Sloss Sunrise

I never posted this back when I took this, so in honor of my blog not being totally dead, here it is. Just like the rainbow below, this is from a few weeks ago, and I just came across it when dumping stuff off my camera. It's totally dark on my rides in these days. I have my one blinky light, but I need to get a headlight for the front of my bike. I wear the blinky on my bag. I may get a second blinky for my seatpost as well. I had a big ole hoopty blast past me yesterday in the dark on first avenue and it made me really want to be more visable. Hasta proxima.

Rainbow

I forgot about the big rainbow until I came accross the photo on my camera. It was a couple of weeks ago. I rode home in the rain and saw this rainbow. I was really wanting to get a picture, but was nervous about taking my camera out in the rain. Finally the rain eased up just as I crossed the railroad tracks, where I had a nice vantage for taking the shot.

Shoes

Shoes on 7th Avenue.

Posts seem to be coming far and few between these days. I find myself posting in clumps. As of Monday, my bike is out of commission. I've been having some derailleur problems which are annoying but not too disruptive. More recently I've realized that I really need to get my bike a full tune up - wheels trued, breaks adjusted, derailleur problem fixed, etc.. Then Monday I had a flat downtown. After I fixed it and got to work, I saw a little bulge on the sidewall of my tire, and realized that my tire is shot. These tires have been great, but they seem to be a bit small for the rims, and they are a real pain in the ass to get on in off, so I decided it's time to move on to something else. It started to sound like I was going to have to spend a fair amount of money to get my bike up and running again. Which led me to the idea that maybe it's time for a new bike. Of course, this has led to the world of options that are available. I don't need or want another mountain bike. I don't do any real long distance or racing rides. I do want something that has a little get up and go. So, I'm thinking about getting my first fixed gear. With brakes. I've thought about trying to build my own, but now I'm at the point where I need a bike, so I'm looking at just plunking down on a cheap entry level bike. Or who knows, I'm pretty indecisive.

Frances

Lucy and I recently purchased this 1975 Scotty Gaucho. We've been spending a lot of time renovating the inside. I suppose I can tie this into bike riding by saying that in all likelihood, we will end up taking the camper somewhere to go bike riding. In the meantime it's just our new baby.

A-Hole

Some A- hole has stolen all the storm drain grates from around my neighborhood leaving A-Gaping-Hole everywhere they used to sit. This person deserves something horrible. When I leave the house it's still dark. If I didn't know these holes were there, it wouldn't be to hard to end up in one. The city has since come around and placed concrete slabs over them. If you are on a bike, and you hit one of these slabs, the end result would be about the same - face meets pavement.

What an A-Hole

Running late

Running late has it's silver lining. I saw a beautiful sunrise while riding over the 21st street bridge. The photo is actually looking away from the sun. I liked the way the sun was lighting up the old smokestack as well as the tops of the inside of the train cars. I meant to work on it to bring those colors out some more. In the end, like so many other things, I just said screw it. It is what it is. I was really running behind, so I didn't have time to get my full run in. I just had a quick trot around downtown to have a look at where Charm is opening on 2nd avenue across from Urban Standard, where I will be displaying at artwalk (2421 2nd Avenue), and a quick investigation of the giant bees nest is at the Recycling center (it's gone).

Hasta pronto.

This is not an abandoned house

I can't believe it's a been a month since I've posted. However, I am still riding and taking photos along the way. It's actually, unbelievably, been a glorious few weeks of weather for riding. Mostly highs in the 80s. Just the last few days have gotten back up into the 90s, and honestly, that's just not that bad. I've started a new schedule which might be why I've been slacking here (again). Usually my biking to work replaces my running or vice versa. For a while I would drive downtown and run then drive home, shower, and ride to work. That always seems really ridiculous. So, I signed up for a locker at the downtown YMCA for $11. Along with being able to store stuff there, they wash your running (or workout or whatever) clothes every day and put them in your locker. I usually throw in some undies and socks for good measure. It's a really good deal. Guaranteed clean running clothes (and undies) every day, I'm not driving back and forth to downtown, I'm getting a little extra riding in, my ride to Lucy's Coffee and Tea is only a mile from the Y and then a Mile from there to work, I get to turn my AC off at home a lot earlier and I'm showering at the Y so I figure I'm saving on hot water as well. It's really nice to putt putt the mile to Lucy's and then to work, arriving still fresh, rather than the 4 or so to Lucy's and then to work, which was just enough to leave me good and sweaty on a hot day.

