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I am transferring this blog to http://epsilongear.wordpress.com which is exactly the same save for the URL.
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I ended up settling for a Schwinn Varsity I found on craigslist for 40$. Maybe not worth it, but everything else fitting the qualifications resided in Boston and cost $100+.
Sheldon Brown (rest his soul) hosts quite an article about these Schwinn’s along with his own article about Chicago Schwinns. It’s long and technical, but basically:
So far I’ve stripped it down (save for the chain due the fact I wasn’t able to bring my tools with me). I was able to remove the one-piece crank because all you need is a large adjustable wrench and a reverse threaded mindset. So I have it stripped, and I have access to an electric sander. What took me about 30 minutes to sand down using the sander I spent about 2 and a half days by hand on the last Schwinn I (almost) fixed up:
So I get finished a good bit of sanding, pack up and leave. We are driving not 50 yds when I see this sitting on the side of the road:
An old Raleigh Grand Prix. I walk up to the house, make sure it’s free, and get ready to walk it back since we can’t put it in the car. My uncle happens to have a car powered bike pump (which I had never seen before), so I pumped up the tires in about 10 seconds, and I rode it back to the house we’re fixing up. Aside from some gear shifting issues, it was wonderful considering I had hitherto not ridden for roughly a month. Anything to keep my mind occupied.
So I’ve been working in a cubicle a little more than 40 hours of week. Not ideal, but I’ve been learning quite a bit and enjoy the work I do despite the workplace environment and politics. If anyone is interested, I’m officially a Java Developer intern, but in actuality I write many reports using SQL and Visual Report Designer, a shitload of development standard documentation, dabble in SAP development, minor script writing for server cleanup and what not, and in house SOX testing – aka intern work. I’ve successfully neglected the two responsibilities I committed to during my time in Massachusetts: create a website for UCF’s SDS and UCF’s new bike coop. It’s not that I’m working all the time (which I am), it’s that whenever I’m not working, I’m putting together my uncle’s new house (which I’m indebted to for free rent and him putting up with me not having a car).
Either way, I should be getting to those shortly.
I’ve only visited Bikes not Bombs once, briefly, with LeAnn. We only got to the shop, but I was very impressed. Hopefully I’ll get to visit the actual coop and learn a thing or two and bring something of use back to ‘The Hub’ (the suggested name of the center of Spokes Council).
Other than that I program and play video games during the precious few hours of free time I get every week. I’ve been playing Torment and dabbled in an older (not that Torment isn’t old) RPG’s named Albion. Torment is an isometric RPG using the D&D Planescape campaign. It’s a wonderfully engaging and in depth game, and has great focus on character development through dialogue (just under a million words of dialogue and story in the game). I am more and more interested in game development now that I am officially changing my major to Computer Science.
If you are a math nerd and want to spend some time playing with cellular automaton using Conway’s Game of Life (Java applet to play here). One guy designed a Turing Machine… I went from there implementing some variations (and a few helpful articles) in the wonderful method of procedural generation to create those roguelike dungeons. Speaking of procedural generation, I’m very excited about Spore. Open ended gameplay seems like such a great idea that’s only begun to be tapped. You have your Sim game franchises and GTA (both of which were wildly successful), but with 7th gen consoles and PC technology continuing to advance to the point of cheap TB hard drives, desktop quad core processors, and movie size game production open ended gameplay has amazing potential (although with procedural generation, you really won’t need a new TB hard drive).
When I first heard of Spore last year the spark of game development was reignited in me and has been simmering until now. I find myself reading Tigsource and Gamasutra regularly and playing older games that I’ve missed out on.
I began J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians per Phil’s suggestion. I’m only about a quarter into it, but so for it’s very good.
The two dogs that inhabit the house we are fixing up are very tiny. One is small and brown. The other is Gandalf:
This post’s bike picks:
Dave’s Schwinn from FGG
Tim’s 1984 Suteki Track 10 from Old Ten Speed Gallery
I’m off to look at an old Schwinn Varsity to fix up. I think I want a simple, maybe goofy, old style fixed gear using this as a template.
