I Can Carry My Drums in/on my Burley Nomad!

So, I have been pining over some trailers online--I've been trying to find a trailer with a load capacity of at least 200 lbs. so I can carry my drumset on it. Since Crystal's car went doo doo on the south pole of death, we are borrowing my sister's car. When she gets back from Seattle, she is gonna want it back, and we aren't going to want to buy another car. So, if the biggest obstacle for us going down to one car is carrying my drums and I can figure out a way, then the problem is solved and then most of the rest of the problems are merely logistical.

I was all like, ah shit man I won't be able to carry that weight with the gearing on my Masi, so I'll have to spend all this money on getting a new cassette and a new rear derallieur or whatever. Then, after realizing that a Surly long bed trailer is over $500, and that is really the only trailer made for bicycles that can do what I want it to do, I had started feeling like it wasn't possible short of building my own trailer. Until I was just like, "f- it--Ima just try to put everything in the Burley Nomad that I inherited from a dude canoeing down the Mississippi, and see what happens" and I did. The Burley trailers have an awesome universal hitch, so I just stole it off the Masi, and whim-awham-a-bing bang:

Using my trek 8500 (which I traded a guy from Craigslist my Raleigh Techmium SS for, which was awesome!) because of it's triple chainring granny-gear options, I loaded up the trailer and gave it a whirl. It was sweet. Nothing shifted or even creaked or cracked during the one mile long test ride. I rode it at first on very smooth streets around my hood, but then once I was convinced it was cool, I took it on some pretty jagged main roads and it performed beautifully. The gearing on the Trek is perfect, the trailer is smooth and it seems to absorb shock pretty well. I am not too worried about the so-called Jack-knifing because I'll be going at such low speeds.

I think the only upgrades I'll try to make to the bike will be fenders and maybe a Brooks saddle if I can convince Crystal of the importance of butt-comfort. But as it turns out, I had all the tools to carry my drums all along! What the hell was I waiting for?

I usually play with four drums: snare, tom, floor tom, kick. I usually play with three cymbals: hi-hats, crash, ride. To facilitate this transition, I will be paring down the old kitster-snare, tom, kick, hi-hat, crash/ride (basically just using my crash as a ride). The floor tom likely won't fit in the trailer and leave enough of the railing along the top of the trailer to set the bass drum on. Who knows, maybe it will lend itself to a new style of playing that I haven't even considered. Deerhoof's drummer only has a couple pieces on his kit.

I think I'll definitely use a couple more straps to secure the bass drum more tightly, but all in all I am riding on high right now because I can move my drums from place to place without any troubles! Of course, there are some serious considerations. What if the trailer has some catastrophic failure? What if my bass drum falls off in traffic? Well my friends, that's what cell phones are for. Plus, since I've been using that website mapmyride.com, I've been able to stay off of main roads almost 95% of the time. Till something else happens worth mentioning, thanks for reading.

****Update: The Next Morning

I was so excited that it all worked so well that I couldn't sleep. All night I dreamed of how kick ass it would be to get fenders, a Brooks saddle and skinnier higher pressure tires for my Trek Mtn bike. Well, mission 1/3 accomplished: used a 20% off coupon from REI, plus my measly $32 yearly dividend, and got a black Brooks B-17 for only $52 shipped! Booyah! Now, I just have to go to my lbs to see what sizes of tires my wheels will accommodate, then find a cheap deal on some 26" Gatorskins. Then, just use my old planet bike fenders to complete the set-up...well maybe a rear rack for Trekkie, that is what I will call this bike from now on: Trekkie!

So excited!

Great St. Louis Ride/Map My Ride

So, I found this great website-mapmyride.com. It totally kicks ass...you basically look at a google map of your target area, and then start clicking up and down streets and blammo-it maps your route and includes information like the exact distance, the elevation details, and allows you to share it with the community and describe it and tweak it and share the map.





So, this is the route Ian and I rode last night. We had in mind the upcoming Katy Trail challenge, and I was so excited the whole time that Ian and I were actually riding together. Then, at the end he said he probably won't go on the Katy Trail ride....wah wah wwwwwaaaaaahhhh. What shit! I was not happy to learn this, but I guess Steven is still planning on going.

About the ride though--for St. Louis, it's a really killer. It basically goes up every large hill in the area and they come with freakish regularity. Four of them over the whole route. I made sure to stay off of busy streets. When it does go onto busier streets, it is on the least heavily trafficked areas of those roads. The far eastern edge of Manchester, the part of Skinker that has a huge shoulder plus the Forest Park Bike Path. It takes you by the two large and in charge parks in STL--forest park and tower grove park. Both are cool, but Forest Park by far wins out in terms of a place to go biking. Best bike trail in STL!

It was a challenging ride, but I was able to do it without walking up any hills (which for me is a success.) I will definitely do this ride again, and maybe in reverse someday for a lighter 26 miler. Next time, I'll post pictures of shit I pass on the road.