It feels like I’ve ridden road bikes forever, but in actuality, I remember my first, because it was almost my last. Not in a Death Bcomes Bot kind of way, but merely because a change in gepgraphical location encouraged a change in technology. I started riding mountain bikes in Junior High, as is expected in an urban environment that involves curbs, glass, runaway cars, and cheeseburger meat. However, fate struck me a welcome blow, when my KHS was locked up behind another friend’s bike, globally cable locked to a guardrail at the local mall. Not THE local mall, which was a den of gang activity, but the second most local. The former hosted the movie Colors, and was host to a subsequent riot and thrashing that caused it to close down. The latter hosted bike thieves. We came out of a flick and discovered his bike remained, cable lock hanging as if still attached to the gaurdrail, and mine, long gone. This would unfortunately be only the first unhappy merging of movie theaters and bike thefts for me, reinforcing my comfort level with the alternate, currently occurring moviegoing scenario, wherein I watch films on the plasma with my bike within visual range held upright by a pedal tight to a floor column. Anyway, the mountain bike was gone, and I needed a new ride. Enter the Nishiki.

The Nishiki was an entry level road bike, not designed for serious riding, but more like the sort of general road riding use 10-speeds have enjoyed around the world since their invention. It wasn’t a racing bike by any stretch. But it was a road frame, hardy Japanese steel, with multiple gears, skinny tires, and good brakes. It’s impact was unexpected. I went from the sort of general ride mashery any kid does on a bike, on that KHS, the wild, erratic pedal pumping in short spurts followed by distracted coasting, as one finds in BMX bike-wielding young toughs moving from hang-out plaza to hang-out plaza, to a discovery of how to ride… fast. Efficient shifting, low rolling resistance, tucked in riding position. It was unheard of. I had seen my parents’ old timey touring bikes, with the wide bars and the once-comfy leather seats now housing spider nests, and never thought anything in that lineage could be fast. I think one of them even had a fender part wound menacingly INTO the spokes of the front wheel. Terrifying, when you think of them taking lesiurely rides around the park, 66" from cranial injury…

Now, this was also my first introduction to the bike shop. A place where all they did was sell bikes, bikes of all shapes and sizes, glass countertops and cases filled with arcane pieces parts, some VHS video playing TdF footage from the late 80s, and that musty smell of rotting cork tape and bike grease that you don’t find much of anymore, but those little shops certainly offered in spades back then. I was steered in the direction of a road bike by the owner, who assured me that if I tried it for a few months, I’d get it.

Of course, my riding route was 6 miles of shelled, bombed-out, flaming wreckage-sprawled occupied territory, from my rough part of LA, to the promise of non-child-bearing girls and sun-bleached hair and Catholic School skirts, in the beach community that housed my high school. I was a Freshman. On a new, awkward bike technology. Riding on a boulevard with 6 lanes. They have those in Los Angeles. I quickly learned that cars don’t see you, but drivers sometimes do, and aim for you, that buses don’t see you and have a tendency to point you into a scalene triangle of death, and that there’s more crap on the road than in the opening credits of Sanford and Son. I also learned how terrifying the sound of traffic can be, especially when going over a hood. So I learned, also, thereafter, that earphones helped tune out the chaos, and focus your attention. Better or worse. Haven’t had as scary a crash as that first one.

So, about a year into riding that Nishiki, I decided to pursue these event rides. Event rides are like bike races, but where the majority of riders didn’t get the memo. The funds go towards setting up the ride, coning it off, getting the police on board, and preparing a cookout at the end, as well as funding what meager SAG support there might be (a long-haired wild-eyed guy wearing trifocals driving an Abductinator van with peeling paint, and three beat up frames hanging out the back end, which was twined closed. Circa 1988-1989) and the riders were families, kids, older types, all sorts. Having a good time. Riding on streets with less death implied. Looking forward to BBQ. Eventually, I did a number of these, got my friend, the one with the unmolested mountain bike, interested, and eventually worked my way up to centuries.

