ah.....
valentines day...
grant's birthday....
and love..... how love can be fickle!
grant is one today....
finally valentines day actually means more to me other than the stress of what should I buy or what should I do to celebrate valentines day with my wife
now it is settled... we will celebrate valentines day by celebrating grant's birthday
valentines day is the day that lisa and i had our second child
today Grant is one year old!
yes.... valentines day is a romanitc day... well... it is now that we have grant to help us remember this day and its romantic significance
all this concern for grant's birthday may have distracted us from preparing dean for school today
dean is headed off to school without any valentines for his classmates....
I am considering rushing to the store to grab him something to share with his classmate
it would be aweful for him to miss out on sharing
there are strong memories in my past of feeling left out
no one wants to be left out
I was left out... now look at me!
some time ago I blogged on about bicycle love and what is love in general
then more recently I dragged on in various posts about how great it is to be reuninted with my once long forgotten Rocky Mountain Blizzard....
well, my bicycle love is fickle, quite fickle
last night the TIME pedals came off the Blizzard and were slapped onto the Karate Monkey Single Speed
love is many things.... love is often fickle!
with plans for teaming up with some speedy single speeders for this weekend at a bicycle scavanger hunt in Avalon/Patapsco I had to get my Karate Monkey Single Speed rolling again
in less than a year I managed to kill my bottom bracket...
what happened to my bottom bracket?
I happened to my bottom bracket!
so after a morning at the zoo and lunch at a sidewalkd cafe at Woodley Park with lisa and the boys I rushed off to a meeting about the Rock Creek Watershed, a meeting I thought would be more trail oriented than biodiversity
Rock Creek Protection Group was the listing I had read...
in all the email correspondence I never saw the speificity of their focus
a group that I thought was more land than water based...
my focus would be trail repair
less on life in and around Rock Creek
this group is more focused on the ecosystem that lives in the water which is Rock Creek
not that I am not interested or concerned in this aspect of the park
it just is not where I feel my energies should be placed
it was frustrating....
frustrating because I had not known the objectives of this group
frustrating because I hate these bureacratic meetings
frustrating because I wished I was at the Chinese New Year parade with my family
frustrating because I wanted to ride the Metro train with Dean and Grant
frustrating because it was two hours of a weekend that is never long enough
luckily for me I had already loaded my bike in the back of the Honda Element
and
was already cleared for my approach to the the City Bikes Chevy Chase location
it was originally planned as a drop off situation
but upon my arrival the Sunday shop traffic had died down and it looked like they may be able to service my bike on the spot
after all.... it is a single speed... what could it need?
a young college racer, Frank, put my bike in the stand before Chevy Chase Parts Manager and bicycle culture jack of all trades Sean Bega could offer up a mechanic to do the repair on the spot over dropping off the bike (also Bega related.... dc courier) ((and quasi related messenger.org))
although it was close to closing time it seemed that the shop was clean, caught up, and ready for closure
my bottom bracket was toast
so Frank quickly, cleanly, and methodically removed the cranks and the bottom bracket
in his roadie precision sort of way he pulled out some calipers for measurement
then he dug around to find me the right part to fit my Clydesdale needs....
heavy and durable!
they lacked what I needed but they had something that worked
a little more expensive
a little more light weight
they had something the correct measure/fit so we went with it
the wear on the front chain ring was sever.... that part was currently out of stock
there were other 32 tooth chain rings that would have worked
but those rings all had ramps for the triple ring we figured we could wait for the single speed specific part
so we placed an order to Quality
I could ride a few more days on this ring... had frank had not said anything it would be a few more months maybe years
we all chatted about various bicycle related things
frank, sean, and I talked about the WABA event
an event that Frank and I both volunteered for while Sean was there in black tie James Bond fashion
while there was some converstation shared between former Big Wheel Mechanic Dave
the topic of Mike Sendar never ceases to entertain me
we talked shop stuff
we talked bike stuff
we talked.....
we talked about that same style of stuff that would create either a bicycle shop documentary or a CLERKS style feature film based in the bicycle world
my repair was more of a replacement
it was speedy
frank was done in seconds.....
which included cleaning the threads and the used of plumbers teflon tape.... steps that I may not have taken at home, okay.... I would have cleaned the threads
it may be the shop quality vs. basement quality
or
it may be mountain biker style vs. roadie style
or it may be my old school back yard style!
we checked the front disc brake with a spin of the wheel and a grip of the lever and I was free to go
that was a tad more similar to my usual pre-race preparation
so with no concern or care for the feelings of the Rocky Mountain Blizzard I snatch the pedals and the usefullness of the Blizzard away and direct my attention to the Surly Karate Monkey
ah the pain of being tossed aside
and
on Valentines Day no less
the Karate Monkey's gain is the Rocky Mountain Blizzard (steel not scandium) loss
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
coffee is in my belly
caffiene is in my brain
best I walk the dogs
suit up on the bike
and head into work
better to be on time to work
more later (of course)
do a GOOGLE on Sean Bega or check out those links.... he host some great events, he sponsors a very cool team of very interesting people, and he use to own and run a courier company that had a strong employee ethic (or so it seemed from the outside)
as for Frank.... we may want to ask him why American Universtity does not list cycling on their sports website
and Dave?
well.... not sure if he has an internet presence
valentines day...
grant's birthday....
and love..... how love can be fickle!
grant is one today....
finally valentines day actually means more to me other than the stress of what should I buy or what should I do to celebrate valentines day with my wife
now it is settled... we will celebrate valentines day by celebrating grant's birthday
valentines day is the day that lisa and i had our second child
today Grant is one year old!
yes.... valentines day is a romanitc day... well... it is now that we have grant to help us remember this day and its romantic significance
all this concern for grant's birthday may have distracted us from preparing dean for school today
dean is headed off to school without any valentines for his classmates....
