Sneek Peek at the Art About Display

 

My love affair with the Mixte continues...

 

Vintage Centurion Fixed Gear Roadster

Look for us at 5 Star Bar on Chicago Ave.

Naked Bike Ride - Chicago 2010 - The HD Experience

In case you missed it. Big Fun. June 12th 2010. Next year be there..

What are you Doing Sat. June 19th?

Carene and I will be displaying some of our work at Art Adventures, Art About. See the Map below for details.



Be there...

The South

I hate to admit it. In the last 24 hours, I've spent 93.00 dollars on gasoline. A tough one to swallow for someone that doesn't own a car. I could have taken a train all the way from Chicago to New Orleans for that amount. Instead, I rode with my father from northern Mississippi to the gulf coast and then with my brother to New Orleans. Funny thing about the south. People always ask us northerners, how the hell do we put up with the chilly weather. However, touring the south in 80 plus degree weather, what I've found is mostly, folks sitting in air-conditioned homes and cars. Nice porches that are mostly house dressing. Entering into New Orleans via highway 10 is quite beautiful. There are many miles of swamps and marshlands. Being in a car you can't actually see it, at least in it's real glory. There's a retaining wall the whole 25 mile stretch leading into the city. Cars traveling at 70 miles per hour, also keep the view for the most part, uninteresting. I took these pics from the web. Since the ones I tried to shoot at 70mph, suck.



It's a shame that the car prevents people from taking advantage of this beauty. While driving along with this beauty at our side, my brother remarked, "man I really like that Buick Enclave". The car that was on a truck being hauled into the city. Go figure. As a kid and through much of my life, I too loved the car. My brother as a kid and teen, could care less about cars. My how things have changed. After arriving in the city and navigating traffic we neared our destination. Then came the hunt for a place to park. Something else i don't miss about driving. We finally found a space We finally found a space and backed in. Of course, because of the car we were immediately limited with how long we could stay in the city. Parking meters only last 2 hours and we only had enough quarters for 1hr 45 measly minutes.
People buy cars, looking for transportation. I constantly hear the term "in control" or "allows you freedom". From what I observe of most motorists, that's complete bullshit. Freedom? Hardly, restrictions? Absolutely. Control? I could hardly call sitting in traffic with thousands of other control freaks, control.
We finally, got our chance to tour and of course within 10 minutes were at the touristy, but oh so good:

Cheesy yes, but god do I wish there was a Cafe DuMonde in Chicago. Probably best it be 800 miles from since, I'd be walking around Chicago with grease stain on my fingers and powdered sugar all over me. What a pig..

There are loads of really cool things in New Orleans. I never watch live music in Chicago, as I don't care for amplifiers indoors. Or lame bands with long names, for that matter. But these guys got my attention on the street.


Opps.. video won't load


Of course being as this blog is generally about bicycles, I have to say. New Orleans truly is the land of shitty cruisers.


I love how they cover their saddles with plastic bags. Not, I'm sure because they want to protect expensive leather. More likely because those foamy bun busters can hold a shit ton of water. Perhaps they should offer them to BP?

Nothing to do Friday Evening?

I'll be one of 6 Re (cyclists) displaying current work at the 2nd Friday art walk. There is a reception at 1900 Halsted. I'll be there after 6pm. come on down and browse the neighborhood as there will be much to see and do. Be sure to stop by and say hello and have a drink perhaps. I'll be there all night

Crap ass Fiber

Most people who know me, already know, how I feel about how certain materials that are used on bicycles. I'm not the biggest fan of aluminum. I do think it's relatively safe however. Carbon fiber? well..that's another story. I honestly question the sanity of anyone who rides it. I'm sure some of it's out of ignorance. Many feel, If it's the latest in light materials what could be the harm? Some say, if it were dangerous, companies wouldn't use it. Boy are they misguided. Big bike companies mostly care about selling shit. In the quest to have the next new thing to trumpet, they quite often introduce unnecessary crap. For instance, carbon fiber brake levers or calipers. These are completely unnecessary and certainly no better than alloy. Perhaps worse actually, and in many cases much more expensive. Another example would be, who's faster? A guy with a 9-speed campy group or a guy with a 10 speed group? (answer) The guy with the strongest legs and largest lung capacity. A Lugs regular, Kate, forwarded me this sweet photo of a carbon fiber failure:

Ouch! I hate too see what that guys face looked liked after a few feet of pavement scraping. He's lucky he wasn't impaled.
I also have a favorite photo of a Giant TCR-1 that came into the shop recently. The kid wanted this fixed. In my mind this was, so he could go about the business of plotting his own timely demise. I told him I wouldn't be involved in that.

