Five miles on April Fifth

All day i sat at my desk working and, in the background trying to find calmness, to center myself. Working at home i really miss the bike commute. Finally in the evening i grabbed the bike. Not my bike, my beloved Sparkle Burgundy Bianchi Volpe. I grapped the customized Redline Monocog flight 29er that Kent has generously loaned me for the last month during my bike rebuild project. He's coming to pickup his Octocog tomorrow so i figured i'd take it on one last spin. It's a REALLY fun bike.

I had an errand to run. I headed out along the edge of the hill, got a peek-a-boo view of Lake Union and Queen Anne and then up around Volunteer Park. The north end of Capitol Hill was deserted at 10pm. The only movement i saw was the little white terrier, which of course waddled right in front of me. I happily stopped and waited while she crossed.

The Octocog has 29er wheels and it just rolls over anything and everything. Curbs are not a problem. You almost want to AIM for potholes. It's a very zippy bike, corners fast and feels quick. It's no longer the single speed that Kent took on the Great Divide; i was thankful for the 8 speed freewheel. I've missed friction shifting. Like i said, it's a really fun bike.

It was a cold, mostly clear night. The wind had mostly died down and the streets were mostly dry although you could feel a little rain in the air. I snuck up Grandview for, well, a Grand View of Lake Washington, Kirkland, Windermere and the poor folks in cars on the 520 floating bridge. I swung up through the park past the Black Sun and it's tourist perfect view of the Space Needle.

Fourteenth Avenue is interesting. As it leaves the park there are tree shaded multi-million dollar mansions lining the street, really astonishingly big houses. The street was quiet except for the wide 29er tiers crunching on the pavement. But about 4 blocks along, in the middle of a block, it suddenly changes to much more pedestrian apartment buildings. As the density increased so did the activity, more cars, pedestrians, activity.

I zipped through the Seattle University Campus and up to the ever wonderful Cal Anderson park. I took a 2 minute breather to watch the Bike Polo, and then up by the fountain i rolled past a fire juggler spinning in the dark. Moving back north the streets were deserted again and i pulled up to my errand at Kinkos.

I rode 5 miles to run an errand 3 blocks from home. It was the best part of the day.

After the rain.

It was a long day and i was tired. I was ready to be home.

All day i looked out the window at the heavy rain pounding down while i was inside working. It rains in Seattle. I love the rain. Lots of people have been complaining about it lately, trying to find a way to see it as unusual, or wrong. It's not wrong. I watched the rain out the window all day as i worked. It was wonderful.

When it finally came time to leave, i pulled out my rain legs (the best rain pants i've every used) and put them on over my wool knickers.

About two blocks after i rolled out the door, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. While rain is wonderful, there can be little that is more perfect than an evening ride right after the rain stops. The air is so clear and clean and everything seems to be more alive than usual. As i pedaled north, Seattle's hills hid the mountains on the horizon, but the clouds turned deep pink and purple.

A glorious sunset after the rain. Rides like this are good for the soul.

neighborhood scramble

The guy down the hall from me has a birthday today.

I hopped on my bike and scooted out the door. I love just jumping on the bike, not needing any preparation. (Yes i have clipless, can't live without them, so i had my Keene bike shoes on.) The bike is finally starting to work pretty well. Every day i make a few more adjustments. Today i took apart the crankset, cleaned it, put the spacers in the right place and carefully put it back together, making sure every bolt was tight. I wanted to test it.

It rode really nice! The front shifting is almost dialed in. It's finally feeling good. I'm happy about that.

Riding through the neighborhood was fun. It's an active urban neighborhood and there were lots of people out. Some unfortunately in cars, but many happy people on the sidewalks and plenty of bikes.

I stopped at Cupcake Royale, i'd never been there, and bought a few cupcakes while chatting with the very pretty young woman behind the counter. Back out to the bike (it really does look good!) i couldn't just head home, so i went up towards the Park. The light rain was getting a little harder. It felt so good on my head, in my hair and on my face, but wasn't so great on my glasses.

I scampered through park, down a little hiking trail and out into the rich "Harvard-Belmont" neighborhood.

It felt great. Three miles on April third!

The Air Horn

I have this air horn for my bicycle. It was given to me -- it was kind of a joke, kind of an award. I don't think it was a comment on how i ride -- I hope not.

