Co-Op Bikelife

After a great week in Clearwater with friends, I head north along the west coast of Florida through beautiful horse country.

Florida is strange. The further north you go, the more it feels like

The South.

Angie B's Soul Kitchen

Im a sucker for some pulled pork.

There is a beautiful wildlife preserve called Jay B Starkey Wilderness park.

Soon the horse country turns into nothing but straight, flat highway for miles and miles.

When I get to Tallahassee, I have a couple of goals. One is to visit Krank it Up, the local community bike project. The other is to stay at

The Bicycle House

The Bike House share things in common with other non-profit bike organisations. You can build a bike from donated parts. There are stands and tools available to the community to use, so you can fix your bike yourself instead of spending money at a bike shop. You can volunteer your time helping other people there.

But there are two ideas here that make it distinct from all the other places I've visited visited.

1. Here they will not only help you fix your bike yourself, but actually do it for you. There are a lot of homeless people in Florida who will not be able to use the tools, period. Many of them have learning disabilities. But at Bicycle House the mentality is that their bike should still work. They will just fix it for you. New parts and labor and everything. Donations work on a sliding scale, pay what you can. I think that's pretty cool.

2. Bicycle House also operates as a hostel for traveling cyclists. I.E, myself. Tallahassee sits on a very popular cross country bike route (ACA Southern Tier) and they hosts hundreds of cyclists each year. I have yet to visit another place that does this. I stayed almost a week.

When I arrived, there they were renovating. They had purchased the adjacent units of the building. Its a large expansion.

This is Scott. He is the founder of Bicycle House Tallahassee and he used to be a pro racer. HE is also an excellent guy. He invited me to ride skinny tire bikes in the lycra-clad fashion.

I also went to
Krank It Up

I feel right at home here. This community bike project has been around for almost 13 years. There is a core group of collective members who do most of the decision making.

Everyone is welcome to come down use the tools to work on their bikes, or cool vintage Mavic wheelsets.

One of the volunteers is a frame builder.

Here is his polo bike with a handmade steel frame.

There is a pretty cool bike polo scene here.

They're good too, they've a few trophies.

I got to hang and watch them play.

Tallahasse definitely has a cool bike culture. I spent the better part of a week here. Some of it was business and some of it was goofin around.

But right as it was time to leave I met this guy.

More on him next time.

(That's me in the pajamas)

Big thanks to my good friend Shane and his family for having me over for Christmas. They moved to Buford Georgia about a year ago, it was good to see familiar faces and feel at home for the holidays. But it's time for Davie to roll.

I made my goal of getting to Shane by Christmas. I didn't get to visit the Atlanta bike co-op

Sopo Bikes
(you can click on that)

as they were on a holiday break. That's ok. I've got to get to Clearwater Florida to stay with my friends Krista and Keenan for New Years.

Buford to Clearwater is 550 miles.

I have six days.

It's a good thing I ate a big breakfast.
I haven't done a century yet this tour (100 mile ride)

but I'm gonna have to pull some back-to-back century magic to make it.

Here goes nothin'.

Thank goodness southern GA is flat. It's also empty.

Working on a nice bike tan.

After two 90+mile days, I super deserve this milkshake.

I also enjoy the irony of biking to a drive-in fast food place.

I camp a couple times. Very few Warmshowers hosts.

I'm not particularly happy about this. I can't complain about how my Brooks Cambium treats me while riding, it's great. Comfortable. Very flexy. But two "rivets" have now come loose and fallen off. I caught one, the other is somewhere in Virgina. I plan on spending some time taking a break in Clearwater, Ill contact their warranty department to see what they can do for me.

I'm making good time through Georgia though.

Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks.

I sleep on a nest of blankets in a Warmshowers hosts landlords garage, out of the pouring, thundering rain.

Maybe third weirdest place I've slept.

Those aren't marijuana plants.

Pretty sure.

One by one, I smash my metaphorical warhammer into the ruby-studded breastplate of those hundred mile rides.

Ours Is The Fury.

97 miles

92 miles.

103 miles.

100 miles.

111miles.

50 miles.

I did it.

Friends.

For a whole week!

We do the things.

We also do nothing. Thank god.

We compare bike tans.

Keenan definitely has the tighter butt though. No contest.

I've a whole list of things to do with my downtime.

I most of the actual important stuff never happened.

I definitely ate that pizza though.

First haircut in three years. I needed some personal maintenance.
And so did my bike for sure.

I was lucky enough to meet this guy who worked at
The Path Bicycle And Ride Shop
(its a link)

He was kind enough to stop licking The Wheeler and let me put her up in the stand to
change out my chain and very worn cassette
swap out my front brake pads
rotate my (bombproof) Continental Touring Plus tires
as well as true my wheels, lube cables and whatnot.

The Path easily has some of the coolest brand names and bikes out of all the bike shops Ive been to.

Mike can also ride a bike in addition to licking them.

Passably well.

On my very last day, after shirking my duties to go play in the sun

I visit The St Pete Bike Co-op

(its a link)

I totally didn't take that picture. No shame.

They have lizards.

The've been around for about a year and a half, and are working on getting their 501c3 status as a non-profit with the IRS. When I got there, the place was humming with activity. They have a lot of irons in the fire, ideas! Plans! It's working.
It was good to see so much enthusiasm and dedication from their volunteers.
I wish I could stay and help, even if its just to sort tires or something.