this is always available to you

Friend X and I were discussing Friend Y and his situation, as Friends will do. I mentioned that Y said out loud that he had been broken-hearted and was generally unhappy. I asked him if he'd been riding his bike. "No...mumble...excuse...time constraint..."reason"..." I expressed amazement at this, to both Friends. Friend X was not amazed and said that he also has to push through issues to get back on the bike occasionally. I expressed amazement at this.

For my self, riding bikes is a tonic. As it is for each of these Friends (and likely for you, if you bother to read this stuff), and it is central to my Happiness. When I am unable to pedal, I become sullen and withdrawn (OK, more so) and I am a pill. It is foreign to me, the idea that one could lose the bike. It is the source of Goodness and Good Times.

But, there you go. Different folks etc. So. If something/anything is keeping you from riding your bike...get back in that saddle.

As for me and mine, we been riding. Stuff. Kid biking. Rattlesnake spotting. Commuting (the open secret method for maintaining fitness and sanity). I will say that after riding the fat bike (the new Nate 3.8 knobby tire is _ucking _antastic, by the way) so extensively, I got on my Black aCt SS and it is a ROCKET. I am having a personal renaissance of singlespeeding over here. So fast and fun.

We are gonna be gone for a bit, so no one rob us. Smell you later.
















P.S. Friend Y is riding again, and in much better spirits.

venerated observances and rituals

Signore Berg is correcto. We should remember Fiorenzo Magni and perfect our techniques.

de gustibus non est disputandum

We try to treat everbody right. It's important.

We have just returned from a loop over to Colorado/Utah for some family type recreation. It is inappropriate to share every aspect of one's life, and you jokers (there are ~54 of you, unless somebody double dips) can speculate to your black hearts' content about the nature of things I decline to reveal, via this anonymous medium, fruitlessly. Were you so inclined.


I will say: I hate your Facebook.



It is the mall of the internet; the lowest common denominator. It equals People Magazine for sheer yuckiness. Oh, you'll say it is useful for keeping in touch, but you just like the peeping.

I realize the irony of posting this screed via a weblog.* my flimsy rationale is that this is an anonymousish dead-end of directed (and frequently fictitious! this blog is an alibi) content as opposed to a steaming toll-road of drivel.

I have been called to task (sometimes rightly) for putting names of locations on the computer. When we lived in T________, CO, folks would take you to the secret powder stashes, but they would never tell you where they were. That's an important distinction to my way of thinking.

And even though there was no powder for stashes to be had this trip, that mindset presents itself when I am confronted (via email notification from a sober and impartial 3rd party) with too much posse via the facebook. Specifically the posting of specifics. You know who you are. And no, I am not talking about the recent embryonic journey in Moab. Shamans need to commune with powerful spirits on occasion in order to better bridge the gap between the sacred and the profane.



Also, I may have grown some whiskers.




So. For our last ride of the 2011, the boy and I attempted some old school Fort Ord. Entering the old Stairs Trail, we were happily surprised to find the twisty singletrack has been reinstated! It's been 2 years at least since that area was dozered. A fine, rare feeling to rally sweet singletrack you thought was gone forever. I am sure the proposed horsey park will actually ruin it all permanently soon enough, so if this appeals to you, go get some while the getting is good. The whole of the old timey Friday night singlespeed loops may be happening...it calls for more experimentation. Maybe a reunion of old timey Friday night singlespeed riding?

We met and talked father-son to father-son with G___, a representative of the local IMBA chapter here. A sleek and well-spoken personage. MORCA has some leeway with regard to the trails maintenance (and lay-out/construction!) so I think some...joining...is in order. Though I wouldn't be a member of any club that'd have me.

The highs and the lows. You need that. In the review. The low here being that the preliminary dozer work and ominously piled hay bales at the top of Mud Hen Express were the heralds of further mess making. They graded? the entrance. That delightful off camber rutted section which was juuuuust wrong enough to be interesting is now sedated into a boring fireroadly opening. I was pleased to see the MORCA rep was displeased. Lends some credibility to an otherwise sleek and well-spoken personage.

Anyhow. We're back. Hope you and yours are well. Ride bikes.







*Blogger is attempting to extort dollars from me to post/"store" more photos. My cue is full. Eff them. I will piratize space from old posts I suppose. This blog will be free, for all it's hypocrisy.

you can fool some people sometimes

Have you heard the Good News? No news is Good News. No news is Good News.

So you and I are among those left behind. This is really getting awkward! The Number of the Beast is revealed to be mistakenly translated; it should read 616 (nobody tell the gays, lest they start ruining marriage for the rest of us). The tsunamis in Japan, et al, may just be natural disasters (though helped very much by our energy-use-caused and escalating climate change). Peak Oil is reached (? Learning to bowhunt is fast becoming a real inneresting idea). Lance's spoonful of sugar is going down (in the most painful way-Tyler is a slow tic trainwreck).


I try to keep it light. Try to keep everbody focused on what we have here in common. Is that right?



We went to Tulsa, OK, to party at my brother's wedding instead of waiting around for the hypocralypse...but Bible-thumping relatives dragged ol' JC into it anyways. I just kept quiet, because it's not worth disturbing the party-in spite of those folks themselves oughtening to know better. In their very own writings straight from God but delivered via human hands (so you know it's True, to say nothing of accurate) it says nobody knows the day or hour...so I say let's party instead of pray. I mostly keep quiet on the doping-in-cycling issues because it's a downer that has been the elephant in the peloton since the 1930's (at minimum) and, frankly, what good does fixating on PRO sports do any of us out here in the gutters and on the trails? About as much as forecasting the End of The Party. I say: let's party Smarter in order to Party Longer.

Rode a swell loop up there in Santa Cruz today...all shady dirt with swooping singletrack and tight Redwoods.

Who's up for a Ride tomorrow? No sky cake, but I hear there's Free Beer.

put this in you

You feeling it?

I'm feeling it.

tops, ramps, hoods, hooks, flats

Start out cold, settle in, climb some, descend at speed, maneuver (how's about shaking it around a little).




On account of last week's relative inactivity, riding is hard again. My left TFL (tensor fascia latae) is my bugbear, and increasingly constant companion.( I know, alls it needs is attention/stretching/work, but it's easier said than lived).

...is that you?



On account of last day and night's rain, the trails are tacky again. And plus, the rain warshed away all the duff in which I'd cleverly cached the velocache name of Dirty #30 (I know, but they can't all be gems) so as I passed it today I re-cached it.


On account of people breaking balls, bike choice is in my mind today. So let me just say this: I like bikes. I like road bikes (geared and fixed wheel) and mountain bikes (geared {full squish and sprung on the front and fully rigid} and singlespeed {fully rigid and sprung on the front} and fully rigid fixed wheel). My wheel size of choice is 700c/29", and that is cuz I'm a long tall Texan. I think proper wheel size is more a matter of relation to rider size than anything else; you should ride what fits you. I enjoy most of all to ride the cross bike (geared or singlespeed or fixed wheel) so's I can take roads and trails.

So. If you don't like one or more of the above options- well then it's time to _uck or _ight.

And further, if you are of the opinion that one or more of the above options is not legit, then you need to stop kidding yourself; a different ride is a different ride which allows for a True appreciation of any one of those options. The wheels on the ____ go round and round.

Any questions?
Oh. THE FULL HUNTER MOON WILL PROCEED AS PLANNED, FRIDAY 22ND...DARK THIRTY AT THE WATER TANKER. Corner of Parker Flats Cut-off and that other street.
Any other questions?

rain?