See if there are any events in your area. There aren’t any in mine. In fact, there isn’t much going on in the US at all for World Carfree Day. WE WON’T LET THAT STOP US, WILL WE? Mark and I will go carfree on Monday. (Mark, in fact, has been riding his bike to work most days, which has been a really good thing lately because a lot of gas stations here STILL DON’T HAVE GAS. At one point during this artificial gas crisis, Asheville’s average gas prices were the third highest in country, behind only Alaska and Hawaii. WTF.)

The sekrit projekt bike is coming along. The 90mm stem wasn’t enough, so I went up to 120 mm. Now I’m waiting for a setback seatpost to arrive to put my ass back farther. And I need to assemble the buckets, install the front rack, and Dremel the fender stays down to size so I can install the fenders. Which are ugly. I hate them. But without further ado, here is Chuck, the no-longer-sekrit projekt bike:

Out of the box!

Assembled!

As of last night!

I measured: The road bike and the sekrit projekt bike have roughly the same effective top tube length. The road bike has a considerably longer stem, though. Even after installing the new stem on the sekrit projekt bike¹, the reach is still longer on the other bike…which has always felt a little too long to me, so cross your fingers that the 90 mm stem on the sekrit projekt bike is, like Goldilocks would say, “just right.”

¹Which I did this morning before work. I haven’t had time to take it for a test ride yet, though—if I didn’t live on Killjoy Hill it would have been no problem to go for a spin or two around the block, but noooo. So I’ll be watching the clock all day, eager to see how the ride feels.

…but haven’t had the time. Been flat-out working hard. I just wanted to post this as more a reminder to myself than anything else:

How hard would it be, really, for someone who’s done some electrician pre-apprenticeship work and is pretty good at picking things up anyway, to rig up turn signals and brake lights for a bike? Ones that actually make sense, where the signal lights are about 18″ apart rather than right next to each other, so cars can tell pretty easily which signal is on? Sure, it’s been seventeen years since that pre-apprenticeship, but some poking around on teh intarwebs and a trip to home depot—I could do this.

Right after I finish the other long list of things I need to do with the sekrit projekt bike.

The only real bar to it is that I’m not so handy. Very much not so handy. But I’m doing all the work on the sekrit projekt bike, and so far, so good. I haven’t killed myself with badly adjusted brakes or by trapping the tube under the bead of the tire while installing it, etc., etc.

So far, I have (and this is another reminder to myself, because the longer this goes on, the more I’m going to forget I did):

• Assembled it out of the box (was mostly assembled in the box, though, so no biggie)
• Assembled the front brake because I stupidly disassembled it when I was assembling the bike…don’t ask
• Trued the front wheel (I’m still dancing around a little about this, and it was over a week ago)
• Replaced misnamed ‘Slickasaurus’ tires with actual slicks
• Replaced Tektro brake pads with Kool Stops
• Changed out stock saddle for used Brooks B-17 from ebay
• Threw on cheap ‘touring’ platform pedals
• Fashioned a Chap Stick holder for the handle bars (a girl’s got her priorities)
• Installed front and rear lights—whoop-de-do, watch me turn a screwdriver
• Installed rear rack
• Rigged up bukkits for rear rack…had a bukkit failure while testing them in Lexington…back to drawing board (note: order more bukkits)

Tomorrow after work I’m changing out the stem, from 60 mm at a 30˚ angle to a 90 mm angle-adjustable stem that I’m starting out at 10˚. See, the next frame size up on the sekrit projekt bike, the standover height was too much; I’d have been riding the top tube with my crotch when I straddled it. Especially given that I’m usually wearing fairly thin-soled Converses. But the size I did get feels cramped in the cockpit—I keep pushing my butt back onto the rear edge of the saddle, and the saddle itself is as far back on the rails as it can go. I have this constant feeling of needing. more. space. Changing out the stem—longer, lower—will increase the reach. What’s strange is that the sekrit projekt bike is bigger in many ways than my road bike, so it makes no sense (to me) that it’s cramped. Look:

I don’t have a top tube length or stem length/angle for the road bike; I’ll have to dig out the measuring tape at some point and see how they match up. I think extending the reach with the new stem is going to make an appreciable difference. I’ve just been dragging my feet on it because it will likely involve replacing some, if not all, of the cables.

Anyway, I just wanted to remind myself to work on a turn signal/brake light system sometime next year.

And. I’m 37 today. That’s not a bad number. Has more of a ring to it than ‘36′. And Mark, as usual, made sure it wasn’t at all painful making the transition from one number to the next. He rules. But now I am so full. Yet wanting MOAR ice cream pie.

So. not. fair.

Mark snapped a pic while we were out having dinner:

And this was apparently the “good” one of the pics he snapped. *sigh*

I got Mark lost today, out riding our bikes over to the Coliseum to pick up our NIN pre-sale tickets. Mostly I got us lost ’cause I had it lodged in my head that NIN was playing…someplace entirely other than the Coliseum. So we wound up way far away from where we needed to be, and ended up asking a cop for directions (once I figured out that we actually needed to be going to the Coliseum).

