Urban Ore and a Tandem Tour of Berkeley

My favorite artist wanted to attend a sketching workshop at a place called Urban Ore in Berkeley. My research of the destination began with looking at Google Earth satellite photos of used toilets.

Really. It did. 

I know these are mostly sinks in the ground-level photo but this does hint at the scale of Urban Ore, which has the tagline "If you're not for Zero Waste, how much waste are you for?" Right there on its website. It's a big place. Parts of it make you think of where things go when people in the first ten minutes of every HGTV show you've ever seen use gentle touches in the 'demo' phase while other parts make you think of a fencing operation. Stacks of appliances. Thousands of doors. Car stereos in a precarious stack. 

And, a few bicycles.

This classic Dahon was in great shape - save for the tires - but I left it where it was so as not to introduce a new tire size into my life. 

What was supposed to happen is my favorite artist was going to sketch around Urban Ore while I'd bike around and do some recon. But instead I spent two full hours wandering about, admiring the items - and sometimes thinking about what I could turn into a new workbench for my shop. 

A little extra room in the car and I'd have parted with the few hundred needed to bring this old doctor's office table home. I had visions of replacing the cushions with a countertop and keeping the spool of paper in place to protect the surface rather than the bottoms of patients. 

The place is also outfitted with some of the most refreshingly honest and unintentionally hilarious labels I've seen on used goods. 

Who needs Las Vegas when you can bet $300 on whether or not you'll have clean clothes for work? 

For $59, I bought exactly three things: the first was a Samsonite suitcase for $10 that was formerly the travel pod of someone's Bike Friday. I know because it had familiar scars on the inside where certain bike parts are known to rub in transit and, even more telling, had three small holes drilled in it for the Bike Friday trailer kit - which as we all know is a great platform for building an original bike bike trailer. There's nothing wrong with the case that I use for my own Bike Friday New World Tourist, but as you know I also have a Bike Friday Tandem and I'm hatching a couple's travel plan once the plague goes away. 

And I bought these.

This is a classic lantern that I bought for $9. It will soon be found on a wall on the inside or outside of my house. 

This is also a small kid's mountain bike with six speeds, rotten tires, a kickstand that snapped off, bad brakes, a shifter you need a pipe wrench to turn and a derailleur that dates back to the Cretaceous Period. And I had to have it, since I've been interested in building a small mountain bike for my favorite artist, who nearly bounced out of her bike seat while pedaling her hybrid Trek at Wilder Ranch State Park.

This was taken on a smoother part of the trail - the very bend up ahead was the start of more difficult terrain, so I floated the idea of getting a little mountain bike to see if she'd like it. 

When the sketching thing was done, my favorite artist saw and approved of my purchases before we followed the tried-and-true practice of taking our Bike Friday tandem out of the car and rode to nearby Emoryville to Los Moles, where we locked up and fueled up on some great Mexican food. 

Afterwards, we did about nine miles hitting a few shops and a flea market. I also bought some Bicycle Coffee beans. 

I even noticed a place called BORP Adaptive Sports and Recreation and stopped by to learn about it. They make specialized bikes and other equipment for people with disabilities. It's very cool and, as of about thirty seconds ago, are one of #MyNonprofits. You can donate to BORP Adaptive Cycling here.

By the time we packed up and drove home, it was about dinnertime, but I still managed to get in the shop and start working on the small mountain bike. 

I hit a snag early on when I discovered I didn't have the right size seatpost in my parts inventory. I needed a 34.5 and most of what I own is 27.2. Rummaging brought out every size but 34.5. It's like the Alanis Morrisette song: '10,000 spoons and all you need is...a slightly larger spoon' or something along those lines. 

I will keep you posted on this and other builds. In the meantime, remember the following:

• VivaCalleSJ is on September 19th. The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition - one of #MyNonprofits - is sponsoring their very first Silicon Valley Bikes ride that is 10, 20, or 40 miles. Learn more about it and sign up here. 
• Cycle of Hope, Habitat for Humanity East Bay Silicon Valley's ride, is taking place in late October. There's an option to ride in-person or virtual - and the in-person event is on the 24th. Learn more and register here.
• Cellista's new album, Pariah, drops on Oct. 1. You can buy it on Bandcamp at Cellista.Bandcamp.com
• For my California readers: please vote no on the recall by September 14th. Just like the mean-spirited and stupid plan to repeal the gas tax it is an awful idea with awful consequences. CalBike had a good post about the recall the other day and I'm too angry and annoyed I'm spending time, money (donate to the Stop the Recall campaign here), and space about the recall. I'm tired of being made to vote for things we should already have in place. Just vote no - and bike to deliver your ballot if you can ride a bike safely. 

Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

#MyNonprofits Update: Deliver Seedlings by Bike on May 9 in San Jose

I have a calendar by my desk as I work from home. Because of COVID-19, there isn't anything on it - just two yellow sticky notes. One has the word TODAY written on it that I move from one day to the next. For quite a while, it has felt like there is no tomorrow - just another version of today. 

Speaking of today: San Jose Spotlight's coronavirus blog just reported the County of Santa Clara is extending their Shelter in Place order is going through May 31. So the other yellow sticky on my calendar - the one that reads 'lockdown ends' just moved up to the end of next month. Other than that, my calendar has seen no action.

But if you live near downtown San Jose, have either a bike with big panniers, a bike trailer or a cargo bike, you're going to mark your calendar with a blunt-point Sharpie: On Saturday, May 9th, Valley Verde needs your help to deliver seedlings by bike to area families.

Let me back up a second.

Valley Verde is, as of last night, one of #MyNonprofits. For those of you who don't know: #MyNonprofits is a campaign when you make a financial donation* to a different nonprofit every day for seven days or more, encourage others to donate, and nominate one friend or more each day to take the #MyNonprofits challenge. I started this because I was supposed to fly to Italy for vacation in May, and of course that was cancelled, so I reasoned that if I can't enrich my life abroad, I was going to take the money that would be used on the trip and help nonprofits that enrich other people's lives - including mine. 

I first visited Valley Verde last year - my wife and I rode our tandem on the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition's garden ride, and Valley Verde was one of the stops. Neither of us had heard of it before but we ended up taking an eggplant in the seatpost bag which survived the rest of the journey and later gave us an eggplant.

Like Veggielution (another one of #MyNonprofits) Valley Verde is a farm in San Jose that specializes in giving education and other programs to low-income families - as well as edible gardens. They teach how to grow their own food - like, real food**sold seedlings at their annual seedling fair, but like my vacation in Italy, that was cancelled which is a big loss for them and the families who use the seedlings. 

What Valley Verde is doing instead is giving the seedlings away to low income families. Let's skip ahead of their incredibly nice gesture and get to the rub: limited public transportation, no options for child care and other factors means a lot of people want seedlings but can't physically go get them. 

So the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is trying to get volunteers to help bring seedlings to families on Saturday, May 9. It is not an organized ride - it is a socially distanced one. This means you can't just show up with a cargo bike or a bike trailer or big panniers and take plants. What you need to do is click here to make an appointment to give away seedlings by bike and choose how many miles you wish to ride to deliver zucchini, peppers or other plants. 

The plants themselves are in containers - the size is about 6' x 10" by 10" -  so if you have a trailer or a cargo bike, you can carry a lot more plants and help a lot more people in one go. You drop the plants off at the addresses they give you - so it is 100% social distanced all the way.


So what I ask you today, the readers, is to make a donation to Valley Verde. I personally know the feeling that comes when a big fundraising event doesn't take place for a nonprofit and it is not a good feeling. So make a donation to Valley Verde, then share the Valley Verde donation page online. 

Next - if you have a bike that can carry plants that you can ride safely, live close enough to ride to Valley Verde, are free on May 9, then sign up to deliver seedlings. If you want to read something better written - and with more detail and fewer spelling errors - here's the Valley Verde post by Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition executive director Shiloh Ballard. 

That's all for now. Please check out the list of the nonprofits I have on #MyNonprofit list and take the #MyNonprofits challenge: give a little money to one nonprofit a day, ever day for seven days or more, and each time nominate a friend to do the same. COVID-19 is taking away a lot from us now but let's make sure it doesn't take even more from the less fortunate among ourselves later. Thanks for reading, thanks for riding (alone), and thanks for taking the #MyNonprofits challenge. 


*if it is the American Red Cross - blood if you prefer. Make an appointment to give blood online here.  

**I swear, every time I am in the grocery store I notice what someone is carrying in their baskets or trolleys and think "If the coronavirus doesn't kill you, that junk you plan to eat will." Don't get me started on the people who pull down their masks when they get outside to smoke a cigarette.

