Los Angeles Cyclist

Crankmob - July 20, 2009 - Bike repairs, bike fitting, repeated dispersal by law enforcement.

2009-06-21T02:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Crankmob, the monthly Westside cycling Bacchanal. (No pics, because I left my camera swinging around my neck all night instead of actually taking it out and using it. D'oh!)

Before I get started, if you're planning on going to Crankmob, please have the following:
1. A bike that has been tuned up recently, or at least ridden regularly. Grabbing something with 2 wheels, pumping up the tires, and hoping for the best, is not a strategy for fun, and getting stranded 5-10 miles from your house or car is kind of a drag.
2. A wrench to get your wheels off if you get a flat.
3. Levers to get your tire off your wheel if you get a flat, and back on again.
4. A patch kit to repair your tube when you get a flat.
5. 2 replacement tubes for when your tube turns out to be unpatchable (and an extra for when you destroy your first spare tube).
6. A pump to inflate your tire once it's repaired.

Aside from the bike, these items are CHEAP, and can save you (and probably me, but we'll get to that shortly) substantial amounts of time. (Everybody on crankmob has $ for smart phones and alcohol, but somehow $25 worth of repair kit is extravagant.)

It was enormous, probably 600+ people showed up. We started at Venice Skate Park, and rode down Lincoln to Marina Del Rey, then took the Ballona Creek path out to Mustache Bridge and down to the Dockweiler Beach parking lot.

Here, we were supposed to have Bike Jousting. Richie went all out for this one, towing a bike trailer with kiddie bikes and jousting lances on it, and even getting ZAP from American Gladiators to host it. Seriously. She is one fit lady. (Click the link).

Unfortunately, law enforcement arrived before the jousting got going, and we were dispersed.

So, back up the beach, back across Mustache Bridge, down Lincoln, East on Jefferson, to the Home Depot with its enormous parking lot.

As I arrived, somebody asked if I had a pump, which I did, so I stopped to help. Unfortunately, the tube was destroyed, so I sold him one of my spares. (I know it's good bike karma to give stuff away, but I tend to go through a lot of tubes/patches since other people need them, so I take enough $ to replace them for the next person.) While he was replacing that, another guy rolled up on a flat tire. I sold him a patch kit, and while he fixed his flat, I took a look at his wheel, to see if there was something that could have caused it. There was.

About 10 spokes had been replaced, but replaced with longer spokes, so the ends of the spokes were poking through the spoke nipples. (If you replace spokes, make sure to take the tire/tube/rim tape off, and make sure the replacement spokes do not reach the end of the spoke nipple.) So, while he patched the tube, I went around and loosened 10 or so spokes to move the ends out of harm's way.

Meanwhile, a third guy rides up and asks if he can borrow some pliers. I asked what he wanted them for, and he said to take his wheel off. I said you probably want a wrench, and loaned him one. He said "Thanks, I'll bring it right back" and rode back to his friends down the block.

Meanwhile, the crowd has again been dispersed by the police, and we're left standing on the sidewalk as they rode off to the Costco parking lot.

Then, both guys got their tires on uneventfully, but unfortunately, both then ripped the valves off the tubes as they were pumping them up. (Be gentle with Presta valves and hand pumps. Flats are frustrating enough Two more inner tubes later, and both bikes were ready to g0, and luckily, the rider of the bike with the 10 loose spokes was pretty light, so his wheel stayed remarkably true.

Meanwhile, the guy I'd loaned my wrench to had vanished with his friends.

So we rode off. After one dead-end detour, I cut left on Centinela, and heard a guy call out from the corner gas station. "Hey, you got a tube?" I said "Yes" and looked over and he said "Oh, dude, I've got your pliers, I totally forgot." He got a used tube, I got my wrench back, and we all rolled on from there, me to my home, them to In and Out and their homes.

So, that was my Crankmob. Not exactly the thrills and excitement I usually look forward to, but I got some exercise, got to meet some new folks, and I also got my bike dialled in a little bit better.

When you're an amateur bike mechanic, and a not very small amateur bike mechanic, getting a bike set up for proper comfort and efficiency takes a bit of doing.

Buying a bike from bikesdirect.com is extremely cost efficient, and building a bike from the frame up is a great learning experience (if not a cheap one), but one thing your LBS offers, especially if you pay the extra money to get properly fitted, is a bike that fits.

When you don't get your bike fitted at the bike shop to begin with, there are lots of variables in play. (Many of these are irrelevant if you're fit and normal sized, but if you're neither, they become apparent pretty readily.)

Your seat needs to be at a proper height, angle, and setback over the pedals (your seat needs to be high enough that your legs extend enough for a good pedal stroke, but not so high that your hips rock(Thanks Dmitry!), your handlebars need to be at the proper angle and at a proper height and reach with respect to your saddle position and arm length. On top of all of this, you need the right saddle and handlebars to begin with. So, having swapped my riser bars for a pair of swept back handlebars, and having found my third saddle (a Specialized Sonoma Sport, I HIGHLY recommend this saddle), and having dropped the seatpost and set back the saddle and angled the bars down slightly, I think I've actually gotten a comfortable fit for the bike.

Now I just need to ride it more.

And to buy some more tubes and patch kits and tire levers for the next group ride.

And you probably do too.

Have a good one.

Maybe there's no such thing as an expendable bike (or, why tuning up your bike while out for a ride is a highly worthwhile option).

2009-03-24T00:26:00.000-07:00

I bought a 20+ yr old Ross MTB off of craigslist the other day. I bought it because a) I'd been wanting an old mountain bike with horizontal dropouts to make a single-speed utility bike out of (with horizontal dropouts you don't have to use those ugly chain tensioners), and b) it was $25.

Once I got it home, I took a closer look at it and it was kind of a mess. It had been cobbled together with varying degrees of success. The brake pads don't match, the wheel aren't original (or matching), it's got a 1 piece crank with plastic pedals, the front derailer didn't work, the wheels were out of true, and it weighs about 40 pounds.

So yeah, it's about what you'd expect for a bike you paid $25 for.

It had been sitting in my apartment for a while, but after this weekends threats of bike confiscation, and the ongoing issue with bikes being taken home by someone other than their lawful owners, I thought this might be an ideal "expendable bike", in that I didn't have much in the way of $, blood, sweat, or tears in it, so if anything happened to it, it would be a hassle, but not one that I'd be bummed for weeks about.

So, I took a closer look at it, got the wheels true enough not to rub or squeak, the brakes working well enough to at least slow forward progress, and the front derailer marginally working, and decided to take it out for a spin.

It was a beautiful night tonight. Holy cow. The winds had blown the pollution elsewhere, so the air was clear and you could see stars in the sky, and the temperature was reasonably warm. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera and didn't realize I had the camera on my phone available until there wasn't much interesting scenery.)

So I donned the helmet and riding glasses (these are the greatest things in the world, and everyone should have a pair. If you don't need a dozen, Bikerowave has a few pair available.), took the usual backpack full of gear, and headed out toward Venice Beach.

So how was it?

Pretty slow, as you'd expect a fat-tired 40lb mountain bike to be.

But honestly, you can only blame the bike so much, as any bike will go as fast as the rider can pedal it, and in this case, that wasn't very fast. I'd forgotten how much I tend to dawdle and daydream as I coast along, which you can't really do on a fixed gear.

Tuning up your bike while you ride is definitely an OUTSTANDING option if you've got the tools handy. Working at your home is fun, but it's easy to get distracted and wander off for a snack or see what's on the internet, and working on your bike at your local bike co-op is STUPENDOUS, except that with so many nice people and great tools around, it's easy to get in over your head and decide a frame-up rebuild is really what the bike deserves and that it really won't take that long, only to find your bike still in pieces weeks later.

So I rode out to tune it up as I went, and that was absolutely the right way to go.

Now, tuning your bike at benches at bus stops along Venice Blvd. and along the boardwalk at Venice Beach at 10 or 11 o'clock at night may not be the best option for everyone, but it sure worked for me.

First the derailers started acting up. At one point I threw the chain past the largest chainring, so I had to stop and sort that out, and then the rear derailer wouldn't stay in high gear, so I had to play with the limit screws repeatedly, until I noticed that I had a 7 speed rear cogset. Since I'm pretty sure the bike was a 12 speed originally, that explained why it wouldn't go into the highest gear. So I tightened the limit screw and took that 7th gear out of play, so it was once again a fully functional 12 speed. A few more adjustments to seat height, shifter/brake lever location, etc., and it was good to go.

Venice beach was great. You could stop at a bench under a light and make a few adjustments, pedal a hundred yards or so, stop at another bench under another light and make a few more adjustments, and keep going, repeating the process as necessary.

Once I got to Ocean Park on the bike path, I cut over to Main St. and took that to Abbott Kinney to Venice Blvd. on back home. Two hours to go ten miles or so is nothing to be proud of, but the bike is reasonably well dialed in.

It could use some more substantial attention, but it's good for messing around on right now.

That's exactly what I need.

You hear a LOT of talk about how riding fixed gear is "a zen thing" (48,800 hits on google for the keywords zen fixed gear), but I think the real zen of riding comes from rolling around on a dirt cheap MTB.

