Mid-to-late-June, bicycle building
Having returned from Asia to Vancouver on June 10th, I had only 19 days to build a bicycle and see a bunch of family and friends before flying to the other side of Canada for a cycle trip and more family visiting. So I went to a terrific bicycle store called Our Community Bikes, on Main at 17th Ave in Vancouver, and got them to teach me how to build a bicycle.
This is my bike after a fair bit of work had already gone into it:
During one of the days I spent working in their workshop, I went for lunch nearby with a friend. Check out the tasty menu:
On June 20th, 2 months shy of her 100th birthday, my granny died, and we had the funeral and burial on June 25th. It was a nice ceremony and my sister delivered a terrific eulogy.
On the drive home, our car made some funny noises and reversing into our driveway the rear wheels came totally out of alignment so that the car wouldn't move at all. Note that rear wheels should always be parallel to the car, never turned:
The car got towed and repaired, and I spent more time at the bike shop, which included altering certain parts that I was putting on my bike. I got one of the employees to grind down an axel that was a bit too long:
We also had a family gathering at my parents' home the day after my granny's funeral, which was really nice. All of my siblings and parents in one photo:
And here's my mom with all of her living siblings:
Having nearly finished building my bicycle, by June 28th I was riding it around the city to get used to it, as I've always ridden mountain bikes and city bikes in the past. I made a camera mount for the front handlebars out of a red reflector attachment, and experimented a bit with onboard photography. Sometimes it turned out a bit slanted...
A bike with drop bars needs bar wrap otherwise you're holding bare metal which isn't very comfortable, is terrible for grip, and can do a lot of damage to your wrists, so I bought some stupidly expensive leather bar wrap and got a pro to put it on for me so I wouldn't have to buy another pack of the stuff if I did it wrong:
And here's me with my completed bike, on the 28th, before packing it into a box and flying the next day to Fredericton:
This is my bike after a fair bit of work had already gone into it:
During one of the days I spent working in their workshop, I went for lunch nearby with a friend. Check out the tasty menu:
On June 20th, 2 months shy of her 100th birthday, my granny died, and we had the funeral and burial on June 25th. It was a nice ceremony and my sister delivered a terrific eulogy.
On the drive home, our car made some funny noises and reversing into our driveway the rear wheels came totally out of alignment so that the car wouldn't move at all. Note that rear wheels should always be parallel to the car, never turned:
The car got towed and repaired, and I spent more time at the bike shop, which included altering certain parts that I was putting on my bike. I got one of the employees to grind down an axel that was a bit too long:
We also had a family gathering at my parents' home the day after my granny's funeral, which was really nice. All of my siblings and parents in one photo:
And here's my mom with all of her living siblings:
Having nearly finished building my bicycle, by June 28th I was riding it around the city to get used to it, as I've always ridden mountain bikes and city bikes in the past. I made a camera mount for the front handlebars out of a red reflector attachment, and experimented a bit with onboard photography. Sometimes it turned out a bit slanted...
A bike with drop bars needs bar wrap otherwise you're holding bare metal which isn't very comfortable, is terrible for grip, and can do a lot of damage to your wrists, so I bought some stupidly expensive leather bar wrap and got a pro to put it on for me so I wouldn't have to buy another pack of the stuff if I did it wrong:
And here's me with my completed bike, on the 28th, before packing it into a box and flying the next day to Fredericton:
posted by PhotoDiarist at 22:00
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