fixed impressions

I mentioned this in the top 10 list below.  What I failed to actually mention there exactly what the blue loctite is for!  No one actually asked, but in the interest of my self-importance, I’ll mention it.  I have one in that category of fix.  I took a standard road wheel,  An old tied-and-soldered Campy model from a late 70’s Trek and re-dished it as best I could with the existing spokes, then I applied some cleaning to the freewheel threads.  Then, a good dose of blue loctite.  This is my “brand” of lockring.  None.  Well, save for the blue stuff.  

Yes I always have a brake on this bike.  No it’s never slipped.  Yes I’ve tried to slip it.  I believe the hub will fail before it comes loose.  That said, I’ll test the brake at the beginning of my next ride.

Keep the rubber side down.  Make up a commute so you can ride instead of walk to work.  Have happy holidays.

Flash, if you somehow land here, will you write me, please?

G

THE ULTIMATE DILEMMA FOR A FIX ADDICT.  WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN IT’S FASTER TO WALK TO WORK THAN RIDE?

-?

G

This was the year I invested in the studio.  It’s practically November, and the project I set out with in June is about 80%.  I just need to finish off the nano-kitchen and the back workspace.  I’m moving out of my share in the front of the studio for a while and will be making another go in the back.  More on that later—I’ll link over to studio-g2 when that settles out a bit.

Here’s what it’s all about.  Chilling out last summer after another art development epic.

So, got to get on the truing.  My “fresh tracks” friend and I had a little wreck polo’n early this summer and I got the rear wheel on the unifix all out o’ shape.  I think I might have posted a pict of the bike after we bashed the rear wheel out.  Hey, I rode it home.  It’s pretty whack, but if I can just work it over on a proper truing set up I think I can get a few seasons out of this wheel yet.

Before:

Oops

After:

Bashed that shit out

Fixed.  Polo.

Shit Breaks.

G

the blog-over from blogger has been flawless, I’ve not been hacked [yet] and google is playing kind of nice and the new site is coming up in some good searches like fixed gear cult.  I seem to have lost the chatty folk in my negligence the last 18 months.  The traffic shows people come and read, but no comments.  Don’t you hate what I say and just want to rant?  It can’t be that hard to create a log-in so you can give me a piece of your mind?  Come on.

Rocking the studio out for winter.  Looking to add one mate who currently has the monopoly on bike-rickshaw services here in our fair city.  With any luck we can shed up his gear and get him right for pow.  Hoping for a deep year.

Quick out.

G

Much of the known world is being reduced in its financial equity daily. Seems that we’ve cooked our goose well, and now we’re really getting down to the carcass and seeing what that’s worth.  From my perspective, probably hopelessly optomistic, we’re seeing an unwinding of a ball of derivative investments combined with a collective throwing-in-of-the-towel take your losses and run epidemic.  The upside is if you find a way to weather the “unwinding” there must be a great long term upside.

On the cycling front we’ve fallen headlong into cold weather up in VT, with regular below freezing mornings and some blustery flu and cold inspiring days.  Our hard court polo guru, Liam, with his mastery of the properly placed email, has been able to get the flood lights on early. This has nicely facilitated the Weds evening games.  Last night was looking to be pretty ideal for some matches, but my lingering flu kept me home.

I live on the local bike path and have been watching the “trends” as they ride by during the warm months.  Though I don’t believe our little VT town is ahead of the fixed curve, but the caravan of fix this season has grown in unprecented ways.  I’ve watched at times when over 25% of passing cyclists [over an hour, say] have been on single speeds—as far as I can see as they roll by this group is about 75% fixed.  This place is well suited to it for ‘muting as there is only about 200 ft of climbing/descending in any direction for about 10 miles.  You can do a lot of commuting and never have to gorilla for more than a couple of minutes.  Don’t get me wrong, there are a few widowmaker fix-hills here, like Cliff St. [aptly named.]  It is really just a thrill to see it all grow like this.   There are a few emerging sub-genre of fix around worth noting.   I’d be interested to know if they break out like this in your neck of the woods:

1.  Glam fix.  These are bikes that look like Myspace.  They are loud colored, typically brakeless.  Their riders have a 93% chance of being under 28.  Most will have odd-toothed chainrings/cogs since they are died-in-the-wool skidders.

