Singletrack M1nd

Best laid spontaneous actions.

2011-10-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

My day started with a few urget woofs from one of my riding buddies.

She wanted to go mountain biking, and she wanted to do it right now. Bella and I loaded up the truck, and headed to the Wood's Gulch trailhead in The Rattlesnake.

The first few miles went by without incident, but, I'm new to the area, and I had to stop and consult the map a few times.

There are a lot of reasons to ride a knobby tire bike through the woods; fast flowy trails, the rush of adrenaline while cleaning a technical section, the pure athleticism of grinding up endless climbs, actually being able to feel your own soul, however, mountain biking is first and formost about exploring in the woods.

I hadn't really explored the Wood's Gulch trail past the logging road yet, so when I got there, I figured I keep heading up the singletrack to Blue Point. The climb is steep, loose, and technical enough, that I was looking forward to the downhill. Once Bella and I got to the top we enjoyed the view, and split a Clif Bar. I figure even Bella-the-endless-energy-herding-dog needs a snack after a steep, technical, climb.

After a little snack, Bella was reenergized, and decided to run hot laps around the summit.

Since my riding partner was ready to rawk, we pointed downhill and pinned it for 3.5 miles, flat out shredding. I kept checking to make sure Bella was with me, and every time I glanced back, there she was, right on my wheel. I got a text from Ricky Gnarmichal after every turn I railed. Until...

Sometimes, you take a wrong turn. Sometimes, you hesitate and think when you should just trust your instincts. Sometimes, your worn-out rear tire just doesn't hook up. Regardless of why I blew a corner, I did, and slammed into a rock pile hard enough to cause an instant flat in my rear tire, and also hard enough to utterly fuck my big ring...not that one should ever need a big ring on an all-mountain bike.
One does however, need a rear tire. Something I frequently tell people is: "Never ride with just a patch kit, sometimes tubes can't be patched." Tonight, I gained another anecdote to back up that maxim. The inch long slash in my tube wasn't fixable, even with four patches over it.

All's well that ends well though. Bella and I had a great afternoon/evening in the woods. I learned a little more about the sweet sweet singletrack that Missoula has to offer. And, after a sorta nasty crash, the worst thing I had to endure was a 1.5 mile hike, while my dog frolicked in the woods, chasing down unwitting squirrels.

On top of all of that, there was a gorgeous sunset while driving home from the Rattlesnake.

Bike Family

2011-01-28T23:38:00.000-08:00

All four members of my nuclear family are cyclists. But all my close friends are cyclists as well, and friends are family that you consciously choose.

When I started grad school in Bozeman, I was socially isolated for the first time in a long time. However, one of my fellow grads, Seth, turned out to be one of those people for whom cycling is more of a lifestyle/religion, than an activity. Seth introduced me to other Bozeman cyclists like John and Mason, these guys quickly became friends and brothers. Through my contact with these individuals I became intricately plugged in to the Bozeman cycling scene, and I formed meaningful social connections more significant than I'd known previously.

Several years ago John asked me if I wanted to drive to Boise ID for an alleycat called 'Liverdance'. He knew a Boise cyclist dubbed 'Charlie The Ninja', who would let us crash at his place for the weekend. I'm generally socially awkward enough, that I'd normally be apprehensive about hanging with some random people, in an unfamiliar town. But, these were cyclists, so I didn't give it a moment's thought. After a harrowing drive in an '84 Toyota, John and I made it to Boise, and beheld a shadowy figure, beside the road.

I hopped out of the car, and threw my left hand up just fast enough to catch a Bud Diesel tallboy. Another tallboy was delivered to John, along with a command to 'slam those beers, and get your bikes out of the car, we've got 30 minutes before "last call"'. We did as told, and soon the three of us were racing fixies in the middle of the night, through a town I'd never been in before, to some bar. I don't remember if I even shook the guy's hand, but I do remember feeling I'd been accepted immediately into the pack. Upon reaching the bar, there was shaking of hands, drinking of whiskey, and talking of shit from people I'd never met, who treated me like an old friend, just because I was a fellow cyclist.

On another occasion, I received communication from MtnBikingGirl that she and her boyfriend were going to be in Bozeman. I didn't hesitate to offer them a futon, these people are cyclists, and automatically, I considered them family. When my roommate asked me how I knew these people, I replied that I knew them from 'The Internet', but they were cyclists. She was actually incredulous for a moment, until I reminded her that I only knew her because she is a cyclist, and her cyclist boyfriend had looked up Bozeman cyclists in order to find people to connect with when she moved to Bozeman. The irony was palpable, and beautiful.

I could recount many more anecdotes, like how SamH showed up at the Bozeman Bike Kitchen, and I knew in about ten minutes that he and I would become friends approximating brothers, or how Reuben and Alice met during bike polo, and then got married. But, the basic thesis is this, bike people are a pack, like a family. It doesn't matter if I've never met someone before, if they're a cyclist, I know in my soul that they're a member of my pack, they're family.

Oh yeh...That's right...I like to ride bikes

2011-01-01T03:21:00.000-08:00

I'm a pretty mediocre guy, but I hang out with some really badass people. A couple years ago, I was riding between 8 and 20 miles per day, winter or summer, night or day. The last few months though, I've been in a hole, and I've barely been riding more than 3-5 miles per day.

But leading up to New Years, SamH continually expressed interest in a midnight, new year's eve bike ride. Before heading to the new years party, I made sure to outfit in suitable cold weather clothing, just in case a ride ensued, it was 17 below zero when I left my house.

The party went normally until about 11:30pm, until my wolfpack started girding for a cold-weather bike ride. We headed out, 12 strong, and did a 5 block route, and went back to the party. At this point SamH and Tom stated that they wanted to put on some real miles. A destination 2 miles away was suggested, then I threw out heading to East Gallatin Rec, about 7 miles away. The three of us seemed to think that was a good idea, and with reckless abandon, we headed out on a 14 mile ride, at midnight, in weather far colder than negative 10 Fahrenheit.

It was cold tonight, but midway through the ride, I needed to shed a layer, and I enjoyed every moment of tonight's absurdity. After reaching our destination (East Gallatin Rec) we decided to take the long way to The Filling Station for a drink, and I have to say, my Supernova E3 Triple served me well in the utter darkness of a gravel road far north of Bozeman.

What did I learn from tonight's midnight bike ride in sub freezing temperatures? I learned something I've always known, but forgot, I really really like to ride my bike, even in the middle of the night in the dead of winter. In fact, I think I enjoy riding my bike even more in the dead of winter, in the middle of the night. Bring that inclement shit!!

Humans are made of the Earth

2010-12-18T02:51:00.000-08:00

90% of the total number of cells in a human body are bacterial.

25%-50% of the human genome is viral DNA.

One of the single most important atoms in the human body is Iron. Iron is the single most common element of which the planet Earth is composed. Iron is integral to the most basic biological process that humans require, we need to breath oxygen. Iron carries Oxygen to every cell in our body. Iron catalyzes the reaction of Oxygen and Hydrogen to produce water, without this reaction our bodies become acidic, and we die within moments.

Humans are made of the biosphere we exist in. Humans are made of the Earth.

God fashioned humanity from the clay of the Earth.

What happens to us if we destroy the Earth, destroy the biosphere we are made from?

Wolfpack

2010-12-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

Canis lupus

Fierce, lean, loyal, social predators, cyclists run in packs.

When I encounter another cyclist, I know without doubt that they are family.

I'm about 5'8" and I weigh roughly 195 lbs

2010-11-10T00:29:00.000-08:00

I'm five foot, eight inches tall. I weigh anywhere from 180 to 200 pounds, depending on how much exercise I've been getting lately. I'm no match for a 2000 lb Mercedes traveling at 30-70 mph.

Recently, some dumbshit financial manager in Colorado hit a cyclist with his Mercedes, and fled the scene. Subsequently, this asshat was identified, and charged. But, the presiding judge felt that charging him with a felony would negatively impact said asshat's earning potential.

I'm about average height, and weight. I grew up doing farm work, roofing houses, and wrestling. I bench about 2 and a 1/4, and I ride my bike to get everywhere, rain or shine, summer or winter. I'm no match for some dipshit financier's European sedan. But, I'll take my chances face to face with said dipshit financier if he has it in him to look me in the eye and try to take my life. Talkin' at you Martin Joel Erzinger.

Martin, you nearly killed a cyclist, a human being. Apparently, The State thinks your value to the financial system is more valuable than a human life. I disagree. I'm a cyclist.

Mr. Erzinger, you apparently think human life is less important than your car, that's your prerogative. If you want to drive up to Bozeman MT and try to kill me with your Mercedes, feel welcome. If you want to drive up to Bozeman MT in your Mercedes and try to kill me hand to hand, I will retract my opinion that you are a sniveling wretch, a worthless gamma that alphas dominate because there's nothing better to do.

Anyone that wants to sign a petition directed at the judge that decided this scabrous, shameful, cur shouldn't be charged with a felony for nearly killing a human being, should direct their browser here.

Mr. Erzinger, I don't hate you, and I don't wish you harm. But, if you attempt harm upon me, or my family, I will stop at nothing to bring you low.

What a triathlon taught me about how to finish my Ph.D

2010-09-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

All my life, I've engaged in activities that require endurance.

Around the age of ten I was spending 12+ hours a day during the summer, driving a tractor, or a combine, depending on whether it was Spring, or Fall. During the summers I wasn't on the farm, I was with my other Grandfather, shingling houses. Starting before dawn, the twelve-year-old me packed bundles of shingles, performed 'tear-offs', hammered uncountable nails, and picked up more roofing scrap than I want to think about.

In high school, in the Fall, every day I was up at 6AM for marching band practice, then school, then cheerleading practice, lifting and throwing 120lb girls for three hours. In the Winter, I wrestled. I was in the weight room at 6AM, then school, and then wrestling practice til 6PM. I was cutting weight from my normal 180 lbs down to 145 lbs, so often, after practice was over, I was running to sweat off water weight.

In college, I learned about biochemistry. I also learned about something called an "Ironman Triathlon", I swore that one day I would be an Ironman.

Last summer, I trained for my first Half-Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). It was daunting, I failed a lot of my training goals, I was often discouraged. I frequently had to force myself to head out the door for a ten mile run, or a fifty mile ride, often after already having swam 2000 meters that day. Every pool session was a mental battle not to cheat myself out of the laps I needed to accomplish. Upon race-day, I was nervous, anxious, terrified, and determined. Exiting the water, I could hardly run in a straight line to my racked bike, coming off the bike, my legs were completely numb. I was drained physically and emotionally. I just wanted to sit down, and cry. I then ran thirteen miles knowing I couldn't do it, and forcing myself to do it anyway. I finished first in my age group.

I'm not an Ironman yet. But I can be, if I choose to make it happen.

I've been working on a Ph.D in Biochemistry, for seven years. I'm months from defending my thesis before my adviser and committee. I'm nervous, anxious, terrified, and determined. It's daunting. I fail at a lot of my daily goals. I often feel discouraged. Yesterday, I spent 17 hours in my lab, and my results where not quite the success I was hoping for, the success my ego needed. I stood outside the chemistry building at 3AM this morning, thought about my mediocre lab results, discouraged. But, instead of giving in to frustration and anxiety, I thought about everything I'd learned from that series of experiments.

I'm not sure if I have what it takes to finish my Ph.D. I don't know if I can do this. At this stage, when I've come so far, and learned and accomplished so much, I'm emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted. Every day is a struggle to keep going, and every single day matters. I couldn't imagine ever getting through that thirteen mile run, but I could handle one more block, and then I could handle the block after that, and then I could get to that next mile marker, and then just one more mile...

When I think about the next eight months, I can't possibly imagine how I can muster what it will take to successfully defend, there is so much to be done that my head spins just thinking about it. But, I can write one more paragraph, one more paper, one more chapter. I can read one more journal article. I can set up one more experiment. I can analyze one more data set. I can do it for one more day, and just one more day, and then one more day...

I'm not a Ph.D yet. But I can be, if I choose to make it happen.

How to tell if someone is a Jackass.

2010-09-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

1) They are friends with me.

2) They pull this off.

Nice work H

How men think. Vol 1

2010-09-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

I dated this girl once, we were together through high school, college, and a while after. We were close, and she is the most direct person I've ever met.

I try to avoid sexual stereotypes, but here's a stereotype about men, we're fighters.

Any time she said to me 'I'm not ok', my immediate response was an extreme and incessant need to fix and/or destroy whatever the problem was. The problem could be something unrelated to me, or even something I had done myself. When she said she wasn't ok, I responded with alacrity. I became focused on whatever the problem was, whether my fault or another's. Those three words caused me to focus like a laser on whatever the issue was.

Many people try to avoid confrontation, it's a natural instinct. But an intricacy of the male mind is that we're pack animals, we always fight to protect our pack. I have no idea how women feel about directness, but men respond to it. We protect the pack, even if the pack is just the two of us.

Don't wake me up on the Sabbath!!

2010-08-07T03:00:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of brilliant ideas in the concept of a Sabbath. I appreciate many many things about it. Studying, and appreciating a Jewish perspective has intensified my adherence to the concept of a Sabbath.

