It’s November

Can anyone believe that it is already November? I spent the first 9 months of the year wrenching & learning how to wrench at Paragon Cycling, and now I’ve spent the last month teaching high school.

I am thankful for the time I spent with Ray & Travis at Paragon. The time I spent at the shop was instrumental in my decision to try out cyclocross racing. My first race was last weekend, thanks to the folks at AZCross. It was awesome (and hard). My next race is the first Heavy Metal Hammerfest next Saturday. I am planning on doing the Focus race on Sunday, as well.

Teaching is going great. I’ve commuted a few times by bike- it’s a pretty great ride from Mesa to Phoenix. Again, thanks to my time at the shop, and the commuting & riding I did while I was working there, my range expanded. My girlfriend & I are making Central Phoenix our home base next week, and I am stoked to explore from there.

Have fun riding your bike
Peace

First Ride

I commuted for the first time on my new ‘cross bike yesterday and it was awesome. It was the best ride to work yet.

As soon as I placed my order the second-guessing began- Should I have ordered it? Did I order the right one? Was it going to be the right size? Should I have ordered the steel one instead? Did I spend too much money on it? Should I have waited for the Furley to become available?

Riding to work yesterday made all of those questions go away. First of all, the 53cm frame fits me like a glove. The bike is light, fast, and fun. In spite of the tread-y tires, it is a smooth and quiet ride. I am excited to put something a little slicker on the bike for commuting, but I am definitely going to stick with the high-volume. I cannot believe how much shock is soaked up by those 35mm tires.

When I bought a mountain bike in 2009 it changed my life. Later, when I bought a budget single speed 29er it changed again. I even recently converted my nicer mountain bike to single speed. I felt committed to the ss world, but yesterday, as I was riding into work, I felt another change coming on. I am not about to convert the Caffeine back to geared, but I am pretty excited about my new ‘cross bike just the way it is.

I couldn’t be happier with the new bike.

Riding Bikes Again

A week ago Sunday I headed out to The Pit with a friend and co-worker to try and get a little rad. I was a bit intimidated and only tried to jump a couple of times. I’m glad I went, though- it was good exercise hiking and biking up the hill and I’m stoked to go again and practice. Also, I made a last minute stop at Freedom Rideshop to get some pads. The dude who helped me with the pads planted some seeds and I am getting stoked on some longer rides and am starting to see the utility and fun of a geared bike.

Last week I also rode to and from work on Wednesday and Thursday. I reckon this week I will ride to and from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Today is my day off. After watching a little FuelTV and a cup of coffee I came out on my fixie. I’m at Dutch Bros to check out their free energy drink. I’m gonna spend some time out and about on my bike. It’s a beautiful day.

Dream Job

I started a job that was 10 years in the making last Monday. I am a full-time bike mechanic at Paragon Cycling in Mesa, AZ. I’m completely stoked.

I first dreamed of working on bicycles for a living back when I was working IT at Motorola. I wasn’t even riding bikes when the thoughts occurred to me – in fact, I didn’t even own a bicycle at the time. For some reason, though, I decided I wanted to become a mountain bike mechanic. I bought a few repair books, namely Zinn And The Art Of Mountain Bike Maintenance. I emailed Lennard Zinn at the time and asked him what I should do if I wanted to become a bike mechanic. He suggested I check into Barnett Bicycle Institute and United Bicycle Institute. I looked at both schools and have had bookmarks to them in my browser for the last 10 years or so.

Eventually I quit my IT job and ran away to Camp Wah Nee for the summer. I had dreamed of being a teacher before I dreamed of being a bike mechanic (I think I started thinking of being a teacher in fourth grade) and this was my first step in that direction. After leaving IT, I spent two summers at Camp Wah Nee, three summers at Camp Taconic, and seven years teaching high school. In March or February 2011 I finally signed up for classes at United Bicycle Institute – Professional Repair & Shop Operation and the Advanced Certification Seminars (UBI / DT Swiss Certified Wheel Building and Certified Suspension Technician). The classes started in October, and I planned on taking the time off of teaching. The morning after the campers arrived, however, as my coffee was brewing it occurred to me that I was not going to go back to the high school in the fall. I stayed on at camp as long as I could and then killed some time with some driving and headed up to Ashland, Oregon (home of my favorite trail – Alice In Wonderland / BTI) for three weeks of bike school.

