say whaaaat?

Oh man Have I got some news for y'all. So first off, I am still not sponsored by outlier, velocity, or all city. Damn. Butttt, life has been good to me lately. I went to the forest hill veodrome. Which is in London, strangely enough. And I didnt eat shit! stranger still. Then there was Hell track, care of Tom mosher, awesome party. And then there was the screening of the Revival! Yet another awesome party. (opinion not influenced by my winning raffle ticket for a Norco Spade frameset)

old shit's good too

Picked up this nifty little metal cabinet today for my bike stuff/tools.
Looks jazzy and it fits about 90% of my crap too! Really cleans up my area a bit.


Oh yeah, whats wrong with this picture? Thats right kids, Brakes! Im rollin at 88.7 gear inches right now so dont hate. Also, hoods are fuckin COMFORTABLE.

New stuff.

And if you follow ted's blog, new stuff is good stuff. A few weeks ago I picked up this beauty in a one in a million craigslist return call. I got it because I was willing to get on the subway at 10:30 and ride all the way north to finch station. Guy was a super nice old roadie, not a crackhead. Awesome. Oh yeah did I mention it cost $300? rad.

I also started working on a pet project of mine making old school toe straps. Im not sure if the latigo im using is strong/unstretchable enough and might have to find a better leather. Anyone know what kind of leather toe straps are made of? lookin pretty though.

Long sory short with the last post, a lady ran a stop sign at an intersection and we.... intersected. I flew over the hood, destroyed my front wheel, and landed on my ass. barely worse off than I started. In fact, a new, Identical $50 front wheel and these bruises are all I have to say for the incident. Well, except WEAR YOUR FUCKING HELMET.

shiiiiiiiiiit

GO HOME

lets see how slow I can do this.

See? this is what happens when I start a blog. I never update it. The last few weeks have been getting progressivly warmer, and true to my hopes people have been coming out for rides. There was a big ol' tofixd meet an greet with some nasty hills up to st clair and some crazy spinning back down. My bmx pedal experiment is a flop, my feet are not secure enough. That being said, with my slightly lower than normal gear ratio, I unclipped on the ride down and had to coast brakeless for what felt like a kilometer. So I put a brake back on. 

The next week we went on a ride to a viaduct up north and dicked around. Everybody got awesome shots but me. I dont own a camera lol. Go see whats up on tedpowerisyourboss.blogspot.com

In other news, I'm buying a 24" bmx cruiser. The minimal amount of air and fun shit to ride off really made me hungry for some jumps. Not to mention not wincing every time I drop two feet expecting my bike to break into four or five pieces. I'm gonna run a suicide hub on it dont you worry. Actually, start worrying. Did you hear that? I think its the hater train coming around the bend!

april 1st

Man, FUCK today. So much shit went wrong its not even frustrating anymore. It's gotten hilarious. I went to grab my bluetooth headphones this morning and yep! theyre broken! They broke in the same spot my wifes pair did. Then I pedal on to work. In the rain, no biggie, I have fenders now. I feel a weird popping wobbling in my lef pedal and notice, HEY! my crank arm is loose! I slowly pedal a block debating what to do when suddenly it pops off. Ok, Im going to urbane. A 8? mm allen key is just abiut the only thing I dont have in my bag. Get a nice chap I met playing polo to wrench it on tight for me and head to work. My 20 minute commute to work took a god damn hour. and of course blahblahblahblahblahworksuchwhateva. I really wish tofixd would get its act together and put a group ride up. /rant.

wait... wat?

Sometime when I inventory my bag, I feel like a wannabe bike mechanic/survivalist with all the crap I keep in it. I mean, seriously? I know people who dont carry a single tool. I scoff at such foolishness, but do I need all this? At all times? Here's the list, from left to right.

1. pedal wrench/box end 14-15mm wrench
2. spare tube
3. filzer multi tool
4. planet bike CO² inflator
5. crescent wrench
6. "trixie" track tool
7. tire levers
8. spare straps for... strappin stuff
9. raincoat. One time use. proabably.
10. Bag for almost all these tools and a side pocket with cash for emergencies.

Well, at least I left the crank puller and chain tool out of it. 

YAY KATY!

My wife finally got a bike the other day, A giant simple. Which to my surprise, is put together much better than I thought it would be. I t has 3 piece cranks instead of ashtabula and a nice shimano coaster brake. Its really nice to go out for rides togeter and  im excited for more dates together.

Katy is my wife btw. HI KATY! IM RIGHT BEHIND YOU.

brakes are for woosies mondays.

