april alley cat

last night i was able to make it one of the monthly informal races that a group of local peeps have been organizing. i had a fun time, though i was in recovery mode all day (perhaps had one to many sapporos, or maybe it was the tequila).

cansado de tanto...

my legs are tired... not from riding but rather from all the dancing! saturday night i rode out to catch brent's band jarana play at the parthenon, and then sunday it was son del llano @ the bourbon theatre downtown. my rumba and salsa steps are a bit rusty so i really needed the practice.

cumpleaños posse

thanks to (l-r) ryan, lindsey, lis, melissa, ben, ryana, cara, and jon for joining me for an evening of riding bikes, delicious indian food, and getting a bit tipsy on my birthday. thanks to supah G and taura too (they met us at the oven). i had a fun night guys. it was good to see everyone, thanks to you all.

an oldie but a goodie

i picked up this frameset last fall and finally got her all built last weekend. she's circa '85/'86 vintage so she's kinda old... like me. initially i built her up with aero levers but i didn't like the look so i switched them out for some retro suntour superbe levers instead. i think they go well with this vintage of frame. i really dig the paintjob, in the sun it has a pearlescent sheen to it. overall i'd say she turned out pretty sweet... so i think i will call her dulce.

sleeping in on a sunday

when i finally managed to get up sunday afternoon i went for a nice ride north of town to branched oak. on my way back i stopped in malcolm for a snack, but i didn't see DC. i would not be denied a kitty siting though, as right as i got home this little guy ran across my path. i'm gonna try to catch him next time.

melissa's moto

saturday morning i woke up kinda late and got to work on finishing up the build on melissa's new ride. her old ride... the peuge, was too big and had seen better days. it had been good to her for five years but it was time to move on. she had this sweet old motobecane that was her size that she had picked up on ebay pretty cheap a while back but she hardly rode it. i convinced her to switch over her fixed gear setup to la moto. here is how it looked before, and here is la moto in it's new configuration. it turned out pretty well. later in the afternoon she came by to pick it up and she seemed quite happy with it. i like working on bikes for friends, it pays well (she treated me to dinner at the blue orchid...that place is so good! thanks melissa!). after that we went to the roller derby at pershing where our girls pulled out a last minute victory over chicago! afterwards we hit a few bars and then around midnight we decided to get something to eat. but instead of going somewhere close melissa wanted to test out la moto on a longer ride, so we headed out of town on west O to shoemaker's. there was hardly any traffic so it wasn't bad at all. it's only 8 miles around trip but we could tell that the patrons and a few truck drivers were a bit surprised to see two people ride their bikes to a truckstop by the interstate late on a saturday night. oh well, that's how we roll.

el chappy's... and a rainy ride home

thanks ladies for joining me for afterhours breakfast @ el chaparro. afterwards we laughed ourselves home riding through the rain. perhaps we were all still a bit tipsy.

cara and lindz

i had a good weekend. it started off with dj'ing at marz on a friday night, which is always pretty fun but especially so when friends come down to hang out. cara and lindsey rode down to kick it for a while. afterwards we rode to get something to eat. lindsey was on her newly repainted and rebuilt lemond cross bike, and she put it through it's paces as we went through a few alleys on our way to our favorite afterhours eatery... el chaparro!

monday sun

i have a lot of work to do this spring, as i've been pretty lazy when it comes to any type of 'real' riding. so after putting some fresh cinelli bar wrap on the corsa i headed out for a few hours just before sunset. i was just gonna spin but ended up going all out. the wind was pretty bad and to make things even harder i turned off on a gravel road for a while. it was dry but too soft and the wheels started to sink in and made keeping the bike upright a challenge. going south into that wind on a road like that shelled me. i was bonking toward the end and had to eat something, so i stopped at a gas station as i got back to town and devoured a slim jim :-P

classica saturday

to celebrate the arrival of spring i should be out on a long road ride in homage to milan - san remo which is held today and is the longest one day race (185 miles) on the pro calendar. but after the snow last night, well i felt pretty lazy so instead i chose to do something a bit more low key. i rode to the cup (which is only a few blocks away... i said i was feeling lazy remember?) for a latte and freshly made cinnamon roll. i then went back home to watch the conclusion of la classicisima.

it's not spring yet

of course with yesterday being so nice out, it being march in nebraska means that today would have to be so crappy. geez... it's really driving me crazy. i needed a beer so i called up janna and we rode down to the usual friday-after-work locale for a slice, some garlic bread, and a few glasses of la terrible. oh man, i didn't feel so bummed about the snow after that, so good!

finally

with the cold and cloudy weather these last 9-10 days, everyone was down in the dumps. but today... wow, sunny and 65! boy did we need it! i posted up on one of the benches downtown for a bit to drink a jarrito and people watch. yeah yeah, i know it's suppost to snow tomorrow but what the heck, that's march in nebraska for ya.