It is the concept, and not the day, that is important. (The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath...) As with many biblical concepts, it is the benefit to the person that is God's goal. God is fine on her own, she doesn't need us, we need her.

As a narcoleptic, the most compelling concept about the Sabbath is that I can finally sleep. I can finally rest. Thank God. There is one day a week that I don't have to make excuses with 'society' about when I need to be cogent.

At the least, God has mandated one day of the week for my normal, biological predilection.

Don't wake me up on the Sabbath!

Regarding Science and Spirituality

2010-08-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

I don't understand why scientists and religious spiritualists are at odds, there's such spirituality in science

It's really hard for me to understand why a person could be intensely spiritual, and study religion with a desire to grasp the unknowable, and not embrace the beauty of science.

I understand biology (creation) at the atomic level, to the limit of human comprehension. At some point, the study of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, it becomes the study of God. How could a scientist not reach the logical conclusion that to study the world, is to study the mind of God?

I'm not talking about "irreducible complexity", I'm talking about "infinite complexity". The more that Humanity understands Biology, the more Humanity realizes it has more to know about biology.

Conversely, but equitably, how could any religious person ignore such an intimate connection with our creator? What level of ignorance could possibly turn one from embracing the most fundamental understanding of the world we as humans have access to?

To ignore science is to ignore spirituality. To ignore spirituality is to ignore science. Dawkins/Dobson, you people are fucking crazy.

Thoughts on Narcolepsy.

2010-07-27T01:20:00.000-07:00

A facebook friend remarked (facetiously, I assume) that I seem to never sleep. This was my reply:

Narcoleptics never really sleep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcolepsy

Many narcoleptics are misdiagnosed as insomniacs, but we have a specific neurophysiological deficit that keeps us from 'sleeping' at night, and makes us chronically tired during the day. This condition is known as EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness). Narcoleptics often experience a condition known as cataplexy, it's an uncontrollable loss of muscle function, and the source of most of the 'common knowledge' about narcolepsy.

We're specifically diagnosed by a heightened concentration of a peptide called Hypocretin in our CSF.

http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/explore/explore.do?structureId=1UVQ

If I manage to finish my Ph.D, I intend to study this protein complex for the rest of my life.

When we do sleep, we're constantly in REM. Most humans experience a fourth sleep stage, where they actually rest, narcoleptics don't get to do that. Their brains are as active while sleeping as when awake.

So, asleep/awake, it really doesn't matter much to me, it's really all the same, I need to sleep, but I physically can't, or I'm physically exhausted and I can't sleep.

I mean, really?

2010-07-21T01:46:00.000-07:00

It's enough to have to deal with Narcolepsy. It's quite another to deal with the social stigma of being the person that "can't be there in the morning".

You know what? I'm tired. I'm literally tired. I'm tired all the time. Most of the time I can barely maintain consciousness. I'm beyond tired, I'm exhausted every second of every minute of every day. And then, as if that wasn't enough, when I go home at night, it's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep, because it's not enough for my brain to try to put me to sleep during the day, my brain thinks it needs to keep me alert at night.

So, therefore, I keep funny hours. I've spent a large part of my life feeling a certain high level of insecurity about that fact, maybe I'll never stop feeling insecure about it.

But one thing I've learned from my diagnosis of Narcolepsy is that it's acceptable to say "Hey World, Fuck You and your arbitrary concept of a normal schedule!" Maybe I'm broken, but I'm not going to apologize for it any longer. In fact, I'm going to bring my considerable will toward argumentative outspokenness to the forefront of this issue.

So, you know what? I'm tired. I'm surly. I can't be there at 8am, because I have a neurological disorder that precludes me from being awake at any time of the day, but particularly at early morning hours. My neuro-chemistry keeps me from functioning at a normal level at any time, but particularly in the morning. If you have a problem with that, spend seventy-two (72) hours without sleep, and then call me. The average narcoleptic operates on a level of sleep that would cause a "normal person" to become psychotic. By this metric, I find "normal people" to be lacking in will.

All of this angst, all of this anger, it comes from years of defending my normal biological predilections to people with an arbitrary concept of when a person should be "awake and aware". I'm not lazy. I'm not stupid. I'm not complacent. I'm just not neurologically comparable to a "normal" human. I'm a narcoleptic. I've nearly gained a Ph.D in Biochemistry. Imagine what I may have accomplished without my neurological deficit. Maybe I'll become nothing substantial, but maybe I will. In other words, to my detractors, Fuck You.

(For the record, lots of people have to 'handle stuff', and I am firmly on the side of all of those individuals. Lot's of people deal with biological issues far more grave than narcolepsy. Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis come to mind. If you have the opportunity to do anything at all to assist a person coping with MS or ALS, I urge you to do everything in your power to help such individuals, dealing with possibly the worst afflictions imaginable. I find myself extremely inconvenienced by my neurological condition, but the hell that persons with MS or ALS go through makes my plight irrelevant. Maybe the real lesson is that humans really need to get to a point were we will do anything whatsoever for each other.)

America runs on blood

2010-07-18T01:33:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to contrast the respect that Native American peoples had for the species they preyed upon, with the sterile disrespect that Americans of European decent have for prey species.

Humans are predatory killers, but American descendants of Europeans seem to wish to distance themselves from that on the surface, while living an existence that puts immeasurable pressure on the lives around us.

I haven't pulled the trigger, but as an American, I've killed many Middle-Easterners because they have a resource that America needs. I can't live with that. Many Americans seem to have no qualms however, as long as the lights are on and the car starts.

American political discussions involve "freedom", while our policy is murderous. One of our major cities was brutally attacked and we subsequently invaded a country with no involvement in said attack. That country had massive oil reserves however.

We may think our country runs on oil, but we are denying our natural killer instinct. Our country runs on the blood of the people we subjugate. It has done so since the days we raided African tribal communities for slaves to pick our crops, and killed off the native populations of the land we arrogantly call our own.

Anything I say on this topic can't be better said than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr has already said it. RIP Dr King. America has a lot of heroes. I'm glad you're high on the list.

Hauling stuff by bike makes me happy, ergo I laugh like a fool whilst doing so

2010-07-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

I quite enjoy using a bicycle to haul loads most people would decide to use an automobile for. When my friend SamH decided to recrute load-bike riders to move him from one house to another, I jumped at the chance to be involved.

The person laughing like an idiot in this video is me. I definitely wouldn't be remotely so mirthful if I'd been using my car to help move my friend.

Your fossil-fuel burning conveyance is unnecessary in a world with readily available load-hauling bicycles such as the Xtracycle and the Madsen. Rethink your reality. Americans have been sold on a life of convenience that is unhealthy to the point of reducing their life-span, and happiness.

I bet you've got a bike in your garage, collecting dust, sitting next to your inefficient, oil-burning car. I'm certain you'll have more fun riding your bike than driving your SUV.

Moving by Bicycle - 2010 from samh on Vimeo.

This is how we roll!!

2010-06-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

File this picture under 'Hell Yes!'

An interesting perspective I've gleaned from discussions with friends who are also Conservatives.

2010-06-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

I'm a Liberal, and I'm very argumentative. I have Conservative friends who also enjoy lively debate. I nearly always disagree with these individuals, it's in my nature/nurture.

What I've learned (from discussions with thoughtful Conservatives) is that we generally agree about the problems, we just have strong discord on the best ways to fix those problems.

To those I've argued with, I only argue with people I respect, even if I strongly oppose your opinions. Please keep the dialogue coming. I love the debate.

Here's to my dog, Zack

2010-05-28T02:01:00.000-07:00

I miss you buddy. Remember the time you pointed a Pheasant so long that I thought there was nothing there, and then he flushed just as I gave up? What about the time I dropped a bird in a corn field and you chased him down and brought him back twenty minutes later, when I'd given up on you? Remember the time you brought down a bird I hadn't even shot at? Remember how excited you got whenever we drove on a gravel road? You lived for roaming open fields, searching for those wily Ringnecks. I love you buddy.

A man ain't much of a hunter without a good bird-dog. Zack, you were the best. There are a lot of good dogs out there, but buddy, you were a good hunter, as well as a good friend. I wish I'd realized how talented you were when I was fifteen, and had the capacity to really appreciate you.

Here's to my late bird-dog, Zacker-Dog, I miss you brother. I wish I'd been with you when you passed, and I hope that you know the esteem that I hold you in. Wherever you are my friend, I hope the hunting is good.

The Dirt Concern

2010-05-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Dan Boyce did a feature on SW Montana's newest MTB club, The Dirt Concern.

Hauling stuff makes me happy.

2010-05-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

There a lot of things related to riding bikes that I like. I like Mountain Biking, I like alleycats, and I especially like Bozeman's own homegrown bicycling cooperative

But judging by this picture taken by SamH, what makes me really happy is hauling stuff on my Xtracycle.

I'm totally killing it.

2010-03-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

MTB season. Now in December

2009-12-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

So, John is now part of the Specialized Trail Crew. Without going in to all the details, the big S gave him an S-works Stumpy and a bunch of gear, and in return he blogs, tweets, etc.

He also makes videos, the most recent is below. If you squint you'll see me here and there, amongst shots of an extremely well designed suspension doing what it does.

For the record, I am not sponsored by anyone. Gary Fisher did just hook me up with a carbon HiFi, however, that's another story.

iPod FTW

2009-09-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

I'll update this thing someday. Maybe when I'm done with my PhD. For now I'm typing on my iPod from an undisclosed location.

Half Ironman Finisher

2009-07-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

Five months and thousands of miles culminated on July 26th when I finished my first Half Ironman, the Headwaters, in 5 hours and 47 minutes. I was seventh overall and first in my age group.

When I got off of my bike after a 56 mile hammer fest and then had to run a half marathon, I wanted to cry. My weak mind wanted to quit, I knew for certain I'd never ever ever be able to run 13.1 miles. The sun was blazing by then. My knees were shredded. I was exhausted, done. I ran a mile on numb feet. Shuffling, I kept going. For about two hours all I could think was JUST.KEEP.GOING.

I didn't sprint the last mile, or even the last hundred yards, like I'd fantasized about for months during training. I barely even ran the last mile. But, I ran it. I kept going when the only thing I wanted to do was stop; when I could hardly contemplate starting that run in the first place, I put one foot in front of the other and I just kept going.

Apparently you have to physically be in Coeur d'Alene to sign up for the race the following year. I guess I'm driving out to Coeur d'Alene in late June.

A goal, not THE goal, but A goal.

2009-02-17T22:41:00.001-08:00

Created by OnePlusYou

I've thought about blogging about this, but there's not much to say except, on July 26th, 2009, I am doing the Headwaters Half Ironman. It's a big deal to me as it's a major stepping stone to a full Ironman, which is the real goal. But, the Headwaters Half is the most immediate goal. I will swim, I will ride, I will run.

blech

2009-02-16T21:28:00.001-08:00

I can't think of anything I hate more than getting a lecture together, which is the soul purpose of this hear post.

That, and exploring the wonderful world of homophones...

Anyone have any good powerpoint slides?

One thing is for sure...

2009-01-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

If you know me long enough I will contradict myself. I hated Bridger until I loved it, and thought mustache bars were stupid, until I put one on a bike and realized they are incredibly comfortable. And after saying I loved steak too much to ever become a vegetarian, I have now gone a week consciously not eating meat, and I don't really miss it. I'm still not sure how I feel about run-on sentences and/or starting them with the word 'and'

Things change.

January Trail Riding

2009-01-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

Most people probably don't do a lot of trail riding in January. Fortunately my peeps are not most people. Biking season? We don't even know what that phrase means.

Now go ride and smile.

It's January...You know what that means?

2009-01-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

I missed sprints. I missed it really bad. People are gonna hurt, people are gonna hurl, people are gonna throw DOWN for no reason other than the fact that they are on stage and they want to KICK. SOME. ASS. Welcome back Winter. I've had enmity towards you at times, but I see you now as one Samurai sees another, you are my most worthy adversary.

Twenty Three Miles

2008-12-31T00:09:00.001-08:00

I didn't do a 'ride' today. I never set out to put on any real mileage, I was even kind of thinking I'd try to take it easy today, and yet just moving myself hither and thither netted me twenty-three miles. It's not really all that astounding, there are people that ride twice that in a daily commute. But, it's a couple gallons of gas in my truck. It's twenty-three miles I wouldn't have ridden otherwise, whether or not it was a 'ride'. It was twenty-three miles during which I could make my legs harder than they were when I woke up this morning.

The greatest wrestling coach, pretty much ever, Dan Gable, used to say that every minute of his life he was training. If he had to get across the University of Iowa campus, he did it at a run. My 'commuting' mileage could also be 'training' mileage, it's just a matter of perspective. Why not hammer on the way home from the grocery store? A fifty pound bike loaded with thirty pounds of crap is probably good resistance training. One hundred forty miles is a long way to travel in a day, particularly if you expect to finish by running a marathon. I'll probably need to seize every single opportunity I can get to prepare myself. One smelts iron with great heat and effort after all.

T minus...well, we'll see...

