snoball makes modeling debut

I was checking the hours for birite market to see if they close early tonight. they don't close early and my bike (with a birite bag in the basket) is featured as one of the banner images on their website.

bike brains

not sure who to credit for this awesome graphic. if you know, please share. the quote reads, *the computer is like a bicycle for our brains*, but I prefer to interpret the meaning as, *bikes on brain*. I certainly do have them on mine.

feliz cinco de mayo

so i am a bit late for cinco de mayo, but that is okay.

pictured here snoball wears her newest paper flower, made from the tissue lining that wrapped a delicious bottle of patron silver.  this replaces the marigold she had been wearing since el dia de los muertos.

on the wiggle

my friend lawrence created this awesome pop jingle as a public service announcement for one of san francisco's best known bike lane secrets, the wiggle.  Snoball and Ramona are featured all over this video, can you see us?

 

back in the day before there were bike lanes, the wiggle was identifiable by riding from the intersection at duboce and church toward the panhandle- by always selecting the flattest direction of travel at each subsequent intersection. Now, as of yesterday, BTWD, the wiggle not only has a jingle with a video, it has has painted sharrows at Waller and Steiner,  one of the most controversial intersections on the route, to alert drivers that this is a bike route and to advise them of the cyclist's probable path

.

photo credit: caltexican

Great advocacy work, Lawrence (for the Wiggle PSA) and the Bike Coalition (for the sharrrows and bike lanes)!

my other car is a tiny penis

straight from the P.D. Bird blog, pd on a bike with a biting message.

Kick Start MamakSF

Editor's Note: There may be someone that reads this blog, but does not read Velo Vogue.  This cross post is for you! 

Ian Deleporte is an amazing member of the San Francisco bike community and the kind of guy that makes you just happy to be.   Combine his awesome personality with smarts, skills, and the flavors of a Malaysian heritage and you have mamakSF.    Watch the video to see Ian's plan for building a food cart bicycle, from which he will serve up Malaysian inspired foods like Toadies and Rojak, and then kickstart this awesome effort with a little collective love.



Want to taste first? You'll  be able to try mamakSF wares this Saturday, May 12 at the Public Bikes pop up shop grand opening party at 599 Valencia St. from 2-6.   MamakSF will be serving alongside Hot Bike and The Pop Nation, two other non-motorized mobile food businesses.

portlandia

a place where bikes decorate the homescape

and streets are sprinkled with cherry blossoms

the cadillac of cycles, sort of

the idea of stationary cycling while riding in an SUV is just wrong on so many levels.  beware these pictures may give you nightmares, but you can see  more luxury SUV imagery here. 

a post in which i convey a message from one friend to another

step 1:  play video.  insert your name instead of rudy.


step 2:  look at this face

step3: receive message:  This is JustDave saying hi to YOU!

dear cyclists, cops are not your friends

i've heard it before, but the bias toward cars on the part of SFPD that I experienced today was shocking and frustrating nonetheless. 

image found on fb, if you know who deserves credit, speaks up.

 after being passed by an suv on fillmore this afternoon, I took the lane in front of said vehicle at the next stop light, to be safe from him trying to pass me again on the next block, post st, where I would turn left.    after taking the lane and signaling left, the car passed me on the right and stopped next to me at the red.  A motorcycle cop that was behind the suv (i thought the car driver would behave with a cop behind him!) then pulled up on my left at the light, and told me that I had to stay to the right of the lane.  I disagreed and he threatened me by asking if I wanted him to give me "a ticket so I could go to court and find out" if I was right about cyclists having full use of the lane.  of course I responded no, even though I knew I was right.   The cop also told me some other bull shit and expressed that because I took the lane, the car "had to pass me on the right",  which is illegal of course. Not to mention that he was "passing" me to stop at a red light right in fucking front of him.   Rather than engage with such an ignorant and biased man with a badge and a gun, I pulled over and proceeded in another direction while mouthing at him, "fucking pig", which he is among other expletives.    don't be fooled dear cyclists, sfpd are NOT your friends, indeed the truth is quite the contrary.

building the mercian: wheels part I

i think an essential skill in bike mechanics is building wheels so I decided its time for me to learn. frankly, I am intimidated. while simple, its complicated, and after all, there are mechanics that are known for the integrity of their wheel builds.  Who am I?  I am a first timer, and just want to build some decent wheels and be dependent on no one.  I watched this video series and decided I could build a wheel.



To get started, I went down to Box Dog Bikes, the shop closest to my house, to pick up some parts. I had a set of record hubs, so I just needed rims and spokes. While I bought a set of rannondeur rims from BDB, I decided to not get spokes from them.  Besides the fact that Dan, who helped me, seemed completely unimpressed and unengaged when I talked to him about the wheel build, he quoted me $140 for spokes, uninstalled.  They cut their spokes to size, which means I would have had to wait a day to get the spokes, and the price was ridiculous.   I decided to find a shop where I could walk out with spokes, and hopefully where the person seemed half interested in my project.   Thanks for the nice rims, BDB.

I called Pedal Revolution, they also cut spokes to size and their machine was broken.  No dice.

I called Valencia Cyclery and they carry different sized spokes and will measure the length for you if you bring in your rims and hubs, so I dropped in.  Michael helped me and was all I could ask for in a bike shop mechanic.  He was full of questions, to make sure I was legit; tips to make sure I was successful; and warnings to make sure I was realistic.   I was pretty scared after talking to him about taking on the project, but he sensed this and offered up encouragement. He calculated the spoke lengths for me, got me the right sizes, gave me some build tips and I was out the door for $65 with my  bike coalition discount.

Michael from Valencia Cyclery was awesome and interested, and even went to the retail shop next door to get me a spoke wrench, which I purchased along with the spokes and nipples.  You can't fake customer service and michael is the real deal.  Thank you! 

With spokes rims and hubs in hand, I laced up the wheels according to the video Part 2. Of note the video does not mention that you need three different lengths of spokes: 1 for front wheel, 2 for drive side of rear wheel, 3 rear wheel non-drive.  Michael told me at the shop.  I watched a few other videos and asked some questions of friends to assist in correct implementation.



I'll spare the boring details, but each wheel was laced two times, each for a different reason.  Lacing was easy and gratifying in an ocd kind of way.

The wheels are laced, tightened up, ready to be trued.  Truing is the hard part.  Coming soon.

how to get to the top of potrero hill without climbing much

special thanks to dave who made this map for me a few years back and taught me the secret of crossing over the 18th St.  ped/bike bridge and wiggling up potrero hill, for a chill ride to the top. community garden information included. click the image to view LARGE.