Merry Christmas gone

I've been gone for a long time and this is a re-cap of whats been up. Stories of biking but not alot of big news. Read at your own discretion.

Today started like a bad slapstick comedy. I stubbed my toes on every corner and dropped everything I tried to pick up. I went for a ride and caught a crack in the rode which sent me right into a puddle. My mittens and pants are soaked and dirty. At least the library is calm and warm. I havn't wrote in a long time because I've been away from computers or busy doing other stuff. Thomas needed a place to crash for a few days before x-mas so he came over last Wednesday. With nothing to do and no money to do it we decided to gor ride the bus around town for a while. There is no better way to see what a city is like than to ride it's public transportation. You get to see alot of intresting people from around town and all you have to do is sit around. Eventually we got off at the mall and walked around for a while. The anithesis of the city bus it was overcrowded loud cold and unfriendly. Some lady yelled about her taco shells being cold and we left. While we were waiting for the bus a car full of hip guys drove by and called us "fags 1 2 3" High school all over again. We made it back downtown and walked home. It was a really beautiful day and we took are time weaving through alleys. Anna took off for work, and Thomas and I got bored and got to talking which inevitabley leads to self loathing when your homeless I guess. Like a die hard Thomas suggested we go buy some alcohol and like someone with a weak will worn down by the holiday season I agreed. We rode down to Stave and hoop and realized we had no money so we rode across town to the bank. We Ran into Brad,his girlfriend, and Bones on Bartsow and talked for a while. We eventually made our way back down to Water and bought a 30 pack intent on finding some place secluded to sit and drink.

We saw some Minnesotan get stuck in the snow so we stopped and helped push him out. I love the feeling of two guys on bikes riding up to someone in a flashy car and pushing his car out of a snow bank. We rode back to my house and chilled out for a while. Eventually we made our way under some bridges and through a cementary where we stopped for a while. Before the cold could set in we took off again and went to my house looking for food. We sat around and played playstation untill Anna got home then we all drank and tried to relax from the things that were bothering us.

Hey, is that lemuria?

The next day Anna and I hung out and Tom actually went to work. Not a lot happened. When Tom got back we baisically repeated the last night, only with less booze. We rode bikes around town and ran into a bunch of weird people who stopped us and told us we should try to "take our bikes to the coast and sell them" Advice which we've both heard countless times before and disregarded every time. Intresting enough in the leader telegram there was an article about a guy in Califronia trying to bring back the swing bike craze. The company is here http://www.americasbikecompany.com/Swing_King_Expert_Swing_Bike_p/301-01-03.htm They are trying to sell them for almost $400 when you can build one for free. I couldn't help but laugh. I also found irony in the fact that they are called Americas bike company and the bikes are made in China. Please build your own, and don't support these jokers. The beer ran out and we rode for a little while longer and went back to my house to waste our brains watching tv and crash.

The next day I decided to visit my dad a few days early for x-mas. The anticipation of his voice at the prospect of his kids coming home early to see him was enough of a selling point. My dad is an incredible person that I admire with all my heart. I will never understand how he can be such a calm understanding person even when he's confronted with really hard decisions or situations, and he is always there to offer advice. Even after my mom died he made sure that my sisters and I never had any serious problems. My childhood was never a breeze (whose is?) but I feel like with anyone else but my dad it could have been alot worse. Anyway I spent the past few days in Cadott with my familey eating junk food and being lazy. Christmas afternoon Anna and I were reunited and we headed back to Eau Claire to do our x-mas. I got a bunch of great gifts from everybody including a digital camera, and lots of books to read. That pretty much brings everything up to date. This morning I went for a ride before I came to the library. My pants are still wet (they smell now too) and so are my mittens.

Only other news I can think of is that kayla and Ryan got there bikes on fixed gear gallery here.

http://fixedgeargallery.com/2007/dec/3/RyanJohnson_2.htm

http://fixedgeargallery.com/2007/dec/3/RyanJohnson.htm

http://fixedgeargallery.com/2007/dec/3/RyanJohnson_3.htm

Some call it education

Thank god I'm done with school in no more than 3 hours. Of course I get to come back but a month off visiting firneds and relaxing will be incredible. I took off work for most of break so I'm goignto be more porr than ever in 2 weeks, but right now it seems like a good idea. Sometimes I wonder why anyone would want to pay so much money to go through so much stress. I still have no idea what I want to do with my life, but the more I think about it the less it seems like I want to sit around in a sterile classroom being talked at. At this point I can't quite, I'm already too far in debt and whenever I talk to familey about it they talk me into staying for the rest of my degree. I think it's funny that some people know what they want to do the second they step foot into college, and the rest of us are left wandering around drifting through our classes with no idea. O well, I guess it's one of those things where if I knew what I knew now in high school maybe I would never have gone and just packed my bags and began wondering around the country. Thats a little too much pessamism though, I've met alot of good people through school, and I love learning, I just dislike the enviroment in which it is conducted. Too much to think about on a day where I should be happy.

