Bread

SimplyBike's tweet about her husbands Irish soda bread inspired me to post this pic of the bread I made for Memorial Day.












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And I rode my fixed gear(Gumby)
 sure enough my bottom bracket loosened again!!!

Posted via crappy camera phone, then later edited to appease the masses, lukeofny

Happy Memorial Day

J.D. says happy Memorial Day

My Previous Life (Not Really)

In my previous life I also rode two-wheeled  vehicles, but they had motors, and I had some money.
Actually I only have access to this blog because my neighbor allows me to use his internetting equipment, not because I can afford $50 a month for slug-runner, thank you kind neighbor and co-worker.

Any how, yes I have no smugness, I have a car (van actually) and I rode motorcycles.

 My last one was a freebie, the engine was seized and it sat out for years.

I know I get good responses to my refurbs and the like so without further ado here's the pics of my Ninja I sold to support my family.

Before pics

After pics

Here it is after I sold it

They clearly had a better vision for than me, like most of my projects. Still sweet in my eyes.

Thanks for putting up with the most boring post ever,lukeofny

Rhonda, And The Cost Of Living

My heart is growing fonder of Rhonda as the days pass.

I really don't don't know if living in upstate New York is for me. More and more I get sick of this place and
dreading the upcoming cold.
Also most occupations get a cost of living increase, me no.
If there was a graph to represent the the increasing cost of living and my pay it would look like this:

As a father of two and a half (as in one on the way) kids a husband a pet owner, voter, and regular bather this stresses me out.
 But on to the land of fairies and bicycles which both are mystical things to some people.
My junk bike is almost done and I will be selling it to increase the income to my home thus slowly reducing the debt I've accumulated through very poor life decisions. Here's the link to the latest pics I have of it http://lukeofny.blogspot.com/2011/05/post-rapture-junk-bike.html
On a even better note today was beautiful and I am holding on to that thought for tonight.

Have fun today,lukeofny

Old School Adventure

My friend has been laid-off for a while and I have Mondays off.

So we decided to plot out some foundations using a gps to compare them 

with a map of the area in the 1800's . We used to do this stuff all the time about ten years ago.

The right tool for the job was either a bike or hike it. Guess what we chose.

Here's a pic of my commuter pretending it is a mountain bike.

We got to a part of the road that a beaver dammed across,my friend blasted right through,

 however I was determined to find a way around. 

As I was on my way around my bungees holding my bag flew off and my bag with my wife's camera 

fell into the drink(I wouldn't want to drink it) I went after it as soon as possible, like any

decent husband would and immediately removed the batteries.

As I went back to look for my bungees I walked through the water since I'd been wet already from retrieving the camera.

Then I seen them... dozens of leaches swimming right towards me.

It must of been the blood from the scrapes on my leg.

Anyway here is a pic of one of them, notice the top of it is scrunched up it was about 6-7 inches long

or for my metric crowd about 15-18cm

My fellow adventurer also noticed lots of ticks, I didn't find any on me while on the 

trip like he did. I did yank one out of me when I got home.

It wasn't a deer tick, and hopefully it didn't have Lyme disease.

Enjoy your dreams tonight for when you wake they will be replaced with reality,lukeofny

The Post Rapture Junk Bike

Well it seems that things have gotten better for the junk bike, post rapture anyway. Here is the pic of the junk before, crusty and all nasty, just redeemed from the side of a shed partially rotting into the ground.
Yes that is a SunTourV-GT luxe and a Selle Italia Turbo.

It is a Free Spirit Sunbird? Sears junk but I find the fit on these to be perfect for me.

Here's after paint, wheels, cotterless cranks.

Old Sugino single crank

Side profile, up in my makeshift workshop up in my storage area on the third floor

this where I usually work on bikes. I accomplished all of this in a few hours 

yesterday. I am going for a light fender-less single braked city cruiser.

Since Rhonda wasn't around to ask for advice on the build, I asked our resident bike specialist

J.D. , he is looking in approval.

Trying to make a dollar out of a penny, lukeofny

New Seattle

Well I have moved, I longer reside in Johnstown New York.
Yes, I have relocated to another place. Maybe I, did not relocate but the country relocated on me, because it still looks and smells the same (leather factories produce an odor that you won't forget... ever, kind of like Hershey P.A. only replace the smell of chocolate with rotten flesh and caustic solution)
but this is definitely not New York it's more like New Seattle with worse coffee.
 Things have improved though, take our previous forecast here and compare to now.
I almost didn't recognize the yellow thing because I haven't seen it in so long.

