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!

Green cars

I got hit by a car last night. Scary stuff huh? If you don't think so then you are inconsiderate, you doody head. I've had alot of people asking what happened so this is where I will recount the nights events in full.

First off we met for the hobo ride which despite being cold (there was snow! We are hardcore bikers!)had a good showing. We rode out to the tracks and started a fire, which is pretty hard to do when it's really windy out, and cooked some beans, drank some beers, and ate some apples. Not a bad dinner at all. The beans had a bit off ash in them, but we're hardcore biking hobos, ash doesn't matter. Being juvinile Thomas and I went and broke some bottles on the train tracks. Someone threw an old railroad tie on the fire resulting in the worse smelling smoke in the world which permeated our clothes, hair, and even worse, messenger bags! but I suppose if you are going to play hobo you better smell like a hobo. We all stood around the fire melting our shoes and talking untill eventually the cold won out and drove us away. Peeing on campfires makes some rank smoke.

Meeting up before the hobo ride. Short bike day!

After hobo time we decided to go ride around town for a while than go back to a guys house (sorry I forgot your name) and hang out and drink for a while. On the ride Anna and I split off for a minuite and ended up splitting up. I rode into town looking for the rest of the pack when I finally got ahold of Thomas and started heading towards Water St. While I was heading down First ave. near Chippewa I saw a car begining to move into my lane. Curious as to whether or not they saw me I began to slow down, by this point I was well into the intersection. Sure enought the car, with no turn signal mind you, took their left turn and took me out in the process. I ended up flying over their hood and landing on the sidewalk. where I rolled around trying to catch my breath, and yelled at the guy not to move his car. I rolled around some more and swore a bunch because I thought my leg was busted, and could see my bike was clearly trashed.

Bent rim, bent forks, bent bars, sad face

The guy called the cops and they showed up along with the EMTs and fire department. By this time I could walk and hobble into the ambulance to get checked out while the cops did their cop stuff. Everything seemed ok, and considering how much adrenaline I had going I could have a bone sticking out and wouldn't have felt it. After that ordeal I got out of the ambulance and was fortunate enough to see friends there waiting to see if I was ok. Many thanks to you guys for sticking around, it's alot less intimidating to deal with cops, and EMTs, and all that sort of stuff when you have the support of other people around you, pat yourself on the back, you know who you are. So I ended up talking to the cops and all that stuff. The consensus was that I was not at fault, and the only thing I did wrong was not have a light on the front of my bike, I always ride with my tailight at night. I ended up getting a $20 ticket for that and the guy who hit me got a $160 ticket and 4 points off for failure to yield. Fortunetly for me the guy who hit me was level headed and I got all of his insurance info. Thomas, Anna, and I walked back to my house and chilled for a litle bit, then thomas took off and I decided to check myself out now that the adrenaline coursing through my veins finally slowed to a trickle and my heart wasn't beating out of my chest. My arm looked all fucked up so Anna and I ened up driving to the hospital to get it checked out.

6 x-rays and an hour and a half later they concluded that I simply sprained my shoulder. My arm hurts like hell and I alwsy thought sprains were wimpy things, but according to dictionary.com it is "a sudden or violent twist or wrench of a joint causing the stretching or tearing of ligaments and often rupture of blood vessels with hemorrhage into the tissues" I guess thats pretty tough. I got some painkillers and went home to go to bed.

There is something I want to get off my chest though. It's amazing to me how much animosity you get as a biker. I've grown used to it, but in situations like this it really bugs me. I am an experienced biekr who wasn't doing a single thing illegal when that car hit me. Yet I tell people what happened the automatically assume that I must have been at fault some how. Somehow simply riding a bike makes you less of a person and instantly at fault for any accident that happens. So to all you cynics, no this wan't my fault. if you don't believe me call the cops and get a copy of the accident report.

And everyone remember that no matter how good of a biker you think you are it just takes one car not paying attention, or not caring, and you are on the ground broken or dead. You can be covered in reflective tape, and lights, but if a driver isn't paying attention it doesnt matter. That said, ride safe.

Well, overall I had a decent night. thanks for everyone coming out to ride and thanks to my friends who have called and stuff to make sure I'm ok. Sorry the night had to end early, Im kind of bummed we couldn't have rode around longer. Next time I will try my hardest not to get hit.

O yea, I rode bike to school today. The pedal power dont stop.

Brrr.....

It's cold outside. I fear no more of this.....

And much more of this....

The view (or lack there of) outside my window this morning. All signals lead to depression.

