Breathe new life or spend time searching?

Circle A cycles repairs and repaints bikes; they also handbuild some really great custom frames. I sent them a bad picture of the bike and some details and they estimate around $100 for the repair and $300 for a complete repaint (one color only).

There seem to be no available good Peugeots on Ebay or any of the craigslists right now and I imagine the Mt. Airy Bike Shop will tell me their PX-10's will run me around $600-$750. So I can wait and see how long it takes to find another cheap Peugeot frame with geometry I like (could be never) or send the frame up to Providence for some work and a new lease on life.

Of course the best part would be picking the new color scheme....check out Circle A's Gallery for some ideas. I welcome suggestions in the comments section!

Bye

Bike's dead. Bent too much to be worth trying to fix. Where do I find another PR-10 my size for 60 bucks?

The bike is not OK

Rear triangle is bent to the (bike's) left. Shit.

Bike!

Rode my (geared) bike to work today! First time since the accident.

New Lease on Life

I think that because of the lucky outcome of my collision, I am supposed to have a new perspective on things. I've not yet figured out what that is, though. I think I still feel pretty much physically invincible (Unbreakable!), like most young people.

Maybe I'll just stick with that, for now.

Hit by Car

Friday morning I was rounding one of the last corners into work, where I have a stop sign and turn left into a small alley usually devoid of cars. Instead a car was speeding through, fast enough so that he wasn't there in the reflection in the large window opposite me that I use to check traffic, but then there he was when I went through the intersection. I thought I would make it somehow and he hit my left leg, knocking the bike sideways. I tore out of my toeclips and fell on my front teeth and the front of my helmet, rolling to the far curb.

My leg hurt a lot but at this point I still thought he'd hit my rear wheel. I could move my toes and didn't think it was broken. The guy, a detective, called an ambulance. His cop buddies came over from the police station a block away with some gauze. A big fire truck came with some medics. The ambulance arrived. My friend Chris from work was walking by when the accident happened and stayed till they took me away. My leg kept hurting and in the ambulance Sean and Dennis gave me some morphine and splinted both my ankles, there was a small scrape on my right one too that I hadn't noticed. My lip was cut and bleeding but my teeth were still there.

At UMD Shock Trauma they cut my jeans off (but saved my new patagonia green fleece!) and checked my spine and pupils. I had been shivering from shock but the morphine helped with that, and by the time they were xraying (chest, left leg, ankle, foot) it had worn off and I was shaking again. They gave me another two mg and it felt bitter through my body, but then I was warm.

A doctor came and stitched up my lip and a crazy volunteer came and talked to me while I waited for the xrays to come back. The guy in the next bed had had a stroke or a fall after a stroke but was really chatty. A cop was brought in who'd been in a collision and had some pain in his back but seemed like he would be ok.

Xrays were negative. Two (different) sergeants came by and took a statement and told me the bike was at the police station. At first I heard the guy who hit me was FBI but then someone said something about a 'task force' and all I could think was I got hit by the guys they based the Wire on. They sent me home with crutches which I haven't used at all and an Rx for oxycodone which I took two of and then felt like throwing up, though it might have been from hitting my head. All in all I have a bruised and maybe sprained left lower leg, scrapes and two stitches on my lip, badass bruise on my knee (from hitting the top tube on my bike as he hit me), and a small scrape and a bruise on my right ankle and hip. I expected a lot of whiplash soreness the next morning but really, it's been fine. I kind of look like a turtle or a giraffe, though, with my lip all poofy on top.

Everyone's been so great; Bonnie got me from the ER, Tarik brought chocolate, and Nick and a few others have called or stopped by. Edith and I went and got the bike on Saturday and it seems fine - which is sort of surprising and sort of not, considering he hit my leg and not the bike. I have some pics I'll post after I hook up the camera.

My helmet saved my head and my nose. Please wear your helmets.

Stillness in Motion

This morning I had my first proper trackstand in traffic, no unclipping, no wobbling, just smooveness till the cars were all through and I could dart across like a needle.

Click on the picture for corporate/alternaculture guide to how to do this (and other things on your fixie).

Bike Snob NYC

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/10/from-lbs-to-complete-bs-future-of.html is my new favorite thing. Where oh where is Bike Snob BLT and why won't he buy me a drink?

Oh right...I'm the bike snob. Guess I'll have to buy myself a drink.

Fixie Up!

