The Perpetual Upgrade

I'm sick on holiday vacation, and can't go out beer drinking in Portland like I normally would.  After reading about health, nutrition, environmentalism, and the dairy and meat industries' corrupt hold on the national discourse on diet, naturally I have turned my attention to researching expensive and pointless upgrades to my shitty 4130 track frame (that I love, I might add).

Ben Hur wingnuts.  British thread.  Balls.

Velo Orange stainless steel wingnuts.  Nice work, VO, as always.  I prefer the three-pronged Ben Hur's above, but these are pretty sweet. Question is,  can one reasonably replace wrenched axle nuts with wingnuts? Is there enough leverage? Also, these do not appear to come with the free floating attached washer, may want to add?

"Italian" wingnuts (not talking about my mother)

Sturmey Archer S3X internally geared fixed hub. Hard to find in 120mm spacing with 32 holes (vs. 36).  And I will be running this free with a 17 tooth ACS cog.  That is, if I can find this hub in the right specs, which is looking like an increasingly dubious feat.

SRAM Omnium crankset, 144 bcd.  According to the talking heads on Velospace and Bike Forums, one would be led to believe that this is a reasonable upgrade for a non-track racer.  It's the lightest, stiffest, most reliable for the money, despite some reports of "drag" due to external bearings on the bottom bracket (though I am not convinced that 96% of us could ever tell).  Plus they come with the bottom bracket.  It all can be yours for $150...

Just be aware that Omniums are going onto THESE bikes, they have no BUSINESS on anything that isn't used on a track.    Please.  This is why Bike Forums and Velospace is a horrible place to research:  it's a bunch of dudes that pull out the proverbial ruler over every single component you could possibly consider upgrading on your bike.

FSA Gimondi 130 BCD 48t.  170mm.  Now here's the rub on these:  for about $40 more, you can get the Omniums WITH a bottom bracket.  So in the end it may be actually more practical to be the douche with over-legit cranks on your townie vs. picking up something more "appropriate."  But these definitely have the right look for certain builds.

Paul Racer Mediums.  What a hot piece of hardware.

Nice build *Affinity Cycles Metropolitan* (photo by Blue Lug).  Diggin the FSA Gimondi cranks, Soma Porteur rack, straight blade fork.

1979 Raleigh Competition Porteur build (by Fumningator from Velospace.org).  Nice utilitarian use of the porteur rack.

In Tow

Courtesy of Cardiff Cycle Chic

from RatRods Rule

From Dornob.com

Picked up a rickshaw at the Alameda Flea Market and made a BART taxi.

From onourowntwowheels.com

Life By Bicycle

On my bicycle I am not just traveling through space as I would in a car, I actually become a part of my surroundings.  I am a part of the things that I witness, not just a spectator in the glass encased box seats of a motor vehicle.  The pace of the bicycle is fast enough to provide a constant flow of new, stimulating information, but slow enough that I can take it all in.  The range of speeds commonly experienced on bicycle are perfectly matched to the human perception of time and ability to perceive, process, and integrate new information.  

Bay Bridge from the outside deck of the SF Bay Ferry.

 On my bicycle I ride closer to the sidewalk when I travel surface streets.  So when I stop at a stoplight, I am all of a sudden standing next to people in my community, instantaneously transformed from vehicle to fellow human.  On my bicycle I move slowly enough for people to smile or wave or stare.  I move slowly enough to see the camaraderie among the cis-gendered and transgendered women who are walking home in the morning after a night working MLK Blvd.

Foggy morning commute down MLK to Jack London Square ferry terminal.

 On my bicycle I can feel the weather change.  I know from which direction a storm approaches, I can feel the air thicken and cool with an impending rain storm.  I know if a morning is unusually warm and what that will mean for the afternoon that follows.  I can gauge the duration and intensity of a rainstorm by the depth of the familiar puddles I part with my front tire on my daily route to work.  I know how big a hill really is and I know what a mile really means by the experience of my muscle fibers in my legs.

Post work detour through the Presidio, San Francisco.

On my bicycle I can smell the tree blossom harbingers of spring, the weekend jasmine, and the summer chapparal and sage.  

Little ride out to the water in Berkeley amidst the chapparal.

But I also see the darker side of life.  I see the trash in the streets, the flotsam that pollutes Lake Merritt after a big storm.  I smell the smoke from dirty tailpipes, I watch cars tyrannically lay claim to the roads like bullies simply because they are bigger.  I see the hungry and homeless slumped against the walls, the addicts frenetically scavenge for anything that will get them closer to their next score.  I see the gang graffiti, human feces, and used hypodermic needles.  I see roadkill and ferrel cats and stray dogs and the general human neglect of the domesticated creatures we created.

24th and MLK.

More connected, more in touch with my community and geography.  More happiness, more sadness.  More alive on a bicycle.