Pedalin' plans.

Hey there folks! It has been a long time since I have actually typed out a legit blog post rather than a hurried re-post of a video or link. What's the big occasion that would inspire me to exercise my phalanges on the keyboard? I have been thinking of going on some pedalin' adventures and I am anxious to share them.

Being a pedal pumping hill punk living in the tri-state area, I spent the Winter of 2017-2018 in a state of anxious expectation for the warm weather of Spring so I could get outside and ride my bike! Now don't get me wrong, anyone who knows me is aware that I ride bike all year round. It is just that I live here in Corn-ville (Indiana, USA) and the Winters are cold and wet. It is the kind of weather that makes even a short bike ride to the local post office seem like more of a chore than a joy ride. So I was one tightly spun WiNgNuT by the time the flowers came into bloom and was raring to hop on the saddle and pedal all of my problems away. Believe me folks, 2017 was filled with it's share of "problems".

Then as I set off on my first little ride of the season I ran into some new problems. The single speed that I had been riding for the past few years, a Critical bike, was causing me some pain due to an improper fit. When I went to make some adjustments I discovered that the seat post was seized up and would not budge. Crap! I couldn't continue to ride the bike as it was, especially not for any serious distances. It was just too uncomfortable and stressful on my body to enjoy the ride. After all, I ride bike because I enjoy riding bike.

Luckily I had a second bike of the exact brand and model in storage. After a quick check to make sure that the seat post was not seized up and could be adjusted I pulled it out of the dungeon here at the Works and began planning the upgrades that I wanted to make on the bike. I was a little bummed to be giving up the bike that I had grown so fond of over the years, but that was overshadowed by the anticipation of having a slick WELL FITTED bike to go out on some longer pedaling adventures and record and share them here and on YouTubes. I was excited again!

I made a list of parts and started saving up. After a few weeks of eating beans and rice and squirreling away every dollar I could, I went to the local bike shop and bought a new chain and cable with fresh housing, I ordered some sweet new platform pedals (it's how I ride) and a brand new sealed bottom bracket. Feeling all stoked I began to do the upgrades. It was then that I ran into my next new "problem".

Everything went fine with the upgrades until it came time to switch out the bottom bracket. The retainer ring/cup was seized up tight on both sides. Now before you even ask, YES I made sure to turn the tool the proper way. I am well aware of that common n00bie mistake. I tried every trick in the bike smith's book. I drenched the entire bracket with penetrating oil. Vinegar. Even went out and got a huge wrench and used cargo straps and a wench system to get nearly 500lb of pressure. The most that I managed to accomplish was to break the forged steel BBR tool!

You can follow the whole horrible escapade over on the Wingnut Bike Works YouTube channel.
In the end I was right back where I started. Two crappy, unreliable bikes and broke as a joke. So it was back to beans and rice for the next few weeks while I scurried to save every dime I could to purchase a new, yes I said it NEW, bike that I could work with and actually do some serious pedalin' on. That's when life came a knocking with not so much a "problem" as a delay.

I spent the next few weeks over on the East coast of the US, the Jersey Shore b@%$h's, helping a beloved family member with a huge project. It consisted of long excruciating car rides and vigorous physical labor on my part. I blew my back out in the process and was in a lot of pain for most of the time there. I was anxious and I was indignant! Apologies to those who were around me at the time. I was not good company.

BUT, the mission was a success, I managed to fill up a 90 square yard dumpster to the rim with unwanted clutter and debris. I also had a moment of clarity along the way that turned my outlook completely around. A small miracle of sorts, if you will, but I am going to keep the details of that to myself for the time being. I did manage to get in some bike riding on an old rental beater of a beach cruiser and squeeze in a couple of good moments here and there. But all that was drilling into the back of my mind was getting back to B-town and ordering the bike of my choice.

I had saved up for weeks and had sold off my personal belongings, including my two practice amps and was ready to press that buy now button. Now that this mission had been completed all that I wanted to do was get back and place that order! Things did not work out exactly like that however.
They worked out even better than planned, for at least once!

The "friend and loved one" that I helped out in Jersey insisted on paying for the bike. Good Dharma! That left the ca$h that I had stashed to be used to catch up on a few debts and use the remaining funds to purchase a few simple items to upgrade the bike. I opted to purchase a universal rear rack that would enable me to carry some panniers on a frame with no mounting eyelets and some fresh panniers as well. I will let you know how these perform and hold up. If I ever get a chance to actually use them that is!

Which brings me back to the point of this post, and that is some pedalin' plans!

For this little excursion I decided to revisit the Cursed Pyramid Ruins! No, I am not pedalin' to Egypt. As a matter of fact I will only need to ride less than two hours South of B-town to reach these ruins. The ruins of the Limestone Pyramid in Needmore, Indiana are more modern.

