Ride Lugged

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By the light of the day the pimp’s yellow ochre suit is plain beige. The rotting wooden trailer out front is the same emerald green as the swing that sat under the willow tree for years after the willow had blown down in a windstorm, 15 feet from the porch where I slept, dead to the sound of the willow tree’s instant death. Now, 10 years later, a small willow grows from the base of the old tree’s trunk. The porch swing became art, the emerald green lending is patina to pieces about Abraham Lincoln and satellite radio. Memories are traded for cash and endorsed checks.

The porch furniture caught in the amber are invisible behind the dirty off white curtain, the illusion reserved for night rides only. The snake smell is just musty now, like a mouse dead in some remote corner of the house, reduced to powder and bones. There are no competitors out today, just the wind, heavy and high, pounding through every turn, making even the steepest downhills into high RPM chores. The splinter in my foot throbs on difficult climbs. The wrong foot placement could lead to a limp leg, as the pain shoots to the kneecap and saps it of structural strength. The lapis lazuli cascade has 3 kids playing in it, 2 teenage moms watch, bored. Not 6 years ago they were playing in that same stream. Now they just it watch it go by, the sparkling water holds no more interest than the latest congressional race, or the biker passing by, observing their life for 3 seconds at 27 mph.

I’m building miles slowly. Today I rode to school, and back, 6 miles total, and then my short local loop, 8 miles, then to the Giant, 3.5 miles, and then I’m heading back to school, 6 miles again, riding home in the dark at 11 or so. I’m eating a spoonful of ice cream a day, and loads of salad and grainy bits. I’m drinking lots of room temperature water, and extra fiber English muffins. My sweat has cooled to a dry powder on my forehead.

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A tale of two one point fives:

I have an idea, its not mine and I don’t remember who said it, but Sean’s recent comment brought it to mind again, and I’ll put the two thoughts together to make one newish thought.

I was always told to hold my handlebars loosely, like they were 1.5 times bigger than they actually are. This way, the bike and rider could react to bumps, and small directional changes, and still sort of auto–pilot its way through stuff. In other words, a loose grip actually meant more control, less wasted energy, and a more ‘ready for anything’ stance. I took this bit of wisdom and applied it. I loosesed up and found more control, less fatigue and more power for my legs, that otherwise would have gone to my hands and forearms. I could ride rigid and not be beat up. I could ride skinny tires off road. I could descend really nasty rocky stuff with crappy brakes and be ok. I ditched my fat oury grips and got big cheeze grips. They were smaller and harder, making it easier and more nessesary to loosen my grip. On my road bikes I switched from cork to cotton. Same deal. I can ride for dozens of miles and not experience numbness or a sketchy front end, because of how I hold my bars.

Instead of increasing headset diameter on road bikes (and don’t think its not coming to mtn bikes, or comfort bikes) why dont we re-teach this old chunk of wisdom. Let’s trade 1.5 inch headsets for theoretical 1.5x larger diameter handlebars. We could start by getting rid of all that gel tape nah nah, and foam pad hooo hoo and get people riding cinelli tape, or medium density stella or (gasp) cloth.

This would also expose undersized bikes, and poor riding positions. Lots of gel and saddle cut-outs do wonders for hiding bad bike fit. Its a win win situation. Really.

To readers of this blog that may be concerned:

The poster known as 5dollarbud, aka a4nick8tor, aka Big Killa N, aka Golden Balls, aka Kung Fu Jimmy is currently on holiday in Prague, CZ.

He appologizes for not notifing sooner and wonders if it would be possible to meet any other posters on this blog before Thursday when he leaves.

He can be contacted at his usual email, or by his swedish mobile (+46 70 fourseveneight fourfouronetwo), or by calling the hotel (+420 296 889 688)

kthanks!

so without yer knowledge, the database has been pushing forward. is it called the database? no. did i mastermind it? not reallby joe whitehair is on board, but he might have been two PBRs to the wind when he said he was. they were a dollar. i mean. cummon. so jay has been working on posting some dirt roads in frederick county, i spent the day teaching kids final cut pro entering roads from the fredrick county rural roads pdf that joe lent me, and so there is quite a bit of info already. right now its just frederick co, with a few roads in VA, in montgomery county. I am working on a seperate one for centre county, PA. I think the key is going to a super simple website that organizes things by state, then county. maybe each county/state could have a dirt road count next to it. right now i’ll start with that blog i keep going on about, so at least the database has a temp home until i learn how to make a website. (over spring break, i swear). wait, doesnt rob know how to do simple html?

