Monday, February 24, 2014

My transportation dilemma.

As a veterinarian I am becoming a wealthy, wealthy man so I've decided to upgrade my daily transportation from the Bianchi Volpe I bought used 10 years ago for 400 bucks.  I thought about a sweet custom bike or even leasing a Honda, but I settled on a Bentley instead.  Because I want to roll in style.  It is totally affordable as long as my plan to win the lottery in the next 5 years comes to fruition.  My wife divorced me because she thinks I am an idiot with money.  Now I'm in a little bit of trouble because I may have overestimated my vast wealth by a smidgeon.  I'm having a hard time with the alimony on top of the mortgage and everything else.  I haven't even thought about selling the Bentley.  I might ask my parents for a loan to cover the car payments.

Does this scenario sound at all like a city with a 5 billion dollar drill stuck in the ground, asking for voters to approve a tax increase so that bus service isn't cut?

Does it sound at all like a country that can't take care of its citizens because its too busy writing blank checks to to companies that turn around and hand it to their CEO, or the military which in turn hands it to civilian contractors?

See you later.  I'm the not-so-wealthy veterinarian on the Bianchi.  I am happy and damn lucky to have a beautiful family and own a home.  But I'm disappointed with some of the decisions of our elected leaders.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Retrofitting a bike for metal fenders

The sliding bracket on my SKS fenders that always comes loose once again broke.  So rather than replace them I looked into having some eyelets added to the seatstay and chainstay of my old Bianchi Volpe, perpendicular to the tire.   It turns out that Garth at  haulincolin.com can do this quickly and for a very reasonable charge.




I had them add an eyelet to the Surly front rack and place a star nut in the fork steerer for the front fender too.  I went with stainless Berthoud fenders.  Somewhat heavier than alloy fenders but less expensive and this is already a heavy bike (the Surly front rack with its hardware weighs more than some racing frames out there).  The fenders went on easily, look really nice, and keep water off the feet a lot better than the SKS fenders due to not having a bracket on the underside of the fender and a rolled edge.  And being attached directly to eyelets, they should not loosen or break like SKS fenders tend to.

This is an easy and worthwhile project if you have a frame that you like and that has seatstay and chainstay bridges, just not with the right holes....