Big Ringin' It says goodbye to an old friend, and hello to a new old friend.

My eyes welled up as I watched a woman named Ali drive away with my awesome Masi Speciale CX.  I rode many thousands of miles on that bike and never hated a single minute of it.  Here is a picture of my ill-fated maiden voyage to Babler State Park for a percy camping trip:

A tight machine, very badly loaded by me.  It all fell out in traffic.  I lost some things...

Now, I have a new love in my life, a brand new 1995 Trek 950 Singletrack.  I sold the Masi because I wanted something that would get me across the world if I needed it to, or get me across town with Ari and Zev (due in mere weeks) in tow.  I needed something that was less aggressive and more easy going, but durable.  A steel frame in the general vicinity of mountain bike geometry was what I looked for.  After weeks of looking, I finally found an ad on CL for this new old stock beauty.

Stock, complete with bar-end handles or whatever.  Lame!  See ya.

The bike is light, and nice looking.  But the first thing I had to do was cover the decals with black tape of course, because I'm not a rolling billboard.  Nor do I give a frig what anyone thinks of my bike visually.

Decals=Lame IMO, so they get the black tape treatment.

Next order of business was to put my trusty Brooks B-17 on, strap a saddle bag underneath, and get comfy.

I believe this saddle is responsible for my continuing commitment to cycling.

But I was finding it hard to get comfy for real, so I had to replace those shitty stock straight handlebars with some trekking bars, which I got from Harris Cyclery.  For some reason, that feels like an accomplishment.

Trekking bars, equipped with new light and the bell in a creative place.  See it??

There it is!

I knew I wasn't going to be using tires that had been sitting in a box for 15 years, so I talked to my friend Dave G. at biketiresdirect.com, and he recommended the time tested Schwalbe Marathons.  They sell fenders too, so I got me some Planet Bike Cascadias, which look and feel solid.

Hello Mr. Schwalbert, hello Mr. Fendy.

Then, all I needed to do was add my rack, light, lock and my Burly trailer hitch, and I was ready to go.

Axiom Rack=I can carry drunk Ian home on it.=BOMBPROOF!

Put it all together, and what do you get?

A solid and stout world tourer, or a carrying-two-boys-in-a-trailer-commuter.

Initial testing indicates high levels of satisfaction with the trekking bars and the general geometry of the bike.  It will take some getting used to and some living in, and I'll soon replace the pedals and likely the drive train as well.  Hell, everything will be different by the time I am satisfied, but that will be a years' long endeavor.  For now, I think I have a good head start though.  I hope to see you on the MOCH!

The Dissemination of Ideas

I am going to begin building a (mostly) traffic-free network of bicycle highway routes which will hopefully one day be as familiar to bicycle commuters in St. Louis as gooey butter cake or toasted ravioli. I will begin with my own personal commuting needs and branch out from there. This network will be called "Missouri Cycling Highways", or MOCH. Routes will be named after whatever I dang please.

Of course commuting by bicycle in a city like St. Louis has drawbacks--mainly the traffic, which is to be avoided in my opinion. This means that routes need to be more circuitous, and therefore longer, to achieve a high level of safety. The second drawback is the vast sprawl that makes up St. Louis County. Things can be very far apart here. We have immediate family who live over 20 miles away. What I am getting at is that these routes are meant to be safe, not direct, and that cycling is a slow form of transportation. But that's why we love it, right?!

The whole point of sharing these routes is so that others can use them. If enough people use these routes, one day I might start marking these routes with small, inconspicuous signs leading cyclists through an effective and safe network of bike friendly streets.

My first big project was to establish a safe route from my parents house to my house. This way, I can bring my son home in the trailer. I admit, I used the Google Maps Bikes thing to give me an idea and went from there.

Either way, please enjoy the first section of my new project. It will be a small portion of the major east/west route I will call "MOCH-100", or affectionately "The Sprawl". This section will take riders from the Mobile gas station next to Kirkwood Middle School to the QT in Maplewood on Big Bend.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=kirkwood+middle+school&daddr=38.609105,-90.320764+to:Flora+Ave&hl=en&geocode=FT7-TAIdC1Kc-iFJMzfNT_o32A%3BFdEgTQIdhNCd-inVOPs_X8rYhzHRtNyjZDVGMg%3BFRMiTQIdCcWd-g&aq=0&sll=38.609971,-90.321887&sspn=0.003915,0.009645&vpsrc=6&dirflg=b&mra=pr&via=1&ie=UTF8&ll=38.593797,-90.339546&spn=0.125313,0.308647&t=m&z=12&lci=bike

In the future, I will begin mapping these routes using GPS technology. But first I have to acquire the tools and knowledge needed to do so. I didn't want to wait. I am so excited to share this concept and these routes with my fellow St. Louis cyclists.