In the late '70s the town of Bedford, Indiana-- "The Limestone Capital of the World" -- tried to build a 95-foot-tall (one-fifth scale) limestone replica of the "Great Pyramid", and a 650- 800 foot-long limestone version of the "Great Wall". The idea was to open them as a combined tourist attraction named "Limestone Tourist Park."

The town received a large undisclosed sum of funding in federal money to begin the project, and work began. But meanwhile over in Wisconsin, Senator William Proxmire, who at the time was promoting his "Golden Fleece Awards," got wind of the "project" in 1981 and blew the whistle. The project collapsed. You can read more about the whole incident HERE and HERE.

I have visited the site previously a number of years ago with some acquaintances, but it was during the Winter months and the environmental conditions prevented me from doing any substantial exploring at the time. I had told myself that I was going to revisit the ruins when the weather warmed up. That was nearly ten years ago so a revisiting and proper exploring of the area is well overdue. 

There's still a few people in the area that still know about the abandoned pyramid. Some folks can even remember how to get to it, although it's a little confusing as it's not in Bedford, but a couple of towns north in Needmore, IN. To be safe I decided to check with a more reliable source to plan my route by. I opened up Google Maps.

According to trusty ol' Google, it will be an 18.6 mile ride one way on the route of my own choosing. That translates into 37.2 miles in total. If you do the math and translate that into km, this little trip should qualify as a good 50km ride. Not too intense as far as distance and the terrain itself is fairly moderate with only a couple of steep but small inclines. That means I can pack fairly lightly on this excursion. I won't be staying over night or anything like that on this ride so I can leave the camping gear at the flat and focus on utilizing the space in my bag for cameras and accessories, some snacks and plenty of water. 

I will be shooting video the entire trip and posting up to YouTube to share with you good people of course. With that being said I am going to get off of this PC and start getting prepared for an early morning start!

Now get out from in front of this screen and "Go Ride Yer' Bike"!

Punk Tees

When I was a kid growing up concert t-shirts were part of my daily attire. As I began to listen to more independent punk bands I discovered that most of them did not even have a tape or record available, let alone any merchandise or Band T-shirts. So us kids decided to make our own.
I remember swiping a bunch of those clear plastic sheets that were used in overhead projectors from my middle school to cut stencils on. Us kids would sit around smoking low grade marijuana while listening to crappy cassette tapes of our favorite punk bands and draw out what we thought were the most rad designs ever to promote our musical idols. Then using a razor knife that I had pilfered from my step-dads toolbox we would proceed to slice and dice us up some stencils from the clear plastic sheets for the projector. With a little spray paint and practice all of our old stained and torn t-shirts were transformed into kick-butt band shirts! Also, since we used spray paint, the shirts lasted longer than most of the Band Shirts that we had bought!
Years later I would graduate to an air-brush and create lots of cool shirts as well as murals on cars, boats, motorbikes, and even a train. I think that I owe that time I spent behind an air-brush to those old DIY spray painted band shirts that I made as a kid. Now I have went full circle and am making old school DIY punk style spray painted T-shirts. Mostly, I have been just giving them away around town here to the people I meet on the streets,  but I think that I might throw a few out in the Etsy shop for $5 bucks a piece and see if anyone is interested.

The above shirt is one I sprayed using an original stencil that I designed to be used to create some canvas artwork, but I think it looks great on a Tee as well. You can find the original artworks at the Etsy shop .
Thanks for stopping by, now get off of the internet and go ride your bike!

Cluttering up the Works.

Greetings good peeps, and welcome to the Works. It is in this small two room studio in Bloomington, Indiana that I create all of the unique things that are featured at Wingnut Bike Works. That includes the stinged things, such as diddly bows and cigar box guitars, that I hand craft utilizing recycled materials and old bicycle parts.

The Works also serves as my artist studio where I enjoy painting when I get the down time to do so. I love the location, as it sits right on "restaurant row" in the central downtown area but space is always an issue in such a small place.

Oh, and did I mention that I also repair and build bicycles at the Works? This is another challenge when it comes to actual work space at the Works.

Then there is the always rotating inventory of stock that is continually coming in from my daily dumpster diving excursions. Thankfully I have Larry (the furry blue guy) and Rosco (the roadkill raccoon) to keep an eye on things for me.

Despite their efforts, however, those two are no better at getting rid of clutter here at the Works than I am as my "office area" will attest to.

Drinking dumpstered coffee and admiring my chaos, I decided that it was time to clear out some of the clutter in the Works and in my life.

