Fucking Hills Race 2009 – the aftermath
Posted on February 24, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak | 2 Comments
It’s Tuesday. The race was Sunday. What a great ride. 33 miles of Hills on Bainbridge Island. So rad.
(map compliments of Monica)
Met up at Alaskan and Washington under the viaduct, paid our $7 and affixed our pirate flags. Derrick made 90 flags and ran out. I think registration was around 125 riders. And EVERYONE got a prize or two.
Gregg getting an early start on the day with a Rainier.
While waiting in line we worked with David Hiller of Cascade Bicycle Club to do some advocacy work by calling the Ballard rep. Here, Gretchen is doing her part to contribute.
Ginger brought Una. Though Una didn’t run the route, we’re all pretty sure she could have. She was pretty exhausted by the day though – didn’t like the ferry.
Donated Dahon Hammerhead 7.0
Derrick pulling the sag wagon full of messenger bags and schwag with the Dahon.
Ferry ride over was pretty smooth. Everyone was in high spirits. We hit the ground running and started racing immediately. Friction with Cascade was non existant. I got a lot of questions about the pirate flag and who we were. Thing of it is, we’re one of the most active bike clubs in town, I think there’s decent interest in finding a group that rides socially without a lot of bikey todo about it. I mean, beyond big events like this, normal Cascade rides seem to be sorta few and far between and relatively low grade. Rode with this girl Laura who’d registered for the Chilly Hilly for awhile. She’s been riding with a team of other tri-athletes. Had a nice conversation about it all, and then she left me in the dust on the next big hill. Heh. Hills, I loathe thee.
I’d stripped off the CETMA rack for the race – seemed like everyone was shedding weight for the race. not knowing what to expect, I followed suit. I also used the FHR as an excuse to strap on a pair of Shimano 105 brifters I found at Recycled Cycle for $100 about 3 months ago. Also ditched those Armadillo tires for Vittoria Rubino’s which were MUCH lighter and seemed to hold up just as well – made a big difference just in general ride quality and speed. Anyhow, not to bike-dork out about this too much, these turned out to be really good choices. With 30 gears (3×10) that bike has a lot of granularity, and a lot of room to squeeze some extra power/speed. And I’m fat and slow so need all the help I can get. This bike rode like a fucking champ. Couldn’t be more pleased.
Whatever – back to the race. It was fucking awesome. And Derrick met us about half way out with:
a manditory whiskey stop and helmet swap. Turns out we are a bunch of cheating bitches – later it would come to light there was a lotta shortcut takin goin on. Next time we need 3 of these things like alleycat check points. Fortunately nobody takes this shit seriously – especially us.
Cops put an APB out for Ben for riding without a helmet. Rumor has it Captain Nick also got nipped – this was a hundred meters before the whiskey stop here where they told them they had to walk their bikes the rest of the route. Whatever – as stated this was about 100m from the whiskey stop, so they walked their bikes over to us, helmets were donated to the APB’d riders and the ride ensued.
Not many pictures of the ride itself. It was beautiful and picturesque. The hills were insanely steep but relatively short. According to my computer I did 33.3 miles in 2hrs and 15 minutes, average speed of 14.8mph, maximum speed of 44.8mph!!! Those hills were hella steep going up, and fortunately they were equally steep going down – boy you just bomb em. Incredibly fun. I only stopped 4 times and I never walked up a hill. Once to strip off my outer goretex layer (I rode the rest of it in a Tshirt and arm warmers). Once to double check my bike for loose bolts – after that first hill you really really didn’t want anything flying off cause you’d be dead. Once to force myself to drink water – weather was cool and it’d rained that morning so it was sorta damp and nice but I was still sweating a fair amount. And once to try and help this Cascade fella with a flat tire. Radio car came and got him and I got back on the road. I ran into him at the end of the race and he came and shook my hand. Spreading a little pirate cheer. We’re not total dicks afterall.
Finish line was the dock behind Doc’s Cafe
Ryan was broke-dick beating up a drunk at a bar so couldn’t ride, but turns out he’s still got skills in the kitchen and was on this chilli action, compliments of Shannon and Nygaard – Nygaard who was not present for the race at all, due to sick wife and dog. 
Then it was time for the schwag give away
Derrick did all the work getting prizes for the most part. The Eastlake Zoo donated panties and shirts. Gretchen and Ashley walked away with the panties.
Dahon donated an entire Hammerhead 7.0 bike! Thanks Dahon! Raffled it off to a very surprised Bill Turner.
Freaky lookin but felt good – hell I was pretty disappointed I didn’t win it, and Bill was plenty stoked he did. Cass and Eric met us at the finish line on their boat The October – which strikes a singularly unique shape against the rest of the other boats.
Then, back to the ferry for most of us.
Home…
Sitting there we realized the October* was coming along side us, so we went out to say hello
And suddenly we heard from the sky like god commanding Moses:
“PULL UP YOUR PANTS OR GET OFF THE BOAT”
Across the ship wide intercom for everyone within a quarter mile to hear. We just fucking died. Funniest thing ever.
Apparently Margaret was on the boat and this was the view from there, as we were re-pantsing.
