Category Archives: Commuter

The Trickle-down Theory of Bicycle Economics, or How To Get Around N+1

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So I didn’t race the Great Escape Gravity Enduro, and I am bummed about that. Several lovely friends said encouraging things to me during the week, but you don’t have to be ‘deficit-focused’ to realise when you have massively stuffed up. Maybe I’ve learned something out of this, who knows.

But life goes on. And my happy news is that my oldest bike has had a make-over, and is once again a star member of the briztreadley stable.

I bought the Shogun Alpine GT sometime in the mid-late 90s. It was a touring bike in its original spec: drop bars, triple crank, Shimano STX components, cantilever brakes (that were never any good), TIG-welded steel frame made in Taiwan.

Touring bikes were hard to find at the time … the legendary Gemini World Randonneur had just stopped production a year before, and this is well before the release of the Surly Long Haul Trucker that is so popular these days. Cannondale and Trek both made tourers that were well beyond my budget at the time, but weren’t much better specced. St Kilda Cycles was the only place to buy the Shogun Alpine GT, so I ordered one over the phone/fax, and it was sent up to Flashing Pedals to be built up.

This was my main bike for about seven years, until I got the Frezoni (for my 40th).  And it covered all duties. Mostly commuting, some touring, three Sydney-to-Surfers rides and eventually some bunch rides (Bruce got me into that).

But when faster road bikes such as the Frezoni and later the Enigma came along, the Shogun was pushed to the back of the queue. For a while it was kept in repair so that Adrian could ride it on the weekly Wednesday morning kids ride that finished at McDonalds. Adrian stopped going on that ride when he was in year 10, I think, and he’s just about to turn 22.

So to save it from sitting in the shed, I had it turned into a flat-bar single speed, and it lived at the BQ office, for rides around the city.

But the turning point for the remake of the Shogun came early this year, when I picked up a set of Shimano XTR v-brakes from a bloke on the MTB Dirt forum. And put them on the Shogun.

All of a sudden I liked riding the Shogun. But I have never got hold of the single-speed thing. So I wondered how I could resurrect the Shogun without spending much money.

Inspiration came a couple of months ago, courtesy of Handsome Bicycles’ release of the XOXO.

And the resulting rebuild finally came together yesterday.

Thanks Dean for helping me with the build.

The new spec includes:

  • 1 x 9 gearing, with Campag Veloce bits, left over after the Frezoni went to 10-speed recently. Downtube shifter scavenged from The Bicycle Revolution, operating in friction mode (that’s right, no indexed gears!!)
  • Soma Moustache handlebar (thanks Epic Cycles), Tektro brake levers that pull the right amount of cable for v-brakes (thanks Mark Grulke)
  • 700 x 32 Specialized ‘cross’ tyres. I like the feel of them so far, but I haven’t been for a long ride yet. The wheels were once on my Frezoni, they are Velocity Deep V rims (legendary tough), teamed with Campag Veloce hubs.
  • Those marvellous Shimano XTR v-brakes. I know I go on about them, but they are the best brakes I’ve ever had on a road machine.

So that’s a urban-warrior, dirt-road-demon, go-anywhere-anytime, sort of bike. It’s the opposite of ‘specialised’. I am going to have fun on this machine, wherever it goes.

Muddy, grey, rude or late

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Maybe Eleanor got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, but when it gets onto the positive bit, this expresses really well what I was trying to say a couple of weeks ago.

For every time I have been one of you, I apologise. I will try to ride better each day. I will acknowledge your presence on the path. I will give way to pedestrians. I will wear lights. I will not blind you with my unnecessary head lamp lights. I will use hand signals. I will act like traffic so that you can treat me like traffic. I will pass nervous newbies with a cheery “passing” and cede to faster riders with a courteous acknowledgement. I will wait for the lights to change. If I am running late, I will remember that running rude – or worse running injured/dead – is way worse.

I cannot change your behavior, and I’m conscious my own record is muddy and grey, but I am seriously prepared to work on mine.

Preach it, sister.

Slow down, you move too fast

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I like to ride fast, sometimes. But more and more, I am enjoying riding my bike slow.

In the road bunch, usually I’m happy to go as hard as the bunch wants to go. But there is a regular exception. And that is whenever the bunch goes onto a bike path.

For me, the maximum speed on a bike path is 25 km/h. Especially one where there is potential for interaction with pedestrians.

I say there is an important principle in play in this situation. When we are on the road, cyclists (rightly) expect motorists to treat them as though we are all in this together, and as though our lives are as important as anybody else’s.

Cyclists therefore should understand the pedestrian’s perspective, when we venture onto shared off-road paths. In both situations, the more vulnerable user of the space deserves special consideration from the more dangerous user of that same space.

Buzzing past pedestrians and joggers at 35-40 km/h shows a lack of respect and empathy.

And the two places where I ride, that I think this is a real issue? The Bicentennial Bikeway (Coro Drive bikeway), and the Ted Smout Bridge (Redcliffe to Brighton).

Here’s a song to help us all chill out.

