Filed under: Bikes | Tags: Bike, bike polo, Bikes, Fix, flip/flop, Free, Geared, Lightning, Rocky, Thunder
On a rainy weekend day last month I completed two lifelong goals. Okay, one goal was only a couple years old, and I’ve only had the other for a couple months. Regardless, I completed two goals in one day, give me some credit.
For the last couple years, my main mode of transportation has been an old Novara road cycle. I bought it geared, but within a year, converted it to a single speed. Originally, I was just letting it ride on a specific gear on the rear cassette. Then my rear wheel was stolen, so I replaced it and used a single speed freewheel gear. That lasted for about two years, until my breaks (originals I presume) started to not stop, if you catch my drift. As oppose to buying new brakes, I opted for a wheelset with a fix/free flip/flop hub on the rear wheel.
On the aforementioned weekend, I swapped on the new wheels and made some aesthetic repairs to the ride, which I now call Lightning (I call my KM Thunder). The wheelset I bought is as good of a flip/flop I can get for 27″ wheels, according to the Hub salesperson. They cost about $150 for the pair. I ride with 42t on the front chainring and had 16t on the rear. I kept the same ratio when I bought my fix and free cogs. I was able to keep my old tires, but had to buy new tubes with presta valves. (more…)
As you may have noticed, I changed the site up quite dramatically. The first day of Summer saw me drinking a Furious while making changes to the blog. The most notable, and will probably be the shortest living change, is the theme. I Like the streamlined look, but there isn’t much horizontal space…
Other improvements include the new banner, which will have to change again if the theme does. The sketch from the drawing is a snippet from a symbolic self portrait I drew for my visual arts class (same class I made “Follicle Follies” for). The full picture is a stick figure, with epic wings and a mug of beer in hand, standing on a mountain bike, on top of a skewed image of Minnesota. Of course, the figure is spitting a huge plume of fire.
I scanned my original black and white sketch, cleaned it up and added color in Photoshop. I then cropped it, added the phrase “cerevisiæ ergo sum” and a gradient to make the banner itself. The full (color) picture is below:
I also updated the links section to be more cohesive. The “Beer Podcast/Mags” section is for the more professional beer sites, either geared toward beer information or brewing. The “Beer Sites” section is for any bloggers, news feeds, or other beer related sites.The “Bike Sites” section is for bike sites, phew. “Now Brewing” will feature any beers I am currently working on, and will link to the “Now Brweing” page. Hopefully this will change on a more frequent basis. The “Now Playing” section will still show whatever the album of the moment (I need to update it for “The Bake Sale,” by the Cool Kids) and link to the artists’ websites.
Oh, there will also have to be an “Other Pages” section to link to the “About,” “Now brewing,” and “Cellar” pages. The cellar page doesn’t exist right now, as it sucked and needs to be reconsidered.
Speaking of the cellar, today was “double discount day” at the liquor store my mom (and I occasionally) works at. Naturally, I met her at work and used her discount to buy much more beer and booze than needed. If you’re going to overdraft your checking account. it may as well be on something worthwhile. Anyway, I’ve got an impressive new colletion of brews on hand. Highlights include:
- 16, 17 and Terrible from Unibroue
- 3 Feet Deep from Furthermore (mmm, dirt)
- Bourbon County Stout from Goose Island
- 2 Mikkeller Stateside IPAs
- A couple saisons
- Hedricks Gin (Fuck yeah! Best Gin in the World)
- Buffalo Trace straight Kentucky Bourbon
I know the last two aren’t beer, or really belong in a cellar, but don’t worry. They are both incredibly delicious, and my cellar is really my bedroom. One of my (many) goals for the summer is to make a simple bottle rack, so I can store my beer in the basement with class. A couple slats of wood and some varnish and BOOM, I’m pretty much a self-made cicerone.
Updates a plenty for sure, and expect more to come.
School has once again gotten the best of me, distracting me from the important things another time. Luckily, I am in the last throws of the school year and will be done with finals this Friday. That means more time for beer, biking and well, more beer, I guess.
Here’s a little taste of what I’ve been up to, hopefully this will be the first of many more posts over the coming months.
And hopefully the last of poorly grown facial hair.
