Food Friday: My New Favorite Clif Bar Flavor

It tastes like a soft peanut brittle. The caffeine (50 mg, a first for Clif Bar) doesn't hurt when you need that little boost, either.

Go to http://www.clifbar.com/ for more information.

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T-shirt of the Day

This is the latest addition to my bike shop t-shirt collection, from Biker's Edge in Kaysville, UT. I got it last night at the raffle following the Race Across the Sky. I'll talk more about the movie in a future post.

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Home Furnishings

I saw on twitter yesterday that someone was making chandeliers out of bike chains.

I shared this with the wife, who pointed out that while the craftsmanship was impressive, there aren't many people who have a house that a bicycle chain chandelier would work in.

It got me thinking. What would a house look like that a bicycle chain chandelier would be at home in?

Well, I would assume that it would have couches and chairs made out of bicycle saddles or wheels.

And  coffee tables and end tables like these

Of course, you need a clock so you know when it's time to go ride.

You would need some accent lights too.

Don't forget about the kitchen. A pot rack,

bar stools,

and a lazy susan.

And finally, the home office

Call it a hunch, but I feel these are some of the things you would find in a house with a bicycle chain chandelier.

I am Apparently a Very Persuasive Person

Yes, my skills at persuasion are good. Almost scary, in fact.

I read on twitter yesterday that there is going to be an encore performance of Race Across the Sky on Thursday to kick off the 2011 Utah Bike Summit this weekend, and that there are still tickets available. This performance will be followed by a Q&A with some of the Leadville MTB racers, including the legendary Elden the "Fat Cyclist" Nelson (you read his blog, right? I mean EVERYBODY reads his blog).

I saw the 2009 Race Across the Sky with some friends back in November 2009, and decided that I wanted to go see this one, except there were a couple of problems: It is on a school night, and my wife is not a cyclist, or a fan of cycling. I figured that she wouldn't be at all interested in going with me. Still, couldn't hurt anything by asking.

So, I texted her:

Me: You want to see a movie about bike racing on Thursday?
Her: Chances are slim. Tell me more. In a theater?
Me: Yes, at Jordon Commons
Me: It's the Race Across the Sky from 2010
Her: Yeah, let's do it!

So, we're going to see the Race Across the Sky on Thursday.

I promise to only use my powers for good (most of the time).

Photo of the Day

Every so often, the wife will send me some little tidbit that she found on the innerwebs. Here's todays contribution from her.

Vintage.



If We All Rode Our Bikes...

I Love this! Found it on Urban Velo.

Human-Powered Health from solve on Vimeo.

Happy Easter

Happy Earth Day

What the...! pt. 2

I wasn't originally going to do a post about this bike, since it has been all over the interwebs since it first appeared on the copenhagenize.com site.

Yes, it is what it looks like, a sperm bike. And yes, that is what is used for.

Nordisk Cryobank (European Sperm Bank)is one of Europe's leading sperm banks and the company was looking at environmentally-friendly alternatives to how they could transport their sperm samples to the fertility clinics around Greater Copenhagen.

Like I said, I wasn't going to post about this bike, until today.  Today, I went to SLC Bicycle Co. to talk to Brent, the owner when I saw the perfect wheels for the sperm bike.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

1 Car = 10 Bikes

As far as parking is concerned, that is.

Salt Lake City, in an effort to be more bicycle friendly has installed the first two - of what hopefully will be many more - bike parking corrals in the downtown area.

the corral in front of the Twilite Lounge at 347 E 200 S

Currently the corrals - which take the space of one parking spot and turn it into bike parking for 10 bicycles - are located in front of Squatters Pub and Grill, and Twilite Lounge. Other businesses are slated to get corrals soon. There is no cost to the business to have the city put one in for them.

Squatters Pub at 147 W Broadway (300 S)

The corrals are seaonal. they will be in place from April to November.

Salt Lake City is trying hard to be bike friendly. First with the sharrows  - which have been expanded from the initial one block section on 200 s to several roads that are too narrow for separate bike lanes - and now this. Let's hope this momentum keeps going.

Things I Like: Pearl Izumi Barrier Lobster Glove

A more accurate title for this post would be things I really, really want.

I previously mentioned my ride on April 9th at the FrontRunner Century, and how numbingly cold, wet, and miserable it was. I also briefly mentioned the interaction I had with the SAG truck from Canyon Bicycles.

I want to sing the praises of Canyon Bicycles and Pearl Izumi. I was suffering alone, with fingers so cold that I couldn't hardly bend them. I stopped on the side of the road to warm my digits in my armpits, when the SAG truck rolled up. They asked if everything was okay. I told them the bike was fine. The only problem was I couldn't feel my fingers any longer. The person in the passenger seat opened up a bag and handed me a pair of Pearl Izumi lobster claw gloves, and said "you promise to give them back after the ride?" I traded my old gloves for the lobster claws, and immediately feeling and warmth returned to my hands.

