My Life On A Bike

Community

2009-09-10T06:47:00.006-04:00

It's a word we use a lot - as in "the cycling community". The memories of my summer travels are full of chance encounters, generosity and minor kindnesses extended by strangers in every city I visited, all prompted by the bike:

A nice woman in Portland, ME stopped me and Jenny as we rode down Main Street to ask us if she had done something wrong the day before and then proceeded to tell us the story of an aggressive driver who had shouted insults at her the day before as she rode down the street. Nothing unites like adversity.

Tim and Shira in Vancouver, BC loaned me and Jenny beautiful bicycles during our visit; they had never met us before, but we had a mutual friend in NYC who made an introduction. Tim works for MEC in Canada and is developing a line of bicycles for them. I got to borrow a prototype track bike that turned a lot of heads as we rode around the city, Jenny was loaned a beautiful road bike. Tim and Shira also welcomed us into their homes, took us to dinner, and gave us gift cards to visit the JJ Press coffee shop. Shira works with the folks at JJ Press and the coffee was fantastic.

In Minneapolis, a nice young man who was out for a morning ride with his young son rode with me and Jenny for a few miles and described where to pick up local trails, where to get good coffee, how to find Hiawatha Cyclery and then went on in loving detail about how much he liked living in Minneapolis.

While we were in Traverse City, Jenny's family hooked everyone up with bicycles and we went out for a group 30 mile ride. We had family and friends from Michigan, Chicago, New Haven, Brooklyn, London on a 30 mile ride. The mix of bikes, everything from old steel Treks to new carbon fiber racing bikes, was as varied as the riders. We crawled along happily through the countryside and suburbs, some of us in spandex, some of us in jeans.

The cycling community really exists; it includes a lot of generous, enthusiastic people. I think about cyclists I have met who are obsessed with their narrow sliver of the sport and wonder if they miss out by refusing to engage people who fall outside of their own demographic.

Exemplary

2009-05-11T20:31:00.011-04:00

We all get to be ambassadors for the things we care about. I spent parts of last weekend introducing a friend to cycling in New York City. Slowing down my usual pace, pointing out the sights and the smells, trying to make the angry mash of traffic and pedestrians seem safe and comprehensible - trying to make cycling accessible. My guest, Jenny, was a little nervous at first but not as scared as I had expected - by the end of the weekend she appeared to be truly comfortable and safe in traffic.

I rode with Jenny to Grand Central this morning to see her off. She stopped at one point on 42nd Street in a stretch of the road between the Ford Foundation and the Chrysler Building and with a big smile said, "I can't believe I am doing this!" After putting her on a train and resuming my commute, it occurred to me that I had more firsts than she did over the weekend. I sang songs for her - out loud! While playing guitar! I have been playing guitar for 20 years and have never actually performed for someone like that. It seemed safe, because Jenny, who is a well-trained singer with years of experience, had sung to me and made it seem perfectly natural and maybe even a little silly NOT to sing.

Late at night, lying together on a wool blanket, I read my journal entries from a recent bicycle tour out loud to her - another first for me. You see, she had shown me her blog and some very personal, reflective articles she wrote for a local newspaper - which of course made it safe for me to share my writing.

I am struck by how we can expand the the things we love in this world by sharing them. I doubt my guest would have ridden to Brooklyn if all I had done was explain the directions. Certainly, I would not have sung if she had not done so first. It's a bit like being a religious leader - the effective ones gain followers and converts by example, not by preaching. We can all do the same for the things we value: one more singer, one more writer, one more artist.

We should keep this in mind as we think about ways to grow the community of cyclists, inviting someone for a ride will work better than any leaflet, bumper sticker, or preachy tee shirt - maybe our motto should be One More Cyclist, and not One Less Car.

[A final note - the picture at the top of this post was taken on National Bike to Work Day, May 15th. The groups pictured are fine organizations; I participate in activities of both Times Up! and Transportation Alternatives. Nothing in this post is intended to criticize either entity - I just wanted to use the picture with the "One Less Car" logo].

Pulaski Bridge Up!

2009-03-08T09:29:00.001-04:00

This disrupted my ride to the UES last night. I knew it was a drawbridge but had never seen it open. My favorite part was when the operator had to go jump on it to get it locked down.

Frosty ride home

2009-02-04T18:02:00.001-05:00

Met a guy named Eden on the W'burg bridge. He was riding a nice Kogswell.

I forgot how slippery non-fixed bikes feel in the snow.

Panorama of J* & X10 working on fuglybike

2009-01-25T19:24:00.001-05:00

Panorama of J* & X10 working on fuglybike
Originally uploaded by Blind Robert

Krispy and J-star were messing around with an old Univega that Krispy's dad gave to her. There was so much wrong with that bike, but she's going to make it work!

Tournesol Crashed

2009-01-25T19:22:00.001-05:00

Tournesol Crashed
Originally uploaded by Blind Robert

Got hit from behind by a car in my first 8 miles of riding this bike. New and custom and totally screwed. Ah well - I think the best part about getting hit from behind by one car was being knocked into the other car which was conveniently parked in the bike lane.

Uploaded - 9\14\08

2008-09-14T08:38:00.001-04:00

The bikes I rode yesterday. Casati road, 3rensho track, spicer track.

Happy bike, sad Roberto

2008-08-27T06:42:00.001-04:00

I can't seem to catch as pool break these days. I am enrolled to do the Brooklyn Bridge Swim on the 6th of September and these last two weeks I was trying to keep up my consistency and swim a bit more.

The universe is having none of it.

I left the house at 5:20 this morning and rode to the Bed Stuy YMCA; pool is closed for cleaning. Rode to the Atlantic Ave YMCA; pool is closed for cleaning. rode to McBurney YMCA in Manhattan; pool is closed for maintenance. Rode to the NYU Palladium pool and the guy seemed willing to let me in, but the pool isn't open until 7:30 - too late.

So I saw this happy little bike on 13th St. and got distracted from my unsuccessful hunt for chlorine. I decided to go sit in Union Square and watch the farmers market set up. At least I got some extra riding in!

Uploaded - Aug 12, 2008

2008-08-12T13:27:00.001-04:00

Thanks, DOT!

