Next week, I’ll be visiting New York for a few days to relax, work, and think about my life all at the same time. Then, in September after my job ends, I plan to spend some time in my beloved Frey Canyon in Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico to further consider my life.

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In October, I will be leaving Austin to move back to NYC where I will be looking for work and considering my future even further.

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Throughout all of this, I hope to begin to take more black and white photos like the one above because i miss it. Here are a couple other oldies but goodies from my time in New Mexico.

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Just a quick sample of photos I’ve recently taken with my brand new iPhone 4.

Oh, and, no, I’m not having any weird reception issues if I hold it a certain way. Its been working perfectly.

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Last night, I put the tires, cables, and chain onto Pacer and rode it to work this morning to work. In my short 1.5 mile commute I noticed that the shifting could be smoother and that I really should get some road tires.

To fix the shifting issue, I’ll go ahead and clean the chain with Rock and Roll to see if it gets any better. I’m using an old Ultegra 6500 in the rear so, maybe its just old? I’ve used older XT stuff before, from around the same era as 6500 and its smooth as butter. I’m hoping its just the weird chain goo making it jerky.

I’m currently using some bulletproof commute tires I had laying about, so, they are pretty beefy and much heavier that I would prefer. I might get some Continental Gatorskins or some Bontrager Race-Lites. Heavier tires, yes, but not as heavy as the ones I’m currently running, and, well, I hate getting flats.

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Lamar looked horribly backed up from my balcony, so, I decided to ride over to Mellow Johnny’s instead of driving the half mile. After trying out a couple of bags, I got the frame to fit in / on my old Chrome Metropolis (I think, it was the one under the Kremlin, but they don’t have that one anymore… so… not really sure, i’ve had it for years) so, I packed up the headset, fork, stem, and spacers.

The work on the bike that was needed is as follows:

• Headset installed
• Fork measured and cut

I brought spacers and the stem I plan to use in order to make the measurement. I had contacted the shop in advanced, so, when I got there, they knew exactly why I was there.

When checking out, I noticed some framesaver and realized that I probably should have applied that before getting the fancy Chris King headset installed. Doh! The mechanics gave me some good pointers and told me to follow the directions and be careful not to get anything on the bearings so as to ruin the headset. I applied the stuff after I got home after reading the directions over and over, but I still made a bit of a mess.

When taking this photo, I suddenly realized the colors are going to match my shoes with the pink headset, green frame, brown seat, and cork bartape. How embarrassing…

Earlier today, I had taken over the kitchen while cleaning my components from my old bike. I’ve been getting a lot done! Hopefully, after all of this framesaver stuff is done, I won’t run into any complications.

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After having sold my beloved Bianchi Reparto Corsa Veloce to a friend that I knew would appreciate it, I had space in my heart (although, not in my LES apartment) for a new bike. The road bike was a bit on the bumpy side on the roads around my old NYC Lower East Side apartment, so, a bike that could handle fatter tires and a rack and fenders seemed to be a good match for the terrain. After having lectured my old roommate on the virtues of cyclocross bikes (super sturdy, tour-able, an everything bike), I had my eyes set on a few steel steads: Surly Cross-check, Bianchi Volpe, and the Masi Speciale CX.

After having ridden the Cross-check, I wasn’t too sure about the friction shifters being that I was used to STI (AKA, brifters). It was about the same price as the other two, a bit heavy when purchased as a complete, I didn’t like the way the handlebars flared out at the bottom, and I couldn’t figure out which one fit me best since neither size in my range felt quite right “out of the box”. I really love the frame, though. Its very flexible in that you can choose to use it as a single speed or a fixed gear or whatever, it comes in a great beef gravy brown color or black, and its Surly, which is cool all on its own. Overall, I decided against it because I would have had to spend more money adjusting things when I could find the things I wanted in other bikes for about the same price. If I was looking to have built up a bike from scratch, though, I would have picked either this frame or, if I had the cash, the Surly Traveler’s Check.

I had swung by Panther City Bikes fully ready to shell over the cash to buy a Surly, but, after some discussion, I came to the conclusion for the aforementioned reasons that I should go with the Masi. They didn’t have one in stock, so, I though that, while in Austin, I could test ride on at Mellow Johnny’s when I stopped by to pick up a wool cycling jersey. They didn’t have a jersey in my size but they did have a Masi Speciale CX that fit. I test rode it back and forth on the Lance Armstrong Bikeway for about 30 minutes before setting out across some dirt on my way back to the shop. I loved it. After looking over everything and doing some math in my head, I figured that getting the bike from MJ’s would be about $100 cheaper than Panther City after shipping it up to NYC and getting it assembled and tuned at the shop there. (It was a good deal for me, but I really like to give PCB my business when I can.)

I didn’t get a chance to test ride the Bianchi Volpe because I couldn’t find on in my size in any of the NYC bike shops I came across. I was really just considering it because it fit the bill to what I was looking for and it was a Bianchi, the brand of roadbike I historically tend to favor.

So, now that I’m back in Austin and living downtown (above is the view of Lady Bird Lake from my balcony), I’m pretty happy with a 7 minute commute on a bike that has literally been all over the country with me. I’ve had my Masi Speciale CX for a few months now, and I’m loving it more than I expected. The transmission has been sturdy and smooth through all the jaunts on dirt and through rain. The stock tires hold their grip through the 4 levels slick parking garage to rainy downtown streets and mud. The seat has even proven to be comfortable throughout a 30 mile ride on the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth. My only complaint is that the brakes took a while to get sticky out of the box, but, now that the pads have gotten some wear, they are grabbing the wheels nice and tightly to ensure a timely stop.

As far as future upgrades go, I’m considering taking the Ultegra parts off of my commuter bike and swapping them with the Tiagra parts on the fancy new bike. As for addons, I installed my old Cateye trip computer, a waterproof under seat bag made by Ortlieb, and a pair of Wellgo DH Shimano SPD compatible platform pedals.

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