Fixie Fixation

Beautiful ride to work today. I didn’t ride yesterday because I hate the wind. It was very windy. I got to work yesterday and the gent who’s office is beside mine says, “no bike? It’s only -4 out there.” I know, I’m a wussy when it comes to wind. I just don’t like it.

Today was another story. Calm, -2 C, fantastically refreshing and crisp. No better way to wake up! I even think it’s better than running.

Thought I'd take a picture of this steeple that I pass everyday.

Back to the fixie fix. My 2nd fixie is up on FGG! I’ve posted the pics here before and now they are up for more folks to check out. Those of you who don’t check it out every day, you would be glad if you did. Great pictures of all different types of bikes (or all different types of fixed gear bikes anyway). Warning though: you may just get bit by the fixie bug! That’s what happened to me and now I’ve got two of them. If you’ve ever ridden a fixie, you probably know how fun they are, for their simplicity and efficiency. It’s hard to describe, but this fixie here is my all time favorite bike! Free frame, $500.00 wheels, free everything else, sweet, sweet steely smooth ride. Love it!

Jerome

Slush!

Winter seems to be making another stab at us and not having too much success. It was snowing all day yesterday with the temperature hovering around the freezing mark. Just enough to make slop. Everywhere. Not a bad thing though. One of my co-workers said to me, “I can’t believe you’re riding in this weather.” I just told her that I bet I have more fun riding in the slush than she does driving in it. She agreed.

I was temped to change out the studded tires on my commuter bike over the weekend, but they were kind of nice to have yesterday. The full coverage fenders are truly appreciated on days like yesterday. I was quite surprised, but yesterday was one of those days when your enjoy the ride more than others. I don’t know why. It was “wet and miserable” but somehow the whole time I was riding, I was so glad to be out on my bike. I’m grateful for being able to do it. Some people can’t. Some just don’t. I do and I dig it.

I'd feel bad for a derailer on a day like today.




Ride yer bike!

Oil is for Sissies?????

Where did the author go? Am I the only one who doesn’t know? I’ve noticed that many blogs still link to this old favorite site that I frequented. My blog is included in the list of them.

Why do we still link to this blog, this vacant blog? Is it a vigle hoping that he will come back? I must say that I did enjoy reading the blog and I was inspired by the photos that he took while riding his bike. Somehow the photos capture the beauty of being on a bicycle. Not the bicycle, but being on it. While he did ride an Atlantis, which in my opinion is a really nice, quirky bike, it wasn’t about the bike. It was about the ride.

I think this might be him. It’s an Atlantis, different color, but based on the blog, one might think that it was him. Some things make me think not. What do you think? Checking out his Flickr feed, I'm certain it is him. Small world this bloggy one.

Jerome.

Smart

I saw this and Martino's blog and I thought I would share it here as well.



I want one of these for my garage. 9 bikes leaves little room for cars.

Back Home

Not me, the geese. It's a sure sign of spring when the Canadian Geese are honking around town again. I love seeing them come back. Soon, they'll have their young waddling behind them in a big train learning how to swim and all that stuff. The path that I usually take to work is right beside this small natural lake, and it seems to be a hot spot for geese. Some days, I have to get off my bike (or stop running) to let them cross the path. I dig it. It seems to make seasons more noticeably when you see them come back, the young grow big and then they take off again in the fall.
While I was at it I thought I'd snap a few pics of the Bianchi. Hopefully I'll get some better pics of the geese, but this was as close as my zoom would take me.

Enjoy your ride today!

Jerome.

New Bike!

Well, It's not a pugs, but it is a pretty nice bike. It's a Bianchi! I've always wanted a Bianchi and I found this one for free at the recycling yards bike rack. I'll get some better pictures of it, but today was the first ride to work with it and I really like this bike.
I wanted something that I could use instead of my fixie on windy days and I think this will fit the bill. I've put on 700 X 38C tires (just barley shoe-horned between the chain stays) and they feel pretty good. They are fast enough for the road, but I can also take some gravel trails and pathways through parks and still have the stability I need.


Pretty stoked about this bike! I'll get some better pics up later. Great ride to work today!

Cheers,

Jerome.

Back on the Bike

Man, a week is far too long not to ride a bike! The week before last, I rode to work every day. To work and home for lunch, back to work after lunch and then home again. It's great, getting 4 rides a day. Just enough to wake you up and put a smile on your face, not enough to get all sweaty (if you take it easy).

Anyway, rode in yesterday morning and man did it feel cold. -5C but with 50km/h winds made for a wind chill factor of -14. The wind just seems to cut right through whatever you're wearing and get your bones cold! Gross. In spite of that, I had a smile on my face and was so glad that I rode my bike. On the way home for lunch, my goggles kept icing up as there was mist in the air and it was slowly freezing. The roads were getting slick too so I traded my 23C tired fixie for my mtn fixie after lunch and headed back. One thing about a brake less fixie when the road are wet for have a skim of frozen mist, your skids last a lot longer, but don't serve very well as a brake.

