big pink too

Billy, it's time. Big pink 2 is waiting for you, just need to add some tires.

For those that don't know Billy, he only rides pink bikes. He's weird that way. This one has been a long time in the making, mostly waiting for belt drive parts from Spot (which I still don't have). So we just built it up with a chain for now, till I can procure the belt parts.

Pretty darn cool little bike if you ask me, despite the paint! I did a lot of lug shaping to make the sloping top tube work with these long-shen lugs. Had to add about 10 degrees of to each upper lug in order to get the standover he needed.

anyways, I've got a lot more I'd like to get done this weekend, so write at you later.

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post down and out.

Deanwood, I got your seatpost out of your frame, but it's in a couple more pieces than when you brought it to me.
Good news is the frame is fine and ready for a new one.

Next time don't stick a long mtb post in a road frame and leave it there for years!

Good luck to all the kenwoodies and BKB folks up at Chequomegon this weekend. Wish I was up there with you.

If you're like me and stuck in town this weekend you ought to at least come check out the Derailleur show Friday night at the Bedlam Theater. We'll go on about 8:30, and it's a fundraiser, so you can spend guilt-free!

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another day in the right

Made it downtown again today after work, this time just to sight see a little and check out what might be going on the RNC land. Overall, it was pretty quiet. There was a small protest by the Code Pink ladies early on, it looked like a couple of them were arrested (or at least carried away by police) peacefully. I mainly was there to take people pictures, here's some of what I saw (note, there's even a tiny bit of bike content here! click on any picture for big):

Code-pink folks exercising their first amendment rights

This is a typical scene of the protests down there, not riots and tear gas

But the police were ready for riots and tear gas, quite a presence for a few odd protesters

Obvious anarchists here, I ran into Tom and Jen Fitch down there, these two look like trouble to me, check out how Tom's hiding something in his pockets. I'm pretty sure that guy on the bmx bike is part of the scheme too.

There seemed to be a much larger fanatical religious presence today too. They were hanging out by the MSNBC broadcast, I'm sure hoping to get this sign on national TV.

I love the all-encompassing theme of this banner, I wonder if the guy carrying it is included in the "all"?

Code Pink, they sure are everywhere, spreading their message. Props for perseverance.

Don't know what to say about this one, but how can you resist taking a picture

Bike content: saw this sweet recumbent pedicab parked out by Rice park. Didn't get to see it in action though.

Not sure who this is, or who the reporter is, but it was an interesting scene

I had to make sure to ride back home via the river path so that I could get some shots of the fleet that the coast guard brought in to patrol the river. I feel so safe now.

This one is my favorite. I saw these boats running the river Monday but didn't have a camera. I had to chase one down while on my bike to get a good shot of the front and rear guns. Watch out terrorists, we got guys with machine guns on the might Mississippi!

Just walking around downtown you feel a bit unsure of what you're "allowed" to do. There's three cops on every corner all the way across downtown. There's even parked state patrol cars at the freeway exit ramp by my place, which is about 2 miles outside of downtown. Not sure what they're all supposed to be doing though.
The gun boats on the river really do you feel a bit uneasy, especially when your on a bike and trying to photograph them. I could see the crew on one of the boats looking at me through the binoculars, trying to decide if they should wave or shoot me (fortunately they waved).

anyways, next post should have far more bike content. write at you later.

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pinstripe suit convention

So as you may or may not know the Republican National Convention is right here in St. Paul this week. Between Gustav and the RNC you'll be hard pressed to find any other news. Naturally in a very left-leaning twin cities metro area, there are quite a few large protest marches. The first major one being today from the state capitol down the Xcel center. While I'm not a big protester kind of guy, this sort of thing just doesn't happen very often in MN. So when my friend Kate asked if I wanted to go check out the march, I jumped at the chance. It's really sad that pretty much all the news converage focused on the couple of idiots who went out early to break things and make havoc. There were ten's of thousands of people making a great peaceful protest and the few idoits get all the press and make it look like everyone was trying to break windows and damage cars. Sad because that just wasn't the case.

Not a whole lot of bike content here, but I suspect most of my readers tend to lean left and will appreciate some pictures. Thanks to Kate for all the photos! They're roughly in chronological order from the pre-march ralley, then through the march. Click on images to make 'em big.

Nice shirt, there were a lot of good ones.

Homeland security levels finally explained

Iraq. vets for peace

Some dude riding a sweet elephant bike

Gotta love these ladies slogan

Lots of creative costumes

Elephant gittin' it.

Dancing Bush and McCain, hard to beat 'em

protestors of all ages

Bike Builder looking uncomfortable, but rockin' the look.

The march starts, it's truly a sea of people

We though we were in about the middle of the crowd, but later realized we were probably in the front 1/4, there were just a ton of people behind us.

More bike cops than I imagines MN coupld possibly have. All on pretty lame bikes, but all treated us well and with respect. Thanks guys and gals in blue.

The riot cops and "MN peace team" working together. The riot gear really does make these guys look imtimadating.

lots and lots of riot cops. I found it ironic that they were all lined up in front of the Children's Museum main entrance. Watch out kids! I feel sorry for all these people having to be out in all that gear all day in the 90 degree heat.

Click on this one to enlarge and look for all the guys up on the roof of the Xcel

Appearently CNN took over the Eagle St. Grill and literally made it there own. New signage, bus and lots o neon in the windows. odd.

Only tandem I saw, had to lock 'er up to the freedom fence. They put up all this steel fencing to keep people out of the area of the convention.

And finally one really great sign.

I hope to get out more this week just to do some people watching. Hanging out at the Liffey after the march we saw some "unique" people. Can't wait to see more. I'll bring the camera. I'd like to get some shots of the ridiculous coast-guard patrols out on the Mississippi, literally machine guns mounted front and back ready to kill the terrorists! seems like overkill to me, but what do I know.

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