Phamilton

We have several friends and some family members who have been able to quit their 9-5s and make a decent living driving for Lyft and Uber and grocery delivery services and such. Rideshare has taken off here more than people anticipated.

Phamilton

Sort of the one condition I’d ever own a car again is if I needed it for work. If it WAS my work ...

Phamilton

I was thinking today, that if I still had a car, I’d have left my current job by now. I’m not sure if that would have necessarily been inherently good or bad, it’s just to say that there have been times when work was so slow I told myself at least I got to ride my bike. I haven’t stopped enjoying commuting by bike yet. I doubt I’ll do much more winter commuting here unless it’s much shorter, like 3-5 miles one way. For me, it’s just too cold, too bleak, too nervous making to do more than once or twice a week. Whether that means I telecommute more next winter or figure out a different employment situation or get a car and drive myself or carpool with someone else - I dunno. But I think another Indiana winter spent on the bike might be a lot. I want to enjoy riding.

Phamilton

My brother has told me that he’s picked up several commuters while driving Uber. That’s very significant in this town.

Phamilton

Reason I’m not freaking out about my knees is I seem to keep reading accounts of BF cyclists who took the winter off and are describing much worse symptoms after their first rides of 2019 than what I’m experiencing. What I’ve ever experienced actually, take all with a grain of salt though.

Phamilton

Comparing current setup of Voyageur to where I started, basically I kept my hands more or less where they were, brought everything else forward 2cm, and my CG down 2cm.

The top tube of the Trek is 15mm longer yet, and I was using a 100mm stem for all the but last month or so before I put a 60mm and then eventually fit it with the flat bar again.

Phamilton

Since I decided to give the Trek to my brother, I’m finding myself worrying about having a backup bike. I have the Collegiate, but it’s not a bike I want to ride more than a few miles on at a time.
Yesterday then I was poking around in the garage, looking at at the parts and wheels and stuff and decided to “fix” some things.
The rear wheel of the Raleigh, I busted a spoke on it a month or so ago, and the left crank arm was stripped with a pedal still stuck in it. So I scavenged parts off the yellow Fuji, the crank, rear derailer, shifters, the steel wheels, maybe a couple other things and had it more or less roadworthy but needing tires. All this was a month ago.
I still have the spare set of hybrid wheels I used for studded tires for the Trek and wasn’t sure what to do with them as none of my remaining bikes have 135mm rear triangle spacing. The Raleigh, the Fuji, and my Voyageur all have 27” wheels, and the hybrid spare wheels are 700C. I have several sets of 700C tires as wheel, and no spare 27” tires. So I thought it would be smart to try to convert that spare rear wheel to 126mm spacing. I don’t really know if it worked out or not. I used the axle and spacers from another 126mm hub and after a little adjusting and experimenting had it working and fit into the back of the Raleigh but it was still off center. So I then put it on my Voyageur and it was slightly off center but not as far off as on the Raleigh. Also discovered that the Voyageur has 120mm rear spacing (!?). I put the Voyageur rear wheel on the Raleigh and it was just as off center as the other wheel I built.

Phamilton

So in all the rear wheel fiddling and whatnot, I discovered that the rear triangle of the Raleigh is bent. Sighting down the drive side seat stay, there’s a noticeable bend inward starting just below the brake bridge. The non drive side stay looks straight from all angles. The space between the dropouts is 128mm. I think it’s bent inward and also maybe up or down, I’m not sure. I don’t have any sort of gauge to check it.

Phamilton

Makes me wonder if sometimes frames ever got brazed up a little crooked then bent to within some tolerance and sold.

Phamilton

Moral of the story was I spent basically all day in the garage trying to fix things and just made a mess, discovered that frame is bent, and got frustrated.

Phamilton

I didn’t expect the Voyageur to have 120mm rear spacing, despite having a 5 speed freewheel. I could probably have it spread to 126, but 130 seems like a lot, maybe too much. So it will probably never see a cassette hub. It’d be perfect for a FG/SS, but it’s weird to consider the irony of making that out of a touring bike frame. I’ve never seen a fixie with front and rear racks and fenders.

Phamilton

It actually sounds kind of awesome.

Phamilton

Or maybe an IGH, I think they often have narrower hubs ... ?

Phamilton

Not gonna lie, if I felt like I could get the gearing correct, I might really love the Voyageur with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed.

Phamilton

At any rate, the verdict is still out on the Voyageur current drivetrain. The 46T “small” ring is I think gonna be too tall for me, unless I have some unforeseen and unexplainable improvement in my fitness level. The 30T granny is too low to do much good around flat here.
I do think the 46/50 half step is really cool, but it’s a lot of work, a lot of double shifting, all happening on the downtube. Not super convenient for commuting use.

Phamilton

Ha! Will ya look at that. I can’t afford it now, but it’s cool to see one.

Phamilton

My Collegiate has a 3 speed hub but it’s a nasty clunky Shimano. The spacing between the gears is a little wide. But it looks like you can find close ratio SA hubs, evidently. I’ll have to see what the gearing would look like. I think I could rock 3 gears around these parts if I do like 45, 65, and 85 gear inches, or close to it.

Phamilton

I didn’t realize there were so many internal gear options.
I know a lot of the Sturmey Archer models aren’t in production anymore but some of them you can seem to find used pretty easily and often cheaply.
I don’t know anything about this one, but this is a cool gear spread.

Phamilton

I’m not sure I’ve ever said it before, but I’ve found myself thinking several times over the past several months that it takes relatively little real world bike commuting experience to see that many of the people who present themselves online as bike commuters have very little experience with either.

Phamilton

I mean, that’s OK with me. I just don’t always remember that.

Phamilton

I ain’t into labels much anymore.

Phamilton

“Ain’t” is an indulgence for me. I get into a certain frame of mind and seem to channel my dead grampa. Unfortunately this sometimes includes nose picking and flatulence, but you know the old saying “sometimes the ghosts of your grandparents fart and pick their noses”

Phamilton

My kid made a big deal out of mother’s day this year. She started planning like weeks ago. She saved up a bunch of money and got my wife all these perfect gifts, candles and incense and makeup and buttons for her purse and stuff like that. They’re at the moment doing some facial masks and eyebrows and makeup and all that stuff they actually enjoy doing together. It’s a really good moms day this year. They even took 15 minutes to help me clean up the aftermath of yesterday’s mechanical misgivings in the garage.

Phamilton

I can’t stop thinking about the Voyageur with a 3 speed hub. I’d put cloth tape on the bars, maybe blue or red or something like that. And maybe a saddlebag, like a canvas one. I don’t know if I’d actually like riding it, but I’d be very satisfied with the look I think.

Phamilton

I don’t know if I’d change the fenders or not.