Cyclists... where to put the bike?

[Zach]

Hi guys and gals...

Wondering if there are any cyclists on here that have come up with a solution for fitting a full sized bike on board.

I've been struggling with this for a while now, I ride all over the place and commute a few days a week... moving aboard leaves me wondering how to deal with this!

Is the cruisers life one filled with gas pipe frames and cantilever brakes?

[Microship]

You could take the classic "multifunction" approach favored by cyclists and cruisers alike, where all objects must do double-duty. Take a folding bicycle, rig it so that it can be used as the emergency tiller and you have...

A Tiller Dahon

*ducking*
Steve

[ssullivan]

He he he... Steve's answer is a good one.

It depends a lot on the size of your boat. We lashed 2 mountain bikes to our stern pulpit, where it comes forward a few feet. See the photo.

The way the deck is laid out, there is ample room to walk by each bike and they are in the way of no function of the boat.

[Microship]

Ssullivan... have you had any corrosion problems with them back there, or do you do a frequent WD-40 prophylaxis? I'm a cyclist from way back, but am having trouble deciding whether to take even a folder on the new ship unless it can find a protected place to live...

Steve

[Pblais]

I'm a cyclist from way back, but am having trouble deciding whether to take even a folder on the new ship unless it can find a protected place to live...

Having been a serious cyclist myself, you can't lash a bike on deck and expect it to last. The ball bearings are the problem. Anything else steel is also a problem. Stored in a locker or below a bike has a decent percentage of lasting longer. Folding bikes pretty much suck for the true biker, but they won't last. In the end you are a sailor more than a biker, so having a bike that works matters the most. Tiny wheels and all the rest - it's better than walking. A dinghy and a bike are valuable modes of alternate transportation that don't use a sail.

[Zach]

Thats part of the problem... I'm seriously torn about the sailor/cyclist dichotomy.

[Microship]

Paul... that's pretty much what I thought. When I took my Winnebiko aboard a J/36 many years ago for the hop from Key West to Clearwater to avoid a huge backtrack, we discussed lashing it to the rail... but no amount of WD-40 and plastic wrap would have sufficed to ease my mind. We actually managed to wrestle it into the sail locker.

I don't have any experience with "cheapies" so I don't know if it's worth even bothering with a folder; the times I've played with them in West Marine I haven't found myself with excessive gear lust. But it does seem like a necessity once one is really in cruise-mode. Which one offers the best trade-off of minimal storage space, quality, and maximal service life in the corrosive environment? In my case, there will be a deck box on the foredeck for such things, so direct spray should be minimal, but after destroying a nice mountain bike over the course of a year in San Diego by using it as a beach cruiser with insufficient maintenance, I'm wary even of the salt-laden air...

Cheers,
Steve

[Efraim]

You can't keep a bicycle exposed to sea spray and expect it to last, rust will show up in short order. If you don't like the idea of a folding bikes because of their small tires, you might consider retro fitting your bike with something called S&S Couplings. Basically you take a regular bike and you turn in into a "take apart" bike. Have a look at this web site.

Folding Travel Bikes using S and S Machine Bicycle Torque Couplings™

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by Microship

Ssullivan... have you had any corrosion problems with them back there, or do you do a frequent WD-40 prophylaxis? I'm a cyclist from way back, but am having trouble deciding whether to take even a folder on the new ship unless it can find a protected place to live...

Steve

Oh yeah... massive corrosion. This is why I had to give up on quality bikes and get cheapos that get the job done. They have suspension and stuff, but they do corrode. It's been 2 years and they are due to be replaced.

But along the way - I have stumbled on a miracle cure for rust on the bikes.

I was out ouf proper lubricant one day and I just needed to lube up the rusty chain (from salt water). I grabbed some vasoline and it literally stopped the rust in its tracks. I has worked perfectly on everything I have gobbed it onto. I haven't even needed to lubricate the chain on the bike for about a year since I last gobbed the vasoline on. It stops the rust and sticks on there like magic.

So... our method was to opt for cheapos and let them corrode. Any dissimilar metal will, so we figured you could spend a fortune on a nice bike while it corrodes away anway. Might as well spend less.

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by Microship

I'm a cyclist from way back

Steve

Steve - you're a LEGEND from way back. I remember stumbling upon your website years ago when the internet was a new thing (was on Mosaic and had just upgraded from Gopher I think). I think I was working at NASA at the time and very into programming and riding centuries on road bikes.

Anyway, your site was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It's basically an honor to have you on here.

[Microship]

Wow, what a nice welcome... thanks! Yah, I remember that newfangled "Mosaic Server" that I decided to try after I moved from my bikelab at Sun to the boatlab at UCSD. It was just an experiment at first, and I even kept my Gopher server running in parallel (on a SPARCbook laptop in the lab; I remember gettting excited when I would see someone connecting). Had I thought clearly about the implications, I would have stocked up on domain names... just about everything was still available. I recall sitting around one day joking about doing just that as an alternative to the stock market, but, being geeks, we decided it would be antisocial and poor netiquette.

*smiting self on forehead... again*

Anyway, thanks for the kind words. It's cool to be here; with the learning curves steep again, I love hanging around with experienced folk.

That's a cool trick with the vaseline; must work kind of like lanolin and just keep the surface aggressively coated. Will remember that one... used to do chains with paraffin (wax, not the British type), and it protected them well... but that isn't goopy enough to penetrate like vaseline would. Thanks for the tip.

Efraim - those couplings are beautiful!

Steve

[Thermal]

If you are a real cyclist, then find someplace else to keep your nice expensive bike and get a cheapo or a folder for the boat. I bought a $120 Costco bike and considered it "disposable" figuring that if the low-lifes in the neighborhood didnt get it, the salt will. So the first one fell to the low-lifes after 1 month, and the second one has been going for over four years now, way beyond expectations. I keep it either on the dock, or wedged between the stern rail and the backstay, or put it down below on longer cruise, but its a real pain to get down the companionway. Also recently got a new foldable from Downtube.com via ebay and was quite impressed with what I got for $250, much better value than Dahon. Even rides much better than I expected on those little wheels. I worked for a while in Okinawa (lotta salt spray there too) recently and got an $80 cheapo at the PX , looked like it came from the same factory as my boat bike, but it did not last as long - I literally wore out two of them in 18 months. Still, for a salt environment, diposable bike is the way to go.

[Steve Rust]

Dahon and Montague make full size folding bikes that ride and perform as good as any "regular bike". We have a couple of Montague's and are happy with them. Alloy frames, rims, stainless spokes etc. The weak point will always be the chain and bearings I suppose. Cheapest source I have found is Bikesarecool.com - Dahon bikes and Montague bicycles are sure to please $100 cheaper than West Marine.

[Microship]

Thermal - thanks for the downtube link; I had not heard of them. And I agree completely on the disposable philosophy in this particular case... I haven't seen bicycle hardware yet that can survive in aqua regia.

Cheers!
Steve

[Amgine]

I can fit my normal sized frame into the cockpit locker quite easily, but I do so very rarely. Not that it's a great bike, but rather that I can't afford to replace it very easily. On the few occasions I've taken the bike on short trips, it usually has cluttered the side deck in a particularly unseamanlike fashion.

I have some friends who've extolled the possibilities of a carbon frame, with relatively cheap components which would be considered "disposable." But I note that not one of them have actually done it. I wonder if anyone would be dedicated enough to strip down a bike before passages, storing the corrosion-susceptible components in baggies?