A Good Day on the Bike

The last couple of years I've been terrible when it comes to getting mileage in. My rides have been shorter and the time in between them longer. The main reasons have been poor health and lack of time, but the truth is I just haven't made it a priority. I've built a lot of very cool bikes, but I have been remiss when it comes to actually useing them...

I decided this year was going to be different. I've really focused the last few weeks and the result is that in the first month of the year I will have 25% of the total mileage I logged for all of last year and mileage is what it's all about, right? After today I'm afraid I would have to say... wrong!

Today I had every intention of getting out and doing a major ride, but plans change and I ended up going to Rio Vista Park with Debi and our eight and one half year old nephew, Bryson. The plan was that Debi would knit and read her book while Bryson and I did a few laps around the park, then when he got tired he would hang with her while I cut loose and went for a "real" ride. We loaded up some snacks, the bikes and one child, and headed for the park.

After finding a nice ramada by the lake and parking Debi there, Bryson and I started our journey. He was riding the BMX bike Santa had brought him a little over a year ago and I was on my folding fixed gear. As with our past rides, I had my GPS on the bike keeping track of the distance and recording our track so we could print it out on a map afterward; he likes to have a record that he can show it to everyone.

We cruised around looking at all of the people, the ducks, the other bikes and everything else you see on a sunny Sunday in the park. At first, all I could think about was how many miles I was not going to get in today, but after following him around for a while that feeling started to melt away. We talked about how to cross roads safely and pass people on the trails, we worked on balance and control, we talked about the different kinds of bikes, but most of all, we had a good time.

Now, don't ask me why I though he was going to tire quickly so I could take off on my own; experience should have told me that wasn't going to happen. When we went for a ride on his birthday in July, he set a goal of 10 miles and darned if he didn't do it! Last week he did over 7 miles with me one afternoon. Well, today he blew both of those numbers away; the little sucker cranked out 14 miles and we have the GPS track to prove it! I never got to my solo ride.

So, do I regret not getting in the miles I wanted to today? Absolutely not! Today mileage took a back seat to something much more important. Today I got to share my knowledge and love of the sport with a child; a child that accomplished something that most adults can't do. What can be better than that?

Help! I can't stop building...

Well, I’ve been pretty bad about posting new material on the blog, but fear not, here comes another build. I hope you find this new project worth the wait!

I usually like bikes that make a statement… you know, have a little flash or scream “LOOK AT ME!” at the top of their lungs. This time, I decided to keep it simple, basic and to the point. I wanted a true track bike; something I could ride at a velodrome, should I ever actually make it to one.

I started with a Scattante SSR frame from Performance; a clean, well built steel frame. You can have any color you want as long as it’s black, and it comes without the decals applied; perfect for a clean look. The fork that they sell with this frame has a 40mm rake, too tight for me, so I opted for a Nashbar carbon fork at 43mm; it still steers fast, but it's not twitchy. It also comes with no decals…sweet!


For the rolling bits, I laced high flange Formula hubs to Mavic MA3's with 15 ga. stainless spokes. The bar set up is a Nitto B-123 on a Cinelli XA stem, and finished off with Benotto Cello ribbon. I acquired a well worn Sella Flite From a friend (the one who is now in possession of the Re-Cycle) and clamped it on a carbon post. The no-name cranks I picked up on Ebay are running a 48 tooth ring feeding a 16 tooth cog on the rear. The gearing is a little taller than I'm used to (about 79 inches), but it's lot of fun to ride.

I added a front brake setup that is easily removed; just 2 bolts and it drops off to make the bike track legal. The brake really is necessary for riding in the traffic around here and doesn’t detract for the over all look of the bike.

I really did try to keep this one low key and stealthy, but in doing so, I created a bike that seems to get more looks that just about anything I own. I guess less really is more…

And the Winner is...

Well, the results of the FixedGearGallery.com build contest are in... and I took third place! Here is the link to the contest page.

When I submitted this bike I really didn't expect to even place. For me, this year was more about doing something to honor Dad than to win anything, so this was just icing on the cake. I also gave the bike to Will (the guy I mentioned in the story) today. He seemed genuinely touched to get it and promised to ride the heck out of it!

Oh, and here's one last thing that anyone who knew my father will understand. It cost me $25 to enter the contest and $9 to build the bike. I won $125 putting my profit from this venture at $91. Dad, I think I made my 4%...

2008 Fixedgear Gallery Build Contest

Well, another build is finished and submitted. The theme for this years contest was an "Open Build", meaning that you could put together any kind of bike you like as long as it is a conversion of an existing bike. The spending limit was much higher this year, but I decided to take a different tack and see just how little I could spend. I was very happy with the result!