2008-12-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

There will come a day when there are more letters behind my name than "B.S" Shortly after I gain those extra letters, I'm doing this. Anyone who wants to accompany me is welcome for any and all of the 4,262 miles, side trips non-withstanding. Just sayin'.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T00:38:00.000-08:00

I went over to DNA and Capt'n E's and we fried, well, pretty much everything.

Then I rode home in several inches of fresh snow, which was interesting to say the least.

Merry Christmas everybody!

I blame my mother

2008-12-09T16:14:00.001-08:00

There are those who consider Mt. Biking in the winter time to be "hard core", and commuting 100% by bike, year round, in Montana, to be patently ridiculous. Personally I consider both to be perfectly natural, especially since I live in a town with a high concentration of badasses. But for those of you who consider me outside the norm...well, it's not my fault. I place the blame firmly on the shoulders of my parents.

Consider Exhibit A. My Mom decided that since there was still five feet of open water on the lake (in December) that she would get her paddle on, never mind the ice and freezing water.

So it's not my fault, blame nature and/or nurture, but I take no credit/responsibility for my predilection towards "inappropriate" wintertime activities.

Next we'll get into my Dad. He and I decided to ride bikes on that same lake, two Decembers past. I don't have pictures, but after he fell through the ice, and extricated himself, he ran up to the house to change, and we then finished a ten mile ride, back on the ice.

Like I said, not my fault.

Mom. Dad. Love you guys. Thanks for the adventures.

Update: Here's my Pops out on a little ride.

Long Bike porn

2008-12-08T22:36:00.000-08:00

Some cyclophilic buddies of mine have been conducting a series of real world (as well as patently ridiculous) tests pitting the Xtracycle against the Madsen. Keep your eye on the Practical Pedal blog for juicy updates.

Being present for some/all of this has afforded me some opportunities to snap some pics of the various long bikes belonging to my peeps. Here's a few. (BTW, I shouldn't really have to explain this, but if you click on each pic, it will open a much bigger/higher quality pic...just sayin')

I'm a dyed in the wool Xtracycle fan, but I will say, you can haul thirty or so gallons of water in the Madsen, which is interesting to say the least...rolling hottube anyone?

Idiots

2008-12-06T00:18:00.000-08:00

The folks at Miscellaneous Haberdashery seem to have taken stupid to a new level. It was really funny tho. Sorry Cap'n E!

Bidness fo shidness

2008-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

I'm a big believer in monogamy, I just want that one perfect woman. However, I can not fathom not having less than...well, I've got a few bikes. Enough that one of them (gorgeous Bianchi with gold inlaid spades and Bianchi script on the lugs, and matching gold Deep V's...muey bueno) hung from my garage ceiling for the last month or so because it had a flat tire, and I had just built up another fixie, which I've been digging. It's an old Trek 520 touring frame and it had the dual distinctions of being able to run 35 mm studded tires and riding like silk made out butter. And then, of course there's the Xtracycle, which is a go-to if there's even a remote possibility I need to haul anything lager that a couple cinder blocks (you'd be surprised). The long and the short if it being I'm not really hurting for transportation. Hell, worst case scenario I could drive my car, which has only been started once in about three months and only to move it to the other side of the block (long story).

However, I had set the Trek up geared a little higher for a race we had a while back. Of course that was fine (great actually) with 23 mm slicks. But when the snow started to fly, and I ended up on my ass a couple (ok, like 8) times on my way home from the bar one night, I promptly threw my Schwalbe Marathon Winters on the Trek. Now, bigger heavier tires require a little more torque to get rolling, and today, while trying to beat a car between stoplights, I felt a little pop in my right knee. It didn't hurt all that bad and I didn't think all that much of it, but it didn't feel right.

Then of course came the straw. Once I got home I felt the need to bust out a few miles on foot (I'm not a 'runner' but I do run). When I got back from my jaunt, my right knee was hurtin'. It wasn't hurtin' bad, but it hurt enough, and I decided to gear the 35 mil stud adorned Trek from 42x15 to 42x17 (the 17's been sitting in my messenger bag for about a month, I'm just to frikken lazy to do something til I get a swift kick in the butt, or in this case a pop in my knee).

While I was getting my hands dirty, it occurred to me that one of my other favoritest bikes was just hanging there unusable for no reason besides my colossal procrastination. So, I took the requisite ten minutes and patched a few tubes (since I was at it), pulled a piece of metal the size of the tip of a nail (good chance that was the issue) out of the tire, and got another of my other favoritist bikes back in action. This, of course necessitated a ride...so I busted out just shy of 12 miles around the BZN, which is sublimely quiet on a Monday night at 11:00pm.

I've said this before, but there's just nothing like getting back on a bike you haven't ridden in a while, it's like having a beer with a best friend that's been on hiatus for months, best part of my whole day! I <3 my bike!

Good to have you back Bianchi, I didn't realize how much I missed you until we were flying down Oak at about twenty miles an hour, and I was hammering up Willson as fast as my anaerobic threshold would manage. Careening through campus, and navigating the eerily dark 8th street with just shy of a full charge on my LED headlight batteries, riding a bike is really my favorite thing.

Today's millage: 19 miles bike (total including commute), 4 miles running. I prolly better get back in the pool here pretty soon. It seems like some fat dumbass (i.e. me) once said something about doing some triathlons.

Not really sure why...

2008-12-01T00:12:00.000-08:00

I've never really been all that concerned with my mileage. I ride a lot. I ride a lot even by the standards of people who ride bikes a lot. But lately, for reasons not worth discussing I've been a little obsessed with it. I think it has to do with the realization that I kind of hate winter and I think it's because I don't ride enough in the winter time.

So I've begun tracking my daily mileage using Pedometer. Wednesday I put on well over 30, Friday I put on 12 miles. Last night I did a little over 19, and tonight it was 16. Really all it's going to take is making some circuitous routes home from work, and a few early morning 10 mile spins.

The "harshest" time of the year for cycling is nigh, but I'm pretty sure the only real barriers are in my mind, hopefully, it'll just become habit, the way it always done when I'm consistently riding. I'm really just trying to regain my normal equilibrium after all. I'm going to try to keep track and use this here blog to catalog it all. Of course, I'm fairly sure I'll loose the disciplined impetus to blog about this. Hopefully the riding will just continue to be a habit. It is what I do after all.

Ah HA!

2008-11-26T18:59:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not getting into ironically notable-by-way-of-obscurity '80's bands (although, now that that's come up I could do with some Journey, Steve Perry's falsetto really is the greatest thing ever). No, I'm talking about rediscovering something a little more significant to me. It's not that I forgot about bike riding, or even that I haven't been riding, just not the way I was a couple months ago. Blame the earlier sunset, the cold, the wet, the snow, whatever, for many reasons I'm not putting many miles on lately.

Concurrent with my drop in mileage, I've been in a %&$#ing SHITTY mood of late (ask my friends and co-workers, no one can really stand to be around me right now). There are also a number of reasons for that, grad school and certain members of the opposite sex playing somewhat significant roles in my ill temper, but there is definitely a correlation between my mood and my mileage. Today was particularly bad, and I walked (ok I stomped, like a toddler having a tantrum) out of my lab around 5:00 pm and hopped on my fixie just because I couldn't really handle anything else at that point.

I wasn't really headed anywhere, the sun was setting, and the temps were starting to drop below thirty, so I certainly wasn't planning on putting on any significant mileage. However, this being Montana, and me being a dedicated bike commuter, I did have the lights, clothes, and studded tires to handle pretty much any of the standard winter-time barriers against doing some riding. I headed south out of town. By around mile five I was feeling really good and I realized that a ride, a real ride was exactly what I needed.

I made my favorite post-work way-home south-of-town loop, and got back into Bozeman feeling warmed up and better than I have in a few days. I certainly wasn't in any rush to get off of my bike. By this point, I was remembering all those conversations I'd had with various friends over the years regarding the malaise of not riding for a while, and I decided to keep going. I headed north. I hit up some snowpacked trails, and some rutted out gravel roads. I spun over sections of desolate asphalt and navigated traffic-filled highways. My trusty little LED headlight illuminating just enough road to allow me to navigate the terrain, but also leaving a few unseen surprises, just to keep it all interesting. I hammered up climbs and spun out coming down the other side. I spent a couple hours listening to the cacophonous sound of my frenetic thoughts being tempered by the soothing bzzzz of my studded tires. I rode back into Bozeman, exhausted, and chasing traffic from stop light to stop light. My legs were like lead weights from spinning a 42x15, studded tire adorned fixie, for around thirty miles, and the rest of me felt good, real good.

I rode my bike. I haven't done that in a while, not really. I'm still stressed about this and that, but I remembered what it seems I'd forgotten.

New Blog!

2008-11-24T22:58:00.000-08:00

Yes. New blog, apropos of very little and/or nothing. It'll unfocus on the mediocre, mundane, and utterly anti-thematic, and it would probably be best if it was never read by anyone at any time. In fact, it will most likely be the buffer for all that late night drunken blogging I feel the need to do.

Meh...

Whatever...

It's here Micellaneous Haberdashery.

You want to know why?

2008-11-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

People sometimes remark to me that they're a bit taken aback by the violent reaction from the cycling community, or any one individual on a bike, when there is any sort of altercation between a bike and a car.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/894806.html

Really!?!?

Racism Dead?

2008-11-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Religion and politics outrage me in a way I can hardly contain. Throw in a little racism, and I sort of lose my mind.

From the NY Times this morning.

Here's a few excerpts that disgusted me on more than a few levels.

“I think any time you have someone elected president of the United States with a Muslim name, whether they are white or black, there are some very unsettling things,” George W. Newman, a director at a local bank and the former owner of a trucking business, said over lunch at Yellow Creek Fish and Steak.

“I think there are going to be outbreaks from blacks...From where I’m from, this is going to give them the right to be more aggressive.”

Don Dollar, the administrative assistant at City Hall, said bitterly that anyone not upset with Mr. Obama’s victory should seek religious forgiveness.

“This is a community that’s supposed to be filled with a bunch of Christian folks,” he said. “If they’re not disappointed, they need to be at the altar.”

A quote from Dr Martin Luther King Junior (A Liberal, and a man of God if ever there was one) "Don't let anybody make you think that GOD chose America as his divine Messianic Force To BE a sort of Policeman of the whole world!"

In fact here's the man saying it himself.

There's a special, sick, demented, pathologically hubris-ridden brand of ambitious Fundamentalism that has taken control of the hearts and minds of certain 'Republicans'. I won't insult true conservatives by calling these fundamentalists Conservative. They're more like lunatics. These people are an insult to my country, which was founded on the idea of freedom, and my religion, which was founded on the idea of loving one's neighbor. These people continue to blaspheme against both with this hateful rhetoric.

I was really hopeful Wednesday morning, I still am. There's clearly a very serious paradigm shift going on in American culture. Thinking about the environment is not just for quirky people who don't bathe regularly (Although I myself happen to be a quirky person who doesn't bathe regularly). Using a bike as one's primary means of transportation is, perhaps looked upon as 'hard core' by mainstream automobile-addicted Americans, but it's hardly remarkable any more. Both a highly qualified woman and a highly qualified black man were serious contenders for the White House this year, and a black man won the Presidency of the United States a week ago today.

I'm still hopeful. But cold reality is setting in. Car companies still think they can dupe Americans into buying 'fuel efficient hybrid SUVs' that get 24 mpg, and Americans want to be duped because they're too weak minded to break out of the comfortable lifestyle they've purchased on the credit that has decimated our economy. Gas going "down" to $2.50 a gallon and temps below 75 degrees Fahrenheit have all those 'bike-commuters' I saw around Bozeman this last July back to driving their "efficient" Subarus again.

Seeing a competent, intelligent, black American, a God-fearing, family man, who made his own way in the world, and proudly bears his father's name though he barely knew him; who ascended to the Presidency without the help of his oil-rich daddy bailing him out of jail, bankruptcy, and academic mediocrity, that makes these red-neck idiots think they need to be fearful? A Patriot would puff out his chest, and gleam with pride that his country could produce such an individual. A Christian would love his political enemy, and pray that God grant this man the wisdom to save this country from itself, from problems that may not be salvageable.

I'm still hopeful, but clearly there's a long road ahead, regardless of how far we've come.

Lost Forever

2008-11-08T02:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a scientist. It's my profession. It's what I am and a part of what defines 'me'. I respect technology. But our capacity to accomplish specific tasks should have ended at certain points in history to preserve our Humanity. Some of our abilities should be limited to our physical abilities, namely our capacity to move and our capacity to kill.

I work in the field of physical biochemistry, I utilize a great deal of computer power, and I work at the forefront of technology. I also utilize centuries-old technology to get to work day by day. If there's a job, there's a proper implement for said job.

There's really no reason besides laziness, weakness, and complacency for us to make trips under five miles with an automobile, just like there's no reason to kill thousands if you aren't capable of doing so without a sword. Relying on technology has created a substantial population of individuals who question their physical capacity in lieu of a mechanical assistance.

We are not merely creatures capable of technological advancement, we are capable of presaging the outcome of our actions. I respect technology, it brought me butted tubesets and freewheels (I coast from time to time). But technology, like so many things, can be overextended, if you drink too much water, you will die. YOU WILL DIE. IF YOU DRINK TOO MUCH WATER YOU WILL DIE!

