I am all ears?

Yes, I did steal that image from the yahoos over at Soulcraft. On account of HEY! the Full Corn Moon is coming up quicker than a beanshoot in shi_...

Full Corn Moon Friday September 4th!


Make plans now. Will Santa Cruz back up all it's mouthy talk and finally host a Full Moon Ride?


Whatever, Corn Liquor has wrecked my body and Pretty Women are troublin my mind.



And yes, that is how I spent my collegiate years. Mountain biking the Greenbelt and loafing in the Saxon Pub. South Austin, woohoo!

All these opportunities come crashing down

image courtesy of Golden Age Comic Book Stories!


If you have the chance to kick ass, do you take it?

Or, are you too busy or tired or "stressed" (gag)? Or, uh, lame?

Sometimes things overtake us and we can't participate. Sometimes. Other times we just can't be bothered. And that is weak.

Anyone within sight of this sentence who does not ride Telluride-Durango (date tba) pre SSWC09 is a sucker mother_ucker. Full stop. Except C_____ B____, who gets a pass for his priors and for Willingness.

That rant behind us, I seized the shit out of some opportunity this weekend. L___ and A_____ (family friend) organized a camp out at Pfieffer-Big Sur Campground for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I rode down after work (L___'s idea!) to meet them. I had enough light/time to turn off HWY1 at Bixby Bridge and take Old Coast Road. Old Coast Road is a kickass gravel option taking the Redwooded hollers to skip the ocean watching driver's of tourist RVs and the wind at Hurricane Point, and to add several hundred extra feet of gain. (Give Thanks for the clearance to run 32mm speedy road tyres.) It was fun. It dumps you back onto the highway at Andrew Molera State Park, and it was about 4 miles further to a cold beer at the campsite. Roughly 30 miles all told.I rolled up and my wife (is better than your wife) handed me an ice cold Hamm's before I could even take off my chamois.

It may not be Jager bombs with classy SoCal in San Diego, but it is almost as good.Water balloon fights ensued. Beer was drunk. Children made lots of noise. The kids had spent the day at the swimmin holes (well) above the campsite, and were charged. 3 families+ guests= 7 kids.

Sunday morning saw me up and on the road by 8am in order to make it to work by11am. The family stayed to party in the streams. I was just congratulating myself on being "wise" and not taking Old Coast Road on the return trip since it would add so much climbing/time when the headwind hit me. Granny ring crawl for any hill, and little ring only for the next 45 minutes, as the wind brutally shifted direction and intensity with no mercy or opportunity to establish a rhythm. Now, y'all know how I feel about that. All I could do was pedal and mentally kick myself for feeling so "strong" on the way down, when it had been the tailwind sneaking me the extra push while I just believed. For real- the wind at the Western edge of this continent is silly.
Rolled up to home at 10:04am, took a shower, switched to the townie, and rode to work.



I am tired. Opportunity took, Bicthes. I would not have been able to do this were it not for the awesome support and encouragement. By encouragement, I am talking about my sweetie telling me to do it. I would have most likely poo-pooed the idea on account of _________ (insert lame excuse most likely involving timing). It is so easy to get caught up in my little head and lose sight of what is around me and available to me. I am telling you now: packing some extra adventure into your life is within your grasp. Get some.

Optimist/Pessimist

See here.

apple pirate

Days off during the week are just my type. Avoid the yahoos, avoid the rush of the crowd...I'll take it.


J is in preschool, which is skippable, so he joined me in playing the hook this fine sunny Thursday. We loaded up the Big Dummy (vs. the trailerbike and per his request) with velocache and Brown Lunch supplies. Then it was off to the dirt.

The "plan" was to be Secret Boys and find our lollipop stash, which is out in the woods. Actually, we have several from which to choose.

This day we chose the Northern most hiding spot, which is the regular commute stop.


I think it's very vital to keep the suckers encased in glass. So as to keep out the unwashed; bugs, etc. There is a technique to opening the jar.



The payoff is totally worthwhile.


After swooping singletrackedly into town, J decided he'd rather grab a sandwich and hit Dennis the Menace Park rather than head out again for Brown Lunch. So we did that.

Then we velocached.

Then we rode back up and over that hill.




You can see here the new stoker bar position. He's grown to the point that we needed to flip the stem and raise his bars so's he can fit. Also, I didn't realize just how casually he takes this whole passengering gig. Pretty casually, judging from this candid snapshot.





P.S. To the individual who came here searching for "how 2 ride a dick": I sincerely hope this site helps. Remember, never be afraid to ask questions; it's how you learn.

when's the last time you heard a funky _____?

Singlespeed Worlds...coming soon.

Practicing for the heat. Winnowing the field of thrifted men's dress shirts to glean which one has the coveringest sleeves for a given (light) weight. Narrowing the choices in terms of which popped collars stay popped and so block the sun. These are important factors to consider when thinking about extensive riding in Utah (and Colorado) soon. September in Durango will probably be hot, but anything can happen in the mountains. Wool? Cotton?

