This is my new Surly Long Haul Trucker. The LHT is a popular bike for loaded touring and it also makes a capable city/commuter bike. Mine is mostly stock, but I’ve added a few accessories and modified the cockpit to suit my preferences. Additions include a Brooks B67 saddle, Nitto bars, cork grips, Real brake levers, MKS touring pedals, Nitto bottle cages, SKS fenders, Brooks mud flap, Tubus rack, and Japanese brass bell. —Alan

My LHT was purchased at Gold Country Cyclery in Shingle Springs, CA. Thanks Rick!

Like most enthusiasts, I like nice bikes. I mean what bike nut doesn’t get excited over the artistry of Sacha White or Joseph Ahearne. There’s a lot to be said for a bike that’s custom built specifically to fit your physique, with every detail carefully attended to. Such a bike can be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase and acquiring one usually involves a major investment in time, effort, and expense.

I’ve been lucky enough to own a full-custom bike, and I’ve also owned many semi-custom bikes based upon production frames, but built-up from bare framesets with each component spec’d to my liking. Most of these bikes have been a joy to own and ride. Besides being a pleasure to look at, photograph, and work on, for the most part they’ve performed flawlessly on the road.

But there is a drawback to expensive, high-end bikes. I always take good care of my equipment, and custom bikes, more so than run-of-the-mill production models, demand to be handled with kid gloves. Somehow I can’t get comfortable riding a really nice bike in the rain everyday, locking it up to the bike rack in front of the grocery store, or hanging it on a hook in the baggage car where it will bang against other bikes. These restrictions handicap the day-to-day usefulness of these bikes and limit their full potential as tools (of course, others may not have this same aversion to using their custom bikes as their daily rides).

Because I’m now using my bikes as tools for transportation, I find myself gravitating toward less extravagant production models that are only slightly modified for personal preference. My thinking has changed from always looking for the optimal, to looking for a certain mid-level functionality that will get the job done without going overboard and triggering that urge to baby the bike. My Pashley, my Brompton, and my soon-to-be Surly LHT fall into this category. Unlike high-end custom bikes, they’re workhorses that I’m not afraid to use and abuse… and even put a few scratches on.

[My good friend Rick Steele (owner of Gold Country Cyclery) gets all the cool toys, and this rare Moulton may be the best yet. —Alan]

Here’s a few shots to show how my minimal restoration or upgrade is going..

Really the frameset is in nice shape with only a couple minor blems..  I do need a new headbadge with SPEED on the bottom.  I don’t know how the headbadge got so worn looking..

It would have had Campy Delta brakes if they could have reached a few more mm’s..

Went to an ITM 44cm C-C HB, one that would fit the “Fixbone” stem.. Few new bars will..  Campy Record 9spd Ergo shifters, Centuar 10spd FD cause I had one, and an 8/9 speed Veloce rear derailleur to ensure best compatibility with the AM 9spd cluster.  Took a lot of work to find the right chain length and b-tension adjust to get the darn thing to shift all cogs in both rings. With straight cut cogs set, the chain had to be lengthened..

At my 6′2″ height, 35.5″ actual inseam and long reach I was surprised how well this 55.5cm frame fits.. As good as any I have owned.

Gotta like that Record CF seat post too :-)

This bike’s a keeper as long as I can still ride..

Regards,
Rick Steele

Gold Country Cyclery
3830 Dividend Dr. Suite B
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
Ph:  (530) 676-3305
Fax: (530) 672-0501
Email : gctandems@sbcglobal.net
Website: http://www.tandems-recumbents.com

It’s been two days in a row now that I’ve wimped out on bike commuting because of the smoke from our 1000-some odd fires here in California. I’ve never seen it so bad; I have to keep telling myself it’s smoke because it looks just like fog or cloud cover. Problem is, I’m getting downright cranky from not riding. It’s funny how, once you get accustomed to riding 7 days a week, a couple of days off seems like an eternity. I just may go against my better judgement and take the bike tomorrow anyway.

I’d be curious to know if my fellow NorCal bike commuters are braving the bad air.

Planet Bike is a cool company. They offer a nice line-up of cycling accessories and their Superflash is by far the best little self-contained tail light on the market. What makes them unique though, is their policy of donating a full 25% of their company profits to grassroots cycling advocacy organizations:

Photo © Evening Standard

A group of enterprising parents, working with their local schools in the London suburb of Richmond and supported by a grant from Transport for London, have developed a bike sharing program for transporting their children to-and-from school. The bikes, all Dutch cargo bikes, are left at one of the schools and can be borrowed for short trips by participating parents. According to organizers, the bikes have been in constant use since the program’s inception.