#MyNonprofits and Other Ways to Live Through a Pandemic

I was supposed to get together with a friend for coffee. I was supposed to take a train and use a folding bike to get to work. I was supposed to watch the San Jose artist Cellista tweet joyously about her March 27th concert in LA. 

I was supposed to go to yoga class. I was supposed to get a tart at Pastelaria with a colleague. I was supposed to fly to Italy in May with my Bike Friday in checked luggage. 

The coronavirus has taken a lot from us - much more than I just listed here.

I'm still better off than most. Way better. I can do my job from home. I'm not furloughed. I don't have a greedy landlord to contend with or rent increases to worry about. I also don't have a stack of paper coffee filters on the back of my toilet - not yet, anyway.  

What I do have is a bike - well, a couple, actually - and ride it regularly and alone - like I did in the time before. Only now cars that I once had to beg for three feet of space are suddenly giving me six - and frames from the opening sequence of 'I am Legend' sneak into my ride from time to time. This was Friday afternoon in San Jose. 

On the same ride I headed toward Be the Change Yoga and Wellness. The doors were shut, the place was dark. But there was a sign on the door letting patrons know that they were offering classes on Zoom. I've taken some. They were some of the first people I met when I moved to San Jose five years ago and yoga helped me through a very difficult adjustment period to California. It's helping me again, right now. 

You already know I'm going to tell you how much biking is helping - and it is. It's also a bit of a spirit-lifter that bike shops are deemed 'essential' business. Remember Vera - the great mechanic at the mobile bike shop Velofix? She's still at work, and you can book her. 

Like anyone else who is still working out of the house - be kind, be patient and tip generously.

Latest downtown San Jose mural by Bay Area artist Lila Gemellos 

Let me offer something more concrete than a few abstracts - here today I am giving you an activity. Something to keep you occupied, feeling empowered and encouraged. It's called #MyNonprofits.

Here's how it works: every day, for seven days or more, donate to a different nonprofit that has touched your life in some way, and share the donation link on social media and encourage your friends to not only donate, but join in on #MyNonprofits too.

Donate any amount - it's up to you. 

That's it. That's the post. That's what I want you to do. Eight years or so of entertaining you for free on DIYBIKING.COM and I want you to pass the time by donating to and talking about nonprofits every day for seven days. 

It is easy. Each day under shelter in place, after all, feels like it goes by in a blur but every week feels a month. Now is the time to introduce good habits. So take a little time to think and start donating to seven nonprofits in seven days. 

Here are mine. 

Be the Change Yoga and Wellness

2016 was easily the worst year of my life and finding time for a class at Be the Change Yoga & Wellness, no matter how chaotic, lonely, or unhappy I felt, was always time well spent.  As I said, they are offering classes online with Zoom so in chaotic, lonely and unhappy times it's a good way to feel connected and feel healthy.  

Donate to Be the Change Yoga & Wellness here 

Good Karma Bikes

Within weeks of arriving in San Jose in 2015, I was doing part-time freelancing  for faraway clients so I began some part-time volunteering for Good Karma Bikes as a mechanic and a little social media managing. They take bikes in as donations, fix them, and gift some bikes and free repairs to the homeless and have other programs - including Women's Night (run by Vera!).They had to scale back their operations a lot in the wake of COVID-19 and could use some help. 

Donate to Good Karma Bikes here

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley helps an incredible number of people in the Bay Area each year - food created 30 million meals just last year. Traditional food drives, like the ones done by Cranksgiving San Jose, are cancelled right now but you can still do a virtual food drive. However, due to the blood-curdling number of layoffs the work Second Harvest of Silicon Valley does has grown more important than ever. 

Donate to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley here

YWCA Silicon Valley

Quick backstory: a long time ago I helped a friend move out of the house of a domestic abuser. Just a few years ago I did a freelance assignment for a talented friend who hired me to make a series of charts about the impact of domestic violence in one U.S. state. It was incredibly grim work but it made me realize how horrifying and massive this problem is, so I started doing Walk a Mile with YWCA Silicon Valley I kept the size twelve wedges I wore last year thinking I'd use them again this year (and try to get the guys i my own workplace to participate too) but at this point who knows if and when registration for Walk a Mile will open. Eliminating racism and helping women leave domestic violence can't wait. 

