Juste pour fun

“Earth Night”

Illustration by Arlo

Laminated to a plastic shell. I will be experimenting on this piece with wildcrafted natural dyes. Not for sale.

Get outside!

Custom Randonneur Sprayguard

The gap indicated by the white circle in the photo below identifies a problem that requires solving.

Mind the gap

In order to install and wear properly, a well-made leather sprayguard needs to be mounted as close to horizontal (green line) as possible.

If such a sprayguard were to be mounted within an inch of the end of this fender, it would either flop down and rub against the tire, or angle straight down and away from the wheel like a buck tooth.

In this case, the solution was to make a rigid, compound-curve extension that attaches to the underside of the fender, and hang the sprayguard from it.

Then I banged on it with some screwdrivers, painted it up like Christmas and stuck some brass bolts through it! Here it is.

Fender extension closeup

Stripes and diamonds

Sprayguard with fender extension for Kevin C.

Installation to follow at jett grrl.

I sure hope we don’t get more rain for a while though.

One for Omar

Sakura, dark

Here’s one for Omar, a gift to his wife on her birthday. Enjoy!

Rainflap for Kevin C.

MAP Bicycles - Kevin C.’s Randonneuse

In foul weather, randonneurs (at least here in the BC club) are required to palp at least one mudflap, on the rear, to prevent road spray from getting up into the faces of fellow riders in a tight formation. So I hear. Sounds reasonable.

The old water-bottle-cut-in-half trick seems popular. I tried this. It looks terrible and works worse.

Stripes

But maybe you got some fine upcycled Cima Coppi wool to ride in.

Proof

Maybe you want to keep it classy.

Flickr set of Kevin’s bike here.

More updates as work progresses. Crux move will be getting the fender extension to work perfectly. I remain confident.

Can Leather Be a TreeHugger-Friendly Material?

Sparrow in carved leather

From TreeHugger:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/can_leather_be.php

Not until we can get a chain of custody back through the tannery, the slaughterhouse, to the rancher or farmer raising the cattle. All must be held to account for the welfare of the animals, for fair dealing with human communities, and for their debts to the biosphere as a whole.

That includes me and you!

Please consider supporting the Farm Sanctuary, who are celebrating 25 years of progress for farm animals.

[Insert Portlandia Joke]

Small brown birds

Practicing some figure carving.

Stripes

You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.

More soon. Thanks for coming!

NOW GO HERE

California Dreamin’

Yes, I have been neglecting the blog, but happily not neglecting riding my bike, and I am happy to report that Reverend Dick likes his mudflaps.

Mudflaps, as seen at the Church of the Sweet Ride

More to come at some point. I am still doing stuff, just busy with other stuff too.

Thanks for stopping by.