Each summer in college I worked at a local grocery store. I was a "floater" and worked in different departments to fill in for the full time folks that were taking summer vacations. It might sound strange, but some of the most memorable stories of my life come from all of those summers. You might not know it, but a grocery store is fodder for all sorts of exploits.
For example, we had some electric fork lifts to help hoist products up and down from shelves. Similar to a motorcycle, the fork lift accelerator is built into the handle of the fork lift and to accelerate you would simply twist the handle with your hand.
The way the fork lifts were supposed to work was for the operator to stand on the ground and pull or push the forklift by twisting the handle back and forth as appropriate. However, you could also stand on the base of the forklift, reach out and grab the handle and drive the fork lift while standing on it.
Some of my coworkers and I would race the forklifts around the store at night when the customers would clear out (it had some wide isles). One of the fork lifts was equipped to reach very high into the air and had a stabilization bar that would go up and down from a height of anywhere from 6 to around 15 feet.
Where the story gets interesting is that the rear door from the storage area to the main floor was about 10 feet tall. One night I was racing a friend and I was on the forklift with the stabilizer bar - and it was set at about 11 feet. You can see where I am going with this.
I was going full speed ready to go through the door and when I reached the door the stabilization bar hit the dry wall above the door and fork lift stopped and I went flying forward and rolled several times on the tile floor. The stabilization bar embedded in the dry wall and it took us a bit of time to free it.
Another time we had a pallet of ice cream delivered but the entrance to the freezer was blocked so the delivery guy put chunks of dry ice all over the ice cream to keep it cold until we could clear the entry way. Not far away the bottle boy was sorting cans and bottles and I asked him if he had heard of a dry ice M-80. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS unless you do it safely - kind of an oxymoron when you consider what I am about to say. I told him that if you put a little water in a plastic bottle and add some dry ice, eventually it would explode. It was not an encouragement speech or anything, I just was shooting the breeze.
I went on my merry way to work the floor and about an hour later I heard a huge explosion that came from the back room. I ran back and the bottle boy was pale white and had red streaks all over his face. Turns out he decided to build his own M-80 in the back room, and after a few minutes when it did not go off he decided to hit it with his box knife - STUPID. There was a reason he was counting bottles I guess. He said he thought it would pop like a balloon.
He had used a 2 liter bottle and the thing exploded right in his face and the shards of plastic hit him with such force that it left streaks all over his face for days. He was also a little hard of hearing for about a week. There was a bit more thought put into this experiment, but again, this is not something I recommend.
Then there was the time a customer left a six pack of 7-Up Gold (this was a long time ago yo!) on top of the open freezer cabinets - you know those cabinets with no top that you reach into to get your frozen dinners? I was working the register and was not far from the freezer and all the sudden there was this loud "PSSSSSSSSST!" sound and a stream of liquid shot into the air.
The customer I was helping and I just stared at one another because we could not see the six pack. One of my coworkers went over and when he was about 5 feet away there was another loud "PSSSSSSST!" and he was doused with a spray of 7-Up Gold. Turns out the six pack was on top of some frozen orange juice concentrate and it froze to the point where the pressure was just too much and the cans exploded. Three of them went off and we ended up throwing a box over the top of the six pack, slipped another piece or cardboard underneath (kind of like catching a fly in a jar) and took it outside and left it under the box to defrost.
Another time I was working in the produce department and opening banana boxes. I reached in and pulled out a bag of bananas and when I went back to the box there was a huge freaking spider sitting in the box. I hate spiders and almost fell down trying to run away. It was a big freaking spider.
Fortunately one of the dudes I worked with was this outdoors man who wasn't really afraid of any living creature and he was all too happy to deal with the spider. I think it met its doom under his steel toed boot. A few bananas were also harmed in the process.