The ride home was fantastic and thought I would venture off road a little. A little being 100ft to get this picture. I think this bike is geared a little high (38/17) for any real off -road riding, but I made this for bad weather commuter, which is certainly serves well as.




So good to be back on the bike again! This morning was 0C and wind with me the whole way to work, so I past a car on my fixie with my legs pumping like an over-revving sport bike. But, I did beat the car. That's what matters right?

Jerome.

Influence

I've notice lately that there is a trend in using bicycles as an object in which a statement is made regarding the service that a company can offer, being faster, superior to competitors. I think it's great. Here are some examples I found in 2 days, in two airports.

Jerome

Fantastically Boring

This was shot, and edited completely while waiting for a plane. I had finished up all the work I could do and watching this will let you know just how bored I was.

Customer Service

In the airline world, this sometimes seems to be a joke. While waiting for my flight to Oakland, I was chillen at a gate area other than the one I needed to be in just because it wasn't busy. As I was sitting there, a flight came in and I think that almost every passenger had missed their connections. I decided I'd snap a pic or two of all the happy people. This pictures shows the line up that has already filled up the barriers that lead back and forth to where the customer service counter actually is. I bet there were over 100 people in line. Fun Flying.

This is my reflection in the mirror with the happy travelers beyond where I was sitting.
This is because I was bored.

When you can't ride your bike

What a shame that is. Sometimes, it just doesn't work to ride your bike to work. Today is a great day with some fresh snow, but I've got to make the 45 minuted drive to the airport after lunch and obviously riding my bike just isn't feasible today.

What's more is that I've been out of town Monday, Tuesday and then Wednesday we had our monthly "management" meeting that seems to go better without helmet head and sloppy pants. Now, I'll be in Oakland CA for Thursday and Friday, and that makes for a whole week of not riding to work! Stinks!

What can one do to ease the pain of not getting to enjoy one of your favorite hobbies? Take pictures of the bike path that one normally rides to work on from ones truck? Nope, doesn't work.


Here are the pics anyway. As you see, this would be a great day for a ride. I guess the only good thing to glean from this situation is that not being able to ride a bike when you really want too, fuels the passion even more.

On a better note, I checked out the recycle yard bike rack after lunch yesterday, and to my utter surprise was a Bianchi 58cm road bike. I haven't even gone into what model it is yet, but it is a nice cro-mo frame with decent aluminum 700c wheels. I can't wait to have a chance to dig into this bike a bit and find out what it's all about. I think it's a touring model, as I've notice a whole bunch if different braze-ons for all kind of rack mounting points. I've always wanted a Bianchi, and this one might just be big enough for me, so we'll see.

For those of you who are riding your bikes to work today, enjoy it! I'll be going up with you next week when I'll actually be home for a few days!





Jerome

On the Road

Well, travelling anyway. I'm in Mobile Alabama right now and it's been a long and boring day. With the exception on my layover in Phoenix. The company that I work for has about 18 employees in PHX (we do the entire baggage handling contract for Southwest airlines Phoenix operation) and I was great to meet up with them again. I've been working in the airline baggage industry for almost 10 years now(all with the same company), and it always amazes me to see what a large system looks like. I'm in Mobile for some meetings on a project where we're replacing the entire ticket counter conveyor systems (the whole airport will be G&S conveyor!!!!!) and even this is such a simple piddly system compared to what is going on in PHX. I was a little miffed at myself, because the PHX manager met me, took me for a tour of the baggage system, and I left my camera in his office! It is crazy to see the conveyors that are running under the gate area like pasta bowl. Even for people who don't get excited about baggage conveyors (most everyone I meet) it would be wild to see the bags rocketing through that station. One of the gents that works in PHX is going to try and put a little production together to show the magnitude of the system that we maintain here. If he does, I'll be sure to post the video here.

Anyway, this post obviously has nothing to do with bikes, but whatever. What else is there to do when you travel 16 hours, take some measurements, meet some people and fly back the next day?

Rocken Out for the weekend!

Well, I figured that I may as well take advantage of the dry roads and good weather so I pulled out the Rockabilly Boogy. I was thinking of my Allez Comp, but I'd hate to get the drive train all dirty with the dust and all that crap.

This bike is definitely not fast, but it is fun! Very comfy too. It's got a 3 speed nexus internal hub which does okay. The thing with this bike is that it's just so cool to ride nice and slow and let everyone check out yours wheels. I don't even wear a helmet with this bike, but oh well. It would ruin the whole look. Riding a bike like this with a helmet is like wearing rubber farm boots with a designer suit. Some things just don't work together.

You gotta love those 3 inch fatti-o tires .

It's the little things

In life, far too many little pleasures go unnoticed by most of us. Myself included. One great things about being outside, whether riding a bike, running and even just walking, is that it's a lot more difficult not to notice the simple things that make life so great. I've never not notice a beautiful sunrise, or the way a field looks when rain is coming down over it when your riding or running by. Yesterday morning riding to work I could hear coyotes howling in the distance. It seems to be that when your in a car you're sealed off from the amazing creation that surrounds us.


