The Boogey Man

In mid April i got up one morning to find my rear tire flat.  Just sitting overnight in my living room it had gone down.  Slow leak.  Damn.  I was in a  hurry to get to an appointment, and ever the optimist, i hoped that it had just gotten low without me noticing.  So instead of reaching for my tire levers i reached for my floor pump.  The tire seemed to hold air so i rode off.  It lasted the whole day, but the next morning it was flat again, so i changed it. The nice thing about a slow leak is being able to change the tire at home instead of on a roadside.

I've changed a lot of tires in the past 40 years. A lot.  Hundreds.  Lots of my own and lots for other people.  That's not bragging, it just is what it is.  I can do it in my sleep.  I'm careful and pretty quick.  That morning i quickly got the tube out but, i could not find a hole in it.  I thought another valve might have failed (i got a bad batch of tubes from a dodgy bike shop a few months ago, all the valves failed after only a couple weeks).  I finally resorted to the bucket of water method and even then it took some work to find the extremely tiny hole barely pushing out a bubble every few seconds.  I patched the tube.  I used a big patch instead of my tiny patches because, well in the back of my mind i was a bit worried about The Boogey Man.

I searched the tire and i could not find what caused the puncture and that's always concerning.  The most important part of changing a tire, of course, is finding the cause and pulling the tack or prying out the glass to make sure it doesn't happen again immediately.  I guess at that point i really should have started to think about The Boogey Man but i didn't.  I fixed the tire, pumped it up and pedaled off and didn't think about it again. However, i did buy a new tube later that day.

A few days later i went on a 50 mile ride far from home, no problems.  But after a week of riding every day i got up one morning to find it flat again.  I was planning a bike repair party in a few day so again, i just pumped up the tire each morning at home and was able to ride on it all day each day until it was convenient to repair it.

At the end of the week, at home, i pulled off the tire and, with effort, found the tiny leak right at the edge of last week's patch.  I spent a lot of time looking for what could have caused it, running my finger around the inside of the tire, examining it closely, even using the trick of rubbing cotton on it (hoping for a snag). I couldn't find anything. 

I started to talk myself into the idea that maybe i just did a bad patching job.  It's possible after all, maybe the edge of the patch failed.  It took some effort but i convinced myself this wasn't a puncture but a patching failure.  However i guess i wasn't completely convinced because i didn't use the new tube, i patched the old tube again:  proof that in the back of my mind i was scared of The Boogey Man.

I don't have to change tires very often on my bike, and it's not just because of my partially-in-jest superstition against saying the f-word (f-l-a-t) while on the bike.  I don't like to tempt fate, but i also try to be protected.  I do a good clean job of changing my tires, but mostly i select good tires.  I often tell people that's the one part of the bike you should really spend money on.  In almost all areas, used or cheap will do fine, but not tires.

When i first moved to Western Washington my Bridgestone RB-T had it stock tires on it.  I didn't even consider replacing them when i moved -- they were fine in Wisconsin after all. But after a full winter of riding 400 miles a month on the wet roads (it rains a bit in Seattle) i changed my mind.  I changed my mind while changing a flat in downtown Shelton:  the 4th flat in the 60 mile ride from Seattle to Olympia.

Many bicycle tires (especially the cheaper ones) are made of a rubber fabric, woven strands of rubber, which spreads when it gets wet creating many tiny holes in the tire.  Not good in the rain.  A fully pressed rubber tire is far superior.  I quickly found the legendary Avocet Cross II K tires: solid tires with an inverted tread which acts like a slick when you want it to and like a knobby when you need it to. Best of all they also have a kevlar belt for puncture protection. After 12 years (with only 2 flats) i got another set which i eventually sold with the bike.   I loved those tires.  They are unfortunately hard to find.  I know people who have several sets stashed in the garage because they are so amazing.

The Avocet Cross tires on my road bike had me spoiled and i eventually found some tires with puncture protection for my city bike and for at least 10 years now i've ridden heavy, expensive, protected tires.  It's saved me a great deal of time and bother.  The last 12,000 miles or so i've been riding on Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on my combination road/city bike.  I first tried them when a friend gave me a pair (she didn't like the weight).  I've found them to be wonderful, dependable tires that are comfortable on the road or on the trail.  They work great on my highly customized on road/off road Bianchi Volpe.  I very, very rarely have to change a tire.  Every few weeks i examine the tires and pry out pieces of glass and shards of metal that didn't make it through to cause problems --these are very durable tires.