Here's my my write up, as submitted to the judges. Enjoy!

With this year’s contest being an open build, I had some trouble narrowing down my theme. I had grand plans of doing something completely over the top (I won’t say what my plan was, as I might still use it in a future contest) but after weighing all of my options, I decided to take a little different approach, go back to my roots and build a rolling tribute to my Dad.

To understand this approach, you need to first understand my father. He was the king of making something from nothing, taking whatever he had on hand and fabricating whatever it was he needed. The man was the consummate junk collector, never throwing anything away that might have a future use. He was the living embodiment of “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”… and he had acres of treasure! He would re-cycle his treasure into all kinds of interesting vehicles and machines; he was green before it was cool. In my case the apple didn’t fall far from the tree; I also collect ‘treasure’, but in the form of bikes. There are bikes in my living room, bikes in my office and no cars in my garage because the space is taken up by, you guessed it… bikes!

With the second anniversary of my father’s passing on the horizon, I came up with the idea of putting together a bike in the fashion he would have chosen. I wanted to build something using bits and pieces from my treasure trove, spending as little money as possible. I decided to build a “Re-Cycle”…

The first order of business was to find my donor bike. I settled on an old Diamondback mountain bike that was given to me just to get it out of the way. I figured starting with a free bike was a great foundation for a cheap-as-possible build. I had already done some work on the bike with the intension of dumping it on Craigslist so it was in pretty nice shape and sported a lot of usable parts. I dug through the garage to see what else I had that I could use to cut the budget. My search yielded cranks, pedals and a nice seat… score!

After stripping the bike down to the bare frame, I surveyed the pile of parts growing in front of me and formed a plan. I knew I needed to do something special to set the bike apart, but what? The first things to jump out at me were the wheels; why not try a different spoke pattern? I poked around the web and found something that caught my eye. It was a 3-leading, 3-trailing pattern that formed a 3 point star in the center. Being a wheel builder I had the tools, and with any luck the skills, so I took up the challenge.

I deconstructed the wheel and recalculated the spokes for the new pattern. Reusing the old spokes required that they be clipped and rethreaded. After spending an evening reworking spokes and re-spacing the rear hub to the new chain line, the wheels went together without a fight… and man did they look cool!

Next on the list was the frame prep. Using stripper left over from last year’s path racer build, I took the frame and fork down to the bare metal to get a clean slate for the paint. I considered removing the braze-on for the brakes and shifting, but decided to keep them. I wanted to keep brakes on the bike and, in the spirit of future recycling, leave the option for the next owner to restore gears if he so desired.

Next was the color choice. Again I went back to last years build; I had left over almond spray paint that screamed to be used. This did help to keep the cost down, but in the end I had to spend five bucks on one more can of paint to get good coverage… the first cash spent on the project. For the decals, I decided to again draw inspiration from the path racer and use the same red. I figured this kind of tied the two bikes together, making them family. Using my father’s “J-bird” trademark, I designed and printed up a set of waterslide decals to complete the look.

With paint done and wheels at the ready, all that remained was assembly. The bike went together quickly and easily. There were a couple of things that required some creative thinking; the grips and the seat post. Lacking a set of grips for the bars (and not wanting to spend any money), I again drew from last year and hand wrapped them with left over bar tape. The look was pleasing and to tell you the truth, I like the feel better than the rubber ones. The second problem took a little more thinking.

The bars and stem were black and looked nice, but the seat post was bare steel… it stood out like a sore thumb. Anyone who’s ever painted a seat post and then shoved it down into the frame knows that just ends up getting scraped up and looking like crap, so that was not an option. I needed to find a cheap way to stain the post (note: black sharpie doesn’t work!). The solution was found in my shooting supplies; a tube of gun bluing paste I use for touching the finish on old guns. Gun barrels are steel, the seat post was steel… should work, right? I cleaned and prepped the post, then applied the paste; worked like a charm. With the last detail taken care of, the build was complete. The total cost of this year’s bike… $9.00 ($5.00 for paint, $4.00 for decal paper).

Now that the bike is done, the pictures have been taken, and this submission finished, there remains only one more task; giving the bike away. With this bike being inspired by my father, I feel like the proper way to complete the circle is to pass it. So, in the spirit of my father I have chosen a deserving recipient.

I work with a young man who is trying hard to build a life for his family, sometimes at the expense of his own sanity. One of his outlets is riding, a passion he hopes to someday share with his now infant son. He has been looking for a bike he can use to pull a child trailer around the neighborhood, and this one fits the bill nicely. My treasure trove also includes a trailer (again, given to me for nothing) that, after a little refurbishing, will complete the set.

