Selle Italia SLK

Look! More pieces for my bike that isn't here yet. I have this model of saddle on my road bike, and also had one on my bike that was destroyed. It's the perfect saddle for me. And as a bonus, I found it on eBay for not-a-ton of money.  I don't think it's made any longer and I'm very tempted to buy another just in case. I've had, like most cyclists, more than  few saddles. They've ranged from cheap to expensive, they've come on bikes, or I've purchased them separately. Finding one that's right for your own buns is so important. This is the one for me, and now it's just waiting for a bike.

As a side note, I used my LED bike light to light this. I may have found a pretty cool, and very portable, photography tool.

Bonus fun: The caption in this Instagram photo is a lie, created just to amuse them, but it was indeed fun to run into these cool folks on our ride.

We were thrilled when,  on our ride today, we encountered two members of the Tamrakar pro cycling team from Nepal. We were too shy to ask for autographs, but did manage this quick photo.

A photo posted by curtis corlew (@cccorlew) on Jan 30, 2016 at 2:44pm PST

Hillcrest Ave, Wallmart and bikes

Tricia wasn't happy to have this truck blow past her so closely, even dipping into the bike lane. Especially on Hillcrest Ave in Antioch where we were given to understand didn't allow these big rigs.

So she used the City of  Antioch web site to report this as a hazardous condition using their online form, and asked if it was still closed to trucks.

One day later she got a reply! Thanks Lynne, and the City of Antioch.

Hi Patricia,

You are correct, trucks are not allowed on Hillcrest.  I am the person in charge of the signs and will be making sure they are all in place with the freeway construction, etc.  Your request has been forwarded on to the police department.  If just a few tickets are issued for trucks off of the truck route, I’m sure the word will get around.

Lynne

LYNNE B. FILSON | Assistant City Engineer

When I made the video and posted it on YouTube I called the truck a "Walmart truck." Minutes later "BigMississippi" corrected me. "That's not a Walmart truck. It was a C.R.England truck pulling a Walmart trailer." On close inspection she's right. However, I can only assume it's a Walmart contractor, which from my viewpoint is darn near the same thing. But, accuracy counts, hence this clarification.

More bike-to-be parts

Yet another piece of my someday-to-be bike. I'm still waiting for the bicycle itself, but I'm getting the auxiliary parts in place.

A photo posted by curtis corlew (@cccorlew) on Jan 17, 2016 at 12:17pm PST

Yep, a new obsession. Bike pieces for the bike I don't have yet. #iwanttoridemybicycle

A photo posted by curtis corlew (@cccorlew) on Jan 17, 2016 at 12:50pm PST

Look! It's a sonderstrebenset!

Another exciting piece for my new commuter bike arrived today. The tag reads "sonderstrebenset" I'm still waiting for the actual bike.

A photo posted by curtis corlew (@cccorlew) on Jan 16, 2016 at 1:50pm PST

Dangerous street planning and Antioch

I don't normally post links to interesting bike articles, but in this case I must make an exception.

Bay Bikers: The Bay Area's Bike Blog on SFGate.com by Brian Coyne has an excellent post that uses my city, Antioch, as prime example in "Dangerous by design: what one crash tells us about bad street planning"

Coyne has written a well researched piece that makes some great points. And, as a bonus, you might recognize someone in it.

Interim commuter bike appointed

I'm using my 70s-era Gitane Tour de France turned fixed gear/single speed to commute on until my new commuter arrives. I've got my lights, my Rideye front-facing camera and and Fly6 rear facing camera set up. I even have my Garmin 500 mounted on it. I don't have a rack, so I'm using a backpack for now. I just got the SKS Raceblade fenders because it's been so wet and it will be a bit until my new ride arrives. So my guess is that the rain is over now and I've screwed up California's drought recovery.

Looking on Youtube for mounting hints I got a lot of "Jeez these are hard to mount" videos. I don't know why. Mine went on very easily. I should bend the metal wires on the back fender to bring the fender closer to the rear tire. I tried, and was impressed how hard it was to bend them, I'll try later with more serious tools. 

Just in case you're wondering, those small white stickers are "I Voted" and "Ya Voté" stickers from our local polling place. Tricia and I usually ride to vote and put the stickers on our bikes and helmets.

Year end report: 2015, be gone

This is the least amount of miles I've had for a year in ages. Things "happened." You can see the lulls in my riding as I've conveniently circled each happening in red for your viewing pleasure.

Happening 1: I got some weird bug that just wouldn't get better. The doctors even gave me a strange drug that made me loopy, but also destroyed all my creative inhibitions. It screwed up my riding, but it did somehow encourage me to go wild on Instagram and start making cyanotypes. I even made this kinetic photo sculpture, which is unlike anything I've done before. (Click to play)


Happening 2: I got mugged while bike commuting and ended up with broken ribs and was generally a mess.

Happening 3: In December I had a collision with a truck. My bike was destroyed and I was badly bruised and ended up with a separated shoulder.

 I'm well off my usual 7000+ mile total. This total is from Strava, so it's missing a few, perhaps 100 or so, but what the heck. At least I'm still alive and I'm planning for 2016 to have fewer — or no — "happenings" and a lot more bike riding.

Tricia, on the other hand, was very busy on her bike. She had a total 6,374 miles, 1,800 of those on her commuter.

Here's hoping for a wonderful 2016. Time to go ride bikes now.