New Year's Resolutions

After four months in Central Europe, I'm back in Canada, and absolutely dying to get on with all sorts of bike things. Let us look to the future, and make some plans!

#1. Finally have a randonneur. This has been mostly out of my hands to this point, but not any longer. I ordered a Mariposa in 2007, and they stopped building frames. I ordered a Velo Orange in 2007, it was supposed to be ready in summer 2008, and in winter 2009 I was told they'd discontinued the semi-custom randonneur program. Now, after considerable waiting, I have a frame. I went to see it before Christmas. There are a few changes I want to make before it's painted, but it certainly is serviceable. There is a tremendous amount of "construction" (prononcé en français) still to be done: wiring to set up, fenders to mount, racks to make level, perhaps even a derailleur to build. But I hereby resolve: I will have my randonneur ready for spring rides!

In that spirit, today I built up my new generator hub into my old front wheel. (That's the new wheel up there, in front a Greg Curnoe poster and postcard.) One of the sure signs that you've been waiting too long for your custom frame is that the parts become obsolete. When I ordered the Velo Orange in 2008, I bought and built up a SON28 hub into Mavic MA rims. Since then, the SON 20R has appeared, and it made too much sense not to use. So I bought one, and yesterday unlaced the SON28 from the wheel, and today rebuilt the wheel with the SON20R. (See the two hubs side-by-side below.) The SON20R an incredibly cool hub. It's very nice-looking, it's light, and the upside of its narrow flange spacing is that it's probably more aerodynamic. I think, by the way, that the flange spacing is more or less identical to that on my Phil Wood "Riv" rear hub. Matching—always important to me!

#2. Build more frames. If there is one thing that my experience as a customer has taught me, it is that there is room for improvement in the "business" of custom bikes. My experience as a student in Doug Fattic's class taught me that—a surprise to myself!—I possess the mechanical aptitude to braze, file, and otherwise build bicycle frames. The fact that I am still writing this blog, over a year after the fact, has proven that my passion for handmade bicycles has not lessened. And the frustrations outlined above have taught me a lot about running a custom bicycle business.

Of course, I have a lot of work to do before I can start thinking about starting a business. The first thing is of course to get more experience building frames and racks. This will, hopefully, begin soon. This will be the main point of interest in the blog in the coming year. I'm planning on building two bikes at least: one designed for riding in snowy Toronto winter conditions, and an all-season city bike. These are more or less designed in my head, I've started getting parts ready, and hopefully construction will start soon.

#3. Ride more. Mostly because I didn't have a proper bike, I didn't ride as much as I normally do this year. 2010 will be different! I'll try to ride at least a 200, 300, and 400 with the Randonneurs—maybe even complete a Series. Paris-Brest-Paris is next year, and I intend to be there!

#4. Sell things I don't need. This will finance points 1-3, and make room for the frames I'm going to build! I'll post the more interesting things here.

I am always surprised at how many comments I get on my posts on this blog. In 2010, I will try to provide lots of interesting posts to comment on!

Merry Christmas Clive: Front Brake Hangers and Stops

My lucky bike Clive has already received his first Christmas gift.

Since my stem came hanger-free, I have been thinking over what the ideal location is for a front brake cable stop. Originally my idea was that the stop should be put smack dab in the middle of the stem extension. This is a crude implementation of the idea. I was thinking one could put a water bottle boss on the top of the extension, tap it out to M6, and then put an adjuster in the top. Two complications with this plan: you'd have to angle the boss such that it follows the angle of the headtube, which is the angle the brake cable needs to be at. And you need to drill an exit hole in the bottom of the extensions in the right place to follow that same angle. And then other questions: would it weaken the stem having a braze-on there? Stems are under a lot of stress, and you don't want them to fail. And would it be annoying that raising and lowering the stem would tighten and loosen the front brake? Also: this idea is pretty awful if you're using aero brake levers (I'm using these).

