how not to lock a bike

Would not take much effort to steal this pretty bike.

the invisible frame

cruising netflix streaming videos the other evening, I was thrilled to find the invisible frame, a poignant almost silent film, that depicts tilda swanton riding a bike around the route of the former berlin wall.  the movie is a sequel to cycling the frame, made in 1988 and depicting tilda riding the same route, but from one side of the then existing wall.  art at its finest, highly recommended.

happy whatever

sending my best out to you and yours for whatever it is you do this time of year. may your days be filled with family, friends, and cheer.

on self

 my bike house.

the peugeot finds a home

and they're off!

good-bye brown girl in the lane and welcome bikeSD

my philosophy on blogging is that there are no rules.  I am beholden to no-one, not even myself, really.   As such, one of my "goals" for this blog is to feature all the other bike blogs that I read and love.  suffice it to say little of that coverage has happened, but before the moment slips away forever, I want to recognize Samantha Ollinger (Sam) and her now defunct blog, brown girl in the lane.

I met up with Sam for a ride during a trip to SD in 2011

Sam is an articulate and brave cyclist with a wry sense of humor, dispatching from sad diego, my home town.  I call it sad diego, because I find it tragic that such a beautiful place was designed for cars not people.  My approach to cycling there, live somewhere else.   Sam's approach is far more courageous and elegant.  She went from writing a scathing, funny blog, brown girl in the lane, to launching BikeSD, a non-profit bike advocacy organization for San Diego.  I am so happy and proud to see her energy transformed into what is sure to amount to improved conditions for cyclists in San Diego and which could make it one of the best cycling cities in the world!   Kudos, Beany!  love, 1 of the 190

md MD

md is a med student that needs a bike.  in her cohort is jg,  an old classmate of mine. he got a bike from me this year and recently referred md my way.  she is 6 feet tall and has a vintage classic style.    sure enough my bike collection contained a large frame peugeot mixte, which I have dialed in and tuned up for ms. md, MD.  here she is.  the seat will be about 3 inches higher for md!

made in france


drivetrain with shimano positron 5 speed shifting


she is a cafe racer with red cloth tape and wood/leather bar end plugs

i threw on a us army saddle bag for holding stuff

we took this little french pony for a test ride today and she posed for the camera at UCSF, md's school.

overall we hope md thinks this bike is

real nice.

farewell bianchi

this is my husband frida khalo
 this is frida in 2009 on the bianchi volpe he has been riding for the last 5 years, ever since his fuji bike was stolen from the lobby of our apartment building.  

the bianchi was stolen recently from behind a security gate, locked with a u-lock to a bike rack, outside of frida's office in the lovely media gulch neighborhood of the mission, sf, ca.   since the photo above, I installed honjo fenders and a VO porteur rack, which frida used to carry his basketball to games.   adios  fair friend.    I didn't sleep well last night, thinking about our lost friend, the bianchi. she was like a horse to us.

stop me if you think Ive posted this one before

 how can you not love this?

design gone wrong

for more on this awfully contrived contraption, read the article on Core 77. In the meantime, watch the video below and don't let the preposterousness of the design of this "bike" (ha!) hurt you too much.

guess my age

I am old enough to remember the original version of this song, an oldie, blasting out of the am radio in dad's maverick as a kid. I am young enough to resonate with the hipster girl and boy and old enough to laugh at their irony. how old am I?

bikes besties for life

please enjoy this lovely video of deep and kimberely's Sunday Streets wedding, from Claudia Escobar of Mission Local.

A Sunday Streets Wedding from Mission Local on Vimeo.

I especially love the sincerity of Kim's "I Do". I also love Claudia's videography. She is my video mentor and helped me make this very first ever video collab featuring Sarah Murder. Congrats, Deep and Kimberley!