Sweet Bike…

Posted on May 29, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Bikes | Leave a Comment

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/bik/695581610.html

Reply to: sale-695581610@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-26, 10:24AM PDT
Schwinn Le Tour 56cm Retro City Crusier – nitto, fixed, track – $350

This was a project I worked on last summer. My goal was to create a cool city cruiser that I could run as a fixed gear (the hub is a flip flop and can handle a freewheel as well). Rides great and people ask lots of questions. A fun ride around town. The only reason I’m selling is to start a new project. I put about 100 miles on the bike since it was finished. Almost everything on the bike was new when I put it together (new- cranks, front wheel, bar, brakes, tires, BB, chain, and headset).

Frame and Fork: Schwinn Le Tour
Headset: Shimano 600 headset – sealed bearings
Stem: Ritchey Comp Stem – painted to match
Handlebar: Nitto
Brake Levers: Avid speed lever
Brakes: U-Brakes – to convert the wheels to 700c (not 27″)
Front Wheel: Shimano hub, 14g, 3 cross, Mavic CXP22 Rim 32h
Rear Wheel: Surly Flip flop track hub, 14g 3 cross, Mavic MA3 32h (64 inch gear)
Crankset: Shimano Compact Drive 50T chainring
Bottom Bracket: Shimano outboard bearing BB
Chain: Shimano
Cog: Surly 21t
Tires: Continental Grand Prix 3000
Pedals; Crank Brothers Candy SL w/ used cleats
Seatpost: Unknown
Saddle: Fizik Aliante
Fenders: SKS – painted to match
Computer: Sigma Sport 1200

Thanks for looking-

Will see if he calls me back I guess.


Front Page of CNN.com – Bike Article

Posted on May 27, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, In-the-news | 3 Comments

HEY LOOK – CUTE GIRL ON A CUTE MIXTE!
Turns out she’s a fellow bikepirate as well! Thanks for representin’
- editor

By Kate Taylor
CNN
(CNN) — As rising gas prices leave drivers with ever-heftier tabs at the pump, Americans have started looking for ways reduce the drain on their budget. For some, transitioning away from a one person, one car lifestyle has proved rewarding.

Janaki Purushe, a 22-year-old genetic researcher living in Rockville, Maryland, bikes just about everywhere she goes. “When I had the opportunity to finally plan my own life after I graduated college,” Purushe explains, “I took into consideration where I was going to shop, where my friends live, where my boyfriend lives, and I definitely tried to plan the location of my home around where I was going.”

Now, although she still has a car, Purushe bikes to work every day. It’s a ten-mile round-trip commute, and she carries a change of clothes for when she gets to the office. She says she loves it. “When I’m riding my bike, I really pay attention to what’s around me, and the weather’s been great. I feel like I’m getting more out of my days.”

Purushe also enjoys biking to the grocery store, and the bank. She admits that such convenience came at the price of living in a costlier part of town, but maintains that by not driving, she’s made up for the extra expense.

“I know I’m lucky to be able to bike everywhere,” she says.

The Department of Transportation said Monday it had seen the sharpest monthly drop in driving since it began keeping records. In March, Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles than in March of 2007.

READ MORE AT CNN.COM

The comments below the article are largely supportive too, surprisingly. Would that CNN did more of these stories .

Onward.


Todays SSR ride…

Posted on May 26, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Maps, Slow Sunday | 2 Comments

Man we went all over today. Tuckered out.

Started out at Cal Anderson, down through Interlaken, across the Montlake bridge and over to ReCycle Cycles to pick up a pedal for Monica. Then up to BigTime on the Ave for beers and pizza. Split for the shore of Lake Union, rode the shore all the way down and cut over to Myrtle Edwards park for more beers on the shore.

I love Ro. This guys great.

Picked up and headed a bit north for burgers at The Redmill.

My god those burgers are fucking awesome.

Most of the crew had split off by that time. Nova, Monica, Kat, Kav, and myself remained. Made the call to head out to the point and out to Discovery Park. I’d never been there but it’s a largely decommissioned military post which gave it this creepy vibe. Beautiful big old buildings perfectly and uniformly boarded up, winding roads and fields of grass obviously once manicured but now left to the elements… Gave it this Stephen Kings “The Stand” feeling about things.

Big military naval radar there

Stephen King - The Stand

Got a little turned around, climbed a lot of hills, but finally made it out to the little lighthouse and the point for sundown.

The sky was so big.

You could hear seals barking way off but couldn’t see them.

Split once it got dark and made our way for home. Said goodbye to Kat at Elliot/15th. The rest of us plunked down under the Fremont Bridge on the Burke Gilman Trail, watched boats go by, finished our beer, and pedaled for home.

These are the best days of my life.

Nite nite.


