So, I have unilaterally decided that the beat bike blog is going to participate in the CT River Watershed Council's Source to Sea Cleanup again this year. The little section of the river we cleaned really looked nice afterward. Also, I think we did the real foundational work last year, so the cleanup will hopefully be easier this year.
I was also thinking that it'd be really cool to follow it up with a 100k tour of the river's banks from Windsor to Middletown on both sides of the river- sort of a giant, non-competitive one lap Eel (isn't it cool how I linked to a non-beat bike blog Eel post?). 100k is a tall order right after all that cleaning up, so maybe we'll do it on the Sunday.
So, come Oct 3 at 11am to the confluence of the Connecticut and Park Rivers to do some cleaning.
Editor's note: the dates are now fixed.
Read more!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Cleaning stuff again
Monday, August 24, 2009
Reviewing stuff
Editor's note: I some how managed to delete the top couple of paragraphs of this post when I was adding the picture. So, I shall try to recreate what I wrote.A couple of months ago, Global Ride sent me an email asking if the beat bike blog would like to review their "Hawaiian Rides" DVD box set. I'll try anything once, so I said sure. They arrived several months ago, but as it is the summer months, I much rather ride a bike in reality than in my guided imagination. The three DVDs are Maui Rollers, Oceanside Ride, StrenDurance Hawaii. I'm not sure that "StrenDurance" is a word, so I stuck with the other two.
They're really pretty rides and they're almost a substitute for the real thing. Well, I suppose if you live in Hawaii, they're definitely not a substitute, because you can actually go on these rides. They're also very well shot, but I have one complaint: the car or whatever is holding the camera takes sharp turns very strangely, as in it seems to favor the outside of the turn and mildly makes you feel like you're not going to make the corner and crash. The other sort of weird thing is that it'll fade out of sections of road into totally new sections. I'd rather just stick with the same road/route, but the variety is cool, I suppose.
I found the music to be pleasant, but I'm predisposed to liking jazzy techno, because my dad was way into soma.fm for awhile. You can also turn on a coach's voice, who tells you encouraging coach-type things to make you pedal harder and sweat more. That's definitely helpful, because if it doesn't actually because more difficult to pedal when the DVD shows you going up a hill, why would you pedal harder?
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
I don't like folding tires
The beads on the Michelin folding tires I bought for my roadbike are a bitch to lever off the rim when I get a flat. When I go to slide the lever after getting up under the bead the bead just kind of jams up and sticks to the lever. It ends up taking forever to wrestle the bead off. Don't buy them. Get some regular tires that don't fold, like Bontrager hard case tires, my personal favorite.
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Doomsday Scenarios: The Myrtle Street Tuck'n'bomb Edition
When I was about 24 I woke up to my mortality and all the possible ways I might panic, grieve, and be terrified. I am embarrassed about my bogeymen, and they still move me from time to time, although I like to think I am slowly on my way to brave sailing.
The first bogeyman was peak oil. Then I moved on to nonlinearities in the climate system and James Lovelock's newest vision of the future- polar cities populated by lucky and ruthless survivors. I am also taken in by old-fashioned Malthusian food shortages and subsequent civil chaos.
But since we are in the insurance capital of the world, what does an actuary say? What's most likely to cause me suffering and death?
While you are waiting at the doctor's office you might fill out a questionnaire about your lifestyle and if you've made any recent changes. The one I filled out on my last visit asked me if I wear a helmet when I'm riding my bicycle. It also told me that accidents and injuries are a major cause of death and disability. Most of us know this first- or second-hand, but I guess I need a regular reminder.
I reckon I'm a lot more likely to die riding my bike recklessly down the Myrtle Street Tuck'n'bomb than by hordes of hungry climate refugees. Might be useful to figure out a way to remind myself of this fact more often, maybe some sort of ritual. I'd be safer on my bike and less neurotic about relatively unlikely grim reapers.
Do you, dear reader, cross your heart or say a prayer before you get on your bicycle?
