My bike died yesterday...

...Or was it today. I discovered a crack in the frame of my most beloved bike. My Bianchi Alphana. A real crack. On the lug near the bottom bracket of the downtube. It goes all the way around. It's very sad.

More later.

Working That Rear

I bought a rear rack for my Bianchi bike. The problem with rear racks, as opposed to baskets or bags, is that you have to tie-down whatever you want to carry. But this is still my road bike and not my packhorse. I don’t want anything flopping around when I ride. But it’s so nice to not carry anything heavy on your bike when you ride. So for long rides I can tie down my bag. For shorter rides I’ll just carry my back on my back like I always have.

The problem with road bikes is they neither have clearance above the brakes for fenders nor eyelets for racks or fenders. Of course, perhaps it’s good I’m forced to keep this bike as simply as possible. But biking in the city, you have to have fenders. And a problem developed. My old rear fender was starting to tear. Here’s the before picture:
You can’t see it in this old picture, but it was tearing lengthwise, right at the front of the fender, behind the extension that connects the clamp to the fender. So whenever I went over a bump, I could feel and hear the thing flapping up and down. My epoxy doesn’t seem to hold on fender plastic. Duct tape didn’t do the job.

So I was looking for a new fender to buy, but then realized I could probably do better and lighter and cheaper and faster with what I had… plus a clippers, a drill, and zip ties.

My old fender had two parts, which I took apart. The extendy-flap connects my previous home-job leg protecting fender with the new rear rack.



The main part of the old fender gives me rear protection.


And I moved my rear blinky light to the back of the rack. It fits in nicely, held by duct tape.







Ultimately, it doesn’t look as elegant as my old rear fender (even if it is a tad lighter). But it does provide complete (if spacious) protection right from the vertical above the rear of the wheel straight through to the bottom bracket. While above the wheel is the most important part of the rear fender (to protect against the streak of water on your back), it’s really nice to have that leg protection if you’re biking in the rain so the back of your legs (mostly ankles and calves) don’t get soaked with dirty water as you peddle.

Clever Fender

I put a new rear half-fender on my Bianchi. I thought it was pretty clever as there’s no clearence at the breaks to put on a proper fender. I have a half-assed fender there before, one of those that covers the top of the wheel. That is much better than nothing, as it stops water from going up on your back, but it’s not good enough, as it doesn’t stop water from hitting your legs and feet from the rear wheel.

The half-assed fender I had is kind of cleverly hooked-up to the drop-tube though:




I bought the new fender on a whim last time in Amsterdam. It turns out it doesn’t fit anything I have, despite my hopes. But I was able to saw and cut it to fit between the rear breaks and the bottom bracket. It attaches with zip-ties. It works very well. Together, the two half-fenders are as good as one real fender! Rain be damned!







bottom bracket:


top zip-tie:


You can see the very top of the new fender (right by my right ankle) and all of the old fender in the first picture below in the post below this one.