Doesn't take a Lot.

We visited my family last week in North Carolina. The weather was pleasant and we relaxed. I didn't have any particular agenda, other than to relax and recharge my batteries before the holiday season.
We managed to get in a bike ride although we didn't take our bikes. My sister-in-law has a Schwinn, which we chose for her from Bikes and Trikes a couple years ago. My parents have a pair of Pinnacle bikes, 15 speeds, which I suppose would get me kicked off the BOB list for riding them. Maybe not, they have crowned forks and are steel, gaspipe steel, but steel. Nothing special, they have the cheap stamped brakes that make me cringe.

It's been awhile since my parents rode. When I tested the bikes, I realized why. The run up the driveway would tax the Polka Dot Jersey winner, much less a couple in their late sixties. Dad's bike wasn't able to shift out of the small chain ring, or more precisely, stay there once shifted, making the severe incline that much more difficult.

So, we went off on Saturday, loading 5 bikes in John's Honda Odyssey to Todd. 2 for the boys, aged 6 and 9, and one each for Laurie and I and my brother John. Starting around 2 in the afternoon, we rode until 5, the younger of the boys going with waning enthusiasm, as the ride on a single speed BMX style bike wore on him. Sammy did well though and recovered quickly once in the van, particularly after his father purchased him a set of novelty teeth.

When riding someone else's bike, I remarked later to Laurie, I begin making mental notes of what I'd do to make it work better, usually a set of Albatross bars. She felt the same way about the borrowed bike she had.

Democracy Now and Thoughts

Last weekend, I went to see Amy Goodman from Democracy Now speak, along with her brother David at a benefit for KKFI, my favorite local radio station. They have just published a book called Static I also attended a potluck, pre-show, for the Planned Parenthood of South Dakota at a friends house.

As we have sold our truck recently and are going "car-lite" I rode the 4.7 miles on my bike, carrying the cheese and crackers I was assigned as an appetizer in my basket. Laurie was going to a party out south so I didn't have the car available. No big deal for me and to get to the show from Trudy's, I was able to throw my bike into another friend's Toyota Highlander and ride over. I wouldn't have had a problem riding over but she offered so I accepted. I find it amazing how many folks think it's a major deal to ride a few miles on a bicycle, not for exercise but for transportation.

What I found a little more disturbing was that I was the only bicycle there at Community Christian Church unless there's a bicycle rack in the back somewhere. For all the rhetoric, facts, about America selling our collective souls for oil, everyone there was feeding the beast which we say that we're seeking to slay.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, the city of bicycles, pictures of which I have yet to massively load to Flickr or otherwise edit. But this was done in 73 minutes.

Not suffering enough, I guess.

I was coming home from work on Friday afternoon through Mission Hills and noticed a long line of cars parked along Indian Lane, one bearing a license plate marked "Senator". Traffic along State Line Road was bumper to bumper and I made my way across State Line Road and through the Carriage Club parking lot. Ward Parkway was blocked off so I walked my bike across to the median and I was whistled over by a cop.

"Where you headed?"

"Just trying to get home."

"Well, I can't have you going that way. The President's going to be rolling through in a bit."

So I carried my bike across the Parking Lot that was Ward Parkway leading to State Line Road and onto the campus of Pembroke Hill.

Some driver asked me, "What's going on?"

"The President"

"(a bunch of curses)"

"Haven't we suffered enough?"

Turns out it was a fundraiser for Jim Talent, a Missouri Senator and stooge of the Religious Right, in Mission Hills, Kansas. Go figure.

I know, the President rides a bike. Just wish he'd been riding one at that moment, somewhere else than on my way home. Laurie's plane was delayed coming in while Air Force One was taking off. Who's working for who here, anyway?

What does it take?

This week I have yet to ride my bike. It is, of course, only Tuesday, but I feel as if I betrayed something by driving to work twice this week. With my wife out of town, I hate to make the dogs wait an extra hour.

