Toys for summer.....

Last summer, I had a pretty bad crash with another biker on the lakefront path.
It was 7am one Sunday morning, I was getting my 40mile training ride done. Riding down the lakepath in the bike lane at about 28mph (a fair clip) there was no-one around. Then I noticed the lady up ahead in her lane on the other side of the 12ft wide path, then at the last moment,, she turns in front of me, 10ft, I lock up, hit her straight on, flew off my bike and landed on my back, 10 /15ft away. Of course she was on a piece of junk old bike, I was on my expensive race bike. At the time I had no heath insurance and there are no free hospitals in the US, so I was very glad we were both ok. My bike was messed up - hers fine. I rode back home 12miles with 1 gear and blood gushing from my leg. the short of the story is always get money from the person you crash into if it's their fault, well no really the short of the story is I thought my bike was fixable but it turned out the crash had bent the rear part of my frame by 2mm, which makes a huge difference, ie was 20 race gears down to 11 perhaps 12 mediocre gears.
So a month ago I bought a new frame, the same as my old, just a different color and I got a great deal on it because I work in a bikeshop, I had to send the old frame back to Felt, so the White bike no longer exists and I swapped the components.

Here's the start of my new summer race bike. At the moment it weights around 16lbs (7.2kg) which is about 1lb (0.5kg) lighter than my old bike, because I had to get new forks for this bike.
Here's a sneak preview, sorry the picture is bad, but this should be a 15.5lb monster by the time I have finished working on it. It's not as pretty as the old bike, but it will perform as well if not better.
Here's the old bike, very pretty, oh i'm gonna miss the white so much.

Smokey

Grieving and Leaving

While I was riding home tonight, I was deep in thought - (probably not such a bright idea what with with Chicago traffic) so yes, death, strange subject right, I haven't read any books and don't know about the human process but when my grandfather passed away, i hid all my emotions inside and locked away those good memories of him, that was my entire grieving process I think - I don't remember feeling angry or sad. This past week I have been crabby, easily irritated and testy, reflecting back on the phonecall of last friday, I'm not too sure what was going on in my head but it makes me realize once again how far (physically) I am from my family), the British thing as always, is putting on a good show, strong face, grin and bear it, being strong, charging on for the better, yes that's in me and I think my mum always encouraged this, she said well they would not want you feeling sad or sorry, just getting on with life and what not. But I reckon that I should apologize to my co workers and even some of my clients for being snappy.

Now for some good news, well news on a different slant.
Since last June I have been keeping my eye on the job market, when I left my job at Radius in Chicago, I interviewed at many other design consultancies and got offers from 2, both of which I turned down because it did not feel like the right fit.So in early September I found a job posting for a company called Yakima - they design and manufacture racks to transport Canoes, Kayaks, Ski's , Snowboards and Bicycles on top of your car. in fact I have had a Yakima rack for a long time and have high regard for their design and engineering, they are one of the premier players in this field. The job posting was for a Sr. Industrial Designer. I applied for the job, sent some samples, heard nothing. I was being very selective about what I applied for and I only applied for jobs in the Action / outdoor sports industries. So I had not made loads of applications. then in late December I got a call, it was a screening interview from the hiring manager at Yakima... then quiet... then at the very end of January I had a few interviews and they made me a job offer. - guess what, I accepted, I would be silly not too. I remember thinking back in September that it would be a great industry to work/design for.

It's gonna be sad to leave Chicago, not for overall reasons but very specific ones.
• My boss at the bikeshop - Doug, I am pretty sure he is the best boss I have ever had. Doug has mastered the fine balance of the ultimate boss, the balance of how to be supportive yet not micro managing, he empowers his employees and trusts everyone and guess what - look at his business - it does very well.
• I'll miss all the people I learn from ... James, Russell and maybe Louis.
• I'll miss Erin & Smokey dog.
• I'll miss how you can be king of the road on your bike, city drivers know that the ulock can take out expensive car window and mirrors with a minor tap never to catch the traffic weaving cyclist - that brings a level of 2 wheel respect.
• Ignoring red lights, riding the wrong way down one way streets. Trackstands at every occasion.
• Stinky bike messengers - god bless you guys, your hardcore and you are keeping it real with your low carbon footprints amoung the myriad of SUV driving cellphone talking idiots.
• The lakefront path, early 7am in the summer before all the idiots get on there.

