Like so many others, I was stunned and dismayed by the news of Sheldon Brown's passing when I heard of it on Monday.
I first 'discovered' Sheldon in July of 2006, when I did a web search, of what I do not recall, and one of the returns was his article about "Igor" and included his winter use of packing tape on his helmet vents. At the time, I just thought this was some random site of somebody's cycling stories, and amused myself with his "Silly Hats" article. A couple months later I searched for something technical, and Sheldon's site had the answer. I was bowled over. So much info, all in one place, with just about every question one could possibly have answered. I became an instant Sheldon fan. Most days that I went online included a visit to Sheldon's site. Since I don't access the internet at home, sometimes I would be anticipating going to work (????) just so I could look up something by Sheldon.
I grew up at a time when kids cycling for fun/transport was the norm. Most of us had single speed bikes with coaster brakes, some had fancy 3-speeds, and only adults might have a 10-speed. I rode bikes a lot as a kid, stopped for awhile in my teens, started back up in late teens, off again in early twenties, started back again in very early thirties (but only occasionally), and for the past 9 years have been cycling 'full time' as a self-propelled person. So I've ridden lots of different types of bikes of varying quality, and while I'm no expert, I can say I like just about all bikes. Bikes are fun, as well as utilitarian. Biking is even more fun if one can do one's own repairs, especially minor ones. Who wants to be afraid of being unable to fix a flat tire? There are people who are afraid to ride a bike because of the fear of a flat tire. Yet this is the easiest of repairs that anyone can do. Six year old kids can do it. Now how does this relate to Sheldon? Well, since I can do some really minor bike repairs, I wanted to do ones a little more complicated that naturally arise from being a high mileage commuter. Enter Sheldon, Bike Guru Extraordinaire.
This is very rambling, but let me just say that Sheldon made my cycling life better. He really was inspirational in a low-key kind of way for me. While he had a vast knowledge, he wanted to share it freely for the betterment of all. He truly will be missed, and his spirit will most definitely live on in the hearts of cyclists.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Bikes Inside 2008 & more
It is so hard to keep with this at work, so I'll try for a very brief recap.
Feb. 1st was R.A.D. (Ride-Art-Drink), which pretty much sums up what we did. The bicycle themed art at the gallery was pretty cool stuff. I didn't take any pictures of it as that would be de trop, not that that stopped others from doing so. The DJ & music was pretty good, and as I have posted before on the "Six Drink Rule", I actually danced, or some unreasonable facsimile. I'm sure that the "Sparks" which Jeff Lost gave me (reimbursement for a previous consumption) added to the energy level. I left about 23:55 in order to catch the 351, and got home about 01:15. Prepped some stuff for going to work (wakey wakey time 03:00 for 04:00 departure) and cooked & ate some food.
Feb. 2nd wake up was reaalllllly hard. I was almost out the door at 04:10, but I forgot a couple thiings and had to get my mini trailerised. After all, one cannot "microcross" without a mini, and I hadn't take it to work ahead as I had previously intended. So, it ended up that I finally left at 04:30, Oopps! Now normally that would just mean a hard ride to arrive 5mins. late, no biggy, but towing a bike trailer loaded with another bike (because although it is a mini, kids' bikes are made way too heavy- cheap materials) takes more effort. I bungeed it on as I hadn't rope handy (I should have taken the 5mins to get it. In the long run it would have been faster). I had to keep my pedalling very smooth or the trailer would lurch (cause: bungee). Another "haste makes waste" factor was forgetting to check the tire pressure on the trailer (when I got to work I found that the trailer tires were almost airless, maybe 5psi). I was completely drenched when I got to work (no, there was no precipitation) and my legs were about to fall off. My right calf started to cramp a couple of times during the ride. (work was the usual). After work I reconfigured the mini/trailer set-up so it was more stable, then rode to Expo Bld @ Carrall St for Microcross. Again I was hurrying as the reconfiguration took much more time than I had expected. I should have expected that the race would start late, but it was even late by Biker Time (variously expressed as VBT - Vancouver Biker Time; BST - Biker Standard Time; PBT - Pacific Biker Time; ZT - Zoobomb Time). Now my legs were truly bagged. It was cold waiting for the action. There were 20 racers, and about 40-60 spectators (umm, somewhat fuzzy re: #'s, but there were way more than I expected. It was really cool having such a good turn out). (The racing contingent and spectators include many Portlanders/Zoobombers up for the festivities. Quite a few of us took it as a warm-up for Mini Bike Winter V.) We had to go through a tricky course, winding asphalt path, up & down hill in soggy slippery grass, though a sand pit, up stairs, across a pond via cement flagstones, and it was dark by the time we started.
