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Today is Bike To Work Day. There are bike “pit stops” all over LA, all doing different things. My goal this morning was to check out the three Pasadena stops.

I rolled in to the REI-sponsored stop at the Allen gold line station at about 8:30. They said that they had talked to a lot of riders today.

Gift bags and free mechanical checkups were the order of the day. Also picture taking, it seems. I declined the checkup, but gladly accepted the gift bag.

Quite excited about the REI coupon — new helmet? wheel truing stand? — and the water bottle/patch kit/sun screen. We get out to Claremont often enough that I’ll definitely be able to use the Jax coupon. Those Clif bars look yummy as well. I’m not at all sure what to make of the TMZ-branded combination pen/bottle opener.

The Pasadena city hall pit stop looked pretty mellow from the street.

Inside, though, it was much more of a scene.

They seemed much more geared towards letting city and other very local employees know about alternative transit options. Metro and Fuller had tables set up. I think Pasadena Cyclery was holding a drawing for some sort of Gary Fisher city bike. I really wanted to hit the South Lake pit stop before it closed, though, so I grabbed the nice shopping bag they were offering and was on my way.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the South Lake stop. I rode up and down the street from Colorado to just south of California and back. Nothing. I guess it was getting on towards the end of the time they were to be there. Perhaps they packed up early?

Most disappointingly, this is what I saw when I got in today:

Oh well. I guess we won’t be getting those new bike racks after all. (We were running out of room pretty regularly last summer, and “there isn’t enough space” is a much more compelling argument than “these are crappy stands and they scratch up my down tube so I don’t want to use them.”)

Either way, though, a fun ride this morning. There were definitely more bike commuters than usual out on the road today, and it’s nice to see the city and local businesses help out cyclists. (Even if it is just marketing.)

April Miles: 167
Percentage of Monthly Goal: 100%
2009 Miles: 808
Percentage of 2009 Goal: 40%

April was a rough month, riding-wise. My commuter finally bit the dust, and I was without a bike for the better part of two weeks. After that we were out of town for spring break — we had a lovely trip to Monterey — during which I picked up an ugly head cold that kept me off the bike for another week. Good times.

Either way, and despite missing the troop ride, I was able to make it to within 1/10^th of a mile of my monthly goal. Which is pretty spooky if you think about it.

I’m set to get back on track in May. I finished the Bridgestone, and Stephanie bought me a new commuter bike. (More on that later on this week.) So even if I completely destroy one in the name of “fixing” it, I’ll still be able to ride to work.

My other big cycling acquisiting for April is a Road ID, also courtesy of my loving wife.

The general idea is that if I get hit by a bus and can’t account for myself, the EMT’s or whoever have a few people they can call to figure out who I am. Given that one of Stephanie’s riding buddies was in an accident and was only identifiable because of his Road ID — his bike was crushed under a bus and the EMT’s cut his jersey away (he came through everything just fine and is back on his bike again!) — it seems like a more than fine idea. (P.S.: Carter: if I get hit by a bus and they can’t get a hold of Stephanie, expect a call.)

The Pashley brand is new to me. I think I saw it first on ecovelo. Some of their bikes — especially those in the “classic bicycles” range — are gorgeous.

When I looked in to how much they cost, I was shocked to see a huge difference between the UK prices and the US prices. The Guv’nor, for example: GBP795 (USD1167) in jolly old, and USD1795 here in the states through Gold Country Cyclery. (And nobody else seems to carry them.) That’s more than a 50% markup. I can’t imagine that shipping cost makes up all of that. Maybe there are onerous import duties on British bicycles? Who knows.

Either way: amazing looking bikes.

Auspiciously timed, I finished building up the old Bridgestone that I’ve been working on since November last night. Calling it by its decals, I give you Resurrectio:

Here’s the original, for compare/contract purposes:

A quick note regarding the name: Riv sells decal sets for old bikes made new. There’s lots of resurrection and phoenix motifs in them. Here’s a closeup:

And the seat tube decal:

I quite like them.

