Last week, I liberated an old Velo Sport from a neighbor’s yard. For Brad! For brad, I tell you! This week, I removed (almost) all the extra parts. No more shifters, rear derailleur, front derailleur, 6-speed Atom 77 freewheel, or very-long chain. Now it’s a nearly-respectable, very civilized single-speed bike.

Notes:

• The mtb pedal clips are a little too deep, though joyously wide and tall
• I still need to cut off the offending and extraneous outer chainring on the front (but I don’t have a dremel tool or angle grinder)
• The seat is pretty cheesy; after riding one of those pressure-relieving seats for a couple of years, this one feels like a golf ball is constantly being shoved up my wazoo
• The brakes are pretty awesome
• The steel wheels and Maillard hubs are perhaps not the lightest, but I like them. They both need cleaning.
• The beautiful aluminum sleeve in the center of the drop bars concealed a lousy steel bar under the tape. And the bar was not bilaterally symmetrical! Geez…
• This bike needs a serious bath, and probably everything repacked and lubed
• There is a definite clacking, possibly in the bottom bracket, with every pedal revolution; must diagnose and fix… someday
• The chain that was on this was too skinny to fit over the BMX freewheel, so I got an inexpensive BMX chain
• BMX chains don’t fit in regular chain tools

Anyhoo, I took it for its voyage of rebirth today, and that was fun. I went over to the Chedoke Golf Club and climbed the stairs, then rode along the ridge through the ritzy neighborhoods, then a bit on Bruce Trail, then back through Ancaster and down the mountain on Wilson St. Good ride. I like the bike.

There is another bike in our already-somewhat-small apartment. It’s a free bike that a lady nearby was giving away. It’s a 12-speed Velo Sport average-joe-grade road bike. The size is very nice for me and/or Brad, and everything works. I’m glad I didn’t take Brad’s bet last night, because I pumped up the tires and they’ve held 80 or so psi for several hours, now (I thought they would be punctured, but no). The frame has small bits of rust on it, not visible on casual inspection. There are nice little details, too, like Shimano quick releases on both wheels, lots of aluminum parts, those brake-release-thingies on the brakes, the gum hoods on the levers still intact. More details after the cut: Continue reading →

So I watched Born Into Brothels last night. I cried, even though it’s not an unrelentingly sad documentary, in many ways. I think we of the Western world (maybe of any world) are destined to have multiple Siddharta Gautama moments. We wander outside our opulent palaces and become overwhelmed by the human conditions in a less privileged part of the world. I think this kind of recurring experience is a good thing. The subprime market meltdown, internet neutrality, Hillary’s increasingly tenuous grasp of reality, and the petroleum crisis don’t seem as important.

In other news, I biked to the tax office and paid my (2-months-expired!) vehicle registration. Yay. And maybe I didn’t sleep quite enough? BLARG I AM DED

So Alex and I went to South Padre and it was teh roxxorz. Seriously. We drove in through dense fog on Friday evening and drove out through dense fog on Sunday morning, but Saturday was glorious and perfect.

We stayed at the Sheraton hotel. Hm. What to say… It wasn’t a regretful experience, by any means, but I’ll be looking for a different hotel if we do it again. Continue reading →

So here’s what he looked like a few days ago, parked against a picturesque wall downtown. It wasn’t a photo shoot; just an opportunistic shot, so the rack is on, the bag is on, and the water bottle is there (but notice how it’s Lexan; 6.99 at Target!). Also notice those grips. They were made from an MTB tube, held on with duct tape. The bike now has black cork/rubber handlebar tape, with gel pads underneath. More bulky, not as well done, not as cute, but more comfy. And the reverse levers seem to work great. I screwed up the bar tape installation when I had to remove it and reinstall, after realizing I’d done some of the brake cable installation wrong :(. I hid my mistake fairly well, though. And notice that there is no actual cable to the rear brake. The housing is held in place (for now) on the top tube with adhesive tape.

My favorite parts? The awesome Sparrow 490 bars (they feel positively diminutive) and the tires (panaracers). It’s a sweet ride.

Next? SADDLE! (this one is not so comfy).

But first, some comic joy from Basic Instructions, a web comic that consistently makes me chuckle:

 [click for the full comic]

Note: this is not a commentary on my feelings for my wife, which are still quite positive, thank you. Now, on to…

