riding all along the shadowy way to work

accumulation

it's kinda cool when snow accumulates on the bike

but it's personal when it starts to accumulate on you

brainless and epic, much like my cyclecommute

not gonna lie

today's cyclecommute was kinda hard. there was some walking involved.

not your average april shower

bleh, this was extremely slushy for an April mn commute

in flight photo on today's commute

warm enough to take the mittens off for a few mins.

looking forward to being able to park this indoors again

it has been just too mucky and grimy to bring this bike indoors.

tenbelowzero

fahrenheit, that is

not aero

file under: #doingItWrong

pushed the limits of bag and back, today

bright sun + sweet bike = shadowy goodness in the morning

the clean frame lines against the gritty urban industrial wasteland curb.

the curb making its own shapes, giving light bends to the frame.
a clean and nekked wheel and chain with no derailleur to sully things. i really like the effect of the whippy looking spokes from the slow capture speed of my digital camera.

on the road again

ok, after getting the road bike dusted, degrimed, and set up with a new pair of tires, i had to get out today when i discovered we weren't getting the forecasted rain. as usual, i noticed the shadows first and decided to snap a few pics. i absolutely needed the recovery time as i had just done two big-ring, seated grinds up ohio street.

here i am playing with shadows, but the sun was still pretty high.

look at that, you can see the guy taking the picture. not such good form.

the snazzy auc kit is coming into view here (along with some furry knees. sorry, just a couple of road rides is no reason to shave the gams. racing, yes, but not "just riding along.")

more of the auc kit

and, blammo. the best view of the cool auc kit through rolling self portraiture. :-)

then it was time to ride home. a really short, but encouraging, ride.

morning shadows

bleary-eyed as i may be on my ride to work, i noticed myself plastered on the side of a warehouse building.

whoops, caught myself taking the picture...

rolling home on a sunny day

oy, it was a beautiful afternoon on the 15th, and i was shadow-inspired. i was that i turned around after reaching the top of the hill on cedar street and rode it again, the second time with my camera in hand so i could capture two of these.
this is on cedar street by the capitol on the bridge over university ave. ahhhh... the lamppost is chasing me!

i think i may have discovered a whole new subgenera, wheel shadows! this is just about the same place as the one above.

ah, yes, and here i am on jackson street crossing the bridge over hmm... not the rail yard but, could it be pierce butler route? heh... not such a big deal. i liked the fact that the angle of the sun was able to accentuate my cool-arsed fenders!

ghost in the machine?

as i got to work today, i looked at my dripping bike locked up at the rack and i saw the glow. could it have been an apparition? after capturing it on camera, i realized it was my helmet-mounted headlight.

bikes... real bikes... for getting around

umm... here in sweden i have noticed that people eat a lot of the things that could make you... er... kinda big in the waistline. like the fried fish i had today with a rich cream sauce. i wonder why most of the people i've seen here aren't (big in the waistline)?





errrm... this many people rode their bikes to the resacentrum on a rainy day? no, i guess i don't wonder anymore.

bikes around town

ok, so we're talking about the utmost utility here, but there are bikes everywhere. i forgot to take a pic at the train station today when i was buying my bus pass, but i'll get a pic tomorrow morning of the racks and racks of bikes parked there.

this is the church parking lot... no, really

and the other lot. really, there's a service going on and there are only two cars parked near the building.

a public bike rack
and getting around town? you just do it on a bike...
in your regular clothes. i wonder if the industry that caters to sport cycling in the US has been the biggest barrier to the practical usage of bicycles. well, not the biggest barrier. there's legislation and the car lobby to blame for that, but the cycling industry itself focused on cycling as a sport, which, i believe, comes from the fact that it's a higher margin sale AND it represents much more return sales as bike nerds upgrade their bikes incessantly.

it's probably easier to stay in business selling new bikes than it is to repair (and stock the parts for) really old bikes. however, that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to sell practical bikes to everyday people.

just found this in the gallery

i'd overlooked it from one of my shadow-pic sessions because it didn't include the whole bike, but when i looked at it again it looked pretty cool to me. (maybe i'm just jonesing for a bike ride, what with all these swedes riding bikes ALL AROUND ME.)

which is worse?

a bike on a car or a car on a bike? speaking from the perspective of a guy whose had a car-mangled bike, i'd prefer the bike on the car if these were my only 2 choices.

having to admit defeat...

before the race starts...

ugh, ok, i've been obsessing about this saturday's race and my lack of training for it, but now i've decided to pull out of the race. i had made peace with the fact that i was going to "participate" instead of race. i was lookin' forward to just gettin' out in the woods on my bike right up until today when I read the weather forecast for hayward. the forecast calls for rain and that isn't really conducive to havin' fun in the woods.

so, i may suck for backing out, but i'd like to think that i'm really just "donating" my entry fee to the promoters. i'm of the mindset that i'd pay $60 for the privilige of NOT cruising around inthe wet woods.