Photo #2

Searching around for more lovely photos, I came across the blog:
"Busted Carbon" which has tons of photos of broken carbon fiber components.
Here are a few for your viewing pleasure. I named the first one: "Balls in the Hospital"

This one is titled, " You Really Need to Get Your Facials Some Other Way "

I always cringe when people come in looking for carbon forks. My first question is, why? I've never gotten a straight answer. A common one is, I just like it better. Someone should cane these poor bastards before they hurt themselves.

New Stuff Happening

Too many things going on and not enough time to write about it. The Pilsen art walk was very well received last month. The curator, Keith Hayes, was asked to again setup for Friday May, 14Th. We will have 2 new bicycles on Display. Other recyclists have also been asked to contribute their work. Should be a fun time. Bring good beer. I'll help you get rid of it. I don't mean to be a beer snob, and I know plenty of you drink PBR. I just haven't been in the mood to drink out of the toilet lately. Fun starts around 6pm. There are about 20 or more storefronts, businesses and restaurants participating in the evenings festivities. I'm uploading a flyer the print is a tad small, sorry.



New saddle options.
I've tried for months to get in touch with someone who could reupholster old saddles. I've thrown out way too many. Finally, he came in to see me. Like a saviour. Salvation for old saddles, yes! I have had about 12 or so covered so far. Beautiful work and very cost effective. So please don't throw that old saddle away. Unless it's one of those shitty comfort foam seats.

That saddle went from hard vinyl, to soft leather. As did this one, in white.


He's currently out of this color, but has dark brown and black.

I also had him cover my favorite stool. That 70s looking thing that the saddles were sitting on. It now has padding and no more holes! You can get yours done as well. Won't cost anywhere near as much as a leather replacement.

I found this kind of interesting

It's funny the stuff you come across when you can't sleep. It's 4:30 AM in Chicago. I've already taken a shower and somehow, having a beer felt like a good idea. I keep a laptop pretty close to me, so futzing around the world wide web, naturally, go's hand in hand with being wide awake and having a very early morning beer. I stumble upon this little Newsweek article:
100 Places to Remember before they Disappear.
It's a list of places that if climatologists are right in their predictions of climate change, may disappear or at least be radically changed.
There are some beautiful photos of places around world. I decided to click on North America. There's a dot right around Lake Michigan, I'm thinkin wow, that's the west side of the lake so it ain't Detroit. Of course this would be 100 places to visit and no one visits Detroit unless they grew up there. Most of them only visit when the absolutely have to. I forward the photos and there it is, number 4 Chicago:



Chicago can be quite a beautiful metropolis. That's a great photo for sure. The caption go's on to mention:
4. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
The Windy City has been the Midwest’s center of transportation, industry, finance, and entertainment since it was founded in the 1830s on the shore of Lake Michigan. More than 9.5 million people now live in the metro area, making it the third-most-populous city in the U.S. In the coming years, the city could experience a gradual yet dramatic increase in heat waves and flooding.
I'm not so sure about industry being here. The shit mayor pretty much drove that away a long time ago.
What I do know is... lot's of people here, yep. 9.5 million. Guess how many cars? An approximate 2006 figure was 3,791,182. Almost 4 million. That's too fucking many. I can just here all the lame ass excuses people give for not cycling. Mother Fuckers, Jesus... Ahh.. can't you just taste those emissions?
Sorry, I think the beer is getting to me.

Cute Bag

I'm normally not the soft type. I recently rebuilt a bike for Emily. She's co-owns a Chicago company that makes cycling bags for ladies. These can be found at a number of bike shops locally. Or perhaps, even better directly from their website. www.pocampo.com Since I'm only a fan of a few the shops that sell them. I have to admit, it really dressed the hell out of her bike. Here's a picture of what the bike looked like when I finished.



Hot for sure. I't didn't at all seem naked to me until I looked at the photo I took as she prepared to take her maiden voyage on the new setup. She had added her bag and, well...


Looks so much more lady like. Takes the raw steel look and completely softens it. I'm a fan. Call me soft.

Lately.

Lot's going on right now. I submitting my entry into the "recycle greener" exhibit. If you have not been to Pilsen recently, I'd suggest doing so. The Friday art walk was pretty cool. Some of the bikes on display are quite nice. They will be there through the month of April. Mine is at 18th and Halsted, on the west side of the street.
Here's a photo of it. It's a late 70s RRB, handmade frame frame that was a rust bucket when I got. Seatpost, bottom bracket and stem were all seized. It appeared to have been left outside for many years. The photo's taken from behind the glass, so it's a not so great image.



Our good friend Billy David has an entry right next to mine. It's really gorgeous in real life. 1971 Raleigh Competition completely restored. Again the glass makes for a poor photo.



I'm finally done with my "next girlfriends bike. Kinda kicks ass, looks wicked in the sunlight. It's a Motobecane Mixte. Take a look:







This lovely bike was restored for Emily. She co-owns the ladies cycle bag company, www.pocampo.com Should look very sweet on her web page. It's a Schwinn Letour mixte.





this could also have been a next girlfriend competition entry. I love this bike.