The Dark Side Continues to Revolve
Mood:  caffeinated
9-11-05: As the nation remembers the destruction of Sept. 11, it's fitting to ride a fixed gear bicycle. My front-brake only, drop bar, "track style" Schwinn fix, which I built out of rubbish -- now with the left-side drive train -- is not only fun but it's a statement. After all the nations and terror-mongers behind Sept 11, from the propaganda-spewing Saudis to Al Quaeda, all profit from our use of oil. We pay for gas, and that money goes to fund more indoctrination and terrorism, either derictly or indirectly. So riding any bike says "Proud to be an American" a lot louder than driving any wasteful gas guzzling behemouth especially in wartime, no matter how many patriotic stickers you plaster the behemouth with.

That said, fixed gearers tend to be slightly more hard-core than most cyclists -- more anti-car, more rebellious, although this is often perceived as -- and may be -- cliquishness, especially in the bike messenger and wanna be bike messenger fraternity. I am honest, I'm not bike messenger, but I like my fixed gear as much as the next guy. I'm not exaqctly anti-car, either, I just like riding my bike... but the blue Schwinn fix with it's "one f-ing speed" scrawled on the top tube is kind of like a huge extended middle finger to all the cars I pass. The fixed gear's essential, stripped-down nature makes it the essence of bicycle as a get-away-from-it-all hassle-free self-dependent and self-determined life. You ride at your own pace where you want to, when you want to, dependent on your own sweat and steam.

I learned a lot since switching this bike to "backwards" drive; I had to swap the pedal spindles and tighten the pedals into the cranks real good; I realized I had to reverse the chainring bolts after one unscrewed mid ride and shot off across the street with a "ping" like a bb gun pellet beaning a wall. Physically the bike rides the same no matter which side you mount the drive side on; two days into left-side drive I may ask is it worth the hassle as it makes no difference in ride quality, and is harder to put together? The answer is yes because it makes my bike unique. It also made me exceptionally aware of forces I'd never htought much about which are constantly at work on your bike's drive train, pushing and pulling.

As i rode, these last few days, I noticedf a lot more people on bikes. The older lady in my 'hood, who I fixed a bike for, was out riding around; local guys who I had never seen on a bike had taken out old hybrids or ten-speeds and hit the streets. This morning I say a couple on a pair of Pacific mtb's, with racks and stuff, riding. whether it's the gas prices or patriotism, or a tad of both, people are riding more, and it's people who wouldn't normally ride; the people who look at my fixed gear and say "you're nuts". Maybe I am. But in a country which buys the lifeblood of it's automotive economy from hostile regimes, where "normal" people will drive down to the edge of the street to check their mailbox, and use 5-ton trucks to hop across town for a gallon of milk, maybe a little craziness is what we all need.

Will those who ride to save $ on gas keep on riding if prices decline to more reasonable levels? Will the realize how much fun it is and keep at it -- or will they put the bikes away, not to be ridden for another ten years, until gas goes up again?
More to the point, whether they kerep riding has a good deal to do with how existing cyclists treat them. Some might see a guy on a Pacific mountainbike as a poser or a wanna be or "not a real cyclists". I say that anyone on a bike is a good thing, and every second a person rides, every moment stolen on two wheels, is worth three off the bike. If those of us who were riding all along welcome those who take to the bike for economic reasons, they mighbt stick with the bike, out of enjoyment. But the same snobbery or cliquishness that some fixed gear riders might direct at those of us who ride fixes, yet aren't messengers, can just as easily be directed at those new riders. I don't care what folks think; I show up for work in bike shorts. Most people are sadly sensative to other's words and could be turned off to bikes by the wrong attitude. Be nice to that guy on the Pacific. If so he's more likely to keep riding. It's not like his being on a bike that isn't hot somehow dilutes your own world of cycling, which is filled with dreams of titaneum road bikes, 9-speed rear shifters, and chrome-plated fixed gears.

Where am I going with this? Hard to say. But it's a place where two wheels rule and four are for those who don't know what it's like to be alive.
Just remember, if you find that place, thanks to the urging of the gas prices, there were some of us who were here first. But you are welcome. Please stick around.
-- Elvis

The other fixed gear - and accelerated madness
Mood:  caffeinated
9-10-05: Been riding my Trek 1000 more lately but I took a break these past few days to also get some miles in on my other fixed gear, not the Fuji, but a Schwinn built up "track style", with drop bars and only a front brake, with a descretely mounted cyclecross brake lever.