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
A review of a bag
El Presidente de China was pretty good at getting companies to give stuff to the blog for reviewing, etc. One thing that arrived from Manhattan Portage was a large orange NY Messenger Bag. I got it after Joel because I bitched that I wasn't getting any free stuff. I guess I'm a squeeky wheel.
Anyway, part of taking meant that I was supposed to reivew it. A little more than a year has passed since I've started using it, so it's gotten some use. I'm not a messenger, but few messenger bag users are, so I don't think that matters. Further, isn't everyone using a reload, chrome or bailey works bag anyway? That aside, they had no desire to give our blog anything to review, so they suck. But, I've riden with this bag almost everyday for the last year to and from work and the other places I go.
When I inherited this bag from Joel, it was more or less new and still stiff. It's made out of cordura and has vinyl lining. The vinyl lining is supposedly to be waterproof. In my experience, nothing on the inside has ever gotten wet. I remember when particularly nasty & wet stretch in St. John's, NL while on vacation soon after I first got it and I wished that I could climb into the bag while I was riding to stay as dry as my stuff. Also, that big vinyl-lined chamber is quite big. It'll fit pretty much whatever you want and anything more probably shouldn't be on your back. The bag once had a bunch of leeks in it at the Billings Forge Farmers Market and was featured in a video on the Courant's website.
It's got some pockets that I keep some stuff in, but I've never really thought pockets are that much of a make or break issue. As long as they don't develop holes, they're good. These haven't developed holes.
The closure system consists of two big velco strips and and two nylon straps with plastic buckles. If it's not raining, they buckles aren't even really needed, although they'll flail around and hit your butt.
My big complaint has always been the strap and stability. The shoulder strap isn't super comfortable and there's no stablization mechanism. So, it used to swing forward sometimes, especially if I'd get out of the sadle. However, after about six months of use, it's started to break itself in. The bag is shaped like my back now and I've kind of worn in the strap.
In breaking it in, it's really grown on me. For the first three or four months, I was nonplussed. But, it's my big orange purse and I like it.
In closing, it's the cheapest well-made big bag I know of, so I recommend. Hell, I might even spend money on one. I'll never be a backpack man again.
I don't think they make the orange any more, though.Tuesday, August 18, 2009
I'm a failure, or my D2R2 ride report
So, I went on and on about the D2R2 for a long time and on Saturday I got up at 4:30 to drive up with my old Stumpjumper to Deerfield and partake.
I was tired.
My bikes was tired.
It was early when I left.I registered, got my cue sheet and other attendant documents, ate some bagel stuff and set out around 6:20. The morning was still nice and cool and these were seeming pretty pleasant. The first 30-something miles to the first checkpoint were rolling and pretty. There was a tough 15% climb up to checkpoint, but at the top was a very pretty field of sunflowers. I ate some more bagel stuff and put some water in my camelbak and continued on.
Pretty field of sunflowers.Things were still pretty good. Royer Rd. was a fun little diversion and I cleared the 27% climb on Archambo Rd. The climb right after that was pretty difficult and I actually ended up walking a few hundred feet. Things went up and down for awhile, with one pretty fast hill (that I'm told claimed a collarbone and caused at least one bad crash) eventually bringing me to the 60 mile lunch checkpoint at the Green River. I ate a cheese sandwich and some trail mix and got more water.
Getting ready to leave after lunch, these are some of the very few mountain bikes that I saw.Meeting up with the river, there was this very pretty and pleasantly flat four miles.
