The Chicken Coop and The Garage

When I was pretty young, not sure of the age, I spent lots of time at my grandparents' house.  An old white farmhouse.  Trails in the orchard out back.  Lake down one of the wider trails.  And of course I took it all for granted.

There were two other buildings there that I credit for subliminally shaping my future life. 

My grandpa's garage.  No garage door, ever, but it had two small rooms in the back- which I'll describe in a second.  It had a huge tank which for awhile was used to pump gas.  Yeah, he had his own gas delivered in bulk.  Pretty hardcore to think about today, but this was PA, and he was a former farmer and snowplow driver, so who knows.  Just to the right when you entered the door was an old barrel- that was where the odd named spray cans went.  WD-40, Liquid Wrench...

Back in those two rooms were old dressers- drawers filled with nuts and bolts and stuff.  And the rooms were chock full of old stuff.  And not in nice neat boxes, but just full of stuff.  Old "Operation" game from the 60s?  Yes.  Unattached toilet?  Yep.  And everything in between.

And the second building was a former chicken coop (I think) that my uncle had taken over.  It was usually locked, but we always tried the window- and sometimes it was open.  Inside the walls were covered with rock posters (I think I remember Janis Joplin) and a motorcycle.  I thought it was the coolest little building I'd ever seen.  Like a clubhouse or treehouse, but so much cooler.  And you could lock it!  I could bore you with the family history in that place and the garage too, but that's not what I'm after.

I think I've been searching ever since for those two rooms.  The photo above is of Heidi Swift's Bike Area.  She's a writer/photographer in Portland, OR whose blog I read occasionally, and when I saw that picture it took me instantly back- like so many garage photos do. 

I want (and have had on many levels) to recreate that chicken coop.  A place fully dedicated to my bikes and where I could have a scooter or two.  Posters and race numbers on the walls.  And the only thing stopping me is permanence.  Any place we live I feel like I shouldn't put down roots, that I shouldn't get too attached.

I suppose that starts to get into family stuff again, doesn't it?  How I've moved so far away from my family, and now have new family here. 

But I want to go on a little more about that place.  How you should make one if you don't have one.  Or cherish and polish it if you do have one.  There's a lot of talk lately about "Man Caves".  Whatever, but there's a place for the workshop... whatever you call it and whoever uses it.  No matter what size it is, it is a part of the bike experience, and you're missing out a little bit if you don't recognize and cherish that part of it.  Home base.

We now pause for station identification...

does anyone remember when TV used to say that a lot?  Just a few technical matters to discuss for a moment.  And then back to our regular scheduled bike-obsessed blogging.

Following.  If you're a google member, please do it.  Consider it motivation for me to write more.  I'd just like to know if anyone more than those 5 over to the right are reading.  And frankly, all five of them would read any old crap I wrote- they're friends.  Hopefully this is better than dragging the bottom of the riverbed for them, but I can't be sure.  If you read this blog, please consider following.

And responding.  I know how much trouble it can be to place a comment on something.  You don't want to take the time for the CAPTCHA word puzzle thing.... you don't want your name posted up there.  I get it.  But now each post has a quick review feature with 3 levels of "cool post" type responses.  If you get anything out of them, please note these and tick a box.

That is all.  Now back to bikes and trails.

Simple Isn't Easy

Preface:  I'm sure this is all copyrighted backwards and forwards.  This blog doesn't make money, and if any of the concerned parties doesn't like what I've done here, leave a comment and it'll be taken down immediately.  Ok?  Ok.


Just a little bicycle battle of the quotes, anyway.


" I had something that worked well and I decided to stay the course. Singlespeed to me was about rejecting the 1990s arms-race in the mountain bike world and distilling things to a minimalist point. The important variables to me were: 
1) Keep it simple and reliable. 
2) Get fitter yourself through riding. And: 
3) Be quiet, both bike and mouth."
-Matt Chester (framebuilder) on his blog


vs. 


"Mountain biking has evolved and mountain bikes have evolved to the point where riding only singlespeed is essentially one step away from burning the Spinning Jenny.  Face it fellas, you are the modern poster child for the Tollpuddle martyrs [sic]."
-Alex Leigh, in Singletrack, issue 24:  "Suspension and Gears:  A Victimless Crime".


