sacrificial bonfires

Burn up the old. Ring in the new.


Velocache is a true Tournament of Champions. You- yes, you- can have your Giro, your Tour day France, and your Vuelta. Fancy stage racing puts type-A dopers on their saddles, but what puts your butt on your saddle?

Velocache could be that motivation.

It gave me a reason to ride the stiffness out of my tired legs today. Instead of sitting around inside, I braved the gathering rain clouds and sat around outside.


My sweet ride was the Black Cat cyclocross, with it's fancy new fork (for which I still owe $78.33 to Rick...), and it's fancy new brass fenders, and it's fancy new mudflaps.



I realize this is sub-prime fender season...but all these ducks have just aligned, so I'm making hay while the rain threatens.


This is the 2nd ride with these. The flaps are well proportioned and have a simple/clever stiffener in the horizontal strip which forms a curve, allowing thin flaps (and so, light flaps) to be as stiff as much thicker (and so, heavier) flaps.

I lik them. They appeal to my low brow, yet snooty, bicycle aesthetic.


I have a single nit to pick. They performed flawlessly on pave, but immediately upon hitting the singletrack downhill, the rear flap sucked up into the fender. After the 3rd suck up, I strapped the flap:


When I returned to the relative sanity of riding my drop barred skinny bike on pavement, I unstrapped the flap and it was smooooooth music. Fenders and off-road riding are a poor mix; this has been proven. Sticks, twigs, pebbles, matter- these are things that can stick between the fender and tyre and cause a axeident. So I am happy to ride these flaps with my shiny brass fenders on road rides.

Check out Tom's work. It's Good Stuff: This colored text is a link, which- if clicked upon- will take you to the Tauro site.