Taxicab Wars

2008-08-10T15:36:00.001-04:00

What if you were doored by a cab and after warning the driver (more politely than he had any right to expect) to be more careful from now on - he decded to "buzz" you three blocks later. Let's say he passes you extremely closely at high speed while honking his horn. In that situation, my question is:

Would you be surprised to find his rear view mirror skittering down the street 6 blocks later?

Taliah's cargo bike loaded up for the Brooklyn Flea.

2008-08-10T09:40:00.001-04:00

I helped Taliah move and set up this morning. I rode this bike and she rode "The Crap-schlepper".

Summer Streets, day one.

2008-08-09T15:52:00.001-04:00

NYC is shutting down streets for pedestrian & bike use! this is about 7:30am of day one.

burgers, bikes, beer. (And iPhone ShoZu test).

2008-08-08T13:07:00.001-04:00

hoping that the new hardware and software will improve my bloggation!

Warmer and Warmer

2008-04-15T06:07:00.003-04:00

Okay - but still not all that warm. Anyhoo - it's good to start running into friends more out there on the street. The weather is definitely cool in the mornings and evenings, but it isn't painful to stop and chat on the bridge or outside the coffee shop.

Roscoe held a swap meet at the Lakeside Lounge - the boys in wool showed up after doing the Brooklyn Pave' Ride in honor of Paris-Roubaix.I had been at the Lakeside two nights earlier to watch Roscoe sit in with Tandy. It was a fun show - a nice short set, beautiful music and a small group of people on bikes in the audience.

First Spring-like Day

2008-04-07T05:38:00.006-04:00

Well - at least it was the first spring-like day that was actually in spring. Somehow free time and nice weather coincided and I took a ride to Ft. Tilden beach with H. I have been to FT before, but never knew how to get to the beach part.

We packed a hastily thrown together picnic, H. brought the fish sheet (I am told the fish sheet is "all about fun!").

We took this picture of our Rivendell bikes, which I am sure would make Grant Peterson very happy to see - fat tires, fenders, and all.

Some Things I Missed

2007-11-25T23:14:00.001-05:00

Okay - lots of bikey stuff happened that I didn't write about. Here is a badly punctuated synopsis with pictures.

I volunteered at NYC Century that Transportation Alternatives puts on. I worked at the DUMBO rest stop. I was given a can of spray paint and was allowed to paint on the pavement..LEGALLY!

Also volunteered to help out at Park(ing) Day 2007 we had a great park in front of Whole Foods on 7th Avenue, lots of people came to eat lunch in our park. One of the Law and Order guys even stopped to say hello. No Impact Man was our celebrity.Dave and Taliah loaned me their cargo bike so that I could move these Eames chairs without a car. The chairs were a gift from a good friend, James.

Jen and I took a trip to Montreal - we rented bikes and rode all over that city. What a great place, too bad the winteres are so damned cold! There were lovely bike lanes all over the place, all kinds of people on bikes - just getting around. It reminded me of my trip to Paris, in that way.

On the same block as our B&B there was a bike shop, Revolution Bikes they had this sign up in the window. They are an informal shop.

Finally - I got ANOTHER ticket from the stupid NYPD. For riding a bike outside of the bike lane. Of course, you are not required to ride in the bike lane if there is a reasonable excuse for not doing so, the law specifically lists: avoiding hazards and obstructions including but not limited to pedestrians, motor vehicles, and road hazards. Of course, the cops who pulled me over were standing IN THE BIKE LANE - and they weren't writing tickets to the cars parked in the bike lane, or to the cars using it as a turn lane. Or even to this guy - pushing his hotdog cart the wrong way up Broadway...in the bike lane.

To top it all off, because the NYPD wants to be as obnoxious and inconsiderate as possible, the idiots parked their squad car in the pedestrian crosswalk. My court date is December 7th.

Harry Is Awesome!

2007-11-02T23:16:00.000-04:00

This post is late in coming and I have few others to make - but I am going to try and do them in somewhat chronological order.

"First we flip your wheel and remove your brake"

I helped my co-worker's son, Harry learn to ride a bike late in the summer. Harry was doing pretty well by the time I got to him, but he couldn't quite ride without someone running beside him to grab the bars if he started to fall.

Harry, his mom (Patricia), and I all met up in Central Park on a weekend morning. The spot behind the Met is pretty good - a few sidewalks with light pedestrian traffic and a little chunk of the main loop.

It only took about 20 minutes for Harry to start riding on his own. We spent a little time working on how to stop without falling and then he just took off! He was riding 100 yards on his own in under half an hour. I haven't done that much running in years, being a cyclist. My feet hurt for the rest of the week.Harry got a new bell for his bike as a reward for bravery and progress.

Late Ride Home

2007-07-02T23:15:00.000-04:00

Worked late tonight - no pictures, sorry. I met a woman named Roberta riding a single speed through Williamsburg. She was on her way home from a beer garden somewhere in Astoria; Roberta does photo retouching and runs a clothing design studio. While we were riding a young woman pulled up next to us on a folding bike and asked to ride with us for a while because some guy had been following her in his car.

New York always has something new to throw at you.

A Few Bike Friends

2007-06-27T06:03:00.000-04:00

Lovely Violet Ruschak wearing my cap at the Park Slope Farmers Market:

Shirley Leong - a coworker and friend poses with her vintage "Pony" folder:

Saleen and Aseer on their custom choppers. I saw them riding through the neighborhood yesterday - and riding em' right! They were doing a nice slow cruise, which seems like exactly what those bikes are for. I chased them down and stopped them to ask for a picture. Nice meeting you both!
This picture isn't exactly in line with the title of the post - but I suddenly noticed this on the side of a building in Williamsburg. Either it has been there forever and I am sadly oblivious to my surroundings, or it is new. Anyone know what this is about - hopefully, not pizza.

JUST MISSED....

2007-06-16T22:10:00.000-04:00

...owning an Alex Singer bicycle. Well - by about 50 years..but still. My parents were visiting for the weekend and my mom got to looking at my The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles book.

