Sue’s Blog of Xtracycle Happiness

Albina Press is a coffee shop on Hawthorne with a great window bar. Perfect for hanging my gear and watching Downtown Cupcake Brown.

Tyler and I rode about a mile and a half, mostly East on Clinton, this morning. Temp was 23F and the road was 2″ deep in snow. Tyler was super excited and ran (rather than her usual slow jog) the better part of the first mile. Not too shabby for an almost 14 year old Chocolate Lab!

I filled the 24″ Big Apple tires with 37psi and they performed flawlessly. Virtually no slippage and cornering was easy. The sound of snow crunching under bike tires is one of the world’s finest sounds!

Our Destination was Cafe Au Play on Division and about 56th. It’s a non profit community center trying to raise startup funds by selling Xmas trees. We met the fam there and hauled a big and little tree 3 blocks back to the house by balancing them on the snapdeck and walking the bike along. Go there if you want a cheap tree for a good cause.

Later in the afternoon, I convinced the kids it would be fun to go ride bikes up and down the street in the snow. And it was! We took Tyler and rode back and forth for half an hour or so, whooping and hollering the whole time. They were skeptical when I first pitched the snowcapade, but they soon realized that Suey knows things. Good things. Fun things. Magic things.

So the moral of this story is that Snowpocalypse 2008 completely rocks, and a bike makes it even better.

That’s all for tonight. Time to trim the tree, tend the fire and rock the Bailey’s. Merry Xmas eve eve eve eve eve to you and yours!

PS I’m posting this from my iPhone – a first for me.

Found parked outside my office: ANOTHER BIG DUMMY! Whose is it? Is it yours?

Last night I was at Clever Cycles getting Downtown Cupcake Brown her free 30 day tuneup, and I spied another Big Dummy sitting around waiting for … I knew not what. When I asked whose it was, Mike, Colin and Tyler told me it was going to a woman in North Carolina. Then Todd popped his head in and said, You sold that bike! She reads xtrasue and wants one because you love yours so much!

Naturally, I thought the best thing to do would be to take pictures of it and post them here. I am completely thrilled to know that my Big Dummy/Xtracycle love has spread to foreign countries! And I say that with love because I lived in NC for 9 and a half years (2.5 in Greensboro and 7 in Boone) and I adore North Carolina. Ahhhhh, Boone. I’d just as soon be in Boone. Ahhhhh, Boone.

So, dear NC reader, whoever you are, send me a comment! Who are you? Where do you live? Send me a picture of you and your new baby!

Well the Southeast side of Portland
Is the bikest part of town
And if you go down there you might become aware
Of a bike called Cupcake Brown

Now Cupcake ain’t no trouble
You see she rides like a cloud of air
And all the lycra posers shoutin holy moses
And all the fixies call her sir

‘Cause she’s Downtown Cupcake Brown
Funnest bike in the whole damn town
Funner than a junkyard trike
Sweeter than a motor bike

Now Cupcake she a lover
She loves to go most anywhere
And if you treat her well she’ll let you ring her bell
And she will gladly take you there

She got a sexy curvy top tube
And a great big oval boom
She got two sets of bars and I don’t need no cars
She got plenty a’ zip zip zoom

‘Cause she’s Downtown Cupcake Brown
Funnest bike in the whole damn town
Funner than a junkyard trike
Sweeter than a motor bike

Now Cupcake she can haul stuff
Groceries lumber bikes and kids
And if you slam on the brakes you better know the stakes
‘Cause oh my god she skids

And she’s Downtown Cupcake Brown
Funnest bike in the whole damn town
Funner than a junkyard trike
Sweeter than a motor bike

PS Chords can be found here for your convenience: http://xtrasue.com/tab/downtown_cupcake_brown.txt

So I was talking to my friend Hollie this afternoon, on the computer, and she mentioned something about her Flickr. When I went to check it out, who should I see there, but me! The cool part, though, and the whole reason for this post, is a comment by some dude named Dylster about a picture of me test riding my Big Dummy at Clever Cycles.

Here’s what Dylster said:

“The Dummy actually comes with an invisible box of Joy. Once you start riding a Dummy, the box opens and you get this perpetual grin across your face.”

Dylster, you are one smart cookie. I think I’ll start stalking you. I mean following you on Twitter. Or checking out your Flickr at the least!

