The Miyata has always struggled to fit in with the rest of my bikes. It was larger, more upright and less aggressive so I planned for it to be a bike I could take with me on longer gravel rides. The older components are neither fast nor light, but they are pretty much bomb proof meaning it would be a great bike to ride around Pittsburgh when I visit (and not have anxiety attacks about locking it up outside) and go on long gravel rides without worry. But it never felt right, it didn't feel comfortable and easy to grow into.

 Recently I decided to try something new and picked up mustache bars at a bike flea market. I had some (frustrating) fun with the bar wrap, doing a harlequin pattern.

The bars allow for some different hand positions to drop bars, all a little less aggressive and quite novel. It completely changed the feel of the bike. Much more fun.   

A quick update on some of the bike projects ive been working on I've been collecting some vintage italian parts for a while now, and very recently I found a decently priced italian frame. These are pretty much all the parts I need for the build. I'm very excited about this build, I plan to put it together myself. Which sounds easy enough but the parts are not necessarily from the era and some finagaling is required to make all the components to jive together. I'm also excited to have this Amish/Mennonite bike shop near where I work build me the wheels. THe shop is totally out of the way and tucked away between farmlands and is probably the coolest bike shop I've been to. Modern bike shops have exclusivity agreements with certain manufacturers meaning if you go to a bike shop the chances are you dont get a lot of options to choose from. This shop is truly independent and has a great selection.

door

Old town, Warsaw.

Spring

Light leaks galore, Warsaw.

Niece in some pretty great light.

New Camera. New DIGITAL camera. Here's a picture of my bike, naturally the first thing to post a picture of.

I kept walking past this pizza joint called "Pizza Killer", I really wished I stopped and took a picture. Cant think in the cold sometimes. 

My hotel was by the Vistula which runs through warsaw as well. 

I was really upset because the first roll of film from my trip ripped itself off the canister when I advanced the last picture on the roll. I think the issue may have partly been my fault, but its easier to fault the CVS brand film. So I dont have as many pictures of Plock.

The spots on the pictures, however, are all CVS.

I dont know what to say about Plock, it's Europe like I've never seen before but certain parts of it had a really quintessential (to what I identify as) feel of Europe.
There is also a certain air, or feeling of left over soviet-ness (again, subjective feels). The architecture, massive blocky apartment buildings, and I'm sure this has a lot to do with the winter gloom as well. There is a general feeling of Poland trying to escape from under the shadow of an austere socialist past towards something more western european.

My capacity to handle foreign situations has seriously suffered by being geographically stagnant in the last few years (something I've sacrificed for stability), and towards the end of the trip I was really starting to get into the vibe of things, and then it was time to go home again. I miss Poland sometimes and wish I did more while I was out here.

While in Poland I was working in a Plock. A kind of industrial city with days of questionable air quality and small historical downtown. A couple of phone snaps from a walk around in the evening.

Harlem, Christmas 2012.

I just got back from a two week work trip to Poland (right?!). 

Film developed, scanned and CVS cursed for not cleaning the film correctly after developing, leaving splotch marks all over the effing negative.

I love the pictures she doesn't.

Brooklyn botanical gardens

In a completely unintended move, Creeping Lilyturf from multiple locales made its way to a lot of my pictures in the last month.

Brooklyn botanical garden.

Even more Guggenheim, look more closely

Had a lovely afternoon wondering around with the camera. Havent done that in a really long time.

Phone snaps from Kansas city, Missouri.