Another Fun Bike-Related Exchange!

Faithful readers may recall that I have a cyber pen-pal of sorts in the farthest reaches of southern England. We have a sort of mutual admiration society going. I envy his bikes, commutes and history, and he envies, um... MPLS bike culture, I guess? I don't have much else to offer a person with a couple of Singulars in the stable and easy access to the loveliest rides I've ever seen.

During the darkest and coldest stretch of winter, I offered a small token of appreciation to readers of this blog from overseas. Overly Curious was a recipient of that offer, and reciprocated with a little thank you gift from the lovely green hills of Torbay. It was a fun little international exchange, and I think we both enjoyed it. I've posted a few pics of Overly Curious's bike with the spoke card, so perhaps some have seen this, but if you have not, it's a MPLS Bike Love spoke card overlooking the English Channel (photo credit to Overly Curious Bystander).

I have a similar deal on the go again. A more recent reader, Adventure!, admired my TC3-SAS spoke cards. I enjoy his blog and was happy to set a few aside for him - he organizes 3-speed rides occasionally and is currently planning an epic tour that will take him through the Twin Towns, so hopefully I'll be able to hand the spoke cards over in person. You can help make that possible by making a small contribution to his fund-raising page. Give a little - it'll feel good...

Adventure! has offered me a poster he created for the Portland 3-speed ride! Sweet! I'll be watching the post for this and look forward to hanging this in a place of honor in my humble home.

Perhaps this is the start of a detente between Portland and Minneapolis?

TC3-SAS Rides Again!!

TC3-SAS Front
Originally uploaded by Snak Shak

Supposedly, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result at some point.

Nevertheless, I am going to try another Twin Cities 3-Speed Adventure Society (TC3-SAS) ride this Wednesday evening. The first one was a rainy, windy adventure (and by "adventure" I mean "ordeal") and the second ride that I led was a complete wash-out. Between those two, Bikesmith led a successful ride, but I was out of town and missed the whole thing.

So, here's the deal. We'll be meeting at the Nice Ride station on 8th Street, next to the IDS Center at 6:00 PM. Bring your bike, or if you want to try Nice Ride, here's a good chance to do that.

I figure we'll do some ultra-urban rambling, maybe swing through Loring Park, explore the river front and perhaps stop at Aster Cafe for refreshments.

Hopefully the weather will be better. It can't possibly stay this miserable all month, can it?

The graphic with this post is the first public unveiling of a TC3-SAS spoke card that's currently in production. These limited edition, promotional pieces are sure to be collector's items. The best way to get one is to come on a ride with us, but I hear those TC3-SAS guys can be bought off for the right price, too.

Dancing with Cars

Despite an entire week of continued illness, I managed to get at least one thing done. Hopefully this is not bronchitis.

Career-Ending Injuries

Dramatic
Originally uploaded by Snak Shak

I have been getting my hair cut for the past two years or so at a small barber shop in the Medical Arts Building on Nicolet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. It's a classy old building - it's kind of an ornate building. It used to be full of medical specialists, but now it's mostly occupied by vendors selling "product" to Target Corp.

The building still has that classy "downtown commerce" vibe, though, and there is an old school barber shop on the first floor. My barber, "Al" is great, and the barber shop is pure Norman Rockwell. There's a Playboy magazine from 1997 or so and some Sport's Illustrated's in the magazine rack, plenty of brass, and warm shaving cream. Each visit promises a few off-color jokes and bitching about the Twins or the Vikings, depending on the time of year, and a good haircut. Ear hair is trimmed without comment.

As I got the mane trimmed today, Al was running me through current events. He told me that he hurt his knee since the last time I was in - he was bending down to pick something up and as he stood back up, his knee gave out.

He went to the doctor when it didn't get better on its own and he found out that he torn his miniscus (sp?) and has bad cartilage - he basically needs knee replacements at this point.

I asked what was involved with that. Al told me that recovery from this would probably take six to eight months - he'd have to retire in order to get this surgery since he can't leave his customers for that long and expect them to come back. It would be a shorter recover for people with an office job, but if you are on your feet all day, the recovery is longer.

Al is planning to retire in two years, and the doctor thinks he can keep Al upright until then, so for now I don't need to find a new barber.

When I think of career-ending injuries, I tend to think of football players getting knees blown out, pitchers with rotator cuff injuries, and roofers with bad backs. Still, the fact of the matter is that this kind of thing can happen to anybody at any time.

I am fortunate that I can't think of a career-ending injury for myself - I have a desk job, work in a handicapped accessible building, and with adaptive devices, I could probably overcome just about anything and still be pretty effective at my job, I think.

Still, I bet Al never thought his knees would take him out of the haircutting business.

