New Project No. 27 - Building a Fixed Gear Bike

I'm a firm believer that you can never have too many projects on the go at once. So to the list I've now added "building a fixed-gear bike". If you don't know what this is, it's a bike with one gear that doesn't let you coast; so you have to pedal the whole time you're riding it, yes even down hills, around corners, and when coming up to a red light.

If you want to know more about fixies, read the late Sheldon Brown's web site, or search YouTube for "fixie" (the slang name for such machines).

My obstacles are:

• I've never ridden a fixie (or a track bike, which is much the same thing), so I don't know exactly what components will suit me best (e.g. what size gearing to choose for the only gear, which is a pretty important call).
  
• I'm part Scottish, so I dinnae wanna spend a lot of money, laddie.
• Although I've assembled my own road bike, it was with more modern components, and I'm by no means a bike mechanic when it comes to skills or even tools.

My strategy is to cannibalise two of my existing bikes that I don't ride any more (one is worn out, one is too small) for as many useful parts as possible, and buy the rest as cheaply as possible. I want the bike to look decent, but it doesn't need to have top name bits or be particularly light.

More details and pictures to come in part II; it's getting late.

What's the point of it all?

No, not our limited and improbable life on a rock hurtling through the eternal vastness of space, I'm talking about this blog in particular.

Well so far it has no more point than a bowling ball, but I'll probably use it for things that don't fall neatly into one of my other online presences, which are:

• Facebook (for general socialising)
  
• LinkedIn (for professional networking)
• BoardGameGeek (for guess what)
• The CyclingNews forum
• StackOverflow
  

Choosing a blog name & URL

Man it's hard to pick a name for a blog! It needed to be:

• about me in some way
• a bit creative (so "Andrew's Blog" was off the list)
• not too much about one aspect of my life (which rules out "Java Guy" and "Crap Cyclist")
  

I plumped for the one you see above, because although it's drawn from the world of programming, it's nevertheless a useful principle in many aspects of life. If you can keep separate things that are truly separate, you're halfway there. I've always admired clear thinkers who can cleave to the heart of an issue, discarding the red herrings that obscure the true path. (I also love mixed metaphors).

The other challenge was finding a blogspot URL that's not already taken. I went for "springpowered" because:

• it wasn't already taken (amazingly, considering some of the ones that WERE taken)
  
• it's easy to tell someone by voice (e.g. over the phone), unlike say www.dotcom.com,
• I imagine it sounds quirky to non-technical people, and
  
• it reflects my geekly love for the Spring framework.
  

Getting the ball rolling...

Finally I've joined the blogosphere, not long after joining Facebook. Where will it all end?