If you're trying to practice the Buddhist concepts of "equanimity" and "non-attachment" to material things, that's kind of hard if you're afraid to let your oh-so-zen fixie out of your sight, and find yourself skipping errands by bike because it's such a pain in the ass to properly secure a bicycle (u-lock + cable, etc.), if you want to make sure your wheels and frame are there when you return.

I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a lot more errands on this bike, as I can't imagine these old parts would be easy to fence.

The pictures above and below are the bike. The difference is that the top one was adjusted using the "picnik" function in flickr. If you haven't checked that out yet, it might be worth your while. Just click the "edit photos" icon.

Have a great week!

Crankmob Gang Warz - Been there, done that (most of it), got the citation for CVC 21106(b).

2009-03-22T02:43:00.001-07:00

First, a warning. Officer P. asked us to pass this along, and since he was a reasonably fair guy, and this is something some of you may want to know about, here it is:

Starting next week, individuals getting pulled over on party rides and cited WILL HAVE THEIR BIKES CONFISCATED.

Next Saturday's All Day Bike Ride / Event is entitled "The Death of Fun", and given the prophetic nature of the last few ride names, it's probably a good time to a) put a little extra effort into riding in a law abiding manner, and b) don't bring a bike you can't live without on a group ride (there are plenty of rideable/nearly rideable mountain bikes on craigslist for less than $100). Obviously, they're not going to confiscate the bike of every violator, but it would be a major drag if it was yours, so common sense may help here.

I'd been pretty ambivalent about attending this month's Crank Mob.

On the one hand, this ride is the biggest party ride in L.A., which probably puts it in contention for the biggest regular party ride anywhere in the states, and a ton of my cycling friends are usually there, so it's usually a pretty great time.

On the other hand, this ride is the biggest party ride in L.A., which means it's a lot like a mobile nightclub with no age restrictions and no bouncers, which means inebriated teenagers, people using the crowd as an outlet for anti-social behavior, and this ride was called Gang Warz, which kinda seemed like a bad idea. With the theft/tagging that's occurred on a number of rides lately, that title just seemed absurd, even if the organizers of the ride intended the "gangs" to be (and for the most part they were) festively costumed pirates, aliens, girls in small leopard print outfits, girls in small non-leopard print outfits, folks with red helmet mohawks, '50s greasers, etc., etc., etc.

So I rolled out to Crankmob Park where a couple of hundred people had gathered. After shooting the breeze for a bit and helping a few folks make some last minute adjustments, we gathered behind Alec on a tall bike, and made our way around Culver City and up Robertson and La Cienega to Hollywood. Alec on his tall bike, and Richie on his taller bike, Kabuki Sky, brought joy to the masses. It's amazing how excited people get about seeing a tall bike. There was one group of little kids standing out on the sidewalk who absolutely LOVED seeing Kabuki Sky roll by.

After a while, we got to the first stop, Pan Pacific Park:

This was the first gathering point, as the ride outgrew it's previous starting point on Sawtelle in West L.A., so people rode in groups from various parts of the city and gathered here.

Lots and lots of people showed up.

There was a live band, jump rope, and fun was had by all. After a while, we got back on our bikes and headed off for what should have been a fairly short jaunt to the next stop. Unfortunately, I was in the back half of the group, so by the time we got toward the Ralph's which was our destination, someone who had arrived earlier had apparently decided not to pay for his items, and caused the police to be dispatched. (Apparently one of the ride organizers helped apprehend the thief. WELL DONE SIR.)

Lots of police were dispatched.

Who, by strategically blocking intersections directed the group out of West Hollywood and up toward actual Hollywood.

Then we headed East on Hollywood Blvd., which was pretty much a total fiasco.

Poorly corked/run intersections, irate motorists, cyclists not used to riding in groups, made for a BIG mess. I tried to time the intersections so I entered them on a green light, but with a group of close to 1,000 cyclists, some of the motorists were getting impatient, especially if they'd waited through the previous few lights and were trying to make a left turn.

We continued over the 101 on Hollywood Blvd. through Thai Town, and shortly after passing through an intersection, one I'd tried to enter on a green light, despite dozens and dozens of people in front of me who'd completely blown it, I heard an engine revving and a voice saying "Pull over!" "Pull over!" "All six of you pull over!"

I pulled over. One young woman didn't stop as quickly, and the patrol car swerved next to her, and the officer in the passenger seat flung his door open and she slowed down but still ran into it. (This officer was a rookie, I'm guessing (hoping), and like rookie cops in the movies, he'll be providing the comic relief in this scene.)

So we sat on the curb, as directed, while the driver, Officer P. called for backup, and explained to us that this ride had been causing major problems (14 service calls so far, 2 car accidents, and according to what he'd heard over the radio, some people had started breaking windows.) He also explained that he COULD cite us all for reckless driving, or running a red, but WOULD be citing us for CVC 21106(b), which is basically a jaywalking ticket (jaycycling?), and would be substantially cheaper and would not be a moving violation / affect our car insurance. He also explained that his superiors had been encouraging confiscation of bikes, and that we should be aware that bike confiscations by the police will begin in earnest over the next few weeks.

So, while he was explaining this to us, his partner (the assumed rookie) had apparently become convinced that these evening group bicycle rides were the expression of some sinister anarchist cabal, and began asking us questions like "Are you guys anarchists?" and "Did you guys like that movie "V for Vendetta"? Pretty good movie huh?"

Now, in dealing with law enforcement, I generally find the best plan to be quiet and contrite, but this guy was really making it tough. I may be a lot of things (I was called "Mr. Wrench Guy" and "Fatass" on this ride alone (by a fellow rider and a surly pedestrian respectively), but an anarchist I most certainly am not. (If this officer were seriously looking for those out to undermine local government, he could probably start with the mayor's office and the city council, who have made this city an absolute laughingstock. Some of the worst public schools in the country, the most economically segregated city in the country, and the home of fewer Fortune 500 companies than any number of tiny burgs, and a hundred some million dollar budget deficit. Talk about damaging to the city's future, good grief.)

Meanwhile, an LAPD helicopter was making big circles a mile or so away, presumably where the rest of the riders were.

After a few minutes, Officer P. began handing out citations, except for one guy, who apparently had 2 outstanding warrants worth some $80,000 bail according to the officer; he was cuffed and placed in the back of the squad car. (Not to self, going to group rides with outstanding warrants is probably not a good plan. (Nor is HAVING outstanding warrants in the first place, but I digress.)) Meanwhile some random cyclist came riding up on the sidewalk, ignored the officers direction to go around us, and found himself cited for riding on the sidewalk (which I believe is legal in Los Angeles), and not having a front light on his bike (which is not), but basically was cited for having a bad attitude, as he treated the cop like a friend he disagreed with, more or less "dude, ok, whatever" which is rarely a good plan.

So I signed my citation, got my copy, grabbed my bike, and rode on home. I suppose I could have caught up with the group, but I was pretty much done, so I turned down a side street and headed homeward.

Caught Santa Monica and had a nice ride through East/West Hollywood, saw people out for a fun evening, hookers, transvestites, transvestite hookers, and a surprising number of my fellow crankmobbers, who kept turning up at random intervals, which was pretty cool.

Santa Monica's not a bad ride, and there's a bike lane for some parts of it, so I took it from East of the 101 all the way to Sepulveda, then down Sepulveda back to Palms.

So notes for next time:
Bring an expendable bike.
Obey the law extra-carefully.
Be respectful to law enforcement if you have to talk to them, they might cut you a break.

I swear, I am having absolutely no luck getting my miles ridden / dollars spent ratio into positive territory.

Between the ridiculous pink fixie that got out of hand, my lack of riding recently, this citation, and now the $ I'm going to have to spend getting the 20+yr old MTB I bought for $25 the other day up and running so I don't have to cry if it gets taken (lawfully or un), I'd better start putting in the miles.

It WAS a beautiful night though, and I got in 20+ miles and made it home safely, so I really can't complain.

In closing, I leave you with Jon LaJoie's latest song. It's a little more philosophical than his previous work, so enjoy.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Madoff and the Scraper Bike

2009-03-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

If you've been following the news recently, you've probably seen that Bernard Madoff will plead guilty Friday.

Now, for those of you who have not been following this saga, Bernard Madoff is perhaps the most successful thief of the last century (in terms of amount stolen, obviously, not in terms of never getting caught), and perhaps one of the most successful of all time, what with having set up a $64.8 BILLION dollar Ponzi Scheme.

It was a pretty slick operation.
1. Gain a reputation as a successful investor with your own trading/investment management firm.
2. Cultivate an air of exclusivity, restrict access and reveal little about your operations.
3. Have a nice office and do philanthropic work to improve your public image.
4. Continue seeking investors, while making them feel like they're lucky to be able to work with you.
5. Pocket their money instead of investing it while sending out statements suggesting unusually good returns.
7. Continue for 20 years, and make $64.8 billion of your investors' money disappear.

$64,800,000,000.

That's a lot of money. So far, two investors have committed suicide, and countless others have seen their comfortable retirement prospects vanish. When you make a Holocaust surviving Nobel Peace Prize winner start having punishment fantasies about you, that's a bad sign.

