#wrongbike

[ericgarr]

#wrongbike (at Bolton, Massachusetts) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4-8anclnat/?igshid=1gbjd4vznxgfs

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When a pavement ride involves a tad bit of singletrack. You know the ride was good. #underbike #singletrackmind #dirtlove #wrongbike #righttrail

[youcantbuyland]

#Repost @iraryancycles ・・・ Crossing paths with these humans on my way home from painting the last coat of epoxy on the #breadwinnercafe floor. #smallbusinesssaturday #wrongbike #dadwatts @manualforspeed @themollycameron

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Hot and Sour

I was taking home some hot and sour soup for my conference call last night and was reminded of the trickery about carrying tall spillables in a front basket. On my old grocery getter, Ye Blacke Death, I had multiple web harnesses. On this one, I only had one webbing to start with. So I could barely keep the thing upright. I started with the net over it and a second lashing to keep it moored to the basket in case it flipped (lots of rough road) but then switched to netting the entire thing to the side. It was still a bit unsteady for my tastes. A good reminder to have the second webbing handy. Anyway, never spilled and it worked out fine.  Side note of amusement: A woman about a half block away asked me what I charged for delivery. _________________ Chief of Ninja Group SUPEESU. MADDONISSU.  

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No Trees and Sales Please

Yesterday I was shuttling Wrongbike back home from the office (related: discovering Ye Blacke Death was liberated from my custody) and made a few errands along the way, made easier by the fact that my racks are all locked now. Anyway, the first win was for once not taking out a chunk of the overhanging tree in front of my office. I always wonder what damage I did to my bike... I'll eyeball it, I'll get out and check, everything looks fine, then dip out of the driveway and somehow the universe pushes branches down and into my spokes. So, no touchie-touchie, and on a day when I discover a bike loss, I put this in the win category. Stack that deck! The other nice one was a guy who tried to get me to sell him my bike. He was eyeballing it on the car when I was at Tam Bikes, and was asking me all sorts of questions about the conversion when I came out. He loved it and asked if I would sell it. Now, I have considered selling off some of my bikes in the past, just for efficiency, not really for financial need as the parts and labor in these projects is always more than what it would go for by a far margin, especially in the era of $199 factory fixies. But maybe because YBD had been disappeared, or maybe because as I talked to the guy my takeaway was that he really wanted to try his hand at the conversion process himself... I declined to give him a number. Instead, I mapped out the critical path for a conversion like it, told him a list of good parts to use and resources, gave him some links to TLTC bike project posts, and tole him to give me a call with questions. I think, in the end, he'll be happier having done it himself. I know I would be.  So, not too bad on a day when one bike is gone, and I only got to ride approximately one (1) US mile. _________________ Chief of Ninja Group  

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What Does it MEAN?

Today I took Wrongbike out for my commute. It's an old Vista road frame done up fixed using an eccentric rear hub. I love this bike. It's also my quietest ride, with virtually no chainline issues and a nice tight headset. It's like riding butter, if butter was wrapped in elk hide.  However, it was interesting to see 7 or 8 full size vultures lurking over me at one point. What does it mean?! It's 'king tide' time here along the SF Bay, meaning record high tides (today was 7.04 feet) so everything was pretty badly flooded. Maybe they were optimistic about finding a drowning wolfoyote.  I was planning on doing Paradise Loop at lunch, but I got caught up in work and then ordered a big hot and sour soup instead. So there, east coasters, or rather anyone in the US not here: I'm riding bikes and eating soup. Don't hate the wrongPlayer, hate the wrongGame! _________________ Chief of Ninja Group  

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The Joy of Commuting

(Originally posted August 2013)

I LOOOOVE bike commuting. I love seeing people in cars in traffic, glad I'm not one of them. When I AM in a car in traffic, or even without traffic, such as taking my kids to their caregivers or heading to a meeting in the city, I wish I was riding. I like it in warm weather, and I like it in cold weather. I enjoy my short jaunt these days, but I miss my long commute from SF to MV that took me around the SF Embarcadero, into the Presidio, and over the Golden Gate. I love everything about bike commuting.  Lately it's been fairly warm, so even at 730am or so, it's been comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt (because these days you wouldn't look at me and think roadie, even ON a road bike, as rare as that is: I just wear what i wear most times) though here and there we've had our colder, wetter dips, thanks to the earth cracking in half and the climate collapsing.  I miss the community of my older commute as well, particularly sections of the city, and the stretch along the bike path out of Sausalito. On the former, it was like this poster, above, where you might be in a cluster of several riders, all talking and enjoying the camaraderie (though not in traffic...) and on the latter, usually me and one other, zipping along talking about bikes or whatever, often because I was on a fixed gear and the other rider was interested.  I have the luxury of having a number of different bikes to ride, and I rotate through them these days about once a week, so I get about three days on eachbike at a time. It's great. Road bikes, tarcke bikes, cargo bikes, even a folder.  It's not always gravy. There are flats and crashes. Cold, gusty trips over the bridge. Torrential rain. Yesterday, it was raining when I left, here in Marin, and I went up the side of the mountain early before work before dropping down the other side. I was faced with the one thing that can sour my commute: bad drivers. This time, I was descending some steep switchbacky single-lane roads and an SUV passed me... PASSED me... on a blind curve. Descending. Single lane. Blind. They almost lost control, slammed their brakes, I almost crashed, and it was scary. Don't graze me bro!  But even so, my mood wasn't ruined this time, and I was able to enjoy the rest of my ride. I wish the cars and bikes got along more respectfully, and certainly with more common sense. And I wish bike riders were more savvy about how they rode sometimes. But when I see a guy riding next to his young child on the way to school, or a see a girl commuting to her office with a basket full of bagels, or I see a bunch of guys tearing up the side of the mountain before work, I'm really thankful to be living where I am, and able to ride during the week.  That is all! Ode to bike commuting! _________________ Chief of Ninja Group