Category: Bikes
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And yet another realization about disc brakes
I did discover another aspect of disc brakes. Especially with a steel fork. Under hard braking, the fork legs flex quite a bit. Like a quarter inch. It was kind of freaky at first. It does make sense. With rim brakes, the braking force is all supported by the fork crown and there’s a long…
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More on the versatility of disc brakes
A little while back, I had this epiphany about the disc brakes, and being freed from rim brake position. Well, I put the 26ers with the knobbies back on and took some pictures. Here they are. Pretty bad-ass. Bikes
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SPRING!
As I’m sure you all know, this weekend marked the vernal equinox and the formal transition from Winter to Spring. It certainly isn’t balmy in Mpls yet, but a streak of above-freezing days (some kissing 50!) have left the snow pack on the ropes, and you can tell its not long for this world. The…
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Eureka!
I had an epiphany the other day. With a disc brake bike, I’m freed from the tyranny of the rim position! With rim brakes, you’re kind of stuck with the rim needing to be a certain diameter in order to line-up with the brakes. If you have a “road bike” or a “cyclocross bike” with…
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March commute
Here’s a view of my commute this morning. Pretty snowy, but nice too. There were stretches of new snow that I was cutting through, and the only sounds were hushed shhhhhh of the tires in the snow. Of course, downtown was slush and my drivetrain was packed in and shifting was hard…
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How to deal with a MN commute.
Urban Bean. Rocks. Very civilized. Bikes
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First Winter Commute
So, I got really tired of riding on the trainer. It really blows. Skull-violatingly dull. So, I picked-up some studded tires last night and rode to work today. I tried to take a picture in the cold, dark place that is pre-dawn Minneapolis, but I put my phone in an outer pocket, and it was…
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Bike Build, About the Frame
I promised Habanero that I would “review” the frame. So, here it is. Habanero is a designer/retailer of titanium frames that are fabricated at a plant in China Taiwan (a western style democracy, in case you’re confusing Taiwan with the PRC) [ed. see Mark’s comment below]. I discovered them via Googleing for “titanium bike frames”. The…
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Bike Build, Day 7. Done.
So, the project is complete (save a little derailer tuning). Looking at the pics below, you might be forgiven for having a response of “WTF?!?!?!”. Afterall, what was (in the last update) an ass-kicking monstercrosser, now looks like a bike-dork commuter! Well, yes. Yes it is. This is my do-all bike. Or at least my…
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Bike Build, Day 6
I bailed on the Woodchippers. I installed a shorter stem and some regular drops. After a half hour or so on the trainer, it was the right choice. So, I taped-up the bars, shortened/re-routed the shifter cable, and I now have a functioning bicycle. An awesome, bad-ass bicycle. I still need to do some tuning…