It's been a long, long time...

and so much
has been happening!

a new bike

a new marriage

and
a whole new spring

Bike with a little extra somethin'

whether you
like it or not!

From
Chicago Craigslist...

Back in the land of the living...

and time for a nap!

The annual report is done. The annual meeting is over. The fundraising cycle is finished. And I've passed my 3-month probationary period at the new job! Here comes health insurance, business cards, and keys to the building. Time to rest then get back to my bikey lifestyle, including this blog. The winter is shaping up to ba long one; cold and dark. I want to send The Steel Bitch off for a powder-coating ... something in a navy blue or dark maroon. I'm giving it a rest after 5 years as my commuter bike and restoring it for next year's 3speed Tour. So I'll put Mike Bullis's Robin Hood together for my new commuter. Given the temps, I figure I'll have to covert my home office into a bike shop!

On the road

with the original
Working Bikes

I was just listening to Bob Edward's Weekend on Chicago Public Radio Sunday morning. He did a piece on Charles Kuralt's famous TV essays, interviewing his cameraman, Izzy Bleckman. And he mentioned Jethro Mann who back in the early 80s had started fixing bikes for the kids of his town, Belmont, NC. He told Kuralt that it hurt him to grow up without bikes. So he started a bike lending library. His garage was filled with wrecked bikes. The kids were careful to return the bikes every evening, about suppertime. Then he would work on them, sometimes until one or two o'clock in the morning.

Patently obvious...

or utterly
unnecessary?

The Boy made an interesting comment on my post, As you spin along... . He wonders where I find the more wacky topics on which I write. In a word - Google - especially its Patents Search. An incredible resource, it enables you to view every invention ever submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Plug in any term and you get the official documents.

I first used it when my interest was peaked by vestiges, mentioned in Tom Cuthbertson's classic, Anybody's Bike Book. According to him, a vestige is [a]nything on a bicycle that isn't essential. Our British Cousins would have referred to them as cyclealities back in the day. Most non-essential accessories were produced in Birmingham, UK. They included everything from bells to bags. Cuthbertson doesn't set much stock by them, though.

Extra. Dead weight. Some extras can be worth their weight. The others make me feel like I have appendicitis if I write about them, so I refuse to do much more than mention them ... Filth, Filth. Filth and junk. I refuse to say more about them.

Cuthbertson's attitude is both surprising and misplaced. Certainly things like bells, baskets, lights, and mirrors can clutter up a bike's feng-shui. But they are also a wonderful way to personalize what is essentially a mass-produced consumer item. Moreover, the fascinating history of their invention is virtually unknown among bike enthusiasts. So here are some vestiges that I think are utterly essential and intriguing!

The first bike basket

The first bike bell

This prevents women from exposing their derrières

the bottle generator

The first handlebar-mounted
bike mirror

And my personal fav:
a beverage container built into your helmet

Booze, Bicycles, & Brits!

more details on
the Windy City's
Tweed Ride

I recently realized that there's already a Queen's Ride celebrating Elizabeth II's first visit to Chicago on 6 July 1959. So I decided to rechristen our august event the 1st Annual Winston's Tweed Ride! Still inspired by The London Fixed-Gear and Single-Speed Forum's Tweed Run and challenged by San Francisco's Thursday Tweed Ride, it remains a celebration of herringbone, hip flasks, and our noble steeds. Everyone is invited! If you have a Brit bike, do ride. If you don't, but enjoy tweedy elegance, do ride. If you do both, CERTAINLY DO RIDE!!!

2 May 2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s invention of his exquisitely dry martini: copious amounts of gin poured over crushed ice while he observed the vermouth from across the room. The route, designed by the Right Honorable Lee Diamond, is 10 civilized miles meandering past (and into) some of The Windy City's most infamous (and still open) speakeasies. Where else but in these lively establishments would the ladies & gents find more bracing refreshments and hearty victuals?

As with our fellow tweed runs, we hope to offer small, but significant, prizes for:

• Most Dapper Chap
• Most Snappy Lass
• Most Stylish Noble Steed
• Most Inspired Interpretation of Tweediness
• Best Mustache
• (open to both lads and inventive lasses)

Stop me ...

if you think
you've heard this one before

Pure Vélopunk
by
The Smiths

Stop me, stop me
Stop me if you think that you've
Heard this one before

Stop me, stop me
Stop me if you think that you've
Heard this one before

Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh I still love you
...only slightly less than I used to
I was delayed, I was way-laid
An emergency stop
I smelt the last ten seconds of life
I carshed down on the crossbar
And the pain was enough to make
A shy, bald buddhist reflect
And plan a mass-murder

Who said I'd lied because I never
Who said I'd lied because I never

I was detained, I was restrained
He broke my knees
(and then he really laid into me)
Friday night in Out-patients

Who said I'd lied - because I never
Who said I'd lied - because I never

Oh, so I drank one
Or was it four
And when I fell on the floor...
...I drank more
Stop me, stop me
Stop me if you thinkthat you've
Heard this one before
Nothing's changed

I still love you
I still love you

But only slightly
Less than I used to

Shea's BIG Bike Session

bike bombing
in Santa Cruz!