Monday night Dan and I rode over to Dooleys to check out the CORBA meeting that Chris told me about. Dan rode his incredible chopper sidecar bike as pictured above. The bike looks even cooler in real life, and the fully adjustable sidecar makes it evident how good of a builder Dan really is. Dan told me he is moving to Hawaii for a few months to go work landscaping. I guess he's planning on bringing a bike, a tent and a bag of clothes, lucky. Anyway, we rode to the CORBA meeting and by the time we got there I realized that my blinker had fallen off my pocket somewhere on the ride over. SO if you find a tail light on 5th Ave. please hook me up with it. We sat around for a while and had a pretty good time. The cyclocross race coming up this summer was the main topic. After a while we took off, and went to our respective homes.

This is Eau Claire, Not LA. Cover art to for a new axegrinder album?

Tuesday before work I went for a ride to Carson park. I got to see the firefighters out on halfmoon lake cutting holes in the ice and diving in. Maybe they were looking for treasure. I took a break and sat around on the bleachers for a while untill I realized that it was the middle of December in Wisconsin. I went over to the Paul Bunyan Logging camp and talked to Paul for a while, realizing just how wierd of a place Wisconsin is. Anyone can ride bikes in So. Cal. it takes alot to ride around in the north. Especially in a city that has 2 bike lanes in the entire city, and is like a miniature San Francisco. As much admiration I have for this place I still have the same yearning to leave as most Wisconsinites seem to have. It's like at a certain point you no longer desire the hardships WI offers. Cold, seasonal depression, high taxes, high prices, crappy roads, etc. I guess it's these things that also make us stay though. People who live in this state have to have a certain gutso to live somewhere stigmatized as "worse than hell" by Kevin Smith (If you don't get the referance see the movie Dogma). Granted through time a fair share of us seem to lose our minds, but that just adds to the crazy ambience that is Wisconsin. Anyway my point as convoluted as it may be is that I have a love hate relationship with the place I live. Right now I am as indecisive as I am hungry. Have a good vacation everyone. Give me a call and we can hang out in EC.

Deep V's?

iQue mala suerte!

I love this building. Pero '92!

I have a Spanish final in 5 hours, booooo. Luckilly once it's done, it's done. The anticipation of these things is often worse than the event itself, I have to remember that. This weekend I worked a bunch, nothing new. Otherwise I sat around and enjoyed being lazy. I built a new winter bike, because I'm not made of money, and I don't like the idea of riding my expensive bike all winter. My new one is a Fuji dynamic 12 fixed gear. The seat is pulled off of some crap bike, the brake lever is from an old school mongoose bmx, platform pedals which I hate and need some toe clips, and a welded rear hub to complete the package. I love it because it looks like a piece of shit. 52/16 gear ratio which is like learning to ride fixed all over again.








After I built my bike on Sunday I went for a ride around town to explore. It's cool how the snow turns everything into something completly different. All of the sudden you can walk across lakes, and the trees have no leaves. Sure everythings dead, and you have to worry about getting your socks wet all the time, but It's still really cool to see how things change with the seasons. I guess thats one of the reasons I like winter. It gives us an excuse to brood, and it brings a whole new host of sights, and things to do. Now I realize that I've yet to go sledding. For shame!

I got a message from a friend commenting on a photo of one of the first tall bikes we built together talking about how it seems like it's been so long since we built it. I've been thinking alot about that recently. I've always rode bikes as long as I can remember, but I've only seriously started riding bikes since I was probobly 15. It started with a Huffy Mojave Gulch escalated to a Schwinn Powermatic pro Bmx bike. Then I got a Schwinn World sport which I later turned into my first single speed and subsequently fixed gear after the derailer got trashed. About three years ago I built my first chopper, and then a tall bike, then I just kept building. Now I have alot of bikes. More than that bikes have become a large part of my life. Sometimes I think it's reall silly how excited I get about them, but then I realize that I've gone through alot of my life on a bike. Some people fix cars, I fix bikes. I've always been a quite poor kid and bikes have offered me an escape. Since I started riding bikes have taken me around the country and helped meet alot of really good people. I have them tattood on my body, and rely on one every day to get me where I need to go.

