Fixed Perceptions

So I got everything running right, and went out after dark (after mid-afternoon, then) to give fixed riding a try.  I've tried one road bike at a shop years ago, but this was MY bike, that I'm used to, that fits me as perfectly as I can make it.

THOSE.

I tried it on the level first, just to see if everything was tight enough.   Yep.  I tentatively took on a hill.  Not a big deal.  It really feels like the way I already ride, to a large extent.  Especially climbing hills.


CRANKS.

But two things gave me pause (paws?)- turning, and things like hopping up onto curbs/dropping off of curbs.  I would say that these two things apply pretty directly to riding in the woods.  And while I primarily bought this fixed cog thinking of the Danvers Rail Trail, and other flat non-technical areas, it does pop into my mind.


JUST.

So how do you lean into a turn when the cranks don't stop moving?  Just time it?  Just make sure to keep the bike upright while you round the turn?  That will be something to work on.  And while it's easy to hit curbs like a freight train or steamroller, the weight transfer I'm used to will certainly be tricky.  Copy that for dropping off of something (and by that, I don't mean 10 foot drops, I mean more like 1')


KEEP.

Still, there IS something amazing about controlling the bike's speed and never touching the brakes.  This was only my second ride (counting yesterday's mini-ride) on the bike with this set-up, and it's undeniable there's something neat going on.
 

COMING.

On the other hand, though- I like my coasting moments. I don't think I'm quite ready to give those up.  Not completely.  But this is just one after-dark ride.  And the Christmas lights were pretty, too- by the way.  I was pursuing a moment there, y'know- fixed gear- late december, and Xmas lights, dark early....


AROUND

I'm in the running for a Rapha photo competition.  And I honestly think mine could win just on photographic merit.  But I'd like to stack the deck just a little.  So will you all please go to

http://www.rapha.cc/cyclocross-photos-week-one and vote for me?  I'm picture 'C' of the green van.

Thank you.

Polaroid Opposites

Rapha Continental chillin' somewhere in CO.  From Velonews.com

spooky view of Arizona fire smoke.  From H. Irminger's twitter (I think).

Clearing Off The Harddrive, #1100

The Rapha-Focus truck.  So much goodness inside...

1

Former world champ Bart Wellens, racing in the US.  Too bad he didn't come to Gloucester.

Mo Bruno Roy, in a muddy CX race.

Gloucester Cyclocross Weekend!

Bikes took over the weekend for sure.  Friday took the family to the CXworld.com team launch party.  Had a good reminder there, as while we were all drinking beer and eating chips, I noticed the skinny racer kids sitting down quietly and eating veggies and dip.  Oh, right....  Honest- my new eating style starts TODAY.

We played with Swiss CX champ Christian Heule's daughter for awhile (he won on Saturday).  Cute kid.

Here are just a few of my nearly thousands of pictures.  My article on Hamilton-Wenham Patch has a few more.

Dad, what are you drinking?  Dad!  DAD!

Powers Passes Pits

There's much more to say, but it's early....  And I have to get to work.

Coupl'a Days...

The Gloucester GP is this weekend!  I'm working on a story for Patch, as well as taking some photos which may be for myself or may show up somewhere.  I'm borrowing this photo from Lyne at Podiuminsight.com of local woman Mo Bruno Roy- this is what it's all about!  Pray for rain!

An "Interesting" article by Brian McGrory

Make Boston bicycle-free

Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist / Jul 15, 2011 03:14 AM

As Mayor Tom Menino prepares to roll out an ambitious bicycle-sharing program on the streets of our great city this month, offering hundreds of bikes for short-term rental all across town, I might urge him to go in a slightly different direction.

He ought to ban all bicyclists from Boston instead.

