Living For The City

Its Friday night, I was in the shower around 10pm getting ready to go out when I realized that I had nowhere to go and nothing to do. See, I spent nearly every night this summer on my bike – solo rides, date rides, group rides – I was just always down to ride and didn’t care much for anything else. If I wasn’t at home with my girl or the pup I was on my bike – now that I’ve just got the bike to speak of I don’t really know what to do with myself.

I’m attracted to riding for all the same reasons I was attracted to skateboarding at an early age and stuck with it through most of my young life. I consider myself to be a fairly skilled rider but that’s incidental – you don’t need to be particularly “good” at it to really get something out of it. I certainly value the social aspect of it – I’ve made some truly amazing friends in the last year alone through riding and strengthened bonds with others just the same. With that said I regularly enjoy some of the inner peace and solitude that lone riding provides me with and love the fact that I can just hop on the open road / trail and forget about all the things I can’t manage to escape in my day to day. All good, right? Then why am I so lonely on a Friday night?

Once I realized that I wasn’t doing a god damned thing tonight I turned my attention to my winterbike which I’ve been parting out when friends need parts but I think it’s time I showed her some love. I figure that with the colder / wetter weather on its way she could use a good tune-up before she goes back on the road… So I lit some candles, hit the dimmer, got out the stemware, poured some bubbly and pumped D’Angelo to set the mood.

By the time “Send it on” came on I had her nearly buck naked and by the time “How does it feel?” came on I was starting to grease ‘er up and git ‘er done.

She’s in surprisingly good shape after a salty Ontario winter of daily riding and a dry summer of near complete inactivity. G.D. Bless Aluminum; no rust to be spoken of on the frame although some of the components could use some serious attention or perhaps even replacing but for a bike that I’m going to ride all winter it’s probably best just to leave it be – replace a few bolts here and there, throw a new chain on it (see below) and get this ol’ gal roadworthy again.

I repacked the rear wheel and threaded on a better cog which should keep her rolling smoothly – I’m not particularly fond of cup & cone hubs for the winter but what are you gonna do? They were cheap and I don’t mind thrashing them in the snow and rain.

I’ve often complained that my Bottom Bracket tool slips off the BB as there is no real means of fastening it to the BB whilst cranking. I was going to replace the tool with a better one when I came up with a decent two dollar solution. I hate the bloody Queen!

I’m going to try to make a chain out of the leftover bits of chains I’ve used working on friend’s bikes over the summer so if anyone has any spare links from a KMC 1/8” Z Chain – holla at ya boy!

I could have used it a month ago a lot more than today but was too busy at work to do what I’m doing now – taking the week off! How much can I get a last minute flight to Tokyo for?

Sean’s arm is going to look amazing when it’s all done!

Creepy / Pervy Comment Thanks Erin, I’m sure Jordan appreciates it.

First person to correctly identify each bike and its respective owner wins a prize

Congratulations to Andrea & Scott who got married last weekend atop of Blue Mountain, overlooking Georgian Bay in what I can imagine to be about as perfect a wedding day one could ever have hoped for. Here’s (raises a glass of juice) to many wonderful years together.

More photos HERE – some of the best wedding photos I’ve ever laid eyes on, might I add.

Some of you may remember this beautiful Rossin track frame that my boy Joey was selling. Well, Billy decided to buy it but a couple of days before the build, it was discovered by Keith that the chainstays were rusting from the inside out and it could not be built up.

Bill already had all the parts either in hand or on order so he decided to see what else he could find in the city and took a trip up to La Bicicletta (where this Rossin frame likely entered the city many years ago) and found the exact same frame (one size down), brand new and ready to roll so he picked it up and the old Rossin frame may now become a fun restoration project for me over the winter.

Tootsie? Is that you?

Top Chef? Top Chef.

If you’ve got a bike in this city there are a few things you have to seriously watch out for:
1) motor vehicles – cabs and luxury SUVs especially
2) the “devil strips” aka streetcar tracks
3) pedestrians that don’t realize that bikes can seriously hurt when they hit you
4) cops with ticket quotas
5) bike thieves – the lowest of the low.

