Wow it has been a good couple of weeks biking-wise. Been riding the fixed at Suwanee Greenway, in different ways, always. Using the fixed there has made it so much more fun. Psuedo-cyclocross for slowpokes like me.  Most of the joint is paved, but recent bad weather/floods have some of the paved sections a wreck. Well, not so much anymore since they bobcatted them. I’ve added as much non paved riding on my usual loop as I can for that particular trail. Some of the very short section of single track is sooper sketch due to leaves.

Oh wait did I tell you I rode it in the dark? Yeah man. Fun times for sure. Me vs. the roots on the unpaved sections. I WON.

I’m so darn stoked on getting some riding in that I actually did some -bike maintenance- today. Ghetto-tech brake arm length solutions and a super special de-mudding at the local power wash.  BONUS LEVEL: a whole new rigged up padding system on the car rack, including pipe insulation and electrical tape. RAD.

Just for kicks I took Ye Ol Talera, bald tires and all, out to Gainesville College Trail. They have built an entire multi-level car parking situation there between the last time I was there and now. They also built a small wooden bridge to the entrance of the trail that is angled in such a cockeyed way I had to wonder if the people who built it were stoned or something.

IN OTHER NEWS: there is a discrepency between my yearly miles on one of my bike comps and the spreadsheet I must not have been logging every ride on. That’ll be fun to figure out.

check out this hillbilly shit.

total pooj glamour whore shot

Me and the pooj been doin’ the somewhat dirty work…

I only managed to watch about 40 seconds of this until I could view no more and no I did not cease because of a server time-out or a youtube re-buffering. No… It was down to the sensation of something food like ( I think it was my breakfast ) travelling back up my trachea into my mouth that halted the full watching of this vid!

Enjoy.

I might have mentioned somewhere that I recently purchased one of these things:

The Mouth Breather, City model

I’m not sure why I did it, to be honest, so I’m going to take some time to explore my motivation. I often buy stuff I don’t need when I’m feeling particularly bored or helpless in other areas of my life. Like all of us children of the white devil capitalism, I know it’s wrong but it feels so right. On the way to Gattaca every morning I suffer through at least three places where the traffic is backed up and the late model Czech made behemoths spew out fumes blacker than Obama in a Glenn Beck nightmare. Now, I’m a smoker, so I figure those fumes to be about 1/100th as dangerous as the damned cigarettes I suck down while staring at the gray skies outside the edifice of my torment, but it still makes me feel better to know that I’m protecting my delicate, pink lungs from the fumes of traffic. And of course it made me feel better to order the damned thing and have it arrive in my mailbox as I bid. “Come hither,” I said with my Visa Electron card, and the bitch slunk on over, tail between her legs. That’s progress. That’s gettin’ her done. That’ll show whoever (certainly not me) is responsible for my weak-willed submission to vapid underemployment in the name of compromise and rent money.

Now, it’s been pointed out to me on our forum that the only other person who wears a pollution mask like that is this guy:

Now I know why he’s so damned grumpy all the time.

This bloody mask is a catastrophe for me, really. Here’s why: The little metal nose gripper constricts my breathing passages (AKA nostrilways) to the point that only a steady drizzle of snot runs out. It’s weird. If you ever had a cat, you’ll know the peanut butter spot – the place in the small of its back which, if scratched, causes the cat to madly lick anything put in front of it. Well, this damnable contraption has found a similar spot on my nose which causes me to produce snot.

The next reason is much more prosaic, but nonetheless irritating. I wear glasses when I ride. This keeps the wind from causing my eyes to blur with the tears of impotent frustration I shed on the way to my occupation every morning. The glasses also provide a handy barrier between my eyeballs and the random weird shit thrown up from the Czech roads by overzealous Audi pilots in their hurry to pass me on their way to their own, equally meaningless occupations. The mask is designed in such a way as to channel the warm, moist air up and over my cheek bones and directly onto the lenses of the glasses, causing them  to fog up. Really, this happened to me this morning and I found myself dead blinded trying to cross a critical intersection where the Honzas are plentiful and distracted. Strike Two, affected looking shredder mask!