For the final push of getting it from assembled to “no really: ready to ride”, I had some help from Ken down at Stan’s Monrovia Bicycles with the bar tape. I wasn’t sure how to wrap the end of the bars such that the shifters would still fit in (turns out that you just don’t tuck the tape in to the bars), was impatient, and knew that Ken help me put a bullet in the project.

The blue tape is, I think, an extra-nice touch. Thanks, Ken!

The other thing I’m rather happy about is finally getting to use the saddle that Stephanie gave me for our anniversary last year.

Overall, I’m just really, really happy with the way the bike turned out, and I’ll probably do another sooner or later. (Definitely not until I get the garage cleaned out and tools organized such that I can avoid taking over the entire garage. No really: cars go there. It’s true.)

Building up a bike from parts — especially an old bike — was a really educational experience. I got to learn all about the difference between 27-inch and 700c wheels, and between recessed brake caliper mountings v. nutted mountings, and which parts screw in left-handed, which parts really, really need grease before you install them. Etc. It was a lot of fun, but I think I’d do a few things differently next time. (In particular, I’d not paint it until I was 100% sure that all the components fit. Trying to MacGyver in brakes on a freshly-painted frame is more angsty than I’m down for.)

I was able to take it for a short ride this afternoon. You know, shake down the components, make sure it’s adjusted correctly, etc. The seat is angled a little far forward, and I’m going to have to make a new shim (the first one is too thin) for the seat post. Also, I really don’t need a 52t chainring. I’ll never use it. So probably I’ll swap it out for the 42t “small” chain ring and put a 34t or something on as well. (I know that I forfeit any roadie kred by doing this. Oh well. I can still hang out with the touring crowd.)

Without question I would be remiss if I did not thank the people who helped me out with this project:

• New Belgium, for the best seat-post shim stock on earth
• Rivendell Bicycle Works, for a gang of parts and inspiration
• Sheldon Brown, for an endless stream of maintenance and repair tips
• Stan’s, for more parts, advice and making Monrovia a cool town to ride in
• My parents and in-laws for helping me avoid tragic technical errors along the way
• Fletcher, for being a shop hand without comparison
• Stephanie, for limitless inspiration, creative consultation, support and that just-right amount of ass kicking to get me to finish the damn thing. I love you!

March miles: 206.1
Percentage of monthly goal: 123%
2009 miles: 641
Percentage of annual goal so far: 32%

Well, I’m a quarter of the way through the year and about a third of the way to my goal. Pretty pleasing.

I rode much, much less than I wanted to during March. (I had to go out for a ride on the last night of the month just to crack 200.) There were the (for me) pretty standard mechanical difficulties. I say “standard” and “for me” because I still haven’t gotten over the whole “tinkering with the commuter” thing. This would be tantamount to deciding on Sunday evening to put a puffer on the Civic that you take to work every day. Needless to say, it ends up with the bike in more pieces than it would ideally be on a lot of mornings. There was also a certain amount of work angst that lead to either late nights or martinis, both of which make riding in the morning pretty unappealing. That seems to be clearing up, though, so no more excuses.

Well, except for the whole “while attempting to fix my bike, I’ve pretty well destroyed it” part. A few weeks ago I broke a pedal. In replacing it, I broke the crank arm it was attached to. In replacing that I ruined my bottom bracket. Got a new one in place there, and now the replacement crankset — which, admittedly, is very very cheap — is warped beyond recognition and hitting the chainstay with each and every revolution. So, yeah.

I’m damn, damn close on the Bridgestone restoration I’ve been working on since last year. The frame is out at the powedercoat shop right now and should be done by tomorrow. When I get that back, I’m pretty sure I have all the parts I need to put together a really nice weekend bike, so I can ride that while the commuter is dead. All there is to it is assembling a bike from parts. Which I’ve never done before. But I have a copy of Zinn and Sheldon’s always there on the internets. What could go wrong?