Lockin’ up
A lot of bicycles in this city get stolen due to either inferior locks or improper locking technique. Make sure to lock through either of the frame “triangles” and if you can, get your wheels in there as well. This is why using multiple locks is useful in the sense that you can have one lock through the frame, one wheel and whatever you are locking your bike to and the other locking your other wheel to the frame. Try to have as much of the U filled up with bike bits so thieves can’t get anything in there to pry it open and last but not least – don’t freelock! Right, Toby?

Time & Place
There are all sorts of things that go bump in the night and bike thieves are no exception. Generally speaking they have a lot more time and less witnesses to deal with at night so that is when they are most likely to strike – if your bike isn’t outside overnight, chances are you’ll still have it in the morning.

Not that most of us have an abundance of space in our homes (seriously, have you seen my place?) but if you’re serious about holding onto your beloved bike, try to find somewhere indoors to store it overnight.

Equally important as time is place – when you’re locking your bike up, even if just for a short while during the day, try to do it close to a busier intersection and not in a back alley somewhere. Y’dig?

Then again…

Quick Release Components
Quick release components can be great but you have to use them the way they were intended for them to be effective. If you have a quick release seat-post collar, take your seat / seat-post with you every time you leave your bike unattended. If you have quick release wheels, either lock them up or take them with you because if you don’t – someone else will! One quick and easy way to keep your Quick Release skewers is to simply add a hose-clamp around the lever and your frame which will make it possible for you to remove but will take a thief a few extra minutes that they won’t likely want to spend. If you would rather bolted wheels but don’t want to replace the axle you can either buy allen-key skewers or a theft prevention mechanism such as Pitlock locking skewers which you can usually get for between $50 & $70.

Jammin’
I don’t have any quick release components on either the bikes I ride in the city (my MTB does have some) but that doesn’t make my components entirely safe. Anyone with a 15mm wrench can still make off with my wheels and anyone with an allen-key can still make off with my seat or stem. I’m not counting on thieves walking around with crank pullers so I don’t worry too much about that but everything else is pretty much fair game.

One thing you can do to prevent some of your components going missing is to krazy-glue ball bearings into the bolt-heads which will keep a thief’s tools from making their way in there. Make sure, of course, to have your bike set up the way you like before you do this – you’ll be able to get the bearings out with a little work but it may be a bit of a pain in the ass.

Another option is to swap out your hex/allen-key bolts for torx bolts – I’m not saying that no one has them but the average thief isn’t going to be carrying around a full set of torx wrenches in their pockets. Unless, of course, they are professional bike thieves in which case you’re probably riding a $6,000 Orbea that you shouldn’t really be locking up anywhere anyway!

Choice of Lock
A lot of people don’t see the value in spending $100 or more in locks for bikes that may have cost them scarcely more than that initially but you usually can keep those locks longer than you have the bike & a cheap bike is only cheap as long as you don’t have to replace it when it gets up and walks away in the middle of the night.

I personally bring my Kryptonite Evolution Mini everywhere I go – you can tuck it in your back pocket (ok, most boys can), under your belt or buy (or make) a handy little holster like this one from Fabric Horse. It also has the added advantage of being a handy little weapon should some dickhead in an H2 aim his/her two ton weapon at you! But I digress…

If I’m going to be anywhere that I won’t be able to check on my bike easily for an extended period of time I bring my PB Chain lock and the Evo Mini so that I can make sure to keep what is in my safe, safe.

One definite advantage of Kryptonite Locks is that they have a key registration (that can replace lost keys) and also offer a theft protection guarantee that will replace your bike if you can prove you were using the lock correctly and your bike was stolen anyway… just hope the thief doesn’t take the bruck up lock too!

Other Locks:
The New York Chain (available in both Evo & Fahgettaboudit versions) is one of the best chain locks out there – 10mm four-sided chain links made of triple heat-treated boron manganese steel for maximum strength – seriously folks… BORON!

The New York Fahgettaboudit Lock is probably the best u-lock on the market – but it’s heavy as hell so not the most practical for carrying around with you.

Stocks Locks have been around for some time and make fantastic / strong lock which has somewhat flexible posts which makes getting the lock into place a little bit easier.

