Do office chairs belong in bicycle racks?

Sometimes you don’t want to walk to the bar. Obviously (i hope) driving isn’t an option. I suppose for some reason you may choose not to ride. And, every once in a while, i am sure we all will ask a friend to push us to the bar in an office chair. It happens. Where should the chair be left? This and other hardhitting deep issues of Key West bicycle culture are being discussed and debated. Well, maybe not, but they sure make funny photos. I'm going to continue to post random postcards from this crazy little tropical island as well from roadtrips on the BBB every now and then, but mostly I will be writing and photographing for my new blog, Key West Velo.


Expect more of my same blurry photos and long winded stories but without any snow or ice...ever. Although, I must admit, the cooler weather down here lately has been great for riding. Mid 50's at night are chilly if you're sitting around, but feels great if speeding around on a bike. And we got lots of bicycles here of every type and rustitude. Here's a typical sight outside El Alamo when Scott, Dave and I are cruising around. There's thousands and thousands of bikes everywhere, I love it. Its truly the best way to get around.


Here's an unusual sight inside on Christmas night...IT SNOWED!!! Even though it was plasticky and not cold, people went nuts! BTW, this spot has $1 PBR's and $2 Yuenglings all day every day! mmmmm!

I will also be contributing to the Fixed Gears Bicycle Shop Blog and writing and photographing all the assorted road, time trial, cruiser, choppers and various crazy looking bikes that come through the shop. Its my new fulltime job; managing, organizing, learning and having a great time at Fixed Gears Bicycle Shop. The links between the two are hard to find, so here they both are. That was an awkward paragraph, my bad! But life is good, i encourage everyone to follow their hearts and manifest their dreams.

Fight the winter blues and live vicariously someplace warm through the blog, or plan a trip and come on down and visit! Hope to see y'all down here smiling and pedaling.

Ride on,

chillwill
Key West Velo

click read more for a naughty elf picture





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Critical Mass. Columbus, Ohio. August 2009

That title above should read something like; Being critical of the lack of a mass in Columbus, Ohio. It was surreal. Freaky. Inexplicable. Strange. Disappointing. I arrived at the State House lawn 30 minutes early hoping to meet some peoples, but found nobody. Eventually, around 5;30 I recognized someone I met the day before, a friend of friends of mine, Issac. I had no idea he was in the middle of a massive years long cycling trip. He was from Canada and hanging around for a month. I was from Hartford/Key West and hanging around for a week. And there we were, the only people who showed up for Critical Mass and both of us were out-of-towners! Huh? Yep, and it gets worse and strange. Really strange!


So, first, here's a pic of everyone ready to ride. Me on the left and Issac on the right. Thank you to the random lady reading on the bench for taking out picture and making sure no one had their eyes closed. I really was looking forward to the ride. It had rained all day, but cleared up pretty nice and I wanted to explore and mingle. But nothing. Nada. Zilch.


So, this guy in the blue t-shirt comes up to us wanting us to sign some stuff about clean and affordable energy. We couldn't help as neither of us were registered Ohio voters. I asked him about the critmass ride, hoping he'd know something. He kinda laughed and said he hadn't owned or ridden a bicycle since college, almost sounding like cycling was beneath him or something. He then wandered off still chuckling to himself as Issac and I wondered about his commitment to clean and affordable energy and feeling super confused. Whhhaaaaat!?!?

We headed over to the Tip Top bar, which I was told had $1 PBR's for cyclists and was a pretty hoppin' hangout. We arrived to a great mix of people, several bicycles locked up and lots of people who looked like urban cyclists. We ordered a round and tried to talk to a table of people who obviously biked. I asked about Critical Mass. They said not many people usually go and it kinda sucked. I excitedly suggested they make their own flyers and make it a great ride. The response? "Someone used to make flyers." And that was that.  They also mentioned the monday night rides but were not fans of it citing irresponsible riding. They weren't particularly friendly. Perhaps if I returned in cut-off jean shorts and Issac got a fixie, things would have gone better.