Centuries are 100 mile rides. These days, we see a lot of metric centuries, which means, predictable, 66 mile rides or so, and I quite like them, because you remain functional afterwards, whereas a full century, or even our longer weekend rides today of the 70-80 mile range, blow you out at the end and you’re basically on pizza/BBQ/ beer/sleep life support the rest of the evening. Anyway, I did a double-century (ish) before I did a century. The double was a two day ride from San Juan Capistrano to San Diego. It was about 180 miles total, so 90 a day. It was my first (and only) overnighter, and it was a hell of a lot of fun, chielfy because I was riding, at that time, with a girl I knew, who was amazing to ride behind. I admit it. I don’t remember her deal: was she a classmate, or someone I met on an event ride? All I know is she had blonde kinky ringlets and a very tight physique and these amazing glutes. So. That was a nice, seemingly effortless two days.

But the last century I did around that time, or maybe around 1990, was one of these more aggressive ones where there’s lots of climbing, 100′s of feet of it over 100 miles. I had several thousand miles into that trusty Nishiki by that point. It served me well. And I was strong as hell, big muscular thighs, and a healthy suitcase of rancor from fighting with my father all the time for no reason. So I was a rocket. My friend with the non-stolen mountain bike came along on that one. At some point about half way through, he blew up and had to drop out. I remember he wasn’t doing the miles I was at the time. Anyway, during the big climb of the day, about 5 hours into the thing, I started having chain slip. It was slight at first, but gradually became more and more obvious, and I was losing power on the climb. Pretty soon I realized that my big chainring, the 53 or whatever it was, was failing. As a last resort, I dropped to the small ring, let’s say a 39, and spun the rest of this looooooong climb.

This was 1990. Spinning a climb, though some of the older, slower riders had figured it out already, was not common. The way you rode a road bike was you mashed. Biggest gear you could, out of the saddle, and leaning forward. Eventually, in the next decade, the practice of managing cadence instead of speed would become more understood in the mainstream, in so much as it would trickle down to regular recreational riders like me. But at the time? I felt like I was noodling in place, my heart was exploding, and the hill went on forever. By the time I got up and over, I was blown. As they often do on centuries, they make the last big climb lead to a loooong recovery descent, a short flat sprint, and the finish line. I was flying down that hill, but on the flat I could barely turn the pedals over. I had been passed, not only by the last riders of the day, but even the SAG van full of crazy. By the time I got to the parade grounds, they had CLOSED down the BBQ, and cleaned up the event. No water bottles. No schwag. No food. I was so exhausted I literally rolled onto the grass, and just let myself fall to the side, and lay there. And then they turned the sprinklers on!

My parents arrived, with my friend in the station wagon, and picked me up. They didn’t understand what had happened, just assumed the mileage was too hard for me. But when I went to service the bike later, I found that the teeth of the large chainring had worn to the resistance side, and then deformed. It was simply too much mashery for that gear, and I broke it. Now, it sounds tough, but really, it was old, heavy metal parts, and not really intended for the abuse I put it through. It could have died on the way to the comic shop. But instead, it died on that terrible climb.

I rode smaller rides through the rest of HS, and didn’t bring that old Nishiki with me to college, where the winds and terrain favored mountain biking. It wasn’t until three harmonious years of living in San Francisco that I decided to take up road biking again. And even though the technology is much better, particularly at the build level I purchase now, and my technical skills, endurance and strength are far, far better than they were when I was 17, when I’m on a climb? Sometimes I my mind can play tricks oN me and I can become convinced that my chainring is warping.

I pour the first sip out for my ole Nishiki, without which I’d never find myself trying to drag my fixed gear up a climb tonight!

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Last week or so, I posted my latest T-shirt to the T-shirt thread here.

It references the moment in the 2003 TdF when Lance had to hurtle into a cornfield on a descent, and do this:

In order to avoid this:

Just some promised background on that moment, one of two scenes, in close sequence, that made that year one of the most thrilling ever.