My one goal this evening was to make the fixie right again. All I needed was a front brake. Dumb Champaign bike guy gave me a rear instead of a front brake, so I went to Velocipede with intent to trade. Beth, the Wise One, warned I would have trouble finding a modern short reach sidepull in the boxes of old brake parts, and she was right. No dice. So I hightailed it to Joe's, where yet another adorable bike monkey took pity on my plight, and rummaged through the parts drawer for a proper brake. The one he found was too bulky and would have torn my tire to pieces, so he came up with an ingenious solution (and free to boot) - replace the back nut with a longer one so that it would fit through the drill hole in the fork (which is wider than the drill hole in the back, standard on most bikes). Ten minutes later I am Good To Go. I buy a bunch of tubes as a thank you to kind cute bike monkey, and rock on outta there, stopping at Whole Foods for some staples (milk, raisin bran, strawberries, ice cream). Dinner and then brake cable installation and barwrapping and shazaam! I am all set.

Of course, the new bars and stem are a tad long for my reach, and the Brooks seems a lot less comfy now than it was in the spring, but it's all about readjusting, yeah?

First ride tomorrow...can't wait.

I don't know, I just like it

London Track Stands

New Bike Logo

The dudes over at Fixie Inc (cycles-for-heroes.com) have my new favorite web address and new favorite logo. They are Turkish! In Germany! And, most interesting, their Cyclocross bike is called the 'PureBlood'. Since their site is only in German and Turkish for now, I cannot understand any hidden irony in that. The bikes are expensive but the shirts are pretty cool. Also - they sell "Carscratchers", for the ends of your flat bars:


Ben Hur, anyone?

Vino, you stupid cow

PAU, France, July 25 — Alexander Vinokourov, the Kazakh cyclist who was considered the favorite to win the Tour de France this year and who has won two stages of the race so far, tested positive for an autologous blood transfusion and his Astana team will abandon the tour, a team official said Tuesday.

Rest of the story here:

Dumbass. Velonews gives a little more detail, including David Millar's reaction ("Jesus Christ....this makes me want to cry.").

"Hardcore Commuter"

Of course I am not doing work at the moment but instead using the lightning fast internet at work to shop for tires (did not know how hard it was going to be to find skinny tires for 27" rims!). And I visit the Soma site, since they are totally awesome in every way, especially these cool steel-core tire levers.

Anyway. I'm looking at the Xpress Tires just for kicks, and I see the description:

We wanted an urban tire that was flat resistant AND also gave an excellent ride. A splendid tire for the AIDS Ride. Messengers and hardcore commuters should try them, too.

And I realize - I am a hardcore commuter! What a perfect description of my totally lame 2 mile commute through stupid traffic and monster potholes, skating over broken glass and treacherous jettisoned trash. I don't have to feel bad about not being as tough as those messenger guys, but nor do I have to stay in the ranks of the average bike commuter, pedaling a heavy hybrid or mountain bike down bike lanes, laden with panniers. I am in that happy medium of speed and agility and short distances, every day.

EPO TE QUIERO

From the folks who brought you the Zidane "Coup de Boule' music video...I laugh heartily.

Alleycat Results

Where's H?

More photos here

More bikes

I accidentally on purpose won a new bike on Ebay. Check out those chrome lugs and that sweet fork! Hopefully I can make a bunch of the money back selling the components. Or else I will just save them for a rainy day when I want to turn the bike back into a lean mean racing machine.

I also claimed a blue Peugeot UO-8 at Velocipede, for free. It looks like this:

I will probably fix it and sell it.

And now I can Trackstand. So there's that.

I took the morning off for mental health and went up and down 30th street, where there are few cars, teaching myself to trackstand. This served a triple purpose of 1) making me look like a badass 2) taking my mind off some crap and 3) improving valuable fixed gear biking skills.

I love multitasking. Also, I am way cuter than this guy, even if I can't yet trackstand with just one foot.

Check out these lugs

Lots of good shit on the old ebay today.

Coolest color scheme ever?

Long lost bike

I'm bumming around the internet, trying to figure out why my Nishiki has no rack braze ons (just spent 30 bills on a rack and some dinky panniers, but they won't attack to either of my bikes), and I found the Nishiki!

She is from the 80s, which is earlier than I had pegged the teal color scheme. Her new wheels arrive wednesday, and then it will be Showtime! Today I even bought a 4 foot cable so that I'll never leave my wheels unlocked again.