The program, called “Parents for Pedal Power”, has been so successful that it won the Cycling Community Award from Transport for London. The award “recognises the vital role these initiatives play in making cycling open and accessible to all Londoners.”

See the MSNBC video coverage here.

[This commute story is from Dale Oswald. -ed.]

I live in a medium-sized metro area with a lot of tech jobs going away. Though the economy is suffering, there are still jobs out there, but they’re with smaller companies that pay less and are scattered about. My situation put me at a new job, farther away from work (32mi/50km). Despite the lower pay and longer commute, I am fortunate to find work that matches my skills, experience and temperament.

My medium-sized metro area also has spotty transit coverage. My commute starts on one side of the city and ends at the other. Park & Ride busses aren’t scheduled to make this kind of connection, and using local buses doubles my transit time. I only use transit when no other option is available. Combinations of bike and bus don’t work well, either.

My solution is to drive about 20 miles and ride 13. The night before, I load my bag and lay out my cycling clothes. I drive an older car with little theft value that is large enough to put my SWB recumbent inside. I park in a shopping plaza near a multi-use trail, then use the trail plus suburban streets to ride to work. The process starts at 5:45 am and ends at 8:00 or so. At night, I leave my desk at 5 pm and am home by 7 pm. When all is said and done, this combination takes me about 1:50 longer than driving, but it’s all riding time. And at today’s fuel prices (6/08) I have reduced my daily fuel cost from US$11.25 to $7.

The only glitch in this is that the last half mile is on a busy arterial with no shoulders. I found a way around by obtaining permission to cross private property (church grounds) to the back of my place of employment.

Commuting to work will always be more of a hassle than driving or using transit. Walking out your door in street clothes and arriving at work ready to go is simpler and faster than changing clothes, locking up your bike and covering the seat, walking back and forth from your work area to where you change, doing extra laundry and managing your clothing in variable weather. Yes, you can minimize this by getting your systems down pat, or if your work facilities include a locker room and shower. It’s also easier if you can work and cycle in the same clothes. But it is worth it to me, for the health benefits, money saved and the clearer conscience on reducing my footprint on the earth.

With over 800 fires raging here in Northern California, it’s starting to feel like the entire state is going up in flames. And with the air quality index for today approaching the “extremely unhealthy” range, I’m glad to be telecommuting. On a positive note, the smoke is making for some striking sunrises.

Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson, Jr. was recently in Portland, OR to cover the city’s first Sunday Parkways event. The Portland event is patterned after Bogatá, Columbia’s Ciclovía “street opening” festivals, where cars are periodically banned from the streets to make way for pedestrians, cyclists, bladers, joggers, and all manner of happy people. From all reports, Portland’s event was a resounding success and a grand time was had by all.

From Portland Car-Free Day:

When I come to an intersection, in my mind’s eye, I draw a bird’s eye view of my path and the potential paths of all the vehicles in my range of vision. In other words, I visualize a mental map of potential collision points in a plan view, like a GPS display, but showing not just where to go, but also where the potential threats are coming from. All of this happens semi-subconsciously in the blink of an eye. I’ve done it for many years, and I admit this sounds a little weird, and I don’t know how it got started, but I think it helps keep me safer on the road.

I’m only guessing, but I suspect this habit of visualizing a “collision map”, if you will, may be a result of the fact that I’m a graphic designer that works (and consequently thinks) in two dimensions all day. Among other things, I create a fair amount of technical graphics and maps. The mapping in particular seems closely related to this unusual habit. (My wife is always confounded with my keen sense of direction and ability to read maps, while I’m continually confounded by her ability to remember precisely what someone said in a conversation three weeks ago… LOL. I think this demonstrates something about the left brain versus right brain paradox.) But I’ve terribly digressed, so back to the point…

I believe one of the most important things we can do to stay safe on the road is to anticipate the actions of our fellow road users. That’s why I use a rear view mirror; if I see a car drifting onto the shoulder or into the bike lane I have an extra split-second to take evasive measures (this has saved my life at least once, maybe twice). The same holds true for left and right hooks (the deadliest of all one of the more common accident types); anticipating that a car might hook you by visualizing its potential path buys a split-second that may be just enough to avoid getting hit.

I’m not suggesting anyone make a conscious effort to draw a virtual map in their mind every time they come to an intersection (that’s far too distracting unless it’s something that comes naturally), but I am suggesting it behooves all cyclists to get in the habit of anticipating where other road users are headed. Doing so is arguably the best defense against a collision.