Last night, on my way home from work, I happened upon a bunch of people with their bikes in the Ladd’s circle right by Palio. Palio has awesome bagels, by the way, and the owner is a helpful saint. Anyway, I stopped and asked somebody which ride they were about to embark on, and they told me it was the History Ride. I had read about it online earlier in the day, and it didn’t take much encouragement to get me to abandon the grocery shopping I had been planning and tag along. Thanks for the encouragement!

So we headed out, going in some direction, and I was so busy making new friends and reveling in my most excellent Big Dummy, that after 30 seconds I had no idea where we were. We stopped on some corner, scooched up tight and listened to some guy tell (I know, I’d make a great reporter, the way I remember all the details, right?) us about Dr. Hawthorne and his insane asylum which used to be where the Hawthorne & 39th Fred Meyer’s is now. Then we went down some more streets and ended up on the Eastbank Esplanade. At this point, I actually knew where I was. Another guy – or was it the same guy as the first guy? – told us about Mr. Benson and the bubblers and the flood of 90-something, and the art of the Esplanade. Next we rode North on the Esplanade and stopped just shy of the Steele Bridge. Do Hawthorne and Steele both end in e? I never know. Then we went up the ramp and North on Williams, which I know because we passed Pix. We kept going, and stopped at a park and then another park. We turned right on Rosa Parks, went around a little triangle, and ended the ride at Good Neighbor Pizzeria on the corner of Dekum and Durham. All the best rides end with pizza and beer, you know. I remember looking at the street signs and wondering, “Hmmm, I wonder where this corner of Dekum and Durham actually is?”

This ride was full of excellent friendly people and one excellent friendly dog. As is my habit, I can only remember the dog’s name: Kansas. Hi, Kansas! Some of the people kindly let me ride back to Southeast with them, since I was lost. They kind of were too, but one had a map. And the leaders (there were 3 of them) were incredibly well educated about Portland, the greatest city on Earth. Thanks to the leaders and the riders for yet another great ride!

*** WARNING: GUSHING AHEAD ***

If my old Trextracycle was Sex on Wheels, then this Big Dummy is Sex on Clouds. [Thanks to Nick for the cloud metaphor.] The ride is so smooth and steady and effortless that I enter a dream state every time I mount it. It’s like a glide, not a ride.

Colin did a stellar job with the build. It shifts flawlessly and instantaneously. Braking is smooooooth. So smooth that I can steer the bike with my left hand, steer two 65 lb. dogs with my right hand and right foot, and still easily control my velocity (that would be direction and speed for any non physics majors in the house).

Here’s a picture of my favorite tube. It’s exquisite, don’t you think? I’m told that most people don’t have favorite tubes, and I’ve never had one before, so the Big Dummy must just inspire that kind of thing. In case it’s not obvious, I’m referring to the large flat-oval tube on the bottom there, aka the chain stay. Look how sexy that is! It’s a work of art, I tell you. You might need to see it in person to see what I mean.

You may have noticed by now that the wheels are smaller than your average twenty-six inchers. Yep, they’re twenty-four inchers. That’s because I’m short, and the smallest Big Dummy frame is a 16 inch. It turned out to fit me perfectly! Props to Dean for that, he’s the one who first suggested it to me. I was hesitant, but I knew it would be the only way to make the BD fit between my petite legs. … OK, short-and-so-super-strong-tree-trunkish legs. I don’t think I notice that the wheels are smaller when I ride, unless they’re making it more plush. It is a super plush ride; it reminds me of a certain motor vehicle I may have once owned (and may still, I’m not saying) when it was new. If it had heat seaters, it would be the Trooper of Bikes.

Did you notice the Nitto Albatross bars? And did you know that I wanted On-One Mary bars? Well, the Mary bars didn’t get here in time for the build, so some brilliant Clever Cycles employee (don’t know which one) put some temporary Albatrosses (Albatri?) bars on in the mean time. Because I’m, you know, me, I made it loud and clear to anyone who would listen that I hated them. After 1.5 minutes of riding with them. What? Snap judgements? Me? Nahhhhh. Apparently, I’m good at snap judging people (yes I am too), but not handle bars. I’m starting to really dig the Albatroi! When the Marys get here, I’ll try them (for more than a minute and a half this time), and I may have a difficult decision to make. Props to Todd, because he’s the one who kept telling me that I’d like them, and I kept thinking he was crazy. He’s also the one who told me I’d enjoy running my Big Apples with low pressure, and I scoffed at that, too. Then one day I checked the pressure and it turned out I was running and loving them at 15psi! I pumped them up to their max, 60, and now they’re not nearly as cushy. That was on my Trextracycle (too bad I didn’t think of that name until the bike was dismembered and sold for parts); the BD has it’s tires probably at thier max of 55, but even so it rides a million times smoother than the old bike. I think I’ll let them lose air naturally for now, and then I’ll probably settle on some middle number.

