Maynard Hershon

Jim Stanfill and I at the Aspen Women's Pro circuit race yesterday

2011-08-24T07:43:00.000-06:00

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/aspen-womens-pro-race-2011/stage-2/photos/187973

Jim runs the USA Cycling technical program. His support effort is the smoothest, most "together" neutral support program I've ever experienced. In the photo, we're following the two-woman breakaway late in the Snowmass, Colorado (near Aspen) circuit race, on the second day of the three-day event.

I was delighted to be working a bicycle race again after a two-year hiatus. Yay!

Sorry....

2011-07-22T15:39:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this on July 22nd, months after my last post. I'm sorry I haven't been posting but I sorta lost interest in sharing my thoughts regularly outside of my columns.

Earlier this year I spent a couple of months without writing at all, the first time that had ever happened to me since I began contributing to magazines in the early '80s. Luckily, I got through that phase and I'm writing again, but not posting.

If you'd like to write me, my email address is mhershon@gmail.com Perhaps I'll begin posting again...but I can't say for sure. I'm sorry if I disappoint you.

Eric Clapton's guitars

2011-03-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here, from the NY Times, is an article explaining (you judge the effectiveness) the desire to own objects that have belonged to famous people. I became curious about this phenomenon when I heard that a world-class motorcycle racer, not a musician, who'd made good money in the sport, was buying "collector" guitars.

Fun to watch...

2011-03-04T10:45:00.002-07:00

Here's a video from Chile, forwarded from old friend Owen via old friend Tena. As Owen observed, the camera bike rider is no slouch by any means....

New cars, new distractions

2011-02-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

From Maureen Dowd in the NY Times: Have you driven a smartphone lately?

NYC bike commuting...and all bike commuting

2011-02-25T17:52:00.001-07:00

Here's an Outside Magazine piece by the author of Traffic. He interviews bike commuters and activists and rides with a guy with on his epic commute. Super well done, evenhanded writing. Thanks, Donald!

1880s cycling culture - on the Rivendell site

2011-02-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Check this out today or soon, please. The square you see top-center on the Rivendell home page is given to a series of paragraph-long comments on cycling life in the 1880s, a time that few of us long-termers will claim to remember. As you click from one paragraph to the next, you come eventually to a selection of photos of humbly outfitted Friends of the Brand. Enjoy those photos but don't miss the last paragraph selection after the shots.

And remember not to drink too much water or over-ring your handlebar bell.

Here's a motorcycle piece that WILL, after all, be published....

2011-02-08T19:37:00.003-07:00

I wrote the piece that used to be linked here in reaction to the almost unprecedented motorcycle media blitz about the new Ducati Diavel muscle cruiser. Maybe it's a muscle cruiser; maybe it's a new and terrific kind of motorcycle. Whatever it turns out to be, its allure was lost on me, and I grew tired of the predictably drooling, gushing coverage.

I didn't and don't want a Diavel but maybe thousands do. Maybe Ducati is merely making sure that their new baby gets the buzz that it needs to perform in a subdued motorcycle market. Maybe I'm simply wrong, or wrong-headed about this bike. If you're curious about the Diavel, Google will lead you to...overload.

THE NEWS: My editor at Motorcycle Sport and Leisure has agreed to run the piece! This will mean nothing to you if you had not already read it, but believe me, it could bring him problems with Ducati sellers and marketers. Because he's going to publish it, I removed the above link. I'll replace the link after the magazine hits the stands (in the UK; it's nearly impossible to buy here in the States).

Jeez, I wish I'd written this:

2011-02-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Cigo has left a new comment on your (Jan 4th, 2011) post "Hey! Whereya been?":

I know I felt the same when I left Berkeley for Santa Cruz in '89. My cycling dreams sort of died with my ordinary genetics. I missed the club rides, meetings, and the shop. None of it was the same where ever I went - even when I returned to Berkeley in '93. It made me sad to ride. It made me feel isolated.

Fast forward to now, in Portland, where there is always a tailwind, and it always rains at night (yeah, right)...Wasn't that what you wrote once about some mythical bike paradise? Anyway, its here, the dream is alive, in Portland ;-).

But the happiness is in the doing- I'm finding. Doing for the it's own sake, not for the memories, but for the new ones you will create, the new friends you will find if your heart is open, and the newness of the old familiar roads as the seasons change. It's there, if you decide to find it, I think.

What a rush to read that, and to imagine being in that open-heart frame of mind....

Again from Visor Down - hipsters on motorcycles...more of the same

2011-02-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

From a British motorcycle web site, here's a US-made do-it-yourself video about a hipster motorcyclist so cool, he has to "pull the bitches off himself."

Appropriate punishment - that's the question

2011-02-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

Manhole thief caught in Cheddar, England...from VisorDown

Some days are just, well, special....

2011-01-30T18:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a comment to an older post, the one about the prizefighter hit and killed by a van while cycling in London:

henry has left a new comment on your post "Buncha pansy ballet dancers....":

"Talking of pansy ballet dancers, you should go re-read your own hissy whine regarding your inability to guilt Duane into reworking your /5 BMW. Your panties were too tight then, and old age has not worked them any looser. Sad little man."

henry, thanks for writing. Happy New Year to you and yours, whoever and wherever you are.

For clarification, I didn't ask Duane to rework my BMW; I asked him to fix it and charge me. It threw me in the freeway at high speed as many of them did. Duane, a professional BMW mechanic, was the only guy anyone knew of who claimed to know how to fix them. I didn't try to guilt him into doing his job; I asked him to do it for pay, as he advertised he would. He refused.

I can't imagine what that story has to do with cyclists being called pansy ballet dancers. I think it has more to do with some grudge you've been holding against me for pointing an accusing finger at one of your heroes.

I did point that finger, and I put my name on the story. I'm never anonymously critical. Unlike, dear henry, your worthy self.

Car pooling and the buffalo....

2011-01-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here, from the NY Times, a piece about the decline of car sharing. In reading this, particularly the figures about the increase in the number of cars - it outstrips the increase in population - it's hard to deny that we're getting what we deserve. Maybe it's the same worldwide, but I don't know that. I do know that we're spoiled beyond redemption.

Starbucks new cup size. They're trying to kill you....

2011-01-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

From The Faster Times, fueled by lots of coffee....

Peter Yates, RIP

2011-01-10T16:40:00.001-07:00

Englishman Peter Yates, director of Bullitt, Breaking Away and The Friends of Eddie Coyle, has died.

