But i have been busy! I have focused more attention in growing Bicycles First!. I will still write about random bicycles and funny things, but want to focus more on advocacy and safety. And don’t worry, I will continue my crusade against irresponsible office chair use. I still see it most every single day. Its a travesty. But i digress. Anyways, please check out Bicycles First! and share it with friends. Same shitty writing. Same blurry photos. But now with extra!!!

and now a short rant about irresponsible office chair riding:

Sights like this are sobering and scary. Drunk kids, maybe all hopped up on meth or coffee (or both!) joyriding and endangering the citizens and trees of our quaint and quiet little island. I really hope nobody was injured and the tree will continue to grow and be healthy. I also hope enough people saw this carnage to help others from making the same mistakes.

Pollard caught a shot of the same mess in the daylight and emailed it to me with the subject, “Seating apparatus violence up in the Keys‏.” It is frightening to think about how many people could have been crushed under that massive branch as it fell from the traumatic impact of the office chair.

The first alleycat of 2010! sorry for the late flyer…or is it early for island time?!?! I dunno…but i do know this will be a fun race and the afterparty will be as much fun as y’all make the photos funny.

You will need a digital camera for this one and need to take photos at all the manifest checkpoints. At the last stop, your camera’s photos get dumped into a computer and we’ll watch a slideshow of vacation photos…so make it interesting!

UPDATE!!! The final stop/checkpoint/afterparty will have the slideshow and a few noshes and drinks…then we’re off for the afterafterparty to a bar to celebrate proper!!! Then let then fun begin with some slalom racing, footdown or tracksand comps! woooo-haaaa! Ride On!!!

posts of past races:
Key West Hardcore August 2009

The Summer Showdown in Old Town July 2009

I almost decided not to write a post, but only a really, really long title; but alas, I cannot insert photos into the title area; and what would a KWVelo post without photos be like? I’ll tell you. It’d be like a post with no run-on sentences or blurry photos that is written well. That shall not happen tonight; its late, I’m weeks behind on writing, its raining, I need to shower (which will be fun in the rain), I am tired and don’t feel like writing a whole lot. Here’s some pictures:

We’ll start with Mike’s underwear. Yep, this blog has sunk to new levels of WTFness. This seemed funny at the time. Hopefully it”ll be funny tomorrow morning.

Pollard has grown a tradition of doing a crazy trackstand at every ride. There’s another shot of him on the Simonton Pier a few posts back and I would hyperlink it if I wasn’t concerned with making this an exceptionally crappy post unto itself!

The Western Union and the Moon. Can you guess which is in dry dock and which is a celestial object? I knew you couldn’t!

Horray for Republic Underwear! Well done Mike! I hope, no… I expect and endorse, that someday this image becomes as iconic as The Kramer. This photo facinates me into realms of mispellings. The cigarette, the socks, the look of a disgruntled factory worker toiling away 12-16 hours a day; this should be on the freakin’ cover of Life. Well, if it still exists!?!? Does it? Are those shorts. short pants, coulottes or Gauchos?

Well, all the above was written a weeks ago and here I am now; hours away from tonights’ ride. Last week was St. Patty’s Day and my birthday and the two year anniversary of Fixed Gears and no ride. There’s a bunch of sweet photos from other rides I need to post…and will….on island time. Manana. or next week. wheneva. Anyways, we’re riding at 10pm, come on down to the shop 945ish for air and lube. or buy shit and make the bossman proud of me. or not. lets just ride and await pollards trackstandstarness for the night.

This conch cruiser roadie was caught locked up in front of Louie’s Backyard. Ohhh what a beauty!  I really dig the isle style on this bicycle. The frame almost looks too nice with that awesome tropical blue paint. Flipped handlebars and a basket too. Dang. Hotness….

Ape hanger handlebars…. with bar ends!…. and a towing ball ready for business on the rear end. Only in Key West.

Pollard and I locked up our bicycles at the racks on Front Street next to the boardwalk and docks and gangplanks and whatnot. There were A LOT of bikes locked up whilst their riders were happyhouring or maybe out on sunset cruises: a beautiful sight. This shot presented itself and caught my fancy. A few weeks later I realized the bicycle with the sticker is owned by Chris at Melo Velo.

