On my swing to the west coast I was able to visit one of my favorite places on earth: the Newberg Skate park. It is the perfect blend of mellow and gnarley. No matter your level, you can fit in. I snuck in a morning session with the Truminator. Truman is under the temporary childhood illusion that I am cool. Eventually he’ll grow up and discover the truth, but for now I live in the glow.
My trip to California started off rough when I was flirting with wild fires, but there were some calming moments as well. The sun and the surf definitely have a calming affect.
Sunrise
Open Wide
We were near Venice Beach and some guys were surfing through barnacle covered pilings . . . one wrong move and it’s stitches for sure.
The Break
Surf’s up
In NoCal I visited Stanford and it was a bike love fest. Bikes, bikes, everywhere!
. . . the commissioner of Major League Baseball I would outlaw batting gloves. I think if you were to eliminate the time it takes batters to adjust, re-adjust, readjust, readjust, and then readjust again their batting gloves between pitches, you could shorten games by at least 20 minutes.
I landed in San Diego yesterday and noticed that it smelled like a camp fire. I learned very quickly that there were two wildfires and they caused the entire city to be socked in by smoke. Ash was also falling from the sky. I stayed with some friends who own a home a few miles from the front line of the fire and when we arrived a smoke alarm in an adjacent house was going off. There were no evacuation notices so we went to sleep and had an uneventful night.
I came into the city today and found that the lobby of my hotel resembles the San Diego Zoo. Close to 250,000 people have been asked to evacuate their homes and they are seeking refuge in hotels . . . with their pets. I have seen dogs, a bird in a cage, a snake, and a fish tank thus far. It’s pretty wild, pun intended. The latest is that there are 11 wild fires raging in the area and not enough personnel to fight them. I am trying to change my plans to head up to L.A. before I see any more exotic creatures.
If you commute a lot a good bike rack can be a huge bonus. A backpack or specially designed messenger bag can be great ways to haul stuff around, but it often turns into a sweaty and uncomfortable circumstance. A particularly heavy bag can also cut off circulation to your hands which can be a major discomfort.
There are special panniers you can buy for use with bike racks and plastic buckets can also be used. A guy I ran into this summer modified old kitty litter buckets to fit on his rack. With a drill and a trip to the hardware store, the buckets can be modified to hang from your rack. You can also buy them built to go on this site.
I decided that I wanted my own “glove compartment” of sorts and a trip to The Container Store inspired me to create this:
I found a rather sturdy box with a lid that was the perfect size. I drilled a few holes it the bottom, screwed it on to the rack with some wing nuts so that I could easily take it off at any time without tools, and a bungee cord ensures the lid stays on tight.
It’s water proof and if you want, it can even be used as a cooler. Simply toss in some ice and whatever needs to be cooled, and your set. The only thing to be aware of is the “vibration factor.” Whatever you put in such a storage device is going to get shaken up quite a bit. There are ways to dampen the effects. Some loose newspaper for example.
A few weeks back we caught the last P.S.1. Warm Up. They open the museum on a Saturday night, bring in live bands, and serve beer. I wasn’t too blown away by P.S.1. The Pompidou in Paris was much more impressive to me as a museum of modern art.
Right across the street from P.S.1. is 5 ptz. We actually ended up getting a live art show and we enjoyed it more than what was offered in the museum.
light
When you commute or run around town you often lock up and run in and out of places. You still face the threat of that minor mechanical problem or flat tire so tools are a necessity. A variety of small bags for tools are designed to fit under your seat or possibly connect to your frame, but they are not easy to remove and if left on your bike can be appealing to others.
When doing some online searches I ran across the “Cage Rocket.” It’s a dumb name for sure, but it’s a great product. Take a look:
It fits in any standard water bottle cage and you can store all the major tools you might need on the road. The great thing is that when you leave your bike locked up, the bottle slips right out and you can easily take it with you. More info here.
I am fortunate to know someone who owns a place in Maine – Hancock Point to be specific. It’s about an hour southeast of Bangor. Actually I had not been to many places in the Northeast and I got to spend a whole week on business driving through New England during prime leaf viewing season and the icing on the cake was two days in Maine on the coast. Ariel flew up and joined me on the tail end and it was a nice reprieve from Gotham. Nature is pretty darn cool.
The House
The Beach Life
Hunting and Gathering
The Catch
Rock It
Happy Feet
Sorting
Gazing
Red Delight
I was happy to see that ESPN took the opportunity to highlight the proud history of Seahawk football on Monday Night. There is a series of such ads with the tag “Is it Monday Yet?” around NYC and it is nice to see a nod to the birds of the Northwest.
For anyone who spends anytime reading my gibberish it is no secret that I have morphed into a total bike dork since landing in NYC. I used to bike for fun and exercise but when I moved the Big Apple without a car biking turned into a daily ritual. Ritual then naturally gave way to obsession.
I’m taking my obsession to a new level with a series of entries focused on some things I have done to make my biking experience more practical and fun. Some ideas are practical and others are just silly. I leave it to the reader to decide which is which. Perhaps one person will stumble across my blog and benefit from my nerdiness. The rest you can just roll your eyes and continue to pump petrol.
First off is bike security. Leaving your bike in the mean streets is definitely a risky proposition. If someone really wants your whole bike or a part of it, they will find a way so what I focus on is just trying to keep the wandering criminal away.
I do have a one of those hefty bike chains that could easily be used as a boat anchor. I ride with it around my waist and it is not hard to get used to riding with it. To lock up I loop the chain around the frame and my front wheel, but it is not long enough to include the rear wheel. Of course I could take off my front wheel and loop the lock through the rear wheel, front wheel, and frame, but doing that over and over just ain’t no fun.
Some people end up using a separate lock, chain, or cable for the rear wheel. When I first moved to the city I noticed that many people used plumbing clamps to secure their front or rear wheel (the clamp loops around the quick release lever and one stem of the fork or rear lower tube). I thought about it, but I thought of something else that was more up my alley.
I ended up with the following on my bikes which both have quick release rear wheels:
The perfect fit is not necessary if you just buy a small bungee cord so the lock does not rattle around. When the weather gets nasty I wrap the locks with plastic wrap to keep the grime out.
You could of course go with a quick release skewer with a locking mechanism, but that would not have the city flair a protruding lock does.