So trying not to think about The Boogey Man i remounted my tire, pumped it up and set out on my errands. As usual, once i got on the bike, i didn't think about the tire at all. And once again, i got another full week of riding without a thought and without problems until one morning i got up and saw my bike in my living room.  Another flat; DAMN!

I had several appointments to get to. I changed the tire so fast i wasn't sure if i knew exactly how the tube was oriented, so i wasn't 100% sure it was the same spot on the tire, but the puncture was in the same spot on the tube, just a few millimeters from the previous two patches.  I patched it up quickly and was on my way.  Now i really was consciously thinking about The Boogey Man.  All the signs were there. It had me scared.

Once again after rolling out the door, i thought no more about it and once again i got a full week of riding, including a half century away from home.  This time, after 8 or 9 days of not thinking about it i grabbed the bike to hurry out of the house and as i rode out the driveway i knew.  Damn!  It was flat again.

Once again, it was a slow leak.  After 3 more days of pumping every morning. I piled yet another patch on the little pile of patches.  For this one, and the next one the following week i used the super tiny patches less than half an inch in diameter. They went right next to one of  the larger patches, so it looked a little like the cartoon of a water molecule, or Mickey Mouse(tm)!  I took the tire out in the bright sun with a magnifying glass and my pocket knife and examined it as closely as i could.  I was certainly not using the new tube at this point because now, i couldn't deny it, i was running from The Boogey Man

After the fifth go round i called up my buddy Kent and told him my story:   slow leaks, nothing can be found in the tire, lasts a few days each time.  He confirmed my fears.  It was The Boogey Man.  Actually what he said first was: "You're fucked."

Michelin Wires are kind of the Boogey Man of cyclists.  I have to say, i'm not sure i really believed in them.  I had heard about them, but i had never encountered one in over 70,000 miles.  And even though as august an authority as Kent regaled me with horror stories, it sounded almost like a campfire ghost story to me.   Beware The Boogey Man! Boo!

Just to twist the knife, Michelin Wires actually come from cars.  They are part of the steel belt in steel belted radials.  The steel belt is not solid, it is a woven fabric of hair-thin steel wires.  When someone drives that tire down to the steel belt, the wires, or the whole tire can wind up on the side of the road.  When the wires are long they are not much of a problem, but as they decompose they wind up as little teeny tiny shards.  These almost invisible bits of wire can slowly work their way into your tire.  My personal demon probably spent weeks working through that 5mm protective layer.

It's a good tire, it's got 4,000 miles on it and i'm sure it's got another 4,000 more left in the tread.  At this point i'm scared to use it.  But i don't have another one and i don't have any money so i don't really have any choice.  I went to the storage locker and pulled out my previous set of Schwalbe Marathons with 8,500 miles on them.  But they are worn almost through in places.  I didn't trust them.

The offending tire was already marked up with sharpie and chalk markings as i tried to limit the area of the search. Sigh.  So i patched that same tube again.  I tried booting the problem area of the tire with duct tape in hopes that would help (Kent said it wouldn't.  As usual, he was right.) I was also hoping that maybe the big pile of patches already there (six, for those who are counting) would start to form a layer of protection against my own personal Boogey Man.

I put the wheel back on this time with a Sisyphean certainty of yet another puncture.  Every previous time i had some secret, overly optimistic hope that i would be ok.  This time i knew better.  It went against my instincts to put a any tube in that tire, new or otherwise. I had this morbid understanding of the futility;  but i was hoping that next time i could take the tube out carefully enough to pinpoint (pun intended) the precise location of the offending Michelin Wire and extract it with tweezers.

To add to my stress, i had a long planned metric century (64 miles) far from town planed for next week that i was really looking forward to.  I didn't want to miss it!

It punctured again only 5 days later.  I noticed it, at home again, mid-afternoon when i had appointments that evening.  I can't begin to express my frustration.  This time i wrestled with the tire for a couple of hours.  I could not find the damn wire.  This is a great tire and i love the protective layer, but it's possible that protection is working against me here.  I think the little booger is retreating back into that layer when the tire is not inflated making it impossible to see it, to feel it, or to grab it. With a complete hopelessness i put a seventh patch on the pile.

