Hey Tiger!

This is for you, so you know you found the right penguin.

I'm always happy to help a fellow cyclist. It only took 8 to 10 minutes to get back home.

Have fun!

Bike Bike Bike...

...was Rad Rad Rad. (Anglo/German pun). Saturday May 10th. OK, I didn't go to all the events as my elbow was acting up. But there was polo and bike games, specifically mini-bike games. I really wanted to be there, but discretion is the better part of valour. So I prepped myself for the movie night/dance party at The Chair Factory. The said same Chair Factory of other bike events, most notably the Mini-bike "Thunderdome" of Velomutations 2006 (see "Six Drink Rule" for more details, & check youtube for videos).

As usual, The Chair Factory didn't disappoint. First it was the bike movie shorts, as compiled by Ranae. There was quite the mix of older and newer stuff. Those old 'public service announcement' 'educational' ones are funny, in a bizarre way. I really liked "Tag" with (now "our own") Khaled Ben-Rabha, and of course the B:C:Clettes vs. Sexy Back video. I've seen their "Sexy Back" routine before, but the video has a new twist to it. Really cool.


Now, the dance party. I suspended the "Six Drink Rule", and when the dancing started I had only had one 'Spark', and was starting on my second. I don't recall when the dancing started, but I didn't stop until 03:15-ish. I spent the next 1/2 hr (abouts) casually picking up cans & glasses (and there were a lot of them!!!). Then I left. I checked my watch just before I went to get my bike, and it was 03:45. Then I very slowly rode to work (both because I didn't want to get there too soon and because my legs were bagged from jumping about almost non-stop for some 5.5 hours, or whatever it was).

Riding the bike route on E 10th Ave west of Clark Dr was pretty cool. The cherry blossoms were falling like giant pink snowflakes. They were all over the road and cars, and in the air.

I arrived at work an hour & change early. The morning was mostly OK. I had periods of chipperness, and some periods of extreme exhaustion, but I got through it without any mishaps or errors.

Not Missing

Just in case you checked here to see if I am missing or not, no, I'm not missing. (Although some people missed me, I was missing to them...... whatever). What is missing is my free-spirit. OK, it isn't actually "missing", but it is being depressed by the weight of all the people asking me what happened. It is tiring me out. I went away to recharge my batteries, and all this nonsense is making me want to go away again! So. if you read this, don't ask or e-mail me anything about it! I will recommend as an alternative that you watch the "Bat for Lashes" video "What's a Girl to Do?"

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.

Not an Epiphany

I've been meaning to do something about my bike "collection" for a long time. It wasn't even intended to become a collection, but it has. The original intent was to resurrect the rescued bikes (a scene just came to mind: in a parody of Life of Brian, when the Roman governor is prepared to "welease" a prisoner, a bicycle mechanic rushes forth and yells out "welease waleigh". I know its weak, but 7:20 of work can addle the brain), and then get rid of them (or keep a nice one or two). It has only worked with one, mainly because it didn't need resurrecting. So Friday afternoon I took a look at the pile, dragged out a likely 'victim' and attended to it. A Giant Rincon mountain bike, an older one, CroMo tubing, 21.5" frame, 1" threaded steer tube with quill type riser stem and straight handle bars. The wheels & tyres were good, I checked the tubes (three pin-prick punctures which I patched). But for the real test, I rode it in to work Saturday. Ow my back pretty-well describes the result, but that is only because my back doesn't like such an upright riding posture. For any other 5'10" to 6'2" person it would be fine. The gears are reasonably smooth (21 speed, indexed rapid-fire). Round 2, Saturday evening I hauled out victim #2. A much smaller MTB (haven't measured it yet), "BRC" make, "Gonzo" model, also 21 speed,but with a BioPace triple crankset. Alas, its tyres' sidewalls are thrashed, but I pumped it up nonetheless for a test ride (whilst air seeped out). OK so far. So I swapped out my Brodie's wheels for further testing. Not too bad, kinda fun. A very road bike like posture required due to the size, but much closer to what I normally do. But by the time I was half way to work I really wanted different bars. All in all a satisfactory performance (1 hr 43 mins ride time). Oh yeah, I did have a boo at a weird old French bike (Vainqueur Type Normandie), quickly repaired the rear brake and contemplated riding it with the Bridgestone's wheelset, but changed my mind. That test will come later.