The horn mounts on the handlebars. It's connected to a bottle that fits into a water bottle cage, you pump air into it with a bike pump, pump to a really high pressure. It's loud. It's REALLY loud. I don't like to be close to it.

About a week ago i mounted it on the newly painted bike. Mounting it was also kind of a joke -- i was going to be riding with the folks who gave it to me. They laughed when they saw it. I honked it a few times for fun, in industrial areas away from homes or people. The cyclists with me didn't want to be in front of me when i honked it.

I rode with it for a week. I never once used it for it's intended purpose. But i thought about it a lot. I didn't actually ever think about using it, but i thought about the horn.

There are lots of minor conflicts daily with motorists who are distracted, aggressive or clueless. But all of those, even the frustrating ones, i handle without the need for sounding like an 18 wheeler. Sometimes i get annoyed, mostly i just stay alert and take action. I rarely, if ever, get into a verbal conflict.

So riding along i started thinking about how this thing might be used. There are really only two ways: prophylactic or punitive.

It could be used as a prophylactic measure -- to prevent something. If something was about to happen i might use it to try to prevent a conflict. A loud burst on the horn might, perhaps, alert a driver who was doing something crazy, like the Taxi cab last week that was baring down on me on a one lane residential street. But in those situations i'm more concerned with taking evasive action, my finger does not naturally go looking for the horn button while i'm getting out of the way.

Or it could be used as a punitive measure -- in anger, after someone threatened me and the danger had passed. Punishment. The other night a Cadillac switched to my side of the street flipped their bright lights and drove straight at me. I could've blasted the horn as i squeezed by them. But my being a jerk because they were a jerk would not make it better. That's not who i want to be.

Today a car ran a stop sign in front of me, didn't slow down, didn't even pretend to stop. THIS. This was the only situation where it might make sense to use the horn. But i didn't. I yelled, but my natural reaction was to take evasive action and keep both hands on the bars.

It's a fun thing but there really is no good time to use it. I removed it from the bike today. If i'm ever in a parade maybe i'll put it back on.

Cricket World Cup

I got my riding in awfully early today. I was up well before dawn for the final of the Cricket World cup. It's being played in India, meaning that the game was overnight here in Seattle. I was up at 3. I zipped over to a friend's house and we watched together. Sri Lanka couldn't quite hold off India, and a billion people celebrated the glorious victory. I had a couple of nice rides on the quite streets of Seattle.

riding in the rain.

I didn't have bad clothes. So it wasn't bad weather.

It rained very hard today. I love it so much, i love watching it, i love hearing it. Really the sound of rain is the most wonderful sound in the world, it's comforting, cozy, safe.

My wool knickers, wool shirt and sweater, wool socks, rainlegs and custom bike wizard jacket kept me warm and dry enough on the ride south in the morning. The ride north in the evening was quite the same.

The feeling of the rain on my face makes me happy, it feels so good, so real! It's weather that reaches out and touches you. I revel in it.

First day of April, fifteen wonderful, wet miles.

Kent's Bikes

My friend Aurilee and i both felt like a bike ride, even though it was getting late. Auri had borrowed Kent's cool little folding bike for her upcoming trip to San Diego and she needed to unfold it and test ride it. I'm happy to have my bike back, but i figured it only made sense to ride Kent's Octocog. So we did the Kent's Bikes ride!

We unfolded the Dahon on the sidewalk and the tires seemed low. Now there is a lot that is cool about this little folding bike, but the coolest thing is that the seat post has a built in pump! I got a funny look from a guy walking down the sidewalk as i was using the seat to pump up the rear tire!

The front tire didn't, however, behave as well. As much as we pumped, it wasn't inflating. It was time to change a flat. Now there's no doubt that cycling in the rain, in the cold and in the dark, is really quite enjoyable. Changing a flat, not so much. So we rolled the bike a block to my apartment for the repair.



I flipped the bike upside down and got out the tools.



Auri removed the wheel, no quick release on this folder!



And she took the tire off the rim to get at the tube...





and discovered a MESS! The valve had broken off and the tube was filled with slime. Slime is a green goo designed to fill a small cut or puncture so you don't get a flat. A big cut, or in this case, the valve base tearing, is something Slime doesn't fill. But it does leak out and get all over everything. It's pretty gross.



But my man Kent is always prepared. There were two 16 inch tubes in the seat bag. Auri quickly replaced the tube and put the tire back on the bike.



Once we had it pumped up (with a floor pump, not the seat post!) we were ready for our ride!