It's really began to occur to me how big of a part of my life bikes have played. Most people will hear that and not really get it. If I said cars played a big part in my life it would be a different story. People would immediatly understand and be sympathetic. Cars are expensive and big and a grown up thing, of course they are important. Bikes are small slow kid things, who cares about them? I guess it takes a special type of person to really love riding bikes. Not just buying expensive parts to see who can have the flashiest looking bike, but actually riding, and stopping to look around and take things in. And the more that I think about all the things I've seen on my bike, the harder it gets for me to belive that it's only been 6 years.

Study break!

I was taking abreak from studying in the library (ok, I havnt started yet) and I found these pictures. I had to post them because I like them alot, and the internet is about the rapid dissemination of information. I need to do my part to keep it in existence, or who knows what might happen.

Too true A testament to the power of bikes. If only...

Thats how I escaped my certain fate

Last night I got a call around 5:30 from Thomas that a few people were going our for a ride. I neede a break from studying for my Spanish final which I'm thinking I doubt I will pass anyway, so I decided to go. We met at Jeff and jims and ate an awesome pizza (I've been craving it all day) and headed out to Racys. Chris, Derrick, Ryan, and two people whose names I can't remember(sorry! I'm terrible with names) where there to ride, and Andy and Brad happened to be hanging around. We sat aroudn and talked for a while and 7 of us took off for a ride.

We went for a decent ride out on the north side of town. There were a few hills that were no fun, and the wind cut through my mittens and the holes in my shoes pretty easily, but it was a pretty good time. Everyone was going to head to the sea horse to drink, but I needed to get some more shit done so I split off. It made me realize how paranoid I still am after getting hit. Riding in the dark in the middle of winter is kind of intimidating regardless, but the paranoia of getting hit by a car a month prior certainly was still in effect. I got back downtown and rode around for a while and headed home.
I guess Monday night there is some sort of bike meeting at Doolys in the abck room for anyone intrested. I will probobly drop in and see what it's all about, I don't know what time it starts but I will probobly be there around 8pm, I'll call Chris and get more info later. A tentative date for an alleycat has been set too. May 10th ( I think) so mark your callender of your intrested. I know this was a pretty lame post, I'm tired and kind of in a rush. I will do something marvelous in the next few days I can assure you. Or maybe I can't

We're not those kids

If your looking for some cool bike stuff and all kinds of exciting stuff goign on around town stop reading now. if you want to know what's going on with me keep reading. I just figured I would save you some time. I've been busy just like you, and just like everyone else this time of year. It's funny to see people transform in December. Mild mannered grandmas start throwing elbows at the grocery store and college kids start ingesting copious amounts of caffine living on nerves. It seems like you can't walk down the street without some sort of person being in trouble. Cars are crashing through storefronts, and half the country lost power. No wonder it's so hard to try to relax. I've been talking to lot's of friends who have decided to move. It's sad to see friends move away. Especially friends that only moved a little way away that decided that they are still to close to the places they used to call home, and they move even further. I did a bunch of Christmas shopping and payed some bills, so now I'm broke. I got a gift certificate in the mail yesterday though, so I went to my place of employ, and bought some groceries. Last night I tried to replicate the bean burritos they serve at Cancun to no avail, which is a real bummer because I am craving them badly. I got a letter in the mail the other day from an old friend in jail, and am palnning on sending a bunch of books out for a x-mas present.

Thats pretty much "the haps" of whats going on right now. No pictures, I know it sucks, but we must all make sacrifices in times of turmoil. There still isn't enough bikers, and there is still too many drivers. I've been working on another bike, and am thinking of some other projects I can do now that I have a welder. Just no time. 6 days till break.

Busy again

I've been busy with schhol and work and Christmas stuff lately. I will actually post something later. But for now here is somewhere else to waste valuble time.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DjHi4T2tx4o RPBC
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVEWMDLrZmw Bike kill
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_JZGZtIk3h0 Bike Kill
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rAZ0oCNf09k zoobomb
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LCHcfrD_vYM Cutthroats RVA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VTEWIiFPDN4 Mash Sf fixed gear stuff
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VckgDaKpRK0 Pedal doc. trailer
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s1rOo-vOAOc FBM BMX
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d2Bjt5NvfUE Steven Hamilton
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lK1kw4o6nWI Cadence Fixed gear
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a2Hm2cbCwnQ B.I.K.E. trailer
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rpmm34oMiPA Ride a bike


Now get off your ass and go ride a bike.

Sad sappy sucker

Last night Thomas called me and told me that he was getting evicted so we should hang out and drink while he still had a roof over his head. I came over with the intent of leaving at around 10, and we drank some, got bored and decided to ride bikes around the house. I have a soft spot for riding bikes in houses. I remember when i was a kid whenever my parents left I would bring my bike inside and just ride it back and forth. I think this is mainly because the closest paved road was half a mile away, and I liked the feeling of rolling on something smooth for a change. What can I say, I'm lame. Then we scammed a free pizza, and ate some dinner. No food tatses as good as free food.
We got bored and went oustside to ride a bit when we ran into some punk kid Thomas knew. Whenever I meet new punk kids in the 16 and under club it blows my mind. These kids not only know how to play multiple instruments, know crass songs by heart, are intrested in learning new shit, but they can put up a good discussion on bands like Modest mouse or the moldy peaches. Granted there often a little less than PC, but I didn't know nearly that much about punk when I was a kid. At least I don't think I did, I can't really remember. We went inside again and I decided I might as well stick around for a while longer. We drank a bunch more and started making a bunch of noise so we went into the basement to skate. I havn't tried to skate in a while, but I think I'm better at it when I've been drinking. I managed to do a few bonless' and made a drop off an old chair. Thomas shred an old cabinent, then we got tired ate some seed, and drank some more.

We sat around and got tipsy. Then we pulled out a guitar and sang a bunch of songs. Screaming Johnny Hobo and against me!(The crimes as forgiven by ep rules and you fucking know it) songs at the top of your lungs in a basment full of smoke and toy ponies is a really good time. And we drank, and we sang songs, and we drank and we sang and we drank and we sang. An angry robot showed up for a while, ponies were all over the place, and we finally ran out of beer at about 4:30 this morning, 6 hours after I planned on leaving. This morning I woke up still buzzed, and I still am right now.

Note that gross pile of seeds, pony burial ground.

My throat hurts like hell, I smell like smoke,and I'm tired. But it's such a beutiful day I think it would be a crime not to go outside and enjoy it. Nights like last night really make me apreciate certain things though. Like the fact that I'm still alive, thats nice. Or the fact that sometimes you can escape all the bullshit stress of the world and just relax in a basement and sing songs that express your feelings better than you ever could. I know thats alot of sentimental garbage, but there is a time and a place to be sentimental and honest. And there is no reason to not talk about a good night. There are so many things in this world tyring to impose regulations, and impose power and authorty over us that when you can escape all that bullshit for one night, i deffinetly think it's something worth getting sentimental over. Anna just called and we are going to take a walk over to the acousitic and get some food and coffee. So now I have the words "pony punx" written across my knuckles in sharpie and I don't think I'm going to wash it off.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

I was surfing the web yesterday doing some Christmas shopping when I came across this. http://www.downbound.com/Recycled_Tire_Belt_p/tcn-vc-velo-slb.htm

It's a belt made from an old tire that costs $70. I was pretty blown away that you could sell an old chopped up tire for $70. I found another one for $25 and yet another just made from an innner tube for $50. It's pretty weird to see these companies latch onto the whole bike culture and exploit the hell out of it. Yes it it good to see them advocating recycling, but reeping gross profits from it kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway the point is that bike tire belts are cool, fun, and easy to make on your own. I've made a few of them and given some to friends, and wear one myself. It's one of the best belts I've had, and I love it to pieces.

BLING!

You can make your own belt too. It is way cooler than buying one, and way cheaper. I used these instructions to make mine http://www.bmxonline.com/bmx/features/article/0,15737,519235,00.html A few things I learned when making these to help the process go a little more smoothly are...

1.If you cant cut the tire with scissors use a pair of tin snips, they seem to do the trick.

2.Use a half link to attatch your buckle, the can easily be removed to swap out buckles.

3.Buckles can be bought at most stores, or you can tear one off of a crappy belt you dont use. Make sure it is wide enough for your tire though. I also find that buckles with rollers like the one pictured above work best.

4.If the tire is too thick to push the half link through shave it down a little around where the link will go on the inside of the tire. These belts are strong and losing a little girth wont make it tear apart, and if you shave the inseide it won't be noticable.

5. I used a belt hole punch to make the holes, they are easy to use, and make nice clean holes. They look like this http://sportsandhome.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=29 I had one laying around in a box of random tools, but if you really want one you can get them as cheap as $5 online.

6. If you dont have a clamp to get the link together use a pair of vice grips, needle nose ones work best.

7. Experiment, You can make these out of any tires you find. Avoid rotten ones, but try making a belt out of a 25c' or find a colored tires from a kids bike. The possibilities are endless.