Plans are mercurial and getting more so. Folks' itineraries are up in the air these days. I need to spend some time with an atlas and a highball. I'd really lik to ramble across the lower 1/3rd of Utah. Maybe fly into Vegas and Greyhound it up to Richfield, to ride from there...24 through Capitol Reef to 95 over&through Glen Canyon Nat'l Rec. Area to Blanding. One of you Moabites will take pity on me there and pick me up. Right? That wouldn't take but 3 days. Right? Assuming all went well, of course. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Gotta come up with a kick-ass adventure.

And, plus, Telluride-Durango is a must. Dirt the whole (nearly) way. Finish at the Hot Springs.


Anyhoo. Riding. Rode the largish local dirt loop today. Replenished the beerpile on the commute section. Sweated. Felt slow, but it was an "everything I had loop". Replenished the mini beer cave at the bluff end of Mudhen Express. No stalking stRangers that I could see. Fort Ord is a sandy trap right now. I did go doooooown and lose my knife and an empty/crushed can of Hamm's; which if anybody finds them I want back.

Cruised by the Stairs, only to see evidence of unscrupulous partying. WTF? Pack out your empties- you know, unless you lose them in a freak crash or something. The Boy and I have our Mission laid out for us tomorrow cleaning up this mess.

Slithered back into town and under the fogbank via the bikepath, resupply at Casa Bodega, up/over Veteran's to sneaky dirt down and this brief spot:
to drink a cold tallboy and stash the (plastic?) bottle of Early Times (Hey, things are tough all over) under the well established cooking base/hooch cover/trash can lid in the woods.

Slipslid home via dirt and pave. ~40miles.

Training.

let me tell you

Bike "polo"<=Frisbee "golf"



I am sorry I had to be the one. If it is any comfort to you, mathematics cannot lie. There is a beautiful certainty in the maths.

Nice to see you! Happy to meet you!

The Mayor of Drunkingham is returned. Here.

Now I can stop my obsessive checking of HATBL.

...like desperadoes waiting for a train

N and I went to see the latest Harry Potter (1/2 Blood Prince). In the tiempo de los cortos, we saw the preview for some End of Days film starring (I am sad to report) John Cusak. It looked marginally positiver in it's outlook than Cormac McCarthy's bummerfest, The Road. The premise being, that shit is really going to hit the wall in 2012, ref the Mayans etc. and we- well, really not you and me, probably,only the chosen few- are going to need a spaceship to get out of this one.

Fuck all this.





Some of you dudes, you act real rude and seem to get off on the idea that there is a coming Global Shitstorm. Not my term. Kunstler etc. The Arch Druid has a longer term view of the same type set up- that present "civilization" cannot continue, and we've had the pomp and pride...here comes the Fall. Ok, I see things are reaching a head around the place. Global Warming and such. Rampant use of disposable plastic bags. Chinese ownership and goods. Recession. Rednecks.

Can we not fantasize about this situation? End Times are coming for everone of your asses, even yours fitboy. No one here gets out alive. Death will not be forestalled by eating systematically, or exercise, or good intentions. Neither will you be passed over safe beneath your dome of money, drugs or good planning.

As Jimmie Dal Gilmore put it, in Midnight Train:
You may sit beside fear and go worse than lonely or travel with trust and love and love and faith restored. These choices you have and these choices only, When that train rolls in and you step on board.

I am not in possession of clues or smarts, but I do know that living in fear sucks ass. So, instead I'll come at things from a conviction based on my having had an excellent time so far that some... Good Firmament underlies this plane of existence. I will ride bikes. I will attempt to learn Patience and Tolerance and Humility. I will drink inexpensive canned beer and hide it in the woods, too. I'll make choices as wisely as is possible for a bike-addled primate with a conscience and a family given the facts as I know them.

I will pull the wool over my own eyes.

At least until it is really time to break out the pitchforks and torches. In the meantime I will also decline to watch these movies or participate in the fear-mongering.

ask me a riddle...

* what we really want and why we don't get it

A new bike opens up all kinds of possibilities for reconfiguration of the current bikepile.

I think the Kamped out Karate Monkey will see a Pugsley fork soon, so as to experiment on the cheap with the 135mm front hubbed wheel. (I checked the measures, and it'll fit a 29" wheel.) I have seen a lot more flex in my 29er wheels than I care to on occasion; most notably with big fat tires. I have plenty of rear wheels to serve as fronts for the duration of seeing how the ~20mm difference in height affects (head tube angle) handling. If it sticks, then the possibilities are legion...a dingle on the front and geared in the rear camping bike would be formidable. And I would then be in the position to purchase a front specific hub for actually testing the stiffness thereof.

*EDIT: I see now, the Paul Components Whub 135mm front hub will not work with the Pugsley fork since it (the fork) is designed around rear disc spacing. Kinda puts a damper on the whole thing.



