I’ve been trying to ride slower and de-messengerize my brain, and part of that is carrying stuff on my bike, not my back. A friend of the shop has a great article about sweat and comfort and bikes, and in it they stress the importance of carrying things off your body. I finally made some changes to make Shrimp, my lightning bolt, a more useful and enjoyable bike. I’ve been making an effort to slow down and hang out and take things in more.

March 9

I’ve been riding in my 26t chain ring. If I spin out, I remind myself I’m going too fast. It isn’t a long term solution (I don’t want to cook this chain ring), but it kept me from sweating riding all the way up Page from Market.

I spend a lot of time on Page Slow Street, but usually just passing through. Last year, the long awaited community parklet opened up at Fillmore. I haven’t hung out there since it opened, so I stopped by and took some photos.

I ran into Molly and Katrin at the parklet, who were putting up signs soliciting feedback on the street murals they want to do up and down Page St! If you’ve got a sec, leave feedback.

BART is so awesome. I wish the freeway wasn’t here. I’ve been realizing how much the aesthetic of my bike dictates how I ride. It looks like a road bike and so I ride it like one.

Begone, logos

I had to buy a new u-lock. We’ve got Kryptonites in stock in colors so that’s what I got. I decided to expand the bikes colorscheme to just be generally more colorful, so I went with orange. I think the Kryptonite logo is stupid, so I sanded it off, I think it looks way cooler this way. I don’t need to be a walking (riding?) ad for them.

I also took off the piece of plastic that covers the key hole and the metal bracket for mounting to their frame mount thing. I keep my lock in my bag, so I don’t need it, and it’s one extra piece to carry, break or scratch something with that I don’t need. The frame mount thingies go for $25, which is insane, so I threw it into the shop’s library bin. If you need one come by.

Surprise rain

The weather has been whacky lately. We got surprise rain yesterday, only in the Richmond. Across the park in the Sunset, it was dry. The vibes at the shop have been very cozy lately.

Bars and basket

Though I’m not thrilled with the comfort of my Grepp tape, I’ve been running it with Fizik bar gels underneath, but being able to switch bars this painlessly makes me appreciate it.

Grepp uses these reusable bar ends that are two pieces, a recieving piece and a wedge that you hammer in. They work alright, but they’re a pain in the ass to remove. Last time it took Ayla and I 30 minutes. This time I was smart enough to try some new tools, and a 23mm cone wrench worked perfectly.

They’re looking pretty mangled, I wonder how many more installs they’ve got left in them (this is #3 or #4). Crust, who I got the tape from (it’s a pain to import, we tried), doesn’t carry replacement bar ends, but the swedish company who makes it does. I guess this is what I get for buying into an imported product that isn’t widespread here.

Basket time

The reason I’m switching to slightly wider bars is so that I can fit a rack and basket on the front. I really do think it’s the only good way to carry things on an every day bike. I should have gone a couple cm wider, but I was able to make things fit (and give the levers enough room) by bending the middle of the sides of the basket in a teeny bit. It’s attached to a Velo Orange Constructeur rack.

Install was easy, because the lightning bolt has dedicated fender mounts on the bottom side of the fork, leaving the rack mount untouched. Didn’t have to do any silliness to get the diving board installed. I installed the rack, marked the fender with a punch through the diving board, and then took the rack off. I drilled a new hole into the fender and mounted it all together. I used a 4 or 5mm spacer to somewhat preserve my fender line, and now my fender is much more stable and won’t rattle.

In the interest of adding more color to the bike, I used orange zip ties to attach the basket to the rack. We use zipties because baskets are cheap and racks (and bikes) are not. In a crash, the basket can act like an energy absorber, and it can bend and break and shear the zip ties off without ruining the rack. That’s Ayla building a wheel in the background.

I love this Tunitas Creative rolltop basket bag, it’s awesome.

I’m loving basket life, and it feels like this bike was meant to ride with a bunch of weight on the front, it feels great. I had no issues putting it on the bus rack on Golden Gate Transit to go home. I wish more bus agencies had better policies on what can go on bike racks. The belief that the hook-jobber needs to be at or past the apex of the wheel is totally not true, and by preventing people from having fenders and racks, discourages useful bikes. Making people choose between carrying things comfortably and having to ride long distances all the time is an accessibility and adoption issue.

March 10

The clearance with the Wald 137 basket and my brake levers wasn’t good enough for my liking, so after a day of riding I switched to a Tanaka half height basket. I think they’re largely useless as baskets for carrying things, but for my bag they’re perfect, and avoid the brake lever clearance issues.

The Grepp tape is probably due for a washing soon. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it and experiment with more padding underneath or if it’ll join my collection of unused bike stuff (my kingdom of shit) in favor of some cushioned Newbaum’s cotton tape, like I’ve got on Blueberry.

I also threw on my old WTB Comfort saddle, and I’m liking it a lot more than the WTB Speed I had on it.

More wanderings

I found this cute little utility box mural with the 38 Geary on it. It’s either at Balboa and the 8th Avenue Greenway, or Balboa and 7th. I love the west side.

On the 8th Avenue Greenway, the cherry blossoms are blooming. I don’t think I would have noticed if I was zooming. I know it’s basic but they’re one of my favorite things in the city.

As part of the greenway effort, which imagines 8th avenue as a safe corridor from Slow Lake to Golden Gate Park and JFK Promenade, some of the cherry blossom trees have been yarn bombed, and the benches have been painted yellow, it’s really nice. We love guerrilla beautification.

Pacific Bell lives on in San Francisco. Long live Bell.

Shop stuff

We got in some more colorful fun colors of our Bivo bottles. They have the same flow rate as the roadie plastic squeezy bottles, but a thousand times more dignity and no plastic. They’re pretty. We have black and silver too, if you’re boring. They’re great water bottles, they have a little straw thing internally that lets air in as you drink, so they have a really high flow rate. You just pop out the nozzle thing with your teeth and tip it up.

Sarah was organizing and inventorying our bolts and McMaster-Carr stuff, and Goldberg was helping them (he’s very helpful).

I’m on an Amtrak trip as I write this, so I’ll write more when I get back, but I figure I’ll post this now.