A bottomless well.

Getting into the meat of today’s matter, I’d like to bring up a thing I got after the other day which I’m now feeling pretty good about.

So, for a long, long time I very much enjoyed an All City Nature Boy. I raced it and rode it and loved the hell out of it, resulting in it eventually breaking, getting fixed, and then ultimately breaking again;

That was a sad day indeed, but Squid Bicycles impresario and mechanic to the stars Chris Namba hollered at me and said that once the shipping container of bikes landed, he’d have a spanky new SO-EZ for me (which I first featured here, here, and here), though currently looks like so;

This has been my workhorse, and a constant in my stable since. Why is it that threaded BBs and canti brakes are a thing that is so elusive in this post-Hadron Collider explosion world?

From top to bottom, the industry gets a gas face, but Squid knows what’s what. Plus, here’s a refresher on the ‘Tweaker Camo’ paint scheme;

Anyhow, between my All City’s failure, and my Squid’s arrival, it was in the grit and grime of the mean streets where I was forced to ride my beloved Blue Collar cross bike, which when it was new looked like this;

After getting beat to a pulp these last few years, and especially in the wake of being my winterized bar bike, it was woahfully in need of some love.

A top to bottom wash, lube, re-greasing, and new brake pads was what the doctor ordered, and she was primed for an inaugural rip;

Besides having to put on some new tires, she’s finally riding like a dream.

I’m so ready to not race all cross season again.

Now that I’ve shaken those particular sheets, would you like this week’s dose of art that doesn’t suck?

Maybe.

Since forever I’ve been a big fan of stencils as an art form. There used to be some really good forward thinking ones I’d see around Huntington Beach when I was a kid (ironic considering HB is now widely considered the Florida of the west coast). It was an encouraged form of self expression that was more thoughtful than your generic tags. So I was quite enamored when I came across an artist working around Boulder who simply goes by SMiLE;

If by chance you’d like to know more about them, or would like a chance to see their work in person, here’s a Daily Camera article that shines a spotlight on the elusive artist, and offers details regarding an upcoming installation. Go see the show in my absence and please report back.