Wayward Watermelon, Simply Irresistible Clones and Danzig Rising

My body’s starting to ask some tough questions about this whole commuting thing. I’ve ridden a bike to work for years now, but that was all chickenshit. Chicago’s winter was no fun, but I was only a few miles from work. Same thing with my first months in Portland. But the new dozen miles one way thing is a whole different kettle of fish. And sometimes watermelons.

So far, this that watermelon is the weirdest thing I’ve seen thrown from the 205 bridge. So far.

I’m writing a lot of product copy right now, and my research seems to be teaching me more about web sites than products. I’ve noticed, for instance that every sites offering live chat pretty much use pictures of the same dozen women wearing phone headsets. In fact, I believe that the entire female cast from the “Simply Irresistible” video now does web chat support.

OK, so yesterday I seem to’ve been typing something about Danzig’s instant center. To wrap that up, here’s the full migration of the IC from unladen to just under five inches of travel.

Not my best hasty animation, but should be good enough to give you the idea. It all comes down to this: the orientation of Danzig’s lower linkage tracks along the line of the chain as the rear wheel moves upward relative to the chain’s fixed point on the chainring. In other words, the instant center stays exactly along or very close to the line of torque (the chain) throughout most of the travel. What the hell does that do? Who knows until we actually ride prototypes, but it would stand to reason that maintaining an instant center that tracks along with the line of torque could be very desirable traits. Because the instant center stays so particularly focused right on a relatively small area throughout the entire first three inches of travel, and because it’s orientation is so particularly vertical, the system should be more consistent in all gear combinations, too–that’s just one of those obsessive details I tried to accommodate in the design.

That’s a pretty magnified look at only one tiny aspect of the system. Any suggestions or questions about other aspects, just let me know, and I’ll do my best to answer all questions. More next week.