Hubbard's Fuji Redux

I'll stop hammering on you to DONATE to my fundraising drive today and tell you a little bit about Hubbard's Fuji S-12. If you click through to the links, you will see that Hub bought this bike for $45 at a thrift shop - and he scooped me on this bike by mere minutes. As I walked in he was standing at the counter with his cash in hand, ready to buy the bike that was supposed to be mine. I cursed him under my breath and walked out, foiled again on a bike I planned to "flip" - at $45 I was looking at making an easy $100 on craigslist after a clean and tune up.

Strangely enough, a few days later I saw the very same bike on a blog that I had been reading regularly. Cursing under my breath again, I offered to help Hubbard learn to repair his own bikes, we met in person not too long after, and have been friends since. I still curse under my breath when I think about him scooping me, but the curses are not as personal - I'm mostly over it. Mostly.

Rat Bastard

As Hubbard and I became better friends, he got to know my more modern bikes with STI shifters - and was impressed. Like me, Hub came back to cycling later in life (though a little later than me...) and was unfamiliar with the modern running gear. I happened to have a set of Sora STI levers that I had installed on my Falcon,  (since removed), and thought that they should end up on Hub's Fuji. I thought that for a couple of reasons; they are 7 speed, which means that he didn't have to buy new wheels (just a 7 speed freewheel), and because the bike was already a Frankenbike, with Huret front derailleur, Shimano rear, Suntour downtube shifters, even a Kinesis aluminum fork. The person that owned this bike before it was donated to the thrift store obviously was into upgrades - so this bike was practically screaming for the new shifters. 

It took a while for Hubbard to get the bike and the parts I needed over to the oven that is my workshop this time of year, and longer for me to acclimate myself to working in approximately 900 degree temperatures. However, the switch is now made, I'm a couple of pounds lighter from sweating, and the FrankenFuji now has a modern 7 speed indexed shifting Shimano totally integrated system. As I expected, the bike rides like a champ, and in this humble blogger's opinion, is a better bike for the conversion. If you have an older bike with a 7 speed freewheel, I'd suggest that you keep your eyes open for a set of levers like these; there were only a few 7 speed STI's made, so they are getting harder and harder to find, but they are a very worthwhile upgrade for an older bicycle, in my opinion. No need to stretch the frame to fit a new set of wheels, just slip a new freewheel on. 

Blurry photo of 7 speed shifters

Finally, the full on bike pron.

Blurry again. Should be mine, blurry or not. 

I'm looking forward to getting Hubbard out on the real roads on this one, and having someone to draft for a change; I generally ride the back roads alone, and he is more of a path guy. Fish gotta swim and bikes gotta ride; I hope that this one gets to fulfill its FrankenFuji purpose.

That's all for now - like Channel 13 I'm going to get back to begging you to DONATE to my cycling related charity with the next post, so be ready. I'm now at $140, and my sincerest thanks to everyone who donated me up to that, but that is only 28% of my goal, so look for more pledge drives in the next few weeks. 

A Quick check in - fundraising.

So, the story about my favorite comedian moved my readership not a bit, eh? Very well. My next post will be much more personal. I have mentioned the subject here once before, but what is coming should be much more comprehensive.

First, I want to thank the people that have donated so far - I appreciate it. Because of you, I am still in the top 5 as of this posting

Top Ten Fundraisers

Tour de BBQ 2011

1. Carrie Helfers - $525.00
2. Craig Henwood - $355.00
3. Michael Alexander - $100.00
4. Benjamin Andrews - $100.00
5. Justin Husman - $90.00
6. Niki Fehling - $50.00
7. Chad Helmer - $25.00

Proof here

I wanted to assure you that if you decide to DONATE that you won't be getting spam email - the fundraising isn't done through Livestrong, but instead through eventunited, who hasn't sent me an email yet. if you are not donating because you are worried about spam, then please, donate. Eventunited hasn't spammed anyone who has donated yet, so I think that excuse is removed.

Please, donate something - I'm competitive, and I want to stay in the top five - but also, I want to raise some money; be the pro from Dover who rolls into town, rides the shit out of some miles, eats he hell out of some barbecue, and raises a bunch of money in the process. 