Donate to YWCA Silicon Valley here 

San Jose Spotlight

San Jose Spotlight is just over a year old and they are the reason I knew where to take two unopened boxes of five N-95 masks so nurses could have them instead of my garage. That's one small reason they're important.

My career has been shaped by journalism - my first job was reporting for an industry newsletter and my third career was about being a book publishing expert at Simba Information where I was interviewed by journalists a couple hundred times and learned the importance of journalists who are experts in their beats. Even before COVID-19 journalists and journalism has been subject to the wrath of vulture capitalism and just plain neglect. Reporters who are still in the game and genuinely trying to do what's best for their communities deserve praise and the publications they work for deserve money. If you live in the Bay Area, you'll want to follow San Jose Spotlight on Twitter and get to know their reporters. 

Donate to San Jose Spotlight here

Lick Observatory

A year ago next week, I decided, on a whim and a 21 year old Bike Friday, to ride up to Lick Observatory. It was a 62 mile trip that impaired my ability to walk, stand, or sit comfortably for days but it was ultimately spiritual and uplifting. I wrote about that trip here. Due to COVID-19, Lick Observatory only has the robotic telescopes in operation and the technical labs on UC Santa Cruz campus are closed - which is a shame, because with fewer cars on the road air is clearer (imagine that). You can help the staff and help the science today.

Donate to Lick Observatory Here 

Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

In April of 2015, when I was still flying back and forth between CA and CT, I went on a group ride the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition organized through Willow Glen. I felt like the new kid on their first day of school introducing myself, but I had a lot of fun on the ride, and quickly learned the SVBC does a lot more than that. Advocacy, education and outreach - not to mention the fact that if there is an intersection in the Bay Area that is suddenly safer for bicycles than it was before, chances are excellent the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition had something to do with it. 

They just postponed Bike to Work Day to September 24th but they are keeping up with ways to have us pedal together even as we have to ride apart - the hashtag campaign they rolled our recently is #JoyRideSV where you post photos of different solo rides you've done under the SIP order.

Donate to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition here


Veggielution

Veggielution is a working farm on the east side of San Jose - tucked under the 101 and 280/680 interchange. Growing vegetables in the shade of a maze of overpasses is a great use of the land. The last time I was there I bought tomatoes and peppers, which I made into a homemade sauce I ate over pasta. But this place is more than a location to buy good food - they have a lot of education and community programs, including serving food on site (the tacos are amazing) and provide a place to meet and make friends.

Donate to Veggielution here 


Highways Performing Arts Center 

Highway Performance Space is a performing arts center in Los Angeles. I know nothing whatsover about them other than that is where Cellista was supposed to perform Transfigurations on March 27th. Even though my track record of being in the same area code as Cellista when she does do a show has been terrible, I am looking forward to this concert being rescheduled. Hope you, as you come up with your #MyNonprofits list, remember performing arts centers during this time of social distancing - even though the arts are essential. 

Donate to Highways here 

Bike New York

While living in Connecticut, I knew what day the first Sunday in May was: the Five Boro Bike Tour: a ride of over 30,000 people in car-free New York City streets organized by the nonprofit Bike New York, which teaches people how to ride and does advocacy and education work. The last FBBT I did was in 2014 - and at the time I had no idea I would be moving from Connecticut to California during the 2015 event. The 2020 Five Boro Bike Tour is cancelled and event cancellations for nonprofits are hard - let's help them out. 

Donate to Bike New York here 

Me on my recumbent at the 2007 Five Boro Bike Tour (photo by Brightroom)

Community Cycles of California

Community Cycles of California is a young bike-based nonprofit in San Jose (if you look really closely you can see me at the ribbon-cutting of their headquarters and shop last year). They take donated bikes and refurbish, administer repair centers in affordable housing developments and are getting a vocational training program started. They just opened a new retail location on Santa Clara Street - and on the day of the Measure E rally on Leap Day I rode my cargo bike to downtown to attend the rally and 'panic bought' a folding bike at Community Cycles on my way back. 

Their shop closed two weeks later due to the COVID-19 SIP order - but just today Community Cycles announced a few changes in operations so they can still help people safely during the pandemic. 