Photo © WorkCycles

Henry Workcycles in Amsterdam are builders and retailers of bakfiets, workbikes, and hand-built city bikes. What I find intriguing about WorkCycles (besides their exquisite products) is the fact that owner Henry Cutler is an American expatriate living and working in Amsterdam, building and selling traditional Dutch bicycles. You can read more about his interesting story on his blog, Bakfiets en meer:
[ Part 1 | Part 2 ]

Here’s the WorkCycles philosophy (from their website):

Photo © Larry Hickmott (British Cycling)

The Smithfield Nocturne Folding Bike Race is held as a part of the Smithfield Nocturne cycling event in London. The race pits commuters on folding bikes against one another in a Le Mans-style race around the historic Smithfield Market. At the drop of the start flag, the suit-and-shorts clad racers run 10m to their bikes, pick them up and run another 10m, unfold them as fast as possible, and race 5 laps around the 1km closed course (sounds a bit like my sprint to the train every weekday morning… LOL). The 2008 event hosted over 100 entries with competitors coming from as far away as Slovenia. The grand prize for this year’s event was a Dahon Speed Pro TT folding bicycle and bragging rights as the world’s fastest multi-modal commuter.

You Tube Videos

• 2008 Bigfish Start Video
• 2007 BBC Coverage

Across the spectrum, from the most utilitarian to the most high-performing, the range of bicycle designs is a continuum of subtle differences. As much as we like to categorize bikes, when we line them up, it jumps out that it’s actually a small series of steps that takes us from one end to the other. I attempted to illustrate this with the above graphic (click the “zoom” button).

Starting on the left is a carbon lowracer recumbent, and on the far right is a carbon time trial bike. In the middle we have a beach cruiser and a city bike. The lowracer and the time trial bike give up everything in user-friendliness to gain the most in performance. The beach cruiser and city bike give up everything in performance to gain the most in user-friendliness. The bikes between the two extremes are bundles of conflicting priorities, each making compromises to reach a middle ground between utility and performance.

There’s more to performance than aerodynamics, but reducing wind resistance is by far the most dramatic way to increase efficiency (at 20 mph, wind resistance makes up approximately 90% of total resistance). The cyclist’s torso generates a tremendous amount of wind resistance, so for maximum efficiency the body needs to be laid down inline with the direction of travel. But doing so dramatically reduces a bike’s user-friendliness because an upright torso position (with the rider’s feet near the ground) is the most natural and confidence-inspiring. Recumbents with high bottom brackets, and upright racing bikes with extremely low handlebars, both put the rider in positions that, while being highly efficient, are unnatural and limited in their practicality. And, of course, bikes that place the rider in an upright position, while providing excellent user-friendliness, are limited in their efficiency. (Fairings bend the rules by allowing an upright seating position with good aerodynamics, but they increase complexity, weight, and cost, thus reducing practicality.)

No particular type of bicycle is necessarily better or worse than another (though an argument can be made that it may be prudent to focus on practicality over sport at this particular juncture, but I digress). Each attempts to fill a need; the trick is finding the type that best fits an intended use. Bikes that fall in the middle ground between pure performance and pure user-friendliness (like hybrids and low-end MTBs) are popular because they’re versatile (and consequently, relatively inexpensive). But like other “all-purpose” tools, they tend to do a lot of things reasonably well, but very few things exceptionally well. So pick your medicine: lots of performance, lots of utility, or a little of both. When it comes to bikes, like so many other things in life, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Boston’s New Amsterdam Project provides green, human-powered freight and delivery services. They design and build their own custom cargo bikes and other special purpose HPVs. A partial list of their clients includes Boston Organics, Fiore di Nonno, Harvard University, Lionette’s Market, Silverbrook Farm, Taza Chocolates, and University Florist.

The NAP Mission Statement:

Human-powered freight services are not a replacement for long-distance trucking companies, but they provide an eco-friendly and efficient alternative for local delivery within a city center.

More Information:

• New Amsterdam Project Website
• NAP on NPR’s “Day to Day”
• NAP in the News

Grant Petersen was Marketing Director and Bike Designer for Bridgestone Bicycles during the 1980’s and early ’90s. His philosophy of bike design was unique for that era (and ours); he believed in building bikes and speccing components that were practical, versatile, durable, repairable, and timeless, regardless of current popular trends. He marketed their bikes with smartly designed, thought provoking catalogs, refreshingly devoid of hype and puffery. Bridgestone eventually pulled out of the U.S. market, but Grant’s vision lives on in his current company, Rivendell Bicycle Works.

During his tenure at Bridgestone, Grant fostered a community of like-minded cyclists through the creation of the “Bridgestone Owners Bunch” (BOB). Members received the BOB Gazette newsletter and were provided the opportunity to purchase unique BOB accessories such as Brooks saddles imprinted with the BOB logo, T-shirts, etc. The BOB was very popular and was quite a work of marketing genius.

