Labour Day Weekend: Shopping and Fettling
We had a lovely Labour Day weekend with, unfortunately, not much cycling, although there was a bit of fettling. On Sunday afternoon, suddenly realizing that no stores would be open on Monday and that people needed school supplies, we went on a cycling expedition to Staples at South Keys. The actual shopping was a bit of a nightmare, what with the store being jammed with people and shopping carts. I gave up trying to manoeuver the cart around and let the kids forage for themselves. I suspect the rather high bill reflected me not asking a lot of pointed questions (like “how much does that cost”) about every item.
Most of Sunday was split between household chores (a bit of painting, a bit of tidying, a bit of cooking) and reading. Finally, with the end of the day in sight, I got around to switching the old and not big enough front fender on the Dambala for a new Planet Bike Cascadia 29er fender. This looks like a big improvement although the mounting bracket isn’t nearly long enough for a suspension-corrected fork. I managed to bodge something with an eyebolt and a length of tubing. It’s not ideal but should do for now.
Next was dealing with the rear wheel of the folder. When I pulled it out of the basement last week I discovered two broken spokes in the rear wheel. They’re broken about two-thirds of the way down, so I suspect it’s a result of the wheel being hit while the bike was in the bag. Unfortunately, my Shimano freewheel remover has a pin/rod sort of thing that fits into a hollow axle. The folder wheels has a solid axle so I couldn’t get the freewheel remover on. I’ll have to try to find another freewheel remover. Fiddling with the back wheel also raises the issue of converting the bike to fixed gear, which was my original intention. One possibility would be finding a bmx wheel, assuming I could find one that could be re spaced to 130 cm OLD (up from the bmx 110 cm) and still provide the right chainline. I do have a cheap (Sovos or Suzue, I can’t remember which) fixed hub kicking around so it might be cheaper, although more work, to just build up a wheel.
Most of Sunday was split between household chores (a bit of painting, a bit of tidying, a bit of cooking) and reading. Finally, with the end of the day in sight, I got around to switching the old and not big enough front fender on the Dambala for a new Planet Bike Cascadia 29er fender. This looks like a big improvement although the mounting bracket isn’t nearly long enough for a suspension-corrected fork. I managed to bodge something with an eyebolt and a length of tubing. It’s not ideal but should do for now.
Next was dealing with the rear wheel of the folder. When I pulled it out of the basement last week I discovered two broken spokes in the rear wheel. They’re broken about two-thirds of the way down, so I suspect it’s a result of the wheel being hit while the bike was in the bag. Unfortunately, my Shimano freewheel remover has a pin/rod sort of thing that fits into a hollow axle. The folder wheels has a solid axle so I couldn’t get the freewheel remover on. I’ll have to try to find another freewheel remover. Fiddling with the back wheel also raises the issue of converting the bike to fixed gear, which was my original intention. One possibility would be finding a bmx wheel, assuming I could find one that could be re spaced to 130 cm OLD (up from the bmx 110 cm) and still provide the right chainline. I do have a cheap (Sovos or Suzue, I can’t remember which) fixed hub kicking around so it might be cheaper, although more work, to just build up a wheel.
Labels: Folding bicycles
posted by Alan at 6:23 p.m.
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