Donate to Community Cycles of California here

Silicon Valley Community Foundation / Silicon Valley Strong Fund

The Silicon Valley Strong Fund was created a few days into the Shelter in Place order when it was clear a lot of people in the Bay Area would need financial help. The fund launched with $11 million and several individuals and organizations made donations. Even still, the fund had over 4,400 applicants in three days and the waiting list for aid just keeps growing. On Saturday, NBC Bay Area ran a telethon for aid and received over $250,000 in donations. The number of government, business and nonprofit entities that are giving time, money and infrastructure are numerous, and if you want to help give money, time or both you can visit www.SiliconValleyStrong.org. Visit it a lot, and I am convinced if we ask ourselves 'what can I do to help?' enough times, our minds will give the answer.  

Donate to the Silicon Valley Strong Fund here

That's what I've got - and now that I look at this list, I see more than seven and I see reason to add more. For instance, the Stanford Blood Center needs donations and if I, a needle-fearing child trapped in an adult's body, can visit the Stanford Blood Center and make an appointment to give blood, you can too.  

I hope you give to these and take the #MyNonprofits hashtag and support any nonprofits who have touched your life in some way. I mentioned earlier how much the coronavirus has taken from us but please remember: it isn't done taking. The antidote to taking is to give. And to paraphrase a line from Ed Harris in Apollo 13: as we all grieve the things we are supposed to do but can't: It's not about what we are supposed to do, it's about what we can do.

Thanks for reading about #MyNonprofits and for telling the world about yours. 

The Making of a Back to the Future Road Bike

View of a shelf in my workshop. October 16, 2016

During the lean times of intermittent freelancing and the even leaner times of unsuccessfully trying to turn a cargo bike passion into a paycheck, I was fixing junk bikes with junk parts. I deferred all kinds of maintenance. I patched tubes that should have been replaced and let tires wear down to levels that flirted with perilous. And once, upon finding a set of discarded, generic weightlifters gloves in the road, took them home and washed them because they were better than the cycling gloves I was wearing.

But I also would sometimes find a few items here and there that I kept for a future build: a road bike. Yes, my Bike Friday New World Tourist is a great bike that has been to over a dozen countries with me and up to Lick Observatory and back, but part of me wanted to use it for its intended purpose - a travel bike made for flying - and another part of me just wanted to build another bike. 

So I took a small plastic tub, labeled it "Road Bike I Can't Afford to Build Yet" and began tossing things I'd find on sale at bike shops, items my cousin would gift me, and other accessories.

This went on for almost three years. 

About two-thirds into that span I began working part-time which soon turned into full time - and I finally reached the point I felt I could move on the road bike project a little more aggressively. 

Like, say, for instance...actually buying a frame. 

I wanted a titanium frame but didn't want to spend a lot of money. By this time, I had "money" but it was, and still is, in lowercase. I didn't have MONEY and I certainly didn't have "fat stacks" - and even if I did, my brain just won't allow me become one of those people who own bikes that cost more than the down payment of a small house. 

Luckily, I had my cousin come to help - just as he did years ago guiding me through building a mountain bike - recommended XI'AN in China. Even though the web site looks like something from the Geocities era, they looked like they knew their stuff. I emailed a query and connected with someone there named Porter. Several back-and-forth emails - including one with an attachment of what my bike would look like - took place before I finally made the plunge: a titanium frame and fork would arrive nearly two months after I ordered it. 

I had it sent to me at work and it was even lighter than I had imagined. Since I take a bike and VTA to my job, I took it out of the oversize box it came in and brought it home home in a manner that would definitely be described as on-brand.

I brought it into my shop and unwrapped it. I had truly bought something special.

I knew what I wanted to make. I've seen road bikes move by me in a blur of indistinguishable lumps of colorful carbon fiber and decided to ride in a different direction: I wanted to make a theme bike - specifically a bike that carried the theme of one of my favorite movies of all time: Back to the Future.

Yes, I know I'm over forty but that's part of the point: we had 'theme bikes' when we were kids, remember? Dukes of Hazzard. Star Wars. Barbie. Knight Rider. Today you can even buy - much to my considerable dismay - a Kylo Ren-themed bike for a child.

Kids have theme bikes now. We had theme bikes then. Why was that something we grew out of? 

I wasn't having it, so I set out to build a Back to the Future-themed road bike.

I figured with the titanium frame, I was already ahead. With the frame and the fork, it looked a lot like brushed stainless steel. I went with a color scheme that consisted mostly of gray and black and even found cables that looked like they'd fit the part. Before long, I needed a bigger tub.

