My wife on her IRO, My friend on his Fuji track, and I rode around the block. Just for fun. We practiced our skidding technique . We ran into 4 seperate friends and said hello. According to Sue and Paul we rode 1.84 miles. We got very sweaty riding in the intense humidity. Thats all.

Anyone else have some simple fun last night?

I recently sold my first fixed conversion to my bandmate, Jim. Last night, he and I rode home together from practice for the first time and it was a really nice ride on a realy nice night. Also, although it didn't happen last night, a group of friends and I have started having Sunday night bike dinners. Every week we pick a restaurant, posse up, and stuff our fat craws.

m.

Reminiscent of Wesley Willis...rock on Philly

That is a great idea!

Yesterday I rolled out of bed at 5:15am. I rode sweep on a 25 miler and helped one unlucky rider by having my mini-pump. Rutt was there but he was too cool for our ride so he went out with a different group. There was much spandex and expensive bikes, but we got love.

We returned to base and had a meat-tastic breakfast courtesy of Redbones while theoretically watching the Tour de France and I went home and chilled out the rest of the day because I took it off. Total mileage: a respectable but not excessive 40.

I did not involve myself in any pointless Internets discussions about what is or is not cool or acceptable about my bike, my riding, or my personal hygiene.. Instead I focused on riding my bike, visiting this forum, drinking more than I should (that's the danger of sitting around the apartment on a hot hazy day), and have a chill day. Even when the power went out for like 5 or 6 hours, I didn't sweat it. Well, actually I did, but mainly because it was hot and humid as a mf. Relax.

Everyone should try it.

I rode around the neighbourhood a little and finally liking my switch to drops. I wrapped the flats at the bottom with regular padded tape (all brought on by recent visits to the track) but I needed some grip up top so I procured some cloth tape (for some reason, the thinner feel is nicer on drops than bullhorns for me) and wrapped up the rest of the drops 3/4 of the way leaving the top flats bare. I like this.

I've been riding brakeless lately but working on ride flow -- trying to not stop or put a foot down anywhere. I'm going at a more relaxed and slower pace as a result and I'm completely alert. I'm actually enjoying the ride more because I don't feel frantic about getting into a high speed, but rather being careful and just trying to lay down a good line. It reminds me of skateboarding in the way that I'd pick out a line before doing it and trying to keep it all going as opposed to doing the one big trick. Just small little tricks here and there and adapting to the street as it comes up underneath me.

As I was passing by a playlot, a 10 year old kid on a bike decides to not look and cross right into the street in front of me - silly kid. A car could have totally taken him out. I was in no way going fast enough so I wasn't worried but I seemed to backpedal hard enough that I did a small skid at very low speed in the saddle. So after that, I started doing them all over the place, trying to get comfy with it. Takes a lot of effort but it's nice to know that I can do that seated if need be.

After that, the girl and I met up, gobbled down some cajun food (oytser po-boy!) and then went to watch The March of the Penguins - such a goddamn cute movie. I wanted to adopt a penguin after that.

P.S. As for this forum - if the title is any indication, there are plenty of threads I've been avoiding.

Me too: https://www.penguinwarehouse.com/index.php

My road bike had a broken spoke, so I decided to take my track bike out for a spin without changing gears or putting on a brake.
Slightly scary, very fun.
When I got home I cut the lawn and my lady hosed off my sweaty sticky grass legs in the backyard. That felt nice.

i had a relaxing ride home from work. we had a birthday party for my cat penelope, and ladies from SCUL and 'Girls Ride' came over to hang and eat cupcakes. the living room was full of bikes, and i took a short, slow midnight ride to cool off a bit. i've started thinking of getting a larger chainring than what i'm running now (40 x 15) and i feel like i'm spinning a bit too much.

Last night I took my fixie conversion out for a spin since I hadn't gotten in my usual mid-day ride. Was planning on just cruising around the neighborhood, but was having good fun so I went off to find some hills. Got back an hour and a half later absolutely soaked because of the humidity. Had a nice chat w/some other riders on the way.

Life is good when you're on a bike.

Last night I built a roadbike for a guy at work and my friend stopped by the bikeshop and invited me to her house for beer and homemade spaghetti. It was really nice out and I rode my fat-tire fixie home through the park.

I rode my trackbike to work and thought about all of the scenes in "Batman Begins" that were shot on the route of my daily commute. I love riding over the bridge on Kinzie, and all the scenery around the river.

Summer=Good times.

I finally got my front wheel rebuilt, trued, and back on the bike so I can commute by bicycle again. Yesterday will be the last day I drive to work for quite a while.

One of my clients invited me to their midweek happy hour yesterday, so I clocked out at 3pm and rode my beloved fixie over to the Emeryville marina. One of the folks at the company has a dad who owns a boat, so we sat on said boat and snacked and drank mojitos. I brought some of my homemade goat cheese, which everyone liked and gobbled up instantly! That's a big compliment, especially since it was my first time making chevre.

It was pleasantly cool on the water. We went for a brief spin out onto the bay too. Then I got to ride my bike home. It was one of those days when my gearing felt high--this weird mental flinch, a desire to shift down--but I just pedaled through it and got rolling. Unfortunately (apologies, negativity content) my cool-looking handlebar setup is really not suitable for anything but looking at. Nevertheless i had a good, strong, sweaty ride home and when I got home Holly was cooking up a spinach+greens quiche that was one of the best ever. Buckwheat crust!