Helen Brown/Evelyn Woods version

(if you don't get the reference, Google-it)
Sept 23 - the entourage arrives atop Mount Seymour, the road is 11km long and the elevation change is pretty good for bombing (but presently I can't recall how much). We all get out, several of us water the bushes, we get our bikes ready, ride around a bit, scope things out, take pictures, passers by watch us amusedly, get one of them to take a group picture. When we are pretty close to doing the 1st run I remember that I have my cheapo digital video camera & mini-tripod with me. So I duct tape it to my handlebars and video run #1 (very bumpy footage). The run was fantastic. A 15 min bomb, sharp corners, other bombers passing & passing still others, some bumps which were a bit tricky/hazardous, a few cars passing dangerously (especially a trio of them from California, I almost ran into the rear of the 3rd vehicle), some passing relatively safely. When most of us reached the bottom someone said we should the van/pick-ups to block for us next time. Then a minute later the last ones arrive at the bottom, followed by our 3 'support vehicles'... and then a long line of cars...hahaha. But they didn't get delayed too much. The speed limit down the hill is 60km/h, with the corners much slower, so if someone were doing the legal maximum it would take longer than 11 mins to reach the bottom, and we did it in 15 mins (OK, some faster, some slower, but not by much).
We climb back in the vehicles and go up again, shuffle who is driving down, I pass my camera on to Morgan who mounts it on his bike, and we go again. Just after we start, I stop as a piece of duct tape had managed to stick to my rim (potential braking hazard). Just as I get going again I see & hear some confusion in the pack, and someone goes down. I get there, one of the Portlanders (Julie, although I didn't know her name at the time) had done a face-plant. Nasty. Broken teeth and quite a bit of blood (but at the time she thought her teeth were knocked right out. We spent a while in vain looking for them), and no insurance. Much of the pack was in front of the accident and carried on down the hill. Of those who stopped, some went went downhill in vehicles and a few by bike (as I did). I took it easy for the 1st little while, but hen I decided it was silly to go slow (the extra drag from sitting upright) as the vehicle with Julie was behind me. I thought they might go on ahead so we could take Julie to a doctor right away, but they were staying behind me. Soooo, I crouched down low and went full out, did nice technical cornering, and picked up quite a bit of speed. I caught up to a bunch of them (bikes and vehicles, 'ours' and others) and passed them.
At the bottom, we decided to go to a clinic in E Van, but it closed at 6pm and it was now 7pm, so we went to VGH. Julie was in a confused mental state, so it was just as well we went to hospital, who knows what unknown injuries she sustained. Had the clinic been open, they probably would have suggested the hospital too.
I went with the group to VGH, which included Maitland & Portlanders, & others went home (my mini with them). After a while of hanging around emerg., all but Julie & 1 friend went for pho. After eating and walking to VGH, I carried on to the bus home. For news on Julie, check here.
(so much for this entry being a speedy finish)

Since then, usual Critical Mass on Sept 28th (what is up with the cops hanging around now! July, August & September now, but they always stayed away. Now they are riding at the back of the pack, about 6 to 8 of them.). Some of us went to The Naam instead of the after party, some went home, rode back DT and dropped off one of the group, and carried on to Katie G's place. Crashed there for the night (thanks KG!).
Had a Thanksgiving dinner @ Frances' a day early (Oct 7th) as I had to work on the real Thanksgiving Day, found another bike on the way home the night of the 8th (put out with the garbage collection but with a "free" sign on it), a nice old Raleigh in excellent shape (only missing a QR skewer up front, and I have since garnered a buyer for it).
Went to Midnight Mass Oct 11th (when I found the prospective buyer) and the monthly MC3 ride Oct12th (and finally after a few aborted attempts picked up my mini from Lyle).
The weather was good Sun. 14th, went riding with Bec, spotted a cool mini at a 2nd hand shop (she tried it, I tried to try, but my SPD shoes were too slippery on the plastic pedals), ended up going to dinner with her and one of her housemates, and then over to a friend's for drinks. It was quite the multi-lingual affair. Much much later we went to catch the bus home...Oops! Sunday Service = Super Suckage. Bec & friend missed the last bus back (cab time), and I missed the last SkyTrain (and didn't want to wait 1 hr for the 1st Night Bus, 1hr to Whalley plus 45mins ride home) so I rode straight home (2hrs 10 mins. Tired + under the influence = slow time, but still not bad.).
Tues 16th went back to town before going to work to buy the mini (overpriced @ $20, but why not. It'll be worth it in fun later on).

The Work-Less Party masquerade ball is tonight.

I Love My Bicycle

Yes, it is true, I love my bicycle. Without it I would not have experienced so many things and met so many wonderful people. Amazing things happen when travelling by bike.

Earlier "today" I was feeling a little down. Previously, I had been looking foward to today's Midnight Mass ride, but as the days wore on, my mind was not that enthused about anything. But, there was one person I was hoping would be there, eventhough it was statistically doubtful, thus I stuffed a few necessities into my pack at the last minute and left for the bus.(Apart from giving some transit help to a couple visiting fom Vancouver as to the best/fastest way to get home, it was uneventful. Usual "Scum Run" nonsense.)