The third and final reason is that the mask has a particular odor. I won’t say that the odor is bad, but it reminds me of an activity best not contemplated whilst riding to Gattaca on a fixed gear bike at 8:30 in the morning. I honestly don’t know how they did it – if the thing was infused before shipping (a likelihood the specifics of which I’d rather leave un-contemplated) or if it is some peculiar property of the material.

These three reasons lead me to want to shelve the mask, which was got to the Inland Grumpire of Czechia with much trouble and expense, but I just can’t do it. Call it stubbornness, call it pride. Call it an inability to sort out what I want from what I need – the ubiquitous dilemma of all those laboring under the Christ-endorsed system we rule our affairs by. Call it hope; hope that the properties of the thing will somehow change with use and time, rendering the dingus somehow more suited to its purpose of making me breath cleaner air. Call it masochism. Call it perversion. I love the smell of pussy in the morning.

Today I want to thank myself for seriously committing to change.

My 3oth straight day raw was actually yesterday, but it’s timely to post my first set of before & after pictures today; a day we all pull our heads out of our asses and attempt to give thanks for the bounty that is existence.

What I’m thankful for today

I am thankful for my body’s insane resiliency; its capacity to bounce back and regenerate itself is incredible.

One month ago today I was sitting here at this same spot (my kitchen table) drinking continuous triple measured gin gimlets and eating massive quantities of nutrient deficient, fat laden, coma inducing food.  How the hell do I remember what I was doing a month ago?  That’s what I did every day.

The almost manic levels of energy I am experiencing (after getting past a couple difficult weeks) is making me want to explore so many things.  I have way less time than energy now–the INVERSE of  my life just one short month ago–where time lagged and I didn’t give a shit about anything.  I certainly had never blogged before, let alone about raw foods!  Now I have this daily-growing list of topics I want to explore, people I want to meet, stuff I want to try, recipes I cant wait to make, and places I’m dying to travel to…

A real load off

Weighed myself Tuesday and am proud to announce that I lost exactly 20 lbs in less than 30 days–eating only 100% raw food (raw fruits/uncooked veggies/raw nuts &eeds/raw honey & agave).

It takes a lot to post pics like these.  It’s weird to have strangers inspect your face and gut.  When I look at the picture from one month ago I’m disgusted.  How could I let myself get to that place? And while I am partly referring to the physical, please understand I am mostly referring to my mental/emotional state.

Here goes:

One month ago -- 254 big ones!

TODAY! 30 DAYS RAW! 234 LBS!

When I look at the “after” picture, I feel excited.  This is just the start.

It took 30 days just to figure out WTF was going on, get used to not drinking myself into a stupor, and find my way back into my own skin.

If you are considering making a change like this, please try to be compassionate with yourself and don’t expect too much at once. It’s a lot to just commit to a new way of eating.  The first month I kind of went into hiding, this blog my one connector to the outside world.

Exercise

I really didn’t exercise the first month.  But now I have too much energy NOT too! Isn’t that a nice problem to have?

Tuesday I dug out some of those funny 1980’s style resistance bands that I bought and never used and did a crude upper body workout.  Go ahead and laugh, these bands actually work. I used them in an EMS academy years ago that was taught boot camp style.  We all (guys and girls) got ripped and experienced massive strength gains using only the bands and calisthenics during our three month academy.

Yesterday I pumped up the sadly flat tires on my neglected fixed gear and took her for a long ride.  I ride my other bike to work each day, but it’s less than 2 miles and not a work out. Nothing like only having one steep gear to reanimate my long dormant legs and ass!

Just how she should be...Simple & Hot!

Struggling up a small hill, completely anaerobic, it was tough for me to believe I used to ride my bike over 50 miles a day as a bike messenger in NYC!

Climbing Mountains

Today just before dusk I rode over to the base of a popular—extremely steep—hiking trail.  Locked my bike to the trail sign and headed straight up for about 45 minutes.  The view is staggering. Other than the big hunk of cross-sectioned moon, alone on the mountain, it REALLY hit me:  I’m doing this.  I remember this feeling. I feel incredible…

I had actually been planning to upload some nice pics of art shows and people riding fixed gear over the weekend as I’ve been a little slack on blogging lately, so on Friday when Danny – my partner in crime/road trips/drinking coffee/slacking off and going for a bike ride suggested we work on our respective blogs at his place after a quick peddle around town and a spot of lunch I was never going to stay at home, was I.  Though, if I had a crystal ball……..