The other option for a stem-located front brake cable hanger is the one on this Singer stem. Very attractive, and simpler than the above-mentioned idea, since it doesn't pass through the extension. Also, it doesn't cut through the extension, so no chance of weakening it. The drawback of stem-adjusting affecting front brake position remains. And any stop located below the stem is going to cause the housing to rub against the stem, producing rattling and wear of the chroming.

Finally I decided that a headset-mounted stop—the most obvious idea—was probably the best one. Regular steel Mafac hangers are nice looking but don't have cable adjusters. Weinnmann hangers have adjusters but are funny looking. The nicest headset hangers are again those on Alex Singers. Since these need to be made by hand anyway, it would be easy enough to made the stop a threaded boss capable of handling an adjuster.

I sent the above link to my friend Olivier and he got an idea to made a headset-mounted hanger using wires rather than a tube. Before I knew what was going on, he had designed and built the hanger!—the one photographed above. And it's glorious! It's very attractive, it incorporates an adjuster, and it even has an extra "loop" to guide the housing into the stop and possibly reduce rattling and finish-wear. Ingenious! The only possible downside is flexiness—maybe prolonged braking force will serve to "flatten out" the bend of the wires. We'll see! Update: Some actual testing has revealed that it's way too flexy! Back to the drawing board!

Some of you may remember that I was originally going to locate the adjusters right in the brake levers, Mafac-style. I had my Mavic levers tapped for some very attractive Dia Compe adjusters. But since the brake lever body on these Mavic levers is split, the threading was a bit "loose." I'm happier having the adjuster anchored somewhere more stable—and those nice adjusters will look nice on Olivier's hanger!

Clive Arrives

I am very pleased to announce that Clive—my randonneur frame by Dan Polito—has finally arrived on Canadian soil. His arrival was pushed back by many months due to a series of delays. But he is now with Noah at Velocolour. Since I myself am still living in Hungary, my friend Olivier has kindly sent me a whole bunch of photos of the frame and stem. (The custom rod-operated FD accidentally got left behind. It will arrive soon.)

Based on what I've heard from Olivier and seen in these pictures, Clive seems like he's in good shape. As some of you may remember, I sent Dan an extremely detailed order sheet. I'm a very picky customer, so Dan had a tall order. All the basics are right: the brazing is good, the finish is nice, and the clearances are all within a 1/4" and seem right. He also added a number of nice, original touches: nice dropout treatments, an interesting seatlug/sleeve. As a pleasant surprise, he built my fork from Jack Taylor Special Reynolds 531 imperial-oval blades and an old sand-cast crown.

Photos and commentaries follow.

Headtube, fillet-brazed joints, and single shift lever. Also note the very nice loop-and-stop treatment for the brake cables, as I did on my own bike Niles.


"Hellenic" (Dan calls them "continental") stays, seat lug/sleeve, and "where did it come from?" rear brake cable stop. A bit further down, that's the mount for my generator-powered taillight.


Rear brake cable hanger. Might be prone to flexing (thus mushiness), and it's brazed to the thin butt at the top of the seat tube. Pump pegs on the outside of the seatstay might cause the pump to block a bit of light from the taillight.


Fillet brazed bottom bracket area, fender mount braze-on, and thoughtfully indented seatstay for big ring clearance.


Very interesting dropout treatment and slapguard braze-on. Seatstay doesn't follow the angle of the dropout.


A better look at the seat lug/sleeve, which follows the contour of the fillet.


Fender mounting point and rear Mafac braze-ons.


The front dropouts also have interesting attachments. And the big dropouts are striking—and appropriately "English-looking," given the heritage of the fork blades.


A look at the bend of the fork blades. Also English-looking to my eye.


The lovely fork crown, onto which the Mafac bosses are attached. I sent Dan a front rack made by Mike Barry of Mariposa. It looks like I'll need to use a fairly large spacer to have it sit level. I might try making another rack myself...


Big loops for the generator wires on the left fork blade.


Dan's lovely custom quill stem. I still need to add a bell mount and put a cable stop for the front brake. I think I'd like the stop right in the extension, so that the brake cable passes through the stem. Not a very popular design for some reason—maybe because raising/lowering the stem affects the brake action, though that's not a big issue for me; and might even come in handy if I needed to drastically loosen the front brake for some reason...