That sunday night bike dinner is a great idea!

Yesterday I woke up at 5:30 am and took my fixed conversion into Boston's financial district. I wear a helmet and run two brakes because I've only been riding fixed for like a month. At red lights I poorly practiced track stands, which I totally suck at currently and at one point I fell. The Boston Herald delivery truck guy and I had a good laugh after he asked me if I was OK. I then rode over every bridge connecting boston and cambridge and ended up at my place in allston.

Then I got dressed and went to my corporate job. During cigarette breaks I oggled bikes that passed by.

Then I got home from work and got back on my bike and rode into JP, right around when it started thundering. FINALLY, that freaking swamp-ass humidity that's been hanging around Boston for about a week loosened up and it felt great to be outside in the city during summer.

I went home and used that cool gmap pedometer to learn that I'd riden 30 miles that day (more than I've ever done in a day before, like I said I'm a total newbie). Then I passed out. It was a great day.

you say you got really sweaty after 1.84mi due to the humidity?
here's a happy story... in santa cruz, you never get sweaty, and the temperature never wavers from 75 degrees with a cool breeze... and it's beautiful...

but ya, philly is a great place.... i'm sure..

this technique also reminds me of downhill skiing. i appreciate what you mean about feeling completely alert.
also, nice avatar!

speaking of chicago, on my bike trip cross country, we were riding late at night to get to a messenger mud wrestling party to benefit a womens shelter, when we were lost and riding downtown we came to wooden DO NOT CROSS barricades that really only served the purpose of blocking cars... we just kept going... then we passed some kids with flashlights and they were too busy yacking to notice us approaching and started shouting at us to get back, then we just took another corner, and there was all this movie filming going on and it turns out we rode through the Batman set lol...

last weekend my buddy and I had a good ride through golden gate park and then upper/lower haight just riding slow and people watching, having a good time and decompressing. sometimes slow rides, good weather and great company are the best combination.

get this: i totally rode my bike yesterday (and today!). it was sweet.

I was going to go riding last night, but Rattking and I drank 2-4-1's for awhile, then hit another bar for insanely tall shots of whiskey, then went by HardTimes for some grub. Some guy grabbed my food by mistake, so we had to wait while they cooked more up - it was about 3am by the time we left, so we just both headed to our homes.

Going down the greenway, I was moving all sorts of slow, then ran into a guy that hasn't been out on the Sat rides in awhile. We talked for a bit - I'd mention his new rims, but that'd be more bag-matching fixie talk. I'll leave it at 'it is possible to get a chrome pista to look sweet.'

Got home, passed out. Woke back up at 5am to a huge thunderstorm. I probably would have been out in it if we'd actually gone out on a longer ride...

Yesterday I rode my newly set up fixie into work, the long way. Stretched my usual 9mile commute to a 16mile climbing, ridgetop route through the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Good stuff, even if it was 80+deg and 90% humidity. I just switched up my fork to one that is a bit shorter axle-crown and with less rake, and put a cut down riser on my bike, and liked the position quite a bit.

After work, I cleaned the chain, removed a link to shorten up the rear end, and rode home. Later in the evening a few co workers came over, we double checked everyones personal safety, and headed to the bar for pizza, beers and the Tour on a big screen with 20 or so friends of friends. My girlfriend met us there on her one-speed Schwinn Le Tour that we recently built together, and we rode back home later in the evening. Its her first bike since childhood, and its lovely riding around town with her.

That was my evening. And no one criticized my get up.

-brad

last night i just rode over to the slop-in to get something for dessert for my younger son and me. ms. cicadashell was with the older boy and a couple of his friends seeing "wedding crashers" (for the love of pete), so it was just us two, chilling out at home. tonight i may ride downtown and check in on the street art fairs, contribute a little rolling art of my own. but first i gotta repack the headset and clean the chain on my track bike, after riding in the rain last saturday. grit - bleah! i wonder what i did to my achilles tendon - it hurts.

two questions and then some posi:

where are the tall whiskey shots?

what's up with that saturday night ride (i remember hearing about it months ago on this forum, but i've never been)?

now, as promised:

last night i biked home the seven miles or so on the greenway from st. louis park to the deep south of minneapolis. then i met up with a friend-of-a-friend who was, in his words, "totally stoked" to buy my too-small fixed conversion off of me. it's great for him, because there's cogs on both sides of the flip-flop hub, so he can start out learning singlespeed. it's great for me because i just bought an iro mark v and needed the cash and the space.

then my wife came home and i made yummy vegan spaghetti and we finished off the last bits of a bottle of wine, then started our math homework. luckily, the neighbors came over with their 10-month-old son, oscar, and asked if we wanted to walk to powderhorn park so oscar could swing. we did, so we did. it was a great night.

then we did more math homework and went to bed.

not last night, but say, 3 days ago... on a weekend visit to tennessee, we figured we couldn't have an entire weekend without bikes, so we rented from the LBS. the only thing they had for me was a singlspeed cruiser - old style, with a coaster brake (sweeeeet!) - thing musta weighed like 60 pounds. fun as hell to meander around, a beast to haul up hills, and a blast to skid on... that was good times.

yesterday? i stripped down one frame to make way for the one that just arrived in the mail from ebay. should be up and running in a couple of days. oh yeah, and i got a trailer for the dog too. that will be fun.

ps - this thread rocks.