I've got to wonder how Madoff's going to be feeling tomorrow, since he'll plead guilty and most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

Will he be miserable? Or will he feel a sense of calm, since he no longer has to deal with pretending to be the friend of the people he was stealing from, but can spend his old age as a convicted felon, being fed, housed, clothed and doctored courtesy of the government.

That desire of getting something for nothing is a killer.

Madoff wasn't the only one who had it either, he just had a worse case of it than most of us.

But that greed had been pretty widespread.

Right now, we're facing an economic crisis unlike any ever seen in our lifetime, because a whole spectrum of society decided to discard basic economics and common sense, and instead believe that real estate is MAGIC.

Watch this movie if you want to get a sense of how things went wrong:

A lot of people got greedy, and now we're all stuck with the bill.

So what's the alternative?

Having fun with what you've got.

Like the Trunk Boiz. If a custom car is too much for you, you don't have to get up to your eyeballs in debt, you can customize a ride you can afford.

Sure, fancy cars and big houses are awesome, but there's a lot to be said for living within your means and building from there.

That "Scraper Bike" song?

I'm movin' on my scraper bike
I'm cruisin' on my scraper bike
My scraper bike go hard
I don't need no car

Kinda ridiculous? Kinda like what you'd expect from some bored kids having fun on a budget?

Yeah.

Now they've got merchandise.

And a ring tone.

And an NPR story.

And Madoff's going to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Live within your means, build from there, don't get greedy, win.

It's pretty simple, really.

The ridiculous pink fixie part 5, all done - time to ride.

2009-03-07T23:27:00.001-08:00

So, after a couple of months at the powdercoater, and a couple of weeks waiting on parts, the ridiculous pink fixie, aka the Telemagenta Traveler, is complete.

What started as a $20 frame and a $7 stem and a rough draft on pedalmafia,

became a better version on pedalmafia,

and, after the application of a nice coat of pink powdercoat, and several hundreds of dollars worth of parts and accessories, is finally complete.

If you're going to do a project like this, it helps to shop around and to have access to a bike co-op/collective. The total budget on this bike was about $560, from the initial frame to the final bolts, including the free shop time and a significant discount on a number of the parts. You can spend a lot more if you want (if the link gets flagged/removed, it was a Soma Rush fixie going for $1750. Seriously.), or you can spend significantly less and get a Mercier/Motobecane from bikesdirect.com, or do a fixie conversion on a budget. While some might say that spending that much on a high-ten-framed fixie conversion is absurd, I think the education and the finished product were well worth it.

It really is nice, if I do say so myself.

The old Schwinn frame, while not as strong or as light as the chromoly currently in use on most bikes today, has an outstanding ride quality. It's not as stiff, and the 46x16 gearing seems a lot more user-friendly than the 48x16 I'd been riding.

I'm still dialing it in to get it as comfortable and well-fitting as possible, but it's been tremendous fun so far.

Now I've just got to ride this ridiculous thing on a regular basis, and stop thinking about the steampunk themed bike with carbide lamps for headlights and lots of brass fittings that I want to build next.

The ridiculous pink fixie part 4, pedals, brake lever, wheels, chain, etc. and finishing the build.

2009-03-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

So, once you've got the crank on, it's time to install the pedals.

One most bikes, the left pedal is reverse threaded, so when you install the pedals, remember to screw the threads on the pedals toward the front of the bike, and remember that you have left and right pedals.

(This is important, because your pedal threads are usually steel, and your crank is usually aluminum, and screwing your pedals in the wrong way, or screwing in a pedal on the wrong side can ruin the threads on that crank, which can mean a trip to the bike shop to have the threads re-tapped, or worse, to buy a new crank.)

I got these pedals at L.A. Bicycles on Hoover down by USC for a pretty decent deal (Origin 8 pedals and riser bars and a cog and lockring for $60), but while I was installing them, I noticed something funny:

(Apparently Origin 8's a subsidiary of/supplied by Wellgo. Who knew? They're pretty decent pedals though.)

Once the pedals were on, it was time to install the wheels.

I got the wheels from Bell's Bike Shop in Philadelphia, and Steve, the owner, is a really good guy.

The wheel's didn't even need truing, which was awesome. They were a little more scratched than I'd expected, so I sent him a couple of pics, and he apologized, and said they should never have been sent, and offered a brand new replacement set, or a discount for the set I got. I asked him for a set of Space Straps instead, and he agreed and I should have them in my PO Box.

So if you're looking for a good set of wheels, well-built, at a great price, from a place that offers great customer service, I recommend Bell's Bike Shop

Since the wheels were true, all I had to do was install the cog and lock ring,

put the rim strip on, install the tires, tubes, and Mr. Tuffy Wheel Liners, add air, and the wheels were good to go.

Then it was time for handlebars and the brake lever. (When installing handlebars, make sure you use bar end caps, as otherwise you can really injure yourself if you fall. The term "core sample" is often used.)

I got a snazzy Goldfinger brake lever, which unfortunately was not well sized for my handlebars, but some less than snazzy used inner tube made a nice shim.

Then it was time to cut a length of brake cable housing, put ferrules on each end, and set it in place.

Then run the new brake cable, and make sure to properly align the brake pads against the machined surface.

(Move them up, in this case.)

Then adjust the brake cable to ensure a snug fit, trim the brake cable, add another ferrule to keep the cable from untangling, and you've got the brake installed.

(I only installed a front brake, as the front brake does 90% of the braking, and with a fixed gear, your legs can act as a rear brake. Having a front brake on a fixed gear is a really good idea, as you can stop more quickly with a brake. Also, chains can occasionally snap, so if the chain is your only brake, that can pose a problem.)

At this point, installing the chain was about the only thing left to do.

Trim the chain to size with the chain tool, add the master link (seen faintly on the stool) to lock everything in place, and that's pretty much it.

The ridiculous pink fixie, part 3, fork/headset/crank/ installation, and the goofups that ensued.

2009-03-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

OK,I'm going to skip the fork/headset instructions, as after looking at the Park Tools instructions, I installed my headset bearings upside down "The open side of the ball retainer should face the cone shaped race, not the cup shaped race."

I thought it was smoother with the bearings facing the cups, but I goofed, so follow the instructions when you do this. The proper Park Tools Instructions are here - http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=127

UPDATE 3/23/09 - After further discussion/disassembly/reassembly, it looks as thoug the open side of the ball retainer does in fact face the cups on this particular old Schwinn. I tried it both ways, and it was a mess to do it per the instructions, as the bearings felt completely wrong. After discussion with Bikerowave manager and guru Steve Mattson, it was pretty clear that I'd done it right the first time.

Here's how it looked once I got it done.

With the stem installed.

Then it was time to chase and face the bottom bracket. This is done with a bottom bracket chaser.

To chase your bottom bracket threads, look at the tool, figure out which side is left and right, then put the tool back together through your bottom bracket, like so:

Then, put a tray underneath the bottom bracket, squirt a little cutting fluid,

and, assuming you're using a standard threaded bottom bracket, turn the handles on each side toward the back of the bike (the right side of the bottom bracket is reverse threaded).

Then, replace the thread chasing implement with the facing cutter and remove the paint/powdercoat around the edge of your bottom bracket so your bottom bracket will fit smoothly.

It should end up looking something like this:

Now, you get to install the bottom bracket.

This one is a Shimano UN-54, which is more or less the standard square taper bottom bracket if you're looking for good quality and value. If you're making a conversion, you can try using your existing bottom bracket, but if you're going to be using a new crank, and you're building a fixie, you should probably get the right size bottom bracket for that crank, so your chainline will be straight. In this case, I need a 107mm bottom bracket. (This is the width of the spindle, the bottom bracket shell itself is usually 68mm for road bikes, 73mm for mountain bikes, measure BEFORE you buy.)

To install the bottom bracket, put the bottom bracket in the shell, hand tighten the cups on each side, find the right sized bottom bracket tool,

and wrench the cups down snugly, but not so snugly that they interfere with the smooth rotation of the spindle.

Once you've got your bottom bracket installed, it's time to install the crank. On a standard square taper, this is a simple matter of tightening down a crank nut on each side, or with this bottom bracket, tightening down a crank bolt on each side.
(Note, when doing this, please don't hang on to your bottom bracket tool while you're using an allen wrench, or you may be happily cranking down on your crank bolt, only to hear an awkward grating sound as the bottom bracket tool scrapes a nice gouge out of your beautiful blue anodizing, only millimeters away from the tape that was protecting your crank.)

Ouch. Luckily that's the sort of thing you're not going to notice easily, and aluminum doesn't rust, so it's not really a concern. Once installed, the cranks look pretty good.

And on the seventh day, there was no rest, for there was CRANKMOB.

2009-02-22T03:05:00.000-08:00

(The spoke card, which you had to wear a costume to get.)

The ride of the month was tonight, and it was tremendous!

I showed up late, as I had to deal with a flat, and then with a crank that was making a weird elliptical motion and needed the crankbolt tightened substantially, and for once, the ride had left reasonably close to the starting time, as opposed to operating on "bike time", which is anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes after the actual time.