Just around the corner from Chez Hughes, the road outside Dance City is covered in the smoothest tarmac in Newcastle and when it’s been raining it’s like skidding down a hill made from butter with a hot knife for a back tyre, seriously it’s absolutely perfect for fixed gear skids (I expect to see more of you there from now on).  So after about 10 runs down this I decided to start jumping down the steps outside Barn Asia to save my back tyre a little, and this was my undoing.  Now I could lie and say I was going big and  dropping the sets of 6&7 steps but it wouldn’t be a good idea as my Karma is pretty bad already it seems.  Nope it was just the sets of 2/3 steps but on a fixie I don’t think that’s too embarrassing (hopefully).

1st run – nice and smoove.

2nd run – and the ground came up towards my face very quickly.

Over the bars onto the ground, with the bike following closely behind due to being still strapped in, landing like a sack of spuds dropped from a ladder entirely onto my elbow.  Not my finest moment in life, but   I didnt cry or puke (until the next morning with a hangover anyway). Why do things by half, when you can break them into 3 pieces just like my collarbone.

If you also fancy going and breaking your collarbone my top tip would be NOT to wear 3 layers of clothing that all have to come off over your head – painfully!!!

Aside from my huge appreciation of the NHS staff who knocked me out, cut me open, fixed me, gave me pain killers, knocked me out again, cut me open again, fixed me some more, gave me more painkillers, I’d just like to give massive thanks to Danny for taking me to A&E (and for the poppets while we were there), and to Stella for taking me back the next morning to meet the man who would slice me open and waiting around for several hours early doors on a Saturday, and finally to Chris for picking me up at 7am from home on a Sunday to take me back to the NGH for my 3rd visit in 3 days.

Post copiado na caruda do Curitiba Cycle Chic:

O artista Carson Ting tirou mais de 1.800 fotos e levou cerca de 10 horas para fazer esse vídeo de animação em stop motion.  Com uma câmera Nikon D90/ Nikkor 28-80mm AF, acionada manualmente por controle remoto, registrou momentos de sua criação na parede de seu apartamento em Vancouver.

Le vélo de papi fait de la résistance est un documentaire à venir sur le pignon fixe et sa communauté parisienne, réalisé par Bobwhite en collaboration avec Lagraph. Pour faire patienter, un teaser déjà paru il y a 1 mois de ça.

from a shoot earlier this week. Something just a little different. Mad props to Gina for putting up with the howling wind and the rain.

Olivier Pasqual.

Dizem que uma das belezas da roda fixa é que a bicicleta reflete a personalidade do dono.

Pensando nisso, lembrei que ano passo precisei fazer uma cirurgia para retirar o apêndice (aquele troço que ninguém sabe pra que serve e nem como infecciona) e resolvi que alguma coisa na minha bike também precisava sair.

Nada mais lógico que do que tirar algo com pouca utilidade e que ninguém sabe pra que serve hehe

Cuidado: as imagens são fortes

Malditos cabos

Cabos cabos

Corpo aberto

Cirurgia concluída

Curitiba tá tomada no jiraya!

Agora temos uma loja vendendo uma Giant Fixa montada e pronta pra ser vendida.

- Onde? Onde? Onde? Fala logo porra!

Ali na Bike Tech meu querido. O valor é R$ 2.000,00

Se for comprá-la, não esqueça de dizer que viu aqui no Fixa CWB hehehe

Nas FixOlimpíadas - II Edição, vamos levar as fixas de volta ao seu berço, o velódromo.

Sintam o gostinho:

JAZZ BIKES from JAZZ Bikes / www.jazz-bikes.com on Vimeo.

Via Rock’n Rollin’ Fixie Riders.

So I came across a site called ‘Prolly Is Not Probably‘. It straight away made me laugh when it described itself as a “website based in Brooklyn that covers a cross-section of cultural influences. Bikes, Music, Architecture, Media, Fashion, Art, whatever.”

Let me just pull that up and run it once again: “…a cross-section of cultural influences. Bikes, Music, Architecture, Media, Fashion, Art…”

Now, I love bikes. Right from my first bike, which was a second hand Raleigh girls bike (my Dad insists it was a boys bike, but it so obviously wasn’t that I just go along with it.  He must be deeply ashamed) I have loved bikes. I’ve messed around with BMXs, road bikes, commuters,  and various forms of mountain bikes over the years. And biking effects the way I live my life. But I think it’s being a little bit ostentatious to site ‘Bikes’ as a cultural influence. Come on. Really?

