Mayne Island Trippin' / Cyclocross Season Begins

We are headed to Mayne Island tomorrow with the entire Bandidas crew. I'm bringing my Brodie, lending the Sekine to one of the dudes, and Louise's Bianchi crossversion will be out as well. 3X racing will be had. Mike Sidic I'm looking at you.



I'm hoping to conquer the Island in anticipation of this weekend's Aldor Acres cyclocross season premiere! Check out my flickr set and video from last year's race. Mike Sidic, again, I'm looking at you. Nick Berry too.





That's the wrong foot, man!

New Bike Day?

25 bucks can go a long way sometimes. I probably paid almost that for the pedals that I had to put on this bike, as one of the original ones was broken off and the other catastrophically bent. What the hell.

Riding the Twenty yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised with its fit and handling. I have found the new home for my B17. New brake levers and cables, some BMX tires from the bin, and this thing's gonna be rad.

Continuing to try to thin my herd of bicycles, this is another that I won't give up just yet. I met Camilo on the street last night, and he said "you're Sheldon Browning it". Yes, I suppose I am.

Your homework is some reading about the Raleigh Twenty and Sturmey-Archer three speeds. My homework is to find out what's making the sound of gerbils in the drivetrain after 20 km of riding.

This is my Island Life

This is my island life
I have no friends to fear
I've got no problems no cross to bear
If you can find me
try and get me out of here

I've been here on Quadra Island almost a week now, and I'm still alive. Just barely though. Sam's training has been tough but fair. A bit of shop clean up at the start had me thinking about waxing Mr Myagi's car. Since then I have had some lathe practice, built a few wheels, had a TIG welding lesson, started cargo fork/rack and of course have gone mountain biking as much as possible.

The Shasta may be on its last legs. My first ride was a punishing run up and down some of Sam's backyard trails. They're rocky, soft, steep, raw and super technical. I was pretty worn down doing it rigid, but felt accomplished at the end of the loop.

This weekend we hit up Cumberland to check out their beautifully groomed and manicured trails. That was a treat and much faster overall. Once again the Shasta came through.

Last night I rebuilt its BB as half the balls were flat. At the same time I installed DFLNick's 175mm cranks, and took off the outer ring for more clearance. I also added one of Sam's old Schwalbe Big Bettys for another .3" of suspension travel. I was ready to hit the trails.

Today, not 1km up from Sam's yard, my freehub started making some gross sounds and the chain got all slacky. Then it went into the chainstay from the top, and I realized what was happening. I had a fully rigid fixed MTB on some of the hardest trails I've been on.

We met up with his friend Richard who lived nearby (just one section of single track away). He offered me his two speed Ti Cove Hummer.

I think the gears are 32/22 or 22/22. The fork is 5". The thing is a wheely machine compared to the "1987 XC Geometry" (as Sam calls it) of the Shasta. Shifting by hand requires stopping to shift from the granny to the mid ring, but it can be done moving in the other direction.

After I got aquainted with it We went down some pretty steep DH stuff ("Plaything" I think) and I got thrown around a bit. Its hard riding new trails on a new bike. Anyways, I made it with only some minor flesh wounds and I'll be back in the shop tomorrow morning. Even if I did hurt myself I wouldn't have a choice. I must continue my training.

Tom LaMarche Big Air

This one's pretty rad. Great timing on the shot with the shadow, too.


See it big on Andrew Temkin's flickr.

New Bike Day

So, I race bikes...not tall bikes or anything, just "normal" bikes. Sometimes I race time trials. I used to do this with my track bike as I could get a better aero body position (with aerobars attached) more easily than I could with my road bike but then one day the UCI said I'm no longer allowed to:

Bicycles used in road events must be fitted with an efficient braking system that acts on both wheels (either
simultaneously or independently) operated by two brake levers. The use of a fixed gear in competition is prohibited

Jerks.

