Chicago PD on Cycling in the City.

I heard that Chicago was making leapts and bounds in regards to bike lanes and making the roads more accessible to cyclists but I had no idea that it went this far.

The Chicago Police Department has put together a very well done video promoting not only bike safety but motorist safety as well and they seem to take bikes very seriously. Here's hoping that this becomes the case everywhere.


Don't forget to check out the how-to articles.
Until next time, ride safe and free.

Gerry :)

HOW NOT TO MAKE A BICYCLE HOW-TO VIDEO!

Making my how to bicycle videos is usually a solo affair with the help sometimes of my kids. I "hired" a couple of my friends to help me out to make a better video and I found out that working with a crew is not that easy. The dynamics are totally different and communications are not necessarily obvious from one person to the next. I also realized that the crew is somewhat of an audience and that throws me off of my usual "one take" self.

Needless to say it was a complete disaster and we'll have to start all over again. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy the blooper reel of this catastrophy in hopes of salvaging at least some of our work, well ok, we actually had a lot of fun doing this.

So in the name of meaningless entertainment, on with the show!



Until next time, ride safe and Godspeed.

Gerry :)

Japanese bicycle drift King?

Now some say this is not drifting but sliding. I don't care, it's pretty amazing. Watch this crazy rider drift is way through some pretty tight Japanese streets while drifting on his pretty simple commuter bicycle. I guess the smooth roads in Japan must help a lot in being able to pull those power slides like that on a bicycle.

Enjoy



Gerry :)

How-to remove a bicycle cassette or freewheel

Derailleur equipped bikes have a cluster of gears installed on the rear wheel which permits to change the gear ration while you pedal. When you stop pedaling or coast you hear a click click click noise that is made by a ratchet mechanism that allows for the pedals to stop turning while the bike is coasting. Sometimes this mechanism fails. In the case of our reader Jay, the pedals on his bike keep turning while the wheels are in motion. This gear cluster cannot be serviced in my experience and must replaced.

However, you must determine which type you have since there are two different ways to accomplish this: The threaded freewheel or the cassette. The threaded freewheel is screwed on the threads that are on the rear hub. The mechanism is inside that freewheel. In the case of the cassette, the coasting mechanism is inside the hub itself. So if this fails, you must replace the rear hub. The cassette offers the advantages of being able to replace only the smallest gears when they are used up and offer a straight line of pull on the chain. If you observe a freewheel while the rear wheel is turning, you will notice a slight wobble caused by the fact that it isn't sitting perfectly flat on the threaded hub.

I've enclosed a video on how to remove and reinstall both. Take note that to avoid an industrial amount of takes for the making of that video, I removed those parts before taping. They take a bit more energy to remove. That explains that humongous open ended wrench that I have, it's not just for show. When reinstalling those parts, make sure that they are screwed in tight. Not a big issue with the freewheel since it tightens itself with each pedal stroke. But the cassette lock nut will not and if it becomes loose, the results will be ugly.

By the next video, I hope that my "studio" will be painted. At least now I don't have the noise of traffic and overhead 747's.



Til next time, ride safe and Godspeed!

Gerry :)

PIMP MY BIKE VIDEO!

Ok, this is a bit on the lighter side of things. A group of guys and gals from the UK put these videos together and manage to make some pretty cool bikes. I'm in grease up to my ears these days and more how to's are soon to follow. Enjoy the vids.

Gerry