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What shows up on a Cargo Bike Ride?
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I've blogged about many of the Seattle Cargo Bike Rides. They happen on holidays and usually involve 20-30 people loading up their bikes with BBQ equipment, food, and beverages and heading out to a park for an enjoyable afternoon. They happen rain or shine, winter or summer. Yesterday was the Second Annual Memorial Day Jamboree, organized by Ro.
When this ride started it was almost all XtraCycles. Last year as a joke I brought a second bike with me (in a trailer) to have an "extra cycle" since I didn't have an XtraCycle. In the last year the ride has diversified. There are more normal bikes and more varied cargo bikes. Here are some of the things that were on the ride.
Porteur/basket bikes:
Ro's photo is a nice transition into the trailered bikes:
Then you get into the big cargo bikes:
Rounding out the collection there are a variety of "more normal" bikes and some fun bikes such as this really pretty tallbike:
I'm looking forward to the next one on July 4th. The people make the ride and the Cargo Bike rides always have a great group of folks show up.
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Seattle Framebuilding Chat
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(photo by Alistair Spence, from his flickr site)
A couple of weeks ago I posted a message on the framebuilders list inviting amateur and hobbyist builders to come over to my house for some beers, chips, and to talk about building bikes. Yesterday was the day and Alistair Spence, Dan Boxer, Joe Dube, Mark Bulgier, Eric Bailey, Colin Stevens (who helped friends move by bike earlier in the day) and myself met up at my house. A couple of others were interested, but couldn't make it this month.
Mark brought a bucket full of lugs (sadly I didn't take a photo) which we spread out on the table and which triggered a lot of conversation. He also had a couple of cut apart joints from some of his earlier bikes. Eric brought two forks and racks that he had been working on. Dan rode over on a bike that he had built, and Alistair had his highly modified Rivendell Porteur. I showed a bottom bracket post that I was building for my alignment table. Joe and Mark brought a lot of interesting stories about welding and we talked about Ti, brazing, lugs, dropouts and lots of other things.
Almost 5 hours, 15 or so beers, a bag of chips, much cheese and hummus later we parted ways. Everyone had a good time and we agreed to do it again in August. We're going to rotate shops and will meet at Joe's next time. Seattle isn't Portland when it comes to the number of people building frames, but there is still a lot of interesting stuff going on here. By getting to know each other I think we'll all be able to better share knowledge and develop our craft.
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Happy Multi-Modal Commute Day
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Today is Bike to Work Day in Seattle. However I didn't bike to work. I did my normal commute: bike about 3 miles to a bus stop, bus about 10 miles to a transit center, then bike another 1/2 mile or so to my office. I will be biking home over I90, about 22 miles. Yesterday I did the same commute in the morning, but rode 10 miles in the evening, then hopped on my employers Bike Shuttle to get across the 520 bridge (that bridge is what makes my bike commute a minimum of 22 miles instead of the 12 mile route that cars can drive).
The emphasis on Bike to Work Day is to get individuals excited about bicycle commuting. Mixed bike/transit commutes are probably the best way to do that because they allow you to phase in bike use. Start with a short bike and a longer bus ride and slowly replace more of your bus ride with more bike. Many commuters will probably find some hybrid (as I have) that has the right balance of bike and bus. A friend at work has been using this successfully during the last two weeks and has gone from biking 3 miles a couple of weeks ago to riding 25 miles into work this morning. It'll be his longest bike ride in many years.
The bus also allows me to keep my commute varied and interesting. There are about 10 different bike/bus routes that I use on a regular basis depending on my mood, the weather, and how quickly I need to get home. I rarely do the same route twice in one week.
The bus doesn't have to be the only option. Biking to a friends house and then carpooling can be an effective way to carpool with a friend who doesn't live next door. Using the train or ferry as part of your commute is a multi-modal option. If you live on top of a steep hill it might make sense to drive to the bottom with your bike and then ride in from there.
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Up in smoke
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Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner and put on a CD. A couple of minutes later the stereo let out a quiet pop and a large cloud of nasty dark blue smoke. It was nasty stuff.
I turned everything off and figured out a backup plan for listening to music that evening. Today I investigated using my workshop speaker. The left, right, and center channels were fine. When I plugged the speaker into the rear left channel (one that I've never used!) my speaker didn't make any noise, but it did glow like a light bulb. Not good!
Took the speaker apart and luckily it is just a slow blow fuse that died. I can replace that.
I took the receiver apart. I'm stuck with two options:
- Replace it. This is sad because it was expensive and only about 5 years old.
- Remove the surround amp board and continue to use it as a 3-channel receiver. Since we don't do surround that is okay, but I'm not excited about having something that let out a poof of smoke running a few hours a day.
So I guess I'm taking the first option.
I hate that it's 50lbs of metal, much of it semi-rare copper, and it's going to end up in the trash. It probably died because somewhere there is a 2 cent Chinese capacitor that failed. This guy was built in 2002 when many products were made with these timebomb capacitors. NAD (the manufacturer) doesn't have parts anymore, so I can't just replace the failed amplifier board.
