Ladies & Gentlemen... the Shower Beer

For those of you who have never partaken in a Shower Beer, let me say that it is my distinct pleasure to impart the following knowledge with thee:

You can, and should, drink a beer in the shower.

Now, this little nugget has some time-tested suggestions that go along with it.

1. Thou must never allow shampoo to enter thy beer.
2. A Shower Beer is best in the afternoon or early evening after a long bike ride (or other physically-arduous task).
3. Consume the entire beer before it becomes warm.
4. Tell all your friends.

And on that note, I leave you with a Bomb the Music Industry! song, Showerbeers!

I just got paid/lost my job so it's a heavy night of drinking.
You can smoke in the bar so when I come home I'm stinking.
The smell on my clothes is offending to the nose
But that's not the reason that I'm stepping in.
The only reason I take a shower is so I can drink a showerbeer.

Charlottesville Bike Polo Video Clips

Found some youtube videos of bike polo in Charlottesville at McIntire Skate Park back in October. This first one is the best:



In the following ones, I'm in the UVA orange & blue jersey giving up the ball a lot.

Product Review: Hi Vis Safety Parka

I've been in the market for a waterproof cycling rain jacket for quite a while now. It's been a tough search, but I finally settled on a VEA Safety Parka from RAF. Although it's not a cycling-specific jacket, Chris bought one and convinced me to give it a shot. Every jacket I've come across is missing at least one or two key features, this one seems to be my best bet.

My ideal cycling rain jacket would be/have (in no particular order):

• Waterproof
• Windproof
• Breathable 
• Highly-Visible (safety green, safety orange, or yellow)
• Reflective piping
• Hooded
• Zip front
• Durable
• Lightweight
• Economical
• Compact
• Good Fit
• Exterior Pockets
• 4-Season
• Machine Washable

I know that this list is wishful thinking, however, identifying my main desired features has helped focus my search and provide a detailed review (I couldn't find any others out there).

So how does this VEA Safety Parka stack up?

• Waterproof - Yes. I was surprised to find so many rain-type jackets on the market that are only "water resistant." The hood is detachable with button snaps, but well below the collar. Should not be a problem unless you're laying in a puddle.
• Windproof - No / Kinda. Very wind resistant. Monday was the windiest day I've ridden in recent memory. The wind blew me around a bit, but I didn't feel any noticeable penetration with only a jersey underneath. Unfortunately there is no elastic or drawstring at the waist, meaning that headwinds go up the jacket when pedaling.
• Breathable - Yes. The lining is polyester mesh and seems to take moisture off the body quickly on a cold day. Unfortunately, no armpit vents. 
• Highly-Visible- Yes. This jacket is ANSI Class III compliant and is intended for law enforcement & safety applications.
• Reflective piping - Yes. 3M Scotchlite reflective piping on upper chest & back, lower chest & back, over shoulders, and upper & lower arms. I happened to see Chris ride by an intersection yesterday evening while wearing his jacket, and this stood out very well in headlights.
• Hooded - Yes. Drawstring hood stows and is detachable with buttons. It fits 2/3 over my helmet and will stay with drawstrings cinched, but definitely restricts head motion.
• Zip front - Yes. Zipper & buttons. Unfortunately there are jackets out there only with buttons making them much less waterproof and a huge pain for quick temperature regulation while on a bike.
• Durable - Yes. Quality construction, fabric, and double sewn seams.
• Lightweight - Almost. The long cut of the jacket and heavier quality fabric prevents it from being light. Certainly not heavy.
• Economical - Yes. At $46 + $10 shipping from the above retailer, an unbeatable price for its features.
• Compactable - Mostly. I can roll my medium-sized jacket into a 12" wide & 4" diameter roll.
• Good Fit - Eh. The fabric is a little stiff and the jacket is cut long and is loose in anticipation of layers of fleece underneath. Does not come in a small. I am a 36S and a medium looks large on me. The wrists are adjustable. The neck is too tight to ride zipped-up with the hood stowed away. With hood out the neck is fine.
• Exterior Pockets - Yes. Two small button-pockets in the front at the waist, and one velcro cell-phone pocket at the left breast. I cram my keys in the cell phone pocket. I wish the bottom pockets were larger and used velcro for quick access and closing.
• 4-Season - No. I will not be wearing this in the summer. However,  it is a good 3 season jacket. You can also purchase a fleece liner that zips in for winter.
• Machine Washable - Yes. Machine wash cold with mild detergent. Tumble dry low. 

OVERALL: Certainly doesn't get any cool points for fashion, but will keep me dryer and help other road users avoid killing me. Two thumbs up.

Beer #1 = Almost Done & Extract Kit #2 = Frustrating

 Recap on beer #1, Brewer's Best European Bock.