Keep in mind that I don't HAVE to raise this money to ride - I want to raise some money. I am a charitable person, but I've only ever given to things like this, I've never attempted to raise the money. 

Help me (and help cancer research) out. 

DONATE 

Please, sir? 

One of the reasons I am riding to fight cancer.

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of  Bill Hicks, but he was an important person to young Justin Husman - and even more important to Denis Leary. Let me tell you why.

Bill Hicks, American Hero

Bill Hicks was a standup comedian who was born in 1961, and started doing comedy when he was 13 in Houston, TX. Bill was a contemporary of Sam Kinison, but he was actually funny and thought provoking, not a cartoon character. Bill did "bits", like every other comedian, but he also tried to help people expand their minds - and he helped a young Justin to do the same thing. I saw Bill with a friend of mine in around 1991 or so; we snuck into a comedy club to see him, and we were blown away by what he had to say - he was funny, and had jokes, but he also said things like, 


"We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free." 
And


"I'm glad mushrooms are against the law, because I took them one time, and you know what happened to me? I laid in a field of green grass for four hours going, "My God! I love everything." Yeah, now if that isn't a hazard to our country … how are we gonna justify arms dealing when we realize that we're all one?" 
And


"Folks, it's time to evolve. That's why we're troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because, um – they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right? There's another 90 percent of our brains that we have to illuminate." 

And most importantly
"This is the material, by the way, that has kept me virtually anonymous in America for the past 15 years. Gee, I wonder why we're hated the world over? Look at these fat Americans in the front row - 'Why doesn't he just hit fruit with a hammer?' Folks, I could have done that, walked around being a millionaire and franchising myself but no, I had to have this weird thing about trying to illuminate the collective unconscious and help humanity. Fucking moron."




Not your standard standup act, right?  I'd almost call Bill a stand up philosopher rather than a comedian. Bill was real, and raw, and was completely on the edge.  He was also the reason that Denis Leary is famous - Denis stole his "smoking" bit - almost word for word. Bill Hicks famously said, 


"I have a scoop for you. I stole his [Leary's] act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and, to really throw people off, I did it before he did."


And it's true. 

Completely stolen, sadly still true.

Dennis Leary's "Smoking" bit is almost exactly the same as Bill Hick's talk about smoking you can see on the special "Bill Hicks, sane man" - down to the line "Kieth Richards outlived Jim Fixx - the plot thickens."

So that's why he is important to Denis Leary. Denis denies it, and tries to play it off as sour grapes, but anyone who knows comedy knows it's true. It's sad, but true. 

So why a post about Bill Hicks on a bicycle blog? Because Bill Hicks died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32. I remember hearing about it when it happened - he died in the first week I was in bootcamp, and I was absolutely floored; I (and almost everyone) had no idea that he even had cancer. I got a letter from a friend breaking the news, and I was very sad. Not too many months later, Kurt Cobain took his own life, and while that was shocking, it didn't have an effect on me like Bills' death did - because Bill's death was not his choice. I only saw Bill perform live once, but his performance had a profound effect on the way I think and the way I see the world. Many of the things that Bill had to say are true today - truth is truth, and Bill had a tap into the collective truth of humankind. 

Unfortunately, there is no cure for cancer - but if there were, it's too late for Bill. I'm trying to raise money for cancer research so that we don't have to lose more people like Bill Hicks - though I'm sure there will never be another Bill. I will ask you again to donate to my ride so that we can defeat what took such a bright light from our world. 

Donate HERE

And I'll leave you with one more quote from Bill - one that resonates with me every day, and one that is appropriate here. 


"All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves."

Too Short 

More reading; 


Wikipedia

Bio

And if you want to see his standup, watch

"Bill Hicks, Sane Man"
"Bill Hicks, Relentless"
"Bill Hicks, Revelations"

Also, take the time to watch the trailer for the new documentary on Bill. I've watched the doc, and it's good.

I am a "top five" kind of guy.

The list of top five fundraisers for the 2011 Tour De BBQ.

Tour de BBQ 2011


1.Craig Henwood - $355.00

2.Michael Alexander - $100.00

3.Carrie Helfers - $100.00

4.Benjamin Andrews - $100.00

5.Justin Husman - $25.00

6.Chad Helmer - $25.00

Proof here
 
I would like to stay in that lineup until the ride starts - and beyond.
 