She saw an Alex Singer in the book and said that she had one just like it when she was little. Her neighbor in Jacksonville, Florida had given it to her. The woman's husband had brought it back with him from Europe and the woman never rode it. My mom and her family thought it was made by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Mom said that she rode it all over the place - it was black with shiny silver fenders.
I stopped by Cycles Alex Singer while in Paris. I got to talk to Mr. Csuka a little bit and spent about an hour oggling the beauties in the window.

Touring Trip - MY FIRST!

2007-06-03T09:41:00.001-04:00

I don't speak much French...in fact, I would characterize the amount of French I speak as "damned little". But this didn't stop me from having a great trip. First off, the French have a completely undeserved reputation for being rude. Everyone I met was helpful, friendly, and polite. "Please" and "Thank you" go a long way, it seems.
The first few days of the trip were spent riding around Paris and taking in the sights. The only musuems I went into were the Picasso Museum - which was incredible - and something described in the guidebook as a "museum of curiosities located in the basement of the Marquis de Sade's old house. I was game! Turned out to be a kiddie magic show and collection of old wind-up toys, both of which were pretty fun. I ran into an old magician friend, Max, in the Marquis' place.

As it turns out, a few people I know (loosely) were in Paris at the same time. We didn't run into each other, but an on-line discussion about Parisian bike culture followed. Along the lines of "there is no bike culture here - but everyone rides bikes". I think what everyone was trying to say was that there is no bike subculture in Paris - cycling is just part of the normal culture and has absolutley no outlaw cachet.

After riding in the city I made a few day trips/multi-day trips to Fontainbleu, Compiegne, Chantilly, Auvers sur Oise and a scattering of little towns in between those points. Riding through the French countryside was pretty much just like I imagined.

Cars Are Hard and Bigger Than You

2007-02-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

Got smacked pretty good the other day. I was heading south on Vanderbilt, straight through the light at Fulton. A guy in white car heading north on Vanderbilt decided to turn left onto Fulton and didn't yield to oncoming traffic. I remember the accident in three parts: 1. hey, I think that guy is about to hit me 2. ouch, I am on the windshield 3. hey, I'm in the air - where's my bike? Then I was laying on the pavement waiting for it to start really hurting. For the most part, I seem to be okay. No blood, anyway. The red bike is dead & gone. RIP red bike.

Based on this experience, I have decided that I am indestructable. Awesome!

The above picture is me in my new loft. The red bike is against the wall behind me - this is the last known photo of the red bike intact. It was rubbed out less than an hour later. Bastards!

Update on the graffiti wars: I guess the warmish February weather has inspired some creativity, because this loveliness was left on top of the Williamsburg Bridge sign. Very nice! I stopped to look at it more closely on my way home tonight. There is actually some sophisticated line work in there - more than you would probably imagine at the thought of the word "graffiti". It is starting to look like the powers that be have given up on cleaning the sign. Maybe this is just for the winter, though.

Sick (ick)

2007-02-19T07:48:00.000-05:00

Update: So I got in touch with Patrick, the bus driver, and got his address. I sent him $100 as a reward and also wrote a letter explaining what he did to the president of the MTA and the head of the MTA bus company. Just for good measure, I CC'ed the NY Times city desk (or whatever it is called). Hopefully, Patrick will get something good out of this deal.

Wednesday morning, Valentine's Day, I woke up to about 6" of snow on the ground and freezing rain falling from the sky. I was supposed to be closing on my new apartment that day and had to get to downtown Brooklyn - and then had to get to my office at 26th & Fifth Ave. I decided my bike was a better bet than the subway so I suited up and took off. I went about half a block on Flushing Avenue before deciding that it would be smarter to ride on the sidewalk as much as possible. You aren't supposed to do that in NYC, but there were no pedestrians and the drivers were sliding around quite a bit. Probably something to do with STILL DRIVING 50mph IN A 30mph ZONE. Jeepers, people!

I got to the closing about 30 minutes early, basically not looking remotely like someone you would want to trust with a mortgage: helmet hair, about twenty layers of clothes, messenger bag, wearing olive green spats over jeans and unshaven. Remarkably enough, everyone made it to the closing and I am now the proud owner of my very own loft. Contractor starts work in about a week.

After the closing, I decided I should avoid the streets as much as possible and rode over the Brooklyn Bridge, across Chambers Street, and up the west side bike path to 26th Street, where I rode east until I got to my office. It was slow-going, there was a lot of wind and the ice pellets really stung my face. The fenders were clogged with snow and slush, which rubbed against the wheels, making it even hard to keep up any speed. Also, the snow that caked up on the tires was being shaved off by the brake arches, creating still more resistance.

So now I feel a little sick, a chest cold - no fun, but not too bad. Would I do it again?

Oh yes!

Randominimity

2007-02-10T19:44:00.000-05:00

I am pretty sure the title of this post isn't even a word but there's a gob of little junk to write about so here goes:

First off - I have in this blog and in other places dissed the MTA (and their bus operators in particular) as being evil and inconsiderate drivers of hulking obnoxious death machines. I would like to back off of that just a little bit. Okay - really just for one driver in particular. His name is Patrick and he drives the B61 bus that runs between downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City - here is what he did:

Today I was riding home from a tasty lunch at Chai with my (awesome and beautiful) friend Beth. As I zipped down Wythe (at superhuman speed), I noticed that a bus driver about a half block behind me was honking a fair amount. I assumed it was the usual belligerent bus driver honking like a maniac at everything in his path. I kept ahead of the bus, and managed to not make any rude gestures (since he wasn't riding my tail and honking). I turned off of Wythe onto Rodney and headed on home.

About an hour later, I checked my e-mail and the lady who bought my old house in Windsor Terrace had sent me a message saying that some bus driver had called to try and return my wallet - she gave me his cell number and I was able to call him and meet up with the bus about a block from my home to retrieve my wallet.

Patrick had seen the wallet fall out of my pocket while I was riding, stopped to pick it up and then chased me down honking his horn to try and get me to stop. Then he managed (while driving his route) to find a phone number for my old address that was on the driver's license and get word to me. When I met the bus, I explained that I did not have much cash and asked him to call my cell number, leave his full name and address and I would mail him a proper reward. At first he declined and after I insisted he said that he would call me. I will call him if I don't hear from him in the next day or so.

Thank you, Patrick! The MTA needs about 20,000 more employees like you.