The Wednesday game plan is arrive at Fixed Gears @ 421 Simonton between 930pm and 10pm for air and chain lube, leaving at 10. We try to finish up at Finnegans’s Wake at midnight to catch the late night happy hour and 1/2 price veggie menu…which is hella bangin’. Its been all fixies so far, which we all like, but freewheels won’t be turned away…just harassed. We ride pretty fast so cruisers and mountain bikes would not be too much fun! And really hard to ride backwards. Other, more inclusive rides are being planned, so don’t hate…just get a fixie!

We keep changing and adding rules and ideas about where to ride. Presently, there’s a deck of badly handdrawn cards of locations to ride to and we all pick one at the start of the ride and also pick the first spot to go. At the first stop someone “plays” their card (all are secret) for the next place. At the next spot, someone else plays their card and we go there. Sounds confusing? Well, that’s because A. its a constantly changing thing and we are confused ourselves and B. I did a shitty job trying to explain it.

White Street Pier is closed, but we still ride to it and dream of riding out on it again soon. Actually, i am not sure anyone dreams about it, but we all agree that “Rip Rap Repair Job” is funny.

Anyways, grab your fixie, come on down to Fixed Gears for free air and chain lube and enjoy a few hours of pedaling with no particular place to go.

This is an example of when drunken office chairing goes wrong. We’ve all been a little irresponsible before, in our younger years with drinking and operating office chairs. Some of our three of four readers may remember the first office chair post advocating for cyclists to open their hearts and bike racks to our office chair brothern. But scenes like this are chilling.

The beer can can be seen much more clearly in this photo from a different angle. Its obvious why this office chair was wrecked into the sidewalk and abandoned. I really hope nobody was hurt. Perhaps the real cause was a charging chicken, but I doubt that. I still wish to share the racks, roads and sidewalks with my office chair riding brothers and sisters, but we, as a family of green transportationists, must curtail this kind of irresponsible riding.

Firewood collecting in the Everglades and beer transportation logistics; a winning combination!! Wandering around, breaking large branches, on uneven, potholey rocks can work up quite a thirst! Luckily, it was possible to stay hydrated and collect firewood for the night’s fire. Or the afternoon’s smokefest to keep bugs at bay while cooking or engaging in other campwork.

This isn’t my bicycle! Three or four years ago I had a great conversation with a woman I think was named Cheryl at the Parrot. Somehow bicycles and crates and baskets came up and she described the red crate on her rack. T’was the same one I had! She had also stuck some highly reflective stickers onto the basket which I promptly did to my own basket; it was a great idea!

This is my bicycle at the Parrot! Woo-haaa! One night around this same time period, back when I was only visiting and had begun driving my van down I awoke very confused. I had slept in my van and my bike wasn’t inside! How did someone get inside and steal it with me in there too!?!? A walk to the Parrot for an afternoon beer solved the mystery. My bicycle was already there, waiting for me…still locked up from the night before…

I spotted a healthy stack of low sided plastic crates curbside on trash night a few weeks ago and scooped them up with an awed quickness. Why did someone toss these out!?!?! And how has nobody taken them yet!? Lucky timing for me. These are my favorite style and they work really well mounted to a rack over the rear wheel. All I had on me for fixin’s was a bungee cord which kinda helped get my booty home, but still made for an awkward and somewhat sketchy ride on the fixie. All in a night’s work. I have already given 5 away. Three went to someone for use composting, its a really great design for keeping air circulating and stuff doing things.

First, thank you to Pollard for taking this photo and sending it to me. Just another day in Key Wierd. I sometimes tow my kayak with my bicycle, and this dude sometimes tows his jet ski with his bicycle. I’ve seen an assortment of trailers on the island towing Mallory Square retail space, street vending set-ups and of course trailers with dogs, kids or kids and dogs. Lots of dogs in baskets too; I’ll have to start collecting shots for a dog post.

I wish I could see this beauty in action and see what’s getting towed by such a swanky set-up. This photo was snapped while riding by the Waterfront Market one night.