Bring Your Own Big Wheel

Technically Big Wheels aren't *really* bicycles.  

It's an Easter tradition in San Francisco for a bunch of adults (and some children) to dress up in costume and ride childrens' toys down one of the steepest hills in the city.  Though it started with just big wheels, the event has evolved and warped into bringing whatever you can get wheels on to get down the hill.  There were office chairs, skateboards, trash cans, and some bicycle like objects.

So, it's a bit outside of the norm for this blog, but here are some highlights from BYOBW 2014.

BART cars, horse masks, and someone chugging wine.  Happy Easter!

Team Tron riding their modified big wheels.

These gentlemen were riding a trash can with a Razor scooter attached to it.  An a headless mannequin, of course.

It is Easter, after all.

Every war has its casualties.

San Francisco has a huuuuuge bicycle culture, and it was awesome to see how many people biked to either participate or watch the event.  Many of the big wheels themselves were made out of old bike parts or welded from scratch completely.  

As for me, I managed a few runs down the hill without crashing too terribly.  Maybe next year I'll bust out a custom steel big wheel to blast down the hill with.

The Story of James

 At the request of those involved, this story has been removed.

For those worried about the possibility that this was a stolen bike - I was able to get purchase history and to verify that it was legitimately purchased!  

Commanding

I have a thing for weird things.  And it gets me in trouble sometimes, because I enjoy novelties far more than I really should.  It's one of the reasons my bikes are all fairly unique and I wear shoes with toes on them and I enjoy drinks like a Pirate's Chai Latte.  In my defense though, I'm not one of those people who convinces everyone that they like these things because they want to be weird and different, I'm one of those people that just plain is weird and different (said sounding a least hipster as I possibly can).

At some point, I came across Suntour's Command Shifters, which were a precursor to brifters and released to be compatible with the Accushift system.  They were quite well made, worked nicely, and were ergonomic, but alas, they faded when Suntour did.

What is this madness??  Image via Velobase.

I became intrigued, not only because these were inherently different than the downtube shifters I've come to know and love (don't you dare judge me) but also because I spend a lot of time on the hoods.  And by a lot I mean all of it.   It's actually the main reason I decided to go for pursuit bars on the District, which is a decision that I am fanatically happy with.  People keep telling me that if I'm not spending time in the drops I'm doing it wrong, but being in the drops feels strange to me, even if the bike supposedly fits me to a tee.  I like hoods, and being able to shift from them...I had to get my hands on these.

Image via The Vintage Fuji, since mine aren't set up yet but I was excited and wanted to write about them.

Being that Suntour was fantastic, they have both Friction and Indexed modes that were compatible with six and seven speed derailleurs.  Although I have seen these few times in the wild, people seem to like them, and think that they work well.  

What's my point?  These are going on the Nishiki Ultimate that I'm building that I can't even provide a decent link for, because that particular bike was never actually catalogued.  I'm going to test them and see for myself just how much shifting from the hoods will change my life forever.  Not counting brifters, at least.  I tried brifters, and while I could get used to them given enough time, the way I climb hills involves me muscling the hoods up the hill, during which with brifters I found myself awkwardly shifting all over the place while swearing in a few different languages. 

Image via dcBikes.

Truth be told, the Nishiki is coming along rather well.  I plan on having it be my racing bike, and by racing I mean going-fast-when-I-ride-with-friends-on-the-weekends bike.  I have the command shifters and break levers on the handlebars, and have a rear derailleur that I could hook the right one up to, which would be neat, but doesn't do me too much good without a freewheel quite yet. 

Thus I conclude my Thursday ramblings of command shifters, and promise to return at some point with actual photos of my shifters, as well as good experiences involving shifting, unlike the brifter hill climbing experience, which went something like:

Click "AHHH NO" click "SHIT" clickclick "STOP IT" click "FUCK" clickclickclick "OH GOD WHY" click.

Click.

2012 Distance Count: 337 Miles | 542.4 Kilometers

Superbe

There are a lot of "you know you're a bike nut when" things out there. 

- You know you're a bike nut when there are more bikes than people in a household.

- You know you're a bike nut when you have no idea how much a gallon of gas costs, and haven't for a while.

- You know you're a bike nut when you can pull a crank and readjust a deraileur, but have no clue how to change a fuse.

I realized yesterday that I have a few good ones to add to this list:

- You know you're a bike nut when you can't spell "Superb" without adding an e at the end out of habit.

- You know you're a bike nut when your phone's autocorrect dictionary changes words to the names of famous brands or parts.  I'm derailleur right now, but I'll be over there in a Shimano.

There are lots more, but you get the idea.  

Seriously - e at the end.  Looks so much better than "Superb."

The point is, this amazing derailleur showed up at my house last night, after I'd been trolling eBay for a while trying to find the right one for my racing bike.  It's not NOS, per say, but it might as well be - the bearings are as smooth as butter, and it's a beautiful derailleur.  I honestly can't believe Suntour isn't still around. 

Really, their components were simply Superbe.  Teehee. 

I'm done.  