Ban them as in, here’s the city line, Lance, there’s a bike rack. Lock it up, and flag yourself a nice air-conditioned cab. Maybe you won’t be sweating so much when you walk into work.
Oh, I know, bikes are the future. Bikes are clean. Bikes are quiet.
I couldn’t agree more, which is why this is not an indictment of the bicycle, an efficient, affordable instrument of transportation. But to paraphrase the National Rifle Association, bikes are not the problem, it’s the people on them.
And those people are the scourge of the city. I don’t mean anything negative by that. It’s just plain fact, painfully clear to anyone and everyone who has ever exercised their government-sanctioned right to sit behind the wheel of a combustion-powered vehicle and drive on roads that were built for, yes, cars.
In a crowded city like Boston, with narrow streets, daring pedestrians, and delivery trucks double-parked nearly everywhere, this task can already be perilous enough. Throw in a bunch of cavalier cyclists who believe with every cell of their beings that they own the road, and it’s near impossible to get around.
Here’s the biggest problem with urban bicyclists: Their personalities. They exude a sense of superiority as they sip vitamin water amid an afternoon breeze while I, just for argument’s sake, may be tucking into a Filet-O-Fish in the sealed confines of my car, quickly abandoning hope of finding parking near my gym.
That superiority leads them to blast through red lights and stop signs with no hesitation, swerve into traffic with the entitled expectation that everyone else will screech to a halt, glide the wrong way down streets, across sidewalks, through pedestrian malls, constantly yelling, “Watch it, dude!’’
They are a self-celebratory lot, these cyclists, parading around in Lycra even though most of them inexplicably have shapes that beg for L.L. Bean, proselytizing through ham-handed bike commuter days, gathering at their little festivals to talk about how they’re saving the world. Shame on us for buying into their act.
And these are the good cyclists, the ones who actually own their own bikes. We’re about to get hundreds upon hundreds of amateurs pedaling all over our city who have no idea what they’re doing. Orthopedists will be flocking here like it’s the Gold Rush of 1849.
I caught a glimmer of hope this week when Boston Police announced plans for a crackdown on reckless cyclists in preparation for the bike-sharing program. Finally, sanity. Cart the offenders away in the backseats of squad cars, just for the irony. I called yesterday to see how it was going. Over the first two days, police handed out no - that’s zero - citations, and 40 warnings. It gets better. They gave out more than 100 free helmets to offenders. Oh, and everyone got a local bike shop 20-percent-off coupon.
That’s some crackdown, folks.
Let me stress, these cyclists are more than welcome in the suburbs, riding in flocks along uncluttered roads. I figured they were perfect in Cambridge, until I learned that there’s a bit of a rebellion going on in the kumbaya capital of the world. Police have begun cracking down on sidewalk riders, and a courageous councilor named Henrietta Davis publicly admonished reckless cyclists in December.
We can’t let Cambridge, of all places, beat us to the punch. Our mayor likes being on the vanguard these days, and this is our big chance: Boston, America’s Bicycle Free City.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com

Love me some cross and love that bike.

This is not a bike shop but if I had one I'd want it to look like this.

If this isn't the most beautiful bike ever made, I'd like to see which one is.

There's something just pleasant about uniformity, isn't there?

Two Images

EVEN MORE APPS... mostly free, but some for around a dollar.

This tells you the angle of anything you hold the iPhone next to.  Say, your head tube or seat tube.  This costs 99 cents.  Not free- but is it really all that much money?  Honestly?

This is a little confusing, but claims to be a GPS mapper that is free to download.  Again, remember- I have no iPhone, so you're on your own.  Just letting you know about them.


Quiver is 99 cents, but a great way to keep info on your bikes together if you have a few of them around (don't forget other members of the family)

Shiftit takes your gearing and your cadence and tells you how fast you'd climb some famous mtns.- focusing on the TDF.  How is this useful?  Not at all, that I can tell- but it sure would pass the time quicker waiting in a drs. office, wouldn't it?  It IS free, as well.


Of course, you don't need me to tell you that google can lead  you to literally hundreds of these sorts of things, and I'm not even getting into the cycling sport news kind of apps that practically every bike magazine now has available, usually for free.  These take RSS feeds and compile them on your phone.

Another Free App for MTBers.

This is where you can get a free download of Every Trail for iPhone or Android.

And

This is where you can see what it'll do.

If you have the technology, I suggest you go there and download immediately. 

You're welcome- and if you don't have MTB Boston, you can thank me by downloading it HERE.

An Open Letter To A Kook

To the dumbell who cut me off this afternoon.

I bet you thought you were pretty cool swooping down that hill and cutting just inches in front of me.  It's cool.  I saw you coming.  But, you know, with my leather saddle and fenders (and a helmet), I'm sure I looked like such a "square" that to someone cool like you, I simply had to be passed.  I mean, sure, it goes against all bike etiquette I've ever heard, but whatever.

What kind of pissed me off was when you immediately veered back to the left (as soon as you got the turn under control) and cut in front of me a second time, still without saying so much as "sorry about that".  You know, with your long flowing rock n roll hair, I'm sure it's hard to see all around, but in fact there are other people on the road with you.  Maybe it was just a long guitar solo or something.  Couldn't see if you had an iPod somewhere under there.

picture this, but without a helmet...

But in the end, it's not about me feeling a little miffed.  What you've got to be thankful for- riding that obliviously- is that I was on a bike and not in a large truck that's not so easy to stop.  Forgive the lame soft-rock reference, but then we'd be talking about Dire Straits...

Peabody Trails Update

Not sure if I'm telling you all something everyone but me knows already, but have discovered lately that there are quite a few trails in the triangle between Kodak, Higgins Middle School, and CBD in Peabody.  Not a whole lot of mileage, but some fun singletrack and bermed turns and such.  Certainly worth checking out, esp. if you combined it with a visit to Salem Woods.  And Salem Willows.  Those are fun little trails too, if you spend some time at the Arcade after.

Not back on it, Joe- STILL on it.

So, I took my own advice, and passed it by my wife just to be sure.  Take a day off.  Do less mileage at first.  Make it fun, and then it'll happen, and then you'll get in better shape, and THEN you can up the mileage.  But still it will be good to rest.  Everyone says that.  The pros.  The wise men. 

And my wife.

 

So, today I went out and did 5.5 mi. in the woods.  And made sure to wet down myself BEFORE I went out.  So as not to use my drinkin' water for wettin'!

Not sure if I've used this before, but does it really matter- what an image.

Rest Day?