Whack that into your iPod before you start riding. Might make a difference.

Mucking about with bikes

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chain rings

It’s all about ebb and flow. A couple of weekends ago was the Wilson HTM Brisbane to the Gold Coast Cycle Challenge, which is a big day for me (and all the BQ crew, obviously).

But even though the B2GC is a massive day, with 7500 riders and lots of stress, it also marks the end of the high pressure event season. And therefore a massive sigh of relief.

Only a few days later, it was off to Melbourne with some South Bank friends for the 2011 Around the Bay in a Day. With the craziness of event season at BQ, I must admit that the training for Around The Bay was nearly non-existent. I was pinning my hopes on the idea that my residual fitness would be enough to keep me safely around the middle of the bunch, and that having just done a BG Fit that I would be comfortable on the bike.

Both held true, and it might sound like boasting, but Around The Bay was the easiest 200km ride I’ve ever done. The South bank group was 12 riders strong, which meant plenty of shelter in the bunch. And I was in the sweet spot of not being under stress by the pace at any stage.

The SBB crew do the Melbourne-Sorrento-Melbourne version of the ride. So, no waiting for the ferry, down and back on the “nice” side of the bay. We experienced some Melbourne-style weather on the day, with some lovely sunshine, and some occasional spits of rain, and one quick shower. But the challenge of the event was mostly in keeping the group intact, and a small amount of cross-wind on the way back. We did a solid 8-hour ride, averaging 25 km/h.

The big ride was only one part of a very enjoyable long weekend in Melbourne. I drew on the expertise of my friend whose Mastermind Special Subject would be the cafes, bars and restaurants of inner-city Melbourne. And so we visited places such as Wabi Sabi Japanese restaurant, and Cafe de Clieu. And Pellegrini’s. And Hill of Content book shop. And I saw Melbourne Heart vs Perth Glory, and the Bike Expo. So it was a wonderful weekend, lots of laughs. I really enjoyed how walkable Melbourne’s city heart is. And noticed the growth in cycling culture in the city as well.

So, back in Brisbane, I have been happy to take it relatively easy for a while. The Enigma needed a little bit of a tune-up after the rigours of travel. And I managed to bust something in the front shifter of my Frezoni during the week as well. So on Saturday I went for a spin round Daisy Hill on the mountain bike with Bruce, instead of the South Bank bunch ride.

And yesterday I spent a couple of hours mucking round with the project bike. Won’t be long before its ready to ride. It will be the perfect machine for the Great Victorian Bike Ride.

project1

All things bicycle, ZZZ-style

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So my good friend Eleanor roped me in to be a guest with her on ‘At the Local’ on 4ZZZ last Saturday. The link above is the result (minus the songs Dom played), which I will admit that I enjoyed listening back to. Thanks Dom for having us on your show.

The content is all good ZZZ stuff, as we talk about women and cycling and the sub-cultures that emerge in an activity like cycling that is becoming more and more mainstream. And if you listen long enough, you get to hear Ali McLatchie talk with considerable verve about women in bike polo. Cool.

(For those who would like to know what music they play on 4ZZZ, here’s the song Dom played in tribute to Ali. You better press play on that, cos I predict that this is the one and only time that Peaches is going to feature on this blog.)

As an added bonus to this whole thing, you get to listen to Elle’s ‘radio voice’. There’s just something that comes out occasionally in her accent that gives a hint of either her Filipino mum or time spent overseas. I can’t quite identify it, but the effect is (like everything else about Eleanor) quite adorable.

Hugs & kisses for Handsome

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This is as cool as the other side of the pillow. Handsome Cycles, a small bicycle maker in Minnesota, has brought out the XOXO.

Handsome Cycles XOXO left, the original Bridgestone XO-1 below left.

Back when the Internet was young, in the mid-90s, I used to follow the fortunes, the ups and downs, of Bridgestone Cycles. Yes, the Japanese tyre company. It may still be the case that in Japan that Bridgestone still make bicycles, I don’t know.

But in the early and mid 90s, Bridgestone bicycles in the USA were cool. Because the product manager was a certain Grant Petersen, who was never afraid to swim against the tide of popular opinion. They called him a retro-grouch as a result, but I think it was more than he wasn’t worried about saying what he thought was good about innovations in bicycle design, and what wasn’t.

And the most iconic of an iconic range of Bridgestone bikes was the XO-1. It was a bike which had 26 inch wheels (mtb size), rigid fork, road geometry, odd looking moustache handlebars, and cantilever brakes. At the time, it was described as a do-it-all bike. I would call it just about the perfect dirt-road bike.

And Handsome’s XOXO is a copy, a tribute, to the XO-1.

What with Rapha’s videos, website and magazines featuring so much dirt-road riding, and the surgence of cyclocross in Australia (I can’t call it a resurgence if its never been popular before), it seems that the XOXO would be timely, if it was available in Australia. Sadly, its even more niche than cyclocross so it will never get to Australia.