Even though I couldn't - and still can't - bring myself to spend an insane amount of money, I quickly saw how easy it was to go absolutely nuts with the 'Buy it Now' button on eBay. And there are very few parts that are not titanium, carbon fiber, or otherwise made from material that can be described as Incredibly Expensive. Titanium axles. Titanium bottom brackets. Titanium bottom bracket bolts. Titanium stems. Titanium seatposts. Titanium bottle cages. And titanium bottle cage screws can be yours for $6 a pair. 

The list goes on.

Now I did not buy everything I just described. But I bought just enough to make what I was building be considered a serious road bike - until it came to choosing wheels. Instead of dropping thousands I didn't have for some built from the same material as Wolverine's claws, I spent about $80 on a strong, 36 spoke set at Good Karma Bikes - simply because I, as you know, like that place and they happened to carry a set of matching rims that were black and silver - similar to the wheels of the Delorean time machine. 

An HO scale model of the Delorean time machine (and a scuba diver - don't ask. It has something to do with a librarian friend of mine in Florida but beyond that I will add nothing.)

I first tried to focus on the practical side of the build before getting to the decorative touches. For starters, I had to install a headset, which is something I've done quite a few times. Since a croquet mallet wasn't available, I pounded it in place with a rubber hammer, set in a sufficient number of headset spacers, and put on the stem.

Ahhh....no.

The titanium fork was very long - so much so that the number of headset spacers I needed would be a little on the out-of-control side. I texted this picture to my cousin in Connecticut. After a long wait - probably because he needed time to wipe the laugh-spittle off his phone - he told me to do what I knew I needed to do: I had to saw off the top of the titanium fork and make it shorter. 

This wasn't easy. Not the sawing part, it's just that I keep forgetting if it is measure-once-cut-twice or the other way around...and I was really nervous since there'd be no room for error. I figured out how to saw away enough to lower the height of the handlebars and still make it work for my body type and also do it once: what I did was I fastened on two old stems - one on top of the other - leaving just enough space for a hacksaw blade to pass through in a perfectly straight line.

When I finished, I filed it down to make it smooth. When I put it in place, the stem looked a lot less comical and the bike looked a lot safer. 

My cousin had given me a used set of carbon fiber handlebars years earlier to use on my then-untitled roadbike project, and I naturally took them with me when I moved from Connecticut to California. With these in place, I installed a set of modern brake and shift levers. That took a little time since the openings where you have to insert the cables are a lot harder to see on road handlebars than mountain bike ones.

That also meant I wasn't using old school downtube shifters, as are found on older road bikes. The funny part was that my titanium frame came with mounting points for downtube shifters and I didn't even notice that when going back and forth with Porter (you can see them in the photo of the fork installed before I sawed it off).

What I decided to do here was to wire-tie the rear brake and the derailleur cables to the downtube. My reasoning: Doc Brown's time machine had cables running the length of the car, and the gray cables I bought would look the part as well as perform an essential service.

But when I attached the cable with the wire-ties, it blended in too much with the frame. So I added some accents - namely a red, a green, and a yellow wire I stripped from a decades-old phone cord. 

You'll also notice the black rectangular object on the frame with a blue/green switch on it and the telephone wires attached. There's one on the other side too, and they're bolted to the downtube shifter mounts. These are Atlas brand HO scale track switches from a train set I had in the 1980s. In high school I wasn't popular, had few friends and didn't date much so I spent a lot of time building a little model town in my parent's basement. Very little of it survived (just some of the cars, mostly, that I still use today in some of my displays and animation) but these switches did. They're now on the frame, and they are there to stay.

Even though Part II is my least favorite of the trilogy, I liked the look of the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor rising out of the back, so I bought a piece of white plastic hose at a hardware store and covered the seatpost with it. 

Next, came the part I was most excited about.

I collected clocks - lots of them - when I was in my early teens because of Back to the Future. Mostly yard sale finds, I loved the way they all sounded when they were all together and ticking at the same time. Almost all but a couple are gone now, but one that I kept was a tiny, broken alarm clock that had been made in Yugoslavia. The photo may be giving some poor collector a heart attack but, hear me out: a key moment at the end of Back to the Future part 1 was when Doc was giving Marty instructions as to the exact moment he should start the time machine. "When this alarm goes off you hit the gas!" he yells...before placing a tiny clock on the modern dashboard of the car. 

I thought it was cool.