Shea's BIG Bike Session
from Haro Bikes
on Vimeo

Shea Nyquist puts his old Haro frame
(or part of it anyways) to good use in Santa Cruz, CA.

What's inside your Sturmey-Archer?

planetary gears

Gizmodo, the gadget blog, has the answer. It features a fancy-schmancy business card by Adam Mayer. The digital design incorporates the ever popular, though always mysterious, SA guts. If you want to expand your origami skills in a whole new direction you can find the directions here. It's a great way to visualize what's going on inside your 3speed hub even if you don't need a business card in this crappy economy.

Bike queers

& lamp love

NYTimes
19 November 1900

NYTimes
1 July 1901

Winter's on the way

(despite
the respite)

...and so is bike abuse!

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

The raleigh extreme!

he ain't
no gentleman

But he is
a velopunk!

WD40

is NOT
a lube

Roll away & join the circus

...with the Tour de Fat
on 21st June!

The makers of Fat Tire beer have added The City of Big Shoulders to the 8th year of their bike circus tour. While partying might be one theme, at its heart it celebrates the bike, informs how to reduce our waste stream, encourages people to roll to work and for errands, and raises money for West Town Bikes.

The event starts of with a fantastic party-parade tour of Logan Square and Humboldt Park. Festival goers often dress in costume and decorate their most fun bikes and there's musical and acrobatic entertainment featuring our local notables, Mucca Pazza.

So make sure to join the circus in Palmer Square, Palmer Blvd. at Kedzie, from 10am-4pm. Bring your bike and your dancing shoes and be prepared for a great time!

Take a look at these Tour de Fat videos to find out more!

Hiatus?

...not quite

I was out in Ohio for work most of this week. And while I was gone it seems that we had our own version of Cloverfield a few streets over. Yep, that's one hell of a pothole.


On a more germane note, tonight is the night for our annual Chicago Critical Mass Polka Ride. We're rolling up to Lincoln Square to join the Polkaholics, the Chicago band that plays a high-speed collision of polka and rock 'n roll. Our destination is the Lincoln Square Lanes at 4874 N. Lincoln Avenue.

And temps are expected to hover around a balmy 18 degrees!

The Safety Bike

brought to you by
the CrimethInc
Ex-Workers'
Collective

CrimethInc. began in the mid-1990's. I can't report on the original goals of all the participants, but I can trace my own initial intentions to a discussion among some friends about the revolutionary organization Winston joins in Orwell's 1984. The idea came up that it was actually a branch of the government . . . and from there, we began to consider what the opposite kind of organization would be (one that purported to be a part of the culture industry that rules today, while secretly undermining it), and how to form one. The irony, the margin-walking between contradictions, both were intrinsic to CrimethInc. from the beginning . . . and honestly, I can tell you no better now than I could have then whether we are just indulging reactionary desires by forming yet another "revolutionary organization," or heroically helping humanity to evolve past the despotism of such a thing by detourning/deconstructing the idea of the revolutionary organization.

Nadia C.
Secret-ary of the Interior

Snowflake Alleycat

on the south side!

This Sunday, 2 December 2007, Chicago's Southsiders will be hosting an alley cat race starting in Hyde Park. Then it will head through Kenwood and Woodlawn. A top-secret bonfire at the point will hopefully follow. Proceeds from the $10 registration per team will go toward building a bike fleet for the Civic Knowledge Project at the U of C. Donations are also welcome.

Bikes & more bikes

UffdaDave, a college buddy from Ohio, is our guest blogger today. I don't think there's anyone else out there who appreciates beaters more. As I've written before, Dave first got me rolling with the Roadmaster he gave me. Much to his wife's chagrin, Dave collects and tools them in an old barn at the back of their farm lot. But it's not just about tooling. For Dave, it's also about the moving memories each beater evokes:

I have this old barn on my property. It has become a receptacle for my many things. Memorabilia that I don’t want to throw (or give) away; things that crowd the corners of my life and still cling to me for their sentimental value. In many ways it’s all just junk, but junk that comes with a story attached.

On a recent drizzly Sunday afternoon Nate, the youngest son, and I decided to take a ride. I’ve never minded riding in the rain or drizzle as long as it’s not too cold. We headed to the barn for our bikes and when I threw open the door I found myself confronted with years of accumulation with very little organization.