There’s lots of so-called commuter bikes around these days. They are mostly flat-bar road bikes, usually with low-end (cheap) components, and are designed around narrow tyres, and not for taking off-bitumen.

That said, you could make a pretty good dirt-road bike from a Surly Cross-Check or Long Haul Trucker frame, and there are lots of people doing that. And there’s also the Kona Dew series, which is a superior commuter bike or light tourer, it would be pretty cool on dirt too.

But luckily for me, I already have a bike that’s perfect for this, just with a tweak or two. My Shogun Alpine GT has spent the last few years as a singlespeed city bike. The drivetrain is pretty much shot, and has had no work since forever. But in the last six months or so it got given some sweet XTR v-brakes (courtesy of a MTB Dirt member), which makes it much nicer to ride. Think I need to find some sweeping moustache style bars, and make a eight or nine-speed dirt-roader.

Emma had some swoopy flat bars like that once on her Cotic singlespeed … wonder if they’re still in her shed? Hmmm. (No, Em, this isn’t a test to see if you’re reading).

Update: Swoopy bars on short-term loan from Em to see if I like them. The model is the Sparrow, from SomaFab.

I have a Deore mtb derailleur at home, so I reckon a trip to Bicycle Rev for some down-tube shifters might be the next thing. And an 8-speed cassette.

Save the bike shop

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The recent floods in Brisbane, and my subsequent involvement in assisting my friends at Epic Cycles got me thinking about why bike shops are so important to cyclists.

I mean, you’ve got the Internet these days, and it’s always going to be cheaper to buy your cycling stuff from Wiggle or Torpedo7 or Probikekit or wherever the hot deal is currently (links deliberately not provided). So who needs a bike shop?

Yet I still value highly the relationships I have with people in four different bike shops in Brisbane. And that’s the key word, I think, right there: relationship.

When I bought my first road bike as an adult living in Brisbane, I needed a place to take it for repairs and maintenance, because I didn’t have a clue. I went looking around my area at Coopers Plains. The closest shop turned out to be Flashing Pedals, on Beaudesert Road at Acacia Ridge.

The very first time I went there, the shop owner (Andrew Pritchard) showed me how to change a tube on a road bike, and how a Presta valve worked, and why I needed a special pump rather than trying to use the air compressor at the servo.

I think that was around 1987. So I have been frequenting Andrew’s shop for more than 20 years. I don’t know how many different bikes I have owned in that period of time, but its quite a few. And every single one of them has been to Andrew’s shop at one time or another.

And I know that I can rely on Andrew’s advice on what’s good for my bikes (and therefore what’s good for me).

I’m no longer exclusively a Flashing Pedals customer, but not because there’s any dissatisfaction. It’s just that there are three other shops which claim my business or attention from time to time.

Two of them (Graceville Bike Hub and Epic Cycles) are owned by friends of mine, and there are other friends amongst the staff.

And another one, For The Riders, is the best place in Brisbane to take your mountain bike for repairs and service. And it is run by mountain bike guys, who just love everything about mountain biking.

At Flashing Pedals and FTR, I went there as a customer, and have been treated well, so that I regard the staff at each shop as friends.

At Epic and Graceville Bike Hub, I had friends who went to work in the shop (or started the shop). So I can go there knowing my friends will treat me fairly.

But for a regular cyclist, having a bike shop where you like and trust the staff is not just a nice thing, it’s a vital thing. I count myself fortunate indeed to have these relationships, and when the shop is under threat (like Epic Cycles was), its not really surprising that many of their customers were there to assist.

Save the local bike shops. I, and many other cyclists like me, need them.

Loading bikes during the evacuation. That’s me at the back of the ute.

On the clean-up day.

Bike Snob NYC: To Whom It May Concern: Letting Things Take Care of Themselves

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Bike Snob NYC: To Whom It May Concern: Letting Things Take Care of Themselves.

I don’t ride my bike into the city during rush hour because I’m “concerned with the environment;” I do it because pretending I’m riding down the gullet of a giant salmon on a spring day is awesome, and sitting in traffic for two hours listening to terrestrial radio and then trying to find parking sucks. Being human and doing what makes you truly happy makes the world better; being “concerned” yields two toxic by-products: religion, and smugness.

So if I advocate anything (which really I don’t, since who the hell am I anyway?), it’s doing what makes you happy.

BikeSnobNYC captures one of my key points about cycling advocacy. Being worthy and green and all that stuff is (probably) fine. But I ride a bike ‘cos I like riding a bike. It’s fun and I like having fun. Every day!

Talking Heads talking cities

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Really interesting stuff about cycling and what makes a city livable. I’m buying David Byrne’s book when it comes out.

As someone who has used a bicycle to get around New York for about 30 years I’ve watched the city—mainly Manhattan, where I live—change for better and for worse. During this time I started to take a full-size folding bike with me when I traveled so I got to experience other cities as a cyclist as well. Seeing cities from on top of a bike is both pleasurable and instructive. On a bike one sees a lot more than from a freeway, and often it’s just as fast as car traffic in many towns.

via David Byrne’s Perfect City – WSJ.com.