Uh oh. Switchbacks are coming.After that, there were switchbacks coming out of the valley. Heading up, several people were cramping up. I felt bad for their plight, but soon realized it was contagious because by the end of the first switchback I was cramping, too. I paused, grimaced, walked it off and got back on the bike. There was a bunch more climbing and near the top, I started to cramp again. I drank a bunch more water. Ever since around 10:00, it had been pretty hot, so I had done some considerable sweating, but I had been good about drinking water. In fact, I'd probably consumed like a gallon or so at that point. I rode & walked some more up and until the conclusion of the hill and was hurting a bit, but I was also at like mile 90 at that point. Only 20 more to go and I was certain I could push through. Climbs were starting to get pretty tough, but flats weren't too bad. This area dropped back down into a valley again in Colrain. Up ahead was the hideousness of Patten Hill, but it was pretty flat up until there. Those flats, however, were starting to put a strain on me. I knew that I'd probably be walking almost all if not all of Patten Hill.
It was true, I arrived, clipped out of my pedals and started walking. It seemed that there were still a lot of people behind me, because suddenly all these people materialized behind me and rode passed me. It was only at about 2mph faster than me, but they at least remained on their bikes. I tried getting back on, but the cramps would over take my legs. I think it's about 3 miles to the summit and I walked almost the entire thing. I have no idea how long it took, probably over an hour or something and I was totally defeated at the top and collapsed on the side of the road. A very pleasant guy on a Cross Check gave me some shot blocks along the way. I had devoured them, but no cramp cessation. The checkpoint was maybe 200 yards away and it was totally flat. I remounted and could barely pedal, but made it. I was done. I ate some food and salt and some more electrolyte stuff, but I was cramping everywhere: legs, hands, chin and feet. I got some encouragement, because there was only ten more miles and I thought that I'd be an idiot for giving up with ten miles to go and it was almost all down hill. But, I got back on the bike, I locked up and knew I was done. Norman, a volunteer and owner of Flye Cycles (of Sunderland, MA), gave me a ride back to the start/finish. My cramps subsided as I was driving home.
So, I learned a valuable lesson about these things called electrolytes. I ate well and drank well, but sweated all the salt out of my body. The race organizers put out tons of things that I should have been eating and drinking, but I made poor decisions and I had to scratch with 10 miles left, but with 15,000' of climbing done. I'm pretty disappointed in myself.
In terms of bike selection, I'm still wondering if a mountain bike was the best choice. Most people were on 'cross bikes or touring bikes. I was able to bomb down hills and pass everyone (not that it was a race, but it was a much more confident descender), but I was always passed on flats and most climbs. I only saw like two other mountain bikes.
In other news about scratching long rides, happily, fatcyclist seems to be ok after crashing out of the Leadville 100.
Here's a cool map of the whole thing. Read more!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Seller's Regret
Being from small-town/rural Maine, I've always been a mountain biker. Since I moved to Connecticut, two years ago, I have only been mountain biking a few times. While living in Hartford, and even since I moved to Windsor, most of my riding is on the road and is mostly destination-oriented. I love this city/suburban riding- riding fast, feeling the pull of traffic, and stopping off for ale and snacks. Stupidly, as part of my attempt to build an unemployment fund for when my contract ends on September 4th, I sold my Raleigh M-80 mountain bike. Not less than two weeks later, my old bad-habit-inducing college buddies decided we'd be getting together in Colorado for a weekend, and we'd be doing some mountain biking.
As I've been ill of heart lately, I have been spending a preposterous amount of time restoring the broken-down 1974 Sunline slide-in truck camper that is sitting on sawhorses in the yard of the house I stay at in Windsor. New floor, new walls, new framing in the front quarter, new running lights, and lots of paint, putty tape and caulk. I'm driving this camper to Colorado to rendezvous with my college buddies, but I'm sickened that I won't have my mountain bike.
This is the third time I've experienced seller's regret, and I have yet to learn my lesson. The first two times were whitewater kayaks- forgiving kayaks that had carried me through danger. I guess sometimes you need the money, and sometimes you need to save storage space. In general though, selling these things is a bad idea. The sweat you put into bikes and boats makes them worth more than some schmuck could ever give you in a crass, internet-orchestrated transaction.
