What kind of gear is required to ride 1800 kilometers over 43 days on ice in an average daytime temperature of -20 Centigrade? Before their departure, the team posted a summary of their equipment choices. They are on Kona Unit 29er mountain bike frames, with a variety of modifications and careful gear choices for the rugged frozen conditions of their journey.

From blog posts they wrote before departure on the Axiom website, I gleaned that they are running on Nokian Gazza Extreme studded tires, and taking a modified single speed approach to their drive-trains:

One of the unique features about our bikes that people are often curious about is the 2-speed single speed drive-train. We will be using a double chain-ring up front (34 and 32 teeth) with a single-speed cassette hub in the back with two cogs on it. (18 and 20 teeth) The chain is tensioned with adjustable sliders in the frame and there are no derailleurs. It is a standard single-speed drive-train with the exception that we have two gears to choose from. By dropping the wheel out of the frame using the quick release, we can manually move the chain from the 34/18 combination to the 32/20 combination without adjusting chain tension. In this way we have two gear choices to deal with the various terrain challenges that we may encounter.

To keep themselves from freezing, they are gearing up in:

• Smart Wool 100% Merino Wool base layer tops and bottoms
• Smart Wool 100% Merino Wool extra-thick socks
• Sherpa Adventure Gear Polartec fleece jacket
• Sherpa Adventure Gear Primaloft pants and jacket
• Hard shell windproof pant
• Insulated Shell mittens
• Windstopper Pro Balaclava (face mask)
• Ski goggles

And at the key bicycle-rider interface between feet and pedals?

We examined the systems in use by mid-west winter cyclists and Alaskan Iditabike participants, discussed the pros and cons of various shoe and pedal systems, and eventually decided that for our needs a warm winter boot matched to a flat pedal with power straps is the safest choice. Although it would be nice to use an SPD-type pedal, the risks of mechanical failure as well as the difficulty of mounting a cleat to a winter boot made us decide to keep things simple. We will be doing a lot of walking, and any hole through the sole of the shoe allows cold and moisture to penetrate the inside of the boot. The boot of choice? The Kamik Cody rated to -78 degrees Celsius.

The pedal system was a little trickier. Due to the large size of the boot we wanted to use a platform pedal, but the power straps are designed to work with standard-size pedals. With a lot of grinding with a bench grinder and Dremel tool we managed to clear away enough of the pedal body to attach the extra-long power strap mounting hardware. This system should give us plenty of contact with the pedal and provide decent efficiency while still being simple and reliable. In the photo you can see the silver areas where we had to grind away the pedal body to custom fit the power straps. The grind marks in the center are from having to angle the Dremel tool inside the pedal body to clear an area for the bolts to pass through the pedal cage.

To prepare the bikes for the trek, they had to problem-solve the fact that normal bicycle grease freezes around -15 Centigrade.

We have changed the grease in every bearing assembly on the bike: bottom brackets, hubs, pedals, headsets, and freehub bodies. Instead of a standard bicycle or automotive grease, we are using specially formulated grease that comes highly recommended by many Alaskan winter cyclists – Lubriplate Mag-1 Extreme Temperature grease rated to -50 degrees Celsius. This should keep our bearing assemblies running smooth and friction free even in the coldest temperatures.

If you skim this Russian article you can see a few more gear photos – they are using Axiom racks and bags, and it looks like they are using Solio solar chargers, some kind of Manfrotto handlebar mount for GPS units, and some traditional gear for stoves and camping.

One purpose of the expedition is to bring attention to environmental efforts in the Lake Baikal watershed.  Learn more about the organizations for which they are fund raising on this page of their website.

Roll on, guys!

The expedition’s website introduces the project:

We are currently in the process of completing the first ever human-powered winter circumnavigation of Lake Baikal on mountain bikes in 2010 to promote environmental conservation in Russia. The lake is frozen at this time and we are riding entirely on snow and ice for an estimated 43 days. Lake Baikal has never been circumnavigated by bicycle, and no one has ever made a circumnavigation by human power in winter conditions.