Anyway, that’s really an aside. What I wanted to post about here was a trailer for a video that I found on ‘Prolly Is Not Probably’; a trailer for a film called Empire. It’s about a year old, so don’t expect anything new here. It’s a film about ‘having fun with your bike in the city’, and it looks great: nice production values, lots of footage of hip looking guys and gals doing crazy shit on their fixies, cool locations… awesome, right?

I don’t know.

For a start, as a guy who rides through some of the busiest traffic in London on a daily basis, I was wincing slightly at some of the traffic dodging going on in this clip. I do like to play it fast and loose with traffic to get from A to B as quickly as possible, I will occasionally jump red lights, and I do, almost every day, end up in a silent race with another pumped-up rider, but there’s always a bit of a nod to safety. Especially the safety of pedestrians, who don’t expect or choose to have to deal with some speeding dude on a bike when they’re crossing the road at an authorised point. I’m the last person to get all stuffy about this, most of my friends think I ride ‘like a dick’, but (and I can’t believe I’m about to type this) the guys in the vid come across as a bit…irresponsible. Take risks with your own body by any means, but don’t involve other people.

For another thing, whilst I like fixies and think their smooth lines and uncluttered profile is an attractive thing, I think they look a bit stupid doing urban tricks. It’s a bit like powersliding a caravan – it’s just not right. When you look at Danny MacAskill or the Collective guys their bikes look appropriate for the kind of riding they do. And they are. But a track bike adapted for the road just doesn’t look all that comfortable jumping off stuff. The wheels are just to thin, the tyres too skinny. Get a trial bike or a BMX. I know I’m way out of date on this and that fixie freestyling is the latest thing, but I just don’t buy it.

Anyway, you can judge for yourself!

At last, the long-awaited Prague bike polo trading cards have arrived. There are a few of you missing still, but here’s what I got so far. Collect them all. No chewing gum, because everyone always hated that shit. A few details are also missing:

1. Nobody knows what gearing Dan’s riding

2. If you don’t like your nickname, you’d better make one up fast

3. There are no women

Aren’t there any bike-loving girls out there in Prague who want to play? We aren’t all alpha-male aggressive about it or anything… Well, Rob chills out after a couple beers, anyway

Who is interested in the grass roots funding and cost effective construction of a velodrome in ABQ? What do you think it would or should be like?

Sepeda Fixed Wheel atau sering akrab disebut Fixie merupakan style bagi para kaum urban. Biasanya sepeda ini dipakai oleh Messenger atau Kurir jasa ekspedisi. Sepeda ini tidak menggunakan freewheel dan rem (brake). Perputaran crank akan seiring dengan perputaran roda. Weits bentar! nggak pake rem, trus cara berhentinya? ya sebenarnya pakai cuma tidak menggunakan brake lever atau wire. Cara berhenti atau mengurangi gerak lajunya dengan cara memutar crank berlawanan arah dengan perputaran. Hmm, mungkin kalo disekitar kita disebut rem Torpedo.

Fixie Oleh Frederico Salvalaio

Dalam perkembangannya, fixie tidak hanya dipakai oleh para kurir di perkotaan namun sudah menjadi tren  tersendiri oleh para pesepeda perkotaan bahkan menyaingi folding bike (sepeda lipat). desainnya yang simpel dan perawatannya mudah menjadi alasan mereka memilih fixie. Bahkan di Jogja mulai marak dan terbentuk komunitasnya.

Fixed Gear Hub

Mengendarai fixie tidak asal naik, perlu penyesuaian karena dengan sistem pengereman yang berbeda ini membuat agak bingung bahkan tak jarang terjadi slide/ngepot. Selain slide, pengendara juga bisa cedera karena tekanan yang keras saat melakukan pengereman. Melawan arah perputaran crank apalagi saat melaju kencang mengakibatkatkan tekanan/stress yang tinggi pada lutut dan pergelangan kaki. Maka dari itu sebenarnya ada kiat-kiat/teknik mengendarai fixie secara aman dan nyaman bahkan di beberapa negara memiliki regulasinya demi kesehatan dan keamanan. Untukkeamanan, beberapa negara mewajibkan pemakaian rem depan namun negara lain ada yang tidak.