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Monday, August 10, 2009
Leg pain
As part of my comprehensive D2R2 training plan, I went to the hills of the north. Well, sort of. Part of my comprehensive training plan involved making sure that Johanna had a ride home from Vermont. On Saturday, Johanna and I decided to take a hike at Franconia Notch. Hikes are great for places where one cannot ride a bike. We hiked up Mt. Lafayette and then along the Franconia Ridge Trail to Mt. Lincoln & Haystack Mt. There were views and it was nice, but the next day, my legs were all sore and still are. I don't understand it. I hike pretty frequently and generally my legs are fine, but then every so often, they really hurt. Does anyone know why? Am I simply a bad hiker? Is there some secret walking technique that I don't know?
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Friday, August 7, 2009
I'm a liar
You may recall yesterday that I said that I was going to do a ride out in the Northwest Corner. Well, I'm not. I'm going up to Vermont again. So, even though no one indicated that they wanted to come ride with me, even if someone did, they can't. Also, even though it's a few days late, it's too bad about Fat Cyclist's wife, Susan. Obviously, a big important blog like that doesn't know who we are, but I feel compelled to say anything anyway.
Also, Joel and I (and then Ken) went to the Wadsworth's Blog This!. I have always liked the Wadsworth. I've had several friends who've worked there and two friends who painted the Sol Lewitt "Whirls and Twirls" (I can't find an image of Wad's, only the one at MassMOCA) in the stairwell. The event was cool in that the museum reached out to us, but I'm prejudiced because I already liked the museum. At the same time, I'm trying to think up a good way to incorporate the Wadsworth into a blog about riding a bike. Is there a way to do that? Who knows? On a happy note, they've hired a new contemporary art curator and the Matrix will be back in January or February. I also learned that the previous contemporary art curator (or was is director), Joanna Marsh, who was really good, was hired away by the present Wadsworth director, Susan Talbot, when Susan was working down at the Smithsonian. So, it was her fault that there was no contemporary art person at the Wadsworth when she arrived.
Louise Bourgeois at the Hirshorn.Thursday, August 6, 2009
Getting ready
It's the last weekend before I have to get up at 4am, drive to Deerfield, MA and ride the D2R2. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm still worried. I've been riding my bike a lot, but not exactly in the D2R2 style, a style which is difficult to ride in the greater Hartford area. We've got like two dirt roads and the biggest nearby hill is like 1000'. So, my plan this weekend is to take a place drive out to Salisbury on Saturday and ride up Mt. Riga into the Mt. Washington State Forest. It's a redux of a failed ride from earlier this year when the road was impassible due to snow. It looks to have a little more than 2000' feet of climbing and be at 1/3 dirt. This is it on gmaps pedometer. Anybody want to join me? It's not even a 50 mile ride! We'll go through Bash Bish Falls, which I hear is very pretty.
image stolen from the new england waterfalls website.Wednesday, August 5, 2009
thank you Ted White for Return of the Scorcher
Return of the Scorcher is one of the movies on a Ted White DVD, which also contains the more talked about, We Are Traffic. WAT is a great documentary about the Critical Mass movement and its creation in San Francisco in the early 1990’s. It gave me the inspiration to begin making flyers for the Hartford ride and try and get people to come out and enjoy the city. I love this movie. It certainly changed my life and helped grow the ride in Hartford.
My smoldering romance with Return of the Scorcher has suddenly erupted with fireworks! I watched a borrowed copy of the DVD for the longest time, which my friend Steve had bought to use at a CCBA event. At some point last year I finally returned the movie to him and haven’t seen it since. A few days ago I received my own copy from this link and have watched it a few times. I cannot get enough of Return of the Scorcher and all the amazing vingettes of bicycle culture from Guangzho (Canton), China back in 1991. Most of the citizens use bicycles and tricycles for commuting and business as well as dating. The whole part about riding women sidesaddle is wonderful! There’s also a scene in which George Bliss describes giant intersections with no traffic signals and bicycles competeing with cars, trucks, busses and motorcycles to cross lanes of traffic. He described the bikes leading the charge across the street as a critical mass; which gave the founders of CM the idea for the name!
