Packed And Ready

Somehow I got all this...

Onto this...

One thing I learned on a fully loaded test ride is that the LHT (yeah you know me) rides a lot smoother when fully loaded.

All ready to roll, I just need a good night sleep first.

Have a good week everybody.

Event: Feet In The Street

I always miss the good stuff says the guy with his eyes closed. This Saturday (both mine and Michael Jackson;s birthday), goDCgo is throwing a street party over at Ft Dupont and it sounds like a stinkin' good time.

Talkin' Bout Mudflaps: DIY

Spinal Tap? Anyone?

I found out on a training ride the Continental Contact tires that come with the LHT (yeah you know me) spew out a ton of dust on dry dirt trails like the C&O Tow Path. After a 55 mile ride I was covered in dust and annoyance. After consulting with the LHT&CC google group I decided that a mudflap was just what I needed. However, for something so simple they can be pretty expensive, and I thought I could make one ten different ways out of stuff lying around the house. One way rose to the top, making one out of old mountain bike tubes and glue.

It was pretty simple, I cut open a tube and lay it flat cutting out two sections of similar length and gluing them together. I used one of those dual compound super glues and it seems to work fine. Once it was fully dry I cut the jagged messy edges off and it looked pretty good. Another option might be to use tire patch glue.

Next up, using my Dremel I drilled two small holes in the fender to attach the mudflap. I made the holes as small as I could and far enough from the edges that they wouldn't weaken the fender itself.

Finally I fastened the mudflap to the fender with a small zip tie. I made sure to face the mudflap outward so the curve of the tubes matched that of the tire.

After riding it in this morning I think I may add third or maybe even forth layer of rubber to stiffen the mudflap. It was flapping a bit at high speed.

UPDATE:

I added two more layers of rubber and it seems to work perfectly.

What did the hand say to the Monday?

SLAP!

Happy Birthday Joe Strummer... RIP

Friday Artwork

These come to us via TWGE. It's common knowledge that since the dawn of Flash, the animated gif has become the pager of the web graphics world. In a truly inspirational move the folks at Three Frames have revived this relic of the 90s and created something great. The idea is the replay a scene from a movie using 3 frames in a gif animation.

This creates some very cool effects but often just makes people look like their humping.

SKS Fender and Continental Contact Tire Lessons

A little while ago I put SKS P45 fenders on my new LHT (yeah you know me) and was happy about it. After some time has passed and I've put a few hundred miles on them I realize that the P45s are just too narrow. My bike and legs still get filthy after a wet ride. Don't get me wrong I love the fenders, I just wish I had gotten the next size wider. Another problem on that front is that when riding on dirt, the stock Continental Contact tires spew dirt and dust everywhere. By the end of a 55 mile ride I looked like a character out of Mad Max and my fenderless buddy riding a mountain bike was all clean. The only explanation I can come up with is that the tires pinch up dirt in the grooves as the contact the ground and toss it back against the bike. Has anyone else come across these issues?

Beer And Berts

First off I think everyone should know that we are in the second day of the Inaugural DC Beer Week. That means we're already a day behind and have some catching up to do. This sounds like a pretty sweet event with tons of participating local bars and breweries. Any excuse is a good one people.

Next up is how ahead of the curve I am. I recently procured an Ibert for my one year old and am pleased to announce that Tori Spelling and I have one more thing in common. We both have fetching blond hair, both of us starred on hit 90's television shows that happened to be produced by our fathers, and now we both rock the Ibert. I took the little one out for a few rides over the weekend and I am working on a product review.

Happy Monday everyone... Happy Monday Tori Spelling.