On safari

While cycling up and around the Tantalus-Round Top loop I always see the same groups of wild chickens that inhabit the mountain, plus the occasional mongoose. Once I came across a rather majestic (and large) lizard taking up residence on the side of the road. He didn’t move when I turned back to check him out, leading me to believe he must have been sick or injured. Still, he was something to see.

Then there was the time about a year ago when I kept spying the same pair of domesticated rabbits. Someone had obviously abandoned them after cleaning the cage had become a nuisance. It was tough passing them by because they’d just pop out of the grass and look at you with those eyes, seeking food, or attention, or help. During the several weeks they’d make their roadside appearances, they were never more than several hundred yards from the location where I’d first spotted them. Because of this, I sent a map to the humane society instructing them where to look. It wasn’t much later that I stopped seeing the bunnies. I like to think that someone picked them up and gave them a home (the alternative being the aforementioned ‘occasional mongoose’).

But, yesterday I saw something new: a peacock! I’ve heard that O’ahu has wild peacocks but I’ve never seen one before. His tail feathers were looking a little worse for wear but the neck plumage was radiant. I stopped for a moment, we stared at each other, and then I continued on my merry way. As I coasted downhill I began to wonder if I shouldn’t take this bird’s appearance more seriously. (This is a story for another day, but I’ve had several experiences with animals showing up under curious circumstances right after a death.) Before the encounter someone had called me twice so I decided to put on the brakes and check my messages — something I don’t normally bother with when riding. I made an exception in this case, though, because the peacock had got me thinking about Grandma (whose own peacock showed up after she’d had an “intervention” with the ghost in their Plano house — again, another story). This, in turn, had me wondering about my phone ringing.

I had to wait about 5 minutes to get through all my back-logged voice messages, but in the end it was only Adam wanting to know if I was down for a little darts and beer at Anna’s.

Spring is here!

Only in its third year, the Amgen Tour of California has already become the unofficial harbinger of spring (in my book, at least). I have to admit not being able to muster much enthusiasm for the race in 2006 (too early in the season, too short, too local, etc.) but I’m starting to come around. The field this year has quite a few heavy hitters, including the return of The Lion King: Mario Cipollini, coming out of retirement at age 40!

Now, I don’t follow professional road racing year-round. I prefer to ease in beginning with the Tour of California and slowly build up through the spring classics, leading up to the Tour de France in July. (By the end of the third week, though, I’m left feeling pretty spent — all those nights of getting up at 1 and 2 in-the-morning to watch live coverage… but I wouldn’t have it any other way!) Thus, it’s always a bit of a surprise come February when I’m faced with all the changes that have taken place in the off season. This year the re-shuffling is crazier than usual.

First, Cipo is cycling again? (Who saw that one coming? I sure didn’t. Does this mean we’ll see the return of the zebra suit?) And there’s a bunch of new teams I never heard of before, plus some old stalwarts that have disappeared: Discovery, gone; T-Mobile, now Team High Road. (I won’t say I’ll miss those pink jerseys, but they certainly were iconic.)

With Discovery’s disbanding, Johan Bruyneel has now gone over (defected?) to Astana. Astana! Remember Vino and and the doping accusations that forced the team to abandon the Tour de France last year? And Johan’s taken Levi and Alberto with him. Things are so discombobulated that Astana’s website is johanbruyneel.com, where there are photos of Johan still wearing a Discovery shirt. (Discovery’s old fansite, The Paceline, now seems totally lost at sea. With the tagline “The official fan club of Lance Armstrong and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team”, I think it’s past time to abandon ship.)

What may take even more time getting used to is seeing George (Hincapie) riding for the former T-Mobile squad. At least Tom Boonen is still wearing his trusty blue Quick Step kit, which is a reassurance.

Sheldon “CaptBike” Brown 1944 – 2008

A couple of days ago Todd informed me that Sheldon “CaptBike” Brown had passed away this last Sunday. After reading the first line of the forwarded email link I felt a cold knot begin to tighten in the pit of my gut. I’ve always had a kind of morbid fascination with death (call it my way of confronting the terrifying reality of my own mortality), but rarely do I feel this sense of tragic loss — especially for someone who lived the rich and full life that Sheldon obviously had. Stranger yet is the fact I never even met the man. (Or so I think. There’s a better-than-average chance I stopped by Harris Cyclery during the week I helped Meggin move to Newton Center, MA; the shop is not far away and I recall stopping by a place to pick up some stuff just before setting out for Chicago.)

To start, I never knew Sheldon personally, though over the past seven years or so I’ve come to greatly admire and respect him. (He even was kind enough to answer several email inquiries of mine, though lord knows he had a lot more begging for his time and attention closer to home.) Bicycles and bicycling never had a more passionate or enthusiastic advocate.

My first introduction came — as it likely did for so many others — when I stumbled upon Sheldon’s encyclopedic website of bicycle knowledge and fancy back in late 2000 or 2001. (I knew I liked him from the moment I saw that photo of Sheldon with the eagle taped to his bicycle helmet.) At that time I was living in Japan, and because of my schedule, Wednesdays were spent either hired out to elementary schools or parked behind a Bureau of Education desk at City Hall. (It comes down to being the lesser of two evils, really.) The stultifying boredom of the B.O.E. was mitigated somewhat when we (myself, Reg, and Damian) were alloted a notebook computer to use for preparing class materials, or, as was hoped for, studying Japanese.

