Dig this awesome piece. Part humor, part introspection, all true.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 … d-cycling/

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So, this Sunday we decided to have brunch up at the Presido Social Club. I reviewed this joint previously here. Awesome atmosphere, very comfortable, great with kids, and a nice example of a tasteful renovation of an older structure. Anyway, since wifebot(tm)s sister was coming and we have a 4 seater MINI, I offered to ride. I’d get a short zip up the grade and over the bridge under my belt, and it would solve the seating issue. I hadn’t ridden in about 12 days, nursing a strained wrist, but it seemed the time to give up the rest and get on it. It was about 75 degrees when I left, and it jumped to the high 80s while I was out. Gorgeous day.

Side note: here’s a shot of the Jolly Roger I have on each bike, for science.

Side Note: note the wisced ’3′ on my stem. I’m superficial.

Side note: and I finally laid down a Team Lope Tyre Clubbe vinyl on Rogue, my Cinelli road bike build. Smaller than usual, but not a lot of room on this frame.

So I got out there and rode through MV, Sausalito and up Alexander to the bridge. This was my usual return commute when I lived in SF and worked in MV, so I’m not reallu used to it in the day time, fighting tourists and swerving cars and rental bikes and sun. On the other hand, no wind, and I’m accustomed to it blowing like stink getting up the hill and over the bridge in the evenings. Anyway, the ride was great, my wirst didn’t hurt too badly, so it was nice to get some riding in. You’re off the bike for more than a few days and you feel like everything falls to pieces. This photo was at the entrance to the Presidio Social Club, near the Lombard gate. Getting there was interesting due to all the construction from the Doyle Drive demolition.

Unfortunately, having scorchers then rain then scorchers then rain is tough on allergy sufferers. The trees get tricked and re-flower so pollen levels are at an all time high. I looked like I was a Less Than Zero extra by the time I sat down. My eyes were on fire and I had the hay fevers and so on. But the food was good and being with my family was better. Ate light. Just heading down the hill again, right?

Well, here’s what happened: the pedestrian and bike traffic is pooled onto the bay side of the Golden Gate Bridge while they do ‘construction’ in quotes, because there was nothing happening on the weekend of course and I saw no dangerous sections of that side in all my drives into the city at this point. I think they just close it off for months at a time and sort out the repair schedule as they need to later. It really pisses me off. Combining riders and pedestrians on the same side is a recipe for disaster, and I’ve commented on this several times here on Team Lope. It’s terrible. The tourist traffic is immense, no one looks where they’re going, the pedestrians stagger or JUMP out into the bike side the bikes get all tangled up with the tourist rentals and such, and then frustrated roadies plow through them all. It’s a bad scene, and very stressful. On the way over, I saw several near-misses, thanks to a girl scout march. Those girls were NOT being managed by the troop leaders, and were out of control.

So, on the way back, more of the same, and despite going slow and calling out and trying to safely and politely navigate through the throng of people who were paying NO attention, I still collected a girl scout. She tangled in my bars like ole Lance, though I was only going about 5mph and I didn’t fall over. The girl scattered and then the troop master or ward started screaming at me. I pointed out that if I was crossing the bridge in these conditions I’d be holding my daughter’s hand if she was out of control, as they were, and that SHE was responsible for keeping those girls in line. I said this very politely as she ranted about ‘us cyclists’. Keep in mind I was being very careful and calling out, while riders in front of and behind me were less patient. I made sure the girl was OK, and she was. She was totally backed up and quiet too, because she knew what she did: she was jumping out and tagging the opposing handrail like a game. Anyway, I was so fired with adrenaline and aggravated at those irresponsible women that I had to burn it off. Not engaging in a confrontation is like swallowing a grenade. So, I got off the bridge and decided to climb the Marin Headlands, and so I did.

That cleansed my palate! I haven’t ridden up that stretch since they repaved it and added a roundabout for all the tourist cars, and it was a nice refresher. Got to the top, took a few pics, descended the other side, felt that cool ocean breeze. Really great! Because of my wirst, my braking was weak so I locked up the back wheel a few times ont he descent avoiding braking cars, but overall, no issues. And MAN, is that tunnel back to the bridge exhilarating or what? I didn’t time it this time but I was ahead of the cars, it’s one way/staggered, and it’s a mild descent so it’s SO FAST. Love it.

Back home through the tourist madness of Sasaulito, up to the deck where the whole fam was hiding out from the heat, a beer and a baby in my lap. Great way to end my impromptu climbing ride!

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I’m doing a sell-off of some stuff from the shop.

Item 1: Saris Thelma 3 hitch bike rack: best design I’ve ever used, clamshell clamps the front wheel, so unusual frames are no problem. Fits a 1-1/4" hitch, carries up to three bikes, and I have extra parts. $250

Item 2: H+Son Track Wheelset: custom made by 718c in Brooklyn; black SL42 H+Son rims black laced (double butted) to Soma hubs (black front, gold rear) though note the fixed side of the hub has some damage, so you run this as a freewheel on the other side or replace the hub. Basically throwing the wheel in with the front. $140

Item 3: Origin 8 Track Wheelset, all white: white on white on white. Unmachined front so you can see some brake smear but very lightly used all around. $75

Pick up if local to the SF Bay Area, otherwise shippable.
Contact me however you can, via comments, PM email etc

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Hahaha, I couldn’t get over the fact that this micro-training wheels BMX bike has holes drilled for brakes front and rear.