Hasta la Proxima

Birmingham Police

Here's a quick commuting to work story from this morning. I was traveling down 22nd street from downtown Birmingham to Southside at about 7:45 this morning, on my way to Lucy's Coffee & Tea. For those unfamiliar, 22nd street is a three lane one way street that is generally very busy during rush hours. I stopped at a red light and a giant Cadillac pulled up behind me, right behind me. After a few seconds he started honking his horn. I turned to look at him and he started making hand motions saying he wanted to make a right on red. I gave him a hand motion back showing him that I was going straight, and turned back around. He honked a few more times and then tried to go around me. At that point a Birmingham Police car pulled up and gave a "wew-wew." The officer in the passenger side leaned out the window and yelled at the guy in the Caddy "Hey, he has as much right to the road as you do, and he does NOT have to make a right on red." At that point I faced forward again, the light changed, and I went on my way. I turned a few seconds later to give the officer a "Hey thanks" but he had turned off.

As a disclaimer I need to say that I am all about sharing the street with cars and getting out of their way when possible. I don't deliberately try to slow cars down or get too high and mighty about my place on the road. I drive a car too. This particular stretch of 22nd street is what I call a "shit or get off the pot" stretch of road. You either jump in traffic and stick with it, or you are relegated to the sidewalk or another street. If I were to get off to the side of the road to let this guy make his right on red, then when traffic starts moving 40 MPH, I'm stuck on the sidewalk or the side of the road waiting for the light again. In other words it would have inconvenienced me more to get out of his way then it did him to wait 30 seconds behind me for the light. Were it the other way around, I would have gladly gotten out of his way. Not to mention it looked like it was about to rain and I wanted to get to Lucy's.

Thank You to the Birmingham Police.

Cape Cod Rail Trail

Lucy and I spent last week on Cape Cod visiting my parents. We spent one day riding up the cape cod rail trail. We rented bikes from Orleans Cycle - very nice people. Our ride was from Orleans to Welfleet. The trail actually ends before Welfleet, but we continued on for 3 or 4 miles into Welfleet Center. As you can see from the picture of Lucy, the weather wasn't great. Three days before the 4th of July this parking lot should be jammed full. We were the only two people there so we swerved around the parking lot as much as possible. 'cause we could. On the way back we stopped at a great place called the Beachcomber. It's a bar / restaurant that sits, almost, right on the ocean. After a few beers we had some fun riding back. We wondered if people could tell who was returning from the Beachcomber by their riding style. The whole ride was about 25 miles round trip. Below are some pictures from Provincetown. It struck me a odd. Provincetown is a friendly town, with lots of bikes. and everywhere there are signs that say "no bikes." I don't know the history here, so I'll just leave it at that.

el perrito de guardia

I pass this dog every day. I remember when he first appeared here a while back. I think they used to take him home at night, but now he is the full time guard dog. He has a little dog house and it looks like they take good care of him, but it must be some lonely nights by the railroad tracks. It was about 5:30 when I rolled up and decided to take his picture. As soon as I got up to the fence with my camera, a pickup rolled around the corner and pulled right up to me. A man got out and I explained that I ride past here twice a day and was just taking the dogs picture. He seemed to be cool with the idea, but said that people sometimes come by and throw rocks at the dog. How special. Apparently he didn't think I was one of these people. He gave the dog a few pats, explained with a laugh that it was the new guard dog, the dog returned a few licks, and he left. I left as well, figuring he probably was still watching what I was doing. I forgot to get the dogs name. I'll have to make a point of stopping and asking him. That way I can properly harass the dog by calling it's name as I ride past.

cut off at the pass

I was treated to a somewhat extended break on my ride in today. There is a spot where the trains do a jog across 1st avenue south and then turn and follow along 1st avenue. This train stopped during the jog in such a way as to block the only other way out down 34th street. The only other option was to turn around and ride back out toward 41st. Since I was within 3 blocks of work I decided to wait it out. Nice morning to sit around and wait for the train. I saw a lot of cars whipping u-turns and roaring back down 1st ave. I wondered if I was driving and decided to follow suit, if I would get to work any faster than waiting on the train and then heading on. Probably not. These situations are always interesting. In a car people make the assumption that there MUST be a faster way to deal with this. Stress out, u-turns, dangerous speeding. On a bike - well I'm late for work, fuck it, nothing I can do, enjoy the sun before it gets to hot, get to work a bit late, stay a bit late, miss rush hour on the way home. It all works out.

Gear reviews

Here's my first, possibly my last, gear review issue. These are some of the things I've collected since starting to commute on my bike.

