Bellingham Thanksgiving Century Ride – the details.

Posted on November 30, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Rides | 2 Comments

Well, to continue on from THIS POST:

The nitty gritty. We bicycled from Seattle to Bellingham on Friday. 118 miles.

It’s the day after Thanksgiving. 6am on Friday six of us met at the 24hr Starbucks. Bob Hall, Suzanne Hyphen, Margaret Hall, Ryan Lemke, Rob and myself. This is Bob Hall’s route and at his offer, the 5 of us took him up on it.

We rolled out about 6:30, going North on the Burke Gillman. It started raining shortly afterwards, and basically didn’t stop until Sunday morning.

Lucky us.

SKIP TO THE WHOLE PHOTO GALLERY

Route: U-village to Snohomish
Route: Snohomish to Chuckanut washout
Route: Chuckanut washout to Bellingham
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we did it!

Posted on November 28, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Rides, mobile-post | 5 Comments

Just finished riding my first century with Bob Hall, Ryan Lemke,Suzanne Hyphen, Margaret Hall and Rob. From Seattle to Bellingham – 118mi in the pouring rain from start to finish, on my long haul trucker – we’re now crashed in cass’s moms basement and I’m too tired to sleep and posting this from my phone. I have pics and videos to share. I feel very accomplished. And wet.

I am so not kidding about the rain. All day, cold ass November rain dumping on us for 10 hours, making an already intense ride just that much awesomer. I literally bought yellow rubber dish washing gloves in Mt Vernon for $1.99 and exchanged my excellent but soaked gloves for them with great success.

Gah I need to fill this post out later when I have a real keyboard and computer and not this crappy blackberry.

Night kids

Bicycle Hero

Posted on November 28, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Videos | Leave a Comment

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMYWuGUZlM[/youtube]

And yeah, there’s a crappy reply.  I’m posting it so you don’t – Andy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbMKbykr2Ec[/youtube]

Happy Thanksgiving folks

Posted on November 27, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Misc | 1 Comment

Big thanks to Chris Nygard and his wife for having everyone over.  Good food.  Good friends.  Tomorrow, a long ass ride to Bellingham.  I’m nervous I’m underestimating the demands of the ride.  Hope not.  I guess we’ll see.

Friday

Posted on November 24, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Rides, Routes | 2 Comments


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One day I will own a Pugsley

Posted on November 20, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Bikes, Misc | 9 Comments

Oh burly bikes, why do I love thee?
The image “http://www.surlybikes.com/blogimages/Epic-Frame-Bag_lg.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

bolex pugsley side view by SURLYBIKES.COM.

bolex pugsley 3/4 by SURLYBIKES.COM.

Go to the Surly Blog to read what that thing is, but the short answer is yes, it’s a chain driven camera looped to the front wheel.

http://www.surlybikes.com/blogimages/IMG_4828_lg.jpg

http://www.surlybikes.com/blogimages/IMG_4115_lg.jpg

http://www.surlybikes.com/blogimages/IMG_5562_LG.jpg

Whoevers riding the above bike is hardcore.  Fixie touring rig on a Long Haul Trucker.  Dude.  That is mighty.

I love my Long Haul Trucker and call it the Bicycle Eater because it is awesome and burly.  But truth is these Pugsleys are in a whole different category.

Anyhow, must go ride bikes and drink beer now kbai.

2009 Bike Girl Calendar!

Posted on November 19, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Events, For Sale | Leave a Comment

 It’s BACK!  New calendar, new release party.  Last year was a riot, this year promises to be more of the same.  Don’t miss it!  Oh and BUY A CALENDAR.


The release party is in Seattle, WA

Release Party for the 2009 Calendar
December 12, 8pm @ Conor Byrne Pub
5140 Ballard Ave NW. Seattle WA, 98107

Music by GOLDEN ROBOT ARMY!
Purchase tickets for a raffle to win a white 2009 Redline 925!
All raffle proceeds will go to benefit a local bicycle non-profit, Bike Works, which runs an awesome “earn a bike” program for kids.