check the blog for what we have so far, a quick users guide to labeling and symbols, and other stuff. if you want to add content to the new blog, or join it as a writer, let us know in the comments (ie leave some contact info) hell, that goes for this blog too.

the new blog’s title is dirt road datebase, but its home on the web is dirtdata.wordpress.com

so i was walking to the post office today, (on a dirt road) and was lamenting the fact that with all of the crazy mapping software out there, GIS, google maps, USGS, etc, there isnt a good way to tell if A. your route will work (is that someones driveway?) and B. what the road surface is.  The closest we get is USGS, which tells us if something is unimproved or not.  Well that could mean anywhere from paved and not maintained, to cow path thru a field.  Not very exact, and consequently, not very helpful.  What if there was not only a route mapping site that allowed users to tag roads according to surface, but also made notes of where there were potable springs, country stores with ice cream sandwiches, and included tagged pictures of overlooks, vistas, sites of note, ect.  Wouldnt that be great?  Users could search by town, state or county and get a list of user generated tags, ride info, and visual information.

Of course, this would involve server space, and alot of work on not only the web interface but also general usability.  How would roads be tagged?  Could we color code them?  Thats my choice.  Roads could even be rated, for traffic, passability, (if its a dirt cow track, maybe 23s arent a good choice) and general pleasantness.  Key features would include elevation output ala route slip, editablity ala the new google maps, terrain maps ala google, satelite imagery, and an easy to use east to print cue sheet like routeslip.

I bet it would cost a bundle to make, and to maintain.  I’m guessing that part of this cost could be offset by getting appropriate advertisers, rivendell, velo orange, ect.  I think the data compilation would be interesting.  We could have content submitted through a blog, directly onto the website, by mail.  It would be an interesting compendium of others rides, thoughts, and interests.  I have started a blog to promote the discussion of this idea, although I guess all discussion could take place right here too.  It just seems easier to move it to another forum.  For now, users could create ‘dirt specific’  routes in routeslip or bikely,or even gmaps, and link them to the blog.  We can start a database without any real work.  It wouldnt be as convient or easy, but it might get cogs turning.

Definition of acceptable road surfaces:  hard packed dirt, wide paths, bike paths, hardpacked gravel, well maintained fireroads, old wagon roads, logging roads that are passable, chip roads.  Each needs its own tag, or maybe it can be narrowed down: dirt, gravel/chip, fireroad/logging road.  Personal favorite: dirt.

Update: no blog yet, wordpress is down.  Perspective name: dirtroaddatabase.wordpress.com, or if availible: drd.wordpress.com

whaddaya guys think?

so here is my super quick guide to bike lighting, not really for you to read now, but more so you can ref it later, when i link to it and yeah.

our rambles end in the dark or the dusk, as a rule. people dont believe me when i say a ride is going to last 7 hours, even if it is only a 45 mile ride. you see, we eat, pant, bitch, get flats, warm up and freeze, and all that takes time. plus we are all slower than a potatoe growing spuds in a paper bag, so, we ride along at 6.2 mph, on average.

so: lighting. i think i am going to require it. because if anyone got smooshed on one of my rides i’d feel bad. and i’d have to scrape your brain up and put it in my sigg. and siggs are pricey.

next ride we do, you gotta have a head light and a tail light. one that you can actually see with. that means not a light that you cant see with. whats that mean? you need more than 1 watt o’ power, led or halogen. Also, tail lights. get a big bright one. those little watch battery ones dont crank out the jams.

what works? on the cheap and crappy end, those cateye halogen joints that eat batteries (the HL-MC200 is 2.4 watts and costs less than 20 bucks. get two?) on the high end of the led world, b and m’s new ixon light looks ugly, but is reportedly quite bright.  i have ridden with the cat eye el 50o, its better than most, but you need two to really see.  also, eats batteries.

up front, if you make, say 75000 dollars a year and have no constituents, and say, need a new front wheel, get a generator hub and halogen headlight.  super bright, on when you need it off when you dont.  90 for the hub, 40 for spokes, 30-90 for a rim, 30 for the headlight.

right.  so around back…  cat eye’s TL-LD1000 is retardedly bright, ask rob.  not that he uses one.  but his wife does.  cheaper but still good is the hasselhoff approved tl ld600.  its half the cost but bizarrely ugly and bulky.  which would explain why mark uses one.  planet bike also makes the ugly but brightest of the bright ’super flash’ supposedly the only tail light visible in the day time, and at night visi up to a mile.  30 bones to not get run over not bad…

if you do the generator thing, i can help, i’ve set up half a dozen different styles.  leave a comment and i’ll help you out.