How to be one kind of super-cool 21st-century cyclist

1. You’re going to ride a fixed-gear bike. You just are. Shut up.
2. Buy that $1,500 frame you’ve had your eye on. No, not the titanium frame. Not the aluminum frame. The steel frame. Steel is real, with its reality varying in direct proportion to its cost.
3. Drop a few hundred on track-approved cogs, hubs, pedals, bars, and wheels. But build it all up yourself (or pretend you did). It would be a violation of the cycling ethos to pay someone else to do it.
4. Avoid brakes. They add weight and ruin the graceful minimalism of your bicycle. Also, a demonstrated fear of death is the antithesis of cool.
5. Avoid derailleurs. You don’t need them. You may think you do, but you don’t. No questions.
6. No bike racks. See previous item.
7. Get a really good bike messenger bag (about $200). Better yet, make one out of $75 worth of materials you find at the fabric store, so you can keep in the do-it-yourself mindset. Better make it a huge bag; after all, you don’t have a bike rack. TIP: Make sure to wear your cool cycling clothes to the store, so nobody thinks you’re a sissy craft-type person. But don’t bike there; what would you carry your fabric home in…. a backpack? It’s important to think ahead.
8. Now that your bike is super-light, buy a Brooks saddle ($60 - $600) and add a couple of pounds. Get a pre-broken-in one for a few extra clams. Also get the leather protectant and a seat cover. And don’t ride in the rain. It will ruin your saddle.
9. No padded bike shorts. Sure, a Brooks will very possibly not make you impotent, but that’s not your concern. Bike culture is more important than your sex life, your wife’s sex life, or your potential progeny.
10. You’re going to need a new wardrobe. It will include a lot of hipster, punk-esque clothing that looks old but is expensive. Think like a BMXer: shop where the people who ride your kind of bike shop. After a while, you’ll recognize your in-crowd even if they are nowhere near their bikes (not that you’ll ever see them more than a few feet away from their bikes, but, you know, hypothetically).
11. Toss out your helmet, lights, reflectors, and pantleg clips. If you absolutely must commute on the thing of beauty you have created, you’ll just have to quit your current job and get one that allows you to wear those capri pants that all the cool fixie riders wear.
12. Fixed-gear bikes are very low-maintenance. You will come to appreciate the lack of extra parts as you clean and polish your fixie three times a week, in fear that another cool fixie rider might see the grimy state of your steed. Especially mortifying is if they recognize the bike from its photo on fixedgeargallery.com and note how the mighty have fallen.
13. Now, get out there and disobey some traffic laws and the dictates of your better judgment!

Continue reading →

Current bike setup, moosehorns and all

That there’s the bike. I’m tempted to call it “ox” or “moose” instead of “La Pulga” (which I’ve decided is its name, since that’s where I found it). I’m enjoying this bike quite a bit, which is good, since Mr. Bikey, my 2003 Xtc2, needs new bearings and a new race cup (sounds more personal than it is). [Note: I finally (!!!) got hold of someone from Giant customer service (I used the phone number 800-874-4268, and got transferred several times; it is HARD to find any contact info for the largest bike manufacturer in the world), and they told me a new headset is $40, ordered from my LBS. I’ll probably do it, because they said there’s no technical manual or specs available (unsaid: to me)] .

I am seriously considering going singlespeed on this, since there are no hills around here, and I mostly just commute (2 freakin’ miles) anyway. But I have no real complaints with the gears or the weight of the bike. I rarely shift (note where the shifters are), which removes most of the hassles of a geared bike, but it’s nice to shift down in a headwind or up on an open stretch.

Okay. Back to work. More pictures after the cut.

Continue reading →

Looking around for tips on what to do, brake-wise, with my new handlebars (came in the mail today!), I came across a bunch of crazy yahoos in Australia who ride fixed-gear, no-brake death machines. There is some fun stuff on the site — especially the videos. Here are two. The first is pretty un-amazing until the last fifteen seconds or so, when it becomes the exact opposite of that. The second is lots of very cool urban FG crazyperson footage, with soothing new age music instead of the standard fare. Please note the missing teeth of the guy in the second video before you fixify your bike and remove your brakes.

That is all.

So, a bunch of mail stuff is arriving this week. Some of it I waited all summer to order (shipping to Canada is insane, plus duties… heh heh… duties…)

I have already received…

~ my SanDisk Sansa Express 2GB mp3 player. I love it.

~ my big huge extra-strength, UV-resistant tarp (turns out it’s a little *too* big) to cover my kayaks. I’ve already burned through 3 normal-sized tarps and a couple of old bedsheets. Man, the sun just kills things dead.

~ MR. BIKEY!!! He arrived this morning. He’s in pieces still, but both he and the box look undamaged. Sigh. His shipping has now cost me approximately as much as I will have spent (when I’m finished) on both Canada bike and La Pulga. Again with the lessons.

I am still waiting for…

~ BoxWave screen protectors for my PDA (old one is nearly worn out), my point-&-shoot digital camera, and the next item in this list. These screen protectors are expensive, but they last for years and perform amazingly.

~ my saved-up-for-8-months exercise-reward Canon Rebel Xti!!1! :D Friday it should arrive. And UPS doesn’t deliver on weekends, so I’m going home early to camp by the door. I’m sure there will be way too many pictures on here for a while after that.

That is all.

dead dishwasher at the pulga where I found the bike

I just received this from the former owner of the bike (whose name, I think, will be Pulga or Pulguita or something; or Mr. Zippy; maybe):

You did a very nice thing to alert me of the situation. I had given that bike to my son several years ago. A few months ago they moved from one house in Dallas to another. They got rid of a lot of stuff they didn’t use anymore, including the bike. In fact they donated it to goodwill or something like it. The story of how it got to you, and so fast, would be an interesting one to follow.

Woo hoo!

In other news, I’m finally (like 10 years after I got it) outfitting my blue Prijon Yukon (which I call the Blue Pig). Putting in a heel pad, seat padding, and knee/thigh rests. Maybe some thigh braces later. Turns out the contact cement makes you get a headache. Maybe I didn’t ventilate the house enough.