Bicycle 2012.html

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   6     <title>Clinton's New Bike</title>
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  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>
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  39 <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
  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 &mdash; 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
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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?
 173 </p>
 174 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 175     January 21, 2013</p>
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