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We were joking about it awhile back, and it came up again at work recently, when my boss accused me of becoming too much of a bike collector type, with too many bikes in the wrongRoom(tm) hung all here and there. ‘all here and there’ is more than just here or there, but more here AND there.

Anyway, I check craigslist half-assedly every now and again for them, not expecting to find anything. i figure when i actually have time to work on one, I can sort it out properly, and talk to a pennyfarthinger at the next CM or what have you. Anyway, I was messing about and doing a little reading, and found a site that sells reproductions.

GORGEOUS.

Note the oil lamp.

This is the ‘Excelsior Standard’
which is great, because Monkeybites calls every other vehicle he drives the ‘Excelsior 5000′

Anyway, i’d rather pay a lot less that $1,500 and renovate it up my own self, but still.

http://www.hiwheel.com/antique_replicas … andard.htm

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Lance Armstrong. Post-professional cycling. What’s he been up to, besides running marathons, dumping Sheryl Crow, and not running for Governor?

Bike Shoppery for the People!

:::

It’s not about the bike sales.

That from Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who plans in May to open a bike shop, commuting center, training facility and cafe in a 1950s-era building at the northwest corner of Fourth and Nueces streets.

"This city is exploding downtown. Are all these people in high rises going to drive everywhere? We have to promote (bike) commuting,"
Armstrong said Wednesday, gazing up at the towering 360 condos rising next to the site of his new shop. "This can be a hub for that."

Mellow Johnny’s, named for the nickname Armstrong earned while wearing the Tour de France leader’s "maillot jaune," or yellow jersey, will be housed in a yellow- and red-brick building next to the music venue La Zona Rosa. It is a block north of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, a path that will cut east-west through downtown Austin.

Armstrong said he’d like to see Austin evolve into a place like Portland, Ore., where biking is part of the culture and people pedal to work, to restaurants and to run errands. "Walk outside, and the streets are lined with bikes — because they have a safe place to ride,"
Armstrong said of the city long known for its bicycle-friendly amenities and policies.

So how does Austin get to that point?

"The (Lance Armstrong Bikeway) is a big start," he said. Armstrong and his general partner in the project, Bart Knaggs, said they’d like to see Austin create bike lanes separated from vehicle traffic and a system like a new one in Paris where people can use a credit card to rent a bicycle from a bike rack station and return it at any of the dozens of other stations around the city.

"There are times I ride in Austin, and I’m afraid of cars," Armstrong said. "Imagine what the beginner cyclist must feel like? I think (Mayor) Will Wynn’s dream was this whole revitalization of downtown, which we’re getting, but it’s going to make it a lot easier if people can get around on bikes."

Mellow Johnny’s will carry top-of-the-line Trek bikes, which Armstrong rode to his seven consecutive Tour de France victories, but the focus won’t be on selling the newest, lightest racer. The shop will celebrate the culture of biking, from the historic memorabilia hanging on the walls to a counter where customers can sip coffee and ask questions as they watch bike mechanics at work.

Besides road bikes, Mellow Johnny’s will sell commuter bikes, mountain bikes, triathlon bikes, fixed-gear bikes, low-riders, cruiser-style bikes and even hand-made "art bikes" that look as good hanging on a wall as they do rolling down the street. Stock will also include gear by Giro, Nike and Oakley.

Showers and a locker room will allow commuters who don’t have facilities at their offices to ride downtown, store their bikes at the shop, bathe and catch a ride on a pedicab or walk the rest of the way to work.

The building covers 18,000 square feet on a main floor and basement level and will have garage doors that roll open at one end. The site has served as a distribution center for Pearl beer, a paint company, a steel manufacturing facility and a resource center for the homeless.
Demolition work began in June, and construction inside the shop started two weeks ago. Armstrong and his partners are leasing the property from an undisclosed owner.

Part of the basement level will include a Carmichael Training Systems facility, where cyclists can do power-based training.

