Author: timmooney

Hacking my vintage touring bike

Longtime readers* of the blog know I own a “west coast” bike called the Goblin, purchased ostensibly so I could avoid paying outrageous flying fees to various airlines, and take up space in my brother’s NE Portland garage.

Behold, the Green Goblin!
Behold, the Green Goblin!

The Goblin is a bit of a project… to call it vintage may not be totally accurate, but it’s pretty old. It got a good makeover from the shop I bought it from (used) and I also bought a new rear wheel in Brookings, Oregon since said bike shop missed the fact every spoke was chewed up. These wheels are 26 inches, which is pretty standard for a mountain bike, an old touring bike like the Goblin, but not modern road or touring bikes.

Dilemma: I would like to get a dynohub wheel on the Goblin to keep my electronic gear in the juice for this summer’s ride.

Dilemma 2: I am very, very cheap.

Wait… maybe that’s an overstatement. I’m frugal when it comes to the Goblin. While I’d love to  drop $300 on a new wheel with a dynohub, that’s more than it would cost to fly my good bike back and forth. The whole point of the Goblin was to save money, but have a good bike out west I can tour on.

Solution: I have a wheel with a dynohub… but it’s a 700c wheel… on my bike out here. 700c wheels are slightly bigger than 26″ wheels:

26v700c
700c (left), 26″(right)

The problem with just slapping a 700c on a 26″ frame is the brakes don’t match up. Like at all. And I like front brakes. I really do. They’re super handy descending some of the crazy ass hills between Portland and San Francisco, so for my cheaper side to win, I need to fix the brake problem.

Et voila: the brake converter:

brake adapter

A similar looking little bracket is the ticket. It bolts to the frame and allows one to attach the standard brakes higher, hitting the rim on a 700c wheel. At $41 with shipping, this isn’t cheap, but way cheaper than a new wheel. PS, these were apparently easy to find a few years ago. Mavic made them and so did Xtracycle. Now, the only place in the known universe that seems to carry them is (maybe) a shop in Arizona I found. I’m sure they’re around, but given the ease I can generally procure things online, I was a bit surprised at how oddly… gone… these were.

I’ll bring my 700c dynohub wheel and the front fender with me. Since it’s just a wheel, the airline won’t get me for the bike fee as long as I can get it into a bag properly. I’ll also bring the front fender since a 26″ fender won’t fit a 700c wheel. Swap the wheels, refit the brakes… boom.

Weird part: the bike will ride off kilter – a 26″ wheel on the back and a 700c on the front. I’ll try this out a bit before I leave to make sure it’s not ridiculous, but I don’t expect it to be a problem. I’m sure it’s “geometrically problematic” or something else that would bother an ounce-phobic roadie, but I’m hauling 40 lbs of gear… methinks that’s more strain than this can cause. Also, better to be higher in the front for all sorts of obvious reasons.

Plus… brakes!

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*I’ll have you know this blog goes all the way back to 2012.

Advice to me, circa 1996

Kimberly and I hit the podcast for another listener question again… this time tackling advice we’d offer ourselves at age 25. I thought this was a little reminiscent of my “memo to past self” posts I put up from time to time… check it out!

microphone

 

We’ve received some really nice feedback on these shows. More to come, and I think a pretty big sized announcement for the one in April if I’m not mistaken…

Unsticking being stuck

cabin picsI wish I had all the answers, I really do.

Tonight, I finally listed my cabin for rental on AirBnB (hey, want to rent a super cool luxurious cabin in WV?) after about 9 months of spinning my wheels trying to build a website that I found deeply unsatisfying to build. I was stuck. I was procrastinating. I missed opportunities (probably).

What got me unstuck? Seeing how easy it could be to act. Sometimes an external impetus can be the thing that shines a light on your stuck ways… and then in a big flurry of activity, BAM! You create what you could have done months ago.

Why is that? Not sure… see line 1.

Time your posts

Greetings from snowy, chilly Montreal… I’m up here working on a variety of things, but I understand there will be poutine for lunch. Poutine is Canada’s gift to the world, and Canada says, “you’re welcome.”

I ran across this really interesting infographic from kissmetrics that I want to share… with all of the analytics data we get from various sources (I use Google Analytics for websites, Libsyn’s data for podcasts, plus the open and click info from MailChimp and Constant Contact… it’s an ocean of data!) but sometimes the data needs interpretation that’s over our heads. Here’s where kissmetrics weighed in based on their data:

  • The highest percentage of users read blogs in the morning
  • A higher percentage of men read blogs in the evening and at night. 
  • The average blog gets the most traffic on Monday. 
  • The average blog gets the most traffic around 11am Eastern Time. 
  • The average blog gets the most comments on Saturday.
  • The average blog gets the most inbound links on Monday and Thursday.
  • The average blog gets the most inbound links at 7am Eastern Time.