Then i did something strange. There are these "tuffy" style tire liners on the market.  In my experience they cause more flats than they protect against (because the tube gets cut or pinched by the liner) and they weigh a lot, but i was desperate.  I gave in against my best instincts.  I put one in and i duct taped the place where the two ends met to try to mitigate the pinch problems.  I rode to my appointment and back home without problems. Unlike before i did not forget about my tire, i was constantly aware of it. Then the next day my errands went off fine.  By now i was checking the tire every 15 minutes.

Tuesday, the day of the metric century in the forest,  i set out early in the morning for light rail.  I got the short distance to the train and met my friends for our ride. It was raining, which i really enjoy, but is hard on tires. Once we were through Renton and out in the forest we had a wonderful ride.  I checked my tire regularly and thought about it constantly.  It poured rain and we rode through some very remote areas.  I noticed a little slippage side to side on the big downhills, but i attributed it to the rain. 

Forty-three miles in, right where the lovely country road meets a highway, as we rode back towards civilization, i started to bonk.  We stopped under a bridge out of the rain and i very quickly downed a protein shake.  We were up and rolling again in two minutes, and as we were merging off of the country road and on to the busy highway i asked Dennis, behind me what my tire looked like.

"Flat", he said, passing me.

I hopped off the bike on the very narrow shoulder of the busy highway in the heavy rain and pumped up the tire as fast as i could.  My arms were really tired. 

Then Karen and i split off from the group and rode as fast as we could into town.  I was extremely frustrated about the tire and i was bonking.  I am very grateful to Karen for pacing me the five miles into Auburn.  Once in town, as the sun came out, i stopped to pump the tire up again while everyone waited.

Everyone just thought it was a normal puncture, that a quick tire change was all i needed.  They didn't know about The Boogey Man!  I knew this tire couldn't be changed, i had to pump and ride, that was my only hope. From that point in downtown Auburn it was about 8 miles to the town of Kent and another 6 or so to our end point at Tukwila and i thought there was a chance i might make it just pumping several times.  I wasn't thinking clearly. Damn the Boogey Man!!!!!

When i got the tire pumped up a bit i took the pump off and the presta valve came apart in my hand, blasting all the air out. As if that wasn't enough of a sign, i was sitting one block from the train station.  I really, really, really wanted to finish the ride, but i knew this tire was a goner.

Finally i read the signs and accepted my fate.  I told the group to leave without me.  I walked 1 block and waited for the train.  It was an 80 minute wait. While waiting i called Bike Works and ordered a new tire.  You can't fight The Boogey Man.

I was frustrated while waiting but i was pretty happy once i was on the train. Trains always make me happy.

The next day i took the old tire off.  The flat in Auburn was not caused by the Michelin Wire. The "tuffy" tire liner seems to have held that thing back, at least for a couple of days.  However the tire liner itself cut the tube, that's what caused this flat.  And the tire liner badly abraded the tube in three other places, (including near the pile o patches) all looked ready to fail in the next 20 miles.

A couple of days later i got a call that my tire had come in at the shop, but it turned out that the distributer couldn't get the tire i ordered so sent something different.  I called several other local shops and no one can, at the moment, get that tire. They all have the 32, the narrower one, but not the 35 to match my front tire. I finally ordered one from the always dependable Peter White Cycles (he only had 3 left!).  I put on one of the old badly worn tires in it's place and will ride that with my fingers crossed until my new tire comes. Although knocked down by The Boogey Man i will ride on.  But now i believe.

Schmidt Edelux

One of the frustrations of cycling is the constant replacing of batteries in the headlight.

There are two kinds of lights: SEE ME lights, and SEE AHEAD lights.

Until recently see me lights were cheap and great for getting the attention of other road users, but did nothing for lighting up the road itself.  See ahead lights that light up the road were very expensive and extremely battery hungry. 

But i've always wanted to see the road, to ride in the dark.  So i usually choose a see ahead light with a dynamo, an electrical generator, that converts some of the energy from the bicycle, from me that is, into power for the light.

I first started riding with a generator light back in the mid 1970s. Generators then were loud, created a great deal of drag, damaged the side of the tire, required a great deal of tweaking and the light went off at stop lights. But there was no battery required, i had nothing to throw in the landfill, there was nothing to replaced weekly (or daily!). My light was always there. And it was the brightest thing around, not only did it make me visible, but i could see where i was going. And i have to say i kind of liked the way it made my bike sound like a jet engine as i accelerated downhill.

