Ride Lugged

here’s an elevation profile for a proposed ride for this summer. or maybe not…

also: here is a peak at the view from the mid point on the ride.

worth it? maybe.

This also doubles as a scrotum guard if you have those kinds of problems.

So it looks like this chick dressed up in an angel outfit for a specialized promo at the Tour of California last year.

Honestly, I’m not impressed, she should be dressed like this:

And it would help if she were Heidi Klum.

I guess everything sounds better in the shower?

Rednecks

More Rednecks

French Rednecks

thank you gigazine!

ow my butt hurts.

more later with pics.

(and veronika did as many laps as me on a rigid singlespeed, while i was a wuss with suspension!)

-cory

ok here we go.  my best of list.  that will make this blog more like cosmo or something.

i’d love to see a best of list from everyone, although most people are too lazy.  cory, nick…

Best road bike:   not saying i like the bits, just the frame.  more on bits below

why a sachs frame?  1.  location.  he’s representing on the east coast.  2.  his bikes win races, which not too many steel frames do these days.  3.  He uses panels.  4.  no gimmicks.  5.  consumate craftsmanship.  6.  dont have to waffle over paint choices.

best cross bike:

I dont know.  Too many to pic from.  Sachs again, vanilla if you want a pretty bike, vicious is you want a steel bike thats light as shit, on something of a budget…

Best Mtn Bike for normal guy riding:

ok i have a bias here.  I had a vicious mtn bike, which was great but the top tube was too short, putting me over the bars alot.  It rode great though, in terms of ride quality and general snappyness.  So I looked for a bike with the same tubing, and lo and behold…the 1993 bridgestone mb-1.  that heap up there isnt mine.  but it rides great, its japanese, its lugged, its a horrible white color, its strong, and it cost less than 1/5 of a new vicious on ebay.  and its a fucking bridgestone.  cummon.  I had to complete my collection.  ok its not complete. I still need a RB-1, which I will one day get shaun cheney drunk enough to give me, and an rb-t, which would be super hot, but are super rare.

Best rando bike:

full custom, perfect everything.  no website.  new england based.  maybe brazed my whitcomb.  probally not.

Best loaded touring:

Can I speak french?  No.  Can I afford to fly to France to get fitted?  No.  Does that make this bike less hot?  No.  Any bike that I cant even afford to get fitted for, thats made by someone my grandfather’s age, in Paris, with custom everything, that looks this good, is….  I dont know.  Trump Tight?  Alex Singer…

Best Lug work:

Oswald gets my vote cause his lug work is very clean, very organic, fancy without being over the top ala baylis or hetchins, and unique.  Also, he is from PA, just a few hours from my casbah.  And his work remains affordable, with low wait times.

Best current road cranks:

This is hard.  Really hard.  Almost all my favorite cranks are no longer made.

TA alize cranks arnt made any more, but they are the most modern crank I can approve of, that uses a 130BCD.  Better selection in 110.  You’ll see.  Why it gets the vote:

Ta has a satin finish that no one but sun tour could touch.  And even suntour just barely got it right, in comparison.  Lots of lengths.  Lowish Q.  Square taper.

Best contempoary touring cranks:

Sugino Alpina, not shown with granny, not shown with square taper, although both are availible.  Also:  needs silver rings.  I just learned this is also made in a 130bcd, at least in Japan, so it gets my vote over the TA cause you can still potentially buy it.  Nice enough silver finish, better than the oh so popular xd cranks.  Classic styling, nice blend between a low pro and high pro look.

Best old mtn cranks:

Kooka woulda had my vote, but my broke, so er…  I have a pair of these, in silver, which are light, have an interchangable spider, and look great.  These, on ebay, kinda look beat, but would look nice on a stealth cruiser.

Best contemporary mtn cranks:

please ignore the pedal and the lack of a granny.  Middleburns have an interchangable spider: good.  They have silver arms.  Great.  They have a lifetime no questions asked warrenty against breakage, for everything, trials, dirt jumping, DH…  They are silver.  They are silver.  No one makes silver mtn cranks anymore.  They are made in England.

OK, more later.  oh and we need to start a worst of everything column.

I remember seeing this on HBO back in the 80’s when we had the cable selector box that sat on top of the TV with the little tab that clicked along to different numbered stations…Yeah, I’m that old. I loved the part with the driver holding out this hand to indicate the speed… I think he hit 70 right before the truck got pulled over.

Here’s the latest round from our future business leaders, politicians, and blockbuster clerks:

this piece really caught my eye. just what are those jelly fish covered in crazy quilts?

apparently they are “colorful mountains”. he goes on to describe his work:

“My art work was inspired by a variety of different things. I wanted to tell a story much like Chagall does. I wanted my piece to be beautiful and harmonious at the same time. I wanted it to have a sense of power, and dominance that leaves the viewer wondering. This is why I chose to have a man carrying Beaver Stadium.”

Never explains the sod houses he is about to crush. Collateral damage?

Let me see if i have this one right: the flames represent society, the coals represent the media and the man, which stoke the societal flame, the martini glass represents getting free drinks from cute guys, and the black locks of hair are from bubbles, michael jackson’s sycophantic monkey. I think thats right.

From the mouth of the artist: “Who would have thought this would be considered art?”

This piece was so bad that i have included the entire essay as well as my response.

“For this assignment, I chose to compare my artwork “School Times” to bicycle wheel by Marcel Duchamp. I call it School Time because it reminds me when I was a little boy starting in an Elementary School. I learned writing and drawing with those kinds of pens and pencils.

Bicycle Wheel from Marcel Duchamp has a negative area which means the artist has wasted a lot area, however, in my artwork “School Times” I used as much as possible area as I can use. My artwork is nonrepresentational art, it doesn’t represent anything. Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel Artwork, it represents motion and kinetic energy which he wildly represented in the use of what became known as his “readymades”. Both Duschamp’s and my artwork, they are obviously three-dimensional because its real picture of actual objects. About the form, in my opinion the organization and arrangement of visual elements are better in my work because, I didn’t pay that much attention to it. The reason why I did that because I don’t think it would be really artistic. I just put the pens and pencils down and took picture of them the way they were. On the other hand Marcel paid attention to it and put the bicycle wheel on the middle of the chair which really doesn’t look that bad.”

my response:

“Berker,

Where is the rest of your essay? This reads like you drafted it on a cocktail napkin in a poorly lit room.”

I don’t want to offend anyone, so if the word $#(@*%^ offends you then please don’t watch this excellent piece videography.