I really think my father would be proud…

*****************************

Here are a few more shots of the bike:

The donor bike


De-constructed wheel


My spoke cutting and threading station


Threading a spoke


The finished front wheel


Home made Re-Cycle decal


Dad's trademark


Hand wrapped grips


3-leading, 3-trailing spoke pattern


The finished beast

A New Arrival in the Bird House

Well folks, the day is finally here. Brace yourselves... I'm actually posting something new!

There are a lot of changes in the wind for our family. It seems that everyone we know, and many we are related to, have been popping out babies! OK, some have yet to pop them out, but you get the idea. Before you get the wrong impression let me tell you not to worry... Debi and I are not getting in on that act. We love the fact that we get to play with all of these little bundles of joy... and then promptly hand them back to the parents when they are not so joyful!

There is, however, a new arrival in our home. It's a bouncing baby bike!



Not what you expected, right? Haven't you been paying attention? This is a BIKE blog! Let me tell you how this one came about.

I've been looking at this touring frame on Nashbar.com for a couple of years, but could never justify the purchase. I've always wanted to build a touring/commuting specific bike and had my old Bianchi set up for it, but it just wasn't the real thing. Don't get me wrong; the Bianchi is a very nice bike, but it's just not the same.

Well, a few weeks ago I was looking at the frame again on the Nashbar site. It normally sells for about $300 for the frame and fork, and was on sale for $225. Again, I just couldn't justify it at that price, but the rusty littles wheels in my brain started turning. I work for Performance Bike and get deep discounts on company branded items. Performance owns Nashbar... the frame is a Nashbar branded item... shouldn't I get a discount on the frame? I figured it couldn't hurt to ask!

The process took a little while, but was well worth it. Jay (my boss) sent a few emails to someone in the head office that handles employee purchasing, they hooked him up with someone over at Nashbar that handled them over there, and so on until I ended up on the phone with what turned out to be the woman of my dreams. The price she quoted me was... wait for it.... $45! Can you believe that?

Well, I could feel the credit card in my wallet heating up, so I whipped that little sucker out and started reading her the numbers. I figured I'd better jump on it quick before she figured out she had dropped a decimal point or something! The final total with shipping and tax was $63.10.

After a couple weeks of digging parts out of the garage and making raids on Ebay, what you see is the final result. With the price of gas going up exponentially, it's not going to take too many months of commuting on this bike to break even. Now I just have to get my butt in good enough shape to actually do some touring...

More Ramblings

Well, a few days have gone by and still I haven't written anything new. It's not that I haven't got anything to write about, I just haven't felt "inspired". Oh well, looks like you guys are just going to have to suffer through another one of my old ramblings.

Guys, if your wife ever complains about your wardrobe choices, just print this out and leave it in a conspicuous place; it should help to get you off the hook... for a little while anyway. You're welcome!

Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt!

Some things in life are very predictable and I seem to be one of them. Whenever my wife and I are getting dressed to go out she seems to feel the need to inform me to “wear a shirt without writing on it!” Now some people might feel that their fashion sense is being called into question, but I have to admit that when she makes this statement, nine out of ten times I’m just poking my head through the neck hole of a t-shirt that looks more like a billboard than apparel. I guess after twenty-two years she knows me pretty well.

However, the odds of being right are stacked heavily in her favor. I think about 90% of my upper body attire fits into this category. It started out as a handful t-shirts commemorating events and physical accomplishments in my life and just grew out of control from there. My collection now includes polo shirts, button-downs, tank tops, hats, jackets… you get the idea.

I didn’t set out with the goal of becoming a walking advertisement, it just sort of evolved that way until, eventually, it took on a life of it’s own. The spark was lit by those little logo key chains that everyone gives away and tinder was provided by hats and charity ride t-shirts. The bonfire was then brought to full glory in the form of brightly colored cycling jerseys. One might think that the next logical step is to re-paint my truck with the image of my favorite beer label (this thought has been considered and rejected).

Unlike my wife, however, I don’t see this as a bad thing. I like to be surrounded by little reminders of the important events in my life. A lot of the souvenirs that we collect just end up shoved to the back of shelf or stuffed in a box in the top of a closet, never to be seen again. I get to wear my memories every day. They are a constant reminder of the good times, the hard fought battles and the people who fought beside me.

They also serve as conversation starters at times. Some one will see one of my charity ride shirts and ask, ”Hey, where did you get that?” This opens the door for me to reply with something like, “I had to ride 160 miles to get this shirt!” Then we are off and running, swapping war stories and sharing the pride and pain that are attached to this special garment. Let’s see an off the rack Izod shirt do that!