My natural inclination is to say that though I feel pretty tired today, I should tough it out and get my butt out there.  I know myself well enough, though, to know that this extreme-ness is a bad tendency I have, and that probably means I should take a rest so that I can be ready to ride tomorrow.

The difference between intention and action is staggering to me sometimes...

Ride Report: Kodak Loop #1

Now THAT is hi-viz!

I'm confused- No bikes INSIDE the atm? 

water, bikes, what could be better? 

My kinda sign.  Still seems a little controlling, though, doesn't it?

So, I started again with my new shot at being an actual cyclist.  I laid out a loop in the woods near the Kodak plant and rode it 3X, figuring that 10 mi. in the woods is about equal (to me at least) to 20 mi. on the road.  The loop is approx. 2.3 mi.  With a 1.5 mi. warm up/cool down to get there, it adds up to almost exactly 10 mi.

So, my best time of the day was the middle one  (of course) at 14:48.  That's my current PR.

The air felt like gulping down water today.  I had no idea how humid it was until I was out there.  Esp. the long sunny sections (duh) were hot and humid.  Don't know if it was my legs from being out of shape and riding yesterday, or if the trails were wet and it added rolling resistance, but I felt it all the way around all three times.  The downhills were fine, but the short, low speed anaerobic climbs were hellish.  And the hike-a-bike sections felt pretty horrible too.

I saw two small rabbits and two turtles, one of which was digging a hole, I think preparing to lay eggs.

I was wearing a cycling jersey and cargo shorts.  Going to see if lycra shorts make a difference tomorrow.

Oh, and lastly- one downhill where I couldn't get my foot into the pedal (the first of the loop my first time around, actually) had my heart in my throat- maybe it never quite recovered from that!

I thought...

i thought I wanted to start trying to ride 20 mi. a day on the road, but you know what?  Riding on the road is boring and kind of annoying.  Sort of re-thinking my plan, since the best part of my ride was seeing the marsh beside the road during my ride.  I'm not really an "urban cycling" guy.  Commuting is one thing, but riding just to rack up mileage?  This is why I quit riding a road bike.

Hmmmmm.

My Ten Miles: Salem, Lynn, and Revere

Heading straight out Highland Ave. you pass walmart, and the muffler place with the plane "crashed' into the roof.  Puleo's Dairy.  Then across the bridge and you're in downtown Lynn. 

A little more downtown and you enter a marshy area.  The Lynnway, maybe?  For some reason this section is beautifully paved.  Almost brand new.  Huge wide edges to the highway.  Flat and just pleasant.

Past a factory on your left, into Revere where you can see the castle church away off to your left, and at almost exactly ten miles is the small traffic circle you go through on the way down Rt. 1 to the airport (Rt. 60- with the sunoco?).

And then you turn around and head back.

Maybe I should work on loops?

I was passed near the very end by a Bianchi fixed gear rider with a Bailey Works backpack.  In the words of Phil Liggett, I kept the elastic from breaking but just barely- then it was time for me to turn for home.  His hipness didn't feel the need to speak to me, incidentally.

Fixie Dave Nice and the lost titanium wonderbike

Hey, our friend Dave Nice, who is planning to do the Great Divide Route northward was supposed to have started already, but Greyhound lost his bike!  How that could happen I do not know (wouldn't they just load it under you on your bus?  What else WOULD they do?  It makes NO sense.)

So he's at the starting line, but bike has yet to show up.  And is this something he could just pick up in any bike shop?  Well of course not.  Custom made for him, from titanium, every part chosen carefully by him for its weight, durability, etc.  Each piece of camping gear weighed and probably modified for this trip.  And Greyhound has lost track of it.

So I doubt if anyone out there is someone super important, but if you are, sure would be cool if you could pull some strings for this guy.  He's planning to ride the bottom to the top of the Great Divide, doesn't really need to be worrying about just having equipment!

Good Luck Dave!

AHA!

You want to simplify?  Really simplify?  Well, I guess you COULD go brakeless, or fixed.  But that is quite a commitment.  Want to keep your bars as empty as possible, realistically?  (Calm down 63xc fans, I know some people can go fixed offroad....)  Check THIS out:

 

Yep- that's a brake lever that pulls 2 cables.  Made only for V-brakes.  You can even get them so that the rear brake pulls slightly before the front brake.  And for either hand!  (which really just means holes for the cables hidden on the bottom whichever side you want to put it on).  Or, you could use cable discs, and run both a V-brake AND a disc brake on each wheel!  ULTIMATE BRAKING POWER!!!  :)

I'm sure you can get these other places, but the only one I know of offhand, the place that I saw them, is Rivendell Bicycle Works.  As their owner Grant Petersen often says (and I agree with him) you should always buy from the one who introduced you to an idea if you can.  

So, if this provokes an AHA! moment, there ya go.

Good Words from Surly Blog

Hey, tattooed and pierced long shorts wearin flat brim hat red bull drinkin white Oakley sportin rad person on your full suspension big hit bike – nice work out there.

Hey, little round glasses pocket protector collared shirt skid lid rear view mirror sandal wearing schwalbe marathon running pletscher two-leg kickstand tourist – good job.

Hey, shaved leg skinny as hell super duper tan line hear rate monitor checking power tap train in the basement all winter super loud lycra kit million dollar wheels racer – keep it up.