I am also thinking hard about SSWC09, and logistics. Who wants to ride Telluride-Durango on one of the days immediately preceding? I may or may not ride a mini-tour across southern Utah. I may or may not swap out the SS dropout on the Black Cat singlespeed for a hangered dropout to use gears for that pursuit.

Of course, Interbike is to follow, so best start training now, suckas.




No camera=no pictures=no proof, but I was in SC riding with some Santa Cruzers on Wed., which was a laugh a lot type of Good Time. They do got the good trails. I will slip in here the observation that chasing trail-wise speedy flat-barred local-types down their own playground whilst drunk aboard a drop-barred v-braked rig in the dark can lead to a whitening of the knuckles. The work I'd planned to do on Thurs. did not end up materializing, and as I'd committed to spending the night to do it (and face it- driving home after the ride on Wed would have been a baaaaaad idea) I was all of a sudden cleared to ride all day in the hills. With the shady redwooded trails and the twisty turny roads and that.

Out the door (thanks for hosting me T___, and I mean that however it strikes your ear) and on dirt for the climb up westSIDE ridgeSIDE and _offman's _istoric. Up some more and it was Ridge to Braille (which rides like it sounds at first and then steepens dramatically) to road. Summit Store to pay for water, a cold tallboy, and the freshest ripest biggest juiciest most wonderful peach ever. Ride on to the top of that one road that can only be mentioned in a whisper on account of it's superlativity up and down for a brief rest- to drink the tallboy, a wee snort of the whiskey I'd promoted from the kitchen of my hostbody ( I just laughed when I saw the selection in the pantry- 'extensive' and 'portable' come to mind), and a safety break.

down. Fast as hell, crappy one-laned pavement twisting and swooping. I especially love that. No one can do it better.

I made all the right turns to end up at the trail entrance to _enry C_____, and made adequate choices there in terms of tight twisty singletrack to reach the RRtracks. Softly, I rode them down into town to pick up the race van and head home. Tired. Feeling good.

if monkeys could type

Those of y'all doing this right (i.e. keeping up with even my smallest needs and taking/recording careful inventories of my bikepile) will have gathered that I will soon be riding a new cross bike. It is definite, I have seen the frame, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Mining the vein of thinking in a serious way about bike parts and spec, there are several inneresting thoughts here.

anatomy of a commute

accomplished designer of over the top interiors

On the other hand, we were able to make yet another bike based trip to the swimmin hole. The bicycle breakdown went a little something like this: N on her townie with a knobbie swapped in and a fender swapped out on the front end (it looks so tough) D on the 24"mtb (ostensibly his now I guess) my brother on the kamped out Karate Monkey and T (niece) , J and my ownself aboard the Big Dummy (hauler of gear and asses).





The kids were by turns happy to jump off cliffs, snack, lounge hole-side, and swim. There was sunscreen. We brought our own beers so we did not have to pilfer from the coolers of others. There was no one else there anyway.



Backcountry bikepile. Who's punker?



I love that bike. The daughter is ok, too. There can be a lot of drama/fussing these days. 12 is the new 18.



Walking them...


and walking us. Hot.



At the top of that climb, my brother swapped rides with me and took off with the kid-laden longbike. He wobbled a little, but not for long.

I check my pulse and the pulse of my friend

Living in the shadow of groovy times. My brother and niece came to town for a week's worth of Goodness.

One night I invited him to accompany me on a pub crawl via bicycles and he reluctantly agreed. I did not tell him we were going to see Lyle Lovett and his large band play at the Golden State Theatre (est. 1927, bicthes), and when we pulled up he was suitably floored. He told me then he had thought I was just being a Bike Nazi (his term) again. I have dragged him on some dubious outings in the past, but still. Anyways, if Lance Armstrong's life is detailed in a movie (you know, prior to his presidential run) well, Lyle oughta play him. Later, we were asked to leave Alfredo's Cantina- ok, given the choice between that or having the police escort us from the premises.

One of the other things we did was to take that bicycle surrey




and ride it out to Marina to the beach. Those things are singlespeed like you read about, and the seats do not adjust... Shut up, strap a Chrome messenger back pack full of iced beers and juice boxes (on account of the waterproof truck tarp construction, see) on the back, hang a few tens of more lbs of picnic goods, towels, toys and several sporadic-at-best-pedaling freeloaders off it and ride.


We parked it out on top of the dunes and hiked down. I'd guess it is about 11 miles out to this spot. The sharp eyed among you will recognize this venue from previous velocache! action.


Hike down.




Raw and uncut footage here.



...attack.


etc.





Hike up.





The surrey, just where we'd left it.


Everone looks real enthused on the way back. We checked the brakes on the way out prior to hitting this section of trafficked mall/bikepath interface. They worked. But barely.

It was a hot sweaty Good Time in the sun.

soundtrack to your life

surrey ride.




details to follow...

Full Sturgeon Moon

Now hear this:

Full Sturgeon Moon going down tonight-er, coming up I guess. You in?

I have no idea about the sturgeon backstory. Meet up at dark time, Parker Flats Cutoff. Dirt and beers await us...