By now you are asking what it the big wide world all this has to do with bike hacks. Well, I also worked in the dairy section and stocked thousands of eggs and they all came in a special wire basket - the basket that you see attached to this bike that I spotted in Boulder, Colorado. Seeing the basket just happened to touch off a whole slew of memories =)
Kickstand mobile coffee is Aaron Davis, Peter Castelein, and Neal Olson...plus a coffee stand delivering hand crafted drip coffee straight out of Brooklyn. Their stand is completely collapsible, and when its broken down they pull it behind two old salvaged bikes. The operation is minimalist, but also very efficient and entertaining to watch each made to order cup of joe. The coffee is all ground by hand (to order) and the water is heated with a propane burner.
Kickstand is committed to providing the best possible cup of coffee to community events in NYC with the smallest environmental impact possible. We achieve this goal by using bikes not only for all of our transportation needs, but also for a portion of the power we use in brewing the coffee we serve. At Kickstand getting people outdoors and bringing them together over coffee is our primary goal.
We get some great hacks from readers, and this is a great example. Jack from TriangleBicycleCommuter.blogspot.com sent along the following. All text and pictures are credited to Jack. If you have question for Jack you can leave them in comments.
If you have hacks, send them along via the Submit Your Hack link at the top of the page.
I guess you could say that Jacks Hack is an attempt to keep from being a Handlebar Ent =)
I felt my
handlebar was getting a little crowded, so I decided to build a bracket
to hold two lights that would mount where a reflector currently mounted
to the bolt through the fork.
I built the light bracket from
parts at Home Depot for a total of about $3. I found all these in the
plumbing section.
PVC tee, threaded on the single side
PVC plug
galvanized
metal bracket
I trimmed the corners of the metal to round
them a little. Then I had a friend with a drill press drill a 1/2" hole
near one end. Then I bent the bracket and screwed the PVC plug into the
tee going through the bracket. A little sanding (very little) and I
started painting. First a coat of primer and then some black, both of
which I had on hand.
Bellingham, WA is a small town in north western Washington with a population of around 75,150. Its the gateway to Mt Baker and home to Western Washington University...this town also has a thriving bicycle culture. I travelled there recently to visit my cousin, but also to check out the scene for myself.
The market has a nice assortment of local produce, crafts, music, and jewelry. It's also home to one of Bikehacks favorite vendors, The Juice Peddler. People's peddle power provides propulsion for fender blenders, slicing up Bellingham's finest smoothies as a scrumptious reward for their sweat.
The Juice Peddler, prepare to pedal!
Kelli looks on as a customer blends up a sweet treat. Unfortunately #3 was temporarily out of commission...also, check out this video I found on Vimeo (ENW with Dep Slater) featuring the Juice Peddler
Went up to Mt Baker just as the clouds started rolling in...it was raining by the time we got back to town.
This is Round 2 of our Bike Hacks contest to give away a Flashbak. Revisit the original entry for details on the contest and you can find the Round 1 entries here. We have had more entries come in and I need to catch up so if you have sent something along thanks in advance for your patience. As a reminder the deadline to enter is June 1st.
Jason - Endwell, NY
Impatient
Wall passing close with snarl
Did the law of attraction bring him
It is always a truck
Eric from Anapolis, Maryland
That sign over there
Requests that you share the road
It is not a joke.
So... downtube shifters
Sure seemed like a good idea
To someone, I guess.
No sir! Not stolen
But I found it in the trash
Now, it lives again!
Please, Mister Spoke Wrench
Do not cause that loud banging
Nipples must need oil.
Festooned with baskets
Really needs a new seatpost
This, my house mate's bike.
Dress, pump, set of tools,
Two books on architecture,
Yard-sale panniers bulge.
Landlord's eyes bulging
Too many bikes, he says, and
Most don't even work.
I AM VEHICLE!
Seriously, motor-men,
I can be here too.
Writing bike haikus
Is easier than climbing
That one real steep slope.
Dan - Hartville, OH
PapaSon
A cycling papa
With his cycling son in tow...
Lifelong memories!