OK not only do i wanna know who is coming to the ride so i can make spoke cards, but christine wantsta know so she can make grub for post ride consumption.  So, um, 2 people so far have let me know.  Everyone else get up on it.  Leave a comment.  Yeah, Nah, or ProbablAH.

hey i am starting a music blog.  its going to be sort of like this joint, but with less bike references.  actually what i mean is, i hope to run it as a collective.  get lots of contributors, so lots of people roll through.  i want to cover the following genres: not shitty folk, bluegrass, hip hop that doesnt suck, punk they dont play on the radio, indie that contains no tight pants, electronic shit, jazz, soul, and some other shit that doesnt include christian rock, top 40 gospel, toby keith or any of his brethern, ect.

it will be super easy to contribute, thanks to starmer’s ingeniousness.  maybe it will become rad enough to warrent its own domain name and spin of merch.  get on it nick!

the address, for now:  broknrecord.wordpress.com 

i’ll be posting content tonite and tomarrow, a bit.  let me know what you think.  I havnt (starmer hasnt) hacked a way to let you down load the content yet, but maybe this will give you inspiration on bands to support and or steal from.  maybe we’ll make a monthly newsletter.

i want to say, emphatically, that this doesnt mean i will be writting less for this blog, as some of you might have been hoping.  fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

see you on side B.

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For OW Houts

OW Houts has always had an aire of sadness. Today that aire became palpable, unavoidable. Today OW Houts annouced, that after 78 years in their present location, they were going to close thier doors forever on January 11th. Rumors that Houts had been nearing it’s end abounded, but most shoppers, like myself, refused to listen, insisting that all Houts needed was a restructuring. Cut the fat that drove up the lease price: the grocery department, the furniture department. Sink resources into updating its houseware and hardware department. These would surely fix the impeding disaster. Instead, the buisness abruptly desided to close, not willing to fight the fight against Lowes, Walmart and Target anymore. This leaves 1 independant hardware store in the country, and 1 small chain hardware store. There is no longer any indy hardware to be had in the town of State College.

How could we have let this happen? We chose low prices and bulk quantity over quality and knowledge. Howts was alone in selling A-1 grade plywood, alone in selling only brands it believed in. Houts had a lumbar yard bigger than an airplane hanger, and ninety percent of their midgrade lumber was better than Lowes’ best. At Lowes you manhandle impossibly heavy chunks of wood from percarious stacks, and bang them into place on your cart. At Howts they told you which lumber was best for the job, cut it, loaded it, and secured it if nessesary. For all of this they charged a fraction more than Lowes, and provided better storage conditions, quality, service and knowledge. We traded that in for a store so big and uncaring that it has blemished our land with a gigantic abandoned concrete box and acres of weed growing parking places.

Walking into Howts was like walking into 1965. The dusty shelves housed replacement parts for flashlights (Lowes just sells new flashlights), 6 colors of duct tape, individual screws and nails, a plethora of American made tools, all manner of fasteners that the average person would never find a use for, Radio-Flyer wagons, shovels with only wood handles, Buck knives, Lodge frying pans. You could get anything at Houts, it seemed, even good service. Looking for a willing sales person at Lowes is like looking for the Holy Grail. You might really want to find it, but it’s trying hard not to be found. Help at Howts was as easy as walking down the stairs and looking vaguely lost. You needed the help: Houts employed an organizational system based this line of thinking: lets put the garage sale signs here, and well, you’ll probaly need a hammer to get that in the ground, let’s put those next to it, and while you’re out in the yard, you might wanna rake those leaves, so let’s put a tarp for leaf collection next to those hammers. In short navigation was like finding Hawaii without understanding the concept of Longitude: sketchy at best. Luckly, there was an old, knowledgable sales person in every department, with a keen and knowing eye for those unfamiliar with the hardware store waters. After they showed you what you were looking for, they would kindly remind you that you forgot that those bolts need nuts, or that switch that you just asked for actually only works on a Sears brand lamp from 1983; you really need switch Y, over here.

