LOL.
...and OUCH.

I'm a (happy) dork.

Firstly, Jen is awesome. I just wanted to get that out of the way.
She's off to Hawai'i for a week to help her dad celebrate his recent retirement from 36 years working for Delta Airlines. Why didn't I go too? I have no job and am ashamed to face him (only partly kidding).

Also: When Jen flies stand-by on her dad's pass, she's S1 or S2 (from years and years of flying stand-by on her dad's pass [read: seniority]); however, when I also fly on her dad's pass, I drag us down to something like S30 (again, only partly kidding). So this way she actually gets to go and possibly gets into first class! Hooray for...first class(?).

Secondly, I got new, blue stuff for the Brinks Bike: (1)Blue dice valve-stem caps (with sparkles in!), (2) blue, reflective stars for covering up the ugly joint/seam in my electric blue deep v's, (3) blue, anodized seat-post clamp and (4) blue, anodized Chris King headset. Wee ha ha! I'm such a dork. Still waiting for you job leads (or money), by the way.


I've pretty much decided on trying Panaracer T-Serv tires for the Brinks Bike. I have not, however, decided on straight black or their pretty, blue ones...could be too much blue...

Oh, and Greg informs me that you can now get blue, anodized brakes! Not just the brake-hoods, but the brake mechanisms themselves. Still another opportunity for too much blue!

On that topic, I've been considering my options for crank-sets. I was thinking I would go with Campagnolo Record track cranks again ('cos I'm a high-roller [see blue dice valve-stem caps]), but now I'm considering the blue, anodized Sugino "Messenger" cranks (which I'm told are the Sugino 75 cranks with pretty colors and a trendy-sounding name). At least the Sugino crank sets use a square taper like the Campy ones, so it would be easy enough to change it out later on if the Suginos don't work out.

One thing I'm damn certain of is that I will NOT - in spite of its prettiness - be using a blue KMC 1/8th inch chain (I wore out the pink one in record time). I'm considering an over-beefy Wipperman chain, 'cos it's over-beefy and sounds a bit like a buzz-saw when you're going fast. Plus, it's named "Wipperman", which just sounds awesome; like you're gonna take it off and lash unruly motorists and/or shrubs (or whatever) at the drop of a hat. J, you should look into getting such a chain.

What else... The job search is thus far laughable. The only response I've received is one for a work-from-home shipping and receiving job. Yes, you read that correctly: work-from-home shipping and receiving. Sounds dodgey to me, too. They want to make sure you're qualified to operate a fork-lift as well. Where, in my apartment? Weird.

I've recently been to Colorado to visit. It was the first time in several years that Eric, Genevieve, Cinda and myself have all been in the same place at the same time (photos eventually). Eric and I went to the Shambhala Mountain Center one day and that was great, but mostly it was just hanging around, catching up with each other and getting reacquainted with my niece, Cameron. Jen came along as well, but had to leave early for work and Ultimate. They have food in Colorado. I ate some. We got to see Jim & Diane and their son, Ethan as well.


It was a great visit. Everybody said they'll come to Seattle for the next visit.

Lastly, Jen has great legs.

It's coming together...

It's very exciting in the dorkiest way. I got my new wheels (well, the rims, hubs and spokes) out of "hock" from Aaron's today and the Brinks Bike is taking shape! Now I just need everything else (and the money to pay for it). Anybody have job leads for me?

Tee hee!

From Scott: " Bicycle god hates [Monica], but Pole Monster has her number."

I understand that she's looked at MANY bikes recently, including a single-speed one which I privately (now PUBLICLY) hope she gets. (^_^)

The last couple of rides I've been on have been quite good. Good to the point of having mini-epiphanies about how much fun it is to ride. Ahh... Tuesday night we went to Madison Park Beach 'cos it was just too hot and sticky to ride a lot. That said, I ended up riding what felt like a lot, probably because it was mainly uphill. But it was good! It was cooler by the water and I was energetic enough to take the hills with a minimum of being irritated with myself for being out of shape.

It was funny that the ride out of Madison Park separated into two distinct groups: The Geared Group and The Fixed-Gear Group. I ended up leading the Fixed-Gear Group - who didn't feel like trying to ride up the steepest part of Madison - through the stretch of the Lake Washington Loop Route which bypasses the Arboretum (particularly Lake Washington Blvd., which is quite narrow [only two lanes, one in each direction, and no shoulder to speak of] and almost always high in traffic) over to MOHAI and then quite easily to the U District and the College Inn Pub where everybody was meeting up post-beach.