"There’s a bigger ambition we’re going to go for here. It’s not like there’s not a good bike shop in town. We want to add something to the community that will catalyze interest around riding bikes, about being bike friendly and folding it into life in Austin," Knaggs said.

Armstrong predicted that Mellow Johnny’s will be "the coolest bike shop in the world," but said he’s not trying to put any other Austin bike shop out of business. "It’s not us versus them," he said. "We’re all about the cycling culture."

Architect Michael Hsu, who designed the Belmont and Bess restaurants downtown and the 04 development on South Congress Avenue, said he is uncovering the clean lines of the original building as he transforms it.

An old dumb waiter will be used to haul bikes between floors. Decor will include some of Armstrong’s memorabilia, but the cyclist said he doesn’t want to turn the shop into a Lance Armstrong museum. He said he’d rather feature items from other famous athletes. Craig Staley, co-owner of Bettysport women’s fitness store, Rogue Equipment running store and other local ventures, will be general manager.

Armstrong, who still remembers being a trifle intimidated when he walked into a bike shop as a kid, wants to make sure that doesn’t happen to customers here. He said he’d rather encourage rookies to start riding than sell a faster bike to a veteran cyclist.

"If you’re a commuter, you’re just as important to us as the state champion on a road bike," Knaggs said.

"Potentially, more important," Armstrong added.

http://www.austin360.com/recreation/con … p-146.html

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UPDATE : this thread used to be called "new toy!" but has since been renamed in order to keep with the team lope bike bio standard. if you’ve already been reading, you can jump directly to the new additions HERE.

I haven’t had a bike project in a long time, and it ain’t for lack of trying. I tried to rebuild the old Lean — better, faster, stronger — but it wasn’t gonna serve the purpose necessary. I tried to rescue an abandoned bike for use in a long-stalled fantasy project, but the drivetrain’s main component is beyond obscure, not to mention rusty as fuck. So I’ve been hurting.

But then the other day, I was looking at a sale email I got from a shop I use frequently. They had RIDICULOUS percentages off of stuff. And I needed some stuff. But in addition to the stuff I needed, I spied a frame — perfect for the needs I had for yet ANOTHER long-fantasized-about project. And the frame was knocked down in price by something like 65%. It was a STEAL, and I’d just gotten my finances in order, so the timing couldn’t have been better.

I ordered it online and had it shipped to the store for free shipping. And it arrived today, along with WRs order that he placed on the same day. So after barbecue with he and long-time forum member Kid Anubis, WR and I fired over to the shop, picked up our shit, and now in my living room sits the following (cameraphone pic, sorry)…

It’s got a few sweet little details that make it perfect, and I’m looking forward to building it up over the next year. I’m not even going to speculate what it might end up looking like, save the givens — black, fixed, and sick.

FOHWAHD!

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Several interesting pieces here, though this one has the most aesthetically-pleasing and I think organic contours…

http://www.bikefurniture.com/pagesSeating/s2lm1.htm

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I mean, there are 33 things i love about this branding.
I’m a little envious of them.

http://therottenclub.blogspot.com if you be curious.

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I’m all for ANYTHING that gets richie-rich distracted driving fools off the highway. But I suspect this actually makes it worse. Anyone able to afford, and actually desiring, a $12K Chanel 8-speed? Wasn’t driving themselves in the first place. That means this adds MORE bad drivers with zero accountability out there. Not in MY bike lane!

http://www.vogue.co.uk/vogue_daily/stor … stid=48097

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This will not parse for most of you, but Sheldon Brown of Harris Cyclery passed away yesterday of a heart attack. He had been diagnosed with MS in August 07, though i hadn’t read anything about that at the time.