2. Courier-wannabe.  99% probability of alley cat cards.  In this town, also a 90% chance the alley cat card is not from a real race.

3. ‘Muter fix.  This category I’m sure could be broken down, as it is our largest.  Lots of fenders, bells, lights and front brakes.  Trail-like gearing, especially for winter use is common.  Brooks saddle, a greater than 50% chance.  Rusty chain at least half the year [guess which part.]

4. Training bike.  OK, maybe 1%, but I’ve seen a few roadies bundled up in spring trying to truly smooth their pedal stroke.

5.  Transfix.  The conversions.  Almost single-handedly, the Old Spokes Home has put hundreds of converted road/’muters out there.   This is somewhat of an umbrella category, living above, in particular, the “‘Muter Fix” category.

6.  Riven-fix.  These bikes are always clean, have lugs, and cost well more than I make in a couple of months.  Ever to date count in Burlington: more than 10.

7.  Swobos.  I’m not at all a fan of aluminum tubing.  That said, they are around, sleek and popular.  The shorty riser bars make me laugh.  There isn’t any traffic to ride in between here.  OK, they do look cool and if you can 180 ollie-to-fakie they appear to be a big help.

8.  MTB.  I ride one of these for polo.  Honestly, I’ve only seen a couple others—at least one of those went back to coastin [jeremy's indy fab.]

9.  Polo Fix.  Notable for their backing board “aero” front wheels, these are built for polo.  They block the front wheels [think solid like an aero wheel on a Kilo bike.]   Liam and Eric both have this.  It keeps your mallet out of the front wheel.  An extra aid to help keep you upright and your bike working.

10. The Blue Loctite Special.  Thanks to one fella from the Alpine Shop for showing me his.  I promptly applied the same treatment to my Univega] with an EAI 18T and old tied-and-soldered Campy road wheel.  This is blingy.  [4 years now and it's never slipped---I always use the front brake.]

Well, time to make some cash.

G

It’s hard not to catch the bug here in Burlington.  There are so many single speeds and fix these days.  When I moved here about 4 years ago it was pretty clear that Burlington was not missing this trend.  For a metro area of 100,000, the bikes were everywhere, not so much with a courier type look, but more of a pragmatic, functional one.  Lots of cutoff jeans and courier bags, but there aren’t any couriers, mostly just riders and commuters.  Not too much edge, rustic, VT stylee.

I’ve been a big fan of hard court bike polo this summer and want to thank Rachel for getting me out there and Liam for lighting and tending the fire.  We have a friendly fun and very handsome crew, with lots of tasty bikes [ah, and some not so tasty: Jeremy].

[this is the point when my battery on my first generation macbook quit.  the battery is now about 3 years old and has about 35 minutes of usable life. even worse, it misreports it's charge so it will often say "40%" and then just power off.  thanks to whoever wrote the auto-save routine in Wordpress.]

Anyway, the polo has been an excellent application for the fixed gear MTB.  Not entirely taken by riding fix on dirt, especially with my hands being about 65% strength these days, I’ve been coasting on the dirt.  Now for hard court polo, the instantaneous speed control and track-standability are big plusses.  I think I make it through the whole game without touching the brake.

Liam used his mastery of social engineering combined with a bit of help from technology, voila, we have lights for polo that are on right at 6pm.  That should hold us for a bit.  The hardcourt play has been really fun lately, hard to imagine how fun it might be to play in daylite.  Ah, next year.  I’m thinking I’m getting pretty hooked as I’m looking forward at the weather each week starting Tuesday mornings hoping for dry conditions for each Wednesday nite.

Can’t say it does a ton to improve your cycling fitness, though it definitely works your low speed handling skills.  I’ve been riding the Vulture MTB in fixed mode, with 32×16.  It’s perfect for hard court polo.  [not perfect for much else...]  It’s nice and upright, easy to balance.  I think I’d be better off with a rigid fork on there, and I do have one…thinking about swapping out.  hmm.

be back tomorrow.

G