Somewhere Else

Thomas Wright, a West London barrister, came home from his Lincoln’s Inn chambers one evening in January 1904 to find a mob of treasure hunters wrecking his front garden. One of them had already dug down to the base of the garden railings and was busy trying to dislodge them to see if a £50 medallion had been buried beneath. Glancing up and down Westbourne Terrace, Wright could see that many of his neighbours’ gardens had been invaded too. This had been going on for four days.

Via metafilter, the story of London’s newspaper treasure hunt riots is a fascinating read. The author, Paul Slade, also has a cool set of articles about murder ballads.

In fact, there are a bunch of really interesting investigative historical essays at Planet Slade. If there had been stuff like this in any of my high school history classes, I think my academic career (such as it was) would have been substantially different.

Hot dog! I can stream Hulu to my Xbox 360 via TVersity Pro running under Fusion. Looks like maybe TVersity Pro includes an embedded Firefox for playing content from “premium websites“.

A test run earlier was a little blocky/jerky, but I suspect that’s mostly my crappy DSL. (1.5/384 is really the best I can get here? Bah.) Might be time to check Comcast’s internet-only package prices again… Also, time to crawl under the house and finish running cat5 to the room where the tv and xbox are.

Update: Oooh. According to Qwest:

Fiber optic fast Internet service should be available in your area by the end of October, 2009.

It might be worth waiting for that. Between Comcast and Qwest, which is the lesser of two evils? I’m not sure.

Auto-Tune the News #5 is the best yet:

On ask.metafilter.com there was a question recently about striking up a friendship with someone who is experiencing delusions, possibly of the schizophrenic type. While the question was about how to do the least harm to the delusional person, eventually someone mentioned that the questioner might want to watch out for his own safety:

My point is that even though your acquaintance seems non-threatening now, people with delusions are unstable… and engaging with an unstable person can be dangerous.

And, because I’ve participated in ask.metafilter.com for a while, I knew that pretty soon a comment defending the mentally ill as more likely to be victims would show up. Which it did:

Generally, it is safe to talk to delusional people. In the vast majority of crimes involving the mentally ill, the mentally ill person is the victim.

I know this is one of Cam’s pet peeves, and it’s become one of mine as well. I posted this response:

In the vast majority of crimes involving the mentally ill, the mentally ill person is the victim.

While true, this doesn’t actually say anything about whether people with severe mental illness are more likely than the general population to be perpetrators of a violent crime. Which, it appears, they are, somewhat. Mental illness may not itself be a predictor of violent crime, but substance abuse seems to increase the likelihood that someone with severe mental illness will engage in violent crime more than it does among the general population. (And while I haven’t found any studies which explicitly say this, it seems like a lot of them imply that severe mental illness is a predictor for poverty and homelessness, which is a predictor for substance abuse.) And among victims of violent crime perpetrated by the severely mentally ill, the majority are acquaintances or family members.

So, yes, this guy is way more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than he is to make you the victim of a violent crime. But he’s also somewhat more likely to do you violence than he would be if he weren’t mentally ill. Especially if you get to know him. And extra especially if he’s a substance abuser.

The only comment addressing that since then has been this:

More on violence and mental illness. Summary – you’re in more danger crossing the road than talking to this guy.

Now, ignoring for the moment that the link provided is part of a campaign to destigmatize mental illness—hardly an unbiased presentation of information—that’s a completely irrelevant comparison. Yes, you’re more likely to die in an auto collision than by being stabbed by a severely mentally ill person. You probably also have a lot more interactions with autos than with the severely mentally ill.

Imagine if the question had been, “there’s a grizzly bear cub in the park. Should I pet it, or could that cause its mother to reject it?” Would a reasonable response be to say that more people are killed by cars than by bears, so don’t worry about playing with the bear? Because, you know, that’s true too: more people are killed by cars than by bears. And it’s probably also true that in human/bear interactions, more often the bear is the victim of violence than the perpetrator. But neither of those say anything about whether it’s safe to play with bears.

Now, I’ve been known to interact with crackpots myself. It’s a habit I’m trying to break. And I certainly don’t mean to imply that every person with a mental illness is likely to flip out and kill you with no warning. But, you know, given the choice of making friends with the delusional person and not making friends with them, I’m going to have to go with “not”. Don’t pet the bear.