They knew how to cut keys at Houts. I’ve heard more than a few converstations between the key cutter and a guy needed a key recut that went like this: ‘Well I had it cut at Walmart, and then I took it home, and the key didn’t even begin to fit.’ and the Houts key cutter would sigh and say this happens all the time, and proceed to cut it in less than 30 seconds. Perfectly, like it was thier job. Because it was. But not after January 11th.

Ok, we dont really have any new content, so chew on this.  I wrote it today, basically in reaction to issues I am dealing with in grad school.  I recently told a collegue that I felt like I was surrounded by Futurists, and this essay hatched as a result.  Sorry the footnotes didn’t copy: I used some ideas from Lawrence Lessig, from a great power point he gives on creativity in regards to copy right laws.  Find it here.    Ideas about the lens of time, ect, come from Naomi Klien’s excellent new book ‘The Shock Doctrine’ which is a must read for anyone who gives a shit about the state of our world.  Lastly, words and thoughts on supranational corporations are from the so called marxist manifesto for the 21st century:  Hardt and Negri’s Empire and Multitude, two seperate books.

Probally gunna get mulched for this, if anyone bothers to read it.

In the world of cycling, traditionalists are often called ‘retro grouches’, ‘Luddites’, ‘backward’, and ‘uninformed’. They used to be called people, because most cyclists were traditionally minded, without even thinking about it. Cycling trends followed a steady, informed slope. Manufacturers and consumers looked at products with foresight and an eye on use-value. Sure there were trends, and regrettable ones too. On the whole though, cycling was at odds with the flow of the modern world, and better for it.  This is not to say that cycling rejected new useful technology when it came their way: aluminum components, lighter weight steel frames, and improvements in shifting were genuinely useful, making the sport more enjoyable and easier to participate in.  These advancement though, were simply improvements on what was already there: steel became lighter through science and manufacturing prowess, but it wasn’t invented wholesale out of a need for a new frame material.  A new frame material was not needed: a revised and improved material was.  This linear flow was a direct result of traditional practices; i.e. building upon the past to create new or refined systems, structures, and relationships.  Limiting the influence of past through systems of control, including but not limited to marketing, economics, opaque technology, and regulation allows corporate and sovereign interests to push the contemporary meaning of progress: new new new.1

When things change for the sake of the market, it’s called progress.  In reality, it is anything but.  Capitalism pushes towards an ever expanding horizon, where reality remains confined by the 196,950,711 square miles  that make up Earth.  Confinement can be dealt with either through wholesale invention or through revision.  In other words we can learn how to deal with what we already have, or we can project beyond what we have, and ignore the confinement problem.  Developing new solutions that don’t solve old problems but instead simply replace the old with new, present only a temporary solution to the problem of finite resources, space, and time.

The act of rejecting the past in favor of the new breaks the continuum of time.  We hopscotch our way towards a confused and patchwork future.  The erratic and constant flow of information, ideas, space, capital, and resources, both human and natural, overwhelms all but the select few in charge of manipulation.  There are two ways to cope, in my estimation.  Take the blue pill, and become a complicinent participant in the flow, or take the red pill, and remove yourself.

The blue pill does not interest us for the purposes of this essay.  The red pill, the rejection of the norm, allows the user to look through whatever alternative lens they choose.  There are radical, fundamentalist lenses, religious lenses, and there are temporal lenses, lenses that allow the viewer to look at current situations and trends through the lens of time.2

Lawrence Lessig says “creativity and innovation always build on the past.”3  Building is central here: building on the past means that we take the lessons of the past and apply them to our current situation.  Building on the past implies a continuum: by participating in the building process, we are part of a linear flow of ideas.  Linear flow lies in direct opposition the established norm.  Linear flow favors transparent technology and creativity.4  Traditional building practices, be it bike construction, drawing, writing, or software development, simultaneously benefit from this practice and strike a blow against the dominant systems of control.  The systems of control exist through our mute compliance: we do nothing to stop them, to such an extent that the average person does not even recognize the problem.