The organizer(s) had been nice enough to post the route online, so I headed up to Santa Monica Blvd. to go looking for them, and after a few minutes, I saw several hundred cyclists headed my way, so I pulled a U-turn. We headed East on Santa Monica, and at the freeway, a bunch of people started yelling "Freeway!" "Freeway!", and I saw Richie, pulling the sound trailer, pause, briefly weigh the triumph that would be 600+ cyclists blinking their way down the 405 vs. the horror that would ensue if any of the 3,000-8,000lb vehicles moving at 60-85mph made contact with even a tiny percentage of those 600+ cyclists, and continue on Santa Monica to Sepulveda, which we took South to the Albertsons at Palms & Sepulveda. Music was played, fire was shot into the air, fun was had by all.

They tolerated us until, as I heard it, a couple of folks decided not to pay for the things they wanted, at which point they locked the doors, and, eventually, the police came and invited us to move along.

From there, it was off to a warehouse party down La Cienega just south of Washington, so we had a nice ride through downtown Culver City then along Venice Blvd., where I ran into E-rock, who had made a day of cycling, from West L.A., out to Pasadena to watch the Tour of California arrive, and back, for a total of something like 92 miles. Knocking out centuries for kicks on the weekend, then going on Crankmob? That's pretty awesome. (For the record, Levi Leipheimer's in the lead, Lance Armstrong's in 6th place, going in to Sunday's finish.)

On our way down La Cienega, I noticed the driver of an SUV getting into an argument with a couple of people, but rode along to the stop. While milling around, Alex Thompson mentioned that some guy (Joel) had had his bike damaged by the SUV, and needed help fixing it. Fellow Bikerowaver Larry H. and I wandered over to see what we could do. It was a bit of a mess, the wheel had been tacoed in such a manner that the derailer hanger had bent and forced the derailer into the spokes. We took the wheel off, and Joel's friend Dave wedged the wheel between a wall and a parking lot post and bent it into a semblance of true, and Larry took a spoke wrench and got it even straighter, while Joel and Dave unbent the derailer hanger, at which point we were able to put the wheel back on the bike, loosen the rear brake cable, and get Joel riding again. It's awesome how much can be fixed on a bicycle with a few simple tools and a little patience. (Being stranded in random parts of L.A. is miserable, so bring the stuff that will keep you from getting stranded. Oh, and pull your bike out of harm's way BEFORE arguing with irrational SUV drivers.)

We were a little concerned about doing TOO good a job actually, since the police still had to take a report about the incident. The arrival of the police was interesting, as while one officer was taking the report, and saying that the incident would be considered a "hit and run" since the driver refused to provide any of his information, the other officer was calling for backup and insisting that cyclists without a headlight walk their bikes and even detaining one kid for being out after curfew. (Yup, if you weren't aware, Los Angeles has a curfew.)

Backup arrived and insisted that we disperse, so my experience with this particular warehouse party was that it was a halfway decent place to do quick-fix bike repairs, more than that, I sadly cannot tell you.

Then, there was more riding, another stop, this time at a 7-11,

and then we went to the roof of a nearby major electronics retailer,

which was the last stop of the evening.

(Another pink bike.)

After a little while of hanging out there, it was time to wander home.

The big party rides are amazing. Tremendous fun is had by almost everyone, and the commercialism is nil. Even most of the stores we stop at, and probably boost sales at SIGNIFICANTLY for the evening, would prefer that we NOT be there. Want to see how people are dealing with an economy that's in the toilet? Come along, and see how much fun you can have without spending a dime.

It's going to be interesting to see how the rides grow, especially as summer comes.

How can you argue with a free party for 500+ people with great music, friendly people, and the chance to ride your bicycle all over West L.A.?

You can't, so come along to next month's ride.

Or, if you want to get started sooner, there are lots more rides here - http://midnightridazz.com/events.php

The Ride With No Name - 2-20-2009

2009-02-21T02:12:00.000-08:00

The Ride With No Name was tonight, and, as usual, it was a pretty solid and well organized ride.

For a route described as "virtually all flat", there were a surprising number of hills. But, since I didn't have to get off and walk at any point, I suppose I can't complain too loudly. (46x16 seems to be a pretty ideal gearing for me, as I'm having a much easier time of it than riding 48x16). Going down steep downhills on a fixed gear with just a front brake is going to take some getting used to though.

The ride starts in the Arts District, and today we went over the bridge and did a tour of East L.A. I don't spend much time there, so it was interesting to see the area. Between the brand new police precincts, the light-rail lines, and the brick cobblestone crosswalks, it looks like the City of L.A. has spent a fair bit on improving the infrastructure. Between the civic upgrades and Chief Bratton's continued success lowering crime rates, if it wasn't for the real estate market being in the worst slump of the modern era, East L.A. would be a fat gentrification target (so some would say it's just as well).

We wandered through East L.A., then found ourselves at a 7-11 in Monterey Park:

A Monterey Park squad car stopped by, the officers asked us if we were with the Midnight Riders, rolled slowly through the parking lot, and went on their way.

That was sort of the theme for the evening. Unlike other rides in other parts of town, which sometimes have bicycle/motorcycle/squad car/helicopter police paying close attention, the attitude of the police on this ride was one of bemused curiosity.

Then we wandered back over the bridge and called it a night.

Tomorrow's crankmob, so rest up everyone.

The ridiculous pink fixie, part 2 - seatpost and front brake installation

2009-02-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

So finally the frame came back, and after much searching and much patience (already honed by the November - January wait for the frame), all the parts were in, and I was ready to start building.

I'm going to try to make this as informative as possible (it may get rainmanian in some sections, and I'll include sourcing for parts as well, so if you already know how to work on bikes, you may be pretty bored. I'm including a parts list in here in case anybody wants to do something similar, so you can ballpark your budget beforehand. (Some parts are expensive, but buying parts you're not happy with and then replacing them with the parts you did want costs even more.)

I ended up spending a fair bit more than I had planned for what was intended, more or less, as a joke bike. (I spend some time working at the local bike co-op, so the member discount kept things from getting COMPLETELY out of hand). Luckily it turned out nice enough and is so pleasant to ride that it was worth it. I spent less than I would have on an entry-level fixie from one of the local bike shops, like a Specialized Langster / Giant Bowery / KHS Flite 100 (to name the ones that Wheel World sells, but a fair bit more than the fixed gear offerings at Bikes Direct .)

Protip 1. - If building up a fixed gear from an existing bike, start with as complete a bike as possible. The stupid nickel and dime items really add up, and mostly they're not anything to get excited about purchasing.

Protip 2. - If you just want a cheap fixie, you can build one pretty cheaply with a garage sale / craigslist 10 speed, a track rear wheel, and the right sized cog. If you get a 27" track wheel (they are available), you can keep the 27" wheelset if that's what the bike has, which lets you keep the existing brakes as well. You may need to buy some spacers / reposition the chainring on the crank to straighten the chainline out, but it's doable. (This is to do it safely. DO NOT just screw a track cog on to an old freewheel hub without a counter-threaded lockring, JB weld it in place, and hope for the best, that's just stupid.)

Protip 3. -You will also need tools or access to tools. If there's a bike co-op near you (L.A. has the Bicycle Kitchen, the Bike Oven, and the Bikerowave (where this was built), that really helps, otherwise, add room in your budget for purchasing tools. (Fixies are too easy to build to let the LBS wrenches have all the fun). Bike co-ops are awesome. If you volunteer, you get free stand time to build your bikes, and you'll meet fellow volunteers who consistently bring in really classy rides that they've modified to suit their tastes, that make you want to build something to suit your tastes as well. (Steve M. and Kwang P. set a very good example for me. Thanks guys.)

Seatpost

So let's begin. You start with the frame (1982 Schwinn Traveler, according to the original paint and the stamp on the dropout, designed for 27" wheels), the seatpost, the seat, and of course, the seatpost bolt (which is the first of those little things that wouldn't have to be purchased had you bought a complete bike).

If you've bought the frame without a seatpost, use a set of calipers to measure the inside diameter of the seat tube and/or google the make/model/year of your bike and see if one of the bike forums has already discussed it. (In this case, a 1982 Schwinn Traveler takes a 25.8mm seatpost). Do not just force a seatpost in, as you can sometimes get an oversized seatpost halfway in by brute force/hammering, and then the seatpost tube can begin to bulge and buckle, which is bad.

Put the seat on the seatpost, the seatpost bolt into the frame (if your bike has one, some have seatpost collars, lube the bejeezus out of the seatpost, insert it to a ballpark height, and tighten the seatpost bolt. Lots of lube makes it easier to insert the seatpost, but also adds something of a barrier to keep water from coming into the seatpost. (In the case of this bike, it originally came with a smaller seatpost and a shim to account for imperfections in manufacture, so some sanding/filing was also required, but gobs of lithium grease really helped).

Now you should put the bike on a stand (if you've got one) by clamping the seatpost (since the seatpost is both very substantial and cheap to replace, which cannot be said of any of the tubing on your frame).

Front Brake

There will be lots of links to Sheldon Brown's website in this part.

You need brakes on any bike. On a fixed gear, even though you can slow/stop with your legs, you need at least a front brake.

