aprilstarchild | (no subject)

I have a bad habit of updating facebook instead of livejournal. Hmmmm.

Had too much beer at a party at

_fool's house on Friday and spent all of Saturday recovering, which means I missed the Hostelling International stuff I posted. Dammit.

Today I helped

_fool out with a bike move. The biggest one Portland's seen, with 41 people! Also, first time moving a refrigerator, apparently. There are pictures by our friend Carye, they are here. We took the lane on the Broadway bridge, that was fun. The new house is totally awesome.

Rode up to the Bike Gallery on Sandy. Their normal guy who's the miracle worker at frozen seat posts is currently in New Zealand. And their repair workload is a week and a half out. But the guy told me to bring it in Tuesday morning anyway. They won't do any of the other stuff the bike needs, but they're willing to do the seat post. That's what's bugging me the most, so hallelujah!

Out of curiosity, I spent some time with measuring tape comparing the Miyata and the mixte. The biggest difference is in the drop of the bottom bracket, the mixte's is lower by an inch and a half. Other than that, the bikes are different in very small ways, a half inch here, a half inch there. So why do the bikes feel so different? Is it just the weight and the handlebars? I'm amazed to realize that, even though the cranks between the two bikes feel VERY different, there's only a half-inch difference in crank length! WTF?

I mean, seriously...if I'm in the bottom of my drop handlebars on my mixte, I feel weird. The tops of the handlebars on the Miyata start just under the bottom of the ones on my mixte. And yet I feel feel fine on them. They're also almost two inches wider...

Oh god. I've lost 99% of my readers. Sorry. I know, I know, I'm obsessed.

Shawn just bought a third bike too, but he's turning it into a single-speed (not a fixed-gear).

Threaded | Flat

I rode a bunch of Xtracycle's at Clevercycles the other day. (Hauled a 200lb+ friend of mine around on one.)

I hated all of them. Clever is really into comfort cycling though. Very upright. Swept back handle bars. Bottom bracket far forward of the saddle.

Ugh. I hated them all. They all felt SUPER foreign. Also, they're all single ring 6-8 speeds. God forbid I have something heavy and go up a hill!

These were all like...Electra Townie, or Electra Amsterdams plus a Freeradical conversion. Blech. I'd like to try a couple MTB/Hybrid + Free Rad conversions.

I loved riding a Big Dummy, but I don't like the $2,300 price tag for one.

Sometime next week I'm going to track down an 18 speed Yuba Mundo and take that for a spin.