. . . and the crank arm, things have really fallen into place. The flat is being fixed by Stan’s No Tube System. This is going to save us hundreds of dollars now, and even more down the road. Check out the website (http://www.notubes.com/tubeless_about.php) to see all the cool things they’re doing. And the crank arm is being supplied by Profiles. (http://www.profileracing.com/). It turns out that I’m a beast on the pedals, and just bent the living hell out of that arm. These arms are guaranteed for life, and they are on the high-end side of the bicycle-racing scene. So THANK YOU, STAN’S AND PROFILE. You show that people are interested in what we are doing, and your kindness and support pushes us.
LaRo (this is Pierre’s new nickname, and I hope you all call him that from here on out!) got back to NYC from New Hampshire on April 2nd. I picked him up in Chinatown where he was sitting on his lawn chair along Canal St. having a smoke. It’s good to have my friend here talking face-to-face and working on the Rickshaws. The first couple of days we spent catching up with friends in The Heights, and then we did a full day of work down at Racer’s Edge on Sunday. We had planned to film all the work on the second Rick in a couple of days, but as it played out, the parts we needed didn’t come in and the weather has not been kind to us at all. But we did get as much done as possible, and finally on Wednesday the new cranks from Profile came in, so we headed down there to put them on the first Rick so we could take it for a spin. I’m going to push the keyboard over to LaRo so he can put down his first experience on this fine machine. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Pierre LaRochelle.
Yo, yo, yo! How is everyone breathing? I go by LaRo. I also go by Gnarley Rudyard as of right now. I’m about to enter the woods, y’all! On the Appalachian Trail everyone that is a “Thru Hiker” takes that unusual opportunity to name themselves. If you don’t have friends giving you a handle then you need to give yourself one, don’t you think? Anyways, I’m passing through New York and getting the grind on. Zippety-Zap, I have been cleaning up the spots of rust that had grown on the Rickshaw that was in the “Rickshaw Graveyard” from where Sean picked up a pair of these badass three-wheel notions. Apparently the wife of “Artie Rickshaw” was tired of looking at the Rickshaws catching a bad case of the rusts. Just like so many other folks, this guy had no idea what he could do with the dead notions in his yard. The frame was taken apart and it was handed to “The Man” Gerald at the Racer’s Edge to get the tack welding on the way. It was nothing but a good time as we took the chance to ride Sean’s Rickshaw with the Canon XL1s blinking the red record light, telling us that this would find the utmost appreciation when we were aged gray and telling the grandkids that we use to live in a time when there was only a DVD player. Who knows what the kids will be playing with when we’re in the later years, right? It was just as expected; nothing but a good time. People were being themselves and calling out to us as we passed on by. At one point a man walking into a bodega stopped to call out to us, “It’s nice to see people doing what they want.” It was too strange as he first said it because we were both in the New York mindset that this man was being a douche, but after he kept on with the insistent point of just that: “It’s nice to see people doing what they want, doing their own thing. For real!” We smiled and told him with our smiles that we were now on his level. It was an important moment to see that someone was getting it even if at first we didn’t believe him. That’s what got me jazzed as we kept on pedaling down the road. It’s important to listen to people and trust that they’re not telling you some kind of a New York lie. Anyways, we kept on keeping on and I put the first marks into the back right wheel. I took a turn about in the Brooklyn road and caught the curbside crackle. I tried to gloss over my mishap by pointing out that it was, what do they call it, “Christened?” I did let him know that, “It takes a wide turn.” “No, shit!” “No shit” was his very blunt response. These three-wheeled notions are quite the design and it was the first day on one of them. They are pretty incredible, and only getting better with each day of effort being put forth. I can’t emphasize enough how much people have been responding to this idea. People are in! Come along and keep up with us because this is going to be a trip to be in on: “Ten thousand miles and just a year!”