Issac and I sat down at a nearby table and crowd watched. One dude was actually wearing a critmass t-shirt! Yep, during the time the ride shoulda been happening, someone was drinking at a bar, wearing the shirt? WTF Columbus? Really?

UPDATE Stopped in a few bike shops today and it turns out the Monday night has upwards of 200 people with good weather (like today!) and critmas is pretty much dead. Well, weekly sounds better than monthly! Looking forward to the ride tonight. Might also head back down to the river around sunset for some explorations.

TUE MORNING UPDATE!

BTW the Columbus Monday Night Ride was pretty sweet. There were 40ish people and went everywhere. wow. so very, very happy to have had 35's, gears and brakes! Met some nice, sharing peeps and even took turns going around an unlighted BMX track! sketchy...but fun. One dude crashed on a street and totally taco'd his front wheel. The thing was toasted. Really burnt toast at that. He removed the wheel and smashed it on the ground until it was reasonably tru again, put it back on the bike and off we were after a great rest stop in the middle of industrial southern Columbus. Well done!  

There were a few red light runnings, multilane blockages and beer can litteringt that I felt was a bit obnoxious and irresponsible, but overall the ride was great. Thanks Columbus!

Click Read More for a story about a redeeming 20miler along the Olentangy River Greenway!



Saturday, after an afternoon breakfast, we embarked on a ride along the Olentangy River Greenway. T'was great being out of traffic and in a somewhat natural setting. Urban wilderness we'll call it. I'd happily swim in the Connecticut River before jumping into this one! But it was pretty and a good amount of people were out on it. It parallels High Street, several blocks away, for miles and its a great alternative to the busy street.


We passed this great bike rack parking lot outside of a large building on Ohio State University. The trail skirts the campus for a bit. There's also some options for riding right next to the river or on higher ground. Its all paved, but there were lots of side trails for mountain bikes too.


I don't remember the name of this pedestrian bridge, but I really liked the curves of the wood.


Mikey and Jason catching up with emails and texts!


What a glorious day to fly down a little hill...


Jason is really diggin' the flying.

We eventually met up with Chrizzle, who just bought a sweet city cruiser and rode High Street the whole way back with a few pitstops along our merry way. Thanks again to Chrizzle and Jason for buying those chocolate chip cookies! 

I am still trying to figure out the scene here. There's a good bit of infrastructure here, lots of people on bikes and even quite a few bike shops; though some seem to focus on hipster clothing more than bike stuff! Drivers seem pretty cool except for two rednecks in a pick-up truck yelling at us to "get the hell off the road!" Other than that, cars have been super respectful. There's bike racks all over and lots of people pedaling around. OK, i am off to tear apart my van looking for the handlebar tape i bought at EMS in West Hartford. The Gunnar has got to get rewrapped!

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Showdown In Old Town recap

“I have two boats in dry dock, a busted longboard and a fuckin’ busted-ass bike.” Words spoken by Jonathon, the winner of the Summer Showdown in Old Town. Actually, RJ and Rydel arrived 5 or 10 minutes earlier, by they forgot stop #7, which was to pick up a free copy of the Blue Paper. Prolly about half the racers had to run back out of Cowboy Bill’s and around the block to the Parrot, the nearest spot to grab a copy of the weekly newspaper. Suckas! So due to this and that, the winning bicycle, a $20 cruiser, beat the roadies and the fixies!

17 people met up at the end of the White Street Pier for the island’s first alleycat race and all had a great time. We had a few DQ’s due to missed stops, but most everyone finished and got a prize. All racers got a water bottle from Fixed Gears and a koozie from Cowboy Bill's, who also hooked us up with $1 PBR’s all night. yeeee-haaaaaaw! Thanks again to Re-Cycle , Guy Harvey's Help Yourself , Conch Traders, Turtle Kraals and Bad Boy Buttitos who were super kind with donated prizes, thanks y’all! Miami Bike Scene also covered the race.

johnathon conch cruiser
pedi eddie conch cruiser but i should have had him as a roadie
rj
rydel fixie
jason
david
amy fixie
travis conch cruiser
sasha
nick
lou
george conch cruiser
matt conch cruiser



Instead of putting the manifests and maps into envelopes, they were tucked inside waterbottles donated by Fixed Gears, which was the start of the surprise coconuts and mangos checkpoint tasks. Instead of signing manifests, Ray was handing out coconuts to be delivered to a house on Olivia Street. Thanks to Randesh for the coconuts. You can find him at Help Yourself chopping them open with a machete for the delicious water inside. Help Yourself was also a stop and they made everyone do a shot of super cold juice!