Martin Erzinger, the Vail hitter/runner, bobs and weaves

2011-01-08T10:54:00.002-07:00

A bullet Mr. Erzinger richly deserves. Here's Al Lewis in the Denver Post, on Erzinger's "Pattern of running from responsibility...."

Buncha pansy ballet dancers....

2011-01-07T11:36:00.003-07:00

Well, except for this guy maybe. My first link to Fightnews.com.... Here's further coverage from Bikeradar.com

Hi David! Hi Corey! Part One

2011-01-06T18:36:00.003-07:00

This two-part column from the January 2011 CityBike (motorcycle magazine) is a record of an online conversation among my buddies David, Corey and me. Part Two will appear next month. Part One begins with a note from me to David and Corey:

Hi guys!
As I talk with friends here, I realize that, unlike them, I interpret peoples' acts as purposeful. We were talking about people who continue driving at the speed limit in the lane that ends in 100 yards, ignoring the Lane Ends signs as if they did not see them. Then they cut-in back into the continuing lane at the last moment, getting ahead of six or eight cars by doing so.

Or people who stop their cars across the pedestrian crosswalk as you step into the street. Quiet street, one car, one pedestrian. As those drivers watch for an opportunity to enter the intersection, they pretend they don't see you, your progress blocked by their vehicle.

It's my conviction that those drivers know exactly what they're doing, though most would deny it. They know they're pushy and self-important. They don't care. They feel anonymous in their cars. They wouldn't do it in a movie line or at the bank where they can be confronted about their impatience and audacity.

My friends say that those people are oblivious, only thinking about getting to work. They're not jerks. Oh, maybe they're the least bit selfish or Type-A. They're just drivers, my friends insist, who figure everyone would do the same given the same pressures, real or imagined. If we told those drivers that people see them as taking advantage, the drivers would say that couldn't be true. Take advantage? Me? No way.

If we believe that people are often oblivious, those drivers are off the hook. They didn't realize. Seemed okay to them, what they did. They were just driving to work. By extension, if they blow through an intersection just after the yellow and something happens, or if they turn left across someone's path and something happens, those occasions are called accidents.

No one's fault, really. Just driving to work. Mistakes are made. Doesn't make me a bad person or bad driver.

I'm not going for it. I don't believe people just go through the motions in life, on autopilot, just mindlessly driving to work. I believe they know what they're doing and make serial decisions about what to do next. I think that's what separates us from the animals. When I see someone riding a bicycle the wrong way on the wrong side of a busy urban one-way street, I assume that person chose to do that very thing.

I don't believe he or she lacked education or "just didn't know any better." Everyone knows better. The arrows point the opposite way.

It's easy to plead inattention afterward. It's easy to say, oh I didn't realize or I didn't see him or her, but those are cheap excuses, my dog ate my homework kinda excuses. Unlike teachers who've heard it too many times, we let people lie to us and cut them endless slack. We make it easy for them to make those excuses, to tell us convenient, glib lies.

They tell untruths or omit the truth - and insult us by expecting us to believe them. We say, oh, man, your dog ate your term paper. Sucks, dude.

I think the contrast between how my friends feel and how I feel reveals a basic philosophical difference about how we think about other people. Maybe it's driver thinking versus pedestrian/cyclist/motorcyclist thinking. Help me understand this....

your friend Maynard

From David:
I appreciate your example of someone trying to get a few car-lengths advantage. I see it frequently. It's everyday driver behavior. Of course it's conscious, deliberate behavior. As you say, "people know what they're doing and make serial decisions about what to do next. I think that's what separates us from the animals." Those serial decisions are how we put one foot in front of the other.

Another thing separating us from the animals is our ability to come up with reasons for just about anything we do and actually believe those reasons. Your friends seem to believe that obliviousness is a reason. Because you can say that doesn't make it true. It's nonsense to say, "People are oblivious and are only thinking about getting to work."

Humans aren't oblivious. Humans are selfish, greedy, inconsiderate. Obliviousness is the result not the reason. Maynard, I'm sure your friends are nice folks and good friends so please forgive me if I'm coming across harshly.
your friend David

From Corey:

Thanks for sending those notes. I've read them a few times and I'm not sure how to respond. They point out to me how differently people view the world. Or maybe not so much view the world, as relate to the world. You and David are discussing the intentions and motivations of complete strangers. Without communicating with them, how can you really know? You can only make assumptions and projections.

My view is: What difference does it make what their motivations or intentions are? Their actions may have an impact on me, but my response doesn't really depend on their motivation.

If they cut me off in an oblivious or impolite way, I can assume that they saw me and that it was intentional. If that's the case, I do what? Flip them off? Confront them? Politely ask them to be more careful next time? I don't think any of those options will change their behavior.

If I assume they did not see me, then evidently they are just poor drivers, distracted or not paying attention. Do I yell at them and tell them to get smarter? I wish such drivers were not on the road, but they are.

I assume they're all rude, preoccupied or oblivious. I ride as if I were invisible. I expect drivers to do the most dangerous, bone-headed thing they can possibly do under the circumstances and I prepare myself. That way, I'm pleasantly surprised when they don't screw up - or ready when they do.

To me, they're just like buoys torn loose from their moorings, navigational hazards which can kill me, regardless of their motivation or mindset. I try not to see their souls or understand their urges, I just give them wide berth. It keeps my blood pressure lower if I treat them as objects rather than individuals.

Having said that, as I think about it, sometimes when I see some cretin trying to jump the line, I intentionally close the gap on him to show him that not ALL the other drivers are saps. Sometimes his little ploy won't work. Hey, I try to be above it all, but nobody's perfect.

your friend Corey

From the Guardian in the UK; How we think of our cycling....

2011-01-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

This piece is ostensibly about cycle training for kids but it goes all over the map - and then there are the terrific comments! The gist: Kids think of bikes as fun, platforms for skids 'n' wheelies. We boring adults think of health and safety.

Thanks, Donald!

Hey! Whereya been?

2011-01-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know...I've not stuck a new post on here since Christmastime. And I certainly haven't ridden my bike since well before Christmas, maybe not in the month of December. Not that it's been pleasant bicycle weather here in Denver. But still.

As a few of you know, I've been struggling a bit with cycling. My riding is solo, predictable and unsatisfying. My writing about cycling has been bitchy, curmudgeonly. I'm not convinced that I've become bitchy and curmudgeonly in a global sense; my motorcycle writing is healthy. I find joy in motorcycling.

I seldom find joy in my bicycling.

I remember too well what cycling was like back when, when we rode in communities of riders. When saying you were a bike rider said a lot about who you were. When you couldn't imagine you wouldn't be a rider for life.

