Fuzzy Bike Supreme

Now I've seen some Fuzz Bikes, but this one that I spotted a few nights ago is the Fuzziest so far. Yowie.

When the going gets weird...

The weird turn pro...

I forget from where I first heard that phrase, but how appropriate it is...

My knee is recovering steadily and I am able to bicycle for ever so slightly longer commute distances. I'm really looking forward to when I can do some basic recreational riding (starting off at about 30 miles / 3 hours of easy riding). My touring road bike had minimalist 'clip' only pedals on it and I wanted to change them out for some dual-use 'clip' and 'no-clip' pedals as my right knee is still a bit sensitive to twisting..

I replaced the right pedal without any problems, but the left pedal just wasn't going to budge with the cheap soft-steel short wrench that I was using (see top picture. I've left out from the photo the hammer that I was using to bang on the wrench lest I cause heart-attacks within the chests of any professional bike mechanics as a result displaying such abuse of equipment).

Time for some real equipment !

I bit the bullet and ante-d up for a professional grade purpose made 15mm pedal wrench. A thick piece of hardened steel that's long enough to provide plenty of leverage. I hook the wrench up to the pedal and apply torque via the nicely cushioned handle...

viola.. With the greatest of ease the pedal is loosened and I complete the pedal change.

Right tool for the job !

Lazy San Francisco Sunday

It was a beautiful, sunny and warm Sunday in San Francisco.
The day started off with some time at a cafe doing a little bit of work that needed to get finished. At one point I looked out the window and noticed 2 cyclists taking a break outside the window. I used to be quite the avid road bicyclist myself but I'm apparently of the old school. When we took breaks back in the day, we'd stand around, drink water and talk to each other. I notice here that when the new cyclists take a break, rather than go for the water, out come the phones so that they can separately communicate with persons not physically present. How times have changed.

It's time to go to afternoon Ballet class downtown. As I'm packing up to go, I notice that someone has hung an inflatable blue octopus outside their window. Nice surprise.

Ballet class over, I'm to meet up with some dancers at a cafe to plan a rehearsal schedule for a group dance piece that I'll be performing in at a charity dance concert in November. As I pulled up to the cafe, I saw that the mural on the outside of the cafe wall looked like the perfect backdrop to absorb the bike.

2 Wheels Good

Someone asked me about this recently, so here goes.

I like vehicles with 2 wheels. With a motor or human powered, doesn't matter. The sensation of getting around on 2 wheels is a gift to us from the laws of angular momentum (the spinning wheels wanting to keep us consistently oriented.. (that'd be rubber side down) ). The nice part of riding on 2 wheels (the exposure) is also the most risky part of riding on 2 wheels (the exposure). Because of the risks I no longer depend on them for getting around in all conditions, specifically I try to avoid riding at night in the rain. Motorcycle OR Bicycle the chance of being flattened by something on the road with 4 wheels is increased due to decreased visibility in the rain. (Riding in a city on a Friday or Saturday night is another time to be really cautious).
Sometimes when going out to a nice place on a nice day for a recreational bicycle ride, it seemed like a waste of a nice day to be sitting boxed up in a car.. So the obvious thing was to rig up a motorcycle to carry a bicycle and have a nice day out on both a bicycle and motorcycle ride. I've seen various solutions to this problem implemented by other like minded souls. This one is the final version 2.0 for me. Does the job and works fine. I've taken it to lots of places, up and down the western states, out to visit my sister in Minnesota (to do a bicycle club ride with her in Minneapolis, what else ?). This picture was taken on a highway heading towards Tucson during a Christmas Vacation trip out to Arizona (December temps were in the 70's mmmmmm.....)

Not enough bicycle parking in SF

Went to my favorite SF Cafe on Guerrero st to do some work. All the usual poles were already taken by locked bikes....
sigh...

sometimes necessity is the mother of invention (as they say)...

I got my spot !