# Hot pink in the sunshine



## Shizzam (Oct 14, 2006)

I haven't really been riding with my camera the last couple of weeks, as I don't like to have it in the rain, and the weather has been a bit dodgy. But today was nothing but clear blues all day so I thought I'd bring it along. As it turned out I was really busy doing actual work  all day so I only got a dozen or so shots and wasn't too thrilled with any of em, but I suppose a few are passable, so:


1) Cupid's arrow on Embarcadero, if you ask me it's the best piece of public art in SF, and it makes a good start point for alleycats.

2) The Marin Headlands from Lincoln Blvd on the west side of the Presidio. I forgot my map today and was on the radio with my dispatcher while he explained how to get to some tiny street I had never heard of. I was sitting there uh huh-ing away at him while all I was really thinking was, "What a great view, I've got to get a picture of this." I wound up finding the street ok.

3) The Pesidio (a national park inside the city limits) is a strange, fun place. There are only a few ways in and out by road and if I find myself in between these I generally try to cyclocross my way out. Unfortunately, the trails are really sandy (the whole area used to be sand dunes) and tough to negotiate with skinny tires. It's always a good time though, I often find new trails, and I get to pretend I'm in a real forest before heading back downtown.

4) The 700 block of California street. I've been trying to get photos that accentuate the steepness of some of our streets, but it is hard to do. I feel that this one does a decent job. This road can be downright treacherous to descend when wet. There are cable car tracks that run down the middle, meaning you don't have a lot of room (swerving on wet metal? no thanks.) to dodge the jay walking pedestrians who still think they're in Chinatown (there are absolutely no rules in Chinatown, it's everyone for themselves, balls to the wall chaos). Anyway, today it was smooooth sailing.

5) Having a good time in an elevator. I had to break out the hot pink tee for such a sunny day.

Enjoy,
Sean


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## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

Very nice report. I like the shot angle and subject. Wouldn't want to live there, I am not what you call a "climber".


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Shizzam said:


> ........been trying to get photos that accentuate the steepness of some of our streets, but it is hard to do. I feel that this one does a decent job....................Enjoy,
> Sean


I'd say you show the steepness just fine in this one. :thumbsup:  

BTW I love how trashed the paint job is on your frame. Sometime I would like to hear a little about your setup.


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## Shizzam (Oct 14, 2006)

MB1 said:


> BTW I love how trashed the paint job is on your frame. Sometime I would like to hear a little about your setup.



Well I guess I'll bump my thread up to talk about my bike a little since (sniff) it was declared dead yesterday. I was doing a quick shifting tune up and realized that the dropout was broken. It had previously snapped a couple of years ago when I had the frame set up fixed. It sat in my kitchen for some months until my main bike got stolen out of my friend's garage (uh, sniffle again). I had the dropout welded, spread the spacing to 130, and built it up with a mix of Shimano 9 speed parts that I cobbled together from ebay and the various paper bags in my apartment that serve as spare parts bins. I know I could just get it welded again, but I figure after two breaks it is probably time to start looking for a new frame. It wasn't the fastest bike, or the best handling, but it was comfy and pretty tough and I suppose you grow attached to anything if you cover enough miles on it, so I'm sad to see it go. 
The paint was so banged up (it was pretty much perfect when I got it) from being tossed up against poles and parking meters and having a lock dropped against it a hundred or so times a day. If I'm locking up my nice bike (and if that bike is getting locked up I prefer it is to me) I lean it up gently against the pole and carefully place the lock around it, but when you're messenging and trying to move as fast as possible, that gets pretty hard to keep up after a while. I understand that my messenger bikes will get trashed, and I don't really try to avoid it. 
Anyway, so the set up was shimano nine speed, the wheels I built with velocity deep v rims (those things are tough as nails). The front hub was a 10ish year old campy I found at an lbs for ten bucks. I had been curious about switching to flat bars for a while and when I snapped my twenty year old drop bars in half (I didn't fall!) while turning onto Stockton street one day, I decided I might as well take the opportunity to try them. There are things I like about the flat bars (always being in the right position for shifting, braking, bunnyhopping) but they are requisitely wider than road bars and I'm not as comfortable riding in traffic with them (and they suck for climbing) so I think I'm going to go back to drops. 
Let's see, what else can I say about it? This is kind of theraputic. There was something wrong with the internal cable routing for the rear brake, so I had to electrical tape the housing to the frame. The first day I rode it as a geared bike I had attached the housing with zip ties and the little sharp end bits kept scraping my thighs. That wasn't too fun. Ahhh, Somec, the good times we've had together. I'll miss you.

Thanks for listening.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Shizzam said:


> .........Ahhh, Somec, the good times we've had together. I'll miss you.
> ........


I feel your pain but it is time to move on. At least you will have the memories.


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## bigrider (Jun 27, 2002)

It is a shame to lose a good ride. You should be able to find a bunch of nice steel replacements on ebay with that size. Looks like a 56 or 58cm.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

It sucks to lose the bike, but boy did it get a life's worth of work out of you. That's a very good thing. I love SF but usually ride outside of the city and only eat in it.


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