There’s also quite a bit of footage from Amsterdam showing bicycles as daily transportation and showcasing all the infrastructure built to support a lifestyle on two wheels. The use of the bicycle in the Women's rights movement is also really interesting. Dang, the whole DVD is super interesting and super inspirational. I am not sure how many people have seen or heard of this movie, but I felt a need to thank Ted White for making it and encourage y’all to enjoy it.
And here is the rest of it.
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Beat bike blog considered legitimate blog!
There are a number of blogs in Hartford and most write about news and politics. I consider news and politics to be work, so I have no desire to write about those things unless I'm getting paid. To that end, I write about bikes with my fellow beat bike bloggers. Accordingly, we usually aren't regarded as a very important blog, evidenced by not making on to the lame Laurel Club's blogroll (although we are on the Courant's City Line).
Thus, you can imagine my surprise when the Wadsworth invited us to this:
This Sol LeWitt is actually found at MassMOCA, not the Wadsworth, but I didn't want to steal their image.Don't Forget, Blog This!
We heard our 4:30 start time was tough for many of you-if you can't make it then, join us when you can, we'd still love to hear from you and admission is still free to Phoenix Art After Hours!
Check out the recent coverage of Blog This! from Fox News. We hope to see you this Thursday at 4:30!
For those that missed it, the complete invite is below.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art invites you to join us at our inaugural Blog This! event, on August 6, from 4:30 – 6:30 pm.
Blog This! will provide a forum for social media writers from throughout the state to connect with each other, while connecting with great art! We also hope to gain insights into how we can better work together to position both Hartford, and Connecticut, as a premier cultural destination (and not just someplace between New York and Boston!)
The agenda includes an update from the Director, Susan Talbott, an overview of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture by Director, Olivia White and a Docent led highlights tour of the museum’s permanent collection.
Come for the formal part – but stay for the fun part - join us from 6:30 – 8 pm for our First Thursday festivities which will include temporary tattoos, the opening of Skin!, an exhibition of photographs created by teens in The Amistad Center for Art & Culture’s Neighborhood Studio summer youth program, and original hip-hop beats performed by Connectbeats. Food and cocktails will also be available.
• Date: August 6, 2009
• Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
• Location: Wadsworth Atheneum of Art
600 Main St., Hartford, CT
PS. I ate at Hiep Phat Vietnamese Fast Food again yesterday. It's still awesome! Read more!
Monday, August 3, 2009
2 cats
So, that race in Massachusetts happened yesterday. As promised, Brendan raced Cat 2. Brendan's bike, however, had no desire to do that.
I pre-rode the course, well some of it, and thought it was going to be a fun race. It felt fast and manageable. I stopped pre-riding when I came upon this crazy floating bridge.
Crazy floating bridge.
Crazy floating bridge with Brendan and some other guy.I figured that the Cat 2 start would be faster than the Cat 3. It was, but not that much faster. I was in fourth going into the singletrack in the woods. Positions changed a bit until the crazy floating bridge, but I was in fourth getting to the bridge. My rear derailleur had started shifting funny, but I didn't really think anything of it until the other side of the floating bridge. It promptly shifted the chain into the spokes on the other side of bridge. I fixed it and on the next shift, it did it again. Things were not looking good. I lost a whole slew of positions and realized that I had bent the derailleur, though the hanger looked ok. Needless to say, this made riding with speed up any hill very difficult because I couldn't shift into any of the lower gears. I took it easy for a while, trying to figure out which gears worked and which gears didn't. I finally settled into a groove and could ride at maybe 75%. I caught back up to two 19-29 people and was started to feel a little more confident. It being my first Cat 2 race my expectations weren't very high, so I was just riding for the sake of riding and having a pretty good time.
