RSS FeedOkay, so I bought a few books on building custom bikes. Though I’ll admit it’s more like chopping up then re-building it Frankenstein style. The scary part is that it looks tooooo easy. Just pull a bike out of the trash, grab your angle grinder to salvage the BB, headtube, dropouts, and maybe some of the straight tubing that’s left. Then take out your cheap plug-in style stick welder and some electrical tubing, weld it all bake together… and voila! a bad-ass looking chopper or a swing bike or a tall bike etc….. Does anyone here have experience with chopping up and re-welding bikes back together in some custom way? Is it really as easy as I want to believe it is? How likely am I to actually try this and come away with rideable bikes? … Honestly, knowing myself, whether I get good advice or warnings not to try, I’m pretty sure I’m going to go for it anyway. Maybe built that “really complicated drivetrain” bike I posted here a couple years ago….
Anyone know where I can pick up a welder and angle grinder cheap? :)
Anyone who reads this is welcome, just e-mail me at Doug@ridefetish.com. It’s going to be a serious mo-fo epic climb-fest, like a stage of the tour or something…
Haven’t been on a bike in forever (until today…). So I’ve checked in a couple of times, but really had nothing to say. Today however was kind of a big bike day. I sold one of my bikes, found out that my BMX bike from when I was 15 still exists, and went on the first ride in almost a year.
My wife and I stopped by CycleWorks today to introduce our daughter Cadence to the guys from the shop. She is now 16 days old and an absolute joy! I’ll be a while before her first bike, but that doesn’t stop me from getting her into the whole “scene” :) (and building a little muscle memory in her legs in the meantime heh heh, just kidding… well maybe not totally kidding…).
While I was there, a guy walked in who I haven’t seen in 20 years. We talked about the neighborhood we grew up in and people we knew and eventually ended up talking about bikes (we were in a bike shop…). Anyway it turns out that he was the kid my dad decided to give my bike to after I got a car and didn’t ride it for a couple of months. That bike was my prize possession at the time. I worked at a bike shop and pretty much spent everything I made on it for an entire summer. That bike and I were inseparable, and I was crushed the day I went to get it from the garage and it wasn’t there. It seems sad to think that I was still into BMX that much at seventeen even after I had a car and some sort of social life. Actually maybe not since I never did buy another one… Apparently it is missing some parts, but most of it is at his mom’s house. The best part of it is that he is giving it back to me! YAAHHHOOO!I can’t wait to see it again…
I sold my latest project bike to a friend from work, and three of us from work went for a spontaneous 20 mile ride. I was amazed that I totally rocked the ride. And even though I was on my beater fixie I was first to the top of almost every hill, and still had plenty in the tank when we got back. Sounds like I’m bragging, but these guys aren’t really cyclists, I’m just psyched that I didn’t crap out halfway through, and inspired to ride more now that I feel like I haven’t totally lost it. I think that’s part of why I haven’t been riding, I just assumed that I would totally suck by now and it would be a very long road back to where I was. Now that road just seems a little shorter.
This summer was already looking great for the time with my new family in our (soon to be completed)house. Now I’m starting to dream of ways to work in some serious bike time again…
Funny how life can bust a mirror into your face once in a while to let you get a glimpse of yourself. It’s only now sinking in that the voice calling me an asshole may not have come from the car stopping at the light.
If that’s all it was I would have dismissed it as I darted left in front of it. Had it been just the asshole in the car I would have rode on blissfully on the maiden voyage of my new bike I just built. But no, at the moment I thought to ignore and crank around him, my left pedal took a chunk out of the pavement, and sent me flying up and over the bike onto my right shoulder. Then moments later realizing that me, my bike, and my water bottle were spread out in center stage of the intersection all alone except for all those cars right in the middle of their five o’clock commute home.
Right now I’m thinking that even though I collected my shit and hobbled out of the way, part of my brain is still dwelling on that spot. What the fuck was I doing out there? I am 200 pounds and have only been out on a bike maybe 5 times this year. And three of those times I’ve managed to drag the exact same parts of my body along the road, rashing then re-rashing again and again. I got hit head on by a truck a few weeks ago. And had the audacity to think that somehow I could pull off a double century by substituting a dilusional self-image for training. And despite this, for some reason I made timeand spent money to build yet another bike. Maybe I’ve been ignoring this message longer than I thought… I have now fully realized that I am definitely not who I was last year. I have let things go like a landslide. While trying to hold on to an identity that fits as well as last year’s bike shorts.
This has been by far the toughest year of my life. From my own persistant medical problems, to the loss of our son. The downward spiral of my business and then the miscarriage of our recent hopes to start again. And so much more that I could write one heck of a country song. But the point is that I am here feeling sorry for myself like an asshole. I have always believed that there is never a way to put things back the way they were. Life would be too boring if that were possible. Only an asshole would dwell on that instead of growing into life as it moves forward.
As I sit here reflecting I think that this latest crash might have been what it took to smack my brain into letting go and getting back into the here and now. My identity on the bike as a small metaphore for a larger picture.
But, metaphore or not, I really need to stop scraping my body and my bikes along the fucking pavement.
I finally got around to posting my RAAM videos
Before the race, we attempted to film part of a Volvo commercial…
Volvo commercial (attempt)
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Pre race bike inspection
RAAM Pre race bike inspection
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This the start line…
Race Across America Start (shot from my bike!)
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This is in the first hour of the race, on the bike path before they stopped us at the bridge and spaced out the teams
bike path near oceanside
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Sunrise shot…
Racing through one of seven sunrises
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