Freewheel in the Stony Brook Independent…

Yay Freewheel (on camera)! And thanks to those who spoke kindly for and of us!

Summer Open Hours

Just to reiterate on the message below…

We will be open throughout the summer on Tuesdays 4-6pm, Club Alley, Student Union!
Please come by and help us out, or fix your bike, or find a bike to fix!!

Open Hours May 19th.

May 19th: Normal open hours (6-9 pm)

May 26th on: 4 – 6 pm open hours.

By the way, if you are around over the summer, please come by and help keep the shop running.  Many of us will be out of town.

Also “We’re elf, eh?” is an anagram of Freewheel.  Think on that.

Post-defense ride

The day after my PhD dissertation defense I went on an 18 mile bike-ride in New York City.  I rode from Astoria, over the triborough, through Randalls Island, over the triborough again to Manhattan, then up to the Bronx.  From there I crossed back to Manhattan and rode down the west side bike path.   Finally, I went back over the Queensborough.  Pictures below.

Beware flooding in the Midwest

Those of you who know me, know I moved out to Michigan last August for a job. Been doing lots of little dinky rides around, mostly for commuting to work. Not a whole lot worth seeing out here. A couple weekends ago, Summer (another former Freewheeler) and I made a trip along the river path running through Lansing (capital of Michigan, but I digress…). For several days before this we’d been bombarded with heavy spring rain storms. Trees were down and every low-lying piece of topography was overflowing with water, including the path. This is what I would call a “low key adventure”. See the pics below!

Problem#1: Trees and branches covering the path

The branches were the least of our troubles. In several places the path was partially submerged.

Problem #2: Water on the path

The ride was meant to be over 10 miles, but was cut short  after we encountered an area where the entire path was submerged.

Problem #3: What do you do when the path washes away? Note the yellow sign that says watch out for water.

We had no map, so we had no idea how to get around and ended up doing only 9 miles.  But the moral of the story is don’t ride on river paths in the Midwest during the spring rainy season.

Bikes!

Bikes!  We have about 6 bikes available to work on.  So if you’ve been waiting, today at 6 might be a good time to come in and check them out.  They’re a mix of mountain and road, ladies and gents.  Most are going to require some work.

Sorry for the copied links, for some reason I cannot insert them into posts.

But THIS link goes somewhere awesome: Lance Armstrongs new bike, designed by Shepard Fairey

http://animalnewyork.com/2009/05/lance-armstrong-races-ahead-with-shepard-fairey-designed-bike/

Chainring madness

Just because I can’t let Adam have the last word on crazy bike breakages.

Here are some photos of the chainrings on my fixed gear after a little mishap going down the hill in Port Jefferson.  I was following Matt Lammens, who’s computer maxed out at over 30 mph.  About of a third of the way down the hill I was treated to a metal grinding noise and my back tire locked up.  Somehow I managed to control the skid for 10-15 feet before my chain popped off.  After that it was a simple matter to stop with one brake.

I have no idea what happened.  The fact that the outer chainring bent too indicates to me that maybe something hit it.

The moral of this story:  When building a fixed-gear bicycle, do not use crappy rivited chainring / crank  from the mid 80’s.

-mls

Boombox bikes.

Pretty awesome. I saw a guy at critical mass with a three-wheeler and a dynamo through the rear axle, powering his system.
http://www.oobject.com/category/boombox-bikes

R.I.P. Velocitron Blue Thunder

You should have seen the other bike...

Today on a short ride through the Hubbard Brook County Park near Flanders, Friend of Freewheel Chris Brunson noticed this HUGE shearing crack in my bike frame. The crack goes about 80-90% of the way around the tube. It happened on the down tube, at the junction with the head tube.

I’m glad that Chris’ ever-observant eye caught this before the tube snapped, which may have resulted in a high-speed face plant on the pavement.

I’m not certain how this crack formed, whether it was the work of a hacksaw or just the result of tension on an old frame. It goes to show that you should frequently examine the condition of your bike before you ride. Don’t take your bike for granted!

This is also a sad end to a frame that I really enjoyed. The bike was assembled by several Freewheel members and the frame was donated by Conor, an original Freewheeler. I took the bike on my first bike-camping trip to Bear Mountain State Park, and saddled it with a pannier-style basket. This actually may have contributed to the demise of the frame since it was a delicate, thin tubed Italian racer. Not really designed for touring.

If you see a 61-62cm road frame out there, please let me know. I’m on the lookout for something to keep me pedaling through the spring and summer.