The split finger design still allows me to opperate my brakes and shifters, but still pairs up the fingers for warmth. Plus, you can flash the Vulcan "live long and prosper" hand sign with ease.

I haven't returned the gloves yet, since we immediately left for California after the ride, but I will take them back with a grateful thanks.

The Barrier Lobster gloves retail on the Pearl Izumi site for $70. Go to www.pearlizumi.com for more info.

My old gloves? They are dead to me. I'll tell the shop to chuck them when I return their gloves.

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Update - 30 Days of Biking

Well, April is more than half over. Might as well post an update to my 30 Days of Biking goal.

Unfortunately, I have missed a few days this month.

Cycling on vacation is easy - if you're just going on vacation to be somewhere else. When the wife and I were in St. George, I had no problem squeezing in a ride each day because we didn't have any set plans. But, if you are going on vacation to visit family, it gets a little more complicated. There were several nights that we didn't get back to the hotel until well after dark, and up early the next day to go visit family, or to head out to visit the ancestral homestead in Happy Camp, CA (yes, it is a real place, look it up).

One night, I did take a few laps around the hotel just to satisfy the day's biking, and I did bike to my brother-in-law's house for breakfast. But, even that wasn't always convenient or easy to do.

I am not considering this 30 Days of Biking a failure, however. I am not stopping at the end of April. I am going to continue my goal of biking daily into May, June etc... I may miss a day every now and then due to schedules and unavoidable problems. But I plan to be on my bike every day I can.

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Sunday funnies

DIY Bike Stand

I was over at a friends house not too long ago, and saw that he had several of his bikes supported by stands made out of PVC. I asked him about them, and he said that he found the plans on a popular site that "Instructs" you how to build various things.

The stands are easy and inexpensive to make.

First, gather the supplies:

1 10' length of 3/4" PVC pipe ($1.64 at the local Home Depot)
6 90 degree elbows ($0.34 / ea, or $2.10 for a contractor's pack of 10)
6 tees ($0.33 / ea, or $2.60 for a contractor's pack of 10)
PVC cement ($4.17)

Next, cut the pipe in the following lengths:

(2) 22 3/4" for the wheel uprights
(2) 12 1/2" for the wheel base
(4) 7" for the base/legs
(5) 1 1/4" splices

I have to apologize at this point, I took several pictures of the assembly process, and none of the pictures turned out - the flash washed out everything so you couldn't see the pictures - and of course I didn't see that the pictures were ruined until after, when the rack was glued together. I drew the assembly process on the white board...

Picasso, I ain't, but with this, and the pictures of the assembled stand, hopefully you can get the idea.

Here is the base, without the uprights.

The uprights can be left un-glued for ease of transportation, if you choose.

The finished product.

I ended up building 3 stands. The stands will support the bicycle by either the front or the rear wheel. The bike in the background? It's my fixie-in-progress. I'm still needing some things, such as cranks, chain, and pedals, but it's coming along.

There you have it! a simple bike stand for around $10.

What the...?

This past week, I've been visiting family up in Northern California, and by "Northern California", I mean WAY northern - as in on the Oregon border.

One of the days, we decided to head across the border into the land of smugness (Portland is only the capital of bicycle smugness, it actually extends all the way through the state) to Ashland, Oregon. Mainly, because I wanted to add to my bike shop t-shirt collection, but also because it sounded like a nice day trip.

So, that was a lot of words to say that we were in Ashland, OR on Tuesday, hanging out in Lithia park. I was off with the kids in another part of the park when my wife saw a couple of people riding these:

Unfortunately, I had the camera, or she would have taken a picture for me. It's called a GlideCycle, apparently they are made in Ashland, and apparently my wife was talking to the creators of this contraption.

When I look at one of these, and when I watch the video on their website, only one thing comes to mind:

Addendum: I guess that my wife did get a picture with her phone. Go hon!

T-Shirt of the Day

On our way home from our vacation to Northern California, we went through this small town called Weed. Of course we had to stop and get some souvenirs. I didn't get this shirt, but liked it.

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Mother Nature - 1, Kendall - 0

Well, more like Kendall 0.66.

I went into yesterday's ride with the plan of showing Mother Nature who's boss, and I ended up finding out that she is the boss.

I don't think that I have ever been as cold or as miserable on a bike ride. After 40 miles, I couldn't feel my feet at all, and pedaling was just torture. I abandoned.

My hands were just about as bad off, but thanks to the sag support from Canyon Sports who loaned me a pair of Pearl Izumi lobster claw gloves, my hands survived. I need to get me a pair of those.