Arriving at Grandview Park, there were some of the usuals and a few new people. It is always refreshing to see the new ones. One of them was sporting a very familiar rear blinkie. I had lost the blinkie from my red helmet in Stanley Park after the MC3 Performance Ride, and Ren, who was sporting "it" had been to the ride. So I asked her if she found it in the park, and she had. She was surprised the I had "guessed" correctly, so I told her how I knew and the specific battery that was within it (a "Pure Energy" rechargeable alkaline AAA). But since she had no other rear light, and was using a borrowed front one, I told her it was OK. I wasn't asking for it back, I was just glad to know that someone who needed it had found it. I chit-chatted with various people, and was feeling much better. About 00:07, one of the new people was anxious to leave, and since it didn't look like we were waiting for anybody else, I told her "then call out 'Two Minutes!'", which she did, but not loudly enough. So a bunch of us started yelling it, and some asked where we were going. Leanne did a little prep talk about MM etiquette for the virgins, and we headed of to New Brighton Park. We got there, hung out for a bit, then the unsurprising suggestion of taking a skinny dip in the pool was voiced. At first nobody did, then one, and another, and a 3rd person started to climb the fence, disrobe, and take the plunge. Eventually more joined, for about 8 in total. The water was sooo nice and warm. Just a little above skin temp, not too much chlorine, just perfect. After a few mins swim (about 5 or so) we got out. After hanging out some more, we left to go downtown somewhere. We stopped at the little park with a small pier down by the helipad just east of Canada Place, And chilled some more, and I took a few pictures (will upload to Picasa soon)

While we were there, I had a little chat with one of the newcomers, and as we all were leaving for the next stop (who knows where), the two of us happened to be at theback of the pack, and we continued a pleasant conversation (I digress, but I forgot to mention that it started between New Brighton and the pier). We went under Canada Place, up the ramp, and onto Burrard. We were still at the back of the pack, and the main peloton was heading south. But the charming young lady with the blessèdly happy name (wink wink, nudge nudge) was asking me where East Van was from there, and she wanted to go home. So after inquiring as to its locale, I offered escort duties. Which I did.

What was so amazing, well, one of the many amazing things, because we really had a great chat along the way, was that her place was on a corner lot where one of the streets was her namesake, albeit in another language and a different inflected form. It would be like a person named Rocher living on a street called Petrify.

Ah, well, I started off intending to wax poetic about my bike, but no longer feel like it. Suffice it to say that my ride home was uplifting. Truly great. (And I'm not taliking about it being only 2 hrs again, which it was. HAHAHAHA, take that you slow-poke night bus. I didn't actually race it because I was not exactly in the right place when I started my solo ride, but checking my watch, I lefted 'Blessèdly Happy' at 0225, and was home at 0414. A 10 min solo equivalent back-tracking at that time of day would put me on the edge of Downtown, so I would have beat the bus again. Maybe next time I will actually get to race the bus.) So you non-pedallers, GET ON YOUR BIKE! Your body, mind, and the planet will love you for it.

MC3 Performance Ride

The 2nd Friday of each month is the Margaret Charles Chopper Collective (MC3) ride, and this month's ride, being in "Bike Month" (yeah, I know, EVERY month is bike month, but this extra fun stuff that happens in June is to entice you non-cycling, poluting, flubber-butts, out of your Stupid Ugly Vehicles to do something meaningful, on a bike. Anyway, check out B.E.S.T. for more info on "Bike Month"), is/was "The Performance Ride". So I decided that I would take the mini as more fitting with MC3 than the Brodie. But it needed a little bling. I took some of the retro-reflective material I brought back from Velo-Deco and glued it to my tires, so it looks like a giant sized gear on the sides of the tires. It was time consuming, but fun, in a way.

Adornment completed, and extra time for anything else thrown out the window by being accidentally waylayed by Johnny next door, I stuffed my few "supplies" and fewer supplies into my knapsack, hopped on the mini and headed for the bus stop. When there, I went through the usual wheel/pedal/seat-post removal, stuffed the bikey bitts into the bedraggled hockey bag, and waited for my chauffeured coach to arrive. It did, either 7 mins early or 23 mins late, I didn't ask which (didn't particularly care either as I was extra early to do the diminution job). Given that it was a Friday evening, and the bus rarely leaves early, even by 2 minutes, I guessed it was late, but that happened later. The trip was quite fast, the driver didn't spare the horses. After the Broadway stop, I pulled the bell cord to get off at 6th Ave, then ride to the Science World meeting spot. But he didn't stop! So I thought he must have had a bit of a lapse and would let me off at Davie, but he kept going, zooming up Seymour St all the way to Robson St where somebody else had previously asked him to stop. Some others were also puzzled and had thought he would be stopping, but diddn't. So a whole bunch of us got off, and a few pointed out the number of stops he missed, and he said words to the effect of '..I missed a stop? What do you mean?' Oh well, it didn't really make a difference to me. I reassembled the mini, put the tools and bag back into my pack, went along Robson, around the outside concourse of the Marshmallow-In-Bondage, to the seawall bike path by the now demolished Plaza of Nations, and on to Science World. Lots and lots of people there. More arriving all the time. We were probably about 300 strong by the time we left. We went on an interesting zig-zag route through Strathcona to an unused parking/truck loading area next to an old building in the Clark & Powell vicinity. The locale had 2 slopes on either side of the loading area, making a sort of really broad half-pipe. So a little bmx action took place (as planned). When we left, I went over the jump portion 2x, but with caution as my previously thought ideal straight handle-bar now seat-post isn't strong enough (bent while bombing Stanley Park during last critical mass). We went downtown, via Alexander St and Gastown. The people in Gastown liked us, the car divers maybe not, but who cares about them. On to the plaza beside 200 Granville.

