Indian Summer Ride

Alex and I took the afternoon off from working on the kitchen project to ride the Rivergreenway out to the new Towpath Trail. It was a magnificent day, mostly sunny, 69 degrees, and a gentle southwesterly breeze.

I took Big Orange today, my Schwinn LeTour III that I converted to a fixed gear. I recently wrapped the handlebars with a used inner tube, then used some spongy tape from Planet Bike on top of the tube wrap.


Here's the new trail that connects to the new Towpath Trail. Although this section is not called the Towpath Trail, this is where the Wabash and Erie Canal once flowed. It has since been filled in. This is the grand portage between the Great Lakes and the Wabash River which flows into the Mississippi. This was a very strategic location early in the westward expansion of our country.



Here's Alex and the end of the trail


On the way back we found this sign posted next to a small bridge that crossed a section of the canal still in place. I didn't see any trolls.

Hope the weather was good for all of you out there today!

Happy riding!

In The Kitchen

Since last Saturday, I've been under a self-imposed ban from cycling so I can renovate our kitchen. We live in an old farmhouse (124 yrs old), and the kitchen hasn't been updated since the mid-50's. We thought it was time to do something, so we ordered some cabinets. It was then I realized how much work was ahead of me.

Progress has been really slow until recently. Ripping all of the old plaster and lath from the ceiling and walls was the dirtiest, dustiest thing I have ever done, and it took a lot longer than I thought (4 days in all).


I'm doing the electrical and plumbing myself, and have that completed now. No leaks so far.


I have a couple of friends who are good at drywall, and they are helping me with that. Once we started drywall, progress has been good. Above are the two walls left to do, and below are the two walls and the ceiling we have already hung.


The weather has been perfect for cycling all week, but I wanted to stay focused on the kitchen. The new cabinets come early this next week, so we should have the drywall all taped and mudded by then, if all goes well. Unfortunately, I return to work, so I will only have evenings to hang the cabinets.

It is amazing how life revolves around the kitchen, especially the kitchen sink. I didn't realize that until I started this project. How we miss that old kitchen sink. But in the end, life will be much easier and cleaner, since we will have cabinets for all of our pots and pans, plastic food containers, cycling maps, ride flyers, pegs to hang my cycling clothes, etc. You get the idea.

Well it is morning and daylight is burning, so back to the drywall with memories of the road to spur me on.

Happy riding!

New Auburn Trail

At lunch I've been riding a new trail the City of Auburn Park Department is building. I keep my Schwinn fixed gear bike in the back of my truck. Today I took a video using my camera. I held the camera with my right hand and held onto the brake with the left. It's pretty bumpy, so if you get seasick easily, don't click on it.



Over the past few weeks, the entire length has been topped with limestone gravel and much of it has been compacted and is ready for asphalt. A section of the trail behind Rieke Park has already been paved with asphalt.

I believe this segment will be called the Rieke Park Trail. It is a part of the old New York Central Rail Line. The state of Indiana claimed the 150 mile right-of-way some time ago, but last year divided up the trail and gave each segment to the county/municipality in which it passes.

By following this trail to the end, it is a short hop east on Betz Road to a bike and walking trail along old US 27 that connects Auburn with Waterloo, Indiana. From my office, it is about 5.4 miles to Waterloo.


View Rieke Park Trail to Waterloo in a larger map


Nice to see some progress on the trail front in NE Indiana.

Happy riding!

Sunny Day

The sun came out today and farmers are able to get into their fields to cut their soybeans. Sorry for the crappy picture, but this is the first time I've been able to capture my shadow in over a week (clouds and rain).

Happy riding!

LeTour Fixed Gear

I didn't bike commute at all last week, but I took my Schwinn LeTour III fixed gear conversion with me each day and rode at lunch. One of the nice things about having a pickup truck is I can leave the bike in the back and ride from different starting points.

This afternoon I rode from home out to the Van Zile bridge on my fixie. I've been riding it more lately than my Tricross.
It's fun to ride, but it's a much different ride. The frame is very comfortable, but the saddle, well, it sucks. It was the saddle that came with my Tricross, which I promptly replaced. I need to wrap the handlebars - I have the tape, but want to put something under the wrap to make the bars more comfortable. Thanks to Myles, I think I'll use old innertubes for the base wrap, then put the other tape I have over the top.

On the way home, I passed this hot air balloon taking off from the park in Leo.



I like winter, but I really miss the warm weather. Not quite used to putting on layers to bike.

Anyway, hope all of you out there are having good rides!

Editorial Comment

Parade Magazine ran a bike-related article in this morning's paper. Columbia, Missouri's Mayor Hindman is to be commended for his efforts to make his town more bike friendly. I believe the simplicity of his message is the secret to the success of such an investment in Columbia's bicycling infrastructure. His message is attractive for people no matter what their political persuasion.

Mayor Hindman has identified three big problems our society faces:

1) Reliance on foreign oil
2) Childhood obesity
3) Life isn't as much fun

If we are to advance our pedal-pushing so that our cities and counties and states make places safer and more convenient for us to ride (and of course encourage everyone to bike!) then it is important that we identify and repeat messages like Mayor Hindman's to our lawmakers that are politically neutral.

We have much to gain if we keep our messages simple and appealing to everyone.

Happy riding!

Kuwahara Fork Problem Solved

After some fiddling around, I think I've gotten my Kuwahara fork bent back in to shape. Here's how I did it.

I started by bolting the fork to my workbench using u bolts - 1 1/2" for the steerer tube, 1" for the fork tubes.



Notice how the bearing cone extends beyond the steerer tube. I hand-tightened the nuts on the u bolts so I didn't bend the steerer tube.


After the nuts were all hand-tightened and very snug, I began bending with a 4' long piece of 2" dia PVC pipe. I used my right hand near the end of the pipe and my left hand on the work bench. If you decide to do this at home in this same manner, beware. It doesn't take very much effort to bend the fork. I wanted to bend only a very small amount at a time so I didn't over bend and have to bend back. I believe over bending and bending back will weaken the fork.

I used reference marks on the workbench to check my bending progress.
To check my progress, I placed a straight edge along the fork tube first on one side, then the other.

Doesn't look like much space here at the top of the steerer tube.

There's loads on the other side. I split the difference and measured from my reference marks near the drop outs. More bending to do.


I actually had to bend the other side - the side I thought was the non-bent side. I bent that in slightly toward the center, and pulled the bent side out again very slightly.

There, now the measurements are equal on both sides.

I had to do a little bit of bending to get the fork ends to be equal (level) on the front-to-back axis.

Then, the last item I checked before declaring myself done was to measure the drop out spacing. Perfect.
Fits like it should now.

One last item - since the fork had been bent, and I did more bending to get it back to close to factory condition, but not quite, the fork drop outs are not parallel. They should be parallel so they don't place too much stress on your front axle, and especially your skewer. A broken skewer equals broken bones or worse. Be careful. Take the fork to your local LBS to see if they have the whereabouts to fix this problem for you.

I did put the fork on my bike tonight and rode for a little bit. I can now ride no-handed on the Kuwahara!