Palm Beach Bike Tours – Page 22 – Two Wheels, one GPS and a Camera

November 9, 2009

Freakbike Militia’s Halloween Choppernite XXV Draws 202 Riders

Freakbike Militia’s Halloween Choppernite Video

Depending on who was counting, at least 202 riders participated in the West Palm Beach Freakbike Militia’s Halloween Choppernite XXV Oct. 28.

I was on vacation in Missouri and couldn’t make the ride, but Wife Lila, Son Adam and friends Jan Norris and Jimmy Barron filled in for me, taking notes, shooting stills and video. My thanks to them. Now that I know how talented they are, I may disappear more often.

Jan’s Favorites

The Princess’ pumpkin coach was a great winner. It was constructed by Troy Zimmerman, who “drove” it – and who was dressed as a ghoulish footman. The Princess was his daughter, Emily Zimmerman, 8.

Troy said: “It took about three weeks to make it. It’s made out of PVC pipe, heated and bent, and welded iron curlicues.” Paper mache was the covering; the coach wheels all are from bicycles, spray-painted black.

The main bike was a Penny Farthing bike that had been sitting around the Village Bike Shop and they didn’t know what to do with. It made an excellent “tractor” for the coach. Lights on the coach were electrified by a generator on the back.

Brett Strnad’s Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper pulling the casket was a winner with everyone — except for the Southern Blvd. Bridge bridgetender.

Brett Strnad trailered a casket he made of wood and steel, and used 12-volt inverters to power the twin eco-friendly purple lights that lit up the casket. The lid was propped open as he rode with a steel rod.

The coolest part was the SCUBA tank attached under it all to power a boat horn that had the Southern Blvd. bridgetender honking in reply to Strnad’s honks, which were earthmoving-loud.

Laurie Wolfe dressed like a dead tree

A dead tree with a witch plastered to her back.

Her biggest concern was how she was going to pedal her bike with feet that looked like tree roots.

Her husband, Jerry, came as Wolfman. (Or, would that be Wolfeman?)

Alan Steele was a pirate

Alan Steele created a pirate ship out of “cheap and easy” cardboard in the front and wood behind. “Wood would have been too heavy overall.”

When you click on his shot in the gallery, note his Barbie Doll masthead.

Lynn Daniels had a lighted star helmet

Lynn Daniels had a tall, lighted star on her helmet. You could see her for a long way off. She demonstrated her good taste by riding a Surly Long Haul Trucker. Stan Kilbas, of Wheels of Wellington and the FBM’s long-time event photographer is giving her a peek at her picture in one of the shots.

Stan’s an all-round nice guy who sold Wife Lila and me our Trek Navigator 300s that started me riding again back in 2001. He has a great memory. He walked up to Lila and said, “I sold you a bike,” even though she hasn’t seen him in at least five or six years.

Michael Getzie had the brightest ride

There must be a world-wide shortage of LEDs because Michael Getzie bought them all up to festoon on his rolling lightmobile.

Everyone I talked with wondered how in the world he was able to ride with the huge pumpkin on his head.

Visit the Gallery for more

Click on any image to make it larger. To move through the gallery, click on the left or right side of the picture.

If you want to see even MORE pictures, swing over to the Freakbike Militia site and see some of Stan Kilbas’s work.

If you want to see a ride in person, the FBM is already planning its next Choppernite for December 16. Watch this space for more info.

If we messed up your name, leave a comment and we’ll clean it up. If you’re wondering what the jb_, as_ and lps_ mean, those are the initials of the photographers: Jimmy Barron, Adam Steinhoff and Lila Steinhoff.

November 7, 2009November 8, 2009

Bike Racing Season is Over

Malcolm and Darrell enjoy a late season road race. First one to the mailbox wins.

—Matt

November 5, 2009

I’m Going to Leaf It Alone After This

This will be the last tree and leaf posting for a long time. I know you non-Floridians are wondering why we’re so obsessed with leaves when you are already tired of raking, blowing, burning and disposing of them.

It’s because we don’t have all these spectacular colors down here. Most things stay disgustingly green year-round.

Wife Lila was so disturbed by the lack of colorful leaves in Florida that my Mother had to send her a care package of them our first Fall in the state. Every year when I’d go back home, I’d have to bring back leaves for my friends at the office.

(As always, click on the image to make it larger.)

Free leaves

So, here’s the deal: I scored a small trash bag of leaves on my way out of town last weekend. There were some really spectacular ones earlier in the week, but several days of rain managed to knock them down.

Most of them are yellow Maple leaves

I’m willing to dole them out to anyone who leaves (no pun intended) me a comment telling my why they need a leaf fix. You have to be local enough that we can arrange a physical transfer. (I suppose I COULD fax them to you, but I think they’d lose something along the way.)

Most of the stash is made up of yellow Maple leaves because they were low enough in my Mother’s yard to snip off without too much trouble.

Lady Bugs are confused

There must have been a bunch of Lady Bugs on the leaves because every time I turned around, there was another one crawling on me or my car window.

