NYC Journal

Phil,

Those SE brakes surely are face plant city. I think that’s a problem, especially if you have other bikes. To easy to not remember.

I highly recommend the Paul’s Components canti brake that is designed for tandems. They still modulate great, but they have the additional leverage to clamp a rim when you want and need it.

Guys who are great on trails loved my IBIS BTW. This guy Pat would nose pogo and hop around. He was sponsored by Specialized and raced with the Ned look-a-like. Pat was a skinny bitch like me. LOL.

A trick of Pat’s I want to learn is using body movement rearward and backpedaling coordinated at the same time unclamping the brakes, and it appeared as if he was on a fixed gear bike peddling backwards and going in reverse.

How cool is that?

Cal
 
Cal,
You can "ghost pedal" backwards while getting your movement from a controlled "fall". If you stand aside your bike and turn the handlebars one way, the bike is going to try to fall over towards that direction, but it's not going to just flop; it can't since the bars are turned and the tires still have grip on the ground, so while gravity is pulling it down, the bike is trying to come to rest on its side. While doing this, the bike will move where you want it to while it tries to straighten the front wheel. Straightening the wheel so the bike can flop over is far easier for gravity to do so it will naturally give just a tiny bit of rearward motion to the whole bike itself; because gravity can't overcome the friction of the front tire and as long as the front wheel is not perpendicular to the frame, the bike can't simply flop sideways without the wheel straightening out a bit. So you can use this to your advantage when wanting to go backwards and it's not unlike using a single oar in a boat at the stern to give forward motion like a fish tail; or maybe ice skating backwards, it's still controlling your fall. Paired with this little turn of the handlebars enough to give the rest of the bike some motion, you can use your body to affect the center of mass on the bike and impart that rearward motion. Sometimes "humping the air" a little helps or kind of a freestyle mountain bike "twerk" while also using the brakes will get the wheels rolling backwards.

I just took a short ride after work and dropped by my local bike shop to pick up some tubes. My friend who's the service manager took a ride up and down the block, then rode back in and did a nose wheelie in the shop. Those Maguras are absolutely killer. I seriously am very much looking forward to hitting the trails on this rig. Can't wait; we just need things to dry out.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil,

That sounds like a mucho fun bike. Also I am marveled by the old 8-speed XTR. Still great stuff and UBER durable.

Also it seems like the build up you performed was pretty much period correct for the era of the bike.

Thanks for the physics lesson. I have to start from the beginning and track stand on command. All these years I never developed those skills. To me mountain biking is physics in real time.

Trials skills are a very different kind of riding for me and very useful for technical sections. Kinda funny is how I was experimenting with twitching the steering while at a standstill with no brakes today in the dead end with the steel IBIS. Your explanation gave me understanding that is very helpful.

Cal
 
Some OCD behavior is good for killing Knotweed.

Knotweed grows can grow so fast, and where I weeded just a short time ago were some 3-4 foot plants. I had to remove them, and some even bigger plants from my next door neighbor’s slope/brushpile.

Then I decided to go a bit crazy and did the back slope of my dead end neighbor’s yard. This house now is abandoned. Kinda really run down, and is the bane of the neighborhood. Terry moved out a few weeks ago and left a mess. The roof on the garage is very far gone where it will require in the least new sheathing because there is a hole in the roof. If the trusses are rotted then they would have to be replaced.

Did I mention that Karen, the woman who owned the house drank herself to death, and Terry were both hoarders?

The house also needs a roof. AB-spect-TOAST siding. Overgrown lawn, poison ivy, and a fence that has partially fallen down. I’m sure the inside is a mess. Likely mold, and Terry even told me there is mold.

Anyways this kinda is the last house in Peekskill.

So I kinda invited myself to pull knotweed that if unchecked will spread and migrate back to my yard. Know in the past I did cut-cut-cut for two years to weaken the thicket Terry’s thicket with Karen’s permission, and now I can yank out the stalks and the root and rye-ZOME come up with the stalk. The work was kinda EZ-PZ.

Still have a small thicket near the marsh grass, and then there is the public land along the road that runs along the side of my dead end neighbor’s property. I can just use my 7 1/2 inch battery powered chainsaw to start the cut-cut-cut on the public land.

Pretty sure I can get away with it if I’m low key. I don’t need no permission. Anyways I’m an environmentalist. I made a choice not to use Roundup to protect the marsh and the frogs.

