Texas Riding Blog

[biknut]

Hmm. That's a good idea; I think I might go create a flyer in Word or something and run off some copies. A lot of people ask about my bike, too.

In other news, my ride this past evening came to an abrupt end when my chain slipped from the engine sprocket. Posted a thread in the Troubleshooting section, since I have no Earthly idea how to access that sprocket to reseat the chain.

All you have to do is, remove the masterlink. Remove the 3 bolts that hold the sprocket cover on. Now you should be able to put the feed the chain back around the drive sprocket.

 

[biknut]

I think I'll ride to Oak Cliff today, by way of downtown. How to get to downtown? The Katy Trail of course.

 

[biknut]

I think I'll ride to Oak Cliff today, by way of downtown. How to get to downtown? The Katy Trail of course.

It's about 15 miles from Farmers Branch to downtown. Then it's another 5 or six miles to Bishop st, in Oak Cliff. From Oak Cliff it's about another 15 miles back home. That's as the crow flys. Add about 15% more miles the way I meander around. I should be able to make it with my 2 1000 ml fuel bottles, with a 1/4 bottle to spare.

Maybe I should take a small container of 2 stroke oil just in case.

You're supposed to wear something French today for the, Bastille on Bishop celebration, but I can't think of anything I have that's appropriate. Maybe my frog t-shirt, or I could just carry a white flag lol.

 

[biknut]

The flyer does mention there's going to be Vespa's there.

http://www.gooakcliff.org/2012/06/the-return-of-bastille-on-bishop/

 

[SergeyTempest]

All you have to do is, remove the masterlink. Remove the 3 bolts that hold the sprocket cover on. Now you should be able to put the feed the chain back around the drive sprocket.

How would I find which link is the master link? My chain's links all appeared to be the same when I inspected the chain; I'm not sure if there even is a master link on this one.

 

[george_n_texas]

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Remove-Chain-and-Master-Link-66770359 chain master link removal video

 

[biknut]

Considering all the riding I expect to do today, I doubt I'll see even one other MB. That's really sad considering Texas is so MB friendly.

In the last few years I have noticed a drastic increase in 2 wheel vehicles though. Especially low end chinese scooters between 50 and 150cc. Some of them are cheaper than a good MB. Honda Ruckus's have appeared out of nowhere, and none of them are stock. The Sport bike seen has exploded too, right along with big cruiser doosiers.

But motor bicycles? Nothin!!! Never used to see them, and still don't. Well, almost never. Except mine. Dallas needs a VMB bad. A low end shop might work, but Dallasites would probably be more attracted to high end stuff, at least at first. I think the uptown area would be a good point of attack. There's a lot of young people, and money, plus it's a good area for short distance travel. That's a important consideration in Dallas. A little success would breed competition from lower end shops.

The most important thing is, people need to see motor bicycles riding on the streets. Right now there's no awareness we even exist. Typical first builds won't get it done. We need high end builds to attract high end buyers. Dallasites are suckers for anything expensive that nobody else has. This could be anybody thinking about buying a new 50cc, $2500 Honda Ruckus, and then spend another $2500 customizing it.

I think one of the main motivations for getting a Ruckus is they're not scooters, or motorcycles, but they're cute, and different. MBs could fit in there somewhere, plus we have the advantage of no license, registration, or insurance, and we're a lot faster than a bicycle.

 

[george_n_texas]

I'd say the Ross Ave. area close to lower Greenville. SMU students and the whole neighborhood all in the 30MPH speed zone. You see a lot of bikes in lower Greenville district. Pretty doubtful snobby SMU students would go for it they want dad to buy them a vespa.

It's funny how wealthy folk love to save a buck cuttin wages but insist on the very best for themselves

 

[placidscene]

An Austin ride would work great for me! I could ride my MB there! haha.

I found a Flying O cruiser today at a junk shop I am thinking about buying. What do you think? Guy is asking $40

 

[george_n_texas]

I like that nice old school look I wonder if you couldn't get him down on his price has a lot of surface rust but looks solid to me. I bet some naval gelly'd take most of that rust off. It looks like a HT would fit in that nicely!

 

[biknut]

I'm back from the Bastille celebration. 37.2 miles round trip. Farmers Branch to Bishop street, in Oak Cliff, and back. This was a really fun ride. I got started much later than I planned. I only left the house about 7pm, but the thing only started at 7. Instead of meandering my way all the way to Oak Cliff, I took a more direct route, down a lot of main streets. I was there in about 40 minutes from leaving the house. You can't hardly get there faster in a car.

I was cruising the Atomic BB between 20 and 30 mph. Total fuel consumption was 1000ml in 37.2 miles. That's 1/4 gallon in american. Do the math. 4 x 37.3 = 148.8 mpg. That's with a 40T at 3/4 throttle a lot of the time. If you're not getting that good, it's probably because you're a fat ____.

Anyway, there was a huge crowd of people concentrated into too small an area. Everyone was having fun though, getting drunk on wine. I couldn't believe all the hot babes, but this is a family channel. But if this wasn't a family channel, I'd be telling you about all the hot babes. (in case my wife sees this, I was trying not to look). Wine seemed to be the drink of choice. The Dallas cops were cool. I paddled my motor bicycle through the crowd twice. I saw a lot of hot babes drinking wine. Did I mention the babes? They were eyeing my bike, but I wasn't eyeing them even if they were race horses. I was trying not to look at them. I should get a medal, damn.

I finally camped out at the busiest intersection for about 30 minutes. I was pretty much mobbed the whole time. 2 guys that seemed like perfect candidates for MBs insisted on giving me their phone numbers. I told at least 20 people about motorbicycling.com.