Brian and Agnes worked the Olivia Street surprise stop, where conch cruisers got their manifest signed, but roadies had to take a freshly picked mango back to Fixed Gears to get a signature. I am not sure how many people realized the Bill Butler Park checkpoint was down a tiny alley only two houses away!


Maya kicked ass and rode off into the sunset on the steel (and cardboard) horse she rides. Inspired by the race, she actually made a horse for her bicycle. Well done! She worked the checkpoint on the stairs at the corner of Duval and Front and made the racers go and find a tourist and make them yell, “yeee-haaaawww!”


This is a crazy story. George, on the left thought he had DFL and realized he had lost his wallet while racing. He rushed out of Cowboy Bill’s to go look for it and Matt, on the right, showed up and stole DFL from him. Matt also had a wallet he found on the street; which turned out to be George’s wallet! Dang, this town is getting small…


This was the most fixie riders ever together on this tiny island….six of us! Amy, Amy, Patrick, ChillWill and on the far right; Peppermint Patti and Rydel who drove down from Miami for the race. Riding around Saturday night with everyone was awesome. We had road bikes, fixies, conch cruisers and even a Penny-Farthing

Click Read More for a basket full of more photos!




Patricia arrived at Turtle Kraals and climbed the stairs to the Tower Bar but could not find the checkpoint person. She borrowed a menu to prove she was there. Good thinking!


Yep, someone really raced a Penny-farther! Scott also builds custom chopper bikes. I’ll mos def get a post out soon with some of his work and contact info.


We gave Matt, DFL, this rope lock hoping his bike would get stolen and he could get a faster bike! Ironicaly, Jonothn, who came in 1st place, actually uses a rope to “lock up” his bike at racks. Really, he does it all the time. I love this town!


By the way, Matt was one of the out-of-towners, visiting from Ohio; not for the race…but on honeymoon with his beautiful wife! Congratulations! They were super cool, hope to see y’all when I’m visiting Columbus in August.


Robbie was making people, like Jason here, go down the slide at Bill Butler Park.


RJ, in between Peppermint Patti and ??, prolly could have been the winner if not for a bit of disorganization on by both of us. He arrived at Cowboy Bill’s with Rydel an out-of-towner from Miami following his wheel, and they could not find me. They got back on their bikes and pedaled all the way to Cowboy Bill’s Reloaded, a smaller sister bar towards the northern end of Duval and returned…still looking for me. I was taking photos at three checkpoints as fast as possible. They forgot to pick up the Blue Paper and while going out to get them, Jonathon and Eddie arrived, putting RJ and Rydel in 3rd and 4th.



Scott, on the left, is the rider of the Penny Farthington. I don’t remember what Peppermint Patti was showing me and Patrick is blurry and out of focus…as promised.


An adorable couple and their bicycle basket of mangos! Thanks again Brian and Agnes for helping out.


me and lou


Rydel killin' the wings! At some point at Finnegan’s Wake I wrote down a quote from PP, “I’m not surprised he has chicken in his tooth hole!”


Rydel and the King of the Wild West, Jonathon, who bought a round for everyone!

Peppermint Patti chillin'


these tats were da bomb!


peppermint patti hugging what may have been the inspiration for The Giving Tree infont of the house where Shel Silverstein lived.


david on the penny! It was a bit awkward at first, but I liked riding it. with a waaay bigger front wheel than a 29’r, curbs were nuttin’!