Not being a drinker, I opted to not hang around and instead rode with Ray over to Eastlake where I learned some sad news: Thursday, 7th August is Ray's LAST RIDE with Point83. He's moving back to PA to be closer to his family. Uncool, Ray. Uncool. There were a lot of rides you were supposed to go on with us (both .83 and Slow Sunday). Whatever, man.

Suffice it to say that we'll miss having you around. Best of luck in PA, Ray.

Ben vs. Taxi, Critical Mass Fracas et cetera

What have I been doing lately? What HAVEN'T I been doing!*

On my way to July's Critical Mass I hit a Taxi on my bike. That was fun! I was on Pine headed West behind a CRV (or a RAV4 or some other smallish SUV) in the center lane when the left-most lane filled up with cars and then the CRV stopped short. I - noticing that the right-most lane was apparently empty - darted right and noticed the parked taxi. At that moment there was about half a car-length between the front of the CRV and the trunk of the taxi, I figured I'd just dart left back into traffic and then feel very nimble and traffic-savvy and self-satisfied. No such luck. Just as I pull alongside the CRV, the CRV lurches forward totally closing the gap. The curb was about 8 or 9 inches tall and so was out of the question for bunny-hopping onto the sidewalk (which was full of pedestrians and people dining at the outside cafés) at speed and on a bike ill-suited to bunny-hopping. Having nowhere else to go, I just hit the brake as hard as I could, locked my feet into a skid and plowed into the back of the taxi. The trunk lid of the taxi was actually quite soft and springy (although my helmeted noggin did smack the back window sufficiently to make a good deal of noise and startle the fare in the back seat). Like many things in life, it looked a lot worse than it was.

I was not injured, only embarrassed. To his credit, the taxi driver (and the fare!) got out and made sure that I was alright. Roughly 30 people had seen me collide with the taxi and were now asking me if I was okay. It felt like a very awkward and impromptu press conference. I assured everybody that I was okay and announced that my next show would be at 8:00pm.

The taxi was altogether unscathed.

Riding to the Critical Mass (hereafter: CM) meet-up I noticed that my bike had a distinctly different feel; more twitchy and with crazy foot-strike (when your feet hit the front wheel, in case you didn't know). Scott noticed that I wasn't altogether there and said, "you look like you maybe don't wanna ride." He was right! But I did ride with CM for a while, long enough to get up on Capitol Hill and remember that if my frame/fork were indeed bent (and they were!) that it wasn't really safe to ride (and I REALLY needed another spectacular failure whilst riding). So I went home.

That decision proved wise in a number of ways, not least of which was that I ended up missing two major incidents on CM.

I should note that CM is usually a peaceful (if raucous) demonstration and generally doesn't inspire great ire in most people. But July's CM was different. There was an incident on Capitol Hill which shocked everybody, I think. You can read about it here (Scott's blog):

http://sweetbike.org/?p=184
&
http://sweetbike.org/?p=185

The short version is that CM decided to go down a narrow, residential street (why? who knows? CM is leaderless and whoever is in front determines where CM is headed next**) where a man and his passenger were promptly "corked" (blocked from moving by people on their bikes) and after a while the man decided that he was tired of waiting for hundreds of bicycles to pass by and lurched onto the sidewalk...running down two cyclists (one of whom went to the hospital with an ankle injury). This was made worse when a group of now-infuriated cyclists chased the car for a block and managed to slash all four tires and destroy the windshield and rear window. It was massive over-reaction all 'round. Truly unfortunate.

Additionally, my friend, Jeff, said that CM went down Interlaken. For those who don't know, Interlaken is a steep and curvy stretch of road that winds through a ravine on the North East side of Capitol Hill. Part of it is regular two-way road, the rest is a run/walk/bike path. The beginning of the RWB path part is right where Interlaken and 19th Ave. intersect. The bit of 19th Ave E in question intersects with Boyer Ave at the bottom of a VERY steep hill.

19th Ave E & Boyer Ave

Some CM riders decided to go down 19th Ave instead of the RWB path. At the bottom of that hill a rider crashed at high speed and about 10(?) other riders crashed into him. Jeff said that the guy was out cold and that EMTs came and put him on a back-board and the whole shot, flopping like a rag-doll. Again, most unfortunate.