We're exceptionally good at developing technology to make our lives seem easier, maybe we've sacrificed wisdom for intelligence. A samurai may kill a man with a sword, but he will do so with reason and necessity, a present-day politician can kill millions if the public deems it expedient. Wisdom is the slave of technology. You don't need that iron contraption you call a car, you've simply convinced yourself of that fact. Your legs are strong, your lungs are full, and your heart...your heart is unbound.

CHOOSE to be smarter than the wiselessness about you!!

News Flash

2008-11-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

The American auto industry is extremely flat footed! Frankly, I'm pretty amused that part of the dead weight pulling GM down is Hummer. I mean, if you can't sell Hummers, that's a problem. Remember the early Nineties when people were looking askance at 'rice burning cars'? All of this American Hubris is a fascinating thing to watch.

I'm sure this bodes nothing well for our distraught American economy, but every house of cards comes down eventually.

I noticed that gas is $2.19 a gallon on my ride to work today, so you can't buy a Hummer, but you can fill one with gas again. All those people hopin' an prayin' for gas to come down from 4 bucks got what they asked for, it just came on the heels of what may yet turn into GDII. My ride to work cost me about $1e-10, so I still feel pretty good about the cost ratio of riding my bike vs driving a Hummer. Maybe GM and Ford can melt down all those huge trucks to supply the bike industry with raw materials so Surly doesn't have to raise their still quite reasonable prices just because the cost of steel is rising.

Perfect

2008-11-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

There are a few brief windows between seasons where you get an absolutely perfect temperature for a morning ride. Today was such a day. Soon it'll be cold, and icy, and after that wet, and slushy, then raining constantly, and ultimately summer will reappear and getting to work will entail a lot of sweating. I've got all sorts of special little gear bits and clothes to deal with all those varied environmental fluctuations, and I enjoy aspects of all those types of conditions and the challenges and special skills they present and require.

But today is clear, cool, beautiful. Today's ride was perfect.

Pretty good night

2008-11-04T22:50:00.000-08:00

Though it had been sleeting/snowing all evening, I had an incredibly pleasant ride home the other night. The temperature was about right considering my quick pace, no sweating, cool and comfortable. My fixie was running smooth and felt like it was flying over the sleek, carless streets, which had a nice reflective sheen from the freshly falling and melting snow and...OBAMA DECISIVELY WON THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES!!!

Liberalism? Conservatism? We can FINALLY talk seriously about them again, and though I wave a progressive banner, I respect aspects of conservative thought. One of my very best friends is an unflinching, self-describing independent conservative. Between the two of us, he's probably the more frustrated while discussing what has been done in the name of the party he grew up with; when he says 'fiscal responsibility' he actually means it. I respect his opinion and his logical capacity better than most others I know, and he stood right next to me last night and nodded while America decisively turned a corner in many many respects.

We stood next to each other; friends and patriots, with differing ideological backgrounds, and watched history unfold as our country stepped forward into an uncertain future. I used to think I wanted a Progressive Democrat to win this election in order that I can see my country move beyond the disaster of George W. Bush and his insane brand of Ideological Lunacy. Now, I realize all I've really wanted is for my fellows in this nation to stand side by side again.

Incidentally, if you want to know how my friend voted, you'd have to ask him. I will say that when he described it to me, it changed my perspective on voting a bit. I used to simply think that we should all exercise this 'right to vote' and decried the fact that most of us don't. The other night I talked to someone who put real, serious, thought into it, which is our true 'civic duty'.

Nice work America.

Bad-ass-mutha in Chief.

Why?

2008-11-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

Why do this? Why tackle physically demanding sections? Why do a seven hour ride? Why do a 60 mile fixed gear race in a hail storm and laugh through most of it? Why switch to riding a single speed mountain bike, and spend 90% of your rides so far beyond your anaerobic threshold that you end every ride so weak you nearly pass out? Why put yourself through physically torturing situations on a daily or weekly business?

It's not just that it feels good to be done with a long ride, it's more than that. We actually enjoy suffering in the moment we're pushing ourselves at the limits of our endurance. We like that feeling that we're about to explode and then reaching down to push a little harder. Not all addicts are cyclists, but clearly all cyclists are addicts of one sort or another. What the hell is wrong with us?

I'm not saying I like it when I'm hurting, but I seem to continue to throw myself into situations that I know are going to be physically and emotionally demanding and midway through I'm gonna wonder why I did it in the first place...but I keep riding, and when I'm the most exhausted is when I feel the need to push myself the hardest, and then it's over, and I can't wait to do it again. Do we REALLY like something about pain? Does that make any sense?

I know there are a lot of other things to a ride than pain and suffering, but that's a big part, and I kind of doubt we'd like it so much were it not for that fact.

I wouldn't call myself a masochist, but I seem to seek out things I know are going to hurt.

Whatever...

Perspective

2008-11-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

The weather turned to crap today. It makes a harmonious backdrop for my mood.

Religion and Politics.

2008-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

This post has absolute NOTHING to do with bikes. Just, two other things I feel very strongly about, politics and religion, if you don't like reading about those, you might want to move on. Maybe you know this about me, maybe you don't, but I'm a both a very religious (Christian) and political (Liberal) person. This article sent me through the roof today.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=79276

I subsequently sent the following email to the author.

(Update: Of course I don't expect someone like this to make any reasonable reply or even think twice about it [or probably even read her email], this person is clearly not thoughtful. But I can't stand watching the Right Wing destroy both my religion and my country without at least speaking up from time to time. And seriously, I'll write about bikes next time, lots and lots of bikes...)

Ms. Folger,

How dare you self-righteously threaten people in the name of God in order to sway them to your political viewpoint? How about a rant regarding the neo-conservative viewpoint on capital punishment, the Iraq war, or seemingly ceaseless genocide in Darfur; and the neo-conservative socioeconomic and foreign policies which directly lead to the needless suffering and death of tens and hundreds of thousands? Yet you dare to quote The Book regarding taking life? Blessed are the Peacemakers ma'am. Your Party has both directly and indirectly caused the needless war-time deaths of hundreds of thousands. Yet in vain you evoke the name of The Lord against your political opponent for his stance on abortion?

It is not yours but The Lord's to judge. Your espoused viewpoint threatens both my religion and my country, and as a Christian and a patriot, I am outraged and sickened by your willful misrepresentation of scripture to further your personal political agenda. Your piece is comparable to the teachings of the Pharasies. They also missed the true message of Christ because they were so caught up it their egotistical adherence to their self-righteous, human-filtered interpretation of The Law.

Ending the Iraq war and trying to create socioeconomic justice (i.e. clothing and feeding the 'least'), these are the liberal and Christian ideals you are ignoring to focus on vague social issues, which have incredibly emotionally polarizing positions that are practically vague in term of their ultimate effect on society. Do you truly wish to end abortion, or do you only wish to use it as a political instrument? Truly ending abortion is much greater and more complex than your embittered and unreasoned stance on Roe V. Wade.

I'll see to the mote in my own eye Ma'am, I certainly don't need your kind to decry it.

Casey
Church of God 7th Day
Bozeman Mt.

Race of the Dead.

2008-10-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

The cats over at The Fix have another race in the works for this weekend. This one is gonna go down in the dark so bring yer lights. Be at Bogert park at five thirty on Saturday 10/25. Oh, and wear a costume people...

See you there!

Update: There's going to be a "Critical Mass" centering around Bogert about the same time. Be sure and bring your withering looks.

Don't just face it. Live to face it.

2008-09-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

I discovered something today. I found out with certainty, there's no question, the data are in, there's something medically wrong with me. I have a pathology and I'll face it the rest of my life, have been facing it my whole life thus far, it may be to blame for the majority of issues that have held me back thus far.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are far worse things than what I contend with. There are people with cancer, who've lost parents and friends, who face living hell like multiple sclerosis, amyotropic lateral sclerosis, or schizophrenia, people who are shunned by society because they're afflicted, and frankly I feel selfish feeling sorry for myself for this. I've seen people face nigh insurmountable issues with nearly inhuman bravery, I therefore can maintain perspective, but the fact of the matter is that I have something to overcome.

When I sat down in my doctor's office and she laid down the details, I felt the same way I feel when I know I have a BIG climb coming up. When you ride a trail for the first time, there is a special kind of anxiety, you have NO idea what to expect. You may come across anything. But, when you ride a trail you're familiar with, and you round a corner and see that weird tree, and you know that gnasty climb is right ahead, you feel anxiety, but it pales compared to the tenacity and outright defiance that you will CLEAN THIS CLIMB TODAY!!

Last weekend I rode Curly Lake. It's a little nuts. It's well over 25 miles long. It's technical. It's steep. When I first rode it, I had no idea what I was getting into. Last weekend, I knew exactly what to expect. It scared me, but the daunting challenge was the draw instead of a deterrent. Every section I cleaned was a victory to be striven for instead of an obstacle to overcome.

I spent years ignoring the fact that there was something wrong with me. I've been hamstrung for years by this, but have let it go on and internalized every failure because of it. Now, I'm facing it, and it's a challenge that can define my spirit and my character, not a flaw that I need to feel guilty about.

Riding bikes has taught me a lot of things, I can add strength of character to that list now. Riding bikes taught me that I'm capable of overcoming when I 'knew' there was no way to succeed. Riding bikes taught me to face my fear, and overcome when logic said there was no practical way to succeed.

I WILL CLEAN THIS CLIMB! And if I don't, I'll walk back down, and I will try again. I WILL CLEAN THIS CLIMB!

Worst case scenario...Part 3...The lake

2008-09-24T22:54:00.001-07:00

For parts one and two, look here and here.

Ten minutes of climbing after the penultimate stop, with snowflakes alighting around me like tangible benevolence from above, the terrain levels out. We've arrived in an alpine basin at over nine thousand feet above sea level. I roll up to a stop near the rest of the group. 'There's Hyalite peak' states one of us. I shut my lights off, it's pitch black, then my eyes adjust to the indirect starlight mostly obscured by clouds. There, outlined against the sky I see the sharp outline of Hyalite Peak, it's not the most majestic mountain in the world, but I'm still standing at its base in the middle of the night. We marvel for a time, but all of us are feeling anxious about getting back down to the trail head, it's been a tough night, and we've got a wicked, gnarly, decent through a dark snow filled night.

Heading back down the trail is mixture of fun and extreme anxiety, the switchbacks at the top are some of the steepest I know of. To my left is a sharp drop, and under my tires is a trail basically carved out of scree. I'm wet, cold, tired. Carving through each switchback, I giggle with glee. The immediacy of threading through never-ending rock gardens never dulls. I had started this ride with five weeks off from real riding, now I was relying on instinct alone as my skills had lost a step or two to say the least. The trail is loose and every move feels like a chance to tumble. Onward through the darkness surrounded by my personal LED produced halo, I advance cautiously, and recklessly, dichotomy is the theme on this night, maybe also the theme for my life at this point. Speed is a relative quantity on a mountain bike, on a night ride every single thing you come across is immediate, and you must react with presence of mind honed from years of experience. If you've never done a night ride, you should.

We finally make it back to the car. Twelve miles are behind me...and now after well over a month, I know I've got some real rides in my near future. The dark, snowy, wet, cold, rocky, technical ride was perfect. Everything went wrong, and that was exactly what I needed to greet every single ride that has come since without a hint of hesitation. I faced it all, if it had been less tasking, I would have gained far less.

The worst case scenario was the only thing that could have brought me back.

Share your practical cycling knowlege

2008-09-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

Cyclists, in my experience, have a much greater sense of community than most other groups. Every cyclist I know has multiple stories about helping, being helped by, or good interactions with, another human just because both were on bikes. Now, the guys at the Practical Pedal want to make that sense of community viral.

convivialcity.com/ is a new website out there where practical cyclists can share knowledge and community with each other. Check it out. Share what you know, meet some new people in a different city. Ride some new places.

Cars kill

2008-09-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

I road to work this morning in a serious funk. I'm sick of America's car culture. I'm sick of the expense, the waste, the impact on the environment, the economy and our social structure. Mostly I'm sick of hearing about promising lives being wasted because some brainless idiot can't be bothered to miss a call while driving an SUV. I don't ride a bike because I can't drive a car, i ride a bike because I love bikes, and I can't stand driving.

I hate your cars America. Your cars kill people.

Found this all here.

Deaths from Cars. Car emissions kill 30,000 people and car collisions kill 46,000 each year in the U.S. (2) Of these, 25,136 were a result of road departure, 9,213 intersection-related, and 4,749 were pedestrians. (FHWA)

Motorists usually at fault. The NYC group Right of Way says: "After NYC cycling fatalities increased twofold in 1999, police rushed to cover their, er, reputation by claiming (without analysis or supporting data) that cyclists are to blame in 75% of cycling deaths. Right of Way took a closer look. Surprise! The truth is just the reverse, as listed in our report, The Only Good Cyclist (PDF)." According to Right of Way, over 90% of cyclist deaths in NYC are the fault of drivers. Remember, however, that the real truth may never be known, because of the underreporting problem mentioned at the top of this page.

