For the Love of Bikes 2 (1 to come shortly)

Most of you know just how much Zac and ILOVE bikes.  We especially love collecting them.  If you went to Zac's parents home in Nevada and walked into their mesquite trees all you would find is bikes.  Tons and hundreds of bikes.  I am amazed each time we go home. Well anyway the other day I was coming home from an activity and we stopped at a members house. They were giving away things because they were moving. I role up with my friend and the First thing I spot is a bicycle.  I kindly ask the older gentleman if they are giving it away and BAMM-O  I score myself a rocking bike.  The man then says "check out the bike we got in the garage" and score-a-roony!  We land ourselves another bike!!!  I ran home and grabbed Zac and he brought them home on the xtracycle.  Happy Dances then commenced and my new project for the week is cleaning them bikes up.  Now we have enough bikes for our friends and family to ride when they come to visit!  

The 2 new bikes we scored!!

Zac's folding Bianci (pure awesomeness!)

This is our posse of bicycles! (9 total at our house though only 4 are in working order)

This is one of Ren because I just love her little face!!!

~Happy Riding~

         Krysta

Grrrr.

So the title may sound a little aggravated or aggressive, and it is meant to. In the last 48hrs i have almost been hit about 6 times and i don't mean the car did not see me and i just cruised by i mean swerving to avoid collision, and yesterday being run off the road by a white truck. Yesterday i am riding down 500w minding my own business and hugging the shoulder as any one who has ridden 5th knows you must because there is no bike lane and for about a half a mile there is barely even a shoulder. As i am coming out of the no shoulder part of the road and looking at the mecca that is the emergency lane in front of me this white truck decides to cut me off and make a right turn trapping me between him and the curb thanks to the bicycle gods i was sparred. I can however assure you that i made that weird war cry when you are really angry and confused so you cant make out intelligible sound you just yell something like AHHHMAKEDOFG!!!!!. I am sure that taught him a lesson even though i highly doubt he heard it. I do know that he heard me hit the side of his truck like the hammer of Thor. Now i do not condone violence it really does not get us anywhere but it was that or get run over, i chose the first. All of these incidents especially the almost death one remind me of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy the book not the movie. In the book there is a part where an alien space ship lands on earth but nobody sees it, we find out that it is not invisible because that is  impossible, but it dose have a SEP (somebody elses problem) field and because the idea of a space ship landing on earth is so outlandish with the field on nobody sees it. So along with every bicycle purchase i decided they must just throw one of these babies on because it is so outlandish to so many drivers that a bike would be on the road we are allot of times invisible, or at the very least somebody elses problem. So ride smart ride alert and if you drive keep your eyes open bicyclist are out there and if the current trend is anything to go by, there will only be more and more, so lets try to all get along. 

Although all of this is scary and crazy i am realy lucky to not be this guy we should keep him in our thoughts and prayers.

5 Random (bicycle) Facts about me.

1. I LOVE riding my bike in a skirt! I just feel so empowered. Like I can do anything!

2. I will Never  own enough bikes.  ( I have 4 now!)

3. I want to ride BMX when I grow up.  Everytime we are in a bike shop I ask Zac to buy me a BMX bike. He of course never does but says 'someday'.  So I know there is hope!

4. My 2 favorite bicycling movie moments are:

      'The Muppet Movie' when Kermit jumps off his Schwinn out of the way of an oncoming paver and says  "If Frogs couldn't leap I'd be gone with the Schwinn". Classic line.

     'Monster House'. That cute little blonde girl with her red tricycle.  She says 'hello tree, hello fence, hello leaves!' Darling darling.

5.  My 2 best bicycle moments 

            1. The other night we rode home from a friends house and it started to rain.  Zac stopped the bikes and we kissed in the rain.  I know totally mushy but I am allowed to be a silly romantic sometimes!

            2.  Zac rides us to church every Sunday on the xtracycle.  Ren loves to have the wind blow in her hair and she leans over so she can see past Zac. It makes me feel that even though sometimes things can get tough I can still be Happy and can still have peace.

~Happy Riding~

        Krysta

Bikes verses Bugs

Oh the bane of my simple existence: Being attacked by bugs while I ride.  I mean come on it's bad enough when you are in your car and they come in thru the open windows, at least they usually fly to the back of the car and you have time to pull yourself together and get the car to the side of the road and do a crazy dance trying to get the bug out, right? 

This is definitely not so when you ride.  First off-bug to bike speed ratio is pretty close to the same.  Sometimes those suckers can even school me. But once they get a good sniff of my perspiration or whatever, they think it is open season! They pull up right in front of you and Keep your pace.  What is that!?! They just mozy on in like "Hello can I do you for a sting or maybe a bite? I ain't picky."   BAHH   I inevitably start freaking out waving my arms and swerving which is not so safe on a bike (well even a car for that matter). I also have this other trick I use.  I usually start blowing air at them.  Weird I know but sometimes that extra gush sends them on their way.  Really I must look like a lunatic.  Like those people who from far away look like they are having a seizure but if you were in there shoes you would know that it was just a bug chasing them.  Ya that would be me!

I have tried to stop this habit but to no avail.  I am plagued with being some insects next snack. My husband thinks I am hilarious.  He used to get really frustrated with me because I would usually let out a little shriek.  He would look back quickly thinking I had just wrecked or something.  Then he would get really mad at me for scaring him.  I wish he had more faith in my bicycle skills, but I don't blame him. When we first got married I wrecked on my bike but instead of catching myself with my hands palm down. Somehow they got turned around and they have scrapes on the upside.  And then there was my face.  Yea I totally had road rash on one side of my face!! Seriously people.  I felt like the biggest dork! Come on, WHO lands on their face???? Apparently me.  So you can see why his faith in me is a little shaken, anyway I digress. 