As we arrived, a security guard calls out to us that we are on "Private Property", and as such must respect the private property.......by walking our bicycles! It was quite funny. 1 overweight late 50's security guard telling a cycling horde to dismount. We were going to anyway, as this was the spot for the next performance. But people started dismounting a tad earlier than I would have normally expected. But hey, its Vancouver, nobody's likely to do anything to anybody anyway. A few people did, individually go chat with the guy. The usual, '..hey don't worry, were just here for a little harmless fun for a bit, then we'l be moving on.' Bryce did a little "spoken word" bit. Not so much spoken, but warbled in a quasi-sorta-song-like fashion. Extemporaneously. Bike themed. Then the B:C:Clettes did 3 numbers.

We moved on, security watching, as I called out to a few to stop kicking their beer cans and pick them up (after all, for these things we are supposed to follow the "no trace" rule. Pack it in, pack it out). They did. We stopped next (oh, yeah, it was just starting to get dark now) at the little park north ft of Bute @ Hastings. Hung out for a little then Kablamo! took the stage, doing a mock Revival Sermon, bicycle themed. When the mock-minister invited members of the 'congregation' to take part in the Eucharist, some people came up and joined the line, did their bit, and after about 10 people had done so, they started thowing things at each other, and some of the items made their way into the crowd. They were small tomatoes. A flurry of flinging took place. Then we moved to the next venue.

Which was the little plaza at the entrance to Stanley Park, between Georgia St and the water. Here, after a bit of chilling, The Brakes performed. Well, 4 of them, as Midnight Simon is also a Brake, and he is in Europe. James misplaced his performance mini, so he did his part of the routine without it until Morgan found the bike and gave it to James in medias res as it were.

After that, it was into Stanley Park for some partying. Music, dancing etc. in the woods. With the Pedal Play sound system. One slight hitch. A few of us, myself included, were trying to herd together the tail-end stragglers so no one would get left behind. The problem was the people ahead didn't check behind and went too far ahead, and we didn't know exactly where we were going. We went where we thought they were headed, no sign nor sound. A couple of cell calls and we had directions. Unfortunately they were only partially correct. Well, now I, and about 10 others, no which path NOT to go down in the dark. the "shy" men wouldn't even say if a large bunch of bikes went by earlier, they just turned their backs to us as we approached (except for 1, and that was after we passed obout 12 of them, spaced apart.) It took a while before we had our answer and turned back. Another 2 cell calls, revised directions and an escort from the party to meet us, and we arrived. Lotsa music, loud, bass, powered by car batteries and bicycle powered generators. Lighting via a couple of Tiki style torches and a ton of tea-lights (some in paper bags to be lantern-like). As the night wore on, the crowd thinned. I helped in the great tea-light round-up at the end, and left when there were only about 10 people still there packing up things. I had a bit of trouble finding my bike, but not to much thnaks to my retroreflective tires. It was 0140. Found my way out of the park 0145, next NightBus to Surrey Central would leave 0209 and arrive 0315, which meant I would be late ('cuz I don't think I could do the North-South run in 45 mins on the mini) since I want to leave White Rock no later than 0415. So I rode the mini to work, via Beach, Pacific, Burrard Bridge, Cornwall, Arbutus (going up the hill between 1st and 2nd aves, a guy yells out to me "BMX? High Five as you go by." So I did. And another guy asks me as I go by "Are you Catholic?"WTF?), West Boulevard, Arbutus, SW Marine, 70th, Oak, Oak St Bridge (0240 I was mid span), stop at the Mohawk just off the bridge for foodstuffs, and I was at the office 0255. As it turned out, the graveyard guy was sick, and had been trying to get ahold of the 'emergency' dispatcher (one of the owners' son), unsuccessfully, and was very pleased to see me. So after resting for an hour, I took over 2hrs early.

I took a bunch of pictures, but the cable is at home, so they'll have to wait.