Most at-fault motorists who kill cyclists and pedestrians get off the hook. A study by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition shows that three out of four at fault drivers were never even cited for hitting and killing pedestrians. 22% of fatal pedestrian crashes involved hit and run drivers, yet, none of the runaway motorists were found or charged. In New York, 70-92% of drivers were at-fault in killing pedestrians and cyclists, but 74% didn't even get a ticket. (RightOfWay.org, 1999) The story in Austin is similar.

First Car Crash killed a cyclist. The first automobile crash in the United States occurred in New York City in 1896, when a motor vehicle collided with a bicyclist. (1)

SUVs. An average SUV or a pickup is more than twice as likely as a car to kill the driver of the other vehicle in a collision, and an SUV is four times as likely to roll over in an accident. (3)

SUV's deadlier to child pedestrians than passenger cars by about 18%. (NTSA, 2003)

Big pickups kill even more than SUV's. When the average large pickup truck collides with a second vehicle, people in the second vehicle die at a rate of 293 for every 100,000 crashes, according to federal crash statistics. By comparison, large sport utility vehicles kill people in the second vehicle at a rate of 205 per 100,000 crashes; minivans kill at a rate of 104 deaths; and large cars at a rate of 85 deaths. (NYT, July 31, 2003)

Auto crashes is the leading cause of death for people age 6-27, males age 6-23 & 26, and females age 4-6 & 8-28. (4)

Red Lights. This July 2000 article in USA Today has a lot of statistics about cars running red lights (which kill about 800 people a year nationwide).

Cost of Auto Collisions. The economic impact ofmotor vehicle crashes on U.S. roadways has reached $230.6 billion a year--nearly 2.3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product or an average of $820 for every person living in the country--the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports. Using data from the year 2000 (in which 41,821 people were killed, 5.3 million were injured and 27.6 million vehicles were damaged), the agency found that the average readway fatality has economic costs of $977,000, while the costs associated with a critically injured crash survivor surpasses $1 million. The yearly economic costs also include $61 billion in lost workplace productivity; $20.2 billion in lost household productivity; $59 billion in property damage; $32.6 billion in medical costs; and $25.6 billion in travel delay costs.(source)

Austin crashes. The Austin Police Department says that for the first 11 months of 2006, there have been over 30,000 motor vehicle crashes. Of these, something like 14,000 were severe enough that one or more vehicles had to be towed away or someone had to be hospitalized. [Relayed on 14 Dec. 2006 by UTC member Patrick Goetz]

Where cyclists die or crash

U.S. cyclists are three more likely to be killed than German cyclists and six times more than Dutch cyclists, whether compared per-trip or per-distance traveled. (Reuters, Aug. 28, 2003, by Maggie Fox)

Cyclist fatalities occurred more frequently in urban areas (66%), at nonintersection locations (67%), between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. (30%), and during the months of June, July, and August (36%). (NHTSA, 2004)

Riding on the sidewalk is several more times more dangerous than riding in the street. (William Moritz, 1998)

Most deaths on major roads. Fifty-seven percent of bicycle deaths in 1999 occurred on major roads, and 37 percent occurred on local roads. (6)

Streets with bike lanes have a significantly lower crash rate then either major or minor streets without any bicycle facilities (38 and 56% respectively). (William Moritz, 1998)

Streets with bike lanes are safer than those without. Article also has information about the safety of bike paths. (BicyclingInfo.org, 2004)

Texas leads cycling deaths. Texas ranks 14th in number of cyclist fatalities per capita. (5)

Four states lead cycling deaths. Four states (California, Florida, New York, and Texas) accounted for 43% of bicycle deaths in 1999. (6)

Austin stats. Statistics specific to Austin are listed below.

When cyclists die

Many deaths occur at night. In 1999, 39% of deaths on bicycles nationwide occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight. (9) (more on when cyclists died)

How many cyclists die

Deaths per year. 725, 629, 665, 732, and 693 cyclists died per year in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000 respectively, and were about 89% male. (National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration, and Insurance Institute for Highway Saftey)

An average of 16.5 cyclists per million die every year in the U.S. (For motorists, it's 19.9 motorists per million.) (National Safety Council 1988)

Cyclists are 2% of road deaths & injuries. The 761 cyclists killed in 1996 accounted for 2% of traffic fatalities, and the 59,000 cyclists injured made up 2% of all traffic injuries. (5)

Cycling deaths higher in 70's & 80's. The number of cyclist fatalities in 1996 was 19% lower than the 941 fatalities reported in 1986. The highest number of cyclist fatalities ever recorded was 1,003 in 1975. (5)

Cyclists accounted for 12% of all nonmotorist traffic fatalities in 1996. Pedestrians accounted for 86 percent, and the remaining 2 percent were skateboard riders, roller skaters, etc. (5)

Cyclists killed SINCE 1932. Nearly 44,000 cyclists have died in traffic crashes in the United States since 1932 &emdash; the first year in which estimates of cyclist fatalities were recorded. (5)

Cyclists killed IN 1932. The 350 cyclists killed in 1932 accounted for 1.3% of the 27,979 persons who died in traffic crashes that year. (5)

Age of cycling victims

Child cyclists killed. Cyclists under age 16 accounted for 24% of all cyclists killed in 2002. (Insurance Institute for Highway Saftey) Cyclists under 16 were 33% of all cyclists killed and 45% of those injured in traffic crashes in 1996. In comparison, cyclists under age 16 accounted for 47 percent of all those killed in 1986. (5)

Average age of killed/injured cyclists. In 1996 the average age of cyclists killed in traffic crashes was 31 years, and the average age of those injured was 23.2 years. In 1986, the average age was 23 years. (5)

Non-Fatal Injuries

One in every 20 bicyclists is injured annually.(Bicycling Magazine 1987)

A bicyclist can expect a minor injury every three years and a more serious one every fifteen. (Bicycle Forum 1978)

Kinds of crashes. Falls account for 59% of all crashes, running into a fixed object 14%, moving motor vehicles were involved in 11%, and another bicycle in 9%. (Moritz, 1998)

Bike Lanes

We have a separate page about the safety of bike lanes.

Helmets

CPSC Report. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released a detailed report in 1999 about helmet use among consumers. (There is very little there about efficacy.)

The Ontario Coalition for Better Cycling has lots of information about helmet efficacy.

DWI, Cell Phones, and DWD (Driving While Drowsy)

DWI & crashes. Alcohol involvement -- either for the driver or the cyclist -- was reported in more than one third of the traffic crashes that resulted in cyclist fatalities in 1996. In 28% percent of the crashes, either the driver or the cyclist was intoxicated, with blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.10 grams per deciliter (g/dl) or greater. Lower alcohol levels (BAC 0.01 to 0.09 g/dl) were reported in an additional 8.3%. Nearly one fourth (23.9%) of thecyclists killed had a BAC of 0.01 g/dl or greater, and nearly one-fifth (17.9%) were intoxicated. (5)

BAC lowered by .02 per hour. Alcohol is removed from the body at approximately .02 per hour. Useful for estimating blood alcohol level at the time of a collision, if the test is administered hours after the collision. (unattributed)

The risk of having a car crash while using a cell phone is the same as that while driving drunk. (read the article)

Cell phone use is just as dangerous as driving drunk, and hands-free phones are no safer than handheld phones. (Bloomberg, July 2006)

Driving while Drowsy. More than half of Americans admit to driving while drowsy. Is this really a problem? Hell yes! Many fatalaties are caused by motorists who fall asleep at the wheel. And when sleeping drivers injure or kill cyclists, and then often don't face any penalties! (For example, see the case of Jason Boardman & Cameron Cooper, also listed in the table.)

Speeding. The Wisconsin State Journal points out that everyone is focused on the danger of drunk driving, while speeding is potentially an even bigger problem.

Yes, "everybody does it" - or at least 71 percent of licensed drivers, according to the American Automobile Association. Nationwide, 13,713 died last year [2003] in accidents caused by speeding. That's about 400 more fatalities than were caused by drunken driving in 2002.

Moreover, while the number of drunken driving fatalities has fallen 37 percent nationwide in the past 20 years, the number of fatal accidents has been rising steadily in the 22 states that have raised their speed limits to 70 mph or more since 1995. Safety experts say the risk of death in a crash doubles for every 10-mph increase in speed.

Some Western European nations have already recognized that speeding can be just as dangerous as drunken driving. In England, for example, the government launched a campaign: "Kill your speed - not a child." It also installed lots of roadside cameras to photograph and tickets speeders. (Alas, photo radar is illegal in Wisconsin.) The result of the British campaign: a 50 percent reduction in speeding-related fatalities. (full article)

Miscellaneous

Health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks. "The gain of 'life years' through improved fitness among regular cyclists, and thus their increased longevity exceeds the loss of 'life years' in cycle fatalities (British Medical Association, 1992). An analysis based on the life expectancy of each cyclist killed in road accidents using actuarial data, and the increased longevity of those engaging in exercise regimes several times a week compared with those leading relatively sedentary lives, has shown that, even in the current cycle hostile environment, the benefits in terms of life years gained, outweigh life years lost in cycling fatalities by a factor of around 20 to 1." -- Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, and British Medical Association researcher (7, 8)

Note this colection of reports about cyclist injuries & fatalities by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Also note their Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which covers all road users.

I may vomit

2008-09-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

HEY AMERICA!! GET THE F&$% OFF YOUR CELL PHONES WHILE YOU DRIVE!! This was no 'accident' this was another self-indulgent American $hithead on a cell phone operating something that weighs three thousand pounds and is capable of going one hundred miles an hour. I'd try to express how outraged I was when I read this, but if I think about it much longer, I'll just throw my monitor across the room. I think that a ten year jail sentence should be the least of what the gutless coward is given. Of course, given the pathetic, BS that pass for 'laws' when an innocent cyclist is killed by a car in this country, I'm sure this driver will ultimately be painted as the victim. I hope this cell phone user has nightmares about this for the rest of their life.

Yet again...

2008-09-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

I have nothing to do with this...I just really like Xtracycles

I also have nothing to do with this...see above...

According to the guys at Surly, stop action Big Dummy builds are the new black. Personally? I'd say Xtracycles are the new automobile, just one that won't destroy the planet. The word automobile means 'something capable of moving on its own'. A bike won't move on its own. Neither will a car, you fill it with petroleum by-product for that. A person is automobile, and a person on a bike is far more automobile than a person without a bike. Logic follows. I win.

There's a new fixie in town.

2008-09-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Winter'll be here eventually, and last year it lasted until May. I like my load bike an all, but some times I just want to ride fixed. Now, my Xtracycle isn't the only bike I can run studded tires on.

Here are a bunch more pictures

Bueno!!

Worst case scenario...Part 2

2008-09-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

If you give a schitt about continuity, read Part 1 here.

After roughly an hour of climbing, the light gets beyond sketchy and one member of my crew suggests that it's time to get the artificial light running. There are a few machinations and some MacGyver-type stuff to get one person's light functioning fully, but ultimately we're all suited up for phase two, in the dark. The sprinkle is turning to rain. It's not heavy, but it's an element. The trail isn't mucky to the point of being impassable, but everything is slippery, everything has an added layer of complexity. This ride is as much about skill as physical endurance. I'm beyond my anaerobic threshold at this point.

The ride continues. By this point, I have faced two of my three worst fears on this ride. One, I've tweaked my shoulder twice when my rear wheel slipped on a wet root across the trail, and while it hurt, it wasn't the sick pain I associate with actual injury. Two, I'm not going to win any races any time soon, but I'm keeping up, on a ridiculous trail, in the rain, in the dark, on a single speed. Number three? Well there's a night-time decent coming up...

The ride continues, over rocks and roots, creek crossings, log bridges, just past the half-way point there are steady patches of snow on the trail, and the sprinkling rain has become sleet, and it's turning into snow. I'm hurting, and I'm laughing, this is one of the best rides I've ever been on. Somehow, it wouldn't be as good if it were run-of-the-mill. It wouldn't be as fun if it were easy. We mountain bike to face adversity, greater adversity makes every aspect of riding better. I'm far more sharply attuned to this ride. My mind is quiet, and focused. I'm in the moment. Not many earthly endeavors give me that.

Past the gnarly switchbacks, over deepening snow patches, close to the top, I come upon the leading member of our ride. He's waiting, and he's got a smile on his face. I un-clip and hop off my bike. There's now a light snow falling on us, and it's pitch black. We're almost at nine thousand feet of elevation. Even in the dark, I can see the snowflakes nearly glowing in the dark, it's ethereal.

'This is a magic ride'. I get a laugh of agreement, "Exactly, that's exactly how I would describe it" is the disembodied reply. At this point, we're nearly to the lake. It's cold, wet, becoming untenable, but we've nearly bagged the climb, no one's stopping. Of course, there is still the decent, and my feet are completely numb...my hands are getting there...the precipitation is only continuing. But my group is strong, and we're feeding off of each others' enthusiasm. An easy ride wouldn't have evoked this response. Facing adversity made it better. The weather had turned against us, when we hoped it wouldn't, and that turned out to be the element that made it better, not worse. Of course...we do still have to get down. The lake's not far now...

Stay tuned for Part 3...

