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6 | <title>Clinton's New Bike</title> | |
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17 | <body> | |
18 | <h1>Clinton's New Bike</h1> | |
19 | <div class="contents"> | |
20 | <dl> | |
21 | <dt> | |
22 | <a href="#sec1">The Wishlist</a> | |
23 | </dt> | |
24 | <dt> | |
25 | <a href="#sec2">A Whole Lot of Money Later</a> | |
26 | </dt> | |
27 | <dd> | |
28 | <dl> | |
29 | <dt> | |
30 | <a href="#sec3">Fender Installation</a> | |
31 | </dt> | |
32 | </dl> | |
33 | </dd> | |
34 | </dl> | |
35 | </div> | |
36 | ||
37 | ||
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38 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --> |
39 | <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> | |
9be210c0 | 40 | The Wishlist</h2> |
41 | ||
42 | <p class="first">After my old frame broke, I thought about what I wanted in a new | |
43 | bike.</p> | |
44 | ||
45 | <ul> | |
46 | <li>Mechanical disc brakes (ease of maintenance mostly)</li> | |
47 | <li>Lugged steel frame (why not?)</li> | |
48 | <li>Indexed shifters</li> | |
49 | <li>Rear rack mounts (without horrible hacks required) and maybe mounts | |
50 | for a front rack too (nice for multi-day treks)</li> | |
51 | <li>Front and rear fender mounts (again, without horrible hacks)</li> | |
52 | <li>No suspension (extra annoying maintenance and pain with things like | |
53 | fenders)</li> | |
54 | </ul> | |
55 | ||
56 | <p>I was willing to lose the disc brakes for the fender and rack mounts.</p> | |
57 | ||
58 | ||
59 | <h2><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> | |
60 | A Whole Lot of Money Later</h2> | |
61 | ||
62 | <p class="first">I searched high and low and found a few bikes that <em>almost</em> had what I | |
63 | wanted... Unfortunately the bike I want doesn't exist for under $1200 | |
64 | which is a <em>wee bit</em> much for my liking. Months of searching in vain on | |
65 | Craigslist for anything less expensive failed, and I gave up on the | |
66 | dream of my ideal bike.</p> | |
67 | ||
68 | <p>Instead, I got a <a href="http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/town/fitness/fx/7_3_fx_disc/">2012 Trek 7.3 FX Disc</a> for the low low price of $720 + | |
69 | a painful bit of sales tax. A few hundred more than I had wanted to | |
70 | spend, but it <em>did</em> meet all of my wishlist except for the frame.</p> | |
71 | ||
72 | <table class="image" width="100%"> | |
73 | <tr><td align="center"><img src="img/photos/bicycle/2012-01-01/new-bike-with-fenders.jpg" alt="Everyone loves new toys" /></td></tr> | |
74 | <tr><td align="center" class="image-caption">Everyone loves new toys</td></tr> | |
75 | </table> | |
76 | ||
77 | <p>I promptly ordered a replacement battery for my Dual Cross 300 (at | |
78 | this point, I can wholeheartedly recommend <a href="http://cygolite.com">Cygolite</a>'s stuff — the | |
79 | head light outlasted the battery pack <strong>and</strong> the bike I got it for!), SKS | |
80 | fenders, and thought about <a href="http://www.jandd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FREXP">new rack</a> (but ended up reusing my old rack | |
81 | for now). As of January 1, 2012 I am ridiculously out of shape and | |
82 | barely able to go anywhere, but I'm hoping in a few weeks my entire | |
83 | body will stop hurting after a few hill climbs.</p> | |
84 | ||
85 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> | |
86 | Fender Installation</h3> | |
87 | ||
88 | <p class="first">It is a well known fact that SKS packages their fenders with | |
89 | instructions designed to deceive and punish half-men who read them. Of | |
90 | course, I tried reading them despite not really needing to (and, | |
91 | indeed, ended up led astray). After spending ages getting the new stay | |
92 | ends on (which I ended up having to remove from the front later) the | |
93 | real fun started.</p> | |
94 | ||
95 | <p>The rear fender, I am happy to report, went on without a hitch. The | |
96 | caliper-side braze-on was positioned such that I didn't even have to | |
97 | cut or re-route the stay like on my old | |
98 | mountain-biked-turned-commuting-rig.</p> | |
99 | ||
100 | <p>The front fender, on the other hand, was a bit of a pain. The SKS | |
101 | fenders do <strong>not</strong> come with the M6 bolt needed for mounting the fender to | |
102 | the crown (riddle me this: why the hell is that an M6 bolt when every | |
103 | other bolt on the bike is M5?). I'm guessing because most bikes have a | |
104 | brake bolt you can piggy back on (then again, the kit comes with | |
105 | about five extra bolts that have seemingly no use on any bike...).</p> | |
106 | ||
107 | <p>A trek to Home Despot proved fruitless; a trek to the other super | |
108 | chain also yielded disappointing results. Both only carried plain | |
109 | steel metric bolts... I hacked it for a while until I could hop down | |
110 | to the bike shop to get a proper stainless steel bolt.</p> | |
111 | ||
112 | <p>That challenge overcome, even more fun was to be had with the | |
113 | caliper-side stay. <sup><a class="footref" name="fnr.1" href="#fn.1">1</a></sup> The lower stay had to go directly through the | |
114 | caliper. I found a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seditiouscanary/3358079803/">few</a> different <a href="http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-609665.html">solutions</a>, neither of which I ended | |
115 | up using.</p> | |
116 | ||
117 | <p>I accidentally found the front fender I was never able to mount on my | |
118 | MTB and ... <em>phew</em> breathing room! Having two spare stays made it easier | |
119 | to experiment and eventually I found that cutting the the lower stay | |
120 | arm and mounting the stay to the upper rack eyelet was the easiest | |
121 | solution. This does require not using the newfangled integrated end | |
122 | caps (luckily I had the caps from the old set) because the insertion | |
123 | angle of the caliper-side stay isn't quite straight.</p> | |
124 | ||
125 | <table class="image" width="100%"> | |
126 | <tr><td align="center"><img src="img/photos/bicycle/2012-01-01/caliper-side-fender-stay.jpg" alt="Caliper-side fender stay" /></td></tr> | |
127 | <tr><td align="center" class="image-caption">Caliper-side fender stay</td></tr> | |
128 | </table> | |
129 | ||
130 | <p>After two days of cursing at my bike success was mine.</p> | |
131 | ||
132 | ||
133 | <p class="footnote"><a class="footnum" name="fn.1" href="#fnr.1">1.</a> Actually, I hacked the crown bolt mount using a smaller bolt and a | |
134 | nut first, and then solved the stay issue... followed by despair | |
135 | and pain as I discovered the front of the fender hit the tire. It | |
136 | seemed like this was because of the weird stay mount hack (the fender | |
137 | was under a bit of tension) and I wasted quite a bit of time | |
138 | adjusting the stays only to realize ... the fender wasn't flush | |
139 | against the crown. D'oh.</p> | |
140 | ||
141 | ||
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168 | ||
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169 | <p class="cke-footer">And did those feet in ancient time |
170 | Walk upon England's mountains green? | |
171 | And was the holy Lamb of God | |
172 | On England's pleasant pastures seen? | |
9be210c0 | 173 | </p> |
174 | <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified: | |
f6d19803 | 175 | January 21, 2013</p> |
9be210c0 | 176 | </body> |
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