The ride started off in the snow, and it only got worse after that. about 15 miles in, the trail was completely flooded - no way around it. wet feet do not make for a fun ride.

I'll be back next year! Even though it was a miserable ride because of the weather, It was fun, and they have really cool finishers medals.

My friend who rode with me? He ended up abandoning also. His legs cramped up so badly that he couldn't pedal any longer.

To ride or not to ride? There is no question!

This is the weather forecast for tomorrow.

Tomorrow also happens to be the inaugural running of the FrontRunner Century, a nice little 62 mile jaunt from Salt Lake City to Ogden, with a return ride on the Frontrunner commuter train.

I’ve been looking forward to the ride for a couple of months now. I even convinced a friend to ride with me – this will be his first metric century.

Then Mother Nature decided that she wasn’t going away quietly.

There are two options available: not riding or riding.

I could choose to not ride, and get a couple hours more sleep in my nice warm bed before I pack the wife and kids into the minivan and head for Northern California (weather reports for there aren’t much better, bummer!). Normally that is the route that I would be inclined to take.

But not this time.

I am looking at tomorrow as a way to give Mother Nature the middle finger. To let her know that I am riding tomorrow regardless of what she throws our way. That I am going to have a fun ride just to spite her. I have all of my cold weather gear laid out for tomorrow, Layers, layers, and more layers.

Come on, BRING IT!

Book Review, and My "New" Bike

Among the presents that my family gave me for my birthday on Saturday were a couple of books. One of the books fit perfectly with another post that I wanted to do, so I decided to turn it into a book review.

I don’t think my wife knew what she was starting when she gave me Atomic Zombie’s Bicycle Builder’s Bonanza for my birthday. If you’ve ever looked at a tall bike, or a chopper bike and thought about making one for yourself, this is the book for you!

The book covers everything you need to know about creating your own freak bike, from how to find and select a suitable “donor bike” and stripping all of the unnecessary parts from it, to what tools you will need. There is even a chapter that covers the basics of welding – something that you will be doing quite a bit of during the creation process.

After covering the basics, the book gives you step-by-step instructions on building several different types of freak bikes, such as choppers with 4 foot long forks, 10-foot-tall bikes, low-slung recumbent racers, tandem bikes and even a big wheel-type contraption that uses casters for the rear wheels.

Along with the step-by-step instructions for each project, there is detailed photos showing you exactly what you should be doing.

something seems familiar about this bike, read on...

More information can be found on http://www.atomiczombie.com/

It is funny that my wife choose to purchase this book for me. A couple of months ago a good friend asked me if I wanted a tall bike that he built. He said that there were some neighborhood kids that would come over to his house and ride it around. He was concerned about their safety – as they would jump it off of the curbs and be generally reckless when riding it. Instead of just telling them not to ride it, he decided to remove the temptation. We were never able to work out a time that I could go up to his place to get it, or when he would be heading down south to his daughter’s where I could meet him. We both forgot about it for a while. Then just a couple of days ago, I got a call from him apologizing, saying that he hasn’t been down to his daughter’s in a while, and the bike is still there if I want it. It turned out that my schedule worked out that I could go up to his place and pick it up.

It took a few tries to learn how to get it started and climb up on it – I have the bloody knee to prove that! – but once I figured that out, it’s fun to ride! You are going to attract attention to yourself riding this down the street, so be prepared.

This type of tall bike is what is referred to as an "inverta-bike" in the book.

The pictures were taken by my 8-year-old as he was running down the street, hence the blurriness.

All I can say is that I really, really want a welder now!

Enjoying the Ride

We got back from our long weekend trip last night. I didn't make it out for a ride before we left St. George , but figured that I would take care of my ride to keep my 30 Days of Biking streak intact after we got home.

What I didn't take into account was how tired I would be after all of that travelling. My wonderful wife kept on telling me that I needed to get out before it got dark and the weather turned nasty, and that I didn't want to miss a day. She was pushing me to go out and ride?! Gotta love her!

I honestly have to say that I wasn't looking forward to a ride - blasphemy! - until my 8-year-old piped up that he wanted to go with me. Suddenly what I was expecting to be a ride of drudgery turned into a great father and son bonding experience. I let him set the pace, and direction, and we went off for an enjoyable ride. We talked about this and that; the goats and other animals that we normally see, school, running, etc... Both of us had a great ride.

It made me realize that as much as I enjoy going fast, and as much as I appreciate the feeling of completing a century, the rides I enjoy the most are the ones I take with my family.

It's memories like this that are important.

I'm glad I went riding last night.

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T-Shirt of the Day

Referring back to yesterday's post, here is the shirt from Red Rock Bicycle Co. down here in St. George. Love their logo!