Ride Lugged

Japanese bikes, originally uploaded by Martin uit Utrecht.

Here’s an article about bicycle crime, and crime in general in Japan.

Under normal circumstances, there is no reason anyone would want to steal my bike. It’s a basic get-around-town model that cost $150. It was the biggest bicycle a Japanese department store carried and it’s still too small for me. The chain grinds on every rotation, although that may have to do with the fact that I leave it out in the rain and the bike is now covered in rust.

It has a bell but no night light as required by Japanese law — which, as you’ll see, is a misdemeanor that the Japanese police choose to enforce.

I thought the title should be “Worlds Fastest Butt Plug”. I decided against that because it might be kind of offensive.

As world class streamliners go, the Orpheus is a fairly conventional design. Some wackier designs rely on camera navigation or even require the rider to travel down the course facing backwards. Many newer streamliners also have computer designed laminar flow shapes. Oddly, the Varna design is still the most successful in the world and it was not drawn with the aid of a computer — it came straight from Georgiev’s artistic brain.

I ran across the following “hot chicks on bikes” video which led me to find Monkey Warfare. Seems to have a lot of bikes in it. I think the video is a bit misleading when compared to the trailer.

Oh, and when I first heard the song in that video I thought it was The Makeup. Turns out I was close, it’s Weird War. Ian Svenonius is the lead singer for both bands.

Grant Petersen’s Rivendell, originally uploaded by the_swami.

Click here for the full interview.

I’m not in the Rivendell Cult but I know that there are a few worshipers who read this blog.

I like the idea of the fly fishing question but I wasn’t impressed with Grant’s response. He should have said, I’d take you on the snake river in Idaho, we’d grab a drift boat with a bike rack on the front, float a few miles drinking some brews then we’d drop some woolly buggers over the side of the boat, drink some more brews. If we didn’t catch anything then we could start dropping M80’s over the side until the fish start floating to the surface.

You and I both like to flyfish, and we both ride bikes. If you could take me on a bicycle-flyfishing trip, or a flyfishing-bicycle trip, where would go, and what flies would we bring?

If it’s any trout stream in America with a good food supply and therefore a healthy population of trout between 12″ and up to maybe 24″, and the water is running clear and not too high, and it’s fairly wadeable (so, not too deep), we’d need four flies only. Three would be nymphy. A size 16 with a thin hare’s ear body ribbed with gold, a peacock herl thorax, and a brown partridge hackle, on the long side. Then the same kind of fly with a muskrat body, black herl thorax, and a starling hackle. Then a pheasant tail nymph, tied with copper wire twisted together with 2-3 fibers from a pheasant’s tail, but with a herl thorax, and no hackle. Then a size 18 elk hair caddis. Four flies makes you fish them right and not blame the fly, and maximizes the time you spend fishing, not tying on flies.

Velocouture seems to be an interesting photo pool on flickr.

An elegant signal, originally uploaded by Jeremyhughes.

Tempo, originally uploaded by [Zakka DK].

But I think bicyclegirls has more potential

According to http://www.fkkl.nl/e-wielrijders.html

The armed forces have had a Bicycle Corps since 1894. In 1917, the first Bicycle Music Corps was founded. In 1927, the original and later so renowned (volunteer) Bicycle Music Corps was founded. That corps was disbanded in 1940.

The Fanfare Band continues the traditions of that music corps. In uniforms originally issued in 1914, and playing on the period-correct bent instruments, they provide a lively musical show that has already had great success at many national and international tattoos.

So apparently Alberrrrrrrrrrto Gonzales tried taking his mind off a whole world of troubles this past weekend by spinning his old man bike around Roosevelt Island.

Word on the street is this tool will be out the door with the Friday evening news dump.

Flush, flush Gonzo.

So, I know it’s Cory’s going away ride this Saturday, but if anyone doesn’t know Cory (or hates him) and wants to have crazy bike fun this weekend Slaughterama in Richmond is it.

Here are some pics from last year: