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/18/brazen-portland-theft-steals-police-patrol-bike/">recent story in the New York Post</a> illustrates, bike theft can happen to anyone. In this case, the victim was a member of the Portland, Oregon Police Department's Bike Patrol Unit. He was "in a rush" and "secured" his bike with his handcuffs. Obviously, this was not good enough.<br />
<br />
I've had bikes stolen. My <a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2007/04/strong-and-strange.html">sons have had their bikes stolen</a>. So far, <a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-to-lock-your-bike.html">my wife has not had her bike stolen</a> and I haven't had any of my bikes stolen recently. But, given enough time and opportunity, even the best locked bike can be stolen. With any lock and locking strategy, you are buying time to slow down or discourage a determined thief.<br />
<br />
This is probably a good time to revisit this classic short film where <a href="https://vimeo.com/12061685">Hal Grades Your Bike Locking</a>.<br />
<br />
Be safe out there. <br />
<br />
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Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-30210402162857012542020-01-15T07:38:00.000-08:002020-01-15T07:38:04.287-08:00The War on Air Continues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-EWS5BVbBMdE4Bs4UrAuEljNcIcdyicDvhxqwk3VDDmObl_UytkeMJLc0yvXbw56shn5Iili4WVHkC_CgWE_0yNPx3RKFYmioFziHhUfW64A-LFJdN5-dybIthbOoFXMtCH-wg/s1600/Bridgestone-Air-Free-Tire-on-Bicycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="875" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-EWS5BVbBMdE4Bs4UrAuEljNcIcdyicDvhxqwk3VDDmObl_UytkeMJLc0yvXbw56shn5Iili4WVHkC_CgWE_0yNPx3RKFYmioFziHhUfW64A-LFJdN5-dybIthbOoFXMtCH-wg/s320/Bridgestone-Air-Free-Tire-on-Bicycle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The great <a href="https://sheldonbrown.com/tires.html">Sheldon Brown</a> wrote these words on the subject of airless tires:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="inset1">
<i>Of all the inventions that came out of the bicycle industry, probably none is as important and useful as Dr. <a href="https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_dr-z.html#dunlop">Dunlop</a>'s <a href="https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_p.html#pneumatic">pneumatic</a> <a href="https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ta-o.html#tire">tire</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>
Airless tires have been obsolete for over a century, but crackpot
"inventors" keep trying to bring them back. They are heavy, slow and
give a harsh ride. They are also likely to cause wheel damage, due to
their poor cushioning ability. A <a href="https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_p.html#pneumatic">pneumatic</a>
tire uses all of the air in the whole tube as a shock absorber, while
foam-type "airless" tires/tubes only use the air in the immediate area
of impact.
They also corner poorly.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>
Pneumatic tires require pumping up from time to time, and can go flat, but their advantages overwhelm these difficulties.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>
Airless-tire schemes have also been used by con artists to gull
unsuspecting investors. My advice is to avoid this long-obsolete system.
