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It doesn’t seem two years since Eldest Son was racing about on a little BMX dirt bike with no mudguards, but he’s now a pretty experienced rider and using a 21 speed hybrid over prodigious distances, and we (that is: ‘he’) decided he should probably have some panniers to add to load carrying capacity. There are real panniers on the market for small bikes, but that’s far too simple (or I’m too cheap) so I decided to use some army surplus canvas bags, much loved by students in the UK. These would cost less than the purpose built version, and would look very cool.
I would like to pretend I had some bags ‘just lying around’ but sadly I didn’t, and one of the continual problems of emigrating is that you sometimes don’t know the name for the simplest things. I couldn’t find a canvas backpack or even an Army Surplus Store on Google Germany. Funny how countries are different. There must be something like this locally, but I just don’t know what to search for. Mind you, judging by the amount of British students wearing ex-German Army coats, they may simply export everything.
We solved the problem by ordering four army surplus bags from a shop in the UK, and asking my parents to bring them when they drove over to visit. So much for our eco-credentials.
Fitting them is an ongoing process. Right now they’re fitted using the simplest method that occurred to me: running two straps through the rat-trap on the luggage rack and letting them rest on the frame. This causes the occasional problem with empty bags catching on the spokes, but with a load they rest well. Long term I think I may have to add a back board and some kind of attachment at the bottom of the bag, but that’ll have to wait until I get around to it. At the current rate that may take some time.
I’ll also have to catch Eldest Son first.
I seem to trash one drive chain a year. I don’t know why, but I reckon the fact that I use the bike daily to carry all kinds of stuff, including about fifty kilos of small boys, uphill, in all weathers, probably has something to do with it. These chains were never designed to take that sort of pressure.
That’s my theory, anyway, and I’m sticking to it: it sounds way better than admitting I’m a lazy oaf and I forget to clean the chain.
However, last week things were getting silly with the gears changing at random moments and the bike making the embarrassing ‘clickety-clickety’ sound of a piece of machinery that really, really, needs some maintenance. On top of that both brakes were beginning to feel like a sponge, not a nice thought in this area of steep hills and tight bends. I tried to ignore this by using the Bakfiets, but that needs some work too, of which more anon.
So I finally gave up and took the Xtracycle to the shop, where the chain measuring tool showed the all too familiar ‘way overdue for replacement’, so off came the wheel, and on came a new cassette and two fresh chains. While I was at it, I found that the back gear cable was tensioned like a washing line so we pulled that straight, and fixed both brakes into the bargain.
Today the gears were responsive, the chain hummed and I could stop the bike. So naturally I rode faster.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
Eldest son is learning that interesting knots can be useful.
Trucker’s knot with extra half-turn securing backpack to luggage rack, making his kiddy bike into a workbike.
The metal mudguard for the back wheel originally had only one hanger to hold it down. At first I kept the mudguard more or less in place by forcing a rolled up inner tube between it and the spraydeck.
Such is my capacity for ignoring important repairs that fixing this sort of thing normally takes months, but having a bike that noisily pooped an inner tube onto the road every fifteen kilometres gave powerful motivation to fit the second support within a week.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to work out how not to get wet feet when I use the Xtracycle in the rain: I guess that’s one result of not having a television.
I could just go out and get a nice Brooks mud flap, but I figured that if other people can do stuff like make mushing belts from inner tubes I can at least try a mud flap, so a couple of weeks ago I spent a half hour in the garage and came up with this low- cost version using a mountain-bike sized inner tube, some tyre repair glue, and a couple of odds and ends.
To make it a bit tougher and stop it curling, I used two pieces of inner tube back to back with puncture repair glue: since getting puncture-proof tyres I hardly use this for it’s intended purpose anyway. I’m not sure how well that’ll work long term, but I can always try again with a different glue if it falls to bits. I drew the outline with a pen on the glued-together tubes and cut it out.
So far it’s holding up to the rough treatment I give it. In service it is about 6 cm/2 inches above the road which is low enough to keep me from getting spattered. I didn’t get it quite level and there’s a gap at the top so some water runs down the back. Maybe I’ll do something about that one day.
I seem to destroy mudguards on the Xtracycle. I don’t know how. The first set was traditionally styled and made in black plastic, and kept me dry for a whole three days before dropping onto the road one damp night back in 1997. Generation two, a ‘Crud Catcher’ fishtail, was very effective for ten years but didn’t fit under the Xtracycle, so I fitted generation three with some trepidation, a lot of swearing, and a little help from my friends. These broke on a wet day last October, naturally when I was going to a job interview. Since then the back mudguard has been held on with a mass of gaffer tape. This is of course incredibly cool if it’s an emergency repair out in the bush, but looks pretty awful on a sort-of commuter bike. Especially after six mud-spattered months.
So now I’ve finally got around to fitting Mudguards 4.1: proper metal mudguards with parts scrounged from various scrap bikes including the bike I gave up on for beautiful wife. It took a bit of a wait for the right scrap bike to come in, but hopefully it’ll save more emergency repairs in a rainy night. As can be seen one set of rear stays needed a bit of ‘adjustment’ (clamped in a vice and bent horribly until they fitted) but they’re holding well.
The front end looks a bit strange at the moment after I fitted the scrap light . I’ll be replacing the cantilever brakes soon with Hydraulic or V-Brakes which will tidy that area up. I’ll need a switch for the lights somewhere as well.
New-fangled LED rear light with park light function, because being rear-ended at night wouldn’t be fun. I left my work shoes in the Xtracycle again. Normally people look at me in a funny way when I take pictures of the bikes, but today they were all watching Germany play football.