At the Greater Kansas City Bicycle Federation of late, we've been discussing "appropriate" transportation. There is, in Eugene, Oregon, a Center for Appropriate Transport. We don't seem to have that sort of mentality here in Kansas City. Or it's not visible, as it is in Chicago. Are we more spread out than other cities?

The hip quotient of cycling in Kansas City consists of these sort of groups:
Racer types, in spandex and Team Kit (Replica of the TDF jerseys)
Messenger outlaw types, riding in jeans, rolled up at the ankle, worn Chuck Taylors and ironic T-shirts.

Where are the regular riders, people riding not specifically for fitness, but for transportation? The people who I see in other cities, like in Amsterdam, as seen here with a group of folks or rather their bicycles parked in front of the Museum of Sex, IIRC.

Cargo Bike, Car Go!

Would that it was quite so simple but almost 2 months ago I put the Wald Giant Delivery Basket on Stella. Since then, I carry my messenger bag almost daily, a few occasions bags of dog food (40 and 20 pounds), a 12 and 6 pack of beer, 2-6 packs plus picnic fixings and a gallon of water and a melon. It's very stable and it makes the bike mega-friendly.

A Sacrifice to the Gods of Petrol

I've been thinking a great deal about the automobile this summer, with preparing to sell our truck, "An Inconvenient Truth" (Laurie and I rode our bikes to the theater to see it.) and now, 3 cyclists killed by drivers. We seem willing to accept an inordinate amount of collateral damage in order to keep driving.

The death of Audrey Lindvall seems metaphorical in this context. A young beauty is killed by a fuel truck. As Americans, we are willing to sacrifice the most precious parts of, well, America, to maintain our way of life. We send our young people to die in the desert. Our children suffer from an epidemic of asthma and obesity. We lose our sense of community, our humanity, just so we can keep driving.

In preparation for going "Car-Lite"

Here is the final version of the trailer, inspected by our good friend Kenneth Walker.

Bad News

As I rode home tonight, this was happening. Someone that I might know, someone who might have ridden with me the other night, gone now.

Another one on the Road

So I have the nickname of the "Bike Angel" at work now. A couple weeks ago, Owen came to me or told me as I went through his register that he bought a bike for $5 at a garage sale in Sioux Falls. I told him to bring it by and I'd see if could make it work for him.

Everything was in good working order except the tires which were dry rotted and nearly illegible to ascertain the size, all the gum sidewalls having been eroded by age. I finally determined that they were 26 by 1 3/8 or 590 BSD, which was fortuitous as I had just rebuilt a "Made in England" Huffy which turned out to have been screwed up beyond my repair skills (another post). So I put it up on the rack and took off the wheels. They worked fine on the Rangor. I could only find that this company also made a line of superhero bikes but it has a lugged frame and a nice color so it should make a decent bike. All Owen wants it for is to run errands and get to work. The 590 or 650A is a good tire size, time-honored on English 3-Speeds.


So, I put on some nice Weinmann Centerpull Brakes with new brake levers and a set of riser handlebars and seat I had in the parts stash and the bike is reborn.

It seems much friendlier now, more useful as a city bike for commuting and trips to the grocery store.

LA Gets It.

Not in our paper here in KC, but we did have a record number of folks in the Bike Commuter Challenge or what might henceforth, be called, the Car-Free Commuter Challenge.

Ride of Silence

The only thing worse than politics is church politics, or so my father conveyed to me, at least, indirectly. It is "Bike to Work Week" and we are beset by so much baggage that I often forget why we do it. How do these institutions arise so quickly?

It's like this to me: I have to work. I have to get there. I try to do so with the least amount of expense and strain. A great deal of the time that is to ride my bike there. In a day filled with "I-need-this-yesterday" and "Can-you-squeeze-this-in?", my bicycle time is an oasis of sanity. So I ride, a fixed-gear` because it offers the fewest complications.