Cal
 
In talking with a friend I discovered how being a homeowner has made me happy.

Renting and moving around a lot, as well as the lack of stability is no bargain, but with home ownership I have a place to build out to suit my needs for the long term. With renting and moving there are so many beginnings and endings that lead to loses.

I guess why I’m so patient with not doing photography is because that day will come and it will be sustainable and unlimited.

For me renting held a sense of homelessness because it was not permanent.

We are spending a lot of money remodeling and updating a somewhat neglected old house. In the end though we will basically have a home we built, even though it was not built from the ground up for us. Pretty much we just started with a framework of an old house, and then made it our own.

This Thanksgiving will be three years of ownership, and the house is much changed: two new bathrooms; a new kitchen; a new front entrance; a new rear entrance; a cedar garden shed (4x8); a cedar She-Shed (8x8); a cedar pergola; and mini-splits to effectively have central AC for the first floor.

I forgot a new underground 100 amp service for the garage.

Cal
 
Raleigh Mountain Trials Update:
The old seatpost is still stuck. I'm going to have to resort to the hacksaw method, which I really dislike. I also burned the paint with my heat gun, which is another disappointment. Well, over last weekend I brought the fork to a Sherwin Williams and they got really close with a color analyzer then a couple sets of keen eyes. Once I get that seatpost free, I'll be sanding down the chipped (and burnt) areas, priming then sanding then painting then wet sanding then painting then wet sanding. I'm challenging myself to actually do that but if the weather gets really nice, I may just put on a single coat, build up the bike and go ride. We'll see.
I can be patient, I still have the Breezer to ride. One of these days I need to get a proper rigid Ritchey Logic fork for the Breezer. It's not a frame designed for suspension, so the Judy has slackened the head angle by a few degrees. One of these days...
 
Phil,

My Ti Basso mountain bike came with a Richey Logic fork. The added length of a suspension fork effectively makes the bike a chopper and effects the steering greatly. I ended up putting on a period correct Koski fork to restore the geometry as a rigid.

The Koski I used had a long trail so I have a longer wheelbase and slower steering, that’s why I made it into a cruiser/Newsboy. A very relaxed and comfortable bike.

Kinda funny how my IBIS’s retrofit with suspension forks even though they were rigids. Kinda cool having an assortment of bikes.

Cal
 
If you lived in NYC long enough you have to have seen Jordan Newley do his remarkable Micheal Jackson impersonation at the 42d Street subway station.

Sadly he was killed and is now a headline.

I likely have some shots of him either in negatives or in B&W Monochrom files.

May is Asian Heritage Month, and in a recent survey 52% of Asians feel at risk and danger of violence. Subways are profiled specifically as a dangerous place.

When I moved to East Harlem there was a rash of racially motivated hate crimes against Asians where they were beaten and robbed. “Maggie” was concerned, but the victims were all poor immigrants because East Harlem became the fastest growing Asian community in NYC because of affordable housing.

Pretty much even though I am of Asian descent, I knew I enjoyed white privilege and would unlikely be targeted. These attacks happened every few days and were headline news where there were multiple attacks in a week. It got so bad that near my apartment on Lexington Avenue on every intersection was a cop car with it lights on to indicate and show a police presence.

Eventually they found the guy.

BTW I avoid the subway, and if I have a choice will take a bus. Last time we were on the subway was when our agent, Vanessa, was in town and we had a meeting.

Needless to say I’m glad we left NYC. The city is a mess and went back decades…

Cal
 
Had the opportunity to go for a ride after childcare. Only did my hour loop that starts with the rolling hills on Washington Street that takes me south into Montrose, then Watch Hill Road to the tiny town of Verplank near Indian Point (the nuclear power plant that is now decommissioned), then north through Peekskill, and finally all the way south through Peekskill home.

The road from the train station in Peekskill is both long and steep. I used a 19.81 inch gear to grind up the hill which is mountain bike low gearing.

So this loop is about an hour. At some climbs I muscled up the hills in a stiff gear to build some strength. Also I did some work out of the saddle trying to stretch a new chain. Every gear was used, but my high gear is only a 99.27 gear inch. Oh-well.

Did not want to overdo things. Best to begin by riding every day and building up. The idea is to pump lots of blood. I found that I was able to push big gears and the climbs were not too painful.

Not bad for the first ride in a long time.

