unhinged on a bike

No, 'twas not I that was unhinged, but someone else...

Late this afternoon I was walking home and had just crossed the construction mess that is Bank St. I got onto James St. and saw what looked to be an older East Indian couple sitting on some steps, perhaps waiting for someone. What drew my attention was that there was a guy with a bike saying something to them in a loud voice, and I realized he was insulting them (stuff like "f-ing immigrants").

They tried to ignore him, and I was wondering what to do. I was across the street, and it was one of the moments that can happen where you have to decide very quickly whether or not to get involved with people you do not know. I thought what he was doing was pretty awful, and after he walked away from them I thought it was over, but then he went back and started in on them again, and they looked pretty nervous and got up to leave.

I then decided that if this guy thought he was so tough he should pick on me, not them, so I shouted "hey, it would be good if you left them alone!". He looked my way and then got on his bike and cycled into the middle of the street, shouting more abuse and I basically said "look, leave them and me alone and just go home". He stared at me briefly and I realized he would probably not try to attack me, and instead he just pedaled slowly as I walked and shouted general abuse my way. I thought "well, the other folks are safe so I'll just let him do this for a bit and then get away from him at the next intersection". I didn't know whether he was mentally ill or high on drugs, but also did not really need to find out.

As we both got to James and Kent he accelerated and turned left, the wrong way onto the one-way street. Problem was, he was riding down the middle of the road with three lanes of traffic heading straight for him! He half fell / half jumped off his bike, and made a motion at the traffic like "come and get me" and started waving his arms and shouting as the cars slowed and dodged around him. Then he grabbed his bike and threw it at one car, and that's when I remembered that I now have a cell phone and that this would be a good time to use it!

I called 911, describing the situation as he threw the bike at yet another car (he missed both times), and they asked me to stay until Police arrived. Just as they said that, the guy, after wandering around for a few moments, threw his bike for a third time and finally hit a car. The driver slowed and stopped for a moment, then turned down James and did not come back.

Just after this a cruiser arrived, and as it pulled up I saw the guy walking off southbound on the opposite sidewalk, with his bike still in the middle of the road. I pointed him out to the officer and she ran after him, and she was joined by another officer at Gladstone Ave. They all disappeared around the corner for a bit, and while I waited a fellow came out of a nearby house, sating he had seen most of what had transpired and that he had also called 911.

Then a third cruiser arrived, and the officer go out to talk to us, and as he did yet another fellow walked up - the driver of the car that had been hit by the bike. From there it was just talking and filling out statements, and the officer said they had grabbed the perp. The original officer returned, the perpetrator was in the back seat of the second car, and they then double-checked our statements (I was the only one that had seen it all from start to finish).

Just as I was leaving the scene I heard the driver of the damaged car say to the officer "my car is over at James and Bank because that's where I was going to pick up my parents". I asked him "were your parents sitting at the apt. building there?" and he said Yes. This was bizarre - I had called the perp. away from them, and then he manages to hit their son's car with his bike; only after trying to hit two others. Now that's one of those Twilight Zone moments...

And this is all on top of the three separate incidences this past week where cyclists were hit (and in at least one case killed) by motorists.

Cyclecide

A profile of the amazing bike collective known as Cyclecide. I love all of it, especially the Rimshot Bike, because "your joke can be lousy but you still get the rimshot". The "pedal-powered carnival" may be the ultimate in HP fun:



Now there's a job description: "Artist in Residence at the Dump". :)

Propeller Dance gig gear

June 19th saw the annual fundraising gig for Propeller Dance. In past years this event took place at the NAC's Fourth Stage, but this year it was moved to the new home of the GCTC.

The show had performances by all of the weekly classes, plus the main performing group. That meant around 70 performers! I've been providing the music for the Monday classes with Renata for many years now, and for this event I was also asked to help out the Saturday morning kids and youth classes. This was because Jason Sonier, the regular Saturday musician, was not going to be available for the show, and so I had to take over the final four weeks so the two classes could put their shows together.

