Here is my car rack. It consists of Thule bars on the factory rails, plus these pick-em-up-truck style fork clamps made by Delta. I think Delta is a QBP brand, so these are available at pretty well any bike store. In a shocking change of pace for me, I am acually rocking a bike-specific part bought in a bike-specific store, although I can't remember which one. Probably Spokes. The slightly ghetto hose clamp attachment lends a certain cracker je ne sais quois to the program. You will notice that there are 3 hose clamps involved. Normally I rock two, but as these things have now successfully carried my own and my team mate's bike some several thousand miles, I was getting a bit concerned about metal fatigue. I had two extra hoseclamps on hand so I just slapped one in the middle of each array.
At some point I harbored delusions of having a welder tack a plate on the bottom of each so I could have a nice, proper attachment to the bar. I guess I never got around to it. We'll have some metal workers on a project I'm starting in the next few weeks so maybe I'll do it then. The hose clamps work fine, although annual replacement at the exorbitant cost of around $.79 each is probably a great idea.
The bungee thing wrapped around the quick release lever is indeed a bungee thing. When there are no bikes on the car, this keeps the skewer from flopping around. When bikes are deployed, the rear wheel sits on the back crossbar and this bungee goes around the rear wheel and bar. The little plastic ball makes it wicked easy to use.
The big hole in the skewer lever is a perfect place to put a padlock, which is sometimes necessary.
If I remember, these things cost about $14 each. They are trustworthy, easy to operate and easy to remove for windsurfing missions. People named Drew consistently pooch the adjustment of skewer tension adjustment, which primarily means they fail basic "righty tighty lefty loosey" class. This might knock a half a wagon wheel off of my rating, but I get jokes and like to laugh so that tags the half wagon wheel right back on, netting these deals a full 5 wagon wheel rating.
This is my new wheel. To make a long and potentially easily misunderstood story short, this wheelset will be referred to as the "bi-curious" wheelset. The rim is a Velocity Escape tubular 28h, laced to a DT240s hub using DT Revolution spokes and alternating brass (black - drive side) and red (alloy - non drive side) nipples. I decided to give the alloy nipples another try as my building technique has improved, and as I was convinced to use grease rather than thread lock on the spoke threads. In hindsight, I might have used all alloy nipples. With good technique, a good spoke wrench and greased threads, alloy works just great.
The tire is a Vittoria CX. It is currently stretching, unglued, on the rim. Tonight she gets the glue, tomorrow I hit as many potholes with it as possible, and Saturday it races.
5 comments:
>>>> We'll have some metal workers on a project I'm starting in the next few weeks so maybe I'll do it then.
For Dave's next blog post: "I'm getting a new car to replace the one that these metal workers burnt to a crisp the other day...
BTW, that is a completely cob jobbed setup there, McGyver. I love it, although I thought I was hearing the opening theme from Sanford & Son (Mwaaak mwaaak mwaak mwak... mwaak mwaaak mwaaak mwaaak mwaaak mwaaak mwaaak mwaaa...) as I read about it.
BTW, discussions of alloy nipples make me kind of hot. What is this 'nipple wrench' thing you speak of? It sounds dirty, but perhaps not as bad as "can't go out with you because I'm going to be at home pulling my crank tonight."
Continuing what I'm sure is an unprecedented run of word verification fun, my word right now is "harid" which is obviously what you get after too much talk of alloy nipples...
The thing about these things and the iron workers is that I'd take them OFF the car when the plate went on. Most welders = not the brightest bulbs. Chuck Wagon = born at night but not last night.
When you have to pay for gas to drive all your broke ass team mates over creation and back, saving money on roof racks is a double blessing. You see, every time one of them wants to join in is another roof spot needed. It costs me a hell of a lot of money to save them all that coin.
Of course I do have to go and buy longer bungees since somehow many of them have found a way to afford deep section carbon wheels...
It costs me a hell of a lot of money to save them all that coin.
Of course I do have to go and buy longer bungees since somehow many of them have found a way to afford deep section carbon wheels...
Chuck Wagon = Not Born Last Night but Perhaps the Night Before That One...
it's a bit of a game we play.
but the view from the turnip truck sure is grand.
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