Gear – Enginerve : Bikes

Setting Up Shop in the Spare Bedroom

I don’t have a GF at this moment AND I have setup my bike room in what was the spare bedroom. The situation is causal, not causality. BTW, it is hard to think of it as anything except a bike room now.

Of course I KNEW that I would eventually be maintaining my bikes here as opposed to the basement. First, the basement floor is hard to clean and the bike stand was always in the way. So I purchase a section of black roll vinyl flooring from Home Depot to prevent grease and what not from falling off my bike and damaging the floor. I purchased the 24″ wide roll and ran it down the center of the room.

This was WRONG!

I should have covered the entire floor and the walls, any similarity to a “padded room” is merely coincidental.

Those flat MTB pedals scrape everything. Last night, as I switched to clipless pedals, trying to rid myself of recurring knee pain. I dropped the pedal and it landed, as everything does, exactly 1″ over the edge of the mat and left a character mark (dent) in the soft wood floor.

It is a mark that perhaps will indicate something to someone someday, or perhaps I will sand it out, or perhaps the floor will get replaced. What I know is that it won’t be the last mark in the floor, and it isn’t the first I have caused.

Gear: Porcelain Rocket Meanwhile bag

I mounted a Wald 139 to my Soma and I purchased a Porcelain Rocket Meanwhile bag that arrived yesterday and went out this morning.

Looked at Shopville ShopSack but the zipper and not waterproof killed it, but I loved the idea of handles to carry the bag into a shop. The Troutmoose was water resistant but I live in the Pacific Northwest and I am OK with a fully waterproof for now.

Here it is on maiden voyage

Touring Setup for FAST TransAm transit

Summer is starting and I have been looking at high speed touring, newer setups.

TransAm Bike Race Steeds 2016 got me thinking about details.

BikePacking Ultra setups and then Outside ran the Ultimate BikePacking Setup with a lot of details.

While I am not sure what changes I am willing to make, it does get me thinking.

It a Reasonably Priced Bike BRILLIANT?

Why it is so hard to find a great bike at a reasonable price? Brilliant Bicycle Company

Somewhere along the line, bicycles became complicated. Speed and spandex overshadowed the fun and prices skyrocketed. But bicycles shouldn’t be ridiculously expensive or intimidating, so we set out to build high-quality bikes for a fraction of the cost and to bring the magic and lightheartedness of your childhood back to bicycling.

Instructables: Take Along Bar

There are more out there on Instructables, but here is one to look at and ponder.

COMES WITH BAGGAGE

Since 1975 Blackburn has been making products that help cyclists do more, go further, and be ready for anything. For our 40th anniversary, we wanted to step back at the history of bicycle travel in the Americas. Our lighthearted film includes stories, footage and interviews with bike pioneers, makers and historians. Watch the trailer… and check back for more

FlyKly electric bike wheel

Where I previously was interested in the Copenhagen wheel, the FlyKly, is available now.

FlyKly has been in the works for a while. Originally a Kickstarter project that raised $700,000 (its goal had been $100,000), the electric bike wheel project is now available to everyone.

Electric bicycles are nothing new. But FlyKly’s approach is different — use your own bike, the company says, and just buy our wheel. That’s an attractive proposition if you’ve got a bike you love but want a little electrical propellant to get you where you’re going without building up a sweat.

The FlyKly isn’t cheap. The hub alone — which contains the product’s motor, battery, electronics, sensors, and Bluetooth antenna — runs $1,000. If you want it on an actual wheel, it’s $1,100. And you can also buy a FlyKly-fitted bicycle from either MSC or Linus for $1,500. The wheel comes in a 20-inch, 26-inch, or 28-inch rim.

The company’s not the first to try the removable electric wheel, with a similar approach in the works with the Copenhagen Wheel. But FlyKly is first to market, Klansek said.

Lest you wonder, the FlyKly system is not meant to provide every bit of forward motion as you ride. That’s called a motorcycle. Rather, this is “pedal-assist,” Klansek said. That means that once you start pedaling, the motor turns on and boosts your acceleration, but you still have to, you know, pedal.

The obvious questions are about battery life and power boost. Klansek explained that a fully charged battery should deliver up to 60 miles on a single charge if you maximize the system’s settings (though the FlyKly app, naturally) and pedal backwards as you go, which both brakes and recharges the battery a bit. With no tinkering of the settings, and no backwards pedaling, you’d get about 30 miles, he said.