Arrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!

Wanted to ride till I saw this:

RaD Rasta

found this on the Surly blog.....completely ridiculous, and really cool

ragbrai overnights announced

The Des Moines Register published the overnights in the Sunday paper: Souix City, Cherokee, Lakeview, Webster City, Marshalltown, Cedar Rapids, Anamosa & Clinton will host the rolling circus this year. The total length of the route is 471.1 miles, with 16,125ft of climbing. If you want more info:   ragbrai.com

Return of the kickstand!!!!!

Just got the latest Bicycle Times the highlight of course being the return of Yahuda Moon, love this comic and so should everyone....... :0)

Warm weather..........?

Both the KCCI weather beacon & and the The Weather Channel confirm it, we can expect warm-ish weather the rest of the week......GETA RIDE IN BEFORE THE BIG FREEZE!!!!

Ps----watched a decent documentary called "Ride the Divide", check it out of your into the uber endurance racing thing....or at least like me and into watching other people do it

Pss---Love the iphone screen shot function, as you can see Sprint is my carrier and i have a fully charged battery :0)

Chain Art

Found this in the Bicycle Times web page the other day and thought I'd share it.....by the way, Bicycle Times is a great magazine for people who commute or love the current state of bike culture

Snow Day=Snow Ride

 Woke up this morning to discover winter is upon us, and surprisingly I wanted to ride...? So after some much needed gaming time and a bowl of ramen with two fried eggs, I put on everything wool I own and went out onto the tundra.....made my way from Sherman hill to Water Works/Ashworth Park, Then downtown for lunch, and straight up the hill back to my place:

looking out the back deck

Ride Route

cruising down Kingman Blvd

Itsa Snow Day

trail map at Ashworth Pool

Bridge just west of Greys Lake

Stupid Shit My Girlfriend Found On Etsy........

this item was described in the ad as:

 Sexy Red Periodic Table Elements Wine Gift Bag

It can be purchased for 15.00USD by following this link: http://www.etsy.com/listing/65640861/sexy-red-periodic-table-elements-wine?ref=tre-1834039900-3

WTF?????

New Issue Gt Performer 26inch

So kids, its here....available maybe, but GT is showing it on there website as a bike they're producing

2012 GT Performer 26"



Relive your days of BMX on a bike that wont make you feel like a bear riding a tricycle.....I have a 26"BMX bike in my stable and love it. they are snappy handling and make tired trails feel fun again.
This is the second time around for GT with the 26" Performer, here's an image of the 80's version of this fun factory:

vintage GT 26" found on vintagebmx.com

truthfully the older version has better parts than its newer counter part.....of course to have the equivalent parts the new performer would cost thousands of dollars, and its a harder sell for what would not be a daily rider. of course there are other companies make super high end versions of the 26" BMX

Companies That High-End 26" BMX bikes

Texas Fireman's Cruiser ---simple frames, that come in a variety of colors and wheelsizes



Sycip ---one model handcrafted in sonoma, ca
Black Sheep Bikes ----custom titanium love, built in fort collins, co (can you say chaaaChing?)
Cook Bros. Racing ----old school bmx company making a comeback
DMR---for the hardcore-ish, burly bikes from across the pond

send me a portrait of you and you bike

been kicking around the idea of compiling a gallery of people and there bike(s)........my initial inclination was to roam the streets of des moines, camera in tow, badgering cyclist to take there photograph. then I realized that the interweb is actually meant to connect people and assist in the gathering of information.....sooo, send me a picture of you and your bike or bikes to the following email address and you'll more than likely see it posted a few days later.

dragonflybikes@gmail.com

hope to see you and your bike soon

RiDE FrEE

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

RAGBRAI Confessional & The silver Lining

hey all, so here's the report on how my RAGBRAI went......

Day 1.....our small but determined group met at Grounds for Celebration in Beaverdale at about 10:30a Tuesday morning. we grabbed a cup'o'joe and loosely laid out a plan for joining the tour across the state en route. the ride had started on Saturday in glenwood, Iowa and by that time had come nearly halfway across the state to boone, which for those who you not acquainted with Midwest geography is damn near smack dab in the middle of the state. Our plan was to leave des moines ride up the neal smith trail, sticking close to the cover of the des moines river and then saylorville lake to polk city, west to madrid, then north to boone.....THIS WAS AN AMAZING RIDE!!!!!! the neal smith is a scenic roller coaster ride through some of the lushest terrain central iowa has to offer.....even with a fully loaded (and by that i mean overloaded for my not-so-fitness level) trailer, the miles seemed to just happily tick away.  in no time at all we arrived at the saylorville marina and cruised into Polk City just as the heat of the day started to peak.....and i could go on for another thousand words, in witty detail about how each hour of the trip went, but I won't. The reality is that i wasn't in shape enough to finish the planned 3hundred-ish/4 day trip........BUMMER!!

