So I entered this contest that iMapMyRide (btw, cool app, just sucks battery life like Jenna Jameson in her prime) and some others were putting on, where you use their app, ride your bike, and have a chance at winning prizes. Apparently due to my ohsofuckingincredible fitness, gazzelle like reflexes and deft bike handling skills was able to go Cadel Evans on that ass and win some yellow spandex to cover my man chesticles. Sadly though I don’t think you’ll see me out and about in this jersey as it doesn’t have nearly enough logos on it for my liking.
Note that I’m putting a team together and taking sponsorship requests for my certain to be epic return next year. I’m hoping to secure a sponsor for SPD compatible sandals, a recumbant bike, and maybe a goofy little cycling hat sponsor to round out the look.
Well here’s an unusual combination, Portland and bikes. Elly Blue is one half the Batman/Robin duo that put together this seen and has been known to espouse about the benefits of two wheels every now and then, so support what they are doing and pick up a few of these to comp to friends when they come to town. Don’t forget to check out their site and see all their PDX/bike related offerings because hey, it’s Friday, and you were looking for more ways to kill time at work anyways.
Word. Get your long weekend on y’all.
Got the Optimo boxed up and shipped off to the lucky new owner today! Really wish the bike was in my size, between made in the USA, the eye popping red and oh yeah disc brakes she would have been a SICK year round commuter for the Northwest.
 Shipped with the rear wheel off due to box constraints. Checked with the local shop and they said with spacers in the rear dropouts it's A-OK!  Nice box  Thought this was odd, Kona is made in Cambodia? Would have thought China or Taiwan
I’ve got love for all things bike – mountain, road, city, whatever (well, no love for recumbants, the rollerbladers of the bike world). It’s no secret I’m a sucker for a good handmade bike. Maybe it’s the fact that you always want what you can’t have, but more likely it’s the attention to detail, and the fact that they are made in the USA by people who have dedicated years to the craft and actually give a shit about their output. Given infinite time and income I’d LOVE to take a frame building class and try my hand at the craft.
Anyways, as I’m fortunate to live in the US hotbed for all things bike I get to see bikes most never see on a daily basis on my commute. Came across these guys recently, so sick! I think I’m going to do a blog series on the various hand crafted local bike manufacturers, try to get some interviews, snap some photos of their factories, wipe drool off face, rinse, repeat.
Anyways, onto a few fapworthy bikes.
Saltzman (yes, THAT Saltzman). Note that I go full on retard for bikes in that Yeti-esque blue color.
We started with Italian double butted Columbus steel tubing. If bikes have a spirit, it’s hiding somewhere in the tubes. We chose Richard Sachs dropouts to anchor the wheels. Richard has been a constant source of information and entertainment, so this is our little homage to him. That and the dropouts make the bike very versatile. Thanks to the length of the dropout, you can even make it a singlespeed if you want.
 Nice ass 
Team Cyclocross
 Rep your hood  Warning: these bikes may cause you to shart A smattering of some other Signal Cycles sexiness. Click on any of the pics to get more info.
 Lugwork = $  See, fenders can be sexy  Wine rack with wine by Portland local (and nearby neighbor) John Grochau
Ziba+Signal April Diary Video for OM from Core77 on Vimeo.
Venture on over to their site to check out more bike hawtness, learn a bit about the guys behind the welder, and check out pricing. Way out of my price range but I may just pick up one of the tees to represent….
Signal Cycles on Flickr
Signal Cycles on the twitters
Distance: Nothing crazy, somewhere between 12 and 14 miles (the app shows one thing, the app’s website shows another…typical)
 This image doesn't really show you much of the terrain Weather: Absof’inlutely insane! One of those days I had PNW blueballs for and dreamt about when hating life and my job in the Bay Area. 80s, blue skys, views of Hood on one side, Adams on the other. Seriously I think angels were trumpeting and playing the harp on the way up.
Short summary: Amazingly beautiful day on a fun trail with very few people around. Ran into three other people who were going down while I was working my way up.
The up: Just under 6 miles/2k feet to start the ride. Finely groomed singletrack with pockets of deep moon dust. Shrubs and trees and whatnots are overgrown in parts, make sure you’ve got glasses on to spare your eyes. Early lack of concentration almost saw me going over the edge, destroying my confidence and threw the rest of my uphill off. Uphill switchbacks were a bitch as they were deep with moon dust and not entirely sure how I could have handled this short, switchbacked rock garden without a trials bike!
