a quality of life issue

Day Labor from Minka on Vimeo.

It was a dark and stormy night when I reached up and pulled an investment cast steel seat collar off a hook on my workbench and put it in my left front pocket before I headed out to the company holiday party because I knew there was a good chance I was going to see Steve Gluckman there as he’s on the board of directors. When I arrived early Steve was already there and when I got around to chatting with him I said “I’ve got something for you” and before it got to his hand he knew exactly what it was. He smiled and said “lost wax” and told me a bit about the process and we had an interesting conversation about bike companies and the choices they make in production and OE. I like to visualize a large conference room table at Novara in the late 90s where someone was able to convince all the other someones that these sweet steel seat collars were a good idea and I’d like to thank that someone 19 years later and say “good call”

I’ve stripped a shit load of busted bikes for parts down to the bottle cage bolts and seat collars do not go unnoticed. In 2016 we received no less than 7,571 donated bicycles. That's a lot of seat collars, seat post binder bolts, quick releases and straight-up seized seat posts.  Over the past 4.67 years I’ve collected several of these steel collars but didn’t really realize they were from Novara until recently while in the men's room I read this review from November 1999 Bicycling magazine where the coolest thing about the bike was the sweet steel seat collar and then it all came together.

If you don’t know who Steve Gluckman is, this story will help and after you read that I’d like to point out that I have at least 3 examples of Steve's first bike computer in my archives. If you don’t know what Novara means...

this photo via Mark W

Keep It Simple Stupid  (K I S S)

all things being equal the simplest solution is usually the best choice

parsimoniously taking the hypotenuse to point B

cutting through the parking lot

cutting out the bullshit

If you don't know what you're talking about 

A.   talk louder

B.   make something up

C.   crack a joke

D.   shut the fuck up

the correct answer continues to be D as seen in kickstand ten years ago

Like my Junior High PE teacher used to say keep it simple stupid and just like Steve recently reminded me, keep it simple, it's all in your mind. 

 in-your-mind is a good place to be most of the time

the placebo effect is still an effect

Mark your calendar and tell all your so-called friends too

putting an idea out there in the universe

taking a wait & see approach

open to outcome

not attached to outcome

yeah right

a whole honey bucket full of unused potential

stewing in its own juices 

electric assist resistance

as long as possible as long as it takes

simple elegant efficiency turned to

complicated convoluted cable routing

bulky battery mount stressed out bottle cage bolts

between completely depleted and fully charged

sometime in the past couple years I got my hands on this gently used Bucky bluish vest as seen in the photo above. I screened "are you my Bucky?" on the back with 22 Joel in mind and when I made my very occasional trips into the 98101 or 98121 I brought the vest along thinking I'd see him on the street. Then finally on December 2 I actually saw him and dug the vest out of my pack and handed it to him. 

got a chance to talk with this guy the other day

I was wearing a dickstank shirt he was not

we talked about this guy

and none of it was on facebook

it actually happened in real time in real life

looking into 2017

looking back at 2016

thanks Jimbo 

thanks Chris Murray

thanks pilderwasser collective