It has been a big year for my family; my wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary, and our children became a year older. We all went on our first camping trip together and took a small vacation up to Jonesboro to see friends. My oldest and I went to Missouri and visited route 66; we also went on our first overnight backpacking trip together. The kids and I also did part of the Big Dam Bridge 100 bicycle ride. We even started a successful organic garden at our house. As a family the biggest change we undertook this year was becoming a one car family. A few months ago we sold my truck and became truly committed to scaling back our lifestyle — and our carbon footprint. The next biggest adjustment has been dealing with the severe peanut allergy we found out our youngest has.

Personally it has been a big year too. I ran my first marathon, starting riding a bicycle religiously, and managed to loose 40 pounds in the process. I also managed to get to Seattle and see friends and experience life on the west coast for a few days. A few months ago I also became a League Certified Bicycle Instructor. And a group of local cyclists, myself included, started an advocacy group, and pulled off several worthwhile projects.

At this time of year I always look back and think how much has changed in the last year and wonder where the next will take me. I also set some goals for myself and do everything I can to achieve them. I did alright this year, I completed about 75% of them. The other 25% is split among things that just did not work out and goals I am still trying to reach. Whether it be success or failure on the horizon, I am looking forward to 2009.

December 18th, 2008A New Direction

Earlier this year I started rebuilding bicycles, and since then I have become fairly good at it. To that end, I also started rebuilding too many and created a surplus. During this time I also started coming up with ideas for innovative new bicycle products. Add all of that together and it starts to sound like a business plan.

So…I give you Drew Gracie Cycles. Right now it is just a website with information about some of my bicycle overhauls. In the future it will be so much more. I plan on rebuilding old bicycles and making them better than they were originally. I am also going to finally put some of these ideas rolling around in my head into actual products. Stay tuned for more.

While you wait, go read about my 1980 Schwinn Continental Single Speed Conversion.

December 8th, 2008Officially Certified…

For the past three days I have been in Bentonville Arkansas riding bicycles, talking bicycles, learning about bicycles, and more importantly — learning how to share all of that information with others. The League of American Bicyclist, arguably the worlds largest bicycle advocacy group, has a huge education program to teach people how to cycle smart and safely. The program this weekend made me part of that program. I am now a League Certified Bicycle Instructor — I know, watch out world.

I went down this road for several reasons; one of the primary reasons is to put some credit behind all of my bicycle related interactions with the general public, political officials, and fellow cyclists. The main reason however, is to teach others have to safely drive a bicycle — yes, I did say drive.

The seminar was long and intense. Last night, after returning, was the first full nights sleep I have had since Thursday. We sat in a class room, we did handling drills in a parking lot, and we rode our bikes (over and over again) across the craziest, busiest set of intersections man has devised — at least by Arkansas standards. After it was all said and done I came away with volumes of new information and the confidence to effectively pass that information along.

I did have one really embarrassing moment this weekend. We were in the parking lot doing quick avoidance turns. These are basically 90 degree right hand turns, at speed, through a 4 foot corridor. During one of my turns I did not have enough speed to sling shot my bicycle and unconsciously started to peddle. Normally this is not a problem, but when you have your bike banked leaning into a turn your inside food can really get low to the ground. Mine got to close, my peddle clipped the asphalt and I took a tumble. My first true bicycle crash since childhood, and it happened at a bicycle instructor training seminar. Fortunately a few scrapes, a bruised ego and some ribbing was all the damage I received.

Another cool thing about the trip was being able to stop in Fayetteville on the way up and ride the new cross town bicycle trail the city just installed. This is one heck of a utilitarian bicycle trail. It literally runs from one side of the town to the other with an awesome tunnel that goes under Interstate 540. Along the trail local businesses have tied into the trail to provide the users easy access to their shops. It is awesome to see projects like this. My only complaint is the city installed clover leafs at busy intersections that put the trail users on very narrow sidewalks facing oncoming traffic. There are going to be some serious incidents on these portions of the trail. I say that because we almost had one. I turned up the cloverleaf on the right side of the trail, which is a blind turn, and two cyclist were headed straight at me. None of us had enough room and the only place to ditch was into traffic. Fortunately, I was able to stop and allow them through before something bad happened.

The weekend was fun and enlightening. Now the real work begins, scheduling and teaching. I am sure there will be more to come on this topic.

November 4th, 2008Part of the Process

If you have been under a rock or out in the backcountry you may not be aware that today is election day in the United States of America. Today is not an ordinary election though; at least not like the others I remember. This election actually has two very different candidates that think they have a plan to get us out of the mess the last guy put us in. Of course, time will be the true measure of that.