Just take a look around and you will see what I mean. For instance, I have an ever growing collection of cheap sunglasses that I have found in the dumpsters over the past year or so.

Any one who knows me at all knows that I am hardly ever caught without a pair of these babies on, but I am starting to think that I might have a few too many pairs right now.

Additional to my own art work that is hanging and stacked all over the place, I also like to keep a few pieces from other local "street artist" on my walls. The above piece was done by a homeless guy known as "Artist Will". It was done on half of a broken door. I love it!

Even the T.R.E.A.M. garden I am working on out in back is getting a little cluttered. So I took another swig of mud and began to get to work on getting rid of all the things that are cluttering up the works. By the time it started to get dark out I had made some real progress.

To celebrate, and to help get rid of some inventory that is taking up space, I decided to throw a big sale in the online Wingnut Bike Works Etsy Shop!

Of course I have fresh clutter as of this morning, but isn't that just life all over? So if you are reading this then help me out by going to visit the online shop and taking some of my awesome clutter off of my hands? Sorry, but Larry and Rosco will not be for sale! My jewelry and art and unique stringed things will be however and I slashed the prices on everything to get it out the door.

Thanks for stopping by! Now go put something fun between your legs and RiDe YeR' BiKe!

HUGE SALE HERE!

Bike Swap or Flop?

After nearly two weeks of constant stress and preparation the day of the Bloomington Bike Swap finally arrived yesterday. It was a cloudy and cold day which started out with an early ride in the rain for me. I was hesitant to drag the Cigar Box Guitars that I had spent so much time working on making out into the rain and dampness. I was also worried about possibly ruining my original art pieces by exposing them to the elements. As the morning progressed and the weather still showed no signs of improving I was tempted to cancel. After a long inner debate, I gathered up some plastic bags and a tarp to begin loading my bike cart with WBW merch.

The weather continued to be grey and wet, but I did make an appearance and set up a small display. The turn out wasn't huge but I did manage to sell a couple of small Diddly-Bows and passed out some business cards while strumming like a lunatic for next few hours. I think it would have been an absolutely awesome Swap if the weather were nicer. The whole thing was pretty good in the end and it made me realize a couple of things. (A.) I have b een selling myself short on the pricing of the stringed things that I have been making and (B.) I really need to acquire some type of small, light weight and easy to set up vendors tent or canopy.

A big thank you goes out to Sharon and Kira for stopping by and lending a hand (and an additional table). I would also like to thank everyone who stopped by the WBW table, especially to those who actually bought my swag.

All and all I think it was a great kick off to what will be a kick ass year for Wingnut Bike Works.
Happy first day of Spring 2016!

Making things with noisey strings!

I have been making things with strings from dumpstered items and old bicycle parts to bring to the Bloomington Bike Swap. Diddly Bos, Chuggers, and Cigar Box Guitars oh my! Plus bracelets, belts, lighter leashes and other fine jewelry created using old bike parts to upgrade your fashion look! Also I will be bringing some of my original "bike themed" art for you to slap up on your walls! Oh, did I mentio0n FREEBIES!? Oh yeah there will be some sweet swag to be given away as well! See you there next Saturday!

Our Pack Pedals!

I just wanted to share this awesome shot that my GF, Kir-uh, took while we were riding on the B-line the other evening. BBig props' go out to the photographer for taking this action pic. with her iPhone while riding. I think that it came out great! This image captures and embodies the essence of our little pack. We don't have any money or fancy cars, we don't live in a mansion and most days we hardly have food, but we have got each other. That is enough to get me through even the darkest of times.

A pack that pedals together, stays together. Thanks for reading and ride strong!

Winter warrior on wheels!

 

If you ride bike in the winter in B-town then you are a SOLDIER!

The Bloomington Community Bike Project post open hours, FINALLY.

 After a long period of transitioning during which it seemed that the The Bloomington Community Bike Project hardly ever opened the shop to the public, it seems that they are once again opening the shop door to the community.

Over the past year I have repeatedly reached out to The Bloomington Community Bike Project by donating parts and at one point I designed some flyers for them free of charge as well. I really like the idea that I thought the BCBP supposedly stands for, a volunteer ran bike garage/co-op. Over the past 10 years I have donated bikes and parts and gotten a number of parts from The Bloomington Community Bike Project and up until the past few years it was always a fun and pleasant experience. Recently however that was no longer the case in my experiences in dealing with The Bloomington Community Bike Project. The shop itself became more exclusive and privatized in my opinion. It no longer seemed casual and relaxing but more like a "normal business". Every time I went there to find parts the shop was "closed to the public" and was for "volunteers only", even though their web site stated that the shop would be open during those hours. As my own unique bicycle oriented business grew I was hoping to volunteer my time and skills to something local like The Bloomington Community Bike Project, but when I went to ask about volunteering I was met by a rather dour expression and felt as if my asking about volunteering my time was an inconvenience for the young lady that had shown up late to open the shop and was moping around in the shadows of it's interior. She shoved a bike at me and offered no further advice or assistance. I no longer feel welcomed there by the people who are key holding "volunteers". The Bloomington Community Bike Project used to be a cool spot to hang out with friends and work on or build bikes, now it seems like they focus more on selling bikes to the community. Don't let my shitty experience ruin it for you, go check them out. If the are actually going to open there doors to the community once again.

