Tuesday, January 26, 2010

2010 Eugene Bike/Pedestrian Summit

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Visited a sort of "town hall meeting" for active transport advocacy in Eugene this weekend. A host of familiar local and non-local businesses and groups were present as well as some newer ones. There were also several large maps of the city posted up for community members to point out portions of the city which could be improved for bikers and walkers with better infrastructure.

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(See this one big and read people's comments)

The most entertaining part of the event for me actually took place afterwards, when I had the opportunity to ride some of the unusual bikes built by the students of the alternative high school and apprenticeship programs at the Center for Appropriate Transport.

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The apprenticeship program's chaise-lounge cargo bike. I can't decide whether it was more fun to ride or drive this one. I spent the better part of an hour doing both.

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The alternative school's sidecar-equipped-BMX, which they called the "sidehack." The youngsters were really good at throwing it into epic powerslides.

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By the way, I had a lot of fun at last Wednesday's Bike Appreciation Day, which I think really helped to promote awareness of the UO Bike Program's DIY shop and maintenance classes. Here, comrade and co-worker Jeff re-cables his brake during a lull in campus traffic. The next one's on Wednesday, Feb. 11, and we hope to have some shiny goodies to hand out.

Finally, I would like to ask you all to remember the importance of dressing up as a robot:
_DSC0451Because, sometimes, you just have to look silly, dammit.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

2010 Tweed


Weather looks good, but I can't go. Previous ride reports here and photos here.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Spoker



A certain Schwinn equipped with a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed came in for repair one time too many this week. The hub was overdue for an overhaul, which I'd never done on an internally geared hub before, so I oped to lace up a simple coaster hub.



Lacing the wheel was easy. Measuring the no-name hub and rim took a bit of time. Cutting the spokes to length, filing them, and turning threads onto their heads took awhile. Discovering I'd measured the rim incorrectly and compensating by putting a twist in each pair of spokes took just a bit more time than I'd care to admit.

But now it's done, it's out there in the world, and I've learned to measure in at least three places to determine Effective Rim Diameter.