And here it comes, teams, and calculations and riding-the-bus-counts and walking-counts-but-half-the-mileage and we-need-prizes and I'm-not-getting-enough-recognition and then, I put my ass on the saddle and move my feet up and down on the pedals and everything is all right. I am riding.

And we get together to remember those who were killed while riding their bicycles. A simple good thing we do and someone dies for it. Robert Osborn, murdered for sport, riding home from work. Jake Clough, missed a stop sign. Andre Anderson, run down by some remorseless asswipe. Toni Sena, as good a person as I would ever hope to meet, killed by some jerk chased by the police. We have to organize to remember them, or it just adds up in the rolls of the dead, the senseless killings we can't seem to remember, for there are so many that only the families can remember. Yet, we must remember and do more, make the roads better, take a stand for cycling. A simple good thing that we do and love, complicated by politics and governments, distracted by special interests and
wars and hunger and all we want to do is be on the road, unmolested, quiet, at peace with ourselves and the sound of our gears turning.

Peace

In which yet another follows me home.

My garage is bursting at the seams. Well, not quite but between the garden tools and so forth, it's quite full. So we went to the MS150 Bike Fair on Saturday and I found yet another bicycle for only $25.



I don't know what tubing was used in building this but it has some wonderful details. Long pointed lugs, heart shaped cable stop guides.(Is that what these things are called?)


I'll work on the brakes and replace the tires so it might be awhile. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Ready for Travel

A month or so ago, I bought a pair of rigid Raleigh Mountain bikes for $60.00. One of them went to a co-worker as his commuter bike, his only bike, in fact. One of my goals is to get as many other people riding to work as possible and Charlie says he'll use it to ride to work, to church and the coffee shop.


The other bike, I decided to keep, at least for awhile. We're planning a European trip this summer and I wanted a bike that I could ride over there and sell on the way out. With approximately $50 invested in it, I can take it over there, not worry about bike theft. (Very prevalent in Amsterdam, where we're headed first.) Of course, I also love tinkering on bikes.

One of my thoughts, last summer in Chicago, while riding my brother-in-law's old Specialized HardRock, was that this bike was a great city rider, if only it had a set of Albatross Bars. The straight mountain bike bars just weren't comfortable for all day riding. The Raleigh M-60 has comparable geometry, tons of braze-ons for racks and great clearance for fenders and huge tires. We had a set of smooth Panaracer 26 by 1.5" tires we got as door prizes from the KCBC banquet.

Just changing the tires delighted me. The fat smooth tires just made me smile when I put them on the bike. I took it to Acme along with the other one and found a set of used Wald upright bars, which I installed upside down. I had also cut and filed off the shifter pods off the brake levers and replaced them with thumb shifters.

Things got even more interesting when I found an abandoned AMF Nimble 3-speed along the road. It had fenders, a chainguard, and a set of upright handlebars. I've added them to the bike for free fenders and they do coordinate nicely with the champagne gold of the bike frame.



The bike has assumed a new personality. I may hate to leave it in Europe.

Finito!

After a long week at work, I wanted nothing more than to get back to work on the bike, where I couldn't get the shifters to perform properly. So, I rode off to Acme again for some assistance. I corraled Sarah on her way in and got some much-needed assistance. The derailleur cage was bent. The shifters were assembled backwards. Thanks be to Karma that they had another set just like them as a reference. And then Sarah discovered the rear hub needed a rebuild. So I got to learn about rebuild a hub, taking out all the bearings, degreasing the interior and wiping it down, degreasing the bearings and wiping them all down, putting in a new batch of clean grease and putting it all back together. We reinstalled the rear derailleur and got it all going.

I rode it home to tape the bars and complete the Azuki project and found I couldn't shift into the big ring so I started tinkering with the front derailleur and broke the screw that holds down the cable. So this time, I loaded into the truck and took it back to Acme where Mis Chief found another front derailleur for $5 that works just fine. She showed me how to set it with the high and low limit screws.

