Running of the Bulls!

Posted on July 20, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Misc | Leave a Comment

Well, much has been going on.  Slightly less bike camping, more daily riding with the locals (.83) here in town.  Summer is in full swing.  And it has been ridiculous fun.

Too many bars and too many miles to go into specifics.  A couple recent highlights.

I lent my Pacer to Jeff for a couple days, and then he left for RAGBRAI.  My Pacer remains in his house.  Oops.  Not a big deal actually.  I’ve been using the excuse to ride the LeMond aka “30 Rock” because really, I never ride it.  Weather’s been so nice… boy it’s been a good time.  This is a really great bike and I’ve been happy to have the excuse.

Anyhow, other things…

P1030026

Photo from Alex

Photo from Rob

Last Thursday about 60 of us had a no-reason costume ride that morphed into a running of the bulls ride.

I’m the one in the dress.  Derrick Ito – aka Ronald McFondle.

Photo from Rob

Photo from Rob

Ronald McIto by joeball.

Photo by Andre

I mean seriously, we were a mess.

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Photo from Alex

From here, down to Cowgirls Inc to ride the mechanical bull at that douchewad bar, then over to Goldies for some serious Karaoke action.  Yeah, I rode the bull.  And I sang me some karaoke.  In a dress.  I’m embarassing.

Photo by Andre - L to R - Jeff, me, Derrick

Travesty I tell you.

Friday was Henry’s birthday shindig.  Saturday was lounging on Madrona Beach and then Cass’s birthday party at The Nickerson, Sunday was riding with Slow Sunday out to ABR and then an impromptu BBQ at Lincoln Park, then a ride over to the Chop Suey where some vodka company called 42 Below was hosting more Gerbil Wheel sprints with the Emerald City boys.

For the life of me I do not understand the appeal of indoor sprints when the weather is so incredible outside this time of year.  On the 4th of July they put on REAL bike sprints outside on the Bridge to Nowhere at the Arboretum and it was totally fucking great.  Real bikes, real distance, real sprints.  Save this roller stuff for shitty weather and unridable conditions I say.  Bah HUMBUG.

Still it was a good time, Ryan and the boys from Emerald City did a fine job putting this together – my hat’s off to em.  Even I got conned into sprinting.  Someone said oh it’s just for fun.  I’m like, waiddaminnite losing’s not fun.  But they were short a guy and after much pressuring I finally mounted up.

You know, walking up to the bikes I had this small fantasy in my head that I was going to get on and due to some genetic autistic like abnormality completely out of my control, I was going to get on this bike and we would discover that I had this unbelievable GIFT.  Like I was going to be the fat retarded kid that could for whatever reason play poker better than anyone on earth.  I would be the Rainman of sprinting it would be revealed.  I would be the fastest dude ever.  I would get off the bike sweaty and panting, smile and say something like, “Wow what happened?” and everyone would cheer and pat me on the back.  Cyclists and bar hoochies would come up smiling to congratulate me with this newfound respect in their eyes like holy shit, you’re really fast!  Some cute bike girl would come up and plant one on me.  It would be great.

I lost by 6 seconds.  It’s a 500 meter dash.  Fuck.  He could have stopped, had a cigarette, and still beaten me.  My Rainman sprinting dream was dead in it’s retarded little shoes.  In front of everyone it was revealed I possess no special powers or abilities.  And nobody was surprised.  It made me a little sad.

But again, even after my mighty fall from grace I found myself smiling more often than not.  And my consolation for the night was that my adversary is a fellow .83er – Patrick – and he took first place.  So if I’m going to get beat, might as well get beat by the fucking champ.

Last details, my camera died two weeks ago.  I’m still debating what kind of camera to get next.  Until then, you get these verbose posts and a series of thieved photographs from everyone else.  If you have camera recommendations, I’m up for em.  Will probably just ask what Alex uses though and get one of those.

There are a pile of details I’m glossing over with all this post of course.  Personal stuff, geeky stuff, riding stuff, stupid stuff.  The stuff our summers are made of – this travesty of a life in Seattle.  Boy, it’s pretty rough.

Summers in Seattle.  Hell yes.  Ride your bike.

Onward.