There you go, it's as easy as that. The total cost of this is like $2.50 and they will last a long time. Don't be fooled by companies making products like this. If you look at it and think "I could do that" chances are you probobly could, and it will be alot cheaper, and more rewarding in the long run.

The blow

I don't care that much about cold, and I can't say I mind the snow much either, but I hate wind. I'm so tired of riding into the wind no matter where I go. Thank god I don't live in North Dakota or something, I would probobly kill myself. It snowed a bunch more yesterday. All I could think about at work was coming home and getting to shovel. Not in a bad sense though. I lived in the country for most of my life, and never got to experience shoveling sidewalks, so now that I live in a city I get super excited at the prospect of being able to go out and shovel. Then I can go inside kick off my shoes and join the groaning masses in complaing about "gad damn snow I have to shovel three times a day" and complain about my back. I can not explain how stoked this makes me. Monday night Anna and I went to acoustic and saw a new bike that dan built sitting outside. It's a chopper with a removable sidecare built on, it's incredible. I called Dan and he told me he just dropped it off there because the derailer messed up so we went in and had some Hummus hogies a.k.a heaven on a bun, and some coffee. Dan showed up a little later with his new tall bike and hung out for a while. Then Anna and I went home and put up our Christmas tree. It is beautiful, and decked out with random bike parts. DIY x-mas tree decorations are as easy as tearing apart a cassete hub, painting the cogs silver, and hanging them up.

I don't care what cynics say I looooove the Christmas season, and puttting up a tree, eating junk food, and watching the grinch is easily one of my favorite things in life, even more so than shoveling sidewalks. I'm super excited to give gifts to my friends and familey, and of course get all kinds of x-mas candy, open presents, eat huge breakfasts and listen to awful x-mas music. i ditched my mountian bike and decided to ride a fixed gear this winter. They are funner, faster, and snow and icy roads allows for excessivly long skids. Monday night I went out and rode around for a while with the sole intent on attempting to skid a while block, down hil of course, I'm not that cool. So I want to put together a winter fixed egar but I need to buy tires, which I will do some day, maybe.

The most important news of the day however is that the new Tender Forever cd is out, and it's insanely good. You can listen to the whole album for free here http://www.krecs.com/tenderforeverwider/

Other stuff I'm listening to to get into a warm winter mood is

Antsy Pants http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=63343142

Alex banjo http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=127583999

Howard hughs http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=39723610

Matty Pop Chart http://www.archive.org/details/pixfree05

and the newest Paul Baribeau http://www.myspace.com/paulbaribeau

Listen or die, or don't.

Snow, EVERYWHERE

It snowed, alot. This Saterday morning I woke up at about quarter to ten, ate some breakfast, drank some coffe, and looked out the window to see some snow. I went out and rode around for an hour or so when I realized that it wasn't going to stop snowing anytime soon, and got my ass inside to see how much would fall. By the time I went to work three inches was on the roads. By the time I got off it had turned to ice. Yesterday we went out for a ride in the morning and did stupid kid stuff like running into snow banks, and trying to go over snow piles. I officially hate my winter bike, and I have no idea why I thought I would enjoy riding a mountain bike, I can't stand mountain bikes. Soooo slooooow.

Free mountain bike up for grabs.

As of 8 this mornign the bike trails, and foot bridges are not shoveled or plowed, about 50% of sidewalks are plowed, and there are still pretty big piles of snow on the side of the road. So be carefull, it's not very bike friendly weather right now. I'm thinking a sledding party or something is in order. Unfortunetly I'm busy busy with school and work and other stuff. I will hopefully make a post in a while about smart winter biking. biking all winter is really fun and rewarding, but it can also be some risky buisness, so I'll try to give some pointers. For now just stay warm.

Can't feel my legs

It's cold out. The sad thing is that this isn't even really that cold yet. It hasn't even dipped below zero yet. We still have 3 more months of this shit to look forward too. Yuck. I suppose when the snow falls things won't be as bad though. At least when there is snow you can do fun things like go sledding or have snowball fights, right now all you can do is bitch about how cold it is. It's that crummy time of year when there are no more leaf piles to play in, and no snow either. It's also now officailly the Christmas season. Last night The Grinch was even on tv, a little early if you ask me, but I can't really argue with The Grinch. Except for the Jim Carrey one, I hate that man. The lights are up on Grand Ave.

