Not bicycles but two-wheeled and irresistible

Chicken delivery motorbikes in Jakarta - photo found while looking for the kroepoek bike.

The caprice of the wind

[Note this is actually yesterday's post, delayed because I went to sleep instead of posting, so "this morning" means "yesterday morning," "yesterday" means "day before yesterday" etc.]

A brisk headwind on the way to work this morning, irksome since I had a similarly brisk headwind on the way home yesterday. The wind didn't shift all day, however, and I had an even more forceful tailwind to carry me home tonight.

In honour of the last day of Tarik Saleh's Chinese Bike of the Day series, I present my own picture of an interesting bike from far away: an Indonesian Kroepoek (prawn cracker) delivery bike. Unfortunately it's a not-very-good scan of a not-very-good photo. Somewhere I have a picture of an even better Indonesian bike: a bakery bike with a compartment on the back that looked like a little house and had sliding glass doors for access to the pastries.

Tarik has also reviewed the Trek Soho bike coffee mug, prompting extensive coffee discussions on the ibob list. I favour travel mugs with a handle that doesn't get in the way of a bottle cage, most recently this. It doesn't really keep coffee very hot for very long but I don't much care, since I don't mind cold coffee. It fits nicely in a bottle cage and it's fairly cheap, which is a good thing since I occasionally lose mugs. The most comprehensive source for bicycle coffee information is, of course, the Bicycle Coffee Systems site.

An alternative to trying to keep hot drinks hot as you ride is stopping for a brew-up along the way. This seems to be more of a British custom, and perhaps not as popular there as it used to be. The members of Wayfarer CycleTouring Club of the Isle of Wight appear to be masters of it. Check out the links from their Stove Rides and especially the certificate. One of these days I'm going to go on my own stove ride. If I get around to my hoped-for experiment in making a pop-can stove I'll be all set. If nothing else I should get started on emptying the required Guinness can.

Looks like spring

Today was the first recreational (i.e. not commuting or errand-running) ride of the year. In fact, it was probably the first since October or so. Not very long, an hour or so, but fun nonetheless. A great sunny day for riding, with the temperature going up to 10° C. I pulled the Marinoni out of the basement, pumped up the tires and set off along Heron and up Riverside. Quite a difference from slogging along to work - the heavy studded Nokian front tire and the (I now think) too-high gearing of the fixie, not to mention a backpack full of clothes and papers, make quite a difference. The handling of the Marinoni is a bit quicker than that of the Kuwahara too. I turned left onto Limebank from Riverside, down Limebank to Leitrim Rd. and east on Leitrim, skirting the south edge of the airport. East to Albion, south to Lester, west back to the Airport Parkway, then north on the parkway to home. You can see most of the airporty bit here. Only 28 kilometres but I tried to keep a brisk pace, at least by my standards.

This is serious randonneuring

A picture from Audax UK's Gospel Pass 150 km brevet last week.
There's some more here.
(Links via Cycling Plus Forum here and here.)

Winter has eaten my wheels: a delayed report on last weekend's horrible discoveries

I gave the Kuwahara a wash and took off the chain for cleaning. While fiddling with the chain I noticed that the rear wheel was out of true. This was the result of one spoke that was unattached to the rim, the top of the nipple having sheared off. I've never seen anything like this before. The spoke and rim were fine and I just replaced the nipple and trued up the wheel. I also had a look at the front wheel and discovered a couple of spokes were very loose. While I was trying to true and tension up the wheel one of the nipples pulled through the rim. There was no cracking or bulging around the spoke, the top of the nipple just pulled a circle of metal out, leaving a nice neat round hole. The metal seemed crumbly round the hole. I used a small brass washer to effect a temporary repair but the wheel isn't as true or as evenly-tensioned as I'd like. I just hope it will last until the snow and slush depart and I can build up a new front wheel. Anyway, it's survived the week. I wonder if both these failures are a result of the corrosive effects of salty slush.

Right now the furious winds of the last couple of days have fallen and it's quite warm and sunny. And I haven't been on the bike all weekend. Oh well ..