Todays forcasted high is a whopping 40 degrees with wind gusts at 40mph. Four layers on my chest provide for adequate warmth outside, and of course sweating inside. Regardless of the cold I am calling devoted souls out to a hobo ride tonight. Meet at 5pm at racys where we will ride to the tracks on the north side of town and sit around a campfire and wait for a train to go by. Bring food and friends, and dress for the weather.

I always find it's funny seeing the bike racks thin out during the winter. It goes from not being able to find an open space anywhere, to maybe 10 bikes parked at any given rack. Already you can see the parking lots, and streets filling up a little bit more, and more bikes left at racks tipped over with flat tires. Come on people it's not THAT miserable out, yet...

Clap your hands

This morning I woke up and went for a bike ride around town for a couple hours. I will never get over how good it feels to go for a bike ride early in the morning before cars hit the streets, when the air is still brisk, and people are taking their dogs for a morning walk. It's one of those things that makes you feel alot more connected to your enviroment than just sitting in a car driving to mcdonalds to catch breakfast slop before they switch over to lunch slop. As much as I love late night bike rides, morning bike rides take the cake for me. Cruising down the streets while the sun is still breaking with coffee flowing through your veins is just euphoria. Around Banburry I got off my bike and climbed on the roof of a building and sat there for a while reading old grafitii saying "hope the cops catch u not me", fair enough I guess. I stook around long enough to eat the banana I brough along and took off towards Main st. Heading down Main st. hill I was feeling good enough and started to go into a skid towards the light. And sure enough the real and all its baggage of work, school, rent, familey, etc. hits me just like the blacktop.

I pulled my bike off the road by it's bent handlebars getting blood on my grips. Checked my body for less obvious injuries than the blood running down my hand, and began to walk home.

Such is life.

Halloween/Hobo Day

These are a few pictures from the halloween event that Boneshaker bike collective put on. Overall I think it was a success and we had a pretty decent turnout. Started off with a bare rim race which I lost by a longshot. Then a game of footdown, followed by tall bike jousting or a bunny hop contest or something, I cant remember. I really want to thank everyone that came out, and I hope you all come out to the next event we have, which hopefully will be even better than this one. I also have quite a few patches left over from the event, so if you would still like one and didn't get one hit me up. They look like this....

Last night Thomas and I rode down to the tracks and made a hobo dinner on a campfire. Its amazing how good it feels to go out and do something creative with your time rather than sit around in front of the tv all night. Something about going out one night and cooking a simple dinner on a campfire and eating with with a friend just feels really good. It makes you realize that all the lies were fed about needing expensive stuff just to have fun, or relax are incredibly off base. After all, how can you relax in your new lazy boy if you are still worried about how you are going to pay for it?

It also made me think about the fact that most of us are fortunate enough to be able to take these things for granted. It's easy to think your life is a wreck, but when you think about how good we have it, it's pretty easy to see things aren't that bad. That is not to say that we are not entitled to feel overwhelmed, especially considering I've felt overwhelmed 90% of my life, but that when we do feel like life is crashing around us we should try to step back and realize just how lucky we are to have some of the shit we have. This is a funny thing for me to say as anyone who knows me knows I am a cynic, but I guess there is still truth in it.

So what do bikes have to do with that crap? When most of us are on our bikes we feel a intimate connection with the world. Either weaving through cars or just riding down the sidewalk, we create an enviroment that is our own, and if only for that one ride is subject to our whims. We are taking our lifes into our own hands and creating an enviroment outside of the structure of buying to be happy. Or maybe Im just full of shit, you be the judge.

Brand new

This blog was started the day after the first ever Boneshaker Halloween bash. The sucess of the event and other bike events in Eau Claire has all led me to one conclusion. That is that the bike scene in Eau Claire is only getting bigger. The amount of fixed gears, freakbikes, bmx and other bikes seems to only be increasing. More bike racks are sprouting up to cater to this demand. The problem I see is that the bike scene lacks a catalyst to keep this scene together. Hopefully this page can help provide that catalyst.

In creating this page I am only expressing my thoughts and opinions on biking in Eau Claire, and biking in general. It is important to note that these are only my opinions, and not the voice of any group, or representation of anyone else besides myself.

As of this post I am 20 years old, and have been living in Eau Claire for about 2 years. I have been a long time bike junkie, starting out on a Huffy Mojave Gulch MTB, moving to a Schwinn powermatic Pro BMX, to a Schwinn World Sport which I later turned into a fixed gear. Now I ride a Redline triple x bmx, a Windsor the hour fixed gear, and a whole host of other tall bikes and choppers. I love bikes of all types, but try to keep everything cheap as possible.

Hopefully soon enough I will be posting pictures and other stuff on a regular basis. But posts may be limited sometimes as being a full time student, working, and being involved in other groups takes time. If you have something you want added or find intresting please feel free to contact me.