Ive been rideing brakeless for a long time now, and I forgot how easy it is. This is probably why my calves look like watermelons. Anyhow, I put a brake on for polo this sunday because I was running a freewheel. That being said I DEFENITELY reccomend a brake for polo, fixed or free. When you see someone heading to your goal with the ball you dont want to go it slow just so you dont skid/ghost ride into the wall.

I was bruised and drunk after polo this sunday so I didnt take off my polo wheelset and switch it ovet to my commuter wheelset till the morning. Groggy and hung over, of course I didnt bother taking off the bar end plug and grip to take the brake off as well. OH MY GOD. What sheer luxury to be able to slow down without tearing my calves apart in the a.m . 

I finally made the leap to chop-n-flop bullhorns today. I had a pair laying around the a I made for a friend that he recently gave me back and some eai cloth tape that I felt really horrible about using on polo mallets (comfy!) so I wrapped them up and stuck 'em on. My first experience on fixed gear was on TT bullhorns which are much longer and had bar end brake levers. Beind my first fixed gear experience, I was really relying on the brake and beinf that far forward on oversized bars with thick "cork" tape hurt the fuck out of my wrists and hands. Well I'm glad to say the cnf bullhorns are right on. not to wide, not to thick, and not to long. I do think I want some real ones from urbane though. I kinda want to run a front brake. Im WAYYY to fuckin fast on these.

Totally unrelated

In completely non bike related news, the north america release of Resident Evil 5 came out today! I'll be playing the shit out of this every moment im not riding or working. It's Been a good year or so for my favorite childhood games finally having sequels. First Fallout, now resident evil 5, and some time this year or next, Diablo 3. Not to mention for a first time, I've actually gotten a game im willing to trade in that has maintained a lot of its value, Cod4: world at war. Forty bucks! Nerd love.

I was going to get some pedals today when my front got stuck in a crack in the road and I flipped the bike and landed on my face. I broke my glasses and cut my face above my eyebrow and the side of my eyelid. I locked the bike up and went and washed up/ put n a bandage at starbucks. Then I went next door and got some superglue and fixed my glasses. Then I went to hogtown and bought the pedals I went out for and then went to urbane and got my front wheel trued (it's fucked up). Then I rode home in the rain. No polo. No big ride today. Mreh.

On my way to work today I stopped in Urbane (I go there way to much methinks) to pick up a tire. You probably cant tell from the pic below but ive been riding a 30 year old 23 gumwall with zero tread on the front for about a week now. I have little to no confidence in it. Not to mention its shedding hairs like a dog in spring. I picked up a Schwalbe lugano with red stripe. The price was right at $24 and I've never been a big fan of blue or yellow. Do wish they had purple though :P

new hotness

Dont hate.

So far, this is an AWESOME ride. The wider bars are more comfortable if a little scary when tucking between cars, and the extra rise makes pop-ups and skids super easy! Hopefully soon I'll start nailing barspins. still needs a new stem imho.

HOT SHIT!

as seen at urban velo's new issue.

craft hour: I just remembered why I hate sewing

sunday riders

Today was pretty awesome, Woke up about 10:30 and and hung around while me and katy's friends got up and ready. Yesterday was my wife katy's b-day btw woooo! Went to toms for breakfast and went over to meet up with tyler at the football factory. Had a delicious pint of apricot ale and headed out. First stop, the community bike network. It was closed, but we were let in. I was looking for a crankset for my polo bike. The road double is unsafe as fuck and not quite doin the trick. So off to bike pirates. Bike pirates wont let us in. Were men and its ladies and transgendered day. Are they fixing bikes naked? Fucking misandryists. Over to sweet petes. Closed. Over to value village to look for ski poles. Nuttin. We end up rollin out and heading to a value village tyler got a tip about. JACKPOT! Picked up seven ski poles which tyler strapped to his bike/bag and split up. I ride up to dundas and spadina to a chinese meat place I like and pick up a pound of bbq pork for 6 bucks. Then it's back to the home. Drink a beer, feel hungover, lay around on the pc. good day.

Wants and needs

Do I need new handlebars? no. Do I need a new stem? no. How about grips? nope. Do I want all these though? A resounding YES!

P.S. Yes, that does say "EAT SHIT"

Trixie review

As I said earlier, Id give a little review of the pedros "trixie" and here it is. The trixie does a good amount of jobs. It has a 15mm box wrench for your axle nuts, a 6mm hex key for headset/stem adjustments (at least in my case). some smaller box wrench cutouts, a bottle opener, and last but not least, a lockring tool. this is a wonderfull tool and I have no complaints. Well, maybe one. Why is the sharp-assed bottle opener right where you put the most torque when your trying to pull a stubborn lockring? Seriously, it couldnt be on the other side? what the fuck? major design flaw in my opinion since its so obvious. The 15mm box wrench kinda sucks a little since the insides arent chamfered and it can be tricky to slip on. My recomendation, Its good for travel, and not much else. 