I also put together a winter bike last night. That means I don't have to get my good bikes rusty, and I dont have to ride tall bike all winter again. However winter tall bike riding is a sport in itself, and should be in the olympics. So yesterday I rode around for a while on my new bike, and took some more pictures of Eau Claire. They are deceptive though. I just think it's funny how Eau Claire is divided into different section that not many people go to. Some college kids never go beyond Water st. Some may make it to Pheonix park or the mall, but thats not nearly all of Eau Claire. I'm thinking when spring comes again maybe we should host some sort of bike tour of Eau Claire. But I guess right now everyones to busy trying to stay warm, and do all that school jazz.

My new winter bike. Woo hoo!

When I got home my favorite show in the whole wide world was on PBS. Some people who grew up in Wisconsin in the 90s may remember catching re-runs of this gem of television known as storylords! possibly the best WPB series ever this series follows the journies of an aspiring storylord named Norby and his advetures in the land of Mojuste fighting the evil forces of Thorzuul and his hentchman Milkbreath. The best part of this series however is the magical bike used to travel to the land of Mojouste. Check it out here http://youtube.com/watch?v=ylLevkW2UxI&feature=related If nothing else peep that hot ride 2 minites into the video. I think they even have it set up as a single speed.

Serious

Thanksgobbin is officially over. I ate bunches of food, and spent the night passed out on my kitchen floor. Ate more food the rest of the weekend (no food like free food), met a bunch of friends from high school and sat around a crummy little diner in our home town drinking coffee(.55/cup, free refills, eat that!) and talking about all the people we went to high school with. Then we went behind the dam and spit threw rocks at the water. After that I ran into another old friend and we stuck around at the skatepark untill it got really dark and cold. Late night conversations are fun. O nostalgia! It's strange to think about old friends, and how they just kind of dissappear. Or the awsome feeling of finding out people you didn't like in high school dropped out of college and live in their parents houses and work for the crappy restaraunt on main street,HA HA HA. I came back to EC, worked on stuff at Dan's and picked up a new project bike. It's a nice old motobecane which I plan on turning into a touring bike for this summer, so I can do some really long rides.

Now I am back in Eau Claire. back in the daily grind of school, work, rent,worry, blah blah blah. I can't wait untill this semester is over. Yea, bitch bitch bitch, I know. But as long as it's still getting close to winter I feel entitled, plus I have an exam and a paper do this week, so I can bug out all I want. O yea, bikes! We are talking about araging another meeting of the Boneshaker Bike Collective somestime soon. We want to plan a winter event (ice race, sled bikes, snow jumps, nudy rides, polar plunge?) as well as set further goals. We will soon be in posession of TWO welders, so we no longer need that much fundraising. I've also got a bunch of other ideas rolling around I want to talk about. I'll figure all that out and keep information here.

Choppa daze

I was also informed that some people are working on a free school here in Eau Claire, and Dan and I were thinking of doing some bike workshops, or welding workshops, so we will see what comes of that. More news is we were formally invited to next years Outdoor Festivle of The Arts. Last year we showed up unanounced with a bunch of bikes and baisically just hung out all day letting people try them out, getting food, and giving rides on the pedicab. This year they asked if we would like to do a booth or something. Whew, too much typing, time to go get some food.

whoops!

I forgot to register yesterday! I also forgot to call my insurance lady and fill out paperwork, WHOOPS! I can't wait untill break, I need some fucking time to relax. I may be going down to Chicago to go chill with Rat patrol down there for a weekend, but that's still kind of in the air right now. Who is rat patrol you ask? I will answer, as I have been getting that question alot recently. Rat patrol is a "chopper and trash club" that started out in Chicago and now has chapters all over the place. Baisically it's a club about building bikes, riding bikes, dumpster diving, playing with garbage, arts and crafts, and having fun.

Represent

Rat patrol EC has been official for about 6 months now, and it's numbers are estimated at anywhere from 1 to 1000. Rat patrol is about being inclusive, and having fun with people that you care about. It's about DIY and avoiding the cycle of buy and sell capitalism. Rat patrol is not about showing off flashy parts, or taking oneself to serious. Being admitted to RP EC is prety easy. Express intrest, show dedication to bikes, ask permission, make your colors, and ride with us. Ride alot. I strongly encourage anyone intrested to build a bike, and join up. It is fun to ride wierd bikes with a bunch of people wearing colors. Doesnt this look fun

Pictures from ratification this year, where RPEC was officially admitted to the world of Chicago style ratitude. If your intrested check out :

http://rat-patrol.org/Rat2.html

or better yet http://chicagofreakbike.org/ for lots of inspiration.

rabble rabble rabble

North Barstow is open!

