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10.02.2009
Photo del Dia: Civic riders.
TGIF!!
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10.01.2009
Taiwan 2009: Street Food Vendor
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via Bike Hugger by Mark V on 10/1/09
We were on our way to Taroko National Park in eastern Taiwan. Nothing but small little towns out here, and still the rain follows us. Here's a motorcycle food cart we saw at pit stops. I liked the little windshield wiper.
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Perfect!
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via AMSTERDAMIZE by Amsterdamize on 9/27/09
Meet Daniela. Daniela is Italian, but really a global citizen, having worked in different cities around Europe. Recently she moved from London to Amsterdam and one important piece missing in her daily routines was a bicycle. She'd done without one in London ("Cycling there is crazy."), so she couldn't wait getting her hands on one in Amsterdam, she felt imcomplete. What else is new, right? :)
I promised I'd help her find a good, reasonably priced second-hand one, so I did. We set out to find a sturdy, reliable and elegant Omafiets.
Of course there are many, many shops to choose from, you'd have a field day going by them all. In our case, she was referred to a particular one in her neighborhood and I knew of another one not far from there.
The conceptual power of a chain lock
Dr. Beyk [pronounce: Bike] on Overtoom was next. 2nd hand and new bikes, all low-end pricing. Generic stuff, Azors, but basically packed with the type of bike that would suit her needs.
Daniela was instantly drawn by a black Omafiets that was parked out front, among two dozens more. Old, but all the parts that are to be expected to be on there, were there. Just the front and rear light were new and battery-powered. She wanted to have it, this gracious piece of pedalmotive brilliance. She walked into the shop to quickly glance at other ones, but she wasn't fooling me, she'd already made up her mind.
Two minutes later she talked price with the owner, I made sure that he'd tighten the spokes and she got the right chain lock to accompany the standard issue wheel lock. That in itself already had Daniela jumping for joy.
10 minutes later the bicycle was all ready to go, released to the care (with 3 months warranty and maintenance) of her new owner, who by that time couldn't help but shriek and clap her hands in excitement..;).
We quickly rode off into Vondelpark for Camilla's maiden voyage…the rest is now part of Amsterdamize Bicycle TV history.
Camilla from Amsterdamize on Vimeo.
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Reader Project: John's 1963 and 1964 Huffy Sportsmen
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via Old Bike Blog by bahdet@gmail.com (Thom) on 9/16/09
Remember John's 1955 Huffy Sportsman that was a brother of a different color to mine? Well, by some strange twist of fate, John came upon two more Raleigh-made Huffys, an almost-identically matched pair, in fact, and decided to restore them as a wedding present for his nephew and bride (the men's is 1963, the women's 1964). The results are astonishing, and John did a fantastic job of documenting his work. We hope the happy couple will spend many enjoyable hours awheel on these lovely bicycles.
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Here Comes The Rain Again
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via Change Your Life. Ride A Bike! by Adrienne Johnson on 10/1/09
San Francisco is finally having Summer. It will last for the month of October, if we are lucky. Then the fun starts- rainy season! All of us face rain challenges differently. Last year was the first year I have deliberately chosen to ride in the rain and by far the greatest challenge was what to wear.
I didn't take it too seriously to be honest. I tried true rain gear, and for heavy rain it worked to keep the rain out, but it sure keeps the sweat in. I figured out pretty quick the best thing to do was limit my exposure by making sure my trips were as short as possible.
After a while, I decided to dump the strict rain gear and just go with quick dry for days when the rain wasn't too heavy. My nylon skirt and nylons proved to really do the trick as they dry in minutes. My regular old rain boots work fine for pedaling.
Some days I had to wrap myself up like a giant rubber Christmas gift.
Sometimes I just got caught in it unprepared. Not a big deal.
This is not a comprehensive report on how to deal with rain, just my silly take on it. How do you do it? Do you hang it up when the clouds get dark or do you hit the road, hermetically sealed against the elements? I know that this year my greatest challenge will be how to ride with Declan on the back- how do I keep him dry enough to not be cold? how do I keep him entertained enough to not whine the whole way home?
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E-Bike Folder in Taiwan: "smofo"
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via Bike Hugger by Mark V on 10/1/09
I spotted this electric-assist folding bike on the way to Taitung County. The bike was part of an organize ride along the Pacific coast; the riders had stopped at the same reststop/souvenir shop as our bus.
I couldn't figure out if the bike was made by a company called "JCE" or "ICE"…either seemed plausible. But we liked the "smofo" logo on the top tube. Either way, the bike had a powered rear hub and housed the battery in the forward portion of the folding boom. The rear brake was a mechanical disc while the front used a linear-pull canti.
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Hot Bikes of Interbike: Nihola
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via Los Angeles Cycle Chic by noreply@blogger.com (Cosmo) on 9/30/09
Oh Nihola. Isn't this bike dreamy! I have to admit that I only took it for a brief ride around Interbike on carpet, but It was really fun. It was an easy bike to get on and ride. The little one thought it was fun to ride. It has an teeny tiny learning curve. I have been told, by a fairly reliable source that it can be tippy. Though said source is a huge fan of his bakfiets an prefers 2 wheels to three. The guys at Curbside Cycle can get you one.