Once we got heading the right direction, we were speeding along, enjoying a nice ride alongside the river, when we came across some killer railroad tracks. Killer. Railroad. Tracks. My tire dropped into the groove between one of the tracks and the road, and down I went. As I hit the ground, I had enough time to think, “Well at least I didn’t hit my—”clunk. Add a new helmet to the shopping list.

Mark, right behind me, had two options: run over me or fall to avoid running over me. Being a real gentleman, he fell. Then a motorcycle and three or four cars whizzed by his head…like a foot away. Scary stuff.

I’d like to thank everyone who stopped and asked if we were all right….

*eyeroll*

Anyhow, banged up and scraped up, we got back to our feet, shook our bikes off, and headed on our way.

Did I mention I hit my head?

So, we were riding along and came to this great, open road with fantastic, wide shoulders, and I was pedaling happily along….

And Mark said, “This looks like the fucking freeway.”

Ha. Whoops.

Eventually we did find the coliseum. Coming back was much quicker. We’re really not very far away at all.

And the same three buses from behind the hotel were parked at there.

Things learned from today:

• Do not rely on my brain.
• Do not rely on my brain.
• Mark should handle directions from now on.
• Do not rely on my brain.

The scraped knee. I also have eleven bruises and a sore wrist.

But I had a good time! :D

Mark got a scraped shoulder and arm out of it. Both bikes came out of it pretty well, too. Mark hasn’t found any scrapes on his, and on mine it’s just the left brake hood that’s scuffed. Not bad, not bad.

I <3 my bike.

We were headed out of Baltimore on our way back to Asheville when Mark said, “It’s kind of silly to drive all the way home today just to leave for Knoxville tomorrow.” So I called Hertz and the dog kennel to extend our car rental and Jack’s vacation, then we stopped at a wifi spot to Priceline a hotel…and here we are in Knoxville! (With three buses parked behind the hotel. Not bad, huh?)

We got here around 7:00pm, and I dragged Mark out for a bike ride (which is how we ran across the buses) (and it didn’t really take much dragging). It’s a lot hillier here than Baltimore, but either it’s not as hilly as Asheville or the new bike I got Friday (shhh–it’s part of a sekrit prodgekt) just kicks ass on hills. I guess we’ll see when I get a chance to ride it in Asheville.

(But: OMG I LOVE THIS BIKE.)

And now, several hours later, I’ve jury-rigged an Internet connection (Mark’s Macbook has no problems connecting here; mine throws up nothing but blank web pages) and caught up with my work email. And we’ve ordered bananas foster and coffee from room service (which sounds like a grand idea now, but wait till I have to sign the hotel bill when we check out–eeeesh).

Can’t wait to get my work out of the way tomorrow and go for another bike ride, BEFORE THE NIN SHOW.

(Did I mention I love this bike?)

OMG a NIN show.

#1. WTF? I got another speeding ticket. Seventeen years without one, and now I can’t behind the wheel of a car without cops stepping all over each other to get at me.

#2. We’re in Baltimore. Drove up today, with our bikes in the back. Mark was a little unsure about bringing the bikes, but after we went for a nine-mile ride in Pikesville/Baltimore that was, as Mark described it, “effortless!,” he was actually pretty happy we brought them. We had a good time.

#3. Just over 13 hours till BRMC at Virgin Mobile Fest!!!!

!!!

(We’re not riding our bikes to the festival, although that’s actually the route we road tonight, to Pimlico Race Course and back to the hotel. Mark doesn’t feel comfortable leaving his bike out all day, though. Understandable—he only just got the bike. So we’re going to take the subway. It’s all good.)

(Oh man, it was a blast riding our bikes tonight.)

I came this close –> <– to getting to spend a weekend at Disney World next month (in order to attend a work-related meeting the Monday following)…but then Mark reminded me that we have a BRMC/STP concert that weekend.

BRMC > the magic of Disney. Srsly.

My brother is getting married—on Halloween, no less! How cool is that (the getting married part, I mean). I met his fiancé when we were up in New Hampshire in June. She’s cool.

So I don’t know what she sees in him. ;)

The schedule for the Baltimore Virgin Mobile Fest is up; BRMC is on first on Sunday, which is so many awesome shades of yay. I can get in when the gates open, get a good spot at the stage, stand there for a couple hours instead of all freaking day, see mah band!, and then go enjoy the other parts of the festival before we have to head back to that stage to catch STP and NIN in the evening.

I discovered a way to overcome the bar-end shifter problem with the Surly Long Haul Trucker. Paul Thumbies allow you to move the shifters to elsewhere on the handlebars. And that’s something I can do myself, so extra awesome sauce. That makes the Surly LHT the perfect bike—even better than the Volpe, which needed to have the pedals, seatpost, tires and the entire drive train replaced to make it the bike I wanted it to be.

So all I need to do now is place an order…

…at some point.

