Halloween rides, and going car-free

This All Hallows Eve I ended up participating in Messman's Messquerade
which is a costumed bicycle scavenger hunt here in Seattle. Some of the
costumes were great and the organizers did a good job with the clues and
after-party.

Notable teams: Boy and Girl scouts, The Smurfs, The Scooby Gang, The
Dirty Sex Acts (look for the guy wearing a shower), Hall and Oates
(after the crash), Witches

I believe all the photo's are SFW. It was a little too cold out for
gratuitous nudity. I must say that the overalls I was wearing kept me
nice and toasty.

My team's photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/lgrst4/sets/72157608572448385/

A couple of my friends flickr sets:
http://flickr.com/photos/-ethan-/set...7608744984846/
http://flickr.com/photos/seditiousca...7608569078257/

My friend the Tin Man had a wee bit of mechanical trouble towards the
end. Enough that we decided to ride my bike the rest of the way to the
finish line. Picture the Scarecrow pedaling hunched over the top tube,
with the Tin Man hanging on to him precariously perched on the saddle,
holding his bike with the other hand.

Yeah, we got a lot of comments. Of course, I do want to know why I was
doing all the pedaling, but he got a kiss from the attractive young
lady bystander. Oh yes, going downhill in traffic was sort of
terrifying. Also, I concede this is one situation where STI shifters
are superior to bar-ends. I could *not* shift while carrying another
person on my bike.

Going car-free: So, as I'm in the process of splitting my household,
some things are changing. The wife will be taking the car with her, and
I wasn't planning on picking up a car afterwards. I do have to carry
around two children occasionally (4 and 7), so the Xtracycle has had
some running lights added.

Running lights:
http://flickr.com/photos/zuvembi/set...7608796205578/

Additionally I'm working on adding a windshield to the rear. I have to
go bend some rod for that one. A stokemonkey might or might not be in
the cards depending on budget and timing. The children are not getting
any lighter as time goes on though.

I did pick up a Zip-car membership for things like pediatrician visits
in bad weather, so we'll see how often I end up using that.

--
Dane Buson -
"What makes him think a middle-aged actor, who's played with a chimp,
could have a future in politics?"
- Ronald Reagan (about Clint Eastwood running for mayor of Carmel)

Dane Buson wrote:

Notable teams: Boy and Girl scouts, The Smurfs, The Scooby Gang, The
Dirty Sex Acts (look for the guy wearing a shower), Hall and Oates
(after the crash), Witches

snip

Running lights:
http://flickr.com/photos/zuvembi/set...7608796205578/

Additionally I'm working on adding a windshield to the rear. I have to
go bend some rod for that one. A stokemonkey might or might not be in
the cards depending on budget and timing. The children are not getting
any lighter as time goes on though.

I did pick up a Zip-car membership for things like pediatrician visits
in bad weather, so we'll see how often I end up using that.

Man I'm slipping or the group is deader than I thought. I provided pics
of cute women in costume, geeky homemade Xtracycle lighting, and a
car-free topic. I'm sinking to having to followup my own topic. ;_;

I wanted to follow-up with a few semi-related notes:

The Lovely Ladies on Beautiful Bikes calendar is coming out again:

http://www.maloravision.com/calendar/

Run by the lovely and talented Malora, I expect I will have to buy
multiple copies for my Brother and others.

Also: I just dropped off my CrossCheck at 20/20 Cycle to see if they
can unbend the frame. This time it's not my fault. I was walking my
bike behind one of my friends, and he started walking backwards without
looking. He then proceeded to fall over and fall on my bike.

Which bent the hell out of the wheel. In order to get it to rotate in
the frame, we had to bang it against a curb for a while (which is lots
of fun I must admit). We still had a hell of time getting it to run.

Later this morning, a mile or two on the way to work, I took a closer
look and realized my right seatstay was bent over badly. That's why we
had such a hell of a time getting things right.

It looked sort of like this:

http://unixbigots.org/files/bike/bent_triangle.png

The bike shop thinks they *might* be able to fix it. If not, it's
CrossCheck frame #4 for my commuter.

