Candy Cranks

BFF WRAP 2010 from Skeleton Key on Vimeo.

This week is crammed with bike events. Definitely saved the best for last. The annual 816 Bike Collective Benefit is on Sunday [read more below]!!!! Hope to see you kids at some if not all of these events!

Starting point for Belles, Bikes, and Giggles

Wednesday: Belles, Bikes, & Giggles.

Our first ladies only ride was a success. We explored [swam] around the Discovery Center at the Kaufmann Foundation then headed north to the Union Hill Cemetery. Quite the late night adventure. These rides will be happening weekly.  Starting from Eagle Scout Fountain [39th and Gilham]. We’ll meet around 10:30.

Thursday: Third Thursday Alleycat @ Volker Velowerx.

Free to ride. Meet at 6 pm. Corner of 18th and Wyandotte. Due to this alleycat, Bike Polo is canceled. Stephen moved it from Sundays to Thursdays. Usually, We’ll play at 6 pm on the Holmes court. There’s an extra bike, so even if you don’t have beater you can try it out!!!!!!!!!!!

“]

First Third Thursday Alleycat [the suckers who brought Coke!

Friday: Mocktail Hour and BBQ RIDE

Mocktail Hour: 5-7 @ Bum Island in Westport. Come get your bike repaired from the Missouri Bike Federation. Even if you don’t need to work on your bike, stop by and chat.

BBQ Ride: 7:30 pm. Meet at Sunfresh Market in Westport. We’re heading to Oklahoma Joe’s [As seen on Man vs Food]! Here are the photos from last month’s ride to Earl Quick’s. We got there in the knick of time. Also, they had a slab special!

the gang.

July's Bikes, BBQ, & Good times.

OK Joe's!

Sunday: 816 Bike Collective Benefit.

The collective is a community supported bike shop. They work with volunteers passing on knowledge about bike mechanics and maintence. They donate bicycles to kids and adults in need of a mode of transportation and empowerment. Their current building at the corner of 31st and Troost was without electricity throughout the winter. They are looking to relocated to a space that will be more supportive of their efforts. Also, bearings need grease and grease costs money. This is their major benefit of the year. Come out and support bicycle awareness and empowerment in the 816!!

5 PM-Alleycat! $10 to enter, free admission into the benefit show. Starting point: Firefighter’s Fountain @ 31st and Washington. Tons of fun and prizes.

7 PM- Benefit Show at Californos [4124 Pennsylvania Avenue]. Silent Auction, Bands, DJs, and KCSprints! $7 at the door!

This week is going to be busy! Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze a nap in poolside. ha!

-Caitlin

The Victoria Galeries in Sydney currently has an exhibition on some local riders and their bikes. For the opening The Sydney Bike Film Festival brought out the rollers to see who’s the fastest rider.

Mike Giant and Sable + Argent combo.

SBFF Gold Sprints, The Galeries, 4th of July from josh capelin on Vimeo.

“On behalf of The Galeries and the Fixed Up exhibition, we warmed up our rollers for the first time in 2010. The Sydney Sunday Session crew were our test pilots with the best time of 23:57 seconds set over 500m by the eventual overall winner, Jack Mayo, who won the 1km final by only a handful of hundreds of seconds. If that makes sense. A tonne of video and pics were shot this day with heaps more to come over the next 5 weeks as we work towards finding out who is the fastest boy and girl in a Sydney Winter.”

Head down to have a go, the overall winner will take home a Peter Bundy $3000 frame.

Thanks to SSS for the pics.

So the messenger competition to shut down… It was a great time in Budapest, many messenger arrived not only from Europe. You know as well that Rie too from Nagoya with her coffee bike!!! (I have to tell You guys I never drink coffee, I don’t like it, but this is something different, so delicious… love it)

This 3 days past so fast, we had many program in the daytime: bike polo, foot down, sprint in Velodrome after we had a nice group ride in the city to the next place, what is an interesting old socialist factory. First night we had a fashion show and concert and we tried hungarian drinks!

The next two days was pretty hard, everybody ride hard and the rout was not easy. The main race, the skid, and everything was very exciting, we had girls as well too. One of the best race was the Gold Sprint, where Sarah from Britain was the fastest!
The factory was a good choose, because only we was there and it was so free feeling, like in a festival and we don’t had to worried about the bikes, it was such a nice landscape… everywhere bicycles!!!
So the Finals on Monday was really exciting, in the foot down finals Sabrina from Poland was the only girl Here You can check the results
We had there the youngest messenger too, Izuru&Izumi from Nagoya took the 2 years old baby, He is already riding… and You can see his messenger bag… ) so cute

Miss me so much this days… we had so much funs, everybody was so cool and nice, we had nice parties and now all around the world knows a bit about Hungary and Palinka (shot) …
Tuesday we had a sightseeing group ride with the Guide Kole from Canada who was a guide/messenger here in Budapest, I think it’s a beautiful city!
And thanks Rie, we had so great time together !!!

more pictures here

kc bike fed mocktail hour

Here’s a recap of some bike week events I participated in. Sorry for the delay, but since the torrential downpours have ceased I’ve been taking advantage of the my short lived summer break.  [I start a new job and summer classes within the week!]