In local politics we have two very import amendments this cycle. One that wants to see Arkansas finally get a lottery; I am all for this one. The other seeks to ban cohabiting and homosexual couples from adopting children; I am adamantly opposed to this one. In my little area we also have a heated state senate race between an out-of-touch old guy and a lying, two-faced, fundy bureaucrat. I voted for the old guy because I cannot stand people without backbones. There are other lesser races and amendments on the list but those are the big ones.

The poles were a little busier than I expected this morning. It took me about 50 minutes to vote. An unscientific test showed the line to be moving at about one voter per 30 seconds. I almost early voted this year but opted not to. Why? Because I love being part of the election day fervor. To a geek this is almost like Super Bowl Sunday. I will also be awake and watching the TV until a winner is announced this evening.

And yes, I did ride my bicycle to the polling station.

Last week I came into possession of a 1986-1987 Bianchi Premio that had not seen the road in many years. Unlike most bikes I end up with, this one needed minimal work to be road ready.

New tires, a lube job, a wheel true, a new saddle and it was ready to go. This morning I took it our for its maiden voyage, and it was amazing. This is the only road bike I have been on since I bought my Allez earlier this year. Now I fully understand why people like riding steel bikes in urban settings. This bike absorbed bumps way better than any carbon or aluminum bike ever could. It does not mean I am going to ditch the Allez (at least not yet) but I am more than happy with this bike.

During my ride this morning I noticed that fall is fully here. The trees are all shades of red, orange, and brown. The grass is becoming dormant. And it is really cold when one is zipping along at 20 MPH on a bicycle. This winter is going to be interesting if I do not find some good warm cycling clothes.

October 24th, 2008Ding Dong the Truck is Gone

About a year ago the thought of selling my truck entered my head. At the time I had no real idea how my family would get along without a second vehicle, but thought it would be nice not to be burdened with a second vehicle. The idea soon faded and life went on as normal.

This past June a series of events occurred that put the idea back in my head… The day before I left for a vacation in Seattle my truck was in a minor accident. When I got back we had to take it to the shop and leave it there for a week. During that week we did not really notice the truck was missing. For transportation I started to rely on my bicycle.

When we got the truck back we decided to stick with bicycle travel and see how it went. To my surprise it went really well. Shortly after we decided to put the truck up for sale.

For the last four months I have been unable to sell the truck. We had tons of interest, but nobody could secure financing, or sell their other vehicle. It was a real downer not being able to get rid of the burden and move on with life.

Then suddenly everything changed this past Wednesday. I decided to take the truck back to the dealership, where we bought it, and see what I could get for it. To my dismay I could not negotiate the amount that I wanted, but decided to part with the vehicle for what I could bargain out of the sales manager.

End the end  the truck is gone after three good years of service, and I have a little money in my pocket to boot. Of course, now I do not have the payment, CO2 emissions, taxes, gas, or insurance for it either; which is a huge relief.

Now a new adventure begins, truly becoming a one car family in a rural suburban Arkansas city.

September 12th, 2008Random Thoughts

The last several weeks I have had a series of random thoughts and observations. Nothing earth shattering, but interesting nonetheless.

Students and the Mobile Era

It appears that every third college student is now surgically attached to their mobile phone. Riding through campus the other day I noticed that roughly one third of the students were either talking on a mobile or texting their little fingers off. To most people this may be no big deal; to me, it is a definite sign that I am now firmly planted in middle age.

Election 2008

I am throughly fed up with the election talk and coverage. Now that all of the announcements have been made and the platforms defined, the media has nothing to talk about except all of the he said, she saids. I really wish we could streamline the election process in years to come. There are millions of dollars and countless man hours wasted in order to allow the politicians to beat up on each other. I really think we could save ourselves some grief and misery by having a two month election season. In month one do the primaries, skip the conventions, announce running mates, and in month two have the election. There is no need in having this thing so drawn out when information can be obtained in an instance.

Spreading an Idea

If you have an idea about something it is easy to spread at first. The first people you tell are your friends; most of which will probably have a similar mindset, so it is easy. Then you try to spread the idea to people that kind of think like you; they are not as responsive but get the message. Then comes the task of spreading the idea to people that do not care; that is the hardest, and often when an idea fails.

The more the idea questions the status quo, the harder it is to spread. The harder it is to spread, the more work one has to do. If the amount of work is greater than the passion of the believers, the idea dies; else, the idea pushes though and changes the status quo.

Cars and the Oblivious

It is no secret that people completely shut themselves off from the world when they are in their cars. That is why car manufactures produce commercials about how quiet their cars are. That is also why places that do window tinting, and install car audio systems have very profitable businesses. My question is why does it have to be this way? Are we all too good or in too big of a hurry to roll the windows down, drive slow, and enjoy the ride?

