Sellng some stuff

I took a drive with the family to Seattle last weekend. On the way I made a list of stuff I'm going to sell. It's time to clear some stuff out that I'm just never going to build up, or stuff that I've built up and I'm not riding.

• Hacked-for-650b 1993 Bridgestone RB-1 frame. But I'm keeping the forks for another project.


• Liza's 1994 RB-1 frame set (with fork).


• The old Paramount mountain bike frame set. Great frame. Great lug details.


• My Fuji turd frame set. I couldn't even give this away. Maybe someone will take it this time around.


• My rad 1991 Bridgestone MB-2 frameset. Killing me. But I don't think I'll ever build it up.


• My Shogun Touring 500 frameset. Another great value frame. Nice tubing. Rides great, but I'm moving my fixed to the 720 for good.


• Stuff: 650B tires that aren't Hetres, some bags, maybe some bars.

Prices, pics, and terms to come later. Expect non-give-away prices and fussy, high-maintenance preference for local sales because I hate shipping frames.

This is a multi-step process in letting go....

Have you ever considered adoption? An idea for bike lane maintenance

We’ve worked hard in Spokane for a number of official efforts so well summarized in the Aught Nine report posted recently. Here’s an idea for something we could get rolling informally with the goal of a more formal program down the road (ha ha—transportation joke!): Adopt-a-Bike-Lane.

I used to have a mile of highway adopted (in north Idaho on Hwy. 41). A few times a year I got out and picked up trash—all the entertainment value of an Easter egg hunt except what you find is NOT chocolate and you DON’T want to put it in your mouth….

What I have in mind for bike lanes is kind of along those lines, but made a lot easier since the city already cleans streets every so often. (No one was off in the weeds alongside Hwy. 41 gathering empty generic vodka bottles and crumpled cigarette packs except me.)

What would be utterly fantastic as a starting point would be people adopting the stretch of bike lane (or designated bike route, or heck, even the two or three feet of a regular street closest to the curb) alongside our homes.

It's essentially a small extension of yard work. When we go out to rake up pine needles or maple leaves in the fall, shovel snow in the winter, or clean off debris in the spring, we just extend our responsibility to include the sidewalk (which is really already our job) and the bike lane. In cold conditions we make sure we’re not rinsing water into the lane where it will freeze and create a hazard. Then we take it a little further and pick up debris: broken glass, lug nuts, stray hubcaps.

When it goes formal with signage, I can see local bike clubs, service clubs, organizations like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and others adopting stretches that aren’t in residential areas.

Part of the inspiration for this is, admittedly, a not-very-good neighbor down the road from me. I’ve told a few folks about the encounters I’ve had in front of the house owned by people I have not-so-affectionately nicknamed “The Blockers.”

In the bike lane there I have encountered—kid you not—a cardboard box full of potted plants, a table full of glassware, and a stove—an electric four-burner stove. They routinely set their garbage and green waste bins in the lane. They rake their leaves into the lane (which is a violation of city code, by the way).

They have a perfectly good driveway and lawn that they ignore in favor of the bike lane for all their disposal needs. Those of you who utilize the bike lane going north on Southeast Boulevard below Perry probably recognize this description.

Cruising the Web I've found a few places with something called an Adopt-a-Bike-Lane program that’s really a problem reporting program: Bike/Walk Alliance for Missoula and Fort Collins, for example.

I’m looking for more hands-on solutions. And since when did adopting something mean you only call others to deal with the problems instead of dealing with it yourself?

I'm still poking around for examples and hope we get some posted in the comments.

So what do you think? Would you take this on right now without the fanfare and hoopla? Would you be more likely to do so if you got a nice sign with your individual or group name for acknowledgement of your effort and commitment?

P.S. The trash can image above isn't our neighbors on Southeast Blvd--it's from a San Diego bike blog. Apparently the Blockers have relatives in California.

The Speare Effect

John was such a good sport about the Vitus, I thought I should take a look at things from his perspective. So, and likely you've guessed this already, I built up a bike...and parked the car for a while. It's geared like this... And I'm sitting on one of these...

And it's got some of these...which are reported to be the bees knees(time to abolish this phrase)

Furthermore, 531 standard dia., 28c+tires, fenders,headlight.

I want to borrow a small handlebar bag. Anyone?

Bike Hung

For you non-grammarians, "bike hung" is the past tense of "bike hang."

Last week the bike hung was at Steph's house. It was a good time, burritos and beer. I cooked, no one died. Glen brought glossy 80's era bike touring mags and we passed them around like Playboys in a tree fort. A good time was had by all, especially the dogs. The dogs miss you guys! Sanjuro particularly liked Maddie's unicorn.

This week the bike hang is at Neato Burrito, neatly carrying on the burrito and beer theme. But, no dogs. Unicorns OK, but should bring ID.

5:30 Wed.