Completely unrelated to that story: I did a review of several pairs of cycling knickers which was posted on the Fixed Gear Gallery a few months ago. Originally, it was written as one long review of all the knickers at once. Dennis at FGG modified it to work better with his typical review format. I feel like the text flowed better in my original version, but understand completely the need for a consistent format. Thanks to Dennis and the FGG for putting it up on their site!

What To Think

2007-02-08T00:14:00.000-05:00

The last two nights have been really fun. There were roller races at Bar 169 on Tuesday night; that is Dave Perry in the foreground of the picture. I love how the Bikeworks jersey has the roller-racing dial on the shoulder! You can also see Arone Dyer just off the right hand side of the frame.

As I was getting ready to leave the bar a guy in a dark overcoat leaned into me and whispered, "you oughtta stick around...Floyd Landis is going to be here in half an hour." I whispered back, "I will see him tomorrow night."

Wednesday night, I went to the Brooklyn Brewery for a benefit for the Floyd Fairness Fund. The FFF is raising money for Floyd's defense against the doping charges that arose in the 2006 Tour de France. I went to the presentation with an open mind; I truly WANT to believe that Floyd is innocent. They gave what I assume is a brief presentation of the facts as they see them and the problems with the doping allegations against Floyd, including a few labeling and handling errors. The data and terminology is all unfamiliar to me and I can't say that I was entirely convinced, but it did look like there were legitimate questions as to whether the sample could positively be linked to Floyd. What I did find convincing was the look in Floyd's eyes when he answered that he had not during the 2006 TDF (or ever in his career) used performance enhancing drugs.

The sad part about this case - all doping allegations, really - is that there is no way for Floyd to win this case and have it perceived as anything other than getting off on a technicality. The best revenge for him would be to win the TdF again - I believe he has bowed out of the 2007 Tour.

Floyd seems like a decent and personable guy, he took a moment to sign an autograph for a friend of mine who could not attend and also posed for this picture with my friend Mary-Lynne.

Haunts

2007-01-21T20:48:00.000-05:00

I talked to an old and dear friend yesterday - first time in a decade. I will spare you my personal thoughts about how overwhelmingly dedicated one can feel to old friends.

I got an unrelated email from a college classmate, George, a few months ago - he has truly lived a cyclist's life. As I reflected on my conversation with my other friend, I was thinking a lot about George's message:

Avoid the bicycle bug at all costs – the bars are a safer bet. The bicycle will ruin your life. I’ve been lost with my head in the spokes since we last parted ways about eleven years ago! Yet, the bicycle is the perfect metaphor for life. You wake up, you spin, you return home, you go to bed. If you're lucky, you’ll outrun time and keep your troubles behind!

Part of what I love about cycling is the absolute immediacy of it, the way it forces you to forget. But you fall in love with your favorite ride - you relive it, you visit it again, again, again. And the magic is, it grows right along with you - coy laughter and a knockout smile at the top of that impossible, long climb.

Finally, SNOW!

2007-01-20T18:33:00.000-05:00

Damn it has been cold! Yesterday's ride to work and todays ride around Manhattan were cold and snowy! My tires got caked with snow going over the Williamsburg Bridge bikepath. I had fun doing some slides and skids in the snow (skidding with panniers=not cool). I take strange comfort in all the tire tracks in the snow - the strong, the undeterred! Keep at it people!

I stopped by King Kog today and spent some time talking to Gina Marie - who was kind enough to allow that I might still be a little punk rock...down deep inside, where it really counts.

Also - I am SOOOO excited about the new spats that I ordered from fabric horse today. They are gonna rock - they will look like this - very World War II....or marching band.

A few new links were added today, bikeblog and superimportant - which might be the funniest blog I have ever read. Ken is a genius.

365

2007-01-17T23:03:00.000-05:00

I started with the 365days group today on Flickr - a self-portrait a day for 365 days. Going to work on my stictoitivness, I suppose. You can see my Gan Well Pro track bike in the background - and the orange rain bike that Taliah painted.

Starting the New Year

2007-01-14T10:51:00.000-05:00

I kicked off the new year in Sanibel Island, Florida. I rented a crappy beach cruiser from Billy's Bike Rentals. The bike was J-U-N-K....rear wheel nearly flat and out of true, also set crooked in the dropouts. I think I rode it 20 miles the first day and every pedal stroke was like riding through sand. The first night, the bottom bracket started making a clanking noise and then suddenly refused to turn at all. Valerie and I left the bike locked to a stop sign. We both got on her bike and I pedaled us to dinner - we nearly missed our reservation! (The picture at the top of this post is the Sanibel Lighthouse - built in the late 19th century and probably the only significant piece of architecture I saw on the island.)

The most fun thing about Sanibel was all the wildlife. Tons of birds, gators, shells, & old people. They also have a great bike path that runs off-road for nearly the full length of the island.

I have joined RUSA so that I can start doing rides to qualify for Paris Brest Paris this year!

I took this last picture at the Ft. Meyer's airport - I was oddly happy to see the cop on a bicycle riding around inside the airport. I put away the camera before they decided I was a security threat.

so much...

2006-12-22T18:41:00.000-05:00

When I moved to NYC ten years ago, I had come from Eugene, Oregon. In Eugene I rode my old beat up mountain bike everywhere - it was a Univega Alpina Pro that I bought used and it took me to class and to work and on weekend jaunts along the McKenzie river. I gave up cycling when I moved to NYC - I guess it was a combination of not having money for a bike at the time, not knowing where things were, and having the hell scared out of me by the way people were driving.

Anyway, I eventually got a new bike, a Casati road bike and started doing laps in Prospect Park - I also started doing long rides with local groups - NYCC, 5BBC and maybe a few others. At the same time I bought that red road bike, I bought a skimpy little book, Long Distance Cycling by Rodale press - the publishers of Bicycling Magazine. The first chapter was about Paris Brest Paris and the thoughts of that ride stuck with me.

I have decided to try and do the PBP ride in 2007. I had been mulling the idea over and then read an article in Bicycling Magazine by Chris Carmichael advising people to set a cycling goal for 2007 that they might not be able to accomplish...and to tell people about it. Well now you all know.

