Far Out Son of Lung...: 05.07

22 May 2007

No more 'Zuki

Last night I sold the SV650 to Crash Crain. Windsor sent me an email with a link to the TSBA thread from Crain stating that he was seeking a street legal SV. I shot him an email and within minutes we had a deal. I wasn't looking for much, just enough to feel decent and pay off my remaining credit card debt. As soon as I've deposited the cash and made the payment, I will be debt free aside from my car payment. Nearly free. After that I'm going to continue hording money into my ING account.

I'm sad to see it go, don't get me wrong, but it is a relief in a lot of ways. Its been sitting dormant in the garage for eons and I just hadn't been inspired to get back on the thing to ride. Every time I thought about it or felt like I was ready to get back in the swing, I would talk to someone else that had crashed recently. It served to remind me about what I was doing, the things I was really enjoying, and where I wanted to concentrate my time and money. By getting things paid off I've opened up a large window of opportunity to save for things that really matter in the future, like moving somewhere more cool than North Texas.

I have also been commuting to work on the fixie Nishiki. I didn't yesterday because it was raining so damn hard in the AM, but I could have pressed ahead and done so. In retrospect, I should have, but no worries. Rock Gal and I rode last night when I got home and that was fun. It was casual through some neighborhoods and felt nice to see her enjoying riding her new bike.

I'm also looking at building a better fixie for my commute. I wanted to base it on a proper track bike with racks, but track frames don't include braze-ons for bottles or rear racks. I started looking at the Soma, and this might be the ay I go, but I just found a steel Spicer that looks interesting as well. It is a proper track frame and I would need to use a seatpost mounted rack as well as some seat mounted bottle cages, but I think it would be nifty. My other current option is a BrassKnuckle from Euro-Asia Imports. They've commissioned with some random frame builder in Taiwan to build these $300 aluminum frame & fork sets that are inteded for track racing and some street.

In either case (Soma Rush, Spicer, BrassKnuckle) I'll be looking to use a cyclocross disc fork and build up a new front wheel from a disc hub. I think it'd be fun and interesting to have a disc brake on a road bike, especially a fixie. I think it is pretty reasonable and the fun/cool factor is intriguing.

10 May 2007

Bicycle Commuting

So last weekend I picked up a rack and small bag for the fixie and made plans to begin commuting to work on a regular basis. I planned to start Monday morning, but that didn't happen. Bad weather and a touch of laziness has held things off until today, but from here forward I really do want to make it a regular thing.

I didn't much much at all in April, maybe a couple of days at the beginning of the month. Poor weather and weekly rock climbing trips with Rock Gal put a damper on my energy level and desire to get on the bike during the week, which stinks because I lost what little strength I had built up in March. Still, I'm back in the saddle and hopeful that the extra excercise and endorphine rush in the morning will help me through the day. Riding at White Rock was nice in the evenings but driving all the way to the lake after work, then home again, was getting expensive. Instead, maybe I can save some dollars in gas and get strong again.

I'll post some pictures if I can ever remember to take them, and show off my honkin' new commuter set-up. I also have a new *purple* Raleigh fork and threadless headset to install, and of course still want to do a disc brake / cyclocross fork set-up.