2020 Olympics Tokyo Cycling, BMX & Skateboarding Mascots!

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Cycling, Mountain Biking, BMX Racing and BMX Freestyle mascots!

BMX RACING

BMX FREESTYLE

ROAD CYCLING

TRACK CYCLING

MOUNTAIN BIKING

SKATEBOARDING

How freakin' awesome are these? I love them. Share this post!

Atlanta 2014 Critical Mass Halloween

Although I cannot make it to every group ride that happens in Atlanta, I try to make it each year to the Halloween Critical Mass. It's always one of the more well attended rides. This year, Halloween fell on the last Friday of the month, so that was kind of a bonus. Unfortunately for me, it was kind of a mediocre ride, which was my own fault. I drank too many beers too early, and by the time we got to Little Five Points, I had to break off to find a place to use the bathroom. It also started raining, well, maybe heavily drizzling, around this same time. By the time I took care of business, I had lost site of the ride, so I ended up going my own way and syncing up with some friends. I like to ride at least 10 miles every time I get on the bike, but only logged about 7 via Strava. I did not factor in the actual ride from where I parked my car (right by The Spindle) to Woodruff though, so all told I was probably pretty close to 10.

Anyway, here are a few pics of some of the folks who wore costumes.

Every year there is at least one person who is dramatically under dressed, and this year was no exception. Crazy penguin man.

1986 Peugeot p-10 Fixed Gear Conversion (SOLD)

This weekend I took my 1986 Peugeot P-10 Fixed Gear Conversion down to The Spindle for their bike parts swap meet and BBQ jam. The Spindle is a super rad shop[ for commuter bike clothes, but even more than that, it serves as sort of a social hub for Atlanta bicycle people. I was pretty stoked that the bike got attention all day, and I ended up selling it right after the swap meet closed. My friend Katie iMac gave me the bike in original form, and then I did the conversion to fixed a few years later. Just wanted to post a few pics for the memories, and I am glad to know that the bike went to a good new home. Had a lot of great adventures on this bad boy...

Fixed Gear Brake Pad Upgrade - Wait...Fixies Don't Have Brakes, Right?

Well, track bikes don't have brakes, but I wouldn't consider my fixed gear a true track bike.  For the record, it is an Aventon Cordoba with a few small mods.  I run a front brake, because I can.

Me and a buddy recently did a fun half century on the Silver Comet Trail, and about 10 miles out there is a bike shop called Boneshaker Bikes that we stopped at hoping they would still have some of the clear/dayGlo combo brake pads that they had when we passed through last year. They still had them! I grabbed a set for my Aventon since the stock pads had for some reason started squeaking pretty bad as of late. I'm not going to lie...I also just wanted the clear/glo color to add a little snazz to the old blackbird.

The install was a little iffy. These things are not meant for fixed gear biking at all, they are for BMX bikes, so I was a little hesitant that the curve profile would be too sharp for 700c rims, but that ended up not being an issue. I did have to do some creative rearranging with the washer stack on each pad to get them to fit though, and even then the threads stuck out pretty far from the slots. No biggie though. The only downside is that I absolutely positively without a doubt have them toed in correctly, but I'm still getting some squeaking. Tightened up the brake mounting bolt in the fork, which helped but didn't totally solve the issue. 

Believe it or not, I think that the sound may have something to do with some residual chemicals from cleaning the bike at the local High Pressure Wash It Yourself Car Wash. We'll give it a little time and see how it goes. I'm trying to use the brake in emergencies only anyway. Color ended up looking pretty rad, a subtle touch that some heads will appreciate.

Looks pretty rad from the flight deck.