Tag: bikes

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Bike Seat Light Adapter

Back in February I got a set of bike lights and the rear light mounted on the seat post perfectly, but I recently added a bike rack and bag which blocked the light from view. At first I attached the rear light (which is also a reflector) to the back of the bag, but it wasn’t ideal.

So looking at the options I thought mounting it to the back of the seat (on the saddle rails) made sense, but I needed an adapter, so I designed and printed one. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: This is why I like 3D printing. I’m not interested in printing little toys or trinkets, I am interested in solving problems.

I fired up OpenSCAD and designed a cylinder, split it in half, added holes/grooves to fit around the bars on the seat, and then added a hole for a bolt to go through to clamp it together.

One side of the bolt hole allows the head of the bolt to be recessed so it doesn’t stick out, and the other side allows for the hex nut to be held captive so you can tighten the screw with the nut held in place.

I remember back in 2012 when I asked Michael Curry if he got designs right the first time and the first print worked perfectly, and he said that most designs took about three attempts… I’m happy to say this one took just two! (Well, I could probably slightly improve things with a third attempt, but the second was close enough so I called it done.)

I did have to slightly cut down the bolt with a hacksaw to get it to not stick out too far. Again, a third print could have addressed that issue, but sometimes a hacksaw is the right solution to a problem.

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Hardware Store Bike Ride

Up until now my bike riding has been for exercise and fun(?) but on a Friday Dana asked if we had any caulk. My answer was “I’m sure we do, and I’m also sure it’s dried up since we haven’t caulked anything in a lustrum!” So she said if we got a chance we should get some thing weekend.

And I said “Wait… I can just bike to the hardware store in the morning!” So I did. I actually rode my bike to the store instead of driving a car. I was just getting caulk and some work gloves, so nothing too large or heavy or unwieldy. Stuff that could easily fit in a backpack.

The ride there was not uneventful. Besides some fairly steep hills, I had to detour a bit due to Run Tosa Run taking over some of the areas around North Avenue.

The other issue was that when I got to the hardware store there was no bike rack! Or no obvious place to lock up the bike. I ended up going across the street and locking it to a street sign. This is probably not the preferred method, but I could not really find another suitable place. (I did see a fence on my way out though.)

I asked an employee if they had a bike rack and she said “Most people just lean their bikes against the mulch.” So yeah… not going to do that. Sure, it’s Tosa, but still, not gonna leave my bike just leaning somewhere while I’m in the store.

Is this how people get radicalized? You bike somewhere and realize there’s no bike rack? There’s a parking lot for cars, but no bike rack!?!?

Anyway, it felt good to actually ride somewhere instead of drive. I may try doing it more.

Update! See the exciting conclusion: Hardware Store Bike Rack!

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Holy Cross Bicycle Club

As you may know I ride my bike in the cemetery near my house. So when a friend posted something online about looking for people to ride with I replied “Meet me at the cemetery at 7am!” because I tend to ride there weekday mornings…

It was (mostly) a joke, but then I had the idea for the “Holy Cross Bicycle Club” which does not exist, unless you count me going there alone to ride my bike. I’ve never seen anyone else riding there…

But I decided the idea needed a logo, so I made one. (This is not a great logo! I spent about 10 minutes on it and then decided I wasted enough time on a joke and and should do something else.) Enjoy!

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Bike Bag (Top Tube)

I recently asked about bike bags on Mastodon and enough people responded to help me make a decision. I ended up getting a “top tube” bag, a ROCKBROS Top Tube Bike Bag to be precise. So here’s a mini review.

Since it fits giant mobile phones I figured it would be good enough for whatever I wanted to put in there. Probably gloves, maybe granola bars or other snacks, keys, etc.

When I got it the first thing I did was try fitting the toy camera in it. It fit well enough. I can zip it completely closed, but I can also just zip it half way (up to the camera’s ear) and it’s in there pretty snug.

I found I could easily remove my gloves and shove them in the bag while riding, and even pull them out and put them on. Yeah, riding in spring can still be a bit cold in the morning. Hopefully I won’t need gloves in the summer!

There’s also the elastic thing on the side you can shove things into… like gloves. It’s not as great as sticking them inside, but it’s there if needed.

Overall I’m fairly pleased with the bag, which was under $20, and it’s easily removable with just three hook & look straps holding it in place. I’m not a huge fan of the ROCKBROS text on the side and considered blacking it out, but it appears to be reflective material so for the sake of safely I’ve left it as-is.

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Biking in the Cemetery

I mentioned in my previous post that I probably will not be biking to work since it would involve riding on streets like Lisbon, Burleigh, or Capitol… Those are streets you somewhat risk your life on even in a car! So where I can I ride? Well, I used to walk in the cemetery by my house quite a bit. It’s a lovely space, quiet, lots of nature and best of all (almost) no cars! In my dozens of walks I probably saw just a few cars in the cemetery. So my plan was, bike in the cemetery.

I mentioned this to a bike friend and he said “Well, check that it’s allowed… I know some cemeterys do not allow bikes.” So the first thing I did was searched for “riding bike in cemetery” and got this AmItheAsshole post… (Worth a read, but I still hate Reddit.)

So I did a bit more searching and found this brochure for the cemetery I planned to ride in.

The highlighted bit says “Walker, runners, riders and the like should remain only on roadways.” Hey, I’m a rider (or an “and the like” whatever that means) so it should be all good. I have no plans to ride on the grass or anywhere else that isn’t the roadway. So I set out for my first ride…

… and it was a little bumpy! I realized that on the main road from the entrance the road has these “cracks” every 50 feet or so, and you get a good “cuh-chunk!” riding over them. It’s a very noticeable bump. I wondered if this was by design, since it would be noticeable when driving a car and might make you more aware of your speed. Luckily it seems these bumps don’t persist through all of the roads.

On my second ride I spotted a coyote! It saw me and started to run off and I (sort of) followed it, in the hopes of getting a better look or a photo. I did manage to get a phone photo, so it’s super tiny since I was so far away… As the coyote ran through the cemetery I kept an eye on it and tried to keep track of it while I was in motion. It was actually pretty fun! I’m hoping I didn’t freak it out too badly. I had heard about coyotes in the cemetery before but never saw one on any of my walks, so that was pretty neat!