The bike was a garbage find ten speed, and stripped down and fitted with 44x16 gearing. The lack of brake hoods to climb with makes it hard on the hills; I may eventually step it down to 42x16, but the ride is neat. Today I took the fixed gear madness a step further and swapped the cranks and wheel around so the drivetrain is on the left side of the bike.
It's bizarre, and wierd, and kinda neat, something done just for sh!ts and giggles, but it makes the bike more than just another fixed gear hack; it makes it unique.
BTW, it rides awesome for the zilch dollars it cost to build. Left side drive just accelerates [pun intended] the fixed gear madness.

-- Elvis

The all around bike
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: TREK XO1
9-6-05: DON'T FORGET THE 'CROSS BIKE!

After a week of sticking to my road bikes it hit me; i hadn't broke out the Trek XO1 for a while. This is odd because in addition to being my most expensive bike it is also my all around bike.

While manufactured as a race-ready cyclecross bike, the XO1 handles road and street equally well, especially now that it's got a less racy, standard rear cassette and a 48t big ring up front, which makes it so much easier to climb hills, and ride where the blacktop ends. But, with 32c tires, it isn't prohibitively slow on the blacktop either. The stiff-climbing frame, coupled with a more 'cross friendly 48t front big ring, make hills vanish.

I pulled out the XO1, and, increduously, realized I was late for work. Not a prob; a low gear and I rode up the grassy hill past the corner store, shaving three blocks off my commute. Rather than being late I arrived early enough to have a cold soda before starting my shift.

Though I enjoy a roadbike, and a finely made roadbike is a wonderful thing, a 'cross bike is a special machine. If you don't own one, get one -- you will understand. If you have one, don't neglect it. In foul weather or short-cut commutes, they accel. They are sturdier, and somewhat racier in the frame angles, than road bikes, esp. as regards seat tube angle. Plus they enable you to continue your fun -- even where the blocktop ends.

Why we ride
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RANTING&RAVING
9-5-05: Last week clocked out at 115 miles on my rebuilt Trek 1000. Mavic rims and downtube shifters make an interesting combination; a relatively modern frame with modern radial spoke wheels and old-school shifters. But the shifters give it just the right touch of "old school"; that they are set on friction rather than indexing to accomadate the newer rear wheel, which postdates the shifters by at least a decade, is even more "retro". But it isn't retro for the sake of retro, it is "retro" -- in pursuit of a better ride.

How is that? Maybe I'm just a "retro-grouch". Maybe I just like the old ways... the same sort of "functional nostalgia" that drove me to purchase my lovely silver Lemond road bike, with it's old-style steel frame... But there is a method to me madness, the steel rides good. Just as old shifters do, even if they are on an aluminum bike...

Why use old shifters? First, they were in the parts bin, and fit on the frame. Second, they worked -- when set to friction rather than indexing -- with the newer derailieurs and rear cassette. But beyond that, friction shifting makes for a special ride...

Friction shifters offer finite control, they teach you how to shift. Those who've ridden a friction-shift bike can tell you they have no more difficulty getting the bike "in gear", and no more instances of misaligned or misplaced chains, then a rider on a indexed shifting bike, either downtube or STI. This is because after a while you can actually feel if the bike is in gear, and know just how to move the lever to acheive the right alignment. Tis isn't some mystic skill learned from long forgotten Jedi... it is basic coordination, and it becomes intuitive after a short while. But many riders, who've never used friction shifting, are unaware of it.

Why do we ride? Is it the gear, the tech, the equipment? Do we ride so when we stop, we can look at our bikes, and say "mine costs more than yours?"

Riding isn't about the gear, the equipment, or the wallet. It's about the ride, and what started out as a bike rebuilt with old parts out of necessity -- because that's what I had in the parts bin -- turned into a whole new experience, a reminder that any decent bike can be that special ride, even if it has a mongrel parts group or junk-find shifters.

Oddly enough the bike not only looks racier -- albeit older -- it rides better than it ever did with the original STI shifters. It no longer has that new bike look, though it has a better than new ride -- it has the look of a b ike that has been around gthe block, no pun intended. Maybe the improved ride is the new rims, or the fact that since the last time the Trek was built up with gears I've learned some finer points of bike adjustment, resulting in better ride position? Not sure... but it rides better, quicker, and is a lot more fun. Part of it is the old-school connection. I think a lot has to do with me building it up the way I want it, something I couldn't do when it was new as it came as a complete bike.

As to the shifters? Downtube shifters are sneered at by technology-obsessed racers as obsolete, and any bike shop mechanic or salesperson will point out the advantages of STI. But can a downtube-shifting bike compete? ...