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The Showdown in Old Town alleycat race

Key West's first alleycat race! And its gonna be tropical craziness! There's a lot of surprises in store for the racers and prizes for both fast riders and those on obligatorily rusted conch cruisers! I have certainly slacked on my blogging and organizing here, but this will more than make up for it. We got a lot of great local sponsors already supporting us with prizes and help. Props to Patrick at Fixed Gears, a bicycle repair shop on Simonton Street; Charlie at Help Yourself, a wonderful organic and green food spot on Fleming Street, Billy at Cowboy Bill's, the island's only Honky Tonk Bar, Charlie and Ron at Conch Traders, a great little gift shop at Clinton Square Market and hopefully a slew of other supportive businesses. Yeeeeehaaaawwww!

OK, enough with the bill paying, what about the race? You will need a basket or a bag and please don't forget your lock and lights. Meet at the end of the White Street Pier at 6pm to register. We need volunteers for checkpoints, please come a few minutes early and wear a cowboy hat if ya got one or bring a bandana to wear around yer neck to help the racers identify the checkpoint peoples.

The final checkpoint and afterparty is at a bar, so, unfortunately this race is 21+. But...I have worked out $1 PBR's all night for racers and volunteers!!

I'll post more details as the event gets closer. To all my peoples in da 'Beat, c'mon on down. I'll find you a hammock, tent space, floor space, whatever you need to get down here.

Here's the back of the flyer incase y'all have no idea what an alleycat race is all about:






no hints here about the checkpoints.....sucka!


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BBB Pub Crawl III: Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

From the BeatBikeBlog's behind the scenes department of marketing and public relations:

As Brendan mentioned, your humble beatbikeblog has turned a year old! While we have somehow just fallen short of claiming the "Best Blog" honor as a rookie in the Hartford Advocate's "Best of Hartford 2009" issue (Really?? Noted beauty pageant judge Perez Hilton got more votes than us as the best blog?? Where's the local love, Advocate voters?), the comments demanding a celebration have been nothing but overwhelming. Good news! We have listened to ourselves commenting and have decided that holding a BBB Pub Crawl is the perfect way to mark this blessed occasion. And you, our reader and savvy bicyclist, are invited to join us on Saturday night, May 9th. You don't even have to celebrate our birthday...there are lots of things you can choose to celebrate instead:

1) Nueve de Mayo: For people who took too long of a siesta and missed Cinco.
2) Mother's Day Eve: air out all your best mother jokes from the past year
3) The unofficial, irreverent kickoff to Bike Week
4) Springy-Sproing: Warm weather has returned!
5) Ghostface Killah's birthday
6) Just being alive and free on two wheels in the Beat.

So Saturday May 9th, we're hitting places with outdoor seating. We'll be meeting up at Dulce in downtown Hartford around 7pm. From there, we'll head over to Hook & Ladder on Main St. at 8 pm. Then we'll make a nice ride through the city over to Plan B on Park St. in West Hartford and aim to arrive at 9:30. The crawl will finish up at Kenny's on Capitol Ave. starting around 11:30. There are loads of good food and beverage options at each stop.

Hope to see you there.
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suenalo!

Life is wonderful! I’m poor as hell, but so is most everyone else here right now. After pedicab shifts several of us walk across the street to the Green Parrot for free popcorn. Hungry, dirty, smelly, bicycle scavengers! Then its off to Cowboy Bill's happy hour for $1 yuenglings and PBR's.

Last Thursday I had a rare day off and went kayaking with the boys from Ohio. We basically just floated around the Gulf of Mexico between Key West and Stock Island, paddled to Cow Key Marina for a sixer and then floated to the Atlantic. A completely lazy afternoon under blue skies. I actually fell asleep in my ‘yak due to the sun and two beers. First time that ever happened. I liked it!

Riding around, both on the cab and my fixie, I see some strange, funny, beautiful, weird things. I most always take the full length of Duval Street on my ride home from the waiting gig. This is the main drag with about a million bars and another million tourist t-shirt shops. Its super fresh to see who’s pedaling and out and about and see how everyone's day went. Truly a wonderful, small town in many ways.


This guy rode up next to me near the end of my shift in front of The Bull. Moped? Check. Spear gun? Check. Time to get some dinner!


