Eight Words

Eight words, and a shared moment, make all the petty aggravations, minor illnesses, frustrations, setbacks and anger of the last few weeks fall away faster than it takes to write these words.

"I like riding bikes. I love you Daddy."

Thank you Emily, for helping to keep me sane and to see what is really important.

Bike Lust 2

There is just so much good stuff out there. What a great time in history for bikes. Modern and retro. MatthewG at Kogswell is looking to build a porteur. From his page on the projcet
"We're building a replica of a 1952 Parisian newpaper delivery bike. It will have a big front rack and fenders like the bike shown above. The message that we're hearing is that cyclists are looking for a practical bike, a kind of go-to bike that's ready to take on commuting and errands in a fun, fast, stylish manner." A townie with class, designed to carry a load up front. Excellent!

Under the weather

Three out of four of us at home are down with monstrous colds/flu. Ouch. I hope I'm recovered enough for a ride this weekend. Perhaps some geared riding to take it easy. The Princess Stoker hasn't come up to the top of the mountain with me this year, so I think that is what we'll try. 10 or so easy geared climbing miles up, a few pics, and downhill all the way back to the truck.

Update-2:00 PM Being sick is no fun, but still better off than what happend to a friend of mine today. Her barn caught on fire and is a total loss, along with two prize winning quarter horses. :^(

Bike Lust 1

Every time I think I'm getting to where I want to be with my bike stable, I find out about new stuff that looks so good. I'm a marketing departments dream. When I was first getting into singlespeeding, I really liked On-One's Inbred, but I ended up just converting my old DiamondBack, then my Giant. Now On-One have come out with a 29"er, and next month it will be available as a complete bike. I wonder if I could justify a second new bike this year....... (pic snagged from MTBr.com, just to show you what I'm talking about)

Good Deeds

Last week I reported that I had recieved a Brooks leather tool bag which was not intended for me. I shipped it back to the shop, and they credited me the shipping and sent me this nice T-Shirt. A big thanks to Harris Cyclery.

Check out those melons

Pulled the last watermelon from the garden last night. I'd say mid-October is a pretty good run. I also harvested all the pumpkins. They were a bit disappointing. I had about 20, but they where all softball to bowling ball size. None of the bigger ones good for carving. I also pulled the last of the tripods supporting beans and tomatos, then ran the mower over everything. The last stuff left is the swiss chard, holding steady through the dry late summer and bugs. It's looking pretty good now, and adds a bit to salads. I'm hoping to do more in the garden next year, with some new equipment and better planning.

Energy Conservation

Oh yeah.

Comment Spam

Well, the comment spammers are finding me pretty regularly now, so I've turned on word verification on the comments. That way I don't think I'll have to go back through deleting spam, like in the post below.

My new tires are here...My new tires are here...

I got home yesterday to find that the UPS man had brought some new goodies for me. I finally overcame inertia and bought some WTB MutanoRaptos in 44. These will replace the flat prone Nokian 35s I have on there now, so I should be a lot more confident on the Watershed's rocks now (I hope). With the new tires the Quickbeam will be doing more in it's role as an offroad bike. I also finally got a new cog to get the Fuji back on the road (42/15), so last night after the kids soccer practice I spent some time in the basement setting everything up on it. I put on the noodle bars that had been on the QB, and readjusted the rear brake, so the Fuji is ready for both road and trainer duty now. So now I'm back up to three working fixed gear bikes and a geared tandem. The next bike project will be to get new wheels for the Fuji, an internal geared hub in back, and a generator hub up front to use for randonnering next year.

Tandemo and Bent Event

Soccer was cancelled on Saturday due to the all day rains. It was kind of nice to have a day off. Sunday was overcast and cool, but good enough to ride. Emily, the Stoker Princess and I headed over to Mt. Airy Bikes, for their annual Tandemo and Bent Event, a chance for them to showcase their Tandem and Recumbent bicycles, and al lot of other pretty strange cycling stuff. Here is my report.

Not Understanding

While walking at lunch I came across some graffitti sprayed on the park path. There were several statements, but two of them made me pause. The first one said "More Parks, Less Jails," which is actually a sentiment I can agree with. It is just that the devil is in the details. Just a bit down from there was another one that I took the above picture of: "Gentrification is racist." I wasn't sure of the context, but further down was the same prase printed on a city sign attached to a park construction project. The slogans seemed to have been written by the same person. So I'm confused. Gentrification is racist, if so why do we want more (gentrified) parks? Is the sloganeer racist? Are they just confused? Do we have competing petty vandals in Frederick, some who want racist parks and some who don't? Vandalism sure seems like a poor way to get your message out, whatever it may be.

Arrived yesterday

Take a look at the cool little toolbag which arrived yesterday from Harris Cyclery. Alas, it was supposed to go to somebody named Tom N. in California. My actual order arrived too. Its tempting to keeep the bag, but I can't justify ripping someone off for 70 bucks. So Tom, who ever you are, the bag is heading back to Harris before it makes its way out to you. I hope it gets there safe and sound.

New Link

I've added another new link over on the sidebar in Links I Likes. Out Your Backdoor is a website which promotes do-it-yourself culture. Jeff is a nice guy who bounces a lot of neat ideas off the bike list we're on.