When I moved away from the Bay Area in 1997, I lost that community. I have worked to find it again and failed. I've been riding my bike most days since then, and occasionally, I have done delightful rides. Not very damned often.

On my undelightful rides these days, I sit and pedal and watch what happens on the bike paths; almost none of it pleases me. I go home and write sad tales, the ravings of an embittered old man.

Because this blog has focused on the bicycling side of my life rather than the motorcycling side, I have felt reluctant to post my thoughts, reluctant to share the shadow that has fallen over my cycling. Long ago I began providing links to articles I found interesting rather than disappoint my readers with my own somber thoughts.

I believe I'm passing through some phase, a senior crisis for chrissakes maybe. I can still get excited about doing some epic ride months from now, but I can't force myself to take my bike down off the hooks and ride it today, though I've been doing just that for 35 years. And never imagined I'd quit.

Tamar and I have been talking about this. Maybe I have to break old habits and drive our car to remote areas and ride there. Maybe I can find some of the old feeling. Or make some new cycling friends. Maybe maybe.

I'll try to post more faithfully and more personally than I have for a year or so. If you live in the Pacific NW, I'll surely write about my plight in the Bicycle Paper. If you don't, look for a link to my BP pieces here.

Thanks for reading, as sad Tyler Hamilton used to say at the end of his reports. If you sometimes or always feel the same way I do, please don't hesitate to comment on this page. Remember, your comments are blind: your email address is not supplied to me. Mine is mhershon@gmail.com

Whatcha gonna do?

2010-12-27T11:45:00.001-07:00

Here, from the Denver Post, is an inexplicable tale that at first sounds like "just another" highway fatality. Was it an accident? Was it a failed suicide attempt by truck? What was it...?

"The semi driver, Jason Ross, 33, of St. Louis, is believed to have driven at least nine miles the wrong way with his lights off his Freightliner semi shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday night."

Youth stunt/motorcycle/scooter culture in...Iraq!

2010-12-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

"Be great to have girls around," the guys say, but in Iraq you can't carry a woman who is not your wife on your motorcycle or scooter. Or tandem bicycle, huh? From the NY Times, c/o m'friend Justin.

Young Dick Cavett at Christmas, given a peek into the adult world

2010-12-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm thankful at holiday time for Dick Cavett's stories and for the New York Times. Without either, it would be a poorer life indeed. This piece won't make you laugh or fill you with holiday cheer. Read it anyway and write me a mean comment if it ruins your Christmas. Or a nice one if it enhances it.

Tim Egan from the NY Times on Christmas in the West

2010-12-23T06:38:00.002-07:00

Great holiday tale.
Egan mentions, as seldom happens, the Simca automobile, made in France and imported by Chrysler in the '50s and perhaps early '60s. My friend Maury Zaft had one when we were youts together in Indianapolis. Maury died young, in his 30s, I believe. Maury, if you read my blog, Happy Holidays to you, my brother....

Some of what you hadn't heard about the Vail hit/run fiasco

2010-12-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Al Lewis writes in the Denver Post that victim Stephen Milo's father-in-law is an old money-business friend of the slippery perp.

Pearlizumi's David Brinton-drawn Christmas card!

2010-12-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

Cute! Bravo, Brintoni!

Are NYC's bike lanes working? A discussion....

2010-12-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

From the NY Times, a five-person panel discussing the state of commuter cycling in the Apple.

Latest CityBike (motorcycle) piece

2010-12-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

CityBike's web site is not current so here's a link to my latest CB piece, Communities.

from the Wall Street Journal: Where the Postal money came from....

2010-12-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

....and what happened when the doping rumors started. This is clear, well written and sad as hell.

Sorry I haven't been posting. It's winter in Denver, chilly if not snowy, and my thoughts have been elsewhere.

One hand washing the other - in England

2010-12-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

Italian bike company Pinarello has given England 1050 bicycles this year - for elite racers and grassroots programs. The racers and kids have the bikes; Pinarello has the big visibility in the UK. I feel sure this is how things are supposed to work....

Another video, downhill this time

2010-12-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

I'd never heard of Gee Atherton, downhill mountain bike rider, but David Knight is a genius motorcyclist, the best in the world. Here, from BikeRadar.com is a video of a race between the two down a fearsome hill in the UK. You get a good look at the course as they walk it before the event, and I don't even want to walk down....

Did someone mention falling off?

2010-12-01T18:15:00.000-07:00

Short video, longer lasting laughs....

Fall off your bicycle and get hurt? Will you quit?

2010-11-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

I don't know where I'd have expected to find this piece, but it wouldn't have been the NY Times. Here it is nevertheless. I didn't quit riding after I broke my leg in '08, but I quit riding small-wheeled bicycles...and I quit suiting up like a racing cyclist for several months. And I did "cast about" for a reason why I fell.

Provocative reading....

Walking Dead not scary enough?

2010-11-29T07:45:00.001-07:00

If men and women smashing zombie heads with pickaxes isn't frightening enough, read this. You will never order online with the old confidence again. "I just wanted some designer glasses, officer...."

Update, 12/7/10: Borker's been arrested!

Great stylish piece from The Faster Times

2010-11-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Terrific back-East style subdued rant about anti-cyclists. Enjoy!

45-year-old Masters racer from MI suspended for EPO

2010-11-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

As reported in VeloNews, this undistinguished Masters class racer used EPO to boost him from 17th to 16th place, it seems. Click on the link to view his results. This blogger, another undistinguished Masters racer, used to have coffee with his pancakes on raceday mornings. One guilty secret after another, huh?

From the Times: Making coffee....

2010-11-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

As caffeination goes upscale....here's a wry piece about missing the simple old days.

From Bikeradar.com: Drivers typically at fault in cycling collisions...maybe

2010-11-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

I'd say this research (from Australia) tallies with my experience, but if you provide cyclists with helmet cams, do they ride differently? Is the science flawed? Some people say that if you merely provide helmets, people ride differently....

Ted King's blog in VeloNews: car wars in strife-torn Napa County

2010-11-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

I admire Ted King for his riding and for his efforts at sharing his thoughts and experiences on the VN site. I'm not sure this particular post is my favorite; I think it could have been presented differently and perhaps more effectively, but Ted probably doesn't love everything I write - if he's ever read anything I've written.

I'd always heard that the scenic routes in NorCal's Napa and Sonoma Counties were over-cycled by none-too-courteous outta-towners. King's thoughts support that theory.

