An old, new Breezer

(click for larger image)

From Plattsburgh late February 2010. A Breezer in a box!

Bought from the great guys at Harris Cyclery in January of last year.

Uptown Infinity

I linked to the ecovelo teaser of this new bicycle from Breezer a bit ago, it was shown off at Interbike earlier this year. I always bring my Breezer into the newest bike shop in Plattsburgh, and the only dedicated shop, Mountain Riders. Talking with the owner and head grease monkey or the past months, and seeing my Breezer, talking with him about my (few) upgrades, talking quality of parts and such, he has decided to become a Breezer dealer. This will be a great fit, he was a dealer before out in Colorado, has owned a Breezer mountain bike for many years, and strongly believes in the company and quality of work.

That being said, in the next 1-2 weeks, the Infinities'(?) will be shipping out to first orders (from what I know), he has ordered one for the shop and I will be able to test ride it for him once it comes in.

Needless to say I am quite excited!!!
I will post a review and thoughts when it comes in.

specs are now online at the Breezer site, Click Here for more information.

From EcoVelo: Sneak Peek: 2011 Breezer Uptown Infinity

I got quite excited when I saw the teaser of the new Breezer bike for the 2011 season. This bike is beautiful! I love the color scheme, the continuously variable gears are very very interesting, and it does have the same form factor as my Uptown 8. It is a bit more expensive, but with that new hub, it is very much a well designed bicycle.
So here it is from Ecovelo, the Breezer Uptown Infinity:

75 miles, end of the week

Well I logged 75 miles this week, which, for me, is not all that unusual really. Counting the days I missed for weather, my miles this semester are about 940, with 3 weeks to go yet! Five weeks or about 400 of those miles have been on the new bike, and the remainder of the semester will have miles put on the Breezer as well.

I went in today to the Co-Op for a cookie, tea, poetry, musing time and it was nice! I got the mirror for the bike as well. It finally came into the new bike shop in town, a bit pricier and a bit different that what I typically have, but its well built and not made in china (Taiwan) at least. It’s a narrow mirror, rather than the full round one I am use to, but I like it and I think it will work wonderfully for me!

Packing about 35$ worth of food into the bike and headed home. Decided to stop into Elfs Cider mill (makes wonderful apple cider in the fall), as he had just opened back up with gifts, jelly and his wines. The guys had just finished putting a permanent outside portion to the farmhouse, for tasting and eating. Using many reclaimed products from RE-Source, Burlington as well as from auctions in the Plattsburgh area. He is also putting in a poly high tunnel for early grapes as well as making a natural pond with eating area and gazebo, and planting fruit trees, peach and cherry, mainly. He is also interested in getting a northern variety of Goji berry, but maybe not for this season.

It is really good to see local farms reinvesting and trying new things, and it certainly makes the 3acre farm look a whole lot better!

Stay tuned for some pictures of Cranberry Double Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies; I feel the baking urge tonight!

Elf’s mill from the Google street view (yes the picture quality is poor, its like that all over the North Country, there was something wrong with the camera when they took the pictures...)



View Larger Map

New bags (well new use for old bags)

Jim sent me some new bike bags the other day. Well new for me, very used for him. He got a new pair so had these sitting around. My Breezer does not have the Topeak track rack system so I was stuck with the improvised tied inner tubes holding the bag on. Now though I can put my backpack (and 15lb computer) in one side pouch, any books or stuff in the other and still have the ability to carry my Topeak bag on top locked in with 2 half's of a inner-tube. Its quite the setup for sure and makes me look like I am a long distance traveler I think, but none the less. It gets weight off my back, which makes things even nicer for the ride in and home. It allows my construction chic vest to be more visible at night and really anchors that rear wheel on the bike.

Overall, very much a win, and I get to reuse a product, and put it to good use.

There will be pictures of my new bike in the wild soon, and also with the current bag configuration.

Hit 31mph on a bit of downhill stretch with a nice tailwind coming in this morning.

I have about nine posts in draft mode that are waiting to be finished and posted. They will happen soon, but this week is a bit crazy, as it’s nearing the end of the term.

If you need a distraction, check out Ecovelo. He put up an article on crank lengths, which truth be told, I had not even thought about. Even provides a nifty little calculator to determine what your ideal crank length should be.

Denver also launched their bike share scheme thorough B-Cycle today, with 500 bikes.

How to Transport a bike

Thanks to Indigothreads.org for the picture

So lets say you found your wonderful new bike, you love it, it does what you want and you need to get it home. Now say you don't own a bike rack or even a car, because well the bike is your transportation. There are a couple ways you could go with this, if the shop is local, use your old bike to pull it home, because well why would you want to get rid of your old bike. The formula is N+1 not N-1+1, where N is the number of bikes you have currently, there is no room for this getting rid of bikes silliness. There are racks that allow for a tire to be placed and locked down, and Xtracycle system will allow this (see Here, Here, and a longer story on Xtracycle type cargo bikes Here) there are also do-it-yourself rigs online for this, but only works if your old bike is a cargo or transport or has a rack system. Walking is an option if it’s not too far away. However for the most part you would be going via public transport or a friend. I won’t deal with the friend thing here, but I want to talk about the public transportation option.