So why do we ride?

Most likely the folks at the LBS [local bike shop] would laugh at my build-up, but the parts spec, though mongrel, delivers that special ride...
Old but new; retro, not to be different, but in pursuit of that feeling of connection to the ride. When I cip into the pedles and take off on my Trek 1000, old though it may be, and its parts older still, I feel that connection.

That feeling has to come from a connection between rider and ride, person and bike, cyclist and the road. Once you got it, you got it. It's why we all ride, whether we're heart-rate-counting tri junkies or leisurely "recreational riders".

Why do we ride? Chasing that special feeling, that elusive buzz that comes from tires moving over asphault, the click of that chain snapping into gear, the feel of weightlessness as you shoot through a turn leaning just the right way.

That buzz need not come from a $5,000 unobtanium bike. My Trek is proof.

Whatever you have, whatever sort of parts it's got, get it on the road this Labor Day. Ride your bike. I drool over carbon fiber Campy Record parts as much as the next guy when reading a catalogue. But then I put the glossy ad section of the bike mag or parts catalogue away, go out to my garage, see my Trek 1000, and smile. It may be neither "new" nor expensive, but it's just the way I want it, and helps me catch that elusive buzz that always seems to wait around the next bend of the road.

-- Elvis

Another 100 miles
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: RANTING&RAVING
9-4-05: Ride Report - Trek 1000: Over a hundred miles into the bike's reborn future and it rides better than new.

Better still, I have been riding it constantly for the past week, putting on a hundred miles int he last six days, just doing what I normally do. That's without and long rides, just riding around and going to work.

I even got my friend Patty on a bike, introducing her this weekend to clipless pedles for her B-day after taking her on a 20-mile ride around the area. Her mom, a large and in charge old-school Italian woman, was unimpressed. "What are you riding for? You gonna kill yerself!" Followed by some words in the old language which I was sure were an unjustified slur on my ancenstry. Reminds me once of a fat kid I overheard talking when I stopped my bike at a store for coffee a few weeks ago. "I want a expensive bike," said the one kid, eyeing my ride -- I think I rode the Lemind that day. The fat kid with him says "No way Joe, they look stupid".

As I ride out this morning, I'll thank my lucky stars that I can still do this -- that I can still ride. There are two kinds of people in the world; those who think bikes "look stupid" and can't see the point in riding, or those like Patty, who will enjoy riding and have fun doing it, given the chance.

As gas prices hit plus-$3 a gallon, there is a oppurtunity to try and turn some of the Joes into Pattys. Already, one fellow at my work has asked me to build him a road bike to ride to work.

For the bicycle, it's later than you think.
-- Elvis

Back on the bike -- the week of the gas hike
Mood:  caffeinated
Rode my Trek 1000 rebuild every day this week, about 20 miles a day, give or take a few.

The same week, I leanred that... supposedly due to the hurricane, then maybe not ... gas went up in price. The huge price hikes have spawned tales of shortages. $3 a gallon, going on four....

Mostly due to environmental restrictions [and we can debate the right or wrongness of those later, but the fact is they play a key role in this story] the country has too few refineries. Ergo, a bottleneck int he oil production process. The use of "cutom" fuels, with different formulations for different parts of the country required by the gov't, doesn't help. Let's face it, I don't like smog any more than the next guy but let's admit these rules contribute to the cost, right or wrong.

I for one would like to see agitating politicians stop bashing "greedy companies" or blaming natural disasters, and take some responsibility for the cost their laws and regs pass onto consumers.

That said, I have yet to buy the "new gas" [high priced crap]. I haven't gassed up my car in a month. I am reaosnably fit and can ride my bike. But I worry about seniors or those who are older or inform, who are dependant on their cars. Let's face it those who can watch their driving and save, will, but what about those who can't just walk to the store -- even if it's nearby? These price spikes hurt the very populations the gov't so often postures as protecting. Recall all those scaremongers saying any reform of social security would force seniors into the poorhouse, or the tales or people choosing between food and medicine costs? Add one more: choosing between food, medicine, or gas.

It will only get better if we start relying on ourselves, at myriad levels: Relying on our own steam, not the car [biking, duh!], Not relying on foriegn oil, not relying on environmentalist restrictions which mess up the fuel supply and stymie building of needed infrastructure, and not relying on the politicians assurances that "greedy oil companies" or "acts of god [i.e., hurricane damge]" are to blame.