Anti bikelane backlash in NYC

2010-11-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here's the link. Sorry I haven't been posting....

All of a sudden....so much religion

2010-11-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here, from Big Questions Online, is a look at why, when only a few years ago this seemed like a secular nation, we are confronted with religion on every side. This piece makes no comment on the individual religions, only on the dramatic, seemingly recent renaissance....

From Mother Jones: Detroit

2010-11-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

I was a kid in Flint, Michigan. My dad and mom had lived in Detroit since the Great Depression so my father's formative years were spent there. We moved when I was still in grade school, but if you asked me where I'm from, I suppose I'd say Michigan.

This terrific but unspeakably sad piece focuses at first on the accidental shooting of a young girl in a crummy Detroit neighborhood, then expands to scan the awful sadness that hangs over the city.

Los Angeles on $100/day - by bike!

2010-11-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Here's the NY Times Frugal Traveler joyously touring America's most auto-oriented city - by bike. You could easily do the same trip based on this article...and it sounds like big fun! Take the shuttle from LAX, rent your hybrid bike here....

Hipsters vs "real" motorcyclists - from Hell for Leather dot com

2010-11-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Not only do I feel sure you'll enjoy this piece, I'm confident you know both of these guys. See if I'm not right....

A fine blog site from England

2010-11-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

David S sent me a link to a particular post on this fellow's blog site, In the Saddle. I surfed around and found that the posts were generally interesting and always well written. I like this guy's style. See what you think....

City cycling point-counterpoint

2010-11-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

Here, from the St Edwards University (Austin) online paper, are opposing student viewpoints about why Austin cyclists do the things they do. Typically, I can line up alongside one writer or the other. Here? Harder.

Something about this doesn't seem fair....

2010-11-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Friend Khal, who is on top of this cycling advocacy thing, forwarded this link from New Mexico. The accident happened in Vail, just up Highway 70 from here in Denver. Maybe I'm wrong and just don't get it, but this seems outrageous to me. I feel sorry for the dude who got hit...and I feel sorry for the rest of us, who have to look at this mess and try to find truth, justice and the American way....

Sorry I haven't been posting. I worked at a polling place last Tuesday, a 13-hour day, and I'm still recovering.

Hells Angels (sp?) suing Alexander McQueen designer firm for misuse of logo

2010-10-28T08:05:00.000-06:00

From Clutch 'n' Chrome, but you can find it anywhere, here's the story. What's next, swastika lingerie?

Today's NY Times Frugal Traveler writes about the original

2010-10-28T06:20:00.000-06:00

Mexico or Japan on $5/day? Remember? Here's an interview with the guy who went there and wrote that!

An excerpt from Ben Spies's "diary" on Superbikeplanet.com

2010-10-27T16:21:00.000-06:00

Ben Spies is World Superbike Champion and rookie of the year in MotoGP, the elite class in motorcycle road racing. A Texan, he trains on a road bicycle and appears to have fallen in love with road cycling. He's a Cat Two rider in Texas, and...

Off the track, I'm starting an amateur/pro cycling team in the States next year. It's all come together pretty well. It's going to have about 12 guys on it. Six under contract, the heavy hitter squad. They'll be the guys that'll go on the road to race. They'll do the USA National Criterium Series, the National Road Race, and some big road races.

We've got a couple of guys based in Texas, but then a bunch of other guys, too. I'm going to have a Sprinter van and a trailer. I'm working with Specialized; Yamaha is going to be a sponsor; and I've got a couple of other sponsorships that are being finalized. The riders and everything else are pretty well locked down. I'm pretty excited about it. It should be fun.

I've got one really, really good rider on the team - all the riders are good, but one is going to be more the mentor for the younger kids. Really, it's just a thing for me. I'm into cycling and it's something I can do without spending money - I'm not making money on it, it's a nonprofit deal. Just basically giving some young kids a chance. Once we get all the posters and stuff knocked out and ready for the year, I'll be able to update everyone in the racing world.

Right now I'm starting off small but really professional. Three years from now, we might have a team that can go to the Tour of California and things like that. But right now, it's just going to start out as a small, amateur/pro team, and work their way up.

Everyone likes and respects Ben Spies. Let's wish him luck and cheer for his guys in 2011 and beyond!

Wonderful UK hillclimb audio slideshow

2010-10-25T12:59:00.001-06:00

From Owen M to Tena G to me and now to you, the Catford Cycling Club Hillclimb Classic. I resist using the hackneyed word awesome, but if I were gonna use it, I'd use it now. Click right here and enjoy.

Pee-Wee Herman in Sturgis...from Hell for Leather.com

2010-10-25T08:12:00.001-06:00

Is an explanation in order? I think not. Here's the link.

Oh, "potato, potato, potato." That's the (copyrighted) sound of a Harley-Davidson V-twin, just as "chugga-chugga" is the sound of a steam locomotive struggling up a grade.

My friend Larry's Colle delle Finestre story

2010-10-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Written by Larry Theobald, lightly edited by this blogger, here's a fine piece (from the Italian Cycling Journal) about a fabled pass that will be part of 2011's more-demanding-than-ever Giro d'Italia.

We thought it was only Boomers who were trying to live forever....

2010-10-23T07:36:00.002-06:00

Forty is the new twenty, says this piece about triathletes in the NY Times.

Cyclist-Pedestrian Wars - I missed this in mid-September

2010-10-22T17:47:00.000-06:00

From the NY Times. Did you know that riding the wrong way is called "salmoning?" Worth reading...

If I told-ya, you wouldn't believe me...

2010-10-20T18:02:00.000-06:00

Thanks to William H in Austin for the link, here's an item on a non-cycling site about a remarkable new bike helmet. Well, it's sort-of a helmet. Read the text and watch as much of the video as you can tolerate. Can this succeed?

Health Care and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - from the NY Times

2010-10-19T06:51:00.000-06:00

We motorcyclists get SO much bad press - Donorcycles, Hells Angels in the drug business, guys riding on one wheel at 100mph on the Interstate, loud pipes....you can imagine my delight at reading this piece.

Retired racer Randy Mamola, perhaps the inspiration for this scheme, has been a significant and visible benefactor for African causes, perhaps like Bono. If you have watched MotoGP racing on TV or live, he's the guy who takes VIPs for one- or two-lap rides on an extremely fast Ducati converted to carry two people.

Run whatcha brung at the abandoned velodrome in Detroit!

2010-10-18T11:35:00.000-06:00

Bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles and scooters, all racing (not at the same time) on a disused, beatup concrete velodrome in the Motor City. Read the Hellforleather.com article; watch the Hellforleather video (for sure).