The most prominent of artifacts hiding in my barn are the bikes – and not all mine. In the first stall stood two little BMX bikes bought for my sons several years ago. They were purchased from the local discounter because I have this belief that I wasn’t about to purchase an expensive bicycle for the boys until they stopped growing. Both well used and desperately in need of some maintenance. The boys put many miles on the bikes before Ian (the oldest) decided to focus his energies elsewhere and Nate decided he needed a bigger bike.

Standing along side the BMX bikes are a pair of scooters also purchased for the boys back when the Razor scooters were all the rage. Living on a farm with a gravel drive and lots of land, the Razor was not very practical so we purchased scooters with larger, knobby-style tires. At first the boys were a little disappointed but they soon found that the larger tires were better for negotiating the obstacles along the sled-riding hill.

Many of days I would come home from work just in time to witness boys on scooters cruising through the trees from the hayfield above to the gardens below.

Back beyond the scooters is my old three-speed Hercules. I traded a 35mm camera for the bicycle and have never regretted the deal. I have a particular fondness for British three-speeds so when the opportunity presented itself I jumped on with a bit of hesitation. I’ve done some work on the Hercules but it still needs a great deal more restoration. I know I’ll get to it in the future but for now I occasionally pull it out and pedal up and down the driveway like some fancy English gentleman riding along a hedge-lined lane.

Right after the Hercules is the J.C. Higgins, a balloon-tire bicycle I purchased from Free Bikes for Kids. The bike is a late 40’s early 50’s model with a few pieces missing but I don’t mind, it was functioning and I always wanted a good old balloon-tire bike. Free Bikes for Kids was an organization dedicated to finding old bicycles, fixing them up and getting them into the hands off kids who couldn’t afford a bicycle. They felt ashamed that they were charging me $25 for the old beat up J.C. Higgins; I felt ashamed that I couldn’t give them $1,000 for their mission.

Hanging from the posts is a spare set of rims for my Nishiki touring bike, now nearly 20 years old. The bike has become the favorite of Nate who loves riding it every time we go out, even though the bike is just a little too tall for him. He insists on using the older leather strap toe clip and pedal combination I installed shortly after I purchased the bike at an auction. I had originally purchased it for my wife but she too was too short to ride it so I used it for touring.

Underneath the spare wheels stands my trusty Specialized hybrid bike. My wife bought it for me when Ian was four and Nate was two. This bike replaced the mountain bike she bought me years earlier – a bike I managed to bounce off the back of my car at 60 mph on a two lane highway. She got me a sturdy bike for riding the rough rural roads and for hauling the boys. For many years we would take rides, first with a child carrier and then with the co-pilot bike trailer. Because I could only take one son at a time, every ride became a double for me. Ian liked to explore the town; Nate preferred the trails. I just enjoyed getting out on a bike with the boys.

In the farthest reaches of the barn are two more bikes. The first is the Joshua bike. So named because it once belonged to my nephew Joshua. He wanted a BMX bike and my brother wanted to buy one for him. But not having much money left my brother at a loss until I found a used Varmit. I fixed it up with new tires, pedals and a set of BMX handbrakes. I acquired the bike after Josh outgrew it. I wanted it so I could ride along with my kids on their BMX bikes.

The other bike, the last one in the barn, is an old chain-drive Colson tricycle from the ‘30’s or ‘40’s, or so I’m guessing. It was purchased to replace a damaged tricycle for the oldest niece who is now 23. When I found the old trike it been hand-painted pink; I stripped it, repainted it red with white accents, straightened the axle and got it back in running shape. The niece had a little cheap Murray tricycle, and she had a habit of leaving it out in the driveway – like any kid. One morning her mother ran over the Murray trike and completely destroyed it. With tears in her eyes the little girl looked from the smashed trike to her mother and said, “That’s okay mom, I still love you.” The niece rode the old trike for many years before returning it for us to keep.

“C’mon dad,” Nate called to me from the open door.

“I’ll be there,” I called back.

Maybe it was the dust in the barn, maybe it was the memories but when I left I was a little misty.

Retread

a blast from the past

When I moved to the City of Big Shoulders in 2000, I brought with me over a thousand books. The challenge for the movers was getting them up four flights of stairs without the benefit of an elevator. They brought the boxes up three or four at a time on their backs supported by a tump line. They asked why I had so many god-damned books. I said they were my tools just like good mechanics who have their own personal set of wrenches they would never go anywhere without. More on that later...

I also came with a red Saturn Coup. It sat in front of the apartment gathering dust and bird shit for two years as I took full advantage of the CTA. I finally got rid of the Saturn when the Connecticut Department of Revenue (where I had moved from) sent me the annual luxury tax assessment on it. I paid the tax and cancelled the lease which was a stupid idea to have in the first place. And then I got a 1957 Raleigh 3-speed Robin Hood from the Working Bikes Co-operative down on the southside. And it's been "two wheels good, four wheels bad" ever since. More on that later...

