What Santa Didn't Bring for Christmas

Every bike shop should have one of these in the back:

I guess I'll have to wait for my birthday, since Santa didn't bring it for Christmas...

Closed Course- Professional Photographer

Don't try this at home, kids.

While the photographs below were taken from public property, the Rumsey Monument in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the flashbulbs were set up on private property in coordination with the railroad dispatchers, in a safe, controlled manner.

Trains kill trespassers dead.

For more safety information, visit Operation Lifesaver.

Long Live O. Winston Link

It was a crazy, sleep-deprived, caffeine-fueled, cold, wet weekend. I only managed to burn my fingers once on a flashbulb, but it was worth it.


Alex, Luke & I set flashbulbs up across the trestle, in addition to the flashbulbs & electronic flashes on solid ground. I dare say it's the most complex & rewarding night shoot I've done to date.


All images shot on a Nikon D3. Trains illuminated with artificial light, everything else captured with ambient exposures in excess of 20 seconds. We lucked out and got some great moonlight on Saturday night. Final images are digital composites.

Light Up Your Ride Contest!

From Instructables-

Days are getting shorter and with the loss of Daylight Saving Time bike riders will be riding home from work in the dark. This makes riding around much more dangerous and to encourage everyone to ride a little brighter and safer we are having a Light Up Your Ride Contest!

Show us how you make your bike or yourself much more visible at night to the cars passing you and win a pair of the brand spankin' new Bike to Work Pants from Cordarounds! These pants aren't just stylish for work, they also keep you safe while riding your bike. Flip up the pant cuffs and pull out the pockets to instantly become more visible.

So how do you make yourself a safe rider? Have you replaced the LEDs in your blinkies, installed reflective materials in crazy places, made your own turn signals? We want to see it!

We're giving away three Bike to Work outfits! These will include one pair of Bike to Work pants and one Instructables Robot t-shirt. One for the most votes, one selected by Cordarounds, and one selected by Instructables staff. Four runners-up will win an Instructables Robot t-shirt. Good luck!

Catholic Worker coffee Line

While the Norfolk Catholic Worker serves breakfast on the streets to the hungry and homeless three mornings a week, I only make it out to work on bikes on Thursdays.


Last Thursday was particularly joyous- Obamamania was in the air. To mark the occasion, some kind soul had bought a hundred or so fair trade, organic chocolate bar. After receiving soup, sandwich and a cup of coffee, Catholic Worker Steve Baggerly handed each person a chocolate bar, solemnly intoning, "To mark the election of the first African-American president, a chocolate bar." I think I've heard Steve speak in the same gravitas when distributing Communion wafers...

I spent an hour truing wheels and adjusting derailleurs.
Here are a few of the guys I've come to know through their bikes:

Melvin with his mountain bike on the repair stand.

Even though it's too big for him, Melvin still posed for a portrait next to my bike.
(Complete with full fenders, aero bar, lights and a Bob trailer.)

Lee always has a good bike.
His aluminum Red Rock is on the work stand behind him.
What Lee needs now is a decent bike lock.

Steve needed a new tube.

Will.
Looking for a good beach cruiser.

And lastly, Curtis.

Sometimes it's hard to distiguish between the Catholic Workers and the hungry...

Still More Election Day '08 Timelapse

Any day now,
Any day now,
I shall be released...

More Timelapse at the Polls

Ran into a DAM SNAFU- Digital Asset Management Situation Normal: All F***ed Up. I should have some better movies up later today.

Timelapse at the Polls

I set up a couple of little cameras to record timelapse footage, starting at 5:45 AM, 15 minutes before the polls opened at Stuart Early Childhood Center in Norfolk, the polling station for the Riverview and Colonial Place neighborhoods, as well as part of Park Place.

There's more coming...it just takes a while to batch process 5,000 images....

Cranksgiving 2008

Maybe Google's busted, but it looks like I'm the first to post this alley cat race to a blog...for us Southsiders, it'd be a change to head across the water and ride some foreign territory:

What is it? NYC Style Bike Messenger Race (non-sanctioned) Race in a chaotic shopping spree by buying one food item at specific supermarket checkpoints all over Newport News. Your dated receipts prove you were there. There is no entry fee, but you need to buy food which will be donated to the PENINSULA FOOD BANK.

When is it? SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2008
The race/ride will start at 11AM. Event will open at 10:15. You must sign a waiver to participate. Manifests will be given out at 10:50AM. A LeMans Style Start. (a running start to your bike)

Where is it? Huntington Park, Newport News, VA
Newport News Side of James River Bridge

What do you need? Bicycle, Messanger Bag or Backpack, $15 to buy food, bike lock, Cyclist. All Bikes welcome to participate.

For more information contact by email: bike-boy-73@hotmail.com

SPONSORED BY CYCLISTS WHO GIVE A DAMN

Beautiful winter morning light.
Had to take a picture.

