Lazy Bones Bike Brigade

You know who you are. You love to bike, or maybe just like to bike, but want to bike more. You love the hardcore riding that you see your friends do on their pimped out fixies, but that's not really how you roll. Or you hate the elitist vibe of the bikier-than-thous. Maybe you would love to be a bikier-than-thou hardcore hipster, but your bike is old and only goes turtle speed, so you are stuck eating their dust and riding lonely. Or maybe you just like to be able to take in the scenery and chat with the person next to you while riding instead of barreling ahead at lightning speed, focused only on avoiding potholes and bracing yourself for june bug impacts at high speeds. Whatever your reason, you're one of many looking for a more relaxed bike ride in this evolving Eau Claire bike scene. Dude...relax. Embrace the Slow Bicycle Movement. Ride Lazy Bones style. Word.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=129487558655&ref=mf

Image on treehugger.com

p.s. David Smuhl is way better at hyperlinks than I am.

Life Beyond the Mom Van

I've been pretty horrible about biking lately. Not gonna' lie. Instead of beating myself up about it, I just stood back and tried to figure out why.

1) No on site laundry. My lease is up soon, so that will be at the top of the list of things I'm looking for.

2) Shitty bike. I love my bike, don't get me wrong, but it was never meant to be my life partner. She was a lust affair, plain and simple. But she is all wrong for me. We don't fit that well. She causes me pain. Makes me numb. She has no intention of changing and neither do I. The amount of work it would take to make us manageable is not worth the gains. So, we had a talk. We know it's a lame duck situation. I've decided to get to work on the Nishiki. The Nishiki knows about Jez. It's all out in the open. We all just hope for a smooth transition.

3) Speaking of The Nishiki, I went to Greasy Fixins this last Saturday and with a little help from my friends stripped her down and donated the parts. The Nishiki's handlebars found a loving new home and her other bits are resting peacefully in donation bins. She will hopefully be powder coated within the month. Then it's all new parts from there. Can't wait.

4) I'd also like to make a shout out to Annie Gillberg who has been the little angel on my right shoulder reminding me to ride my bike when I get wimpy. Yesterday morning I was planning out my to-do list and was thinking about a bill I had to pay on the outskirts of town. My first reaction was that I could take the Mom Van and deliver it later in the day. Then I remembered how many times I've been lazy lately and how Annie is always good for a "You should ride your bike." So I did.

At 4:30am I stopped what I was doing and wrapped myself in my hoodie. I threw my bag over my shoulder, unlocked my bike, and headed out. Everything was so quiet and wonderful. It reminds me of a quote from Home at the End of the World...

When the place is all dark, when you and Clare have gone to sleep, and I'm awake, it's like being alive and being dead at the same time, y'know? It's this sorta halfway thing, where people who are alive are dreaming and people who are dead are... where they are. And I'm here... in the dark and the quiet.

It also reminded me of how much anxiety I've had about finding a few new friends or a social circle that feels like home. It's been my focus, when really the more significant thing I've been separated from is my dynamic solitude. Being out on the road on my bike at an hour before the birds are awake, when all of my other biker friends are probably sufficiently drunk and just going to bed and hours before most others are thinking of waking up, I found myself in a long lost nebula of sparkly solitude. And it was good.

In that simple ride I discovered so many new little nooks and crannies, stairways and trails, underpasses and routes. It reminds me of how little I truly know about my own hometown and how many other secrets the city holds - things that my other friends already know because biking truly is their life. It was a great organic motivation.

I also realized I could ride no handed. I know...big deal to those who have mastered their hipster tricks, but for me it was pretty awesome. I had always been stuck on the first wobble when I went to let go. For some reason, in that silverblue light of dawn, I just sat up and went. I felt like a kid again. I found byke joy. I have missed it. I have missed it all.

It's good to be back.

Bamboo Bikes!

Seriously...how cool is this?

BIKE! BIKE! STILL! ON!

There has been a glitch with the Bike! Bike! website, but I got in touch with Ynes from the Grease Pit and confirmed that the Bike! Bike! conference is still on. It's just the website that's causing problems.

Speaking of websites, The Grease Pit is now online. Pretty spare right now, but it should be a place to visit regularly, especially as Bike! Bike! gets closer. Check it...

Grease Pit Minneapolis

Photo from The Pulse

Collective Consciousness

Since I moved back last year, I was lucky to meet a lot of people in the Eau Claire bike scene. I see them on the steps at Racy's, bikes propped up. I see them in the distance, a fast cadence flash between buildings. I watch their bikes evolve. I've actually started to really see people's bikes as extensions of themselves.

One evening I was studying on a couch at Racy's when one of my friends wandered through, I said hello, but said that I kind of felt like I already said "hi" a while ago because I'd seen his bike there when I first arrived. He totally knew what I meant. When I see the blue IRO, I don't see a bike, I see Zacher. When I see the black frame with the yellow deep Vs, I see Gehrke. When I see the understated silver frame with all the spoke cards, I see Smuhl. I've started to leave notes on their bikes sometimes as a kind of post-dated conversation since I feel like I saw them. That got me to thinking that it would be fun to leave something else. Something fun. I thought bike haiku would be perfect. I'd call it "baiku."