Mark and I rode our bikes to the movies yesterday—17.5 miles round trip. I left ten minutes before him and got to the theater ten minutes after him (ha—I’m so slow). I’d have been there sooner, but I dicked around in the U-Haul parking lot (I pulled off to let a long line of cars pass, since the lead car wouldn’t pass while I was on the road; it was a couple minutes before I could get back on the road after that) and I dicked around in the Dick’s Sporting Goods parking lot (’cause I wound up in a right-turn-only lane when I meant to go straight). But still, 50 minutes to get there was better than I’d expected, so yay. And I survived driving in traffic with traffic lights and all of that, so yay again.

We saw The Dark Night. Micro review: eh. And: crap was it long. Then we stopped at EVG for dinner and rode home.

I think I enjoyed Iron Man more.

Also, we watched The Machinist the other night, the one where Christian Bale gets down to 121 pounds? I had to keep covering my eyes. Yuckyuckyuck.

Yuck.

The bike shop had ‘good’ news and bad today. The bad: the Bianchi factory has no 2008 Volpes left in my size. The ‘good’: there is one Jamis Aurora—a comparable bike with, in fact, better wheels, for about the same price—available in my size. One in the entire country. If I didn’t have a bike already, I probably would have gone for it. But I do. So.

I think I’ll wait for the 2009 Volpes.

(I did briefly consider a Surly Long Haul Trucker, but it comes with bar-end shifters, and I’m kind of totally in love with the shifters being integrated with the brakes. Mmm brifters.)

The keys I lost in New Jersey showed up in the mail today.

My $5 Wal*Mart foot pump broke, so Mark and I went in together on a less flimsy pump. I used it for the first time yesterday evening—and promptly broke the valve stem on my rear tire.

Tomorrow Mark’s going to ride his bike downtown, to see how feasible cycling to work is. It’d be a nice gas saver, and he’d roll his commute and workout into one and probably come out ahead time-wise as well as money-wise.

I’m hitting up Hearns Cycling and possibly BioWheels tomorrow—they both carry Bianchis. I want to find out how much it’ll run me, if I decide to get the Volpe, to have its seat post replaced with a rigid one, platform pedals put on (’cause this is going to be the “anywhere, anytime” bike—no special shoes req’d), the All Terrainasaurus tires traded in for slicks, and to have it set up with lower gearing. The gearing’s already lower than on my road bike, but I want it even lower yet. I’m going to be shopping with this bike (with purchases stuffed into panniers, not an Xtraycycle…yet…), and I need all the help I can get hauling a heavier bike packed with groceries up these hills. I’ll probably end up with a mountain bike crankset when all’s said and done.

I finished reading As Meat Loves Salt this morning. I don’t know whether to recommend. It consumed me while I was reading it—well researched, well written, very vivid. When I’d put it down, the characters and their plights stayed with me until I could take it back up. Now it’s painful to think about them. And Jacob…. He makes himself difficult—impossible—to root for. You’ll find yourself increasingly disappointed and exasperated with him, until you finally leave him in disgust.

So what I really recommend is that you should have a cheerier book on hand to follow this one up with.

Now I’m reading The Art of Racing in the Rain, but I keep putting it down every few pages to go cuddle with our one remaining dog. At this point, he’s probably all “What? Again?! LEAVE ME ALONE. I’m gonna pee on that stupid book when you’re not looking. Don’t you have more gay historical fiction to read? Zombie comic books? STOP PETTING ME! YOU’RE WEARING A BALD PATCH INTO THE TOP OF MY HEAD. I hate that book you’re reading. Why couldn’t you have gotten a novel told from the point of view of a beta fish—then you could go bug Charlie instead. GO. AWAY.”

Poor Jack.

We picked up Mark’s new bike on Sunday, a zippy Specialized Allez—the fastest bike he’s ever owned, he says. He hit 33.5 MPH with it yesterday evening, and that was while using the brakes. (He felt like he was going a little too fast.)

This morning, I got a call to come pick him and the bike up. When I got to where he was, he showed me that one of the pedals had fallen off (he has a bruise and a cut from his calf hitting the upper chain ring when that happened) and won’t go back on. He says his front derailleur wasn’t acting right anyway this morning, so the pedal was just a case of going from bad to worse. It’s back up to Johnson City for him sometime soon to have it repaired. (The Bike Shop in Johnson City had the bike in his size and color, and the guy he’d been in touch with there while he was figuring out what he wanted was really helpful, so that’s where he decided to get the bike, despite its being an hour and a half away.)

(I’d have done the same thing, probably, in his shoes.)

Using veloroutes.org, I was able to see how the hills I’ve been riding (or in the case of our driveway, walking) compare to each other. The worst hill I stay on the bike to climb on our road: 17% grade at its steepest. Our driveway, which I have to dismount for, takes the cake, though: 24% at its steepest.

I think I’m going to try zig-zagging up it this evening, see if that gets me any farther. That is, if it’s not pouring rain still….