The chickens of years of bad oil policy have come home to roost; our government hatched them with it's far-left restrictions. Sure, the guy who drives down the street to check his mail in a hummer contributes to the problem but niether large consumption nor a single natural disaster [like Katrina] should wipe out a healthy, functioning industry or process. The oil/fuel process in this country is not healthy, it has been atrophying for years and if not Katrina something else would have been the "straw that broke the driver's wallet".

Riding my bike actually kept me immume fromt he shock; it had been a week or two since I even put any gas in, and as stated, nearly a month since I put in any large amount of gas. Happily, I peddled along -- oblivious to what was cousing others to go into a frenzy.
When I did see a gas station sign, I nearly fell off my bike. $3 a gallon! When I got my driver's license nine years ago it was 80-something cents!


What can the gov't do to help with the "oil shortage"? Right now, it can get out of the way, stop strangling the energy industry in this country, and go back to it's just and proper functions. Let's face it, these prices are neither the result of Katrina, nor price gouging by uncrupulous executives, though some of these things undoubtedly had an effect. These prices are the result of thirty years of determinedly not only standing still, but moving backwards.

In the meantime, I will ride my bike whenever I can. Because it's fun. But also knowing I'm not burning my money inside the engine of a car. Maybe later I'll round up some others who feel that the prices are beyond the pale, and we'll march on the capitol with pitchforks to demand some sort of reform. But for now I ride. And smile.

The New Old Joy of a rebuilt bike
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: new old joy
My Trek 1000 ['99 model] was my first store bought road bike. After conversion to a fixed gear, a crash that required a nasty shoulder operation, and a rebuild into another fixed gear, the frame has sat dormant in my basement like a larval cicada. However, looking through relatively recent issues of bike magazines, I longed for a "new" bike. Not new from the shop per se, but new to me. Then it dawned on me; i had the frame to build one.

The STI shifters were long gone, so I mated the stock Sora to downtube shifters. Double cranks, instead of the stock triple, and wide but not too wide drop bars. Aero brake levers and new tektro RX40 calipers. Mavic rims with Coda hubs. I had to use a QR skewer thru the drilled out seat clamp as the threads were stripped and it is waiting on a special order replacement, but aside from that -- and possibly better cranks it's done. And it rides better than new. Downtube shifters are more primative, but lighter and racier; the bike flies up hills now, like it never did. The addition of my Carbon fiber seatpost -- once i get a proper clamp that won't risk damage -- will drop the weight and boost the ride quality more. This is the bike it should have been -- and cost next to nothing to make.
My new bike lust is satisfied -- and so is the bank account.
-- Elvis

It

40 miles before work
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: 40 miles b4 work
8-29-05 I worked 8 hours yesterday. But I also got in a nice ride.

Carving the hill on Timber on my Lemond, I had to make a conscious effort to control my speed and not miss the turn. I was making the loop for the second time, and not sure exactly how I would head home afterwards, just -- as Bobby Darin said -- "bummin' around". But is there a better way to have fun?
Mostly I rode slower.... not pushing fast, but then when I headed up plainfield over the hill, the one that goes to U.S. Rt. 22, I cranked it, powering up the incline past my ex's house with a speed that left my surprised at the bike's handling. The 853 frame is top steel, but an entry level bike, the 'Vada came with heavier components, and remiving the granny gear probably didn't cut much weight. But the frame was unleashed; the entry level parts spec forgotten; I wasn't just some dude on a bike. I was a cyclist. I got to top, having copped a buzz from my leg muscles working past their normal speed, then headed around, back. A glance at my Citizen Titanium dive watch confirmed my fear; it was soon time the go to work. Never fear; I was riding to work. I went home, thru on a fresh shirt and my backpack, then headed out.
I arrived at the office totally psyched and wide awake. My colleague asked me what I had done that day.
"Not much," I said. "Just 40 miles of blacktop".
He looked at me.
"40 miles?"
I grinned. I forgot I was not talking to another cyclist. I tried explaining that 40 miles wasn't a long distance, really, but he wouldn't believe me.

Yet, at the end of the day, it isn't about the miles, or average speed, or ride time. It's about meaningful moments, tiny obscure achievements for which there are no trophies and podiums. Beating your previous time up that big hill [or getting up the one you couldn't do before], racing the car from the stoplight and winning, racing the bus -- and leaving it in the dust, along with all your worries.

Yeh, I did 40 miles yesterday. But it's impossible to measure the distance my soul traveled. That's why I ride.
-- Elvis

The Reluctant Motorist [or why I like my bike]
Topic: Reluctant Motorist
The other day after reading about stricter fuel-economy standards in the newspaper, I drove my car. Normal for most people, but to me a noteworthy event. My friend Patty was going to the City and I decided to be nice and give her a lift.