This effect isn’t limited to the event shirts in my collection. One evening I was standing in the airport waiting for my luggage sporting a “Fat Tire Ale” shirt when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was immediately greeted with a handshake and a big “thank you” for choosing to wear the logo proudly. It seems I had been spotted by a district manager for New Belgium Brewing and he felt the need to acknowledge, and encourage, my un-solicited advertising of his products. We had a brief but interesting conversation, shook hands again and parted ways, both a little uplifted by the chance meeting. Another positive human interaction brought to you courtesy of a ”shirt with writing on it.”

Now, I’m not saying that logo wear is the key to world peace. That would be too broad of a statement. The world has a delicate balance that must be maintained. For every good there is a bad; every positive has a negative… you know, the old Yin and Yang thing. The opposite of the apparel that I wear would be the kind that displays collage and professional sports logos. I have seen more than one fight started by the flashing of the wrong crest in the wrong bar or arena. Just try wearing a U of A jersey to an ASU game and see how long you last!

So what’s the final word on this subject? I don’t think there is one. The bottom line is that I like my logo apparel. I enjoy wearing it and sharing it with others. I realize that it’s not always the best choice based on the venue we will be visiting and I am trainable. Now, when we are getting dressed to go out, I’m usually the one questioning the dress code.

“Honey, are we going to a ‘no writing shirt’ place tonight?”

I'm Lazy, So...

Well, I still haven't written anything new so it looks like it's back to the old. This was written about 3 years ago after a non-cyclist asked me what a recover ride was. It got my brain perking, thinking about what it meant to me as opposed to the general population. Enjoy!

Recovery Rides

If you hang around cyclists long enough you’ll hear the term ”recovery ride” used quite often. The conversation might go something like this:

“So, how’d you do today?”

“I had a nice easy ride… very relaxing”

“See anybody else out there?”

“Yeah, at one point some loser on a piece of department store junk blew by me, but I just let him go. If I wasn’t on my recovery ride, I would have hammered it and dropped him like a bad habit!”

So, what is this recovery ride they speak of? It all depends on who you talk to. Most cyclists will tell you it’s an easy spin the day after a hard ride, like a century or a race; or maybe you spent the previous day climbing mammoth hills or doing intervals. The recovery ride works out all of the byproducts of the metabolic process and gets the kinks out of things. For me it’s something different.

Now before I can give my definition, I need to tell you a little about me and why I ride. I’m forty-something and not the best physical specimen around. I’ve been riding bikes off and on for most of my life, but didn’t get very serious about it until I was closing in on my 30^th year. Up to that time, riding was just another way to get from point A to point B if it wasn’t too far and I didn’t feel like driving. The bike spent most of the time on the back porch and my butt was behind the wheel of something with more horsepower. That changed thanks to good old Phoenix traffic jams and unreliable vehicles.

I was living on the west side at the time and working downtown at one of the hospitals. The traffic on the way home was always very slow. It was stop and start, taking several cycles to get through lights, and just generally frustrating. Then, just to add insult to injury, car problems set in. I hated riding the bus, so the bike became my primary mode of transportation by default.

During this stint as a bike commuter I discovered a couple of things that surprised me. First, it usually took me 40 to 45 minutes to drive home in the crush of cars that clogged the streets in the afternoon… it only took me 27 minutes on the bike! The second thing I discovered was even more surprising. By the time I cranked myself past all of the poor helpless souls trapped in their stalled, smoking boxes on wheels and rolled into the driveway at home, the stress of the day seemed to have disappeared. I was literally burning off all of the bad energy clouding my brain and infecting my body. What started out as a negative situation was having a positive effect; I was becoming a happier person.

Do you remember what it was like as a kid when you learned to ride a bike? For me, it was my first real taste of freedom. The bike was my magic carpet, taking me to places that were previously out of reach or required parental participation. In commuting by bike, I had rediscovered that freedom. I was no longer confined by my petroleum-fueled prison. I could feel the wind flowing over me and see the world unobstructed.

Emotion became my fuel of choice now. I could take all of the anger, frustration and disappointment, stress… whatever was nagging me, and concentrate the energy, focus it on the pedals and fly! I’d spin like a man possessed, burning away the blackness until all that remained was the pure joy of being one with this fantastic machine that had given me such a gift… and this brings me back to where we started.

So, what’s my definition of a recovery ride? Well, when you consider the mental and spiritual benefits I reap every time I climb in the saddle and set the wheels in motion, there can be only one answer… every ride is a recovery ride!