Where you can typically find me on Sunday mornings on nice days.
This is my first attempt to update my blog with my smart phone (Android system) . With RAGBRAI just a week away I am preparing for the trip and plan to only use my smartphone instead of struggling with a laptop or tablet.
Looks like I need to shoot everything horizontal to make sure it posts correctly.
Here is a photo of my phone showing my last post I did. Its pretty cool I can do all this from such a small device. The only problem I recall is you have to have an internet connection to do this and should you lose that connection you may very well lose all the post you wrote if not saved.
Sometime in the last few weeks I passed the 5000 mile mark with my recumbent bike. I started recording my stats shortly after buying my used Burley recumbent and I know my recordings hit 5000 this weekend, but the exact date and mile was sometime previous.
Wow, who would have thought this adventure would lead me this far? Certainly not me, that’s for sure. But it has been a joyous ride, full of visual delights, some hardships, some pain, but the new friends I’ve met along the way make up for all the hardships. Below is a picture of me on my Burely with my most dedicated riding buddy (a troll nicknamed Ziggy Stardust – Google it if you are under 50 years old and don’t get the reference).
Yeah, I look pretty silly, but boy do I make oncoming people smile when I come upon them. It’s so great to know I made so many people smile and laugh each ride day.
The journey also continues in many other ways. In the last six months I built the first completed prototype of a recumbent tadpole trike. I say “first” and “completed” as there were several iterations of it before it got to this point and now that it is almost done, I’m ready to design another one from what I learned on the first. To coin a phrase from Lance Armstrong (who will be on RAGBRAI this year), it’s not about the ride. For me, with the trike, it’s all about the experience, the journey of building it long before I rode it out of the driveway. I have never had a project like this where I lived and breathed it day after day and so proud of my accomplishment. I wish my dad was still alive to see it, he really would have appreciated the intricacy of the design and the dedication it took to design and finish it. Below is an almost finished picture of it, when I took it out on it’s maiden voyage last week. After RAGBRAI, when I have more time to finish it, I’ll post more pictures of the trike so you can see all the details.
This is a completely bolt together trike with the exception of donor parts (rear end and front bottom bracket) from mountain bikes and kids Razor scooters. Over 90% aluminum.
Most times when I have a bad experience with a business I chalk it up as a life lesson and move on. Not sure I’ve ever posted about any problems here, but recent experiences at the Bike Rack store in Omaha (14510 Eagle Run Dr) was so unbelievable, with so many problems within just a few weeks, I’ve got to blog about it.
- Strike One (actually more than one): Took the rear wheel in off my Burley recumbent as it was rubbing the brakes slightly. I went on the Wear Yellow ride and the wheel started rubbing again. I brought it into the shop that same day and was told by a service person that my spokes were too tight and I had pulled one of the nipples through the double wall rim. I explained that their shop was the last to true the rim a week before. They told me I could leave the wheel and could pick it up in about 10 days, their current service time. I took the wheel with me and emailed the store manager that night. He called the next day and told me to bring it in and they would make it right, most likely would have to build me a new wheel. A few hours later I get a call that my rim is ready for pick up, no discussion about it’s status or a new wheel. When I picked it up they said they replaced some nipples and spokes. I looked it over closely and saw only two new nipples and no new spokes. As I was trying to get ready for the bike ride accross Nebraska coming up the next week, I told them of my concern that the aluminum rim may have been stressed out with the over tightening. I was told to “ride the hell out of this week” and let them know if I had any problems. Well, you guessed it, the rim was still warped, now even worst than before. Frustrated I cancelled my bike ride.
- They installed the wrong bottom bracket on the frame of the recumbent trike I’m building (it’s the bottom frame of a Mongoose aluminum bike). It was not the right size (t00 wide) and was not tightened down.
- I brought in the derailleur hanger in from my trike that was noticeably worn where the axle meets it (it’s off a Schwinn mountain bike, which is used for that part of the trike I’m building). They told me they did not have a replacement, they would need to order one, but that the part was really okay, there must be a problem with the wheel. I found a replacement derailleur on Amazon, ordered it and it completely fixed the problem I was having.
My business is now going to Bike Masters in Omaha at 130th and Fort Streets. Already I’m impressed as it their service time was just 2-3 days and they actually got something back in one day. They were recommended to me by a fellow BRAN rider who has been very satisfied. During my three visits there recently I did notice that the service and sales staff are older that what I saw at Bike Rack. I assume more experienced, time will tell, but that is what I have heard from other bikers. I did noticed they seemed much more organized and less rushed at Bike Masters.