So, despite the fact that Eddy Merckx was a great racer and all, I didn't really feel like doing time trials like him. I got ahold of Ed at Mighty and he hooked me up. I already had a Zipp 404/disk wheelset and the aerobars so I just needed to piece the rest together. After some effing around, it was new bike day:


Now I just need to learn to time trial...

Lyle's First Sanctioned Race

HE DID IT ON HIS TALL BIKE

Last night, fully intoxicated, we decided that it would be a good idea to race up Mount Seymour in the morning. On the brink of buying the discounted cyclocross-only licence, I balked at a $30 race only insurance cost and decided to roll with Lyle and shoot photos. I don't drink the night before a race anyway, right?

Camilo was the first of us up in 48 minutes - congrats man. Rob made it up in 56, his 23 cog always too long. Lyle did it in 63, the Time Trial Tall's 53 tooth single front ring also always too long. The descent in the rain was fucking amazing, for those wearing full-fingered gloves. The rest of the photos can be found onFlickr.

Recumbent Pron

Carbon wheels. This guy has numerous recumbents with them.





This one I'm not quite sure about...



What's that? You don't like recumbents? Get 'bent! Get a Batmobile fairing!



Lots more here! Thanks Mark G. for the link. (All photos non-drive side by intention.)

Harsh

From Allen and Delancy in NYC.



From the camera man:

**DISCLAIMER: This vid is raw, two people totally fighting in the street, it all happened pretty fast and NOBODY reacted. Hind-sight is always 20/20 and yes, i do feel remorse for instinctually filming instead of doing anything. 'nuf said.

I made a pit stop in a starbucks somewhere on the lower east side and i saw this guy who appeared to be a bike messenger (maybe not) and an older asian guy (for sure he was an older asian guy) getting into a fight because they ran into each other at the intersection. They pushed each other back and forth for 2 minutes with no results (other than the older guy throwing the biker's sunglasses under a cab) and the older guy could have walked away but WOULDN'T LEAVE THE BIKE DUDE ALONE, the bike guy even said 'stop following me man', then the bike dude totally let him have it, POW! KRYPTONITE LOCK TO THE FACE LIKE 3 OR 4 TIMES! Dude's face was actually bleeding hard core for like the next 10 minutes, but i had to bounce soon after. People from inside the starbucks did come to his aid, but it all happened pretty fast.

Worst Blog Ever!

I'm pretty much the worst blogger ever lately. Hell, I hardly even blogged my trip across the USA. I couldn't blog a common cold. I couldn't blog the blog side of a barn if it was a common cold. If there was an award for either being the worst blogger ever, or having the worst blog ever, I wouldn't even win.


I have an excuse though!. I've been driving a van. Living in a Van! (sung to Aerosmith's "Livin on the Edge") Yeah. Thats me in the creepy rusty white contractor van with the bed in the back. I'm cutting off other vehicles like I have some sort of steel exoskeleton! EXPLOSIONS!


Meanwhile my bikes are collecting dust. I recently made a trip to the Kootenays where I found my once beloved kitten chopper hanging by rope in my father's car port. I cut it down, wiped off the year of saw dust, and strapped it to the roof of my luxurious Recreational Vehicle (RV). I also rescued my Cunningham from its carbonite like encasement of basement dust.


Anyways, Thats my excuse. I've had a lot going on in my life the past couple months. Things outside of rigid TCP/IP protocol confinement. I'm only in Vancouver for a week right now before I head up to Quadra. I'm off to see the wizard, so to speak. I don't really speak like that, but I'll type it just this once. Sam Whittingham is taking a chance and hiring me for some production help on a cyclocross team bike build. Basically I'm gonna try and kaizen his frame business, and learn how to build bikes at the same time. I'm also going to live in my van some more, and learn the ways of the Island. From what I hear this involves a whole lot of rad, much ado about chilling, and copious globs of hilarity! Stoked on blogging pumped!