Plans for ugly

So ive come to a realization here. I am not a racer. I am not tricker. Is that word? Anyways, I love my bike. If I got to know it, I'd probably love your bike too. I love riding my bike. But what is it for? Going to work, the beer store, the salvation army, you get the picture. So I'm gonna make my bike more effecient for these simple endevors. This sunday, nursing a hangover im sure, I'm going to go to the sallys and look for a piece of shit BMX with a 1 1/8 threadless stem and pop that and its bars on my bike and then get a front rack. I'll probably promptly rattlecan it green or purple of some shit. Later I'll get some plastic platform pedals and screw some atb clips to it. VIOALA! junkyard racer! Sounds like a plan.

Polo bike is DONE. (sorta)

So as you can see, my polo bike is finally up and running. Not running well, but running. Can't wait to get this ugly bastard out for a game.

P.s. Heres a snippet of a conversation with a coworker about bike polo:

Me: Basically you ride around in circles, trying to hit a tiny ball with a stick.

Her: And this is fun?

Me: ITS FUCKING AWESOME. 

 

Today I got up early, Blearily looked at the computer screen for half an hour, thought about eating, had a cigarette and headed out the door. On my way to work I stopped at bikes on wheels. Do'h! not open until 11. Headed over to urbane and proceded to spend to much money on a chainwhip, a pedros "trixie", a Dura-ace lockring, and a fancy new cycling cap. Also talked to one of the girls there about getting Sillgey piccolo bikes. She thought it was a great idea because theres no canadian distributors. Those frames are so cute!

You heard me. I bought a cycling cap. AKA a "Casquette". JUST LIKE A REAL COURIER!! OMGWTFBBQGREENDEEPVEEEEEEE'S!!! pff. I'm sorry but I hate the idea of being judged a "poser" for wearing a certain type of hat. What am I posing as exactly? A guy on a bike? I am a guy on a bike. When im on my bike at least. Anyhow, GOD DAMN is it comfy! And It keeps out the sun. Pictures and reviews of the trixie to follow.

WANT

http://lemolobags.wordpress.com/hip-pouches/

Words I hate.

"Fixie" I cant even explain my irrational hatred for this word, but its there.

"Track Bike" I only hate this when referred to bikes that couldnt be track bikes in their wildest dreams. Putting a fixed wheel on a department store road bike from the 80's does not a track bike make.

I just heard a customer say "fixie" and "track bike" in the same sentence. He was referring to his "tricked out" conversion. My head asploded.

Weeee!

On a whim, I rode to work today. It. Was. Beautifull. I forgot what I was missing. I defenitely need to change my gear ratio from 38/16 to 38/14 though. Feels like treading water sometimes. This plus french press coffee equals awesome. Todays payday, and since I didnt get out at 5:30 like I was supposed to yesterday, maybe I'll get out early enough to buy a wheel for the polo bike, a lockring, and a chain/lockring tool. fingers crossed!

Call me when it's over.

Winter has been kicking my ass this year. I've been sick for about 60% percent of it, and I dont have anything resembling cold weather cycling clothes or even fenders. This combined with the fact that my boss so generously decided to give me free metropasses for 5 months of winter means I have not been on the bike near as much as I'd like too. Also, I'm dirt poor and dont have money for tires that arent slicks (shutup tom). But change is in the wind, spring is coming and it's time to start commuting in a way that won't make me want to kill everyone in half an hour. So, you may be wondering, what do you do if you can't ride and want to badly? OBSESS OF COURSE. In the last month ive tried about six handlebar/stem combos trying to find the perfect fit and I landed right back where I started at short riser stem and chopped riser bars. I still want a new stem as my current was a crap metal no name that came with the bike. Bmx for sex please.

I'n other news, my polo bike is "almost" complete. I'm getting a new wheel this week thats going on my commuter, and the polo is getting the hand me downs. I dont know how this happened, but it has got to be the ugliest bike ive ever seen.  It will work, acceptably, for a polo bike a least. It  needs a new BB, new cranks, new headset, etc. etc. I happen to know next to nothing about headsets and BB's so im in for a fun time fixin this up. There goes all my pride in myself for learning how to repair/dismantle/rebuild my bike.

Tubular-Clincher tires.

So maybe this is old hat, and im just the last guy on the boat, but has anyone heard of these? TUFO Tubular-Clincher tires. From what I can garner, They have all the benefits of a tubular (super high psi, hard as a rock, no pinch flats) without having the drawbacks of having to glue them down and whatnot. Did I mention 175psi!!? Biketiresdirect.com has them, some as low as $42.95, here.