Also: This CM was Jeff's girlfriend, Cara's FIRST Critical Mass. He said that she will probably come to CM again even though he had described it beforehand as being totally harmless and safe (which it is, usually). I lol'd.

Here's Jeff at Moon Garden (Moonlight Garden?) after Slow Sunday (3rd August, 2008).
Here's Jen and myself as well.
What else...
I'm gradually putting my Brinks Bike together. My wheels are pretty, but no photos yet.

Hooray for steel frames! I got Stormy Pinkness (my Redline) up to Aaron's and he stretched the top tube and down tube back into shape and bent my forks back into almost original position. I'm still getting some foot-strike, but it's MUCH better. Sorry, no photos, I didn't think that far ahead. :(

Had my frame been aluminum or carbon, I'd be screwed. Bent or dented aluminum is done-for, get another frame. Carbon, ditto. Steel really is the optimal frame material for me. Our friend, Monica, had a similar incident: colliding with a bollard on the Burke Gilman trail. Maybe I can get pictures of her bent frame for reference...

* I haven't been doing lots of things. For instance: I haven't been successfully finding a job. I haven't been participating in the Space Program. I haven't been performing three nights per week at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. Et cetera ad nauseam.

** I have twice found myself inadvertently leading CM. Once while I was headed home! It was an unfortunately fractious CM where lots of people got dropped and I decided to ditch it altogether. A guy came up alongside me and asked where we were going. I looked over my shoulder to see about 50 people behind me. D'oh!

Of phantom cupcakes and roller derby.

I'm sure the 2nd annual Cupcake Ride would have been great if it had held together AT ALL. Also, it was amazingly hot, which bodes ill for strenuous riding (for me, anyway).

The crowd assembled at Westlake Square was nice enough, but also impatient. Scott was leaving later than intended and while I was getting an update on his whereabouts the group took off. "See ya!" was the extent of the parting.

As Scott didn't know the address of the Cupcake Royale in West Seattle, I waited for him. When he turned up, we took off and began the adventure in mild heat-stroke. At the Eastern foot of the low bridge to W Seattle, we ran into Teresa who told the following tale:

From the get-go, the group started falling apart. A group of riders in front decided that they'd rather go fast and bolted ahead. Not everybody was able to keep up and people started ditching (which sucks) right away. A girl who was trying to keep up with the fast kids had a mechanical and was dropped from the fast pack. Teresa stopped to help her and the remainder of the ride dropped both of them. The girl with the mechanical went home. Teresa pressed onward to the Western foot of the low bridge to tell Malora that she, herself, was going home. Malora told her that she was going to wait for Scott and myself.

After hearing her tale, I figured we would finally catch up the ride. Scott had gone ahead while I was talking to Teresa, so when I arrived at the Western foot of the bridge I was surprised to see no one there. I figured that - given the heat - they would surely take the long, gradual way up to Cupcake Royale (which was incorrect), so I made for Avalon to then head out to Alki Point. On the way there Scott rang me and said that he was waiting in a parking lot just around the corner of Avalon. When I arrived, we were both bright red and miserable. I said, "I can feel my heart beating in my armpits!" To which Scott replied, "Oh good, then it's not just me." We doused ourselves in water and rested in the shade of a nearby tree while discussing whether to try and catch the ride.

When we decided to head for food in Georgetown, we ran into Kevin. He too had been dropped, but was waiting for the ride to pass by the low bridge again (as they must, unless they take the VERY long way around through White Center and South Park). After a bit of phone tag with Malora, it was decided to bail. Kevin headed to Madison Beach, Scott and I to Georgetown and then Magnusson Park.

When it became apparent that there wasn't nearly enough time to both places, we opted instead to eat at Uwajimaya. The air conditioning was too comfy for us, we tarried longer than anticipated. Quite apart from that, I had a major energy drop-off on the way and was quite pale, according to Scott.

Thank goodness for the #73 bus!

From the U District it was quite an easy ride to Magnusson Park and although we arrived late, there was still plenty of roller-derby to witness (and I would like to witness more in the future!).

Ugh. It was a long, hot day, but the evening was cool and pleasant. Scott, Aden and myself all rode to the Eastlake Zoo and from there I went home.

I had more kvetching to do in this post, but nobody wants to read all that indignant shit.

WTF?

Do you see that? The handlebars are mounted below the headset. BELOW the headset. WTF?