Goodie Bag

Rode to work today mostly to get my goodie bag. When I pulled up to the gate I was greeted by two ladies passing out bags and taking pictures. Say, 'Cheese!' The bag contained a meal ticket for the pulled pork BBQ lunch, a Power Bar, a bottle of Arrowhead drinking water, and...oh, yes, a blue ribbon. No, no, not a Pabst Blue Ribbon, but the blue ribbons you used to get after warming the bench all season in the YMCA pee-wee soccer leagues.

Worth it for the free lunch? I don't know yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Bike To Work Day

April is Valley Bike Month, and my company has been gearing up (no pun intended) for a shindig to celebrate. We have no fewer than eight local bike shops committed to the event, the Department of Public Safety will be there in force, and the company is organizing technical challenges, offering prizes for distance ridden in the month, etc., and even passing out goodie bags (whatever that means) to any cyclist who commutes to work on the day of the event. Sounds like a good time, no? I wonder if DNA Cycles will be knocking major coin off their new bikes for the event...

In case you were wondering what my level of participation will be in this upcoming event, I will be manning the 'Bike Safety' booth (whatever that entails - sounds pretty hardcore) for the duration of my lunch break. Swell of me to donate my lunch to the hobby, eh? Any of my free time after the stint at the booth will likely not include winning technical challenges. Heck, I still can't hop-stop my fixie, let alone trackstand for five minutes.

Oh, and I'll definitely be picking up a goodie bag to let you know what I scored.

No Turning Back

At this point I have decided to sell my road bike. The vintage Trek has been a great tool for me but alas, I don't have room for three bikes (plus four more in the garage for my family). So after it sells, I'm committed. Fixed wheel, no more gears on the road. I'm going to miss my Trek 400, in fact it will likely be one of those things I'll wish I had never let go.

If you're so inclined, you can check it out and pay your respects here. I am accepting offers and will answer any questions in the comments section.

Finally, some of you may be wondering 'what is it with all his blue bikes?' I swear, it just happened that way, other than the deliberate choice of color on the fixie.

High Resolution

Some of you may want to see more detail than the prior post's thumbnails would allow. So, for your viewing pleasure, click on a picture below to enjoy a selection of the best images in hi-def.

Beauty Shots

The blue Schwinn leaned gently against the wall. Its paint shone like a new penny, jewelry reeking of polished aluminum and chrome. Only six miles old, I decided it was time for some glamour poses for the style mavens out there.

On first impression, the portrait studio was one of those places you might not expect to produce good work. Still, I went ahead and set the bike up, leaning it on some ABS pipe I had laying around. Take a look for yourself and see how the photos turned out.

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Finally, take a look at my hot spoke card:

I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore

To sum it all up, REO Speedwagon said it best.

So I tightened everything down and took the fixie for a test ride today. We didn't have much time together, so we headed to the top of Usery Pass. As I pedaled past the park entrance my mind began to think about some of the essentials for the maiden voyage:

Multi-Tool
Camera
15mm Wrench
Brakes...well, the jury is still out on that one...

None of which were present.

Fortunately, the only one that I really wished I had packed was the camera. As I stopped at the top of Usery Pass, I looked east to see how beautiful Pass Mountain was with the wildflowers growing, er, wildly. Would've made another great backdrop for a beauty shot of the fixie. Ah, well. I'll just have to huff it up that hill again.

For the sharp-eyed readers out there, you already figured out the surprise from prior posts. For the rest of you, you may recall a certain 52T crankset I said would be installed on this bike, one that not a small amount of elbow grease went into. Well, as it turns out, another certain Sugino crankset was calling my name, complete with a 48T chainring. No biggie, I just got a 16T cog for the fixed side and I'll keep the 17T freewheel for whenever I'm feeling lazy. End of surprise. For those of you who counted the teeth on the fixed cog, take note: I'm impressed that you care.

In The Hood

Tonight was the night. The moon was out, a gentle breeze caressed the treetops, and a small amount of the atmosphere was pumped into my tires. It was a good night. So I threw my leg over the handlebars (in true fixie fashion) for the inaugural ride. More like the pre-inaugural ride in the neighborhood. Like up and down the street a few times.


Initial impressions? Wow, this is different. So smooth. So quiet. It was as if my senses were heightened. My sense of impending doom, perhaps, but that's a sense. All in all, a few quick spins up and down the hill, one ill-fated attempt to ride backwards, and I parked it for the night. Gotta get up early...






PS - Did you catch any of the surprises in this or the previous post? Hints later.