inspired

I return. Inspired.
Suddenly everything known is cleaner and brighter.
Little details like colours and counter heights are odd at first.

NAHBZ overlord. Overload. Overboard.
Day one was spent drooling on shiney objects. Not out of mech-lust, but just sleep deprivation. Thanks Portland for doing MMR better and welcoming me to town. Day two was spent digging, sorting, and trying to make sense of information coming at me all day. I met some really cool people there. Such as Alexis at Villin Cycles, and Jason Grove from El Camino Fab.. just to drop a couple names. Really. when you are learning so much about the industry in one day, its hard to recall everyone. The Thompson Rep, (who's card I lost) was nice enough to give me a DH stem at the end of the day, as he didn't want to pack his stuff back with him.


Seriously.
Some practice runs on the NAHBZ Sunday had me realizing two things.

A)I needed to drop the back of the saddle 5cm so I could hover over it and have tucked suspension in the corners.
2)I needed to move the bars forward 3cm to make my elbows comfortable, and therefore have steering control in a high speed tuck
3)I also needed to slack off my front cone nuts a bit, as they weren't 'zoobomb' loose.

Then came the weekdays before MBW
I did a good ride out to A Better Cycle, then Mech Mark's shop and finally over Rocky Butte (tunnel switchback!) and back into the civilized North East.
I did a wedding ring alleycat, which was as sexy as it sounds.
I visited Ahearn and Pereira who indulged me in bike design geekery.
I took much flack for my non traditional (read: non-ZB-gravity-16) bike setup.
Also, 'Hookworms are slow'.
Trash talk is mandatory in America.

I made a valentine for my love who arrived via rail. She's quite fashionable with 3x lacing for maximum strength. Be inappropriate. as much as possible.

The next day, the dock is too slick to turn while boosting.

I race the Cheetah.
I pass Mark, I pass Zane.
I take their prize.
A crowd of a hundred chants 'SHOW YOUR DICK!'
I oblige.
I are hte fastest zoobomber.

We skip town and hit the coast.
I am bound to my love.
We take our OHV's to the dunes.

'Must be hard to ride on the dunes with those skinny tires'

We hit SF on possibly the worst day of the year. Flooded bike lanes, slick paint, and agro drivers. We were the only bikers on the streets. Still we MASH it..

Oakland is intense. Does the discomfort make for good art? If the amount of bicycles in the LOBOT gallery is any indicator, I'd say yes.



Don't be afraid of cute. embrace it as a male.

Cali is nice. but Oregon is nicerer. We couldn't take it much longer.. so we headed back up to Portland. Sadly, the mood wasn't the same as when we left. One of the zoobombers has passed away. He died in a house fire. RIP Cody.

Finally, the streets of Vancouver were calling. They wanted their Lyle back.
We took the long way back, through Deception pass, simply because I hate the I-5 through there. A lot of Washington depresses me, so its good to finally be home.

Now here we are.
I'm inspired to get moving on some projects, and after a fairly slack month of riding, I'm anxious to get some real kilometers in. So far, its been a good start to March.

Nine point eight metres per second squared.

Gravity is free fun, and Portland knows how to do it better. Standing at the top of the Zoo hill on a clear moonlit Friday night, I was asked how fast my three-wheeled deathtrap could go. My response was vague and had to do with the laws of gravity. The ambiguity was partially because I didn't know how fast the thing would actually be; this was its inaugural run.

The Donk Tryke was admittedly a fashion build, paying homage to both my respectable 10th place showing in the Tour de Bomb at MBWIV, and to the gravity bike community that has developed in Portland in the past year.


Was it fast? No. The solid wheelchair wheels produce a lot of drag. Looking back, that might have been a good thing. The high center of gravity, the rear wheels' lack of shock absorbtion, and the questionable stability of the rear bearings - the Tryke's fatal flaw - made the experience of every bit as stupid and dangerous as we had expected.

The real race that night ended up being between Gabe and Chuck on their 20" junkyard g-bikes. Chuck took the lead early; Gabe tried to make a pass on one of the tighter corners and went down, salvaging third. Props to Chuck for organizing a rad new event for this year's MBW, and to all who participated. Here's Gabe with his race losing g-bike at the bottom of Salmon.


Andy of Fyxomatosis has long been putting fashion and function into his road and track bike builds, but as we know, this stuff doesn't happen without a good crew. From that crew comes, without a doubt, the sickest g-bike I have ever seen. Click through for photos from Andy White, and ridiculous g-bike from The Gonz. The disc brake is about where the similarities between this and the Donk Tryke end.

Electronical

Check out the trailer for Odyssey's new glossy HD video, Electronical.

Ramping Up for Mini Bike Winter

This town is a flurry of activity. Trash talkin, chariot choppin. There will be fire. There will be metal. I've adapted very well to the Amerikan way of life. Hamms, diesel fumes, bike lanes and crafting. The Cheetah is set up a bit better for the bomb now. Its not super aero still, but theres a fine line between 'ridable' and 'gbike'. The Spicer is taking on some Portland of its own. Grossly blasphemous? yes.

I checked out the super secret party location and upon entering, saw someone crashing a mini on the ramps. yes. ramps.

I've also visited Joseph Ahearne, who was kind enough to indulge my geekery on hte topic of bicycle geometry. And speaking of geeks.. The Free Geek here is HUGE. Its a freakin flowchart of metal consuming half a city block, and spitting out technology.

Anyways, things are still going great here, and I'm anxiously awaiting Mini Bike Winter, and the arrival of my love. I'm having troubles with blogger and photos, so check out my flickr for updates. I just put a random assortment of NAHBS photos up:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyledriver/sets/72157603907673475/

Fire Up the Dremels

After a catastrophic rim failure before my morning coffee, Nick enlisted my help to salvage his 8-speed Veloce hubs. With Lyle out of town, there was no one to stop us from getting jacked on caffeine, cranking 3 Inches of Blood, and dremeling on the computer desk.

KNOBZ&*@#(

Live from Portalntd.
THisi is going well
cannot type for a multitued of reasons. namily sleeep.
People here are good to me.
Teh show is incredible.

Tonight I worked the sspray bo ooth of te slap dash alleycat cause I cano not longer ride bikes that are anot tall and fixed or gravity fed.s

Today i took pictus and sdrooled. bleh is not a lpam clara.
no go on the p ix. sorryl. USB probz.

More MBWV Propaganda

Courtesy of Felix, some more fuel for your Zoobomb fire.