The classes were great and then it was back to the valley of the sun to look for work. I have never really struggled to find work like I did this time around. I feel very fortunate for the handful of shifts that I was able to pick up out at Junction Bicycle in Apache Junction – I am grateful for the time and experience.

And now I am the new guy out at Paragon Cycling in Mesa. I am like a pig in mud. I ride my bike to work most mornings (thanks in part to BikeShobNYC’s book). I have so much to learn and I am eager. I am surrounded by bicycles and gear and tools all day long at my job. I feel very fortunate to have found a great shop like Paragon – I think it is the perfect place for me to grow. Pretty stoked I got my name up on the Paragon website, too. Come tell me yo!

peace

Have Fun Riding Your Bike

I took the singlespeed out on the trail a couple of times last week before spending the entire weekend eating cheese.

I started the Yule (I just learned that Yule means Winter Solstice) with a perfect hour playing out on Trail 1A (Perl Charles Memorial Trail). I parked at the Dreamy Draw Recreation Area and headed out in acounter-clockwise direction. When I reached a part that looked hairier than I wanted to descend, I turned around and headed clockwise. For whatever reason, it was perfect. On my way to Dreamy Draw I received the best text message ever. It read: Have fun riding your bike. I don’t think anyone has told me that since I was a kid- made me really happy.

I rode again on Friday, and it wasn’t quite as perfect. I parked on the road to the Guadalupe lot at South Mountain and started off on the East Loop. The ride never really got off the ground, though. I was uncommitted- instead of concentrating on getting over the rock, I fixated on the idea that if I did get my front wheel over I would smash my chain and chainring on it. So, the bike stopped and I went OTB in super slow motion. Fortunately, it wasn’t much of a slam, but my bicycle did attack me from above, and somehow I managed to pull my left hamstring. I tried riding more, but just had the ugly feeling that I would just be crashing more, so I called it a day.

It’s not yet comfortable to walk. I might be off the bike for a few days, so I want to take some time to work on some goals for 2012.

Happy whatever you celebrate. Good luck closing out 2011- good or bad, it’s just about over. Here comes 2012.

Peace
Have fun riding your bike.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I’m actually at Starbucks in Mesa, Arizona, and not actually Noble Coffee in Asland, Oregon. I reckon I can handle this weather a bit better. Regardless, I am just happy to be drinking coffee and reading and writing. Things Fall Apart by The Roots was playing on the ipod, and now it’s Doomtree. If I can pull myself away from the coffee and reading I will be replacing shift cables this afternoon on the Caffeine, and perhaps a trail ride a bit later at South Mountain.

I guess I miss my time in Ashland today. No, that’s not true, it’s just on my mind. I really enjoyed being up there. At least I’ve got my custom Noble Coffee travel mug (it fits my bottle cages). I think I may have two Ashland Ambers left in my fridge from Caldera (saving them for a special occasion) and there’s always the custom head badge on my SS 29er to remind me, too.

Peace

Back Again

I got to spend 3 weeks in beautiful Ashland, Oregon studying bicycles at UBI. The classes were a great combination of lecture and hands-on and my teachers and classmates were cool.

While I was up there I got to do some riding, too, and experienced my favorite trail thus far: Alice In Wonderland / BTI. The two trails connect,.and they go down through the woods fast and twisty. I ride the while thing once without crashing (I might have walked through one switchback) and crashed two or three or four times on each of the other 5 or 6 times I rode there. I even cracked my helmet on the trail and it’s still my favorite so far.

I got back to AZ on Monday. I’ve ridden the Ruckus at Papago and Javelina Canyon and I tuned up my roadie and flipped around the back wheel so I could try out some fixed-gear riding. It’s bizarre and natural feeling, all at the same time. I was down at Tempe Town Lake with it yesterday just in time to see the old Southern Pacific roll by.