--
Dane Buson -
A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon it adds up to real money.
-- Sen. Everett Dirksen, on the U.S. defense budget

On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:01:34 -0800, Dane Buson wrote:

Man I'm slipping or the group is deader than I thought. I provided pics
of cute women in costume, geeky homemade Xtracycle lighting, and a
car-free topic. I'm sinking to having to followup my own topic. ;_;

Usenet isn't dead--it just smells funny. Especially around here.



I wanted to follow-up with a few semi-related notes:

snip


Also: I just dropped off my CrossCheck at 20/20 Cycle to see if they
can unbend the frame. This time it's not my fault. I was walking my
bike behind one of my friends, and he started walking backwards without
looking. He then proceeded to fall over and fall on my bike.

Which bent the hell out of the wheel. In order to get it to rotate in
the frame, we had to bang it against a curb for a while (which is lots
of fun I must admit). We still had a hell of time getting it to run.

Later this morning, a mile or two on the way to work, I took a closer
look and realized my right seatstay was bent over badly. That's why we
had such a hell of a time getting things right.

It looked sort of like this:

http://unixbigots.org/files/bike/bent_triangle.png

The bike shop thinks they *might* be able to fix it. If not, it's
CrossCheck frame #4 for my commuter.

Tsk tsk. Looks like you'd better start commuting on the longbike. Call
it "hypergravitational training" and you might even get Fab points.





--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com

Luigi de Guzman wrote:
On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:01:34 -0800, Dane Buson wrote:

Man I'm slipping or the group is deader than I thought. I provided pics
of cute women in costume, geeky homemade Xtracycle lighting, and a
car-free topic. I'm sinking to having to followup my own topic. ;_;

Usenet isn't dead--it just smells funny. Especially around here.

I don't know, I put 4,000 volts through it and it barely squawked.

Later this morning, a mile or two on the way to work, I took a closer
look and realized my right seatstay was bent over badly. That's why we
had such a hell of a time getting things right.

It looked sort of like this:

http://unixbigots.org/files/bike/bent_triangle.png

The bike shop thinks they *might* be able to fix it. If not, it's
CrossCheck frame #4 for my commuter.

Tsk tsk.

For cripes sake honey, the kids just broke the Elvis bust Jack Daniels
decanter! I swear, we just can't *have* nice things.

I know, I know, but like I said, this time I didn't do it.

Looks like you'd better start commuting on the longbike. Call
it "hypergravitational training" and you might even get Fab points.

Well, at this point, it's either the Xtra or the Tandem. Or I put some
pink fenders (all I have lying around) on the Sunny Day or fixed gear
bike.

--
Dane Buson -
*** NEWSFLASH ***

Russian tanks steamrolling through New Jersey!!!! Details at eleven!

On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:08:30 -0800, Dane Buson wrote:


Looks like you'd better start commuting on the longbike. Call
it "hypergravitational training" and you might even get Fab points.

Well, at this point, it's either the Xtra or the Tandem. Or I put some
pink fenders (all I have lying around) on the Sunny Day or fixed gear
bike.

You've got a hell of a bicycle stable. You are not allowed to be grumpy
if your commuter dies.

--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com

Luigi de Guzman wrote:
On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:08:30 -0800, Dane Buson wrote:

Looks like you'd better start commuting on the longbike. Call
it "hypergravitational training" and you might even get Fab points.

Well, at this point, it's either the Xtra or the Tandem. Or I put some
pink fenders (all I have lying around) on the Sunny Day or fixed gear
bike.

You've got a hell of a bicycle stable. You are not allowed to be grumpy
if your commuter dies.

Admittedly I do have an embarassment of bicycles, but still it's no fun
to have my main bike be critically injured. I did cycle in on the
Sunny Day bike. I stopped at REI yesterday and picked up some P45 SKS
fenders for it (though I haven't actually put them on).

Thankfully I picked up a MiNewt USB light that I can use for the ride
home. It's dark early up here in the Pacific Northwet this time of year.

--
Dane Buson -
My last accident was Event One!