riding green

i don't usually go out on st. patty's day... but last night ryana, erin, and kaitlyn convinced me otherwise. after meeting up to prime with a few rounds we then rode down to knickerbockers for the killigan's show. thanks ladies, i had a great time!

mixte redux

last week alexandra had told me that she got a new bike and that it was on it's way to her local shop. it finally arrived and she rode it to work tonight. she's pretty happy with it and i must say it's a real pretty machine. it's one of electra's new ticino bikes (the 16d model) which is the classic 80's ladies mixte redux. the hammered alloy fenders are a nice touch. i think i should do a series on just barista bikes.

mellow monday

it was cloudy all weekend. and today it was more of the same... bummer. oh well, a few brews with some bros cheered me up. the true blonde ale by ska brewing was especially good.

phở sure

after a crazy friday and saturday nights i was in recovery mode all day. late in the afternoon i got a call from melissa... she suggested we meet up for some phở at vung tau's on north 27th. heck yeah! a nice big bowl of that stuff is just what i needed. thanks for the call melissa, and nice hat.

bob's

it was a good show with pharmacy finishing up the night. afterhours wasn't too bad either, with bikes, beer, and of course a danceparty.

the white lotus

when i head to the coho for my nightly double latte i can always tell who's working by which bike is parked outside. tonight it was the white lotus. it's a classic touring/cross do-anything bike from the 80's and i've always thought that it is one of the coolest bikes in town. along with the black headtube i really dig 1x6 setup with the single suntour rachet bar-con shifter mounted on original lotus branded flared drops. it's been around lincoln for a while and has been dubbed 'Bikey Mcbikerton' by it's current owner, courtney. she's one cool chick. when she isn't moonlighting as a barista she's the drummer for pharmacy spirits and sat in what (i think she plays in one other band too but i can't remember the name). their shows are always pretty damn good. pharmacy spirits and a few other bands are playing this saturday night at bob's tavern in havelock. i just might have to ride out there and catch the show. oh and courtney makes a pretty good latte too.

what up janna?

it got a bit over 40 today and what a cure for the winter blues it is. last night wasn't too bad either, as i was riding around i caught a nice moon rise from the sunken gardens. earlier this evening i met up with janna downtown for some tacos. she invited me to go ride some gravel this weekend. i have to take her up on it as i seriously need to start loosing my winter pounds.

rachel and her kona

people that work in my building know me as 'the bike guy'. rachel rode to work in the brisk 24 degree temp this morning. waytago rachel! keep it up and perhaps you'll soon be known as 'the bike girl'.

famoso

i think i'm already known around town as that tall nerdy mexican dude that's always on a bike (aka el ciclista valiente by some) but now i'm really famous. i don't know why taura would want to use a picture of me in her pecha kucha presentation but i feel special now, thanks taura :) her photos and presentation were really cool. lis's presentation was really good too, so props to them both. the first pecha kucha night in lincoln was a succes and i look forward to the next one.

afterhours snow

ryana loves her portland.

six more weeks they say

more snow... but atleast it's the fluffy kind which makes it fun to ride through. here's to coffee and first fridays! there should be some good openings tonight.

hoping for spring

shadow or no shadow, i'm going to get started on one of my spring projects.

food, art, not bombs

around 6pm on a friday i'm usually inside yia yia's having a beer and a slice or two of pizza but this last friday i opted to go on the critical mass ride. i hadn't attended one since last fall. i thought very few people were showing up consistently anyways because it's been pretty darn cold, but this time i had heard someone was going to bring hot chocolate so despite the 17 degree temp i went. there was a good turn out with about 20-30 peeps. there was no hot chocolate but little did i know that something way better awaited us at the end of our ride. after doing a few loops through downtown we regrouped at the campus union to enjoy some vegan burritos that someone had made and brought in a cooler in an old burley trailer. man, those warm burritos were damn good! shout out to the dude with the trailer and whoever did the cooking, you guys rock! they hit the spot let me tell ya. after stuffing ourselves we went inside where there was an undergrad art opening going on. we had some of their free cookies and checked out the art. while looking like a spelunker to all the other opening attendees, dane noticed the cool bike print on the blouse of the girl in "girl no. 3, by ella weber, charcoal". i located ms. weber and asked her if the bike pattern was her own addition, but she said she drew it exactly from a photo of her aunt as a young girl, probably late 70's. cool blouse indeed.

misty

it's a misty monday morning to start out the week. i hope everyone had a great weekend. last week included some bike building and more than a few lattes (some of which can be seen in lis's weekly vid), capped off by some fun at the races on saturday. now it's back to the grind.

finally

it got up to what, 38 degrees today? what a wonderful change compared to last week.

cabling on a sunday

almost done... just have to finish routing cables on lis's new steed.

a cold start to 2010

even a short jaunt down to d'leon's for a burrito is testing. hell, at this point i'd be happy if it would get above 20.