My Home Bike Shop is actually located down in the large storage room in the basement. It is quite roomy, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and just darn comfortable. It is my “Man Den”! I have been slowly tweaking things out to make a more useful environment. I finally added some additional lightning, which is very nice to have, since I used to have to move around a swivel lamp to light up work areas, especially while doing detailed work on a bike. I still have trouble seeing things up close (old eyes), so I have been wearing my reading glasses lately. I just ordered a set of magnifying glasses that come with an attached LED light. I was thinking of something like that when I was at my dentist office the other day, and noticed what they use (those can cost upwards of $1500, ouch).

Santa brought me a couple of new toys for my Home Shop. First off, I got a mini air compressor, so I no longer need to keep refilling my old air tank. I have used that method for quite a bit, which meant filling it with air from my monster air compressor in the garage, and then bringing it down to my Shop. I also found it was useful for taking grips on and off. I just change the attachment on the air hose, and can easily squirt air under the grip for fast removal, or fill the grip full of air for addition.Very sweet!

The other new toy was a battery powered screwdriver, which is really just a mini drill. This one had a nice forward and reverse trigger, a slow or fast speed, 4 Volt rechargeable Lithium battery, quick connector, and adjustable clutch. I really wanted it for taking on and off those pesky torx rotor bolts. I am always swapping out wheelsets and rotors, so it is really handy to be able to perform that trick with a minimum effort. I have also used it to take off the usual assortment of bolts on the bike, so it has turned out to be a useful and lazy mans tool. I tried to find some mini allen head bits for metric sizes, but was unable to locate them at the local Sears. My kids hate going with me to Sears sometimes, because I get in a sort of tool daze, drool.

Another new toy was a labeling machine, which has turned out to be very useful. My daughter keeps borrowing it to make silly labels, but she is a precocious 7 year old girl!  I have had my mini drawers for quite a while, so with the labeling machine, I finally got around to labeling things, so it’s easier to locate items. Ok, it is also very compulsive of me, but what do you expect! I like to be able to have items handy, and things choreographed where I like them. Of course the ubiquitous scales are handy, can’t be called Gram without them.

One can never have enough tires! I came up with this system, since I got tired of rubber banding them, and trying to stack them on top of each other. Now, I can easily see what tire is in each box, and pull them out handily.

I had been trying to figure out how to get my tools to be set out usefully, and I didn’t really have enough wall space for a pegboard. I came up with this idea to turn these CD and DVD holders upside down, and use the small holes as tool placement. It has turned out to work like a charm. I have found the metal magnetic part and tool holder useful for not only holding parts, but I can test out if a bolt is titanium with any easy “does it stick” crosscheck.

I just recently added these nice hooks that I use for tires and wheelsets, and I use them for things that I happen to be using regularly. It keeps them out of the way, and has been useful for scooping out the tire sealant when I am swapping out tires. It’s a neat and tidy method for taking care of haphazard and cumbersome items.

I am currently testing this very sweet bike holder from Feedback Sports. It is known as the Velo Cache Bicycle Storage Stand. You can actually hang 4 bikes from it if you wanted. It is very sturdy, well made and works better than hanging bikes from the ceiling. The stand comes with 3 or 4 legs (I am using the sturdy 4 legs), and uses dual rubberized arms to hold the bike. The arms are easily adjusted up and down the main column of the unit. It has also been handy to prop a wheel on the arms when I am adding sealant for a tubeless tire.

I won a photo contest last week that Moots was doing, how cool is that.

Moots Owner’s Club Newsletter

Happy Holidays!

The holidays are here! Send us your very best holiday photo (extra bonus points if it is bike related, double extra bonus points for Moots holiday related) for a chance to win the most expensive ti cyclocross cowbell known to man! I have (3) Ti-Bells lovingly crafted out of the finest PiTech 3/2.5 alloy seamless titanium for the 3 Mootsers with the best shots submitted before Thanksgiving.

My lovely daughter Rachel took the following winning picture last year at Thanksgiving when we had a monster 26 inch snowstorm. The biking was fine until you had to turn! Very deep powder, that was at least light and fluffy.

And here is the Moot’s cowbell, aka Ti-Bell! And the sucker is loud, as my son found out when he wouldn’t get out of bed this morning.

I can’t wait to take it to a cyclocross event and clang away! It reminds me of the loud noise makers they have in Europe for ski races. My daughter asked if I was going to attach it to my bike and replace my mini bear bell?

I got out the other day for a short ride when the weather turned sunny and got to a balmy 18 degrees. It seemed sort of warm after having below zero and single digit days for almost a week. Today was a heat wave of 39! I made sure this ride to wear warm gloves. It’s easy to take off extra clothing if your torso gets warm, but if your hands get cold you are asking for trouble. I found that out earlier in the week on a windy 10 degree day when I got frost nip on a couple of fingers when I was wearing inadequate gloves, lessen learned! Furthermore, those pocket sized hand warmers don’t help much when the temperature is in the single digits? My fingers were hurting for almost 2 days, oops. My wife thinks I am crazy for going out in inclement weather.