(This meant getting up far earlier than I am used to on Saturday mornings, then having one hour to pack up, load out, trike home, unload, grab food, and get to the re-Cycles shop for 1pm!)

Over the years my equipment for these gigs has evolved. After buying a bigger amplifier and adding other gear, my current set-up uses:

The Behringer keyboard amp, Kawai K4 synth, Boss looping pedal, Roland Handsonic 10 percussion pad, an older Mac iBook, and my very latest tool, a Korg Nanopad. The laptop has been great because I can set up various loops and fade them in and out or make them do interesting things, and the Nanopad is an interesting (and very cheap) MIDI controller that I'm mostly using to trigger soundfonts. For the Sat. kids class I also added my "street drum", originally put together for Grasshoppa Dance street performances.

In past years Propeller Dance's accompanying musicians have tended to be in the shadows for performances. This year we were right onstage, though due to space limitations we needed to tuck ourselves into a corner.

The other guys, Dominique Saint-Pierre (main performing group) and Mike Essoudry (Thursday group), are also using varying degrees of technology. Here's a view of my rig:
Dom uses a Yamaha synth, microphone (sometimes run through a delay unit), djembe, the same model amp I use, and he recently bought an older Roland Handsonic 15:
Mike had an interesting set-up using a mix of acoustic and slightly more "primitive" digital technology:
Yes, those are Discmans! Mike loaded these with loops he'd burnt onto CD, then ran each through its own mixer channel to be faded in and out as needed.

A closer shot of my gear. The Nanopad is right in front of the laptop:
A rear view of the collective gear during dress rehearsal:
This event was a lot of fun, though we musicians did not help each other / jam along during pieces as in the past, because the performances have gotten a bit more structured. But Dom did invite us to jam along on the final performing group piece, which, after a run-through during dress rehearsal, came off quite well.

David Scrimshaw has a ton of performance photos on his Flickr pages. I really like this one of our Monday group during the show:
And yes, as always I used my cargo trike to get to this gig. ;)

Jazz festival gig

I'll be performing this coming Thursday at noon at our local jazzfest, this time with the new quartet Art Nuvo. And it's a free show: http://www.ottawajazzfestival.com/e/lineup/june25.html

This group is comprised of myself on drums, Rick Rangno on trumpet and fluegelhorn, Ian Clyne on piano, and Tom Denison on bass. As mentioned in an earlier post, we were in the recording studio back in April, putting together series of original compositions form Rick and Ian. That should be released sometime in the Fall.

This group is a good challenge for me, as it's an opportunity to play some real jazz. Meaning that we're focusing on original material and not just playing the same old standards all the time (which is what a lot of us get stuck doing when folks hire a jazz group). I've been nicely encouraged by the lads to play a bit more "out" and go for it, which I'm happy to do. ;)

I'll be triking to this gig, of course...

newest oldest bike

I've just acquired a rather old but still completely functional steed. It's a CCM "Red Bird", and the serial number dates it to 1937! Holy smokes, that's 72 years ago!!


I plan to get more info on its history from the guy that passed it on to me from a friend of his.

The only things I've added were the bell and a perhaps even older seat (which is covered with some black fleece, but under that is some worn leather with horsehair padding!). The bike did have its old-style seatpost that is shaped a bit like the number 7, and I'll see if I can fit this seat to it.

The bike has its original but rather faded paint, but some of the detail work is still there:

as well as various stickers:

and the rather cool head badge, where the name is cut out of the metal:

The bike rides just fine, but has a few issues. The easiest to fix is a slightly reluctant coaster (back-pedal) brake. I'll just open that up for an overhaul, and do have some replacement brass brake "shoes" if they are needed.

A little more fussy is that at some point the bike's hubs got re-laced into cheap steel 27" rims, when it originally came with Canadian 28" (700C) wheels. I'm presuming they are the original hubs, as they have oil ports that seem to match the one on the bottom bracket shell.

The single rear cog even has a slot in it for easy spoke removal, which is a feature not seen in a long time.

These replacement chrome-plated wheels with their skinny tires and flat braking surfaces just do not look right on this bike.