Back to the bugs.  Yesterday I went thru a spider web and that little spider was just fling along on my side hanging on for dear life.  Good thing he was little.  I tried the blow trick but no luck so I had to let him land on my skirt and then gave him a quick little flick and he was on his merry little way.  I wish it was that easy with bees! Luckily though I have yet to be stung, bitten, protrubed or any such other thing, knock on wood.  

 Maybe those bugs just wanna be my friends?  maybe

One of said bug days but totally worth the family funness!

Happy Riding

   Krysta

*sigh*

I miss Idaho! 

Can you ever have to many bikes? 

Seriously everytime I see a cool one I just want to get it!

I already have 3 bikes!

Ha but they cost less than your car! Thats not mean is it?

        

  Happy Riding

     ~Krysta

 If I were a color I'd be sea green.

   

The Chub has returned!!!!!!!!!

Que the music, roll out the carpet, the Chub has returned. This hub embodies my initial love of track bikes and I was devastated when I could no longer find them. Thanks to the Hive my dreams of owning this masterpiece have come true. Now don't get me wrong I was riding track bikes before I discovered the chub hub in 2002(?) however after I discovered it I had my perfect track bike built in my mind. Schwinn Le tour frame with standard crank and stem, chub hub in the rear what ever in the front, brooks saddle and handle bar tape with reversed nitto mustache bars, I know not very specific or fancy but hey it was my dream, don't like it make your own.These hubs used to be hand made in a garage in Boston, if I remember they ran about 200 dollars, at the time they might as well have been 2,000 i was broke living on couches and in parks dreaming of affording Taco Bell let alone a new hub. Once I got back on my feet and was able to finally buy one they disappeared along with my hopes of ever owning one. When I say disappear I mean disappeared the website was gone with no post no any thing I couldn't even find anyone saying "goodbye chub" or "this is what happened". I still do not know the whole story I just know that they are back. What makes the hubs so great, one might ask. Well, they are designed to take peak spoke tension down 70 percent which transfers the energy of your pedal stroke more evenly through the whole wheel instead of being one sided like a lot of hubs are. Basically this makes for one of the most efficient transfers of pedal to power meaning less waisted energy and more riding. As soon as i saw the add in Urbanvelo I gave the guys over at the Hive a call they told me it would be a week or two until the first shipment was in and that no I could not preorder so I will sit and wait patiently for the time that I can claim my little piece of bicycle nirvana. I would suggest any one who loves there track bike or who is just learning, to check these guys out these hubs are way awesome, not to mention sexy. Good luck and make it a good ride.
zac

Taking the steps

So I said we met a wonderful lady who enjoys riding her bike like 4 weeks ago and I got to thinking about some things she had asked us.  One of the questions we get from other like minded people who have apparently thought about this much more than I is 'Did you practice or just go cold turkey?' The answer is we Practiced!  Zac and I spent a year trying not to use our vehicle.  We were blessed enough to have Zac work close to home in March of '07. He was so excited to ride his bike to work.  You should have seen him.  It was like the first day your mom says you can ride to school on your own, and you feel like you own the world. It was great.  Of course we had to outfit his bike with the proper equipment.  We had to buy a back rack and some bungees to hold his lunch box and proper pedals so he could wear his boots.  Minimal costs in comparison to driving.  At the time we were living with this wonderful older woman named Afton.  I was prego and was basically helping her full time, so I didn't need to drive hardly at all.  Zac and I fixed up an old bike trailer to be our grocery cart and it worked great.  All the people in our old neighborhood asked us if we were going to take Afton in it.  We never did.  But she would always smile when she saw us get our bikes out.  The only time we used the car for 3 months was to take Afton to church.  We went 3 months on less than a tank of gas.  Zac was so proud of me. I did have to use the car a couple of times though.  I was so sick when I was prego and Zac and I would have lunch together on Friday's so sometimes I cheated and went to Wendy's and drove to give him lunch.  Bahh I was so sick! Any way we practiced alot.  When we moved to Idaho we were very blessed, the town we lived in had a great bus system so we would ride it into town for anything we needed, laundry, groceries, movies, dinner.  We did still use the car quite often because I had a babysitting job that was quite far and the bus didn't go that far. Before we moved back to Provo we knew how close things were we felt we had practiced enough.  We also prayed about the decision to get rid of the car.  It was kinda scary. We had a small daughter and making sure she is safe is a BIG  deal. But in the end we felt we made the right decision and we haven't looked back since!

So these are the steps we took.  

 1.  Try to have a job close to home.  5 miles on a bike is Not  that far.  It usually takes about 30 min. if you don't have to many hills (and are in better shape than me ;)

 2.Try a trip to the closest market. Take your kids or whatever and just go get a popsicle! Get two and you can have one as a reward when you get home!

3. Get the proper gear.  Being car dependant means your bike is your car. Packing your bike for trips means lighter, smaller and more efficient. Take only what you need and make sure you have proper equipment in case of flats!

4.Bike paths and wide shoulders are our friends.  Riding the road is important.  You obey the law and it is safer in intersections.  Take proper precautions and wear a helmet and safety gear! 

5. You don't have to be car-less to be car free! 

6. Public transportation is our friend.  It does not make you 2nd class and if the buses look sketchy rally for better upkeep!

7. The best advice I can give is really to set goals and to reach them.  Just a little at a time.  Also try to find someone to do it with.  I always find that more enjoyable!

Happy Riding!

-Krysta