Sheldon was a sales guy at Harris, a community ride organizer, a local fixture in the cycling community, and internationally known for writing some of the most comprehensive, killer FAQs for bike repair and assembly ever. I’ve read the majority of them at least once, and they are amazing. He noted the nuances between manufacturers over the years of the same part’s design changes, how they differed, how to accommodate them. He described in detail all the factors going into the kinds of fixie conversion projects Lung and i have been doing, and he even wrote the best FAQ on how to effing RIDE a fixed gear, or really any bike, hands down. He was an absolute fount of knowledge, not only the technical detail, but the good common sense stuff, the experience-based recommendations that were never biased by manufacturer or riding style, and above all, he wrote about, and lived, the kind of sustainable biking lifestyle that I really enjoy seeing: non-trendy, not culty, beer drinking, funky bike having, home-modding, goofy helmeting, good fun riding. No image or style or attitude. I’m not really that rider, but it’s the sort of thing I LOVE about SF bike culture as a whole, when all the subsets and various groups glom together and become a free, diverse, fun-loving community, come Critical Mass each month.

I’m saddened to know of his passing, to say the least. But he is remembered! Let’s honor him, those with bikes, by riding today. Or this week. Or, for you in Frozen Tundra country, late spring!

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/index.html

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I loves me some Bikesnob. His thing is he makes fun of bike culture. You may have to be one to get it, and yet, the very people he skewers wouldn’t likely get the jokes most of the time. making it funnier. Because he rides, too. He skewers biking sub-cultures, trends and geekout detail, and any entry he makes seems to apply to Lung or I in one way or another. I love it.

This was a recent FAQ he wrote.

:::

What is a “century?”

A century is a word people who ride Serottas and Cervelos equipped with mountain bike pedals and compact cranks use to describe what the rest of us just call a long ride. There’s also something called a “metric century.” Riders use the same type of bicycles, but a metric century is shorter and probably involves more camelbaks and helmets with visors on them.

What is a “training ride?”

This is how roadies describe what the rest of us just call a ride. It can be long, short, fast, or slow. It can also be intermittently fast and slow, which is called “intervals.” Roadies call rides “training rides” so people know that they race. In fact, roadies only do two kinds of rides: training rides, and races. Any other type of riding is considered “garbage miles,” or “junk miles.” Garbage miles include any miles ridden offroad, any miles ridden for purposes of commuting or transportation, any miles not ridden in full team kit, and any miles during which the rider has any fun.

What is a “session?”

A session is a word fixed-gear freestylers, freeriders, and BMXers use to describe riding around in circles doing tricks. The term “session” is also used in relation to the Senate, therapy, and band recording. All of these sessions share in common the fact that they are generally self-indulgent, boring to watch, and in the end go nowhere.

How do I know if it’s time to replace my frame?

Inspect your frame closely for URLs. If your frame has any URLs on it, it means it is too new to be considered “vintage,” yet too old to be considered up-to-date. URLs on bikes went out in the late 90s and early Oughts, when manufacturers finally realized that even the dumbest person can figure out how to find a website without seeing a “www” and “.com” around the name.

Which is better, threaded or threadless steering setups?

Threadless.

As a cyclist, should I obey all traffic signals?

Absolutely not. The surest way to disaster is mindless adherence to rules, routine, and procedure, because they do not account for the unexpected—or, as I prefer to call it, the stupidity factor. Take pedestrians, for example. When you have the green, pedestrians will not think twice about crossing against the light, right in front of you. They will also usually look near you but not at you, as though they’re following Jerry Seinfeld’s procedure for admiring a woman’s breasts without being caught. Conversely, when they do have the light and you have a red, they’ll generally stop dead and look at you as though you’re about to run them down. When you’re dealing with this sort of stupidity, all bets are off. If you don’t believe me, go outside right now and stand at a busy corner. Wait until a large vehicle is approaching, and then run across the street. I guarantee at least five people will follow you to almost certain death. These bovine are simply too stupid to live, and if you blindly follow traffic rules they will take you right down with them.

More aggressively stupid are drivers. If you wait at a red light and then proceed when it turns green, you’re virtually assured death by yellow-miscalculating idiot.

Rules are not designed to protect you. They are designed to trap and kill you. Rely only on your wits, because that’s the only thing that will keep you alive.

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