Bell

The stars aligned today just long enough for me to get out of the 'office' and go for an MTB ride. Beautiful weather, a couple of free hours in the middle of the day, and a fully working bike- a very rare occurrence.

I didn't expect to run into anyone else on the trails, what with it being 1pm on Monday, but I happened upon a woman out for a hike. I didn't want to startle her, so I hoped she'd hear me pedaling. She didn't, and I really didn't want to interrupt her tranquil hike with an "on your left!" Then I remembered I was riding a bike with a bell. (It's my dedicated MTB bell- my four legged trail riding pal responds to it without me having to yell at her.) So, as I rode up a gave a quick 'Ding! Ding!' (always two in a row, I think it sounds nicer..). She said, "Oh! Isn't that a pleasant little surprise. Have a nice ride."

It is pleasant. I think it communicates "Hello! I'm here." Which is much different than the car horn's "You're annoying me. Get the eff out of my way." There are plenty of different tones- high pitched aluminum, resonant brass, old school telephone sounding. and so on.

It's weird, but at the moment I don't even have a bell on my commuter bike, and there are so many people out on the road to communicate with. I'm not going to move the one from my mountain bike- it's taken me a long time to get it that broken in- so it looks like I'm going to be in the market for a new one.

Planning

I've been planning a trip for this coming January. A bike tour trip. So far the planning process has been pretty passive. I spent the summer reading other people's tour blogs- some good ones and some really not good ones. I did a lot of day dreaming about it. I decided to ride through the south east (I've never been there, and it'll be warm-ish in January). I got maps from Adventure Cycling. That's about as far as I got with the planning process.

The shop move took up a large amount of brain space and energy, so I put off making any concrete plans for this adventure until things started to settle down around here. It's settling-ish, so I bought plane tickets this week. It's time for me to stop day dreaming and get some details nailed down. I leave for Florida on January 4 and I have a flight back to BOS from Austin TX on February 4. One month to ride 1300ish miles (one of those details I think I should work out...), that's do-able, right?

Closed on Saturday

Yep. CLOSED this Saturday (11/5). To wrench at the LUNA Chix Cyclocross Clinic with Katerina Nash. Should be fun!

See you Monday.

H-ween Ride

Oh man. So much fun. I love, love, love seeing people and bikes of all shapes and sizes go for a little ride together. And the costumes. Oh the costumes. So many animals, ninjas, 1%ers, mythical beasts, a couple of Elliots (of E.T. fame, natch), plumbers, cartoon characters, I could go on...  I definitely could have put more effort into my costume- I was a crab. All it took was a red hoodie, a couple of oven mitts, and a backpack. Next year I'll see what I can do about stepping it up.I collected a handful of high-fives from folks spectating on the side walks, and I overheard one woman say "They're making me so happy!" Fun for everyone. I wish I had gotten some better pictures to entice you to come on the ride next year (as if costumes and high-fives aren't enough), but here's a couple:

Lots of lights, bike blinky and otherwise

 That's the hwangsta on the left, dressed as a nevernude, complete with shower.

New and Improved!

We did it! We're open for business at our new location- 1064 Cambridge St. (it's on the corner of Cambridge St. and Elm St.).

I can't really celebrate the new space without thanking and acknowledging all the folks who helped make it happen. Like Robert, Peter, Sal, Lisa, Charlie and the whole Youth Build/Just A Start crew for constructing this beautiful spot. And the moving crew- Ben, Casey, Mirabel, Laura, Janet, Jeff, Charlie, John, Erin, Cathy, Kim, Amanda, Kristen, Nancy, Cami, K Rice, and Jen. Oh, and Abby for showing up just as we finished all the work.

We're still breaking it in a little, but we're back to 93% operational. The other 7% will be back tomorrow.

CLOSED Saturday 10/22

We're going to shut down operations while we move Hub Bicycle HQ (to 1064 Cambridge St... in case you hadn't heard) this weekend.

Organization isn't my strong suit (you can't be good at everything...), so I'm bringing in reinforcements. We'll be back in action and better than ever on Monday. Just wait until you see the new shop... You're in for a pleasant surprise.

Getting Colder

It's been a pretty nice fall so far, in my humble opinion. It hasn't really started getting cold yet, but it's definitely on it's way. My very least favorite thing about cold weather is having cold hands. I would sit outside in a bathing suit in December as long as I'm wearing gloves (that's not entirely true).

In the spirit of the coming cold weather we got some new gloves in the shop yesterday. The one I'm most excited about is the Evo Drone. For two reasons in particular.

It looks just like a regular old glove. Black, synthetic material, white loge/highlights:

Here's where it gets interesting. The index finger and thumb have a little flap, so you can expose just enough finger to use your smart phone:

Aaaaand. There's a windproof mitten-y cover that tucks into the back of the glove for when it gets really cold (or for when you ride really fast):

To be fair, I haven't actually used these gloves yet, so I have no idea how warm they really are. I do have high hopes for them. And according to their handy glove-mometer (5-10 degrees?!) they should be nice and toasty.