1 liter Hacke-Pschorr mug and a gusher on the right.

Nate drinking a birthday gift.

Working on my part.

Filled these mugs from a 2-liter Blue & Gray growler.

Had nothing important to do yesterday, so it turned into a brew day with Brewer's Best Dortmunder extract kit.

Paperweight.

Steeping grains.

It was really cold outside.

This time the brewing was frustrating. Everything that I should have learned from the 1st batch, well, I didn't. I boiled with the lid on most of the time, which you're not supposed to do to prevent DMS (dimethyl sulfide) buildup. It also took forever to cool the wort in the ice bath (or maybe my thermometer is busted). Oh, and I added too much water to the wort so it falls outside of the original gravity range. It's at 1.04 instead of the 1.05-1.054 range in which it should lie. I think all of this stems from weak preparation and impatience. Also, I don't think it helps that I have to run through every room of the apartment to brew either. I store my equipment in the utility room, sanitize it in the bathroom, boil the wort on the patio, chill it in the kitchen sink, pitch yeast in the kitchen, move to lager fridge in the utility room. I swear I can see an LME (liquid malt extract) trail on the carpet.

RDWHAHB
relax,
don't
worry
have
a
home
brew!

SWEETNESS

I'm engaged to a beer-laden cyclist!

I'm happier than that picture lets on.

Beer & Ride Report

So my first homebrew batch ever is... a little over carbonated, but drinkable! It's sweet & malty, even for a Bock. I didn't reach my target final gravity, so the ABV is about 5.1% instead of the 6.2% that the recipe should have reached. The over-carbonation may be due to the fact I had extra fermentable sugars in each bottle from an incomplete primary & secondary fermentation. However, the over-carbonation definitely cuts the sweetness and allows the beer to be more palatable. Overall, I'm very excited that I'll be able to celebrate great recent events with my family over my first homebrewed beer.

The Old, Fat & Slow ride today at Walnut Creek was also great, although I did have a mechanical in the last mile:

A RockShox suspension seatpost cam failed

The bold pulled the threads right out of the cylinder cam.

So, I rode my Scott Paisley MTB the rest of the way without my seatpost.

'Twas most fun.

Stolen Bike, Walnut Creek OFSMBC, First Taste

Yesterday, I received a pretty crappy phone message from Will Canup. He had his bike stolen over at UVA. Most people that see this blog are in Charlottesville, so I figured I'd pass it along. His craigslist post:

I had my black Trek fixed gear stolen from on grounds at UVA sometime in the last 48 hours. It was a black frame with black rims and camo handlebars. The right side of the carbon fork had a huge crack down the middle so it may have been ditched somewhere.

Let me add that he didn't have horizontal dropouts, instead had a magic gear with kinda loose chain tension. Here's a picture, but it no longer has a steering wheel:

Good luck Will. I'll keep my eyes open.

Onto good news, riding over at Walnut Creek with the Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club tomorrow morning. Really it'll be just 3 of us. Can't wait to get back on the mtb. It's too fun with the current setup.

Cracking open my first homebrew ever... NOW...

Hammering Bikes & Campagnolo Keychain

I've spent a lot of time working with the general public at Charlottesville Community Bikes. The scariest thing I ever hear while I'm working there is a mechanic "using" a hammer on a bicycle part. When this situation occurs, I immediately stop what I am doing and approach the culprit for damage control. By the time I arrive at the scene of the crime, the deed has usually already been done. I once heard it described, "An ounce of technical know-how is worth a ton of brute force. When you have an itch on your ear, you don't take a sledgehammer to it."

However, there are some (albeit few and far in between) times when the use of a hammer is appropriate in bicycle repair. Today I came across the perfect use for one:

The dented head tube on my Rockfish.

The head of the hammer just fit inside the head tube.

All it took was a little leverage action from the handle of the hammer. It rounded out the head tube easily. Pressing in a headset should not be a problem now.

Right there where the dent was.

As circular as it needs to be.

Also, Do Right Fear Not's Shifty Keychain post inspired me to snap a photo of my bike keychain:

An aluminum Campagnolo toeclip that snapped. Dremeled it smooth.

In the name of the law

Our OFSMBC (Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club) ride was cut short at Biscuit Run today because of friendly encounter with the Virginia DCR Police:

Shhh... they are cracking down on illegal hunting and ATVs on the new state property.

They were nice, but they asked us to stay out until the park is open to the public.

On it's first run, Dave's Crud Device,  "Mr.Crud" worked spectacularly.