I know my data confirms early posts tend to do better than later posts, so when given the choice, I prefer to post about 7am (think about that when scheduling a post in advance!). I also tend to like posting podcasts on Sunday night – based on data I have, there’s more engagement between then and Monday morning than other days.

What do you think about this? Does your blog get more attention at certain times of day over others?

science of timing from kissmetrics
The science of timing – thank you kissmetrics!

Amtrak Adventure

Rockin an Amtrak hardhat

Today I shot a semi-unofficial video for Amtrak’s Employee Assistance Program. The video will highlight how to relax and move as an employee on the long haul runs. It’s a tough job, so the video will hopefully be a help. The truly cool part of the visit was seeing a lot of the behind-the-scenes aspects of their Ivy City maintenance facility. Some highlights:

  • Homeland Security (aka “GI JOE”) drilling storming the train with blue plastic guns. No joke.
  • Seeing the track equipment pushing and pulling train engines
  • Seeing the clever use of space in the roomettes and other sleeping cars
  • Interacting with the men and women there… really pleasant cool people.

Shooting on a train is challenging – lots of noise from the AC and very, very tight quarters. Overall, a fun experience!

Amtrak shoot

Karmacoda + Sunfields

Do yourself a giant favor and support one of my favorite indie chill-out cool band from the Bay Area, Karmacoda. There’s a new remix album out right now, and it’s great stuff. I’ve gotten the chance to hang out with Heather, Karmacoda’s lead vocalist and we’ve played a lot of their stuff on Kimberly’s podcast. Special shoutout to Anji Bee who makes an appearance on the album too. In addition to being half of Lovespirals, Anji’s also a legend in the chillout podcast world. I doubt she’d admit that, but it’s totally true. Check out Chillcast. Aaaaaand, you’re welcome.


This weekend, I hope to get a chance to hear some cuts from my favorite band you’ve never heard of from Montreal, Sunfields… they’ve got a new album and I happen to be hanging out with their frontman/guitarist Jason. I predict a Juno. OR perhaps a Genie… this came from a prior visit:

and, the sequel

Ok, maybe not a Genie. But he sings good:

Go Orange!

Louis the Pug and I are gearing up for today’s big game against our arch-rival Georgetown Hoyas. If you’re not a sports person, it’s hard to convey the degree and depth of this rivalry. Today marks the final time the Hoyas visit the Syracuse campus as members of the same conference (long story). The Carrier Done will be packed to the brim with 35000+ fans, breaking some record that I’m pretty sure Syracuse owns already.

Louis, as I mentioned, is all geared up:

20130223-104554.jpg

He loves wearing that.

My game treat will be some stuffed jalapeños – I’m shaking things up:

20130223-104843.jpg

Louis asked me to mention it’s 10:55am and Georgetown still sucks:

20130223-104932.jpg

Trolling the trolls

thanks wikimedia
thanks wikimedia

The internets are full of trolls. Trolling has a lot of definitions, but I’ve observed that most trolls exhibit these characteristics:

  • Anonymous commenters
  • Negativity in their comments
  • Generally try to hijack a discussion from one topic to another, sometimes tangentially at best
  • Tend to have a high opinion of their opinion, but get testy when called on it
  • Think of themselves as higher intellectuals than others (especially those with whom they disagree)
  • Never become real members of a community (see anonymity above)
  • Become shocked (shocked!) when they are called out as trolls

I recently had a bit of a run-in with a troll on another blog. I make it a point not to feed the trolls, but this one got under my skin just enough to call out, because the person was anonymous, negative, picked an inhuman time and occasion to troll their trolling, tried to hijack the post with a senseless observation, and cloaked it all in pseudo-intellectual feces. Basically, your perfect troll.

Unfortunately comment streams seem to be full of them – check out your local paper’s comments (and God help you if you live in Syracuse… I swear, that’s the worst of the worst) or any CNN story, or… sadly most places. I used to enjoy the discourse amongst a lot of Internet based communities, but now I find them to be anti-intellectual.

And troll, if you’re reading this… I invite you to actually discuss your point. I really do. Just pick a different forum than a grieving woman. Or write a blog post. Anonymously, of course.