It was a cold October afternoon, light snow had fallen earlier that day, and partially melted when the afternoon came; leaving slush on the streets here and there, but nothing too detrimental. For the most parts, the streets and sidewalks were pretty clean for my thin 700c x 23 tires to bite into. Unfortunately, the turnout wasn’t that many. The race consisted of roughly 10 contestants; the group brought a variety of bikes from brakeless track bikes to thick-tired mountain bikes. It was cold and everyone was waiting for the Alleycat organizers to get to their checkpoints. We had 5 checkpoints to go to and two of them required a chugging of an ice-cold beverage (either a bottle of beer or can of cola–I opted for the beer to keep me warm XD). And each of these checkpoints you also get a bottle cap with a playing card printed on the bottom of the cap; collect five and you get yourself a poker hand! Duh! Didn’t get a good hand though, just a pair of 9’s. I was hoping for a decent position like 3rd or 4th place but ended up dead last with another guy. We both kinda got lost. It really was a big disappointed. Although I got to meet great people who share the same love for bikes as I do. Cheers!

So the rear tire and tube finally gave on my fixie. I was riding home from school and all of a sudden I hear this repetitive whoosh noise. I turn back to see what the hell was making that sound and soon enough I realized, “&*%#!” So today I went out to Bicycle Village to buy a new tube and some tires. Right when I walked through the doors I was greeted and helped by one of the mechanics. He suggested I try the Specialized Armadillo tires which were the thickest road tire I’ve ever encountered. Although pricey, 50 bucks a tire, I decided to give it a try and hoping it would hold up for more than the 16 miles I’ve ridden on the other tire. If it doesn’t hold up that long, then I’ll just have to give up on skidding and buy some front brakes! Also bought a multi-tool for fixed gear bikes, it’s very neato!

Here’s what the tire started to look like after countless skid-stops. After a while the entire rubber was worn through; exposing the tube.

It’s called a “Trixie” and even has a beer bottle opener, haha

Sexaayy…I meant the camera ;P

I love youtube, you find so many interesting videos. Here is my latest discovery.

I stand here
staring at childhood pictures
The me in preschool
The me in kindergarten
The me as a brother
The me as a son
All these years of living
I ask myself
What do I have to show for it
What successes, accomplishments have I gained?
As of right now, it seems like nothing
My eyes well up with tears
Afraid of the near future
Lonely, angry, lost, & confused
My whole life, everything has been given to me
It was easy, comfortable
I expected great achievements to come easily
But it has taken me all these years to finally understand that that’s not true
I’ve wasted nearly a quarter of my life
Doing nothing but just following in line like a lemming
I never had motivation in the academics
All I ever wanted to do was go out to play, have fun, and find true love
But even that has been taken away from me
Sadly, I’m becoming a nobody and i see it being reflected by my friends
Seriously, it hurts more than anything.
But I can deal with it
I can still keep my head up high and continue pushing forward
Towards nothing it seems
I’m becoming acquainted with this lackluster life
Something is keeping me back
Something is blocking the view of my path
I can’t figure it out just yet
And so I pray every night, hoping it’ll be revealed to me
But like I said before, I tend to expect answers without working towards it.

So today I almost got side swiped by a blue Toyota Yaris. I was biking along with traffic today on this road that runs through campus, so the speeds are very slow so that they can yield to pedestrians. When the cars were slowing down to yield to this group of people crossing the crosswalk, I assumed no cars would be turning into the parking garage on my right because of the pedestrians, but I was wrong. The truck diagonally in front of me covered any view of oncoming traffic and so I was a bit un-prepared what happened next. As soon as I passed the truck, this blue Yaris comes zooming right in front of me! I try to slow down on my fixie, but I’m not good at that yet, times running out and my next reaction was to turn into the direction the car was moving, towards the passenger side front fender [I wish my body would've reacted to the other direction]. Turning wasn’t going to be enough and I was about to flip onto the hood of the car. So at the last moment, I planted my hand on the car and pushed myself away. My bike fell but I was somehow able to unclip my self from the toeclips and remain upright; no scratches or major damages to either party, whew. Afterwards we both apologized to each other and continued on. I felt that it was mainly my fault because I assumed incorrectly and the fact that I have no brakes! tsk tsk, I know. So from now on, I’ll be practicing emergency stops and count my blessings.

So after riding the bike for a day and half thus far, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the bike’s lightness and speed. However, the fact that it didn’t come with brakes is now revealing itself as a major drawback, as in, it’s really difficult to skid and trying to do so is killer on the knees and ankles.

After doing some research about gear ratios, my 48t (chain ring) by 15t (cog–for those of you new to this like I am) has a ratio of 3.2, gear inches of 86.4, and gain ratio of 6.5, and 5 skid patches–GIVEN THAT I RUN 700 x 23c TIRES AND 170mm CRANKS (courtesy of Rabbit). All this reduces to is a slower, more difficult acceleration but possesses a higher top-end speed relative to your cadence; meaning how fast your legs can move up and down.

After some forum-digging, I’ve found that having a gear inch measurement of around 70 is ideal. Popular chaingring/cog ratios near this number are 46t/17t and 44t/16t with a gear inch of 71.1 and 72.3, respectively. The results assumes that you’re running 700 x 23c tires, check the Rabbit app, it’s really informative. Also, the 46t/17t is really nice in that it gives you 17 skid patches which will help wear the tire out more evenly!

So my plan is to replace the cog instead of getting a new chain ring and cog all together, because lets face it, these parts are expensive, especially the chain rings. I’ve narrowed it down to three cogs: 17t, 18t, and 19t. The 17t will give me a gain inch of 74.2, not sure if that’s low enough for easy skidding; it also has 17 skid patches. The 18t cog has a near perfect gain inch of 70.1 but the downside is that it only has 3 skid patches. Lastly, a 19t has a gear inch of 66.4 and 19 skid patches! However, I’m worried about downhill riding since this gear ratio has a very high cadence. So that’s the story thus far; trying to save my knees and a few bucks. Currently, the quickest way to slow down on my bike is to use the sole of my shoes and press them against the tire behind the seat tube. It works but revealed how cheap the tires are.

Overall, I love my bike but stopping is difficult. To ensure a better riding experience I’ll be buying a new cog and hopefully find an affordable front brake for safety measures. And tires will probably be in order sometime in the near future also.

Waiting for the fixie to be delivered to my doorstep. Bought a gloss white Windsor The Hour track bike for $299.99, waay cheaper than the choices I listed in my previous post about fixed gear bicycles!! And it looks very clean, too. Overall, I think I made the right choice and was able to save $350. Except, the bike does not come with brakes; so I’m hoping the one on my never-used dirt bike will fit onto the track bike! Here’s what it will look like. Can’t wait!!

Can be bought from BikesDirect.com

InterfaceLIFT

Okay, last post I swear. But I can’t help but spread the word about these MC’s doing their thing for the pure love of it and not for the fame or money like today’s rappers and hip-hop artists, it seems. These are your average Joe’s spittin’ out rhymes who enjoy writing out powerful poetic messages, top notch in my book.