Escape
Riding on the trail,
A few minutes from my desk,
Yet light-years away.
Wheel Zen
No Stress - Lacing wheels.
One cross, two cross, three cross, four...
True enlightenment.
Get Bent
Have a seat, lean back,
Put up your feet and relax.
Pedal, SMILE, you're Bent!
A reader recently contacted us and asked how it came to be that Globe Bicycle gave me a bike. As anyone who has read this blog for a short period of time could imagine, giving me a bike is a dangerous proposition. Dangerous in terms of the bike taking a form most would likely describe as hideous.
I actually have over 20 posts on how I applied to get a bike, the bike I chose, and what I did to the bike once I got it. Those entries are still locked up in our Word Press archives from before the time our Word Press got hacked and we moved over to TypePad. Until I figure out a way to get all of our old content up, I thought I would post the first three Globe Entries in the form of one Bike Hacks Classic entry.
So, you will find three posts below, and please realize they are all dated from September and November of 2009 as you read them. Thank you again to Globe for their generosity and a special shout out to Jessica (in the video below) who helped oversee the project.
ENTRY #1: The Project Begins
All sorts of new bike products and campaigns seem to be coming out of the woodwork which to me is great news. One recent campaign that caught my attention is The Globe Experience Project.
The Globe brand is actually a division of Specialized. Their goal seems to be to separate simple exercise enthusiasts from those who see cycling as a lifestyle.
Globe is a brand of bicycles that have the unique ability to become an extension of people's lifestyles and personal tastes rather than simply a piece of sporting equipment. The products are inspired by and designed for urban cyclists, commuters, city dwellers, the progressively minded and the eco-conscious.
The Globe Experience Project seeks to provide free bikes to bloggers, who will then blog about their experience with the bike. It's a pretty genius campaign in that the cost of a few bikes is far less than buying advertising for sure.
Instructions are to come up with a blog post and then post a link to your post on the wall of the Globe Facebook fan page.
I just happen to ride every day and to be a blogger, so I guess I qualify to apply. Here's my post . . .
________________
Dear Globe Bike Folks,
If you decide to provide me with one your bikes I can assure you that it will loved - and in my case love is a verb. Some people "love" their bikes by riding them only on the weekend, leaving them at home and taking mass transit when it rains, storing them away for the winter, and stressing out over any little nick in the paint.
I don't own a car and ride almost every single day and in my case, the first thing I will probably do if awarded a Globe bike is scratch it - on purpose. I'm a fan of getting over the paranoia right away. In my view, a bike is not a prize to pampered and stored away when it's not sunny outside, it is an extension of oneself.
I am active and my bike is active as well. I have scars, why shouldn't my bike have some healthy ones? A nice healthy scratch breaks in the bike right away and helps you focus on riding it rather than obsessing over it.
I'm also likely to "hack up" the bike to fit my own needs. For example, this is my current ride:
I am likely to immediately tie a sock to my Globe bike, perhaps attach discarded things I find in the street, cover it with miscellaneous stickers, throw a Monkey Light on it, and stick something in the spokes. In other words, just like your Web site states, I am going to make the bike an extension of my personal tastes.
It's going to be ridden daily, thus meaning it is going to get dirty, it will be exposed to all four seasons, and it is going to endure the mean streets of NYC.
What you will get back is someone whose hobby is to blog about bikes and as a bonus, I get millions of personal "hits" as I ride daily in NYC each year. Reward me with a bike and I assure you it will be prized, stylized, utilized, pictorialized, personalized, and publicized . . . perhaps you could sum it all up by saying it will be Specialized =)
_____________________
To all you readers out there, get mobilized! Here's a video from the folks at Globe bikes to get you up to speed.
ENTRY #2: NYC is in the House
Back in August some of you might recall that I wrote a post on the Globe Experience Project. The premise of the project is to provide bicycles to bloggers to help promote the brand (a division of Specialized). Globe requested that bloggers submit entries about why they might be a good recipient of a bicycle.
