The bubble wrap bike....and jet bike....I don't even know what to say!

And to follow up a bike that might give you a soft landing....possibly the most dangerous bike in the world!!

Bike lanes on Keystone Ave! Meeting tonight at Clayton Middle School at 5-6:30pm!!

Just got this email from the "in the know" city employee:

Here's the area we're talking about (click the email or image for a larger view) :

You can see they connect with existing bike lanes to the north which is a good thing.  Unfortunately, if they end exactly at Kings Row they don't provide access further south (e.g. all of down town).  If they extend them just a hare (1 block) to the south (Kimbal Ave.) then you'll have a way to jump over to Vine St. which has a bridge that crosses I-80 and is very low traffic.  If you're lost on the road names it dumps out by Gold Dust West Casino!

Either way it's another step forward, even it it doesn't go all the way to University Terrace (and the Raley's) like the original proposal!  If you want to get your chance to comment, there is a public meeting at Clayton Middle school on July 31st from 5 - 6:30 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Bike reconfiguration....continued.

Ok, so last week (or a few weeks ago) I posted about adding a rack to the Salsa Fargo and changing out the off road tires for some Schwable Marathon Supremes.  All of this is part of getting ready for Cycle Oregon in September.  The question was/is just how to use this new rack.  Thanks to some divine gifts (loaners) from the Preacher, who is cleaning out his attic in preparation for a trip of his own, I know have a full set of Panniers to experiment with!  This means both larger and smaller bags.  Today I opted for two of the smaller bags.

They fit well and provide more than enough space for my work commute stuff.  The most surprising thing to me is that I don't even know they're there when riding.  I guess that means it's not a bad combination!

Tour of Reno - the write-up.

So we did a little ride around Reno last Friday to check out the local bike shops, eat some good food, and have a few beers.  It turned out to be an all day affair that was quite fun despite some really warm temperatures during the mid-day hours.  Below is our route (clockwise for the most part) and the temperatures if you want to see when we were suffering!

The whole loop took just over two hours of riding time at a leisurely pace (about 25 miles total), but it kept us on the road from breakfast time to well past beer thirty in the evening!  Here's a photo tour of our trip with a few comments.

Wet Hen Cafe for breakfast.  Cute place, good service, great food!

Reno Cycle and Fitness.  Wifey scored a new helmet!  Friendly staff.

Great Basin Bicycles!  Very friendly staff, walk in repairs, one of the best shops in town.  We spent over an hour here chatting, trying on clothes, etc.  I now own new bike shorts, a jersey, and more from this visit.

Computrainer stations. 

Outside Great Basin Bicycles!

Sierra Cyclesmith.  Friendly....more clothing was tried on.  Right after this, heading north on Virginia we found one of those magically disappearing bike lanes that leaves you in very busy traffic.  Not cool.

In response to the disappearing bike lane, we headed West on Del Monte Lane (after a traffic circle of death).  We paused to admire the view on Windy Hill. 

So we visited two more bike shops after this....and somehow I forgot to snap pics.  The first of these was Velo Reno on Lakeside.  I'm not sure what to say about these guys.  No one talked to us....at all....ever!  There were only two other customers in the whole shop.   We were there for 20+ minutes, trying on shorts, checking out leg warmers.  Either way with so many good shops I won't be back.

The last shop was College Cyclery.  These guys were very similar to Great Basin Bicycles.  Super friendly, chatted with us, made us feel at home.  We spent time just checking out the bikes and some more clothing options for wifey (she found her favorite bike shorts and a jersey here)!  Definitely will be back here again!


Ok, bike shops are great....but it was beyond hot by this time and I was ready for a drink.  Sooo......thank god we were in Mid-town!

We started by meeting friends at Midtown Wine Bar.  Good beer and wine and friendly staff!

Not all my friends want to be in the blog!

Wall murals on the ride to the next stop.....food!

The food!  Great Full Gardens.  Absolutely amazing food!  Tastes great, good for you.  If you haven't been here some on down and check it out!

Obviously, I'm not the only one who likes it!

The food!

Time for another round....on to 1864 bar on California Ave.

 The night wrapped up with a walk over to Cheney St. where the old Holland Project building has been revamped into a bar called Death and Taxes.  I was pretty much toast at this point so thankfully there are no pictures.

From there it was time to finish the ride back up the college hill and home.  All in all a great ride and a good local adventure.  So if you're bored with the routine try a local bike tour!

Tour the town by bike!

Ok, I took today off.  We may not be going anywhere, but we're going to go everywhere.  A tour of Reno if you will.  Not sure exactly how this is going to turn out, but we're (wifey and I) thinking of hitting most of the bike shops in town, some good eateries, and a multitude of "new" bars and bottle shop type locations.  If we were in a town to visit this is kinda how we operate, so why not actually explore your own town for new life once in a while!

A few places we might hit (in no particular order):

The Verdi Loop.....by the numbers!

If you ride a bike in Reno you've probably been on some version of this ride.....

I'm not sure where, but somewhere on this little loop the group that built up the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway has put a traffic counter out (I'm not sure exactly where).  What you might like to hear is some of the numbers!!