Then my chain broke and I stopped having a good time. I ended up jogging the second half of the third lap and finishing with a depressing +2 hours time on an 18 mile course. Although, my wonderful girlfriend, Johanna, was waiting for me a little ways before the finish for some cheering up.
Brendan on foot.Also, Cat 2 seems to be a good fit, though it'll be awhile until I win some socks again.
2nd also, one of the reasons that the crazy floating bridge was so crazy was that the water on either side was like four feet deep. I was told that in the Cat 1 race, someone tried to do a slick pass by running around the bridge and he sank. Also in the Cat 1 race, someone tried to jump on to the bridge, busted his ass and crashed into a tree.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Big hill & Vietnamese food
One thing that I forgot to mention about my trip to Vermont was the big hill I rode up, Burke Mountain. It's really big! Like 3270'! We don't have anything that high in Connecticut. And, unlike that wussy hill climb race they have (just kidding), I climbed half of it on the nasty & unimproved Civilian Conservation Corps Road out of Kirby. Well, anyway, it's not that big of an accomplishment, but I highly recommend it. It has a really pretty view from the observation tower. So, does Monadnock Mountain in Essex County. However, you cannot ride your bike up Monadnock Mountain. Also, if you've never been to this site, you really ought to.
Riding down the mucky Kingdom Trails singletrack of Dead Moose Alley and Moose Alley and all that stuff was also pretty cool. In my opinion, the trail network on Darling Hill is pretty cool in its buff-ness and twistiness, but the Burke Mountain trails are so much longer, tiring and better.
This is the view from Monadnock's fire tower:
I find it weird that two of New England's monadnocks are simply named Mt. Monadnock or Monadnock Mountain. The drumlins of the region aren't all called drumlin. Other places are able to think up more creative names.
Also, the new Vietnamese place, Hiep Phat Vietnamese Fast Food, on Park Street at Dorothy Street is really good. I highly recommend it. Very authentic, or at least, it seems authentic to a guy named Brendan Mahoney.
*I stole that Burke picture from Snow-forecast.com.
ps. Sorry for subjecting y'all to my crappy attempt at a narrative about riding at Kingdom Trails.
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economics + fancy helmets = pretentious. But we can at least link to Prez's old posts like they're Seinfeld reruns.
I'll tell you what, this may be chi-chi and it is definitely expensive but it's the kind of thing I've been thinking about lately.
I'll act like an economist here. On the one hand, they are expensive. On the other hand, maybe if more people wore these helmets, rode in regular clothes, and rode at a stately pace, more people would ride bicycles. That is, if the marginal benefit of one more person wearing these helmets is an increase in bicycle-miles ridden valued at 100 dollars, and the real cost of producing one of these helmets is less than 100 dollars, then buying one and wearing it would be a socially optimal choice... I think.
Funny, I just found this old post from Matt Yglesias. I can't believe he and all those commenters beat me to! It's a good comment thread about helmets.
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Not dead yet
While I'm glum that Josh is no longer writing in these parts and that we're got some personal turmoil floating about, I'm not going to let that derail the blog. My guess is that our few readers were here to read about (greater) Hartford & bikes not other, more dramatic things.
So, I'm going to write a bit about some bike stuff.
First, I met with Art & Jason last night about our plan of attack for Hartford 'Cross in October. I think we're in a good position to make a pretty awesome race. So, if you're part of some kind of something and want to do some sponsoring, shoot me an email at oiseaux@gmail.com. Otherwise, come and race or come and watch. You really should come, it's much easier to get to than that race in Maine.
Second, the D2R2 is in two weeks and I'm sort of terrified. I think that I'm in ok shape, but like, it's supposed to be the hardest ride in the world. It's like the Leadville 100 meets Alpe d'Heuz times 50. I've decided that I'm going to ride my rigid mountain bike with semi-slick 1.5"s on it. I don't know if that's a good decision of not. Maybe someone can counsel me. It's a light and comfortable bike with low gearing. That seems like a good choice, right?