In the early 1990s, when almost all of my night riding was in the city, with good street lighting, i gave up on generators and used blinky lights front and back, figuring all i needed was to be seen, not to light my own way. I had a few sets of rechargeable batteries which i changed every couple of weeks.

But then in the late 1990s generator technology made a big leap (thanks to a German law requiring them on all bicycles). I read about the amazing bottom bracket generators that contacted the bottom of the tire, not the side, were quiet and were much much, more efficient. And the lights store 5 minutes of power so they stay on at traffic lights! After a long conversation about lights and generators, Val Kleitz at Bikesmith managed to find an imported bottom bracket generator for me, with front and back lights. I was thrilled.  I rode with that generator set for years. It served me very well. I loved it.

Although it was pretty quiet there was a bit of hum . When someone would ride right next to me they would sometimes ask about the sound. I was sorry it wasn't louder, i loved to talk about the generator, although, sadly, i don't think i ever converted anyone. I never had to think about batteries, i always had my light and it was always ready to go.  I used no power from the wall, or from a factory, i never threw any chemicals into the landfill, and every time i rode with anyone else, i had the brightest light on the road! That halogen headlight really lit things up.

Last year, for my birthday, my parents got me a hub generator! This is a huge advance. It's completely silent and very powerful. It's extremely efficient, there is no noticeable drag at all -- it uses magnets passing each other rather than contact with the tire. And it looks really cool too.

I love it. It's got more than enough power for my halogen headlight, however headlight technology has advanced considerably. My headlight is not really that bright. It hasn't changed, but all the other lights have. Even many of the small, cheap see me lights are now brighter than my halogen. Lights have begun using super bright LEDs which use considerably less current than a halogen.

So at the top of my wish list is now the Schmidt Edelux.

(I'd probably get black, the red is a slightly different color than my burgundy bike, and sliver might stand out too much... but any of the three would work.)

This light is amazingly bright.

But more importantly, it is focused, wide and low, so not to blind other cyclists.

So i'm going to ask for a Schmidt Edelux from Peter White Cycles this year.

The Correct Bottom Bracket

I'm not the best mechanic around -- i'm certainly getting better, The weekly volunteer repair parties have made a difference -- but i still don't have 'the touch' and i can get very frustrated.

The front derailleur is challenging for the best of them. I really struggle with it. Once i had the bike back together i was surprised how badly the front was shifting. I fought with it for quite a while, and then i rode it without shifting the front. All told i spent a good portion of three days fighting with it. I was very frustrated!

So i called my friend Dave, who can fix anything. He relished the challenge. We spent quite a while with it. He actually completely removed the derailleur and started over. We just couldn't get it to work. Then we took a look at the bottom bracket -- even took the cranks off.

And sure enough, the bottom bracket seemed to stick out 5 or 6 millimeters. That doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to prevent the front derailleur from ever working. We put the old crunchy bottom bracket back in and i rode to Bike Works. It shifted ok, not great, but a massive difference from the with the new bottom bracket.

The great guys at Bike Works suggested a 113 mm bottom bracket. I had originally bought a 118 mm bottom bracket because that is what the one i removed said on it. When i got the new one home i placed them next to each other and they are exactly the same - maybe 1 mm off, maybe not that much. Apparently, the old bottom bracket was labeled wrong!




I put it in, and almost like magic, the shifting worked! I struggled for days with that wrong size! But now it's working very nicely thank you very much! Thanks to Homer, Karl, Steve & Ryan at Bike Works who spent some time figuring out this weird problem!

The assembly process

My frustration level is very high right now. I spent a couple of days working on putting my beloved bicycle back together. Well actually i spent a lot of it procrastinating because i was worried about my skills. Some of it was perfectionism, i'm sure, but most of it was a legitimate worry. I'm out of my depth. I've put a lot of effort in the last year into learning about bicycle repair -- and in fact i have learned a lot. However i'm a long way off on a lot of things.

The headset installation went very well, that was fun. My friend Steve loaned me a magnificent headset press and my friend Dave came over to play with it with me. Having the right tool for the job is amazing. The almost impossible process of shoving the headset cups into the top and bottom of the steerer tube exactly level was a snap with that wonderful tool. We had fun.