PS – stumbled across this on the BBC today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8158729.stm

Somalia deports Chinese cyclist

Lee Yue Zhong

Lee Yue Zhong said he was disappointed not reach Mogadishu

A Chinese cyclist has been forced to put the brakes on a 12-year world tour, after officials in Somalia deported him for not having the right documents.

Man, when you get deported from Somalia – a country without a government – wow.  I mean seriously – you got deported by a country famous for having a serious and uncontrollable problem with FUCKING PIRATES. PIRATES. I guess Somalia’s on top of this wandering cyclist immigration problem though.

If I had to guess I’d say they were probably doing this for his own good, but still.  At least they just sent him to the adjacent country and not back to China.

On a personal note I’d like to argue that getting thrown out of a country probably beats riding through it – at least in terms of story telling around the campfire. Like driving a Ferrari. What’s a better story, driving one, or totalling one? I rest my case. But for a guy on a 12 year bicycle tour, well. I he probably has a pile of stories and getting thrown out of a country is probably kids stuff to him by now.

Best of luck mate.

I want a new bike

Posted on July 14, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak | Leave a Comment

But seriously, I can’t justify it.  My bases are covered.  Utterly.  I have significant overlap.  I don’t have redundancy exactly, but I do have overlap.

I am not kidding about the versatility of that Karate Monkey.  Boy.  It’s something else.

What would I build if I could justify it?  Why, I’m glad you asked! (see what I did there?  yeah.  I rule.)

I want two of them actually.  And both from Vassago –

The Vassago Fisticuff.  Their “Cross” bike.  aaaaand

The Vassago Bandersnatch – their 29er.

Now, as far as I can tell, there isn’t anywhere I could bring a cross bike (Fisticuff) that I wouldn’t be better served by bringing my 29er, and I already have one of those.

This is the argument that kills all my dreams for either of these bikes.  Dammit.  And it’s only one sentence.

I guess I could outfit my KM for touring duties – put midge bars, fenders, and Big Apples on her, pick up a Yakima trailer… then pick up a Bandersnatch and outfit it for expeditionary duties like I’m doing with my KM…!

Yeah boy, I’m reaching.  I know it.

/le sigh

Here’s an image gallery of bikes from Vassago.

Onward

Fixies Banned in Berlin

Posted on July 7, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, In-the-news | Leave a Comment

http://www.good.is/post/berlin-gives-fixies-das-boot/

Apparently Berlin has outlawed fixies – or that’s the language.  They’ve confiscated a bunch of bikes until riders afix brakes to them.  So really, it’s not banning fixies which would irritate me to no end.  It’s banning bikes without brakes, which makes 20 kinds of sense to me.  Yeah yeah yeah, I know, you ride brakeless and it’s never been a problem for you – yet.  I’m not anti-fixie.  I like them.  They’re a bunch of fun.  But while riding without brakes might be a hoot for you and a risk you’re willing to take – the real world consequences of it if you eat it and become a ward of the state, or your mom, or your friends or whoever is nice enough to feed you through a straw for the rest of your life, well gee starts to sound like a shithead idea to me.

I feel strongly about brakes.  Ban away I say.

Joeball Mountain II

Posted on July 3, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Camping | Leave a Comment

GALLERY

IMG_6351.JPG IMG_6364.JPG IMG_6381.JPG IMG_6386.JPG IMG_6389.JPG IMG_6390.JPG IMG_6413.JPG IMG_6422.JPG IMG_6427.JPG IMG_6434.JPG IMG_6443.JPG IMG_6445.JPG IMG_6452.JPG IMG_6456.JPG IMG_6458.JPG IMG_6459.JPG IMG_6460.JPG IMG_6462.JPG IMG_6463.JPG IMG_6479.JPG IMG_6481.JPG IMG_6482.JPG IMG_6489.JPG IMG_6490.JPG

Onward

Packing list…

Posted on July 2, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under Bike Kwak, Bikes, Camping | Leave a Comment

This is more or less what I always pack when I go out.  It all fits in one pannier with a little room to spare with exception of the bedroll which gets strapped under my handlebars.

IMG_6345

Starting from the top

Not pictured

Off picture – Scott needs to take out his recycling.  Oh how embarassing.

Onward!