December 31, 2005 - Ride-train-ride.

What a way to end the year - with the "bug" that's going around. Last night I thought I just bonked on my ride to work. Well, it was more like the begining of doom. Basically, I now feel like crap, my stomach, head, and caboose are all in termoil, and I was 7.5 miles from home at 6:00 AM this morning (32 Farenheight - burrr).

Well, I did as I planned. I coughed up the $2.25 and bought a train ticket for the ride home. The ride to the train was under 5 minutes, the wait for the train was 5 minutes, the ride was 14 minutes, and the ride home (until the hill I walked up) was another 5 minutes. 30 minutes total, I was home before 7:45 (I left the office at 6:15). I couldn't have ridden faster.

The Train Conductor didn't even bat an eyebrow (and she really only had one to begin with), she just took my ticket and kept going.

I am off to bed. The weather forecast is crummy, I feel crummy, so I'll likely drive to work tonight and be one less target for the drunk drivers.

December 30, 2005 – I rode to work and I bonked!

I bonked on the way to work. It’s the first time I have bonked in a long time. I can’t even remember the last time I bonked, but I remember the feeling all too well. I attribute bonking to: 1). Not riding more than 5 miles at any one time during the past 2-months; 2). I have only ridden half as much as I normally would because of the recent cold, wet, and nasty winter weather; 3). The temperature was just above freezing; 4). I am out of shape; and, 5). My biorhythm is shot because I am working nights and I haven’t eaten anything in the past 20 hours (the food intake is probably the big issue here).

I felt the bonk mostly in my legs. Half way up the last big hill my legs turned into limp noodles, and 3-hours later my legs are still cramping up. I have since eaten and my energy level is picking up. I worked all last night (12-hours), got home and didn’t get to sleep until 7:30 AM and I slept until 3:00 PM, but it wasn’t a good sleep because it was punctuated with the kids poking me to see if I was alive and my wife asking me some critical questions – why do they always ask the “big” questions when you are sleeping? Is it they know I am not conscious? There was nothing in the refrigerator that struck my fancy so I didn’t eat before I left for work.

The ride to work was otherwise uneventful. During the first ¾ of the ride I past all my bench marks in normal time, then a half mile past my last big benchmark my legs cramped up and I had to take a 5-minute break which I used to change my bandana and put on finger-gloves. Shortly thereafter I made a second stop and picked up diner at a local pizza restaurant. With two stops, bonking the last quarter, and stopping at busy intersections (it was Friday night rush hour so I rode conservatively), the trip took 1-hour my actual ride time was 45 minutes – not bad for riding in the dark, during rush hour, and in freezing weather.

The early morning forecast is for subfreezing temperatures. Right now I am planning my commute home to be a little different and I will tap the beauty of the folder. I will ride to the local train station 1-mile away from the office, hop the early train to my neighborhood station, and then ride the last 1-mile home. If I plan the trip right, the travel time will be about 45 minutes and limit my exposure to the cold weather.

Now, I haven’t ridden the Dahon much, so I am still getting use to the tight geometry and 20 inch wheels. As such, I really can’t tell if there is a difference between the urethane and pneumatic tires. I am also still trying to dial-in the right fit, and I have been playing with stem/handlebar height and seat heights. I also think the bar ends will help the fit too. It’s also nice to have the 1st gear now working.

Presently, I have one Wald folding basket in the left side of my rear rack. I don’t think I like this set up. I want to try a folding basket mounted on top of the rack. Better yet would be a backpack that would snap on and off the top of the rack. For commuting, I find panniers a little too limiting and not as flexible or easy as just throwing a pack on my back. No that I don’t have to carry as many tools because of the urethane tires.

More soon…

December 30, 2005 - It works!

The Airfree tires are on the Speed 8! My first test ride around the block found all systems functioned. Unfortunately, I had too many conflicts today to do any serious testing, but that will come.

So, it’s been two full months since I got the Speed 8. I paid $375.00 for the bike, $60.00 for new tubes and rim tape, and $300.00 for new wheels and the Airfree tires. For this money, I should be able to buy a really nice bike, or could I? I haven’t bought too many bikes that I have loved right out of the box.

During the past two months I have been stranded at work with flats, waited weeks for delivery of parts, and educated myself on several topics, including, but not limited to, Dahon knowing there was a tube failure issue with the wheel, tube, tire combination on the bike I bought. The flat issue led me to rekindle my interest in flat-free Airfree urethane bike tires, which led me to further understand the extent at which the bicycle industry is not standardized and I would need a new wheel set that lead to have to modify parts of the bike to accept the new equipment. All the time with this tinkering (I am proud to be a tinkerer), my bike has remained in the corner of my shop until today.

All the parts arrived this week, and I have spent what little free time during the past 2 days assembling them.

First, the Airfree tires I bought are Catalina 20 x 1.75 inch 120 PSI equivalent tire. The new wheel set is from Velocity, their 20 inch 36 spoke Taipan rim. I also purchased a new SRAM 11T-32T cassette to keep the pneumatic and urethane wheel set separate so I could easily swap the two back and forth – well this isn’t happening because the Velocity rims are wider than the Dahon OEM Kinetix Aero rim’s, so the brakes and derailleur have been adjusted for the new wheel set making swapping back and forth an exercise in fine bike adjustments.