So I’ve had the bike approximately 51.5 hours now, and already 3 random strangers have taken test rides on it. I really love  sharing the love! The first two people were eating at the same sit-outside restaurant as we were, and very politely asked if they could check out our bikes (my Big Dummy and L’s Marin Novato Xtracycle). We got to talking, and I liked them right away (see, good people judgment skills), so I encouraged them both to take a test ride. He went first, she went second, and they declined to ride together on it. The third person was a dude I met at Clever Cycles today. He was bringing in his X for something or other, and it had weird holes in the snap deck, so I asked him about it. He told me the previous owner had some kind of 4-stroke engine attached there. Wow. I pointed out my Big Dummy to him (really, it just happened to come up in conversation!) and he said, ‘Oh! I’ve seen your blog – I recognize those stoker bars. My wife started reading it, and now I do too.” Holy wow-maybe-there-are-more-than-three-readers, Batman! He and his friend were both very nice guys. Naturally, I asked if he wanted to ride it, and of course he did. I told him to watch his knees (’cause my bike is too small for him), and off he rode. When he came back his friend asked him how it rode, and he said, “It’s like riding on two clouds.” He nailed it in a beautiful metaphor (I know, it’s really a simile, but the word ‘metaphor’ is more pleasing to my palate). Thanks!

OK, the last thing I want to mention here (or maybe not, now that I think about it) is the headlight. That thing ROCKS. No longer am I constrained to the daylight! It’s super bright and if I aim it at the ground just right, it looks like a loaf of bread. Plus it works off the front hub generator. No batteries – it just works. It’s like the Mac of lights. In fact, the whole bike is like the Mac of Bikes. Maybe I’ll call it iDummy. Nah, probably not.

OK, the really last thing I want to mention, just in case you or anyone you know is thinking about getting a Big Dummy or Xtracycle with 24″ wheels, is that the standard kickstand is about an inch too long for the little wheels. In its stock state, the bike was very tippy on the kickstand, so Mike very kindly cut it down an inch for me, and now it’s perfect. That is to say he cut the kickstand, not the bike. Plus he shortened the seat post by 2″ for me because I needed that a little lower than it could go. Thanks, Mike!

Thanks also to Martina and Tyler for always being wonderful – you guys are the best. And I’m sorry to have kept you late AGAIN last night! Seriously, you should lock the doors if you see me coming any later than 4:30!

Tomorrow’s the Big Day, so today I stopped by to say Hi to the Clever Cycles Gang, and just see if there was anything to see. And there was! Turns out they’ve hired a new guy, named Colin, and he gets the honor of building my BD. I say honor because it’s a super fine BD, not because it’s mine.

So I went over to the CC, met Colin (look how adorable he is, posing for me), stood around chatting and petting the BD, snapped a few pics with the trusty old iPhone, chastised all of them for not participating in the World Naked Bike Ride, and just had a fun time there as usual. And by the way, one CC employee DID partake of the WNBR. Yay to you, my friend!

Tomorrow at lunch I’ll take my old saddle and pedals over for installation on the BD. It’s not that I couldn’t install them myself, it’s just that I know Colin will want to test ride his work, and pedals and saddle will help. We’re getting there! I’m scheduled to pick it up Wednesday night. I have a stupid meeting from 12 to 5 that day, can you believe it? I’m going to try to duck out as early as possible; I hate when I get to CC late, and keep them there while they’re trying to close. I’m sure they hate that, too. Sorry, CC

Edit: Tomorrow is not the Big Day, tomorrow is the Big Day Eve. Apparently I’m too excited to know the difference.

Another Edit: No wait, tomorrow IS the Big Day. My god, somebody build up that bike and give it to me before I have a stroke trying to figure out where I am!