the Life of Zim

Wes, Mason, and myself set out with three bikes and trike on a trailer. This was the end result:

Well this past weekend was damn near perfect, which has been very well deserved by Laura and I as we’ve been putting in some pretty excessive hours over the past few weeks. This was the first weekend in a while that we didn’t have to work and all, and the weather gods must have had us in their favor. The weekend was filled with blue skies and temps high 60s, low 70s. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

So what did we do with our free weekend? Biked. Here’s the route.
I had a few errands I’d wanted to run around town and so we hoped on our bikes and started the journey. We decided o start out with some fuel and went to the Little Red Bicycle which is this amazing neighborhood cafe about a mile from our house. They’re only only until 2pm and closed on Mondays, which I constantly want to scold them about, but they make some of the best damn sandwiches on the planet. Fried egg with caramelized onions on ciabatta? Hells yeah. So we got some deats and headed out for the long haul. I’d wanted to get to this bike shop in South Portland to get a new rear wheel so I could gear one of my bikes; Portland has a lot more hills than Minneapolis. We decided to go the route of Willamette which is always an awesome view and winded down Greeley Ave, past Adidas (which is a really ugly building) proceeded by a HUGE hill that was quite a bit of fun to ride down.

This part of the ride I think really sums up what I love about Portland. The roads we were on were really quite large roads, with on ramps to the highway (which we had to cross over) and times really almost felt like we were riding on the shoulder of a four lane highway. The whole time we were in our bike lane and felt no danger from traffic what-so-ever. I think it’s truly commendable how much the city pays attention to bicyclists and makes them feel safe throughout the city. In Minneapolis it’s a lot easier to feel like a nuance to drivers that are obviously more important than god. Long story short, you can bike damn near ANYWHERE in Portland and you’re welcomed. Cars stop and let you pass before they make a right hand turn. People are just more considerate.

Steel Bridge from the floating dock

From our massive hill and highway we came across the riverfront and road along this floating dock on the opposite side of downtown Portland from the Willamette. The eeriest part was that we hadn’t realized we were floating at all until we were about halfway down the dock. It’s basically this boardwalk that runs along the river about 40ft from the coast. It was pretty damn beautiful.

And on we went to City Bikes. There are actually two “City Bikes”, one with the sub-name of Annex. I was looking for a used bike parts story and wasn’t quite sure which one was which, so we stopped at both. I’m pretty sure it’s the same shop with two locations. I think City Bikes Annex is the spoiled little sister, and City Bikes is the ugly older brother. We were looking of for the ugly brother.

New Wheel from City Bikes

The Annex was nice though. They had a cool upstairs with a bunch of used bikes. Saw an old tandem that was about the same as the one I have from home that needs rebuilding. Thinking about buying the one they had for the parts or see if I can make a deal for the parts I need. It’s a really crappy tandem either way, but pretty sure they only wanted $200 for it. Anyway… made it to the right shop and scored a new rear wheel and cassette. The cassette was really nice, but super dirty. Just caked with mud and grime, but about an hour on Sunday later and it was spit shined to perfection. And away we went.

Our next stop was at this great park that Laura knew of in the area, Laurelhurst Park. Apparently it was designed by the same guy that designed Central Park and Golden Gate Park. It was pretty sweet. We walked through the part with it’s lines of furs and lake and plopped down for rest and so I had a change to return a phone call to my mom.

Continuing on we stopped on our way to Mississippi Ave at this super awesome little bar on Failing and Williams called the 5th Quadrant. Played some Connect Four, which Laura totally kicked my ass at, had a couple drinks and some food, and continued on our way. Most of the rest of the trip was just our ride home. All in all, we started biking around 1pm and didn’t get back home until about 7pm. In my mind a damn near perfect day. That evening we biked to a friends house for a bond fire and had pretty relaxed day on Sunday that started out with home made pancakes. It was an awesome weekend.

So I finally got around to taking some pictures of Laura’s bike to post. I actually took the pictures to post them up on the Bike Porn forum of Minneapolis Bike Love. Love that site, by the way. Here are a few of the pictures that I took though.

The bike is a Bianchi Sport SS. I’m estimating it’s from around 1984. Nancy (Laura’s Mom) got it new and she thinks it was probably around that time. I haven’t been able to find much on it online, but that’s the best guess.

Well, I’m one step closer to getting this bike built. I finally had everything I needed to get the fork put on the frame yesterday (frame, fork, headset, and stem). Had the guys at One-on-One press the headset for me. Hopefully that will be the only part of the build that I won’t be doing myself (except the wheel building – Universal Cycles is doing that). Personally, I find it far more satisfying to be able to do at least the majority of the bike building myself. I think it’s because it helps make the bike feel more like it’s really mine. My creation, my sweat, all that good stuff. Anyway…

So I’ve got the frame, fork, headset and stem put together. Already have the seatpost and chainring. I think I’m just going to use the cranks off my bauer (Sugino BTs). Should be getting my disc brakes, cog and bottom bracket today. Won’t be do anything until after the weekend though. Laura and I are heading down to KS for Shad and Lauren’s wedding party. Should be seeing some posts on that soon.

Finally starting to look like a bike.

She’s here! My IRO Mark V Pro frame arrived today. Whoo-hoo! I’m pumped. Thing is exactly what I was hoping for. Solid frame, super simple (doesn’t even have waterbottle mounts), and light as shit! Weighed it and the frames is under 2000g (maybe not light as shit, but light as shit compared to my bauer). Fork is around 700g. Sweetness. Unfortunately I won’t be using the fork though. Need the disc brake mounts, which it doesn’t have. Went down to the local cycle shop One-on-One and ordered a Civia fork today (should arrive Monday). Not as light as the IRO fork at around 990g(?), but good none the less. Funny though. I was thinking that I’d probably be getting a nicer fork that the IRO came with (assuming the IRO wasn’t very good), but from what I can tell I’m feeling a little disappointed that I won’t be using the fork. Of course the majority of m oppion is based on weight. The IRO fork feels good and solid though (it’s a steel fork by the way, as is the Civia). Can’t wait to start building this damn thing though. Apparently my wheels will be getting shipped next Monday. And I’m expecting the bottom bracket, headset, and all that good stuff sometime next week (could come this weekend, but I doubt it). Either way, I’m sitting here staring at this beautiful frame but can’t do a damn thing with it until next week. For now all I can do is blog about it. ajjldsaljkfl;asdlkjdsf SO PUMPED!!!