For this attempt, I have been searching for a comfortable randonneuring bike that I could get in a relatively short time frame - I imagine that I can handle the 200K and 300K brevets on my road racing bike, but 400K is going to start feeling long on race geometry. I feel like I must have researched every custom and stock bike out there in the attempt to find something right.

I started out thinking about the Surly Long Haul Trucker - which has a great reputation as a touring bike and seems sturdily built. It was just too ugly, mostly a problem with the graphics and the pukey colors it comes in this year.

Next thoughts were about the Rivendell Atlantis - not quite right it seemed a bit beefier than I needed and I sort of felt like you join a cult when you buy a Rivendell. I might have to grow a beard or put on a 20 lb. pot belly...or both!

At some point I discovered the Kogswell P/R - a porteur/randonneuring frame based on an old bike and running the unusual 650b tire size. I was all set to go with this lovely, thoughtfully laid out bike, but finally decided that the largest available size was going to leave too much seatpost and stem sticking up above the frame...a look that I find ungraceful in the extreme. I have to say that Matthew at Kogswell was generous, thoughtful, and very helpful even when it turned out that his bike was not going to be quite right for me. These look like great bikes!

Next I started considering a custom Waterford. They make lovely bikes and the history of modern American cycling goes right to their doorstep. Unfortunately, Waterford doesn't have a shop that reps them here in NYC - they offered to work through any bike shop that I chose, but in the end this proved problematic as the bike shops tend to want to sell what they know and I quickly decided that the middleman was getting in the way of communicating what I wanted to the builder. The bike shop had their own ideas about what I wanted, or ought to want, I suppose.

At some point, I found an old link in my "favorites" column that led me to Jitensha Studio in California. They make a very nice all around bike called the "ebisu" - I actually met somebody riding one of these bikes (the lime green one shown below) during a Brooklyn Critical Mass ride last summer. There were things not quite right for my purposes in the frame and the time frame to do a custom bike was not really going to work for me. I have heard wonderful things about Jitensha Studio and their bikes....I am sure they are fantastic.

Who else did I go through in my research? Thorn Cycles, Mercian, Bob Jackson, I sent email to Jan Heine at Vintage Bicyle Press about a Singer. I investigated Moyer Cycles, Vanilla, Curt Goodrich, Johnny Coast, Independent Fabrication... and I am sure I am leaving a few out!

Well - Velo Orange had a link to a few frame builders that they considered to be the dream builders for randonneuring bikes. One of which was Hampsten Cycles, run by Steve Hampsten. I gave them a call and ended up talking to Steve (who answered the phone - good sign!) for about 30 minutes. It turns out that we have lots of mutual friends in Seattle and New York. Steve was charming and knowledgeable and suggested a number of other builders who might be able to meet my time frame or sell me an older rando bike in great condition. Steve truly did build one of the most beautiful bikes I have seen in a long time you can take a look here - click on the last set of images where it says "Tournesol Randonneuse 700c". Wow!

In the end I ordered a new Rivendell bike called the A. Homer Hilsen (AHH). There are some things about it that I think will not be quite right - but it should do just fine for the short term...and maybe it will be better than I ever imagined. The bike should arrive in the next 10-12 weeks, so I am going to get busy growing that beard and pot belly! (And maybe ordering a Hampsten Tournesol!)

Check Em' Out

2006-11-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

At long last, another post! Things have been hectic, my old high school friend Laura came for a visit - it was great hanging out and laughing about old times and friends. We were walking through the Meat Packing District on Friday night and noticed that there was a film shoot in progress. I made Laura put on her sunglasses and pretend to be a celebrity bitch in the middle of a freak out. She was making nasty faces and swinging her purse around while the roadies (or whatever they call them in the movie industry) laughed and tried to walk past her without getting whacked.

I have been meeting a lot of interesting bikes lately - this one was going over the Williamsburg bridge a few weeks ago. I managed to pull out my camera while riding and catch up to the woman on the bike, but just as I got alongside her, she stopped riding. When I asked if she would ride some more so that I could take her picture, she said "sure", jumped on the bike and took off up the bridge. It wasn't easy to catch her again, but I got the pic! It was just dumb luck that she was so perfectly aligned with the bicyle stencil on the path.

This lovely bike was at the Johnny Coast shop a few weekends ago. Johnny was nice enough to invite a group of us over for a little tour and lecture on frame building and several nice bikes showed up. I love how the seat post is supported by the little arced pieces of tubing.

Last weekend Roscoe and I noticed this side-by-side bike at Bicycle Station. The owner, Mike Rodriguez, took it off the wall and let us each have a quick turn riding it with him. The son of the patent holder works in the shop and his father happened to have enough parts sitting in his barn for Mike to put this together. It is was an odd feeling to ride with no frame between my legs and with no control of the steering. By the way, Bicycle Station is a real jewel of a bike shop, it is at 560 Vanderbilt Avene in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. Stop by if you are around, Mike and his crew will treat you right.

If you look really carefully you can see Roscoe concentrating (I wonder if that counts as a track stand).

Taliah Lempert finished painting my rain bike - Taliah did several paintings and etchings. There is a feature I didn't know about on her website - if you click on the date at the bottom of one of the above pages, you can watch a short video of the bike's owner removing it from the studio. Cool.

Where'd Everyone Go?

2006-10-27T06:12:00.000-04:00

The streets and bike paths are definitely less populated! I really like riding this time of year, the anticipation of the cold air is worse than the actual experience of riding in cold weather.

Valerie arrived last night and announced that she had been hit by a car on her way to class. She has a few bruises and I needed to true the rear wheel of her Bianchi, but otherwise she and bike are both fine. The driver actually stopped, which always surprises me. Valerie declined to file a report with the policeman who stopped - I think that is always a mistake - but she felt sure she was okay. ALWAYS FILE A REPORT AND/OR GET THE NAME & PLATE OF THE PERSON WHO HITS YOU! Really. Even if you think you are okay!

Roscoe got a new prototype track bike from his friends at Rocky Mountain Bicycles. The thing looks great - TIG welded steel frame, great looking paint, they sent the bike with a carbon road fork - my understanding is that the production fork will be different. Roscoe did a nice job with the build - I hope the folks at RM take a close look. I got to ride it around the block in the East Village last night - even though it is about 5 sizes too small, riding a new bike is always fun!