I started attending the orientation classes at Bike Saviors in Tempe so that I can start volunteering down there helping folks build and repair bicycles.

Peace

Papago and Desert Classic

It was only 97 degrees yesterday in Tempe, so I decided to ride out at Papago Park. I hadn’t really been out on a bike in an entire week. I figured since I got my dirt jump bike put together this weekend I would go out on that. It was immediately apparent that I was not riding a cross country bike. After just over an hour I was exhausted. I could even feel the ride last night in my legs while I was trying to sleep. I am pretty sure that I left the trail grumpier than I arrived.

This morning, however, I am leaving the trail in great spirits. I hit Desert Classic before it was light out. I got a flat almost immediately, and by the time I finished changing the tube there was plenty of light for riding. In the past two years that I have been riding, it was the first flat I have had to fix on the trail. The CO2 inflator works like a charm, and once I was back up and running it turned into one of the best rides I have had here at South Mountain. I only rode to the water tank and back, and it was by far the flowy-est I have felt on DC. I think maybe the flat might have helped me clear my mind and get my head right for the ride. As much as I want to enjoy the GT Ruckus, the budget Dawes Bullseye is a much better tool for the trail.

The road bike is sort of in pieces right now, but hopefully I will get out riding somewhere on some bike this afternoon or evening. The weather is just starting to be great here in the desert. It is going to be a great fall and winter.

The Oxford Is Built

I finally put the women’s Windsor Oxford from Bikes Direct together.  I cannot believe that I do not have any pictures of the complete bike, just pictures of the bits and pieces.  Well, I guess it isn’t all the way complete yet – the rear fender is a little wonky, and I haven’t installed the front fender yet.  Speaking of which, all the bikes need a little love.  My road bike got a flat tire when we took the ride on the greenbelt / canal on Monday.  Luckily it didn’t get flat until we got home.  The Oxford did great for the 20-mile ride, and so did the woman riding it.  I will make sure to get the bikes some attention in the next couple of days. I need to get the bike workshop (dining room) cleaned up, too, so I can have room to put my GT Ruckus back together (still sitting in a box out at mom and dad’s garage).

I’ve been doing some wrenching of a different sort the last two days.  Years ago when I bought my truck I swore off of doing my own maintenance work (I grew up fixing the family’s vehicles with my father).  Since resigning from my job as a high-school teacher, I find myself with a lot more time than money and decided I had better come out of retirement and start maintaining the vehicles again.  I have been wanting to make a living with my hands lately, and Shop Class As Soulcraft and Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance have both inspired me to do my own work at home, as well. It’s probably been two weeks since I made the decision to start doing my own work again, but it was nothing more than words. Fortunately, the car brakes went out on Friday, so I had the chance to act on my new resolution. I hadn’t worked with steel brake lines before and learned a lot along the way. I had never done any flaring or double-flaring. The experience of learning a new tool came with an excitement I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. I finished putting the brake line together today, the system holds pressure, and I feel such a sense of accomplishment. The car is fixed and running (and stopping) for now, and I feel pleased and thankful.

I am especially thankful for all that my father taught me about fixing things (not just cars). When I think about what it means to be a man, I think of the man my father is. I also think of all that he has taught me and continues to teach me. I don’t ever pick up a tool without thinking of him (I also think of him whenever I put on a shirt and tie to get dressed up for any occasion or polish my shoes). I love working with my hands and I am excited to make my living working with my hands and spend my life fixing things. I am glad that my life has changed in ways lately that have lead me back toward fixing things. I am glad that I got to spend time with my old man working on the car over the last two days.  Thanks, Pop.

We’re headed for an afternoon trail ride at Papago Park in a few.  I’m excited to get out and ride.

be well

peace

Waiting

7:21 AM and I just finished a quick couple of loops around Papago Park. The clouds cooperated again, so it wasn’t too hot.

It’s been a tough week, both mentally and emotionally. I am very happy that I rode this morning, though. It occurred to me (duh) that it is almost impossible to be miserable on two wheels, especially if there are hills to climb and descend and rocks to maneuver around and over. Thank goodness for bicycles.