The next day i returned the headset press to Steve in the morning when we watched the England vs West Indies world cup cricket match. Later Kent came by and helped with the bottom bracket, placing the derailleurs and other miscellaneous things. It was a big help and a nice visit.

That left me with placing small accessories, and all the cables, housings, and drive train adjustments. I really struggled, but i finally got the cabling done in a workable way, in fact, mostly excellent, except where i ran out of housing and had to improvise. The brake adjustments were very, very frustrating and took a very long time. Not having the right tools hurt me here, but i also just don't have enough practice. And after a few hours of fighting with the derailleurs i gave up for the night in a torrent of shouted obscenities that i'm not proud of. And i haven't even started on the fenders or generator.

I'll give the derailleurs a go again tomorrow morning, and maybe if my 40 mile 'back on the bike' ride is canceled, i'll call in a friend for some help.

testing the weight of powder coat

Some friends suggested that powder coat would be significantly heavier than paint. I am not particularly concerned with weight, and other than the extra 12 pounds around my mid-section, i don't really believe that decreasing weight will make riding more efficient. There's good solid evidence for that from as noble an authority as John Schubert.

In any case, i figured i had the opportunity to do a little before and after test. So after i stripped my frame, but before i strapped it on my back to ride it to the powder coat shop, i weighed it. 4.6 pounds.

The expert at Seattle Powder Coat looked at the beaten up frame, covered with stickers and pointed out to me that Bianchi had not painted it, but had powder coated it. And he said it wasn't a very good job. The new powder coating, he said, would be more durable.

When i got it back, it looked fantastic. They really do a great job there and are very friendly. They are not cyclists, but understand bicycles and were very helpful. I will keep track of how durable the new coat of Sparkle Burgundy turns out to be.

I strapped it on my back with innnertubes, hopped on Kent's Octocog and rode it 5 miles up the hill home.

The first thing i did when i got it home was weigh it again.

4.6 pounds. No difference at all

The scale i used went to tenths of a pound, so that's a maximum error of about 1 and a half ounces on each weighing, so you figure, worst case, i could be off by as much as 3 oz on the combined calculation. Nevertheless the answer was quite clear. For me, for this bike. NO DIFFERENCE.

Sparkle Burgundy

I got my frame back from Seattle Powder Coat and it looks great. Better than i expected! I was worried that i would have to choose a second tier color. But when i actually brought the frame in, he worked with me a while and found Sparkle Burgundy, which is a really nice color, and matches the former color of the bike very well.

I like it a lot.

Now i just have to build up the bike again!

disassembly

Well my bike is now in pieces. This is exciting but very scary.


Tuesday, with some great help from Kent i took all the components off my bike, leaving just the frame, which will be taken to Seattle Powder Coat to be painted.

The bike was filthy -- riding in the rain on streets with heavy car traffic leaves a coating of black crap on everything. I do wash my bike fairly regularly, but it had gotten very bad. Wednesday i carefully washed each component and determined that the bottom bracket needed to be replaced but everything else was ok.

Novara Rainy Pass Bike Gloves - Men's

I have had FIVE pairs of these gloves going back to when they first appeared at REI in the mid 1990s. I have found them to be very useful and very dependable; although the design changes over the years have often been a step backwards.

I ride in all weather, commuting daily with frequent, all day recreational rides, totaling 3,000-4,000 miles a year. I live in Seattle where winter is in the upper 30s to upper 40s and frequently wet (although less so these last few years).

I swear by these gloves. They have generally lasted for about 3 years of heavy daily use. They are great in the 38 to 48 degree range -- our normal winter weather. Above that they are too warm and below that my fingers start to be a little cold (i often carry liners that i wear under them on the rare occasion that a Seattle night is too cold for them). They are smooth and comfortable inside and allow plenty of dexterity. They are as breathable as is possible in a warm glove and they are light and pack easily in a truck bag or backpack.

They are GREAT in the Seattle rain. They get wet but keep my hands warm, just as they should. Perfect. If i stop and take them off for a long time when they are wet, i sit on them to warm them back up (or even microwave them for 4 or 5 seconds) and they keep me warm and happy. At work in the winter i often place them on my computer monitor so they are dry when i leave.

I have recommended them to many people over the years.

There ARE some concerning issues.

The palm padding on the new models is far too thin,
the newer models are not as warm
some years the inner seams have had too much extra fabric.
the most recent pair i bought wore holes in them very quickly.