I'm working on my posts telling you why I wish to raise money to fight cancer, so stay tuned for those.
In the meantime, DONATE
 

I wimped out.

And didn't ride today - I'm feeling a bit under the weather anyway, and had a meeting to attend - excuses, excuses. Perhaps, as Steve said, I'm a fair weather cyclist.

Since I am a fair weather cyclist, and dreaming of 70 degree temperatures just like everyone else, I did some wishful thinking and signed up for the Tour De BBQ in Kansas City on October 1st. The weather should be nice, and it combines two of my favorite things; bicycling and eating BBQ. I will make a couple of posts here soon about why we need to raise money to fight cancer, and my own personal experiences, but I expect those posts to be leaden and without joy - so if you want to avoid those, just donate my way up to my goal of $500 right now and save us both the heartache.

Donate here.

I don't aspire to be a Fatcyclist and raise thousands upon thousands of dollars - though it certainly would be nice. Instead, I want to see if I can raise merely $500 in the roughly two months I have until my ride. My lovely wife raised $2000 to participate in the three day a few years ago, and I hope I can do a quarter of that, with your help.


Don't make me resort to stronger measures.

Donate! 

It's hot as Hades out here.

The temperature is ridiculous - this is a screenshot from my phone at 9pm last night. 

Why do I live here again? 

So I haven't been doing much cycling at all. I'm converting Hubbard's Fuji from downtube shifters to Shimano 7 speed Sora STI levers. Even that has been a tough project, because the temperature in my workshop/garage hovers at the thousand degree mark. I'm looking forward to getting it finished so I can start bringing him along on some of my Wylie rides; I need someone to draft. 

I'm getting a bit more pub because I answered a few questions about my cycling habits over at the Bike Friendly Richardson blog. Go check it out of you need to know even more about me than you already do. 

Finally, I'm seriously considering riding on Friday. It should be ridiculously hot, as the past few days have been, but I was thinking that since I rode in the snow this year, I should probably pull off one of the insanely hot days. I'll keep you posted.

Cruisin' on my Scraper Bike.

I have been informed that this is old, but it's new to me, so I'm going to go with it anyway. Some of you probably don't know this about me, but I love hip hop music. I am hugely into it, and am very much into underground groups, and do my best to seek out the freshest in hip hop before anyone else. I was very excited that Tanya Morgan showed up on Jay-Z's new album, because I have been a fan for years, and in fact have 2 albums worth of their stuff on my iPod. I could go on about hip hop most of the day, but I am trying to help you understand that I know good hip hop. The video below is anything but. From a technical perspective, the song isn't terrible, but the whispering effect on the chorus is, and some of the rappers are a little weaker than the others. I'm not posting this video to critique the production value or the skill of the performers; instead, I want you to see what these kids are doing with bikes. It's fascinating. 

Scraper Bike 

I'm also fascinated by their casual disregard of traffic, but that's a different post altogether. The video below tells you what the Scraper bikes are all about.

Scraper Bike King

I think that it's great that bicycles bring out so many different things from such a wide variety of people - for some (fixters) it's all about purity of form and function, clean lines and matching chains - and for these lower income kids it's about making the bike - any bike, whether it's a cruiser or a mountain bike, or even a trike - as flashy as possible, using foil, cardboard, and spray paint to do it with. I'm fascinated by the Scraper bike, and wonder how long it will be before we see  them here. It took fixed gear riding a while to show up in force in Dallas, and now I see fixed gears all over, and there is even a shop that caters to fixters, with all of the accessories they need to be individuals (which is an expensive pursuit). Apparently Scraper bikes have been around for a few years, but I'd be willing to bet that we start seeing them here in Dallas sooner rather than later. Scraper bikes are almost the complete opposite of fixed gear bikes, because it looks like the opportunity cost is much lower - and the bikes are much more individualized. I'll jump for joy when I see my first scraper bike in Dallas, because it means that even more people than before are making cycling part of their lives, and using cycling to express themselves, declare who they are, and to help them find their place in the world.

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle,  I no longer despair for the future of the human race."  HG Wells.