Register your bike
I may not be the biggest fan of our city’s finest but I do see the value in registering your bike with the Police. It’ll make it easier to reclaim if, by some slim chance it ends up in their hands or in the more likely event that it shows up at Igor’s or Uncle Jacob’s.

Vandalism
Not necessarily theft related but somehow relevant.

Like every city, Toronto is filled with little fucking weasels that are too cowardly to deal with their problems like men so they go around smashing other people’s stuff. Apparently, they aren’t only cowardly but also delusional in thinking that a) people won’t find out who did it and b) that they won’t be held accountable when that happens. Just remember, kid; you don’t owe her the money – you owe me the money and I expect to be paid every last red cent. That’s about all I’m going to say about it here, I’ll see you when I see you.

Bike thieves – you’d be lucky to get The Gas Face! You deserve The Gas Chamber!

A new friend of mine and fellow Dirtball, Stephanie, came home from a trip out of town this weekend to a broken lock and an empty spot where her beloved bike used to be.

If any of you see anyone riding around on this bike that isn’t this girl – please liberate the bike so it can be returned to its rightful companion!

I ran into Nick yesterday on the street who got his DeRosa up and running this weekend – I didn’t take any detailed pics but this bike is seriously so fresh!

Love you Mike – even if you think biting the heads off birds is somehow acceptable.

I’ve been having a bit of a tough run of it lately – I’ve been learning some very hard lessons about myself and others and have had a very difficult time diffusing my anger, frustration in hurt in ways I haven’t experienced before. I am, unfortunately, the type of person who will dwell on things until they start to manifest themselves physically – this is, for obviously reasons, really unhealthy and has wreaked havoc on my personal and professional life over the last little while.

With that in mind, I decided to reach out to my boy Scotty Hammell – magician, escape artist, motivational speaker and hypnotherapist. This dude has achieved more in his relatively few years on this planet than many of us will in our lifetimes and he deserves all the fantastic things that will surely flow his way in the years to come.

As we began the session I started to feel the most incredible sensations throughout my body (get your minds out of the gutters, kids) and started to lose control of basic motor functions. At this point I was still very aware of what was happening and began to laugh and blurted out “I can’t open my fuckin’ eyes, man!” – We had to start again but I could very quickly feel myself slipping under and it was the most bizarre thing I’ve felt in a very long time.

I was brought out of my hypnotic state a short time later and felt as if I’d somehow pulled something over on him because I remembered everything! Or at least that’s what I thought. He asked how long I thought I’d been out and I guessed around 15 minutes, if that. In truth it was around 3 times that amount of time. I realized right away that I remember things that were happening as I was going under and as I was coming out but everything that happened in between will remain a total mystery.

I’m not sure if it’s just the power of positive suggestion or placebo effect but the bottom line is that I woke up feeling really, truly great. I really hope that it’s because of the hypnosis and not a matter of my shirt being untucked when I awoke… but that’s a whole other story.

ROWF! ROWF!

It’s no secret – I love getting things in the mail. Last night I got this here little photo-zine from Jason Britton in Seattle. I’d be lying if I said that I thought it was absolutely mind-blowing but it’s a neat D.I.Y. project, well designed and acts as a pretty cool little snapshot of Jason’s life – I’m sure I’ll pick up the next one as well. Thanks for the Cadence sticker as well.

You’ve got to love “Built In Obsolescence” in today’s electronic devices; you’ve got to figure that the average life of a mobile phone is one year or less before the thing becomes basically unusable. That is, of course, assuming that you haven’t replaced it before then because something newer and cooler comes out every few weeks. I’m sure the kids in the Coltan Mines are happy that we’re keeping them so busy. I guess every dark cloud truly has a silver lining.

I should also mention that the buttons are reversed on this one so if you get any text messages from me that don’t make sense – the “send” and “delete” keys are in the opposite positions from what they were on my last phone.

RIP Old phone: I loved you dearly – even though you’ve probably already given me a tumor. I forgive you.

Three “One Line” Reviews:

Jose Gonzalez – In Our Nature
Beautiful. Where was this record a month and a half ago when I needed it most?