RtD Recap, Bad Beer, and Old Fat Slow

The Ride the Divide film event at the Paramount was a hit. Supposedly about 235 tickets were sold, so Charlottesville Community Bikes made some money! Waiting on the total $. The film itself was a bit of a downer. It really exposed the true limits of human strength and psyche in a 2700 mile back country mountain bike race. I'm glad I saw it, but mainly because now I know not to recommend it or ever watch it again.

Chris invited me to ride with the Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club (OFSMBC) today. You must be at least one of those things (Old, Fat, or Slow) to ride with that crew. I'm slow. 9:30am today, Biscuit Run. I'll bring Rachel's camera. Last night I worked on my Scott Paisley mountain bike for the ride today. It's a 26" rigid, fillet brazed, early Hope mechanical floating caliper disc brakes, set up right now as a 1x7 with a Dave's Crud Buster:

Scott Paisley mountain bike, rigid (minus seatpost) 26"

DCD - Dave's Crud Buster

Hope mechanical floating caliper disc brake.

I'm excited about my Hope brakes a bit more as of yesterday morning. I've had the hardest time finding good info on them, and came across a current retrobike thread about them.

Now, time for less talkie talkie, more ridie ridie.

Biscuit Run

Made it out to Biscuit Run two weeks ago. Proof that I do saddle up sometimes.

Ride the Divide at The Paramount in downtown Charlottesville tonight. 7pm, $11. Bike-blended smoothies for donations!

Bottling Night

 

Special thanks to Rachel for all the good shots and help filling the bottles! It was messy enough that I had to wash the kitchen floor afterward... fun. Collecting, washing, sanitizing, filling, and capping all the bottles is quite a bit of work. Now I know why home-brewers often move on to kegging.

Recovery

I've been down & out for the past week or so. Monday night I ate something bad, (expired yogurt?!) missed a day of work, and I'm just beginning to feel okay again.

Last night was the second ever Wednesday Wechanics @ Charlottesville Community Bikes. Had two people show up and start helping. We weren't super productive bike-wise, but organizationally I think we got some things down.

This Saturday I'm tabling at the CAMBC mountain bike festival for commbikes early in the morning with Chris. We hope to get word out about the Ride the Divide movie at the Charlottesville Paramount.

The fork that I originally bought on ebay for the Rockfish  ended up needing the threads on the steerer to be about an inch longer if I were to be able to use it. So, I returned it yesterday: the first time I've ever returned something on ebay. However, I'll be buying a different fork from the same seller that's actually suitable for the bike upon my refund. I've started looking for the best solution for a wheelset... with 126mm rear spacing I can put a 7speed hyperglide hub on it...

I took last Friday off of work and went mountain biking a bit on my own. Being in an unknown trail system by yourself on private property is a bit creepy. It was nice to get out and go fast on pretty level trails. My commuter is getting destroyed, slowly but surely. Using it as a mountain bike and polo bike is a horrible, horrible idea. I have a picture to post of the ride, but Rachel is out in Chaco Canyon, NM until Saturday with the camera, so I'll have to wait til she gets back upload it.

All's weld that ends weld

Got the Rockfish back from Quality Welding yesterday.

 Before:

 After:

Gotta love the rose knot in the center.

The weld isn't too pretty, but I'm sure it'll be fine for a lightweight rider like me. It's in a hard to reach area and it's on hollow tubing. I'm glad handed it over to a professional for this one as I would have just mucked it up if I tried repairing it with my gas-less mig welder. Quality welding only charged me $30 for it, so I feel like I got a deal. I'd rate the overall customer experience a B/B+.

Brian contacted me about getting him decals when I order some. Maybe I'll get a deal by ordering multiple sets at once.

RIDING MY BIKE TO WORK TODAY.

Vote for Will

Will Canup is in the running for Cockpit of the year on Bike Snob NYC. Prelimnary voting is over.

Too much driving = feeling bad.

Today will be the third consecutive day in which I will have driven to and from work. On Monday I drove my Rockfish frame to Quality Welding in Charlottesville on the way to work. I'm having them repair the crack on the seat tube, just above the bottom bracket. They gave me an estimate of $30-$50  and a 1-2 day wait time. Excited to hear from them. I also bought a 1" threaded fork with cantilever mounts and a 9" steerer for the Rockfish on ebay. Pretty costly: $70 including shipping, but those things are super hard to find.


It is supposed to rain and thunderstorm all day. After work I'm heading to Community Bikes to build up bikes so they are 100% ready to sell at the shop or on craigslist. I've emailed the list to see if there are any mechanics out there that want to do the same. I hope that I can turn this into a regular thing. Maybe 1st & 3rd Wednesdays, 6-8pm? Wednesday's Wechanics.


Being off the bike since Friday has left me feeling really crappy physically. It's my main form of exercise and stress relief, regardless of how slow and stressful traffic can be. I feel pent-up, sore, exhausted, and almost sick. Gotta get back on the bike.


