Bicycle Stuff

 

The Handle bar tape and helmet showed up yesterday. I got the bars wrapped. I wrapped the end of the tape on the top of the bars with some hockey tape as a temporary fix. I'm planning on wrapping either 550 cord or a leather shoe string around it to finish it off.

The other end has the corporate logo machined into the plug. I made the blanks and my buddy Kevin machined the logo for me when we were both working at the high school. Since he's going to be back in the classroom again, I might have to hit him up for an idea I have for a similar piece to mount on the radiator shell of the jitney. It would be nice to have it machined and then enameled. On a simple design like the one above I could just paint the part in the lower relief. I'm a long ways from needing a piece on the radiator shell but most all of the old Indy racers from the thirties had one that identified the builder.

The new helmet's pretty cool. It's got a built in "blinky" light and reflective material on the outside of the shell. I don't know how much riding I'll do after dark in the future, but I'm a big believer in being seen when out on the road. I used to ride home in the dark during the fall and winter when I was commuting at the high school and I always had at least three tail lights blinking. I talked to a guy years ago at a ride and he said he'd ride after dark with about six other guys who each had a couple of lights on their bikes. He said all of the blinking lights were hard for car drivers to identify from a distance so they'd slow down on approaching the cyclists.

I put in 14-15 miles on the bike yesterday morning. I was planning on putting in a few more but my regular routes were screwed up. I did get in almost 70 miles last week. Depending on the weather, I'm going to try and get out on one of the rail trails and get a longer ride in this coming week. 

I ordered the pitman arm and a few other bits for the jitney project - they should be here the middle of the week.