Not sure Alex got his historical allusions correct on this one, as the link shows.  It does lead to some fascinating reading about Ned Ludd and the luddite movement, though.  His article should be taken as a little bit tongue-in-cheek, by the way, but I think still represents many people's views enough to be quoted.

Update!

As of today, 52, out of 113 of you that own Mountain Bike Boston, have updated. 


Now, I don't know exactly how this works, because to be honest- I can't afford an iPhone or iPod Touch.  Or won't.  Either way, I'm not sure technically how it works, but I know that it is supposed to be free once you buy the app.  You're missing out.  Any new information I have on existing trail entries is updated.  Any new entries I've finished are on there (at least a couple, maybe a lot more).  And finally, new photos that I've been able to take of the locations are also included. 

And all this costs...  NOTHING.  Get updating!

Knife in the Back...

 Well, it's finally happened.  The fixed gear bicycle has eclipsed any sort of insider status or whatever you call the coolness-radar of the world.  What was once the road-racer's wintertime training tool, to work on smoothing out their pedal stroke, somehow became the fashion accesory of the last few years.  I understand what's cool about a stripped down bike that is painted bright colors, but it continues to amaze me how much younger people ("hipsters" I believe they're called) really get it.

Not sure the chainguard reinforces that stripped down motif, but that's just THE MAN keeping the Schwinn single down.  The second sadness here (and I love Target, so don't think I'm taking aim at them) is that Schwinn- once a noble bicycle brand, maybe the most noble- is now a Target brand, right there next to Huffy and Magna.  Remember the "official Schwinn dealer"?  That was a real thing.  I worked at a Schwinn shop for a few years as a teen, and my first road bike was a Schwinn Traveller.  My first "good" bike, at about age 14, was a Schwinn, too- A Free-Form EX.

Those were serious bikes.  Not the hippest thing going- never the coolest brand.  But they had better tubing for the same price, and often came with better parts.  I was certainly not sneered at.

I don't have much to say in this bike's defense- and of course it isn't an actual fixed gear- imagine the lawsuits!  It has two sets of brakes and a freewheel.  But check out this last photo.  There is in fact actual threading and a lockring for a fixed cog.  Kind of impressive. 

It's not much, but for the knife stabbed into the back of a once noble old gentleman of bicycle companies, it is at least a little smiley face etched into the handle.  Or should I say, at least they sharpened the knife?

ps.  TECHNICAL DETAILS- STOP READING NOW.
A fixed gear bike is "fixed" because unlike a derailer bike (the gear changer), with variable gears, this has only one gear.  And the rear hub, instead of being connected by a ratchet mechanism (just like a socket wrench), to the cranks and pedals, is directly connected to the back wheel.  If the pedals turn, the wheel turns, and vice-versa.  If you're moving, the pedals are moving.  You slow down by slowing down your legs.  Thus it is considered poor form to use brakes on one of these bikes... since the whole goal is the stripped-down nature of the bike.  Kind of the espresso of bicycles.

pps.  It was, of course, assembled so poorly as to be unrideable.  Wish I'd had an allen wrench.

PPPS.

I was at Target the other day and found these- the old Schwinn logo that signified their dealer network- now torn to shreds by Target selling Schwinns-- and they even cash in on the retro logo by selling shirts of it.  Again, I love Target, but this is like kicking someone when they're unconscious... 

Truth is Beauty, Beauty, Truth...

 

This picture is from a bike shop in San Diego.  They have something there (SD, not the shop) called an underground supper club.  It's not a bike thing- they meet at interesting places that are kept secret until the last minute and they are told to show up somewhere and then taken to the "place".  So these are not bike people- they just asked to use this shop as a place to eat.

How cool is that?  One of those things that you just say to yourself- 'people are so creative- I would NEVER have thought of that.'  Not in 17 years.  

Makes you feel like there ARE good, creative people out there.  That... well, I could go into the things that lead me to believe culture is going down the toilet, but I'm sure you all have your own.  So nice to hear of something that suggests the opposite. 

I {heart} Jude!

Go here and watch this short video.  It's not really a video- more a narrated slideshow of pictures.

I want to be this woman.  I want my daughter to want to be this woman.  I want wheels built by this woman.  Except that I build my own wheels and want to be her myself.

All for now.

Oh, what the heck, go read THIS while you're at it.