Sometimes, the worst case scenario is also perfect...Part 1

2008-09-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't been riding off road in over a month, courtesy of a should injury in July. I had been thinking in the last week though, that it's about time to get back to it. I started considering the options, there's Sourdough (easy enough that I see people pushing baby strollers there), South Cottonwood (easy, but actually a dirt trail), and a few others. Mostly I'm procrastinating, cuz I'm scared like that.

Yesterday morning, while checking my email, I see a proposal by a friend of mine to do a little night ride. To be clear, this person is an absolute badass, and no ride that she would engage in would be exactly easy (more like intensely arduous), and the trail she's proposing to ride is technical, parts of it are nothing but loose rock fields, and it's getting late in the season to go up above 9000 feet, and she wants to do it as a night ride...my initial reaction went something like this 'huh, ...nope'.

Then I started thinking 'I'll just throw my gear and my bike on the Xtracycle and take everything to work with me...just in case'. Now the true vacillation begins. 'I'm not doing this'. I haven't ridden in well over a month, so I've got my gear spread out all over the place, both of my trail bikes are in pieces, the bike I had to settle on would be a single speed, 'I'm not doing this'. But eventually I arrived at work, Single Speed in tow, one freeloader bulging with the requisite clothing and lights for a chilly night ride. I send my friend an email. Where does she want to meet?

We get to the Hyalite creek trailhead, elevation ~7000 ft, at about 7:00pm (this time of year, dark thirty is about 8:45 and we've got a tough climb to Hyalite lake, which is around 9000 ft). Everyone gears up, everyone I'm with is an experienced rider, and I'm more than a little nervous about how this is going to go, but I'm also back in my element, it felt great. People who have done this ride will tell you that it isn't exactly a tune-up type ride. It's gnarly, full of rock gardens, creek crossings, and at times it's steep, and we were going to do half the climb and all of the decent in the dark. I was right to be nervous. We headed up the trail at a moderate pace. Within a quarter mile the trail gets rough, full of rocky little ascents and roots. Everyone spins out a bit on the roots, because it had rained pretty heavily earlier in the day. Everything is greasy with fresh mud. Then it starts to sprinkle...

A subtle difference...

2008-09-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

My Xtracycle started its life as a medium-to-low-end Trek road bike. I picked it up whist working in my first shop. This dude comes in and wants to trade in a one-year-old bike, which 'we' were only gonna give him a hundred bucks for, but 'I' gave him two hundred, and he was happy. I then bequeathed it to my dad because he said at some point that he wanted to do a century, and I thought it'd be better than his mountain bike for that little adventure. Well one century turned into anther, and another, etc. and several years later, when he picked up a custom built Bianchi (full campy, beautiful), he gave me the Trek back. It was, to say the least, beat to crap. It was effectively a single-speed, as its shifters had pretty much seized, and the rear hub made a flat out frightening sound over fifteen miles an hour.

I used it for a couple years as a commuter, but eventually I discovered fixed gears and the sad, tired little trek road bike was relegated to a set of back-corner ceiling hooks in my garage. Here it would sit, forgotten, ignored, utterly broken down. Unbeknownst to me at the time, lurking deep in that seemingly broken little bike's soul, was something more amazing than the R and D department at Waterloo could have ever dreamed of.

I first saw an Xtracycle on campus a few years ago, and instantly wanted one. When I found myself in a position that I could afford one, I just got it without really knowing what I was going to build it up with. I had just joined a community bike co-op and I felt pretty confident that I'd be able to find a frame to build up my new load bike. Then, hanging in the far reaches of the garage, I saw my broken-down, neglected little Trek 1200, a serviceable bike, if badly in need of a complete rebuild. 'Hmmm...a load bike built on a roadbike chassis could be fast and nimble' thought I. So, that's what I went with. Immediately, I made the decision to lean for disk brakes, going with Avid Road disk brakes (a fortuitous decision). It was a decent bike, fast and capable.

But the drop bars weren't the greatest for getting up to speed, especially with a load, so I opted for a mary bar, and since I had gone with the road disk brakes I was able to use an old set of servo wave XTR shifter/brake lever pods, which are amazing!

The second iteration of my Xtracycle was just like the first. Only much more stable, better handling, and far faster from a dead stop.

Then, early this summer, the true potential of my resurrected little road bike was realized. DNA called me in July, and asked if I wanted to go on a little bike/backpacking/car camping trip. We would ride from town, twenty miles into the mountains south of Bozeman, camp, live large, and ride home happy and without using drop of petrol. 'Hmm...' thought I, 'I'll need to put some cross tires on the Xtracycle'. Now, that was a good idea, as far as initial ideas go, but my second thought was even better. 'I wonder if I can sneak a mountain bike tire into that cyclocross fork'? So I grabbed a mountain bike wheelset, and voila, since I had disk brakes, I found that I could switch between mountain and road tire/wheel combos with absolute impunity, making my once forlorn, broken-down, roadbike, an almost infinitely capable load-hauling bike. Road or off road, it became clear that this bike would do everything I asked it to do, and probably things I'm not capable of conceiving of.

Post camping trip, I left the knobby set up on my Xtracycle, and I've been riding it that way ever since. As fast and nimble as the road set-up is, I love the rugged do-it-allness of the mountin bike wheelset and tires. With winter fast approaching here in the Rockies, I've decided to leave it that way. The 26 inch wheels handle well, and it's still fast and capable, and it will now quite easily accommodate a set of Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tires, with full fenders.

So here's the latest iteration of my favorite bike. It probably won't be the last, but that's the thing about an Xtracycle, it does what you want it to do, and things you maybe didn't think possible.

Just cause it's stupid doesn't make it wrong

2008-09-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know, I know. Stuff like this is basically BS and a blatant attempt by a not-so-clever ad campaign to capitalize on an energy and financial crisis that is strangling average Americans. Much like Trek's One World Two Wheels campaign (which I myself have vaunted.) ClifBAR is pushing cycling as a way to make money. They're a business, that's what businesses do. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm just as cynical about peoples' motivation as the next guy, but there is one relevant detail to keep in mind. This is one more voice trying to get more people on bikes and less people driving cars. Is it soulless? I kind of doubt it. It's certainly not all that hip, but if you want soulless go here, here, or here, and get on the waiting list for a hybrid SUV (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) and pat yourself on the back for doing something (nothing) to better the world around you.

Na, I'll take Trek, and Clif, and whoever else is marketing bikes instead of the inefficient alternative. Sure there are going to be things about this that irritate those of us who have been cycle commuting since way before suburban white kids rediscovered fixed gears or gas was four dollars a gallon. I'll agree that it's cynical, and I'll still smile when I see a fifty year old guy riding his mid eighties mountain bike, with a rear touring rack mounted on it, out of the grocery store parking lot, past a line of (still) gas guzzling 'hybrid' SUVs.

C

unintendedly ironic quote of the day.

2008-08-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

So, a few days ago, myself and sundry and diverse others from the BBK went to a meeting about the Rouse improvement project. Basically they (the DOT) are going to widen the road and the Bicycle Advisory Board was concerned that cyclists are represented in any traffic planning that goes on. It quickly became apparent to all of us that cyclists weren't going to be left out of the conversation, so I just sat back and listened. About half an hour into the meeting they had a question period. A young woman in the crowd raised her hand about midway through and the moderator handed her a microphone. She begins by stating that she's resident along Rouse Ave, and that the road in front of her residence will lose it's on-street parking should the plan go through. She then asks what contingencies are being offered to ameliorate this unfortunate turn of events. The presenter hims and haws a bit about some off-site parking area, but basically he's not sure, because clearly there's no immediately obvious solution to this 'problem'. At this point the young woman becomes quite agitated and starts to get a little aggressive in her 'query', at one point stating "...well obviously I have two cars and I blah blah blah. At that point Sam and I turned to each other and both said to each other, a little derisively, "OBVIOUSLY!"

I've got a solution for your problem lady. Sell your cars. Bikes take up way less space.

All the way across the pond?

2008-08-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

I was surfin on my lunchbreak and I ran across these little beauties. I thought to myself 'hey, those are cool, I'd like to have a pair for the Xtracycle.' Then I noticed the pound sterling icon next to the suspiciously low price...

:(

Much like my new spats, which I had to wait until after spring was over to get, and the rain cape I am still waiting on, I prolly going to have to jump through unimaginable hoops to get myself a pair of kick-ass blinky pedals. Why does all the good schitt come from the UK? Well, probably because here in Uhmerica, we don't believe that one should get anywhere in any way that doesn't involve internal combustion, and the Brits are a little more progressive about transportation.

The rats have taken over the ship

2008-08-16T01:50:00.000-07:00

DNA may have started the revolution, but it's bigger than one person now. Keep an eye on The Fix for details.

C-Note

mmm...fixie

2008-08-10T11:34:00.001-07:00

I'm going to try riding on of my fixies today. I've gotten back about 75-80% range of motion with my left arm. I might regret this, but it's been raining in the afternoons and, at the moment, this is the only bike I've got with a set of fenders.

Besides, it's beautiful, who wouldn't want to ride that bike?

Update: OK, so I ended up not riding the fixie. There was a minor mechanical issue and I decided that was a sign that I was pushing things. I did ride to campus (mostly) two-handed...ish. It's the small victories sometimes.

Whenever I lose hope

2008-08-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things that make me despair, not the least of which is that I just saw Paris Hilton responding to John McCain using her in a campaign add (HOW FUCKING FAR HAS THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM FALLEN? sorry, I've got myself under control again), but there are still a few things that renew my faith. One of those things, a tangible one anyway, is The Bozeman Bike Kitchen. It's not necessarily The Bike Kitchen itself, although for someone like myself there is a great deal of comfort in being surrounded by bikes and bike parts, but that's not really what The Kitchen is, that's just the building and all the physical crap that makes it work. What The Bike Kitchen is, and what makes me feel so good about it, is the people that show up every week; that's what makes it something that feeds my soul. I guess I shouldn't be surprising that people both detract and replace my faith in humanity, but there it is nonetheless.

There's an eagerness, an excitement, a passion, you can see it in a person's face when they are there to help, they know they are doing something that will help someone else. Well that, and they love bikes; I only trust two types of people, those who love bikes, and dogs (I literally mean dogs, not people who like dogs). I've watched volunteers instantly connect with each other while scratching their heads over a problem. People who have never met, get their hands dirty together, and become friends before they really know each others' names. It's absolutely amazing. It's not just the volunteers though, there's profound relief in a person's eyes when you hand them a bike, and you can see that they're not worrying about how they're going to get to work any more. Don't get me started on what it feels like to hand a bike to a kid. I'm not sure which of the small details it is that makes me show up there tired and unfocused and leave there focused and hardly able to wait until next week, all I can quantify is that Tuesday night is always a good night, and a lot of my other nights aren't.

The bicycle may be the vehicle (pun intended), but it's the people that make it good. I guess, in retrospect, I shouldn't be surprised. One couldn't be surrounded by all that good and not feel good.

Don't get me wrong, we need help, and I'm asking for it. But, I also want other people to get a chance to experience this, it's good! If you've got a spare hour on Tuesday night, come down. We need your help, but I swear you'll get more out of helping us than you'll give.

Score!

2008-08-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

So, I was 'helping' a buddy move tonight, in quotes cuz I've only got about one and a half good hands right now. When I asked him what to do with the wok, he replies 'I don't know, do you want it? Oh and here's the steamer as well.' I hadn't really expected to be hauling anything tonight, however, I was quite fortunately on the Xtracycle.

So, I now have another worthwhile tool to add to my kitchen.

Two things I suggest you don't try to suffer through life without, really good friends, and a load-hauling bike.

Obey!

2008-08-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

I'm watching tv on a Saturday morning (sue me, I'm hurt) and there was just a credit card commercial on. As images of sexy electronics flash across the screen, the monologue states 'we are a nation of consumers, and that's ok...' In the midst of a financially untenable situation, owing in large part to conspicuous overuse of credit, we are being told to just continue spending money. It's not just a credit card company, our government is urging us to spend money rampantly as well. After 9/11 Dub said go to the mall, and a year ago when this talk of recession started up we get a promise of 600 dollars and the admonition to spend it as soon as possible.

We live in a country of such wasteful excess that the mainstream answer to our financial problems is to spend our way out of it. Aside from the patent absurdity of this concept, it is also frightening. What Discover card doesn't seem to realize is that if this credit fueled tailspin doesn't end soon, they're going down with the financial ship. Our entire financial system is built on credit, and we have credit card companies trying to convince addicts to just take one more taste of the junk. A credit card company feeling that they have to lobby Americans to spend money means we're really in trouble.

I realize that the concept of conserving has gained a modicum of traction recently. Four dollar gas even has Americans riding bikes more, but in a country where less than one percent of people choose to ride a bicycle instead of drive a car every day, I'd say there's some room to grow. It's heartening that large bicycle corporations are starting to see commuting as a viable market, but this is still just a reflection of our addiction to buying shit. Our entire concept of this identity as 'consumers' has to change. This is far beyond mere capitalism.

I heart Xtracycle

2008-08-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

I'd'a driven my car today, I had a legitimate reason, my roommate even gave me shit for trying to get a wheel into a bike with only one working hand. Putting my left shoe on was also kind of a chore, just the left one though.