Presented without comment, Raymond Scott and his Quintet(te):

Powerhouse (mp4)

Twilight in Turkey (mp4)

War Dance For Wooden Indians (mp4)

Ok, I lied about the “without comment”. If you grew up watching Warner Brothers cartoons, you’re already familiar with the work of Raymond Scott. I’m not sure I’m a fan of his later electronic music, but his pre-war jazz is awesome. Even without the positive associations from cartoons, this is some damn fine stuff. You can get an album of mp3s from Amazon for $9: The Music Of Raymond Scott: Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights. You may be surprised by how much of his stuff you recognize. I know I was.

I stopped at Los Reyes Tienda Mexicana on the way in to work today and picked up an assortment of paletas. They’re in the freezer at work, and as I try them, I’ll add to this post.

+ Chunks O’ Fruti Strawberry Cream

Didn’t care for this one. Good strawberry flavor, but too sweet, and completely the wrong texture for an ostensibly creamy paleta. There was a creamy flavor, I guess, but this was definitely an ice-based paleta, not a milk-based one, so it wasn’t what I was expecting at all. If they have a plain strawberry flavor, it would probably be better. Not recommended.

Ingredients: strawberries, water, fructose, maltodextrin, whole milk, whey powder, guar gum, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gum, carrageenan and locust bean gum. (118ml)

+ Paleteria La Princesa Rice

Horchata-flavored, really, what with the cinnamon. Very tasty, but with a slightly gummy texture. Definitely closer to what I was expecting, but I think still a little over-processed. Points off for corn syrup, too. Recommended, with reservations.

Ingredients: ice cream mix (milk, cream, corn syrup, whey, mono and diglycerides, locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan), rice, sugar, water, cinnamon, natural and artificial flavor. (150ml)

+ Chunks O’ Fruti Coconut

Again, a little sweet for my liking. And despite milk being the first ingredient, it’s still got the texture of an ice-based paleta. Since there’s already coconut cream in these, they probably could have left it water-based and not used the milk. A good amount of coconut flake, though—not too much, not too little—and well-distributed throughout the bar, not all lumped at the top. I’m neutral on this one.

Ingredients: skim milk, fructose, sucrose, coconut flakes, coconut cream, maltodextrin, whey, natural stabilizers (guar gum, xanthan gum and dextrose) (118ml)

+ La Princesa Vanilla

This (like the horchata flavor) says “ice cream bar” on the package, but unlike the horchata bar isn’t what I’d call ice cream. Ice cream bars should have the consistency of ice cream—you shouldn’t be able to cleave bites off and see a long crystalline structure on the broken face. So this is an ice bar, not an ice cream bar. I didn’t care for the first few bites, probably because of the raisins which had settled to the bottom as it froze. But it grew on me. I wish the wrapper had been printed such that I could read the ingredients, because there’s a secondary flavor besides the vanilla that I can’t quite identify. It might be the raisins, but I don’t think so. Vanilla’s a tricky flavor to get right; too much is cloying and not enough is bland. This one struck a pretty good balance, I thought. Recommended.

Ingredients: ? (150ml)

+ Chunks O’ Fruti Piña Colada

There’s nothing really wrong with this one. There are, as advertised, plenty of chunks of pineapple. It could probably have used some coconut solids, though. On the bright side, it wasn’t over-sweetened. I was beginning to think that all the Chunks O’ Fruti bars might be too sweet, but I guess not. Tasty, but unmemorable, so… recommended?

Ingredients: pineapple, water, coconut cream, fructose, sucrose, natural stabilizers (guar gum, carob bean gum, carrageenan), citric acid. (118ml)

Number of cyclists required to slow traffic on I-99 during last Friday’s evening commute: looks like a few hundred

Number of drivers required to stop traffic on I-5 during Monday’s morning commute: looks like about seven

Hmm.

(My pal Jake pointed out that it would probably only take a dozen or so cyclists to stop traffic like that, which is true. On the other hand, Critical Mass happens at a predictable time, once a month, and usually sticks to surface streets. Auto accidents shutting down the freeway are unpredictable and also more common.)

I was criticized recently for posting about a particular case where an inattentive driver killed a cyclist pedestrian, because apparently if I’m going to have an opinion on whether drivers who kill someone should be allowed to drive again, I need to post about it every time it happens, or I’m just unfairly targeting the people about whom I do post. Or something like that. Well, I couldn’t possibly post about all of them; there are too many. But here’s another I just heard about, and it doesn’t even involve a bicyclist:

Authorities say [motorcyclist] Anita Zaffke [...] stopped at the intersection of Route 12 and Old McHenry Road at around 5:45 p.m. Saturday, as the traffic light turned from green to yellow.

