Don't Stop Pedaling

So here are some photos of the finished Bianchi project, a.k.a. "Big Red." As the title hints, it's a fixed gear. Aesthetically, I was shooting for a 1890s or early 1900s look, something that would evoke the early days of bicycling when all bicycles were fixed. I very consciously did not want to build either a trick bike or a track bike, but I did want to tune into the "pure" ethic of the fixed gear, and bringing in the historical element made a lot of sense.

I've been riding it for about a week, and since this is the first time I've ridden fixed, of course it's taking some getting used to. At first, it was fairly intimidating to feel the push back when I tried to stop pedaling or slow down with just my legs, and I was using the front brake a lot. As I've gotten used to riding it, I have started to get a feel for the intuitive response that devoted fixed gear riders talk about and I haven't been using the brake much at all. Think slower, go slower, almost like choosing to walk at a different pace.

Just as riding a bike makes me more aware of how I'm traveling through my environment than driving a car, riding fixed is certainly making me more aware of how I bicycle through my environment. Of course, the lack of gears is a big factor, but I'm also much more aware of my speed, other traffic, road surface, and topography. I'm still not comfortable building up much speed because I'm not yet entirely confident in my ability to bring the bike to a quick stop if I need to, but that's more psychological than anything, and between the front brake and my improving ability to regulate speed with my legs, I'm doing fine. Also, the gearing is fairly low (52-20) to accommodate our San Diego hills and the fact that I'm riding in an urban environment and not a velodrome.

Track stands and tricky dismounts and all that kind of thing are still a long ways off, if ever, but who knows, I might try some of that stuff as I build up confidence.

Geeky details:

Handlebars: Nitto Promenade B-617

Fixed/free hub and 20t cog: Soma

Saddle: Brooks B-66

Handbrake: Dia-Compe from my old parts bin

Tires: 27" Panaracer Pasela

The rest is what came with the bike, including the rear rim, which I used to build up the new rear wheel around the fixed hub. My LBS ordered all the new bits and consulted on gearing, etc., for which I'm grateful. I didn't want to throw a HUGE amount of money into the project on the off chance that I absolutely hated riding it, but that turned out not to be the case.

Biking, Hiking, Underbiking

After several weeks of not riding much, and generally not going out much, I took a couple of hours this morning to ride around and explore some places in the city I haven't been. One thing San Diego really has going for it is the canyons. This time of year is especially nice, since the natural areas around here are starting to green up again after the summer. Most of the canyons in the urban area are public spaces with trails that are easily accessible as long as you know where the secret staircases and trailheads are. Part of the fun of an exploratory ride is that you get to stumble across them and have little adventures. The photo is from a canyon in Hillcrest, just north of Balboa Park, and these trails are actually part of the Balboa Park trail system.

Parts of the various trails I "discovered" today required hiking with the bike over my shoulder, others I had to walk the bike, but several of the trails allowed me to do a little underbiking*, which is the closest thing I've done to mountain biking since I was a teenager. Granted, it's not very close at all to mountain biking, but it was still fun to ride a little dirt.

*Underbike, ride a traditional road bicycle on surfaces that typically warrant the use of knobbie tires, flat bars, and sometimes suspension.

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia

Oceanside, CA

Sapote, Sapota

Picked up a dozen of these exotic fruits from a friend who has a tree. I'm looking forward to finding some tasty things to do with sapote/sapota. So far, I mashed one up (they are also nicknamed "custard apple") with a few strawberries for a little mushy fruit salad. Something with peaches will be next. They're kind of like a mildly sweet avocado, which is a little off-putting without another flavor involved. They should be good as a smoothie ingredient.

Street Art

Spotted in the middle of a street in our neighborhood, a tile mosaic in tar.