What does
any of this
have to do
with Sir Isaiah Berlin?





That's what this blog is for. A large proportion of my 1000+ books deals with the very issues Berlin raised in his long career in the UK as the 20th Century's greatest liberal philosopher. Borrowing from the Greek poet, Archilochus, Berlin divided his fellow philosophers into two groups: the foxes who know many things and the hedgehogs who know one big thing. Most of us who love to think about the world around us struggle over whether we're one or the other ... or perhaps both from time to time. And that's why I've started this blog: I'm a fox who wishes that he were a hedgehog. Besides, putting his ideas together with books and bicycles is something your typical fox would do.

Blogs are surprising things. Unlike writing a book or an essay there isn't any predetermined structure. Like an old school diary you start out with one thought or goal and end up writing about something else altogether. Try as I might, I have yet to post an entry in which my initial intentions match the finished product. This is why I think blogs are the perfect vehicles for us foxes who know a lot of little things.

Take today's entry for example. I originally intended to write about the more personal journey of how I got into biking in the first place and then relate it to xerocracy. It's a term I first heard at Chicago Critical Mass. I did some googling to find out what it means. Essentially, it refers to anarchistic communities in which there are no leaders. All voices are welcome. All responsibilities are mutually shared. A number of websites also claim it is the (dis)organizing principle for Critical Mass.

It reminded me of mutual aid, the anarchist concept promoted by 19th Century Russian intellectual, Peter Kropotkin. I think it could do a lot for fleshing out how xerocracy actually works in the critical mass world. So I started googling mutual aid and Kropotkin. That took me to Wikipedia. It quotes Kropotkin's definition of mutual aid as

... a system of economics based on mutual exchanges made in a system of voluntary cooperation.

But like the fox I am, I haven't quite connected my own reasons for biking with xerocracy. I need some time to noodle it around in my head. It will, nevertheless, most defintitely happen with the help of Kropotkin and mutual aid.

So let me tell you how I got into biking. I was a professor at a small liberal arts college in northeastern Wisconsin. Me and my wife, also a professor there, lived close to a fairly rural, small town campus. Riding up over the bridge everyday seemed just the thing. In fact, I had delusions of grandeur imagining myself living a 1990s version of the movie, Goodby, Mr. Chips.

One small problem: I didn’t have a bike, didn’t know much about bikes, and wasn’t too enthusiastic about shelling out the big bucks for a fancy new bike. Luckily, another old college buddy, also named Dave, was visiting from Ohio with his wife and two boys. He’d been working on bikes for years in an old barn on what’s left of his family’s farm. Before they came up, Dave's wife had lovingly given him an ultimatum: "Get rid of some of the bikes, so at least we can get into the barn!"

That's why Dave brought a Roadmaster to give to me. He’d done a wonderful restoration job. The thing was huge, blue, and heavy as hell. I got the jpeg of this one off Ebay. Best of all – it was free. I rode the blue beast to my college office almost every day. After work and on the weekends, I rode down to a bike path along the Fox River and back. Then I started branching out to the north towards Green Bay and to the south towards Appleton. I eventually had to mothball it when a mechanic discovered that my increasingly frequent flats were due to shot rims.

At the same time, about six years ago, my marriage started going south. I bought a new hybrid mountain bike are started seriously racking up the miles. Needless to say, I no longer have that bike or a wife. Therein, as the saying goes, lies a tale.

This fox, however, is stopping here to go read Kropotkin's Appeal to the Young. Follow the link while I noodle the connections between biking, xerocracy, mutual aid, and me!

A gentleman cyclist

This weekend I was up in Redwing, MN. I joined the 3speed Lake Pepin Tour with 70 other English bike enthusiasts. It's modeled on bike touring in pre-war England. As the website states,

To gain a better perspective, here is a list of some of the things we leave behind: derailleurs, lycra, target heart rates, SPD, SIS, STI, HRM, XTR, etc. There will be no sprinting, spinning, drafting nor will there be any carbon fiber, drillium or unobtanium. Please note we are not advocating being a retro-grouch or ridicule those with alloy handlebars but instead we are asking you to strip away all you know modern cycling to be and hop aboard your £5 Thrift Store Raleigh and come with.

Leave your lycra & Johnny Rebel competitive spirit at home and instead, bring your sense of adventure. Wear something appropriate for eagle watching or sitting in a café and bring an honest-to-goodness rain cape because, of course, it rains in England. Be prepared to make new friends and be swept away by the scenery. Be prepared to stop here and there to take a photo or complain about your hard saddle or make an entry in your Tourbook. Be prepared to keep in mind it's not the destination you'll remember but the journey.

For a full (and hilarious) description of the tour, check out Jon Sharratt's blog. This tour was Noel Robinson's idea. Jon took on all the organizational aspects and does a great job.