The riding highlight of the month was, without question, a bike camping trip with Fletcher’s scout troop. Glenn Trail Camp is an amazing place to camp. It’s ~6.5 miles up a road where only handicapped fishermen can drive. The camp is huge, usually empty, (on account of having to bike there, which most people for whatever reason won’t do) and immaculate. After we got to camp, the boys did another quick five mile ride up and down the trail (for a requirement for the cycling merit badge) and Stephanie and I got to tool around without our bikes loaded, which was wonderfully relaxing.

I’m really interested in doing some more bike camping. You can get away from civilization quickly, and camping just with your own group in the middle of nowhere is infinitely better than camping next to 30 people’s parked cars. Anybody interested in joining me?

February miles: 222.31
Percentage of monthly goal: 133%
Percentage of annual goal so far: 22%

February worked out pretty well in the bike department. Even counting a nine day stretch when I only rode once — for which my excuse of “it was raining” is super weak considering that I went to the trouble to put fenders on my bike — I rode in to work more often than not. I even got a few longer weekend rides in: one about 18 miles around the neighborhood, another 26 to and from the arroyo/Rose Bowl where Stephanie and Fletcher were taking an archery class and the USMC marching band was playing. (The band was very cool. The silent drilling group was impressive, but I guess not my thing.)

The SGV continues to be a wonderful place to ride. Cars are, for the most part, cooperative. The weather, absent the rain, has been perfect. Also, thank god for casual dress codes at work.

One thing I’ve definitely learned is that not a lot of people around here go out for weekend fun rides with fenders and a rack trunk. Clearly what I need is a Serotta with SRAM Red, a Sella San Marco, and a pair of Zipp 808’s. Otherwise I’ll never be cool. (Or broke.)

In riding news that doesn’t involve me going very, very slowly to and from work, I went out to see the penultimate stage of the Tour of California last weekend. The stage in to Pasadena has ended with a crit around the Rose Bowl for at least the last two years. I had an odd day with some weird schedule constraints, so I drove out to see it. The pictures of the race are on Flickr. Here are some of my favorites:

I didn’t get there early enough for a spot by the finish, so I settled for a corner on the bottom of a hill. There was a pretty good crowd there, including a gaggle of MTB’ers.

Astana — race leader Levi Leipheimer’s team (also that Armstrong guy) — was pushing the pace of the main peleton all day. It was impressive that they were able to keep the pack behind them so effectively.

George Hincape was in the break. He won this stage in last year’s race. I was really rooting for him to win this year’s, but he got edged out at the very end.

I was able to get a shot with both Armstrong (first in this shot, with the yellow helmet) and Leipheimer (third, in the yellow jersey) in it. Also (I think) Christian Vande Velde just entering the frame on the left and <insert name of Astana domestique here> up by Lance.

The race organizers said that 2,000,000 people came out to see the race in person. (Counting all eight days, I imagine.) They said that it was the best attended sporting event in California history, which I find to be a somewhat dubious claim on account of we had the Olympics not too long ago. Either way, the little crowd at my corner was certainly enthusiastic.

My 2008 new years resolution was to ride my bike to work 50 times. I made it, but just barely, making it to 50 in the second week of December. Fifty trips between Monrovia and Pasadena is about 1,000 miles. That’s not a ton of riding in a year, but it’s a whole lot more than I usually do, and it was 50 fewer car trips to and from the office. So I’m quite pleased with how that went.

There was one drawback, though. I never really felt like riding on the weekend or just around town or whatever, because it “wouldn’t count” in some odd, self-imposed way. This is a crying shame, considering both that I live in Southern California where the whether is perfect for cycling 99 days out of 100 and that cycling just for the fun of it is damn fun.

For 2009, I’ve set a similar goal but without the silly “It has to be going to/from work” provision. I’d like to ride at least 2,000 miles before the end of the year. That’s still not a crazy amount of riding — I’d hit that if I just rode to work twice a week — but it’s still a pretty good amount for me, and it’s realistic even if I have to take a few weeks off for whatever reason.