Thursday : After my last final, I rushed down to the new Volker Velowerk’s spot for an alleycat. Rite when I showed up the race started, luckily it was simply enough so I didn’t need to gain my composure too much.  We raced to SunFresh and back. If you got a 2 Liter of coke, you got a 5 minute time bonus. David J won the race and didn’t bother with the cola, he did buy a paper to prove he didnt cheat. ha! It was a quick and sweaty race. Britton [Volker Boss-man] is planning on the holding these types of races once or twice a month, so stay tuned for more details.

riders who were suckers and brought coke

Friday: In the early evening, I stopped by bum island in Westport to kick it with some friendlies at the KC Bike Fed Mocktail Hour.

bike repairs @ mocktail hour

kids @ mocktail hour

After a refreshing happy hour, Micale, Nikky, and I rode down to Volker Velowerk’s for KCSPRINTS. Unforuntadely for you all, I did not race so there are no new puking pictures to post. [ha!] I’m really stoked about this having a bike shop downtown again!![RIP ACME]

David J racing away

close ladies' race @ kcsprints

Britton made the best faces all nite. ha!

Saturday: BBQ Ride! We met for this humid and sweaty ride at The Roasterie Cafe in Brookside. We road to Rosedale BBQ. The food was great, I got the burnt ends…tender and a little fatty..yum! The sauce was a bit lacking, too thin and not enough spice. On our way back we stopped at the Crown Center Fountains to cool off.

some of the bbq riders, we picked up a few along the way, too!

Micael & I sporting tiedyed shorts on the bbg ride.

Burnt Ends!

Sunday: Bike Polo was kinda a fail. My brake was out of commish and Ryan had multiple tire mishaps, however the boys played a few matches.

Welp. Sorry for the longgg post. I’m off to enjoy the weather and work on my wheelie before KICKBALL!

Later Gators!

ps i just got one of those flickr things, so you can check out more photos here.

Laura & I (via http://www.flickr.com/photos/carleton_hall/ )

This is my first post so I want to say HELLO to all the awesome ladies
who read/write/enjoy candy cranks.  I live in and fell in love with cycling in
Atlanta, Georgia – despite it being one of the least cycling friendly
cities in the country.  We have hostile drivers, fast roads, poor public
transit, and bike lanes filled with gravel, grates, and broken glass.
But somehow I love it and am not alone.  The cyclists here are pretty
diverse: we have road riders, super commuters, serious track riders
(we have a velodrome!), fixed gear trick enthusiasts, and about ten

bike couriers.  We are hosting the 2010 North American Cycling Courier Championship (NACCCs) and are all super
excited to have our city descended upon by cyclists from cities from
all-over.

I own two bikes: a soma rush and a bianchi pista concept.  Actually, I
just purchased a third, a bmc roadracer, on ebay, but it hasn’t
arrived yet.  I think I have a bicycle buying/building habit that I
have no intention of breaking.

I am learning to race at Dick Lane Velodrome and am trying out this whole
“training” thing.  I always enjoyed alleycat races, but am trying to
step up to a more serious level of dedication.  We’ll see how that
goes… I have a lazy streak that tends to get in the way.  However,
the community at our velodrome is both encouraging and fun, so
it’s easy to get drawn into the race nights.

I plan to post about local events (we’re having a bunch of FUNdraisers
for NACCCs) and my likely difficult fight to learn how to ride my new
road bike (gears confuse me).  I will probably use parenthesis too
often (sorry) and hopefully not bore anyone to tears.

Sorry I’ve been slacking, my time has been consumed with carboxylic acids and oxidation reactions [organic chem final's tomorrow...wish me luck!

Despite Bike Week starting on a unseasonally brisk and wet foot, it looks like the rain will be ceasing on Friday. [Finally!] Lucky for us in the heartland, that’s when all the fun events are starting.

Here’s a quick rundown of the remaining events here in Kansas City:

Thursday:

• 816 Bike Collective will be open from 3:00 pm-6:00 pm at 3109 Troost Avenue. Stop by if you need help with your bike, want to volunteer, earn a bike, or drop parts off.

• Bike Polo [rain or shine] 31st and Baltimore [in the garages] around 5:30-6.
• Alley Cat hosted by Britton and the Volker gang. Race is beginning at 7 pm sharp! Starting at the  NEW Volker Velower spot. [18th and Wyandotte NE corner.] Best part: it’s a free alley cat!