At home I retightened my crank bolts, and I added another coat of this lux leather wax to my saddle. I am pleased because both me and the bike performed well.

The earlier rendition of the “Newsboy” was a 1x11 using a 42 tooth chainring, so the high range is the same, but having lower gears takes the strain off my legs where I don’t have to power up the hills standing and using my upper body as a lever.

The Newsboy I built for comfort as my “cruiser.” I am pleased with the buildup even though my high range of gears is limited and could be taller. The bike’s setup needed no adjustment, and shifts were precise even under load when climbing.

Tomorrow I think I will do another loop in the morning. This ride has a great mix, and doing 2-3 loops would be a great workout.

Cal
 
C,

How true. Taking chances is part of maintaining a positive mental attitude.

Also in Chinese culture it is good Karma to share good fortune. One thing is to be greedy; and another to be selfish.

Bill Gates only pretty recently became a philanthropist. Andrew Carnegie had people killed union busting, and created slums for people who worked at his steel mills; then he tried to buy a stairway to heaven. Elon Musk… Jeff Bezos…

I help people every day if I can.

Cal
 
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Phil,

I will do a bit of maintenance: mark and remove my seatposts; and then add some more “Neversieze.” This copper collored grease is used on parts that live in corrosive environments. I became acquainted with it back at Grumman.

Titanium is very vulnerable, but any two dissimilar metals with moisture will suffer electrolysis. Many times grease is not enough.

Cal
 
I saw the yellow 1965 short bed C-10 yesterday at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival held in Peekskill, but I did not run into the owner Glen.

This truck is a restomod with a 350 V-8 and a stick on the floor, it is also lowered. Know that my OEM truck is kinda rare at this point in history, so minimizing changes is the best way yo build and maintain value.

Glen’s truck he bought and did not build up himself, but I like the stance of the lowered truck and so does “Maggie.”

Been looking into lowering my 1966 long-bed, and I learned that wheels and tires effect ride height greatly. Stock Chevy and GMC trucks had a 2” rake where the rear is jacked up about 2 inches over the front. Almost most lowered C-10’s try to get closer to level or at least subtract an inch off the rake.

From my eye the short beds look boss lowered, but my truck is a long bed Fleetside which when lowered is a bit of an oddity.

My research reveals that lowering can make for better handling, but more extreme lowering beyond 4 inches requires a “C-notch” in the frame to avoid bottoming against the frame. The front end when lowered can suffer bump-steer, and it is best to use drop spindles to lower the front end to avoid bump steer.

So pretty much I could get away with a 2-2 1/2 inch drop on the front and a 3-4 inch drop on the rear without having to mod the frame.

Pretty much I could use a drop spindle on the front and shorter springs on the rear to get what I would want. Know that I would not want to go crazy with tires and wheels and I want the retro look of 15 inch wheels and probably keep the steel OEM rims that are a narrow 15x5.5. The tires I would use would be 225/75/15 on the front and 235/75/15 on the rear which is kind of stock/OEM look (Tall tires).

From what I have seen on a 1960-1966 C-10 thread of “static” lowered trucks, meaning not ”bagged” (air bagged), my C-10 has the best patina of all the rat rods posted in the 34 page thread.

Know to convert to disc brakes that new spindles are required, or an upgrade to post 1973 GM spindles, so buying new drop spindles does two tasks: one it allows disc brake conversion; and two it can lower the front end.

Also my truck has manual steering so any wide front tire would require lots of upper body strength to turn the wheels when not rolling. In other words manual steering limits tire width. Even a 235 width on the front is likely too much, and a 225 is about the limit. Stock was a “skinny” 215 wide tire.

So I saw a lot of C-10’s that had a nice “stance” that used 15 inch rims and “tall” tires like 225/75/15 and 235/75/15.

There is an El Camino in my hood that I want to examine. I want to see how low it is and its tire size.

I like the idea of keeping the inline 6 and even the three on a tree tranny. Kinda quirky and cool.

I’m in the obsessive planning stage, and I know I have to save money, but I’m already excited about all the potential.

Cal
 
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Went to “Elephant’s Trunk” in Connecticut to attend the antique flea market. I did not buy anything, but I almost bought a Schwinn 20 inch unicycle for $20.00. I figured on my second pass if it was still available I would buy it, but according to the seller I missed it by about 5 minutes. Oh-well.

