Friday, July 27, 2012

friday fun times: test riding edition

test riding? what's a test ride? well, i volunteer for SF bike party and we have an ambitious desire to go up twin peaks with riders of all abilities and those heavy music bikes. so we were scouting the route for the gentlest way up one of SF's iconic hills.

these are some of the fotos i took yesterday while on the ride.

Bici familia. With @mikaela_carolyn
irresistible mural.

Upupupup. SF summer. #twinpeaks
upupup foggy twin peaks. notice all the bike signs? that means YOU CAN DO IT.

Top of twin peaks. #fog is summer in SF
summer in sf. san pancho fog machine. fog machine. fog masheen. alternate title: "fire, bike with me."

Team @sfbikeparty done test riding for the night! See you 8/3!
celebrating with deconstructed burritos at the end of the ride.

more riding on the table for saturday and sunday. not too crazy, as i'm supposed to be "tapering down." might not reach 500 miles in july, but i sure had fun riding as much as i can!

happy weekend everyone, and happy olympics!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

some things are bigger than us...

i saw this yesterday over in social medialandia and the sentiment i thought of when i saw it is still resonating with me. so i thought would be perfect to share here.


some things are just bigger than us. whether it may be shadows, ideas, bikes, bike parties, life, death, art, film, etc. our place in this world is smaller than we imagine, so we better make the best and biggest bang we can within our little space.

also, this foto reminds me a bit of felini's 8 1/2.

--i'm not sure the original source of the photo, so if you know, please let us know in the comments and the info will be updated.


via mi vida en bici

Friday, July 20, 2012

Yummy On A Bicycle.

A huge thank you to the Sartorialist for seeing, shooting and publishing the following image.


Holy smokes!  Take a look at this one, too, and these if you like.  Think we could get Scott Schuman to shoot for us here at the blog?  We pay in casserole!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

500 miles in july?

so over on google plus (psst, we're there, check us out!), there's a little event going on. below info from the event page:

July is TdF season -- but it's now also (and much more importantly) the running of the Inagural #bikecommutercabal 500 Miles In July Challenge!

Can we ride 500 miles -- each -- in July? Let's give it a shot!

All the miles you ride count, not just commuting miles, so let's get out there and roll!


has been interesting to see how many miles i really do put in. i was gone for three days this week, so unable to put any miles in (although 20 miles backpacking should count for something!).

Indeed. Days of it & @prawnpie #wilderness
riding hiatus


Yesterday's morning looked a lot different than today's.

i forgot i basically ride 6-10 miles a day just for commuting. that's not counting going out, running errands, bike parties, test riding and of course, riding around on the weekends, and during the week. ok, so i guess i ride a lot. and that stuff adds up riteqwik.

i don't have a bike computer on this bike, but i have a spreadsheet in the cloud that's keeping track of this stuff.

i'm training for the marin century. third year in a row. second one where i am attempting 100 miles. i have been training whenever i can get a spare minute. i counted backpacking as cross training. but if i have a couple of spare hours, i'm firmly planted on the brooks saddle trying to break that sucker in. for the record: ouch. first time i've been researching chamois butter type stuff. interesting to talk about hoo ha with the inevitably male bike shop staff.

according to spreadsheets and simple maths, i need to average 16 miles a day in order to hit 500 miles by end of july. i'm not where i should be, and i suspect that's from the three day hiatus. so tonight is a butterlap to make up for some miles and then two rides scheduled for this weekend.

if you told me four years ago i'd be backpacking as cross training for riding 100 miles in one day, i would have told you you were crazy. maybe i still am, but it's my reality right now. pretty fun i must say. no gym membership needed.

IMG_2309.jpg

Granite in Z formation. #nofilter #lake

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Don't Spit Into The Wind

Every now and then the kids like to be the teachers. They like to share. Yesterday Declan wanted to share some new found knowledge with us as we came home from a day out in the world.

San Francisco has been one giant Dyson vacuum for the last month. The winds have been vicious and seem to always been in our faces. I was telling Declan we needed to start carrying handkerchiefs with us after he complained about his "snifflies" from all the wind.

"No, Mom! You just hold half of your nose and blow really hard.". Declan was showing me how to blow the age old standby of the cyclist, the Snot Rocket.

Too bad no one ever told him to never blow one into a headwind. Oops!

Friday, July 13, 2012

friday fun times: bill cunningham caricature!

last year i saw the bill cunningham documentary a couple of times because i was so enamored by it and by him. i thought i had written a post about it, but i guess i didn't. here's the trailer. please go and see it. and for godssake don't offer him water while he works. he considers that a form of selling out. which would be fine because i think he might need money to replace the 28 bikes he's had stolen from him over the years.



either way, here's something i found on FB via belles bikes which lead me to the original posting of drawings by joana aviles. love the cheeky and informative caricatures!



gracias joana! and happy friday to everyone.