Parklets

Hardly the first blog to show SF parklets, the mini-parks/sidewalk-extensions that create habitable space outside businesses and other locations in 1 to 3 parallel parking spaces, but here's some photos that feature bikes being accommodated in those spaces:

bike parking on Valencia in a former parallel parking space

bike parking in parklet-adjacent, former parallel parking space

Valencia Street bike parking in a "bulb out"

Valencia Street bike parking in a "bulb out"

Valencia Street bike parking in a "bulb out"

Hanging bike parking outside four barrel cafe on Valencia

Bike parking on a segment of a parklet on Divisadero

A nice porteur conversion

New Bikes!

What's wrong with this picture?

Super stylized bikes in Seattle. One internal gear and one fixie:

1992 Stumpjumper 2.0

I previously posted about reconverting my '92 Stumpjumper from a city bike back to a mountain bike (which basically involved stopping riding on city streets and starting riding on trails...).

1992(?) Specialized Stumpjumper - still need to take the reflective stickers off, or maybe not...

I had some spare parts from the JPR conversion, including the handlebars and brake levers, so I picked up a shorter, steeper stem, some cut-off brake levers and some new pedals and put together a quasi-26" wheeled-cyclocross bike.

A few issues arose with the conversion. First, I needed to get the Travel Agent adjusters to make the V-brakes work with the caliper-compatible road levers. This works by changing the amount of cable pulled by the lever to a greater amount of travel in the v-brakes - pretty clever.

I also had to bend the shifters' clamp/metal straps/attachment area to get them onto the road bars and around the curves, and then had to squeeze the clamp back together and use a longer bolt and nut to secure it all because the diameter of the road bar is greater than a standard flat bar. I shoved the levers as far to the center of the bars as I could to make room for the cut-off brake levers. This is because the handlebars from the Paramount were narrower than those typically used on a cyclocross bike.

Here are some photos, including a gratuitous beach glamour shot.

stem and bars installed

original shifters, brakes and cut-off brakes, tape installed

I also installed these Shimano PD-A530 touring pedals, which have the standard SPD cleat on one side and a flat ample surface for a cleat-free shoe on the other. These pedals are awesome - they have a good amount of float on the cleat side, and the flat side is a bit heavier so the cleat side is always facing up (and slightly back) so you can very easily slam your foot down/forward and get in every time. If you want to use the other side, you just flip it over with your toe. Highly recommended.

A Couple More City Bikes

Some more cool bikes from around town... mostly united in having internal hubs or cassette-only shifting.

ok, this is a single speed, but c'mon, that's a sweet (dish) rack

original issue

match made in heaven?

Carrying Strap

The leather carrying strap I fashioned out of an old belt has worn in beautifully. I treated it with leather saddle goop once, and it could probably use another coat soon. The leather has stretched it a very attractive way, nicely matching the contour of the chainring I think. The washers have kept the leather from tearing, despite some initial pinching which can been seen in the photos:

If the leather continues to stretch I may elect to flip the strap around and resize to fit more taughtly between the front and lower rear screws.

More Interesting Bikes

Gorgeous

I think this has the nexus-8 redband

XTR baby!

Snapped in Marin - where else? Must be nice...

Curiously, I never actually checked out Sheldon's internal hub pages - but doing so after the fact, I have found them to be quite interesting. Take a look - some really nice conversions on older frames:

http://sheldonbrown.com/nexus8.shtml

Sheldon Brown's Nexus 8 (Raleigh International)