Friend Donald on his classic Schwinn in action in Mexico! Ole!

2010-10-17T20:15:00.001-06:00

Here's Donald, photographed on a descent during what was supposed to be a marathon ride from Mexico City, where he lives, and Acapulco. Petty confusion among local bureaucrats shortened the ride and soured his experience, unlike last year, when he was a proud finisher.

Donald's on his old Schwinn Superior, equipped with wooden Ghisallo rims he bought from Ric Hjertberg and built up himself.

Allez, Donald!

Maybe you don't care about cars.

2010-10-12T15:37:00.000-06:00

Two years ago I visited my friend Steve M in Muncie, Indiana. He took me to his buddy's house, where we saw three collector Jaguars, all three with racing history. His C-Type was the standout, and would be in any automotive company. What a car!

50 Years On, Jaguar’s Sexy C-Type Still Seduces

By Sam Smith
October 12, 2010 |
8:00 am |
Categories: Cool Cars, Miscellaneous, Performance

The firm that would become Jaguar Cars Limited was founded in 1922 by two young British entrepreneurs, one of whom later would be knighted. In the decades that followed, the company’s fortunes would wax and wane, its fast, sexy cars dogged by issues of quality and public perception.
This wasn’t always the case. In the early 1950s, there was a period when Coventry seemed incapable of failure — when its street machines were strong, quick, and beautiful; its racing cars were gorgeous champions; and its financial well-being was secure. From this period came a handful of legendary cars.
Among them was the Le Mans-winning XK-120C, or C-Type. Just over 50 were built between 1951 and 1953, all intended for competition. They are widely regarded as one of the most beautiful British cars ever made, and even the tattiest example will set you back hundreds of thousands of dollars. Good ones can command millions.
I recently had a chance to ride in a C-Type. My life will never be the same.

A 1948 Jaguar XK-120, the C-Type's predecessor and the car that put Jaguar on the performance map.

Like all great cars, the C-Type has its roots in a good story. In the late 1940s, Jaguar was a solid, moderately successful car company. Its XK-120 roadster, a sleek missile introduced in 1948, had jump-started sales. It offered a remarkable (for the era) top speed of 120 mph — hence the name — and sexy bodywork so refined and futuristic it may as well have fallen from the moon. No manufacturer, domestic or European, offered anything like it.

The Jaguar C-Type of Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt passing under the Dunlop bridge at Le Mans in 1953. The car won the race.

Unsurprisingly, the XK-120 had a knack for winning races. At the 1950 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a near-stock example driven by Leslie Johnson ran as high as third before retiring due to a broken clutch. Johnson’s car wasn’t the only Jaguar in the race — another 120 finished the French classic, albeit in 12th place — but it had been watched closely by two very important men. One of them, William Heynes, was Jaguar’s chief engineer. The other, William Lyons, was Jaguar’s co-founder.
The two men were spurred to action. With little precedent — Heynes once said that, until the ‘50 Le Mans, he had “never seriously contemplated designing a [competition] car” — they decided to go racing. And they decided that they were going to win Le Mans in 1951.

The car is the closest thing we will ever create to something that is alive. —William Lyons

Starting with little more than an XK-120’s driveline and a clean sheet of paper, Heynes drew a tour de force. The tube-framed pinup that appeared on the Le Mans grid one year later was dubbed the XK-120C, for Competition, or C-Type for short. Three C-Types started the French endurance classic in 1951, and while only one finished, it did so in first place, a whopping 77 miles ahead of the next closest car. Over the next decade, Jaguar would win Le Mans five times.

As racing cars go, the C-Type’s guts were relatively ordinary. The four-speed transmission, independent torsion-bar front suspension, and 3.4-liter, twin-cam straight six were borrowed from the XK-120. The driveline was shoehorned into a tubular steel frame, and everything was cloaked in a Malcom Sayer-designed, hand-beaten aluminum body.
If Sayer’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he would later pen Jaguar’s legendary D-Type, E-Type, XJ-13, and XJ-S. The man had an eye for pretty.
Judicious tuning bumped power from the 120’s 160 hp to around 200 hp — later C-Types would produce as much as 260 — and, free of carpets, a windshield, or other creature comforts, weight dropped to around 2100 pounds.

The C-Type's engine, a 3.4-liter, dual-overhead-cam straight six, was essentially a modified version of the production XK-120 mill. Twin SU carburetors (the two towers at upper right) fed high-lift cams and a Harry Weslake-improved cylinder head.

“It was a big moment. I was just in awe of the C-type when I first stepped into it. The steering was light — almost scary light. It was the first car I ever drove that had a really precise feel about it. It really felt like a racing car.” –American Formula 1 Champion Phil Hill

The C's elegant nose is one hand-hammered panel. It pivots forward like a clamshell. The svelte grille echoed contemporary Jaguar street cars.

In many ways, the C was a landmark. At a time when companies like Ferrari were attacking the speed problem with ever-rising horsepower and displacement, bludgeoning the wind into submission, Jaguar focused on aerodynamics and reduced drag. The C-Type broke speed records (first car to average over 100 mph at Le Mans, 1953), it marked the first use of disc brakes in competition (1953 again), and, in the hands of privateers, it proved to be one of the most competitive and well-rounded sports-racing cars of the 1950s. It was also the last world-class racer that could truly do double duty. If you had the means and the talent, you could drive your C to any race in the world, compete for the win, and then drive home again.
And it was, lest I repeat myself, so pretty it hurt.
What we have here is not just one of the most beautiful cars ever built. This is one of the most beautiful things ever built. Period, end of sentence. To stand in front of a C-Type and gaze into its undulating curves and fluid, muscular haunches is to gaze at a masterpiece. This is the Mona Lisa’s arched smile, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and the Sistene Chapel rendered in hand-crafted aluminum. It is a study in contradictions: Sexy but brutish, lithe but masculine, simple yet complex. And impossibly, almost heartbreakingly beautiful.
So yes, I got to ride in one. As part of Jag’s 75th anniversary celebration (the company marks its founding as 1935, the first year the Jaguar name was used on a production vehicle), the cats from Coventry hauled out a few of the cars housed in the nonprofit, state-owned Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. One of those cars, British registration number NDU 289, was XK-120C chassis 45. On a cloudy day in Gaydon, England, at Jaguar’s proving-ground test track, I sat passenger while a white-haired British man woke the beast.

At a time when the average family sedan struggled to top 80 mph, the Jaguar lapped Le Mans at 100-plus-mph average speeds. Note counterclockwise tachometer.