They might make sense is if you commute a short distance to catch a
train, and a flat tire would mean missing the train and being very late
to work. </i><br />
<br />
The folks at Bridgestone Tire are the latest folks to take a shot in the war on air and we'll get to see their airless tires on a couple of hundred bikes ridden by the Olympic staff at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Games. You can read all about it here:<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/bridgestone-airless-tires-coming-car-truck-bicycle/">https://www.motortrend.com/news/bridgestone-airless-tires-coming-car-truck-bicycle/</a></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Time will tell if Bridgestone is on to something but I'll bet that ten years from now Sheldon's words will still ring true and our bicycles won't be shod with airless tires.<br />
<br />
Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USA<br />
<i><br /></i>
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Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-55965739966759784652019-12-18T08:08:00.000-08:002019-12-18T08:08:12.584-08:00A Couple of Stories and One Song for Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
One of the things I like about the Christmas season is revisiting some old favorites. In looking through the archives of this blog, I found these that I think are still enjoyable and timely.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2008/12/cyclists-christmas-story.html">A Cyclist's Christmas Story</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-is-just-as-real-as-bigfoot.html">Santa Is Just As Real As Bigfoot</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2012/12/big-red-bicycle-christmas.html">Big Red Bicycle Christmas</a><br />
<br />
I hope that whatever traditions you celebrate bring you comfort and joy and that the new year brings grand new adventures.<br />
<br />
Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USA<br />
Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-19229393788423857842019-12-14T06:51:00.001-08:002019-12-14T06:51:27.240-08:00Frank Berto, RIPFrank Berto died last weekend. The bicycle world is richer because of his long and productive life, and poorer now with his passing.<br />
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A lot of what I know about bicycles, I learned from the many books and technical articles by Frank Berto. He brought scientific rigor and historical perspective to the pages of <a href="https://www.bicycling.com/">Bicycling!</a> magazine (it used to have the ! mark in the title) and in recent years his work has appeared in Jan Heine's fine magazine, <a href="https://www.bikequarterly.com/">Bicycle Quarterly</a>.<br />
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Frank didn't just write or accept things as "that's the way it's always been." He tested things, dove deep into history, built machines to test hypothesis, and then wrote beautifully and completely about the things he'd found. For my money his masterwork was his book, <a href="https://amzn.to/2PLBpyP">The Dancing Chain</a>. This comprehensive analysis of the development of the derailleur-equipped bicycle is encyclopedic in scope, engagingly written and, to those of us who the rest of the world calls bike nerds, fascinating. Every book and article I've read by Frank Berto has been worthwhile and informative. His book, <a href="https://amzn.to/2LUuvGC">The Birth of Dirt</a>, is a fine look at the origins of mountain biking.<br />
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Jan Heine wrote a brief tribute to Frank Berto on his blog at:<br />
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<a href="https://www.renehersecycles.com/frank-berto-we-will-miss-you/">https://www.renehersecycles.com/frank-berto-we-will-miss-you/</a><br />
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A longer feature on Frank Berto will appear in the next issue of <a href="https://www.bikequarterly.com/">Bicycle Quarterly</a>.<br />
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Rest (or Ride) in peace, Frank.Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-40536017438050228722019-12-13T19:26:00.003-08:002019-12-13T19:26:53.549-08:00How To Make Recycled Bike Chain Christmas Star Ornaments<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibq9g3rW40Vny4yZUjbhLoIWkyDSLUkEpl0JKjeixVAXZmfeQVJahqk5hfLb7ay443Wuka0OnjFPrmVU_QsshtFEztTQStD5spzHmIwpRGgRWDCoONr1q4yJ0a_bpI_C_IC2x2vA/s1600/20191213_184839.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibq9g3rW40Vny4yZUjbhLoIWkyDSLUkEpl0JKjeixVAXZmfeQVJahqk5hfLb7ay443Wuka0OnjFPrmVU_QsshtFEztTQStD5spzHmIwpRGgRWDCoONr1q4yJ0a_bpI_C_IC2x2vA/s320/20191213_184839.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bike chains wear out. Grit eventually wears the pins so the chains effectively elongate and no longer mesh nicely with the cogs. Rather than throw the worn chains away, places like <a href="https://www.resourcerevival.com/pages/recycle-your-bike-chain">Resource Revival</a> recycle them into various products. However, if you're handy and have an old chain and a bit of wire, you can do your own recycling and make some star-shaped Christmas ornaments.<br />
