Riding on the DL

 In the bike industry, weight, or rather the lack of it, sells. Bicycle manufacturers are in the business to sell stuff, so they often try to get away with selling less stuff, or physical matter, because it makes them more money, but this can result in a form that has less function in the long run. Decades ago I learned from my tall and strong friend Sandy to buy bike parts with a scale, but in the opposite way (weigh?) than typical. His tenent: for a part of a given shape and material, less weight means less material and therefore less strength, so once you determine how much material lasts for your usage and you can then select future purchases from what weighs enough! For example, back in the days of 26" wheels, a "race quality" rim had a claimed weight of 400 grams, but by spending less on a mid grade rim, I'd obtain 50 grams more aluminum that would last me longer. Sure my bike with two wheels would weigh not quite a quarter pound more, but it worked great, and truly stayed true a lot longer. I paid less and received more!

I've been riding a different geared bike a bit more this past week. I'd bought it early this year because the whole bike was cheaper than a rigid replacement for the suspension fork on the hybrid that has been my regular transportation for the last year. More mileage revealed a flaw: unless the seat collar was super tight, the post would slowly slip down. Yesterday, after running an errand before midday physical therapy, feeling that a wee more extension would benefit my legs, I stopped to raise my seat the seat about a sixteenth of an inch, because yes, I'm that finicky.

Knowing slippage was a problem, I continued tightening past what felt right for the wee little m5 bolt, to the point in fact that I heard a disconcerting "ting". Uh oh, tool back in the bag, bum back in the saddle, I rode maybe ten feet before a second "ting" accompanied the seat suddenly dropping down low. Ugh! I was in the center of South Hadley ten miles from my appointment in Hadley and diverting home to swap for a bike with a saddle on the UH (up high) would add five miles. I wasn't confident I had margin for that, and a quick referral to the bus schedule showed no summer service for the route between Mount Holyoke College and UMass, an hour wait until the next other bus.

I've said it before, and the universe seems determined to have me say it again, and again, a bike, even not quite right, can still serve as an effective mode of travel, so after wrapping the rear rack bungy to help hold the seat mostly centered, I was back aboard and pedaling standing. I did give my legs two breaks, once walking the old trolley line parallel to the climb up route 116, and again opting for the short cut across farm fields in Hadley. The damaged bike got me to physical therapy, and I still had time for a merciful wipe with a damp towel towel when I arrived.

Weight, a seat collar should easily support my 145 pounds of it, but someone design one that had a little bit less material than what was necessary to do that properly, and one way they shed grams was by specifying a m5 diameter bolt rather than a adequate m6 one. Ting! I weighed the difference this morning: 0.5 ounce. Yes, light bikes can be nice, but I will happily add that less than paltry amount to ride with my bum comfortably seated and legs at full extension.

Little bolt with stripped threads,

and one with 0.5 ounce more metal.

While the universe is set on testing my statement about a bicycle's resilience, it also had some remorse and sympathy, so on my way home a bike in the Hampstead Bike Exchange scrap pile bequeathed me a proper seat collar, and in thanks for the privilege of cruising home seated, I bought a needed bottom bracket tool and a pair of Crank Brothers pedals from their used parts bins. Win, win, win!

But once again, wait, there's more! My errand in the Hadley of shad (S.Hadley) had me leaving a market as a mail delivery van arrived, and the driver asked if he could inquire about the fiberglass pole protruding from the side of my bike. Sure, and he'd guessed right that it serves to encourage motorists to leave more space when passing and said he wanted the same for walking. I encouraged him to stroll with a pole that can be waved horizontally for cars that aren't affording space. In an all too related story, I heard this morning that the world's oldest marathon runner was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Vulnerable users, we're all in this together. Sigh

Go postal!