On a final note, please suggest some music. Too much Little Wings and Deer Tick lately. Maybe.
No pictures yet, too busy.
Amazing scenery and weather coming soon, but this bike was worth a post.
Alfred Stieglitz, New York Series: Spring, 1947
No, I’m not in New York, but this is as accurate a representation I can get about my feelings towards this new work setting.
My temporary home is actually in Gardner, which lies about an hour away from Boston. The town is a beautiful change from the cities I am used to (Orlando and Bradenton). There are wonderful hills that engulf you on every road, and only one part of town (center) that is littered with convenient stores and businesses, which is a good 5-10 miles away, which is also the closest to any shopping at all I can do.
The roads are very narrow and curve often, which makes bike riding more dangerous than I’m used to. Hopefully Bikes not Bombs will let me build a bike for free, and then I’ll be able to just give it to them before I move back.
Pictures soon.
So today I leave Orlando and shortly I’ll be heading to Massachusetts for my internship.
Before I left I got to visit Todd Bertolaet’s gallery at the Crealde School of Art in Winter Park. His work was very interesting, in the scrapbook-journal style I believe he wrote was similar to old scrapbooks of his grandparents. What really interested me was the advertisement of Southern autographics and landscapes. The style didn’t really sit with me well because I’m very picky about post-production (less is more) and sometimes the photographs were so busy with surrounding text, stickers and postcards it took away from the photographs – most of which were incredible. On his site most of the collection, albeit much smaller, can be found here, along with some very nice river collections.
Also, check out Clyde Butcher, the Ansel Adams of Florida.
I won’t be able to take any bikes with me so I’ll hopefully be able to work with Bikes not Bombs or some other co-op and get a bike. I’m going crazy because I haven’t really been able to ride for a week now. This translates to my time being spent on:
…using my handy dandy SNES controller I wired to the parallel port with a GBA emulator.
For being put together last minute, the event was a big success. After everyone racing threw down 5$, we ended up with $131 (someone only had $1 on them, it’s all good). $30 of this went to bee– I mean supplies for the race. We had 3 categories that took $30 each: 1st place overall, 1st non road bike, and 1st woman. We also awarded the leftover $11 to D.F.L.
Place:
1st place: Dickie!
1st place non road bike: Eric!
1st place woman: Amanda!
Dead Fucking Last: Benny!
Special prize: Best poet on wheels (2nd to last checkpoint had folks write a haiku): LIZ!
You can find the complete set of the “Photoshoot with Jared” checkpoint, click on phil:
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A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers without whom this event could not have happened!
On a more upsetting note. My new wheelset got ruined:
Chris Walker’s mini documentary of women who ride bikes in Orlando:
Also, Phil and I had some fun with spray paint at fARTsy fair:
For a little while now I’ve been noting the bikes that really stick out in my mind when I browse FGG. I try to stay away from super fancy pursuit frames or Pistas with absurd upgrades and focus on a combination of aesthetics and unique\interesting buildups. They are in no particular order.
Schwinn LeTour winter beater buildup
meo trackbike – handbuilt by ‘Meo’ in zurich
1976 Schwinn Paramount short-couple frame
custom rigid MTB frame fixed
Colnago Super Pantografata 1973
1966 Pogliaghi Stayer Bike from vienna
Tommasini Prestige – campy buildup
folding bike, hand laced wheels
And my personal favorite track frame I’ve come across:
Peugeot track frame from the 60s
For the first post of this superior blog I’d like to promote the upcoming east Orlando alleycat:
Everyone and every bike is welcome, and the route we planned is roughly 10 to 13 miles all within a mile or two of UCF. If you have a facebook, you should join our event. The cycling community is taking over UCF. Now the school has to decide on adding a 6th parking garage or a covered bike rack. Or develop a 2nd Pain Gun.
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