Mad props to this dude! I can’t wait to find out the whole story. This bike is flash! Wow. Airplanes can see this set-up! There’s fake fish in those tanks! And also some great beats you can’t hear in the photo!


Close up of the fish; and of course, blurry and out of focus as promised.

My new camera has died. But, as Coreylynn told me, the universe will give you what you need. So my old, dying camera that finally bit the dust when dropped into the water of a drainage tunnel under Oakland, is now working again. Yes, there’s a rubber band holding the battery door closed, but blurry photos are on and poppin’ again! Woo-haa! The Beat Bike Blog cannot be stopped!


Dozens of Civil War reenactment soilders paraded by Perfect Pedicab and the Parrot Saturday afternoon at the end of the dayshift. Amelia, I wish you were here this week. Civil War stuff, the Parrot and yep, it really does happen, Jimmy Buffet did a a very intimate, unannounced show at Margaritaville. Duval street was a mess!


Suenalo at the Parrot. Dang these guys are good. Wow! We caught their Saturday night set and both “soundcheck” sets on Sunday. Both night sets were packed with people dancing to the Latin grooves. The friday set prolly was too! Please, please, please check this 11 piece band out, Hotness! Soooo soooo much fun!


Here’s some randomn shit you see on a pedicab. Surfboard, paddle and snorkeling gear!

much more craziness after the jump...read more!





Here’s the Parrot and an idea of the bicycle situation here in Key West. All them bikes on the right are locked up to simple upside down “U” racks. These racks are everywhere on the island. Don’t worry, that motorcycle is only parking, no Harley Gangs terrorizing pedestrians!


Fellow pedicabbers; Roscoe of Serbia and Roy, a visiting pedicabber from Lauderdale/NYC, in deep conversation on Duval enroute to Cowboy Bill’s.


Between Suenalo sets on Saturday night we headed over to Cowboy Bill’s to see some peoples and check out the mechanical bull. There was some super thick fog smothering the city. This fog has been showing up the last few days and even the Conchs are having a hard time remembering the last time there was thick fog here. Freaky!


Suenalo, second set! What a freakin’ great time dancing and vibing to such amazing music and a great crowd. I can't say enough how much fun they were!


Monster and Roy and a lot of facial hair...I really don’t know what else to say!


Emily busting a few last moves before riding back to Mary Beth’s house. Everyone rides bicycles all the time here. Its beautiful! That building in the background is Perfect Pedicab! I can smell the popcorn at the Parrot when dropping off my trike at the end of a shift…Lucky!

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BBB Pub Crawl II: Repeal Day

Friday, December 5th marked the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the glorious 21st amendment to the US Constitution, and an end to 24 years of prohibition! And we celebrated! Many weeks ago our loyal reader(s) read Rich's original call to action! Well, we acted, and drank that action well!


I rode up to the rear of the spigot and found a dozen bikes locked and chained in all sorts of various configurations. Some looked familiar and i looked forward to seeing friends as well as finding out who the new bicycles belonged to. It was super wonderful to see a bunch of friends after being away for almost two months.


Rich gave a passionate sermon extolling the wonderful virtues of the 21st amendment. His hand gesturing was so full of energy his right arm is captured only as a blur, speedy beyond the realm of digital photography. We reveled, we gave thanks, we stayed late past the schedule and enjoyed the breaking of such earthly rules.


Mere glass cannot stop the energy flow of BBB dap, especially if involving Rich and a liter of beer and el Presidente de China. I believe I once got a text from Lucas proclaiming vegas as "the place where wasted happens!" Yep, pretty much. Two Fridays ago i stayed for two rounds of the special, a liter of any draft and any shot for $10. Dang. But as usual, a good time was had. More amazing photos after the jump including Joel working the stripper pole at Mad Dawg's!




Is Rick doing an anti-flat ritual of some kind as Rich double fists multiple liters of beer and Julia laughs nervously and protects her pizza.


el Prez pimpin' on my old Mercier. Well done!


As promised, Joel working it for Kristen and looking quite sexy!


A few went to Sully's, the most at the Spigot, half made it to Mad Dawgs and a few to the Red Rock. A great night and a hell of a way to return to Hartford! Read more!