Bay State Bike Week!

Happy bike week. Check out all of the happenings here. The calendar is packed, and I'm pretty sure if you were willing to travel around the Greater Boston Area a bit you could get free breakfast all week...

Also don't forget to register for the Mass Commuter Challenge. We (that's the corporate 'we') will be out and about celebrating and supporting various events, so the shop hours will be a little wonky. The shop will open at 2pm on Weds May 19, and will be closing early on Weds May 26 for the Bike Bash. Annnnndddd.... the shop will also be closed on Saturday May 22 to lend a mechanic hand to the North Shore Tour de Cure. If you ride your bike, they will cure diabetes.

Oh man, fun events (all month... and this, too), safety summits, bike traffic (see fig. 1), new bike lanes, nice weather, same roads same rules... now is a wicked good time to be riding bikes!

fig. 1- bikepool!


To summarize: ride your bike, get free breakfast, the shop is opening late Weds, and closed Sat.

Frankenbike

In addition to cranking out pro-style tune ups for the good people of the Greater Boston Area, I occasionally like to work on a bike or two for myself. I've just put the finishing touches on a commuter/off road/fire road ripper/monster cross trainer/ninja rider/etc. bike. It might be ugly, but maybe in an adorable way (uglorable?)? You know, for a bike made up of parts from other bikes:

Ta Da!
The details, in case you're into that kinda thing: Unit 2-9 frame, disc brakes, 32/13 fixed gear (shh... don't tell anybody) *cough*, ahem- single speed, 700 x 42 tires, 40 degree sweep handle bars!, because I've never said, "wow, I wish these bars had less sweep"

Comfy for your hands
It took a little tweaking to get this baby ready for bombing around town, mainly in the stem/handle bar zone, I mean it is a 29er mountain bike frame and therefore a little upright and mountain-bikey. So, why wouldn't I just get an appropriate townie bike? Well, I don't need to see the ocean everyday, but I need to know that if I did need to see the ocean I could. Which is why I can't live in the midwest. Similarly, I don't necessarily need to ride this bike off road everyday, but I need to know that I can when the mood strikes me. That's why all of the bikes I'm fortunate to own can be trail ride ready in 15min or less. Sorry road bikes, we just aren't meant to be.

Plus, with this frame there's no chance of a slow-motion-toe-overlap-in-traffic-while-I'm-trying-to-track-stand crash. There's metric tons of clearance. See:

There's still plenty of room with shoes on, too.
It's super fun. I don't ride fast (and I have no plans to start, it takes sooo much effort...) so, the fixed gear adds a little challenge to my favorite not-so-technical trails/fire roads. And riding bikes with one gear always makes me feel like a kid. True story.

Thanks for letting me geek out a little bit here.