Bite My Crankset: the thread for bicycle-style conveyances

[El_Josharino]

Got home from Ragbrai last night, and it was a grand time. Camping, biking, beers, whiskey, buddies, all the necessary components. I logged a little under 400 miles for the week, which is way better than I did last year, so that's good. On the ride yesterday, there was a MONDO hill, it was like a 400-foot drop in elevation over probably a mile. I'm pretty sure I hit 45 mph at one point and it was Cruisetown USA, until I then hit the uphill portion and it became Exploded-kneestown USA.
On the first day we all wore NBA jerseys and got called hipsters a lot... it was kinda weird.
A couple of my buddies did the entire ride on fixies, which is fucking crazy.

[El_Josharino]

Oh also, on Friday I biked 50+ miles in pouring rain through thunder and lightning and that shit was FUCKING AWESOME.

[Ignatius]

Which NBA jersey did you wear?

[jebreject]

Hey so my gears are grinding pretty bad, particularly when I take off. It's been happening for a week or so now and seems to be getting worse. I think it's my gears anyway, though it might be my pedals. When said grinding takes place, my pedals kind of lock up momentarily. What gives?

[El_Josharino]

Which NBA jersey did you wear?

Alonzo Mourning, Charlotte Hornets.

[Thermofusion]

ALONZO. One of my childhood heroes, along with LJ The Grandmama, Muggsy Bogues, Dell Curry and others. Josh you are a Good Man.

[Ignatius]

Yeah, that's about as classy as you can get in early 90s teal. Smart choice.

[donblood]

Hey so my gears are grinding pretty bad, particularly when I take off. It's been happening for a week or so now and seems to be getting worse. I think it's my gears anyway, though it might be my pedals. When said grinding takes place, my pedals kind of lock up momentarily. What gives?

No idea!  You should take it to a friendly bike shop, have them look at it and explain it to you.  If they're proper nerds they'll fall all over themselves to tell you what's wrong.

[jebreject]

See, the problem started a while ago, although it was not nearly as bad, so the last time I brought my bike in I had them look at it and they couldn't find anything. Part of me wonders if it's because I'm such a big dude, I'm putting stress on the bike in ways that the skinny bike nerds that work there just can't replicate. I don't know. I'm worried though.

[El_Josharino]

Take it to Rapid Transit in Chicago and tell Jerod that you know me and he'll make sure that shit gets fixed right up.

[morgan]

Jeb, Jason would probably look at it for you if I asked him to. He's pretty good with bikes. Want to give it a shot?

[jebreject]

Yeah, I mean, otherwise I can bring it in to Truly Spoken this weekend. I do appreciate it though

[YojimboMonkey]

Cool gallery of bicycle-related photos: http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/#num=7&id=2972852

[Greg Nog]

COLORADO REPUBLICAN IS NOT FOOLED BY YOUR PRECIOUS BICYCLES

[ellaguru]

It is no accident that those bicycles are red.

[jebreject]

Two of the sprockets in my freewheel were missing a number of teeth! How this happened, I don't know. But it's good to know what the problem is.

[morgan]

Wow! Weird! You can come to the Collective and get a new one, maybe?

[El_Josharino]

Got home from Ragbrai last night, and it was a grand time. Camping, biking, beers, whiskey, buddies, all the necessary components. I logged a little under 400 miles for the week, which is way better than I did last year, so that's good. On the ride yesterday, there was a MONDO hill, it was like a 400-foot drop in elevation over probably a mile. I'm pretty sure I hit 45 mph at one point and it was Cruisetown USA, until I then hit the uphill portion and it became Exploded-kneestown USA.
On the first day we all wore NBA jerseys and got called hipsters a lot... it was kinda weird.
A couple of my buddies did the entire ride on fixies, which is fucking crazy.

I want to mention about this dude Kevin, who was one of the fixie riders, that one day he came back to camp and said something like, "Man, there's no feeling more badass than passing a bunch of bikers on a fixie with a 24 oz. bottle of beer in your cage instead of a water bottle and while smoking a cigarette."
It's almost certainly true. I only hang out with badasses.

[milesofsparks]

a bike theft story with a happy ending:
http://www.whatever-whenever.net/blog/2010/08/justice-in-brooklyn/

[morgan]

Awesome!

[milesofsparks]

yeah, especially since it's down the street from me--I like bike thieves in my neighborhood getting busted!

in other excellent bike news, the guys at B's Bikes just fixed a small thing for free!  including a couple of nuts & bolts.  they are so awesome.

[ellaguru]

My place two places ago was just on the right side of the tracks, but you could see the wrong side of the tracks right across the street (or ride the streetcar that went along the tracks). Anyway, the low income housing thing across the street always had bikes for sale - I found it comforting to know that if my bike ever got stolen, I'd only have to go across the street to buy it back. Wouldn't even have to check craigslist first.

[dumbfish]

Two of the sprockets in my freewheel were missing a number of teeth! How this happened, I don't know. But it's good to know what the problem is.

Big people put extra strain on parts. They're made for lesser folk. Cost of being awesomely huge.

[donblood]

I want to mention about this dude Kevin, who was one of the fixie riders, that one day he came back to camp and said something like, "Man, there's no feeling more badass than passing a bunch of bikers on a fixie with a 24 oz. bottle of beer in your cage instead of a water bottle and while smoking a cigarette."
It's almost certainly true. I only hang out with badasses.

Ah, youth.

[morgan]

I don't know, "badass" isn't really the word I'd use for that. Then again, I'm a hater.