slvoid

I've decided to join the dark side...

From this:


to this:


all geeked out for commuting:

Haptown

If you really want to geek it out, add some fenders. I find them very useful on wet, sloppy days. Nice bike btw - is it a fixie or a ss?

SingingSabre 

Almost done.

You need two more PB SuperFlashes on the back.

Sweet ride!

newbojeff

Uh oh. Wasn't it you, slvoid, who said you ride through traffic, shifting like a formula one racer? Gonna be tough to do that on the new bike.

Looks very sweet. Looking forward to the first week's review.

fat_bike_nut

Seeing as how he only has one brake attached, I'd say fixed wheel. A freewheel with only the front brake attached isn't a good idea.

JeffS

Nice. I've been spending most of my time lately on a Cannondale Capo I picked up used a while back.

Have to switch back to the gears every few days to rest though.

jdeane4

Nice bike.

slvoid

It's a fixie. I'm not putting on fenders, I don't ride in the rain anymore (keep my bikes next to the couch).
I've decided that while it was fun diving into intersections at 25+ mph, grabbing my dual disc brakes, downshifting 3-5 gears at a time and accelerating out of corners, it did seem pretty stupid, though the ultegra shifters have held up to tens of thousands of shifts now plus a few crashes with no problems.

So now it's fixie, can't coast, ride like a little old lady time. I was finding all the creature comforts of the old commuter kind of distracting. I could practically close my eyes, take my hands off the handle bars, and ride over a patch of cobble stones, into a red light and still have time to open my eyes at the last minute to brake, which as fun as it was, made me really complacent...

Lossy

Yes, pedal stike should wake you up.

Great bike, what gearing did you select?

JeffS

BTW, all this talk of tax refunds is depressing me... I'm clearly doing something wrong since I haven't seen one of those in about six years.

slvoid

48x16

slvoid

Take 0, get more money back.

bsut

You're doing it right. It's the people getting refunds who are doing it wrong. They're giving the government an interest-free loan.

The best way to manage your taxes is to reduce your withholdings or estimated payments so you owe a huge amount on April 15 - just under the threshhold for getting audited because you didn't withhold enough. Then you withhold that amount from yourself and invest it in a CD or whatever's convenient for you. That way you're earning interest on your money, instead of the government. Then cash out the CD on April 14 so you have enough balance in your checking account to cover the check to the IRS.

slvoid

Ideally, I already know all of that, I just can't get myself to be that diligent with my money.

bsut

Everybody already knows all that. It's the same lecture as eat more green leafy vegetables and whole grains and floss after every meal.

jyossarian

That's like 1 skid patch, 2 if you ambi-skid. Better stock up on tires.

velogreen

Sweet machine, slvoid. I prefer it without fenders. Do you usually ride on the flats on your fixed-gear bike? Or do you have any hilly parts? Fixed-gear bikes are the craze here in Santa Cruz with students, despite the hilly climb to campus. I still haven't quite figured that one out...

slvoid

There aren't that many hills here cept bridges and such. Mostly street riding.

48x16 is a pretty high gear, I can't skid yet w/o throwing myself off but when I do, yeah, 48x16 only allows me 1 patch... 48x17 is perfect, 17 patches w/o being geared too high.

0_emissions :=)

Question: what in the world were you watching when you snapped that first pic?

dobber

Why on earth would anyone want to give the guberment more money than necessary? I've had my withholding fine tuned to +/- $100 for 15 years.

doraemonkey

I'm more interested in what's on the book shelf. From what I can see in the low res pics, 9/11 commission report, physics and calculus text books, some spanish text books, and a whole bunch of stuff that resembles my own shelf.

Cool bike though, add a little danger to spice your commute?

2manybikes

The Langster is beautiful.

Did you follow through with the plan to get rid of the Giant ? It's such a nice bike.
Have you ridden the new bike much?

Gibbygoo

Loan the feds your money interest free!

slvoid

Read above post!

slvoid

Some show on the discovery channel, I swear it's not some home made porno!

Yeah, the other bike made me a little too careless. The added danger, at least for now, makes me a lot more careful...
Does your bookshelf look like this: 9/11 report, german, italian, spanish and french books, grays anatomy, takes of edgar allen poe, shakespeare, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, the GMATS review book, gotham, applied cryptography, mountaineering, calculus, biomaterials science, finite elements, physics, machine design, materials science, and a lot of scifi behind those.

Yeah, I'm working out a deal to sell the ocr touring to someone who actually wants to go touring with it. I've ridden about 12 miles so far on it.