Archive for November, 2008
Finally, a photo of the Carrier Pigeon
Odd that I speak so much about the bicycles yet I don’t have any pictures. Well, the wait is over. :)
Carrier Pigeon Diary 11
The pigeons have been running grand, albeit I am looking forward to throwing the 25t sprocket on the rear, for a wee bit of extra low-end oooompf. The Sturmey-Archer hub is performing nicely, displaying a very unique ratio curve. You see, the hub has a 1-to-1 1st gear (one revolution of the crank translates into [...]
Gauging Heating Energy Consumption
I’ve had a revelation as of recent, as it relates to energy consumption. I believe that part of the reason that people have a tendency to be less energy conscious than they may be otherwise is that we are sometimes insulated from the levels of our consumption. Yes, we get a bill from our utility [...]
Maximizing the Sturmey-Archer hub
The 8-speed XRD8 Sturmey-Archer hub that comes standard on the box bike is a fine hub and a good value (retail less than $200). This being said, the XRD8 is at its core a Sturmey hub and subsequently carries on the company’s eccentric tradition, albeit the better parts of the company’s heritage. Now made in [...]
Carrier Pigeons Diary 10
I called Sturmey-Archer’s California office today and my call was quickly fielded by a very friendly and knowledgeable chap who provided great help. He directed me to their distributor for new 25T rear hub sprockets (to lower my gearing from the 23T currently on the bikes) and offered to mail a new brake arm to [...]
Carrier Pigeons Diary 9
I spent way too much time messing with the tomato twins today. Fortunately, it was sunny outside so I simply rolled all my tools and stand out to the driveway and worked outside. It was really a great setting for bike maintenance. I swapped out the crank on Big Beef (which went very quickly after [...]
Carrier Pigeons Diary 8
Tonight I took it upon myself to head out to the garage and swap out one of the cranks. I will spare you the details, but it took far longer than it needed to due to the fact that I continually fail to fully assess a situation before diving in. This resulted in me essentially [...]
Carrier Pigeons Diary 7
It’s Tuesday, November 11 and I used Goliath for a dark, dreary, totally soaked multi-stop run this evening. I took the bike out of the garage and headed to Joe-Bike’s new store on SE Hawthorn and 40th Ave., to pick up the 32-tooth cranks and to swap out the rear rack. The rack had been [...]
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