Living La Vida Lunda: A blog abroad

The Minnesota No(ICE)s

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  • How to deal with a MN commute.

    Urban Bean. Rocks. Very civilized. Bikes

  • First Winter Commute

    So, I got really tired of riding on the trainer. It really blows. Skull-violatingly dull. So, I picked-up some studded tires last night and rode to work today. I tried to take a picture in the cold, dark place that is pre-dawn Minneapolis, but I put my phone in an outer pocket, and it was…

  • More commuting

    I find my resentment deepening at ecovelo.  Nearly every day that dude is smugly posting shots of his sweet, northern CA commute.  So I think I’ll try to provide a appropriate, Midwestern counterpoint.

  • WordPress for android.

    I’m experimenting with the WordPress client for Android, and, at the moment, the quickpress feature for moblogging.  Of course, the constraints include: Thumb endurance Images only from the on-board camera. Given that my platform is an HTC evo, neither of those terrible, relative to the alternatives.  I suppose that its also an assessment of the…

  • Bike Build, About the Frame

    I promised Habanero that I would “review” the frame. So, here it is. Habanero is a designer/retailer of titanium frames that are fabricated at a plant in China Taiwan (a western style democracy, in case you’re confusing Taiwan with the PRC) [ed. see Mark’s comment below]. I discovered them via Googleing for “titanium bike frames”. The…

  • Bike Build, Day 7. Done.

    So, the project is complete (save a little derailer tuning). Looking at the pics below, you might be forgiven for having a response of “WTF?!?!?!”. Afterall, what was (in the last update) an ass-kicking monstercrosser, now looks like a bike-dork commuter! Well, yes. Yes it is. This is my do-all bike. Or at least my…

  • Bike Build, Day 6

    I bailed on the Woodchippers. I installed a shorter stem and some regular drops. After a half hour or so on the trainer, it was the right choice. So, I taped-up the bars, shortened/re-routed the shifter cable, and I now have a functioning bicycle. An awesome, bad-ass bicycle. I still need to do some tuning…

  • Bike Build, Day 5 (or, say “Hello” to Sexy Beast)

    This was a good weekend. I swung by Freewheel Bike and had them install the crown race. Terribly expensive ($4) relative to the cost of just buying the tool ($80). Also picked-up a brake and rim tape. The rim tape allowed me to mount tires, which in turn allowed me to sort out the height…

  • Bike Build, Day 4

    Today is a low-net-outcome build day. I still don’t have the crown race installed, so I clamped-in the fork and spent some time “dry fitting” the various cable housing bis to see how they would all go together. I’m generally very pleased with everything, although the line from the shift lever to the normal shift…

  • Bike Build, Day 3

    The fork arrived today but, because I’m home sick and really am convalescing, I didn’t get the crown race installed. It’s an IRD steel fork, and it seems fine, it did come in a newspaper with chinese all over it, so there’s not a lot of obfuscation of country of origin … 😉 It did…