My Ride #5 (a work in progress)

I  ordered a Joep bike back around September/October last year (see the My Ride #4 post back in July '10), but they've since had some issues with the company that was building the frames for them.  Think part of the issue may be the company started to build very similar bicycles themselves shortly after, and then there came a conflict of interest (or so I've interpreted and extrapolated thus far).  Very unfortunate for Joep, and his Joep/Arie bicycles here in Utrecht, as that leaves him with a waiting list of people wanting his bicycles, and he's trying to find a solution asap, with no guarantees on delivery dates for the next batch of bikes.  Since I'm leaving back to Canada sometime in the next 2 months, and then at the end of the summer off to Sweden for 2-3 years, I asked him last week about it, since I really still want a bike, but am now on a timeline, and he can't guarantee delivery, whether I might not be better off to buy an older bike and fix it up to about the level of a Joep bike.

So, this past weekend, I picked up a Gazelle Primeur Special, from I'm not sure when, but it had the frame geometry I was looking for, which was surprisingly difficult.  2 days work so far (not full days, just spare time on the weekend) disassembling the bike.

-Gazelle Primeur Special - as bought, in the shop at work

-already more Puur - surprising the difference it makes visually by removing the luggage rack and skirt guards

-raggedy saddle be gone!

-an exercise in minimalism?

-close to just the frame

-removing that lock was a bit of a trick, figuring out how it was mounted on there, and then removing it without destroying it or the frame

-just the frame - but it's still got the headtube cups, and bottom bracket (either we don't have the tools to remove those at work, or I just couldn't find them or not sure what they look like)

-rear wheel dropouts - ok, so part of my plan, to tailor the bike even more to what I envision to be the ideal bicycle, is to also convert it from chain drive to belt drive.  To do so will require making a split in the rear seat stay, or rear dropouts somewhere to allow the belt to slip through, and then figuring out a mechanical fastening system to mount in there to make it solid

Schindelhauer has a nice and elegant solution.

I'm thinking I might look at making 2 aluminium (so they don't rust) plates that mount on either side of the dropouts, that will bolt together, sealing the deal.  Sketching is still in the preliminary stages on that one.  Hopefully it's do-able (which I'm not sure of yet either).

Laser Sol Lumen

So starting on the 20th of March, and running till the 26th, to celebrate that the University of Utrecht was 375 years old, there was a laser light show, spanning about 3km from the University campus just outside and to the east of Utrecht, to the dom (cathedral) tower in the centre of utrecht.  The event/happening was called Laser Sol Lumen (or so I gather, I didn't read too much further into it all).

I randomly saw it one night, and it was interesting and kinda captivating in a way reminiscent of the aurora borealis.  Very cool.  And from my top floor studio apt, situated somewhere between the dom tower and the University campus, they were just about going overhead.

So it was one week of laser lights in the sky



-Bright lights, bigger city? - this is about as good a picture as the iPhone was able to take at night, from my apartment



-lights over Wilhelmina Park - the park just a few 100 meters down the street, and what it looked like from there (my iPhone didn't want to take any such photo, so this one isn't mine)



-lights a the dom - here you see kinda the scope of what it looked like (also not my photo)



-from East to the centre - the view of the University, at the source (again, not my photo)

RMR: Rick's Rant - Canada's Economic Action Plan