Hey Roots!

What's your favorite stoker handlebar style?  C-bar, straight bar, stubby, big
and wide?  We
want to know what you think works best, and of course, why.

Nate - Xtracycle

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
rootsradicals group:

What's your favorite stoker handlebar style? C-bar, straight bar, stubby, big
and wide? We
want to know what you think works best, and of course, why.

   o C-bar
   o Straight bar
   o stubby
   o big and wide
   o riser
   o slight sweepback
   o drop bars


To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rootsradicals/surveys?id=2809967

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

On 2009-01-07, at 10:02 AM, xtracycleinc wrote:
> What's your favorite stoker handlebar style? C-bar, straight bar,
> stubby, big and wide? We
> want to know what you think works best, and of course, why.
>
Chopped straight bar.

(1) not in the way when not using it, either me, or the loads.
(2) useful handle for securing loads.
(3) useful handle for yanking bike (not too much leverage on seat).
(4) I use it to hang the bike.

Pointers to hung bike,

http://gallery.mac.com/dr2chase#100060/IMG_1046&bgcolor=black

and hanger detail.

http://gallery.mac.com/dr2chase#100060/IMG_1048&bgcolor=black

I am using a extended MTB stem  with a 1" dowel that is 8" in length.
  It was laying around, plenty strong, and lightweight.

Hi all,
I've posted my v2 of the raincover and put it in the raincovers album

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rootsradicals/photos/album/214154895/pic/150644023\
3/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc

Integral to this design is the *rider*. The rider leans against the
whole system and creates front coverage and seals the wing from
wind/rain coming in on the leading edge.

It has not yet been tested as the rain in PDX has temporarily halted
(wooHoo). I will rebuild the connect points as the system is now only
held together by only two poles.

I'm confident that this will do nicely. The kids will still wear rain
gear but they won't be hit in the face with anything and have a nice ride.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

Hi folks,

I've an extremely squeaky seat.  I have a Brooks 67 (springs).  The bolt
on the seatpost tube.  I know that tightening helps, but the bolt on the
seatpost tube is as tight as I can turn it.  My husband says that all
sprung seat squeak, but taking the seat off the seatpost tube and
rocking it does not produce a squeak.  My free-radical is bolted onto
the bike as tight as possible, so the squeak isn't from there (anyway,
that has a different sort of squeak).

Any ideas?

Thanks,

CL

Just saw your wife earlier this week she was saying you were working on a
rebuild.  Can't
wait to see it in action.  Does the rear also connect to a rider or the board in
some way?
Looks like a bungie or something hanging down.


Jay

--- In rootsradicals@yahoogroups.com, "charliewicker" <charliewicker@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I've posted my v2 of the raincover and put it in the raincovers album
>
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rootsradicals/photos/album/214154895/pic/15064402
33/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc
>
> Integral to this design is the *rider*. The rider leans against the
> whole system and creates front coverage and seals the wing from
> wind/rain coming in on the leading edge.
>
> It has not yet been tested as the rain in PDX has temporarily halted
> (wooHoo). I will rebuild the connect points as the system is now only
> held together by only two poles.
>
> I'm confident that this will do nicely. The kids will still wear rain
> gear but they won't be hit in the face with anything and have a nice ride.
>
> Feel free to let me know what you think.
>

Welp, thanks to an inattentive driver last Friday evening, another one
of the original batch of Big Dummies is likely dead.

I got rear-ended as I was waiting to turn left at a light.  Three
taillights (2 Mr. Blinkies and a Busch&Müller 4D Lite Plus) as well as
a reflective strip across my back wasn't enough to make the driver
notice me in the middle of the lane.  Apparently, she started braking
at about the same moment she impacted the back end of the bike.

I'm not really sure about the extent of the damage yet.  She was doing
about 30 miles per hour and really screwed up the xtracycle bits
(v-racks, board, etc.), ground up a bunch of the stuff I had in the
bags, and seriously munched my fender.

After I bent all the bits out of the rear tire, however, the Rohloff
spun free for a few revolutions and then the gears engaged and, after
the police were done with me, I was able to ride home.  Props to the
B&M taillight - it actually still worked once I got the fender bent
back down.  I guess that "metal bar to protect the plastic lens in
case you get rear ended" really does the trick.  It didn't seem quite
as bright as normal though.

Anyway, its all going into my LBS tomorrow to get assessed for damage
and repaired/replaced.

As for the bike's engine (me), no breaks, no significant bruising,
only abrasion is where my helmet jammed forward into my glasses and
cut my nose a little.  I've got some soreness, but all in all, I'm
pretty good.  If I didn't believe in wearing good equipment before, I
definitely do now.  The armored motorcycle jacket (First Gear
Kilimanjaro) plus a helmet that covered the lower part of the back of
my skull saved me a lot of suffering.

I gotta think that the extra length of the Big Dummy did a lot to save
me from worse impact.  An interesting side note - stoker bars slam
pretty solidly into the back of your legs when you get rear ended.