The starting procedure is simple, essentially like rousing the world’s randiest Camry: Ignition on. Wait for the fuel pump to prime the lines. Foot off the throttle. Push the starter button. Wait for unholy crackling sound to split your brain open. Lather, rinse, and repeat, as time and bank account allow.

The C's cockpit, all bare aluminum and steel tubing. It's narrower (and hotter) than it looks. Photo: Sam Smith/Wired.com.

Here’s the thing about a C-Type’s muffler: It doesn’t exist. A short, stubby pipe pokes out of the car’s left rocker panel, roughly two and a half feet below the passenger’s — all C-Types are right-hand drive — ear, and if it has any muffling baffles in it at all, you wouldn’t know it. When a C lights off, the world goes out of focus. Your ears, bludgeoned by three and a half liters of midcentury British explosion, simply give up and refuse to hear anything else.
“We’re going to have to let it warm up a bit,” shouts my driver. I am not allowed to drive the car myself because A) it is owned by the British people, and I am not one of them, and B) it’s worth more money than I make in ten years. I have no problem with this. We pootle around, careful to not lug the engine, as the coolant warms. I smell leather and leaking oil. Bare aluminum and painted steel tubes fill the cockpit; a short, stubby gear lever pokes out of the center console, and a cereal-bowl-sized tach and speedometer live in front of the driver. There’s a hole in the floor where I can see the pavement whiz by. We pass a bus stop, gargling and crackling along in third, and two grade-school kids waiting there look at me like I’m wearing a hat made of Margaret Thatcher’s face.

Leaving Jaguar's Gaydon, England proving grounds. Photo: Sam Smith/Wired.com.

“It doesn’t like running slow,” shouts driver. I nod, or maybe just twitch uncontrollably from the noise.
And then he nails it.
For the most part, I don’t remember most of the important moments in my life. I can recall the monumental ones, of course — meeting my wife, the day I got married, and so on — but everything else, from birth to graduation and all other points, eventually fades away. But I will never, ever forget this. At full basso roar, a C-Type Jaguar sounds like hell’s own blender. Each and every cylinder’s firing comes smack out of that rocker pipe and hits you in the chest like an anvil. It’s a cross between Unholy Gatling Gun of God and Who Put Led Zeppelin Turned Up To Eleven in My Nuclear Bomb Test?

On the road. Photo: Sam Smith/Wired.com.

Because my driver is a nice man, a kind man, a gentle man, he does this repeatedly, and I cannot stop grinning. I begin to laugh uncontrollably, the car bounding down the road in manly, angry leaps. We blast past ordinary traffic just to watch soccer (football? cricket?) moms swerve as they get hit with the C’s wash. The trees go all blurry. My driver is unperturbed, but I can’t stop giggling. This might, I think, be the best thing ever.

XKC.045, “my” C-Type, is one of the later production cars, a customer vehicle delivered on April 9th, 1953. It is now painted British racing green, but it was originally red, and unlike the 1953 factory cars, it features drum brakes and SU, not Weber, carburetors. The Italian driver Tadini entered it in the 1953 Mille Miglia but crashed out, and while the damage was repaired, the car has never been restored. As such, it sports a fascinating patina, the kind of well-worn, lived-in look you only find on much-loved old cars.

The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust bought 045 in 1983. People who should know claim that “runner” C-Types — decent drivers with less-than-perfect cosmetics and no real competition history — can be had for as little as $700,000. This is, in case you needed reminding, more than twice the cost of a nice house in the midwestern United States. For reference, it’s also several hundred thousand dollars more than it would take you to buy many other iconic cars. Original Shelby Cobras, for example.
In light of what you get, it seems like a bargain. Jaguar may never again reach the heights that it hit in its ’50s and ’60s heyday, and just under a million bucks seems like a small price to pay for one of the most amazing crossroads of technology and beauty ever created. Expensive, as it so often is, is relative.
Pardon me while I buy a hundred lotto tickets, sell a kidney or two, and go rob a bank. If there was ever a reason to be rich as hell, the C-Type is it.

The author, stone deaf and deep in the throes of an exhaust-note-inspired freak-out. Photo: Sam Smith/Wired.com.

Photos: Jaguar Cars Ltd., except where noted.
See Also:

A review of a charming book about food, thanks to friend Khal

2010-10-12T06:44:00.000-06:00

From the NY Times this past February, a review of Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, by Michael Pollan.

A ride up (and down) the Stelvio...on a (brakeless) fixie

2010-10-11T21:41:00.000-06:00

Here's the link. I suppose that by putting this video up on my blog page, I'm suggesting that you watch it. And I guess I am. There's nothing elegant about this video. Watching it makes you wonder why anyone would do it or want to watch it done. The climb is what you'd expect, but the descent...?

How Bad is McDonalds Food, from the Huffington Post

2010-10-11T21:33:00.000-06:00

This piece includes a video of a dramatic short ad warning against fast food, a shot directly across McDonalds' bow. The writer asks if the ad is in acceptable taste...or over the top. Here's the last sentence in the article:

You would have to walk for seven hours without stopping to burn off the calories from a Big Mac, a Coke and an order of fries.

What Columbus Day Really Means

2010-10-11T06:58:00.002-06:00

Is it all about the tubing? This piece, from American Scholar.org, never mentions the tubing but defends the holiday if not the man. Interesting stuff, I'd say.

If you scroll down the page, on the left side, you'll see several links to other pieces from American Scholar. I found one of them, Teaching the N-Word, by Emily Bernard, to be wonderfully written and laden with insight. See what you think.

Rival NYC Spin Classes - Who'd have believed this?

2010-10-10T07:28:00.000-06:00

I don't know that I have anything to add. Check out this NY Times piece, please....

BikeRadar seems skeptical....

2010-10-08T07:25:00.000-06:00

...but I can think of a thousand times I'd have given anything for these. Be sure to check out the foot covers.

Let's leave Florida...and go to Italy!

2010-10-07T13:48:00.000-06:00

Here's a Guardian (UK) piece about a retro-style bike ride in Italy....on old bikes, in cold clothes and on old unpaved roads. Sound wonderful? I thought so too....

Real progress from Florida...finally!

2010-10-07T08:01:00.000-06:00

You'll be relieved to read that after half a dozen cyclists have died in St Petersburg since the end of July (and one in six cyclists killed in the US is killed in Florida)...sound of trumpets...a committee has been formed!

Let the sun shine in!