Over the last several months I have come to really appreciate riding in a car. I am on my bike most days — which is a choice, and something I enjoy doing — but it has made me notice how much of a privilege a car really is. Riding in a modern vehicle is effortless and comfortable, the ride should be treated like something special not just a means to an end.

August 26th, 2008The Puncuation of Arkansas

It is not everyday that I get to think about Arkansas and punctuation in the same thought. It seems that some of the “smart people” in our state got together and passed a law in defiance of the English language. They voted to change the proper possessive form of the word Arkansas from Arkansas’ to Arkansas’s. Fine, whatever, I am going to continue to use the correct form (Arkansas’) because those are the true rules. The last thing I want to remember is yet another esoteric rule dealing with a special case in the English language.

The problem I have with “the law” is that it fails to fix the true issue; which is a reoccurring trend when it comes to legislation in this state. The true fix would be to completely drop the silent “s” from the end of the word, or change it’s pronunciation to include the silent letter. There, see, the root cause of the issue is fixed and we won’t have to rehash this issue for at least 16 years. Of course, that line of thinking hardly ever works around here.

August 8th, 2008A Modest Success

When I started my garden I told my wife if we got a single vegetable to grow I would consider it a success. I am proud to say it has been a success. Not only that it far exceeded my expectations, especially for a first year organic garden.

This year we harvested several heads of lettuce, a handful of carrots, many pounds of tomatoes, and more cucumbers than I know what to do with. The cucumbers were by far the most successful; I have made three batches of pickles with them, and should have enough for at least one more good batch.

The biggest disappointment has to be the squash and the green beans. Every last one of my squash plants died right before bearing fruit. Most of the problems were due to bugs. I did everything I could short of spraying them with chemicals to save them — nothing worked. The green beans are still in the garden but they only produced a handful of beans — not even enough for a meal. I think a new location for these crops next year will serve them well.

Fortunately we are not finished. The tomato vines still have plenty of new growth and the cucumbers are still coming. I am also planning another planting that should give me a harvest just before the winter, thanks to the mild fall in Arkansas.

Now, if I could just find a two acre plot for cheap somewhere I would be good to go.



I just thought I was finished rebuilding my bicycle. After using it for a few weeks I started going through tubes like crazy. It seemed that every other day I was replacing one. I tried everything I could think of to keep it from happening but it would not stop so I finally broke down and bought a new back wheel. Fortunately it was fairly cheap and completely fixed the problem.All was well for a few days then disaster struck. While riding through a busy intersection I stood up on the pedals to get some extra force, what happened next was strange; the spindle broke. Yes, you read that correctly the axle connecting the cranks snapped in half. I am guessing it was due to stress and the fact it had been sitting in the weather for the last decade.

After shamefully calling a friend to come get me I lugged the bike over to the local shop. Of course they did not have the parts to fix it — who does, it uses cottered cranks for pete’s sake. I talked to a few of the guys there and decided to replace the cranks while I was at it. The left crank was a little bent and the large chain ring was warped, plus new cranks and a spindle was only going to cost about $25. We ordered the parts and I left.

Yesterday they called me and told me the spindle came in but they could no longer get cottered cranks. Not knowing what to do I went to the shop to rummage through the used gear bins to see what I could find. Erik, the owner, found an enclosed bottom bracket spindle assembly that would fit and gave it to me because it had been sitting there for years. We also found a nice set of Sugino GT cranks that would work.

They were nice enough to lend me a stand and full run of all the tools so I could fix the bike. They either felt sorry for me or appreciate the fact that I spend a good deal of money in the shop — probably both, they are great guys. Replacing the bracket was no big deal, it did not take long at all. The trouble came when I went to adjust the front derailer. I pulled on the cable and noticed I had little to no resistance from the shifter. Upon further inspection I found the old friction for the chainwheel was completely broken. I also inspected the rear shifter and noticed it had a huge crack in the housing; it would only be a matter of time before it completely fell apart. Back to the used part bins.

In the bins I found a mismatched set of thumb shifters that would work. I fussed with them for about an hour before I got everything working again. One of the mechanics helped me make the final adjustments on the front derailer. While I was at it I also adjusted the brakes, they were not engaging as quickly as I wanted them to.

When I walked into the shop yesterday I no clue how to re-cable a bicycle, adjust the brakes, or adjust the derailers; when I left I could teach a class on it. It is good to have a local shop that will allow folks to come back and figure out how to fix things.

I took the bike out for a quick little 5 mile ride to test everything. It is better than ever, it all works smoothly. Short of getting smacked by a car it should be good for thousands of miles now.




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