Why the front? Because.

Even on a fixed gear? Yes.

But I can stop as quickly by skidding. Unless the laws of physics work differently for you, no you can't. Plus, if your chain snaps (a not impossible occurrence), a brake is an infinitely preferable option to Ted Shredding it to a stop or colliding with something.

In this case, the bike was built for 27" (630mm) wheels, and I replaced them with more modern 700c (622mm) wheels. The difference in the tire radius is only 4mm, so some brakes would be able to adjust that much. Since I didn't have brakes, I measured the reach I'd need by putting a sample 700c rim in the fork and measuring from the middle of the brake bolt hole in the fork to the rim. I measured approximately 60mm, which is longer than most readily available brakes can reach.

If you're doing a conversion of a 27" frame using 700c wheels and want to run a brake, you have 4 main options:
1. Luck out and find that your existing brakes have a range of adjustment that covers the new wheels.
2. Buy a 700c fork and use that, accepting that it may affect the geometry of the whole frame slightly.
3. Rummage through the used parts bin at your local bike co-op until you find something that fits.
4. The Tektro R556 .

I went with Option 4. The Tektro R556 is pretty much THE standard for a new brake if you're converting a 27" frame to use 700c tires.

In order to install this front brake on a 27" fork, it's best to drill out the hole in the back of the fork with a 5/16" bit, because it matches up well with the recessed nut for the brake.

First put on your safety glasses:

Put the fork in a vise or hold it steady, then drill through the existing hole. (If the fork does not already have a hole, and it's the original fork, take a look at the bike and make sure it's not something that's worth more in its original condition.)

Sweep up the metal shavings, then install the brake by tightening down the recessed nut you've just made room for.

Looks pretty good.

So, now we've got a frame with a front brake and a seat.

Parts tally so far:
Frame - 25" 1982 Schwinn Traveler (25" = 63.5cm! No wonder it felt a little big once I got it together and rode it.)
Seatpost - Ultracycle 25.8mm silver
Seatpost Binder Bolt - generic
Saddle - Forte Softail
Brake - Tektro R556

We'll move on to installing the fork, headset, stem, and maybe more next time.

Have a good one.

The ridiculous pink fixie, part 1.

2009-02-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

A few months back, I bought a rusty old (1982) Schwinn Traveler frame from the Bikerowave for $20. It looked like this:

Then, after doing the math, I put it on the shelf for a while and bought a fixed gear from bikesdirect.com

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to build a bike from the frame up, so when Bikerowave got a group together in November for a powdercoating trip, I thought this would be a good time to get started, so I dremeled off/filed down the braze-ons (because I don't like them on fixed gear bikes, and it's not like there's going to be a shortage of old high-ten Schwinn frames any time soon, so the collectors have plent of of other options), and sent it off to the powdercoaters for a delightful shade of bright pink.

I chose pink because pink brings joy and hilarity by its very appearance, as Pinkman has proven.
(I used to see this guy when I went to Berkeley, and he's a bringer of joy to the general public.)

Then someone sent me a link to the PedalID site where you can design your own bikes, and I started with this:

Of course, since we went to an industrial powdercoaters out in El Monte, they didn't have "Telemagenta" in stock. Neither did their distributor. So they had to have it shipped in from out of state.

So, in the weeks it took for them to locate the right color, I ended up screwing around on Pedal ID even more, and ended up with this:

That looked pretty cool, so I ordered up the necessary parts to make it a reality.

We'll see how that turned out in the next post.

Go Vegan!

2009-01-27T20:31:00.001-08:00

'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

That is all.

Fun Sunday

2009-01-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

So it's been a pretty good week.

I finally got my frame back from the powdercoaters, and that will be the subject of future posts once I get all the necessary parts to assemble it properly. (This will require lots of internet purchases, since finding the right parts at the right price in stock is kind of a battle.) What was supposed to be a reasonably low budget build has gotten into regular priced fixie territory. But like I said, this will be the subject of future posts.

Today I finally got on my bike and actually rode to brunch with friends in Santa Monica instead of driving. I need to do that more often, as the weather was wonderful, and the ride was really mellow. Bikes actually CAN serve as a useful means of transportation, they're not just toys for mobile parties. (Although they are AWESOME in that capacity as well.)

But anyway, I ran across two pretty kickass things today I thought I'd share with you all.

The first is a video with Mike Rowe from the TV show Dirty Jobs talking about work. It's about 20 minutes, but well worth your time.

If you want to see the lamb "docking" video he refers to, it's here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QErgjt_GYBk

Then, today when I was at the laundromat, I saw a V-8 commercial featuring 80-something Frances Woofenden. She kicks ass.

80+ and doing tricks on waterskis?

Next time I feel too tired to pedal somewhere I really should, I'm going to think of Frances.

You're never too old to learn a new way to have fun.

Crankmob 1-17-2008 - Hills, Spills, the LAPD, etc.

2009-01-18T22:21:00.000-08:00

Last night was Crankmob, and it was pretty awesome!

I've been recovering from a bad cold for weeks now, and was prepared to call it an early night, but my buddy Eddie ignored my call in which I explained I was going to skip it this month and called back half an hour later asking "When should I be at your house?"

Since I was feeling tired and lazy and hadn't ridden my mountain bike in a while, I figured I'd take that. Holy cow was that a good idea! Going from a fixed gear bike with 23mm tires and a racing seat to a many-geared mountain bike with a front suspension, 1.5" tires, and a gel seat was like going from sleeping on the floor to a king-size waterbed. It was an especially wise choice since there were lots and lots of random hills thrown in this time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera,

So many people showed up to this ride (400-600 people). It was great to see so many familiar faces and so many friendly new ones. The heat wave we've had recently really makes for great night-riding.

We started out at Sawtelle and LaGrange as usual, rode around West L.A. and Brentwood for a bit, where I saw the first spectacular spill of the night as a guy cut a corner too tightly, braked to hard too avoid a car stopped in the oncoming lane, spun his rear wheel out and did a 360 degree spin. He was OK, got back up, and continued riding. While riding in Westwood, we ran into the 5-0 for the first time that evening. Everyone was going through an intersection, when a cop flipped his lights and siren on. We started yelling for everyone to stop, and the group that hadn't entered the intersection yet waited. The squad car raced into the middle of the intersection, parked diagonally in the oncoming lane, and the officer got out of his car, lost his cool, and began yelling over the intercom about the importance of obeying the lights. The lecture was more or less preaching to the choir, as everyone who'd run the intersection against the light was off on their way, while those of us who were all for letting emergency vehicles have as much room to maneuver as possible were still there behind the entrance to the intersection.

We made our first stop at the park behind the Federal Building, and this was pretty cool. I spent most of this stop fixing a flat on Jordan's tacoed wheel, which I pinch-flatted in the process and had to patch twice. Courage stopped to help and she did this cool trick with the tire levers that made it way easy to get the tire bead off the rim, which was awesome. I got distracted by being hugged by Tarsis, who looked smokin' in a French Maid outfit, which was great, and by a giant inflatable soccerball which would land with a loud thud every few seconds, which was not so great. I also learned that a dollar bill, or a piece of a cardboard cigarette pack, can provide a temporary fix to a blown tire sidewall, which came in handy. Fixing the tacoed wheel had to wait for the next stop, so I just undid the rear brake. (The front brake provides 70-80% of the stopping power, so the rear brake is basically an assist/backup anyway.) The tacoed wheel didn't bother Jordan much, as he rode his bike with no hands most of the way to the next stop. At the next stop, we got the wheel a little straighter with the help of a handy spoke wrench, but the cops moved us along before we could get the brake back on.

Spoke wrenches, especially multi-size spoke wrenches, are pretty much a must-have item. For $4-$8, you get a tool that can help you get a wheel straightened out in a matter of minutes, and take your wheels from unrideable / minimally rideable to almost perfect.

If you haven't been on a major group ride before, and are looking for a general idea of what to bring in terms of essential/repair gear, here's a brief list of the helpful stuff:

Lights (a white headlight is legally required in L.A.)
Spare batteries
Tubes (bring several)
Patch kit(s)
Tire levers
Pump
Adjustable crescent wrench
15mm combination wrench (if you've got a fixie (this may be 14-16mm, check your axle bolts))
Allen wrenches / multi-tool
A small pair of pliers
A spoke wrench
A chain-breaker.

You can go far beyond this in terms of additional tools that might come in handy, but with that selection you can easily fix 95-99% of basic maintenance issues that come up while riding, and aside from the lights tubes and pump, all those tools can fit in a pretty small bag. (Bring enough gear to keep yourself (and others) out of trouble, ride safe, and don't steal or shoplift, and you'll be welcome on almost any ride.)

So, to get back to the ride, we were hanging out in a massive parking lot, people were dancing, having fun, doing tricks, and generally having a good time, when the LAPD again appeared (with helicopter no less), came over the loudspeaker to declare us "an unlawful assembly" and giving us 5 minutes to disperse. Exactly how an assembly can be unlawful, given that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble" is beyond me, but not something I had any interest in discussing, so I dispersed.

