Saturday, February 16, 2013

Reading Rocket


Functional Art
It's a little cold this morning (about fifty degrees Fahrenheit) so I will wait awhile before heading out the door to wherever my bicycle will take me today. Last night I was drinking a beer and just idly spinning the front wheel of the bike where she hangs on the wall, a black bicycle against a white background. When you are poor you learn to make things do double duty and so my old Schwinn serves not just as transportation during the day but also as wall art when at home. As crazy as it seems that I should be so enraptured of this elderly machine there is nothing to be done about it.

I love my bicycle.

Fix-it!
Sipping a beer and spinning the front wheel in the semi-darkness that is my single-wide trailer (in the second-crappiest-trailer park in town) a little before midnight, I was startled to see a kind of strobe effect as the thirty-six stainless steel spokes flashed there before me; I switched on another light and slowed the spin for a better look and was dismayed to see that yes, there was a jerky motion in the spinning wheel, not a trick of light but more likely some contamination of the wheel itself, something in the hub.

“This wheel is not that old! It has maybe...uh, wait...a thousand miles?” I never lubed the hub in a thousand miles and now it is showing. This is a kinda-cheap Dimension product, a single wall Alex rim with a Formula hub. Taking the wheel off the bike I go to the bench, grab a couple wrenches and open up the hub. There was not enough axle grease in there to even hold the bearings in place. Unhappy experience has taught me to be ready for the rapid mass exodus of bearings suddenly freed from their little prison. These wayward rascals fell harmlessly to the clean towel I had spread on the bench in anticipation of their escape.

Off Kilter-ness
My maintenance stories used to be a lot funnier as I attempted to work on my bicycle without a proper stand or the right tools, usually more than a little inebriated and absolutely unburdened by any excess of knowledge or skill. Alas, those heady days are more or less behind me now. I have acquired the gear, mostly, to get the job done right; and while my skill and knowledge remain far from a heavy burden, I seem to be able to perform the simplest bicycle maintenance chores without an excess of cussing, bloodshed or damage to the machine.

Midnight repair is not a part of my usual schedule. In fact, these days midnight anything is pretty much a stranger to my experience. But of late my routine is knocked off-kilter by this most recent bout of joblessness and idle time. As I always do when I have extra time on my hands, I have been doing a lot of reading. Good reading, too: whenever I am fortunate enough to have a stack of good stuff on hand I just read. A lot.

Sometimes I Ride, Sometimes I Read
Too much, in fact. When I get on one of these reading jags I am incorrigible. I read two or three books in a twenty-four hour period, just blasting through like an addict who has stumbled across somebody else's stash and has to use it all before they come looking for it. I read while eating and I read on the porch and I read in bed and sometimes I read all night and that's how my rythms and schedule get thrown off; that is how I find myself awake at midnight, drinking beer, contemplating a just-finished book, thinking about life in general and absent-mindedly spinning the front wheel of my bicycle at midnight. I like it and why not?


New Friends and Old
This month I have been roaring through the good stuff and finding writers I never heard of, young guys with wit and charm and frightening skills that blow me away; such as essayists David Foster Wallace (Consider the Lobster) and John Jeremiah Sullivan (Pulphead). Also sketches of America and beyond by the likes of people with long-familiar names like McMurtry (Roads) and Vonnegut (While Mortals Sleep) and Vidal (Clouds and Eclipses); David Byrne, too, of all people: the Bicycle Diaries wasn't half bad.

Bicycle Boys
I read Grant Petersen's Just Ride and Eben “Bike Snob” Weiss's first book. (His second has yet to appear at the local library). Both were good, in fact, Just Ride was better than good, in a simple instructional-manual kind of way. David Byrne's book had even less to do with bicycles than the Trailer Park Cyclist, but like here, bikes are in there, if you look hard enough.

Big Guns
Also: I finally got around to reading Cross Creek by Marjory Kinnan Rawlings. It was a knockout and I am glad I waited, it is a delight to read stuff you already knew about but thought you wouldn't like. I first found Hemingway in just such a fashion; which is funny. (I re-read The Sun Also Rises and forgot how good he was at twenty six. The scene when a drunk Bill Gorton first arrives in Paris is just...well, I can't write like that. Obviously.

No reading jag is complete without some Faulkner (Absolom, Absolom!), Oakley Hall (Apache), Tom Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49); John D. MacDonald (Cinnamon Skin); I am sure that you know about the Travis McGee series...but how about Tim Dorsey? His Serge Storm character, a kind of bizarro Travis McGee, is mandatory midnight maintenance reading for any Floridian worthy of the name. I just read Dorsey's latest, The Riptide Ultraglide. Eben Weiss, I think, could crank out madcap stories like Tim Dorsey does, should the Snob ever shed his snark skin and spread his wings. Do snarks have wings? Probably not in the cocoon stage, but later...