The driver of a Chevrolet Impala behind Zaffke, Lora Hunt, 48, of Morris, told police “she was painting her nails as she drove and did not see [the motorcycle] until contact was already made,” according to a Lake County Sheriff’s Department incident report.

Zaffke, who was wearing a helmet, was thrown a distance from her Honda motorcycle, according to Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller. Her son, Greg, said this morning his mother was also wearing a bright yellow cycling jacket.

Zaffke died about an hour after the crash at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, Keller said. [...] Hunt was cited with failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

Failure to reduce speed. Fair enough, that’s probably just what they ticketed her for while they wait for more information so they can charge her for real:

“We are looking into charges in the case,” Assistant State’s Atty. Patricia Fix said this morning. “But we are waiting for results of blood and urine tests and waiting for the results of an accident reconstruction, as well as any other technical evidence we can derive from the scene.”

I can’t help feeling, though, that if Lora Hunt had been wandering down the street shooting a pistol in the air and had killed someone, she’d be in custody awaiting charges, not at home with a citation for improper weapon handling.

Update 2009.05.11, from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Lake County prosecutors now are studying the case to see if they can upgrade the charges. But under the wording of the current law, it’s unclear if a crime occurred.

Illinois lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to pass laws providing stiffer charges for distracted driving. Critics say such laws are difficult to enforce and represent the government acting like an overbearing nanny.

I just ordered a bunch of industrial packs (individually-packaged single doses) of all the first aid supplies and medications from my various first aid kits which had expired. I’m going to have a ton left over after I’ve replenished my kits. Check your first aid kit (if you don’t have one, buy one—I like Adventure Medical Kits, especially the Ultralight & Watertight line) to see if your medications are expired or expiring soon. If they have, and you know me, drop me a line and I’ll hook you up with a replacement kit. It will contain 4 packs each of:

• 200mg Ibuprofen (x2)
• 325mg Aspirin (x2)
• 500mg Acetaminophen (x2)
• 25mg Diphenhydramine HCl (antihistamine)
• 2mg Loperamide HCl (antidiarrheal, like Imodium)
• Medi-Lyte (electrolyte replacement, take with 12oz water)
• .9g first aid burn cream (lidocaine)
• .9g triple antibiotic ointment (like neosporin)
• iodine prep pads

Total cost of the kit: $5.

If you’ve priced first aid kits recently (or shopped the single-dose section of the drugstore), you know this is a steal. I’ll even throw in a ziploc baggie to keep them in. I should have about 20 of the full kit available, and if there’s still interest once those are gone, I can put together a smaller/cheaper kit of what’s left over (the Imodium and iodine pads run out first, then the ibuprofen, then the burn and antibiotic creams, then the antihistamine, then the rest).

Anyway, if you’re interested, drop me a line. I can set up a paypal thing if I don’t see you in person much.

The University of Washington, in accordance with the State of Washington guidance contained in WAC 118.30.060, regularly (at a minimum annually) updates and revises the UW Campus Emergency Management Response Plan.

As it happens, the most recent plan is dated April 2008 (so… within the “annually” period for two more days) and contains references to the CERT program which was disbanded 11 months ago. The page which links to departmental and branch campus specific emergency response info doesn’t even mention UW Bothell, my campus. I’m not exactly reassured.

At least two of my coworkers have spouses who work in the healthcare field. Come to think of it, so does mine. And students here are more likely to have children in daycare than people at other places I’ve worked, I think. Given the number of people here who were out sick with the last round of The Crud, I expect that if swine flu hits UWB, it’ll spread quickly. My preparedness plan includes working from home. And I hope my coworkers will pardon me if I keep my distance for a while.

The bathroom sink has drained kind of slowly ever since we moved in. It’s never really been clogged, but it hasn’t been quick to drain. And the tub draining speed seems to wax and wane. I’ve been using some kind of hippie enzymatic drain cleaner, and in my considered opinion, it doesn’t do a goddamned thing.

This evening I poured half a container of Drano Max Gel into the sink and the rest into the tub, and forgot about them for a couple of hours. When I came back, the hair strainer in the tub was gleaming. I hadn’t realized it was made of shiny wire; I thought it had always been black. Maybe it was, and the drano ate the finish off. I ran some hot water in the tub to flush the drano down, and noticed that there was no water pooling up. Then I filled and drained the sink. It emptied almost immediately, with a healthy sucking sound, not the sickly gurgle I’m used to. Then I picked the stopper out of the sink and looked at it. I actually exclaimed “holy crow!” as I saw the shiny metal underside of the stopper. (I’m not making that up. Cam laughed and laughed.) It has been black and gross for as long as we’ve been in this house. I hadn’t even realized it was metal until just now.