I have access to a complete front wheel from the "railing bike" at the re-Cycles shop (a dead CCM from 1945 that was going to be an outside sign bike, but instead now graces the shop's library railing), as it did not fit the installation and was simply snoozing in a basement corner, and had escaped being spray-painted. I dug it out tonight and was pleased to note that the painted rim matches my bike!

So I either use this wheel as it is, or only its rim and lace in the bike's original hub (this other wheel does not have an oil port). For the rear wheel, I could either remove the one from the railing bike and carefully strip the spray-paint (and simply substitute any old single-cog wheel), since it wold be the correct colour, or find one online.

The bigger challenge is that the stem is seized, and its bolt loose. It has probably been this way for quite some time, and I fear that the stem bolt has snapped off inside at the top of the wedge. But the bolt, while loose, will not back out, so until I can get it in a vice and tug it out I can't see what is really going on.

I'm applying some Liquid Wrench inside the head tube at intervals to start freeing up whatever rust might be holding things, but if the bottom end of the bolt is stuck in the wedge then I may have to unfortunately cut off the stem. This would allow me to dismantle the headset and pull out the fork, then hopefully get the conjoined mess out. Via the "English Roadsters" discussion group at OldRoads.com, I've been offered a replacement stem if needed.


An interesting feature on this bike is that it sports non-cottered cranks. And it is not the usual one-piece / Ashtabula crankset. I was told that CCM pioneered this, but need to get more verification.

And here's the most worn part of the bike:

I'll post more photos as the "restoration" continues.

Fun book

Flights of fancy can be a very good thing. Sometimes they can lead to new and interesting things, and sometimes they are just a bit "out there", and make you think.

I'm browsing through a .pdf version of a book full of all sorts of wonderful weirdness called the "Codex Seraphinianus". Some are calling it The World's Weirdest Book, with images such as:

I think it's a hoot. You can download the pdf file (50meg.) HERE.

Frank Zappa drummers

While I'm not the biggest Zappa fan, I certainly do like some of his music, and some of it I like a LOT. I have always appreciated what a musical free spirit he was, and how he had some of the best musicians on the planet in his various bands; people like George Duke, Terry Bozzio, Steve Vai, Vinnie Colaiuta, Ruth Underwood, etc.

And for all the silly stuff that most folks know him by, he also wrote some of the most complicated music any musician ever had to read. And they often had to play it while engaged in some musical comedy routine. But they could do so because they knew the music cold, as Zappa would rehearse his bands eight hours a day, five days a week for at least two or three months before heading out on tour. That's a lot of work!

I just came across a cool roundtable discussion featuring ex-Zappa drummers organized by Terry Bozzio, who played with him from '75-'78. With him are Ralph Humphreys ('72-'74), Chester Thompson ('74-'75, later tour drummer for Genesis), and percussionist Ruth Underwood ('68-'76). Ruth had basically stopped playing after Zappa because, well, any other music was not going to be quite as interesting!

http://www.drumchannel.com/entertainment/3016.aspx

7 episodes, and there's a link on the page of the first one to a 4-drummer drum jam that lasts for 42 minutes!

More drums 'n Zappa - Terry with the "Zappa Plays Zappa" band last year (led by Zappa's son Dweezil), playing "The Black Page". This was written for Terry by Frank back in 1976, and the tune got its name from the fact that Zappa wrote it in a slow time signature, so all the fast stuff is in 32nd notes and the page looks like a blur of ink. Terry is joined by the aforementioned Steve Vai for Part 2:



(Steve Vai first came to prominence as Zappa's "stunt guitarist" in '81, to play parts that Frank wrote that even he could not easily play on guitar. Vai had transcribed some Zappa guitar solos while he was studying at Berklee, and Frank paid him to continue that until Steve graduated and then joined the Zappa band.)

catching up...

Two weeks ago I observed my 50th birthday. At some point I'll start acting my age, maybe when I'm 60.

