Get the hell out of the bike lane.

Ok, so here in Charlotte, 4th street has a bike lane. The "No parking" signs are posted all up and down it. You have to climb a decent hill on both sides of tryon when coming up 4th, so the bike lane was well put. Now vehicles need to keep their ass out of it!. I mean damn.. Its not a turn lane... not a parking spot... Even the CATS (bus transit system) currently has 3-4 busses parked in the lane the block before the bus depot. It was bad enough having to ride along the fencing thats there for the light rail building construction... add this on and whats the point. Today, I was weaving in and out of traffic <-> bike lane and back and forth. This is dangerous. So I just started riding only in the road. Less chance of getting ran over that way. The city needs to crack down on this.. start ticketing. I see the Iron Mountain shredding company parked there at least 3 days a week. Its got to stop.

Todays ride

The ride today was amazing on lunch break. Everyone was nice. No honking. People were even slowing up to let me get around vehicles parked in the bike lanes (pisses me off). Weather was perfect. All in all, everything was great. Barley missed getting smacked by a high end Mercedes door. I heard the door click when the guy pulled the handle to open it, so I was able to dart out of the way.. woo hooo... For those who dont know, I am riding a track frame now with bullhorns. 48 tooth chainring and 19 cog. Yeah... yeah.. its a lil high, but damn, gotta climb the hills around the house.

Birthing

My wifes water broke at 2 am. It is now 4pm and we are still waiting for the kid. Hopefully he will get here soon. She is now 2cm dilated. Progress is coming, but very slow. Shes got the epidural

No progress

Blah!.. no progress on the bike. Been working too much and family is in town. Also, cant find my hack-saw anywhere! looks like i will have to buy a new one of them. fun!

Crank

Another issue... I wanted to use the origional crank to save money (still broke)... It will work, but this was origionally a 3 ringed crank. The first ring is fixed and not removable from the pedal arms. Looks like I will be using that one for now, instead of looking stupid with 2 chainrings. The setup will either be a 40 teeth crank and 15 or 19 teeth cog..

40 teeth chainring + 19 teeth cog = 56.8 Gear inches and 2.1 ratio
40 teeth chainring + 15 teeth cog = 72 Gear inches and 2.7 ratio

fixie progress

ok.... so i went out and started sanding and filing down the brazed-on areas of the bike. Everythign was going fine till i got down to the kickstand area. Where I ground it down the other night, it was still a little rough. I got a hand file out and accidentally knicked out an area all the way through that side of the tube. This set my plans back for last night. I got out my acetylene welder and patched the hole. It was pretty fun, since I am not used to welding suck thin metal. After that was done, I re-sanded the frame and primered it. I got the bike completely back together around 1am. One more obsticale to overcome. Since i no longer have a derailuer on the bike, the back tire quick release will not work. Options:

1. Get a hack saw and cut off a portion to make it fit.
2. Get spacers to resolve the problem.
3. Use bolts instead of the skewers.

So far I am liking the hack saw idea. I will figure it out later tonight. Oh yeah! My 15 tooth cog and lockring came in today. The lock ring will not work with my wheel though. The cog takes up all of the threaded area on the wheel. Will have to figure out the teeth count I want and braze it.

Appalachian Trail .. . .

Damn, I'm jealous. One of my friends said that he has put in for work a 4 month leave to hike the Appalachian Trail next year. I've always wanted to do it, but with a house, wife, and soon to be 2 kids, the finances havent been there. I dont know of many companies that will give you paid leave of absence for that long!

Cog

My cog came in from ebay yesterday. Its a 19 teeth 1/2 by 1/8.. My other one (15 teeth) should be here soon as well. For now, I will be converting the origional 1972 Schwinn hubs to fixed geared. Not my ideal setup, but it will work for now. The rims are alloy and 27" x 1 1/4 quick release.

Fixie Grinding

So... I was given a 1972 Schwinn Super Sport by my neighbor. This bike was just sitting in her garage forever. The bike is all origional, even the saddle. I am pretty much broke at the moment. Got a son that is 2 and one thats almost here. Either way, I am in the process of converting it over to a fixed geard (fixie). I stripped it down to its frame and got out my grinder. I ground off all of the "brazed on" pieces. This was all going well until I got to the kick stand. My reasoning for removing this is cause its heavey as hell steel... Not to mention I love the look of bikes without them. I might wind up putting a new lighter one on it eventually. Either way, the problem is that I have a 9" 3,900 watt grinder. The space to work back there is barely enough to fit the grinding blade. I was able to get it off, after cutting through the middle area first, than taking it piece by piece. It might have been easier to use a dremmel tool with a cutting disk and just go strait through the welds. I was almost to the point of getting out my cutting tourch, but I figured the heat would warp the frame. Next, the paint will be stripped and fine grade sandpaper will be used to make those areas realllllll pretty. more to come as I get this bike going.