The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Recumbent Bicycling

Cruisin’ the streets

  • Michelin ProTek Max Tube: Autopsy

    The Michelin ProTek Max tube I installed two years ago developed a slow leak this year, which I eventually ascribed to the valve stem, because the sealant should plug any other leak.

    Cutting it open reveals the perfectly good greenish-yellow sealant:

    Michelin ProTek tube - sealant
    Michelin ProTek tube – sealant

    The sealant also carries black rubbery grit / shavings / dust, perhaps intended to jam inside larger gashes while the sealant coagulates and binds it together.

    There’s a lot of rubber floating around in there:

    Michelin ProTek tube - rubber fragments
    Michelin ProTek tube – rubber fragments

    Dismantling the Presta valve stem show the rubbery crud on and around the valve seal and seat:

    Michelin ProTek tube - fouled valve seal
    Michelin ProTek tube – fouled valve seal

    Whenever I pumped up the tires, I finger-tightened the nut to ensure a good seal, as you do with all Presta valves. Obviously, finger-tight can’t handle that much crud between the sealing surfaces.

    I’m sorry to say I was right about the leaky valve stem, because I think all the ProTek tubes will fail in exactly the same way.

    The valve has small wrench flats making it easy to remove, so I can at least attempt to de-gunk them when they develop slow leaks.

    Color me unimpressed.

     

  • SRAM X.9 Grip Shift Guts

    The guts of the failed SRAM X.9 rear shifter from my Tour Easy:

    SRAM X.9 grip shifter - innards
    SRAM X.9 grip shifter – innards

    The identical rear shifter on Mary’s bike also seems to be wearing out, as it glides between two of her favorite click stops a bit too easily. You can see the spring peeking out to the right, beyond the white tube, and the notches forming the clicks.

    AFAICT, the raised section between the notches is wearing down; there’s no repair for that sort of thing. I took this one apart to see what’s inside: now we know!

    We’ve agreed to not replace the shifter until the situation gets worse. An X.0 shifter should arrive shortly; it appears identical except for deeper scallops around the grip.

  • Sharing the Road on Raymond Avenue: Squeeze Play

    We’re riding home with groceries along Raymond Avenue, approaching the Vassar Main Gate roundabout, and, as is my custom, I’ve been pointing to the middle of the lane for maybe five seconds as I move leftward to take the lane:

    Raymond Passing - Approach - 2018-10-04
    Raymond Passing – Approach – 2018-10-04

    The driver of HCX-1297 is having none of it:

    Raymond Passing - Near Miss - 2018-10-04
    Raymond Passing – Near Miss – 2018-10-04

    The mirror passed maybe a foot away from my shoulder; I’d reeled my arm in as the front fender passed by.

    All three traffic circles / roundabouts on Raymond neck the lane down and angle it rightward into the circle, which is supposed to “calm” traffic:

    Raymond Passing - Roundabout - 2018-10-04
    Raymond Passing – Roundabout – 2018-10-04

    The design doesn’t allow much flinch room for cyclists and certainly isn’t calming for us.

    The NYS engineer who designed the Raymond roundabouts said the whole thing was “standards compliant”, refused to go on a check ride with me to experience what it was like, and told me to detour through the Vassar campus if I felt endangered while sharing the road.

    Obviously, NYS DOT personnel do not dogfood their “share the road” bicycle standards by riding bicycles.

     

  • Driving While Inattentive

    When you come upon a scene like this, you know someone’s having a Bad Day:

    Rt 376 Collision Scene - approach - 2018-09-21
    Rt 376 Collision Scene – approach – 2018-09-21

    I rode slowly past a line of stopped cars, became a pedestrian, walked through the lawns on the left, then turned back into a bicyclist.

    It appeared to be a three-car collision, with two vehicles aligned almost perfectly nose-to-nose in the northbound lane:

    Rt 376 Collision Scene - overview - 2018-09-21
    Rt 376 Collision Scene – overview – 2018-09-21

    The red 2015-ish Forester apparently snagged a rear wheel on the far side of another contestant:

    Rt 376 Collision Scene - Forester - 2018-09-21
    Rt 376 Collision Scene – Forester – 2018-09-21

    Talk about heart-stopping: Mary had driven off to a meeting some hours before. Even though the wrecked Forester differed in enough details to make me absolutely certain it wasn’t ours , Mary got a firmer-than-usual hug when she got home.

    A picture not shown: two expressionless officers supervising a guy having great difficulty walking the fog line.

    I’ll never know the rest of the story, but the overall outline seems clear.

    Other than that, it was a fine day for a ride …

  • Driving While Shouting

    We generally don’t get hassled during our bike rides, perhaps because we ride like narrow vehicles and don’t pull stupid bicyclist tricks. The few folks who do hassle us seem to be twenty-something males, an endangered species of its own.

    A shout of “Assholes!”

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    Unusually, there was no nearby traffic, so it’s not a case of mistaken identity.

    Protip: Don’t do something in your employer’s vehicle that your employer may regret.

    A shout of “Fuck you!”

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    Protip: Your car has a license plate. JCX-1393, matching my high-res version against the audio track; I shout the license plate and identifying information while I can see it.

    Yes, I was young once … and stupid.

    One hopes they outgrow it, too.

  • Monthly Image: All Of My Paperwork Was Up To Par

    Although you’ll read cogent advice to Never Talk To Police, somehow I knew this would involve a conversation long before I went around the curve:

    Maloney Rd Incident 1 - 2018-02-27
    Maloney Rd Incident 1 – 2018-02-27

    And it did:

    Maloney Rd Incident 2 - 2018-02-27
    Maloney Rd Incident 2 – 2018-02-27

    Evidently, someone just discovered a body floating in a bend of the small creek off to the left.

    My helmet camera prompted some attention, although nothing of interest was visible from the road. A few days later, whoever owned the property bulldozed a substantial berm along the far shoulder to prevent random strangers from just driving in and doing whatever. A week or so later, a call from another police agency had me explaining I don’t have video records of the creek or of any activity, suspicious or otherwise.

    Another traffic stop concerned a specific vehicle allegedly involved in an attempt to pick up abduct a girl from a school bus stop:

    Traffic Stop - Jackson Drive - 2018-09-22
    Traffic Stop – Jackson Drive – 2018-09-22

    In both cases, all my paperwork was up to par and I just rolled on through; it doesn’t always work that way.

  • Dutch Reach

    I carry a garish scar under my right arm from my collision with a frameless driver door window while commuting from classes at Lehigh U, back in the day, so I’m as bike-aware as any driver you’ll ever meet. After reading several articles describing the Dutch Reach, I put a reminder on the Forester’s driver door handle:

    Dutch Reach reminder
    Dutch Reach reminder

    The bright yellow block reminds me to peer into the mirror (*) before yanking the handle, regardless of which hand I’m using. Haven’t had any close calls yet, but practice makes perfect.

    If you don’t have a label maker, you can hang a tag on the handle.

    It’s surprisingly hard to retrain a habit, though …

    (*) Update: Yes, I should look over my shoulder, too. At least now I’m aware of the situation and don’t just open the door without thinking. One step at a time.