More Victories and Disappointments With the Bobber Bicycle

At the night gig, they’ve been talking a lot about fatigue and “sleep debt”. If you go several days with less than 8 hours of sleep, you develop a debt of sleep that can only be balanced by napping or sleeping longer. The irony I’m finding is on weekends, I don’t tend to sleep in, because I don’t have to be driving. What I miss in the weekend mornings lately I make up for with an occasional nap or just sleeping extra before work.

Today was no exception. Sherry and I were up last night with….quality time. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Quality time until just before four in the morning.

I’m calling it the Mexican Sports Bottle. It’s a Mexican Coca Cola bottle. No, seriously, it is bottled in Mexico. The Redneck Sports Bottle would have been the beer bottle that doesn’t fit the bike either.

At about nine thirty, I came around courtesy of Sherry’s notorious snoring. I gulped down water to pull myself together and essentially tried to sneak past my body’s urges to lay around and do nothing all morning. At ten or so, I had the Grey Mistress, the bobber-style bicycle rolling down the street to the Orange Line Bike Path.

We’re now past the bearing issues, but the back wheel of the bike is now way to funky. There’s enough play in the back to make long term riding at least uncomfortable, and at the most, dangerous. I was able to ride as far as Vanowen before turning back and heading up De Soto. This may be getting worse, requiring a visit to either Paul, or Maija & Leticia.

Today is supposed to be in the 100’s, so I ducked back to the garage, set on getting some things accomplished. First thing I wanted to check was, “will my Mexican Sports Bottle fit in the sport bottle holder on the bobber bicycle?” Maija brought over these great oversized beer bottles last month. I wanted to use one of these in the bottle holder, but they’re just too big. The Mexican Coca Cola bottle almost makes it, but the cork makes it too tall.

Damnit! I hate sports bottles. I’d rather use something more…unique. Something more than a plastic piece of crap. I don’t even buy them, they just show up in my life as swag for events. For the moment I’m either stuck with a plastic sports bottle, a soda bottle, or water bottle. Some day, I will figure this out.

Some people bling. Others beadazzle. Me, I stud. Sherry and I met this great vendor at AEE selling leather hides a few years ago. He also carried metal gear such as studs and rivet add-ons for belts, tack, and bondage gear. We got a bunch of studs from him, along with some great iron crosses for an excellent price. While I prefer a meat and potatoes approach to things like bicycles, motorcycles, and hot rods, I’m not opposed to accents like studs and spikes, especially when it comes to filling holes or to bolt things together.

The Schwinn Continental’s studded bike pedals. I also use studs for attaching baskets, reflectors, and anything else I can piece together. Adds a nice flair and is practical too.

Years ago, I added spikes into the holes for the toe-clips on the Schwinn Continental I have, and wanted to duplicate this on the bobber bike. Last month at the swap meet, I got metal pedals just for this and recently got screws specifically to fit the studs and work just right.

Argh! Anyone want some punk bike pedals!?

Yesterday I sat down and took the time to screw the studs in, and secured everything with Locktite. After struggling to get the old pedals off, I found that the studded pedals are too freaking small!!! Maija and Leticia may be getting a strange bike-related yule-time gift this year.

On the bright side, I just happened to get the generator and headlight wired up today. Ever see something you knew would come in handy some day? 12 years ago, I kept seeing a crimping set at a gas station for $1. I thought, I don’t know when, but I know I’m going to need this. It’s been sitting in my tool box ever since. I think I’ve only used it to strip wire on occasion. Today is probably the first time everything came together for the crimping set. What set today apart is that it’s the first time I haven’t had to guess things like what size wire is this? Usually I’ve had to just work with what was sitting in my garage or my Dad’s.

I crimped it myself! My first electrical wiring job 🙂

Testing the light, the bulb blew almost right away. I’m not completely surprised. This light is pretty old and so are the bulbs. There’s some work I need to do on the headlight anyway.

One final change I made before fleeing today’s Indian summer searing orb of death, and bolting for the airlock, was to adjust the bigass seat. We’ve kept the oversized exercise bike seat for the bobber bicycle look. It really does absorb shock well, but it makes the bike itself a pain to pedal for long term riding. The knees don’t bend quite right while pedaling, which is a problem I’ve seen with most low-riding, and chopper-style bicycles. I felt a burning need for some Preparation H part way through the ride today. Height is not a problem, that was adjusted last month over at Maija’s place. So today I loosened the seat and tried adjusting the tilt, dropping the front about a half inch or more down.

What a freaking difference! Now there’s more power when pedaling, and the notion is to ride further back on the seat, sparing the crotch soreness from repetitive motion. It’s much more comfortable to ride. If we can get that back wheel in shape, this bike will be golden.

That said, I think it’s time to settle some of this sleep debt with a nap…