Here’s where I’m at so far:

January Miles: 212.66
Percentage of monthly goal: 128%
Percentage of annual goal: 11%

Of note is that there was almost a week where I was completely out of commission due to a ruined wheel. Something that will probably help me a lot is getting on the ball as far as maintenance is concerned. (Also finishing the Bridgestone so I’ll have something else to ride the next time I do something horrible to my commuter.)

Along similar lines, Stephanie and I have signed up to do the Livestrong Challenge ride in Austin this October. Briefly, this is a charity ride put on by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research, screening and survivor programs. We’re signed up to do the 90 mile ride, which is more than either of us have ever ridden at a go. It should be fun working up to that.

Shameless plug: as with any charity sort of ride, there’s a fund raising component. If you like what the LAF does and want to support their efforts by way of sponsoring us on this ride, you can donate via the interwebs. Here’s a link to my donation page, and here’s Stephanie’s.

I broke a pedal on the way in to work today.

It just snapped while I was getting started in to an intersection. I can still pedal the bike, but there’s a lot of give to it now, and I’m not entirely sure how hard I can push on it before it breaks further, which may make the last two blocks of my ride home (which is the only part that’s up-hill in a meaningful way) interesting.

The funny part is that on Sunday when I got my wheel back from the shop, I thought for a bit about putting the 20-year-old, aluminum (and completely bomb-proof) platforms that I took off the Bridgestone on to my bike. I guess I’ll be getting to that tonight.

I took the bike down to Stan’s today to get the bottom bracket and headset — the only to parts I don’t have the specialized tools to remove — off the frame. $10 later and I’m down to a bare frame and about twenty baggies full of component sets. So now I have to actually start restoring the bike. Somehow I think this will be more difficult than dissembling it was.

There were a few surprises, both good and bad, in terms of the condition of the bike. The frame and fork are much more rust free than I was expecting. There’s the standard rubbing on one side of the bike where it was most likely leaned up against a wall and spots on each of the chain stays next to the bottom bracket shell, but other than that they’re in really good condition. I have more hope that I’ll be able to make it look good without repainting it — which will save the decals, braggably — but I’m not quite to confidence on that front yet. We’ll see. (If I do have to repaint it, what color should I make it? Stephanie suggested racing green, which I think would work well. Maybe have the fork chromed?)

The freewheel and cogs look like they’re going to be more trouble to restore than to just replace. I’m also leaning that way for the wheels, in part just so I can move to 700c’s and have more readily available parts. If I can find the time, I’d definitely like to build the wheels myself, if only so I can get 36/40 spoke wheels instead of the 32/32 that seem to be most readily available. (I wonder how dumb it would be to try to go to 650B and get real touring wheels?)

The bottom bracket, headset and both derailers (Sheldon Brown 4evah) look to be in really good shape. Maybe I’ll replace the bearings in the headset and BB, but they can almost certainly all stay around. (In the case of the rear derailler, if I can find a six-speed cassette.) The crank arms and chain rings are without question good to go. They just need to be cleaned up a bit.

The brakes are probably a pair of pads and some new grease away from being perfectly good, but there’s a pair of Tektro side-pulls that I really have my eye on. (Although if the existing ones are wide enough to take a 700×30-32 tire, maybe I’ll stick with them.) The handlebars are much, much too small for me. Perfect excuse to get a fancy Nitto Noodle bar.

I’m going to start in on cleaning off some of the components and getting the rust off the frame within the next week. (Thanksgiving day while the turkey smokes will be perfect for this.) I’ll try to take pictures as I get the individual components cleaned up.

CNN reports on some of Trek’s new chainless offerings:

Aside from the whisper-quiet ride, the lighter and longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts won’t rust, can’t be cut, won’t stretch or slip and won’t leave grease marks around your ankles. A guard over the belt-drive and the construction of the system makes getting your pants stuck an unlikely scenario, Bjorling said.

My Sawzall begs to differ.

Note: I think belt drives are very, very cool. I’d be very interesting in setting my bike up with a belt and an internal hub.