I am considering rushing to the store to grab him something to share with his classmate
it would be aweful for him to miss out on sharing
there are strong memories in my past of feeling left out
no one wants to be left out
I was left out... now look at me!
some time ago I blogged on about bicycle love and what is love in general
then more recently I dragged on in various posts about how great it is to be reuninted with my once long forgotten Rocky Mountain Blizzard....
well, my bicycle love is fickle, quite fickle
last night the TIME pedals came off the Blizzard and were slapped onto the Karate Monkey Single Speed
love is many things.... love is often fickle!
with plans for teaming up with some speedy single speeders for this weekend at a bicycle scavanger hunt in Avalon/Patapsco I had to get my Karate Monkey Single Speed rolling again
in less than a year I managed to kill my bottom bracket...
what happened to my bottom bracket?
I happened to my bottom bracket!
so after a morning at the zoo and lunch at a sidewalkd cafe at Woodley Park with lisa and the boys I rushed off to a meeting about the Rock Creek Watershed, a meeting I thought would be more trail oriented than biodiversity
Rock Creek Protection Group was the listing I had read...
in all the email correspondence I never saw the speificity of their focus
a group that I thought was more land than water based...
my focus would be trail repair
less on life in and around Rock Creek
this group is more focused on the ecosystem that lives in the water which is Rock Creek
not that I am not interested or concerned in this aspect of the park
it just is not where I feel my energies should be placed
it was frustrating....
frustrating because I had not known the objectives of this group
frustrating because I hate these bureacratic meetings
frustrating because I wished I was at the Chinese New Year parade with my family
frustrating because I wanted to ride the Metro train with Dean and Grant
frustrating because it was two hours of a weekend that is never long enough
luckily for me I had already loaded my bike in the back of the Honda Element
and
was already cleared for my approach to the the City Bikes Chevy Chase location
it was originally planned as a drop off situation
but upon my arrival the Sunday shop traffic had died down and it looked like they may be able to service my bike on the spot
after all.... it is a single speed... what could it need?
a young college racer, Frank, put my bike in the stand before Chevy Chase Parts Manager and bicycle culture jack of all trades Sean Bega could offer up a mechanic to do the repair on the spot over dropping off the bike (also Bega related.... dc courier) ((and quasi related messenger.org))
although it was close to closing time it seemed that the shop was clean, caught up, and ready for closure
my bottom bracket was toast
so Frank quickly, cleanly, and methodically removed the cranks and the bottom bracket
in his roadie precision sort of way he pulled out some calipers for measurement
then he dug around to find me the right part to fit my Clydesdale needs....
heavy and durable!
they lacked what I needed but they had something that worked
a little more expensive
a little more light weight
they had something the correct measure/fit so we went with it
the wear on the front chain ring was sever.... that part was currently out of stock
there were other 32 tooth chain rings that would have worked
but those rings all had ramps for the triple ring we figured we could wait for the single speed specific part
so we placed an order to Quality
I could ride a few more days on this ring... had frank had not said anything it would be a few more months maybe years
we all chatted about various bicycle related things
frank, sean, and I talked about the WABA event
an event that Frank and I both volunteered for while Sean was there in black tie James Bond fashion
while there was some converstation shared between former Big Wheel Mechanic Dave
the topic of Mike Sendar never ceases to entertain me
we talked shop stuff
we talked bike stuff
we talked.....
we talked about that same style of stuff that would create either a bicycle shop documentary or a CLERKS style feature film based in the bicycle world
my repair was more of a replacement
it was speedy
frank was done in seconds.....
which included cleaning the threads and the used of plumbers teflon tape.... steps that I may not have taken at home, okay.... I would have cleaned the threads
it may be the shop quality vs. basement quality
or
it may be mountain biker style vs. roadie style
or it may be my old school back yard style!
we checked the front disc brake with a spin of the wheel and a grip of the lever and I was free to go
that was a tad more similar to my usual pre-race preparation
so with no concern or care for the feelings of the Rocky Mountain Blizzard I snatch the pedals and the usefullness of the Blizzard away and direct my attention to the Surly Karate Monkey
ah the pain of being tossed aside
and
on Valentines Day no less
the Karate Monkey's gain is the Rocky Mountain Blizzard (steel not scandium) loss
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
coffee is in my belly
caffiene is in my brain
best I walk the dogs
suit up on the bike
and head into work
better to be on time to work
more later (of course)
do a GOOGLE on Sean Bega or check out those links.... he host some great events, he sponsors a very cool team of very interesting people, and he use to own and run a courier company that had a strong employee ethic (or so it seemed from the outside)
as for Frank.... we may want to ask him why American Universtity does not list cycling on their sports website
and Dave?
well.... not sure if he has an internet presence