Adventure and History and Peanuts
There were more. A book about a lady who throws away her “normal” life to row a little boat across a big ocean (Rowing the Atlantic, Roz Savage); I read some stuff about life and art by Charles Schulz (My Life With Charlie Brown), and...well, there were a lot more. A lot more books. I read a lot of Florida history.  I read books about prehistoric indians and not so prehistoric Indians, there are stories of the "Weird Florida" variety and of course tales of sunken treasure and mysterious fountains and on and on...but the books I mentioned above I would recommend to anyone.

Midnight Bike Repair
I got that glitchy wheel off the bike, I pulled it apart, cleaned things up a little and packed everything back together with some nice clean lithium grease. It was well after midnight when I finished and cleaned everything up, everything that I was able to clean up. There is a lot of clean-up needed, I think; it will take time though and more than a little money that I don't have, yet. Not yet. But for now the library is free and full of books. The library is free and it is a perfect little three mile bicycle ride from my front porch.

I have time to read and ride my bicycle and that is what I am doing. There is clean-up and fix-it to do, but not yet. Soon.

Whispering Pines Trailer Park and Reading Room
#103

23 comments:

  1. The Crying of Lot 49 is perhaps my favorite work of modern letters. Just so, so good. I'm glad to hear it has another fan; it sometimes gets overlooked in his work, I think

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    1. Like Scotch whiskey, Pynchon is an acquired taste. But well worth the effort, in my opinion. Thanks, Hannah!

      tj

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  2. Oh goody, a book list! I was once a voracious reader, but I never seem to have the time (or the ability to stay awake) to really crunch 'em up these days. I actually look forward to a bout of flu so I can read all day. Same with long haul flights, I read rather that watch movies, it is such a luxury. I will probably take a year to work through your list! I do appreciate your recommendations.

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    1. Well, my reading habits, like I said, are not really normal and perhaps unhealthy. When I flew to Los Angeles late last year I picked up a Jack Reacher novel at the Orlando airport (very prominently displayed) and it took exactly the length of the flight to read. On my return, there was yet another Reacher book on display at the LA airport (again, prominently displayed, this time with a picture of Tom Cruise on the cover, but I bought it anyway) and again, it lasted exactly from take-off to landing. I don't know what it means, but it probably means something.

      tj

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  3. It was + 11 degrees F here at about 9:30 am. I will not be riding today. At my sisters place up in the Keweenaw peninsula it was - 17 (not factoring in the wind chill factor) I have been praying to the "Bicycle God's" asking for just one 50 degree day :)

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    1. I know, Hugh, I know...I put that in there for my northern readers...but in truth, it IS a kind of relevant thing...after a string of eleven degree days, fifty degrees is shorts and t-shirts for you guys. But eleven degrees to me would be life and death. I only own ONE long sleeve shirt, for pete's sake...I live in Florida on purpose. I HATE cold weather!

      Thanks for coming by!

      tj

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  4. TJ,

    Sounds like a good list, and a couple in there I've read. Lots that I haven't though. Seems like I hardly ever have enough time to sink my teeth into a good book.

    Do have to say that I'm a big Charles Schulz fan - not just "Peanuts" but the man himself.

    Headed out and rode singletrack for nearly two hours with my brother yesterday - it was 17 degrees. Good time except for one over-the-bars that I could have definitely lived without (I feel every inch of 50 years old today, thanks to that one).

    Got about 5000 words down on my writing project...

    Steve Z

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    1. Charles Schulz comes across as a really decent guy and there was a lot of solid advice in the book. In fact I learned quite a bit from it...cold weather hurts more when you are stunt riding, I think. But it seems to be something that you enjoy, to fly through the air with the greatest of ease, whether in the saddle or having recently just left. Heating pads and tylenol and contact cement are my suggestions.

      You have my e-mail anytime you want to send me a sampler. Thanks, Swampy!

      tj

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    2. TJ,

      Remember Jeff Arnim, over at Crazy Guy on a Bike? He's starting another cross country trip in a couple of days. Check out his latest journal:

      http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=11797&v=7R

      Steve

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  5. Thanks for the book list, TJ. I've read of some of them, most not in a long time though, and can't wait to revisit; like old friends.

    I did get to read several books over the holidays, first time in years that I read for pleasure. Once cycling book, Slaying the Badger, was about Lemond's first TDF win. Another was about being a semi-successful rock back for 20 years - working a day job while hitting the road to play music. Hitless Wonder was the title. The last was an expose by a couple of Pulitzer prize winners, one of whom is a cousin of mine, all about the loss of the middle class in this country.

    Some days, there's nothing like a good book! Especially on a cold day.
    Keep ridin!