It didn't take Auri long to decide she liked this bike.



"This is FUN!!"

We did a nice circuit of the neighborhood, maybe three and a half miles.



"Weeeeeeeeeee".

The wee wheels really turn tight!



Kent's Bikes



The two of us with two of Kent's Bikes at Cal Anderson Park.

It was a very enjoyable ride!

The Correct Bottom Bracket

I'm not the best mechanic around -- i'm certainly getting better, The weekly volunteer repair parties have made a difference -- but i still don't have 'the touch' and i can get very frustrated.

The front derailleur is challenging for the best of them. I really struggle with it. Once i had the bike back together i was surprised how badly the front was shifting. I fought with it for quite a while, and then i rode it without shifting the front. All told i spent a good portion of three days fighting with it. I was very frustrated!

So i called my friend Dave, who can fix anything. He relished the challenge. We spent quite a while with it. He actually completely removed the derailleur and started over. We just couldn't get it to work. Then we took a look at the bottom bracket -- even took the cranks off.

And sure enough, the bottom bracket seemed to stick out 5 or 6 millimeters. That doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to prevent the front derailleur from ever working. We put the old crunchy bottom bracket back in and i rode to Bike Works. It shifted ok, not great, but a massive difference from the with the new bottom bracket.

The great guys at Bike Works suggested a 113 mm bottom bracket. I had originally bought a 118 mm bottom bracket because that is what the one i removed said on it. When i got the new one home i placed them next to each other and they are exactly the same - maybe 1 mm off, maybe not that much. Apparently, the old bottom bracket was labeled wrong!




I put it in, and almost like magic, the shifting worked! I struggled for days with that wrong size! But now it's working very nicely thank you very much! Thanks to Homer, Karl, Steve & Ryan at Bike Works who spent some time figuring out this weird problem!

Bike Works Auction

The Bike Works Auction was a great success. We worked hard and raised a lot of money. It was also kind of a coming out ceremony for my bike's new paint job. I got some nice comments.




When the auction was over, there was a group of us who had helped clean up who and we rode together. Auri and Davey and Joe and his friend Chris from Chicago all set out from south of downtown on a gorgeous chilly night, another great after rain ride. It was a Sunday night and the streets were pretty empty. We had a really lovely ride.




Joe & Aurilee at a stop light. Joe's a very animated, fun guy, but he looks so serious here.



Chris took a photo of the whole group -- the streets were so empty at 11pm on Sunday that we could stop and play.




That's me taking a picture. Notice the bunch of flowers on my back.




There were decorations left over from the Auction so we brought home some for our selves. Who says you can't carry things on a bike! Joe & i had flowers on our back, and Davey brought Balloons for his 1 year old daughter. The balloons were fun, blowing around, sometimes in the face of the rider behind him, sometimes up in front where he was!

assembled and riding

With not a little frustration the bike is no longer parts spread across my living room but is a bike again. It's not my beloved, perfectly dialed in bike, but that will come. The fenders rattle and both derailleurs need lots of adjustment. I've been riding it three days now each day i make a few more adjustments. It's a little frustrating, but i know i'll get there. The new wheels will be here in a week or two.

I really missed my bike. My friend Kent was very kind to loan me a bike that kept me riding while the Bianchi was in parts, and that's a fun bike. But i missed my bike. This has happened to me before over the years, when i don't have access to my bike, MY BIKE, i tend to get depressed. I'm happy to have it back, even though it needs work.

And it looks GREAT. I've always kind of depended on NOT having the nicest bike locked in the bike rack. That might not be the case any more. On the first ride i took Adam down to Recycled Cycles in the University district and the clerks, one who i know, actually came outside to look at it. It looks great. Thanks to Seattle Powder Coat for doing a really good job.



Today i pulled up in front of Bike Works and started locking up my bike. There was a little girl, maybe six years old, who was kind of bored while her mom spoke to the mechanic (outside on the sidewalk). When i rode up she kind of hid behind her mom's legs, but was peaking out, staring at my bike.

Even though she was hiding from me and she clearly thought i didn't see her, that i would notice only the adults, she said something. I couldn't quite hear her what she said, so i ignored her mom and the mechanic and asked her what she said. She said again, "What color is that?" still hiding behind mom.

I said, "It's Sparkle Burgundy, do you like it?"

The little girl stepped out from behind her mom and almost shouted, "I LOVE IT!"

I told her that i like it too.