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I don't show the steps I did with a chain tool, but I use the tool to make little five link loops of chain. I also got a <a href="https://amzn.to/2LNVbsr">100 foot roll of 28 gauge galvanized steel wire</a> from the hardware store. It cost about four bucks and it's enough wire to do about 50 ornaments.<br />
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I cut about a two foot length of wire.<br />
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I flex the chain links into a star shape.<br />
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I loop the wire around the inner five pins, pulling it tight. I loop the wire around the inside three times.<br />
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Then I twist the ends of the wire together. The twisting snugs the wire tight and holds the links in the star shape.<br />
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I twist the two strands of wire together.<br />
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I loop the double twisted wire through one part of the star, which is now the top of the ornament.<br />
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I twist the loop of wire to form a hanging loop and then twist the last of the wire around the loop to secure it. If I have any excess, I just snip it off.<br />
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That's it. I suppose you could spray paint the stars festive colors, but I just leave mine silver.<br />
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<br />Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-28782046837963322532019-12-08T12:05:00.000-08:002020-01-16T15:28:55.396-08:00God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut<center>
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One of the pleasures of growing older is revisiting items from our youth. I am currently rereading <a href="https://amzn.to/33Y0g7D">the works of Kurt Vonnegut</a>. This adventure was kicked off, in part, by the realization that now, at age 60, if I was asked to name my favorite Kurt Vonnegut book, I would say without hesitation, <a href="https://amzn.to/36lF25r">GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER</a>, but I would be unable to tell you only the vaguest outlines of the plot. This seemed to me to be a flaw in my existence that was within my power to correct. I went to work.<br />
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I began, not with <a href="https://amzn.to/36lF25r">ROSEWATER</a>, but with a book called <a href="https://amzn.to/33ZY4wr">BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX</a>, a collection ironically subtitled as being a collection of Vonnegut's uncollected early fiction. I found the stories to be surprisingly normal and perhaps unsurprisingly, quite good. I also picked up <a href="https://amzn.to/33WLduY">KURT VONNEGUT: LETTERS</a>, which is a wonderful collection of his correspondence, and the delightful biography/reading guide <a href="https://amzn.to/2rhI77J">UNSTUCK IN TIME: A JOURNEY THROUGH KURT VONNEGUT'S LIFE AND NOVELS</a>. After completing <a href="https://amzn.to/33ZY4wr">BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX</a>, I set to work reading chapters of UNSTUCK together with the letters and the novels in the order they were written.<br />
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By now you may be wondering why I am telling you all this on a bicycle blog. I will make this clear in a few minutes, but I feel I have to tell you bit more about my journey. It's been quite fascinating, I thought I was proceeding chronologically forward, but it seems I've become unstuck in time.<br />
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Listen.<br />
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Vonnegut's first novel, <a href="https://amzn.to/2Ryfyxw">PLAYER PIANO</a> is all about his time at General Electric (he worked in the PR department) and it is both a cautionary tale about workers being displaced by automation and perils of revolution. Parts of it read a hell of a lot like <a href="https://www.yang2020.com/">Andrew Yang</a>'s stump speeches. Kurt complained (I'm paraphrasing here), "I just wrote about what I saw at GE and they told me what I wrote was Science Fiction. That's how I became a Science Fiction writer." <a href="https://amzn.to/2Ryfyxw">PLAYER PIANO</a> is also what I would call 'fairly normal." The wildest parts are things that really happened at GE.
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His second novel <a href="https://amzn.to/38foaih">THE SIRENS OF TITAN</a> is really the dawn of the Vonnegut we'd all come to know: weird space aliens, senseless war, a silly putty view of time. It's the early novel that almost all Vonnegut fans have read. I'd forgotten how good it was.
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For his third novel, Vonnegut is back on earth with a really powerful story. I don't think I ever read this one in my youth. That was a mistake I'm glad I've now corrected. <a href="https://amzn.to/2YDTVgR">MOTHER NIGHT</a> is a memoir of spy, an American who worked under deep cover as a Nazi propagandist. The question at the heart of the novel is "was he too good at his job?" This one is a real page turner, I plowed through it in a day.