Feeling Old On Father's Day Eve...

 

 I took my family for a long walk in the woods the other day, and got them semi-lost, and there were many bugs, but I have to say, we didn't get too bit up, since we'd coated ourselves in bug spray beforehand.  That's not what this is about, however.Incidentally, blogger seems to be going absolutely batty right now-- as in I hit return and it goes two lines UP, rather than one down-- (sounds like a country song, doesn't it)  So, we found some new trails.  Like, lots of them.  And

Yeah, it's a beer-drinking goat.

 a busted up, rusted out old pickup truck that was driven in there who knows how.  And an old wheelbarrow.  Oh, did I mention that there were actual trails without rocks?  Yes, in New England!  Isn't that absurd?  I meant to say banked turns since some of these were apparently made by moto, but the shock of the rock took over.  I couldn't believe it.

 

Which brings up another thing (see that space above this sentence?  Added by blogger and I can't delete it- batty, I tell you!).  We stopped by the local skatepark today.  Hard to imagine what my riding life, heck, my whole life (career) might have been like if we'd'a had one of these.  Concrete, flowy, with actual vert.  Oh, anyway, there were some pretty

I've told you before about my thing for bike rooms.

I want coffee from here.  ps. I camped for a week in Camp Four in Yosemite.

 Ripping local kids there.  One with a cookie monster t-shirt was especially great.  360 flyouts at will (didn't seem much for the airs back into the tranny, though).  Another kids was doing tailwhip flyouts.  Nice.  Of course, after each trick they had to sit on their top tubes and hang out for a good long while, but that's understood.  Made me feel pretty freaking old, I'll tell you.  Not that I expected at this age to be rocking the skateparks... Oh, no.

The Rapha van.  How is everything they touch so darn coolified?

I could very easily sell my mtbs and break myself on that park.  I'm thinking more along the lines of 'I've been riding consistently since I was 11 years old and what do I have to show for it?  A no handed trackstand?'  Honestly.  A fat belly and... and what?  That's almost 30 years of riding a bike!  THIRTY YEARS!  I didn't ride much in college, but other than that, riding pretty consistently for that long.  And I can't jump?  I don't have super fitness (or any).  I don't even know what I'm after here, but by fausto coppi I ought to have been able to pick up one of those bikes and do something!!! What, a poser?  Some rear wheel hops on the pegs?  Maybe I could whip those out.  Except they don't use brakes.  Or pegs.  You may say, but you ride a mountain bike now!  Yeah, since 1993- a little earlier if you count mtbs I test-rode at the shop after they'd been fixed.  And can I hang with XC guys?  No.  Could I do a drop over about 3 feet?  Nope.  Road rides?  No way.  So what the h@ll have I been doing for 30 years?  Can someone tell me that?  For that matter, can I even WRITE about it?  You'd think after so long, maybe I'd be considered some sort of aged (read that as two syllables) wise man.  Nope.

Why don't I just sell 'em all and go birdwatching or something?  

Fathers Day Addendum:  

Okay, I need to add a few things that I've thought of since yesterday.  I am capable in fact of doing the ol' CX remount, and I can build a bike from frame to finished bike, if imperfectly, including lacing the wheels.  So I am incorrect to call that nothing.  Still, I feel older and fatter than I should- and I'm going to do something 'bout it, too.  I swear!

Fat Tire Ale

 

After I wrote this, they showed me the small print, which stated that because I lived in MA, I was not eligible to win the prize anyway.  But they emailed me this.  Gee, thanks.

As if it's not punishment enough that we can't buy the beer here.

Just found this on John Gibson's blog.  Perhaps one of the most famous photos in MTB history, from Canmore in 1991, I believe?  Enjoy.

Fun!

This video from Portland Design Works just makes riding a bike look like so much FUN.  Well done.  I will say though, I hope this good looking couple doesn't fall, since they're too good looking to wear helmets (though you could reply with THIS).  Anyway, here's the link:

http://vimeo.com/24726284

What is just enough?

What is Kinobi?

Kinobi is both a Japanese word and concept, referring to beauty in form and function. It refers to something that exhibits beauty by elegantly fulfilling its needed functionality. Kinobi is a state where functionality becomes beauty.

I learned this from a Japanese company called Montbell that makes outdoor gear (and thus, quite indirectly, from GP).  The above quote comes from a more random googlized source, but gives the same meaning, so we'll go with it.

Finally, we have one word to encompass the phrase "form follows function", which in itself is simply shorthand for a much larger feeling.

That feeling, as I see it, is the difference between looking good and getting the job done.  Now, of course, some things can do both.  But in terms of what we're talking about, this is form:

While this next image, is function...

See what I mean?  They're certainly two different ways of looking at things.  Someone who sees things as Kinobi might love the looks of the second (assuming it works- we don't know that since it's just a picture)... while someone who loves old jukeboxes might feel like that turntable is just cold and heartless.

It's also the difference between historic cultures.  Rococo France in the late Baroque vs.1960s De Stijl/Van Der Rohe Minimalist Design.  The latter is of course also associated with traditional Japanese ideas like futons and paper walls, but that goes far beyond one blog post.

