Free Apps that should interest you...

 Let's say, just hypothetically, that you've come here from my app- Mountain Bike Boston.  I'm not going to bother to link to it here- I'm tired of typing.  But go buy it if you haven't.  Anyway, say you like it, but don't want to spend another dollar.  Times are tight.  Here's some fun links to download outdoorsy Apps that sound seriously helpful for .......... FREE.  You're welcome, now tell a friend to go buy my app.

REI Snow & Ski Report:  Get this app here.  There's also a shopping app available which might be fun to have... even useful, if you want to find out specs about a product.  Both are free.
 
Trailhead by The North Face:  While I would hardly suggest you get this INSTEAD of my app, it certainly is worth having on your phone for free!  Get it here.

Accuweather:  Bikes and other outdoor activities are... well, outdoors.  That means either weather dependent,or they need to be weather-proof.  Good reviews of this free weather app.


MotionX GPS Lite:  I don't own an iPhone, so don't fully understand its capabilities, but from what I've read, this is a useful tool for enlivening your phone's GPS feature.  Check it out- it is, after all- free.  Here.

Thoughts on the handmade bicycle show movement...

I love the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.  Love the idea.  Love what it started as, and has become.  I love that it has started to change the bicycle industry, with large companies copying the aesthetic they see at that show.  I love that it builds a market for these pieces of art.  Because that is really what many of these are.  Sculpture.  I've talked about this here before.

But there's a dark side to this culture.  Not to the builders, because they should bring the best they can do.  That's their right and their privilege.  But with the internet's voyeuristic power, coinciding with the show's rise, there can be a tendency to look at these perfectly powdercoated, carefully sanded-and-polyurethaned pieces of perfection, with their 500 dollar leather and titanium saddles, and perfectly color-matched fenders, racks, stems, and leather bags.... Whew!  What a sentence. There can be a tendency to compare your own townie bike to these "townie bikes" and think, 'Man, what a pile of crap I commute on'.  I don't think any of those builders would ever intend that.  I really believe that.

As we're encased in snow, at least in the northeast, it is probably a good time to mention this- riding your bike is ALWAYS more important than the bike that you ride.  A person who rides will always beat a person who spends.  They can be one and the same, but someone who rides a low-end bike every day is still a better (more experienced) cyclist than one who buys the highest-end a manufacturer offers and rides it once a month.  Remember that. 

I have always loved Bike magazine for running photos of their test bikes dirty, the way they look as they are being tested.  The best looking bike is a bike that's being used.  Otherwise, it's not a bike- it IS just a piece of art.

Old. Fat. In Pain.

You know what?  I think I've had it with this stupid snowboard.

I mean, what am I trying to teach myself to snowboard for anyway?  Because I skateboarded 20 years ago?  Cause I tried to teach myself to surf, once (unsuccessfully)? 

Here's the thing, though- before all of those things, before bikes, even, I was a skier.  If a person can ever really say that- since you can only afford to go once or twice a year.  I was a member of the ski club at school.  Owned my own skis.

So why am I not thinking about skiing when the snow falls?  I'm not sure.  Because snowboarding seems lower tech?  Because all the baggy kids do it?  I don't think so. 

So after a disastrous attempt at using my snowboard the other day I'm rethinking winter.  It's not that I fell- I really didn't.  It just didn't do much for me.  Don't get mad if you're a snowboarder- it's not worth trying to "convert" me.  I've had a couple magic runs, where it felt like I was surfing in three dimensions and all that.  But I've had about 1000 of those skiing.

Does anyone else EVER think of these sorts of things?

1000 words

Hoppy Holly Days...

With snow finally coming this week, and more to come Monday, it feels like the perfect time to rest, relax, and wish everyone the nicest of Christmases.  If you celebrate Hanukkah, I hope your festival of lights was magnificent, if Kwanzaa, then enjoy Christmas and then have a happy Kwanzaa.  I wish you well.  Talk to you next year! 

Don't feel bad about putting down the bike and picking up a book.  Or your kids.  Or some food.  Or whatever. 

PS.  No, this picture above is not the Schwinn Single from Target.  Although it may break down about this fast...

Like Andy on the Gavia...

 

Should've posted this the day before yesterday, but been a little busy.  Our first snow of the year came two days ago, which is not news or blogworthy, 

but when I got to the big hill at the end of my ride, up to Witchcraft Heights Elementary School, I rode up the hill feeling like my original cycling hero Andy Hampsten in the Gavia (see photo) 

and noticed a car getting closer to me.  I was doing fine so I accelerated and PASSED THE CAR on the hill. 

I was so surprised I didn't quite know what to do, so my car-driving instincts took over and I passed it on the left, spinning its way up the hill.  And I'm happy to say, I dropped it. First time that's ever happened.

I think it's going to be a good winter!

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.