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Next up was <a href="https://amzn.to/2P0WWUV">CAT'S CRADLE</a>, the book I probably remembered the best, the one that a lot of Vonnegut fans recall, the one with Ice Nine. It holds up quite well to a reread.<br />
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And finally I was up to <a href="https://amzn.to/2RstGZ4">GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER</a>, which asks the question "is a man crazy to give away his wealth or is a society that hoards wealth crazy?" I think I first read this book when I was fifteen years old. I was cheering for Eliot Rosewater then and 45 years later I'm happy to report that I still am.<br />
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And then I was up to <a href="https://amzn.to/2qwzdCH">SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE</a>. It took Vonnegut decades to write it and Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time. It has the horrors of war and I'm sure it's his masterpiece, but I don't think it shaped me and shook me the way some of Vonnegut's other books did. So it goes.<br />
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Listen.<br />
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The way I'm rereading the books is an order I recommend unless you are a fourteen year old boy. I was a fourteen year old boy when I first read <a href="https://amzn.to/2s9ALTy">BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS</a>. It's vulgar, it's stupid, it's juvenile. I remember loving it as a kid and now in 2019 being about so many pages in sixty-year-old me was thinking, "man, this is horrible." And then, Kurt Vonnegut, who is a character in his own novel, says "hang on, I know this is horrible, but I'm going somewhere..." and he is and I hang in and I'm unstuck and I'm fourteen <i>and</i> sixty and gosh darn it he's made me young again. He couldn't do it for Kilgore Trout, but he did it for me. God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut.<br />
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But what does this have to do with a bike blog?<br />
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I'm glad you asked.<br />
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Kilgore Trout wrote a novel that Kurt Vonnegut tells us about in <a href="https://amzn.to/2s9ALTy">BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS</a>. Trout's novel PLAGUE ON WHEELS describes a dying planet called Lingo-Three whose inhabitants resemble American Automobiles. They ate fossil fuels. The creatures were dying because they'd destroyed their planet's atmosphere. A tiny space traveler named Kago visited their planet before they all died and while he could not save them, he vowed to tell others in the universe about them so they would not be forgotten.<br />
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Kago came to Earth and in all innocence told Earthlings about automobiles. Vonnegut/Trout tells us, "Kago did not know that human beings could be as easily felled by a single idea as by cholera or the bubonic plague. There was no immunity to cuckoo ideas on earth." Also "Ideas on Earth were badges of friendship or enmity. Their content did not matter. Friends agreed with friends, in order to express friendliness. Enemies disagreed with enemies, in order to express enmity."<br />
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In 1973, this idea immunized 14-year-old Kent against the lure of automobiles. I never saw them as freedom machines, I saw them as folly. And 2019 Kent sees in the previous paragraph a very clear articulation of why he ran away screaming when he first encountered Facebook many years ago.<br />
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Listen.<br />
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"Within a century of little Kago's arrival on earth, according to Trout's novel, every form of life on that once peaceful and moist and nourishing blue-green ball was dying or dead. Everywhere there were the shells of the great beetles which men had made and worshipped. They were automobiles. They had killed everything."<br />
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Kilgore Trout showed me that cars don't make sense and while I did get a driver's licence at sixteen and did for a few years own and drive a few cars, I ultimately left them behind. I haven't driven or owned a car in over three decades.<br />
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Similarly, I think it was an echo of Eliot Rosewater who told me I could be happy making my living with bicycles instead of continuing in the world where bits and bytes add up to big bucks. As my friend Mark said to me at the time, "If you can get used to making a whole lot less money, you can work in my bike shop." It turns out I could.<br />
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My great Vonnegut reread continues. I'm up to <a href="https://amzn.to/2rfDV8t">SLAPSTICK</a> now. I will keep on rolling.<br />
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Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USAKent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-63067510553693038992019-12-02T09:03:00.001-08:002019-12-02T09:03:40.076-08:002 Bike Lights Compared: Wildken Smart Bike Light vs. Cycle Torch Shark 500<br />