But the upshoot of all this is still that IT HAS TO WORK.  In cycling, we see this in the fixie movement right now.  A person can get so involved in stripping away the superfluous that essentials are lost.  Does a bike gain anything by foregoing a few ounces of bar tape, for instance?  Or can this be its own kind of rococo?  Ornateness in Kinobi clothing?  If the bike doesn't work, then it isn't Kinobi, it's stupid.  In Montbell's particular case, you can strip down a tent of things it clearly doesn't need, and end up with a lighter tent.  But if it leaves you shivering all night, it isn't fulfilling its primary purpose, is it?

And if a bike makes you simply crash more (I'm thinking fixie without a front brake) it is not beautiful in its minimalism, it is stupid.  Single speed mountain bikes walk this edge as well.

And I say this as one who rides and loves them:  it's a matter of appropriate tools.  If you are getting regularly injured or damaged physically by riding a rigid singlespeed, you're not gaining anything, you are being stupid.  You either need to work on skill if that bike is what you want, or you need a different bike.  It clearly is telling you that it is not working for you.

Speaking for myself, I've found myself to be just as fast (as if that is the objective truth of cycling anyway) with a rigid singlespeed as I was with a geared full-suspension bike.  In fact, faster:  because I'm not searching for gears or trying to adjust my compression or rebound or whatever to make the suspension work right.  All you have is what you see so charge at that hill and if momentum's not enough then you get off.  Simple.  Kinobi, in my mind.  And FOR ME, that makes riding more fun. 

Someone else might not have a mind that is offended by the sight of all those cables and wires and controls.  That someone might love their remote adjustable seatpost and automatically adjusting front and rear suspension.  And feel that it works perfectly for them!  Maybe they track all their rides with a GPS cyclocomputer, and download each one as soon as they get home.  And that's great, because they are doing what feels right for them.  They are following what makes their recreation feel fun to them.  Perhaps they work during the day as a scientist, and this makes them feel like finally they're using technology for themselves, rather than their employers.  Who knows?

But for me and others I know, Kinobi is where it's at.  Sheesh.  Feel like I should've stripped down this blog entry to Kinobi!

Summation

sorry Moots, I took this from your blog... but how could I NOT pass it on?  If you really love this photo, buy a Moots, you hear?

The Click of Glory

http://www.vandeyk.de/

Just a very beautiful website.  A pleasure to look at, navigate, whatever.  If you like bikes and design, worth your click to check this one out.  That is all.  Have a good one!

Three Thousand Words!

Phil Wood hubs

Anybody looking for a Father's Day/ Xmas/ Birthday present for me?.........

Dondo's Big Pink.  Custom Ibis from BITD.

An Interview with Jaquie Phelan

Did a little ride with the iPod again, some Decemberists, some Radiohead (King of Limbs, how fitting), and some dirt road and easy trails.  Felt so great a did a second loop for about 10 mi. total.  Not mileage for any serious cyclist, but a decent little ride for me.

Anyway, on to another interview.  And this might be the best one of all.


*******
I love Jacquie Phelan.  Well, the "L" word might be a little strong, but in a way, this effusion of emotion is appropriate.  Phelan has always represented for me (and I think many others) the anti-macho that many of us think mountain biking should be about.

Speaking only for myself here, I didn't get into mountain bikes because I wanted to see who could jump off the biggest cliff,  or who could drown their fear the deepest, hucking their carcass through the air- I would've stuck with BMX if I wanted that.    I wanted to explore the woods and enjoy the ride

For a history lesson, you can go to google (or Jacquie's blog), but what needs to be said is that without her, we'd likely have a lot less of the notion of soulful singletrack, and a lot more of the big-air-macho mentality that threatened to eat mountain biking at the start of this century. She was one of the original old-school racers, yes. But her influence has been so much more than that. Do yourself a favor and do some reading on her blog. Oh, and as a columnist for Bike magazine for many years, she's a freelancer, too. Gotta love that! Enjoy...

 _______________

RK: What's Your Favorite Book? Why?
JP: Whew. There is no single favorite book. I've re-read Speak, Memory by Nabokov , 'three-read' it...i love his writing, and I'm nosy about writers, so that's why I name his memoir, though any of his books are masterpieces.

RK: What's your favorite place you've ever traveled?
JP: Dude, if you can't tell by my previous answer, I don't "boil it down" too well. I'm on a Scotland kick this decade, last decade it was Italy all the way, and who knows, maybe I'll be perfectly content here in Fairfax when I 'm ninety (meanwhile a little voice pipes up: "don't forget Sweden! Oh, shit- you've forgotten Portugal")


RK: Do you have a hero? Who?
JP: You mean besides every single bike commuter on the planet? Sorry.... Er, lately it's been Kay Ryan. Her girlfriend of 30 years died, and she actually seems to keep on living. That's heroic.

RK: Do you do things other than MTB? and/or What OTHER sports do you participate in?
JP: I rode across the USA with people I would never have met. And most of whom probably will never meet me again. This was a 58 day commercial for a liquor company. I sold my soul.