Listening to: Bomb the Music Industry! - Bike Test 1 2 3
Full speed along the North Oconee River.
I can feel it in my forehead and while that always fails, my lungs are getting clearer.
I see trucks racing by on the roof above my trail, cops are waiting to ticket anyone with out-of-state plates.
I'm not missing anything.


Swore off all prescribed medication and rode two miles through nowhere to a water fountain spitting out hot water. 
I sit at a bench at a compost heap and I'm about to pedal up a sixty degree slope.


At the top of a hill at a very rapidspeed there's only one place to go.
At the top of a hill at a very high speed there's nowhere to go but down.


And it gets easier as I ascend my bike uphill on foot 'cause last time I kicked it into first I broke a gear by going too hard.


And it gets easier as I pass the Edward Scissorhands village where privileged white kids date rape girls and taunt me in their SUV's.


And it gets easier as I see the double vans in our driveways, I'm glistening but I know that some day I won't even break a sweat.


And it gets easier, as time goes things can only get better.
R-I-D-E. I wanna ride.

Change of plans

So I pulled out of the Paranormal race at the last moment. I had already paid my registration fee, but realized that I had been neglecting the third, and most important, "B." Beer. Bikes. Babe.

Instead, Rachel and I carved a pumpkin:

and did a Edgar Allen Poe hike in the Ragged Mountain Natural Area at 7:30pm. It was dark and spooky along the peninsula trail, which we had never hiked despite having been to Ragged Mountains a handful of time. We were led to an old chimney where a Poe-ish actor read Poe poems and stories by firelight. I'll never forget the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells.

Today I finished up removing the paint from the Rockfish:

Gotta get this welding done. Bike polo is destroying my commuter.

123 Polo

Played some bike polo on Thursday night. It's exactly the release that I needed after a shitty long day at work. I always end up breaking the shifting cable for my commuter when I play because it extends out of the rear axle and bike polo is a very contact-oriented game. That's why the Rockfish needs to be built as a polo bike. It can serve as a bike I can wreck without commuting consequences.

I'm definitely getting better at polo... the practice and confidence really helps. Will Canup showed up to polo and it sounds like I'll see him tonight at the Paranormal.

Roll out

The bike is ready. Always is. I'm not. Never am.

Matt Lockaby was kind enough to invite me to watch him brew with his full grain setup next time. He has a reputation of being quite good at brewing, so I'm excited to get the chance to see his process. I stopped by "The Lodge" last night to drop off a wheel for a bike he and Adam are building for a friend, and I got a peak at some of Matt's equipment at the same time. Pretty amazing stuff. Who knew you could secondary in a keg?

Spent some time at the shop last night stripping junk bikes to prepare them for recycling. We are supposedly receiving 40-50 broken bikes from UVA Parking & Transportation on Friday in exchange for a few working bikes for their employees to use. That's one way to recycle. I'm struggling to get a program together where mechanically-oriented volunteers can meet weekly for a few hours to assemble nice bikes and sell them on craigslist for shop rent. Contact me if interested. Free pizza likely.

Paranormal Activities

BRAINS

This Saturday is the 2010 CRC Paranormal mountain bike race in Earlysville, VA. It's always a great 6 hour endurance race with beer, costumes, beer, camping, beer, and best of all - it starts at 4pm and is dark after 3 laps. I've done this race for the past three years, twice with Charlottesville Community Bikes in the shop category, and once solo. I'm not really that great of a mountain biker, so I've never made it more than three laps personally. Also, it doesn't help that I don't have a great light set for riding single track in the dark.

If you wear a costume to the race you are awarded a 2 minute head start. Last year was the first year that I went solo and decided to go all out on my costume. Swine flu:

Turn your head and cough.

I even wore a curly tail.

Charles wielding a sharp weapon as usual. Will as a Donnie Darko skeleton.

In 2009 I raced on my 26" rigid Scott Paisley mtb (to be salivated over on a later post). But this year I'll be converting my rigid mountain bike commuter into something viable. It has a 3 speed Sachs Torpedo internal hub in the back, two rings on the front, and a front generator hub to power a headlight. To convert my commuter I'm swapping out my slick tires and spring saddle to knobby tires and a racing saddle, adding another water bottle cage, and removing the rear rack, light, and fenders. This bike, too, is a rigid 26":

So tonight I'll be re-suiting my commuter for the race and rebuilding a rear mtb wheel for Chris. He has had the worst luck with spokes breaking, so I've convinced him to go with double-butted Wheelsmith spokes. They should be fun to build with.

If anybody in the Charlottesville is looking for a teammate that can drink better than he can bike, drop me a line and we can ride some beers together at the Paranormal.