Pre-order calendars here:
http://www.maloravision.com/calendar

Tonights ride – and misc

Posted on November 19, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Mechanical | Leave a Comment

So, I’ve decided to lengthen my evening commute home.  You get used to doing a 3 mile commute to and from work – your body gets used to it, but the truth is I need to put more miles on.  Have decided to start looping through Myrtle Edwards park, through the locks in Ballard, and then home.  This extends my route home from 3 to 13 miles.  I did it tonight before tonights .83 ride, which wandered all over the where, through Leschi, over to the Taco Bus on Rainier/Columbia City, and up and over Beacon Hill to drop into Georgetown for a beer at the 9lb Hammer, before pedaling home.  The ride was small – only 6 people, and after the Taco Bus it dropped to 4.  By the time the night ended off my total was at 32 miles and I’m pooped but feel good.  This distance isn’t beyond me by any stretch, but I’m not used to doing it.  And my Long Haul Trucker is not light.  With my Chrome Bag in the front basket – the bike weighs in at 54lbs.  Even with that, my average cruising speed still seems to hover between 18-20mph.  I just need to build my endurance.

And yeah.  Not much to report other than that I guess.   Tonight was just a night to ride bikes, and I feel tired and good.

Other small things.  My front brakes started squealing towards the end of the Suiattle camping trip we took a couple months ago, and no amount of cleaning, mounting, remounting, toe’ing, sanding, shaving, replacing or buffing  was going to make them stop.  So in a last ditch effort, I replaced the front brake with one of Pauls Touring Cantilever brakes.

Paul Touring Cantilever Brake

Holy crap.  Not only did the squeal go away, these brakes are totally rad, and feel excellent.  They’re expensive so I’m only getting one at a time.  But wow.  I forgot brakes could feel so good.

And I replaced the 26×1.5in stock tires that came with Bicycle Eater and replaced them with some 26×1.75in Schwalbe Marathons.  In the less than 6 months I’ve had the bike I’ve had like 7 flats on the stock tires.  Two of them on Tuesday!  In different places!  Frustrating.

These things however are the shit.  I lose a little bit in speed, but they rule in the rain and are just about bombproof in terms of flats.  Or so I’ve been told.

The one downside is my fenders are now a smidgen too small, so have new fenders (SKS P55) on order.

Blah, anyhow.  Time for bed.  Thats all she wrote.

Night kids.

RARE VINTAGE ANTIQUE CLASSIC SCHWINN CRUISER – $200 (Metro Detroit )

Posted on November 17, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Bikes, Misc | 2 Comments

This rare vintage collectable classic Shwin cruiser is a true collectors item & one of a kind. A real smart bike collecting man told me it’s a pre-war skiptooth muscle bike & not to take less than $200 for it. Needs some cleaning up & maybe new tires. SERIOUS ONLY! NO LOWBALLS! If I have to repost it, I’m going to raise the price–that’ll show ‘em!

http://detroit.craigslist.org/bik/922146321.html 

Flagged, best of.

Surly Pacer – ideas and photos

Posted on November 14, 2008 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Bikes | 1 Comment

I always do this. Go image hunting before I build bikes. Tag searching in Flickr is great for this. So is Google images. I still prefer smugmug to flickr, but it hasn’t been around as long and isn’t as popular. I guess because it doesn’t integrate into your yahoo mail – which everyone abandoned when they abandoned hotmail anyhow. Yeah I don’t get it but Picassa is a piece of shit so the gmail integration is off the table I guess.

Alas, I digress. This post is about cool Pacer pics. And here we have them. Pacers. Front racks. And flat bars. We has them.

We’ll start here: (because this is where I’m going to start on my bike)

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Hit the MORE tag for more pictures. Read more

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