Ride Lugged

Had a back log of posts that I’d been meaning to post. This one shows how to make a cart bike. From what I can tell you will need:
1. Old bike
2. Shopping cart
3. Tools and stuff
4. Beer
5. Three Gritty hippies and or overalls and one of those dreadlock wigs

I know this isn’t a political or even social commentary blog, but this bearing attention regardless:

“Federal law sets a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine. It takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same sentence. The crack-powder disparity has a strong racial dimension because more than four-fifths of crack cocaine offenders in federal courts last year were black.”

From a recent news clip…

Over a pound of coke for the same sentance?  That’s a grundle of coke.

so it begins.  another season of stupid quotes, from the minds of our future leaders, scientists and hotel clerks.

‘My taste in music is very lucrative.’

i wish my cd collection made me fist fulls of cash.

“Throughout the years, he has accumulated several antique cameras dating back to the early 1970’s”

the 70s? antique?

‘To take a trip back in time when I was a small child all of eight years of age,’

that’s akward.

‘What a pressing interrogation for a child of such adolescence! I never was a being of simple thought.‘

as is that.

“ I consider myself a well rounded girl.”

hmm…

‘In the past, junior year of high school, I was able to grow an afro large enough to fit 33 pens in my hair without any of them falling out. ‘

no comment

so louis vuitton has two interesting distinctions going for it: they make the ugliest, yet most copied, expensive bags for women with to much money and or no sense what-so-ever.  so it was interesting when Mikhail called up the folks at the ridelugged press office to announce he was shilling for a fruity/crappy french company.  it seems he lost a bet with Putan, although he claims he ‘wanted’ to shill his name out.  anyway, we got exclusive outtakes from the photo sessions, including two never before seen photos, one of the prototype Mikhail bag, shaped like his ubiquitous head marking thing (birth mark? curse of the capitalist? alien abduction map of St Andrews 16th hole?) and the other photo of Mikhail’s revised french-ified head thing (stain from a brain drain? bruise from a boxing match with the gipper?).  anyway, here are the world exclusive photos.

each bag is said to contain 500,000,000 soviet era rupees, the current equivalent of $1.29.

the jury is out (and mikhail aint tellin’) whether this is a brand (ha) or a result of something more nefarious (genetic birthmark rebranding, too much fois gras, a bad night on the town with Scarlett).

this was in the most recent VO blog post.  its kinda bizarr-o if you actually know what modernism is and when it ended.  so being an uncle walter type i posted this comment:

‘this next bit can be preceived as a rant or just a helpful comment, which is more what it is meant to be:

modernism is done.  technically it ended in the late 1970s.  there are things being made now that are in a modernist style, ie the sogreni parts, new nitto stuff, v-o bikes, ect.  things like this, being made now are just emulating designs that  rose to popularity during, in this case, high modernism.  anything being done now that attempts to represent a break with this utopian vision should, at least, be considered contemporary (if it is current) or, if it is reactionary to modernism (very loose debatable, blah blah blah) it could potentially be termed post modern.

i say all this cause the term modern gets tossed around alot, not only in the bike world, but on the news and in other literature and conversation.  to an artist or an architect or a writer or a musician saying something is modern when its really contemporary is like saying bebop existed into the 70s, or that a house has nice colonial brickwork.  it doesn’t, it has it in the colonial style.

so, i think all this is a good thing: modern sounds better than retro-grouch, and design-wise has better conotations.  i would much rather be associated with Eames than some loose concept of ‘retro’, which mainly implys a certain level of out-of-date.

i hope this was helpful rather than jerky sounding.  i really didnt want it to be.  V-O is a company which sells things in a modernist vein, and thats nothing to be upset about.’