I bet there’s a dozen Lady Bugs flying around in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida wondering, “Wow, how in the world did I get here?”

Trees are already turning brown

I stopped in Thebes, Ill., at a scenic overlook to check out the rising Mississippi River.

You can see that the trees over on the Missouri side are already starting to turn to dark orange and brown.

When I rode the Cape LaCroix Recreational Trail on Saturday, it was so covered with leaves that you could hardly tell where the trail was in spots.

Give me a holler if you want your share of leaves. My Mother was happy to send them down to Florida so she wouldn’t have to rake them.

October 31, 2009

Mississippi River on the Rise

What a difference a few days – and a few inches of rain – make. A couple of days ago I was shooting pictures of a coed watching the river go by. This afternoon I rode by and the huge floodgates that protect Cape Girardeau from the Mississippi River were closed. (Click to enlarge the pictures.)

Massive rains throughout the Mississippi Valley have caused the Mississippi River to rise 2.6 feet in the past 24 hours and almost 18 feet since Sunday.

The river is predicted to crest at 42.5 feet Wednesday. The record high reading on the river is 48.53 feet reached on Aug. 8, 1993, as shown by the High Water Marks on the floodwall.

Dutchtown floods at 39 feet

We have property in Dutchtown that goes under water when the Cape gauge is at 39 feet. Here’s Bro Mark canoeing in one of our buildings during the 1993 flood.

Mississippi River is unpredictable

One year it’s a major flood or, like in 1918, the whole river can get clogged with ice. My Surly Long Haul Trucker shivers just to think of it.

On a coolish weather note, I was very pleased with the new tights I bought from Performance Bikes just before we left town. I thought they’d be too big and not warm enough. I was wrong on both counts.

Big rains make big rivers

I mentioned last year that I interviewed the old man who had been reading the river gauges since the days of Adam and Eve.

What had he learned in all those years?

“Big rains make big river.”

Looks like nothing has changed.

Mississippi River floods Cape before the seawall

My dad had these pictures of the 1943 Flood creeping onto Main Street in downtown Cape in a scrapbook. I can recall storeowners putting down plank walkways so customers c0uld walk over the flood waters to shop on the second floor of the stores.

October 30, 2009October 31, 2009

I Knew Amy Murphy When…

I was walking along the Mississippi river watching the water roll by when my eye was drawn to a shiny bike with blue fluorescent rims. Next to the bike was Amy Murphy, a sophomore theater major at Southeast Missouri University.

Amy was busy having an animated conversation when I started stalking her, shooting pictures at increasingly closer distances and from different angles.

Finally, just about the time she noticed me and looked like she might consider jumping on her bike and escaping this wierdo wearing a bright lime-green cycling windbreaker under a Domke shooting vest, I flipped her a PalmBeachBiketours business card.

I waved off her offer to cut her call short and wandered around shooting some other pictures.

Looked like pepper spray city

Then, a guy walked up, grabbed her bike and started dangling it over the water. She was agitated, but not enough to break off her phone call.

Just before I started to intervene (with my hand on the pepper spray in my pocket), the guy gently dipped the bike’s tires into the Mississippi river. Turned out later that he had helped her build the bike and wanted to baptize the bike in the muddy waters.

A closer look at the Tahiti

After she wrapped up her call, we had time to chat about her bike.

She said it was a Tahiti, bought on ebay. It’s a three-speed with a rear coaster brake, nice fenders, a chainguard and a huge sprung saddle. Its upright position and step-through frame makes it look like a nice short-distance beginner’s commuter bike.

It has a nice-looking reflector mounted on the rear fender, but no taillight. I encouraged her to get a light for the back to go along with her headlight.

“I love this bike”

“It’s so hilly around here that I have to push it a lot,” she confessed.

She’s managed to make it up Broadway hill, although some trips she still has to push it. Cardiac Hill, is her ultimate goal.

It’s great to be a sophomore

After we had exhausted our bike talk, I asked her tell me a little about herself. I’m hedging my bets by attaching this video of her talking about her goals and dreams. Some day it might be worth a bunch of money and I’ll get to say, “I knew Amy Murphy way back when….” (Sorry for the noisy barge working its way upstream in the background.)

“I might be a playwright. I might be an actress,” Amy said. She worked as a waitress at Yellowstone National Park and managed to squirrel away three or four thousand bucks (I hope the IRS isn’t listening).

First sibling to go to college

After she graduates – failure isn’t an option because she’s the first of her siblings to go to college – she’ll waitress long enough to build up a nest egg to tackle Chicago, New York, Los Angeles or Portland.

“I can write. I can be a comedic actress. I will succeed. I’ll do that as long as it takes to get me a bunch of money, then I’ll just quit. I don’t want to do anything. I’m not lazy. I just want to see the world. I want to do everything there is to do in the world.”

In the short term, though, she’s focusing on getting up Cardiac Hill without pushing her bike.