Ride Lugged

i was messing around with photoshop, and came across this image of stalin.  he had a mustache.  it was a mustache with authority.

i thought, damn that would make for a great posse of mustached bandits t-shirt.  and i made this design, which is sort of a C- design.

(click to make image unnessarily large, yes that is stalin’s stache)

i think it would be cool if people who are racing, or someones kid, or something, made a better design that we would turn into a t-shirt for the 24 hour race.  the winner gets a free shirt, unless they are racing, in which case they get a shirt anyway.

also the other team needs a name, for which i have the following proposal: posse of the posse of mustached bandits.  designs due this time next week.  post em to flickr and link them to the comments so we have a full size copy to steal.  we’ll take drawings, photoshop docs, whatever.  they need to be graphic, have a mustache in some format, say the name of the team, and be sorta funny.  nothing pornographic.  that means you hutch.  you can use color, but make it more about graphics than color, cause god knows what color shirts we’ll be using.

i was looking the closet the other day and realized 95 percent of my clothes were second hand.  except my carharts and underwears.

but right now i am about to go to a fancy restaurant to try to convince a forensic artist to make sketches of people from my past that i dont have photos of, and everything i am wearing is second hand and it smells like 3 different mens colognes.

hot!

unlike my house, which has run out of oil for the past two days, leaving us with only the option of continual tribal dancing or peeing in nalgene bottles and stuffing them down our pants to keep warm.  also, doing taxes works up a sweat like sitting at a pep rally.  FYI: mel is applying to an art teacher type job at damascus high.  go hornets and shit.

I think it’s goes with this article but I’m illiterate so someone else can read it and tell me if I’m right. This is another article about alley cats.

Thanks KingKog and Tracko.

MAKE: Blog: Top articles in MAKE volumes 1 through 11

Here is another less permanent idea:

Looks pretty sturdy.

may your weird plastic eagle and infinite knowledge of minutia carry on

just for shits:  cory’s bike on a budget.  lets see how low we can go.

Frame:  Freeze Thaw whatever with horizontal drops.  Frame and fork: $40

Headset:  Steel Tange threaded, $25

Stem:  Nitto Periscopa $30

Bars:  Nitto Randonneur   $30

Levers:  Shimano Exage  $25

Brake:  Altus canti  $15

Fenders:  Velo Orange Aluminum  $40

Saddle:  Bargin bin.  Everyone has a spare shit saddle.  $5

Seatpost:  Kalloy shaft and clamp.  $12

Cranks:  Bulletproof  110 BCD $30

BB:  Shimano deore  $22

Chain: KMC rust buster  $15

Front Hub:  Shimano Nexus  Dynamo 36 hole  $65

Front light:  B and M Lumotec N  $26

Rear hub:  Surly $45

Front Rack:  Wald Basket  $25

Rear Rack:  Plfecher w/wald basket on top  $40

Rear Cog:  dura ace  $14

Rims:  Alex cheapies  $40

Tires:  Panaracer Pasela wire bead with tour guard  $50

Spokes:  $60

Total:  $664

Basically, the worst thing is this deal will be the drag from the front hub, and the weight of the baskets.  Everything else is at least 86 percent as functional as the higher end stuff.

This about sums it up.

There was also some of this.

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ok. so i have been warned off the trail. obviously this is the last time i ever have any one but me pre-drive a course. at least i know how to lie to myself, and con others into my web of denial. this is from a recent rob to johnson email:

So Mark and I drove the route tonight. I tend to agree with Mark when he says it’s kinda ambitious.
Mostly because of the lack of riding we’ve been doing…and the impending weather that’s predicted.
It starts with a death climb and then turns into beautiful rolling country. But there are several hairy
downhills into death climbs on the other side. To really give you a picture of what we saw…
There was:
-no cell phone coverage for 90 percent of the route
-Several pitbulls on a leash outside of a confederate flag touting homes/trailers…
-two junkyards
-thousands of neighbors trying to be junkyards
-rough pavement with lots of tar
-only about three miles of dirt
-about a mile of sketchy high speed no shoulder road
-random properties that seemed like a good place for a horror flick
-random properties that seemed like a great place to hole up and be cantankerous
-the potential for LOTS of walking up hills
-magnificent views out over valleys
-no stores or gas stations or anything that could sell you a moonpie or cupcake

I’m not saying it’s not possible…just that it would be a bitch for anyone not is great shape.
Also, with a sub 40 degree day with a 50 percent chance of rain and some snow showers…
it would be a completely treacherous road ride…you WOULD NOT want wet rim brakes!!!
DOOM!!!
seriously….some of those descents would produce injury. Especially if the road surface was wet/icy.
So there you have it. It took us over an hour to drive and we went pretty fast…I thought.
I can make you a list of things you should take…but I won’t be on that list.
I’m in no shape to do that kind of ride, nor do I have the clothing.
Mark doesn’t have the bike. So we’re out if you all are in.
Mark did have a great idea of doing a ride from the Shanty of Benson up Hamburg and perhaps include
some single track and lots of gravel roads and then come down, say, by the reservoir or something.
That way everyone could drink and not have to drive to/from a grueling bike ride.
So there you have it.
Oh, the directions were good though. Except for a couple of places. Which I fixed on my Queue sheet.
Call me.

a few things are obvious from this email: rob doesn’t ride with a loaded gun, he thinks brakes that work are a right not a priveledge, and is thinks he is fatter than i am. john wrote a semi similar email with words like ‘white knuckle decent’ and ‘walking’ repeatedly mentioned.

so i have to reconsider. obv we dont want mark and rob to not come. i’m going to work on it tonite. i’m not promising that the revised ride will be easier, but maybe i can cut out the junkyard thing.

for now though, i leave you with this thought:

yeah, i can really feel the…what?! the wait is over, the newer and dumber variant on the scooter you’ve been itching for is here. the number of bad decisions necessary to follow through on something like this is staggering.

wanna see it in action?