jlopatin.com

I finally got around to posting a whole summer’s worth of pictures:

7-3-07 Criterium in Matteson, IL

7/28/07 Amelia’s trip to Atlanta

8-4-07 Trip to South Bend

9-1-07 Architecture Tour with Jermaine and KrisTEN

9-4-07 Random summer pictures

As an added bonus, Here is a picture of the sun rising over the lake i took with a camera phone before riding 70 miles, last sunday:

I have been working on this project for a while now, and I am very excited with how it turned out. I transformed my grandfather’s old Colnago to a cool fixed gear bike. Actually, it is also a singlespeed bike. It has a single fixed gear on one side of the rear wheel, and a single gear freewheel on the other side. I can flip the wheel to choose between freewheel or singlespeed riding. So far, I’ve only used the freewheel side… Fixed gear riding will take time to learn.

Today, we participated in this fundraising event. We had three people walking, and two people biking. Together, we raised well over $4000 for the American Cancer Society.

Click HERE to see details on our bike ride. It was very cold and windy. There were high winds coming across the lake from the north, which made for a very uncomfortable ride.

Well, spring has arrived, and with it, bike season. I have some big rides scheduled this year, and I needed a new bike to handle it all. I have been riding my grandfather’s Colnago Super for a number of years. This was a great bike, but it was always a bit small for me. In addition, it’s quite old. and heavy.

Choosing a new bike was a difficult decision. I loved the style and geometry of the old Colnago, but I can’t afford to have a new bike custom built. The good news is that Colnago has updated their business model, and now has a more affordable line of bikes. I found a great bike that fits me well with the classic geometry and signature Colnago style. I was even able to get it in the same color as Grandpa’s old bike. Here it is:

I rode it home from the store. It has such a different feel. The old bike had downtube friction shifters, and the new one has indexed shifting on the brake levers. It takes quite a bit of getting used to. My average speed on the way home was 4mph faster than on the mountain bike. It certainly feels fast. It came with a racing saddle that might be a bit too firm for the riding I’m planning on, but I’ll give it a chance before I make up my mind. I can’t wait for the weather to improve here, so I can start piling on the miles!

We live just a few minutes away from the best mountain biking in the midwest! Today, Peter and I rode in the Palos Forest Preserve. The trails were pretty tough. I fell three times, and I bled. This means I became a real mountain biker! But seriously… We had a great time. I learned a ton, and found out that I’m not a great biker. yet. I am battered and bruised, and I want to go out there again next week.