Saturday, January 31, 2009

Thanks!



I ran out of steam looking for this on Youtube and asked for help here a few weeks ago. Someone came through!
Oscar has such a low key under acheiver vibe, yet he is a multiple world champ capable of moves like this. Unreal. Some people might get stoked on fixed gear ballet, but this is the kind of bike handling that gets me stoked!
Thanks Anonymous helper!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Oyster Article

Shucking off the cold - The Boston Globe

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Good article on local oysters in the Globe. I love oysters. Did you know they get sweeter in the fall? I will have to eat more and see if I can tell.

Random Cyling

A public service from Williams previewing all the climbs in the Tour of California. Check it. Between this and the Rapha guys, there is going to be an overload of TOC coverage. Rapha+Bicycling+700 tweed soft shells? Genius or Jumping the Shark?

Pros on Twitter? Twitter is another way to waste time. Someone called it "mirco doses of oversharing" and this pretty much sums up Lance's contributions. Johan Bruyneel looks like he might want to be the next Jerry Remy with endless mid stage color commentary-hope he isn't driving. Big George Hincapie's twits are about as interesting or relevant as his race performances. Ditto for Tommy D. Floyd Landis is back on the road and twitter. Janez Brajkovič is meat and potatoes. How many hours in the saddle, how was the massage. Occasional good photos though. Ivan Basso is sort of like Brajkovic's six year old. Just the facts, if the facts were written by an englsh-as-a-second-language six year old. Just joking, his messages are a lot better than my stabs at Italian. Last up is Dave Z. Enigmatic. Seems to post in flurries and then disappear. Allen Lim's is pretty interesting too. Good for a chuckle and definitely a good way to put off the long trainer ride on an 8 degree day. Sadly no Boonen, Super-Mario, Mike Ball,or even David Clinger.

Nys wins in Italy and doesn't even look like he got dirty?WTF. Worlds seems like a Boom vs Nys showdown, but I am still pulling for Albert. And of course a good US performance..... Maybe Page can make it a week with no drama and drop the hammer.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Wind

Saturday's ride was a multi directional lesson in respecting the wind and the impact it can have on your ride. Started out as a straight up headwind. No mystery to the pain that causes. Trading pulls and dreading your next time and the head of the line.
Rider pulls off and the wind hits you straight in the face. Take your beatdown and pull of into the shelter of the draft. Don't worry it will be back to the front before you're ready.
Change directions and the wind is a cross tail. Easy to forget about. Change directions again and ouch, deal with a gusting cross wind. Strong enough to push you around, spray you with snow, and steal whatever degree of body heat was convincing you you were warm.
Finally the way home, tail wind. You fly along like a champ, ignoring the fact that mother nature, not your puny legs are providing the horsepower.

And no matter what it beats riding in the basement. Today was cold. Even riding the trainer in the basement was cold-leg warmers and winter hats? Indoors? WTF.

Los Huevos Kiss My Cruiser Bike Punks




Los Huevos were a Sacto Punk band who shared members with the Yah-Mos(who might be more popular/known of the east coast?? probably open to argument). 1994-96 era. The dropped the super bike related "Kiss my Cruiser" 45 in 94 on Moo-La-La Records.
6 songs of some pretty raging punky, cali hardcore. 3 bike related tunes and a rollicking cover of "get ready" are the highlights. First bike tune is "get out of my way" a critical mass worthy anti-car tirade. Who can't like a song about torturing bike thieves? Track 2 "bike thief" covers that base admirably. Last up is the instro "Coaster brake upside the head, you fucker". Only one coaster bike appears in the pin up of the band members with their bikes, but I guess that is a minor technicality.

Sacto was probably more famous for the skate rock of the Faction and Tales of Terror so I guess Los Huevos were carving out their own bike-core territory. One of the more ridiculous yet memorable apsects of US hardcore was the ease with which you could transfrom generic hardcore into a new sub-genge with a hyphen and a hobby. Skate-core, coffe-core, hippie-core,jock-core, surf-core, Easy as 1,2,3.
Sacto also never really got a lot of respect for Cali punk and hardcore. For that I would have to blame bands like Sewer Trout and the Lizards and a host of similar bands who turned up on Very Small records double comp lps...

They dropped a second single that is more sloppy garagey punk. Would have worked out on Estrus. Odes to alcohol,juvenile delinquency and a tip of the hat to James Brown. They also manged to put out an lp in 97 that I don't have, but they never seemed to return to the bike punk anthems they crafted back in 94.
These might qualify as "hard to find" more than rare, but are well worth the trouble to track down. Especially if you are reckless bike punk with a chip on your shoulder.