Sweet Pea's Cyclo-Commuter Bike is Done!!!!!!!!

Well it all came together this weekend............ N8 decided to pop over from the city and brought a new chainring and shifter cables and housings with him. The final pieces! N8 did the final set up and adjustments and it was rady to hit the road by noon on Sunday. We went for a 2 hour shakedown cruise around Fort Worden in less than perfect weather and I'm happy to report that the only thing that needed adjusting was the seat height. A perfect bike build!





We ended up finishing the bike out with a full SRAM X-7 shift train, a Truvativ Stylo crankset and GXP external cup bottom bracket and we swapped out the mountain bike fenders for a new set of SKS commuter fenders. I had to drill and tap the rear frame so we could mount the new rear fender and modify the front fender mounts to accommodate the larger fork.



Sweet Pea is a very happy new owner! It's always great to get a new bike and a ton of fun to hunt down the parts and deals for a build-up.

MLK Day Storm

Big wind storm blew in last night to welcome us to this Martin Luther King Day. Winds are about 45 to 50 mph with gusts up into the high 60 mph range. Just plain nasty! I guess our beautiful day on Saturday was the proverbial "calm before the storm". Here are a few pictures of the view from the upper lab at the mill..............
The National Weather Service Seattle is calling for 25 foot surf out on the outer coast and a storm surge of 1.8 feet on top of the high tide this morning. On the flip side, they are saying the wind should drop by 10 am or so this morning.

The pictures don't come even close to showing how nasty it is out on the water today!

Beautifuyl Day on the Bernadine

Well we finally had a break in the winter weather so I took advantage of the calm and sunny morning and headed out to Mystery Bay to visit the Bernadine. I fired up the wood stoves, pumped the bilges, ran the engine and just let the old girl know she was still loved............ I can't wait for the warmer weather so we can get out and cruise a bit.








All in all, she's looking pretty darn good for the middle of January in the Pacific Northwest!

Here's our tender, the Barnacle.



Great view from the pilot house!

Two Tickets!

Well the deed is done......... After the initial traffic jam to get on the ticket sales page, I was assigned a place in the waiting line at about 10:03am. Number 3,708. The wait was almost an hour exactly. By 11:10am we had our on-screen confirmation and an email in the in-box.

I guess it's official now......... Destination Black Rock City 2010!

Ticket Day!

7:30 am.............2 1/2 hours and counting down............. Burning Man 2010 Tickets go on sale!!!!!!!!
The annual kick-off of the on-line ticket sales is quite the event. 9,000 tier one tickets are up for grabs at exactly 10 am. , with probably 20,000 folks trying to log on at the same time to get in the ticket sales line to get their "low priced" tickets. The tickets go up in price in sequential layers of 9,000 , so no matter what, we'll have our tickets this morning...........

Stay tuned.........

Trump Case

My Sunday project was a professional quality case for my Trump, more often known as a Jaw Harp.



The case is laminated up with Mahogany panels sandwiching a block of vertical grain fir. The cover is a piece of oiled leather secured with snaps. The wood was finished in Teak Oil.

Works good. Looks great...............

Update On The Origin 8 Bike

The new Gatorbrake disc brakes are installed, adjusted and ready to roll! This latest set of Gatorbrakes we bought for this bike build have some great improvements over the earlier models that we are running. They have added an improved pinch clamp for the cable and a curved cable guide leading in to the cable clamp.

Looks great!

N8 found a new set of Shimano Octalink mountain bike cranks and bottom bracket at Recycled Cycles over in Seattle and is checking bins today for a set of shifters and rear derailleur. The shift train will be either Shimano or Sram, depending on what's available, and in new or like new condition. I bought a Shimano Deore LX front derailleur off of eBay this morning.

It's all coming together nicely!

Tape Tricks

I decided to try a couple of "advanced tips" from the Park Tools "Big Blue Book Of Bicycle Repair" when I re-wrapped the bars on the LOOK bike. They recommended wrapping the lower drop portion of the bars with reversed electrical tape (sticky side up) before wrapping with bar wrap. They said that this would prevent the bar wrap from coming undone if the bars are scuffed up and the wrap tears. The electrical tape underneath holds it all together. I might add that it really helps with starting out the bar wrapping as well. It holds it all in place until you get a further along. Highly recommended practice!


To finish the bar wrap, they recommended finishing with electrical tape and then pin striping the black tape with a contrasting colored electrical tape that had been trimmed off of the roll. I made up a wood stick with a single edged razor tacked on and then set the roll and cutter on a flat table and rotated the tape roll against the razor to cut a perfect thin pinstripe of tape. If you flip over the roll and do it again, you get two matching strips and a slightly different width strip from between them. Looks cool and professional.......... highly recommended!



Another trick that I have been using for a number of years is using rubber electrical tape to cut out rub patches for the frame to prevent cable rub marks through the paint. I also use this tape to make stick on chain stay protectors to protect the frame from chain slap.



Specifically, the tape I use is 3M Scotch 130C, Linerless Rubber Splicing Tape.

Now get out there and tape up those bars-n-bikes!