Recovery and New Camera Day

After yet one more nap this afternoon, I finally feel like I beat this cold. I was coming down with it Wednesday and missed work on Thursday and Friday. I felt pretty lousy on Saturday as well. Sunday was better, but I have been hacking like a sea lion since the middle of last night. My wife has really been appreciating my performances, I am sure.

The exciting news is that today is New Camera Day. I've been carrying around a little Olympus Stylus, which I love because it's small, takes reasonably good pictures and it's tough: shock-proof, waterproof and cold-resitant, which I need because I generally carry my camera in a cell phone holster on my messeger bag whenever I ride.

The new camera is a Nikon P500. I got a demo of a P100 from a friend on the recent Flood Ride and was so impressed with the camera that I wanted one, so I treated myself to an early birthday present on Saturday. The Nikon P100 or P500 are small digital cameras with mega-zoom capability and good optics. It's not an SLR, which I refuse to use because I don't want the hassle, but I miss having a good zoom everytime I want to take a picture of a bird or something.

The Nikon operating system is different than the Olympus I am used to using, so I've got some book learning to do, but I took this out this morning for a short bird walk around Lake Calharriet and Lakewood Cemetery and it was great. It seems to do really well in low light; much better than my Olympus, which gets grainy in low light, and the flash is a lot more forgiving as well - it doesn't wash out the color and make everyone in the photo look like vampires, at least on the preview screeen.

That said, this camera is considerablly larger than my Olypus Stylus, so I'll have to relearn how to carry a camera. Have no fear, the trusty Olypus is still on my messenger bag - the convenience of that is just too great to give up.

Still, the added capability of this unit will more than make up for the inconvenience, I suspect.

Riv Reader

The Rivendell Reader is out. Check it.

Thanks, Bro Yam for the use of the photo and the fellowship at Sea Salt on Thursday evening.

Sick for the Second Time in a Week!

My Hard-Duty Commuter at Home
Originally uploaded by Snak Shak

Last week Thursday, I came down with some sort of flu. I was still feeling creaky on Friday but was at work. Now I've got a bad cold.

I woke up to a sore throat on Wednesday morning and by Thursday morning I was in bad shape - my sinuses felt they had been packed with hot, wet cotton. It was disgusting.

I am still under the weather tonight, hence the photo of my commuter locked up in front of my house.

I did something productive today - I got the Bikebyshootings photo pool of Flickr pool mostly cleaned up. There's some good shots in that pool - check it out if you have not seen it and go ahead and add to the pool if you have anything to share.

Reminder - Beers for Bloggers on May 5

Facism
Originally uploaded by Matty Lang

Just a quick reminder that I have a beers for bloggers event on the calendar for tomorrow at Sea Salt. I scheduled this before I realized it conflicted with Greaserag, so we'll be careful to avoid that going forward, but I plan to be there tomorrow nonetheless.

If anyone can make it, that would be swell. I'll keep an eye out for bikey looking people nad hopefully see some over there.

Taking a Stand for Quality on the Internet

on bike
Originally uploaded by wvs

How cool is this?

I am a member of the Flickr group "Bikebyshootings". I love the group - it's devoted to photos taken from moving bicycles (a mildly hazardous avocation I enjoy a lot). Extra credit for photos that evoke the feeling of speed and motion. What's not to like about a group like this?

Actually, what's not to like is the fact that some of the members will post photos of just about anything bike-related in that group. A bike in the snow, a pretty girl holding a bike, it was all there. Nice, but not the point of the group.

The quality of the group has been in a slow spiral for awhile now, so this weekend, feeling disgruntled with things in general, I posted a comment that many of these photos simply don't belong here. I expected the comment to be ignored or deleted within a few days, but instead, I was given "admin" authority and free license to clean up the group.

Bikebyshootings is now cleaned up now and ready for new submissions. You all ride, at least some times, so bring a camera along and shoot from the saddle. Post up on the group if it's at all interesting!

The Bike Expo

Earlier today, Cycle Twin Cities ran a piece on last week's Bike Expo by yours truly. I was disappointed by the Expo this year but I couldn't put my finger on what exactly was bothering me. The Expo seemed smaller, true, but after talking to a few friends, I realized that what disappointed me was the lack of diversity in the cycling community at the Expo. As I said in the CTC post, I saw very few people over 60 or under 30 years old, and most of the vendors and presentations were aimed at the "drive-your-bike-to-the-trail" style riders.

There's much, much more here than that. I hope that next year the Bike Expo can add to presentations - a first person account of the Arrowhead 150 would be fascinating. An introduction to Alley Cats would be an eye-opener for most people, and a demonstration of obstacle riding by the people with skillz from MORC would be fantastic.

We need to celebrate all that we have, from the little kids who want to decorate bikes to the seniors who want to stay active, and everyhing in between.