My little Honda Civic of 1991 vintage [several crashes, several rebuilds, nearly 200,000 miles and still going strong] is something I use sparingly, not just out of a patriotic effort to avoid wasting gas, but because I simply like to ride my bike.

I don't often go to the train station midday on a weekday -- even when I took the train to work it was in the norming and night -- so I wasn't quite prepared for the shock of not finding a parking space. People apparently DRIVE to go take the train these days, and they don't just drive normal cars, they take huge SUVs build like battletanks. Normally this would just be a sad amusement to me -- I walked and rode my bike when I used the train regularly -- but now it was a concern; there was no parking!

Finding half a spot that remained betwixt a Jeep Sport Ute and a huge Nissan or Acura or something I put my car in park, took a last glance out the rear window plastered with Trek, Lemond, Shimano, "I'd rather be riding", and other bike stickers, and opened the driver's door. Big mistake.

The door opened six inches and stopped. Turning sideways, I squeezed myself out of the car but not before I nearly ripped my rather nice watch off my wrist and nearly dislocated my bad shoulder. Once out of the car, I tried and managed to close the door; the two SUV's each took up about 1 1/4 spots, and with one on either side, it was practically impossible to park anything bigger than a Matchbox car between them. But it was the only space, and the train was coming.

As much an many poke fun at the SUV, with it's ungainly size, hard-to-clean-off-the-snow height in the winter, and it's wasteful gas guzzling, nearly everyone drives one. Fine. That's their business -- as long as they drive within the limits of reason and the traffic laws. Remember those editorials about "lawless" cyclists? I geta' laugh out of them every time I'm nearly run down by some idiot in an SUV. Yet, let there be no mistake; it is not just the SUV, any more than the cell phone, or the newspaper-reading-while-driving-on-i287. The problem is the judgement of these people, namely how and when they drive -- not what they drive, per se.
And also how they park.

There are bigger spots in every lot, and the drivers of large SUV's could park in those. But they don't. They go wherever they want, without regard for whether they fit. I never forget the first time I nearly got clipped by one of these tanks, I was minding my own business on my bicycle when some dude in a huge Excursion tried to drive past on the shoulder, which was only a few feet wide!

So my first reaction when I read the papers and see arguments for stricter CAFE standards to combat dependence on foriegn oil, I grimace. By forcing cars to become smaller, existing CAFE standards are pushing people out of large sedans or station wagons and into SUVs, trucks, and un-mini-vans. The dangers that this will continue are legion.

Moreover, even if people were to buy smaller cars, I am not sure that sould solve the idiot problem, or the fuel one....

Ultimately the fuel problem is a political and technological one; until we develop better technology, we are going to be at the mercy of environmental and arab fanatics when hitting the gas pump. Dependence on foreign oil is a direct result of our refusal to be dependant on ourselves, not only in terms of how many people drive when they could bike, but in terms of our political leaders being too softbacked to grow the spines to drill for oil on our own shores, if needed.

As to the idiot problem, an idiot in a SUV isn't an idiot because he is in an SUV. That is just one simptom. The danger in trying to remove the SUV's by government decree is that it will hide the problem,
if not make it outright worse; imagine the same idiotic SUV pilots suddenly seated behind the wheel of tiny imports, under the impression that they are in The Fast and The Curious? In fact, given their total unconcern for their current vehicle's size, it isn't likely they would get worse. But imagine that person who thinks a truck will fit on a two foor shoulder now driving a tiny Toyota? It's only a question of time until they try to fit it even places they never tried to force their SUV to go.
In addition, anti SUV legislation wouls come too close to violating people's rights. Let's face it, if you want to take a machine designed to go on a safari, and use it to drive to the train station half a block away, that's your business.

Just don't take up more than one parking space. Then it becomes my business.

In the meantime, I prefer my two wheels to four. Especially as it is a hell of a lot easier to find a spot to park it!

Fixed gearing and vintage steel
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: fixed gearing
8-25-05 Fixed up and rode my fixed gear, the Fuji touring fix I took on the 5Boro ride... handled okay, and was not bad at all. A longer seatpost which I'd already installed, once adjusted, and a different bar stem, and it was a better ride!

Also been riding my old steel roadbike -- a Schwinn Tempo -- lately, but that's mainly because I am in the process of repairing my Trek XO1... seatpost clamp broke [D'oh!]

"Remember, there is no hill too big, only effort that is too small" [overheard words of whisdom from some dude on an old road bike as he passed a car with a trailer struggling uphill].

-- Elvis