But having a bike that would carry a load allowed me to keep the load off of my body. So, while it took a while to get to campus, I got there with nary an issue. Maybe I should change the subtitle of this blog to 'Angry Musings of an Xtracycle Fanboy' hmm...

ah well

2008-07-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

i'm injured right now. it's my shoulder, so carrying my messenger bag is gonna be an issue. typing is also kind of a problem, hence the no caps. anyway, i dont know if i can ride to work tomorrow, but since i've got an xtracycle and i don't have to carry anything on my back, i'm gonna find out. :)

Your car sucks

2008-07-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

According to Michael Zezima, your car sucks. I was going to write something semi-quantitative about cars compared to bikes in their impact on all of us, but then I found Mr Zezima's post, and he pretty much has it down. Cars suck. Cars kill people. Cars fuck up the planet. Cars enable us to live completely unsustainable livestyles, which in turn requires us to have an exceptionally excessive military presence in oil rich areas, killing more people.

Update: keep number 6 in mind when you turn the key. 121, is a LOT.

How lazy are you America? People die so you can sit on your ass for an hour a day to get to your office job where you sit on your ass for eight hours a day. Read that again! People die ! I'm a little emotional about this, because I recently read about a local cyclist getting hit by a car, apparently he's ok, but when some drunk dumbass in a two ton vehicle hits someone on a bike, the cyclist is in grave danger.

With all due respect Mr. Ford, regardless of the benefits of the automobile, I'm not convinced the price is worth the unimaginable cost.

Dorky vs Safer

2008-07-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

A Bozeman cyclist was struck by a drunk driver on Monday night. Apparently the kid is alive as he was released from the hospital. But fractured vertebrae sounds kind of serious to me. Aggravated assault? Anyone know who we need to lobby to get that changed to attempted manslaughter? I'm not sure if I think ten years is enough, since he'll probably get off somehow, but we'll see.

I'm getting a helmet mirror. I've resisted it for a while based on the fact that I think they look kind of dorky. Maybe it won't keep me any safer, but I'd like that split-second warning anyway. Especially with assholes like Lamont Anderson driving around out there.

What's the internet again?

2008-07-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Don't worry Mr Stevens. The bars on your jail cell are just a series of tubes. I've tried to keep my political fervor in check as much as possible on here. But for a dirty pol tied to big oil, which powers my favorite form of transportation to b$%ch about, I'll stretch the relevance a little.

The fixie goes political

2008-07-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Barak Obama is apparently the politician of choice with the hipsters. That may be the only thing that gives me pause...

Click on it few times.

Excellent

2008-07-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

I did a great (if short) road ride tonight. We headed out on Manly, up Sypes to Summer cutoff, way north and then crossed Springhill, south through a subdivision to Airport east to...hmm there I can't remember where we turned. But you twist and turn down a pleasant country lane til eventually you end up on frontage and come back into the BZN on valley center.

Here's a better discription and it even has a map. Boy, somebody is sure on the ball.

Christmas in July...or something like that.

2008-07-24T10:14:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to think I almost like commuting in winter better than summer. For one thing, it's cooler. But I also don't get to work feeling like a portable steam room in the winter time, even though I do sweat quite a bit regardless of how cold it is.

In other news I've reached what I think is a milestone. Today, I've worn the ass out of a third pair of pants, or is it fourth...

Polo

2008-07-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Polo was good last night. We finally got back some of that good old fashioned competitive spirit. Some new people showed up, and DNA didn't put a leg through a spoke shearing of a disgusting nugget of skin. Those who weren't in attendance missed and were missed, expect a healthy amount of shit talking. I definitely need to get real polo bike together though. My cruiser isn't exactly a 'beat em off the line' kind of machine. And that back wheel...hmm...

Just peadal already. It's better. I promise.

2008-07-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

DNA is a lot of things. He's a dependable friend, a brother in arms, and a partner in crime. But, most importantly he is what the Samurai referred to as a worth adversary. I don't care what anyone tells you every ride is a race and you either throw down or you don't. Now, when we ride we aren't exactly competing, but neither one of us is holding back, if you know what I mean. It's an unspoken rule, except I've learned that when he say's 'C-Note, I'm gonna hold back a little' it's time to put on the big girl panties and bring my fucking A-game, cuz the shit's gonna hit the fan. And I'm not just talking about Dawn Patrol mt. bike rides, after work rides or early season road rides to burn some fat off. No, I'm talking about the impromptu hammer fest through the streets of Bozeman at midnight when we've both had a smidge to much to drink. Sometimes one of us is on an Xtracycle, or a fixed gear, or a touring road bike with a BoB trailer on the back. It's keep up er shut up, and frankly I wouldn't have it any other way. Cycling is, by it's very nature, a competitive thing and sometimes you gotta run whatcha brung.

Tonight we showed 317 some love, after all, they've been good to us, and post 'give me a whiskey/whatever (make it a double) we headed through the unlit streets in a drunken aplomb...FAST. We both took advantages where they presented themselves, but the fact remains that I had fun that I wouldn't have had if I'd driven to the bar. Nevermind the fact that driving while drunk is lame and stupid and illegal, and riding a bike intoxicated is perfectly legal if slightly stupid and begging for trouble.

Anyway, the point is that since we were both riding bikes we got to push our physical limits, and have a great deal of fun doing something we love, and that had we driven to the bar, we would have been idiots putting others' lives in danger, with no respect or regard for our fellow person, and most importantly I wouldn't have had an opportunity to flat out hammer, and my life is better for having had that hill to climb. It feels good to make your heart race and your lungs heave. Some of us ( actually most of us, just that some seem to have forgotten) take pride in a resting heart rate below 50 bpm, and you don't have to train for a marathon, you just have to put the power to the pedal.

Ride your bike. I promise it's better than whatever else is in your garage. (Better doesn't equate with 'easy')

...of course some coporate actions are necessary

2008-07-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

It's always nice to be part of something Grass-Roots. But the fact of the matter is that making sweeping changes in the way this country moves its collective fat ass from place to place is simply going to take money and clever ad agencies. I'm just being pragmatic here. It's nice to see that the large bicycle manufacturers recognize that practical cycling isn't just a niche market. The Kona Ute is a perfect example of this. Even though Surly ultimately made the Big Dummy much better than the Ute (in my opinion) Kona still beat them to the punch, and the Ute is much cheaper. I'm not really surprised by this of course, if you watch the news for five minutes all you see is schemes to avoid paying 4 dollars for a gallon of gas. Anyway, this is Trek president John Burke discussing the writing on the wall, so to speak.

What is it?

2008-07-20T21:57:00.001-07:00

I see things and hear things like this from time to time and aside from deeply disturbing me, it completely baffles me. How is it that someone in a car feels so threatened by a cyclist that they can become enraged? Is it that you have the perception that cyclists are somehow slowing you down?

One night on my way home I actually had a guy in a 'pimped out' import pull up next to me and start revving all four cylinders. Really?!? Posturing to a guy on a bike? With your car? Maybe it's the fact that with hundreds of horsepower you're still slower than me, and I doubt you're having a good time in that rolling metal box. Or, maybe it's the fact that drivers are vastly in the minority and all that insecurity from being too weak to pull your own weight is just too much for you. I keep vacillating concerning gas prices, but assholes who think there's a good reason to try to kill someone with their stupidly unnecessary car make me wish gas was twenty dollars-a-gallon.

I hope this guy goes to jail for this. If you're weak enough to drive a car every day, at least take some responsibility for your slovenliness.

Beer and Buses?

2008-07-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

My latest post on The Fix

Bozeman has this thing called Music on Main, and it's basically evolved into an excuse to drink while walking through the middle of main street. In order to keep everything all benignly American, local bars hand out bright pink wrist bands after people show an ID at the door, and then serve drinks in an 'inconspicuous' plastic cup so people don't have to be alarmed by seeing a bunch of twenty somethings walking around with 'gasp' alcohol. It's amazing how four years of high school so completely dictate everything about how people behave in every single facet of their lives.

Sorry I digress...how does this pertain to bikes? These wristbands have emblazoned on them an admonishment against Montana's second favorite pass-time.

(For those of you not savvy enough with the internets to click on the above picture, it says "DUI, you can't afford it. Be Smart. Ride the Bus" (Not-so-cleverly edited by yours truely)

Me being me, I felt the need to alter it a bit to turn it from a rather preposterous suggestion to a far more practical alternative to something powered by fossil fuels. Seriously, what would you rather do; sit on an odd smelling bus full of strangers (that you waited twenty minutes for), or have a pleasant midsummer evening ride on the most efficient form of transportation yet devised by man?

It reminds me of King Solomon who said 'there is nothing new under the sun'. I've remarked many times to sEtOH, Captain E, DNA, and the Coyote that over the last eight weeks, more and more people have been riding bikes around Bozeman. Every day on my ride into work I see another middle-aged guy wearing a Bell helmet with a neon yellow nylon cover riding an old school touring bike down one of Bozeman's main drags.

What does this all mean? I have no idea. But clearly you are smarter than American Big-Business. Cuz some generic ad company is pushing riding a bus, and true blue patriots are naturally falling into the most spontaneous solution to the sloth of fossil fuel that there is. (OK, Miller isn't really the 'true blue patriot' I'm just as much of a slave to a clever ad campaign as the next idiot. But hey, they play to a certain crowd.)

Whatever. Share the stoke with the other riders you see. They get what so many others continue to refuse. They get what you've probably embraced for far longer than it was fashionable. But hey! They get it! And even if they don't get it, you should help and encourage them until they get it. Cuz the future looks bleak for American obesity and increased habitual cycling has all kinds of benefits. And, even if it weren't for any of those things I know for certain that there is something about riding a bike, and if we get everyone to get that then everything else will be ok.

Be safe out there! Make sure your family knows you care, and tell your friends that they kick ass!

People both suck and are awesome

2008-07-15T23:26:00.001-07:00

This is cross posted from The Fix

The first part of this post is me being pissed and the last part is me being stoked, so if you'd rather read the good stuff, skip to the end.

I got the following email from youtube tonight.

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by The Collective Films claiming that this material is infringing:

RockySprints - Seasons Premier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3MRcRM4vH0

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.
Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

Apparently The Collective thinks that me posting video of ya'll racing RockySprints somehow falls under the jurisprudence of their copyright. I was so irritated about it that I sent them an extremely inappropriately crabby email about it (sue me, it pisses me off when people suck at life).

Here's another example of me 'infringing' on the holy copyright of The Collective (who at this point, can officially kiss my ass). Watch it quick, The Collective's lawyers are probably huddled around computers as you read this waiting to pounce. For anyone from 'The Collective' (what are you, The Borg?) who reads this, it's all in good fun...oh, and get over yourselves, it's not like you're Metallica, actually since there isn't a shred of your intellectual property in anything I posted, you're worse than Metallica. Congratulations, that's hard-core douchebagdom.

I'm sure it's all a 'misunderstanding' just because I mention in the info that it's at the Seasons premier. But c'mon, what do you pay those lawyers all that money for?
>:(

On a happy note The Kitchen was flat out humming tonight. That place is really starting to develop a good vibe. Every week there are new people showing up with this look on their faces that I can't describe, but you can tell that they are stoked to get a bike running. It's a really addictive environment, and I walk out of there every night tired and happy. DNA dropped by and got a 24-inch-wheeled Giant running for a little girl whose parents couldn't really afford to buy her a bike, or get her to soccer practice, since gas is about 30 dollars a gallon now. That's what we get out of The Kitchen, we get to hand somebody something that will make their lives better. If you have the time, money, or spare parts, I promise there are worse places or ways to disseminate them than getting more bicycles on the road for people to get around.

So, I guess I got to see the good and the bad today. I s'pose they call that life and it's up to me to chose to take the good and leave the bad.

Ride safe out there!

C Note

Update:

I got an email reply from the collective. It went like this:

Relax dude. Your video was accidentally caught up in a bigger attempt to get
pieces of our complete film off of youtube so we don't have our material
ripped off. Sorry. You can put it back up if you want and I'll do my best to
make sure it doesn't happen again.

Take it easy.

Jamie - The Collective

I now of course must apologize for equating them with star trek villains and greedy rock stars...and the douche-bag comment may have been a quarter step too far...

Be safe out there...

2008-07-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Update: The young man Suz and I came across passed away due to head trauma. If you're inclined, send up a prayer for his family. I can't imagine what they're going through right now.

I had one of the most sobering moments of my entire cycling career today. Suzanne and I rode the Bangtail Divide, it's twenty-five miles of epic singletrack, ending with five miles of down-hill on Grassy Mountain. A mile from the end of the trail I came upon something I hoped I'd never see, and that I pray to God I never see again. At the top of a switchback there were two paramedics and eight guys standing around an eighteen-year-old kid. They had him hooked up to a pump to help him breathe because he had punctured a lung, and they were stabilizing his head because he had broken his neck. As near as Suzanne could figure from listening to the kid's friends, he had launched off of a roller about fifteen feet from the switchback, but cased the landing and landed on his head on the next section of trail below the switchback, which means he fell about eight feet straight down. I later saw his buddy pull his bike from the bushes about ten to fifteen feet off of the lower trail. One of the first guys on the scene told us that when he showed up the kid wasn't breathing and that his friends started performing CPR, while the kid coughed up the blood that was in his lungs.