Gifford

I rode Alex's new Gifford around Ravena/Interlaken/Capital Hill yesterday morning. Great great bike. Pretty much a perfect do-it-aller. It rides super smooth and seems to have that magic feel on climbs. I would like to ride the Gifford with less-great tires to try to determine just how much greatness can be attributed to the Hetres. But the bike climbs much nicer than my Rawland with the same tires, so there is certainly something going on in the frame there.


Dylan and Alex met me for a quick 1 hour loop at 9am. I over-dressed. I forgot how mild winter can be here. Especially this year, where it's pretty mild in eastern WA too.

Later, I made a wine run for my sister-in-law on their Miran.


This is your basic entry-level mountain bike. Lots of travel in the forks and even a bit on the seatpost. I couldn't figure out how to lock out the suspension on the for. But with fat, under-inflated semi-knobbie tires, the bike was really fun to ride the short distance to the store on a breezy mild Seattle night.

Putting on bicycle races...

Tour of Walla Walla Stage Race, photo: Patty Sprute

During the last few years as an amateur racer trying to gain experience and trying to get in the miles I found it funny that I put more miles on my car traveling to races than I actually rode my bicycle. So why can't we have more races in the Spokane area?

As the "Masters" among us will point out, Spokane has hosted some big bicycle events in the not so distant past: The '84 and '88 Olympic trials, various stage races including the Washington Trust Cycling Classic of the late 80's and early 90's, and the 2002 Masters National Road Championship. Races like this can happen again if there's enough local interest in making it happen.

Tour of Walla Walla Stage Race, photo: Patty Sprute

Spokane is fortunate to have a couple very dedicated race promoters who have been putting on excellent events consistently for over 20 years. Promoters mostly do it "for the love of the sport", as they say, because there is no other good reason to spend the time. My hat comes off to the people in Spokane who have been doing this for many, many years.

As part of my obsession with the hobby of cycling, I have taken on the roll of amateur bike race promoter. I've been happy to discover that promoting and officiating races is almost as fun as racing. What we do is grass roots stuff; basically some guys that like to race bikes after work and on the weekends. Don't expect to come out and watch the Tour de France folks.

water everywhere: filling up bottles for the FMPRR "neutral feed"

But one interesting thing about the sport of bicycle racing in the United States is that 90% of it done at the grass roots level. The pro's that you have maybe heard about, or maybe even have seen on TV, or in person all started racing at races with you and me. Pros like Dave Zabriskie, George Hincapie, Wenatchee local Tyler Farrar, and even that guy from Texas, are USA cyclists who ride at the Tour de France level.

Maybe that is the appeal of having local bike races. Maybe the next star USA athlete will show up at the Twilight Series this spring. But actually, more likely, it's just watching your buddies go out and have fun racing in a good event.

SCR Crit 2009, photo: Tim Wong

What goes into putting on a races? Scheduling, permits, traffic plans, insurance, working with sponsors, working with officials from local municipalities, working with racers, finding volunteers, working with USA Cycling officials, and generally making everyone happy with the event. And did I mention finding volunteers? Stay tuned for more progress reports for the 2010 race season.

Trish at Registration,photo: Sarah Wilson

"For the love of the sport"...

Rockin the Vitus

Glen, Nate, Tom and I took a ride today. One of my favorite loops: Joe's Loop. It was not an ideal time of year to take this ride. We hit some huge pond/puddles, mud, and ice. Also, not ideal for the Vitus maiden voyage.

But guess what? The Vitus ruled. The tiny slick sew-ups did not rule in the soft mud, but the bike was a pleasure to ride. What a cool bike.

I had some surprises today:

1) The bike was not whippy at all. In fact, I don't think it flexed as much as my 747. Surprising. right?

2) Narrow tires are not always bad. I've ridden 25mm rock hard tires before and it's not fun. These sew-ups were still too narrow/hard for my liking, but they were heads and tails more comfy than the few awful 25's I've ridden before. Glen is digging through his stash to see if he can locate some 28mm-ish tires.

3) Giant chain rings, while really hard to push, do make sense when you really want to hammer. And you can't "hammer" on a bike with 46 tooth big ring like you can on a 53.

4) Even for a galoot like me, a light-ass bike does matter. Maybe it's all in the head, but this bike is just so easy to ride fast.

5) Aluminum frames don't all suck. Which leads me to the bigger surprise.

The world of bikes is not as black and white as I regularly attempt to enforce on my thinking. I f'ing love riding bikes. Pretty much all bikes. Some I love riding way more than others, but all bikes have something to offer. And some even have stuff to teach me, if I'm open to it.

I don't know what the deal is with this day and age, but it's so easy to get polarized about EVERYTHING in today's hyper-ass world. I want the bikes, the riding, and the bike people I hang with to be free of that. I think my New Year's resolution is to have less opinions about bikes. Force a clean slate. Everything bike-related doesn't have to fall into either a good bucket or a crappy bucket.

Riding -- and really genuinely loving -- the Vitus today has illustrated all of this stuff to me.