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I have two headlights on my bike's handlebars, a <a href="https://amzn.to/2OHkv5i">Wildken Smart Bike Light</a> and a <a href="https://amzn.to/2P33CRr">Cycle Torch Shark 500</a>. I rarely use both lights simultaneously, but I like having a backup in case the charge in one of the lights runs out. Also, while the two lights share some similarities, they approach the problem of lighting in two different ways.<br />
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Both lights are fairly small and have an internal lithium battery pack that is charged via a micro USB port. While neither of these lights would be my choice for riding all night brevets, they are ideal for commuting in an urban environment. Both lights will run about three hours on high beam, more on their lowest settings. When they need charging, a color coded LED lets me know and despite my paranoid, double light back-up system, I've never actually needed to use the second light. I just charge things up when I get home.<br />
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Where the lights differ is in their beam patterns, brightness and how that brightness is controlled. The <a href="https://amzn.to/2OHkv5i">Wildken Smart Bike Light</a> meets the German K-Mark Standard, which means the beam is very nicely shaped in order to put the maximum of light on the road instead of into the eyes of oncoming travelers. Below is a picture of the Wildken's beam. <br />
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Unlike other bike lights I've used, the <a href="https://amzn.to/2OHkv5i">Wildken Smart Bike Light</a> doesn't use the switch to toggle through various brightness settings. Instead, it has a photo sensor that it uses to decide how bright to make the beam. This means that on a very dark bike path, it's shining at maximum brightness. But if an oncoming cyclist or driver has a bright light, it will very courteously dim itself. On my commute, the beam adjusts itself as I pass under street lights or ride through tunnels. <br />
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The light also has a motion sensor so when I park the bike, it will shut itself off after a couple of minutes. Curiosity about just how smart this "smart light" would be was what fueled my buy decision and I have to say that in general, I'm impressed. For most of my urban riding, it's all the light I need.<br />
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The <a href="https://amzn.to/2P33CRr">Cycle Torch Shark 500</a> is a more traditional bike light. It does have a semi-shaped beam, casting a flattened cone of light with a lot more spillover. I toggle through the various brightness settings manually and the brightest setting seems about twice as bright as what the <a href="https://amzn.to/2OHkv5i">Wildken Smart Bike Light</a> will put out on the darkest trail. I'm more comfortable using the <a href="https://amzn.to/2P33CRr">Cycle Torch Shark 500</a> for fast riding, I never feel like I'm over running the beam. In fairness, the <a href="https://amzn.to/2P33CRr">Cycle Torch Shark 500</a> sells for about twice what the <a href="https://amzn.to/2OHkv5i">Wildken Smart Bike Light</a> does.<br />
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Both lights seem to be fairly well made, but the Wildken has a more solid mount. The Shark has the standard silicone band mount and it tends to rotate a bit unless I really snug it down. But that's a minor problem, easily fixed with a bit of extra old innertube rubber under the strap.<br />
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The bottom line is I think these are both decent lights for the money. The Wildken is more civilized, the Shark is more powerful.<br />
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<br />Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-59133832473887205012019-11-25T07:34:00.000-08:002019-11-25T07:34:13.603-08:00A Cycle Tote Trailer with Auto-brakingAt Saturday's <a href="https://friendsoftrees.org/eugene/">Friends of Trees</a> planting, one of the fellows had this very cool <a href="https://cycletote.com/collections/dog-bicycle-trailers/products/large-dog-trailer-for-bicycles">Cycle Tote Trailer</a>. It worked great for hauling trees and supplies, but he explained to me that normally he is using it to haul his Golden Labrador and that the trailer has a Conestoga-style roof.<br />
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The trailer has very interesting and clever hitch and braking system. The seatpost mounted hitch has a spring which compresses when the trailer has greater froward momentum than the bike. This action tugs on dual brake cables that activate the Sturmey-Archer drum brakes in the trailer wheels. Thus, the trailer and the bike slow simultaneously with the braking action of the bike and the trailer doesn't over-run the bike.<br />
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My own, much smaller, trailer doesn't have such a feature and while it is fine for the relatively small loads I regularly carry, there are circumstances where I do notice the momentum of the trailer. If I was carrying a large load in hilly areas, I think I'd definitely want some sort of braking on the trailer.<br />
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The <a href="https://cycletote.com/">Cycle Tote Trailers</a> are made in Fort Collins, Colorado. While they are certainly not cheap, their design and construction is first rate. I have no financial interest in them, but I appreciate good design when I see it.<br />
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Kent Peterson<br />
