Wednesday, July 21, 2010

193 days

I work at a software company. Like all software companies, there are engineer types everywhere. And there's nothing engineering types LOVE more than data. Numbers man. Numbers.

Numbers can be combined and compared to create wonderful pictures of data, known as charts. But the holy grail of data views appears to be the pivot table. I once had a boss who wrote a bunch of the code for the Excel pivot table when he was a lad. He was really into that. Thankfully.

Here are some numbers. Mostly worthless, but I've been keeping track so I might as well do something with them. No pivot tables. Sorry Brent.

These are the bikes I've ridden on my commute for the last 193 days I've come into my office. The obvious commuter-style bikes rise to the top. The trail, dirt, CX, load-haulers -- which I ride a ton as well, don't show up much here.

So, without further ado. In priority order:



59 days: The Lyons 747

The finest bike I've owned. Rides fast and cushy. Love it.

44 days: RB-T, also referred to as, the "Urban RB-T".

Once the new Elephant comes, this bike will be redundant. I don't know if I can let go of this frameset though. It's such a versitile work horse of a bike.

These top two bikes make up the Contador and Schleck of the standings. All others are distant chasers. Note the drop off...

18 days: The CX RB-T, also referred to as, "my only bike with a soul."

15 days: The Shogun. Fixed gear loveliness.

I bought it, built it up, rode it. Sold it to Patrick (of Scoop fame). Bought it back. Built it up, rode it. Sold it back to Patrick. Patrick still has it. But I wouldn't mind having it back. It's my favorite all-rounder fixed gear: equally happy on the High Drive Trails and for the (very) occasional commute. I have a an old RB-1 frame in the hopper that may replace this gap in the line up.

13 days: The Rawland.

This only goes to work with me when it's deep enough snow to put the monstor motos on there. Otherwise, it's a mountain/dirt/trails/overnighter bike.

11 days: The Hacked RB-1, also known as The Resurrecto.

I miss this bike sometimes. It's a fun bike. It was really fun on long dirt rides where you want cush, speed, comfort, and fast handling. It went to a good home, so it shall be resurrected again someday.


11 days: Trek 720.

Kitted up in this picture as a fixed gear in the ice. Now, this one sees a lot of use on the weekends as an 8-speed porteur. Good guest bike with the 8-speed hub in there.


9 days: The SH-80 Cycle Truck.

I ride this bike a lot on the weekends and early mornings with Maddie. We have a little seatbelt figured out on there for her now. While I don't do a ton of miles on the SH-80, I tend to use this bike more frequently than most of my other bikes for tooling around and quick runs -- it's set up with campus pedals and an easy/comfy riding position, so it's easy to grab when you're not in a big fat hurry. Lighting system and a new fork are forthcoming.

6 days: Kogswell.

A friend of mine gave me this frame. I had some forks for it, built it up, and rode it around for a few weeks. The frameset has just recently found a new home -- but will take some time to become a bike again.

The wheelset will go on my forthcoming Elephant.


3 days: Phil's RB-T

I gave this to a buddy recently.

2 days: CB-Zip.

Man I wanted to like this bike. But it rode like the tubes were filled with cement. Sorry Ken.

2 days: Bridgestone MB-2.

Hacked with horizontal dropouts. More to come on this. I just scored a 7-speed internal hub with a coaster brake. The bike is now waiting on some bars from Alex and we'll have a good guest-snow-all-rounder-cruiser-trail bike.

11 comments:

Dylan said...

Awesome data, you nerd. :-)

The RB-1 has indeed been resurected, but I'm now the world's laziest blogger, so I haven't posted anything about it yet. I'm going to build up a brand-new wheelset for it soon, so I can stop stealing G's wheels when I want to ride it. Pari-Motos baby.

Travis Nichols said...

Pivot Tables changed my life! Thank you Mark S.

Bikes are cool to, I guess that is why I keep coming here.

John Speare said...

Actually -- you want to thank BrentCu. Last known site: http://wobbly.com/

He would be thrilled to know that pivot tables changed your life.

Dylan: no rush!

Sandra B said...

2 questions: where in the world do you park all of those bikes?

Where can I get a front rack like you have on the cogswell? I think I might need one.

Ken Paulman said...

Clearly you didn't have your CB-Zip set up for optimum performance. Maybe someone has a 6-inch quill stem and some steel randonneur bars you can borrow... ;)

John Speare said...

Sandra: what do you keep in your garage? Surely not a car?

The front rack on the Kogswell was made by local rack freak, Pat (26inchslicks.blogspot.com). I think for a pretty reasonalbe fee, he'll teach people how to braze them up.
Out of the box solutions:
paul; Velo orange; cetma. There are others. search for front racks, porteur racks, etc.

Ken: it's the randoneur bars...

Sandra B said...

in my garage...lawn mower, snow blower, bike trailer, skis, ladder, camp gear...no car, but certainly no bikes. They hang behind the front door!

Anonymous said...

Great bikes. I especially like the RB-T (Bridgestone, right?). I'm impressed that most of your bikes are fender-clad too.

regards,
Cullen (ccarter@new.rr.com)

Anonymous said...

Pivot tables ruined my marriage!

Damn you, Mark S.

Dan Boxer said...

That's quite a quiver of bikes you have there!

Do you have any pictures of the seatbelt arrangement, for your daughter, on your Cargo hauler bike?
Do you use some kind of seat with it, too?

John Speare said...

Dan -- no pics now. Sorry. I'll try to remember to get a shot next time she rides on it. But it's not very impressive: just a piece of webbing tied to one side and a carabiner on the other side. It's only use it to protect from the stop-fast scenario, so Maddie doesn't go flying off. Self-imposed top speed on the cargo bike with Maddie is 10mph in any case. She's 8 btw. If i would have had this bike when she was an infant, I probably would've tried the carseat approach.