Timbuk2 medium messenger bag:

What can I say. This bag rocks. I got it 50% off at REI. It doesn't move at all on my back when I'm riding. It's big for what they call a medium. Today was my biggest haul yet. 3 half gallons of soy milk, my thermos, tube etc, plus all of my work & personal stuff:

I crammed it all in there, no problem. The soy milk was actually nice on such a hot day. I could feel the cold from it on my back the whole way. So you can haul lots of crap, plus it's built solid. It has the feel of something that will last a lifetime. Waterproof too. I can't wait to try out the 2 six packs of bottles plus ice like they show on their website.

Next up, my Eleven81 trunk bag: This guy serves pretty well for trucking around a relatively small amount of stuff. It has an expandable top and straps on to your rack with strong Velcro ties. The biggest advantage to this bag is not having stuff on your back. But for a short ride commuter like me the cons win out. It is kind of a pain to take it off and put it on at every stop. So you either risk it being stolen or hassle with taking it off and putting it on when you stop for coffee, the library, the grocery store, etc.. It just adds up to a lot of on and off. It also REALLY bounces your stuff around. I never felt good about my camera or hard drives being in there. It also does NOT have that built to last a lifetime feel (it already has a stress tear after less then a year) and it's not waterproof.

next, my viewpoint cheap shit blinky light: pictured here after being smashed open at Jones Vally Urban Farm. I hadn't noticed until I got home. I went back the next day, found the pieces, got a new battery, and it was blinking away again. You have to give big points to things that get smashed to shit and still work. Anyway, 5 settings (of which I use one), comes with a seat post attachment, retail price $4.99.

And last but totally not least, my new Michelin 1.4" city tires:

These replaced the 1.95" tires. The front was a worn out knobby off road tire, the rear was a relatively new 1.95" city tire. These tires are great. They make a huge difference on my commute. Noticeably faster. They hold the road really well in turns. Surprisingly so. I was nervous about riding on wet pavement at first, but that was totally unwarranted. They are really thick skinned. A layer of "Protek" under the tread is supposed to greatly reduce flats. So far, two weeks, no flats. I have them pumped up to 90psi, so they are a little unforgiving on the rough spots, but I suppose that is to be expected. I payed full price for these - $25 each. I have since seen them for as low as $17.50 on amazon. Added bonus of a reflective sidewall stripe.

Woodlawn United Methodist Church

Terrible loss for Woodlawn today. I ride right by this church everyday. I'm not sure how old the church was, but it was old and beautiful. Just as tragic - it was an active church, and the loss of anything active and positive in Woodlawn is a bummer. My heart goes out to these folks. I wish I had taken a picture of the church before it burned. It makes me stop and think how many wonderful things we pass everyday, but never stop to appreciate them because we take for granted that they'll always be there.

Farmer's Market

I rigged up my bike up with a milk crate for the farmer's market today. It worked out well, with just a bunch of zip ties holding it to my rack. One more tie held on my blinky light on the back. I laid a small towel in the bottom of the crate to help keep any veggies from getting bruised on the way home. The market was jammed and the weather was beautiful. I found that riding my bike to the market instead of driving left me feeling like I didn't need to rush around and grab my stuff and split, it seemed to take the hurry out of it. I hung around and had a breakfast burrito and a sweet tea from Franklin's, took some time to check out Lonnie Holley's awesome artwork, and bought a ton of veggies. I loaded my new grocery gitter with sweet potatoes, new potatoes, beets, green beans, squash, turnips, tomatoes, and a bag of blue grits. There was plenty of room in the basket, so everything fit comfortably, except the tomatoes. I stuck those in my bag to hopefully keep them from getting knocked around too much. It handled great on the way home, maybe a bit bouncy, but nothing got tossed around. That's probably because my rack is just a seat post rack, no supports down to the dropouts. Just a snip-snip after the market and my bike was back to my commuting bike.

Shimano replacement pins

     I learned (on the internet, how else) that when you push out a Shimano chain pin with a chain tool, you aren't supposed to use that same pin again. You should replace it with a new pin. After my multiple chain breaks I did some searching and found lots of people talking about this. I remember a guy at Bob's Bikes telling me about this last year as well. At the time I poo pooed the idea and I didn't have any problems again until last week. So, I went out last week and got myself 5 Shimano replacement pins for about a buck each and I keep them in my patch kit. I haven't had any chain problems though, so I think removing the link may have solved the problem. I still don't have full confidence back. I'm a little nervous standing up on big hills. I can't stop thinking that the chain may snap, and I'll be castrated, and then run over. Although, I did find myself hammering it out to beat a train across the tracks the other day. I didn't think of the chain until after the fact.