Friday:

• KC Bike Fed’s Mocktail hour. 5:00 pm-7:00 pm at the center island between 43rd and Broadway [aka Bum Island]. Free food and bike repairs. [This event happens every third Friday]
• Crossroads Bike-In Movie Night. 7:00 pm-9:00 pm at 1821 Wyandotte. They are showing Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
• KC Sprints @ the Volker Velower spot. [18th and Wyandotte NE corner.] 7:00  pm-??? [I'm sure puking and trash talking will ensue.]

• UMKC Clean Commute Bike-In Movie. 8:00 pm-10:30 pm at “The Hub” [5301 Charlotte]. They are playing The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Saturday:

• May’s BBQ Ride. We’re meeting around 2:15ish at The Roasterie Cafe in BKS [6223 Brookside Boulevard] and riding to Rosedale BBQ [600 Southwest Boulevard]. Bikes, BBQ, & Good Times!

• 816 Bike Collective will be open from 3:00 pm-6:00 pm at 3109 Troost Avenue. Stop by if you need help with your bike, want to volunteer, earn a bike, or drop parts off.
• 

Sunday:

• Bike Polo at the roller hockey rinks [70th and Holmes] around 2:30 pm.

I’m excited to break in my new cranks, I.R.D Defiant Track Cranks, to and from all these events! Hopefully, everyone else is having a great [less wet] Bike Week, too!

QA with Jenny, Glagow’s only female bike messenger

Where did you grow up, where do you currently live?
I grew up in Glasgow, Scotland and I still live there.

How long have you been riding for?
ive been riding bikes for most of my life, been riding fixed for just over 4 yrs.

What’s your favourite bike to ride?
Fixed wheel

Where is your favourite place to ride?
Around town, Kelvingrove skatepark.

You’re currently working as a cycle messenger, what city are you working in, how does it compare to other jobs you’ve had.
I work in Glasgow, its a good job because you dont have someone breathing over your shoulder all day and you get to be outside and do what you want when your not on call. Me and my friend James have our own courier company called FFWD>> Bicycle Messengers so we dont have anyone telling us what to do.

Are there any disadvantages being a woman in such a male dominated industry?
Not that i can think of ? but sometimes its hard to get women size bike stuff at local shops like shoes and smaller stems etc.

Are there any advantages being a woman in such a male dominated industry?
I dont know :s  ?

On average how many miles/km would you ride per day whilst working?
If  its quiet    10 + If busy 50 + miles

How do you keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter? In summer you need to drink more water, wear less clothing, the summers here arent ridiculously hot so it’s ok. The winters are either really windy, cold and wet or snowy and frozen.  Layers are what it’s all about. I wear  thermals undermeath, hoodie, fleece/bodywarmer, gore tex outer shell, gloves, hat, scarf and waterproof socks.

What bike do you ride whilst working as a messenger?
I usually ride my fixed gear but sometimes a single speed kona or geared racer.

Have you have any close calls, accidents or injures as a result of working as a messenger? I’ve had a few, one time I was hit by a bus whilst walking on the pavement cause I had a puncture and had ran out of patches, the bus must have overlapped the pavement coming round the corner! Another time a BMW pulled out on me and I ended up crashing into a wall with my arm fully extended, afterwards I couldnt straighten my arm and for most of a year it felt pretty sore, it’s ok now tho!

When was the last time you flipped the bird in anger?
Today when a taxi tried to crush me, I had to boot his door to warn him of my impending doom!

What do you eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner when working as a messenger?
For breakfast usually banana on toast, or poached eggs on toast at a cafe called Where the Monkey Sleeps, for lunch prob a good sandwich and dinner something home cooked, pasta, stew, fish etc.

What’s the best thing about Glasgow?
The people  and parties.

Where would you take an-out-of-town mate visiting Glasgow?
I’d take them a tour about the city, maybe visit Loch Lomond, then for a good night out, Mungos HiFi at the art school or pubs and  partys.

What do you get up to when you’re not working?
I like to go to festivals and parties, make stuff, build up bikes, at the moment I’m building up a good jump bike so I can do trails at the weekend.

Two weeks ago I went to Dresden to visit some friends but also to see the Dresden premiere of the FIXED CITY movie. The evening was organized by the veloheld crew who had also setup a monopoly alley cat prior to the viewing.
A big crowd showed up, awesome location, lots of bikes, party afterwards.  e r t z u i ° film shot a nice summary of the whole night:

Just a quick edit of the FXC premiere @ Dresden.

..what a race, what a night! Big ups to the Dresden crew!

www.fixedcity.com
www.ertzui.de

Apart from the alley cat and the fixed city movie there was another highlight – the short film about GOLDSPRINT from the veloheld guys:

19.12.2009 GOLDSPRINT Dresden

47 Man vs. Man (and Woman vs. Woman)
TopSpeed: 96,29 km/h – 235 rpm
Total km: 111,731km
and a lot of winners…

thanks to: www.veloheld.de , light-wolf, BIKELAND 262, ROTOR