RK: Who helped you the most, to get where you are in this sport/industry/craft?
JP: Darryl Skrabak, Charlie Cunningham and about five thousand women who joined WOMBATS (Women's Mountain bike & Tea Society)

RK: Do you have any sort of religious background? What about now?
JP: Church of the rotating Mass. Pisgah-palianism.

RK: Tell us about your favorite bike you've ever owned... is it your current bike?
JP: Yes, my Cunninghams. Note the plural. I have a mtn bike with front suspension (WoManitou) and far-fetched Cloumbus aluminum tubing, a cyclocross bike and a road bike that just completed 4200 miles of rumble-strip infested US highways. All of them are at least ten years old. The latter two are twenty five years old.
But, in case of a wildfire, I'd be grabbing that cyclocross bike cuz it's great on dirt and on the road. We'll have to let the other ones melt into silver puddles.
Yes, wildfire. It's an inevitability here in Marin, where the natural fire cycle has been supressed for over a hundred years.

Ernesto Marenchin: The Speediest Goat. An Interview.

Ernie Marenchin was born the same year as me. Grew up in the same area of Pennsylvania as me. We're also almost the same height... but that's where the similarities end definitively. He weighs almost a whole person less than me. He rides very much harder than me. But, you know, we've both ridden in Moab. So that's something!

It's hard to tell about these things, but I think Ernesto came to most peoples' notice in 2005 when he almost beat Chris Eatough for the 24 Hour World Championship in British Columbia.(I knew of him before that from the Speedgoat blog). He rode his first 24 hour solo race in 2001. That is 8 years he's been doing the ultra-length racing thing now. Think about that a second. That's a lot of miles in his legs. A whole lot. And that's just the races. He's spent lots of time behind the handlebars.

For a whole lot more information, and the most current update on what he's up to, I'm sure Ernesto would want me to point you to: http://sologoat.blogspot.com/


RK: What's Your Favorite Book? Why?

EM: "Lord of the Rings. I was drawn to it after watching a show about the making of the movies and learned Tolkien invented his own language for the elves. But, after reading the books and watching the movies about a dozen times each, I think what draws me back is the story of the impossible. These elves against all this evil & it seems impossible that they will make it. Same thing went through my head when I first thought of doing a 24 hour solo."

RK: What's your favorite place you've ever traveled?

EM: "Would have to be Terlingua, Texas - site of the Mas O Menos race which I am sad to hear is not going to happen in 2010. Very small little town in Texas in the middle of nowhere. So silent during the day and crystal clear skies during the night. Kind of nice to soak in all the little things in life that get drowned out by being around the masses."

RK: Do you have a hero? Who?

EM: Don't think I really have a hero, but I have a lot of people that I look up to, riders that I tried to mimic. John Stamstad, Nat Ross, Mark Hendershot, etc.

RK: Do you do things other than MTB? Hobbies we'd never guess?

EM: "No, not really. Used to ski some before I started racing endurance a lot, but now I don't really have too much time and skiing is not the safest hobby out there."

RK: Who helped you the most, to get where you are in this sport/industry/craft?

EM: "Would without a question say my family and wife. My father goes with me to all the big races and takes a lot of the pressures off of trying to figure out transportation, my fuel strategy, etc. And my wife is super cool with me riding the hours I need to ride - the best is when after I come after putting in a long day and she has dinner hot and ready."

"And Speedgoat - I feel like we have both grown over the years together. I am lucky to be riding for a shop that is as fanatical about cycling as I am."

RK: Tell us about your favorite bike you've ever owned... is it your current bike? (Not neccesarily raced, but the personal bike you connected with the most).

EM: "Favorite bike would have to be my first ever "race bike" which was a Panasonic Hot Tubes painted bike and was their highest end road bike with internal rear brake cable routing.

Nearly sold it a few times, but it kills me that I had it painted after the paint was starting to chip in a few places. Looking to get it repainted in authentic Panasonic Team colors at some point.

Also, it has become a pastime of mine to try and find one on ebay in great shape. I missed an auction on ebay a few years back because I had to work a long day - it was my same exact bike. "

A Right Noble Calling: An Interview With Taliah Lempert

Not only is Taliah Lempert the best painter of bicycles I know, she is also the only person I know from Brooklyn. My understanding of the place is pretty skewed, consisting only of the classic book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and the equally classic- but not very American- Brooklyn team that sponsored Roger De Vlaminck in the 1960's, most famously in Leth's "The Hell of the North".


But about Ms. Lempert I know a bit more. Though she started riding bikes on sensible folding bikes and cruisers, her own riding tastes fall a little more to the organic, minimal side of things these days. She's that rare fixed rider that actually races on a velodrome track, but at the same time, she is also a dyed-in-the-wool commuter. And I envy the quality time she's spent with many bikes that I would view as icons, including the "Huffy" that my early cycling hero Andy Hampsten rode to victory in the Giro D'Italia, one of Hans Rey's trials bikes, and the bike featured in the image below, Jacquie Phelan's drop-bar Cunningham known as Otto. Along with other lesser-known but equally interesting bikes that it seems are almost beyond number.


