curtis' show @ Mars Cafe'

Friend and follow reluctant cyclist, Curtis Poortinga just hung his show at Mars Cafe......opening night is Friday, Jan 13th from 7-9pm

New-ish Danny MacAskill Video

Was sitting at the coffee shop the other day and my buddy/riding partner/barista looked up in his not-so-enthused way, and proclaimed "have you seen the new MacAskill?"...."No?" I replied. after a quick search of  youtube it was mine for the watching....Its really good,no, really its good. sound track is great, riding off the chain, and backdrops beautiful....check it out:

keep up on what danny is doing at: www.dannymacaskill.co.uk

if you wanna a little more here's another one....this one is a bit shorter

On a way less cool note, realized ive put about 500 or so miles on the current configuration of the casseroll and havent really updated what it currently looks/ rides like:

 So whats different? Threw on some 'cross tires (Ritchey SpeedMax Comp, be exact), FSA Metropolis Handlebar, and a 110mm -9degree stem....for me this is a magic combination...slightly upright, yet quick handling. adding length to the stem allows for the aggressive back sweep of the bars: so i get a comfy hand position that handles really well. The SpeedMax tires roll great, and hook up when pushed onto the sidewalls, perfect for the dirty trails of my commute...thats all for now, thanks and enjoy

Origami?

completely not bike related other than its what my son chose to do other than ride his bike

BRR ride time & Date



Got my mail from the old house today and in it was a nice little note from the Perry, Ia Chamber of Commerce.....The 35th annual BRR ride will be held on Feb. 4th, with a start time of 10am. The start location will be the same as every year, downtown, 2nd & Willis to be exact......think this year is gonna be a haul the booze trailer kinda year......cya there

ps....just looked and specailized website and found this gem for the ongoing "i cant beleive bikes cost more than cars" thing ive been posting the last couple days

The new S-works Venge......$18,000 Really? this bike cost more than my Honda Fit, appearently the recession is NOT effecting everyone





First ride inna while......

the full map can be found at the des moines bike collective website

soooo.....a few days after my last post, a workmate approached me about meeting up friday morning to commute to work. Its a meandering ride over 13miles of wooded, paved trail that follows the des moines river. on any given day you'll be treated to an assortment of wildlife....in the past six months i've seen muskrat, snapping turtle, raccoon, deer, an assortment of small birds, and one or twice a  clutch bald eagles the live in an ancient cottonwood has graced me with a visit. Just before the entrance to cottonwood campground, our group will turn off onto the ankeny extention, just finished this year-ish....and follow that to a nice little climb up to oralabor rd., we've named it simply "ankeny hill", and use it as a measuring stick of how we are feeling that day versus others and what our overall fitness/hungoverness is as a group. in antispation of "the hill", i thought it best to at least throw a leg over the bike prior to our 5am start the following day and make sure i was at least fit enough to pedal the thing the complete distance....i desided a short coffee run was the best berometer of my lack of fitness  and with that in mind set off for my destination, a short three quarter mile juant from my apartment. while i still have no idea how things will pan out over the longer distance of my commute, let me tell you it sooooo good being back on the bike!!!!! i rode most of the way no-handed, slicing my way through traffic, coasting instead of breaking, and even making a short not-so-steep climb over a freeway bridge, before arriving at Mars Cafe with a ridiculiously sized permagrin plastered to my face. left a map of the neal smith which details the section from urbandale to ankeny, the map hasnt been updated since the completion of the ankeny extention.....but, never fear its there, you can now ride to the DMACC ankeny campus almost entirely on paved dedicated bike/pedestrian paths

Not riding, Not doing all that well

on the heels of my last post, which was shotty at best, i left out some crucial information......I havent really been riding at ALL. In the past few months life has been throwing knuckle ball after knuckle ball my way. Unlike most people, i tend to ride only when there is a degree of stablity in my life.....rough waters are not a recipe for extended rides to "release life stress"....riding under deress only makes things worse.idle saddle time means my mind spins over stressful situations in concert with each pedal stoke.  after 20yrs of mountain biking in over a dozen states, riding in iowa has become an excercise in pedaling futility. After memorizing every trail feature of my favorite trail; riding it day, night, sunny, snowy, cold, hot, single speed, geared, cyclocross, vintage cruiser, alone, with freinds....i can say without a doubt, Im over it. i need new locales, new trails, new challenges.....new bikes? who knows, seems that posting a big fail in life on a tempory basis, means i fail on the bike. my riding is a mirror of my life, not a way to cope with it, rather the coping mechanisms that seem to appeal to me are mind altering in nature. WTF? this isnt the picture a long time cyclist is supposed to paint of his beloved passtime. Sometimes though, a bike is a bike and i just dont feel like getting on the m*&herf@"ker!!!!  Anywhoo, guess this entry is meant to create some comments related to how cycling really fits into your life.....lemme know

ps---no editing or rephrasing on this one, you got it in realtime

Big Boy Bike

Howdy....here's a post that started about two months ago:

This weekend I embarked on  the most holy of all missions to a cyclist....teaching my son to ride his bike without training wheels. As a kid, riding a bike was a symbol of freedom....I could now go further in less time and without adult assistance (assistance and oversight are interchangeable terms here)....for me it was the first step of what has become a life long passion ....now I'm not going to bore you with a lavishly embellished tale of riding my bmx bike on the trails of my rural neighborhood, but I could, Oh I could. Let's just leave it with the understanding that I really want the kid to learn to ride.....And "the kid"?....not so much. We are now in our third day of "learning"....."the kid" is up for three to six attempts a day, then its time to play with anything other than the bike. Thats not entirely true, he wants to play with the bike just not ride it. Performing a suedo repair on a perfectly functioning bicycle has a become part of the ritual of cycling for my son. Of course, i do the same thing, switching this handlebar for that, because one has 2 degrees more backsweep than the other....unfortunately it represents the bulk of our bike time together. Never fear friends, patience and perseverance will prevail.

The last line of this partial post is the reason I added the excerpt.....Patience and Perseverance DID NOT pay off. My son has become increasingly disinterested in riding, in no small part because of the what i thought at the time was an awesome idea....get him a super rad RC car for his birthday.

the death of toddler cycling (traxxas.com)

It turns out that my son does indeed have my genetic code, particularly the parts that are enamored with hobbies that require no effort on his part to participate in.

Well, on to other matters....with the onset of foul weather comes a marked decrease in my ride time. Night mountain bike rides are replaced with beer runs, and early morning commutes by late morning drives with coffee and a smoke. Some would say that whats needed here is to add a couple hundred bucks of overpriced "winter" cycling gear.....and i would not be one of them. Riding cold is LAME!now dont me wrong, i have all that stuff and will use it on occasion, but I will not force myself to ride if i dont want to......period. And you shouldnt either, this is after all supposed to be a fun escape from lifes stresses right? I will traditionally, during this time of year list, plan, and connive the method i will use to drop thousands of dollars on gear in the upcoming season. Which, conveniently brings me to a down and dirty review the newest addition to the stable

Salsa El Mariachi (2010)

Manufacturer: Salsa Cycles (distributed by QBP)
Country of Origin: Taiwan
MSRP: 2k-ish 

So I got this thing a couple of months ago, and and it rode super great right up to the point i bent the derailleur hanger and trashed the rear derailleur hosing......wah, wah, waaahhhh!!!!! I understand the idea that replaceable hangers are and should be made of material that is softer than the frame material to ensure that the hanger fails before the frame, but this version, which salsa calls the Alternator Drop Out (click the link for a technical drawing) is butter soft. so much so that its nigh impossible to bend it back into alignment. The handlebars are aircraft carrier wide, which when on a trail that is more than 710mm wide is perfect, handling is stable and predictable. When things get tight however, a fair amount of body english is required to navigate the random branch or vine encroaching on the trail. Brakes and drivetrain work great and only require minimal adjust after the standard break-in time. WTB saddles & tires are my personal favs, so for me the were perfect. the Reba29er fork was easy to set up, and actuated butter smooth right off the bat. Being a clydesdale sized rider, fork flex is always an issue, especially when pushing hard into burmed turns. Not so much with this fork, the Maxle through-axle is uber-stiff and easy to use and adjust. One of the nice details of buying a Salsa is that while some bike companys use components like seatpost collar, stem, and seatpost to shave some cheddar off the bottomline, Salsa uses their components; which in my opinion are some of the best in the business.......With the option of running single speed or geared this bike is a great all around, medium travel hardtail and well worth the asking price......

Yahuda Moon Calls it quits



For those of us who are fans of Mr. Moon, Joe, Thistle, The Bike Ninja, and the host of other quirky characters that lived in this strip, its the end of an era.......rick has decided to call it quits on the comic, siting the need to feed his family and not be institionalized. While I'm sad to see the comic go, its also kinda enraging.....Appearently there has been a ton of well wishing, and support emails concerning the end of comic, though theres a not-so-subtle implication that the strip has ended partailly because of lack of financial support......ShaME On US!!!!! for not ponying up a couple of bucks to support this great comic that casts a humorous and satirical light on the sport we love. That being said, we all have a chance for redemption, collected works are available in three volumes at: http://www.yehudamoon.com ......Frickin support this stuff, its the only way to keep seeing it!!!!

 



think thats all i got for the moment.....as its the day after ill take this oppertunity to wish everyone a merry holiday season and a safe and prosperous new year