Bajrang
The particularly long box marked Xtracycle sat in the leasing office of my apartment complex when I went to pick it up. With the box in the trunk of the car and my Specialized on a bike rack, I set off on six lanes of concrete clusterfuck to Downtown Jacksonville.
Brooklyn at Cycledelic-Fixity has voluntered to be the only reasonable bicycle shop owner that will put it together for a reasonable price. His cool shop is around 14 miles from my apartment in the historic Riverside area of Downtown. He came out of his shop to greet me as I had started to un-strap the bike rack. He said that he recognized my bike as I am a celebrity thanks to these guys: link.
I browsed around his shop a little drooled on the fixies in various stages of completion. Some day after the car is sold! I did pop in at Jax Ebikes (link) but it was closed, so I decided to head back home. I have never ridden my bike from Downtown to home. Since I may have to do it tomorrow, I decided to give the route a shot in the car. I went up the Acosta bridge and then on Philips all the way south to Baymeadows (see route: View Larger Map)
The section of Philips between San Marco and Emerson is pretty desolate and sad. It is one slip away form being a ghost town. I hope the road is as less crowded tomorrow as it was today. Maybe I should have Brooklyn install a Katana holder while he is at it, a custom from Hattori Hanzo none the less!
As for the name of this post, well, that is the new name of my xtracycle-attched-specialized. The god of strength in the Indian mythology is the name of this bike which is my strength to go car free. In today’s car-dependent world, this bike is my Plan B and my extra set of bollocks! Eat this Big Oil!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Here’s to bollocks on wheels
gosh… I need four bikes in the fleet to make *sure* one works …
October 9th, 2008 at 12:20 am
@ X
I’ll get there pretty soon…
October 9th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Welcome to the Xtracycle “family”, Shek!
Does Brooklyn read our blog? That sounds like an awesome shop and Brooklyn sounds like a stand-up guy…
I want a katana holder for my bike, too!
October 9th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I set a google search thingy for “xtracycle” just for fun, so when somebody blogs it, I find it.
I got my Xtra in Feb. 2006. I, too, have a really good bike shop at Champaign Cycle and they do stuff like recommend fenders and then dremel them down so I can still fit the blender on
October 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I’m looking forward to reading more about your xtracycle.
October 17th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Shek-
I continue to be both impressed and inspired by your commitment to being car-free and an example of how the car addiction can be beaten without pills or lengthy therapy.
The extracycle looks like a beast, one certainly worthy of a katana!
~thartley