The racing was pretty fun, and surprisingly tiring. Thrills, Chills, Spills, for what more could one ask? Afterwards we (OK, not everyone, but a large group) went for dinner at a sushi place on Main just S. of Broadway. Then we went to the Bikes Inside party itself. More silly bikerness, dancing, indoor biking hoonery (a mini-tall crashed into me, and one of its brake levers jabbed me in the ribs painfully hard, but no actual injuries). We finally left about 3am, a group of us headed for kits. Jeff Lost, Kimmers & I were heading for Kimmers' UBC dorm, so were went along the False Creek bikepath to kits with the others. After a while at Kits Beach, a few crazies decided that is was necessary to go skinny-dipping (temperature was barely above freezing by this time). All said and done, we spent about 1/2 hour at the beach. The main posse headed for The Naam; Lapis/Tackler, Shawn F & RevPhil went back to their crashpad, J-L, K & I sojourned westward. After some tiring hill-climbing with icy winds, there was 1 more adventure: trying to get into the elevator at Kim's. Kim went ahead, the Jeff got in the second car (with MTB), then the trailer & mini (still conjoined) vertically, then me & the BRC. It was 04:15 by now.
Sun. 3rd - Woke up ~ 09:45, got up a bit later. Had tea & toast after a bit of re-hashing the previous events. I left for work @ 11:37, about 1/2 an hour later than I intended. It appeared that I added some entertainment for several posses of roadies while I travelled SW Marine Dr.
Feb. 1st was R.A.D. (Ride-Art-Drink), which pretty much sums up what we did. The bicycle themed art at the gallery was pretty cool stuff. I didn't take any pictures of it as that would be de trop, not that that stopped others from doing so. The DJ & music was pretty good, and as I have posted before on the "Six Drink Rule", I actually danced, or some unreasonable facsimile. I'm sure that the "Sparks" which Jeff Lost gave me (reimbursement for a previous consumption) added to the energy level. I left about 23:55 in order to catch the 351, and got home about 01:15. Prepped some stuff for going to work (wakey wakey time 03:00 for 04:00 departure) and cooked & ate some food.
Feb. 2nd wake up was reaalllllly hard. I was almost out the door at 04:10, but I forgot a couple thiings and had to get my mini trailerised. After all, one cannot "microcross" without a mini, and I hadn't take it to work ahead as I had previously intended. So, it ended up that I finally left at 04:30, Oopps! Now normally that would just mean a hard ride to arrive 5mins. late, no biggy, but towing a bike trailer loaded with another bike (because although it is a mini, kids' bikes are made way too heavy- cheap materials) takes more effort. I bungeed it on as I hadn't rope handy (I should have taken the 5mins to get it. In the long run it would have been faster). I had to keep my pedalling very smooth or the trailer would lurch (cause: bungee). Another "haste makes waste" factor was forgetting to check the tire pressure on the trailer (when I got to work I found that the trailer tires were almost airless, maybe 5psi). I was completely drenched when I got to work (no, there was no precipitation) and my legs were about to fall off. My right calf started to cramp a couple of times during the ride. (work was the usual). After work I reconfigured the mini/trailer set-up so it was more stable, then rode to Expo Bld @ Carrall St for Microcross. Again I was hurrying as the reconfiguration took much more time than I had expected. I should have expected that the race would start late, but it was even late by Biker Time (variously expressed as VBT - Vancouver Biker Time; BST - Biker Standard Time; PBT - Pacific Biker Time; ZT - Zoobomb Time). Now my legs were truly bagged. It was cold waiting for the action. There were 20 racers, and about 40-60 spectators (umm, somewhat fuzzy re: #'s, but there were way more than I expected. It was really cool having such a good turn out). (The racing contingent and spectators include many Portlanders/Zoobombers up for the festivities. Quite a few of us took it as a warm-up for Mini Bike Winter V.) We had to go through a tricky course, winding asphalt path, up & down hill in soggy slippery grass, though a sand pit, up stairs, across a pond via cement flagstones, and it was dark by the time we started.
The racing was pretty fun, and surprisingly tiring. Thrills, Chills, Spills, for what more could one ask? Afterwards we (OK, not everyone, but a large group) went for dinner at a sushi place on Main just S. of Broadway. Then we went to the Bikes Inside party itself. More silly bikerness, dancing, indoor biking hoonery (a mini-tall crashed into me, and one of its brake levers jabbed me in the ribs painfully hard, but no actual injuries). We finally left about 3am, a group of us headed for kits. Jeff Lost, Kimmers & I were heading for Kimmers' UBC dorm, so were went along the False Creek bikepath to kits with the others. After a while at Kits Beach, a few crazies decided that is was necessary to go skinny-dipping (temperature was barely above freezing by this time). All said and done, we spent about 1/2 hour at the beach. The main posse headed for The Naam; Lapis/Tackler, Shawn F & RevPhil went back to their crashpad, J-L, K & I sojourned westward. After some tiring hill-climbing with icy winds, there was 1 more adventure: trying to get into the elevator at Kim's. Kim went ahead, the Jeff got in the second car (with MTB), then the trailer & mini (still conjoined) vertically, then me & the BRC. It was 04:15 by now.
Sun. 3rd - Woke up ~ 09:45, got up a bit later. Had tea & toast after a bit of re-hashing the previous events. I left for work @ 11:37, about 1/2 an hour later than I intended. It appeared that I added some entertainment for several posses of roadies while I travelled SW Marine Dr.
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