For inner-city travel, there is the bus. Most of these do not allow bikes (except foldies) on board due to the space required, sometimes they might if there is plenty of room and the driver is feeling nice. In some areas there are racks on the front of the buses for 2-3 bikes, these buses are typically in smaller communities or college areas, and are actually really good for providing mobility and creating mode share possibilities, however this is unlikely in dense urban routes as the time required is quite a bit to load on, and there is likely to be too many bikes for the limited space, and well, its urban, riding the bike is easier as things are closer together.

Also for inner-city travel is the subway, light rail, or tram/trolley. The restrictions vary with each agency/city and sometimes within the network. Example; trams do not allow bikes, but the subway does. Usually the policy is clear and typically full sized bikes are not allowed during rush hour time due to the space required.

For commuter travel or regional transport, there is light or heavy rail. For light commuter rail, most I believe allow bikes on board, usually you have a limited area to place them, usually its just around where you board or exit the train, sometimes there are seats that fold up or sometimes even a compartment (like many UK trains I rode). Ideally an entire car would be used for proper storage of bikes, but that is very unlikely to happen anytime soon.

If you want to go city-to-city then your options are very limited.
Flying is possible, but the fees are insane and from what I have heard, quite a hassle, although if you take it apart and remove some elements you can ship it by plane and call it art in progress or something, with maybe better treatment, but you are riding your bike normally, unless you are moving to another part of the country, I am not sure why you would fly with your bike anyway.

Amtrak allows bikes on some routes and some stations due to the nature of how they typically carry bikes. My Downeaster service allows bikes at three stations due to the platform length and the "dummy" engine on one end that holds larger storage items, needing to be accessible to the loading platform. I could have a bike on the train from North Station in Boston, but I could only unload it at Portland, ME or one other Maine town, for all intensive purposes, useless, especially for commuters from New Hampshire (which is a majority).

Greyhound or other bus services seem like the best bet, short of actually shipping through UPS or other company for a huge cost. Greyhound allows bikes with the following statement:

Packaging only exceptions to the following items: bicycles, skis and ski poles must be packed in wood, canvas or other substantial container, and securely fastened.

It is considered checked baggage and subject to fee for an extra bag if you already have one with clothes in it, the fee is 10$. Some companies like Boltbus and other providers will carry bikes free of extra charge and free of excessive packaging requirements or oversize limits, as long as its within the one baggage limit for under the bus. I have read that people have the best success with this, and you may find another company that has specific space for bikes, but I don't know.

So why did I bring this up, why the long lead-up. Well I found the bike I want, the Breezer Uptown 8 or see my other post on the bike. It does everything I need and want and with a quick fitting was wonderful to ride and gave me plenty of gears for what I was doing. However due to the sever lack of suppliers and carriers for Breezer, I will have to get the bike from Harris Cyclery, just outside of Boston (home of Sheldon Brown, may he rest in peace). Which is not a problem except that getting back to college in Plattsburgh, NY involves a Greyhound trip, and now you understand the logic behind this. A comment on a bike forum about using bike boxes that shops get their bikes in and taking the bike apart for shipping, got me thinking, and I think it will work. It will certainly be interesting getting the bike as I might see if Harris will pack the bike for me, with minimal deconstruction, and I take the bike home in the back of my dads wagon and not deal with the mess of 2 MBTA commuter trains and a subway with a new bike, and then a drive with the bike on the bike rack from the commuter rail station.

I will update further once I complete my trip, hopefully with a brand-new bike.
Until then, I hope this will work out; otherwise I am quite stuck...

Happy New Year or something like that

well its that time again, time to welcome a new year. Its looking to be a good year for sure I think at least for me, with a good term coming up, summer work hopefully in my field and graduation in December. However there is one thing I have been meaning to mention. I think I mentioned earlier that I am looking at the Breezer Uptown 8 as my nice pretty new commuter bike, its exactly what I want and reviews well (see here). One problem, the Breezer dealer network is bloody small and out of date! Of the 6 dealers I have looked at 3 of them have breezers or can get them in, one of those three seems to just want to be closed even if they say they are open, the other one would have to order it in (bloody useful for a test right that is) and the last one is thankfully reliable, and was the home of the one and only Sheldon Brown, Harris Cyclery. They have one in stock, its a slightly smaller frame then what I am looking for but might actually do, anyway will give me an idea of the ride for sure. So soon I will provide more info once I know whats going on. The idea is to have it before I leave for up north in 20 days and bring it along. In the meantime, stay tuned as Jim and I get to work and set off on a new year.
cheers