Consider that an enthusiastic recommendation from me. Earth-friendly gentle enzymes may work to keep the pipes clear once they’ve been cleaned, but if you actually have a build-up, I think the awful caustic chemicals are the way to go. These ones in particular—I think I used some Liquid Plumr a few years back to no effect.

Over at BikeHugger this weekend there were a few posts about the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race, which took place on Sunday. In one of them, they wrote:

Whatever flavor of cycling you’re into, the Hell of the North is part of the bike and our culture. It’s our folklore.

Now, I like BikeHugger. They post about cargo bikes fairly regularly. But they are bicycle racers at heart, I think. I’m not. I’m aware of cycle racing as a sport, and I have some friends and acquaintances who are into it (as participants and observers) but it’s not something I follow or particularly care about. I’m told that racing drives innovation in bicycle design, but honestly the types of innovation I see coming out of racing interest me very, very little. I don’t care for carbon fiber, I don’t want super-light and super-aero wheels that last for one season, I’m perfectly happy with non-electronic shifting. My bicycles’ primary function is to be useful.

So when I read that this race is necessarily part of bicycle culture, regardless of what kind of cycling I’m into, it kind of cheeses me off. It’s kind of like hearing someone say that it doesn’t matter what religion you are; Jesus is part of your tradition. Or, I don’t know. No matter what kind of car you drive, you owe some kind of cultural debt to the Cannonball Run. I hadn’t heard of the Paris-Roubaix race until this weekend. It isn’t part of my folklore. And I bet it’s not part of this guy’s.

Byron at BikeHugger writes:

Paris Roubaix and the Classics got me into cycling.

And maybe that’s the difference. My parents got me into cycling by buying me a bike when I was… seven? I bet Byron had a bike as a kid, too, but maybe he just doesn’t think of that as “cycling”. Which seems kind of weird, to me, but it’s the best I can come up with.

What’s being asserted here by the Obama DOJ is the virtually absolute power of presidential secrecy, the right to break the law with no consequences, and immunity from surveillance lawsuits so sweeping that one can hardly believe that it’s being claimed with a straight face.

God damn it.

I’ve bought some bicycle gear recently, and I’d like to recommend the vendors I bought it from.

First, Vince at Urban Bike Tech, from whom I have bought two sets of Pitlock locking skewers. He’s the Canadian distributor for Pitlock, and beats the US distributor’s (Peter White Cycles) by a fair margin. For example, the set I got most recently included skewers for the front and rear wheels, a seatpost clamp skewer, and a locking aheadset cap. At Peter White, that set costs $143. Vince sells that set for $90, and I got a repeat customer discount on top of that. The first set I ordered was delayed by a day or two, and Vince called me to apologize and give me free shipping, even though I hadn’t been expecting my order to arrive particularly quickly to begin with, coming from Ottawa. And even though he’d just placed his monthly order from Germany when I wrote to ask if he could get me a second set which matched my existing keys, he got me my second set within five weeks of my inquiry. I was expecting it to be closer to ten.

In addition, it looks like he’s going to be selling a 30mm seatpost clamp to fit Surly frames soon, which is awesome. I must have searched the catalogs of every online bike shop looking for a 30mm clamp with flat, parallel clamping surfaces–they don’t exist. But apparently they will soon, and I’ll be buying one from him. If you value your wheels but don’t want to have to carry around a cable in addition to your U lock, Pitlock skewers look to be the best solution available. And Urban Bike Tech is the place to get them.

The second purchase I want to recommend was made today, so I don’t actually have the Ortlieb panniers and handlebar bag that I ordered yet. But I was very impressed by how Wayne at The Touring Store got my order shipped today, even though I called about half an hour before his UPS pick-up time. There’s no online ordering there—you have to email or call him—but that’s not particularly important to me. I mean, I called him and placed my order, and got to chat about the suitability of what I was ordering for how I was intending to use it, and learned that the US distributor of Ortlieb products is about 30 miles away, in Auburn. It didn’t take that much longer than ordering online, and I learned something.