2012 Distance Count: 266 Miles | 428.1 Kilometers

On Brakes

I have a love for shiny things that go fast.  It's why I love both bicycles and concept cars, with the difference being that I can afford bicycles.  I also have a thing for components - especially strange, obscure, weird components that are often proprietary and a handful.  It's one of the main reasons I have such a thing for Takhions.  But today is all about brakes.   

I often find myself drooling over Campy Delta and Shimano Dura Ace AX brakes.  They're different and unique, and I love them for it.  Some people swore by them in their day, and others admitted a lack of stopping power and problems with proprietary allen wrenches and brake pads.  Nonetheless, I've always liked how "different" they were.  There are whole subspecies of derailleurs, but brakes are (usually) pretty straightforward.

I got sort of excited when I learned about integrated brakes in TT bikes.  I mean, how cool is this?

Image via www.bicycling.com - I wish I knew someone with these so I could photograph them myself!

There's more where that came from!            

And of course, after Bike Hugger did a write up on EE Cycleworks brakes, I had to go an investigate them further.  They seem like pretty solid brakes, but they are by no means cheap - though they are lovely!  This is going on my list of Someday-Components.  That I will have someday.

And then Magura had to go and and make these sexy brakes.  I mean, look at those brakes - look at those levers - just.  Want.  Nustbike has some great photos of them here.  Looks like these are also going on that list.  Oh, and they're hydraulic. 

Image via Gizmag!

Right now, I'm running old Shimano 600/Ultegra brakes on my commuter (with the original brake pads, to boot!), and I feel like my stopping power is generally fine, though I rarely get rain here, so for dry they're fine.  The brakes are quiet, easily adjustable, and also beautiful.  I certainly don't need new brakes, or any new components for that matter, other than a few random parts for some of my projects, but I still enjoy drooling over the possibilities.

And hey, brakes are easy to upgrade in the future. 

Anyway.  That's my rant.  I really just wanted to talk about brakes.  

2012 Distance Count: 245 Miles | 394.3 Kilometers

32!

There's a stretch along Hermosa Avenue heading south each night that I can just fly over.  It's near the end of my ride, and usually I try to push myself to go as fast as I can.  Sometimes I'm a bit tired, so I don't go all out, but last night, I was all charged up and completely in the zone.  I was out of the saddle, sprinting in my highest gear, just flying.  I barely noticed the car alongside me, until I came to the stop sign.

I stopped, and the car stopped next to me, with the window rolled down.  

"Dude!  32 miles per hour!  Nice!"  He gave me a thumbs up!

I thanked him, then promptly went home and ate everything that I could find. 

2012 Distance Count: 238 Miles | 383 Kilometers

Strand Ninja!

It appears as though sometime last night someone went out onto The Strand and the adjacent sharrowed street and stenciled inspirational sayings for cyclists.  I got to ride today while being greeted by "Nice Bike!" and "Lets ride LA!"  I had to get to work, but later, I'll try to get some photos. 

Cleaned my commuter last night, and it's about 75% less sandy than it was before.  Of course, after riding this morning, it's probably gross again.  Oh well.

Mmm, chain grease

Only got honked at twice today, for stopping at a stop sign and proceeding when I had the right of way.  Thanks motorists!

2012 Distance Count: 189 Miles | 304.2 Kilometers

On Baked Goods

Someday I'm going to design something that will allow baked goods to be efficiently transported on a bicycle.  I love to bake almost as much as I love to bike, and I love sharing my baked goods with my coworkers, but the problem is when I make anything slightly fragile to bring in to work, I can only transport it via car if I want to keep my cupcakes/cookies/other magical goodies looking pretty.  Or, if I don't want caramel all over my panniers.  

I made homemade Twix bars today, and try as I might, there was just no way to get them into a pannier in such a way that would protect them.  A rear rack solution might work for something like that, but what about cupcakes rattling around?  

Fortunately I love my coworkers, so the stress of driving to work one day is worth it just to see their faces light up when I bring goodies.

Seriously.  Bike cake rack.  I could make millions.

2012 Distance Count: 182 Miles | 292.9 Kilometers

Fridays

Some days I don't ride to work.  I try to keep these days as few and far between as possible - if I need to carry a large (or food) item, torrential downpours that drown small children, etc.

Fridays are my bouldering day.  Bouldering is like rock climbing, only without the harness, and you're usually inverted, and you also usually get your ass kicked by these small, seemingly harmless colored rocks.  

I enjoy bouldering because it changes things up a bit.  I've been running and cycling for a long time, so my thighs are massive muscle machines that can break bones and my gastrocnemiuses could consume small animals.  It's nice to have something that actually works my upper body for a change, and requires a completely different mindset than cycling does.  Mostly, it makes me grateful that I am a good, in shape cyclist.  Bouldering humbles me and makes me grateful that I am a beast on a bike.

I don't ride to the bouldering gym because it involves going on one suicidally busy street during rush hour in LA to another suicidally busy street, then going into a rather terrible part of town.  After that, my hands and arms are usually too dead to do much, so gripping the handlebars and braking is out of the question.  Someday I'm going to figure out a solution to this.  

On that note, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.  If it's unseasonably nice, go for a ride!  

2012 Mileage Count: 98