- phædrus

> Sorry to read you've been hit; happy to read you're okay.
>
> Just out of curiosity, and in light of the recent announcement of the new
> campaign to ban cell phone use while driving, do you know if a cell phone
> play a roll in your crash?
>
> Mark M in Baton Rouge

It is sort of strange.  The driver was not using a cell phone and did
not have a passenger.

I share the concerns about cell phone use and distracted driving, but
in this case, it does not appear to have been a factor.  The driver
was actually panicking after the accident and trying to find someone
with a phone to call 911, so I don't think she even had a cell phone.

- phædrus

Joe, I looked at those photos-- oh my.  Mark referred to it as
"distracted driving", but it looks more like blind driving to me.
Taking driving lessons from Ben Kenobi.

On the other hand, with so little ability to see, that's less
opportunity to be distracted from the driving task... at least by
exterior stimuli. Is your HR director hiding something in there?

It also made me glad to be living in Southern California. Seeing all
that snow was a bit of a shock. Around here, we limit that stuff to
the mountain resorts and passes. ;-)

--- In rootsradicals@yahoogroups.com, Joe Kisley <josephkisley@...> wrote:
>
> As I was locking up my Big Dummy after my lunch break, I see a car
coming
> into the parking lot. Car turns by the bike rack, then proceeds to
park very
> poorly in a nearby parking spot. My HR Director got out of the car and
> walked into the building. Car looked like.....
>
this<http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EMy607YehI0YBuLtAQ9iYg?authkey=xS-9flw\
crtc&feat=directlink>
>
>
> and this...
>
<http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bUwjMwBC9fnKlzKxDdNpNQ?authkey=xS-9flwcrtc\
&feat=directlink>
>
>

I looked at those photographs of cars in the
snow, and I just cannot imagine what it would be
like to ride in the snow. Even riding in the rain
is a refreshing novelty for me.

I do more bike riding in winter and less in
summer. When I do ride in summer it is only for a
short distance, or I limit my riding to
nighttime. Even at 9:30 PM last night the
temperature was still over 30°C

It is 9 AM in the morning here, and the
temperature is already over 30°C (about 86°F) and
expected top today is 41°C (about 106°F)

A fellow cyclist in my office got one of those last week.  Very nice
package, painfully bright.

The nut we wanted to crack though was how to "permanently" affix the
light to the bike so you can disconnect the battery to take it into
the office to charge while leaving the light attached, hard to remove
and properly aimed.

Detaching the light is easy but reattaching was much harder.  We
wondered if we could improvise a steel cable with a swaged fitting
that would hold the light firm and require cutters to remove.

Philip

--- In rootsradicals@yahoogroups.com, Rick Pickett <rick.pickett@...>
wrote:
>
> I recently purchased the NiteRider USB LED torch light.  It's bright,
> has a (clunky) helmet mount and recharges off my computer via USB at
> work.
>

As far as I know, she has not been ticked.  I'm going to be asking the
officer about that when I talk to him next.

I am definitely asking for her/her insurance to pay for getting my
bike next to normal, replace my helmet, jacket, gloves, jeans and the
shoe that got run over, replace the messenger bag that was in the free
radical, pay for repairs for the laptop in the messenger bag, etc.

I gotta say though, I figured I'd be mad in this sort of situation.
The woman was so distraught, I found myself trying to calm her down
and reassure her a bit that I was pretty much OK.

I'm madder now than I was just after it happened because I went so
quickly from "what's going on?" to "geez, gotta calm down the
panicking woman".  Of course, dealing with her Insurance company today
went quite a ways towards diminishing any sympathy I might have had.

- phædrus


On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 7:31 PM, BRUCE WILSON
<bruce_alan_wilson@...> wrote:
> Did she get ticketed?
>
> You should ask her to pay for repairs/replacement; sue her if you must.
> That'll teach her to mind her manners--hit her in the pocketbook.
>

>
Yes, it is supposed to get colder still down in these parts..... but,
seeing that picture, I found myself really missing the snow.  We
haven't had snow here for years... about time for me to take a skiing
trip.  Too bad that I don't have time to do the trip on my electrified
Firefly Big Dummy.... (and even more too bad there is no high speed
rail system).

Morgan




> You guys are amazing. We had a high of 40F today and I am ready to
> move
> further south. Hang in there, we are praying for your survival. I
> will try and
> find some Freon to release to help warm things up a bit for you.
>
> FatRob in (north) Alabama

On 2009-01-13, at 10:30 PM, phaedrus wrote:
> Of course, dealing with her Insurance company today
> went quite a ways towards diminishing any sympathy I might have had.
>

Just FYI, a good friend of mine, in a worse situation (had to have his
knee worked on after his wreck), upon receiving a phone-verbal offer
for "sixty five" (thousand) and accepting, found that they want him to
take a check for "$60,500" instead of the "$65,000" that he
understood.  Forewarned is forearmed, these guys can be professional
jerks.

David