Fuck, I slept in half an hour and almost missed my exam. I ran over dog shit and it flung up on my bike. my bike smells. I ran out of money, and I havn't eaten yet today. Fuck. This morning has been off the hook! Plus I get to write a big ol' stinkin' history paper tonight. Other than that things are ok. I worked all weekend and cleaned my house. Sunday we drank a bunch of bum wine and rode out to Chippewa. Bum wine is now officially my favorite beverage of all time. And for anyone intrested I think we are having a brew day some time next week. So if you want to learn how to make your own (it's really easy) go ahead.

The sun came out for about 15 seconds on Sunday.

The camera I have been using isn't mine and will no longer be in my possesion in a few days so say goodbye to seeing lots of pictures of EC here, at least untill x-mas if Santa Clause brings me a digital camera all my own. I'm thinking we should do some sort of Thanksgiving ride where we put around town and eat lots of food and stuff, yea, thats probobly what we should do. Sunday when we were riding back to EC we decided to go down Starr, and we saw a bunch of cop cars outside of some house. So naturally we pulled over and tried to figure out what the deal was. Thomas said he knew a guy that lived right where the cops were, so he called him up. Apaprently the cops chased this guy into the friends backyard where he pulled a gun and shot himself. Creepy shit. It just amazes me how much we are all living in so much fear of jail, and prison, and fines, and punishment, that some people would sooner shoot themselves then go through the ordeal of being arrested. You can get the full story here. http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news.asp?id=BEVN0IAP88P

I'm still really busy and I don't have a computer so posts will be slow in coming over break as the library is closing. Get fat.

You should be listening to these bands right now

http://krecs.com/html/artists/media.php?interest=24

http://riotfolk.org/member_music.php?id=7

http://www.tintreefactory.com/

http://www.myspace.com/johnnyhobo

Top secret

Yea, I'm still pretty busy trying to do the whole college thing. I will pobobly be in overdrive for the next week or so as more exams and projects draw closer. Tomorrow I have a claims adjuster look at my bike and determine, something I imagine. I'm not all to sure as to what they do. Come to my house and take pictures I guess. So untill I get another bike around I'll be cruising around on my tall bike. Which is probobly a good thing considering I havn't rode tall bike in a week or so. I guess that's the downfall of having mulitple bikes is you tend to neglect some in favor of others. That said my yard is finally cleaned up of alot of bikes. I went from having 5 out front and 4 inside to only 3 outside and 4 inside. Some of which are not in operable condition. How do I manage to have that many bikes laying around? Well here's a rare insiders look of where I get lots of them....

These are just a slice of the bikes that we recover around Eau Claire. They are held at a top secret location in Eau Claire for safe keeping untill they are given(never sold) to a new owner. or chopped into parts for freak bikes. Boneshaker bike collective and Rat patrol EC are the main users of the stash, but anyone seeking parts is welcome to contact us to rummage around. Where do they all come from you ask? The answer is simple....

They grow on trees.

Don't forget disaster strikes is playing in tomorrow (Thursday) be there or be square.

Going home

This car is a bike rack

This isn't about Eau Claire because I went home this Saterday to visit my dad. It's really wierd going back home. It's a strange feeling to go back in my old room and realize that I will probobly never live there again. It's kind of depressing really. Life is alot easier when your in high school, your parents buy your food, you don't need to pay rent, and all you have to do all day is hang out. Don't get me wrong, I know that high school sucks, been there, done that. I know it can be a really awful experience, but luckilly it's only four years then your done with that shit for good. It's also kiond of wierd to be in a car for extended periods of time. When in Eau Claire the most I drive is to go to work and back which is about a ten minuite drive. The drive home is about an hour. Thats a long time in a car. I find when I drive after biking for a long time I'm extremely paranoid about all the cars around me, a necessity when your on a bike. Maybe the roads would be alot safer if all drivers rode bikes a few days a week.

Boneyard

This is where I first learned to weld, and started building bikes. You can see spare tall bike frames in that pile that I don't ride for one reason or another. Sunday it was super nice out so I fixed my bmx bike and went riding. I ran into Thomas downtown, and we cruised for a while. The we decided to ride around looking for abandoned buildings to hang out at or climb onto thier roofs. Not a while lot of luck other than stuff we already knew about. I love some of the grafiti we found.

In case you can't tell that say "If u even get Caught Pray its The Police that catch u and NOT ME!" Ok, I'm scared. What are you going to do, attack me with your bad grammer? Is "u" now officially a replacement for the word "you"? Does it really take that much effort to write two more letters? As much as I hate bad vandalism, i.e. "john wuz here, u r a gay, i luv boobz" scrawled on bathroom walls, I do have to admire it's comedic value. It's going to be a really bust week for me so things are going to be all backed up. Deal with it. However something of note is that there is a show this Thursday, heres the lowdown.