I was talking with a co-worker saying how great it is that the roads are completely dry now, and a fendered bike is optional. She didn't even notice that most all of the snow is gone and the streets are completely dry. It's one of the first things I notice every time I jump on my bike.


Speaking of great riding conditions, this week I haven't ridden my bike every single day. That'll total up to 60 miles I've ridden this week, and 60 miles that I wasn't sealed off from the world in my truck. Every day this week I've gotten to work with a huge smile and just charged, because I've taken advantage of the opportunity to get outside for a bit. I can't understand why other people are not doing this. I suppose that for most of my commute I ride past fields and only come to one lighted intersection, but even when I cut through 'down-town' it's cool to see the shop owners opening up, putting out their signs, waving at them and saying good morning.

I've been told by 3 of my co-workers that when it gets warmer, they are going to start riding their bike to work every day. I've offered to do any maintenance they might need done and even completely built up a bike for my buddy Brendan. I think that if they do actually start riding every day, there will be a whole new level of energy in the lunch room ever morning while we get our morning coffee. I sure hope they do start riding their bikes! Who knows, we might even need a bike rack!

Jerome.

Visiting my Junk

Well, over this past weekend I was at my folks house where I happen to have some of my stuff stored. These are other interests of mine, other than bicycles. Please, be not hatn' the fact that these things burn petrol and pollute the ozone.

Here is my 1965 Rambler Marlin. This is a California car that I purchased last December for a price that I really couldn't turn down. I've always wanted a piece of automobile history, and being that I didn't grow up with the classic cars (born in 1980) I didn't really car which piece of history I got. This is it. It's got 70,000 original miles and runs like a dream. Even the windows are all original and have no cracks. I've got the bill of sale from Sunnyvale CA, and a Polaroid picture of the day it was purchased from the dealer in CA. This car is fun. Hard top is great for summer cruising too.

Next, is an unfinished project I start over 4 years ago. A hand made motorcycle. I made the frame, kick-stand, gas-tank (over 40 hours in the gas tank alone) brake pedal and shift lever. All I really need to do is build a foot-clutch for it, dis-assemble, paint and put it together. I haven't so much lost interest as I seem to not have the time at this point in my life. I'll pick this back up in the next 10 years or so.

Leading to my piece of bullet proof crap dirt bike. This is a 1970 DT250, that I've bored out to 310cc and gone through extensive modifications. This bike will not die! I've ridden it through rivers to the point the entire bike was under water. Tow it for a 1/2 mile behind a quad, and she drained enough to start spitting smoke again. I this bike.

Back to bicycles, today it's about 13C above, so Mr. Fixie (road) is getting a breath of fresh air and it amazes me how much speed we sacrifice for the sake of stability in the snow. I've passed 3 cars in the last 2 days on my fixie. I love it!

Well, I'm going to ride my bicycle now.

Jerome.

VeloDonald

I saw this on the net and figured it was pretty cool. Who ever said that bike commuting had to be slow??



Jerome.

Frosty and the Fix

What a great ride to work today! There was a wack of new hoar frost on the trees. Yes hoar frost. I'm not one of these politically correct people who would use the new term "Rhyme frost". It's always been called hoar frost and I will keep on calling it hoar frost.

Anyway, that's enough about that. Whatever you want to call it, it was very beautiful. I could only imagine how nice it would have looked if the sun were out and shining, but still, I love this about riding a bike to work. You can go through parks, walk out on the dock at a frozen lake and take pictures! No noisy cars sitting on the road going slower than I ride, listening to some bimbo on the radio blabbing about all the crap that's going on in the world today. If more people would take a few minutes and enjoy mornings like this, there would be a lot less crap going on in the world to blab about.

Those who sit there listening to the crap, enjoy it, it's all yours. I've even gone so far as to get rid of my television (2 years ago) so that I can limit the influence that the media has on my mind. I really don't know about the latest news in the middle east, the robberies that happened over the weekend, or how the world is coming to an end soon and we're all doomed.

Doom yourself.

Keep watching your T.V.

Me, I'll be outside, riding my bike!

Jerome.

Great Day

Sometimes you just know it's going to be a good day.

Today is one of those for me. The ride to work was fantastic! It's -10C, no wind, huge light snow flakes lightly falling, and for some reason the roads were dead! The 1 inch of snow that's on the ground is so light that if you sneeze, you clear the path 10ft in front of you. For over 1/2 of my commute, I was able to ride right in the middle of the road. I ended up swerving side to side like I was a kid again. Ride in the left lane, ride in the right lane, jump onto and off of the side walk. One of those days where it seems the world has been given to me as a play ground. It has and I'm going to enjoy it.

Go ride your bike on the play ground that you've been given!

Jerome.