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.

Oh yes...It friggin woked. Big Time.

The trailer is made from a repurposed and stripped down Burley D'light 2 child carrier. It's an older one, but I got a sweet hitch from a Canadian company called Chariot Cycles or something like that. I took all the child carrying parts off, stripped it down to the frame, and put a beautiful slab of birch plywood on it. Used some polyurethane sealer finisher to protect and further beautify that wood. Used some bolts to tighten it down. Hell yeah. I put an old inner tube around the perimeter to protect the sides from bumps and water. I found some rubber sheeting in the practice space at Utopia Studios hanging on a wall (thanks Amy...heheh), and cut it into strips and stapled and Gorilla Glued those stinkies down for grippiness. I then installed four pick-up truck cargo holds on the corners--solid as hale! This is what it looks like:


Here is what it looks like loaded up:


Here is a video of me pushing up the hill on the beginning of the first trial run:


I took the drums back to the practice space about four miles away. It took about 35 or 40 minutes to get there. It was actually surprisingly easy to move the trailer even with all the weight, but I could only go very slowly. My trusty friend Joel followed me to the space in case of any catastrophic failures and for support. He also showed me a badass short-cut to the space. Thank you Joel.

All in all, first trial run was a complete success. The tom-tom had to be moved halfway to the destination, but it was tighty after that. So, yeah...just gotta add lights and license plate that says, "Big Ringin' It". I owe thanks to the bazillion instructables I looked at while figuring out how to build this beast. I figure the furthest I'll have to take the trailer is 5 or 6 miles each way, any more than 10 each way and I think I'll drive it. It isn't super hard to move, but it still takes forever and I think even 10 miles would easily take 1.5-2 hours. That would be ridiculous to take 4 hours travel time to get to a show...especially considering the fact that I don't leave shows until they are over, so like 1.30 or 2 am sometimes. That would put me back home at like 4 am. Which would suck ass...especially if I drank anything at the show, which is fun to do after I play.

Whatever, can't think about the obvious negatives, because bicycling isn't about getting to places quickly. It is about taking the long way, the harder way. The way that makes people look at you and think, "man what an idiot." I don't care...no...yes I do care. I love being that guy who is doing something ridiculous with his bicycle. I love telling people I play drums. As Ricky says, "it's gettin' two birds stoned at once."

But I don't really care if it seems stupid. It's fun for me. There's a great feeling of accomplishment in building and successfully testing something like this trailer. Even if I have to go really slow, I'll still love it. I think I'll always bring paint. I have a new idea thanks to the city of Portland. I'll tell you about it later...

I hope this works....Nah-I'm sure it's going to work!

I decided to ditch the Nomad (sorry Burley-it's a great trailer) because it has some issues with carrying drums. The more I thought about it, the more disconcerting it became that the floor of the trailer is made of canvas, and there is but one measly crossbeam underneath it. I imagined myself on Grand or something, trailer ripped to shreds, drums everywhere on the street, no way of getting to the venue on time. Shitty!

So, I have built a totally kick ass trailer! Oh man is it ever awesome. I am waiting to unveil pictures and writing about it completely until after work today...but suffice to say: This trailer wins.

Stay tuned....

Nazi Losers Ruin Graffiti Walls, but I Ruin Nazis!

Recently a bunch of friends and I re-took up skateboarding. I dusted off the old World Industries board and I am hooked again! I forgot how much of a workout skating is--really all you're doing is hopping around for a couple hours. Fun. I can still even kickflip like one out of five or so.

Anyway, I was on my bike searching around for dope-ass skate spots one Saturday morning when I spotted a tight graffiti wall next to a commercial train track.

There isn't a ton of awesome stuff on it, but still some decent writing. But then, I spotted a goddamn swastika on a corner of the wall. (for some reason I didn't photo it) I didn't have any paint on me, otherwise I would have defaced it or just covered it up right there. I am all for free speech, but not for white supremacists on what would otherwise be an artful and cool looking wall. Know what I mean? I was thinking, "how can I deface/alter the symbol without just covering it up?" I wanted the nazis to know that I had messed up their little tag, but to a passer-by it would just look like something else entirely.

Friends and I met on my front porch that night and began thinking about it. After a while, friend Emma was like, "what about the pinwheel? It basically has a swastika in the center...just embellish the one on the wall to look like a pinwheel." Awesome idea Emma! Idea achieved. So, here is what I did today, when no one was looking:

I did this first......


Then I added shading.

A perfect pinwheel to alter the shitty intentions of neo-nazi jerks. Easily replicable. I recommend everyone take the time to deface any local swastikas in this manner. It would look even nicer with color.

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.