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HIGH FASHION
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Stuff That Came In The Mail: 2 Things I Love Edition
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via Fat Cyclist by fatty on 10/1/09
I have started getting a lot of terrific stuff in the mail. For example, yesterday I got a very exclusive offer to try out Domino's new Pasta Bread Bowl at a Very Special Price.
You can bet I'll take them up on that soon. Real soon.
I also get a lot of bike-related stuff in the mail — and I don't mean just a new Colorado Cyclist catalogue every couple days. I get genuine, actual bike-related things. That people could theoretically buy and stuff.
Here's how the process generally plays out, in eleven easy steps.
- Someone — either a person from the vendor company or from their fancy-pants PR firm — emails me, telling me they're a big fan of the blog ("Well, how could you not be?" I ask myself in bemusement), and that they have something they'd like to send me to try out.
- I reply, saying, "Sure, send it on over!" and give them my address, while crossing my fingers that I have not just made some identity thief's job really really easy.
- Enough time elapses (i.e., more than seven minutes) that I forget we ever had an email exchange.
- A package arrives, generally via USPS.
- The package sits in the mailbox for a week or more, because we've all been trained to know that with the advent of e-mail, nothing good comes by USPS. Just bills and junk mail.
- Eventually the mail carrier leaves an angry note taped to my mailbox saying that no more stuff fits in it. Once, I left a response, saying, "Then stop putting those newspaper-sized grocery store ads in my mailbox." The conversation ended there. And yes, he continues to put the grocery store ads in my mailbox, and I continue to not pick up USPS mail more than a couple times a month.
- I get the mail and — yay! — spy a package.
- I tear the package open and don a puzzled look. What is this? Where did it come from? Is it delicious? Is it poisonous? Both? (I'm always really sad when something's both delicious and poisonous — I'm looking at you, antifreeze).
- I wake up from a sound sleep two nights later, suddenly remembering the email conversation I had with the vendor / PR guy.
- I try the product out, and find that I don't like it enough to talk about here, and that I furthermore don't hate it enough to talk about here. "Reasonably OK" doesn't make for hilarious blogginess that people have come to love and expect here at Fat Cyclist.
- Eventually, I get follow-up email from the vendor or PR person, but by then I've forgotten them and their product again.
So there you have it: the magic formula for how to get me to talk about stuff you send me: be really good, or suck in an interesting way.
Today, I am going to talk about two things that are really good.
Cutter Tech Knickerbockers
Here's how I can tell what my favorite clothing items are: they never get folded and put away. Which is to say, I generally wear them straight out of the dryer.
With this metric — or the metric of the fact that I wear them constantly — Cutter's Tech Knickerbockers are definitely my favorite shorts, on the bike (in cool weather) or off.
You know, I just never get over how remarkably handsome I am.
(Side Note: I want to point out that the Tom Selleck "Movember" T-shirt I'm wearing here is to let you know that Team Fatty will definitely be celebrating Movember. Start planning your moustache ideas now. Oh, and also that I meant to be pointing at Tom's moustache with my left hand, but seem to be unable to flex and point accurately at the same time.)
For one thing, the Cutters are comfortable — the material is stretchy and doesn't bind anywhere. For another, they're tough as nails. For a third, the articulated knees make them look and feel great when you're on the bike. Though, to be truthful, this same articulation makes those knees kind of pooch out when you're off the bike and standing around.
They've got pockets everywhere, in sizes for pretty much everything. And while the video on the catalog page at their site describes what each pocket is for (and gives you much more technical information than I'm going to about what these shorts are made of), I just generally put whatever I need to hold into whatever pocket will hold it.
During the Spring, I wore these on two mountain bike rides out of every three. They were terrific at being water — and mud — repellent, and they showed they were tough. The crotch didn't wear out, and there are no visible scuffs from when I turfed it.
For the Summer, it was too hot to wear these for the kind of riding I've been doing, but I wore them off the bike nearly every day. They're just that comfortable.
And now that Autumn is here, I'm planning to put these back into active service on the bike.
These are pricey pants — $149. I probably wouldn't have bought them before I had known how much I would like them. That just seems like too much money. Now that I'm into my third season of wearing and loving these shorts, I'd say $149 is a bargain.
Oh, and Cutter is a SLC-based company. I love it when local boys make good.
Grease Monkey Wipes
I always keep an industrial-sized container of baby wipes in my truck; they're perfect for doing a quick cleanup after a lunch bike ride. Ride, clean up, get dressed, get back to meetings. The perfect crime.
And now, since getting Grease Monkey Wipes, I keep a few of these in my truck, too.
Really, they're just like baby wipes, except they're made for degreasing. And if you've had to work on your bike during your lunch ride, they can be the difference between looking like an auto mechanic and a white-collar softie when you get back to work.
And the good thing is, these really work. Allow me to demonstrate.
Step 1: Oh noes, I seem to have grabbed a greasy, dirty bike chain.
Step 2: Get out the Grease Monkey Wipe and scrub for about 15 seconds (scrubbing not shown because I only have two hands and have to use one of them to take the picture).
Step 3: Gee, my hand is clean again. And smells lemony-fresh!
One of these wipes takes me from greasy to presentable. And, as noted above, they smell lemony.
And they're not half bad for removing the rookie mark from your calf, either.
PS: Expect a review of something that sucked in an interesting way sometime really really soon.
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