A while ago, I experimented with adding a front basket to Carla's bike. Of course, as soon as I saw the results, I was smitten and more than a little jealous. Thus, I give you the Front-Load Fixie!
The parts list on this one is a bit simpler. I just took another Yaffa "bubble cube" (how did we end up with so many of these things in the garage?) and ran some heavy-duty Velcro straps through the cube holes to hang it from the bullhorns on my fixed gear. The bottom edge rests against my front brake without hindering the brake at all -- although I have an idea that would keep the basket off the brake using an old, heavy-duty reflector bracket that I just haven't had time to mess with yet.
This setup has simplified my commuting and grocery runs immensely. I just pack my daily clothes into an old backpack (my messenger bag works too, but it's overkill), toss that into the basket, and off I go. I'd been looking for a way to get my gear off my back for the soupy-humid Iowa summer months; the fixed is set up for a rear rack, but I don't like rear-loading my fixie because it prevents me from using the "grab the front brake and lift the rear wheel to get a good starting pedal position" trick as explained by the late, great Sheldon Brown.
The backpack in a basket really helps for those grocery runs on the way home from work. Rather than trying to cram a couple items into an already-loaded messenger bag, I just take the backpack of clothes out of the basket, throw it on my back, and put the groceries in the now-empty basket. Slick!
If you want to find out just how bad your Web addiction is, try having your modem implode on a Friday morning -- with the replacement not scheduled to arrive until Monday night. It was a sad weekend with a heavy Internet monkey on my back, stealing bandwidth from my wife's Web-enabled phone, public libraries, the Apple Store, you name it. Hi, my name is Jason, and I have a problem.
Without my favorite time-waster, I was actually forced to ride on Saturday. Tooled down to the local bike shop in search of a replacement stem after applying my famous "Fists of Ham" human torque wrench to the fixie and snapping a handlebar-clamp bolt in a location that absolutely defied extraction. Then, it was on to the Walnut Creek Trail, site of my infamous leg-breaking crash last year, out to the Greenbelt, and on to the Raccoon River. Bonus discovery -- there's a bike shop just off the Raccoon River trail in Waukee that I'd never visited!
The trails were all open, though they displayed that silty, sandy crud that says, "I've been under flood waters recently." The fields weren't so lucky. A trail that should have been surrounded by knee-high formations of corn or lush creeping carpets of soybeans often looked like a path across the moon's surface.
I had my iPod with me, though I'm discovering that it may do more harm to my riding than good. Sure, there's a motivational factor in the music, but something about riding in isolation, increasing the wind noise, and engaging the drivetrain without hearing it seems to suck my energy. I almost understand the RAGBRAI rider's preoccupation with external stereo speakers, though I still hate it with a passion (but more on that as RAGBRAI season gears up).
On the return leg into Waukee, I happened to meet up with my ex-boss Tom Anderson, who shamed me by a) forcing me to work really hard to catch him, b) having plenty of breath to chat once I did, and c) doing so on his full-suspension mountain bike, while d) on the tail end of a gravel-road century, when I was e) at the 50 mile mark of an all-pavement ride on a road bike. Tom is an animal.
All told, I got 65 miles in just over four hours' ride time, and I was just tired -- not totally wiped out -- by the end. Metric century! 100k brevet! LimpStrong II training ride! Call it what you will, I call it a success.
You may have noticed that I just tacked a couple more links on my Blogosphere Ephemera section over there in the lower right. Somehow, they both ended up with a Zen thing going on -- completely unintentional, but you can make of it what you will.
First up is Zen Biking by Steve Fuller. Steve and family (hi, Kathy and Connor!) used to be our next-door neighbors, sharing a driveway (and the joy of shoveling it with every snowstorm). You couldn't ask for better neighbors -- they kept our yard maintained and helped Carla get my much-needed recliner into the house while I was recovering from my broken leg. Steve's a high-mileage animal on two wheels (or three, when he had the trike), and although I don't think I could keep up with him on a bike, at least I can keep up with his exploits on his blog.
Continuing with the Zen theme, I've added Zen and the Art of Bicycle Building by Ethan Labowitz. I can't say that I know a lot about Ethan other than seeing his name pop up in some of the online fora that I haunt. However, after perusing his blog, it seems obvious that this guy is putting a lot of thought into how bikes come together. I think if I wanted to become a framebuilder, I'd pursue it the same way Ethan has. Since I know my level of mechanical/metalworking skill and the limits of my health insurance, I'll just leave that to Ethan and live vicariously.
Pals Liam and Steve K. will recognize this as one of my semi-annual "I'm dissatisfied with my stable" navel-gazings. I'm going to take the sage advice of Milli Vanilli and blame it on the rain, which conveniently chooses to fall in drenching, windblown sheets only during the hours I don't work.
After my injury last year, I've noticed a real change in my riding style... less scorching, more "casual townie twiddling" rides. It's a style that's crying out for an "adult BMX" bike... one speed, massively fat rubber, flat pedals, maybe even a basket. The sort of bike that you feel a little stupid riding if you're wearing bike clothes. In my mind, it always looks like Kent Peterson's Redline Monocog. Of course, "Mountain Turtle" Kent took his on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race. Kent's kind of a lovable nut that way.
With Carla going back to school, I'm constrained by a strict, self-imposed "one bike in, one bike out" rule -- and I'm not allowed to touch Carla's bike or the tandem. That leaves the Bruce Gordon (unlinked because I don't want anyone getting ideas -- that's my "pry it from my cold, dead fingers" bike) or the fixed gear.
Uh oh. The fixed-gear market is pretty good right now, isn't it? Throw some chopped riser bars on there and the thing might even be (gasp) trendy.
I can almost smell that tantalizing new-bike scent. Craigslist, here I come!
This setup has simplified my commuting and grocery runs immensely. I just pack my daily clothes into an old backpack (my messenger bag works too, but it's overkill), toss that into the basket, and off I go. I'd been looking for a way to get my gear off my back for the soupy-humid Iowa summer months; the fixed is set up for a rear rack, but I don't like rear-loading my fixie because it prevents me from using the "grab the front brake and lift the rear wheel to get a good starting pedal position" trick as explained by the late, great Sheldon Brown.