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    1. I saw that Hitless Wonder on the shelf just the other day. Maybe I'll give it a look. One of my guilty pleasures is Rock biographies. It is actually quite revealing to look inside those guy's lives, but I do it for the greater understanding of the story behind the hits. Thanks Brian!

      tj

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  6. Sounds like some good clean-up and fix-it is happening for life of TJ. I am so slotted into this 7 to 5 work lifestyle I get jealous of a lifestyle of blasting about on a bike for a few hours with some reading and bike maintenance and beer drinking. I just need to shed a few of these responsibilities!!
    My choices, and nobody else's so I own them!
    Thanks for the reading list, I'm with Dee, when it is time to read I am off to zzzz's in about 15 minutes. I will hit the library for some of these, a book at a time.
    This also makes me think.....hub rebuild at 1000 miles??? I'm thinking I have four and five times that on a couple of bikes. I might be behind in maintenance!!
    Thanks for the post
    Jim

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    1. I don't know, Jim...after writing about what a great mechanic I am nowadays I started re-packing the rear wheel last night and six hours later I was a complete wreck with an out-of-true wheel over-tensioned on the drive side and a certain fear of disaster the next time I saddled up. This morning I started over and it took three hours of fiddling and tuning and adjusting and then starting over. I have no idea what went wrong but I think I finally have it dialed in.

      Sometimes it is better to remember that if it works don't fix it but I want to get a lot of years out of that wheel.

      I am glad that I am the envy of my friends for all my leisure reading time but it is important to remember I achieve all this by being absolutely broke all the time and living like a wino. It works for me but I don't recommend it for everyone.

      A lifetime in the trades taught me to relish the quiet periods between building projects but this is getting ridiculous. Thanks for coming by, Jim!

      tj

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  7. My holds list at the library is about to blow up! Great list TJ. I had to chuckle at your description of the bearings coming out to the hub- I have been there trying to watch 11 directions at once to see where they went. The towel trick is a great one, I got a wheel set from Amazon once with those type of hubs and when I checked them out they definitely needed grease and adjustment but once I did that they were (and are) fine. We had a 50 degree day last week - it was glorious we were all out in shorts and flip flops LOL.

    Ryan

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    1. That's great, Ryan! We just had a brutal cold snap with overnight lows of forty degrees and I almost died. But with extra blankets and rum I struggled through it and now we are back in the high sixties.

      The towel trick is essential and is the difference between crawling around with a flashlight bumping your head on the bench and cussing and just feeling like a wise mechanic and chuckling at the little devil's efforts. I don't know where I learned it, probably from Hugh...but it works.

      tj

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    2. Wasn't it beautiful. When the sunshines it's pretty tough to beat the NW. I was doing the shorts thing too!
      Greg D

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  8. Wow, that's quite a list! I'm envious of your time, however not so much as to how you get it...(effectively you're retired but w/ no income...not exactly my top choice for how to get loads of free time). My reading time seems to have slipped in the last decade or so...in my youth and even the next 2 decades or so I was a HUGE Sci-fi and fiction nut...tho here and there I'd hit a book not on my typical reading list (such as "the Jungle")...it's good to explore outside the comfort zone now and then...expand my horizons and all that.

    I'm still chuckling about your bearings...recall a long while back my first attempt to lube free bearings in a hub (my old XTR wheels)...there wasn't any problems but I just figured they MUST need grease..so pulled the outer nuts off and BAM...bearings everywhere! (I did NOT know the towel trick). As I was taking it apart it looked like they were all gonna just stay put w/ the remaining grease, but then they let go all at once. Never did find them all...and then (w/ out cone wrenches) trying to get the axle to spin free yet no side to side play...what was pure hell. That wheel never did work right again! I've learned a lot since then...mostly to buy wheels w/ cartridge bearings!

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    1. Yeah, Matt, cartridge bearings do make a lot of sense. Proponents of these Shimano hubs site ease of maintenance and how they will last forever, but I think they fail to take into account the possibility of well-meaning but clumsy owner-mechanics like myself. But I got 'em in there and now I'm good until next time.

      As far as that free-play adjustment, I finally set aside Sheldon's mystical advice and just settled for tightening down the cones REAL Gently by hand until they barely engage.
      Then I tighten the lock nuts taking great care that nothing moves in the process. Worked like a charm.

      tj

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  9. Wallace, Pynchon, Vonnegut... Covers a lot of reading from my twenties. I blame the internet (and the birth of my son) for the slowing down of my book consumption, but I'm trying to remedy this by always having a book at hand. Seems to be working.

    Keep it up TJ. I'm always keen for book recommendations.

    Jonathan.

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    1. I threw in the names of the big dogs for effect. There is also a bunch of reading I am doing about Florida that is both fun and fascinating. I don't know why non-Floridians might be interested, bt then again, why not? I'll post some more titles later, Jonathan. Thanks for coming by.

      tj

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  10. Excellent book list! One more for you to fill your time: Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo. He only wrote one book, and his name is so unusual, it's a cinch to find it at any library!

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