This is exactly the kind of exposure MBs need in Dallas. Almost everyone told me they had seen these bikes before, but somewhere else, not around here. They were all very surprised to find out I had ridden there from Farmers Branch, only 18 miles away. That mattered even more because a couple of them were from Farmers Branch. I didn't think this looked like a local crowd. Everyone I talked to said they were from Richardson, Carrollton, or Farmers Branch. I'm pretty sure there were uptown, and downtown people there too. Just not that many from Oak Cliff.

I was trying to take a picture, and these girls jumped out.

 

[biknut]

I forgot to mention I stopped at Strokers on the way back.

 

[happycheapskate]

Art, and small business, and organic food.....all that is great, but running stoplights in a mob of bikes is just "asking for it". I will never ride with Critical Mass again.

I do feel like bikes are very accepted in a lot of Oak Cliff, and it's nice to see the place improving. I remember a lot of times when I was a teen, that I was afraid to ride there because of gangs and graffiti and a lot of street crime happening right in broad daylight. The bars and food tasting/wine parties, bicycle rides, all that stuff is great.

Here is a group just for people tired of "hipsters" hahahahaha. Please join.
http://www.facebook.com/BCBCDallas/info Non-Hipster informal bike club
Description
We don't care about saving the whales, the lesbians, or the polar ice caps. We stop at stop lights. We drink beer other than PBR. If we buy clothes from the thrift store it's to save money, not to look like we got dressed running from a fire or to go listen to music nobody's ever heard of. A bike isn't fixed until the brakes work.

Oy. I'm reminded of the few months I tagged along with Fort Worth Critical Mass last summer, on my old Trek 3700. More rude, classist hipsters/yuppies than I could stand. To their credit, they have been revitalizing Fort Worth's urban core, but some of them act like they own the place now.

 

[biknut]

Right after I left the Bishop arts area, I was about 3 blocks away, and a guy pulls up next to me in a beemer waving a camera, and motioning for me to stop. He took some pictures and ask me the normal. I told him about this web site.

This guy goes a long way toward proving my point about high end buyers.

 

[biknut]

All the bicyclers I saw didn't seem any different from any of the others I've ever seen. I didn't actually get to talk to any that I know of. I didn't see one person in spandex. The crowd was so big that the bicyclers were really just a tiny fraction of the total. There were a lot of scooters.

On the way over I kept thinking I was seeing a MB up ahead, but each time it was a scooter, and once a Ruckus.

 

[biknut]

One guy ask me how much interest I had in making him a MB? I told him mild, because they're so labor intensive to make. I volnteered to help him at his house if he'll just ride with me. He said he lived in Richardson.

 

[george_n_texas]

I see you said you took the high road...I didn't think you could ride on the Katy Trail on MB. I've never rode it myself but I know it goes a long way. Glad you made a splash. The #4 Bishop / 21 SMU was one of my favorite bus routes to drive. It wasn't an arts district back then it was pretty much a Barrio (that's Mexican neighborhood to us Greengoes)

 

[biknut]

I see you said you took the high road...I didn't think you could ride on the Katy Trail on MB. I've never rode it myself but I know it goes a long way. Glad you made a splash. The #4 Bishop / 21 SMU was one of my favorite bus routes to drive. It wasn't an arts district back then it was pretty much a Barrio (that's Mexican neighborhood to us Greengoes)

Well what happened was, right when I as ready to leave the house at about 4:30, I got a service call. That's what made me leave so much later than I planned.

I was going to cruise down to Highland Park, and ride the Katy trail to downtown. I was just going to peddle the trail, although it's not against the law to ride a MB bicycle on the trail in Texas. But even though you can do something doesn't mean you should. The police wouldn't say anything, but the Highland Parkers, and uptowners would probably throw a fit. The Katy trail is kind of uptight since a pedestrian was killed by a bicycler a couple years ago, and now they have a couple of black bandits robbing people of their I phones at gun point.

Then I was going to buzz the bicycler stiffs downtown, before riding across the bridge to Oak Cliff. As it turned out I did see a few bicycles on the way, but they seemed to be leaving, and they looked exhausted. One of them waved at me. I don't blame them for being tired, it's a long ride on a bicycle from downtown to Bishop st.

The Bishop street arts district is kind of new. Ruben told me about it last year. It was just a normal ghetto, and then the city decided to what they call, revitalize it. It's still the same very old store fronts, but now with little artsy shops and restaruants. Yesterday I said there was a Chips there, but I was wrong. It's a Hunky's. Same as the famous gay burger joint on Cedar Springs, but without the gay.

 

[george_n_texas]

So to get to Bishop did you go Hillcrest to McKinney to Left on Pearl to a right on Ross Left on Houston over the viaduct to a right on Colorado then left on Bishop? I know there's a million ways to go most anywhere in Dallas but that's the most direct low speed routes I can think of...pretty much 30-35 mph zone the whole way save the section of Hillcrest north of loop 12.

 

[biknut]

So to get to Bishop did you go Hillcrest to McKinney to Left on Pearl to a right on Ross Left on Houston over the viaduct to a right on Colorado then left on Bishop? I know there's a million ways to go most anywhere in Dallas but that's the most direct low speed routes I can think of...pretty much 30-35 mph zone the whole way save the section of Hillcrest north of loop 12.

From Farmers Branch, I more or less rode Denton rd all the way down to Wycliff. Wycliff turns into Sylvan ave going across the river bottoms into Oak Cliff, and crosses Davis pretty close to Bishop st.