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

California

I'm visiting my home in California right now and I've been trying to take advantage of the weather and the riding opportunities here. Benson and I rode north out on the East Bay Trail to Point Richmond yesterday. The ride from Albany was about 30-40 minutes one way. We were taking it easy most of the ride, but because of how windy it was on the water, it didn't quite feel that way.

We went out to Keller Beach once we got to Point Richmond and walked through the train tunnel. Once we were out the opposite end, I noticed my gloves were no longer on my persons. I backtracked and tried to find them in the tunnel but to no avail. They were once my closed finger BMX riding gloves, and last year I dug them out of a pile of old things and cut the fingers off so they would fit (my hands were on the verge of bursting out of the finger tips). Since then I've used them for my everyday riding. They've served me well.
I guess it's time for some new gloves.

But none the less, the ride was fun - I hadn't seen Benson in a long while so it was great to ride and catch up with him. 

I'm sure there'll be more rides in the next few days before I head back up to Washington.

Ride safe!

- RideaBicycle

Olympia Riding

Every time I ride Olympia, I always see at least two different species of Olympia's wild life.
Now of course I keep my head up, looking ahead, but I also gotta keep my eye on the road beneath my wheels and it's at these times that I notice these creatures. Most of the time, I only have less than a second to realize what I saw until it's far behind me.

Whether they're alive or dead I'm not always sure, but either way it makes my rides more interesting.

As I was riding to work this morning I spotted a doe and her fawn off the road a ways, they looked up as I passed.
As I road on, I saw a giant dragon fly sitting in the middle of the lane and just before that I saw a frog - I'm pretty sure it was no longer alive because it was on it's back and looked a bit squashed, but anyhow, it was a good sized frog and I was this close to running it over when I spotted it.

Just yesterday as I was riding home from work, I sped past a butterfly on the ground in the middle of the lane and as I road on thinking about it, I decided to turn back.
                (Last week I was walking through the Evergreen parking lot and
                I spotted a butterfly. It was down in a crack, dead. But it had not
                yet been rolled over by a car. It looked unscathed.)

When I got back to this butterfly on the pavement, it was dead and so I decided to pick it up. I didn't have much further to go so it road in my hand.

It's great to be able to enjoy the combination of two things I really appreciate. Riding my bicycle and wild life (dead or alive). I love seeing things like this on my rides and I'm lucky that I do so frequently.

Cheers! & Ride safe!

- RideaBicycle