Things i'm not gonna miss
• Chicago Yuppies - these are regular yuppies, but they have no manners, don't say Please or Thank You and their lives revolve around them and generating $$$ at the expense of nothing else. Now put your iphone down while you are driving and try not to run over that pedestrian with your lex suv.
• Overpriced groceries at Dominick's.

What a week!

This week has been crazy, at the bikeshop we have been short of a mechanic, which is a set of hands short which means more work for the rest of us, so basically me and the other James have been doing everything, ordering, inventory, repairs, merchandising, vendors, invoices the whole 9. On top of that I have had 3 external client project (freelance design work) which have required a large amount of time. Plus, I have been looking after Smokey while Erin is in Mexico. Translation = not much sleep, lots of dog walks in the freezing weather and snow.
The weather has been nasty in Chicago, very cold, then occasionally just getting warm enough to snow, then cold again. - and by cold I mean -20 degrees C.

Then the biggest downer ever came on Friday morning, I got a call from Mum, Nana has passed away. (Nana is Paul's mother). She passed quietly and it was a calm affair, Nana had been getting gradually worse over the last months and was in a elderly care home but was happy. I am glad it was peaceful, I am sorry I was not in the U.K. My heart goes out to everyone, Mum, Paul, Susan, David, Nicola, Claire, Jane, Collin, Matthew.

Some other good news came, some of which I cannot share at this time, just because this blog is public and anyone could read. When I am able to share I will. But there's a change ahead, a pretty big change if all works out - I'll keep you posted.

After all this, next week is going to be designated look after myself week, sleep, swim, gym, ride. I have not done any serious riding for several weeks now, just too busy. the most riding I've done is roughly 15miles a day, which is basically commuting in the nasty snow and what not..etc, not training or making any improvements for my fitness for the upcoming race season.

Still on the bike front, several months back I found out that my race bike was bent, probably from having too many crashes on it. The result is that a bend of 2mm in the rear means that only 12gears are usable out of 20 and it just so happens that the most important transitional gears and pace gears are the ones affected. What does that mean? means my bike sucks! and I need a new frameset. Good job I work in a bike shop. I've ordered a new frameset, the same thing because it's inexpensive and performs well plus I have good connections at Felt. the downside, the new frameset is black and looks ghetto compared to my old white race bike. Oh well at least I should have 20 gears by the time it's up and running.

Ok, back to the PC now, I have to finish some cad models - making arms for chairs! for one of my clients. Hopefully get this wrapped up by Sun afternoon.

Cheers

Prototypes

So just as a background to anyone reading this who did not know - I started a company last June so that I can do freelance design work to supplement my income but also to develop and manufacture my own products, one of these products is a new bike rack design. I'm pretty excited because after waiting a while and trying to find manufacturing, I just got a box of fine prototypes! I just had a few (4) of my bike racks fabricated so that I can test test them. They are made out of heavy steel- very durable- they weigh quite a bit and are nicely powder coated black. They certainly convey security with their bulk and thick steel - which is a good thing, as it will take a lot to break into this sucker. The fabrication company that made them did a good job overall, other than a few welds which are a little bit poor quality, but they will be fine for development and testing. I have to order up some additional parts to make them complete for testing, then I will be figuring out who I should get to test them.
Nice.!

Also this week, i'm looking after Smokey (erins dog) while she is on a volleyball trip in Mexico. It's still super cold in Chicago which makes walking the dog a bit of a pain. Anyways, dogs are nice, I miss having a little mutt around. I'll add some pics to this blog later.

Good Luck Mum & Susan

I think Mum is recovering in hospital now and I got a text saying all is well. Not sure about Susan, but Good Luck with everything.

Bloody Cold -26Celcius

So, above is a little screen capture of the weather today.... 9am - Feels like -25 C ! then it stays cold all day... fantastic!

Back in Chicago

My plane got into Portland around 11am on Thursday, I stayed in a generic hotel in Beaverton Thursday night, Beaverton is just outside of Portland to the South, it's a different vibe than Portland more suburban with strip malls (shops in a single line) and chain shops. It's still very hilly and a nice place, but you know, different.
I met up with Nathan late Thursday night after meeting one of my Ziba friends - Michelle for dinner.
Friday things went well, that's all i'm going to say, there was some weird stuff, but i'm not going to jinx it.