Big Sky
We all regrouped at the Owl and Thistle for drinks and dinner once back in the city, and later wandered home in the rain drunk, and fed, and tired, and happy.
BEST RIDE EVER.
I think there were an estimated 5000 Cascade riders – I think there were 125 pirates this year. The Seattle PI covered the Chilly Hilly with a beautiful photo spread you should go and look at HERE. What’s sorta interesting is with a ratio like that, they still managed to get a picture of one of us. Albeit blurry, the bike in the background is Andre, and you can see the pirate flag tied to his seat. Hilarious.
Oh yeah – in terms of schwag I scored pretty well. I got a Park bottle opener which is rad, a T-shirt with our spoke card logo on it (mixed blessing there, Jeff you’re a douche for this design btw), some tire levers, a star-nut replacement doohicky from FSA, a rain gear top, and a bunch of beer and food. I made out good, and others made out way better. There were several cranks, a set of pedals, some arm warmers, shirts, hats… As stated earlier Bill won the friggin Dahon. The list goes on. Big thanks to all the sponsors, to Derrick for organizing this travesty, and for everyone for making this a great fucking ride.
HERES A FACEBOOK GALLERY WITH NOTES AND STUFF
Onward.
Two things – in the news
Posted on February 20, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, In-the-news | Leave a Comment
Cop Who Shoved Cyclist Fired by NYPD, Faces 4 Year Sentence
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkiyBVytRQ&eurl=http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/02/20/cop-who-shoved-cyclist-fired-by-nypd-faces-4-year-sentence/[/youtube]
As we reported here on Planetsave, former officer Patrick Pogan, 23, has been arraigned under charges of falsifying records. We’ve now learned that he has plead not guilty to the charges in Manhattan court and could face up to 4 years in prison if convicted.
What a dickwad. I hope he gets the book. READ ON
Second thing:
Green wheel turns pedal bike into electric hog
MIT trades bike tires for power generation, storage and propulsion system
“Just take the wheel off, put a GreenWheel equipped wheel on in its place, plug it in and it should work just fine,” said Ryan Chin, one of the GreenWheel designers. “The whole thing has been designed so all the parts except the throttle are enclosed in the wheel.”
Under its current configuration, a bike powered solely by a single GreenWheel (front, rear or both wheel can be equipped with a GreenWheel) has an estimated range of 25 miles. Pedaling the bike doubles the range under electric power, provided the rider isn’t traveling at the nearly top speed of 30 miles an hour. The bike can be charged by pedaling or by plugging it into the electric grid.
SUNDAY = FHR!
From the Surly Bikes flickr page…
Posted on February 17, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Misc | 2 Comments
hunh… well
Posted on February 17, 2009 -- Edit Post
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I wouldn’t roll that way, but yano. It takes all types. Going to South America. I mean, I think I’d find a way to reduce that load like, a lot. I wonder if he just got excited with strapping gear to it. It happens. The law of escalation. I don’t know. But this does not strike me as an experienced trekker, but someone whos imagination and fear of the unknown got away with him. Of course I don’t know all the details of his trip, or any of them beyond that he’s going to South America with that and from here, it seems excessive.
Anyhow, happy riding dude.
Got this from http://thelazyrandonneur.com which is a nice little blog that I find myself reading on occasion. They also have an article on an Epic Bike Courier on a Pugsley. Pretty rad.
Onward.
Presidents Day – beautiful ride
Posted on February 17, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Rides | 4 Comments
I don’t know why we get Presidents Day off and not MLK day. I don’t. But I was grateful I had today off. It was beautiful out. Just incredible. Monica put out an open invite for a ride out to West Seattle and since I had nothing better to do, took her up on it. We met at the Shanty Cafe around 1pm and rode out to West Seattle to meet Andre, and the three of us tooled around Alkai Beach on bikes, working our way around to Lincoln Park and eventually to Aarons BIcycle Repair.
Ro joined us there to say hello, Monica wanted to talk to Aaron about brakes, and I had Mike go over the Pacer while I had it there. Again I learned some things. Shifting’s been really hard between gears, so I’d shut the index shifting off and have been running on friction shifting. After a bit of fiddling around with it, turns out I again had the derailleur cable clamps in the wrong direction, pinching the cable in the wrong way. For the life of me I do not know how this impacts the shifting, but it does. Greatly. Derailleurs are fickle beasts it would appear. Anyhow, the Pacer is really riding and shifting quite nicely now and I’m glad I had them look at it. I’m much more confident in it now, and feel like I’m ready to take it on the FHR this weekend coming up.
After Aarons, we wandered over to the Matador for happy hour food and beer, and then over to Andre’s house via the biggest steepest fucking hill I’ve ever been on. I gotta tell you about this hill. Google Maps/Images link there doesn’t do it a lot of service, but you know how photographs get. Just keep in mind that the ground image they show you there is the beginning of that incredible incline. I still get the willies thinking about it, but basically you must absolutely just bomb the fucker. Drop into your highest gear, get in the drops, and forget about your brakes because if you have to hit them you’ll die. Fortunately it’s butted up against a park on the right, and it’s a very low traffic road to begin with. According to my computer we hit a top speed of 43mph without pedaling. So. Much. Fun. ZOMG. I didn’t want to move my hands for anything.