Lake Baikal is not only the world’s deepest lake, holding nearly a fifth of the world’s fresh water supply, but also the oldest, with an age of over 25 million years. It is home to 1,200 indigenous animal species, and is the focal point of the environmental movement in Russia. The Great Baikal Trail organization is attempting to build a recreational trail system around the lake to promote conservation, and to create a sustainable economy based on preservation of this incredibly beautiful and unique feature of our planet.

The expedition is the brainchild of Eugene, Oregon’s Christopher Pike, who spent two years living and studying in Russia on an academic exchange. While spending a year in Irkutsk (Eugene’s Russian sister city), he became very familiar with Lake Baikal and with local efforts to protect the world’s deepest and purest freshwater lake. It was there that the idea of circumnavigating the lake on bicycles, in winter, was born. An idea it has taken him five years to bring to fruition.

You can follow their progress on a map, and on Twitter, though the most comprehensive place is probably their Facebook page, where the Twitter posts appear as status updates, and where there’s a photo gallery.

They are currently twelve days into the trek, and just uploaded their first batch of photos, some of which I included above. Their latest update:

March 3-8: Days spend riding the road. We covered about 600 km of ice and snowy roads to the bay before Ust’-Barguzin. Once on the bay we decided to continue on the the lake for the remaining 60 km to Ust’-Barguzin. The lake is still covered in snow making the riding hard. According to locals this has been the most snow they have seen on the lake in the last ten years.

We expect to find better conditions in our way north. Ust’-Barguzin is the end of any available road and to complete the circumnavigation we now need to take the lake for the remaining 1000-1200 km.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a run-down of their gear choices.

And thanks again to Baltimore-based designer and screen printer Matt, who runs Ex-Boyfriend and carries this great design he calls, simply, bike love ($24).

]]> http://www.bikejuju.com/2010/kendall-wins-a-t-shirt/feed/ 1 http://www.bikejuju.com/2010/freakbike-friday-mar/ http://www.bikejuju.com/2010/freakbike-friday-mar/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:43:32 +0000 Tom http://www.bikejuju.com/?p=1738

Creative Commons-licensed freak bike images from Portland-based Flickr user Megulon5, who captioned this bike “Pick-Up Sticks, the Pennyfakething, um the, Rattyfarthing, ah, whatever…”

Previous freak bikes on Bikejuju.

(Leave a comment by Sunday to be entered to win a t-shirt).

Bellingham’s Red Boots Design has this bike parts shirt, along with several other cycle designs, in their Etsy shop. Seattle artist and cyclist Karl Addison’s Partybots line also has several great designs including this brand new print, Vintage Bike Couple. Red Boots Design also caries this great trike shirt called I roll on 12s.

Meanwhile up on Guemas Island, Slow Loris has been screening this lovely bike onto shirts of all shapes and sizes, from their solar-powered slow studio.

Remember, anyone who comments anywhere on Bikejuju though Sunday will be entered into a drawing, with the prize being your choice of any shirt from online shirt emporium Ex-Boyfriend (including this bike love design). Leave some words!

Over the decades, Mr Hook has depended on the cycle to reach his job as a commercial vehicle fitter, the school where he now works as a caretaker, and local shops in Haddenham, near Ely in Cambridgeshire.

It still has its original steel frame, wheels, seat, gears, brake cables and mud guards. It has only been resprayed once, in 1985, when it changed from green to red.

Read the whole story.

Shamrock Cycles front rack. CC-licensed image by Flickr user Sleepyneko.

In honor of the show, I thought I would feature this nice little video of ANT Bicycles founder and builder Mike Flanigan discussing his process and the history of his shop.

What I loved about the bike swap was the diversity of bike cultures mixing and jostling and joking and shopping under one roof (though not much ethnic diversity, of course, this being Seattle…). The bike nonprofits were cheek-by-jowl with vintage bike fetishists and hipster track bike dudes and road warriors and mountain bike maniacs and local bike shops cleaning out their back inventory.

A woman from the Sharing Wheels community bike program, in an awesome shirt.

I also bumped into Ryan from GoMeansGo and got to check out the brand new bag he’s worked on as a collaboration between Swift Industries and Partybots.

They look great, and it was cool to meet Martina from Swift Industries and see the bags in person. Nice work!

(PS the T-Shirt giveaway is still going – post a comment!)

Previous Bikejuju freak bike posts.