cleared for flight operations

this is the perch for my multi-time busted, crushed, double plated, screw-and-glued, cadaver-bone wedged mangled excuse for a right wrist - most recently pulverized between the hardware on 12/29/09. rode today - good to go. 2.5 hrs on bumpy semi-frozen dirt. i mean, i kinda hurt but i had other things hurting worse, so that is a go.

Ti (rigid) fork & drop bars, my friends. good for what ails ya, say i.


P.S. with all the very nice shots of everybody's new rides for the season floating around with various hot nouveau-bling parts and stuff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lemme just say, for those of a non-nouveau persuation - italy is where you get bling from.

the Ventoux of the western hemisphere

here we see gretchen laughing in the face of the mighty brussels hill, in prep for L-B-L. why - if i am not mistaken - in the background there, you can nearly see the atlantic ocean. how many will die of exertion upon its fearsome slopes on apr 3rd ?? only one way to find out.

can't find a pic for this one. triied google-image searching lazy, arrogant, pompous, and geo-centric but got nuthin.

i received my special feature velo-snooze " Ride and Race" guide this week. 65 of the best cycling events in the USA !! wow !!

funnily enuf, fully 1/3 of them are in CA or CO. so, according to the lazy and utterly clueless v-snooze staff, fully 33% of the greatest cycling scenes/events take place in 4% of these great 50 states. i guess a guy knows where to start at least !!

leaving the remaining lame-ass 96% percent of the 50 states with a paltry 66% of these must-do events. uhhhhhh . . . . . . . yeah.

velonews is fast closing on bicycling for putting out an inferior product/publication with every single issue.

the depressing part of going techno

i shoulda known. last time i used a HRM was in 2002, when gretchen and i did the ironman. as most people know, there is a great portion of your brain that immediately turns off when you enter a triathlon, good taste in things bici being one them.

anyway, i am older now, and gretchen is back looking to see where she is at after a long layoff, and i once knew enuf - quite a bit in fact - about em in the pre-power meter era - and nashbar had nice simple ones for 30 buxon sale , so . . . . . . . presto.

here is the thing, tho. at my age, and vital stats, and an accurate max HR - when a person ciphers out the various zones and ranges and all that malarky like in the chart up there the answer from the equations comes back in a flashing display on the device as:

" DON'T BOTHER, YOU IDIOT. OR, IF YOU MUST, CALL YOUR LIFE INSURANCE GUY IMMEDIATELY " - and then of course the battery wore out. i hate those fooking things.

holding to the klingon family code of Honour . . . .

as russell has sagely noted, the Burden of Shame on the House monT is great, with my riding around, fat, slow, and now wearing those shoes pictured below. an atlas-scale burden for young nicky to bear, indeed. fortuitously, here we see he is more than up to task. rolling to the local skatespots on a custom painted arai-adamo helmet themed hawk GT. for those of a non-motorsickle persuation . . . . this bike, 15 years ahead of it's time when it came out, is the second coolest motorcycle to ever come out of nippon ( the RC30 beeing cooler, naturally ). but, note how the lad still is able to rock that mofo like amadeaus.

with nicky holding up his end of deal like that, i could wear pink bunny slippers when i ride and he would STILL make up for it.

"my mtn biking shoes are older than you are"

racing singlespeeds with old dudes, and young - this has been one of my most fave lines ever. but, even with the feeble efforts applied to them, my shoes do actually wear out over enuf years. adding to the gettin'-ready-fer-spring stuff, then, was a new pair of shoes.

the price on sidi's has gone nuts - those are out.

for inspiration, i recalled back to my most fave ridin' shoes of all time, my andy hampsten replica lakes - i loved those rascals:



so, after a bit of a seach, i came up with the closest modern equivalent i could find - voila !!



going back to the billy "white shoes" johnson look for 2010. nice !!

don't just watch the hardmen . . .

. . . . and the classics on versus. BE one, and DO one:

the route is not for the weak of spirit:




but the payoff includes the Ultimate townline sprint:




Luxemburg - Brussels - Luxemburg. Apr 3. stay tuned for harrowing details as they emerge.

friendly tip pt II

keeping to the theme of cool new bike parts - here is another.

bar-tape. everybody uses it, everybody needs it, and some people even have a fave. but, few know there IS a best-in-show in the world of bar-tape. this is it. why ??

lemme answer with a question: is your bar tape as tough and comfy as your sidi shoes ?? lemme guess, that would be a hell to the no, it is not.

this stuff IS, because it made of the same material as your sidi's. san marco lorica is the bestest bar tape on the earth. you cannot wear it out ( unless you wear it on your feet instead of your sidi's, and even then it takes years, and will withstand untold mud, rocks, scrapes, and abuse until then). washable. NEVER moves/shifts around. yeah, it costs a bit more. so, eat mac&chees one nite this week instead of going out, and it's paid for - pretty cheap price-o-admission for perfection !! and, you will not have to replace it eveytime your bike lays on the ground. git some.

friendly tip

always go for the good skins ( if yer bike's aluminum . . . don't bother . . . . . . ). 290 tpi goodness for the the bestest day-o-the year so far ride.

not XX more like 00 new bike stuff for me

with the season fast approaching, i see everybody getting their junkie-like fix of new stuff on the bike, or new bikes.

me too - what is better than new bike stuff ?? i am hard at work on few new rides. but, i find myself off-target from the marketing machines of the modern industry just a tad. take this item - i will bet no sane person on this earth will be jonesing for it:

and indeed why would they ?? i may know that drop bars are the proper bar for ANY bicycle, be it on road or off - i never did understand why XC mtn bikers think they need more control from their handlebars than the guys riding paris-roubaix - but this is a Knowledge shared by very very ( very) few. this stem will make it happen. some might say a Knowledge that is held to belief by a very very ( very ) few is in fact not a Knowledge, but rather a Disturbance - and i would not argue.

similarly, you can keep you swanky new XX derailleurs. gimme this beauty every time for my new 2X7 69er:
the bestest mtn derailleur ever made? well, yes it is but i dunno - don't they all work the same ?? make no mistake, tho - it is bad-ass, flush with cold-forged goodness and dripping with they-don't-make-em-like-they-used-to nipponese Quality. plus, i have a brand new one sitting here in my lab . . . . . how much for that XX one again ?? ??

ah well - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. even if that beholder is a group population of 1. new bike stuff rules !!