I noticed on the way home that not much had changed on the Williamsburg Bridge graffiti battle. Graffiti artists are still ahead!

Work, Etc.

2006-10-17T06:08:00.000-04:00

Bike Kill 2006 is almost here!

We had a staff meeting this morning at work - my boss, Deborah Berke, looked at my bike (which was leaning against my desk in plain view) and asked whether I planned to keep riding my bike every day no matter how cold it gets. I told her that WAS my plan, but I would have to see how cold it gets. Deborah and the firm have been the most incredibly accomodating employers you could imagine. They encourage me to leave my bikes out where clients can see them and they built me a shower when the office relocated. Several times a week, clients stop to look at whatever bike I rode that day and ask questions about commuting, fixed gear bikes, racing, whatever. It is a nice diversion, so far nobody has asked to try out a fixed gear in the office. If they ask they can try it!

The red pursuit bike got a flat last night on the way home - dammit! Some inconsiderate construction worker left a big hole all the way across the road on Flushing Avenue - pinch flat. This drives me crazy - the flat is easy enough to deal with, but people can crash badly in a hole that deep and it is difficult to spot them in the dark. On the upside - home was only a few blocks away and it wasn't raining!

A small group of guys got together at the Lakeside Lounge last night to have a quick drink and shoot the breeze. I had a great short talk with a guy who is thinking about starting architecture school. It seems as though everyone who is contemplating architecture school hears a lot of awful things about the profession from practicing architects, I am happy to be one of the positive voices.

C-C-COLD

2006-10-15T22:39:00.000-04:00

A sure sign of the coming winter is the enormous gaps in the expansion joints of all the bridge bicycle paths. They are narrow, little slits all summer long and gradually stretch out to gaping ravines as the weather chills. This was the first weekend that I wanted long finger gloves - it is all downhill from now until March. No luck finding gloves in my size...again. XL just doesn't mean what it should when it comes to cycling gloves.

I have no idea what happened to the taxi in this picture, I saw it while riding in a cab to a meeting on the Upper East Side, I hope there isn't a bicycle under that thing.

There was a set of white wheels sitting around my apartment - they were built up for a bike that was vandalized (more on that later, I am waiting for the dust to settle in court). I put them on my Gan Well Pro keirin bike - I am still not sure I like them (don't let the sexy yellow background in this picture fool you). They look good but maybe not quite as nice as the silver rims I had on there before.

Taliah Lempert was set up at the DUMBO Arts Festival today. Seeing her made me happy, I ran into her last night as I was riding to Manhattan and she had been chased off by some bitchy organizer who claimed Taliah didn't have the right to sell her art on the street. An arts fair that doesn't want artists on the streets. Genius. Taliah did some research and discovered that it was, in fact, perfectly legal for her to be out there earning a living with her art as she has always done. I love it when people stand up for themselves like that! I bought this totally bitchin' tee shirt from her.

Roscoe and I took some pictures today, they are to accompany a review of cycling specific knickers I wrote for the Fixed Gear Gallery. We had a good time out in the alley shooting pics and riding each other's bikes, but it was a pain to email all those big photos - even zipped the files were quite large. I am wearing the wool cycling jersey that a group of us NYC riders custom ordered. Sashae, a friend of ours organized the whole order, collected the money and is now taking care of distributing all the jerseys. Thanks Sashae!

Another Wet One

2006-10-12T06:37:00.000-04:00

I got soaked again on the ride home tonight (I am cheating and the above picture is from a rainy day earlier in the year!). Riding in the rain is so fun! There are fewer people out and it feels like you get the bike paths and side streets all to yourself; I think there was one other person on the Williamsburg Bridge last night. The people who are out tend to be a little stupid - they run out into the street with their umbrellas pulled low on their heads, and they do this without looking for oncoming traffic.

Bill Scanga from the City Reliquary Museum came rolling up next to me on a beautiful orange Johnny Coast bike as I slopped through Williamsburg. He had been hit by a car earlier in the day, but was okay. He told me that the owner of The Museum of Jurassic Technology had been into his museum and had sent a letter saying how much he liked it and encouraged them to keep building the collection. It was fun to talk to Bill for a few blocks - we met earlier this year at a show the City Reliquary Museum hosted for Amy Bolger.

I put on dry clothes and had a quick dinner before heading over to Kristen and Josephine's house. We had another night of working on Kristen's bike and watching Project Runway. The new bike has an old style brake mounting hole in the fork, not big enough to receive the recessed mounting nut on the modern brake. We drilled out the back hole to allow the recess mount. Kristen didn't have any safety goggles, so her motorcycle helmet had to do double duty. Jo taught us a new word, swarf, which are the shavings and bits of waste produced by metalwork.

The Big Weekend

2006-10-10T19:20:00.000-04:00

Wow - lots of riding and bike stuff the last few days:

Valerie came over for dinner on Friday night she decided to do some back exercises with my Swiss ball while I was cooking. Note the glass of wine on the floor next to her.

I got up at 4:00am on Saturday morning to meet my neighbor Christian and drive out to the T-Town fall bicycle flea market. I had loaded up all kinds of stuff that was cluttering up my apartment and was ready to sell! I took the first load down figuring that I would come back up for my cell phone and the rest of the junk for sale. Big mistake. I waited outside in the cold and light rain for Christian - I wanted to call but I kept thinking that it would be a big pain in the ass to lug everything back upstairs and get the phone then haul it all back down. About half an hour later I gave up on Christian and went up to get my phone. Sure enough - he overslept.

The flea market was a big success - I sold almost everything I brought with me and then unloaded the last few things on eBay over the weekend. Greg Lemond was at the flea market and I got to meet him, I also met Bobby Julich (charming guy!) and had a picture taken with him. The sky was overcast and grey - combine the grey sky and my grey hair and it looks like my head is disolving into the clouds. Vanity prevents me from posting this picture uncropped, but trust me, those are Bobby's eyes on the right.

