Stupid Hurts

I can’t believe I forgot to write about this.

A big reason of the part of the real I returned the first bicycle was the customer service I received when I dealt with them. There was the first time I went in riding my Allez and I was asked if I was riding someone’s bike. That was deeply insulting. And most recently buying a bicycle that was assembled incorrectly from them.

I was out on my first ride on the bike when and, when I approached a stop the cog and lockring fell off, and so did I. Having just crashed at 30 mph a few days earlier you can imagine what this felt like.

So the next day after I shot a letter to corporate I took the back wheel down to the bike shop to have them repair it. I calmly explained to the guy what happened and that there were metal shavings on the hub indicating it was put together wrong, I wanted him to tighten the lockring, and I asked if they used assembly lube like most other shops. I waited 15 minutes in the front of the shop before the tech handed me my wheel and asked me if there was anything else, at which point I spun the lockring off with my fingers. So he took it back in the back again to try again, at that point I found out they don’t use assembly lube another strike against them. I returned home to find out in an email from the corporate office that it wasn’t their fault and they would leave it all in the dealers hands.

Even that adventure aside I have been inspired to shot a few pictures the past few days and those have left me in an amazing mood.

I got this one from the Jones Valley Urban farm this weekend. I had a great time walking down the rows and rows of plants.
[thumb:1448:c]
Click it for the larger version it is worth it.

There are a lot of new pictures in the gallery to.

After the wreck. I ended up with a mark on my right cheek about two by four inches. I hope it won’t scar. We will see.

Looking at my bike. Looks like I did a bit more damage than I thought I did.
The handle bars are bent.
My front wheel actually is bent, and I impacted the hub.
I have to rebuild the front end again.
I twisted the seat.
And after all that time saying how awesome Soma toe clips are, I broke one.

Between eating my Grandmother’s cooking everyday. (I am currently eating a pot roast with a spoon.) And hanging out around here. Life has been pretty hard the past couple of days.

[image:854:c]

I was told the second day my dad was out of his wheel chair he found the highest hill near the house here and walked up it just to see if he could. Apparently this scared my Grandmother immensely. I found the same hill and walked up it myself. The view from the top was worth the effort completely. From the street to the peak it was about a ten minute climb for me, so I am curious about how long it took him. I shot a panorama from the top, but unfortunately I shot it at the wrong focal length, I have debated going back and reshooting it correctly to see if i could get better results, but this is what I came up with.

Hilltop pano

A few months ago I built myself a [tag]fixed[/tag] [tag]gear[/tag] [tag]bicycle[/tag] , and few weeks ago I broke it. The rear wheel came apart like the back of a dress on prom night. Luckily I was able to limp on home, but it was obvious that I would be without that [tag]bike[/tag] for a bit.
Luckily for me almost all the places I needed to order parts from were throwing [tag]Christmas[/tag] sales, and I took this as a sign I should go ahead and get all of my planned upgrades out of the way. In the end I went from this

to this
[image:774:c]

I added a new [tag]Mavic[/tag] Open pro rear wheel, a Fsa saddle, a set of pedals to replace the pair I bent, a pair of toe clips to replace the pair I stole off my dad’s bike, a new pair of handle bars which I haven’t really decided on yet, and a few other small odds and ends.

One of the many perks of having my [tag]memory[/tag] [tag]fried[/tag] is that I tend [tag]forget[/tag] to update my site.

My week has been pretty interesting. I got [tag]published[/tag] again. This week a [tag]picture[/tag] I took and my name appeared in the Dec. 6th-13th issue of the Birmingham Weekly

[image:751:c]

I am still feeling pretty rough from my last seizure. I also got suspended from my day job until the beginning of the new year and I decided to bow out of the normal group rides I usually attend, but I will be attending two races in [tag]Atlanta[/tag] on Saturday. The first is Santa’s Little Messenger A benefit race for Toys for Tots in downtown Atl. And the Second is Thrasfh and mash which has a no brakes stipulation. Which is no biggie to me since I ride brakeless anyway, but I have never ridden with a group of brakeless people, and the last person I met who rode without brakes was running a stupid gear ratio.

I intend on taking an Amtrak out to Atl at this point. It will give me a chance to get some writing done and true my rear wheel, and with my luck I will end up with an interesting story to tell.

Lastly, whenever I tell people I work security they always ask me if I have seen the [tag]movie[/tag] roadhouse. I am starting to think I need to rent it.

This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a bit. First off I found this website called Stumbleupon.com they have this plugin for Firefox that sends you random links that other people have voted as being awesome. I decided to give it a try. The first site it sent me to was this one °°°°°°°THEIR CIRCULAR LIFE°°°°°°°
It features time lapse photos of several crowded areas and you can control the sweep with a wheel interface. check it out it is pretty cool