Well, even after I stated in my proposal that the first thing I would do to a bike given to me would be to scratch it, I ended up getting selected. I am excited because the last time I actually owned a brand new bike was 1986. At the same time, owning a brand new bike in NYC has already got me worried and I am going to have to revisit the bike hacks entries on how to ugly your bike so I can give my bike some urban camouflage.
Globe gave me free reign to pick the bike I wanted with no restrictions which is totally dope. The bike should arrive by early November. Globe's generosity has inspired me and I feel like giving something away too.
I have a few bike nick nacks that companies have sent along to me over time and I am prepared to give something away to the person with the most creative comment guessing either what bike I selected or did not select along with some support for why. Bonus points for wit.
Feel free to be funny, sarcastic, logical, whatever. Approach it anyway you like.
A list of models by picture is below and all of the models are detailed on this page of Globe's Web site. Each model has several variations so feel free to check all of them out, but I don't expect you to look through all of them unless you are so inspired. Just guess the basic model with some flavor on why the bike would either be a good or bad choice for me based on what you know about me from my writings on this blog.
Have at it! Put your answers/comments/sarcasm in comments on this post.
ENTRY #3: The Chosen Whip
I was quite impressed with all those who chimed in regarding my bike of choice for the Globe Experience Project. Logic, humor, sarcasm, culture references, and personality analysis all made appearances. Most of those that commented seemed to believe I am a pack rat of some kind and leaned heavily toward bikes with built in racks or the potential to carry heavy loads.
One reader stated that a rack would allow me to “attach garbage with zip-ties.”
It is true that I have a propensity for “customizing” my bike, and I am 100% guilty of attaching garbage to my bike in the form of discarded car air fresheners I find in the street.
I do like having a rear rack to fight sweaty back syndrome from riding with a bag or backpack, however living in a fourth floor walk up apartment is also a consideration since I haul my whip down and up the stairs each day.
Astute readers also referenced the importance of where I live and the fact that I deal with urban traffic and roads pockmarked with potholes, grates, steel plates, cracks, manhole covers, and all other manner of bicycle landmines.
Two commenter’s hit the proverbial nail on the head and listed the bike I chose along with providing some of the same reasoning I used in making my final selection. So here is a countdown to the bike I chose, along with references to why I did not choose the other bikes, with comments from readers mixed in.
Let’s start with the fact that I ride with a helmet mirror and have no visible tattoos. This immediately disqualifies me for the Roll. I certainly would be assaulted by a pack of tattoo festooned, fedora wearing, tight jeaned hipsters if they saw me on a fixie rocking a bike helmet with a mirror attached.
One commenter hinted that I was not cool enough to rock the Roll, and I could not agree more – I am no where near hipster cool.
I must admit though, my first impulse was to choose the Roll because I have never owned a fixed gear bike and I liked the thought of its simplicity.
Plus I have two bikes already, a Cannondale Road Bike and a utilitarian 1985 Peugeot Orient Express (basically a hybrid with a steel frame) so a bike of a different ilk would be nice. But I do have a wife and I think she wants me around for the long haul so riding around NYC without any brakes is probably not the best idea. Also, we already have three bikes in our 500 square foot apartment so I might just have to get rid of my Peugeot and replace it with the Globe bike. So I nixed the Roll because it's not too utilitarian.
On to the Carmel . . . best described by one commenter as a bike that would be suited for his/her grandma. The Carmel is just not my speed – literally. The Carmel strikes me as a bike meant for those never in a hurry to get where they are going. I like to pump the big meat and go fast most of the time and I cannot see myself racing other commuters on a Carmel – the suspension would take away all my torque =)
The Haul certainly had appeal, mainly due to the extended coverage fenders and unique integrated rear rack. I really wanted to choose a bike with disc brakes since I have never had them before and the Haul 2 was tempting, but I was not a huge fan of the internal hub on that model. The integrated lights were also tempting, but in the end I could not see myself hauling the Haul up and down my stairs each day. If I lived on the first floor or in an elevator building, the Haul may very well have been the choice.