Eugene, OR USAKent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-30420833730175952552019-11-15T07:55:00.003-08:002019-11-15T08:17:14.391-08:00Bicycle Tree Planting with Friends of Trees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE74riZ_IRAxoD9pprG_B-vCKgdaEZahNiAWX1SVqx6yAZDO_6EJHVSrOvxWc9yuAhP0E14n9dh-kyo-31mUuwNVQ1vhqo-UTA1j3RoH4JpCt9jimXED-AzDYU6cgZLjq3yfERPg/s1600/20191109_111713.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE74riZ_IRAxoD9pprG_B-vCKgdaEZahNiAWX1SVqx6yAZDO_6EJHVSrOvxWc9yuAhP0E14n9dh-kyo-31mUuwNVQ1vhqo-UTA1j3RoH4JpCt9jimXED-AzDYU6cgZLjq3yfERPg/s320/20191109_111713.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Last Saturday Christine, our friend Sally and I joined up with some other folks from <a href="https://friendsoftrees.org/eugene/">Friends of Trees</a> to plant some trees here in Eugene. One of the super cool things about <a href="https://friendsoftrees.org/eugene/">Friends of Trees</a> is that while they do have a couple of big trucks for tree and equipment hauling, they try to do as much as possible with as few motor vehicles as possible. So, in addition to having volunteers carpool to planting sites, they also have a bike-based crew of volunteers. Naturally, Christine, Sally, and I were part of the bike crew.<br />
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I can say that things went off without a hitch and that's literally true. <a href="https://friendsoftrees.org/eugene/">Friends of Trees</a> recently moved their office and in the move they mislaid the hitches to the big platform bike trailers they usually use. Fortunately, Sally had her <a href="https://amzn.to/2QohxDQ">Burley Travoy</a> and I had my little <a href="https://amzn.to/2CKVPBZ">Allen Yoogo Cargo Trailer</a> so we were able to haul the shovels, buckets and other tools to the various planting sites. Christine carried some tools in <a href="https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2012/07/on-open-road-christines-first-year-with.html">her Allant's</a> bike basket and the hard hat in her pannier. The trees and mulch were dropped off ahead of us at the sites by one of the cargo trucks. Next time, the entire operation will be done by bike.<br />
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On this particular Saturday all the planting sites were ones requested by various local home owners. <a href="https://friendsoftrees.org/eugene/">Friends of Trees</a> also works with the city planting trees in different public spaces. Home owners also get tree care information and several years of follow up visits by <a href="https://friendsoftrees.org/eugene/">Friends of Trees</a> for pruning and other health checks as the trees grow.<br />
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The post pounder is a surprisingly heavy tool that allows even a fairly small person to pound a stake into hard ground. It also is easy to get carried away with the post pounder and catch it on the edge of the stake and have it bounce up and smack the person holding it right on the top of the skull. Hence, the hardhat.<br />
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Erik Burke is a certified arborist and the Eugene Director of Friends of Trees. Christine and I first met him when we attended a local tree walk that he was leading. Erik's knowledge of trees is vast and his passion for them is obvious in everything he does.<br />
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Christine got to try her hand at the post pounder.<br />
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Sally hauled an amazing amount of stuff on her Travoy. The empty tree and mulch buckets weren't heavy, but they were awkward.<br />
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In general we had a great time planting trees but it's hungry work. Unfortunately, the bike crew wasn't as speedy as the truck crews and by the time we got to the post-planting potluck most of the food was gone!<br />
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Next time, we'll bring snacks.<br />
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Keep 'em rolling,<br />
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Kent <br />
<br />
<br />Kent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18676999.post-49473780240163163242019-11-14T11:26:00.001-08:002019-11-14T11:26:07.718-08:00100 Good Bike BooksA few years ago (OK, maybe more than a few!) I put together a list of 50 good bike books and then a week later I published a list of 50 more good bike books. For convenience, here are links to both of those lists:<br />
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<a href="http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/10/50-good-bicycle-books.html">http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/10/50-good-bicycle-books.html</a><br />
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<a href="http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/11/50-more-good-bicycle-books.html">http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2011/11/50-more-good-bicycle-books.html</a><br />
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I stand by the contents of those lists, but I'm sure there many other fine bike books I'm missing. So if there is a favorite of yours that you think should be on the next iteration of the list, make a note in the comments or send me an email.<br />
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Keep 'em rolling,<br />
<br />
KentKent Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607372827627527450noreply@blogger.com2