There was a second unicycle with a 24 inch wheel at another vender, but it was a no-name brand and the guy wanted $35.00.

It was fun to make a game of deal or no deal because it had an element of surprise and mystery. BTW I have only fooled around with a unicycle, and by no means can I ride one, but for $20.00 it was game on.

I saw some Ford pickup parts and the only GM parts I saw were these Pontiac moon hubcaps that I could of bought for $20.00 for the set of 4. I passed.

Anyways I know I need to save money for my truck. I will have to do a compression test to really find out if the truck has 61K miles or 161K. Don’t know if the oil burning id from bad Valve Seals or worn cylanders.

Anyways living the dream…

Cal
 
Your mention of the 20" Schwinn unicycle reminds me I have a 68 Schwinn Stingray Fastback 20" that I purchased part by part with pandemic money. Still haven't built it yet but many times when reading this thread, in which you all are constantly talking about bicycles, I have thought about breaking down and spending a few hours to put the stinking thing together. Lol. Riding wheelies on the banana seat bike with Texas Longhorn ape hanger bars would be great!
 
C,

Truth be told, I didn’t really need or want a unicycle, but the price was right. I figured I could easily get my money back or make a profit, so really the unicycle was an investment of buying low where profit could be easily attained.

Fact is my house is small, I have 4 crazy bikes to use already, and really would a unicycle get used?

$20.00 is not a lot of money, but I figure the 1966 C-10 could need a lot of funds to do it “one and done.”

Last night I was looking into the cost of having my engine rebuilt in a performance manner where the head would get ported and “lump ports” installed. About $1.4K to $1.7K for the head alone, and then I would need a beefed up short block.

The OEM engine is an inline 250 cubic inch 6 that could be turbo’ed… or I can build it out for high horsepower; but really performance wise it would be beast to be a high torque motor and be built as a cruiser like my “Newsboy.”

I see having a long bed that is dropped with tall tires that are kinda retro and OEM having mucho “Calzone-Factor” and drawing lots of attention. I will not be hauling heavy loads, but I also want the truck to still be practical.

”The money has to come from somewhere,” I say, and $20.00 is a start.

The 1966 C-10 is becoming a pleasant daydream.

Also know that “Snarky Joe’s” idea of going electric has not gone away. Having an E-10 Rat-Rod would be a very bold statement.

Cal
 
Looks like a 70 degree day will allow me to paint the new front entrance that is a Weatherseal door with sidelights that makes the Baby-Victorian look like a micro mansion.

Not a big job, but one that requires time and attention to detail. Because of some OCD tendencies and my experience working at Grumman a German like company, I have the skills and patience to do a superior job that is kinda Mil-Spec that has precision.

I have also a new mail box that will be a nice accent to the entrance, and the hill-billy pole in the lawn can be torn out.

Fern our agent’s assistant wanted some recent shots of us, so perhaps they are gearing up for something. I look somewhat different as my buzzed sides grew in, and now the chin beard is almost all white.

Modeling money would speed up the C-10 “remodeling.” LOL.

So I envision the C-10 with a high torque either naturally aspirated or turbo’ed truck, or converted to an E-10. Either way the truck would enjoy a modest drop to handle more like a car. Don’t tell “Maggie” but I think of the future truck as being more styled as being like an “El Camino” on steroids with a bigger bed.

BTW she thinks the El Camino looks mighty ghetto…

The trick with lowering a long bed is utilizing near or stock sized wheels and tall tires that are close to OEM size. Making it look like a slammed short bed looks a bit odd With low profile tires.

Do a search on “1966 C-10 static lowering” and see 34 pages of what others have done. Lots of cool trucks, but quite a few are styled long beds with tall tires that are not low profile.

Initially the look is unusual, but that’s what is cool about it.

Cal
 
I identify that the price of being cool is not cheap. Sacrifice of both time and money is required.

I’m not in a rush, but “one and done” is my mode of operation. Also don’t “cheap” out. I want to do something meaningful, otherwise what is the point?

I guess my addictive personality has made me move onto another crazy project now that all my bikes are built out. Basically I have a need to obsess about something. I am a goal oriented person, and I think this happened because I grew up poor.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
BTW I have only fooled around with a unicycle, and by no means can I ride one, but for $20.00 it was game on.
Click to expand...
I can ride one Cal. It only took a short time to learn... annoying at first, but once you get it, you get it. I was young when I learned though... now I might not have the patience.
 
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