assorted things Friday Feb 16
This is not the definitive guide to brake-shoe tightening technique, it's just how Mark does it. He doesn't pose, he was just doing this and I shot it.
Taken with a fancy medium format camera, 80mm lens, Ilford HP5 film.
Spencer likes bare bars. He's ridden this bike a long time. Yes, he has a Rivendell, too. Also fancy camera. The star of this photo is the fiber tape on the bar holding the cable tight, and the fuzzy pedal in the background, with the shiny spikes. Also, it's world-record neat how the handlebar is in focus at the stem and shifter, but not at the brake lever. Rainy day! We need more rain.
---
This and the other outdoor shots here were taken with an Olympus XA, a tiny film camera from the early '80s, and a gift from M.G. Thanks, Martin! I'm digging it.
A couple of weeks ago Will and I rode after work in nearby Shell Ridge. This is Will heading up the hill where the other picture was taken. He's on a one-speed, so is in full attack mode early. On a QuickBeam, but I think he might sell it so he can get a new Sam and single/two-speed it. I'm not his agent, I'm just spreading rumors. This isn't a great photo. It's fair, but it makes you want to be on top of that hill, doesn't it? On top is a singletrack that meanders flat along a ridge leading to a good view of the mountain.
Here's Will on an after-work ride about 25 minutes from here, most of it good riding. Rivendell HQ is above his right brake lever at the tree/building transition. A hair to the left of that, actually. I think.
Here's the camera. There has never been a bicycle part as perfect for what it is as this Olympus XA. Well...maybe the Silver shifter. Maybe a 1989 Deore XT rear derailer. Maybe the early silver XTR crank. But it's rare.
You can get a used XA for $40 to $140, which...we should all have ten of them. Thanks, Martin--I really love it!
--
it was a nice ride back, too.
---
Things are moving along. Slowly, but yes, and maybe by April we'll have something.
-------
Within a month or two we'll have a new catalog. We won't automatically send one. Have to figure it all out, but printing costs are high, so we won't print many—5,000 is the plan. If any of you who are in the printing business and would like to quote, quote on 32p, 6 x 9 horizontal, 80lb gloss cover stock, 80lb text matte or pearl or something text, saddle stitched with two staples, 4-color everything (but most pages will be mostly b/w), and quote shipping to 94596. Quote on the 5,000, and also on 10, 15,000. If you tell me it's cheaper to print more, I promise you won't get the job. Thanks! Oh, also send samples of past jobs.
The catalog will spell out most or all of the differences in seven models. We'll have it free online to everybody, but the analog version will be more fun, handy, and rare.
------
In few days we'll show some photos of the new Appaloosa. I already have a Silver one--which could be the best-looking bike in our line. The blue one might be better, though.
Tandem news: Down to 3 larges and no mediums and about 7 smalls, which fit riders to about 6-2 in front, and maybe 5-11 in back. THey're $1,800 for frame and essential fixin's (seat posts, headset). If you're rich and don't have a use for it now, but have room for it and might want a groovy tandem later, get it. We're not planning to do them again, and if you don't build it up, you'll be able to sell it for at least that much in a few years. If you're not rich but know you'll want one sometime, call and talk about a deposit.
------
STEEL IS RUBBERY.
Spencer did this to his X-01 (this is the original hyphenation that got lost in translation), with X meaning categoryless) ...about 22 years ago in a front-end impact. The steel bent, didn't snap, and is tough enough to withstand 22 years of riding since. The head tube angle is a little steeper than designed, but the bike is safe.
---
The CLEM rack, ideal for the CLEM, benefits but doesn't require some grinding away of the lower tab, so it'll clear some quick-releases. Alternatively, you can bend. Or mount on the axle itself. Racks often require some fussing. This is Mark.
---
A dog ran onto the road and the truck driver carrying a load of Cheviot forks swerved to miss it, and a box of forks slid off the flatbed, and 14 forks got run over by assorted trucks and cars. Nobody hurt, and that includes the dog--as far as we were able to ...figure out. It didn't happen here.
the Carbon fork got into a banging war with a steel fork, and the steel fork was barely affected.
Neither fork was wrecked by riding, but the images still tell a truth about how the two materials fail. Steel doesn't snap, the steel fork still has structure, and in a pinch could be wronched back into shape enough to mount a wheel, and carry you a few miles. And it would give warning before it totally crapped out. Our intermittent ongoing onslaught/tirade against carbon forks is justified. It may make me look like a whiner, but the worldwide 99 percent acceptance of them is dangerous. This here may be preaching to the choir and all, but the beautiful image of that wrecked formerly lovely steel fork is something I find irresistable. You'll see something like it again.
--------
Customer-friend-east coaster Sal got a Gransfors #420 (Small Forest) ax, and stretched it way beyond its normal capabilities. Or, tried to, anyway. He gave up:
The tree's trunk is almost 2 feet across, and it looks frozen and hard.
---------
Roman was walking around his neighborhood and found himself an albino racoon:
------
Here's Roman snapping some photos for our catalog:
It's a CLEM.
Here's his rig:
With Portra 160 film, 1/125 and 1/250 @5.6. According to the meter, at least, but that seems about right. We'll know in a week. Yay, film.
-------
Sal didn't really give up. After four trips back. I'd say he can leave it like that. Let people step thru it. It's not like either halves of the tree are gonna move out of the way by themselves. We'll send him a saw. Good work, though, Sal.
----------
In a week or so there will be an email update (not a BLAHG or BLUG). We all hope you read it. It is a biggie to us.
---
We added a little blue to the Homer badge.
------
please correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be nice to go to Norway right about now? I dibs the one by the gorge.
--Grant, and thanks for sticking it out.