Third, I'm doing my first Cat 2 race on Sunday at Hodges Dam. I'm making the jump from beginner racing to mediocre racing. I'm expecting a last place finish. I also haven't raced since two months ago at Winsted Woods, so I'm totally out of practice.
Fourth could have been about my vacation to Vermont and riding my bike, but I didn't take any pictures of it. No one wants to read my narrative about getting muddy at Kingdom Trails.
This is Still Hill Rd in Glover, VT. Imagine if you got to commute to work on this!Thursday, July 23, 2009
Au Revoir
Interpersonal feuds are rarely worth celebrating, let alone exposing to a wider audience, and blog-based feuds are almost always painfully presumptuous. However, a disagreement among the Beat Bike Bloggers has put me in the unfortunate position of having to quit this fine and worthy undertaking. Hereunder, a brief explanation.
You see, dear reader, we used to have a contributor named Rich. Some months back, Chillwill, our founder and Editor-at-Large, had a falling-out with Rich, over a personal matter wholly unrelated to the blog. At the time, Will sent Rich an e-mail expressing his anger and disappointment at Rich's transgression, and Rich denied that he had done this bad thing. Later, Will got some independent confirmation of said bad thing, and he and Rich pretty much ceased to be friends. Months later, while doing some administrative maintenance of this blog, Will recalled the offense and decided he simply didn't want to collaborate with someone who would betray his trust. So he removed Rich's posting privileges.
Will and Rich are both friends to me. I don't have any interest in the underlying facts of their dispute, although I certainly sympathize with both Will's feelings of betrayal and Rich's feelings of being wrongly accused. My feeling, though, is that none of it has anything to do with writing about riding bicycles in Hartford. I also feel that while the blog was Will's idea and he set it up, promoted it, and generally put much hard work into it, it belongs to all of us. (Not for nothing, but I've accounted for 29.7% of the posts to date, while Will has written only 15.3%).
I have put this matter to Will privately a number of times, telling him that the fair thing to do is restore Rich to posting privileges and put the matter to a vote of all the contributors. Most recently, a couple of weeks ago, I told him that I would quit if he didn't make this right. We talked today and he said he simply could not work on a shared endeavor with someone he feels has betrayed his friendship, that he didn't want to put the matter to a vote of the contributors (being justifiably concerned about needlessly airing personal matters), and that he would absolutely not resolve the problem by quitting the blog he founded (fair). So principle demands that I go. Oh well.
Thanks, dear readers, for your jolly comments and good advice. I think I'll start blogging at the New London Commercial Fishermen's Blog, which I started yesterday just so I would have a funny link in my last post. Come check me out over there, and keep riding your bikes!
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Showdown In Old Town recap
“I have two boats in dry dock, a busted longboard and a fuckin’ busted-ass bike.” Words spoken by Jonathon, the winner of the Summer Showdown in Old Town. Actually, RJ and Rydel arrived 5 or 10 minutes earlier, by they forgot stop #7, which was to pick up a free copy of the Blue Paper. Prolly about half the racers had to run back out of Cowboy Bill’s and around the block to the Parrot, the nearest spot to grab a copy of the weekly newspaper. Suckas! So due to this and that, the winning bicycle, a $20 cruiser, beat the roadies and the fixies!
17 people met up at the end of the White Street Pier for the island’s first alleycat race and all had a great time. We had a few DQ’s due to missed stops, but most everyone finished and got a prize. All racers got a water bottle from Fixed Gears and a koozie from Cowboy Bill's, who also hooked us up with $1 PBR’s all night. yeeee-haaaaaaw! Thanks again to Re-Cycle , Guy Harvey's Help Yourself , Conch Traders, Turtle Kraals and Bad Boy Buttitos who were super kind with donated prizes, thanks y’all! Miami Bike Scene also covered the race.
johnathon conch cruiser
pedi eddie conch cruiser but i should have had him as a roadie
rj
rydel fixie
jason
david
amy fixie
travis conch cruiser
sasha
nick
lou
george conch cruiser
matt conch cruiser
Instead of putting the manifests and maps into envelopes, they were tucked inside waterbottles donated by Fixed Gears, which was the start of the surprise coconuts and mangos checkpoint tasks. Instead of signing manifests, Ray was handing out coconuts to be delivered to a house on Olivia Street. Thanks to Randesh for the coconuts. You can find him at Help Yourself chopping them open with a machete for the delicious water inside. Help Yourself was also a stop and they made everyone do a shot of super cold juice!
