Tuesday, June 24, 2008

RAGBRAI logistics and bus crap is stressing me out this year, damnit.

Posted by Dreqan @ 08:31 PM PST Link | 23 People give a shit!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

In memory of George Carlin.

Posted by Dreqan @ 09:58 PM PST Link | 20 People give a shit!

I don't want to detract from the gravity of my less than 12 hour old previous post, but I have a video to share. I've been meaning to make a UFP crash reel for awhile now. It's all the best unicycle crashes in the last 4 years condensed into just over 2 minutes. Thayer should love this, if he still reads this site.

The music contains swearing, so listen to it in order to desensitize yourself. It's good for you.

edit://video letterboxing issues fixed

As usual, the Facebook version is much higher quality.

Posted by Dreqan @ 02:15 AM PST Link | 86 People give a shit!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

I had a full day today. I juggled a tiny bit at a friend's graduation party and then did a full paid show for a private party with Mark as part of GMJ (no Brian, he was out of town). It went very well. While getting ready for the second show, around 4:10pm, something happened that threatened to wreck my concentration for the rest of the day.

As I went outside to warm up I heard a commotion down the street and then the unmistakable sound of a skull hitting pavement. I'm not sure why I know that sound so well, possibly because mine did it once, but it's a very recognizable sound to me. I ran out and saw a woman on the ground in the bike lane of the road with 3-4 people around her. I ran inside to grab my phone and then ran over. I asked if someone had called 911 already and they had, so I identified myself as being trained in 1st AID and CPR and went to help the woman.

Two other men were by her side, a biker who'd been riding by and a guy in his early 20's. There was a middle aged woman on the phone with the police and a few other people watching and stopping traffic. The 20 something guy was also trained in 1st Aid. They were holding her down because she was trying to get up - however her consciousness was clearly altered and she was bleeding from the back of her head. It was important for her to say on the ground.

I moved her feet so they were propped up on the curb to prevent her from going into shock and then proceeded to help hold her down. She kept saying that she wanted to be let up and to go home. Aside from her head wound she was also slightly drunk and possibly having a medication reaction. (We found out later that she was bipolar.) It's unclear why she fell, but inebriation or a medication reaction is the most likely reason.

Since she was becoming agitated and no one else was talking I decided to take point. There wasn't anything we could do physically since she was conscious and breathing and might have a neck injury besides restrain her. I introduced myself, told her I was trained, and told her help was on the way. I explained what happened to her and started asking her name and address. She was able to recite it after a few seconds of thinking and I asked her again a few more times. I remembered that she had talked to me briefly yesterday while I was practicing mounting my 7' giraffe. I asked if she remembered that and she did after thinking about it. At that time she stopped resisting us and relaxed. I realized that she lived next door to me and began asking her about her garden, what she had planted in it, and if she had problems with deer. I kept asking her more and more details about that to keep her distracted and alert. Occasionally I'd ask her if she remembered my name and I'd remind her what happened to her when she'd forget. After a bit the paramedics showed up and took her to the hospital.

I plan on going over there later tonight and seeing if she is OK. The other people on scene thanked me and said I was "The Super Calmer." I guess the other people were a little freaked out as well as the victim.

There is a big blood stain in the bike lane now. It's kind of disturbing.

Posted by Dreqan @ 06:59 PM PST Link | 23 People give a shit!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Today was my last last day at the particular highschool which I work(ed) at. Monday my parks and rec job where I play with kids will start, and then starting in September I'll be working at a special Autism school.

Today I was recruited to help the SPED office move from their old department office to an office that's annexed to the library. My job was to box up tons and tons of old records (vinyl music records), laser disks, and things of that nature. The only boxes I had were too big for this task because if I filled them up all the way they would become unliftable by your average highschool administrative assistant. This is where my past job experience came in handy.

I recognized that the perfect size box for this job would be french fry boxes. Acting quickly, I grabbed my bike and shot over to the Arby's a block away from the school. I chatted up the dude smoking out back and soon had TONS of the perfect size box. For good measure I raided their dumpster as well. I then strapped the boxes on my bike, rode gingerly back to the school, and once I found a door wide enough to fit through I delivered them right to the new office.

The rest of the story is boring, suffice to say the boxes did the trick. It's amazing how working many shit jobs in the past helps me so much now. Not just in shit like this - which really was nothing - but in things I can teach to the kids or skills I can use to help and teach other people.

Anyway, enough of that. The pictures I took with my cellphone make me giggle. (I didn't break all the boxes down because the fresh ones had a sweet super strong factory seal on the bottom that I didn't want to ruin.)

Posted by Dreqan @ 10:46 PM PST Link | 25 People give a shit!

Monday, June 16, 2008

We had a big show tonight. It went great. We filled the venue with people - and were even charging a cover! Luckily I don't have to work tomorrow.

A paraphrased conversation went like so while hanging out after the show at the bar we performed at:

Sirk: I'd like to stay but I'd need a ride home.
Me: I'll give you a ride home.
Sirk: But you are on a bike!
Me: So?

After a great night of performing and post show partying (around 3am) I gave Sirk a 7 mile ride home on the back of my bike. We ate burritos and he surfed just a little bit. After dropping him off I rode another 7.5 miles home. The show was less than 6 miles from my house. :)

It was a super tons of fun. Both the show and the slightly crazy ride home. (We weren't 100% over our earlier boozing.) It's like those one dudes say: "It's not about making your life easier. It's about making your life better."