Now for the rest of the weekend. Which consisted of Snowboarding and driving up the mountain - Mount Hood. Saturday conditions were bad, wet and snowing in the am turned into cold and ice pellets in the afternoon. It was good because there was less people, but yeah it was cold, oh so cold. Still a good time. Saturday night I met Sarah - Nathans girlfriend, we went to a local bar / downscale restaurant that I had been to before... 5th Quadrant, where the burgers are well sorted. After a berger and a few beers we went round the corner to Pix, a desert place, sells fancy chocolate deserts, creme brulle and espresso, you know the type of place could be a little snotty, but this is Portland, so it has a cool crowd and is not pretentious.

On Sunday we went up to the mountain, myself, Nathan and Sarah (Nathans girlfriend), it's about 1hr 20min drive, but there were a lot of people headed that way, since it was such a nice day. - conditions were perfect, sun is out, wind is low, temp is still cold, but no ice pellets or rain!

Monday - tooled around in the mornin - back on the plane, have to work the next day :(

Click on the Photo to see more that I took in Portland.

Bye for now

Busy week

Going to be a busy week, got a lot to do before I head out to Portland on Thursday AM. I'll take some pics and give you an update when I return, next Tuesday or so.

Cute Present

So yesterday I got a christmas gift in the post. It was from my friend Feebie in Columbus, Ohio. It's so interesting / cute / cool / awesome /wicked, That I have to tell you about it.

It's a solar powered desk ornament. His head rocks left and right, very smooth , fragile and gentle action. I think feebie had to buy this gift from Korea or Japan, all the packaging is Japanese with cute graphics and enclosure ( enclosure is to the left in the picture)
All I can say is that I love it. It has a strange charm to it. It's kind of calming.

here's the pic:
I guess if I was bright enough, I could have posted a video with his head rocking. Anyway.

cold, cold ,cold - 14oC

Riding home from work tonight, my head nearly froze under two woolie caps and a helmet.
looked up the temp when I got home -14 celsius, yep negative. I think the swiming pool closed coz it froze over! the indoor one. ha.

New Year Resolutions

1) Eat more chicken.
why: because it's good for me and if I say it it might substitute some of the other junk I eat
2) Go back to the UK for a visit sometime this year.
At some point I have to return home, it's so easy to put it off, especially when the airfares are so high, but maybe I should stop living in the past!
3) Stop biting my fingernails
I have said this before and can manage to do it for about 4 months, but then it all goes south for some reason, just have to be a bit more diligent here.
4) Get a new job
I think the only reason why I say this is because it will force me to move away from Chicago, which is a good think. I found out after 6 months here that this is not the place for me. I'm not the right type of person to live in Chicago. There are only two types of people here, complete A holes (75% of the inner city population) and minorities (which are the decent people who actually care about stuff other than money and one upping your neighbor). It's sad to say this but working retail I see a lot of customers each day and my 75/25 is a reality.

Maybe I should add running and yoga. Hum I've been thinking about trying to do some running, but always when I run by myself, i have a hard time controlling my pace, and pace is crucial. This time though, I ran on a treadmill last night and the good thing it - it controls your pace. So after not having run in what seems like forever I managed to kick out 3miles pretty easy.
The yoga thing... dunnow, everyone says it's so good for you in terms of flexibility development and less injuries with other sports. There are free classes every Sunday in my neighborhood.

1st entry

It's Wed night after the New Year, I decided I wanted to make a blog that people could go to so they could see what I was up to, and leave a comment or what not. I guess Just a way to stay in touch. So I invited Paul, Mum, Ruth and Jane & Collin via e mail.

So at the moment I am busy working on my trip to Portland, OR . While I am out there, I also plan on going snowboarding on Mount Hood, so today I fed ex'd my snowboard to my friend in Portland - why ? partially because I don't trust the airplanes, they loose everything nowadays and it only cost me 15quid to send it via fedex to the otehr side of the country.

Anyway, that is it, bye for now. If you have read this , Please add a comment - so I know you are there, you can do this by pressing the comment button below - it will alloy you to add one Anonymous without having to login or have a google mail account (of course if you have one you can log in as that).

Cheers