Next, mounting urethane tires is like alligator wrestling. The tires stay on the wheels by friction, as well as mechanically fitting to the grove on the rim intended for the beads on clincher style pneumatic tires. Part of the “friction” attachment is the urethane wheels are smaller in diameter than the rim of the bike tire, so mounting the tires is a little like putting size 30 jeans on a 36 inch waste. The tool Airfree supplied with the tires broke and I had to resort to using broad bladed screwdrivers as levers. Warming the tires for a few minutes at a low heat helped to soften the tires and made them a little easier to mount – the beer helped too. Luckily the screwdrivers didn’t mare the rims.

With the tires mounted on the wheels next came mounting the wheels on the bike. The rear wheel fit into the dropouts without a problem. Because the Tiapan’s are wider rims the brakes needed adjustment. Moving to the front, the Tiapan didn’t fit the fork dropouts. I took the fork off the bike and brought it to my buddy Sal at the local custom motorcycle shop to see if he could use some of his neat tools to make the fit – needless to say, Sal no longer works at that shop. So, off to the LBS in search of a new fork.

No new fork needed – yet. The gorillas at the LBS muscled the fork blades into accepting the new wheel [I hope the work done by the LBS doesn’t cause any premature failure]. So home I went, reinstalled the fork and brakes, did a quick safety check – nothing loose, nothing cracked. With everything in order, I took the bike for a quick test ride around the block – a few times, and in the rain.

My initial impression of the tires and wheels are there is little difference between the urethane and pneumatic tires. I got on the bike, I peddled, and I moved forward – and I didn’t fall off. The traction in the wet weather appeared fine. The road noise is a little different, but that could be as simple as the tread pattern is different from what I am use to. I also appear to have an added bonus. The 1st gear finally works without the chain skipping off the chain ring. I suppose the chain angle between the 32T cog and the chain ring has lessened by a few degrees thus decreasing the tendency for the chain to want to jump.

Slowly I’ll be adding the fenders and rack back onto the bike. I also have a pair of bar ends I will install.

I have also been playing with a few concepts for light bars (accessory bars) that I can swap between cycles so I don’t need to continuously swap lights, bells, flashers, mirrors, etc. between the bikes. With the light bar all I need to do is swap the bar between the bikes. I have found ¾ inch PVC pipe perfect for the bar because most clamp-on mounts fit that diameter. The length can vary on the users desires. I have drilled holes along the pipe specific to each bike and position (i.e. front or rear). Cable ties and/or black plastic tape keep everything snug.

More will come……

December 28 - 20 days later.

Things are coming together. The wheel set arrived today. The tires arrived yesterday. The cassette arrived two days ago. I am about to mount the tires on the wheels.

December 8 - Dahon, it is still time for you to help me believe in Santa!

I have not commuted to work by bike for the past 4 work days because the temperature has been below 27 degrees (farenheight) - i.e. sort of "REALLY COLD" - and I have had some timing issues where I have had to combine my commute with erands making the use of the minivan much more practical (picking up and dropping off children). However! I have 7 more work days this year, and it is my goal to ride at least one, in not more than one, of those days!

Regarding the tire/wheel/hub tape issue.... Dahon was very nice and sent me two new tubes and 4 new rim tapes. I applied them to the wheels - this is a project in and of itself because you just don't slap a tube onto wheels and pump them up - NO! - the tire comes off, the tire gets checked for problems, the tire gets cleaned inside and out, the rim gets inspected [dangerous job because the inspection requires a fine touch to locate burrs or other rim normallities using your fingers' which can lead to (and it has) slash and punture wounds to your digits - Ouch! - but necessary], after everything is found to be o.k. the tire/tube/wheel is assembled and it gets pumped up slowly.....while you work the tire and wheel to make sure everything is seated properly. When done, I let the air out of the tire and allow the tire and tube to get to a "relaxed" pressure. When I am confident everything is seated properly and nothing is crimped or otherwise noticably out of line, I pump up the tire to the maximum specified pressure labeled on the tire's sidewall. Having done all this, I prefer to let the tires sit atleast overnight before riding on them, which I did. Well suprise of suprises! In the morning when I inspected the bike, I had two new flat tires. I took everything apart and found the tubes have once again failed between the tube valve stem and the first spoke nut, this is the same problem I have had since I first recieved the bike.

So did Dahon's fix work? Here, no.

Regarding the bike and Dahon, it is too bad the OEM tire, wheel, etc. choice was placed into production because consumers like me have unfortunatley had to educate ourselves too quickly that it didn't work, for this Dahon should have acted faster and more thoroughtly to correct to problem - I should have never recieved this bike in the condition I did and Dahon should in good faith replace the wheels and pay the labor costs to do so. To Dahon's credit, they acknowledged the problem (in more ways than one...). They also sent me token tubes and rim tape replacements - for this Dahon should be embarassed - new wheels would be more appropriate. To remain positive, I keep remembering Dahon is in the business of making a lot of bikes. I, on the other hand, I am into making sure I have reliable transportation. The Dahon Speed 8 I purchased is not yet a reliable mode of transportation, and throught my persaverance and resources, I will one day make this Speed 8 a "hot commuter" bike, but no credit will be due Dahon.

Dahon, will Santa fix the problems with my Speed 8? Help me believe in Santa, either fix my Speed 8 or give me a new one (at your cost).