Posted by Dreqan @ 02:16 AM PST Link | 18 People give a shit!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

So, finally, the Xtracycle writeup.

First of all, it's friggin awesome. Thanks Dad! The entire add-on weighs only 9 lbs. It tracks beautiful and until I put a big fatty tire on the back (26x1.95) for load carrying it didn't even slow me down. Now it's a bit slower than than my old setup but much more handy. It's definitely worth it. I used to be faster than 90% of the commuters I see; now I'm down to 80%. I can handle that :) - and it's only until I get stronger.

I did need to do some modifications to it. The build was easy - it only took me a little over an hour, but it took me forever to find a brake adapter in order to get my rear brakes working. I had to ride around without a rear brake for a week after I got it. Damnit. The issue is that Xtracycle, in their infinite wisdom *eye roll* decided to not weld a cable stop onto their addon to make it compatible with cantilever brakes. They say they did this on purpose because canti's aren't powerful enough. I say they are since they stopped my 600lb trailer for two years in the snow and I've done 9k miles of heavily loaded touring through four mountain ranges with canti's. Normal brake levers don't work with V-brakes, which are the brake type you have to use with their frame, because they don't pull enough cable. I can't afford $60 special V-brake drop handles so I had to get an adapter that doubles your cable pull but halves the braking power. Seems a little strange that they force me to use an adapter that cuts my brake power in half because they think my stock brakes aren't strong enough, eh? Anyways, I got that working well now, and I stop just fine - even with Qehn on the back.

I also had to weatherproof it, since those guys down in SoCal don't understand what it's like to live somewhere where it rains 200 days a year. (That might be an exaggeration, but it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't.) This is an extremely well documented problem but they have completely failed to address it. Taking a cue from the BikePortland Forums I covered all the frame attachment points with old tubes and zipstrips/weatherproof tape to keep the water out. I can still take the racks off easy and this keeps the inside dry. I also borrowed some Frame Saver internal rust proofer from my local bike shop to spray inside. I did all this two days after putting the bike together but there was ALREADY RUST inside it at that point. I had only ridden in mist rain ONCE. God forbid I'd bought it a month earlier when we were still in our full-on rainy season.

I also covered the snapdeck in two layers of weatherproof tape and stickers to protect it. According to the internetz the varnish on the stock snapdeck will only last a couple months in Pacific North West weather and after that it's ruined and begins to split. Most people just varnish it themselves with better stuff. I didn't like the wood finish anyway (it drew to much unwanted attention to my bike) so I went the cool sticker/tape route.

I also painted the bags to make the whole thing look less expensive/kill resale value and added a few straps to help the whole thing stay together with heavy loads as was suggested by the Surly BigDummy PDF. (This also has instructions for their version of the water frame gasket and other ways to keep the cycle in good shape.)

So, did I have to modify it a bit? Yea, to make it weatherproof and to a lesser extent make it less of a theft target. All that work worth it? Definitely. Definitely a thousand times over. I've only driven my truck once in 3 weeks - and that was only to pick up parts to build my friend a bike trailer! I fit my trailer hitch on it after a bit of modification and now I can transport just about anything. Even the wife!

Go here for all the Xtracycle pictures.

(Pictures taken in the park across the street from my house. Pretty, eh? More neighborhood pics later.)

Posted by Dreqan @ 11:27 PM PST Link | 26 People give a shit!

Friday, June 13, 2008

As started my 30 minute bike ride home from my buddies house at 12:30am following a performance practice which later segwayed into your standard drink beer and play with toys party, I decided to think of a list.

So, here is the list without further ado or titling. (haha, "tit")

• Biking is cool because I don't have to worry about driving after drinking.


• It's mother-fucking awesome that I discovered tonight that I can open beer with my pedals.


• The possum being chased by a cat across the road in front of me on my ride home should thank me for scaring the cat away.


• Helmet mounted bike lights are the bee's fucking knees.


• Animals with reflective eyes like to hang out on bike trails.


• I like that I don't have to worry about being mugged in this town - not that anyone mugs a guy going 15mph on bike with blinding lights on.


• I carried two very bulky costumes, 4 clubs (one with wet paint on it), 3 softballs, a pop, a 6 pack of beer (bottles), a jar of salsa, and two huge bags of tortilla chips along with my standard compliment of bike locks and footrests on my bike today.


• The full moon allowed me to notice while on the bridge over the Willamette river that we are, in fact, not flooding. Midwest, take a lesson.


• You have to allow a bit longer to get places by bike, but you arrive happier and with better stories to tell.


• How many times do you end up two feet away from a possum coming home from a party in car? NEVER, THAT'S HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES!

I gotta tell ya though, making the jump from a bicycling obsession to a bicycling lifestyle is hard. It's hard to only drive that car when you really, really need to.

Posted by Dreqan @ 11:55 PM PST Link | 2 People give a shit!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I'll post about the xtracycle later. It's to involved for 11pm. But....

HOW AWESOME IS THIS!

Posted by Dreqan @ 09:05 PM PST Link | 17 People give a shit!