Solstice Ride 2010

I have a success to report! I successfully went on the Bike Denver winter solstice ride!

It was cold. Cold enough that before the ride, Scott's face went numb. His thumbs remained relatively un-numbed-up enough though, so he twooshed about it.

Click to view twoosh

I reckon there were about 50 bikes on the ride, which is a good turn out. The ride started in City Park at the zoo, proceeded through Five Points (through, in fact, the five-point 26th/Welton/Washington intersection after which the area is named), down to Union Station. From there to the City & County Building and the state capitol, and then down to Marion & Colfax to the Irish Snug, where we warmed ourselves with some spirits and libations.

50 Furlongs!

Mapping out the ride later, I discovered that it was almost exactly 50 furlongs in length!

I don't really know what that means, but Google says so, so it must be true.

Click through for Facebook gallery

At the City & County building, I was coraled into a photo with the Bike Depot crew. I'm the bearded, leaning one towering in the foreground like some kind of neon yellow discount Christmas tree.


City & County Bldg, courtesy of @ubiquity

If you haven't seen the City & County building, you're missing an impressive display of complete disregard for holiday deference. It's a Christmas building. And not just a secular Christmas building, but a Christ is born Christmas building. That's Santa's barely visible sleigh on the roof, complete with reindeer. That's a nativity scene to the right of the stairs. And that's a workshop full of elves to the left.

Wow.

At this point in the ride, my feet had joined Scott's nose in Can't Feel Ya Land. Fortunately we hurried up 16th Ave to the Snug, where I spent only enough time to warm up over a few beers before returning home, where various mammals awaited their dinner.

And after that, the shortest day/longest night of 2010 was over. Here's to having some daylight in the AM and PM during which to ride!

National velvet

This is one of the strangest landmarks in the city of Denver. It's an installation of public art at the north end of the 16th Street Mall, right by the pedestrian bridge that crosses I-25 and connects downtown Denver to the Highlands.

At night, it's lit up from within, and it glows in a menacing way.

It is evocative. Everybody I've talked to about it has very strong feelings about it.

Mostly because it's hideous.

It's the Gelatinous Giant. It looks like it should be throbbing and pulsing.

It's nasty.

It probably has syphilis.

It rivals Mustang, ole Bluecifer, as Denver's most unsettling piece of public art.




I didn't know the title of the piece before today. National Velvet. I've always simply referred to it as the giant red blob.

(National Velvet is an old Elizabeth Taylor movie.)



I didn't even notice this as I was taking the picture, and it was only upon later review that I noticed that the new Salvagetti building is apparently right next to the monstrosity. That's it in the background above.

The sign and the "I (heart) bikes" mural on the side of the building are almost exactly the same shade of red as National Velvet.

We (Ladyfriend and myself) went to Salvagetti this afternoon. First time since they relocated.

The Lady had complained to me about her trike having some problems shifting. It wouldn't go into 3rd at all, and in 1st the pedals had a tendency to spin freely, not engaging the wheels at all.

That sounded like it was far beyond my meager mechanic abilities, so we shoved it in the trunk of the Subaru and ventured across town.

Once there, we unloaded the big thing, and once inside, Hannah fiddled with the tension on the shifter cable and fixed the damn thing in about thirty seconds.

Which just goes to show ya.

I consider myself a very bike-savvy dude. And I didn't recognize that this was something that could be fixed by tugging on a cable and turning a nut.

If you haven't seen Salvagetti's new digs yet, do yourself a favor and go take a gander.

It's pretty grand.

Good weekend for biking in Denver

If I hadn't been working this evening, I'd be at the Grand Opening of Salvagetti's new location.

If I wasn't working tomorrow, I'd be at SKATEBIKE outside Emage.

But at least I'm not working on Sunday! So you'll find me parking bikes (and scooters. and skateboards.) at the Taste Of Colorado.

It's a great weekend for bike culture, folks! Get out there and ride!

And, speaking of bike culture ... the completely and totally awesome Tour de Fat is coming to Denver next weekend. You can bet dollars to donuts you'll see me there, yall.

BIKE IT UP.

Open source transportation

Lifted from the Salvagetti site, which means that Scott probably wrote it: 

"BIKES ARE A WORLD WIDE PROJECT. A TRUE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT.

Think of that. Bikes have been designed in most countries of the world. And the end goal that all of these countries are working on is the perfect bike. Everyone is experimenting and sharing and learning and growing. The only other example we have thought of is LINUX... "

This is a fascinating connection that I had not to date made. I am a big Linux enthusiast, and I am a big bicycle enthusiast. I had not considered bicycling "open source" transportation until now, but now that I think about it, it definitely makes sense.

I will continue to meditate on this.