The Adventures of Tanjiro, Uschi-Swirl, & Vladimir: bike

Showing posts with label bike. Show all posts

Friday, August 30, 2013

Biking with Vladi

Vladi expects a few good solid hours of laptime every day,

and he's grumpily announcing we're falling behind.

I want to bike, Vladi wants to nap.

We all know who's going to win this argument.

Friday, July 05, 2013

Cruzbike Maiden Voyage

Time for the maiden "shake-down" voyage
of my new Cruzbike Silvio 2.0.

This is a front wheel drive,
moving bottom bracket,
recumbent 700c machine,...

So, there is/will be a significant learning curve,
i.e. I'm not jumping on it and heading out
onto the roads with cars.

Headed out,...

To the car.

Rather sleek, mantis-like.

Nervous to actually go for it.

First mounting (not on the stable trainer),
in an empty parking-lot.

WHOA THERE !!!!!

Minding the curb,...

It took a good 5-10 minutes before I could even get my feet
onto the pedals,... the procedure is to "Flintstone" with your
feet for a little while then to progress to

a controlled coast down a slight slope.

Finally, I started to get it and spent about 1 hour
Cruz-ing around the parking lots,...

Note, no clip-in's at this point.

I was wooobly,...

But steadily improved.

It took lots of concentration,...

Glamour shot.

The frame goes right along the body so it
basically looks like I'm floating between wheels.

"Zooom"

How arty,...

There I go again.

That is more than enough for now.

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't feel
an overwhelming amount of "pedal steering."
I was concerned that this would be significant
but it wasn't. Even in my juvenile state of
proficiency, I was able to stomp on the
pedals and didn't swerve. I guess
that my unsteadiness might have
masked it,... >;-)

My maiden shake-down voyage was a success,
I learned, improved my skills and confidence,
and nothing (& no one) fell off.

It will take several more hours of closed
circuit practice before I venture
onto the roads.

Update - the position is comfortable, visibility is better than on
my TT bikes (i.e. very good), the headrest is great, it sits right
at the base of my skull, below my helmet, it is very comfortable.

Thursday, July 04, 2013

New Family Member - Cruzbike Silvio 2.0

Many months ago I decided I wanted to try a recumbent bike,

to help reduce the butt pain experienced when riding my TT bikes.

I've noticed over the years that that has been my largest

limiter when it comes to actually getting on the bike.

So, I searched and searched and tried a few,
then I searched some more. Finally, I decided to
follow my "alterian" nature and selected a
very small manufacturer, of a very unique
machine, who was actually in the
process of a complete overhaul
of their design/manufacturing,
and they are in Australia!!!
(I'm in the USA)

Yup, perfect, almost zero of these in the world.

Sign me up!

Months later, they had worked out
their new "hydroforming"
technique on the frame and
shipped it out.

We picked up the box from the Post-Office and
a trainer from the Powderhorn house,...

What a little box,...
I'm 6'4" How is my bike in there?

Hmmmm, Very interesting.

Uschi and I laid out a new white tarp.

Okay, that looks good.

I'm not sure we are supposed to walk on this,...

Time to unpack.

The well packed box.

Each piece individually wrapped.

Uschi kept an inventory.

What is next?

Many small pieces;
Some aluminum wrapped with carbon fiber, some aluminum.

Look at the finish on this one,...

Focus on Uschi time,...

Pat, pat, pat,...

Finally, the hydroformed aluminum main frame.

Everything spread out and accounted for,...

Uschi played his part and left me
to figure out how to put all these pieces together,...

That was day one.

I decided to work on the build very leisurely.
Knowing that the frame was fresh out of
a new manufacturing process of
a small company, things would
not always go together flawlessly.

Actually, it went pretty smoothly,
I only had to "adjust" a few components
to make them fit. Basically, it only
took a few days work and lots of
staring and thinking.