Weather for Johnstown, NY 12095

66°F | °C Thu Fri Sat Sun Current: Mostly Cloudy Wind: SE at 5 mph Humidity: 78% 75°F | 55°F 68°F | 54°F 74°F | 54°F 72°F | 55°F Detailed forecast: The Weather Channel - Weather Underground - AccuWeather

I haven't made much progress on the junk bike , because I am too lazy right now.
I have made progress with my weight reduction (on me not the bikes) I started around 376lbs
and now at 349lbs I still have a long way to go, but I didn't start riding to lose weight I started riding to be more active. I started trying to control myself with eating habits to lose weight.
Have a happy Friday, lukeofny

Way Too Much Time

You are probably wondering why these pictures grace this page, after all bikes use a lot less oil than cars.

Image(s) are property of respective owners

Image(s) are property of respective owners

Well they are both catastrophic oil spills, not unlike what I rode home in today.

Now that it's warm, I use the bike path  multi-use trail, it's just more convenient. To my surprise it was covered in nasty smelling used motor oil.

Here in upstate New York we have a little thing called recycling, and yes You too could recycle used motor oil by dropping it off at any Sprawl-Mart or any of the other fine establishments that sell oil.

With joking and the public service announcement aside, the person(s) that did this spent far too much effort on getting rid of this oil. 

1.) They already had it in a container

2.) They spread it out over a 1/4 mile span

3.) They obviously targeted the trail since not a lot of people use it (except for lazy dog owners that don't want to pick up after there pet and like two other cyclist)

The lazy thing to do would be just dropping it off somewhere that uses waste oil or recycles it, even the landfill has an oil recycling program, all this for free!

 The point is, don't dump your oil all over the trail (with the creek below it) and if you are a leather mill don't  dump your liquid waste in a pretend storm drain (that runs constantly no matter if we had rain or not)

Waiting for people to grow up, lukeofny

Resurection

My wife and I were driving around (yes I own a car) and I spotted a few bikes lying on the outside of a shed in a vacant lot, (well except the shed and brush).
Next time I was in the area I stopped the neighbors' house and inquired about them, he said I could have them all.
I didn't want any of them really, but I spotted another Free Spirit (I am a sucker for these tanks, I love the fit) So I snagged it and it sat out for a little while longer.
This last weekend was city-wide garage sale, and I picked up a Sturmey-Archer AW 3 speed laced to 27"Araya steel rim and a matching front for $2.00. After digging through my seat cushions and my wifes purse
for what seemed to be a good solid hour I coughed up the $2.00 asking price.
Now I had a idea.
To show you where I am starting from here's some pics.

What am I stupid?

Cottered cranks,rust, and more rust.

"I think it has a nice patina, kind of like 'vintage rustic', or more like American Gothic meets oxidation."

Perhaps the only part worth saving is this ( I heard these are okay derailers, I wouldn't know, I can't shift anyway)

A SunTour V-GT luxe.

As for the rest of the bike we'll see what Rhonda wants to do with it.

Hoping for Rhonda's infinite wisdom, lukeofny

Rhonda's Wisdom

When I was on vacation Rhonda taught me a lot.

I miss you Rhonda

1.) Nursing raccoons are capable of anything
2.)Sometimes you have to do things you don't like to support your family.
3.) And for me that's work at a place I hate, because I made poor life choices.

Hope your commute is a more dry than mine, lukeofny

Screw Annie

The sun will not come out tomorrow, no matter what the stupid song says.
I have a full-fendered bike and riding in the rain doesn't bother me that much but I want sunshine!
I understand the folks that get depressed when they move to New York from California, Florida, or any other sunny state. You know its bad when the weather man/woman/thing/person/dog says it's going to be a repeat of last week! Yes all rain!

Weather for Johnstown, NY 12095

53°F | °C Mon Tue Wed Thu Current: Cloudy Wind: NE at 8 mph Humidity: 92% 55°F | 50°F 62°F | 54°F 64°F | 56°F 68°F | 56°F Detailed forecast: The Weather Channel - Weather Underground - AccuWeather What's even worse is that for the last decade or so the weekends have been washouts, not saying all weekends, it just seems like most.  If anybody has been in upstate New York you know the the rain is not like other states, if you're walking, riding a motorcycle/bike/hamster-powered chopper Image(s) property of respective owners Image(s) property of respective owners  the rain is real cold, and feels more akin  to getting a tattoo with one of these then taking a shower in cold water or being sprayed with a hose.

Hoping for sunshine, Luke Of New York

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I Am Back

Well I have been back for almost a week now.
The more I travel outside of New York the more I realize that:
1.) I HATE NEW YORK
2.) I like warm/hot weather.
Here is my new friend I met in Florida

Her name is Rhonda.
Here is our departing photo

This is what it felt like coming back to New York

Yes that is a ton of bricks.