chrisrivard's posterous

I did quite a bit of research prior to building up a Yuba Mundo - there were a few blogs that documented the build process. I found these super useful:

http://wiki.stevevance.net/yuba/specs
http://monumentallyafflicted.blogspot.com/2010/01/yuba-mundo-v3-upgrades.html
http://keller74.wordpress.com/tag/mundo-yuba/
http://mark.stosberg.com/blog/index.html

Mark's Flickr photos and tales of family commuting on his cargo bikes are truly inspirational.

One of the things you'll run into immedately when building up one of these amazing bicycles is that the rear dropouts are 14mm to support the standard 48 spoke 14mm solid rear axle. I considered buying the stock wheels, but opted instead to build a pair of wheels using Salsa Gordo rims with triple-butted DT Alpine spokes (36 h). I think the stock wheels take a 7speed threaded sprocket? Boo. 

It's really really hard to find a disc hub, 135mm spacing with a 14mm axle for a reasonable price ;-)

Build highlights:

• Surly Big Dummy Fork
• Deore 6-bolt disc front hub
• XT 6-bolt disc rear hub (9spd)
• Salsa Gordo rims / 36 h / DT Alpine triple butted spokes
• Avid BB7s (Front: 200mm, Rear: 10mm)
• Soma Clarence bar
• Brooks saddle
• Thompson post (27.2 w/ problem solvers adapter)
• Ourey lock on grips
• SRAM 9 spd rear derailleur
• SRAM X5 9 spd shifters
• XT triple front crank
• Yuba wheel skirts
• Custom top deck and running boards
• Avid speed dial brake levers

(download)

Click here to download:

yuba-mundo-v4-build-dCzuCcflycIazDbblxzA.zip (3.28 MB)

Here is my Evernote build/to-do list.

So - what I wanted to get detailed around is the rear wheel / disc brake interface. It was massively frustrating to say the least. Here's how it works:

*NOTE: This is specific to Avid BB7 brakes*

• Rear is a standard disc frame tab (international standard I guess?)
• Rotor is 180mm
• Adapter is a 140 Front 160 Rear Avid adapter
• The bolts to attach the adapter are too long and will hit the rotor when fully engaged, they need one 10mm spacer on the outboard side of the adapter (standard brake flat/conical spacers that come with the adapters)
• If the caliper is attached to the adapter with the standard spacing setup, the rotor will not even move b/c there is not enough clearance between the caliper and the rotor.
• Add 2 10mm spacers to each side of the adapter to raise the caliper up over the rotor - there is still plenty of thread engagement to keep it secure, not to worry.
• Here's the tricky bit: Caliper is properly positioned over the rotor, the wheel spins freely, but when the pads are engaged, the outboard pad will not retract. I spent a lot of time at this point troublshooting and adjusting the pads and spacing. It would appear that everything would be adjusted properly, but when the brake was engaged, everything would be thrown out of adjustment. Here's the problem and solution:
• The small brass? pull on the brake pad is coming into contact with the adapter, being pushed over it,  and is unable to retract back into the caliper body - it hits the adapter.
• You could add a few mm of spacers to the adapter to raise it up slightly (but at this point you're losing thread engagement from the caliper to adapter. 
• I ended up filing the brake pad down slightly - it's about 3mm  and the pad will easily retract. Done and done. 

Other other major issue I ran into, probably related to the build quality of the frame itself (I would look to Yuba before I looked to Shimano)... the rear axle extended slightly (about 3 mm) beyond the dropout - what this means is that if you're using a 10mm standard axle (with Yuba supplied axle adapters to convert 10mm to 14mm) with a quick release, the wheel only partially clamps into the dropouts. I discovered this on the maiden voyage when pedaling hard - there is so much torque on the rear wheel as a result of the length of the bike, that pedaling hard would unseat the axle. In one of the pictures above I tried using an Ikea cabinet bracket (perfect fit for the quick release skewer, sharp edge to fit exactly over a small shelf on the dropout). It worked marginally better, but the axle still slipped. 

I stopped by the LBS and Mundo dealer (http://www.joe-bike.com/) around the corner from my house and they took a look and provided me with a slightly concave knurled washer. It did the trick - no axle slippage. 

The final change I'm going to make to the bike is to rebuild the rear axle with a 174mm solid chromoly axle and bolt it in. This should solve the slipping axle issue.

That's it, just wanted to jot down when learned.

Happy to chat about building up a Mundo. http://yubaride.com/

Jotting down some fodder - too long for a tweet, perhaps too short for a blog post.

I was at Ikea this weekend to look for a small table for the nursery (I'm on baby watch) - something to hold a lamp and a humidifier. After losing the argument with my wife that I could build something of higher quality in an afternoon instead of paying for a fiberboard table (value of my time) - we ended up with a solid wood (pine) end table that holds a few plastic baskets. That's why I was at Ikea...thinking.

There is a significant population of Ikea customers who fit the demographic of outdoor urban chic. 20-30 somethings buffing out their studio apartments. Puffy jackets are in vogue - mostly from Patagonia. Some of this population also shops at Costco, but only buys 4 or 5 items. I would argue this group is reaping the most benefit from our consumer culture - above the fray, but taking advantage. They're not 99%'ers, but they're not anywhere near the 1%. Advertisers and marketers lose money on this segment of the population. I'm in this demographic.