A look at Dan's unique flush mount of the quill bolt.

A Soviet Bike in Riga

I'm sorry for the sparsity of my posts. Being "on the road" leaves less time that I would like for writing about bikes! And, I must say, generally bikes have not been among the more interesting things I've seen on this trip.

I did learn, on further travelling in Poland, than what I saw on the seaside and in small Gorzów isn't by any means typical of the country. In Wrocław—a university town—I saw lots of interesting city bikes, comparable to the sorts of bikes students ride in Toronto. I also spotted the fellow to the right riding an interesting bike outside of Warsaw. I didn't see any road bikes, however, until I arrived in Lviv (Lwów to Poles) in Ukraine. (I also saw an interesting, old French-looking mobylette in the window of an antiques shop.)

Budapest, where I am now, has a lot more bikes, and a lot more road bikes. But they are for the most part like bikes in Toronto—lots of steel road frames and fixed-gears. Nice, but not very different from what I'm used to.

The most interesting bike I've seen on my trip is the Soviet bike photographed here, which I saw in Riga. The brand name transliterates from the Cyrillic as "Start-Shossyeh," which I would investigate if my meagre internet connection allowed it. The most interesting detail of this bike for me is of course the Soviet Mafac-copy brakes. A close zoom reveals the brand name "XB3" ("Kh-V-Z"), which also appears on the headbadge of the bike (perhaps "Start-Shossyeh" is the model?). This bike is worth a look, in any case, and can be found in the newly created "Bicycles of Central and Eastern Europe" set I've created on my brand-new Flickr site. (Numerous other photos, including a set of cats, can also be found there!)

I was very lucky to be lent a cool 1990s Peugeot bike by my friend David this week, which I still haven't ridden very much. But if the weather is nice tomorrow, I'll head out for a ride to the Buda Hills and post a report here.

Bicycles and Bicycling in Poland

I had been in Poland for the past week, and while not exclusively engaged in bicycle research, I have noticed a few things.

Firstly, there are plenty of bicycles and people riding them. This is no doubt due in large part to the excellent bicycle lanes. Next to most roads—and certainly all newer roads—there is a dedicated bike lane. Generally this is on the other side of the sidewalk from the road—it's doubly separated from traffic, in other words. With all the excitement I've been reading about at home, this car/bicycle segregation doesn't seem like such a bad idea. (On the road outside my girlfriend's grandmother's house, where I'm staying, there was a fatal bike accident yesterday, when a truck driver turned right into a 50 year old cyclist without seeing him. It's an old road, and there's no dedicated bike lane.)

Secondly, the bicycles are generally "practical" rather than sporty. While Poland is an increasingly wealthy country, and car-ownership is certainly the norm, many people seem to use their bikes as "second cars"—for example, my girlfriend's aunt, who uses her bike for grocery shopping and errands when their car is in use. The example photographed is fairly typical, if somewhat newer than average (I'm afraid I haven't seen any weird Soviet-era bikes; they all have English names). I have yet to see a single drop-bar road bike. Mostly you see 1990s-style mountain bike with flat bars, V-brakes or cantilevers, and knobby tires. (Yes, the disease has spread!) But almost every bike I've seen does have a bottle generator-powered headlight, generally attached at the fork crown. The bike photographed, which I saw at the seaside town of Rewal, is distinguished by its neat internal routing.

Another notice, while I'm on the internet: Clive, my Cicli Polito randonneur, is now en route from Cleveland to Toronto, where it will be painted by Noah Rosen of Velocolour. My friend Olivier will be taking lots of photos when it arrives. God bless the internet—I'm dying to see it!

A Cyclist's Guide to Killing Plantar Warts

After my year-long struggle with these painful, irritating things—known to my mother as "planter's warts"—I have discovered the much-sought "fool-proof" way to get rid of them. As with most things (are you listening, Malcolm Gladwell?), the key is hard work.

