Part of launching Oregon Cycling Action included me involving myself as more than just the web master but as the guy who does the cycling product reviews. My first one is the wheel review I’ve been talking about on this blog for a while. I got 5 people from the Oregon area to test a set of wheels. The wheels are a stock set hand built in California. The kinlin rims are laced to DT Swiss 240 hubs using DT Swiss Aerolite spokes. I learned a fair amount from this review. Like if you get 5 people to test wheels you might only get 3 reviews back. Which I don’t think is bad considering the riders weren’t getting paid anything or getting any kick backs. All in all though it went extremely well and I look forward to testing more items.
I’m on the road again. This all started with two weeks in San Diego, then began moving further east. First I stopped in Tucson to check in on Fairwheel Bikes, get new updates, grab some girlie calendars for their site and some more products to test for Oregon Cycling Action. Then I made my second stop in Tucson and checking in on Bill Peterson to get some new insoles and get the news on his many different projects. Soon I’ll be writing about what I learned about him and his practices, including cleat positioning and a new range of custom, semi-custom and off the shelf insoles. Now I’m in New Mexico at my mom’s house. Ending up here has always sort of just happened and I end up riding my bike here for at least one month out of the year which is great because the riding around here is amazing. The hills are steep the terain varied, sometimes the wind blows hard and sometimes it’s peaceful and all you can hear is your breath. Especially as it gets cold, my body bundled in clothes, my fingers and toes a little a little cold. With my beanie on I can hear my heart in my ears and feel my breath as cold air is sucked down my throat. It’s a good feeling, I haven’t been in the cold rain of Portland yet as I’ve ran to the southwest, but the cold, dry, air of the south west will always feel like home.
After Thanksgiving here with my Brother, Javi, and my mom I’ll be heading back to San Diego for a couple weeks. And then off to Austin for Thanksgiving, which as my friend Mike says, will complete the triangle of Hipsterness which is Austin, Portland, and Tucson.
Why am I having a beer at 7:30 am on a Friday? You might be comforted by the fact that it’s at least a Friday, but the 7:30 AM? Am I in Mexico? Nope… and it’s not even coffee beer. I’m just celebrating, a little bit excited. After a long stretch, Oregon Cycling Action finally has a new home, a new look and a new set of features. Now the real work is going to begin. Keeping the bar high, and pushing it higher. Finding advertisers, marketing, publishing, etc. I’m excited and Pat is a great guy to work with. This site, despite the two goons running it, hopefully will be another contribution to the already great cycling related publishing community in Oregon. The new features are:
Well, that’s not it either. We have cards down our sleeves yet. Nothing official and there’s no way I’m leaking any news yet but there’s always more to be done, and there’s always more to be imagined. We’re working hard and I’m excited!
It’s interesting how life works. It wasn’t until I moved to Portland that riders from Tucson started telling me about the Dr. Will Bar. Then it took a visiting friend from San Diego to actually get me to try one, which lead to a chat with Will about his new energy bar. The Dr. Will Bar definitely covers a few issues with energy bars, the biggest of which is taste. It’s good but not over powering, some of the problems with the tasty bars is that when you start eating three a ride they quickly become too much and go from delicious to gag. It’s a subtle natural tasting energy bar that really has the staying power to get you through 80 hours of riding and over 30 bars in a month. Although I am going to save some details for a later post I’d like to mention that for an energy bar the Dr. Will Bar contains a proper amount of healthy fats (read more about that here) including coconut oil.
I look forward to riding and training using the Doctor Will Bar as my energy bar. I’ll be headed down to San Diego, Tucson, Albuquerque, and Austin over the winter to try and shake off the Portland cold and I’m going to be bringing these with me to fuel the rides.
***SOLD*** I bought this bike for the ’09 cross season, it’s a 2009 58cm Redline Conquest Pro… It has an estimated 500-600 miles on it over 8 weeks, including 4 races. I treated it well, but it is a ‘cross bike so there are a few blemishes in the paint already. I also had an “incident” and tore the rear derailleur off. The hanger and derailleur were replaced, there was absolutely no damage done to the frame.
When I got the bike I upgraded a few things on it. The seatpost was a TANK, one of those solid lead deals with a carbon sticker on it. So I replaced it with something much much lighter. And that was crap. So I replaced it again with a KCNC SC Pro Light, and I like it. I also put some super tacky Lizard Skins Bar wrap on and because I’m “like that” I put on some matching red sram brake hoods.
Since I Left You by The Avalanches: This has been one of my favorite Pandora finds. Gorillaz, Spoon, a few thumbs up here a couple down there and your bound to get this or Frontier Phsyciatrist thrown your way. Both are great songs, but for some reason I just like this music video a whole lot more. Well maybe not more but the mood I’m in is more fit to this…
The BPA -- Toe Jam feat. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal: I don’t know, I love everything about this! And I seem to be one of the only ones. Friends look at me crazy, I’ve pushed girlfriends to the edge of dumping me by playing it obsessively, it’s been on every training play-list I’ve ever put together since finding it. It’s probably a throw back to my Talking Head days, just couldn’t get enough of them. I’m sure it makes me insanely dorky but the first CD of my dad’s that ever wandered out of his music collection into my room was Little Creatures. I probably still know all the lyrics.
