California Whip

Since I'm living in Washington and going to school up here, I brought my bicycle with me. But every visit home I wish I had a bicycle to ride so I got this one in California. It's unusual to find an inexpensive fixed gear bicycle without it having some issues, so this one needed a new bottom bracket, a new rear wheel, and some toe cages. After a bit of sanding and a handlebar trim, it was ready to ride. Oh, and Benson lent me a spare front wheel because the 27in front paired with the 700c rear rode awkwardly.
I've had this bicycle for a while now, and it's been great so far. I've been able to ride as much as I've wanted. I do still prefer the fit of my Mercier. The geometry is a bit more to my liking and the steel frame on my Californian is a bit stiff compared to the aluminum Mercier frame. But of course, I am happy to have a bicycle that works when I'm down in California.

Frame: Nishiki Sport 58cm steel
Rims: Solo ACLASS (front),  Dimension Track (rear)
Hubs: Bianchi 28H (front), Formula 32H (rear)
Spokes: Bianchi stainless, brass nipples (front), stainless, brass nipples (rear)
Cog: 17T
Tires: Forte GT2 (front), Duro Elimin8er Kevlar Shield, white (rear)
Saddle: Black Vinyl Diamond Pattern
Seatpost: unknown
Headset: unknown
Stem: Custom
Bars: Icon risers
Grips: OURY white
Bottom Bracket: unknown tapered square
Cranks: Sugino VT 170mm
Chainring: 52T
Pedals: unknown road type
Toe Cages: MKS Silver L
Straps: Origin 8 white leather (double straps - cut in half for each pedal)
Chain: unknown

The drop bars on this bicycle in previous posts are Nitto B-125s. They had a defect and I just got them replaced, but those are the defective pair before I sent them out for a free replacement. (Thanks to Ben's Cycle!)

- RideaBicycle

Downtown Berkeley, CA

Bens and I went riding Saturday night to this garage downtown. The night wasn't too cold and the ride over there was decent.

We rode the garage for about an hour before the UC police started to catch on and as we were coming out of the elevator and around the corner to the entrance to ride through the garage as we had repeatedly been doing, a squad car was pulling out. We stayed on Channing and rounded the block only to find the same car lurking in the dark opposite the Haste St. entrance waiting to spot us speeding through the garage. We continued up to the corner of Haste and College as another UC squad car drove past. Since they were already looking for trouble, and we didn't want any, we called it quits just before midnight.

Clip from Benson's iPhone:

The ride back was super nice - hardly stopped the whole way and we had the streets mostly to ourselves.

The photos we got weren't great, but no matter.

I wish I had more time to go back before I leave the area Tuesday.

- RideaBicycle