Here's one for the numerologists in the crowd: within a period of three weeks I turned 50, my step-mom turned 80, and my niece Marianne turns 20. So I'm in the middle, with a fabulous woman 30 years on either side. ;)

My birthday week was a tad hectic. On the Monday I was at the re-Cycles shop from noon until 5pm, then had to zoom home, gulp dinner, then load the trike and head off to the weekly Propeller Dance gig (where the gang gave me a fabulous pre-birthday celebration).

On Tuesday, I was up at 7:30am (yikes!) to head into the recording studio for three days with a new group I've joined called "Art Nuvo" (more on them later). I was home from that by 4:30, then off to a b'day dinner 'til 8pm, then picked up at 8:30 for an IJO rehearsal that lasted until about 11:30.

Wednesday saw another 7:30am wake-up, and I got home from that session around 4:30 again, then had a 3-hour choir rehearsal from 6-9.

Thursday was like Tuesday, without the b'day dinner in the middle. Thankfully I had nothing booked for Friday, and I did as little as possible. Ok, so I spent three hours sorting stuff at the re-Cycles shop, but that was on my own schedule, and it had no music! My ears were a tad fried by this point...

The following weekend was busy, and by then I had run myself down and was sniffling with a cold by Monday. And it became the worst cold I've had in three years (after not being sick all winter), and I spent a bunch of time half passed out on the couch. So if spread out over the past two weeks I guess I did a normal amount of work. :P

While I was sick I watched an excellent BBC documentary about the Second World War, produced in 1973 and running for almost 24 hours. It had been uploaded to YouTube in the allotted 10-minute increments, so it took a while to wade through, both mentally and emotionally. But I finally have a full understanding of the insanity of that war: approx. 60 million dead, and half of those were Russians. The Nazi ideology, the various cold and calulated programs they put in place, how much the German populace bought into it all... (let's face it - none of it would've happend if most of the people had not wanted it.) Truly wrenching stuff, but I would consider it mandatory viewing.

Here's the playlist link.

IJO gig this week

Got another cool concert coming up with the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra.

We're doing the fabulous "Far East Suite" by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, along with a newer work called the "Chicago Concerto", written by Richard Peaslee. This is for baritone saxophone and Big Band, and was originally written for jazz great Gerry Mulligan.

Mike Tremblay will be the bari soloist, and some of the music is giving us quite the challenge (odd time signatures and that sort of thing). Rick Rangno will also be playing a beautiful piece by Peaslee called "Nightsongs" for fluegelhorn and strings.

Full details at the IJO site. I'll of course be using my cargo trike to get to this gig. ;)

tech blending

Last summer I bought a new mouse for my Mac, and in December I bought a new electric razor. They look similar enough to confuse me in my morning dopiness if I shave while at the computer...

folding trailer

A friend of mine sent me this link: A wheel-y unique idea for commuter cyclists: Milton university engineering student co-inventor of collapsible bike trailer.

back on the trike

I got Kyoto out of its winter hibernation this past Thursday.

On Wednesday there was still a bit of ice piled in front of the door to its trikeport, and once that was cleared I still could not get the door open! Prying the top edge back I could look inside and see ice on the gravel floor of the 'port, and the front wheel had ice up to the rim. Joy...

But on Thursday I was able to pry the door open a bit more and reach in and lift the front wheel out of the ice out easily enough, and it was no worse for wear. Then I eventually got the door free and the trike out (the rear wheels did not have ice around them). I adjusted the brakes and cleaned the chain and put the small battery in to check the lights and signals, and all was well.

Friday was a beautiful day and I put the battery pack for the electric assist in and went for about a 10km roundtrip doing errands. It was nice to be back on the beast (currently my only recumbent) and I'm looking forward to using it once again for moving gear after almost four months of using the winter bike and trailer(s).

The next day I had to do a shift at the re-Cycles shop from 1-5, then from there straight over to the NAC for a soundcheck and gig at the Fourth Stage. The trike makes this kind of thing easy to do.

And so begins Year Six of my cargo trike adventures. :)

Jivewires gig tonight

A little late in posting this, but...

The Jivewires are playing at the Rainbow tonight. This is the make-up gig for the one canceled two months ago due to heat and water problems at the club. In the band tonight are Steve on vocals and trombone, Rick on trumpet, Zak on alto sax, Brian on tenor sax, Dr. Dave on guitar, Tom on upright bass, and me.