Brian and Agnes worked the Olivia Street surprise stop, where conch cruisers got their manifest signed, but roadies had to take a freshly picked mango back to Fixed Gears to get a signature. I am not sure how many people realized the Bill Butler Park checkpoint was down a tiny alley only two houses away!
Maya kicked ass and rode off into the sunset on the steel (and cardboard) horse she rides. Inspired by the race, she actually made a horse for her bicycle. Well done! She worked the checkpoint on the stairs at the corner of Duval and Front and made the racers go and find a tourist and make them yell, “yeee-haaaawww!”
This is a crazy story. George, on the left thought he had DFL and realized he had lost his wallet while racing. He rushed out of Cowboy Bill’s to go look for it and Matt, on the right, showed up and stole DFL from him. Matt also had a wallet he found on the street; which turned out to be George’s wallet! Dang, this town is getting small…
This was the most fixie riders ever together on this tiny island….six of us! Amy, Amy, Patrick, ChillWill and on the far right; Peppermint Patti and Rydel who drove down from Miami for the race. Riding around Saturday night with everyone was awesome. We had road bikes, fixies, conch cruisers and even a Penny-Farthing
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Patricia arrived at Turtle Kraals and climbed the stairs to the Tower Bar but could not find the checkpoint person. She borrowed a menu to prove she was there. Good thinking!
Yep, someone really raced a Penny-farther! Scott also builds custom chopper bikes. I’ll mos def get a post out soon with some of his work and contact info.
We gave Matt, DFL, this rope lock hoping his bike would get stolen and he could get a faster bike! Ironicaly, Jonothn, who came in 1st place, actually uses a rope to “lock up” his bike at racks. Really, he does it all the time. I love this town!
By the way, Matt was one of the out-of-towners, visiting from Ohio; not for the race…but on honeymoon with his beautiful wife! Congratulations! They were super cool, hope to see y’all when I’m visiting Columbus in August.
Robbie was making people, like Jason here, go down the slide at Bill Butler Park.
RJ, in between Peppermint Patti and ??, prolly could have been the winner if not for a bit of disorganization on by both of us. He arrived at Cowboy Bill’s with Rydel an out-of-towner from Miami following his wheel, and they could not find me. They got back on their bikes and pedaled all the way to Cowboy Bill’s Reloaded, a smaller sister bar towards the northern end of Duval and returned…still looking for me. I was taking photos at three checkpoints as fast as possible. They forgot to pick up the Blue Paper and while going out to get them, Jonathon and Eddie arrived, putting RJ and Rydel in 3rd and 4th.
Scott, on the left, is the rider of the Penny Farthington. I don’t remember what Peppermint Patti was showing me and Patrick is blurry and out of focus…as promised.
An adorable couple and their bicycle basket of mangos! Thanks again Brian and Agnes for helping out.
me and lou
Rydel killin' the wings! At some point at Finnegan’s Wake I wrote down a quote from PP, “I’m not surprised he has chicken in his tooth hole!”
Rydel and the King of the Wild West, Jonathon, who bought a round for everyone!
Peppermint Patti chillin'
these tats were da bomb!
peppermint patti hugging what may have been the inspiration for The Giving Tree infont of the house where Shel Silverstein lived.
david on the penny! It was a bit awkward at first, but I liked riding it. with a waaay bigger front wheel than a 29’r, curbs were nuttin’!
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