I actually did do a lot of class prep at City Hall (after raiding the stocks of double-sided tape, magnets, and colored paper in the supply room), but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also do a fair amount of web surfing. It was during one of these online forays that I must have clicked on a link for SheldonBrown.com (and more likely days later before I got back out again). At the time I was doing quite a bit of research on bikes, either because I was in the market to buy or was in the process of modifying my own from parts off other junkers in the neighborhood. It’s hard to remember which.

The short of it is this: I found more than I’d come looking for and in effect began my education of how bikes really work. You know, for someone who likes bikes as much as I do, it’s pathetic how poor my mechanical knowledge has been in the past. For me it was always more about the ride than the repair.

But that soon changed as I began to explore the articles, references, and layman’s explanations that Sheldon was constantly updating to fill but one branch of his massive website. (He was equally fervent about his family, camera collection, community theater, music, traveling, books, and film, to just get started.) Sheldon’s unassuming writing style and utter love for his subject matter were evident in his posts. He had nothing to prove; only a desire to teach and eagerness to let some of his excitement rub off on us. Eccentric? Renaissance man? It’s tough to put a label on someone, but Sheldon definitely seemed like the kind of guy you’d love to have in the neighborhood.

The funny thing is, when it comes to bikes, I see much more of my brother in Sheldon than I do of myself. A lot more. For me, I’ve always identified more with Sheldon’s avidity for journaling, for getting it all down. For keeping the record. I mean, the man was a producing, publishing, and posting workhorse. And it’s the central paradox of this sort of effort — the record being only as temporal as the recorder — that I find both absurd and comforting. Making mention gives me pause to think: about what happened, about what it means. And this is good.

Looking at his journal over the past week or so of his life, Sheldon writes about doing some carpentry around the house, seeing his daughter’s music recital at M.I.T., joining a Revels Pub Sing, and hunting down a power supply for an older-model hard drive. He even throws in a few book and film reviews for good measure. In the entry for January 24th, Sheldon mentions the “spaces” feature of Mac’s new OS Leopard. He ends with, “I’ll need to play around with it a bit before I decide if I like it or not.”

In the very last entry, posted the day of his death, Sheldon gets excited over voting for Obama on Super Tuesday. And that’s where the site just freezes, the links inviting us to “Send eMail to Sheldon Brown” still there. It’s eerie to go there now because everything just looks so normal: a snapshot of the most recent update. I suppose this is something that is becoming more commonplace, but it’s still weird.

What I wasn’t aware of is how MS had kept Sheldon off two-wheelers for the past year or so. I can’t help but admire his attitude, referring to the disease as merely a “Really Major Inconvenience”. I’ve been stressing a bit myself lately over a lot of things I can’t control (or shouldn’t even waste time worrying about in the first place), when the truth is I don’t even allow myself enough time for the few things that truly bring me joy. That’s one reason I’ve asked Todd to send my guitar. I’ve got more music than I can possibly listen to (not least because I’m too busy ripping even more), and fretting over bit rates when the truth is my won’t ever be as acute as they once were. Better to just stop, sit down, and spend some time with a few good chords. Music is best felt.

But I digress.

Sheldon, god speed and thank you for everything.

(Link: Sheldon Brown memorial page)

(Link: Boston Globe obit)

(Link: 12-minute interview with Sheldon on Australia’s 3RRR radio)

Cruising the carpeting

Staying on the subject of bikes, the past few nights the muffled trill of a bicycle bell has echoed outside our door as Richard — our neighbors’ 2-year old son — cruises up and down the hall (with Mayumi’s help) on his brand new, candy-apple red Schwinn. The realities of apartment living… Mayumi said it’s safer to ride inside the building than out on the street. Plus, if you’ve got to learn how to fall, taking a tumble on the carpeting is definitely the way to go.

Ride down memory lane

Winter break is always good for getting to those odd little projects that niggle quietly in the dark corners of your mind during busier times. One thing I’ve been wanting to do for a while now is create a photo-set showing all the bikes that I recall ever owning. Why? Aw, who knows. And who cares! But it was fun, let me tell you. I was able to dig up pictures of the majority of bikes that have come into my life over the years — though I had to make do with a few substitutes from the Web. That’s not to say I won’t unearth photographic evidence in the future, but for right now this is what I’ve got. (link)

Round Top Drive open for business!

After 21 months, 2 murders, numerous delays, cost overruns, and untold lost hours in detouring the long way around the mountain, the closed stretch of Round Top Drive has finally (!) reopened to through traffic. It’s been so long since the road blocks went up that I had to think hard about why the road closed in the first place. (Oh yeah, all that rain we got back in the spring of 2005…)

It was weird riding the Tantalus-Round Top loop, as I — like so many other cyclists — had become so accustomed to simply turning around and doubling back. Yipee!

Dahon Smooth Hound

This a neat ‘little’ bike, from a company I’ve never paid much mind to. The Dahon Smooth Hound mixes a traditional, non-folding frame with 20″ wheels to create a compact travel/city bike that comes with ’stache bars, leather tape, and a Brooks saddle. There’s just something about this bike that I like.

This bike was made for hauling

I’ve had some hauling rigs in my time, but this one has them all beat: introducing the 2008 Kona Ute. (That extended frame can accommodate 4 rear panniers. Sweet…) Load ‘em up, ride ‘em out! (thanks Todd)