Monday I decided to take a day off from work and do some riding and thinking. I took a trip to Nyack and had breakfast at the Runcible Spoon, a cyclist hangout in upstate NY. I ran into a new friend, Mary-Lynne, who races for the Champion System team, nice to have a lunch break that involved conversation! It was about 75 miles of riding all said and done - it felt great to get out and spin away some miles. In the interest of thinking the day was declared (in my head) "small ring day". My chain only saw the big ring twice - when I was going downhill at 32mph and couldn't spin any more speed out of the bike. A few seconds in the big ring got me up over 35mph - that speed slipped away into the blacktop as I went up the next hill, comfortably back in my small chainring. You can see my route, one way here. (Hint, click and drag to pan the map, Google Ped doesn't zoom so well right now - the map comes up at the midpoint of my ride, in Nyack.)

Sunday evening I hooked up with Roscoe and we did a little work on his KHS pursuit bike. Roscoe wanted to drill a hole in the BB to allow water to run out. This is a crackpot theorey, but what the hell. That orange bike of Roscoe's is one of my favorite bikes ever - he owns two of my favorite bikes, in fact - here is the other one.

Time vs. Distance

2006-10-06T20:19:00.000-04:00

An article in Bicycling Magazine a few weeks ago mentioned some of the hazards of commuting by bike - one of them was pedestrians. The article noted that people's natural instinct when they see something approaching quickly is to freeze for a second and then scurry forward in the direction that they were originally going. Watch for this it really is true, and interesting to look for.

I try to be considerate of pedestrians when I am riding. Lately, I have noticed that they seem easily startled when I go through a crosswalk full of people - even when it feels to me that I have missed them by a hugely safe margin...so today I was thinking: pedestrians judge near misses by actual physical distance, on my bike I judge a near miss by time. How close I am to hitting something has more to do with the time required for one of the bodies in question to cross a given distance - when a pedestrian is traveling relatively perpendicular to my line, a distance of 3' could take them several seconds to cross, a big margin of safety from my point of view since I might travel 20 times that distance in the same amount of time. Something to think about.

Thursday was beautiful in New York - I took my usual route to the office and then got to ride to a meeting at 78th and Park, then got to ride back downtown to the West Village for lunch and then, finally, back to the office. It always feels great to get in an afternoon ride.

I become a greedy rider at this time of year. Each day makes me more aware that the comfortable cycling days are dwindling away and I take every opportunity to wring the last drops of pleasant salty sweat out of the pavement. I met up with a friend in the Village and got to hang out on the piers during the sunset. There was a new pier open - the pier is actually old, but it is usually locked up. Cool.

Soaked!

2006-10-05T07:20:00.000-04:00

Jo, Kristen, and I worked on Kristen's new fixie commuter conversion last night. She bought an old Fuji 10 speed from Hal at Bicycle Habitat - it is going to be a great bike! I got to J* & X10's place and realized I had forgotten my bottom bracket tool at home - so I had to ride from Williamsburg back to the Navy Yard in light rain. We got the old BB out, put the new BB in, ate dinner, and watched Project Runway. (The above picture is J&K on a small bike adventure we had last summer - water taxi from Astoria to DUMBO.)

By the time the show ended it was pouring outside and I got thoroughly soaked riding home. The truth is, I love riding in the rain. It is so much better a game! You can stretch out skids for half a city block if you get some good speed going.

Nice morning riding - I took the scenic route to work: over the Brooklyn Bridge, up the west side bike path to Central Park, once around the park then down Broadway, through Times Square, to my office. Nice!

The Little Things

2006-10-04T06:20:00.000-04:00

I love the little bicycle traffic lights on the west side bike path!

Work has slowed down a little bit and I was able to escape for a lunch time ride yesterday afternoon. I rode from my office to Joe's Pizza for lunch. Best slices in NYC! On the way there I saw my friend, Squid...riding the WRONG WAY up Fifth Ave. Squid gets a pass and can do no wrong. (But really, Kevin - shouldn't you be setting an example for all the young messengers out there...and for the KIDS!?)

Now and then you come up with a simple, obvious idea that makes life a little easier. I had the genius idea to start using the strap on my camera case - I leave the camera hanging around my neck and put the strap to my messenger bag over the camera bag straps to keep it from bouncing around while I ride. The big advantage is obvious - I can get to the camera much more quickly and don't have to fight it out of the messenger bag.

My new setup allowed me to get the shot above during a brief stop in my morning commute. I hit a red light at 23rd Street and 1st Avenue - it was early, so the streets don't look quite as crazy as usual.

I am excited about the upcoming weekend - the T-Town bicycle swapmeet is on Saturday and on Sunday there is an alleycat, Nyack to the Track, that promises to be great! I have to work out a trade for my Sunday work shift at the Park Slope Food Co-op so that I can do the race.

Shorter Days

2006-10-03T05:54:00.000-04:00

The days are shrinking! My ride home is definitely darker - there are spooky blind areas where all I can think about is whether I am about to roll into a pothole. Time to find my handlebar light.

My morning commute involved a small scare on the Williamsburg bridge. Workers were blocking both lanes on the Manhattan side of the bridge. They had set up just around a corner where the bike lane shifts from the edge of the bridge to the center. The workers had not set up any cones to alert people that the lanes were blocked. When I pointed this out and let them know, the first guy I talked to just shrugged his shoulders and walked off - the next guy actually promised to set up warnings and seemed angry that it had been overlooked.

I rode home down the west side highway, over the Brooklyn Bridge and into DUMBO where I stopped to snap a few pictures. I found this old carousel in a building on Water Street. The pictures don't quite capture how beautiful it was.

A Gentle Weekend

2006-10-01T08:31:00.000-04:00

I met up with some friends on Friday after work. We gathered at Chelsea piers to watch the sunset. My friends Chombo gave my KHS pursuit bike a test ride. Actually, he gave it a few test skids - the geometrey of this bike makes it easy to take weight off of back wheel and skid for long distances. After the sunset, I rode to the Brecht Forum to meet Valerie - a new friend of mine, Oscar Riquelme, had a few pieces in the "war and peace" show. I really like Oscar's paintings - you can see some of his work at the Russell Collection in Austin, TX.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day, in the afternoon Roscoe and I rode to the DUMBO section of Brooklyn to shoot some pictures. I am writing a review of cycling knickers for the Fixed Gear Gallery and we needed some beefcake photos to accompany the text. I will post a link to the review when it is published. Roscoe had a question - he had noticed some wooden enclosures that started springing up on back porches and balconies in the Hasidic neighborhoods. Mystery solved, thanks to wikipedia and some vague hints from Valerie. Here is a picture of one of the Sukkot enclosures.