The first pair i had, in the early 1990s was when they were gray. I completely wore out that first pair; i wore them for years, until they were falling apart. I bought second pair - still gray. Unfortunately within just a few months i lost one of the gloves. So i bought a third pair, also gray, and i wore them a couple of years until they were close to wearing out with a few holes and seems starting to split open; i threw them in the closet in the spring.

The next year i bought another pair but the inner seams were badly trimmed. The thick excess fabric inside made it hard to shift and eliminated all dexterity aside from just being uncomfortable. I was very disappointed. I returned that pair and bought a different brand glove.

Several years later i noticed a new redesigned model, now black, but clearly the same glove. So I bought a fourth pair and wore it for a couple of years. When started to get a few holes i decided to buy another pair, but they had the same inner seam problem as the third pair i had so i didn't buy them. I continued to use the fourth pair for yet another year.

In 2008 i found the newest model (black) had solved the seam problem and were smooth on the inside again allowing dexterity. So i bought a fifth pair! Early in the winter of 2009-2010 i lost one of that pair, and was lucky enough that the one i had left was a mate to the lost glove from the second pair, which i still had in the bottom of a box!

So this winter i have been wearing a mixed pair, a 1999 gray model on the left and a 2008 black model on the right. They work well, and riding with the different generations side by side has allowed me to really compare the two.



The older model from 1999 is thicker and much warmer than the 2008 glove. The new one is not warm enough. The newer one has much less palm padding, it feels like riding without padding, but the glove from 1999 is well padded, comfortable, and much more like a cycling glove! The older one seems more durable, than the new one, even though it's had more abuse. The older one fits somewhat more snuggly increasing my dexterity (i can operate my cyclometer or mobile phone with the old glove, but not with the new one). The new one has finger tip reinforcement which is VERY useful as that is the primary failure point on the old model. The older glove is splitting at the seams. The newer one has reinforced seems, is a nicer, more neoprene like fabric, but has torn easily.

I'm hopeful that next year's model is black with the reinforced fingertips, and smooth inside seems, but is thicker, snugger and with more palm padding like the older model.

Mark & Emily's new Kayak Trailer!

I have been dreaming about having a kayak trailer for my bike for about 7 years -- at least since the day in the late 90s when i saw a Farington Chariot at a kayak shop in Sitka Alaska. I waffled for a while, but when i decided to buy the Chariot a few years ago, the company was gone. (Val at Bikesmith suspects that they lost the company in an insurance lawsuit because the web domain at one time directed to an insurance company.)

Then for quite some time i tried to build one, or to get someone to build one for me, with no luck. I spent a lot of time researching and planning it. The idea i have in my head is for two 20" or 16" bicycle wheels which are connected with a structure and some way of cradling the kayak, either a fabric hammock or a couple of lateral (running front to back) foam bars. The boat would sit with it's center of gravity on the axle between the wheels. Then it could be pushed or pulled like a cart, or attached to a bicycle. My friend David has talked of building a trailer with a very high axle so that one kayak or canoe can be put on top and the other suspended with straps below the axle.

The big challenge is a connection to the bicycle. I imagine the options to be:
* axle hitch like the BOB uses - i like this but it may not be stable enough.
* chain stay connector - may need an additional front wheel
* something that connects to a rear rack
* seat tube clamp on a rising tongue.

The long tongue connecting the trailer is of course a big issue -- if you have a tongue, it has to run 8 to 10 feet under the boat to the bike and then, i assume turning up to the seat post. The tongue is the key that makes the trailer expensive and awkward. However, i have a 'Sea-Kayaker' magazine which shows directions for an easy to make hitch which attaches to the nose of a kayak, eliminating the need for the long tongue.

But this has all been solved because recently my great car-free friends Emily & Chris got interested and decided to go halfsies with me on pre-made trailer. I was absolutely thrilled to get moving on this!

We very seriously considered this trailer at Bikes At Work, and Jim was very helpful.

After a long discussion we settled on a neat trailer from a great guy named Tony Hoar in Victoria BC. Tony is a brilliant engineer who builds bikes and trailers in his one person shop, Tony's Trailers. He is also a racer who finished LAST in the Tour de France FIFTY years ago (and still races!). I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him and working with him.



So, with great excitement today we assembled and test rode our new kayak trailer!! Although late January, it was a summer-like day in the upper 60s. I quite regretted not wearing shorts.

Assembling it out of the box.

