30th Century Bicycle

Beginning this afternoon (Friday) the yearly Jingle Cross Rock cyclocross race will kick off.  Our humble shop will be sponsoring the Women’s Beginner category.  All racers registered for that event will be entered into a drawing for this:

The Masi CXR frameset!  Ooh la la!!

Events continue all day tomorrow and Sunday.  Steve will be out there racing, too, so consider it your chance to heckle him!  Even if you don’t race, it’s a fine time to hang out in the precious sunshine and beautifying mud.  Bring your muck boots, and we’ll see you there!

For those who will be biking out to the Johnson County Fairgrounds, the McCollister Bridge is now open, connecting South Gilbert Street over the river to Old 218.  It’s a lovely ride, if I may say so myself.

Thanks to all the folks who gave kind feedback and encouragement about the previously posted Tales of Woe & Conquest of the Bicycle Commuter.  A few people told me they look forward to seeing the next five pages, and, well, that’s where I was perhaps unclear.  That comic is over.  The end.  Sorry.  It was a ten-panel comic, not a ten-page comic.

Anyway, because I feel a bit lame for leading good people on, I thought I should mention that I do still make comics.  They’re similarly autobiographical, and I sell small, staple-bound copies for $1 a pop.  If you’re really a fan, I also have a few handbound (i.e. hand-sewn) anthologies for $40 from a limited run of 27.

L-t-R: Awkwardly Put #11 zine for $1 and the big ol’ anthology for $40

I may consider posting the occasional page from my zine on this here blog, but, trust me, it makes more sense when it’s read together, like a journal.

Whoa, blast from the past!  This is a short comic I did way back in 2005, at the tender age of 27.  It’s a total of ten panels, so here we go, two panels each day this work week.

How many modes of transportation can you find in this circa 1910 photo of the Dubuque St. and Washington St. intersection?

Photo credit: Irving Weber’s Iowa City, Volume 2.

I (Cody) count five!  Of course, the regal bicycles stand tall, but also to be noted are (clockwise from left) pedestrians, worker with wheelbarrow, two carriages (horse-drawn or horseless?), and streetcar rails, from the long-defunct 5-line electric streetcar system and the interurban streetcar that ran to Cedar Rapids every hour.  (Every hour!)  Three of five are human powered.

Under a simple definition pulled directly from wikipedia, transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another.  Adding the single restriction of “human powered” to that definition, the possibilities are still vast.  Unicycle, skateboard, handcart, wheelchair, roller skates, shopping cart, crutches, stroller, skis, ______________

Today I (Steve) realized a dream.  I took our recycling to the place, and rode my cardboard-laden Xtracyle-enhanced touring townie onto the big scale that weighs the trucks when they come in to see just how much recycling I was carrying.  Normally when we do recycle runs they are open for business and it seems rude to butt in, but today it was mine, all mine!

First stop, the scale!

Next, chuck our big box full of cardboard in with all the rest.

And then, back to the scale!  Lookit that, a 20 lb box of cardboard?   Actually, I don’t believe it, maybe they need their scale recalibrated…  Hope I don’t get in trouble for using their equipment, but at the time it seemed worth it.

After all that fun I stopped by the Public Library and saw this poor bicycle had been pushed down by a bully or something.

So I gave it a pep talk and got it back on it’s own two wheels!

Haha, take that bicycle bullies and / or gravity.

Not sure how it happened, but a blog post has not composed itself lately.  Sorry.  So here is a monster post to catch everyone up as to what has been going on around here.  We cut some metal and installed a headset on this fat tired snow bike.

Across the snowy tundra or the barren parking lot, the 9Zero7 has you covered!

For all your panniergating needs, this bike can carry 100 cans of beer to the game, plus ice.  And yes says owner, Jodi, it is heavy.

Fend for yourself!  Nick has taken matters into his own woodshop and cranked out his own set of wooden fenders and don’t they just look great?  Well done Nick!

Here it is, the very frameset we will be giving away at the Jingle Cross, get yourself registered for one day or all three of the Beginner Women’s and it could be yours.

Lastly, we are now stocking Cyclelogical bags!  The pannier above is a nice little get around town small sized bag.  The backpack is incredibly well designed, and both of these bags are reflective, which is just Cyclelogical, of course.

They also make a line of cool t shirts, and whaddaya know, Cody has submitted some artwork and one of her drawings will be out there on one of their shirts later this month!  But not this one:

This design did not make the cut, so what do you think?  I love it and the one of a kind test print shirt they sent us has gotten some good comments here at the shop, should Cyclelogical reconsider?