     I'll be pretty excited if the chain thing is worked out, or even if the pins are needed, if they solve the problem. I was nervous that I was going to have to buy a new chain, and that made me nervous that it would lead to skipping, replacing the cassette, etc.. I'd rather spend a little money on finishing converting this (mountain) bike to a commuter bike. I would like to get some 1.4" city tires to replace the 1.95" that are on there now. I think that alone would make a huge difference. I'd also like to swap my rock shocks with the rigid forks on my mountain bike. I don't see any reason that wouldn't work, but I should probably talk to someone about it. Other than that I need a light for the front, overall tune up, and I can move on to my next bike project.

     It is now summer in Alabama. Finally, after a rainy ass spring, the sun is out and it looks like it will be out for a while. It's getting hot, and sweaty, and yummy.

Confidence

I went through a bout of what I call "bike confidence drain" back in the fall when I had a run of flat tires every couple of days. It got to the point where I had to factor in whether I had time to stop and change a tube on my way to work, and if I was running late, I would jump in the car for fear of that flat. So it hit me again this morning. Last week I had a run of chain breaks. After the one I wrote about, it then snapped on me on the way to work on Wednesday. I put it back together, and made it to lunch, then back to the office. But then it snapped again on the way home. At that point I dropped out what I believe to be the offending link, and it was fine on the way home. I'm pretty confident that the removing that link is going to solve by problem. However, when I was getting ready to leave the house today, and it was raining lightly, that bike confidence thing happened again. I suddenly had a picture of myself on the side of the rode in a downpour, chain tool in one hand, chain in the other, and I decided today was a good day to drive. 

Choo Choo Graffiti

Just some choo choo shots on my way home.

Have a lovely Memorial Day Weekend.

Granny Gear

A tough couple of days to start off the week.

Monday: I awake with a crick in my neck. No biggie really, except that it would feel like someone sticking a fork in my neck when I would look over my left shoulder for traffic. That, and the fact that for some reason the am temperature is in the 40s, and there is a gusty wind the last couple of days, made things tough. 

Tuesday: I get about half way to work and my chain snapped. I stood there for a second and thought "no need to look, chain tool is not in the bag today." After examining I noticed the chain did not actually break, but the pin just came out of one of the links. I pushed it back together. At the same time that I realized I could not get it apart, I saw I had not run the chain through my rear derailleur. After a short struggle I got the link apart again, ran the chain through my derailleur and snapped it back again. I figured I could granny gear it back to the house like this. I then noticed I had not run the chain through my front derailleur. I'm on a real streak here. At this point I had lost track of which link had come loose, and could not find it again. So, I just cranked the front derailleur all the way to the outer ring, which allowed me to leave the chain on the inner ring without feeding it through the derailleur. It got me home OK despite the grinding noises from the chain rubbing on the derailleur. The biggest lesson I learned here is that I need to clean my bike more often. I arrived home covered in chain grease/muck. 

Group Ride

There was a group ride for Bike to Work Day on Friday. A 6 mile put-put ride around UAB/downtown Birmingham. I'd guess about 30 people showed, which was more than I expected. Not surprising though, given what a beautiful morning it was. I already had a lot on my plate for Friday and I debated driving my bike over for the ride. After some thought, I decided that, on bike to work day, it was totally unacceptable to drive a bike somewhere that you could ride to. So by the end of the day I ended up logging about 30 miles. That's a lot for me. An average day is about 10 to 12 and a big day is usually about 20. One nice thing about group rides, is they are great confidence builders. Cars generally have more respect for a group than a single rider (especially when there are a couple of cops on bikes with the group). I always leave a group ride with a little more confidence about riding on the road and a bit more trust that cars see me as a vehicle.

Bike to Work Day - Friday May 15th

My friend and yours, Nancy Tran, recently opened up Green Central Station in the Lakeview area. Selling environmentally friendly products in a general store atmosphere. She's got a little bit of everything; dog food, organic snacks, picnic supplies (for rent or to buy), refurbished bicycles (for rent or to buy), gardening essentials, candy, fabulous artwork, and cold drinks. Green Central Station is at 2717 7th avenue south ride on the 7th avenue bike path. In honor of Bike to Work Day she is offering free bottled water and cold drinks to any biker riders that stop in. 

She'll let you use the bathroom too.

Mr. Chai's

I popped into Chai's Oriental Food Store, affectionately known as Mr. Chai's, on may way home today to scoop up some goods for making veggie curry. This place is super on so many fronts. Sure Mr. Chai has giant bags of rice, any number of asian and indian spices and condiments, and fish that comes with a stern warning to only cook outside. Most notably is that it doesn't smell, look or feel like any other store in town. It's Mr. Chai's, period. The prices are really cheap, even on items that you can find in the big grocery stores. Especially the spices - really cheap compared to bigger stores. I scored some coconut milk, chili paste, mint chutney, curry powder and garam masala and headed out to hook up a big pot of curry for the Lost finale tonight.