Zero Carbon Move

Posted on May 25, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, In-the-news | Leave a Comment

Haulin Colin bustin ass….

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/364524_zerocarbonmove25.html

Colin Stevens of Seattle uses his bicycle and cart to pull a queen-size mattress up a hill while helping friends Joe Goldberg and Venessa Brown make a “zero-carbon” move in Seattle on Saturday. Chris Eggermont (left) of New York, also a friend of the couple, transports more of their belongings.

Seattle couple make a ‘zero-carbon’ move

By JENNIFER LANGSTON
P-I REPORTER

Strapping a queen-size mattress to a bike trailer with bungee cords and straps Saturday morning, Colin Stevens says not to worry.

It looks like a giant stingray perched on a deck of cards, its wingspan hovering above thin air. But he’s done this before — moving his own bed by bicycle — so he knows it works.

“I’ve acquired a nickname from some people – ‘Haulin’ Colin,’” said Stevens, a car-free welder who tows salvaged material behind him on his bike….

Seriously, how excellent.


Riding on a Saturday

Posted on May 25, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Maps | Leave a Comment

Met Kav for breakfast. Headed out to REI and met Laura. The two of us biked out to Alkai and met a friend of hers. We then turned around and hit the road for burgers at The Redmill in Interbay, and back through Fremont where she broke her second spoke and killing her bike basically. We walked from Speedy Reedy to Recycle Cycle to drop her bike off for repair (they were closed, so locked it up out front). On the way, we ran into fellow .83′er TrevorFrom there we walked home, and called it an evening.

Wasn’t an enormous ride, 28 miles to the point where we broke the spoke and walked, but it was a good time and it was a beautiful beautiful day. I didn’t take many pictures but I took a few. Here you go. Oh, and a map.

It was a hot day. We both had sweaty back from our bags. No way to get around it.


As stated by Laura, it’s hard to take a picture that’s been taken a million times by a million people. And she’s right. So we took it with our bikes.

Stopped by the boardwalk on the way to Interbay.

–

It was a good day to ride.

Tomorrow, Slow Sunday.

Onward.


Catching up…

Posted on May 25, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Rides | Leave a Comment

Tuesday – Awesome
Wednesday – Awesome
Thursday – Awesome
Friday – Awesome
Saturday – Awesome

Things are alright yano?

This is a stream of conciousness ramble. I’m not even coming back to edit. I’m just dumping here. Do as thou whilt.

Tuesday was hella. Sall I’m sayin.

Thursday – pointy three ride. We climbed HILLS. FAST. Left Westake Center, headed up and over Madison/First Hill, down Madison and back up Union to cross Capitol Hill, – pause for ice cream truck and crazy ass music – down to 23rd on the other side, hard right, all the way down 23rd, up and over Beacon Hill – ice cream truck AGAIN, same one – and into Georgetown, pitstop at the MarcoPolo on 4th ave South down by the Seattle Design Center for beers and food, then back north, back up the hill to the ID to like 26th and Charles for a pretty fucking bomb house party.

Dead Confederate opened up for Feral Children in the basement of this house. I liked the music and I was filled with the drunky. Aden showed up. There was wrestling and beer and Trevor and Aden and me and Laura and Trevor kept hitting my Chrome seatbelt button on my bag (FUCKERS) – everyone drank beer on the front lawn and generally just felt close it seemed. Inside in the basement the bands were jamming but nobody was dancing. Kav and I stripped off our messenger bags and literally dove in and tried to start a mosh pit. We did a passable job for the last two songs. Stuffy Seattle bitchez need to dance. Just sayin.

Ride home: stop at Dicks, had some crazy dude run up and start screamin I’M A DINOSAUR AND I JUST WANNA MOTHERFUCKING EAT OTHER MOTHERFUCKING DINOSAURS while he rips the top off the Dicks garbage can and starts randomly and voraciously pulling out food and shoving it into his mouth with this huge smile on his face. Was amusing and interesting, until he decided to single me out for his rantings, which actually was fine until the point he came within striking distance. (Crazy people are okay from a distance yo) – finally I’m like “Listen son, you’re fuckin with my buzz. Just step back there aight?”. He smiled bigger like, “oh yeah I KNOW what thats like” and more or less moved on.

(see? I speak crazy-ese.)

Friday – Put the word out to meet peeps at Lava at like 4pm but didn’t get there myself until a smidge after 530, as such missed Joby and Lucia. Felt sorta like a heel, but not too bad all things considered. Kav showed up. We drank beer, bullshitted. Splitsville for the Zoo. Drank more beer. Met Chunter and bought his Baileyworks messenger bag from him. Hheaded north to pick up Meg at the CIP, and then back to the U Bridge where we went to attend a party on a houseboat. Some girl Kav met at a bar months ago, sumthin sumthin. Houseboat was friggin beautiful. Party was teh LAME. They had Citizen Cope playing quietly on a laptop in the corner. Candles. There were babies there. Meg bailed instantly. I bailed later and left Kav at the party with said girl. I headed back for The Zoo to wrap my evening up. 20 mins later Kav shows up – evidently they were like, yep, parties done go home now, it’s 12:30 on a Friday night. Time for bed! We closed out the Zoo and headed for home.