Speaking of which, why is it that I can’t find anyone local who sells Ortlieb products for less than MSRP? I could have gotten the panniers for less if I’d used my 20% single-item discount at REI (if I’d thought to do that before it expired, oops). But after sales tax it would have come out to close to the same price. And without the discount, it’s substantially more expensive to buy locally. Part of that is the sales tax, sure, but Wayne’s prices are 10% off MSRP even without taking tax into account. And he offers free shipping. How is it that I can buy something coming from Auburn more cheaply if I order it from Fort Collins, Colorado, than if I buy it in Seattle?

Anyway, I’ve seen a lot of glowing reviews on bicycle message boards about The Touring Store, and now I understand why. If you’re looking for a good set of waterproof panniers (or anything else Ortlieb makes), it looks like Wayne’s the guy to call.

(I’m not being paid or comped or anything for these recommendations. I genuinely enjoyed my shopping experiences here, and just want to share the love.)

You have just over a week left to see a show at this year’s (the sixth annual) Moisture Festival. It is, according to the announcer at one of the shows Cam and I have been to this time, the longest-running comedy/variety (they’re spelling it variete to honor its European influences) show in the US. A sort of Vaudeville revival, by way of Cabaret. If you’re still unsure of what this festival’s all about, think of the Muppet Show. Ok, sure, a lot of that took place backstage. But what was onstage? That’s basically the same idea. Only with more aerialists and fewer explosions. They had a separate track of late night burlesque shows and a film festival (the Moisture Festival, not the Muppets), but you’ve missed those now.

The show Cam and I just got back from was one of the strongest lineups I think I’ve seen in the five years we’ve been going. This isn’t to say that other shows have been weak–far from it. But sometimes, you know, there’s one act that just isn’t as awesome as the rest. There wasn’t one of those tonight. The acts were:

Hilary Chaplain, a hilarious physical comedian. Broken high heels have never been funnier. And, boy, can she fit a lot of marshmallows in her mouth while still retaining the ability to sing.

John Gilkey, a … clown? He’s billed as a clown when performing with Cirque du Soleil, so I guess I’ll go with that. He did a very funny (and sad) piece of mime involving a tennis racket, a cat, and an orchestra. I think you had to be there.

Chantall, a German performer with a comedy/magic act tonight that involved dragging me onstage to be her assistant, and shooting at the house band. It was fun, if somewhat mortifying.

Jeffery Daymont, a juggler who did a great routine involving a hat and cane, and this amazing balancing act with three golf clubs. I don’t know how you could possibly learn that act without repeatedly getting concussions.

Jonathan Rose, a Metro driver (said the announcer) and SANCA instructor who did a smokin’ construction worker/aerial rope act, which I’ve just found a video of online.

Daniel Forlano, a comedian/clown who also did some hat tricks, only with a stocking cap. And then he drank a glass of wine, which involved manipulating about 15 cigar boxes.

Michael Clifton, Randy Minkler, and the guitarist for the Zebra Kings (whose name I didn’t catch) performed a song with Clifton on one-man-band-style drums. I love his washboard tie.

The Harlequin Hipsters did some very acrobatic swing dance (well, swing-ish, I think).

Jane Osborn did an aerial silk act which included playing the saxophone while hanging upside down by her feet. Pretty sure I’ve never seen that before.

And the evening ended with Avner the Eccentric, about whom I cannot say enough good things. He’s a genius at making the simple look impossible, which I think is a harder and often more entertaining trick than making the very difficult look simple. He was the Janitor who opened the FKB’s Comedy of Errors (seen in the first six minutes of this video), and played the Jewel in The Jewel of the Nile. Tonight he ate a stack of napkins. It’s a real treat to see him in person, and you only have six chances left this year, according to the schedule.

Seriously, it’s worth the price of the ticket for Avner alone, and there are so many other good acts that you more than get your money’s worth. Plus, there’s beer. And pretzels. And surprisingly good bratwurst. Go buy tickets. You won’t regret it.

The opening scene of Dollhouse recently was shot at the intersection of W 6th St and S Hill St in Los Angeles, by the International Jewelry Center. A reporter is walking down the street, talking about the urban legend of “The Dollhouse”, a ring of programmable slaves available for rent with whatever capabilities you need.

Now, maybe because I’ve read a lot of conspiracy theory literature, I’m more attuned to this than most people. But it really stood out for me:

Yes, that’s “INTERN JEW” in the background of a shot where a reporter is talking about a shadowy cabal. Is it just me, or is that weird? I mean, I know it’s just an unfortunately located traffic light and tree, but didn’t anyone notice that when they were setting up the shot?