Then we rode around and ended up in Rancho Park, where more hanging out, having fun, dancing, etc. occurred until again the LAPD invited us to move along, so we rode out and ended up at the Century City 7-11. I watched a couple of guys get into a shoving match, and watched an ENORMOUS dude that I'd never seen before start yelling "Hug it out!", and that seems like a pretty good way to intervene.

The cops again appeared, and this time, since it was about 2:30, and since we were about a mile from the starting point, I decided to call it a night. (This night was a little law enforcement heavy, but aside from the one cop who lost his cool at the beginning of the evening (and who was much calmer when we saw him at the 7-11 at the end of the night), they were as friendly and professional as you'd hope they would be.)

Ride safe, and come out to the next one next month!

(If you can't wait that long, hit Taco Tuesdays on Tuesday, or check the calendar on www.midnightridazz.com).

Half an Order of Taco Tuesdays.

2009-01-06T22:48:00.000-08:00

Today was the first Taco Tuesdays Ride of 2009.

It was the classic Taco Tuesdays Route, out the Ballona Creek Path to Mustache Bridge, back to the Marina Del Rey Ralphs, out to the jetty, up to the Mini Pier, and back down Washington to Cinco De Mayo.

Or so I was told. I made it to the first stop, and decided that it was best to bail after the Mustache Bridge stop and cruise on back home, so I could catch up on some sleep and be functional at work tomorrow. XL was under the weather (although he did meet us at the start to hand out kick-ass spoke cards), and Richard was AWOL, so Cesar was in charge tonight.

All in all, there was a pretty decent turnout for a chilly Tuesday.

My buddy Eddie S. came out on his trusty Dawes fixie.

I have got to learn how to take better nighttime photographs.

I have also got to learn how to ride at night better, especially downhill. I'm slower than molasses downhill, and that's no good.

My opinion about bike paths has been changing lately. I used to think they were the be all end all for cycling, but at night, between the light traffic, and the quantity of streetlights, riding on the streets is the way to go.

Taco Tuesdays is awesome! Hopefully I can make it to the next one.

Get well soon XL!

A Not So Lazy Sunday

2009-01-04T22:44:00.000-08:00

Today, I went for a ride with my friend Lindsay, and it could not have been a nicer day for a bike ride. It was one of those rides where just about everything went perfectly (except for the one stale green I went through, not realizing she was further back than I thought, which made for a little more excitement than necessary).

We started just West of the 405, and headed out toward Santa Monica Pier. If you live in the area, Iowa Ave. is definitely the way to go, as it's a lot more mellow than Santa Monica or Wilshire. It was sort of a highlights of the beach by bike ride, so from the Santa Monica Pier, we went down the bike path along the beach to the Venice Boardwalk, to the Venice Pier, to Marina Del Rey, to Mustache Bridge, and then turned around and came back.

It was about 20 miles total, plus another 8 miles from my place to hers, and 28 miles on a fixie after finishing last night's ride at 2AM meant I was pretty much done. It is getting easier to ride though. If I can just figure out how to go down hills fast without getting spun out and/or scaring the bejeezus out of myself, I'll be all set.

I did get a few decent pics. (If you can't afford photoshop but want to edit your photos using something more effective than MS Paint, you may want to download GIMP. It's pretty awesome.)

Guard Shack

Getty Center

Panoramic Shot from Venice Pier. (Canon's PhotoStitch software is awesome! You just take a few pics moving from left to right or vice versa, and it puts them together for you.)

Completely gratuitous bike shot.

Have a good one!

Imachynna Syndrome and the Importance of Proper Bicycle Maintenance.

2009-01-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

So, I was sitting at my computer Sat. AM, thinking about a blog post for Friday's SMCM, and feeling kinda ranty because I'd missed a chunk of the ride helping people fix stuff on their bikes. (Thanks David F. for helping me find the group again). As I was about to start ranting about why people choose to go on rides without bringing a well-maintained bike and the proper gear, I heard a noise that sounded like PHUT! HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! coming from my bike. I looked over, and my front tube had popped, which, since it was a slime tube, meant that part of my carpet was now covered in lovely green goo.

Apparently, the tiny tear in my sidewall had allowed the tube to weaken and rupture, so before I could start talking smack about other people's poor maintenance habits, it was time for a trip to the bike store for a new slime tube and a new front tire so I could do some maintenance of my own. Funny how life keeps you humble that way.

But Sat. P.M. it was time for the Imachynna Syndrome ride, hosted by Chynna, aka Imachynna, aka The Tiny Giant. She did an awesome job. (Posting your phone number on the ride announcement is a great idea for anyone leading rides, as it makes it a lot easier to catch up.)

(Her pictures of this ride will be much better.)

We met at Chinatown Station and headed North.

This ride also seemed fairly maintenance heavy, with tons and tons of flat tires and other issues for some reason. I got to try out my new spoke wrench when a woman busted a spoke and her wheel went way out of true. I thought she was going to be done for the night until somebody reminded me that you can true the wheel around the missing spoke and make a bike reasonably rideable, which we did.

The real hero of the night in terms of keeping people on the road was definitely Eddieboy. At the start, he helped Drooby take off some derailleurs and turn his bike into a functional singlespeed. Then at another stop, he helped this poor confused fellow who wasn't even with a ride that had gone off a curb on an ancient road bike and bent the rear wheel so badly it couldn't be ridden. Eddie took off the rear wheel, walked it over to a fence, bent it back into shape between the bars of the fence, put it back on the bike, and the guy was on his way. It was awesome, although a few of the riders that I'd never seen before got a little cranky about having to wait. Dumbasses.

Then we wandered on toward Chynna's place, where she took out a huge light and began taking pictures of everybody, some of which should be absolutely awesome. (If my shots come out, I'll have some very artistic "before" pictures to show everyone in 6-12 months if I can stick to my New Year's resolution.)

After that, it was down through Silverlake, up into Echo Park, and back to Chinatown. The group had a destination in mind, but since we were back at the starting point and it was after 2AM, I decided to call it a night.

Hopefully there will be an Imachynna Syndrome 2: The Antidote ride at some point in the near future, as this was tremendous fun!

Santa Monica Critical Mass / Long Beach / Bikes and Cars

2009-01-03T11:31:00.001-08:00

My New Year's resolution is to "eat less and pedal more", and so far I'm off to a pretty good start.

Of course, we're only barely into the New Year, so that's not saying a great deal.

My first ride of the year on 1/1 was a solo late afternoon ride out Venice Blvd. to Venice Beach, and up the boardwalk, and back down to Marina Del Rey and back to Palms up the Ballona Creek bike path. Pretty uneventful, although I did learn that riding reasonably quickly under overpasses with your headlight set in blink mode turns your ride into a bad '80s horror flick, as you can see, but not quite well enough to understand what's coming toward you in terms of terrain, etc.

Then on Friday, I did the first Santa Monica Critical Mass of the year, which was pretty fun.

It was a pretty good ride overall, that ranged from Santa Monica, down to Windward Circle in Venice, back to Santa Monica, and ended up at the studio of this really friendly guy named Hal, where Albert (aka digablesoul) showed me some tips on using my new camera. I'm still working on it, but hopefully things will improve as time progresses. A tripod might help. I left this party fairly early, as I did this ride on my fixie, and I still had to ride home, and sometimes it requires a little extra energy, as I've got a substantial number of pounds to lose. (For what it's like, imagine riding a fixed gear while giving one of the sturdier lady ridazz a piggyback ride. While the prospect is not unappealing, it's not a situation optimal for covering long distances swiftly).

So I get back to my place, and one of my buddies in Long Beach had decided that he'd found THE place to meet girls. After a number of texts and a few loud phone calls, he tells me he's there with a group of his friends, and I should head down. Since I'm back home at this point, and have put the bike away, I decide "what the hell" and drive on down.

Let me tell you, there's a reason so many people drive cars. After a few hours on a fairly narrow bicycle saddle, even one adjusted properly to your anatomy, a car seat feels like heaven. Luckily I can have both, so I zipped on down to LB, to meet my buddy and his friends. I meet him there, and he greets me with an enormous inebriated smile, and his first words to me are "Dude, I am FUCKED UP! I'm trying to get with this girl, and she wants to get with me too, but her boyfriend's here, and I don't think he likes me very much." That last part probably set a new record for most obvious statement ever made. Not at all obvious, and a little odd, was why most of the people in this club were so short, maybe it's the horrific air quality from living near the port. That said, Long Beach is totally underrated. The more time I hang out there, the more fun it seems to be. My buddy LOVES it, although I do worry about him meeting an untimely demise at the hands of an enraged husband/boyfriend somewhere down the line.

All in all an A1 night.

My last ride of 2008.

2008-12-30T23:45:00.000-08:00

It was last night, and it was awesome.

I'd been talking to my buddy Eddie S., who's got a much higher enthusiasm level than I do, and he's on a mission to lose some weight over the next few months. Since I'm endeavoring to do that as well, I pulled together a pretty generic Westside route, and we made plans to meet up later.