Thursday Nov. 15th
Disaster Strikes (Boston Hard Core)
Resistant Culture (L.A. tribal grind crust)
Bastard Sons of Browcoski (Ben Crew + Some guys from Misery)
Feed the Addiction
@ the Unitarian Universal Church
421 S. Farwell st., across from bus stop downtown.6:00, 5$

How do we get down in Eau Claire? This is how http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n6mcKNS1IA

Let it

Picture from the WEAU sky cam as of 11am.

See that? Know what that is? It's snow! Look, it's even sticking to the ground in some places. parts of me are super excited, and other parts are totally bummed. Snow kills bikers in Wisconsin. I know this isn't going to stay long, but it's an omen. Like I said earlier, come winter the bike racks empty out and the parking lots begin to fill up. Bike rides get cut short, it's impossible to stay dry, tires slip, tall bikes slide. Crash boom bang. At the same time I really like riding around all bundled up with a bandana over my face. Not only do you look really tough, but I just think it's really fun to cruise around in the cold with your body keeping you warm. Plus you can take old bikes and crash them into snows banks.

Snow also makes me think of al the fun sorts of things I want to do this winter. For instance, January ride in our underwear? Ice racing? Sled bikes? Not to mention the obvious snow ball fights, snow forts, hot coco, and hot cider. being kind of busted up I havn't had alot of ability to go riding, so I've spent alot of time just thinking about doing different stuff, and I keep getting more and more excited. If winters coming, bring it on. Just give me a day to build a new winter bike though ok?

The past couple days I havn't been able to do alot of biking, so I've actually spent alot of time hanging out at local bike shops, and even the mall, looking at bike stuff. I was pretty amazed to see one of the local shops selling a Hed 3 rim. In case you are not familiar look here
http://www.hedcycling.com/cart/wheels.php Pretty fast looking huh? This is where I generally start loosing friends. You see, I love bikes fast ones slow ones flashy ones crappy ones all kinds of them. I even ride some pretty nice ones, at least I like to think they are nice. But I can't come to terms with the idea of buying parts or components simply because their is an image or name you are pursuing. I know aerospokes, and hed 3s look cool, but do you need them to ride your bike around town? Pink anodized crank arms? $400 selle italia saddles? If I buy a seat for $370 it better have a built in flatscreen tv. Anyway my point is I think sometimes it's easy to get carried away looking at expensive parts. I'm certainly not impervious, but I am trying to deal with it. It's one thing to want a part because of its functionality, it's another to want it for it's name. When we start buying new bikes, and parts just so we can talk about what parts we have, rather than experiences we've had on our bikes. Places we've gone, things we've seen, etc, we lose touch of why se started riding bikes in the first place.

Not for me. Flatbars? Really?

This is not intended to make me sound holier than thou or anything, I think about how nice it would be to have this or that part all the time. I just think we could all look at why we ride a little bit. To pick up chicks? To show off? Or is it a choice made for some other reason.
Less shit talking, more bike riding.

Ramp up the jawn!

I like bmx, I like it alot. Unfortunetly I am not good at it. Especially now that I can't ride a normal shortbike worth crap (the right half of my body feels like it was hit by a car, wait...). Even if I wasn't hurt last week when I finally pulled my bmx bike out I managed to break the chain within an hour of doing sweet tricks. Bummer.

See, broken chain. I do not lie!

Anyway, I went for a little ride around town the other day and couldnt help but to notice all the bmx spots I know of around down town. This is part of the reason I love bmx. I love seeing ledges that normal people don't normall notice, but bikers have waxed and rode. I like seeing gaps, and jumps carved out in the dirt. I like seeing tire marks on walls, and quickrete on retaining walls. This said I am rarely the one putting tire marks 5 ft up on walls, 3 feet for that matter.

The point is that it's another part of this city that most people do not see or experience. Skaters get it, bikers get it, a few other, but not everyone. And I love the idea of people networking through a series of gaps and ledges. Running into other kids on bikes in different towns, and being able to go to different spots with them. Not malls, or monuments, or stores. Parking lots behind stores, construction sites, and staircases. I just hope that people keep doing these things for a long time. Despite the criminalization of recreation it's important to maintain these aspects of a culture that not alot of people notice. All that said I am hardely a figure in the Eau Claire BMX scene, so I give props to those riders who are out on their bmx bikes every day tearing it up. CURB ENDO!