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.