Before that, I decided to hit Big 5 for some gear, as I keep hearing stories about people getting their bikes taken/being assaulted while riding. While I'm not too concerned, as I'm a large guy on a cheap bike, which isn't a very attractive target, I figured it's better to be safe than sorry. So, the shopping list included pepper spray, a whistle, and a pocket knife that could be opened one-handed. Not that I intend to get into any knife fights mind you, but I'm a guy, and I'll take any excuse to get a new pocket knife. (Should you be buying cutlery, please note that per LAMC 55.10 you cannot carry a knife with a blade of more than 3" in plain view (so make sure it's in your pocket), and per state law, you cannot have a knife with a blade of more than 2.5" on school (K-12) grounds, butterfly knives and switchblades are illegal unless the blade is less than 2", and knives that do not fold are prohibited under a broad ban on "dirks or daggers".) I did not find a pocket knife (although I did find one today at the surplus store at Motor/Venice for $10 (they also have a messenger bag, which they call a "casual briefcase" for $14.95)), but I did find a decent whistle with a lanyard for $2.49, and a canister of combination tear gas / pepper spray for $12.99, which sounds like something that shouldn't be sold that cheaply and/or over the counter (but is perfectly legal as long as you have less than 2.5 oz per canister).

So Eddie showed up, and we rode West on Venice and South on Sawtelle, which due to the traffic and the numerous lights, is pretty sketchy until you get South of Culver, at which point it becomes an awesome low-traffic neighborhood street that should be included on more rides. Then we headed West on Jefferson to Culver, through Playa Vista and the Ballona Wetlands to Playa Del Rey, all of which were covered with this low lying fog that I thought was supercool but Eddie was kind of creeped out by. Then we rode over Mustache Bridge, around the Marina, out to Venice Pier, and up the Boardwalk/Pacific Avenue into Santa Monica. Being EXTRA law abiding while in Santa Monica, we headed up Broadway, which is a pretty cool road with a nice bike lane to Bundy, took Bundy to Olympic to Barrington to Venice, for a total of 17-18 miles, not a bad way to round out the year.

I wish I had had a camera with me, as Eddie was sporting what may be the next incarnation of fixie hipster fashion, namely shorts with soccer socks. While I probably won't adopt this combo, they did look pretty dapper, and are a definite improvement on the women's jeans sported by some.

Of course, between the long shorts, long socks, silly hats, and unusual footwear, it's just a matter of time before the avant garde of the urban cyclist crowd starts shopping at the golf outlets.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Crankmob, Fixies, Flats, etc.

2008-12-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

Before I get started, I would like to direct your attention to the following:

WheelWorld in Culver City, at the corner of Sepulveda and Washington Place, has inner tubes on sale, 3 for $7.99. That's less than $2.67 per tube, so stock up now. Ask Santa to put a handful in your stocking. (Or ask the great Goddess to bestow them upon you in recognition of the Solstice, they make great Hanukkah gifts as well (although blinkies might be more appropriate what with it being the Festival of Lights and all).

If you don't skid a lot, Slime Tubes are AWESOME, and only $5.99 at Performance Bike. They fill any small holes with a sealant contained inside the tube, so you may not even know if you get punctures.

At the very least, get a patch kit for a buck or two. (Performance and WheelWorld match each other's prices, which is nice.)

I only mention this, as there were a lot of flats this evening. Luckily, the route was posted beforehand, so this was only a minor inconvenience to those involved, but on many rides, a flat can be a monster drag.

(If anybody reading this hasn't ever actually changed a flat and wants to learn how, let me know and I'll e-mail you the Bikerowave guide to fixing a flat.)

Today was Crankmob, the monthly bicycle bacchanal, and it was awesome!

The organizers really emphasized safety, handing out flyers before the ride started so people could have a basic idea of what to do and what not to do to make sure the ride went smoothly, posting the route online ahead of time, and generally keeping things taken care of.

That, plus a longer ride with shorter stops, and cold weather that seemed to keep the jackass quotient to a minimum, made for a pretty great night. I only saw one person bail while riding straight on flat pavement, but he was ok (his beer did not survive).

I decided to ride my fixed gear tonight, as I haven't ridden it (or anything else) nearly enough lately. I had some reservations, as I'm not exactly fast, a fixed gear takes a lot more effort to ride, the brakes on the drops are less than ideal for the random sudden stops that are part of casual group rides, and 22+ miles on a fixie seemed like a bit of a chore.

Be that as it may, I needed the exercise, and given that I'm theoretically in the process of building up ANOTHER fixed gear (if it ever returns from the powdercoaters), it made some sense that I actually start riding the one I've got.

So I headed out to the usual starting point up at Sawtelle, where the usual crowd, plus a whole bunch of new folks were hanging out. For a chilly L.A. winter evening, the crowd was pretty impressive. It was cool to see a whole bunch of folks I'd seen earlier at the Bikerowave out there. It's awesome to be, even tangentially, part of a community, and the L.A. cycling community is stupendously friendly. And talented. Seriously, the amount of talent some of these folks display casually in terms of writing/photography/organization/etc., etc., etc. in their SPARE TIME leaves me pretty well convinced that as messy as the current economic disaster may be, there's also a lot of untapped potential just waiting to be turned loose.

I mean, think of the tremendous boon to the economy, transportation, tourism, general fitness AND the environmnent that could happen if, like the bike/pedestrian paths along Ballona Creek, we threw up bike paths along ALL the aqueducts/creeks and drainage ditches around town.

Because there are a TON. Just check out this link from L.A. Creek Freak, and look at those maps. Holy cow! Connect them all with bike lanes / sharrows, and we'd have an alternative transportation network that would be beautiful, fun, and CHEAP, as it wouldn't require much except a little concrete, asphalt, paint, and railings.

But I digress. So we got started, rode around West L.A. for a while, and then a couple folks got flats. I stopped to help bondink get her flat fixed, with the help of another guy named Alex, and it took some doing. Bondink mentioned that jonnyboy had helped her put her rear wheel on, and man, for a pretty soft spoken guy, he's got some RIDICULOUS strength. To remove the axle nuts, I had to set the wrench in place, and then Alex had to STAND on the wrench handle, because that was the only way we could get the nuts to move. But we got the flat fixed, and headed toward the meeting place at Crankmob Park (aka Media Park, aka that park in Culver City between Trader Joe's and In and Out), and only had to stop and help one other person with a flat on the way. (Seriously, 3 tubes for $7.99 is a heck of a deal.)

So we hung out in Crankmob park for a while, and rolled through Culver City to Jefferson, and down Jefferson past Fox Hills Mall to an Albertson's, where we hung out for a while, and continued onward. After doing a couple laps around the traffic circle in the newish Playa Vista development, much to the consternation of some cranky Playa Vistan motorists,
(but hey, let's face it, when you buy property on land that is BOTH a methane field AND a historic Native American burial ground, some exuberant cyclists are likely to be the least of your problems), we headed off to the shopping center by the marina in Marina Del Rey. This was a short stop, as the Ralph's apparently summoned the constabulary, who invited us to disperse.

Apparently the group then went to Costco for a while, but due to some miscommunication, I and some other folks ended up riding off down Venice and up Sepulveda to National Blvd. The rest of the group showed up eventually, and there was some bike jousting. (This is an event where the two jousters are put on children's bicycles, are given 8-10ft PVC pipe lances with boxing gloves on the end, and then pedal or are pushed swiftly toward each other. One collision between two guys who not only ran their lances at each other but their bikes as well was pretty impressive.

Luckily, there didn't seem to be any injuries / stolen bikes this evening, which was awesome. (Hopefully we won't hear of any on midnightridazz.com tomorrow).

At this point, it was getting toward 3 in the morning, my feet were chilly, and it was time to head home, which, conveniently, was pretty close.

Crankmob kicked ass.

(If you've got pics of the ride you'd like to see illustrating this post, just shoot me an e-mail.)

Happy Holidays all!

The Ride With No Name, etc., etc.

2008-11-22T02:49:00.000-08:00

My buddy Eddie e-mailed me earlier this week to see if I wanted to go on a ride Friday night, and since I've been wanting to get on my bike more, I thought it sounded like a good idea.

After briefly considering the Tattoo Ride, since it started at Crankmob Park not far from my house, and promised a beautiful spoke card (which, since Eddie didn't have any, was quite an enticement for him), we decided to hit The Ride With No Name, as Barleye, the organizer, seemed like he'd put together a good ride, and I figured I'd know more folks.

So we loaded up the bikes and drove downtown. This was the first time I'd driven to a ride, and while there is something odd about using a car to get to a bike ride, if the choice is miss the ride or drive to the ride, driving makes a fair bit of sense. Rode the mountain bike tonight, as I didn't know how many hills there would be, and there really is something convenient about having gears and a freewheel. It's good to have options, although a fixie does give you a kick-ass workout.

The starting point was in the middle of the Arts District, pretty close to the "Warehouse District". A lot of this ride was around serious urban industrial locations. Warehouses, factories, truck yards, etc., etc. At one point, we rode over a bridge and below to the right we saw what must have been a concrete recycling plant in operation, and it was one of the most surreally beautiful things I've seen. It was a GIANT open warehouse, with no front or side walls, with sodium lights hanging from the ceiling, giving the place an eerie orange glow. Inside this monster building a huge yellow excavator was picking up chunks of rubble and concrete, and dropping them into big metal box, that presumably was the crusher/recycler, judging from the huge mounds of sand piling upnet to the building. I'm sure there are Sisyphean metaphors to be made about spending one's Friday night in a huge machine making sand out of rubble, but as a visual spectacle, it was pretty impressive.

