Robotz Ride

Or, more technically, ROB00101011TZ Ride.

Spent a couple of hours this afternoon at the Bikerowave, trying to get a bike I'd been returning to roadworthiness ready to go, and actually succeeded. Almost sold it as soon as I was done, but the woman that test rode it was not a big fan of the coaster brake (smart woman). But it's finished and ready to go, so that's good.

I went off to volunteer, came home, and planned to spend the evening cleaning my apartment (or, more accurately, surfing the web while feeling somewhat guilty about NOT cleaning my apartment).

But then I looked at my watch, realized that I had plenty of time to make the ride, that it was likely to be fun, and that my apartment could remain uncleaned while I rode my bike as easily as it could while I surfed the web, and headed out to crankmob park.

Tonight's ride was awesome. A fun ride around the Westside, with stops in Beverlywood for some time-trials racing and Leimert Park for some fountain splashing and ramp jumping. The private security in Beverlywood was tremendously chill, and let the group hang out, dance, play music, and race until we were done and decided to move on. I did take my bike off one of the ramps set up in Leimert Park, and made it safely, but realized I'm going to need a lot more skill and a much better health insurance plan before I begin jumping anything regularly. Leimert Park is really nice. I'd never been there before, but it's quite pleasant a little before 2AM. I ended up doing a little bit of bike repair, helping one woman get her rear derailleur cable out of her chainring (Seriously. Yikes!) and properly adjusted, and helped another guy change his rear tire twice. I get tempted to look into becoming a bike mechanic from time to time, and then I realize that fixing bikes on my own time for nice people might be substantially different for fixing them on the clock for random folks who might not be as pleasant or gracious. We'll see how it goes. I need to find something meaningful for a day job pretty shortly.

NOTES FOR NEW PEOPLE COMING TO GROUP RIDES:

1. Theftproof your stuff. - Take any accessories not bolted to your bike OFF your bike before heading out, or they are likely to wander off on their own. I talked to a guy tonight who'd also had his bike pump go missing on a recent ride. How dumb is that? Who takes a bike pump? That's some klepto nonsense right there. Take all your stuff and stick it in your bag. Then make sure to keep your bag with you at all times. Tonight we had a guy who left his bag at a stop. At the next stop, he found out that someone had retrieved the bag for him, so he got it back. Unfortunately, it seems that he got it back minus his Ipod.

2. Bring some basic repair items. - At the very least you need enough to be able to fix a flat. This means you need:
1. A spare inner tube.
2. Tire levers.
3. A patch kit.
4. A wrench if you don't have a quick release hub.
All this will cost you less than $20, and will make your life WAY easier when you actually need them. Then, one afternoon when you've got a little time, practice removing the tire, and inner tube and replacing them. It takes a while, but it's nice to learn somewhere where if you screw up, you're still in your living room. Also, if you've got room in your bag, a multi-tool with allen keys and screwdrivers on them and a pair of pliers will help you handle most roadside repair situations.

In other news, the Men's Olympic Cycling event took place today. The air was sufficiently horrendous that over a third of the riders (53 outof 143) didn't even finish. U.S. rider David Zabriskie, apparently feeling the pressure to be tactful after the recent controversy of other U.S. cyclists arriving in China wearing masks, decided not to say much about the air quality and mock the Great Wall instead, saying "“If I was in charge back then, I wouldn’t have built something like this...It’s just like a waste of time. I mean, you can get over it with a grappling hook and a ladder, right?” A third of the riders failed to complete the Olympic Bike Race? That's quite a statement on the disgraceful quality of the air over there, even AFTER they've spend UNTOLD MILLIONS trying to get the air clean just for this two week period. Note the mainstream media blaming the "heat and humid conditions." Right.

Clearly they've all paid attention to this video, which is the funniest thing ever (or at least the funniest thing I've seen recently related to the Beijing Olympics):

I love that it's the first YouTube result that comes up for "Olympic song Beijing".

OK, it's almost 6AM. I'm off.