So, I had been meaning to take some photographs of my new surly, which I named 'luck hucker', and show it off here to all of you.
I wish I had been able to do this under better circumstances.

So I was riding home from a friends house last night, where we imbibed a few beers and some whiskey, so I was feelin' pretty good. Not drunk, by any means, but a little tipsy.
I was somewhere near Kimball and Division in chicago, though I'm not really sure exactly where, as it all gets a little fuzzy.

I was riding along and I swerved right a little bit to avoid a woman who was crossing the street. I immediately noticed a group of dudes on the curb on the right. One of them starts to walk into the street, so I swerve a little left to avoid him.

As I was passing him, he CRACKED me in the face with some sort of heavy stick/broom handle/small baseball bat.

I hear from the crowd: "DAMN!"....laughter.....
Which I took to mean something like: "Damn! You got that guy GOOD!"

This all happened pretty fast. I was probably doing about 16MPH.
I kept riding. I peeled my glasses off of my face and they crumbled into pieces, so I threw them to the ground. Then the blood.
SO much blood simply pouring down my face, all over myself and my bike. I didn't think it was too bad, but there was so much blood.

I managed to call my girlfriend while riding and screamed something incoherent and probably very frightening to her like....."Just whacked in the face!....baseball bat.....blood everywhere!....those GO#@AMN FU*$#RS!!....I'm almost home..." Hung up.

The rest of the ride home was a blur, and I am probably VERY lucky that I didn't crash or get hit by a car, because I don't really remember it. I got home and ran to the shower, started to wash my head, and when I looked in the mirror I knew it was BAD. The girlfriend called 911 and the ambulance showed up in about 5 minutes, which is really fast. The medics called the cops and took me to the ER.

The ER doc said that the gash was almost down to my skull. I got 5 internal stitches and 10 or so regular stitches, and 2 days off work.

I had visions of what might have happened if I had stopped, or been knocked down, and I really don't want to think of it.
I also had visions of what might have happened if I had a gun or some other kind of weapon, and how I could have stopped and beat the hell out of these idiots. That was only a flash of anger though, and I can't think of ANYTHING that I could have done in retaliation to this senseless violence that would make any sense of it or make me feel any better.

Senseless violence is just that, and there is NO JUSTIFIABLE VIOLENT answer to it. It sure does raise a good deal of anger and disbelief though.

So, without any further adieu, my Surly Luck Hucker.
I think I will take the rest of the stickers off because it is decidedly unlucky.....

Be careful out there.


Me....



























And cleaned up today.....








Custom PB superflash rack mount....