The counter was put out on May 1st.... and by May 6th it had recorded 1675 trips.  When the tally was done for all of May it averaged out at 198 trips/day.  By July the monthly tally had swelled to 234 trips/day.  To cap it all off, to date (from May 1st) there have been 17,710 trips recorded!!

That, my friends, is a whole lot of bicycling!!  So go give it a spin and add to the tally!

Just to reiterate:

198 trips/day in May!
234 trips/day from May to July!
17,710 trips recorded to date!!

p.s.  I do know that the sensor is placed in a location where only bike traffic will hit it....so anyone thinking a couple cars got in on the count need not voice their concerns.  Overzealous cyclists jumping up and down on the counter are discouraged!

Road Construction = Private Lane!

Got a nice little surprise this morning on the ride in.  They're resealing Washington Ave. which runs down the west side of the university neighborhood and happens to be my route in to downtown, down a nice big hill.  This means that with traffic diverted I get the perfectly swept lane to myself......yeaaaa haaaaa!

Nope, stay right!  Nice wide bike only access!

Dodging a few cones is way easier than dodging traffic...which of course there isn't any of!

Just goes to show you....when you're on a bike sometimes the orange cones mean private bike lane, not long delays!  And hey, I suppose by the time they're done I'll have an even smoother ride into work next week!

New Bike Lanes!!!!

Just got this email from the "in the know" city employee:

Here's the area we're talking about (click the email or image for a larger view) :

You can see they connect with existing bike lanes to the north which is a good thing.  Unfortunately, if they end exactly at Kings Row they don't provide access further south (e.g. all of down town).  If they extend them just a hare (1 block) to the south (Kimbal Ave.) then you'll have a way to jump over to Vine St. which has a bridge that crosses I-80 and is very low traffic.  If you're lost on the road names it dumps out by Gold Dust West Casino!

Either way it's another step forward, even it it doesn't go all the way to University Terrace (and the Raley's) like the original proposal!  If you want to get your chance to comment, there is a public meeting at Clayton Middle school on July 31st from 5 - 6:30 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Hey man....do you work out?

I don't do training rides.  Well, at least not in the traditional sense of getting into my "kit" and heading out with a group of other guys to see how hard we can go for 40-50 miles.  So when I saw these guys out my window yesterday it amused me enough to snap a pic.

Don't get me wrong.  The more cyclist out there the better off we all are!  I just can't help thinking how weird they look.  Reminds me of a group of girls headed for the bathroom together!

I know it's just a different side of bicycling.  It's not transportation, it's exercise and they are out there for a point.....not to get from point A to point B. So what do you say....Do you ride to work out or just to get around (or both)? 

Fenders....are fun!

Artwork on the river at Rock Park.

I'm not sure when this installation went in.  I'm guessing (since it's Sparks) that it's not Artown related.   Either way I'm pretty sure it's Art.

I can't decide if I like it or not.  It definitely represents a creative use of interlocked pavers / wall rocks and the location is perfect for some art.   It just kinda makes me think of eerily smiling rock pygmies....and I'm just not sure if I want to go swimming with those guys!

A biketastic weekend (Part 2).

Ok, the other project that I did this weekend was to mount fenders on wifey's new bike.  It came out a little something like this:

.....after about 3 frickin' hours of finesse, cajoling, and cursing.  I have the racks (front and rear) for it as well so we're getting close to the finished product.  It did make me think of this old Yehuda Moon comic however.

There are people in Reno who think you don't need fenders, but they look like the guy in the blue shirt more than a few times a year!

You can put a bike rack on anything!!!

A biketastic weekend.....(Part 1).

Ok, so I'm finally back (hopefully for good) from my Canada project.  This weekend was not a long enough recovery but some bikeyness definitely ensued.  I'll piece meal it out to you, but part of it was some upgrades to the Salsa Fargo in preparation for Cycle Oregon this fall.  These included a new rear rack and some tire changes.

This is how it's been ridden for the first 1000 miles or so....including Moab's skinny tire festival.  Yes, I know they are not skinny tires.

First up...for Cycle Oregon I want to be able to carry a few things during the day (and not in a messenger bag), so a rack was in order.

I chose the Salsa Wanderlust rack mostly because the Fargo is a unique frame design and this is the rack that's made to go with it.  Step one....attach with lower mounting bolts and roughly level the rack.

Step 2.  Attach secondary stays and measure for you're specific cuts.

Step 3.  Cut stays to length and install, making sure to adjust the final rack level and hand tighten the hardware.

Step 4.  Take a step back and see if it looks like you haven't screwed anything up yet.

Step 5.  Find tools that will allow you to really tighten all the nuts and bolts in the ridiculously small spaces you have to work in!

Step 5b.  More tightening.

Step 5c.  More tightening.

Step 6.  Step back again and look at the beautiful rack you just installed.  Overall it took about 30 minutes for this one.  So don't think you can't do it on your ride!

Project 2.  Install new rubber.  In this case lose the knobbies and switch over to some slicks.  I chose schwable marathon supremes for their bomber reputation for long wear and flat protection.  They cost an arm and a let but let's hope they're worth it.  

Oh yeah, I also chose them because they are one of the few slicks that come in a 29 x 2.0 size.  Anything smaller just looks too weird on this frame.