And check out our new website! The old one was OK, but not put together by us. I maintained it over the years, but Steve has now redone it and looks after the updating.

fun with power tools

Anyone visiting the re-Cycles shop will see two rooms; one being the front "sales" room, and the other the work room. Some folks might even get to see the basement, where the largest room holds all the donated bikes that have come in (which at this time of year have mostly been made ready for sale and are awaiting the Spring rush).

Then there's the smaller basement room, where we store scrap metal for eventual recycling, dead tires awaiting recycling, supplies, spare parts, etc. This room also contained appliances that had long been taken out of use but never removed, such as the building's furnace (each tenant now has their own furnace) and water storage tank (for the old hot water radiators). These things took up a lot of room that we really needed. So we got the landlord's permission to remove them and hired a contractor.

And Mr. Contractor actually showed up. Once. He had quoted two nights to shut off services and disconnect, and then cut things up enough for us to add to our metal scrap pile. Well, he got as far as shutting off power and gas and some of the water and left things to drain. Then he disappeared, as contractors so often do.


By the time the Christmas Holidays rolled around a month later we figured the guy was gone, and somebody had to finish the job. The shop had recently bought an angle grinder with a nice cutting disk, so I thought what the hell I'll see if I can do the job.

The furnace was pretty straightforward. A few pumps had to be disconnected, and I could tell they had been put on not long before the furnace had been decommisiond, as the bolts came undone easily (and the old dead pumps were lying nearby). The pumps were taken by HPVOoOer Mike Watson for a project, so nice to see them reused and not scrapped when they were perfectly good.



The big water tank was another thing. It had cut-off pipes sticking out of it so I presumed it to be drained and started cutting into the bottom pipe. And water starts spraying out! Just what I want when using power tools... (the tank had water, but obviously not enough to overflow the upturned open pipes.)


A quick clamping repair was made using a section of innertube and a hose clamp. The tank needed to be properly drained, and fortunately fellow HPVOoOer Charles was upstairs working on his winter bike. It was off-hours, but I was glad I'd let him use the shop while I was downstairs, because he was able to scoot the few blocks back to his place and get a garden hose. This was attached to the tank's drain plug and left overnight. (He also took the above photos of me.)


The next day the remaining pipes were cut and the tank was waddled out of the way. The furnace consisted of a sheet metal top resting on a core of metal and fire bricks. That core was extremely heavy, and I could only heave it aside by squatting and putting my shoulder to it.


The various cut pipes were sorted by metal type for our scrap removal guys (copper being the most valuable), and then all taps and fittings removed.



The grinder was a fabulous tool for this project. It certainly would not have been a fun task to do all the cutting using only the shop's hacksaw...

A little while later the scrap guys came and hauled most of it away, and it took three people to get the furnace core and big water tank up the stairs.

TV show

So the TV segment wasn't too bad. I still talk a bit too quickly at times, trying to get out the things I wish to say. But overall I'm OK with how it went.

There doesn't seem to be an embedding feature on the CBC's website, so here's the direct link to the show. (My segment starts around 6:57).

If the link fails for some reason please go to the show's website and search for "Thursday March 5".

Me on TV

In January I was asked by CBC-TV to do a short feature on cycling and trailering my drums in the winter. Later that month on a nice crisp day I met up with reporter Amrita Singh and a cameraman at Bank and Sparks. The program will be aired this Thursday at 3pm, and available online afterwards.

Below are the details from the CBC:

Thank you for being part of Living in Ottawa. Your story "Drum Bike" will be aired on Thursday, March 5...

... Living in Ottawa airs at 3 PM on CBC Television. See below for a list of CBC television channels in our area. After the initial airing the episode will be posted online and will be accessible to your family and friends to watch at www.cbc.ca/livinginottawa. Click on “search videos” and search by the airdate or segment title to find past episodes. Where to find Living in Ottawa on CBC Television: Channel 8 - Rogers Cable, Channel 208 - Bell ExpressVu, Channel 303 - Star Choice Channel, 4 - with antenna Channel 2, - Videotron Cable - Gatineau

more trailer stuff

My friend Tanya (aka crazybikerchick) liked my trailer and wanted her own. During two of my visits to Toronto we got it built (yes, I brought the conduit bender with me) and she was going to blog the details. Well, she hasn't been blogging as much as she used to, so I told her I'd post some photos.