Every now and again I do some spring cleaning on the Xtracycle, I’ll take the spraydeck and side loaders off, empty them, clean then thoroughly and then spend at least ten minutes trying to remember how to put them back on again. It’s quite an exciting experience because I often find things I’d lost months before and given up hope of ever finding again, although the thought that I’ve been schlepping them about for months is not encouraging.
This time I think I broke all records for an Xtracycle haul. The inside pockets contained (from top left):
Map of Stuttgart
cereal bars
Plastic rubbish picked up from road (goodness knows when)
Three packs of seeds
Pack of batteries for lights, pluss
Spare repair sheets for the bike shop.
Rubbish bag (for waterproofing things if it rains)
Torch and knife
First aid kit (3 Small boys- nuff said)
LED Blinky light
Two packs of dead batteries (Which by the looks of them, have been there some time, I really need to get a dynamo set)
Oily rag
Foam tube to protect paint when locking bike.
Bike lock
Hexagonal keys
Smallest Son’s waterproof coat
Hoodie top
Another plastic bag for waterproofing things. (Probably forgot about the rubbish bag)
To that, add the saddle cover, two trekking straps and 2m long rope, and hexagonal key set in the little meshpockets.
I don’t know which is worse: that I didn’t realise realise I was carrying this lot, that having found out I put most of it back into the bike, or that I found it interesting enough to write a blog entry about it.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll try and figure how to put the side loaders back on the Xtracycle.
Every now and again someone brings a bike into the shop which needs to be scrapped. Usually that’s not why the customer brings it: they are hoping that for a few euro we’ll make it ready for a ten-day tour. By this evening. Or tomorrow at the latest. Often the bike could be restored, but it would cost more than the cheapo full suspension bike on sale at the local supermarket that week. The Boss and I spend much time whining about this.
The frames on these bikes are usually in good condition, and some of the parts could certainly be useful for something. I rarely know what, of course, but I swipe whatever I can anyway on the basis they are too darn cool to throw away, This nice retro light is a case in point: I have some vague idea about changing the current mudguards on the Xtracycle for a set of metal ones (scrounged off another scrap bike) whereupon I’ll fit this to make a very cool retro looking front headlight. That’s if I can get the scrounged hub dynamo to work. If I can work out how to fit LED’s into the casing, I may even manage it before winter.
I don’t have an immediate need for old pedals, but I’ll use them somewhere. Eventually.
A very long time ago I muttered mutterings about trying to enrol in an apprenticeship to fix bicycles. Basically it fell flat: I worked in a shop with a very good mechanic for a few days, and he told me to wait ‘until September’ for a letter saying if I’d been accepted. I’m still waiting. I didn’t chase it up because I’ve worked with someone who did this sort of thing before and from experience I don’t think it’s worth it.
Then last week as I was looking at the sorry remains of the ancient bike frame (which I’ve decided is a dead bike frame, please go here to pay your last respects) when the local pastor told me there was an opening in a the village bike shop. As I’ve fixed the pastor’s bike a few months ago and he’s still breathing, he suggested me to the owner.
So I wandered down to the shop and met The Boss, who brushed aside all my protestations that I’ve not worked in the industry for years, never touched a disc brake, can’t straighten a wheel etc, (note to self: work on interview technique) and told me to come back in a day or so for a trial run. The day before yesterday I made my debut by breaking a tyre lever but we generally had a great time, at the end of which he asked how he should pay me and when I can come back. I’ll be there on Tuesday afternoon. It’s a part-time position, which is great because I can shuffle hours and work alongside my theoretical day job in theatre while relearning the trade, and although the pay isn’t wonderful but it’s a darn sight more than if I’d said ‘no’, and I get bike parts at wholesale prices -which will mean a big saving with my ability to break stuff. Best of all, it’s in the village so I don’t have to pay to travel there.
The shop is struggling a bit because it gained a shabby reputation under a previous owner . The current owner: (henceforth known as ‘The Boss’ took over a couple of years ago and he’s now trying to regain customers. I watched him working and I’m pretty impressed by how he deals with customers and staff, and how he’s managed to turn it around in the last year. The Boss has his work cut out at the moment with more repairs than he can handle, and the shop is a mess of repaired and not yet repaired bikes, which is of course good news in a way because there’s lots of work.
Also good news: Middle Son finally has a bike, I’ll take a photo of him riding it when I find the camera wherever it’s hiding, and the Brooks Saddle is truly less uncomfortable when at an angle. There’s hope yet.
The only bit of metaphorical grit in the bearing grease are the cracks in that bike frame for Beautiful Wife: Time to start scouring newspapers for a small steel ladies bike with a good frame on 26″ wheels.
Last Autumn my 11-year-old gel saddle finally split under the strain of carrying my backside for several thousand kilometres and after much consideration (putting it off) I replaced it with a Brooks Flyer, which I was assured by those in the know, was the best -indeed the only- saddle for a regular cyclist like me.
This winter was less than comfortable. Come to think of it, that may be partly why I used the Bakfiets so much.
To be fair, the Brooks has to be broken in, and it had a tough act to follow: I struck lucky eleven years ago with the Gel saddle: it’s like sitting on a sofa, but never caused the sort of ailments that are the regular stuff of message boards and letters to bike magazines. I don’t have much natural padding either, so getting on a saddle of tensioned leather was a bit of a shock for my rather bony anatomy. I’m glad I didn’t get an unsprung version like the B17.
It’s always darkest just before the dawn: after much muttering and almost religiously applying proof-hide over winter it seemed to get worse, but since the weather warmed above freezing I’m finally beginning to see a difference. I wouldn’t describe the saddle as comfortable just yet, but it’s certainly less uncomfortable, if that makes sense. Cycling is becoming enjoyable again and I’m beginning to think about venturing a bit further afield to try the Brooks out over a longer distance.
I’ll take my old Gel Saddle and a set of hexagonal keys though, just in case.
