If you find some panties, this time they are mine.

There was a harmony in the way the spoke wrench moved. It never clattered into the rim or the hub or or any of the still slack spokes. It weaved through the air as if it was an appendage to his hand.

I've seen skillful bike mechanics work their magic and I had anticipated the visual pleasure. I hadn't expected the wheel building process to be an aural feast too. (?) The metallic brush of the spokes being gathered in hand, the ting of a spoke as the elbow dropped into the flange, the scuffle of the nipples moving on the work bench, the whir of the wrench fastening the nipples, the swish of the loosely suspended hub flopping about. Ping, ding,tinkle, chink, clink, jangle.

What a nice passage writing thing from Robert Penn. I pretty much just plagiarized the shit out that passage too. It was such a great piece of writing, as is the whole book, I just wanted to share with everyone. That and I like typing the word "nipple". I did however feel a bit racist when I typed the word "chink", but since he, I assume, meant it as a "sound", then I didn't "feel" that "bad".

Okay. So it is very rare that I write to entries back to back but I just wanted to share last nights funns with you alls.

It was brought to my attention by one of my readers that what I wrote in my last entry, something about "with holding the fact that I was giving her high gravity beer" and "lets see what happens", sounds like pre meditated rape.

Well the joke is on me cause apparently, though she claims innocence, my new found lady friend was planning the same date rape style night on me by trying to sneak in some tasty, but high in alcohol content, black lager.

9.9%?!

 And this isn't the first time she has pulled this (maybe where I got the idea?) on me. One of the first nights we hung out she brought over some Porter or something and I drank 6 of those and when I  woke up, I had a hang over and I couldn't remember much of the night before.

At first I was under the impression that she Ruffied my ass, did horrible things to me, took my cash and credit cards and sped away in my mint condition DeLorian that I rescued from an old lady and painstakingly refurbished with the money I accrued from selling all the bags of coke I found under the dash..... but upon cleaning the bottles up I noticed that it was 8% beer and that I never had a DeLorian or any money for her to take in the first place... And that possibly I am a light weight.

She claims to know nothing about it though. ;)

Apparently I can't pour

What's this have to do with bicycle or mechanics? Or wheels? Nothing. But the beer and the company was great. The Deconstruction tasted amazing, like wine, and fruit, and beer and the after taste was mind blowing. I popped when I opened it and fizzed in the glass. And in my mouth.... I would go into more detail but all the info got mixed up with all the other beer that was brought.

Baba it the 9.9...

Okay. So I got off track a bit buuuutttttt.... Till Next Time!

Busting nuts and stripping screws.

So today I got my hair cut by my salonist. We have a trade kinda thing. I work on her bicycles and she gives me haircuts. I think it's fun letting other people have control of some aspects of your life. Like my general appearance pertaining to my hair. I was gonna refrain from putting a pix up so as not to embarrass myself but I tend to do that on a daily basis anyhow so here it is.

Kinda not what she has described to me and at times I feel like a carrot. Or strawberry.

As she was cutting my hair I was thinking about the tools that she uses and the tools that she prefers. She's got all kinds of scissors and electric trimmers and razor blade contraptions that she attacks my hair with. She knows which device to go for when trying to perform a certain wacky task on my cranium rug. It's fun to watch her cause she takes pride in what she does and the tools just flow in and out of her hands with the grace and precision of a well trained samurai. (?)

This is the time of year I start thinking about my tools. And apparently other peoples tools. I'll go through them and make sure they are all in perfect working order. Are the tips wounded and worn out? Are blades dull or chipped? Are my torque wrenches calibrated? Is this one "out dated" and can I replace it with a fancier or more high tech one? If so I get rid of it and replace it.

"Oh why not donate them?" some good hearted enviro type person asks. Well if I don't want it for fear of stripping screws or bolts, I surely wouldn't want to put that evil on someone else to experience the same fate. Not good karma. Plus I am a hoarder and should be on that show that I am addicted to. Hoarders. I thought by watching said show that I would learn my lesson and see what could possible happen to my home, but it only fueled my passion for hoarding and now I have a garage full of useless bicycle crap.

Lastly, my new lady friend suggested that since I have taken up the hobby of drinking, I should start a beer blog. Well I barely have time to do this one and couldn't see myself starting yet another project just to let it fall by the way side so I have decided to slip it in here.

Currently I am sipping on Pyramids Snow Cap. It's marketed as a Winter Warmer Ale but it just keeps leaving me with a hot dog after taste. They have a Chai one that also leaves a weird taste in my mouth. Next on the list is the Deconstruction from Odells Brewing based in Fort Collins. I have invited my lady friend to try this out tonight and I will intentionally be leaving out the fact that it is 10.5% alcohol... That review of the beer, the night and the next day will be covered the next time I get inspired to write.

Till next time! Happy biking and safe drinking! Oh and stay warm...

It's short. So I've been told

I was gonna write a post on tools and the quality and value of actually investing in a great tool.... Until I broke some $60 Snap-On super flush diagonal cutters. (Please note I didn't use the word Dyke as to not offend my sexually curious lesbian readers) out there.

Oh yeah, I am now baking pies....

I'm just gonna act like I've been writing this whole time and that there were no gaps between posts..... It was a busy season after all. Reeeeeaaaaalllll busy. If you know what I mean..... ;)!

So I was gonna do a post on these lights from France called Wonder. After some hard searching on the ol internet, and 10 minutes really, there seems to be nothing. Except that maybe, or maybe not, that a company in Korea bought them up and renamed/bagged them as WonderBike. Lights. Maybe with out the lights part. It was kinda hazy and very confusing. The whole ordeal....






The whole thing came up when I spent the week end going through my tools and endless array of bicycle parts and paraphernalia and stumbled upon then lights encased in  cheesy plastic. I remember getting these lights in a grab bag of parts a customer gave to us at the Perf as a "tip". I thought they were the cooler of random objects in the box so snatched them up and put them in a place for safe keeping. A shoe box.

From France!

So in my semi-drunken stupor I had decided to text my roommate  who happened to be out, and demanded that he pick up some C batteries. Yep. C. Batteries. As I was waiting I did some brief snooping and found out that they were from France and that they were from the 60s. Exciting!

With a very minimalist "circuitry" I had high hopes that they would work but at the same time I was worried that the filament style bulbs were blown.

Holy Shit they still work!

So the time came. I put the batteries in and BAM! They both worked! Holy shit they still work! I was so excited. My friend.... not so much. I'm still excited. So excited in fact I am going to use them tomorrow on my commute to and from work. Sooooo sick.

Other things happening? I'm currently reading It's All About the Bike by Robert Penn. I don't review books so I won't get into too much detail. But it has inspired and sparked new interest in my love for building and working on bikes.

So I hope all is going well and everyone is staying warm this winter! More to come on the new shop I am at aaaaaaannnnd my new Service Program!

And here is a picture of my Apple Pie. My first attempt at baking.

Pa Pa Pa Pie! (A Tank Girl reference)