PT Sunrise 7:30am

Beauty surrounds us.......... if only we would remember to lift our heads up and look around. 7:30am sunrise. Working in an old run down, 80 year, gray, dirty, noisy, industrial mill can easily lull one into viewing the world and the day ahead as just that, dreary and industrial, unless we remember to poke that head of ours out the window or step outside.

The world we live in is amazing, beautiful, and full of wonder and magic............ the beauty and wonder of life is in the moments............ don't let those moments in your life slip by unnoticed, look up, look around, breath deeply, be present and really see the world around you..................

Sunrise over Port Townsend Harbor, 7:30am............. enjoy.

New Disc Brakes for Sweet Pea!

The highly anticipated order from Price Point arrived yesterday! The new disc brakes for Sweet Pea's new commuter-cross bike are here and ready to install. We have been running Gatorbrakes on all of our mountain bikes for a couple of years now and absolutely love them. The are extremely well made, stay in adjustment, have fantastic braking power and look great.......... and the price is absolutely fantastic! The brakes we use are the cable actuated model and they are regularly stocked by Price Point online. The price is MUCH lower than the highly advertised companies, and the quality and performance is the same or better! I even think they look better.



I'll probably get them installed and adjusted up tonight..............

New Year's Inspiration

This morning I had a wonderful inspirational piece from the "Daily Om" in my email in box. I thought I'd share it with everyone as it really illustrates my own life view and how I strive to live it........... Hope you enjoy it.




January 1, 2010
Your Last Breath
Redefining Your Priorities

Procrastination is an almost universal human habit and one that infiltrates nearly every aspect of our lives. Modern existence is so complex, and much of what we long to do is left to wait by the side. We know what is important but tend to let the weight of worldly pressures lead us astray. To get back on track, however, we need only take a moment to consider where our thoughts will be as we take our last breath on this earth. More likely than not, at that instant, disagreements, bills, petty annoyances, and other frustrating elements of our lives will no longer seem as significant as they once did. Thoughts of loved ones and the positive impact we had on the world would no doubt occupy our remaining thoughts. Whatever we imagine ourselves musing upon during our last breath will almost always be representative of what truly matters to us.

This simple exercise introduces us to a new way of thinking. While our attention is drawn momentarily to the end of life, our contemplations serve to point out that we are masters of our own perspective and, consequently, our own existence. There is nothing preventing us from shifting our focus right now as we imagine we will in our final moments. We can choose to spend more of our time and energy on what gives our lives meaning. We can spend more time with loved ones and do more of what we enjoy. Doing so may not always prove easy, and there will inevitably be times when circumstances interfere with our resolution, yet we do not have to regard this as an indication that our priorities are not in alignment with who we really are.

Sometimes the only way we can see the beauty of life is to remind ourselves that it is finite. Gandhi said, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow." His words are a potent reminder that living life more fully is not about pushing ourselves harder or shouldering more burdens, but about experiencing all the wonderful richness life has to offer.

This article is printed from DailyOM - Inspirational thoughts for a happy, healthy and fulfilling day.
Register for free at www.dailyom.com

Dust-n-Oils Seals for the Reba

I did some fancy bidding and web shopping and came up with a brand new set of dust and oil seals off of eBay for the Reba fork on the Giant Trance 2. A bit more surfing of the web came up with a set of foam oil rings from Cambria Bike down in California for $2.00 a pair as opposed to the $14.00 normal price.....(unheard of sale!)...... when all was said and done, I ended up with all of the new seals that I needed to finish up the rebuild of the Reba fork for a fraction of the normal price of the parts! Now I just need to break down the fork again and pull out the old seals and press in the new sets.



This last Summer, N8 and I did a rebuild and replaced all of the o-rings, seals, crush washers, etc. , but we did not have the needed top end seals to finish the job. The fork still oozes oil out of the uppers, but not for long.......... these new seals will put the fork back in brand new condition.

Ultimate Biking Pants!

Another pending project's been finished and crossed off the to-do list........... Two pair of my ultra-custom, ultra-tough, ultra-hip biking pants! I turned a pair of Carhart double-knee work pants into a pair of bike knickers awhile back and have absolutely loved them. They even took a trip to Burning Man and turned out to be perfect on the Playa.



For this new version, I used two used pair of Carharts that I picked up at a yard sale for cheap. I took two small tucks on the back waistband that run down into the rear pockets to take up the extra waist (I did this to another pair before and love the extra seat room it gives). The legs are a bit short for everyday wear, but perfect for cycling. I'll do my usual tuck-n-fold with the ankle cuffs and hold it fast with my ankle ties to make them "peg-legged" for riding.

I finished them off with a couple of punk patches from Left Bank Books in Seattle. It's a yearly Christmas tradition for N8 to give these out, and I always get around to putting them to good use.



These are definitely the ultimate mountain biking pants. They protect from brush and are like wearing armor in a crash........... and you can't buy them in the cycle shops, you've got to DIY! Oh yes, and they're way cool.............

New Campy Installed! LOOK!

Well I made the plunge, cut off all the old bar wrap, and pulled off the old brake levers and seat post binder bolt from the LOOK bike. The bike's now sporting the new Campagnolo brake levers, hoods and binder bolt. I topped it all off with new white cork bar wrap and a new set of Michelin Pro Race tires. It even looks faster!