Minor Bike Trip Report

Took the Junkerbolt into the state park for a short ride, to test her out on some "rougher" roads -- it would be generous to call the park's roads uneven, so I figured it would be a good test for the bike.

While she did okay, I can't say she did well.

The bike lacks shock absorbers of any kind, so I felt it when I went over a small stone in the road. Going over a rough patch felt like driving a car over BOTS dots. Also, the state park road is full of large, deep potholes; I was able to go around them, but I don't want to think about ever hitting one, especially at speed. Given the teeny-beeny front wheel, I'd probably end up going over the handlebars and literally eating gravel.

The other problem of the day came from some adjustments I'd made.

Since the bike is, after all, an internet-based yard sale find, very little is in particularly good shape, including the mesh seat. It sags and is uncomfortable -- a testament to how worn out it is, since Lightning's seats are typically regarded as some of the most comfortable in the bike world. I had taken a foam seat cushion out of the Triumph before I sent her off for parts, and it just so happened that it fit the Junkerbolt's seat pretty well. This made the bike more pleasant and easier to ride, but it had an unintended side-effect.

As a stop-gap measure to get the bike up and running in case I'd need to ride to work, I'd tied my home-made tail-light assembly directly to the seat's rear frame. This held it on pretty well, and put the tail-light in a nice, visible position. But it also put the on/off switch for the tail-light right against the seat back. This was fine, as I previously wasn't putting any weight on the seat back, and thus wouldn't accidentally click the button (or, I could intentionally lean back, hard, and flick the light on, which was nice). But, once the new foam seat pad was installed, the gap I had between my own back and the seat was gone. Just the action of peddling hard put enough pressure on the seat back to make the tail-light flick on. Or off -- a problem at night!

I may have to just hunker down and finish building the tailframe I'd originally planned, which would put the tail-light far away from the seat (and give me some storage space), but I doubt that will happen in the next week or so. In the meantime, I'll just have to find some way of mounting the light so there's no interferrence from the seat. I have no idea how I'd even go about that. v(._.)v