One that would surely have been more impressive for you all had I actually brought a camera.

So we road around warehouses and trucks and overpasses and whatnot, and eventually found ourselves riding across the USC Campus. At one point, we found a quad with a band playing at one end, and the 60-80 of us rode around the quad once or twice, and then rode off again. It must have been fun for the audience, as they we're just sitting there watching a show, when dozens of cyclists show up out of nowhere with lights blinking and bells ringing, and circled for a few minutes and disappeared again.

That's one of the things I love about rides like this. We're basically a bicycle parade, and people love parades. On most of these rides, people will wave and smile and cheer or honk their horns, and by far most of the honking is positive. Not only do people get to see swarms of smiling people and blinking lights, but hopefully some of them decide to get on Google and figure out how to come along.

These rides are so much fun, and they're SO accessible, regardless of your budget. You can ride high-end bikes, or you can ride in something you bought at a yard sale for $20, and have an equally good time. In a time of global economic crisis, it's nice to know you can have a full evening of fun and entertainment for very little money. (My total cost for the evening was $3.99 for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which was a pretty cost-effective Friday night.)

After USC, we made a couple of stops and rode around more of SE downtown and Boyle Heights, and ended up on the 6th Street Bridge and hung out for a while, looking down at the L.A. River, and West at downtown. While here, I ran into some people I'd met on previous rides, and met some more people that I had only known from the midnightridazz forum. Most of the people that go on these rides / post on the forum consistently are really cool mellow folks.

From the bridge, it was a few miles back to the starting point, making for a total distance of about 15-17 miles.

Eddie got his first spokecard too, as Barleye had whipped up a set with a picture of the principal from the Breakfast Club and the timeless phrase "You mess with the bull, you get the horns."

All in all, a pretty great night.

Tomorrow night's the Crankmob Food Fight Ride,which has the potential to be a colossal mess, but also tremendous fun, as the Crankmob rides usually are.

In the pink (but not yet).

2008-11-22T02:19:00.000-08:00

The pink bike is on hold at the moment.

Sadly, the powdercoaters called me today to let me know that they did not have RAL 4010 (aka Telemagenta) in stock, and would have to order it from out of state. Then they called me back to see if I wanted another color.

So I looked at the powdercoating color chart, and I considered luminous red, luminous yellow, luminous orange, and gold over a white basecoat.

In the process I also found what might be the most politically incorrect color name ever, which is odd, as most of the color names are relatively innocuous, like traffic blue, grass green, and strawberry red.

But then, there's color number RAL 1021, which is called, I kid you not:

RAPE YELLOW.

Now, obviously, this color is named after the bright yellow flowers of the canola (aka rape) plant, rather than the sex crime, but you'd think that in this day and age, they might go ahead and update the color charts with something new.

Be that as it may, after a few minutes of clicking around, I realized that if I'm going for something truly hilarious with this bike build, I'd better stick with my guns and have them order up the telemagenta powder coat.

I also learned that telemagenta got its name because the color magenta has been copyrighted in Germany by the T-mobile telephone company, and other companies have been sued by them for using that color. So not only do Germans love David Hasselhoff, they also allow the trademarking of colors.

But they should get the powder in next week sometime, and hopefully I'll get the frame back next weekend. Must hurry up and buy the rest of the parts, as I can't wait to get this one built.

Maybe it is a zen thing, kinda

2008-11-17T23:13:00.001-08:00

Got back on my bike today for the first time in weeks.

Between working pretty decent hours at my new job in Glendale, and spending 1.5-3hrs a day in the car (for a 43 mile round trip), I don't have a lot of time and energy left when I finally get home, and I couldn't really ride this weekend since a big chunk of SoCal was on fire.

But today I got home and got on my bike and headed over to the Bikerowave to true my wheels, and it was awesome!

Forking out the extra dinero for a shorter stem and a stem riser and some mountain bike toeclips has made all the difference in the world.

Getting a bike to fit properly is kind of a pain, because you need to set up the bike so that your legs are able to pedal efficiently and effectively, while having your hands and seat in the proper position so that they are both taking a fair share of the weight.

This basically means that unless you're a standard shape, or luck into a bike that fits perfectly, the first month or two of riding your bike involve regular adjustments to: stem height, stem length (have to replace stems to do this, usually), seat height, seat angle, and seat fore/aft position, and there's nobody that can do this for you as well as you can, so you just have to keep an allen wrench handy.

I think I'm pretty close to having mine dialled in. The flat part of the handlebars is just below the saddle now, instead of 3-4 inches below, which means I'm not reaching down 8-10 inches or so to get to the drops and use the brakes. Now I don't have to angle my seat down anymore to be comfortable, which helps me balance out my not insubstantial weight. (Seriously, if your groin is carrying your weight rather than your sit bones, try raising your handlebars. It may not look nearly as cool, but the pain and potential impotency zero out the cool factor bigtime.)

Riding today was what cycling is supposed to be. Really really pleasurable. The bike felt perfect, the air was finally pretty clear, the moon and stars were out, the temperature was perfect, and the roads were wide open and more or less flat, so it was a perfect night to ride a fixie.

I took some main roads on my ride, and realized that while I feel a lot safer on the side-streets during the day or during rush-hour, it feels safer and is a whole lot more fun to ride the major streets at night. The big streets are better maintained, and there are so few cars that there are plenty of lanes open which makes it easier for those in a rush to get past you.

All in all an A1 evening.

Now I just need to have more.

P.S. I laugh every time I look at that ridiculous bike in the picture below. I can only hope that it will be that hilarious in real life.

Potential Next Bike

2008-11-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.pedalmafia.com/mafid/mafia_id.html

This is what the old Schwinn frame rattling around in my trunk may become.

If the final version doesn't make you laugh, I will have failed.

(Of course, some might say taking the time and effort and money to build something this absurd would constitute an epic failure in and of itself.)

It's not so much a zen thing really...

2008-10-25T23:53:00.000-07:00

(That's a damn sexy man right there. Photogenic too. But check out that reflective tape. Holy Cow!)

If you read articles about fixed gear bikes, most of them will tell you that riding a fixie is "totally a zen thing, man". In fact, if you google the keywords "fixie" and "zen", you get 32,700 responses. (The best of which is BikeSnob NYC's - http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/12/genuine-article-reporting-on-fixed-gear.html). The general gist is that fixies are supposed to be purer, and let you experience a greater connection with the bike and the ride, and a lot of other horseshit. Irrational enthusiasm for fixies is to cycling what critical theory is to academia - moderately entertaining occasionally, excruciatingly pretentious the rest of the time, and of dubious value long-term.

So why did I buy one? Well, because I'd heard how much fun they are, and because I wanted a road bike instead of the commuter conversion mountain bike I'd been cruising around on, because mountain bikes have a fair bit of rolling resistance and aren't very fast. Since I'm not a small man, I figured a bike without derailleurs might be good, since I'd probably blow out all but the high end models, and I didn't want to spend 4 figures on a bike. Plus, I'd heard that they offered a much better workout, since your legs are in motion the whole time.

So is riding it a zen thing?

Well, so far, not so much. In fact, it's much more of a Protestant Work Ethic thing, in which the effort I put in now will hopefully be rewarded in the future.

Sure, it is pretty much silent (except for the occasional creaking of the bottom bracket protesting the fact that it's carrying the weight of a tandem touring team in the form of one rider), and I am DEFINITELY getting a better workout, but there is a lot of effort involved.

The last two rides I've been on, I've flatted, which has been a drag. So I've finally bought slime tubes, and I've been OK so far. (12 or so bucks well spent!)

But now that I can ride without constantly flatting, I've become aware of just how uncomfortable a road bike actually is. Especially a bike designed as a track bike, with some serious drop between the saddle and the handlebars. Then there's the issue of using toe clips, instead of the platform pedals I'd been used to riding.

I had been working on adjusting everything, assuming I'd find the right fit and get everything sorted. But after a couple of rides in which adrenaline fatigue and the awkward position made me start having to choose between being able to reach the brakes and having a comfortable ride, and almost swerving into traffic because I couldn't get my shoes into the toe clips, I realized changes needed to be made.

So it was off to REI for a stem raiser, a shorter and steeper stem, and some mountain bike toe clips.

So now my fixie looks like it was designed for touring rather than the track.

But that's OK. With the handlebars at seat level, rather than WAY below, I can ride in the drops easily, which means there's not a trade-off between braking and comfort. With the double pronged MTB toe clips, I can get in and out of the pedals easily.

Now I just need to ride it more. I bought it so I'd have something faster than my MTB, but between my naturally high level of caution and not being particularly fit, I can't go up hills very fast with no gears, and I can't go down hills very fast without my legs getting spun out, so I'm getting passed by other people on mountain bikes right and left.

Maybe my effort will pay off, but right now, it's totally not a zen thing.

But it is pretty sweet on the flats, and it is a kick ass workout.