Now it has really nice Serfas tires. I cut down the bars and removed the suicide levers. The seat came from a Raleigh Mountain Mike I bought from Craigslist and I'll take to the Low Countries this summer. But that's another project.

Stella, as she is now.

Rather spectacular, I must say. Actually, I'm amazed at how much fun it is to ride this bike. I love carrying stuff in the basket from work.

Here's my filthy homemade burrito wrap from dropping the chain and having to dig out my 15MM wrench a couple times. In the fall, I'm going to install a new bottom bracket with square axles and shorter cranks that will accept clipless pedals and a single chainring, perhaps one a little smaller. Until that time, I have the chainring cobbled together with nuts and bolts and I'll ride along.

Latest Reclamation Project

Here we go. I picked this one up last Friday from a County employee in Leavenworth, who met Laurie at a regional meeting, noticed her Nishiki (which I need to put on here) and offered her this one. It's an Azuki rather than a Nishiki but it has the twin lats and lugs and it seems nicely made. It needed a new set of tires, rim tape and tubes.

I cut down the handlebars after a consultation with Mis Chief and I'm lubing the hell out of everything that moves right now. The chain is starting to move. More pictures as we go.

All Time Faves

My buddy J. came up with a proposition that I found irresistable and also a good blog post too start a flame war. Here is the proposition.

"I forgot to mention to you on Sunday that my latest project is to
recruit my musically astute friends and ask them to provide me with a
list of their top 20 or 25 all-time favorite rock tunes, in approximate
order. I would love to receive your selections, in this regard. Here's
the bribe: I'll do the heavy lifting. All you need to do is put your
list together. I'll burn your selections to a CD and get a copy to you,
along with my choices (if you're interested - and bearing in mind that I
turned my radio off in 1974 and never turned it on again). Other than
the Official Rules, set out below, the only thing to keep in mind is
that your selections should be songs which have stood the test of time
for you, personally (I tried to think of songs that I seem never to tire
of hearing). OK, get to work (and thanks).

Rules of the Favorite Rock Tunes Project:

1. No legitimate rock song is unworthy, as long as they're your
favorites. I know how much you'd like to be writing for Rolling Stone
but this is not yet another tedious effort to catalog "the most
significant rock and roll songs of all time".

2. Although the definition of "rock song" is intended to be
liberal, it is not unlimited. Just because a song hit the pop charts
during the last 50 years does not make it a "rock" song. For
example, the following songs should be avoided, no matter how much you
love them:

The Green Berets - Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler
Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto
Abilene - George Hamilton IV
Dawn of Correction - The Spokesmen
Ballad of Paladin - Duane Eddy
Dominique - The Singing Nun
Alabama Jubilee - The Ferko String Band
England Swings - Roger Miller
Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley - C Company Featuring Terry Nelson
Call Me Mr. In-Between - Burl Ives
James (Hold the Ladder Steady) - Sue Thompson
1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero - Bobby Russell
Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast - Wayne Newton
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands - Laurie London

3. No song by Neil Diamond will be permitted.

4. OK, some songs by Neil Diamond will be permitted but only if they
are performed by other people. For example, "I'm a Believer" by
the Monkees is acceptable. Nothing actually sung by Neil Diamond will
be permitted. If you'd like to apply this rule to Paul Anka, too, I
won't argue with you. Or Barry Manilow. Or Nancy Sinatra, for that
matter.

5. Ballads are definitely okeedokee, as long as they are "rock"
ballads, at least arguably. "The Tracks of My Tears" by the
Miracles is certainly acceptable (an excellent choice, actually), as is
"Don't" by Elvis Presley, "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy
Sledge, or "Ferry Across the Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers.
On the other hand, "Just for Old Times Sake" by The McGuire Sisters,
"The Second Time Around" by Frank Sinatra, and "My Coloring
Book" by Kitty Kallen should not be considered. I don't care how
high they charted.