I recently read Hugh Laurie’s book The Gun Seller — it’s a fun read, more heavily weighted towards humor at the beginning and turning into a more straightforward (although still funny) spy thriller towards the end. What was weird about it was that the farther in I got, the more familiar it was. Around page 100, I began to wonder if I’d read it before. Around page 200, I was pretty sure I had. A few more chapters in, I knew for sure I had because I could predict what was coming up. But I had no memory of having read it before.

I think I must have first started reading it when I had a really high fever a while back, and then finished it as my fever broke. That would explain why I have absolutely no memory of the first few chapters–I was in an altered state of consciousness. It was more familiar towards the end because I was less sick when I read that part. It’s a weird way to read a book.

It’s a fun book, and I recommend it. I don’t recommend the fever.

Now that the “25 things about me” backlash is in full swing, it’s time for me to jump on the bandwagon. I’ve been tagged on Facebook and other places a few times, so I might as well. I won’t be tagging anyone else, though, and I really don’t get Facebook, so I’ll be posting my 25 things here, behind a cut.

There’s something fishy about the SPD report of the collision that killed a cyclist in Ballard this morning. The SPD report has the driver of the van waiting at the stop light then striking the cyclist as she moved into the turn lane to turn left onto 64th. Eyewitness reports from the My Ballard comments have the van in the curb lane on the south side of the intersection, making a U-turn immediately after the light turned green:

“the van pulled away from the curb where the bus stop is”

“the driver — who was indeed south of the intersection — might have hurried to make the u-turn”

And here’s the SPD:

As the traffic signal turned green for southbound and northbound traffic, witnesses stated the van proceeded through the intersection and the bicyclist passed all the stopped southbound vehicles on the left at a high rate of speed then briefly moved back into the bicycle lane. South of the intersection the van signaled and moved into the left turn lane in order to turn left onto NW 64th Street.

Those can’t all be true. The van was either on the north or the south side of 65th before the light changed, and the van was either making a left turn onto 64th or making a U-turn mid-block.

Here’s where the van ended up, facing northeast. Which story is consistent with that placement? I have a really difficult time understanding how a cyclist could have hit the rear driver’s side and slid under the wheels if the van was just merging into the center turn lane there. And how much momentum would the cyclist have to have to swing the rear end of a van that far around on impact? There’s just no way.

We have two eyewitness reports that directly contradict the SPD report, and the photo of the scene is completely inconsistent with their version of things. Even the P-I report contradicts the SPD statement: “Tavern employees said she was trying to make a turn to stop at The Viking and check on its refrigerators for regular maintenance.” (The Viking is the mid-block building with the red and white awning in the Kiro photo on the My Ballard entry.)

If the SPD concludes that their initial assessment was correct, I will be pissed.

Update, 2009.02.05 10:07 - Here’s a photo gallery of the scene from KIRO TV and Windows Virtual Earth:

The building with the striped awning in three of those photos is the Viking Tavern, the narrow building two up from the intersection of 24th and 64th, on the east side of the street.

I installed the KickBack center stand on my Xtracycle today, and ran into a chainline problem. Because I’m running a Rohloff internally-geared hub in back, my rear cog is pretty small, and I don’t have a long derailleur to push the bottom chain line down very far. The Rohloff chain tensioner is fairly compact, and only gives me a few inches of clearance between the return chain and the FreeRadical frame. The KickBack takes up pretty much all of that space, so when it’s folded back in the “Ride” position, the chain rubs on it. Here are some photos to demonstrate:

The third photo is what it ought to look like; the second is what it actually looks like. If I ride the bike like this, I’ll cut a groove in the KickBack where the chain hits it, and probably won’t be doing the chain any favors. (Speaking of which, it’s time to clean and lube the chain.)

Someone else must have run into this before–I know a bunch of Xtracycle owners are running internal gear hubs such as the Rohloff or Nexus. Are they all using much larger chainrings in front than I am, or have none of them installed a KickBack yet?

I have a couple ideas for pushing the chain down, including replacing the Rohloff tensioner with an old rear derailleur with a longer cage, or making some sort of idler pulley contraption out of an L bracket and a skate wheel. There’s a spare mounting bolt right next to where the chain rubs–that’d be an ideal place to mount an idler, with the added benefit that it might increase the pressure keeping the KickBack in place when it’s retracted, reducing rattling when I hit rough patches on the road.

I could also try cutting a bit off the stop tube of the KickBack, so that it retracts farther. I think that would only get me a centimeter more clearance at best, though, and I bet I’d get chain strikes still when I hit potholes.

Anyone have a better idea?