Emily has photos posted too!

Tony's innovative connector

It's very long

Comparing the length with my BOB trailer

One cool thing about this trailer is that Tony made it so that it also converts to a grocery getter model.  You just use the quick release to take a section out of the tongue and drop a Rubbermaid(tm) container on the back.  You can ride it to the grocery store, disconnect it and use it for a shopping cart!

Learning the feel of the trailer on my first test ride.

It has a surprisingly tight Turning Circle

Emily rides by with the trailer on her folder

Already advertising for Tony!

This thing gets noticed! People comment on the trailer. They stop and ask questions about it. We handed out several of Tony's business cards today just while testing it! I'm going to carry a stack of them with me whenever i take the trailer out.

Emily's boat on board, i'm ready to Go on the...

First Ride!!!

We were both a bit worried about how this very long load would navigate on city streets, especially around Seattle's neighborhood traffic circles. But the trailer tracks very nicely behind the bicycle and could get around obstacles pretty easily.

Cruising easily around a neighborhood traffic circle

This is FUN!

One really nice thing about this trailer is that the kayak sits over the axle, which carries almost all of the weight. When loaded correctly the tongue weight is almost nothing, so your seat post, the flexible tongue and the hitch don't carry any weight.

There is a large compression strap which hooks over the axle and holds the boat tightly on the foam pad across the axle. Then another compression strap goes around the nose of the boat to hold it in the Y shaped yoke. A third strap goes around the body of the boat and the tongue. This supports the flexible tongue, keeps it from bouncing (mostly) and transfers the structure to the boat. The kayak itself becomes the structural beam of the trailer!

After getting used to riding with one boat on the trailer, we started thinking about stacking the second boat. I was a little nervous about the weight involved. Emily's neighbor Stella was watching this whole process and so Emily figured she could help.

Stella paddles up Ashworth Ave!

Somewhat reassured, we put my boat on top!

Two Kayaks.

We used an old car rack set up i bought years ago. The two foam car-top frames went between the boats and a bunch of compression straps held the two boats together very well. We put a lot of straps on them, i think we can leave a couple off. We probably only need two, front and back to hold the boats together.

Going up hill wasn't really difficult with one boat, but with two boats it was a bit harder. Otherwise the stacked trailer worked great!

fully loaded

And then i headed off to ride 9 miles on the trail by Lake Union, getting quite a few stares! It was getting dark soon so i didn't get to paddle today, but i rode up to the University and out to Ballard (where i bumped into an old friend, Liz!). 

Off to the lake

I was just getting the feel for the trailer. It rode very nicely... I could tell i had a big trailer, but it wasn't unwieldy at all.


The kayak gear, flotation vests, spray skirts, paddles, dry bags, food, clothing etc get stuffed in the cockpit. I figured i would put a spray skirt over the cockpit when it was on the trailer to enclose the gear, especially if it was raining.

You'd think that with two kayaks and all the gear that the weight (about 200 lbs) and the length (about 24 feet from front wheel to the back of the kayak) would be the biggest challenges, but they were really not that noticeable.

What did require my attention was the width and the bounce. At almost 3 feet between wheels it was sometimes hard to thread through Seattle's very narrow bicycle trails, i almost hit a wheel on a wall, a tree, and a couple of bollards. It would be nice if it had a bar in front of the wheel to deflect such an impact.

And while the weight of the load wasn't a problem at all on the flats (it did make hills really big!) the heft of the thing combined with the long tongue could get a good bounce going if i didn't have a smooth pedal stroke.  On my few attempts to go up a small hill it was the bounce that stopped me before the weight became unmanageable.  I was very glad i had clipless pedals and a full pedal stroke.


And on a personal note, I noticed a very strange phenomenon, a contradiction which probably says more about my personality than it does about this wonderful new trailer.

What i noticed was my reaction to bystanders' reactions. When i rode through a middle class family neighborhood like Ballard people were amazed. They would point and shout 'oh my god he's towing kayaks!'.

My reaction (usually kept to myself) was always: 'What's the big deal? Bikes can do anything. Move along, nothing unusual here.'.

But when i went through a more jaded, younger, hipper neighborhood like Fremont and i found that no one looked up, no one noticed, no one said anything, my reaction (usually kept to myself) was: 'WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!!! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TOWING A PAIR OF KAYAKS!?!?! PAY ATTENTION!.