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I’ve been so caught up in the life that I forgot to post about this when it was timely. Last month, two bands did a tour of the SF Bay Area entirely by bike: bikes with trailers, Xtracycles, cargo bikes… how awesome is that? Rupa and the April Fishes, and Shake Your Peace, were the bands. You can give them love on their FB page or through the band sites directly, and encourage more of the same.

Also, dope poster no?

http://momentummag.com/articles/a-bicyc … ncisco-bay

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I’ve said very little in the wake of the recent political furor over the cyclist in San Francisco that apparently plowed through a pedestrian crosswalk against the light and killed an elderly man. This has elicited an overwhelming anti-bike and anti-illegal-riding response, with which I agree with the latter and not the former. As a rider well used to rolling stops and riding illegally when it suited me (within reason, and safely, always) with the change in my lifestyle that led me to have a brilliant and OBSERVANT toddler on my bars, I’m now a rider that TRIES to break those habits, certainly with her, and even alone. There’s never any defense when you break the law, regardless. But the backlash against cyclists in the wake of this incident troubled me. The cyclist’s publicly-displayed attitude was disconcerting, but overall, the idea that the rising terror of out-of-control cyclists had become some sort of crisis that needed to be crushed? Myopic to say the least.

This article today in the Examiner captured my thoughts exactly. Bike kills pedestrian, it’s a social crime. Car kills pedestrian? Oh, that’s just the price of progress.

Cyclists have to not only work at not striking cars, pedestrians and so on, even in a completely legal riding environment, they ALSO have to work actively to avoid being struck by inattentive or belligerent car drivers. Car drivers do not. It’s like a food chain of vehicle-related violence. I am quite seriously routinely yelled out by drivers because I’m riding on the road NEAR where they want to drive, though my legal right is to do so. Drivers break the law and threaten me with their cars (nudging, swerving, sudden breaking) and yet when we have car vs bike accidents, almost always the driver is let off without charges filed. It’s enough to make a cyclist bitter.

But I’m not. As my pals at drunkcyclist said a few weeks back after the Oakland incident, we ALL need to chill the fuck out. I think there are many factors involved psychologically in why car drivers threaten or actually injure/kill cyclists and pedestrians unnecessarily, let alone other car occupants, including inattentiveness, frustration, numbed empathy, delusions of invulnerability, denial of personal responsibility in our social contract, bitterness over the behavior of OTHER people, drivers and riders and walkers alike… but a different but equally important set of factors apply to cyclists: some are inexperienced, others distracted, others belligerent and defiant. And pedestrians can be some of the worst, leaping out into traffic, walking staring down at their phones, jumping lights, whatever. The point isn’t that any one particular group is at greatest fault (though the car driver, capable of the most harm, SHOULD be the most responsible, even if the authorities, and the media, ignore it) but rather that we all need to take a deep breath, get out of our own headpspace, and think about others.

I try and drive/ride/walk like those with me and those in vehicles around me are all my daughter or my son. All of them. I try to imagine how their lives would be impacted in our collision. When I get pissed at other drivers, other riders, anyone on the road, I TRY to remember my perspective. We’re all human, we’re all someone’s family, and we all ave everything to lose by being at war with each other rather than take personal responsibility, and a few extra minutes, to navigate the road defensively.

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prolly put up a beautiful SLIDESHOW of massan’s MUNI-themed LOW, which he shot at the red bull ride+style event this past weekend, where massan was racing in the track event.

WR and i have talked about this bike offline before and we both agree that the old-school MUNI colorway would be preferrable to the new-school MUNI colorway, but still — it’s a gorgeous bike, massan’s a 100% beast, and he’s repping his hometown with it (both in colorway and in that the manufacturer is local SF, making LOWs out of his garage), so i’m onboard either way.

you can also view some shots of massan racing it scattered throughout prolly’s SLIDESHOW of the event itself.

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Taking your bike in for a professional tune-up is a great way to waste $25.

The Onion strikes again.
This above was my favorite. Kind of like when the Dude cries "nice marmot!’ when the nihilists drop a ferret up in his bath…
tune-up as a waste of money is funny. but a $25 tune-up neither exists, nor is expensive. Awesome…

http://www.theonion.com/articles/bicycl … tips,8077/

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After last week’s ride up Tam, I realized there was NO way I wouldn’t be doing this on a more regular basis. But the 29er is about to become an xtracycle! What to do?

Well, I’m just going to ride it up anyway. Lung pointed out the long wheelbase adds stability. I read on a few sites that mountain bikers found Xtracycle conversions quite doable on intermediate rides, ie. not extremely technical only because the bike will bottom out more frequently and you have to turn with the bike, not the bars, more, so it’s a tough nut down a steep single track. But totally doable. So I’m stoked. Further, I talked to my buddy Bryce at Tam Bikes and he said not only did he think it was feasible, but he wants to organize a longbike Tam ride, once I’[m built up, with him and a few other guys. Awesome. He also suggested I could use the slicks as planned just with less pressure. So I’m not going to fret about the lack of knobbies.

Go for launch!

Image from Riding the Spine, an awesome resource…

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THIS is pretty interesting. a 1-1/8" threadless spacer that looks like a vintage threaded headset locknut. strictly aesthetic, but still pretty awesome, especially if you were making a modern bike to look vintage or vintage-inspired. plus, SE always gets respect, simply for who they are.

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