Closed Mondays.

Life in the Bike Lane

There is often discussion about the dangers of the 7th avenue bike lane here in Birmingham. Usually it revolves around the bike lane being situated between the car lane and the parked cars. This puts us in danger of smashing into a car door, and with any luck, the driver when they open their door  into the bike lane. I use this lane several times a day and I've managed to avoid this fate. Sometimes it's a bit too close for comfort, but it seems that unless someone is just sitting in their car and happens to all of a sudden jump out, it's pretty easy to avoid. Most people opening their car door either just pulled into the spot to park, or are entering their car, and hopefully you would see them doing that and be aware. I'm knocking on wood. The real danger is getting clipped/crushed by someone making a right turn into a parking lot. Drivers are used to swinging right turns into parking lots and driveways pretty freely without concern. This is mostly because unlike making a right turn onto a cross street, there is no traffic approaching from their left. They just need to make sure there is no one approaching from ahead making a left hand turn. That means they are looking forward and left before they turn, not checking their blind spot. Overall, I view this lane as my safety zone. It's the one place where I feel like my place on the road is respected, for the most part.

Rules of the Road

I'm constantly changing how I feel about bicycles vs. cars and rules of the road. Bicycles are expected to follow the same basic set of rules that cars must follow. However, as we all know, most cars don't really follow these rules. There are some rules you can see cars breaking every time you head out on the road. Well, there are certain rules you will almost always see me breaking. Running red lights is one. By running red lights I don't mean blasting through intersections at full speed. I generally come to a full stop, meaning feet on the ground, at red lights. After that, if no one is coming, I'm going. Since I'm generally the only one commuting from my part of town, this isn't creating much of a nuisance. I've even done it directly in from of the police to see if they would care, they don't. At least not the ones that have seen me. I can also be seen alternating between being a road bicyclist and a sidewalk bicyclist. That's not really breaking any rules but it feels like cheating a bit. This is usually how I get to Lucy's in the am. I can go against traffic on 21st street on the sidewalk instead of going all the way around the block and having to deal with riding on 20th street and on university blvd. I also avoid a few additional intersections. It seems that if you live in a town like birmingham that just doesn't have that many bikes on the road, you cam leave a bit more of the rule obeying to common sense rather than just blindly following. I imagine in a city with thousands of bikers, or riding with a group, this wouldn't work well, but it works ok here. 

Bike-o de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo. 

I almost didn't ride to work this morning. I went for a run from Lucy's this morning and did something nasty to may back about half way through. I had to walk for a while and then was able to slowly jog the last mile or so. I decided that if it felt really bad before I started my ride to work I would drive. It didn't feel great starting out, but seemed to loosen up nicely on the ride. My guess is that it feels a whole lot better than it would have if I sat in my car and drove. I suppose if I had really damaged something in my back that wouldn't be the case, so I imagine I've pulled a little something.

I am a bike thief

Well not really. The bike I was talking about yesterday, miraculously, was still there this morning. I walked around and told all the folks on that half of the Dr. Pepper showrooms that I was going to take it, and if anyone came looking for it, it'll be in our warehouse. It's fully functional although not in great shape. I rode it over, and after several laps in the warehouse, parked it safely inside. In the interest of full disclosure and keeping my conscience clear, I'm posting a picture of the bike. If it's yours, just let me know. If I believe you, you can have it back. After a month or so it will probably go under the knife.

Pink Bike

I'm back on the road as of today. It's crazy how time and excuses build up and next thing you know it's been 4 months. I went to retrieve my bike lock from the bike rack that I used to lock my bike to. Back Up - we've moved the company I work for across the street, so I'll be parking my bike in a different spot. So, when I go to retrieve my lock I notice that someone has used it to dummy lock their bike, a pink girls bike that looks like it may have at one time been red, to the rack. Just sort of wrapped it around the frame. Pretty convincing actually. It took me a minute, and a try with the key, before I realized it was mine. I took it and then realized I was leaving this person vulnerable to the thieves in the area. I asked around and everyone seemed pretty sure that the bike hadn't moved in a couple of months and that it had been abandoned. So I took my lock and went on my way. I thought I should start off day 1 with a pic of some sort so here it is. This is a shot of the recently paved 43rd street railroad crossing. Not much to look at. However, before it was repaved, it was a tremendous nut buster 2 block stretch. It made me smile when I turned the corner and saw the fresh asphalt.

Bonnie

This is the closest I've come to riding my bike since November. Here is the Grand Canyon through the ears of my trusty mule Bonnie.