We do this because we love it, it gives our lives meaning, brings us a greater spiritual center, there are many reasons; and the fact that there is a huge potential for injury is part of what makes all of those positive things so much more intense. But none of that matters when you're watching a kid struggling to breathe because of the fluid filling his lungs, and praying he doesn't die before they get him to the hospital.

I'm certainly not going to quit riding (I've got a dawn patrol scheduled with Mr. DNA in the morning) and I'm also going to continue to get everything out of cycling that it has to offer. But I'll never forget my harrowing view of the dark side of this sport.

So be safe out there. You always want to make it to the next ride.

drinking and driving...er...get a bike...sissy

2008-06-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's just me, but when I drive I have this insecure feeling that a cop is about to pull me over at any moment. Now, just to be clear, I never drive a car if I've been drinking. But, to be quite honest I don't even think twice/once about riding my bike whilst hammered (which I am tonight, quite). I even saw two officers of the peace, and both gave me a wide berth while passing me on my well lit bike. This gave me no pause because, in Montana, it's legal to ride a bike while drunk (look it up). Now, on the way home this evening from a stint at the bar, I had my nite rider LED commuter light (it's effing bright) on 'blinky' mode. The last half mile towards my house is down-hill and I had a cross-wind slightly in my favor. There was a light truck about two blocks down when I made the turn onto my street and I can't resist the challenge of catching a lazy person driving a car, so I got on the pedals...hard...and caught the pickup within four blocks. Now, catching a car on a downhill, in town, isn't all that remarkable. But, when the truck pulled over after a block and I passed them...as they pulled back onto the road...and realized that they had pulled over b/c they thought I was a cop car...well what can I say?

I JUST MADE A CAR PULL OVER WITH MY LED BLINKY LIGHT!!!

Ride a bike, or all cyclists will think you're a pansy. Oh wait...if you drive your car to work, every day, when you work two point five miles from your job, and gas is, like, four dollars-a-gallon, and on it's way to five...umm are you kidding? Get a bike. Your H2 just looks stoopid now.

Alleycat

2008-06-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

That wily Mr. DNA is at it again. There's an alleycat coming to Bozeman on Sunday. Check the Bozeman Fix for details. And I heard you'd better bring yer A-game for this one, cuz the kids have been cooped up to long this spring and we've had way to much time to plan for this.

I'm selling my bikes and buying a 1-ton truck

2008-06-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'm totally serious.

Trail Etiquette

2008-06-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

I cross posted this on the Bozeman Trail Report.

DNA and I were having a chat last night at the second annual Bozeman Meatloaf and Martini Challenge (I'm not sure if that's the official name, but there was a meatloaf competition and lots of martinis, you get the idea). One subject that came up was our responsibility to other trail users whilst out on a mountain bike ride. I'm not talking about IMBA's rules of the trail, although you should certainly obey those. I'm talking about rules of etiquette, which should govern your behavior towards the people you meet in your travels. This is both because we have obligations to treat our fellow man/woman with respect, and because I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen because certain cyclists who scare the shit out of hikers and make us all look like speed crazed gravity junkies who spend all their time watching X-games and drinking Red Bull.

Be aware of the number of people that may be hiking or riding horses on a particular trail at a particular time, you may either have to check your speed in anticipation of meeting other trail users, or perhaps make some logical decisions about whether you should ride a particular trail at a particular time. Sypes canyon on a Saturday afternoon in June is a bad time to walk your downhill rig to the top and make a 20 mile/hour decent. Ride somewhere else at that time.

Acknowledge other trail users. Say hi. Be friendly. Don't just shoulder past a family of four and be on your way. We're supposed to be having fun out there, share a good vibe with the people that you meet. Leaving people with a good impression of cyclists is probably going to more than anything else to change the sometimes negative light in which we are seen.

Don't intentionally skid on the trail, and especially don't skid up behind hikers. It does trail damage and it frightens people. Again, sometimes you have the responsibility of preemptively slowing down in anticipation of meeting another trail user. There are downhill specific trails for your eight inch rig. Part of riding on a multi-use trail is being aware that other people will be present and adjusting your speed accordingly when you can't see far enough ahead to pass people safely and humanely.

I'm sure there are several other specifics that one could codify, but in general we simply need to apply some Golden Rules to our riding. It is our responsibility as mountain bikers to treat other trail users with respect. Part of the fuel for trail closures is the fact that cyclists appear as a threatening presence to others, we owe it to our sport and our fellows to change that.

Cheers,
C-Note

RIP Tim

2008-06-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with American politics. It came as a great shock to me to come home tonight and turn on the TV and learn that Tim Russert has passed at the age of 58. Via Con Dios Tim.

I know I say this a lot

2008-06-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

...But this really pisses me off. The jerk offs in California are probably the worst perpetrators of America's overuse of petrol, and rural Montanan's are suffering the most for it. Don't get me wrong, I wish people in Montana drove less, I just don't think single mothers in rural counties should have to decide between getting to work every day and feeding their kids. Especially while exurbanite, upper-middle-class douche-bags don't really care because 250K a year is still enough to drive an Escalade 100 miles a day. I had hoped that rising gas prices would get people to make more conscientious decisions about driving, but the only reality is that poorer people suffer and wealthy people go on the same as always. Welcome to America.

Shameless

2008-06-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

I feel a little ridiculous posting something like this. But I really do feel like the xtracycle has changed my life.

I'll never get it.

2008-05-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

I just don't understand what manner of insecurity evokes people to yell out of the window of a moving car toward a cyclist.

DNA and I were at some local bars tonight and on my way home I broke a chain on my fixie (try to avoid this if you can). For some reason, after retrieving my broken chain from Durston avenue, a drunken gentleman in the passenger side of a half-ton Chevy pickup felt the need to yell 'there's no blahblahblah in Bozeman, you Fuck'. In general, this would elicit a U lock thrown though the window from me, but on this particular night I only felt disdain tinged with ambivalence. The normal anger this act would elicit any other time just wasn't there. In that moment I went past feeling anxiety about cars to feeling far superior to those insecure enough that they feel the need to yell obscenities at people on bicycles. I don't really understand why people think driving a particular type of mechanical conveyance is reason to feel important. You bought a car? Great. That says nothing about your character, it only speaks to your credit rating.

I will state emphatically at this point that people who ride a bike to work every day do, in fact, think that people who drive (you) are weak. We think you are soft and pathetic, and that you have made yourselves unwitting slaves to that which makes you ripe for enslavement.

I am ambivalent to someone issuing inanity out of the window of a car because I find those who drive daily beneath my concern. So, pay four dollars for a gallon of gas America. You are weak and you deserve to reap the reward of your slovenlyness.

:)

2008-05-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Die cars DIE! Now, bring on 5 dollar gas!

Moab

2008-05-26T10:19:00.001-07:00

Really, that's all I need to say, and in the minds of people who know there are images and feelings conjured that cannot and need not be expressed in words. Ok that was lame...but spending a few days riding around trails like this makes one a little euphoric.

Suz and I had an unbelievable trip. The weather was perfect. It actually rained off and on the whole time, which was the BeesKnees as far as I was concerned. We crammed the two days we had with AmasaBack, and the Sovereign Trail (which has been changed considerably for the better since I was last there), as well as spending a day hiking (actually slickrock scrambling) in Arches.

I rode the single speed down there, and while maybe not the 'best' bike for the gnarliest terrain I know of

I certainly didn't regret having only one bike with one gear. I probably would have had more fun on a big travel bike, raucously burning down epicly technical sections of broken rock. But I'd've missed the subtle satisfaction of using years of skill to flow through and over sections that will ask for everything you have just to stay upright...that, and the disbelieving looks from others after cleaning something on a singlespeed that they had trouble with on a freeride bike.

It was one of the best trips I've been on in a long time, but after a few rough days I was more than ready to head up to Salt Lake to a hotel with a shower, and then to Jen and Dan's wedding, which was beautiful, as well as drunken ridiculousness even considering strange Utahian drinking laws.

Cheers

Leaving for Moab

2008-05-21T07:21:00.001-07:00

We're leaving for Moab today. I'll try to get some pictures posted whilst we're on the trip, so check back often...actually it would be best if you made this your homepage, just so you don't miss anything :D

Some quick math

2008-05-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

This got me to thinking.

I commute around 10 miles a day, which is 300 miles a month. It's actually a little more than that, what with random grocery trips n such, but I digress.

My 4runner gets about 15 miles to the gallon, so that's about 20 gallons of gas per month. If gas is 4 dollars per gallon, that's around 80 dollars per month, just in gas, not counting oil changes, tires, etc, which all add to the price of driving, here's a more realistic calculus for the cost of driving a car.

My xtracycle cost me around 400 dollars back in November. If it hasn't paid for itself by now, it will have by the end of the summer.

Crap

2008-05-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Suz and I are going to a wedding in Salt Lake City next week. This is going to necessitate a little side trip. It's a difficult life I lead.

A quesiton of perspective.

2008-05-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

So I was at a get together with some peeps tonight. Someone is getting married and this necessitates a large gathering of people from out of state. One of those people is a gentleman from NYC, who used to live in Bozeman, and worked at a shop with my boys. This cat came out last summer and spent the week riding around on a fixie DNA slapped togther for him. This time around our visitor had in tow a young lady he is courting. Towards the end of the night his girlfriend was getting tired and giving him hints to call it a night. It occurred to me that obviously this time he wasn't staying with DNA and I asked him were they were staying. He replies (I promise this is actually going somewhere, just bear with me) with the name of a local motel, and I then query if they rented a car in Bozeman. To which his girlfriend replies with a 'yes' that implied that the answer was so obvious that there was no need to have asked the question in the first place.

The great part about the group of people I hang around with is that everyone in the room immediately started offering to loan this couple the use of bikes (since we all have several) in order that they could get around without being encumbered with a car. We even got into a complicated discussion about what would be the best way to get bikes to these two. It was so spontaneous that I didn't even think it was odd, until I noticed the bewildered look on our buddy's Girl's face. It snapped me back to reality and I realized that to most people this would seem completely absurd. It does, however serve as a fantastic and ironic view at the paradigm of my friends verses what you might consider 'normal' people. To us we were lending a hand to someone in need. But to this poor tired girl, who just wanted to get to her motel and relax, we were presenting her with an onerous burden.

Maybe this is a 'had to be there' story, but I chuckled most of the way home, interrupted only by calling a guy driving a red pickup a word that I won't repeat here.

In local sports news

2008-05-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting article in the Chronicle today

My favorite part is the quote from the bartender. "I think that they have these all over town,” one of the bartenders said. “I don’t think anyone can beat them. I don’t know their names, but they like Olympia-brand beer.”

That's right. We are Nameless. We are Unbeatable. And we like beer.

Word.

REALLY?!?!

2008-05-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

SO...tonight DNA and Capt. E and I were hanging out with the regional Trek rep. Now, this is unassailabley cool for a bike nerd like me, and regardless of the fact that I am smart enough to be aware that this guy isn't exactly telling the guys at Waterloo what to do, I still find a certain mystique in hanging with a rep. But, I have to say that something that came up during the conversation gave me pause. Whilst discussing Schwalbe Tires, which you should be familiar with if you've ridden a bike for more than ten minutes, the topic of winter bicycle commuting came up. Now, I can't remember which of us mentioned 20 below rides to work, but the Trek Rep's reply was "you guys only do that to say that you did"...

Wow! If the $#%&ing Trek Rep doesn't get that commuting by bicycle in 20 below weather is actually more pleasant that commuting by bike in 90 degree weather, then I've been wasting my time, because even the choir doesn't get it.

SIGH

In the interest of full disclosure, the guy seemed super cool and did buy us a few drinks, I'm just disillusioned that even a 'bike guy' with a dream 'bike job' doesn't seem to get it. Really?? The guy that works for Trek doesn't get it? We either have a long way to go (best case scenario) or, I'm wasting my time...hmm...

Fixies = BETTER

2008-05-05T00:15:00.001-07:00

I found a really interesting link on fixed gear gallery. Maybe some of you have seen this...perhaps all of you have seen this, I would gather that most of the readers of this site also check FGG. Ether way, this is an artical discussing the physics of riding fixed. Now, I don't know all that much about classical phisics, I'm more of a quantum guy. But, I do know that John and I were on a ride today, both of us on a fixie, and about midway through we were passed by a dude on a pretty standard road bike while making a sustained push into a headwind. I was in the lead at this point, so I tucked in behind our 'benefactor'. After a mile, I slacked off a bit, but we still hung within twenty feet of the freewheeler. Coming back into Bozeman from the East on Frontage, there's a pretty good climb up what turns into Main Street. It was here that DNA and I blew past the guy on his high end carbon road bike using good old fashioned American muscle (just not the kind you find in a '69 Chevelle) and even though I was dying on the downhill, we never saw the guy again.

So when you reach into the quiver, remember, not only do you look like a badass on that fixie, but you have a ninjalike advantage as well.

C-Note

2008-05-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is our latest endeavor.