Food

Ya gotta eat, right? Here is what I have been eating a lot lately.

Take a chicken breast, salt and pepper it, and lay it on a bed of couscous, tomatos, onion (shallots are better), garlic, and maybe some frozen peas. Improvise. Add chiles if you want. Pile it al on a big square of tin foil and drizzle it with olive oil.

Wrap it up and add about half a can of beer.

Cook for 40 minutes at 400F. Then eat.

Bike on a bike

So, what to do if you own/run a LBS and need to transport a bike? (while commuting on another two-wheeler, of course) One nice solution is to mount a car-top rack tray on your custom ride...


Credit goes to Alex at 20/20 Cycle in Seattle for the invention. The angle of this photo is less than ideal, my bad! I'll have to go snap another one that shows the sweet back end of that bike.

Craigslist score!

I recently snagged these two green Schwinns on craigslist. The seller got these in an estate sale and swore they were a set. He was adamant that he didn't want to break them up (even for his mom, who wanted the ladies bike!)...however, after looking up the serial numbers this evening, they are as follows:

• Mens Schwinn Sports Tourer, 10 sp, built in Feb, 1973
• Ladies Schwinn Suburban, 5 sp, built in June, 1970

So, not a matched set, but that's fine with me. It was a little obvious, since the shades of green don't match, and the models don't either. But we love them, and have taken a few short city rides already. Tonight I ordered some new tires - gum rubber for the mens and whitewalls for the ladies bike, but I think they're backordered. Other than the old rubber, they are in near-mint condition. I can't imagine they did much for the past 30+ years besides hang in a garage. Now, if that sun would only come back out...

Lean machine

Spring is in the air, and the bikes are everywhere! I was inspired to snap a cell-phone pic of this stripped-down beauty in front of the U-district Trader Joe's (Seattle). Absolutely nothing on that frame but the word "Shogun". I dig the kewl rear wheel, too, but could probably do without the pad on the top tube :)

Cat Yellow

So I got tired of looking at the teal paint job on my singlespeed (and everyone else was getting/making shiny new bikes) so I decided I needed a new little project. After a couple of nights of disassembly, sanding and painting, my old bike was looking shiny and new again.

Post-mountain bike view (aka singlespeed Gen. 1). Sadly note the need for a Surly Singleator.

Gen. 2. I didn't keep the old Mag 21 shock long, opting for a Surly rigid fork.

The sanded down frame. I considered stripper, but really am not a big fan of the nasty chemicals. The decals were troublesome, because they gummed up the sandpaper, and I couldn't get them smooth enough to just paint over. But the long blade of a cheap box cutter made short work of them.

A nice coat of primer.

The money shot. I couldn't decide what color to paint it until I went to the local hardware store and found a can of Krylon Farm and Implement Cat Yellow. Perfect.

Here Kitty Kitty Kitty

An interesting tidbit of information showed up in my inbox this afternoon. Seems there's been a number of BIG kitty sightings in and around Guaje Canyon; more specifically, near the Rendija/Guaje Canyon junction- which, I believe, is where this photo was snapped (sorry about the poor quality, but you get the idea!).

Rumor has it, it's a big'un- not that it matters much, so be careful out there and if you're gonna' be riding solo in the area, be sure to take the proper precautions. Actually, now that I think about it...what are the proper precautions? Ah, crap! Any suggestions?

69er'

Check out Trek's newest contribution to the world of production single speeds.

See what they did with the name...? Get it...? It's interesting to see a bike offered as a complete with a 29er front wheel and a 26er rear wheel as standard equipment from one of the "big guys"- influence from Travis Brown I suppose. Pretty cool, eh. All of the rolling mass benefits of the big stuff up front, yet retaining the acceleration characteristics of the little guy in the back. I think it's neat, and would like to give a go sometime. Not sure what to think of the "chain guides" on either side of the cog, though. If nothing else they look spiffy, and they sure won't hurt anything.

Photo Credit

Wiki wiki wiki (think turntable)

Whatever- it may be a silly thing to call something, but the boys and/or girls over at BBTC sure know how to put it to good use. Check out what they've done for Washington state, and imagine the glory if that Google Map was full. "BBTC Trail Info Guide seeks to become a free, complete, and up-to-date mountain bike trail guide for all of Washington. Anyone, including you, can help improve the pages by logging in and clicking the edit link at the top"

A Sign!

It's a little off topic, but then again not really, as good brew usually leads to bike banter. Anyhoo....popped the top of a tasty beverage the other night, and after a few pulls, happened to glance at the cap in my hand. Low and behold.......



Is it a sign?
Should I start charging folks to come oogle?

Make:Blog

Make:Blog was kind enough to post about sweetnourishingbikes a couple days ago. Make:Blog is a great site for all kinds of DIY fun. A lot of the stuff is way technical and computer-ey, but they also kick it old-school sometimes. And they do TONS of posting, so there is surely something interesting every day. I try to read all of the new posts every day, but it can still be hard to keep up!

Also see posts about Boozhound Labs, and the minibike we built.

Bendix service manual

I pretty much worship the Bendix yellow-band 2 speed kickback coaster brake hub. It is just plain amazing. Here is a page with scans of the service manual for this and most of the other really great Bendix hubs.

Hulabike

The geniuses at Bikeforest have come up with a novel new form of wheeled locomotion - the hulabike! Behold:



If you want to make one, they even have a page to help you figure out what length spokes you need to lace up an offset wheel - HulaCAD.

Vintage Motorized Bicycle

So a couple summers ago, Brian and I built a minibike out of some wheelbarrow wheels and a rototiller engine. It was a lot of fun. I have been thinking of updating it by figuring out a way to install the engine in a normal bicycle frame. So I did some Googling and ran across these vintage instructions on building a motorized bicycle. Wow.



I found this stuff on vintageprojects.com, which has lots and lot of cool projects. They even have a bike trailer section. How great are these photos?

More Hen Waller

Ok, I know this has nothing to do with bikes, but either do soap box races, and you gotta admit those sure are fun fun fun!

I have been reading more of the Letter From Hen Waller blog (or letter I guess) and there is a lot of really great stuff in there. I have been interested in the whole local food, farmer's market, Edible Estate phenomenon - which seems to fit well with the concept of bicycling. I started some seeds this weekend, which will hopefully turn into a nice herb garden, and possibly some ground cover for my driveway. I was proud to plant them in beautiful compost which had evolved over the last few years in my compost bin. That's right, I was proud to have created dirt!

SFVISBF

I have been a long time choppercabras fan, and I looked them up today to see what was up. It appears that some of our bike chopping friends have begun another death defying , illegal, and possibly immoral activity: The races of the SFVISBF - San Fernando Valley Illegal Soapbox Federation.


Please visit this site and DO NOT leave until you have watched the videos. I mean it! Seriously! You know what, I don't trust you to watch them, so I am just going to have to embed one right here. So all you lazy bastards have to do is hit play. Think you can handle that?