More cycle trucking

I've got the SH-80 pretty squared away. I picked up a fat bmx tire last week for $20 and got a double kickstand from REI. The double kickstand makes all the difference in the world. It's pretty frustrating trying to load up heavy stuff on a single kickstand. The double makes it super easy.

The front fender is running super tight. It was buzzing at me today, so I replaced the cheesy plastic clip with a thinner metal one at the fork crown. That gained me a few precious millimeters. We'll see how it goes. I have a feeling that the front wheel may end up with a campaign sign fender or a smaller tire. Smart money is on the coroplast.

Alex is building me another rack for this. He's going to take this one and give me one that is shorter and wider. It will also have a built-in U-lock holder and some cleats for tying down loads. Sweet!

I'm still amazed by how well this one rides with a load. The load in the picture is probably around 30 pounds. It's pretty effortless handling compared to 30 pounds in a pannier or even on my other front-loading bikes.

I've had a number of people ask me how it rides. I'll bring it to the next bike chat hang this Weds night (Benidittos, 5:30pm) for people to try out.

2 Wheel has finally sold

Steve has been trying to sell 2 Wheel Transit for as long as I've been back in Spokane (coming on 6 years).

This just made the rounds yesterday...

FOR IMMEDITATE RELEASE:
Downtown bike shop purchased by local businessman and pediatrician

Spokane, Washington - November 6, 2009 – Focus on Trek brands, a bike fitting physician and excellent customer service are all keys for success of Two Wheel Transit.
Geoff Forshag, CPA and Bruce Abbotts, M.D., have purchased the assets of long-time Trek Bicycle dealer Two Wheel Transit, Inc., which is located in downtown Spokane at 1405 W 1st Avenue. The store will continue under the name Two Wheel Transit and focus on Trek and Gary Fisher bicycles, and Bontrager clothing, parts and accessories. Fisher and Bontrager brands are both a part of Trek. The business also provides full service bicycle repairs and maintenance and welcomes all bikes regardless of brand or type....

Good luck guys...

Yay

Congrats to my buddy and office mate, Jon Snyder. I just talked to him and Mike Allen has conceded the election. Jon is now my councilman. Our relationship will now be one of angry tax payer ranting to his elected official.

We've got 3 solids (Jon, Richard, Amber) on the council now and a semi-solid (Bob). Plus a solid mayor. Now is the time to push the bike stuff.

Here's an interesting take on how bike politics has influenced the mayor's race in Seattle.

I look forward to a time when local politicians and candidates will be falling all over themselves to get a booth at SpokeFest or otherwise trying to court the bike/ped/active transportation voters. As the article I link to above points out, it's not just about courting cyclists, but courting the types that are apt to bike or just appreciate how cycling can make a city more appealing.

Help Wanted

I want to open up this blog to more voices. I think it would be cool to have a racer. A mountain biker. More commuters. Female types. A bike policy wonky type. Some hard-core bike technical nerdomism. A builder (nudge nudge wink wink). A LBS owner would be really cool. A BMXer.

It's not that I'm running out of things to say, but I'm feeling kind of lazy and I know that when I ride, I think of lots of things to say. I'm wondering if there are other people out there that have stuff to say but don't want the nagging overhead of a whole blog to look after.

Plus, the name of this blog is Cycling Spokane, which sort of begs for some communal crowd sourcing.

Interested in throwing in? Here's the commitment:
-- You'll write one post a month. But you can write as many as you want. If you don't feel comfortable writing, then post a video or a photo essay.
-- You'll stick around for at least 6 months.
-- You'll not do any blatant advertising.
-- You'll live in the Spokane "region."
-- Your posts will be bike related.

Send me an email (johnspeare at gmail dot com) if you want to try a 6-month slot.

First video attempt

Liza and Elmer's simple video was a hit, so I figured I'd horn in on that action and over-do it with a fancy video. Note the fade and music and credits. Hmm? Hmm?

But the bummer is, even with the fancy effects, the actual content is damn boring. Especially compared to Liza's simple and authentic moment that she so effortlessly captured.

I'll start attaching my camera to the bars on my bike for normal rides. I spent a week trying to make the camera work on my helmet. I couldn't get the angle right. It was hard to watch without feeling a bit queasy. Plus I've already got a light zip-tied on my helmet. So adding the camera added too much weight and out-nerded my already-to-high nerd threshold.

Anyway, my hope is that given enough hours of footage, I'll stumble (or crash) into something interesting. If I do, I'll set it to music and show it here.

Here's what I was carrying in the video:

The load was tall enough to interfere with steering, so I had to set it way out, which is not ideal for handling, but the bike still did well. The load was about 30 pounds.

Bike hang

I like talking and talking about bike stuff. Most normal people have a threshold for bike talk. I do actually have a threshold too. But it takes a couple days of bike-only talk to reach it.

Last night, a buddy, Nate invited me to Benniditos for a beer. He said to invite others. So I sent a mail out to a few buddies. It was nice to sit around and talk about bike stuff.

Normally when I hang out with bikey types and non-bikey types, I try to temper the bike discussion a bit. But when it's all bike nerds and the only hard commonality is bike obsession, then it's just pure bike nerd bliss.

It got me thinking, as winter comes around, it would be nice to have regular bike hangs, where the point is to not feel bad about talking about bikes for 2 hours or so with a group of bike nerds. Last night, we had a builder there, a female CX racer, an aspiring rack-builder, a no-car commuter guy, and me.

Discussion was around CX racing, CX bikes, 29'ers, internally-geared hubs, selling whole bikes vs parting out, best winter mittens/gloves, new Keen SPD footbed width, Taylor and his general radness, starting up 50-75 mile weekly ride-abouts in the spring, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.

And all without rolled eyes or exasperated sighs.

I have a 2 hour opportunity every Weds night. How about that? Bike hang at Benniditos South on Weds at 5:30-7:30. I can't make every weds, but I could make most.

Doing stuff

I've been out. And I've been doing stuff. But nothing interesting or particularly blog-worthy. There is a bar you know.

I've been digging Pat's rack posts.

I'm trying to talk Liza into doing some posts or at least more video posts.

I blew away about 4 months worth of bike pictures this week when I installed a new OS on my laptop. Dammit!

I hung out with Alex a bit this week and saw the v2 rack for my cycle truck. It's stainless. It has a U-lock holder. It rules. Hard.

After cyclocross tomorrow, come by the Pedals2People annual meeting. It's at our house. We'll have food. RSVP is nice, but not required. There's a bunch of P2P stuff going on right now. It's one of those exciting scary big change times.

If you've not voted, please do. This city needs Jon and Amber for any hope at a happy, sane future. I 1033 needs to go away and I can't believe that R 71 is even on the ballot, but it is, so we must approve it.