More sadness from Florida

2010-10-07T07:15:00.001-06:00

Friend Khal sent me this newspaper report of not-very encouraging progress at identifying the hit/run driver who killed Neil Smith in St Petersburg.

Sad story from Florida

2010-10-03T11:36:00.000-06:00

Here, thanks to a heads-up from friend Khal, is a fine piece from the St Petersburg Times/TampaBay.com. It's a fine piece but it's a sad piece. Never say I didn't warn you....

Robert Mackey of the NY Times on doping in cycling

2010-10-01T07:10:00.000-06:00

Cycling fans wish they'd been to medical school.... Did Alberto Contador dope? Did he transfuse his own blood? Who knows? Will we ever know? Here's a terrific Times piece on the confusion and sadness of it all.

"...a kind of rustic enhancement." Her bicycle, that is.

2010-09-30T06:48:00.001-06:00

It's still another bicycle chic in NY article from the Times. Watch the slide show; a few of the items are sorta charming....

Grewal astounds again!

2010-09-25T07:22:00.002-06:00

Posted by John Wilcockson of VeloNews in CO or perhaps Las Vegas at midnight last night, 50 year-old Alexi Grewal, badboy bike racer and prophet, is taking up where he left off decades ago. I had just heard from the guys at Turin Bike Shop that he'd ridden a mountain bike in an arduous paved-and-dirt-road race in the mountains (Crooked Roubaix) on flat pedals and hiking boots - and finished well. I think this might be for real. Honestly, I hope it is....

Thanks, John G, for the heads-up! Allez, Alexi!!

Abandoned velodrome discovered in Detroit...and you can race on it - if you dare

2010-09-24T10:46:00.000-06:00

This big-attitude piece is from big-attitude Hell for Leather, a motorcycle web site with an east coast flavor. Read the piece and check out the photo gallery. See if you want to ride a scooter, moped or road bicycle on this track....

Old Farts Ride photos by Several Old Farts

2010-09-23T13:07:00.000-06:00

Sunday, October 12th, in Danville CA: the start of the annual Old Farts Ride, originally a yearly reunion for '60s bike racers but thankfully extended to welcome latecomers like this blogger. Here's a link to more photos of riders and friends and a few bikes. Enjoy!

Young man in Yorkshire recyling auto seatbelts into...

2010-09-23T06:49:00.003-06:00

Toe-straps! Imagine, a decade into the new Millennium, this guy is making...toe-straps! Next he'll recycle old smartphones into those steering wheel knobs with hottie photos in them.

This Guardian blogger's commute got longer...and longer

2010-09-22T18:50:00.006-06:00

So he asked his readers for suggestions on how to make his 10-miles-each-way commute more fun... And the comments/answers? Brilliant! They're not (most of them) about fun. They're about... well, take a look. Read the blog and click on the comments.

"I thought I'd hit an animal," the Escalade driver said,

2010-09-21T20:02:00.004-06:00

"but when I got home, there was a bicycle stuck underneath my car."

The young lady she hit was 30 and the Green Party candidate for US Senate from Maryland. From the Baltimore Sun....

The race of truth

2010-09-21T06:10:00.001-06:00

Here's an unusual NY Times piece about how we do and how we think about it.

Not much joy from latest distracted driver statistics

2010-09-20T17:59:00.003-06:00

Here they are, from the NY Times, with statements from the remarkably sympathetic Ray LaHood, who MUST be a rider, huh? Hoo-ray for Ray!

Bicyclists: Don't Tread on Me!

2010-09-20T14:04:00.002-06:00

DVC is Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco East Bay. It's sidewalk cyclists again....

Latest Bicycle Paper piece

2010-09-18T11:20:00.003-06:00

Riding with a local non-racing bicycle club, I've learned that many of the club members have acquired few cycling skills and little understanding of how to operate their (often quite expensive) bicycles. So I wrote this for the Bicycle Paper and after asking permission, offered it to our local advocacy group, BikeDenver, and to the club, Denver Bicycle Touring Club - for free.

BikeDenver will use the piece on their web site and in their newsletter, I'm told. Denver Bicycle Touring Club has not responded to my three emails, not entirely a surprise.

Hope you enjoy the piece. It's about how to use bicycle gears. It's not intended for beginners, but for regular riders who've never figured it out.

About to leave

2010-09-16T07:20:00.005-06:00

Here I am on my Suzuki, about to leave the September 12th Old Farts Ride. I'm in Danville CA, headed for Mountain View CA, to visit with Tamar's brother and his bride of not-yet a year.

I look like I've bowed my head in prayer, hoping for a safe trip. But no. I've just started my bike and I'm probably checking the odometer mileage for a hint of my fuel level.

This is a Steve Yee photo. Steve is a bicyclist and motorcyclist or he might not bothered taking this shot. I have dozens of other OFR photos, a few of which I'll share soon.

He dreamt of a...bicycle

2010-09-16T07:01:00.003-06:00

Great story from Nicholas Kristof in the NY Times this morning.

Who wants a 50lb bicycle? Thousands do. Millions, maybe....

Can you hear me now? Of course, I'm on a land line....

2010-09-07T06:46:00.003-06:00

From the LA Times, a wry, well written piece about telephones by Stephen Randall, deputy editor of Playboy.

As the Sept 12th Old Farts Ride approaches...

2010-09-04T15:23:00.004-06:00

The ride hosts and coordinators are John and Tena G, of Danville California. The ride is an annual event. I've missed at least a decade of them, living as I have in Arizona and now Colorado. Here's a note Tena sent today to the OFR listers. I'm putting it up on my blog page to give you an idea of the bonds that existed then and still exist now among old bike riders. FYI: I know some of these folks and don't know others. Most raced in the Bay Area and/or nationally in the '60s and '70s.

Sept 4th, 2010

Everyone asks if Bob Tetzlaff and David Brink are coming. I called and talked to Bob Tetzlaff and David Brink this morning. Bob will be here and David is 90% sure but he drives a double trailer truck for Fed Ex. He and his driving partner had just been in PA and were in Texas when I talked to him this AM.

Mike Cone is coming from Hawaii, Ken Spears is coming from Anchorage, Jon (Schneider) Longcore and Allan Tinkham from Albuquerque, Tony McMillan from British Columbia, Maynard Hershon from Denver, Bruce Schatmeir from Portland, Bill Tout and Karl Schneck from Ashland, OR and many locals!!! Ed Kinney just moved back from Virginia and will be coming. George Dyer from Montana too.

So far, we have 84 yes's. And I just sent another email to the no's to reconsider and to the people who have not responded at all yet. If there is someone you'd like to see, please let me know their name and I can forward you their contact information and let you know if they are coming or not.