When Bridgestone shut down operations in the U.S., naturally the Bridgestone Owners Bunch went dormant. Eventually though, the newsletter was resurrected as an e-mail listserv which came to be known as the iBOB list. The list continues today in both listserv and web-based formats and is inhabited by cycling enthusiasts of various persuasions, each sharing the common desire to keep the BOB approach alive.

BOBish Resources

iBOB List
The Velvet Foghorn BOBish Resources Page
Sheldon Brown’s Bridgestone Page
Rivendell Bicycle Works

I enjoyed this video from Reuters about practical bicycles in the Netherlands. Henry Cutler of Henry Workcycles (interviewed toward the end of the video) was particularly eloquent in describing the need for the larger bicycle industry to create a “model for the modern world” that is a “step further ahead” of car culture.

[via Beezodog's Place]

I seem to get an inordinate number of questions about bike commuting from my coworkers and people that I meet on the train and bus. I suspect the fact that I ride a folder contributes to this, though it may just be that I attract questions because I’m enthusiastic and eager to chat with people about one of my favorite subjects (bikes) and it shows on my face.

People are typically curious about how far I ride, how long I’ve been bike commuting, what I do in the winter, how much my bike cost (that always shocks them a little, but I remind them how cheap it is in comparison to a car), how much money I’m saving, etc. And they’re often congratulatory, saying what a great sacrifice I’m making for the environment, what a big commitment it must be, how nice it must be to ride past the gas station, and how they “could never do that” (though they most certainly could, and I tell them so).

But here’s the big secret: bike commuting is no sacrifice at all. As a matter of fact, I often feel a pang of guilt for doing it. It’s so much fun, and I derive so many benefits from it (health, wealth, serenity) that my subconscious mind assumes I must be cheating, that I must be doing something bordering on the unethical or illegal, because nothing in this world is free (right?). But bike commuting, so it seems, defies this capitalistic logic of getting what you pay for, and actually gives you what you deserve; not in the negative sense of retribution, but in the most positive sense of reaping the rewards of trying to do the right thing.

So I’ve started telling people about this. When they ask why I bike commute, instead of launching into the ecological and economic benefits, I first talk to them about how much fun it is, how good it makes me feel, and how little effort it takes. I tell them about the things I see along the road (birds, kids, dogs, turkeys, hawks, squirrels), the way it clears out the cobwebs in the morning and flushes out the stress in the evening, what a relief it is to be free of driving related stress and anxiety, and that you couldn’t pay me to go back to driving a car everyday.

I hope that by sharing my big secret—the fact that bike commuting is not a sacrifice at all, but instead is a richly rewarding endeavor—people will be more likely to consider it for themselves.

This cool video is from Daniel Kopald over at Cargo-Bike.

Moving to a car-lite (or car-free) lifestyle can require a variety of bikes to meet all of the needs that were previously met by an automobile (not a bad thing!). Fortunately, eliminating a car can save up to $8,000-10,000 per year; the extra expense of one or two bikes pales in comparison. In our case, we’re doing fairly well with two roadsters and a folder (plus a few ‘bents for good measure), but there are times where a little more carrying capacity would be great. Right now we can easily haul up to 50-60 pounds, but we’re limited in our ability to carry large, bulky items. Our plan is to have a Surly Big Dummy built up over the summer. If it performs as as well as anticipated, it should nicely round out our fleet.

Classic roadsters have lugged-steel frames; swept-back “North Road” handlebars; one-speed hubs or 3-speed internal-gear hubs; steel cranks with single chainrings; fully-enclosed chaincases and steel fenders; 28″ (700B) wheels with steel rims; and sometimes, dynamo hubs with integrated lights. Traditionally, roadsters came equipped with rod brakes, but modern roadsters more commonly use cable-actuated drum or caliper brakes. Roadsters are built to withstand the rigors of daily use on rough roads, and as such are quite heavy. They are anything but performance bikes, but they make wonderful daily workhorses for running errands and hauling loads from the grocery store, library, or hardware store.

Very few true roadsters are still being manufactured today. More common in this country are what are called “Dutch” bikes (so-called Dutch bikes are closely related to roadsters but differ slightly in their ergonomics and frame geometry). In other parts of the world, roadsters are still widely used as utility bikes. The Chinese Flying Pigeon brand roadster is closely associated with the communist era during which it became the single most popular mechanized vehicle in the world. It is estimated there are still 500 million on the road today, with many handed down from one generation to the next. All modern-day roadsters are based upon the English roadsters of the 1930s, with the archetype being the Raleigh 3-speed.

Pashley calls their roadster a “whale amongst minnows”; I feel the above photo accurately captures the personality of this imposing bicycle.

• Pashley Roadster
• Flying Pigeon NYC
• Sheldon Brown’s 3-Speed Page