Super-duper-ultra-busy

With my new job, bike racing, working on bikes in my basement, working at Trophy on Sundays and trying to tie up some loose ends with my old work at the Clean Air Council and in the neighborhood, I've been stupid busy this past month. 6 day work weeks are not really good for my mental state, but at least I'm not bored. I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable in my office, and I'm figuring out the ropes here at the City of brotherly love, and endless bureaucracy.

I had planned a May postponement of my birthday, but that's looking less and less likely. It seems more that I'll probably just have a summer solstice party complete with some BBQ from the backyard. On the flip side, Jennifer is finally (mostly) done with her second year of school and has been busying herself domestically. She built a window box, baked some cookies and we finally built a planter for the Japanese maple that her mom bought for us when she was out last Thanksgiving. The front of our house is looking really nice with our little tree, and we'll get some compost and soil and put some plants in the window soon. This is going to be the greenest summer ever in the Mole Hole.

Working for the man...

Is an exercise in patience.

I'm learning the ropes slowly here at the City of Philadelphia. It's going to be a good gig once I figure out how to navigate the maze of departments and administrators and buildings and human resources that are contriving to confuse the hell out of me here. On the plus side, my boss is great--a nice guy with a great deal of knowledge. I've also been able to work some bicycling into my job, as I'm in charge of helping the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia with the May 21st Bike To Work Day events.

Negatives include:
-Being required to fill out and fax a separate time sheet each day, signed by my supervisor.
-Not having a building access card, which requires me to sign in daily at the front desk
-An office floor with alarmingly poor air circulation

More details as they come.

Patriotic Plastics

 
I went to this store called, Everything Plastic the other day to pick up some stuff for my bike-making enterprise and as they were pulling my order from the back I poked around the store a bit. They sell and make all kinds of plastic things, from weirdo chairs to plaques and awards. This one caught my eye particularly. It's kind of hard to make out, but the text reads:

Raytheon proudly introduces the
PATRIOT IV
Missile defense system
Defensive systems for the 21st Century

That was funny, but the best part about it was the sticker in the lower right corner, which is pretty much illegible in the photo. It reads

Authorized Dealer

I could have picked up some plexi glass and an ICBM defense system, all at the same place!

Bike Number 4

I took some pretty good shots of my 4th bamboo bike up on the Daruma Cycles Blog. Check it out if interested.

I can't believe that the city is making me take a physical before I get a job there.  It's really weird, because as far as I know, the Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal to not hire me at this point because of a physical illness.  I feel like I'm going off to boot camp somehow.  

No foolin, I finally have myself a full time job!

The city of Philadelphia recently received an enormous stimulus grant to build up a comprehensive anti-obesity program, and as part of that they're looking to increase the number of people who take transit and walk to work in the city. The guy for that job is ME!

Oddly enough, I didn't even apply for this position, though I did send my resume in for some of the other positions that are opening up with this grant. It'll be a big change from my scattered existence here at the Clean Air Council and Trophy. I'll still try to work a couple weekend days at Trophy, just to keep myself in the good graces of my bike "habit" supplier. I'm pretty excited to be doing one single job rather than splitting my attention into a million little pieces, but I am also a bit nervous about settling into the new job. Growing up, no matter how delayed, is always a bit of a struggle.

The fame, or perhaps infamy, continues unabated on the internet.  Check out the news from Bike Radar

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/brompton-us-champions-crowned-25532

Photo courtesy Dave Maialetti, Philadelphia Daily News.

As some of you may know, I've been training for Nat's since early this spring-- working on my position, some sweet modifications to my Brompton S2-X, and more than anything, doing sprint fold reps.

The race format was unusual, but I knew that through my hours of prep-work, I'd have as good a chance as any one for the Stars and Stripes Cumberbund that goes to a National Brompton Folding Bike Champion. We staged our bikes by registration number in a large grid, Le Mans style on the grass near the starting line, and then were directed behind the starting line some 50 feet distant. All 65 contestants were dressed in the required garb: collared shirt, dress pants, necktie and suit jacket. I chose a lightweight grey wool blend as my primary uniform. I knew that getting on the road fast was critical to success, so I staged myself appropriately. The gun went off and we sprinted for our Brommies, I wasn't first to the bikes, having run around the back side of the staging area for a clean shot, but my fold technique was good, practice had paid off and with about a 12 second fold, I was in good shape. I sprinted again to the road, mounted my steed and was off. There were two riders ahead of me at this point, Peter, who works at the Trophy Bikes Garage and who is a veteran Brompton Racer, and another unknown gentleman in a dashing white linen jacket. I put down some serious spin in my 56x12 (on 18 inch wheels) and caught up to Peter, where we formed the breakaway group. The dapper fellow in white dropped back, but there were still some riders working to bridge up as we rounded the bend and headed down Black Road. Black Road is treacherous on 700c wheels, but the 18s made it all the more exciting. I was able to avoid overcooking any of the turns and actually, the only crash I saw happened after the finish; brompton riders are a safe bunch.