We got to Andre’s, had a beer and some icecream, BS’d for a bit and then hit the road. It was dark when Monica and I wandered back to the city, stopped for a quick second at Krispy Kreme donuts for a fresh hot glazed donut, then split ways at 3rd and Pine and went home.
Days like today make me love riding all over again. It’s going to be a good year this year. I can feel it.
Onward.
Mountain Man
Posted on February 8, 2009 -- Edit Post
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Those who have heard the tale of Svein Tuft have wondered, could it possibly be true?
How he dropped out of school in the 10th grade, lured by the freedom of the outdoors. How he evolved into a barrel-chested woodsman with Paul Bunyan biceps. How he ventured, at 18, from his home in Canada into the wilderness on a $40 thrift-shop bike hooked to a homemade trailer.
They have learned of the way he traveled sparingly, towing only his camping gear, a sack of potatoes and his 80-pound dog, Bear. The way he drank from streams and ate beside an open fire. Or hopped trains across Canada, resting as the land flickered by.
Now 31, Tuft is out to prove that all the raw travel and personal drive can translate into something beyond his survival. Recruited by one of the world’s top cycling teams, he is about to begin a more disciplined journey. It starts next weekend with the Tour of California, where he will race with the Garmin-Slipstream squad, and is likely to continue this summer at the Tour de France.
Dudes pretty badass.
/sigh
Posted on February 7, 2009 -- Edit Post
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Managed to wack both my knees bloody on my bar end shifters during todays most not-epic puttering around the hill. This bike is much tighter than The Bicycle Eater.
RIP Kevin Black
Posted on February 6, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under In-the-news, Wrecks | 1 Comment
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008713450_bikevigil06m.html
Bicyclist dies in collision on 24th Ave. in Ballard
SPD is releasing new details in the fatal crash this morning involving a bicyclist and a van at 24th Ave. near 65th St. Both the van and the bicyclist were headed southbound on 24th Ave. “As the traffic signal turned green for southbound and northbound traffic (at 65th), witnesses stated the van proceeded through the intersection and the bicyclist passed all the stopped southbound vehicles on the left at a high rate of speed then briefly moved back into the bicycle lane,” police say. “South of the intersection the van signaled and moved into the left turn lane in order to turn left onto NW 64th Street. Witnesses stated the bicyclist attempted to pass the van on the left as it entered the turn lane. The bicyclist collided with the left rear of the van.” Medics tried to revive the 39-year-old man, but his injuries were too severe.
Memorial Service…
SATURDAY:
There will be a public service this Saturday, 2pm February 7th, at The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church located at 5041 9th Avenue NE. All are welcome even if arriving immediately after a ride.
SUNDAY:
The Black family and Alki Rubicon Racing would like to encourage anyone and everyone who knew Kevin to take part in a short procession and dinner/potluck/celebration to follow at Golden Gardens. The group will be departing from the corner of 65th and 24th NW this Sunday, February 8 at 2.15pm, heading to the Golden Gardens Bath House. In a effort to include multiple circles of Kevin’s life and provide the opportunity for celebration and reflection of Kevin we encourage cyclists and non cyclists to bring their wheels for the procession. Our hope is that Sunday will an outward facing event to heal ourselves, each other, and the community.
Kevin loved Mexican food, and had a favorite enchilada recipe. In memory of this, the food theme for his wake will be Mexican. Please bring appropriate food and drink and be prepared to come hang with us and Kevin’s family from 3-8pm. An indoor, outdoor, Northwest beach experience to help friends and family heal from the loss of our awesome friend, dad, son, and teammate.
Megan and Emily:
For those of you that have enquired about Megan and Emily they are in good hands, with lots of love, great family as well as plenty of financial support. With this in mind, the family has indicated that they will not be setting up a memorial fund. However the family and Alki Rubicon would recommend that if you wish to contribute, please give to a program that was near and dear to Kevin, the bicycle safety education program. This program is part of the Cascade Bicycle Club’s Education Foundation and is geared towards teaching bicycle safety to elementary, middle school and high school students. www.cbcef.org
65th and 24th in Ballard, across from the Viking. We’ve all ridden through there before. All drank at the Viking. All did what Kevin did a thousand times when a car lumbers out into traffic. I mean… damn.
Best wishes to his family. If you pedal, head out to the memorial on Saturday I guess. A ghost bike is going up tonight on the corner.
Shit
!!!!!! WAFFLEGEDDON 2009 !!!!!!
Posted on February 5, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Events | Leave a Comment
TONIGHT ONLY
point83 presents:
WAFFLEGEDDON 2009
Westlake Center – 7pm
We ride to Mercer Island and make more waffles then 50 drunk bike jerks can eat. Show up and tell us how horrible we are.
CAN’T. WAIT.
The SLOG finds the Fucking Hills Race
Posted on February 3, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, In-the-news | Leave a Comment
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/02/03/the_fucking_hills_race
So ossum
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