Gotta catch ‘em all
Dear Diary,
I have spent the past bunch of days at home writing a website and getting acquainted with the inner workings of WordPress and experiencing the joys of conflicting Javascript frameworks and cross-browser testing.
The other night we went to the Indian Town area of Rogers Park and had ourselves a fine dinner on Tucson Bike Lawyer Eric Ryberg’s dime. (Thanks Tucson Bike Lawyer Eric Ryberg!)
For no apparent reason we chose a place called Udupi Palace, which specializes in southern Indian vegetarian food. The waiter must have noticed the question marks in our eyes as we gazed upon the menus because he basically insisted upon what we should eat (which was fine with us because everything one the menu was vegetarian).
The dinner was a wild adventure of new and exciting flavors, each one better than the last. About 3/4 into it Lauren experienced her first ever bout of heartburn. My young, powerful heart, however, prevailed through the curries, dals, chutneys, rasams, meduvadas, and uthappams.
This is what we got (for < $30 total!):
Course 1: Pre-Appetizers
Creamy tea and soup. Mine was super spicy and had leaves in it.
Course 2: Appetizers
Tasty things and metal vessels full of different stuff to dip the things in.
Course 3: The main event
I got a huge fried thing with potatoes in it and Lauren got a dish with more metal vessels full of new stuff, a heap of chickpea-based goodness and some tortilla type things.
Note: Though charming, our waiter was not the best photographer.
Course 4: Dessert
Flavor balls. Mine was more powerful than Lauren’s, which was a lump of some kind of dairy.
Note how Lauren is visibly wider compared to the first picture.
After dinner we waddled to our bikes and rode down to a hip art space to watch some sort of performance while our bodies tried to figure out how to convert what we had just eaten for dinner into explosive, multifaceted, burning diarrhea. (P.S. Mine was actually solid and didn’t burn that much.)
The play? started with a $20 suggested (pssh. yeah right) donation and ended with a bonfire.
In between there was a maze, cardboard hats, some weird acting, plastic props, projectors, coordinated dances, more weird acting, and some sort of moral in the end.
There’s Lauren trying to make sense of 2 cups taped together with lights at the bottom. Art?
Maybe I’m just a square.
I shot a video (which took several hours to upload so watch it):
It wasn’t all like this. This Fisherspooner dance came completely out of the blue.
On Tuesday we rode down to the south side* with our new pal/Chicago tour guide John to eat at a Vegetarian soul food restaurant/juice bar operated by Black Hebrew Israelites.
I ate about 2lbs. of convincing BBQ wheat gluten and a bucha fries. I forget what anyone else had.
After dinner we went to the nearby “New Apartment Lounge” – an old dive bar. There was a sign on the door stating “No one under 30 allowed after 11pm”. The bar was all wavy, 80′s style and the walls and ceiling were covered with mirrors. The bartender lady there didn’t seem to like us, me especially, but it wasn’t hate because she did give us microwave popcorn after a we had a few drinks.
The point of us going to this bar was that every week for the past 30 or so years legendary saxophonist Von Freeman plays some improv jazz with a band.
and he did.
He also invited people, including Catherine Whitney from the audience to come up and sing. It was cool.
We rode a red line train all the way back across town to our doorstep.
*Although it has a statistically diverse population. Chicago is very, very segregated and the south side is mostly home to black people. Lauren and I definitely did not feel completely welcome down yonder. Maybe it was the dude with a tear drop tattoo hanging out of a car asking why we were around there and when and where we were going…or maybe it was the guy who kept yelling “you enslaved us!” after we walked past him.
Alas.
Being unemployed, rotten-toothed and soon to be homeless again has not prevented us from spending nearly ever bit of our money on bikes.
You see, beloved readers, when it comes to bikes, especially those of the touring variety, Lauren and I are akin to Pokemon masters. We have got to catch them all.
So far we’ve aquired:
- 80′s unidentified 53cm Cannondale road bike
- set of “arabesque” Shimano 600 Derailleurs
- early 80′s 63cm hi-tensile Fuji frame (which I sold to a retspih for $80)
- 80′s 63cm Centurion “Elite GT” touring bike (whoo!)
- 80′s 49cm Panasonic “Pro Touring” bike (which has those fancy deer-head deore XT derailleurs and is basically brand new)
Fortunately, like Pokemon, vintage touring bikes will never loose their value and last forever.
Lauren’s love for bikes, good looks, charm and gender have apparently landed her a job as a bike mechanic (!?!?!?)
Hopefully I’ll succeed in becoming a yuppie or at least a dishwasher so I too can pay rent and support this bike addiction. At this rate we will obtain approximately 50 new bikes a year….maybe we’ll start a mid-80′s Japanese touring bike museum. We can barely walk across our apartment now.
P.S.
Got any ideas on what I should call my operation (which will be websites, homemade bicycle accessories and maybe some odd local stuff)? Adjective + Noun?
P.P. S.