The down: Somehow missed my connector to Surveyor’s Ridge, thus the ride ended up being just under half the distance originally planned. Ended up taking a slight diversion down for part of the ride and meeting back up with the original trail for the remaining 5-1/2 or so miles. Fun, flowy, good times on a bike with periods of that feeling of surfing, which is what I crave.
This creeper was handing out candy at the trailhead if you went in his van. Call Chris Hanson.
I need to move to Kansas or Oklahoma or one of those bible belt states. All my damn vistas up here get interrupted by these stupid volcano thingies.
Post-ride payoff #1: Maui Wowie ice cream at a local orchard. Note that for the most part the orchards up there charge more for fruit than you can get it at the grocery store for. Go figure, less value added, premium price.
Post-ride payoff #2: Grilled pizza with dead animal and dead vegetable on top
It’s follow Friday, this one is for my peeps, tweeps and just random internet lecherous creeps out there
Pulled into the Teton Valley area around 6PM last night after being on the go since 5AM (and being awake since 2AM – of course was too stoked to fall back to sleep). Long drive made longer by the fact that my Chewbacca had to cancel at the last minute leaving me to roll Solo like Han. Most road trips you have time to ponder all your inner thoughts and question past life decisions – ‘Have I properly speced out my next big thing? Is that a gray or a blonde hair on my arm? Rework the algorithm? Should I have stayed with girlfriendABC? Wonder how my life would be different had I gone to Western and done their environmental science program? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop? If a XC rider goes off a 3′ drop does that make him an all-mountain rider?’ On this drive I had time to ponder everything twice, rewind and ponder again, like Groundhog Day in my mind.
Fairly uneventful drive. Worst part was running out of the coffee I made 30 minutes into it and not being able to find a coffee shop that was open for a few hundred miles. I remember when I was a kid coffee shops opened at hours where you need coffee, not 7AM, 8AM, one place didn’t open til 10:30!?! How all the hipster coffee brands got big while subscribing to the hipster work ethos I’ll never understand.
On time departure with slight rain that stopped by Hood River
Trusty co-pilots caffeine, sugar and music
Somewhere mid-Idaho we went from hot to nuclear and hit triple digits. BTW, driving thru Idaho is about as exciting as the WNBA draft, not much to look at. Picture the stretch of I-5 between Folsom and Bakersfield only 2-3x as long.
Yup, bike is still there.
Mosquito farm
Pondering infinity and parallel universes next to the campfire
Failed attempt at light painting ‘ride’. I was trying a candle lantern (aka couldn’t turn it off/on), MUCH easier to do with the headlamp I didn’t pack.
I love waking up to views like this. Those clouds dropped just enough rain that I got up to get the rainfly, but by the time I’d got it the rain had stopped and never came back. Meh.
No riding yesterday as when I rolled into town I had to satisfy the primal urge for a beer. Even the terribly mediocre IPA from Wildlife Brewing tasted like a million bucks after that drive.
Always match your flip flops to your bar wrap. Mikael’s ladies have got nothing on this guy (btw, any hot Scandahoovian wimmenz out there I kid, call me).
Realized I had the GoAm on my bike today and figured I’d record the ride home for kicks and giggles. Maybe some of you want to see Portland’s bike infrastructure. Maybe some of you just want to find my house and rob me blind. Dunno. Wish I’d have had the camera running on the way down so people could just see how many people use the bike lanes in Portland – I really do think bike lanes are almost a ‘Field of Dreams’ type scenario for cities, if you build ‘em the bikers will come.
This video has not been sped up, I just ride reaaaaaaly f’in fast, even on MTB tires. If you notice people going the other way on mountain bikes with number plates on the front it’s because Portland has short track races every Monday during the dog days of summer. Note that this is in addition to the weekly after work road races, time trials, etc. – it really is nirvana if you’re a bike racer. I’m not, but it’s cool for those that are.
Untitled from Justin H on Vimeo.
Was looking through a traffic report this morning and found a few ‘interesting’ search terms that brought traffic to my blog. This first one, while interesting, is no real surprise as it’s the internet and I’ve mentioned bike porn a bunch. I have a hunc this person was looking for lube that isn’t Phil’s and penetration that is more than just a seatpost into a seatstay.
This next one is just odd, and the reason for this post. Odd because I thought that pelt trading went out of vogue in the mid-1800s with the North West Company, but also because not one but TWO poeple are looking for tips on shooting a fat beaver and thought “hey, ‘bicyclescansavetheworld’ sounds like the type of site that would have fat beaver hunting tactics.”. #logicfail
|
|
COMMENTS