Peter and I worked together pretty smoothly for the first straightaway, and then we proceeded to pull away from the other riders up Greenland drive and back around to the southbound leg of MLK. Peter seemed to have used up a bit too many matches in the start: he managed to fold his bike while running on the road, and we struck a gentleman's agreement not to sprint until the pillars. I was doing most of the pulling by this time, and while I suppose that we could have slowed a bit and saved some energy for the hill, I could smell the pastures of home, and I wasn't interested in getting caught by the competition. We turned back onto Black Road and I downshifted from my high gear into low, and we powered up the climb. I didn't make any strong accelerations at this point, but I managed to inch away from my breakaway partner up the hill and around the final turn. By the straightaway I knew that victory was mine. I was the United States Brompton Champion.
There are a number of good photos of the spectacle to be found here

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/multimedia/Knowing_When_to_Fold.html

I'm looking forward to Worlds in October. Roberto Heras (no I'm not kidding, and yes THAT Roberto Heras) won it last year, but I mean to give him a run for his money. ENGLAND HERE I COME!! Many thanks to Mike McGettigan at Trophy Bikes, for dreaming up this ridiculous event, making it happen, and loaning me a surprisingly sweet ride. Bromptons are fun.  Couldn't have done it without you.

Work is starting to be a bit fun, but also a bit hectic. Working at 2 different jobs is really not the ideal scenario if you want to do a good job at either place. I'm now stretched a little bit thinner than I would like, but I still enjoy my work at the Clean Air Council and at Trophy Bikes. I've almost got 3 jobs if you want to count the bamboo bike work as one, though I've not turned anywhere close to a profit yet.

Spring is here though, and that means that I'll probably be abandoning my other responsibilities on the weekends and riding my bike a lot more. I'm actually registered on Saturday to compete in the Brompton National Championships, silly as that is. I souped up one of the shop bikes last Friday and I'm going to take it for a test ride around the course this Thursday to put it through its paces. I'm a bit nervous, as always before a race that I should do well at. The first place prize is a trip to London in the fall, so I'd love to win it, though I'm sure that there are other guys who feel the same

It's a while since i last posted, a busy two weeks it has been. Two weekends ago was the fun one, Jennifer and I went down south of the Mason-Dixon line to hang out with some old friends and meet some new bikes at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. NAHBS was grand, and we stayed about the appropriate amount of time, though it would have been awesome to spend that time over the course of 2 days rather than cramming 8 hours of bikes into one day at the show. It was great to see all the bikes and get up close and personal with all of those purely custom vehicles. I finally had a chance to see so many of the bikes that I've been dreaming about and using as reference points for my own work on the bamboo ones. I was sure to come dressed for success in the Raleigh sweater that I had stolen from my dad several years ago. It's my favorite sweater ever, it looks great, and actually fits my minuscule upper body well. We stopped to say hi to some of the people that I'd met at other shows, and some of the builders from Philadelphia who were there as well. It was awesome to be totally surrounded by bikes, sweet bikes at that. At one point Jennifer and I were walking up to the Pegoretti booth to check out some of my favorite custom steel frames. As we approached the booth, a middle aged Italian guy came up to me and said, "Nice sweater!"

I responded, "Thanks, it's real vintage gear, I stole it from my dad."

The guy said, "Yeah, I know, I designed it."

My eyes probably bugged out a bit, and then he introduced himself as Giorgio Andretta, the founder of Giordana bicycle clothing. He had worked with the Michael's Cyclery cycling team back in the middle 80s when they were a dominant force in American bicycle racing. He introduced his son, and they took some pictures of me with my vintage sweater and then we chatted a bit about the good old days, when I was about 7 and Michael was running the team out of the shop in Ames.  

I remember as a kid always wishing that we had more money, and being upset because we couldn't afford a Nintendo, and we had to check out a VCR from the library, but I was always psyched that my dad worked at a bike shop. That was coolness to me. I am even prouder now to say that he owns his own shop.

I sometimes shake my head when I look at my $120 paychecks from Trophy Bikes after 6 years and a bazillion dollars that I spent on my own higher education, but I always find a little lift in my heart whenever I walk through the doors of a place that deals with my favorite conveyance.