perhaps the best products contain a degree of hybridization.  if we were to fully embrace certain bicycle related modernist precepts we would stuck with alot of crap.  derailluers that needed to be tensioned seperately of shifting, cruddy french specific threads, breakable stems, narrow handlebars, poor lighting.  the best design takes the best of everything, a combination of modernism and contemporary thinking, and combines it.  this hybridization, arguably, could be considered post-modernism.  its all arguable.  some would posit to say that we live in an age of late modernism.  huey.  the utopian ideals are so watered down at this point as to be a stagnant swamp, a cess pool of recycled cliches.  those who practice it now with an fervor, are little more than historical reenactors.  i actually don’t know anyone who does that though.  most frames use better lugs now than were avaible, much better derailluers, better tires, ect.  it might have some of the aesthetics, but its not the whole enchilada.  (not that there is anything wrong with that, or enchiladas)

how to make all elementary school kids think they are badasses. 

joe was being a good email buddy when he shot me a link to a story about kirk pacenti’s new panaracer 650b knobby. 

i responded with something innane about rivendell being the forefront of alternative bicycle culture, and how they were more influential than bridgestone.  he wrote back with this:  “Personally I don’t see the need for 650b on the dirt, 26″ and 29″ seem to cover things but it might be interesting to see how things shake out.”

to which i wrote the following mouthful:   “i think the problem with the whole 29er thing is market demand.  by that i mean: short riders demand that makers come up with 29ers that ‘work’ for them.  even if the frames arnt suspension corrected (but all the mass market ones are) they still have these baby little headtubes, which leads to failures.  not to mention: toe clip overlap.  to compensate, big wheels and small frames mean slack head angles, high bbs, steep seat angles, and lastly bad aesthics.
companies (cough kona cough) try to shorten wheelbases by using plates where they should use steel, leading to almost inevitable failure (and more weight).  i dont think you can build a good sus corrected 29er under say, 19 or 20 inches, and you cant build a non sus corrected one with any structural integrity under 17 inches.  the headtubes literally try to tear themselves off.  thats where 650b comes in.  it still doesnt make sense for say, a 14 inch frame, but it does eliminate some of that super small headtube leading to failure.  i dont even work in a shop anymore and i have seen 6 broken 29er frames in as many months.  how many broken 26 inch frames have i seen?  nada.
also, i see 650b as a huge fuck you to the mainstream industry (which is in dire need of a fuck you), where, if it catches on, is gunna cost big companies big bucks to develop all new tires, forks, rims, spokes, ect ect.  maybe we’ll see drop bars come back full force to the mtn scene?  who knows?  all i know is this: whatever this bike industry shake up means, i wish that it would translate to A. the rest of the consumer market and B. to politics.  wishful thinking i’m sure.  apologies for the rant.  i bet if i post this, at least 24 people will jump down my shit for criticizing the 29er scene, which i am not doing.  i’m criticizing the bike makers inability to say no.”

from a paper i graded a while back:  its safe to release now.”My cabinet of curiosity is made of my favorite childhood memory: Fraggle Rock. My collection has been in the works since I found the first season of Fraggle Rock on DVD three years ago. Since then I have accumulated all the stuffed dolls except one, season 1 and 2 on DVD, t-shirts and a poster. This stuff has been very hard to find. Most of the contents of this cabinet was found and bought online due to its rarity in stores. This collection represents the happiness in my childhood. I would sit, watch and laugh at the tiny muppets through their adventures in the hole in the wall. I was the only kid on my block that had HBO, which was the channel the store was featured on. Kids would come over to my house every Sunday night after dinner and my mom would make popcorn and other snacks for us as we watched the half hour series.”

” I then found a Victoria Secret box that I had gotten a gift in for my birthday from my dad.”

creepy…

Turns out I’m not the only flickr dork who was at the thought it would be cool to attach some photos from the 24 hours of Big Bear to a map. There is another guy (I think he’s some kind of mountaineering EMT) who geotagged some of his photos from the event (I think it was last years race though). Anyway, it’s a cool way to get a perspective on the race. Maybe next year I can have a doohickey that will keep track of GPS coordinates so that it’s a little more accurate.

Getting ready, originally uploaded by starmer.

Almost race time.