Does anyone want to give us a few hundred bucks so I can get a 63cm 1976 Panasonic-made Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2 and Lauren can get a 86′ Raleigh Kodiak? (We’ll name them after you or something)
-Jar-
That is interesting you wanted to buy a super le tour 12.2. i sold a ’78 on e-bay a while back for ~$150. this was before i knew much about touring bikes. i had the 25″ frame full chrome. the bike had some nice components on it, some of which were non-stock, like period suntour bar end shifters, center pull dia-compes, and a brown ‘belt’ leather saddle. It is more of a sport touring bike with only double chainrings on the front, but it did have dual eyelets on the rear dropouts. WAY cool bike but a bit heavy ~26 lbs. Nobody makes chrome bikes anymore.
Getting into the older posts eh?
I don’t think I’d ever actually tour on a le tour…but they seem fancy and were made in Japan by Panasonic.
If you want a chrome bike why not inquire with your local….uh….people who chrome things.
actually this old post came up when i was searching for vintage schwinn bikes, funny co-inky-dink.
it is definitely a fancy bike! it felt a bit heavy and slow to me at the time. but old road bikes are now very interesting to me since the current touring machines are rarely larger than 62cm. i think i need a 65cm or thereabouts. 62 is a bit small for my tallness.
yeah i thought about getting a custom frame and having it chromed. im saving the dough.
You can always get foil or aluminum backed duct tape and cover your frame in the meantime.
How tall are you?
i’m 6’6″, all my bikes are too small! damn it.
May I suggest the Salsa Fargo? I think it comes in your size.
thanks.
it looks like it would work, according to their fit chart:
http://salsacycles.com/bikes/fargo/
click on fit chart.
gunnar makes huge frames, for $1300 i could get a frameset and port my components over.
the co-motion may be a bit to costly for me. ~2000 for a custom frameset.
Catch’em Cycles.
Also, I noticed two unique bumper stickers though, one made me think of you guys and one made me think of Lou ferrigno: A: “It doesn’t take a war to power my bicycle” (seen on a lincoln navigator with (what I would assume to be) a yuppie bicycle on the back. and B: “If it wasn’t meant to be eaten, it wouldn’t be shaped like a Taco.”
What sort of vehicle was the taco sticker stuck to?
dirty old pickup truck driven by dirty old man.
HULK SMASH!!!!
Nice vid jerry.
Wait? You guys are not still in Tucson?
Hey guys, can we keep the nudity to a minumum or at least provide a Bike Snob-esque sepia censure of said nude photos? I really do not want to have to explain to my boss why there is picture of a topless woman with lauren’s face riding a prototype cannondale track bike on this webpage.
I’ll look into it.
I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
Catch them is my real test
To ride them is my cause
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Ride Touring Bikes to understand
The power that’s inside
Touring Bikes!
Gotta catch ‘em all (It’s you and me)
I know its my destiny
Touring Bikes
Oh, you’re my best friend
In a world we must defend
Touring Bikes!
Gotta catch ‘em all (A heart so true)
Our courage will pull us through
You ride me and I’ll ride you
Touring Bikes
Gotta catch ‘em all
Gotta catch ‘em all
Yeah
I will never understand interpretive dance.
I want a feast of Indian delights!
Congratulations on both of you being employed and such and such! Good jorb!
There is actually an Udupi Palace in Takoma Park, MD….near you?
If not. Come visit. We’ll feast.
Very near me. Takoma Park is hippie-town.
I can’t feast because I have no moneys.
Hello Lauren and Jared,
Congratulations, Lauren on landing a
job that suits you, and is so practical and useful. I’m still learning how to maintain
my bike. Would you know what causes a subtle
clicking on the down peddle on the right side
on each rotation? (Does that make sense?)
It’s been properly maintained, it shifts smoothly,
and nothing seems to rub and all components
are rather new.
Hope you’re getting some fun out of this Chicago
experience.
I’m hoping to take the leap and try Tucson.Maybe
I could meet you. The train stops there.
The water quality concerns me, though.
Kim
Figuring our where a strange sound comes on a bike is a process of elimination.
Make sure it only happens while you are pedaling.
If you have a kickstand it might be the crank tapping it every rotation.
Check if it still makes the sound with your foot off the pedal – if it still does it’s not the pedal.
Check for play in the bottom bracket (grab a crank arm and move it left and right – feel for shakiness)
…and none of that helps take off the pedals clean and re-grease the threads. Maybe do the same for the pedals.
Google helps too.
Good luck with it.
Check also for a bent chainring.
Also check if its only under load (while riding) or if it makes the same noise on the bike stand.
If its only under load, it could be that when you sway left and right while pedalling, one of the cables could be swaying inside the stops, in which case, you should oil up your cables near the cable stops. Although this is more of a creaking noise…
If its not under load, then you should be able to duplicate it on a stand (or hanging from a a rope or something) and figure out what is smacking what.
Thanks for the advice, and all the
storytelling, too.
You two brighten up my day- well, most
of the time. When you share your digestive
happenings, not so much.
And thanks to you too, Mickey.
Kim
jared, i did NOT get that job because of my gender. i showed up to apply during a time that someone was quitting. geeez.
are you saying I’m jealous?