Whew! One look west this morning walking out of the apartment was all I needed to get a move on. Utterly gray and moving in awfully fast, I just beat the rain to work (while following all the rules of the road and being as conscientious as possible). Good times.

Yesterday's trip to the old town art fair was a nice excuse to visit village cycle, which could have been a huge mistake. I've been slowly working towards switching Frankenbike to a single-speed; converting an old wheelset, removing a broken front derailuer instead of replacing, breaking another old chain and testing the fit with the converted wheel. It's about as mechanically-inclined as I get, but the closer I get to actually making the switch, the less happy I am with the project. Technically it would work but looks really sloppy, which is hard to do for a set up that's supposed to be steamlined and less complex. Throw in the fact that the bottom bracket is practically shot and needs to be replaced so it's rideable at all, let alone as a single-speed, and I'm starting to think there are plenty of commuter-aimed single-speeds out there that I could test ride.

With some replaced components and knobbier tires Frankenbike would still make a nice winter bike--something beat to shit but still able to take a December through March pounding that I wouldn't want to put a new bike through. One reason I couldn't bring myself to drop huge $ the last time I was looking (besides not having any huge $ to drop) was the idea of spending close to a grand on a road bike I was just going to clobber everyday and possibly even crash if I kept commuting. I'm not a small or coordinated guy and was at first at little dubious at the thought of something as simple as a bicycle carting my 200+ lbs 5 five times a week. The thought of having a newer bike for nicer weather and keeping Frankenbike around for the hell of Chicago winter is an idea that's growing on me.

But speaking of yesterday, holy crap how good was Tiger on Saturday! I can't imagine anyone else being enough of a draw to keep me tied to the tv for golf, but a finish like that is why it's usually a good idea to stay tuned. Damn that was awesome.

Current beer-scale: 3.3