The rest of the trip was good too, not to discount the joy of seeing Paul and Mary in DC and then Brendan and Meghan when we visited Meghan's place in Baltimore. We had some tasty food courtesy of Crisp and Juicy chicken in DC--some amazing Peruvian roast chicken that we demolished with just our bare hands around Paul and Mary's kitchen table. It was also great to catch up with B and Meghan, and hang out with their respective significant others. I always like hanging out with my first college roomate. B and I are not always the most alike, in fact we're pretty different aside from our general tallness, but we've always been extremely compatible. Part of that is just that Brendan is compatible with most people; he's the slowest person to anger I've ever met, or perhaps he's just the slowest to show it, and he seems to always know how to make people comfortable. The other part is that somehow we just clicked, we were excellent roomates, we always seemed to get along. I can't speak for him, but I can say that he never actually pissed me off while we were living together, though I certainly shook my head at his Malibu Coconut rum and his propensity to shower BEFORE heading to soccer practice. We recounted all of these things and we laughed a great deal about all of the dumb stuff that we did back in Dupre 3E. It was great.

Meet Sturmley, Jennifer's birthday robot. He took a fair bit of time to make but, like many such things, the result was satisfying. He's composed almost entirely of bike parts, mostly a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub with some chains and pulley wheels as part of the affair as well. He doesn't fetch us coffee or do anything cool, but he does look great and he can roll on his own tank treads.

This is what happens when it snows in Philadelphia. Jennifer and I went to the store to get some black pepper and instead found that all of the table and kosher salt had been cleaned out. Philadelphians don't really understand winter. I can only hope the stores have had time to restock since Saturday as Snowmageddon Part II has arrived and who doesn't need some table salt to aid snow melt?

I've been spending a lot of time in the basement recently. I'm currently working on a bamboo and carbon bike for myself, and also a bit of a birthday present for Jennifer. I will post pictures of it at the appropriate time, which will be this coming Saturday, of course. I'm rather pleased at how it turned out, but I'll leave the final judgment to her.

We've also been watching a great deal of Daily Show episodes online. I like the show overall, and I really love the way that Jon Stewart, or at least his writers, are able to call out humor in the idiocy of our country. My main gripe is that the show could be so much better. With all of Stewart's penis jokes and googly eyes it's kinda like watching a precocious 15 year old ripping on politicians. I laugh at the penis jokes, as intended, but it's only my lizard-brain giggling. My other critique is the inconsistency with which Stewart approaches the interviews. With arch-rivals such as Lou Dobbs or John Yoo, he's an extremely good interviewer; asking hard, probing questions and letting his respondents answer for themselves (mostly). With people who are non-controversial though, he asks nothing but slightly insipid leading questions. It's like he has no faith that the people on his show have anything to say for themselves. If that were the case, why have them on in the first place?

 
More pictures of the holidays to come, but they were grand. One week home in Iowa, followed by one week up north in Montreal. The above is a picture of the ice hole into which we plunged for comic relief after half an hour of sauna-ing up an hour north of Montreal. Excellent.

 
Cold up there.

Snow biking. Like regular biking, but it's actually really fun to ride at 5 mph.

Philadelphia is not really built to handle snow. Philadelphians as well are not really able to deal well with snow. Especially not 23 inches of it. While anywhere else I would be ecstatic with the amount, here it has presented a bit of a problem, and that problem is paralysis. When one's street is only wide enough to accommodate 2 cars on a good day, it doesn't really have enough room for all of that extra frozen stuff. Therefore, our car is utterly blocked in, and it's even a bit too deep for my studded snow bike tires to do much good. I did go for an awesome snow-bike ride yesterday though, before we had gotten ourselves quite so boxed in.

It's confirmed. All is not as it was assumed to be in our neighborhood. For three years now we've known our neighbors by their nicknames, and now those names are ruined. I'll explain...

Next door to us are an elderly Cambodian couple, Old Guy and his wife Smiley. Old guy is named as he is primarily because he's old. Smiley, well she almost always has a scowl on her face as she shuffles down the block. Next to them is another Cambodian family that we have known for years as "Young Mama's Family". From youngest to oldest are Brandon (3) Nana (6) Jordan (10) and Jackie (13). There were also Young Mama, Young Mama's Husband, Young Mama's Mama and Young Mama's Dad. They all live in the house two doors down from us that is about as big as ours, maybe even slightly smaller. We've been calling them by these nicknames since we moved in, and it's waaaaaaaaaaay too late to go asking their names now. But there's a problem, and it all started when the guy we know as Young Mama's Husband bought a purple Chevy Impala. Jennifer asked Jackie who's car it was and responded that it was his brother's. Whaaaa? We had assumed that this guy who looked to be about 27 or so was his dad. Yeah, that would make him an extremely young parent, but that's not impossible right? Through some more sleuthing we have since determined that Young Mama is not the mama at all, but is the sister of all these younger kids. Now we're stuck without any names at all for the 4 adults in the house, since they were always based on Young Mama. We're going to have to go back to the drawing board with this one.

Unbusted

IMG_0519
Originally uploaded by aaroneritz

This is probably my best repair to date. It was ridiculously lucky that I happened to have exactly the same color of touch up paint as the rest of his bike. But I'll take all the credit.