Today. I’m sitting in my undies petting my cat, fuggin around on the innerwebz. About to jump in the shower, pick up Kav and heading to Voulas for breakfast. No idea what the day holds in store.


Idiocy

Posted on May 20, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Donts | 1 Comment

Thanks WSDOT for painting a bike lane for us coming off the Fremont Bridge. Right into a 4 inch curb. Way to go.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2100/2483042511_f34a01d4a4.jpg?v=0

But! I guess you saw where you screwed up and were going to fix it, because we saw this the next day.

WOOT! Go SDOT. And then, the next day – this is what happens:

I’m sorry, you must be retarded A FUCKING MORON. We didn’t realize. Our bad.

Epic Fail.

(/sigh – at least we got a little tiny bike lane there I guess. Even if it turned into a complete cluster.)


Car Accident Spoke Cards

Posted on May 19, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak | 8 Comments

So, after my little run in with the school bus, I got inspired to make spoke cards for other people who got hit by cars (or accidents in general). At first I had some beautiful two sided cards, but then I was stuck by an idea. What if on one side was a image but the other were instructions and phone numbers – a “What to do now that I’ve had a run in with a car” sort of check list.

Seriously, it’s easy to get rattled and real basic stuff like, get their phone number, write down their license plate, get their insurance info, etc. can get a little lost.

So, I made these.

Click here for the whole gallery with full quality images.

While I did talk with legal heavyweights Bob Anderton and John Duggan for a bit to get some of the particulars down, the above is just MY guideline. For instance, Bob doesn’t always recommend calling a cop. His point being, that sometimes cops can obfuscate the issue by ticketing cyclists for innane things (no helmet, etc).

John Duggan feels differently. His opinion – always call them.

This law stuff gets tricky I tell ya.

It seems that ultimately, documentation is your friend and what will get you compensation – NOT a police report. Call a cop if you want legal justice I guess. Call the insurance company if you want financial compensation. Though sometimes police reports can help, ultimately a police report is hearsay (the cop wasn’t there) and isn’t admissible in court because of it. Something to keep in mind.

So, again: This is to be an emergency “don’t forget” checklist for when you’re in the moment. Tips for documentation and steps to take to keep you safe. These are MY tips. Nobody elses. Take them for what they’re worth – but I think the advice is sound.

These are the designs on the other side. Very sexy, especially when laminated.

Everyone is welcome to print these – or something along these lines – with full permission if you like. I’m not claiming copyright on anything. Knock yourselves out. Or, the next time I see you, I’ll give you a card. I just made a bunch of them. And I don’t mind saying. They’re awesome.


ride ride ride

Posted on May 17, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak | 2 Comments

Sat/Sun – ride 110 miles on bike camping trip
Mon Tue – sorta recover (sorta not)
Wed – more ridin
Thrus – ride pointythree ride
Fri – impromptu pointythree bbq ride at golden gardens
Sat – Cupcake ride @ 2, and rollerderby @ 5
Sun – Slow Sunday ride

Whens a playa supposed to clean his house? Damb. Mines a friggin wreck.


Blue Pill – Red Pill

Posted on May 14, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Misc | Leave a Comment

Like many others, I was born into poverty, born inside a prison that I couldn’t smell, taste, or touch. A prison for my mind. (long pause, sighs) Unfortunately, no one can be told what being broke is. You have to see it for yourself. This was my last chance. After this, there was no turning back.

(In his left hand, the game called Life shows a blue pill.)

Life: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You move back into your Mom’s house, get a mundane job doing something you despise and buy a crummy house in a boring town. You’re $140,000 in debt, all you have to your name is a $200 bicycle, and it’s only going to get worse.

(a red pill is shown in his other hand)

You take the red pill, learn this “UNIX” thing that is so hot, live hand to mouth, and give up your social life. Because you’re $140,000 in debt no one will rent you ANYTHING. If you could sleep in your car you would, but that got repossessed two months ago. You’ll start trying to bicycle to work to save money, get in shape, and meet new people – but in the end you’ll spend every nickel you make on bicycles and beer, all your friends will then be alcoholic cyclists, and you’ll break both arms and get hit by a school bus in three separate incidents in less than 12 months of starting. You’ll do what it takes to hold onto your job to pay for your health insurance so you can keep bicycling, and your only goal in life will be to get yet another bike and keep going.

(Long pause; John begins to reach for the red pill)

Remember — all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.


older »