The Bloomington Community Bike Project

The Bloomington Community Bike Project

Pedaling to the trail ends and then some...

My friend Travis stopped by yesterday and invited me to take a ride on the B-line with him. I had work that I needed to finish up to get a custom order done for the Wingnut Bike Works online shop, but he insisted that I join him after the work was done. It had been a long time since I had taken a ride down the full length of the B-line and I was curious as to whether they had made any progress in extending it in either direction, so after only the slightest of reluctance I agreed to join him. Besides, I thought, Fawn would love to get out and smell the smells.

So I finished up a custom order for a nice little cuff bracelet made from a bicycle tire and contacted the customer. Thanks for your purchase BTW Jarred, you order is being shipped out today! With that taken care of I got Fawn ready and gathered supplies then waited for Travis to return. I didn't have to wait long. Travis arrived, we fed our turtles and were off!

It was an unseasonably pleasant day for Indiana in November. The Sun was warm and bright and the sky was so clear that I didn't even spot any chem-trails! It was a perfect day for a long bike ride. First we pedaled South on the B-line and eventually ended up heading East on the Clear Creek trail. It had been a number of years since I had last pedaled out here. That time it had been with Kira and Squidney, and Fawn had not even entered our lives back then. Eventually we came to a sign that read "Trail Ends".

But I knew better. I had been here before, back in 2004 when I had returned to B-town once again after many years of traveling the open roads of North America. I knew that the trails end was not the end of the trail. So I lead Travis on past the trails end, and this is what was there.

An old reservoir that made for a nice reflection pool. I remembered being a younger man and looking at the night sky reflecting in this pool as I sat drinking cheap wine and smoking my last roach of decent weed. I don't drink these days and the weed isn't as decent, but there I was staring at that man made pool of water and the worlds reflection in it. I looked to the left of the watery mirror and saw another familiar landmark.

I had once taken shelter from the rain in this little shack back during that time all those years ago. I was surprised to see it still standing, but that gave me some assurance that the next nostalgic point of interest would still be standing as well. After a short distance past the left of the little shack my assurances were confirmed when we found ourselves facing this old warehouse/factory looming over us.

 There was a guy strumming on his acoustic guitar inside the lower building so we decided not to go in and disturb him.

 Among the discarded factory works and weeds was an old pontoon boat. It reminded me of the one that I practically lived on down at Monroe Reservoir back in the late 1980's.

 Itsa Mario!

 

 I have always been drawn to these places that lay forgotten between nature and civilization, and this one brought back some distant memories. I was glad that I had a good friend like Travis to pull me away from work and the mundane and pedaling to the trails end once again.

I am pretty sure that my BFFF (Best Furry Friend Forever) was enjoying it as well. Thanks for reading!

I turned some trash and old bicycle parts into a guitar!

Like I have said before, it isn't all about bikes. I made this 3 stringed CBG from a re-purposed Macanudo box, scrap wood, recycled guitar strings and tuners from a guitar that was salvaged from the dumpster and old bicycle parts. Then I added a strap made from an old bicycle inner tube and reclaimed hardware, It is definitely a one of a kind conversation piece.

I do not consider myself a musician by any means, but I really enjoy making Diddly Bo's and Cigar Box guitars and I enjoy playing around on them even more! I uploaded a video demonstrating this little beauty on my Youtube channel,

I have it tuned to open G. The strings sit a little high for finger fretting but it really sounds great with a slide (an old socket in my case). It is acoustic, but the sound is awesome. Maybe I will put a pickup on the next one that I build.

If you would like to own this 3 stringer you can purchase it HERE!

Thanks for reading and pedal on!

Get my original art work for a steal!

Click to find out more!

Due to my current limitations on space I am getting rid of some of my larger pieces dirt cheap in hopes of clearing out room for new works that I am putting out.

It's official! Wingnut Bike Works is opened for business on Etsy!

Go check out my unique merch and help keep this old kid from getting "a real job"!

Wingnut Bike Works Etsy Shop!

I've been making things!

All these items and many more will soon be available for purchase. Be sure to keep checking this blog for future updates!