The design is the same as on my website, using conduit for the frame, a Chariot hitch, and 16" wheels. Tanya later added her own Rubbermaid container.

Family stuff

Last summer was tough for my family, as my Dad died (age 92) in July, then one of his younger brothers (my uncle Tom) died in August. Tom's funeral was held in the patriarchal family town of Bowmanville, Ont., where the family had founded and run the Bowmanville Foundry from 1901 to 1988.

My brother Mike and I drove down in his Honda Del Sol (not really a sports car, but just a cute little two-seat Honda Civic), and before heading back home I wanted to get a photo of Rehder Avenue.




Our great-grandfather Christian Rehder started the foundry business, and it remains one of the town's major employers. Christian later bought some land to create a little subdivision as an investment, and why not name a street after the family?


Footnote: the current owners of the foundry commissioned a book about our family, the business and the town, and it was published in 2002. While I knew many of the facts and figures, I was heartened to read some very positive things I had not known about.

One being that during the Great Depression business of course dropped off significantly, and Christian showed all the employees the order book and told them how bad things were. But he was not going to lay anyone off and would give work as it came in. And to help them out he said he'd cover any basic purchases at the local grocer, so that no one had to go hungry while waiting. He had always intended to keep the company small to maintain quailty control, and doing so also allowed him to give back like this.

The second was when the union came calling. My grandfather Ernie had taken over by then, and was incensed over the implication that a union was needed. As noted above, the company had always looked after its employees, granted in a old-fashioned patriarchal way. My Dad was summoned to deal with the negotiations, and once the union was in everything went well, with company management dealing directly with the union reps in all future contract talks. There were no work stoppages or grievancs filed in all the years the family owned the business.

It's nice to know that I did not come from a line of greedy corporate types, and perhaps that's where my community-minded ethic comes from.

More fan mail

I recently received another email from someone who had built a trailer from the plans at my site.


He did up a web page with full details. Thanks Eugene!

cargo trike update

I had few posts about the cargo trike in 2008, but that's mainly because it runs fine and there's little to report! It did exactly what it was supposed to do with little fuss, and was used more than any previous year. Few long trips like in 2007, but that's fine; the short trips more than caught up the mileage (kilometerage?).

I think the only failure was having three spokes break in the front wheel. Which is pretty good, considering that I built it myself three years ago, and it hits whatever road debris I don't steer around with the weight of me sitting on it. And without suspension. The real adventure was having to cut, thread, and install three custom-length replacement spokes. They are not a common size due to the large hub in a small wheel, and when I built the wheel I customized enough spokes for the job, and no spares. But this replacement job was made easy by the re-Cycles shop now having the necessary threading tool (thanks to whoever donated it to us!).

Improvements for 2008:

- built a coroplast rain cover for the cargo box (why did I wait four years to do this, and put up with a tarp?).

- replaced the battery pack (I abused the old one by not recharging it often enough).

- replaced the excellent but worn down Schwalbe Big Apple 50mm wide tires with new 60mm ones (the 50s went on my trailer).

The last ongoing issue was the electric assist acting up in rainy weather, partly because the wiring connectors would pull apart and let moisture in. Juergen (my co-builder and e-assist guru) suggested replacing the stock ones with Anderson connectors, and last Spring, with the help of our friend Charles, the swap was done.

(Yes, the trike's paint badly needed touching up, and that was done shortly thereafter.)

This change, as well as relocating and covering the motor controller to protect it from wheel and road spray seems to have solved the problem, though I did not ride in the rain as much as in 2007.

So it looks like the concept has matured and stabilized. I was able to ride the trike into the first week of December, and now it hibernates, awaiting the non-slushy-salty roads of Spring.