Some of you were "probably" coming so I hope that this helps persuade you to come. See you next Sunday.

Tena G

Tamar after dinner at Kerry's in Golden; Maynard and his Suzuki dual-sport at Wondervu, CO

2010-09-03T12:46:00.005-06:00

That's Tamar at our friend Kerry's after our barbecue dinner the night before the Four-Stroke Single Nat'l Owners Club Thumper Cafe in Wondervu.
Yep, that's my blue tank and the tip of my saddle. Tamar and I are in the foothills in scenic Wondervu, 40 miles from our Denver home. That's my old Nolan flip-front helmet on one of its last outings. Sigh. Kinda nice with the yellow helmet and the yellow umbrellas behind me....

In the stands at the 2010 Indy MotoGP

2010-09-02T07:55:00.005-06:00

In Corey's shot, this is Tamar and I high in the stands at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We're luckily sitting in the shade on an oppressively hot and humid day. We sat just above turns two and three, where the big first-lap crashes occurred in the Moto2 event, if you watched the racing on your TV.

On my wrist, you see a red Ducati band, allowing me access to the huge Ducati pavilion, maybe six or seven tents huge. Ducati does a great job of boosting the brand at events all over the country.

...this land was made for you and me.

2010-09-02T05:28:00.003-06:00

Timothy Egan in the NY Times writing about the huge, spectacular areas of the country that are preserved by law for you and me. Inspiring reading.

The dependably brilliant John Wilcockson on Laurent Fignon

2010-09-01T15:45:00.002-06:00

From VeloNews Online. Enjoy.

A slide show with Beatles music dedicated to the late Laurent Fignon

2010-08-31T20:49:00.003-06:00

As David S, who sent me the link, suggested, get a tissue.... It's a four-minute YouTube presentation.

Fignon's friends remember....

2010-08-31T11:54:00.003-06:00

Here, from VeloNews, are a few memories of Laurent Fignon from his friends. Look at him with Bernard Hinault in the black 'n' white photo; Seems like a super guy, huh....

Good news and bad

2010-08-31T06:44:00.003-06:00

Tamar and I are home after a great trip to Indianapolis. But Laurent Fignon has died from cancer at 50 years old, a good guy gone too soon.

The two sites I watch regularly, BikeRadar.com and VeloNews, reported Fignon's passing with the same French press service text. Soon, I hope, we'll have more personal remembrances.

Gosh, only yesterday in 1989 when Greg LeMond beat Fignon by those glorious eight seconds, Fignon looked so young....

Our plans

2010-08-25T08:02:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow morning, Tamar and I will fly to Indianapolis to visit family and attend the MotoGP motorcycle road races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And the Indy Mile (dirt track) at the state fairgrounds.

Tamar will visit the new public library in Indy and the art museum, both renowned facilities. For the first time, I have secured press credentials for the MotoGP, allowing me access, well, nearly everywhere, I hope. We're both stoked about the trip.

Luckily, Valentino Rossi's broken leg has healed fast; he'll be competing at Indy. Ticket sales were slow when his presence there was doubtful. When he began racing again, the Motor Speedway sold tickets worth $250,000 in a single day. We're excited to see Rossi ride, and I may, maybe, get a chance to meet him.

We'll be gone four days. Not long after we return, I'm going to the Bay Area for the first time in years to ride the annual Old Farts Ride, a gathering of men and women who were racing in the '60s and '70s. I have found excuses since I left the Bay for missing the OFR, but this year....

I apologize for the few posts on my blog page this summer. I've been riding my bicycle but to be honest have been having more fun on the motorcycle. I rode to my HS reunion in Indy. I did a one-day, 526mi event over 11 mountain passes here in CO. Tamar and I attended the Four-Stroke Single Nat'l Owners Club lunch in Wondervu, CO, a few weeks ago.

Oh, and I worked for the census, and soon I'll be working for the election people as the general election approaches and on the day. My friend Phil presented me with a gift motorcycle that was not yet ready for prime time, and I've been preoccupied with it and its refurbishing.

I suppose I've been busy doing stuff and writing stuff for publication. I've neglected my blog.

I'll do better, I think. Meanwhile, may you easily afford Rapha but not buy it.

Maynard

That's three hundred and thirty one dollars!

2010-08-25T07:23:00.003-06:00

For a new Rapha designer messenger (sorry, courier) bag. Don't miss the comments.

From Bikeradar.com....

From McSweeny's: The best e-reader on the market

2010-08-25T07:06:00.003-06:00

After exhaustive testing, "the newspaper" reigns as best e-reader...and you can make a hat!

At the bottom, click on Modern Yoga Poses. Namaste.

From the Guardian (UK): Is this bike maker greener? Well,....

2010-08-24T07:21:00.003-06:00

Here's the link. Be sure to read the comments. They're not entirely what you'd expect....

If you buy a new, expensive and prestigious replica (if we're honest) of an old, prestigeless item, even if the new item is made in your neighborhood and its construction reflects a concern for environmental issues, is it green? Or is finding the old, discarded no-flash product far greener?

Note: New personal sentence length record established this morning immediately above.

From Salon.com; a happy bike story

2010-08-22T19:35:00.002-06:00

It's not all aggro out there....

Who rides a 29er? Well....

2010-08-20T13:06:00.003-06:00

From BikeRadar.com, this is partially a press release and partially a fun news item that humanizes a guy it's been easy to think of as not so human. Whatever George Bush was like in the White House, on the bike trail he seems like an okay guy, huh? Peleton One...is that cool or what?

Sat, Aug 14, Wondervu CO, at the Thumper Cafe

2010-08-15T17:43:00.007-06:00

That's Tamar and I at the Four-Stroke Single (cylinder) Nat'l Owners Club lunch in Wondervu, CO. Wondervu is NW of Denver in the foothills, close to Nederland, not far from Boulder. I rode my Suzuki and Tamar her Piaggio, the longest, most adventurous, mountain road ride she's done in her four years on the 150cc scooter.

Fifty-six FSSNOCers attended, nice folks on relatively small, low-powered motorcycles. Two guys from Oregon, one each from Montana and Florida. Lots of people rode from KS, OK, NM, TX and diverse CO locations. For a burger. A pretty good Kobe beef burger, but still...a burger.

Occasional CityBike contributor John Bishop, who was there from Sonoma County, CA, took the photo and kindly sent it to us. Bishop was on an extended tour with a friend from New Zealand, both men riding old Yamaha XS650 twins.