The system of control has disguised itself as the will of the people, but reality holds a different truth.  Corporations, in collusion with the government control the marketplace where the will of the people is created, bought and sold.5  The need for the new is an invention of capitalism.  It has permeated every facet of life: it is impossible to escape and impossible to be unaffected.  The need for the new has created a society of futurists, who “advocate a life in which violence, power, speed, mechanization…and hostility to the past or to traditional forms of expression were advocated or portrayed.”6  There is no real basis for the rejection of the past: it is an invention used to push economic and societal agendas.  And yet…  people of all stripes adhere to the mantra of the new without even knowing they are doing it.  They are even less aware of what their participation means: increased supranational control, decreased personal freedom, and the loss of traditional, linear based building processes.

Using traditional means is not a retro idea, it is simply a way to build upon an increasingly marginalized past.  Navigating the world through the lens of tradition sheds a critical light on contemporary societies rush for the new.  Participating in events, creation and marketplaces using traditional systems turns the act of participation into a mirror.  Viewers must examine the traditional approach in relationship to their own, or reject it out right, denying its existence.

Painting a landscape of a farm, drawing a picture of a tree, using materials designed to subvert the contemporary norm, navigating by ‘obsolete’ methods all play a major part of my system of rejection.  These acts are not reenactments of the past; they can’t be: I am pulling from traditions which are not of one specific time.  Traditions take place over a temporal span, and are not limited to a decade, or specific movement.  Reenactors seek to recreate a specific moment in time through studious attention to minutia.  My actions are not retro, either, they are part of an ongoing tradition; not a retrogressive celebration of the past.  They are simply at odds with the current established norms.  In the past they were the established norm.  Words like retro, kitsch, and luddite are applied willy nilly, the linear flow of tradition is conveniently ignored.  Words are a convenient method of rejection: why examine something when you can reject it with a word?   As JC Watts said: “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.”7   I am explaining, and I am losing.  For now.  The self evident truth cannot remain hidden forever.  When popular sentiment or overt corruption eliminates the current conception of progress, we will be left with a linear continuum that embraces building upon the past to create a better, but not necessarily new, future.

The new will explode: it is a bubble, expanding ever wider and thinner.  Tradition will remain, because without the new, what else is there?  People cannot be enslaved forever, time has show us this.  Current systems of control will collapse through revolution or under their own weight, and we will be left with not the new, but what was before the systems came to absolute power.

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Ride Update!  Jan 26, 10 am, at the Sugarloaf/Foot o’ the mtn stonghold parking lot place.  I’ve made a revised and more accurate map, that still shows the mileage to be sub 50, and the climbing to be negligible.  I have added what appear to be more dirt roads, more roads without real names, and more instructions like turn at the pond with island and the big tree.  it’ll be like a scavenger hunt, with the prize being ‘getting home before its dark’.  we’ll have lunch somewhere, so pack one, and toe warmers, and noggin protectors, and all that, if its going to be cold.  it appears the ferry charge is MAX 4 dollars.  I bet its less, for bikers.

Car pool people, if’ns ya can.

ok, we havnt had a really long ride in over 2 months. obviously, we are all even more out of shape than we were before we ate that kilo of fudge, 2.1 gallons of nog, and 36 new years toasts.

i have a ride proposal for either next weekend or two weekends after that. a ride from sugar loaf into VA and back, 50 miles, less than 2300 ft of climbing. thats nothing. thats like walking to the mail box. thats like playing cards with your grandmother. thats like chef bouyarde’s tomato sauce.

here’s the link: look at that ride profile. its like the current housing market. its like pat boone singing tutti fruiti. its like vanilla pudding with a plastic spoon.

ok, so how about it? it’ll be fun. you get to ride a boat. you get to go to VA. you get to ride on dirt roads. ditch the kids! ditch the husband! ditch your coke habit so you can pay for the gas!

holla back if your interested and shit and shit. i vote for the last weekend in jan. pick a date. we’ll have lunch. we’ll have dinner. we’ll have flats, broken frames, and cold fingers! we’ll have a half century of rolling hills. we’ll smell cow shit. we’ll look like dip shits. we’ll ford a stream. maybe. i cant really remember where that stream crossing is.

shit i gotta go: i’m on reserve battery power, yo!