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Fixie Video from Minnesota
Author: One Eye Goat Posted: 2010-09-01
A friend of mine Vincent Shim just sent in a video from Minnesota of his friends park riding fixies. Take a look, sweet video!
User 2: Commment > Dang! It won't show up here... I'm not sure if it is a problem with Vimeo (their homepage won't even open) or if it is the "great-firewall" in full effect
User 1: Commment > Vimeo is not available in China :(
User 2: Commment > Kao!
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Exploring by Bike in Seoul
Author: One Eye Goat Posted: 2010-08-27
This moring I was supposed to play some golf with some friends. I looked at Gogle Earth to find my route, and headed out early, not knowing how long it would take to ride there on my fixie. The trip started off ok, but I couldn't find the raod running adjacent to the freeway. Since it was early in the morning i decided to haul down the freeway. I was used to riding on the freeway from my days riding with Adrian and Dustin in China. I made it with no mishaps, except i ended up doing another good hill climb only to find that I went the wrong way. So I doubled back and found what I believed was the right road. Once again I rode up a pretty good incline only to figure out that I wasn't where i had hoped i would be. I finally decided to give up and head home. The day ended up being productive since I got to explore more around the river trail system. Also, i found another skateboard park in the West Pangyo area of Pangyo-dong. I couldn't resist riding my fixie on the ramps and had a little wipe out on the ice like surface. After a good session off i went to find my way home.
Along bike path in Seoul.
Fixie ramp session.
Cool bike rack
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Tools for the Job (My fixed-gear cog replacement story)
Author: Dustin Posted: 2010-08-10
Over the summer, I got my new rear cog for my fixie! The cog is made by Origin-8 and I've been really excited to get it and try it out! Click here to check out the details! I picked up the cog back in the states this summer.. but had to wait until my recent return to China (where my bike and I live most of the year) to have the cog installed... Seeing as I didn't have a locknut tool on hand, I went to a shop to get the job done. Now there are TONS of little mom-and-pop style shops on the street.. and i say "on the street" because 99% of the time the real action of the shop happens right there on the street/sidewalk. Most of the stock is in the shop itself, but the service and most of the action happens out front. Anyways, as I have found, the little shops are great for simple (filling a tire, patching a tube) and/or familiar jobs (working with a basic bike they are used to)... However, they are not the least familiar with fixies and they certainly won't have the tool for removing a fixie cog lock ring... so off to the Giant-branded shop where prices products are legit, prices are higher, but you know you can get quality! .... This is not the first time the Giant technician has seen my bike and I so I "tell" (read: pantomime, because my Chinese is as bad as his English) him that I need the old cog removed and my sweet new Origin-8 cog installed in its place. No problem! Let's get that wheel off. He gets to work and has my wheel off in no time (not a difficult job by any means, but I always seem to get a lot dirtier and take longer when I do it). Then he grabs the special lock-ring removal tool and starts unscrewing the lock ring.... oh wait, that's not a lock-ring removal tool.. it's a big hammer and something that I can only describe as a chisel on steroids.. and by "unscrewing the lock ring", I mean to say "banging on the lock ring with the chisel & hammer".... Ok, not the most elegant solution, but mechanically it seems possible.. and hey, maybe it is a true reflection of the bare-bones back-to-basics style that the fixies embody in the first place.. so fine. Lock ring comes off... but what about the cog which is also screwed on tightly? Unscrew by hand? Nope... try the special cog removal tool... and of course I mean a GIANT plumbers wrench!! What?! Ok fine.. this is why I came to China - to see and experience stuff I wouldn't see or experience anywhere else.. crank that badboy off!!..... Yet, despite the work of three guys (including me) and the giant wrench, no dice.... that is until we broke out the hammer/chisel combination again! Why did we ever stray from such an effective tool combination in the first place?! So to make a long story slightly shorter, the gear EVENTUALLY came off and, much to my pleasure, the new cog went on without any incident (and without any "tooling", thank god!)... And in the end, I learned two things: 1) When you don't have the correct tool isn't available, you sometimes really can just wack the heck out of it with a hammer. 2) A cog replacement job is free when the technician breaks 2 teeth off your original cog in the process!! LOL ** A full review of the Origin-8 cog is coming soon... it has just been pushed off a little bit because I'm not as bicycle-ready as usual due to a little motor scooter accident last week.
Seems like this VLB logo I made a while back is rather fitting for this article. ha ha!
User 1: Commment > damn, and I just spent $100 on a special bike tool kit. I could have just bought a hammer:(
User 1: Commment > Looking forward to the Orion review.
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Camper Bike
Author: One Eye Goat Posted: 2010-07-17
While walking along the Willamette River in Eugene, I came across a music festival. Next to the path was this guy with his custom built camper bicycle. He said it weighs about 700 pounds. Sweet ride, and when you're tired you can just park it and take a nap;)
User 2: Commment > Good thing... because I bet you'd get tired quickly and often when lugging around 700lbs!
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Velo Guy Mobile Bicycle Repair
Author: One Eye Goat Posted: 2010-07-11
This morning while walking out of a restaurant, I noticed a van with a VeloGuy Mobile Bicycle Repair painted on the side. I stop Tom Rau as he was walking in and asked for his card. After checking his site I found that he offers a service where he comes to you if you are in the Eugene / Springfield area and offers tune-ups and repairs. He also offers his service for events.
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