Bikes aside, though, I wanted to find out what other artists inspire Taliah. An impossible question we probably couldn't understand the real answer to, but she was able to say that "Today, it's Lucian Freud, Jim Dine, Diebenkorn, Polly Apfelbaum..." I've included some of their work, but don't claim to have chosen particularly wisely.


If this short glimpse of her artwork intrigues you, I encourage you to check out www.bicyclepaintings.com for much more of Lempert's portraits, and for the contact information to buy or commission your own.




RK: What's Your Favorite Book? Why?
TL: Bike Cult, the Ultimate Guide to Human Powered Vehicles: It’s my favorite book for so many reasons.

RK: What's your favorite place you've ever travelled?
TL: I’m not sure. I have great memories of most of the places I’ve traveled to.
I loved riding my bike in Northern California and Italy and had a great time (long ago) backpacking and working around China. It’s cool to travel around this country too. I like have plenty of time in the studio though, there’s no place like home.

RK: Do you have a hero? Who?
TL: My dad is my hero! (Ed. Note: As the father of a young girl, I was glad to read this!)

RK: Do you do things other than MTB? and/or What OTHER sports do you participate in? (Should've modified the question better! Sorry! But these are the actual questions as I sent them to her)
TL: I'm not actually much of a mountain biker, cause there’s not much off-road opportunity in NYC.
I’m mostly on the road, these days. Other sports? I like painting and making stuff.


RK: Who helped you the most, to get where you are in this sport/industry/craft?
TL: Dave Perry helped and helps me the most, with everything from critiquing my artwork to literally helping me move it to where it needs to go.


RK: Tell us about your favorite bike you've ever owned... is it your current bike?
TL: That’s a hard one. I don’t think I have an absolute favorite. There’s things I love about all my bikes.
Maybe the favorite one, is the one that got me into commuting in NYC. It was a big Schwinn Clunker 5.
Schwinn made it in 1978, I think it was their first mountain bike. It was a cantilever frame, with a derailleur and 5 gears, a drum brake, obese tires and heavy duty everything. It was awesome and ridiculous. I loved it. It weighed a ton. I stopped using it so much when I moved up to the third floor and got my first track bike. I sold the Schwinn years ago. Last time I saw it, there was a family of three on board.

Coffee & Cassette: An Interview With Kaiko Shimura

Don't recognize the name? Three words (four if you don't count hyphenation) should clear things up for you. Pedal-Strike. Cassette. Embrocation. Was that a glimmer of recognition I saw in your eye just then? These three seem to be Shimura's main forms of artistic expression right now.

...Oh, and being a lawyer. Yes, that's right, all this isn't enough for this Tokyo-raised, fixed-gear riding, art-making, bike-shop-loving cycling dynamo. There's also law school. At BC.

Oh, and did I mention she makes her own cycling caps? No, I'm not saying she can make a hat. I mean, she is an artist with a sewing machine. She makes cycling caps. The real thing. They sell them in bike shops. Where hip people buy their lockrings and stuff.

*******

I'd be doing you both a disservice if I didn't send you to her own writing, so please check out these links:

PEDAL-STRIKE BLOG
CASSETTE DESIGN



RK: What's Your Favorite Book? Why?
KS: I have too many! My two current favorites that I'd read over and over again are Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" and Bill Strickland's "Ten Points." Though the former's fiction and the latter non-fiction, both tell the kinds of stories that I think will always be relevant, wherever you are in life.

RK: What's your favorite place you've ever traveled?
KS: Yakushima in southern Japan (it inspired the forest in Princess Mononoke). It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and having lived most of my life in urban environments, it was incredibly surreal to hike through an ancient forest.

Miyajima near Hiroshima is a close second but for entirely different reasons.

RK: Do you have a hero? Who?
KS: Sakamoto Ryoma is an all-time favorite. He was a savvy political negotiator who was able to mediate an alliance between the Choshu and Sakamoto provinces in the 1800s. He also saw the importance of modernization for then-feudal Japan. What can I say, I'm kind of a history geek.
 
RK: Do you do things other than cycling? And/or what other sports do you participate in?
KS: ... another sport I've been obsessed with is horse-back riding. I was never very good at it but I can probably still ride half-decently. I still absolutely love horses, too.

RK: Who helped you the most, to get where you are in this sport/industry/craft?
KS: First, my parents for raising me to be an insane perfectionist and to never settle.

My sister for providing formidable sibling rivalry/competition and always raising the bar.

Mike Spriggs and Jeremy Dunn for believing in my abilities as a writer and (gently) pushing me to write more, ride more, and design more while still retaining my sanity. I couldn't have done half of what I did this summer without those two.

RK: Do you have any sort of religious background? What about now?
KS: I'm technically Shinto and Buddhist but that pretty much just means I go to temples and shrines once a year or so. Nothing too serious.

RK: Tell us about your favorite bike you've ever owned... is it your current bike?
KS: Well, I've owned three in my life and the first one was one I owned about 12 years ago. I can't choose between the Bianchi San Jose (the trusty, reliable, all-around hard-ass commuter) and the Dolan Pre Cursa (pretty, twitchy, light, fast track bike). In terms of aesthetics, it'll have to be the Dolan but the Bianchi has gotten me through a lot.