6. By the same token, we all know that way too many country songs have
appeared on the pop charts over the years. That does not turn them into
rock songs, for the purposes of this project. The following are
examples of songs that should be avoided:

Wolverton Mountain - Claude King
Crazy - Patsy Cline
He'll Have to Go - Jim Reeves
Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C. Riley
Stand By Your Man - Tammy Wynette
Take This Job and Shove It - Johnny Paycheck
Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn
Okee From Muskogee - Merle Haggard

Marty Robbins is a toss-up, as is Johnny Horton, I suppose. And Brenda
Lee. And Conway Twitty. And Glen Campbell. And Johnny Cash, too, at
least his work during the late 50s. I mean, "Ballad of a Teenage
Queen" and "Guess Thing's Happen That Way" seem pretty much like
early rock 'n' roll songs. But "Don't Take You Guns to Town"?
"Folsom Prison Blues"? "A Girl Named Sue"? Don't make me
laugh.

7. Folk songs - uh... no. "Cotton Fields" by the Highwaymen? Sorry.

8. Finally, the USA PATRIOT Act requires me to advise you that any
artist from any country outside of the United States, not allied with
our effort in Iraq, is disqualified from consideration. My apologies to
you fans but the law is the law."

Here's my list, in no particular order.

1.Ballad of El Goodo – Big Star
Usually, when I pick up something years after it was released, it doesn't seem to move me like it may have when it was new, particularly when it has been touted for years. I wasn't able to find a copy of Big Star's Number 1 Record, until the re-release of this along with Radio City.

"Gets so hard at times like now to hold on
Guns they wait to be stuck by
And at my side is God"

2.Surrender – Cheap Trick
Another great pop song, by one of my favorite bands.
"When I woke up, mom and dad are rolling on the couch.
Rolling numbers, rock and rolling, got my kiss records out."

3.My Back Pages – The Byrds
Not the first song that comes to mind when I think of the Byrds but one that I love to sing along.
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that, now."

4.Honey Hush – Big Joe Turner
A list of great rock songs should span the entire history of rock. This is one of the earliest.
"Don't make me nervous, I'm holding a baseball bat"

5.Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) – Raspberries
Overblown but beautiful. A perfect record and a fitting finale to what must have been a frustrating career for the Raspberries.
"Well if the program director don't pull it
It's time to get back the bullet"

6.Positively Fourth Street – Bob Dylan
All the bile of Buddy Holly condensed and sharpened. Love is hard.
"You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that's winning"

7.All the Young Dudes – Mott the Hoople
I heard this listening to WNCR in Cleveland on headphones while my family was getting ready to move away from Ohio. I was crying by the time it was over.

"Is there concrete all around me or is it in my head?"

8.Suffragette City – David Bowie
Another perfect rock and roll record and the crunchy guitar riff.

MMMM, wham bam thank you, ma'am.

9. Red Neck Friend – Jackson Browne

I know, it's a dick song. Jackson Browne did at least 2, "Rosie" beign the other. But this one rocks.

"Pretty little one
How has it all begun?
They’re teaching you how to walk
But you’re already on the run"

10. Gun – Uncle Tupelo
I heard Jeff Tweedy say this was the song where he found his voice.

11. Will the Wolf Survive – Los Lobos

12. Badlands - Bruce Springsteen
I know Born to Run gets all the acclaim but I think Darkness is a better record. The guitar playing has never been better on his records.

"Poor men wanna be rich, rich men wanna be kings,
And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything."

13. Fall on Me – REM
REM, probably the best band of the Eighties, at their most distinct and it bears repeated listenings. Layered harmonies, guitar hooks, great metaphors in the lyrics.


14. The Ledge – Replacements
If not REM, the best band of the Eighties. It's a song about suicide that I find life affirming.

15. Lola – The Kinks
The Seventies had begun.

16. Roll Over Beethoven – Chuck Berry
Rock and Roll is here.

17. Oliver's Army -Elvis Costello
Combining hooky melodies with brilliant lyrics.

18. Couldn't I Just Tell You -Todd Rundgren
Post-Beatle Power Pop at its absolute best.

19. That's When I Reach for My Revolver – Mission of Burma
Some deeply buried perfectly crafted rock and roll. Mission of Burma was one of the bands that caused everyone who listened to form a band.

20. Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix took the blues swagger and drove it further.

21. Fools Gold – Graham Parker
On his first two albums, Parker and the Rumour put together some great songs and performances. This song of longing and love hits it.

22. Badge - Cream
George Harrison co-wrote this, IIRC. The guitar parts bring a shiver to me.

23. Marie Marie - Blasters
The story I heard was that Dave Alvin thought they had to start writing their own material and this was the first thing he did.

24. Big Time - Neil Young
Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their best. A song that draws you in. Slobberbone did this one live which blew me away.

25. I Can Hear Music - Beach Boys
As the demons drove him deeper into himself, Brian Wilson made some music with more depth and still kept those incredible harmonies.

Critical Mass - October

For the second time this year, I made Critical Mass. Not to say that I made Critical Mass, as if my presence could create an event. I joined the group circling the Mill Street parking lot and went out and made our presence known. Resplendent in my Spot jersey, I was hardly the grandest tiger in the jungle. Michelle Kegley had sewn herself a Victorian or Suffragette style cycling outfit that she wore on her vintage Schwinn 5-Speed Mixte and there was a woman named Cory or Laurie who was wearing a vintage coat and tweed jacket. We're getting there but we're not a big city yet in Kansas City.

It was a fun ride. We cruised through Westport and the Plaza with Sarah's iPod blaring Beck and Radiohead. Definitely, someone needs to find some better bicycling music. And not Queen's Bicycle Race, it just reminds me how a once great rock band descended into Novelty. Luka Bloom recorded one, the title cut from The Acoustic Motorbike and Otis Taylor has one about Major Taylor on Double V.Anyone, anyone....

BikeMO

I finally took the Stella out for a long ride this weekend. I did the Metric Century at BikeMO, an event put on by the Missouri Bike Federation. Ordinarily, I don't do pay rides but I am married to the vice-president of the organization. Actually, I have done 2 pay rides this last month but I don't do a LOT of them. Anyway, I arose extremely early and drove halfway across the state for this ride. I hadn't ridden too much after fighting a cold for a week. (Thank God for Zicam!) Now, I'm healthy again.

It didn't prove to be much of a handicap. Here I am at one of the rest stops,resplendent in my attire from Rivendell. The long sleeve seersucker shirt kept me cool and the MUSA pants were ideal for a fall ride when you couldn't be certain what the weather would be and I liked walking into the coffee shop in Fulton, Missouri at lunch and not having my package out there for the world. What I had forgotten, though, was a change of underwear. Fortunately the start/finish area was at a shopping center which housed a Dollar General store where I ducked in afterward for a package of Fruit of the Loom boxers and a package of Junior Mints. For the record, I actually did ride the 62 mile route. I told someone that Monday morning would be the test for it, whether riding a fixie would hurt me and I was fine. I've learned that riders overestimate the advantage a derailleured bicycle gives them. I can climb about as well on Stella as I can on my Cannondale go-fast bike or my Panasonic granny-geared touring bike. And it's so much FUN!! Who could have thought that forcing myself to pedal all the time could be so enjoyable? After all, though I am a runner first and cyclist second or maybe I'm just an athlete.

The only thing that was missing was beer. I'm a believer in rewarding myself with a beer after strenuous exercise. I settled for a 24 ounce Busch from the gas station rather than the craft beer I would have loved. Of course, ideals only exist in heaven.

After the ride, the officers and organizers of the Missouri Bike Fed discussed the ride. Most riders thought it was a very good event. Levie, one of the officers, told Laurie, my wife that "some of the riders on the 32 mile did not seem like very experienced riders and one of them was YOUR HUSBAND!" Guess some people don't get the sensible rider look. I do ride in spandex, too and I can ride fast if I want, too.