Cold Morning, Hot Coffee

For the better part of five years now I've been heading out to the Norfolk Catholic Workers' "coffee line:" three mornings a week the NCW & assorted volunteers feed the hungry near downtown Norfolk. Yesterday was the longest line they had ever had- 160 people.



I loaded our Honda Element up with bike parts and tool boxes, and spent an hour fixing bottom dollar bikes. There's an art to truing a Huffy wheel...


While I was busy with the spoke wrench, a couple of guys borrowed my tools & pump to find a hole in a tube.

First Cold Day

2 days before November, and it finally feels like fall. I had to drag a bunch of camera gear back to the office, so my BOB trailer was overflowing with video cameras, still cameras, shotgun mic's, lavalier mic's, a GyroCam Stabilizer & a tripod, to boot. Had to bundle up real good...I love the cold snaps come fall, when the air and early morning light seem just a little crisper...the cookies baking near Granby & 23rd smell just a little more enticing... one of these days I gotta find that bakery...

The Weekend and the Damage Done

So after I cracked my frame on the first lap, I went back to the enduro pit & duct taped the dang thing together. Rode 4 more laps on it. It's the second Gary Fisher Rig frame that I've broken in less than 2 years. I hope Gary got his stuff together on the 2009 version, because the lifetime warranty has gotta start getting expensive...











And for the fourth time in 15 months, the steel spring on my Crank Brothers pedals broke. I think it's time to switch to Frogplays...

Tidewater Mountain Bike Challenge 2008

So it was a typically wacky TMBC. Rob Tripp & I dressed up as "Team Zissou."

{Dang it, if you haven't heard of "The Life Aquatic, just Google it.}

Granted, we weren't as obviously recognizable as "Gene & Ace:"



Nor did we have the sexual allure of "The Flying Nun" meeting up with Reno 911's finest.

I'm sure I'll be hearing jokes from Liz to no end, but I broke another bike frame. Cracked the seat tube clear around at the bottom bracket weld. I was about half a mile into the first lap when I finally figured out that it wasn't a stiff chain leaking creaking and popping, but rather my frame. In hindsight, it probably would have been smarter to have just forfeited the lap & headed back to the Enduro pit. But in honor of Rob's busted pinky finger last year, I pushed my bike the rest of the 3.5 miles, wearing a blister on my heel in the process- Rocket 7 shoes are not made for walking.

With a roll of bargain bin duct tape I wrapped up my bottom bracket, figuring, what's the worst that can happen? My frame's already broken! Surprisingly enough, it lasted for an entire lap. Which was, of course, when one of my Crank Brothers Candy pedal broke- it's now the 4th time in 15 months that I've snapped the retention spring on the Candies. No problems with the same shoes on Crank Bros. Quattro pedals- just the Candies...

Like a good endorphin junkie, I circled the parking lot on my bike, looking to score a pair of used Crank Bros. pedals- Quattros, Eggbeaters, Acids, Candies, it didn't matter, 'cause man, the endorphin crash was comin' on hard, and I had just started to get a good buzz goin',

I scored a pedal and rode a couple more laps.

And I did it all for Estaban.

Lewd & Lascivious Fornication

Every couple of months of so I find myself trolling through the Norfolk City Municipal Code, and wondering...who the heck wrote this law?!?

Sec. 29-21. Adultery and fornication by persons forbidden to marry.
If any person commits adultery or fornication with any person whom he or she is forbidden by law to marry, such person shall be guilty of a Class l misdemeanor; provided, however, that this section shall not be construed to apply to a person committing adultery or fornication with his daughter or granddaughter, or with her son or grandson, or her father or his mother.
(Code 1958, § 31-1)
State law references: Similar provisions, Code of Virginia, § 18.2-366, which declares adultery or fornication by persons mentioned in the proviso to be a felony.

Sec. 29-22. Lewd and lascivious cohabitation.
If any persons, not married to each other, lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together, or whether married or not, be guilty of open and gross lewdness and lasciviousness, each of them shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor; and upon a repetition of the offense, and conviction thereof, each of them shall be guilty of a Class l misdemeanor.
(Code 1958, § 31-35)
State law references: Similar provisions, Code of Virginia, § 18.2-345.


OK, now Section 29-21 at the outset looks like it's just referring to incest in the first clause, but then you get to the last clause, which specifically says that it DOES NOT refer to incest. So you may be wondering why anyone went to the trouble of writing & passing this law...Well, ya gotta remember that it dates to 1958, and when they say "persons forbidden to marry," it's code for "miscegenation" (A.K.A. "race mixing.")

That's right. Gentle Norfolk didn't want no mixed marriages!