I found this while doing a little research after I heard that David Byrne is a bike dork and it’s true the guy loves bikes, commutes by bike as his main mode of transportation, and designs bike racks in NY. But, how could you not like the song?!?! Extremely catchy, clever use of nakedness, amazingly fun and diverse.
Gorillaz -- Demon Days Live At The Manchester Opera House: I have this entire concerts on DVD. Aside from being one of the most creative bands and one of my favorites it looks like they put on an absolutely phenomenal show. Sticking to their theme the concert is far from “normal” and uses a wide array of visual effects couple with a dizzying number of musicians including DJs, 2 drummers, pianist, backup vocals, orchestra, keyboards and so much more. Every song is accompanied by one or more guest vocalists or in this case an entire choir of children. The great thing is that some of the guest artists were so excited and happy to be involved that after performing they found their way into the crowd to watch and participate in the show!
Tweeter and the Monkey Man -- Traveling Wilburys: So this is one of those bands that “kids my age” probably shouldn’t know about. But, come on! This is amazing, a merging of a staggering amount of musical talent, I mean truly absurd levels of talent. Dylan-Orbison-Petty-Harrison-Lynne yeah, that’s right, top that. I mean this joining is to music of the era what Hitler-Castro-Stalin-Tse-Tung are to dictators andr what Einstein-Nobel-Darwin-Da Vinci-Edison are to science. Doesn’t get any better. It’s also really the only time I’ve ever liked anything any of the members of the Beetles have done.
The video doesn’t really do the group justice but it’s the best I can find. And after finding it for the second time I noticed it was probably going to be the best I could find. Mainly because of this quote “Only version on youtube besides the fucking covers. ” Yup… That’s about it.
Talking Heads: Psycho Killer: After talking them up in the Toe Jam post, I couldn’t leave this song out!
Muppets -- Mahna Mahna: I can’t let this one go without giving tribute to anyone who has Mahna Mana’d or been Mahna Mana’d at during a bike race. The super classic Muppets song! Off of the first episode, proving The Muppets were gold from the beginning. Watch it and try not to sing along!
Well that’s about it. I had three other ones I wanted to post, but they had embedding disabled. So that means no mention on my blog.
Feel free to leave a comment… My blogging is fueled by comments! Mahna-mana!
Portland's Steel Bridge as the Sun Sets Behind Skyline
It’s been a busy week. I feel like I’m torn in 1,000 different directions which in some regards is refreshing since I’m off the bike. But even that’s getting better recently. I’m able to very tentatively un-clip my foot to the outside. The inside has been okay for weeks which is why I’ve been riding multi-directional release SPD cleats and my Cyclocross bike, but the “normal” un-clip has eluded me for a long time. Although this is positive the fact is that I wasn’t able to get back on the bike before the feeling of muscle atrophy set in on my legs, so Cyclocross season can kiss itself goodbye. Read more…
Molly Cameron (Bicycle Studio) digs deep to open a gap for the lead.
Since I can’t really race too much anymore, I’ve resigned myself to being a fan. I’d have to say that watching cyclocross is a great time. More screaming and beer with much less suffering. The best thing is that I can see straight when driving home.
The dirt lines aren’t too bad yet but I feel like there will be more, the rainy season is just setting in. One of my first training rides after my ankle has been hurt and it’s not feeling so good. It’s been two weeks and I’m reaching down to pull my ankle sideways to unclip. Not exactly the kind of situation that is conducive to running, jumping and what not. Might bail on the early cyclocross season and head out for Tucson and Albuquerque. Maybe I can find someone there to teach me how to tape my ankle.
So, I have my brand new shoes from Shimano… The only problem is I’m waiting to get a chance to fly down to Tucson and visit with Bill Peterson before I ride them. This is pretty much because there are two different segments in my riding time line. And it comes down to B.B. (before Bill) and A.B. (after Bill). Let me say, currently I have no relationship with Bill P. or his companies (We Do Feet, Dynamic Foot Systems) other than the fact that he took care of my feet. First, he pretty much always smiles the way he is in this picture. Second, a host of people, including several from Fairwheel, have visited him and all have glowing reviews. But it’s not just us, we’re not crazy, when I last went in it was during winter training camp season, there were plies of insoles (think organized mad scientist) waiting to be shipped and they all had names on them. Names that everyone recognizes, names from teams that spend the winter months training in California… The guy is good.
So for now I get to pull my shoes out every now and then and do something with them. I might blog about them some more, or even better I might book my flight to Tucson. When I get there, I’m going to get to talk to Bill about new cleat placement methods, and pick his mind on shoes that will fit me and my super wide feet a little better. That’s right, even Shimano’s E size isn’t quite doing the trick. Plus, if Bill lets me, I’d like to document our process. Which is going to include getting three new sets of insoles (road, MTB, and casual) and getting fit on them.