This winter will be a time of hibernation, regrouping and big goals

I want to quit my car. I hate driving, I hate being in a car, I hate using and buying gasoline. I hate the highway, I hate the cost of repairs. I hate getting red-light violation tickets in the mail and the fact that I had my car booted once because there is no parking on the second Tuesday of odd dated months and it cost $500 just to get it removed. I just shit hate everything about cars.

So, I have put up my Masi for sale on Craigslist for $800. Maybe a little more than I expect to get for it, but still I think a decent deal. It's a 2009, 51 cm for anyone who's interested. I have that mountain bike still sitting in the basement. I aim to sell that as well, it's a medium sized Trek 8500 or something. It's in decent shape and I think I can get $175 maybe $200 for it. The reason for this is that I want to buy myself a touring specific bike. I want a triple chainring and a very easy gear selection in back. I love going fast, but I've never topped out my big ring, so I feel like can afford to lose a few teeth, plus carrying a little boy in a trailer up steep hills in St. Louis can be difficult with normal gearing. I need more front wheel clearance because when I climb bad hills, my toe sometimes gets stuck underneath the fender and things get dangerous.

With support from my partner Crystal and despite much trepidation on the part of my parents, I am going to attempt to totally ditch the car....FINALLY. I bought a Burley Bee trailer and, with some modifications, it will make a perfect back seat/trunk/cargo haul/whatever the hell else a trailer can be. I even got Ari a little helmet that has sharks and lights. It was more expensive than my helmet was, but I got my helmet in Memphis so that might explain it.

I look forward to hours and hours of route planning on Google Maps. I look forward to adventures to be had with my kids--our second son is due January 31 2012. I look forward to exploring St. Louis. I look forward to camping and hiking and shopping by bike. I can't wait to pack the trailer full of paintings and deliver them to somewhere other than my house maybe. I am going to make a sign that says "3 FEET" and an arrow pointing to the left. I am going to take these boys and my partner on tours every summer and spring and fall and winter.

I just hope that my parents can see their way to understanding this is for the best. I hope that my fellow St. Louisans and fellow contrypeople can respect my space and keep their distance and help me feel secure out there. I am firmly in the camp that says travel by bicycle is far superior to any other mode. When combined with Amtrak, I can see myself bringing my family all over the place. I can't wait to introduce Crystal to cycling (which is a whole post on it's own). I can't wait to be in the best shape of my life. I am going to do it. No one but me can stop me (they say that on reality shows all the time).

Frig

It should have been obvious, and as soon as it happened, I was like, "what was I thinking?"

My trip was cut short just after mile 13 (almost exactly halfway to Babler) when a flimsy plastic hook broke. The hook was holding a shitty cargo net which was holding all my shit in place. Not for long though, it broke as I was climbing a gnarly hill in traffic. My stuff spilled all over the street and it was a disaster. I called my Dad and he woke my sister Addie up to come get me. wah wah. Trip failure. Poorly designed cargo situation ruined my trip. Totally my own fault--that sucks. Oh well. I guess I'll chalk it up to some bad planning and will do better next time.

The 13 miles I did ride were very very nice. The route took me through some really nice neighborhoods in Webster, Shrewsbury, and others. There were a few killer hills, none I had to walk up, but some good steep and long climbs.

Finally, A Small Ride

I know it's been a long time, blog and anyone who ever reads this shit. I guess I just wanted to say I'm sorry, I know I haven't documented the successes of the drum trailer sufficiently, and I haven't talked about the fact that I lost my f-ink bike cleats. Just get over it, okay? No big deal.

I am going to talk briefly about this ride I'm doing tomorrow. It was a sort of eureka moment when I conducted an art workshop for a Muscular Dystrophy Association summer camp. The camp is held at Babler State Park which is merely 27 miles from my doorstep. 27 miles. 27 friggin miles to camping and hiking. Babler isn't a large park by any stretch, but it has some really nice woods and a couple nice trails......and it is only 27 miles away. After realizing this, I promptly planned a one night percy excursion. I am sitting here writing this after packing up all my shit.