Saturday evening I had dinner with some dear old friends, Rick and Carol. We walked to Hasaki restaurant from their East Village apartment and met Valerie for dinner. Yummy sushi! Valerie surprised us all by picking up the tab for the entire dinner, we were all grateful; sushi isn't cheap!

Valerie and I were both on bike (she had her monster Huffy) so we decided to ride back to Brooklyn together. That bike of hers serves a purpose, she can leave it locked up anywhere without fear of someone stealing it - and it doesn't matter if it gets rained on; it's good errand bike for NYC. But the damned thing squeaks a lot - in fact, I am going to post this entry and go lube her hubs and chain right now. This is her on the Williamsburg Bridge at night, leather jacket with zipper trim and go-go boots on a 50 pound Huffy. Hell yeah!

Welcoming Spots

2006-09-29T06:12:00.000-04:00

I was finally able to get an appointment for a long overdue haircut. I usually cut my own hair, but from time to time go to a super-deluxe salon, Bumble and Bumble, for a little pampering. The salon in the Meatpacking District is huge and fabulous, and Denise (who cuts my hair) is an artist. This salon is always buzzing with ritzy people in expensive clothes - and the salon is ALWAYS cool about the bike being in the shop. I bring it right up in the elevator, wheel it in and lean it on the window in plain view. These kinds of places quickly become favorite spots for me and I appreciate businesses who go the extra distance to be accomodating. I had a chance to meet the founder, Michael Gordon, when our firm did some work for Bumble and Bumble - he is a true gentleman and, I suspect, the guiding example for how the staff treats customers.

I rode home in the dark through Manhattan to the Williamsbug bridge - this scene was shot in Williamsburg. There is a neighborhood populated largely by Hasidic families; Rosh Hashana was celebrated this past week. They are participating in a Tashlich ceremony, they symbolically "throw away" their sins by praying and tossing bread crumbs into a flowing body of water.

Bad Driver Meets Bad Driver

2006-09-27T20:04:00.000-04:00

I have a special disdain for the people who drive cabs and buses in New York. I am going to indulge myself and paint with a wide brush here - they are terrible, hateful drivers! I was heading to Brooklyn yesterday evening after work - I had a little time and decided to take the scenic route, heading west on 25th street towards the west side bike path. Immediately after I crossed Broadway a cab pulls up behind me and starts honking and yelling - apparently he was in a very big hurry to get 75 feet up the road and wait in line behind the five other cars stacked up at the red light.

Nothing in this world makes me ride slowly down the middle of the street like a jerk in a cab honking his horn to get to a red light. 25th street is full of potholes, cracks, and bad patch jobs and I have to swerve all over the road to avoid going into one of these hazards and cracking a rim - or my skull.

The guy in the cab pulled up next to me (he appeared to be Middle Eastern) and shouts at me in a thick accent, "get the fuck outta here you mothafucka, I been in this country longer than you mothafokka! - I been here 4 years, get the fuck outta my way!" He held out four fingers to illustrate the four years he has been here (motthafucka!), and pulled up beside me. "What are you Russian? you stupid motherfuck? Get outta this country! Fuck you, you Russian mothafock!" Then he turned onto 6th Avenue and was gone. That was some serious hate. And people say immigrants don't assimilate to American culture anymore? I beg to differ, this guy has been here four years and he already thinks foreigners are wrecking the place!

This morning on my way into work I rode up to the intersection of 27th and 3rd Avenue to see the crash in the pictures at the top and bottom of this posting. I am surprised it doesn't happen more. Cabs have a way of veering across several lanes of traffic without looking around too much, confident in their belief that any move is safe as long as it involves rapid acceleration. Buses pull away from the curb like a hulking beast lumbering unaware from its mudhole; that it could be hurt by some lesser vehicle is a failure of imagination on the part of the bus.

I Feel Explosive!

2006-09-27T06:33:00.000-04:00

Tuesday was a quiet day of riding for me. I rode in early again for a meeting. Early riding is good riding in NYC, the traffic is calm. One thing I love about Tuesday mornings is that the trash trucks are out all along the route that I take into the office. They smell terrible (this is less noticeable as the cool weather sets in) but they block a lot of traffic which means that as you pedal cross-town, the streets are virtually car free! And there is always something satisfying about zipping past the lines of honking cars trapped behind the busy trash truck.

I rode in over the Williamsburg Bridge, they have closed the north bike lane so I have to pedal up the south side ramp, which is much much steeper. The morning light is really nice and it is easy to stop noticing the spectacular view when you do this every day. My trip back to Brooklyn took me over the Brooklyn Bridge; I was heading to a restaurant, Kili, to meet some old friends for a drink. The evening light on the Brooklyn Bridge was lovely - a nice day's riding, bookended by two bridge views.

Out With the Old

2006-09-26T06:06:00.000-04:00

The day started off really well - I had a morning meeting at a project site in the East 70's. Since I was just meeting with contractors and not clients, I decided to ride my bike to the meeting instead of going to the office first to change. I rode accross the Brooklyn Bridge to Chambers Street and then onto the West side bike path - stopping to take pictures of a crane that was pulling up chunks of a deteriorated pier, just above Battery Park City.

The meeting went well - uneventful - and I rode back down to my office at 27th and 5th, taking Park Avenue all the way South. It was a great ride - I went through the Met Life building that straddles and divides Park Avenue in midtown. A spooky, dark tunnel through the building's base that curves and winds, finally scrubbing some speed off of the crazyfast cab drivers who shoot down 5th Avenue.

I got an email in the afternoon from my ex, Liz, telling me that our divorce had been granted by the state and that we were officially single on 13 September 2006. I had come to peace with our separation, this news brought a lot of old feelings to the surface and I was a little shell-shocked the rest of the day. It reminded me a little of the scene with the crane this morning - dredging up and dismantling the last vestiges of some almost forgotten thing to make room for something new.