What I find more interesting however, is the other demographic - much larger and more telling. These people of Ikea look very much like the people of Walmart. There isn't much of a distinction. Sedentary lifestyle, obese or significantly overweight, on the prowl for the perfect 'thing'. This is our general population - our primary consumers who are marketed a steady diet of aspirational, targeted, lifestyle ads (and swedish meatballs, potatoes and cinnamon rolls). These are the people on the verge of falling off the ship.

The system we have built has completely failed these people - healthcare, education, employment - failed or failing.

Yet when I follow this argument and cycle through the rebuttals, the one that I keep hearing is that people are sentient beings - they can make their own decisions. Yet our culture is so heavily weighted against success for this population, why would one expect the outcome to be any different? When the general population is bombarded with advertising, essentially groomed from birth to be consumers of low fidelity experiences, why are we surprised? For some this is the perfect system. Which I think leads to the position of 'moral' outrage. 

Ultimately, this feels like a wicked design problem. How does one build something - a political system, a culture, a high quality piece of furniture, that provides value at scale? It's not impossible, but it's fucking hard. Is Ikea the best we can do? The thing that pains me the most however, is that this segment of the population does not know the difference between low fidelity and high fidelity. High quality and low quality - it's all just stuff.

We no longer expect craftsmanship in everyday objects; maybe we don’t feel we even deserve it. “Objects can be designed to low price,” she writes, “but they cannot be crafted to low price.” But if we stop valuing — and buying — craftsmanship, the very idea of making something with care and expertise is destined to die, and something of us as human beings will die along with it: “A bricklayer or carpenter or teacher, a musician or salesperson, a writer of computer code — any and all can be craftsmen. Craftsmanship cements a relationship between buyer and seller, worker and employer, and expects something of both. It is about caring about the work and its application. It is what distinguishes the work of humans from the work of machines, and it is everything that IKEA and other discounters are not.”

http://www.salon.com/2009/07/12/cheap/

When I lived in New Mexico about the only thing I was doing was working. A lot changed after baby came, the economy crapped out and I realized I needed to get a job. It was much more nuanced than that - not as stark, but over time stories become more round...edges less sharp.

Having some time off and a big state like Oregon to begin exploring - we packed up the new camper (evolution e1) last week and headed for the southwestern Oregon coast. No plans, no agenda - just miles of Pacific Coast to explore. One thought that stuck with me - recalled as a memory really - was this idea of "degradation of experience" that seems to be all around. 

When I was a kid, I remember going to a dinner party with my mom - one of her friends had returned from Nepal and she was having a slide show. People were drinking wine, socializing and then the lights went down and the slide show started. Beautiful pictures along with the story behind each picture - slide after slide of this great adventure. People interruped and asked questions, the audience laughed at the jokes and were consumed by the narrative and imagery. That was the last time I went to a slideshow in someone's home. All others have been at climbing festivals (http://ourayicefestival.com/). The last memorable being at the Silverton Avalanche School in Silverton, CO. A ski mountaineer going through the catalog of his life in Little Cottonwood Canyon - and on to first ascents/ski descents in Alaska and beyond. Ski and climbing bums sitting around in puffy jackets drinking PBRs. The tribe together in one place, briefly.

What has stuck with me since last week though, is that people do not share like this much anymore. The shared experience, the storytelling, the social-ness - has largely been supplanted by the promise of the internet (Internet says: I never promised anything).

(I've read Bowling Alone). I think most of the current arguments are that Robert Putnam did not predict the rise of the social web. 

The point I'm making is that we've replaced social reality with something of lower fidelity. A copy that is missing a few ingredients. I think people are longing for real experiences. People are seeking authenticity, real experiences - and I think (at this stage of the game) we're not there yet.

"Failing is the price for striving. Failing is essential to the process one undertakes to reach a position where he or she might succeed. Before achieving our goals we must learn the lessons of failure without getting in the habit of losing. And understand failure is a necessary component of self-knowledge." - via Gym Jones

Sun and snow, not too cold. Near Barlow Pass. Trick: plenty of hot chocolate in a thermos and lots of snackies. Awesome day out yesterday.

I spent yesterday home with a sick little one. We went to the doctor, got some antibiotics and stopped by Target to fill the prescription. Wandering around, we went through the toy section. From an ethnographic research and design perspective - our children have been analyzed, modeled and targeted - nothing new. As a designer, I observed - primarily the gender role delineation,. The way products are marketed and displayed to children. Overall, it's a fascinating but ultimately depressing snapshot of American culture. 

What did we see? A sea of plastic tchotchkes manufactured in China. Pink faerie collections (Target exclusive) for the girls, emo skateboard sets for the boys, oversexed barbies and images of happy white children having the time of their life playing with X. I watched in horror as my 3 year old named all of the Princess dolls - Cinderella, Snow White, Tiana, Ariel. This was by far the most disturbing:

My wife has just finished reading Cinderalla Stole My Daughter, by Peggy Orenstein. She shared excerpts with me and some strategies that we're now pursuing. We're definitely redoubling our efforts to raise an independent, freethinking (she can pursue whatever spiritual path she wants), strong girl. And we're prepared for battle.

Some links:

http://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Ate-Daughter-Dispatches-Girlie-Girl/dp/00617...
http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Freethinkers-Practical-Parenting-Beyond/dp/0814...