That's too beautiful to be a beater!

Believe it or not, it is my #1 beater. Only paid $50 for it. the wheels were shot, so I slapped some spare wheels and tires I had laying around, change the bartape and put on a laying around matching seat too, and whala!!

New winter commuter! I use my road bike in good weather.

Finally received cable guides from Van Dessel, after three months of trying. Found bar wrap and grips that match the frame, waxed the frame, wrapped the top tubes to protect the paint (which chips pretty easily) from the chain lock and whatever I lock up to, and serviced both hubs.





Later this winter I'll probably switch out the two Monkeylectric lights for a single MiniMonkey, when it becomes available. Eventually I'd like to swap out all of the silver components for black, but for now everything is dialed and I'm done messing with it, so I can just ride.

GriddleCakes you once again set my bicycle lust on fire! That is such a nice looking machine -

Oh my goodness. If you passed me while riding that bike, I'd probably give you a wolf whistle, which would be weird as I'm not gay. But I'm kinda gay for your bike (I love yellow).

Here's my Pista, albeit little grimy, it's been pretty nasty in the Northeast lately.

SpokePOV??

Yeah, Monkey Lights. 16 colors and 9 patterns, of which you can choose what you want displayed, and they're fully water and weather-proof. Great active side visibility, much better than just reflectors IMHO (although I do have a set of Lightweights reflectors that I've been meaning to put on the bike). Even when you're stopped, they're bright enough to be very eye catching; they have two brightness settings, and I only ever have them on low, because high is just overkill:



It was bright enough that night to ride without lights, but I thought it'd be neat to get a pic of my bike lights reflecting off the snow, so I pulled over and turned 'em on for what turned out to be a pretty crappy iPhone pic. Anyway, the spoke lights are on high in this pic, and the yellow and white are the brightest of the colors; the greens, blues, and purples are less intense.

I've had a lot of positive responses from motorists and pedestrians alike because of the lights. Motorists are much more likely to hang back at intersections, not creep at me as I cross in front of them, and sometimes wave even (which I get on neighborhood roads regardless, but it's weird to have people wave at you as you cross a major intersection in the middle of a business district). Peds just shout out, which is fun; just last night a group of teens all started yelling at me to "go faster!" as I passed by the downtown transit center, so I did, and they let out with a bunch of "hell yeah!"s and "WOOOOO!"s.

Downsides are the weight (they take three AA batteries each, and you can feel the batteries rolling around the wheel if you only mount one light, so I mounted two; better balance, but double the weight), a bit of increased wind resistance in cross winds (the front wheel wants to deflect and turn), and the fact that they're not street legal (I've heard of people being told by the police to turn them off). Cops around here don't care (I've had one ask me where I got them and how much they cost, and that's all the police attention I've had), and if they did then I would just run them on yellow and white only with one of the more neutral patterns (it's mainly the non-standard colors that are illegal, I think), but depending on where you are they might garner some unwanted attention.

I'm probably going to sell mine as soon as the newer, smaller version comes out; the Mini Monkey. They moved the battery mount to the hub, and the light board is 1/3 the size. There are fewer lights, so the display is smaller and less impressive, which is fine by me; as neat as it is to be a rolling techno-light display, all I really want is for people to not run me over from the side or hook me, and the Mini seems like a less obnoxious way to accomplish that.

New Handsome Cycles Speedy Devil build. Ready for it's maiden voyage to work tomorrow morning. I've never been more excited to ride in freezing temperatures...

love it!

Cool -- I was unaware of the commercial version. Glad to see that Limor gets at least a tiny nod in his credits for "inspiration."

My commuter:

Can I get a "hell yeah"?
Man, that is awesome.

Almost finished building this guy up.




It's got 700c wheels that I got off some trashed japanese bike. I rebuilt the back one with a coaster brake hub, then they st around in the junk pile for a year or two.
Fast forward to this week: I bought a Schwinn Sprint frame for $15. Hit up REI this morning to get some tires, Vittoria Randonneur Cross x2.
Everything else came out of the junk box. Bars are just chopped and flopped drop bars from the japanese donor. I filed a notch in one end, drilled two holes underneath it, and ziptied in an old LED light.
Tomorrow I'll get a decent set of cranks and a smaller chain ring from the bike co-op. I need to go down two teeth, and I'll be golden. It's one big hill on the way home.
I'll have about $75 into this thing, depending on how much the cranks are. I think I'll be happy with it, and If not, I can put it on Craigslist for $500.

This is my commuter, touring and all around ride.

My joy ride/typical commuter. Can carry lunch, tablet, maybe a book, and possibly change of clothes. I typically only carry food/tablet.


Ride with family/bad weather commuter. I can really carry a lot of stuff in it if needed. It folds up as well which is a plus.

For time being, totally gave up on the idea of backpack unless I must. Time to get rid of mission workshop vandal I purchased on whim... -__-;

That's the W.T.F., correct?

What size?

It's a WTF, indeed. Size is 53 inches.

The road bike, with new pedals, shorter (and uglier) stem, and changed over to a 1x8 drivetrain. It must say something about how big of a safety dork you are when you sacrifice your highest speed gears to make room for a rear view mirror (plus, in my opinion, bar-end shifters were awesome on north road bars, but not so much on drop bars; I want to get a brifter for the rear gears, eventually). I don't have access to a white garage door, so I used a white oven door for a backdrop.





I don't know that I've ever posted my lady's commuter in here, which happens to also be my first commuter, and the very first bike that I purchased and rode as an adult. She's chipped and dirty; has been crashed into cars, trees, curbs, boulders, parking meters, trails, and roads; taught me how to jump curbs and potholes and how to ride everything from singletrack to urban jungle, and why I shouldn't ride drunk (see the 'parking meters' entry from the previous sentence fragment); is easily on her 4th fork, 2nd rear derailleur, 2nd rear wheel, 3rd or 4th front wheel, and I don't know how many tubes, tires, and chains; and even though she's humble and kind of ill-fitting (for me), I think I love this bike more than all of my other bikes combined. I'd be bummed if any of my bikes were stolen or broken, but the day that Fatty Lumpkin is no longer in my life, I just might cry a little bit.



Fatty Lumpkin, long may she roll.

edit: the Lady G'Cakes informs me that Fatty has also been crashed into a hedge of blackberry bushes, and that I'm not the only one whom Fatty's taught to not cycle drunk.

The kuwie is down once again she lost the nearly new rear XT hub (thanks shimano) So the golden rocket aka the winter bike is back in action with some minor changes from last month. The trek (golden rocket) is now sporting flat bar again due to a broken brake lever on the drop bars and I took the rear rack off for now but I do have some shiny new fenders, and had to switch to my nashbar canti's due to V-brake/fender clearance issues. Anyways here she is in current form with some fatty ole smoothies, though I have a feeling the studs will be going on her soon enough.

I really enjoy looking at the bikes on this forum! I'm going to get some pics up soon of my bikes.
What program do I need to download to my computer to see the pics that are showing up as a little blue square with a triangle?

Well I got the Kuwie back up and running, put the tires on the "new" wheel set, went with silver this time. Older STX parralax rear hub and formula front hub laced to Araya double wall rims. Also a few changes to the Kuwie, put some Dia comp canti's on and switched out the fenders for a cheap set of plastics for the winter. Also got the good ole studded tire mounted onto and extra rim, as snow is already in the forecast for Boise.



Silver and Gold!

And some studded madness.

Normally I look at bike as function and not form so I don't put a lot of thought into aesthetics, but I like the look of that road bike.

and a +1 on the LOTR bike name reference.