The Backstory

Toward the end of last summer, I felt what I thought was a sliver on the bottom of my right foot. It even looked like a sliver—just a little black spot beneath the skin. But the main symptom was that when I went over a bump on my bike, I'd feel little bolts of lightning strike my foot. I tried picking at the "sliver" with a needle, to no avail. I spent the rest of the summer hobbling around. Standing in the shop during Doug Fattic's class for 14 hours a day was a particularly painful experience.

Some time after I got home, I looked at the Wikipedia entry for plantar warts, and realized that was what I had. I began treating it with salicylic acid, and then my mom told me to try duct tape. I combined the two techniques, and within a few weeks, wart #1 had fallen off.

But it came back. It didn't hurt as much so I didn't treat it as aggressively, though I did still keep duct tape on it. But over the winter (for instance, walking to and from my hotel in Indianapolis during NAHBS) my foot still hurt in that same spot.

Then, about a month and a half ago, I noticed that while my wart was not very good at making me hurt, it was a prolific reproducer. I had two new warts on my feet. This time I got serious. I tried a lot of different things, and now know exactly how to kill them.

Treatment

First, don't bother with duct tape or anything else. Just use salicylic acid. I used "Duofilm," but I'm sure Compound W or any other brand would work just fine. The other things you'll need are band-aids (the Life brand ones pictured above and available to Canadians at Shopper's Drug Mart are particularly sticky and good), 100ish-grit sandpaper, and some sort of basin.

Next, follow this routine very faithfully. It's hard work; it's annoying; but it works. Every evening, soak your foot in warm water for 5-10 minutes. Then wash the wart and let it dry. Once the skin is dry sand the wart quite vigorously (say 20 swipes or so) with a small square of sandpaper. Once you've removed all the skin you can, put on a few drops of the salicylic acid. Then (and I think this is important) put the bandaid on the wart—but not the "padded" centre part. Instead, cut off one of the sticky thirds of the bandaid with some scissors and apply that sticky part directly to the wart. In the morning, peel off the bandaid (skin—and maybe the wart itself—may come off with it...), put on some more salicylic acid, and apply another sticky bandaid section. One of my theories is that the twice-daily pulling of this sticky bandaid serves to loosen the wart's contact to your foot. But I'm an graduate student in English, so I'm probably wrong.

After a week or so of this routine, faithfully followed, the wart will probably either fall off or come off during one of your vigorous sanding sessions. It is important to keep treating the wart! If you stop now, it will just grow back. I came to regard warts not as "things" but as processes: as little skin-producing factories. What you've done now is gotten rid of the skin produced by the factory—and exposed that accursed factory to the light of day. So keep soaking, sanding, and applying acid. When you get right down to the source of the wart, you'll probably see a little ring of skin with a sort of a ball in the middle. Sand off the ball—it's the factory! When you apply salicylic acid at this point, it will hurt really badly. This means you've won!

With each of my warts, I kept treating them for a few days after I was sure they were dead. Then I stopped treatment, let the normal colour return to the skin around where the warts had been, and checked for that tell-tale funnel/hole. If there is no disruption of the normal pattern in your skin, the wart is gone and dead. But it will take a while for your foot to get over all the trauma it's been through and grow back normal skin.

Once all this is done, it's time to get back on the bike. And avoid ever getting a wart again!

Clive is Dead, Long Live Clive!

Due to a truly bizarre and unforeseeable circumstance—and one not at all his fault—Dan had to scrap the frame he made for me and build a completely new one. The bad news is that I probably won't get to see the frame all painted before I leave on a long trip late this month. So I won't be able to post setup photos, etc., until I get back in January. The good news is that Clive #2 is nearly done, and ready for viewing on Dan's flickr. The dropouts look very nice, and that seat collar is something I've never seen before.

In other news, in the last month I have finally defeated a trinity of dastardly plantar warts that have been hampering my cycling and ruining my life since last summer. In something of a departure into medical blogging, I will put up a post soon about my method for killing them—which is deadly and effective!