The thing I think is interesting about google is that after you come up with a cool idea, you can type it in and see if anyone else is doing it. And they usually are. For instance, Velomann. I guess it's been around for a while. I think I'll still do it though. I need a hobby.

Image borrowed from here.

But HOW?

I am still a little overwhelmed in trying to figure out where to even start with being self-sufficient in bicycle maintenance, so I am always looking for good references. I just discovered that if you go to http://www.parktool.com/products/bikemap.asp you can click on any area of the bike and get an idea of what tools might be needed and what it looks like when one is using them. Check it out!

Bike Cinema: 2 Seconds

Just a reminder...the LGBT Community Center of the Chippewa Valley will be hosting a showing of the movie 2 Seconds on Saturday March 21 at 7:45 PM. The Center is located at 510 S. Farwell [Look for the red door].

2 Seconds:

Laurie, a professional downhill racer gets fired because of her slight overindulgence in irresponsibility. She returns from Canada to Paris where she is welcomed by her geeky but cute brother. She meets Lorenzo, a cranky, ex-racer who owns a bike shop. The two become friends. Laurie gets a job with a local bicycle courier company, but a member of the group is intent on shutting her out of their circles, making her life difficult and sad. After a bonding truth-revealing discussion between Laurie and Lorenzo, Laurie begins to see what she has to do to make things better for herself.

The Latest and Greatest

For those of you who missed the Banbury Community Bike Fix, that is very sad because it was pretty frackin' awesome. You should come next time. Bring food to share and tools if you have 'em. To find out what you missed, check out the Leader Telegram from the Sunday paper: http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news_local.asp?id=BJF5DE10IU9 or the TV-18 snippet here: http://www.wqow.com/global/story.asp?s=10010511 and if you missed it the first time around or haven't checked out the EC Bikes blog yet, here's more local coverage: http://www.weau.com/news/headlines/41125927.html

Bike! Bike! at the Grease Pit!

Hey, I was just surfing around and I stumbled onto some wicked news. The International Bike! Bike! Conference is going to be hosted by the Grease Pit in Minneapolis. Sounds like it will be in September, so you have plenty of time to block out your calendar. Check out the URL at the end of this entry. It also looks like they are seeking people to help with some of the workshops, so consider contacting them if you have some experience to share.

This is a list of workshops which they are looking for people to host or are in discussion with people about, but that have not been solidly confirmed yet:

Bike Shops 101- Starting Up
Staying Sane with Kids
Anti-Oppression... Race
Bike Projects and Community Development
Collectives and Organizational Development & Stability
Consensus Decision Making
Anti-Oppression... GLBTQ
Conflict Resolution
Welding
Gender Forum... GLBTQ/Women/Men
DIY Tool Making
How To Teach
Bike! Bike! Organizational Structure Discussion
Anti-Oppression... Class
Anti-Oppression... Mental Health
Anti-Oppression... Language
Anti-Gentrification
501C3 Book Keeping
Shop Layout/Efficiency
Tap and Die Workshop
Oppression 101
Grant Writing
Screen Printing
Cargo/Working Bikes
Smashing Bikes Back To Life
501C3 Organizational Development and Sustainability
Underground Book Keeping
Mission Statements
Working With At-Risk Youth
Wheel Building... Beginners
Wheel Building... Advanced
International Bike Projects
Freak Bikes
3-Speed Hubs

http://www.bikebike.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=103

More bike fun than you can shake a rusty chain at.

There was a really cool turnout for the Bike Forum the other night at the LGBT Community Center of the Chippewa Valley. Our local Bike Guru, Ali "gwow-gwow" Gillberg dropped some well-earned knowledge on the cyclists who swung by. The people who attended ranged from right green newbies to bike junkies who build bikes in their sleep. And so went the discussion. It was laid back and conversational and allowed for a lot of great question and answer. Ali has years of on-the-job experience and a little piece of paper from the United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon. Plus she was raised in the wild by Bike Hippies, so it's in her blood.

While at the meeting, David Shmul and Zac Barnes announced a cool event going on this Saturday. There will be a Community Bike Fix event at Banbury Place, Bldg. 17 from noon-5:00. Consider stopping by. Bring tools if you have them and consider bringing a food item for the potluck. It will be a big warm fuzzy ball of bike grease and smiles. For more info, check out http://ecbikes.blogspot.com/

Happy Spring! OK...jumping the gun by a couple of weeks, but things are melting and layers are being shed. More bikes are starting to awaken from hibernation and the bike shops are starting to stock up for the seasonal upswing in bidness.

Props go out to all the hardcore EC bike lifers who cut through the ice and snow this winter. They are proof that riding bikes is not just a seasonal endeavor. It is a way of life. Some others [I am still in this category] wimp out around October or November and start thinking about maybe bringing the bike out in March. But, it's all good. Everyone starts somewhere.

For those of you who have not yet begun to drink bike lube for breakfast and dream in gear ratios, I just want to let you know about a little thing that is going on this Tuesday, March 10 from 7:00-9:00 PM. There will be a Bike 101 forum at the LGBT Community Center of the Chippewa Valley [510 S. Farwell - look for the red door.] Ali Gillberg who is a bike mechanic at Scheels will be on site to discuss bike maintenance and answer questions. There will also be discussion about Wisconsin bike laws, bike safety and bike culture. Check it out!