I wanted to use a handlebar bag. I thought it would be nice to put my change of clothes and a couple other various things in there. So, instead of buying one I made one. It turned out like shit. No, it wasn't that bad. But it was poorly designed for the task of handlebar bag. Durable as hell though, and as soon as I make one that works--and I will!--I'll post all the best stories from that endeavor. So, without the handlebar bag I didn't know what to do for the food/clothes sitch. I was perusing a local large store and found this cooler from Coleman. It was another eureka moment. I was like, "oh damn...I'll use this to carry shit in on the way there and back, but WHILE I'm there, I'll get some beers/sodas from the nearby gas station and some ice...Ima live it up!" I could even get some type of shitty sausage if I wanted to eat that for breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, I realized that I have a perfectly sized percy non-stick aluminum pan in the cabinet. I got it out, and behold!--a small screw attaching the superlight handle to the superlight frying pan. PERFIE!! So, since I'll have a Phillips screwdriver on my multi-tool anyway, I can just attach and un-attach it as needies. Easy peasy!

So, yeah. Here's the setup. I am taking the following philosophy on this trip: The park is only 26 miles away on bike. That is barely a 2.5 hour ride, even lightly loaded...so Ima bring as much shit as I think I need to be comfortable for one night.
(I don't care if you think my iphone camera filter is lame...don't look at the picture then!) You can see the cooler on the very back of the rack. Three bags total: tent, sleeping bag/pad, and cooler with all the food and clothes and fire and cutting stuff I need. Oh yeah, it's hard to see in this picture, but there is a totally bad ass survival knife I bought recently strapped on the rack. I plan to use it to aid in the preparation of woody for fire. Or stab my way out of a bad encounter in the woods.

I want to share the route with y'all as well. Here is the first in what I hope will become a large catalog of routes to spots in Missouri. I used mapmyride.com for it.




Hopefully some of you schmucks will come with me next time, as I hone and perfect the route. Next time, I'm doing the Mini Missouri St. Louis Area State Parks Tour. Way I figure it, this is a great way to not only escape the bustle of daily life, but also a super way to get some exercise and see some parts of Chesterfield we may not see on such a regular basis. Detailed report to come, Careening South style--while I am resting in my tent getting ready to sleep after a very short day in the saddle and very long day baking in the sun.

A Hundo by Sundo

Yesterday I decided that I would try to turn 100 miles of car commuting into bike commuting. I'm not sure I even drive nearly that much in a week, plus I can't carry my son around on my bike yet (stupid damn box says no baby under 1 year, which is crap if you ask me). Basically I am having to fish for mileage. I will be running all my errands for work using my bike after work at 3, which should definitely eat up quite a few miles. Bam! I hope to make a hundo by sundo (a hundred by sunday). I don't care if I am incorrectly punctuating my sentence-ending parenthetical phrases. Who even cares?!

So, I'll do a lil post each day about how I am achieving the 100 mile in a week goal. Here is numero eins:

Monday 15 miles

I rode to work, actually carrying a bunch of crap left over in my car from a resource fair this past Saturday, and I rode home. It is only 1.8 miles each way--so that didn't do much. I HAD to find another way to get in some more riding. When what to my wondering eyes did appear? An empty fridge which needed more than just beer. Shit Yeah! We needed all kinds of groceries: milk, bread, cheese, f-ing fruit, plus I even picked up some tapioca pudding--wow! I knew I would have to go to a far away store, so I went to the Schnucks on Big Bend in Webster. I actually used Google Bike Directions for this trip, and it did a magnificent job!

It took me through some really nice neighborhoods, down a bike path I didn't even know existed (it was only a half mile long, but hey--it's St. Louis--it's a start). Down and up some decent hills and then all of a sudden I was at the store. Each was was about 5.7 miles. Added together, I did 15 miles. Not much, and I'll definitely want to do another 30+ out on the Katy Trail again. Oh yeah, I went there and did that last weekend with my dad. I could totally bike the Katy Trail in 24 hours--it is soooooo FLAT. Anyway, I'll probably not get the chance to ride much today...def to work and back but maybe not to band practice, it just depends.

100-15 = 85 miles remaining

I can carry Tilly

I carried my Dad's tiller from work to home, so my neighbor and friend Nate can use it to cultivate his very first garden! That is exciting and I was happy to help him get it all started. It only took four bungees to secure the tiller to the trailer. I was a little worried about jostle troubles, but the only trouble was a throttle lever spring became detached--easy peasy.
As you can see, the trailer is about 40 years old and is sort of a family heirloom. I was very careful to go extra slow. In my opinion, it was easier to carry the tiller on the bike trailer because it is extremely difficult to load in and out of a car. So, yeah! Mission accomplished. Small but fun mission. Maybe I'll start a haulin' service for folks around the neighborhood. Anyway. As I alluded to in my last post, please anyone who is interested in making bicycling more accessible in STL--STAY TUNED. I have an idea, well I took an idea from another more bike friendly city, and I am going to begin testing out my idea very soon. I want you all to join me.