I figured out how to add a clock to my road bike by hollowing out the old Forestville clock.

Next, I managed to locate a bicycle computer that would fit inside - which actually wasn't that hard to do since most bike computers are really quite small. A tip of the hat to The Off Ramp in Santa Clara for having this Sigma computer on sale.

What I did was I cut a piece of yellow foam PVC - leftover from my failed cargo bike business, just like I had used when I made the Alameda Bike Trailers - into a circle where I attached the mount for the Sigma computer. This put the display in view of the clock's face - here's how the yellow piece of foam PVC looks without the computer on it. The screw in the middle is what holds it in place and attaches the entire assembly to a plastic reflector mount which I modified to angle the clock up towards me. 

The last thing I did was use some black rubber bands - you know, the kind that come with a Garmin GPS so you can put a mount on your handlebars? I used two to wrap the two top bells of the clock to the 'feet' of the clock to eliminate any chance the vibrations of the road could make the whole thing come apart. 

I was very happy with the result. I reasoned I didn't need any of the functions but wanted the current speed and the distance - as of now, the total distance the bike has ridden since it came into existence. I reasoned Strava could handle the rest.

I didn't abandon the idea of welding something for this bike - and ended up welding a very important piece: because of my decision to run the cables along the downtube I couldn't use a traditional bottom bracket cable guide for the front derailleur. Reasoning that the front derailleur would never work completely perfectly anyway* I welded a tiny mount with a little L-bracket and a steel cable stop - also from the failed cargo bike business.

I know it's not pretty to look at, but it's mounted under the bottom bracket where you can't see it anyway.

Another new item for me - even though you've seen it in a couple of the photos already - is a Redshift suspension stem. I am a fan of suspension stems (my city bike has a cool one) and decided I'd like a little more comfort on my hands when riding. So far it's done the job well. 

I knew there was one more thing I needed for this bike: a flux capacitor. To be honest, I didn't even know that it needed one until I saw that ThinkGeek actually sold little decorative flux capacitors as car cell phone chargers a few years ago.

Cue the 'Buy it Now' button. 

A few weeks after placing the order, I got it in the mail and took it apart almost immediately. The black plug in the back was the first thing to go when I noticed that a simple nine volt battery was enough to make the flux capacitor...flux. 

The on/off switch was a bit of a hassle though: For what I wanted to do it was not only awkward, but it was momentary on/off so it wouldn't work if you'd detach it from power. I discovered where the circuit is complete and soldered - with an iron bought decades ago from Radio Shack, God rest its soul - a tiny piece of red wire so it would always remain in the 'on' position. You can see it on the lower right side of the picture. 

With that done, I set out to create a place to mount the flux capacitor. No better place than a plastic Cage Rocket.

As a big fan of the Camelbak, I like the idea of using a frame bottle cage to carry something other than water. So I took a Cage Rocket case and sawed off a chunk of it the approximate size of the flux capacitor.

I took a piece of plastic from the packaging the epoxy came in to fill the gap on the bottom of the flux capacitor so the Cage Rocket could still be used to store a spare tube and a few road bike specific tools, like a titanium tire lever**.

I carefully smeared epoxy to attach it firmly. I also used more very old parts from Radio Shack - like a push-button switch and a 9v battery mount - and soldered everything in place.

And, on a Saturday morning, coming on the scene on the Raiders of the Lost Ark DVD when Marion wins a drinking contest in Nepal, I...had...this.

The little red button is rated for 120 volts and it makes a satisfying click when you push it. If I wanted to cut down on some weight, I could remove the battery or even the entire Cage Rocket but why would I want to do that?

So there you have it. Other cyclists are faster than me, stronger than me, have more money than me, have bigger followings on Strava, have better equipment, are better looking, and...where was I going with this? 

Oh yeah: other cyclists may have all of these things but I am the one with the Back to the Future bike. I did that. From time to time, on a satisfying downhill, I can almost hear the music by Alan Silvestri and the words "Vaya con dios!" screamed by Christopher Lloyd while he fires a pistol in the air.

The bike works great. As of course I pointed out in the Cycle of Hope ride the front derailleur is problematic, which is on-brand...but then again so is the rest of the bike. Hope you all can build something for you that sparks something in you - even - no, especially - if it takes a long time to spring into being. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

*since I was the one installing it. I have terrible luck with front derailleurs. 

**those are real.