Against Me! – New Wave
If it’s good enough for The Boss, it’s got to be good enough for me.

Eddie Vedder – Into the Wild
“Listening to his voice is just like listening to an old friend.” – Jason Raine

Dear TTC,
Please inform the driver of the 4131 King Streetcar (Westbound @ 9:00am – Sept. 17, 2007) that cyclists wishing to make a left hand turn are to do so from the left turning lane and have all the rights and responsibilities in this respect as a motor vehicle would. So, when I’m waiting for my opportunity to make a left turn I do not expect the Streetcar driver to sit behind me repeatedly honking his horn as if I am to get out of his way.

This has happened several times now on several different routes and I am getting tired of it – it should be mandatory for TTC Drivers to have read and fully understand the Ontario Highway Traffic Act as it relates to cyclists so that they can better understand how to share the road with us.

My taxes pay for these streets and I have every right to use them within the confines of the law – if your drivers don’t understand that it’s going to be their problem – not mine.

Seriously, these people are ridiculous.

Sincerely,
Matt Rennick

TTC Drivers, you get The Gas Face!

It’s been a really exhausting weekend and I think I’m feeling about as emotionally and physically drained as I ever have been. I’m starting to feel a lot better about my life and yet a lot worse about myself – go figure! I’ve (hopefully) got some vacation time coming up so hopefully I’ll be able to just relax, decompress and re-center myself before the doom and gloom of winter sets in.

Ben and I spent the day on Saturday running around the city picking up parts for Jordan’s LaserQuest (Rust In Pieces) replacement before I headed off to the Hammer for a friend / co-worker’s BBQ.

It’s hard to pick up things for someone else and not end up wanting to grab a thing or two for yourself – I’ve behaved myself but Ben couldn’t resist the deal he got on these here Level Hubs from Keith @ Cavern.

Look who is coming to Toronto! This is going to be awesome!

Jaye also picked himself up a new whip – we’re going to do a single speed conversion on this puppy this week and hopefully Jaye’s rear wheel doesn’t explode and kill him before we get the chance to do it! He also received his first introduction to Toronto riding within about 10 minutes on the road courtesy of the Devil Strips (aka Streetcar tracks) – you’re a champ, bahd!

After a very long day we managed to put together this beautiful bicicletta– there is still some part swapping to be done and perhaps some minor adjustments to be made but I think Jordan is very happy with her new friend.

This whole experience has been very aggravating and confusing but it’s also been extremely positive in the sense it’s shown how many great people there are out there that will have your back when life kicks you in the teeth. Thanks to everyone for their help, donations and offers of help even if we didn’t end up using it – it’s seriously the thought that counts.

Special thanks to Cam, Ben, Toby, Erin, Ryan, Keith, Bill, Polly, Mike and anyone I may have forgotten – your thoughtfulness, help and consideration in this build has been extremely heartwarming and refreshing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum – those responsible for causing this mess will undoubtedly get theirs, they always do. For any incorrect assumptions I may have made about all this, you need to know that if I was wrong, I’m truly sorry.

Hardly looks random, does it?

RIP – Laser Quest

I’d like to think that my friends and I belong to a group of reasonably intelligent people. At the risk of sounding arrogant; I’d go so far as to say that most of my friends are of above average intelligence, or at very least average – yet after about half an hour of Trivial Pursuit we had to reduce the game to “first one to get a piece wins” rules which was like a swift kick in the proverbial nuts. Collectively, we’re apparently really dumb but Jaye wins at life.

At least Alex & I were both vindicated once we busted out Cranium which was a little bit more our speed as indicated by the 10 year olds raising the old “I WIN!” arms on the instruction booklet.

That’s right fam, Team Lee-Rennick will bust you in your mouth!

This makes my heart feel good. Words can’t even begin to describe how empty my life feels without the pitter-patter of little feet running around my home. I miss my little buddy so much.

If you want to stop looking at bike porn on the internet and check out a full on live donkey sex show, the Adidas x Marinoni track bike that Ben & Nick designed is on display at the Queen St. Adidas store right now – Toronto ‘heads only, totes obvi.