Tertantang pakai fixie?

Sumber: en.wikipedia.org, www.fixedgeargallery.com, fixiefreaks.wordpress.com

For just over a year now I have been converting old ten speeds to Fixed or Single Speed. My prices are such that I tend to get a lot of first time riders on the road. I like that.  Here are some of my favorites.  You can see the entire collection on my facebook page. Here is the public link. Add me as a Friend if you wish.

My New Ride

Está chegando a hora…

Infos aqui.

Não tem desculpa. Se ainda não tem fixa, cole esse maldito pinhão e participe.
Imagem descaradamente roubada do FixaSampa.

Tokyo Fixed Gear åbner nu en fysisk forretning i London. Deres site er overdænget med lækkert udstyr, bl.a. sjældne dele importeret fra Japan. Tjek selv mere her.

BIKE WRAP made by Jooks from STEADFAST on Vimeo.

원하던 것이 나왔다. 그런데 아직 정식으로 판매되고 있지 않은 것 같다.

이 가방에 자전거를 분해해 넣고 멀리 가서 라이딩하는 생각을 하니

그 생각만으로도 기분이 좋아진다.

하지만 현실은 시궁창

…still, it deserves a post:

Approximately 30 minutes worth of Fixie interval sprints, followed by:

• 200 yard sprint/strides @ 80+% (100 yards, pause, 100 yards) barefooted, artificial turf.
• straight bar muscle-ups x 3
• ballistic ring flyes x 5
• sprint starts x 20 yards x 3
• navel-high box jumps x 3

5 rounds.  This was more to take advantage of the beautiful, crisp day than to pursue a meaningful workout.  Nice to get out and about.  The onset of winter will limit these types of opportunities to few and far between in the coming months.

Pintada a mão?

A moda agora é fibra de bambu!

Full

Mais fotos aqui no site do evento.

SCANNED SPOKE CARD HERE
Its August, its hot, the sun is intense…lets have an alleycat! Awesome idea!
Many thanks to Paradise Tattoo, Help Yourself, Fixed Gears, Badboy Burrito, Conch Traders, ??, and ?? for helping out with prizes and checkpoints.

The race began at the White Street Pier.

Bucco waiting for people at Paradise Tattoo.

“Get ink at Paradise Tattoo 627 Duval” and Bucco was the guest artist!

“drink the fresh, organic goodness they give you at 829 Fleming Street” which, of course is Help Yourself. Tampa Joe chugging a shot of almost frozen organic juice as Charlie and Robbie watch.

“have fun under the Palm Avenue Bridge” Nobody knew which side of the bridge Ray was waiting at with his sharpee.

Goodfellow stopped in the middle of the bridge, over the water, to check to see where the checkpoint was and then carried his freakin’ bike down the side rather than ride all the way around and saved some precious time.

Brielle was not only first, not only on a mountain bike, not only riding on knobbies, but was almost 5 minutes ahead of 2ed place! She won new cruiser tires and a floor pump.

Everyone post race showing off their tatoos from the checkpoint at Paradise Tattoo. Thanks again to don’s place for hooking us up and showing love.

The winners of the only two alleycats ever in Key west hula hooping…well, more like trying to hula hoop!

“don’t puke at 3rd and Fogarty (go to yard on northwest corner)” MaryMosBeff was waiting for people with two hands face down…pick one. “V” got you a shot of rice wine vinegar. “W” got you a shot of  Worcester Sauce. yummy!

amy and marymosbeff chillin’ at the Truman waterfront at the after after party. we had timed slalom races through all the posts in the background but I forget who won. good times.

on the Penny Farther. This thing rolls over curbs, logs and little children like nuttin’!

amy and peppermintpatty from MIA speaking on something…but what? and why? prolly something far more interesting than this caption.

crazy jonothon at the Truman Waterfront

bikes bikes bikes at the Truman Waterfront

we came prepared.

jonothon and amy, i really like this crazy pic

patrick, owner of Fixed Gears lost amongst the bicycles

Jonothon getting some facepainting

amy and i decided a few days earlier it was impossible for a lone person to get onto the top of the bouy. we were wrong.