On a closer reading, I realized that it could be read to forbid homosexual fornication as well- hey, if you can't marry 'em by law in Virginia, then you can't fornicate with 'em by law in Norfolk!

As for Section 29-22...well, if the NPD actually arrested people for "lascivious cohabitation," then there wouldn't be any room left in the City Jail, and there'd be a whole bunch of flats for rent in Ghent...

The King of Bike Thieves

From the BBC-

Canadian police have arrested one of the world's most prolific bicycle thieves after discovering almost 3,000 bikes in his possession.

Igor Kenk, the owner of a bicycle store in Toronto, was held last month after they noticed that reports of bicycle thefts had spiked sharply.

After planting several bikes around the city, plainclothes officers waited to see who would steal them.

Mr Kenk was seen telling a companion to break the bike locks before riding off.

Local and international media reported that in the weeks following his arrest, police found about 2,865 bikes in his used-bicycle store, the Bicycle Clinic.

They also found stolen cycles in his home and in several garages which he had rented.

About 15,000 cyclists have reportedly visited a former police garage, which has been crammed with the seized bicycles, in the hope of being reunited with their lost property.

"It was staggering," Ruth White, the superintendent of 14 Division, the unit that caught Mr Kenk, was quoted as saying. "I've never seen anything like it in 30 years."

More than 400 bikes have been claimed so far.

Ms White said that "tons and tons of beautiful bikes" which are unclaimed may have to be auctioned off after the case is closed.

"The rat pack collection of bicycles arguably makes Kenk the unofficial world champion of bicycle thieves," said the International Herald Tribune.

Mr Kenk is currently out on bail awaiting trial in September where he faces 58 charges including theft and possession of burglary tools.

Scout's Honor Bike Race

Last weekend I went out to Goochland to shoot video of Cycle Ed's Scouts Honor 18 Hour Race. I had a blast, and even dragged my BOB trailer around the course for a lap- used it as a camera sled. I've got to finish up my Bike Virginia videos first, but once I do, I'll get some video up from Scouts Honor.


Being an Eagle Scout, it only seemed appropriate to wear my scout shirt to a bike race at a Boy Scout camp. My mom dug my old shirt out of the cedar closet (thanks, Mom!), and sent it to
me, along with my Dad's shirt. While I could still fit into my old shirt, it was too tight across the shoulders to be comfortable on the bike, so I ended up wearing my Dad's shirt. Aside from the fact that I didn't attend the 1963 National Jamboree, nor serve as the Troop 216 Committee Chairman, it was all legit.

(Thanks, Dave, for the picture!)

Norfolk Needs Bike Racks

We may need more bike racks, but somehow I've got the feeling that we won't be seeing any as cool as these:

Thank you, David Byrne!

Are You Feeling Lucky?

It's On.

Meet @ Norfolk's Pagoda.
Friday, 8/29. 8:29pm.

Track Stand Contest, followed by Alley Cat Race.
(Head Start in Race for Top Track Standers.)

Prizes Awarded.

$5 entry to benefit SPCA.

Critical Mass Bicyclist Assaulted by NYPD

WTF?

Me & My Folbot

I'm still trying to discern the heritage of my non-folding Folbot Kayak. All leads welcome.







That's Serial # FLB 076980 6 82.

Blatantly Gratuitous Baby Pix

I know, I know, she's just so darn cute...

Asleep on her trail-a-bike during our Saturday morning Bagel & Coffee Ride.
(Saturday Mornings, 8 AM, leave from East Coast Bikes on Colley Avenue. 8+ miles, family C-Pace ride. Finish at Elliot's Fair Grounds Coffee for bagels & coffee.)


Playing in the Surf.

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Updated: July 22, 2008, 4 p.m. PDT.

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Wow, Apple, thanks a lot. I've been without my mac.com email for a week now.

These Are Some of My Favorite Things

Multi-Hull Sailboats That Are Actually Sailed-



My "new" non-folding Folbot sailing kayak with hydrodynamic outriggers


My daughter playing in the surf



And, of course, bike racks...




My favorite Bar in Norfolk, Crackers, has installed a bike rack right on the front sidewalk!
Woohoo!
Let's hear it for tapas, cocktails & fixies!!


I've added links to Panoramio.com, the website for posting pix to Google Earth. One way to help the cycling community grow in Norfolk is to publicize the location of sturdy bike parking. Not all bike racks are made the same-

Those all-too-ubiquitous cheap-ass bike racks can be busted with a monkey wrench. A thief doesn't need to bust your bike lock, just the rack. Then they can take the bike home & bust the lock at their leisure. So think twice before you use a bike rack that's already been defeated...

Gerber Clutch vs. Gerber Clutch

If I was in a clutch, I know which one I'd rather have in hand...

Gerber Clutch Mini Pliers


Gerber Lil' Clutch Security Blanket


Then again, I think I know which one my daughter would rather have, too...