What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

“Tour de Charleston,” someone posts on a fecebook bike forum.
“Will there be gravel?” I ask.
“No gravel! And the course will be swept.”

So I visit the web site. There are 3 races: 12.5-mile, 25-mile, and 62.5-mile, a metric century. Prizes are awarded in male and female divisions, in several age categories. I make a calculated guess that the metric century would have the fewest competitors of my age group. I pay the $50 fee and register for my first ever bike race.

My plan is to bike down ...

Any bets on whether my local bike club will survive beyond this season? Emails lightly edited for brevity, all names anonymized except my own.

Sat, Mar 19, 2022
MEMBER A:
I was able to renew my membership with the link to the Website.  I noticed that the application requires a “gender” designation that only includes male or female.  This is now very out of date.  I identify as Female, but there are many who find this restrictive.  We need to replace the gender with more options for our gender-queer or LGBT or other gender options friends.  I can recommend a ...

A Hundred Dollar Drawing.

The post “Deer & Dave” for Paula appeared first on Nina Paley.

If you’ve wondered why my creative output this summer has been relatively thin, it’s because I spend most of my energy and time biking (and recovering, eating, bike maintenance, route planning, looking at maps, etc.) in the warmer months. Once it gets cold and I’m stuck inside again with no place to go but inward, I hope to continue work on my Animated Apocalypse.

In the Book of Revelation, the Millennium is a thousand-year reign of peace prior to the “second resurrection” and end of the world. If a Millennium needs to pass before the Apocalypse can ...

I’m part of an online group for Midwest Cyclists. This month our ringleader, Cliff, issued a challenge to climb 15,000 feet. In Central Illinois, particularly Champaign County, this is harder than it sounds. Some riders cheated by driving to better start locations, but all my rides started and ended at home in Urbana, which meant I had to go crazy long distances just to get to something resembling terrain. So in addition climbing almost 20,000 feet in August, I also rode over 1,000 miles.

Did I mention I’ve ridden 15 centuries (100+ mile rides) so ...

A Hundred Dollar Drawing.

The post “Cycling Horticulturalist” for Khurram appeared first on Nina Paley.

I made these today, in pursuit of something else. I like them.

The post Bike Skull appeared first on Nina Paley.

In November, this recumbent nerd was featured on the Laidback Bike Report:

I subsequently joined the show’s regular “panel” of recumbent nerds. Since this involves mostly listening to other recumbent nerds for an hour or more, I used that time to make this $100 Drawing:

We’re gonna make that a regular thing, where I make a $100 Drawing live on the show, with occasional thrilling shots like this:

The next Laidback Bike Report is Sunday January 3 at 2pm EST. If you commission a $100 Drawing between now and then, I could draw it live. I actually need ...

I put a lot more work and time into this than I typically do for Hundred Dollar Drawings, but I am a fan of recumbents, and Recycled Recumbents, and of course Velocipe Cycladia, the goddess of bikes and cyclists.

The post “Recycled Recumbent” for AD appeared first on Nina Paley.

I made these to illustrate the difference between shifting a Rohloff vs. conventional derailleur/cassette system in a velomobile going at speed. According to Doug Davis at Bicycle Evolution, some novice velonauts desire Rohloffs because they offer a very wide gear range, but the larger gaps between gears make them less efficient at speed. He has data about watts and gear inches and rotations per minute, but I merely tried to convey the drama of having to upshift too fast in a 60+ pound tub:

For contrast ...

The post The Bicycle of the Retro-Future appeared first on Nina Paley.

Gary got a Deluxe Hundred Dollar Drawing package with all the bells and whistles: shipping of the original, a making-of video, and a picture of a bike, for which I now charge extra. Still, this drawing isn’t quite finished, as I left room for optional customization of the pennants and shield (that thing on the luggage carrier, behind the seat, on top of the pannier).

Update: here’s the final, custom-lettered version:

The post “Triking Adventurer” for Gary appeared first on Nina Paley.

It may be transportation, exercise, or a reason to live, but bicycling is not a “hobby”.

However, the following are:

• collecting bikes
• tracking miles
• recording your speed on various devices
• scouring online classifieds for more bikes
• writing about bikes
• singing about bikes
• converting people to recumbents
• reading bike forums
• researching the fascinating history of your bike(s)
• buying and selling used bikes
• planning geowriting routes
• collecting bike tools
• arguing about bikes

Glad to clear that up.

The post Bicycling is not a “Hobby” appeared first on Nina Paley.

A Hundred Dollar Drawing. I love riding bicycles, but they are agony to draw. I may start demanding extra $ for ’em.

The post “Bicycle Love” for Annette appeared first on Nina Paley.

After a lifetime deprived of titanium bikes, this Pandemic Summer I acquired two. First the Ti Rush, which in spite of being haunted and requiring an exorcism has become my favorite, and then the Ti Javelin.

I didn’t even know such a thing as a Ti Javelin existed until I saw one listed in the classifieds of BentRiderOnline.com. At first I had no interest; the steel Javelin is a monotube bike, and I don’t want to deal with flex. I continued riding my haunted Ti Rush, Titania ...

I’m about to hit my 5,000th bike mile for 2020, and I’m buying yet another new-to-me used obscure recumbent, a rare Easy Racers Ti Javelin. A friend in an online chatroom today asked,

Have you always been this into cycling? Or is it something you developed as an adult?

Always somewhat, but this year I’m doing it way more. I have the pandemic to thank. No travel, and I’m not spending money on anything else really, so why not. Most of my socializing is happening on rides with friends; it ...

Available now at PaleGrayLabs.com.

I originally created these for my bike Titania, but got enough stuff to make extras, because selling merch is what made-up religion is all about. Comes with a signed & dated, hand-stapled, 8-page Velosophical prayer book so you can conduct your own bike exorcisms, call for supernatural help on the road, sing hymns, and more.

With this, I think I’m finally done with this obsessive bike side-project, and can get back to animating the Apocalypse.

Some have asked if Velocipe Cycladia, Goddess of bicycles and cyclists, includes recumbents.

Of course She does!

EXORCISE BIKE

(A ritual prayer for Titania’s exorcism, to be performed next week after she comes back from a thorough cleaning and parts replacement.)

In the name of Velocipe Cycladia,
Goddess of bicycles and protector of riders,
Muse of mechanics and engineers,
Who hast inspired and brought forth the greatest achievement of human technology: the Bicycle;

We confidently undertake to repulse the attacks and deceits of poor maintenance.

Cast out from this Bicycle all corrosion and corroding agents.
Defend her components from gungeing up, her metal parts from bending and snapping, her chain from stretching.
From cracks and gouges ...

Velocipe Cycladia is the Goddess of bicycles and cyclists.

I had to make her up, because Madonna del Ghisallo just ain’t cutting it: not enough imagery, not enough paraphernalia, and no exorcisms I could find.

My new-to-me bike Titania needs an exorcism. Sometimes, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself, so I am writing it. (On the other hand, if I want bike repair done right, I take it to the shop. That’s the mechanic’s expertise; mine is art and making up new religions.)

Although not before named – or perhaps under many names ...