Always Something Cooking: An Interview With Dave Nice

I first heard about Fixie Dave in an article that Outside Magazine did about the Great Divide Race.  Perhaps you've heard of this endeavor?  You start at the US border with Canada, and you end at the US border with Mexico.  And you race down the spine of the nation- from one side the water goes East, and from the other, West.  The Divide.  Lots of people had their full-suspension, disk-braked bikes pictured.  And then there was Nice.  Rigid fixed gear mountain bike.  As in- if the wheel moves, the pedals are moving.  As in, one gear.

Was this guy nuts?  I liked him already. I could go on about what happened in that race, but if you're interested you can google Dave and the GDR.  The rest is in the questions below.  My Q is the bullet points, Dave's A is in bold.

• Why fixed?  Single speed I get.  Rigid, I understand.  But off-road fixed- why?

I really enjoy the connected feeling I have with the ground. I have to focus and it becomes almost a sort [of] meditation. 

• Tell us about your cooking credentials.  just how serious a chef ARE you?

Cooked on and off at a few places growing up.  Went to cooking school of the rockies in 2000 and spent a month or so in France cooking and have worked in a few other places on and off since then.... Too stressful for me now and I prefer to cook for friends and family and be more creative.   Pitched an idea to Food TV in 2005 for a camping/travel / adventure cooking show.   Never heard back.

• Top 3 favorite bikes you've ever owned.  Include at least one you no longer have.

Ti GROUND UP built by Eric Barr is current fav, Followed closely by my steel SIREN John Henry..... hummmm...-  then a Tie between SURLY Crosscheck and VASSAGO Jabberwocky.   Currently only own 2 bikes...

• As of today, 37 days until you ride the GDR, this time from South to North.  Why hasn't it worked before, and why is it going to this time?  :)

It hasn't worked for me before, due to freak injuries, getting sick, and having gear stolen  (outside of my control?). 

[In]  2009 I started south and got to my folks' place (their land in Colorado, the route goes right through it) well in 2009 i was solo TT'ing it and I recently had a friend named Anthony Sloan, that I felt was a very kindred spirit, die in his sleep.  And then I was guiding a ride on Little Creek Mesa near Hurricane, UT and had one of the guys I was riding with get separated from the rest of the group and we found Joe unconscious a few hours later- and then he stopped breathing and his best friend and I performed CPR for over an hour till SAR [Search & Rescue] showed up... He was pronounced dead by the Flight For Life medic... It was a lot to mentally deal with being alone on the bike,  so when riding by my folks place, the bike just steered itself to a warm bed and Mom and Grandma cooked meals.  As it was, I got very close to getting 1400 miles done in 12 days..

Feel much more mentally prepared than I've felt the previous attempts.   Outside of that I've trained better, and have my gear/setup more dialed.

Dave's pink Siren.

• I've often written about mens' relationship with pink, and was personally pleased when my daughter brought a little father's day questionaire home from preschool about me, saying that her dad's favorite color was pink.  I know at least one of your bikes is pink (the Siren)-- care to tackle the whole men and singlespeeds and pink thing?  Your thoughts?

Purely to provoke a reaction? ;)  Because you can't be slow riding a pink bike? I dunno its a color and i like it =)

• Back to GDR- how do you train for something so long?  Is it even possible?  Is it just a matter of making sure you're prepared, and the fitness coming along as the "race" happens?  How much is physical endurance even a part of this?  Or is it all mental?

Ummm get this one a lot.... Ride A lot ;P

I think it was one of the Brit finishers who said his way of knowing he was ready for the divide was to do back to back gravel hundies [100 mile rides] on the weekend and have a spring in his step at work Monday... I think that's a good way of telling other then I say camp out all those nights as well...

Not owning a car helps tons, i think, as well...

• I know you have endless time to think on the GDR- what are you thinking about while you're out there?

I think a better question is what do I NOT think about?

• What do you NOT think about, then?  

I try not to think about food or how much it hurts.

•  Why South to North   (the traditional race is from Canada to Mexico)?

More light , less snow, and less crowd at the start.... also I like the desert start 

• Finally, do you ever get 'rider's block'?  

Not really sometimes iI don't wanna go all day but rarely do i ever not wanna be on a bike

 

 

Nontrager!

Check THIS out.  It's a bike at the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology.  But more than a bike, it's a great story of small neighbor framebuilders working together as corporate buyouts were going on. Kinda one of those art triumphs over commerce things.

It should be added to the above that Keith Bontrager has always said that he was nothing but happy about being bought out by Trek, by having the financial burden off of himself, and also about the kinds of power working with Trek brings.  If I may paraphrase, he said that putting wheels under Lance Armstrong in the Tour De France is not a little thing.  (he helped design Lance's race wheels...)  So appreciate the above link, but certainly don't feel sorry for Bontrager the man or the brand, or feel like Trek is some corporate giant stepping on the little guy.  I think it's pretty small-minded to hate on Trek.  They do good things and have been generous on a personal level to me, and on a large level to good organizations like IMBA.

Collected Cellphone Images That Need To Get Off My Phone!

My kind of Ferrous Wheels.  From a secret trail I'm not at liberty to divulge...

Seen at Richardson's...

found in the shop...