Seems Normal

Old Normal School Building in University Heights

Mourning Cloak Chrysalids

Nymphalis antiopa

This Town's So Strange, They Built It To Change

A Bird on the Door Is Worth

Walks Like A

More Horrors of Travel

Turistas

My dad has been in town for a few days, and anytime we have visitors I'm reminded how nice it is to live in a city known to be a tourism destination. We don't normally live our lives within the tier of activities that most tourists are interested in seeing -- "Now, on your left is the bank we go to. On your right is a coffee shop where we had lunch once." -- so it's sometimes neat to reconnect with the kinds of activities that visitors typically do.

Here's one we actually do every year, whether we have visitors or not. The flower fields (ranunculus) in Carlsbad are a welcome harbinger of spring in a climate zone not known for its seasons. It's good to have an organic reminder that the season has clicked over to spring.

Ranunculai

This has a groovy 70s feel. I don't know why I like this photo, but I do.

Columbine

Our big touristy activity was visiting the Old Town State Park, which is essentially a San Diego history theme park. It's actually very well done in most places, not terribly cheesy or fakey (it is a little bit, but that's the nature of the beast). The gardens there are among the best features, including a lovely kitchen garden that I neglected to take any photos of. Things are nice and green and flowering, the result of a cool and relatively damp spring here in Southern California. Here's hoping we have another cool and pleasant summer like we had last year.

I've Been Right Here All Along

This is one of those "sorry I haven't written for a while" posts. It has been a busy late winter and early spring 'round here.

Mostly, I've been working to launch the San Diego Bike Union. We've got some exciting projects in the works to help promote the idea of bicycling for transportation and creating a more bike-friendly culture in San Diego.

Francis Moore in later life.
Courtesy National City Public Library

I've also been working on my ongoing writing projects and getting ready for my lecture next Wednesday, April 20 at San Diego State University on the creation of Civil War memory.

The lecture is entitled "Neither Historian Nor Novelist: Captain Francis Moore and the Making of Civil War Memory" and previews my forthcoming edited version of Moore's Civil War memoir (Northern Illinois University Press, Fall 2011). The lecture will be at SDSU on April 20 @ 7:30pm in LL430 (Malcolm Love Library).

I've also been adding bits and pieces to the Peugeot, which I'll write about later. Some time back we added a mid-1980s Univega mixte to the group, which replaces my wife's late 1970s Schwinn Suburban; more on that later.

I'll try to get back to blogging all of this busy-ness more often. 

Random San Diego History: Waldo D. Waterman

San Diego Air & Space Museum @ Flickr

Running an errand in the Banker's Hill neighborhood today, I chanced upon a monument to Waldo D. Waterman, apparently an early San Diego aviator who took some sort of flight from the top of a canyon in 1909. I was mostly interested to learn what manner of flight was accomplished from such a relatively low bluff (also, I like the owl graphic on the plaque). Turns out it was a glider flight. The photo above is of a young Waldo, presumably is a more sophisticated aircraft than the one he jumped into the canyon with in 1909. In case you're interested, here's more about Waldo.

Green Scene

@ Mission Trails Regional Park.

Still in the Wrapper

Took a ride down to Chula Vista today on a portion of the Bayshore Bikeway. On the near side of the bay it mostly goes through an industrial area. I always see something here that creeps me out. The first time was a marching band standing on a deserted sidewalk playing for nobody. This time it was these new cars (Audis maybe?) all wrapped up in these covers. There were hundreds probably, both on and off of trucks. I don't know why, but they seemed really sinister.

USS Midway Museum Photo Essay

For OldFool:

More from the Tweed Ride

Velo Cult Bike Shop has an amazing photographer (and jack-of-all-trades) on their staff who shoots the tweed rides. His photos benefit not only the shop, but the entire San Diego cycling community. They have posted the official photos from the ride at their shop blog, including this great one of me. That's my wife in the foreground, so it's actually kind of a sweet photo, since I'm pretty sure that I'm heading over to her.

Photo: Anthony Bareno for Velo Cult.

San Diego Tweed Ride 2010

A few choice photos from this year's Tweed Ride. We had over 120 participants this year! More photos are being posted here.

{this photo of me cropped from one taken by SD_yoshi on Flickr}