The Live held a certain appeal, but the speed/style issue came up for me again. I wanted to choose a bike that could be flexible to my needs. Sometimes I commute, sometimes I haul a trailer and go camping, and sometimes I want to hit some dirt/gravel paths. As Montana Mike alluded to, the Live looks like a bike “more fitting for an English countryside than the streets of NYC.”
That left me with the Vienna and Montana Mike must be a mind reader because he basically summed up what I was thinking when I chose the bike when he described the Vienna as “A veritable clean palette for customization.” It has braze-ons all over it for rack and fender options and although I was not super stoked on the sloped top tube, the lines on the bike were appealing to me. It looked sleeker than most of the other utilitarian models to me.
There are actually eight different Vienna models and I went with the Vienna 3 Disc seen here:
I wanted traditional gearing and disc brakes and this model has both. The color does not really matter to me because eventually the entire frame is going to be covered in stickers and inner tubes. I certainly don’t need the triple chainring for my daily commute, but if I do haul a trailer to go camping those granny gears might come in handy.
As the Globe site states, the Vienna is "about versatility and efficiency" - yep, that's me.
Montana Mike and Elmonica both guessed correctly, but Elmonica one upped Montana Mike by digging deep and picking not only the model, but the specific sub-model. However Montana Mike one upped Elmonica by using deduction to evaluate each bike in the Globe line up. Therefore I call it a tie and will award some sort of prize to both. So Montana Mike and Elmonica, go to the Submit Your Bike Hack page and send along your name and mailing address.
Lots more entries to come when the bike arrives!
A few weeks ago I wrote a post detailing some of the challenges faced by commuters in NYC. The entry entitled "NYC Street Quiz" dealt predominantly with the various ways urban city life can threaten one's ability to stay upright on a bike.
Well sometimes a squirrel finds a nut and while riding on the West Side bike path recently I saw this "filthy" path. Nature sure can be filthy . . . but nature's filth beats man's anytime.
The first few submissions for our Haiku contest to give away a Flashbak have come in, and people are already hacking, which is just fine! What do I mean? Well in my original entry I said the format should be groups of words in a 5-7-5 pattern in an attempt to make it easier. Traditional Haiku is based on syllable count which can be a little trickier.
However, some out there were schooled in Haiku I guess and have submitted "traditional" syllable based Haiku - which is fine by me. Revisit the original entry for details on the contest. Here are some of the first submissions to come through. More to come!
Andy - Ithaca, NY
Night drivers get too close
Little blinkies are too easy to ignore
Big flashing rectangle way better
Yes, I own a car
No, I don't need a ride home
My bike is more fun!
Some say bikes are annoying
They are missing out on the fun
Grab a bike and ride
How to attach this thing?
Surfing Bike Hacks to find a solution
Duct tape and zip ties!
Nothing is more fun today
Than passing all of the stopped cars
Ride a bike, it's faster
Nate - Renton, WA
Oh my Cannondale.
Purple aluminum frame.
I feel every bump.
Hey, Roubaix, Roubaix.
Carbon fiber frame with Zertz.
My butt doesn’t hurtz.
Old Gary Fisher.
Dirty, skanky, commuter.
You have a nice rack.
Kevin - Los Angeles, CA
Stoner Park Training
My Trek Modified Hack Routine
Satori Ryu Iaido at Stoner Park Recreation
Enlightenment through bike and sword
My Wife or My Bike
Wife bought me a bike
We thought it would be a thrill
Her knee blew out, bye
April 28, 2010...Utrecht, 4th largest city in the Netherlands where 33% of all trips here are made by bicycle. No less than 18,000 bicycles pass here daily...the video is 8mins that have been compressed down into 2mins, enjoy!