From this catastrophe rose a singular realization....I need to ride more, alot more. Being bike geek, does not, as it turns out make you a better rider. so to that end a new personal mantra was born: ride as much as my body and schedule would allow. Following RAGBRAI, I started riding to work 3 to 4 days a week, running errands on the bike, and trail riding as much as I could....to date I've logged over a 1,000 on and off road miles and lost alittle of my middle aged gut....with this increased level of activity has also come the realization that I'd lost a measure of my personal identity and had apathetically compromised some of my core values both professionally and personally........yet another bummer!!!! so, as I'm writing this post I find myself in the middle of mid-life crisis.....not the i wanna buy a Ferrari and date a 19yr-old super model from the eastern block kind, but rather, the what the f*#k are you doing with your life kind.....at 38yrs I found myself working a corporate job devoid of any creative expression, not traveling at all, not creating any art of my own, and until recently riding the least I've ridden in the past decade.......are these the values i want to demonstrate to my son.....ABSOLUTELY NOT. so....I'm slowly turning the tide, one pedal stroke at a time....keep ya posted

RiDe FrEE!!!!!

Fathers Day @ Banner Lakes & Buddahs Rebuild Trucker

For Fathers day I decided to treat myself to a long mountain bike ride...typically my favorite local spot is close enough to home that I can ride over to the trail head, so after years of hauling the bike and usually a buddy or two an hour plus to hit the dirt, the last three years I am happy to report that until a couple of weeks ago i hadn't had the mountain bike in the car (ditched the roof rack about the 5yrs ago after ripping a bike off the top going into a parking garage....arrgh). But, seeing how it was Daddy Day and wifey had given me the free pass to "ride until i didn't want to ride anymore" .....I tossed the Monocog into the back of the Honda and was off. It seems that after years of riding anything and everything that even resembles a dirt trail I've come to realize that I like riding familiar trails. Its become fun to focus on subtle trail features that might go unnoticed on a first run....a tree root that I can loft over to set up a turn, or a new chainring scar on a fallen log crossing the trail. The beauty of riding the same trail year round is that it gives us the opportunity to watch nature creep through its life cycle.

Anyhoo, back to Banner Lakes.....it had rained the week before, but referencing my normal ride, in my mind the trail should have been plenty dry and just moist enough to provide the perfect riding surface for my over sized small knob treads......WR0NG!!! to say it was a soupy mess would be an understatement boarding on the obscene. here's a picture of what my bike looked like after the ride.....

This was a good 'ol fashion mud fest....but not really inna good way. It reminded me of the enthusiasm I had for mountain biking in my twenties, then it was about conquering the trail.....now its about coexisting with it. It was a fun ride...more because riding is like pizza and sex, it might not always be great, but if we're really honest with ourselves its very rarely bad......the plan is to provide a more formal trail review in the future with useful bits of info like mileage, a trail map, skill level, and some nifty photos of trail markers. However,  with the trails conditions being what they were, I opted to start that process another day.


As it says in the title line....my good friend Buddha scored a Surly Long Haul Trucker from a friend (thanks Billy).....and we built it up this week. The bike will ultimately be used as a commuter, but its maiden voyage will be on RAGBRAI (this is a tour across Iowa for the outta towners tuning in).......thought I'd post a picture of it in case anyone is looking for inspiration for their own build:

We built it up as a 1x9 with mavic aksyium wheels, truvativ cranks, Avid cantis and levers, a recycled brooks saddle, and a smattering of other parts poached from the shop. well, that's all I got for the day.....RIDE FREE!

PS----here's a random shot I found of an all wood bike i found on line....kinda weird, but cool...I'd link the website, but its all over the bike  :0)

PSS----I'm starting a new feature: everytime I get a bike mag, I'm going to post the average price of the bikes reviewed. this weeks mag: BIKE ; average price of reviewed bikes:  $ 4952.50 !!!  R U F*#king Kidding ME??!!!!

Des Moines by Bike

As the title line suggests today i rode a mini tour of des moines......in a time when all the bike mags (mountain bike mags in particular) are singing the praises of  $7000 bikes and sweet riding in outer mongolia....i think we often neglect what is right outside our front door and what's sitting right in our garage. simple bikes ridden in places that you don't need to get on a plane to enjoy, what a concept. here is a little photo journal of destinations that are within 20miles of my house (would love to see some of yours):
 
Drake Campus: if your spinning on university ave, zip through drake....the side walks are smooth as glass and if your feeling randy, there's a few interesting concrete structures to throw yourself off of.

like i said....simple bikes and places right out the door. i rode my single speed road bike all day and even hit a couple miles of denmans (or is it dedmans? who knows) trail in water works/ashworth park. in dry weather the singletrack is like concrete. hint: just because its called a road bike, its doesn't mean it always has to be on the road. a touring bike with semi meaty tires can easily handle light trail riding. not to mention its a nice way to add some variation to your ride and hone bike handling skills. you can find detailed trail info @:
http://www.centraliowatrails.org

Neal Smith Trail: this trail system connects grays lake to west des moines locally....it has a couple of mini tressels (like the one pictured here) and its relatively flat. the des moines bike collective has an online, downloadable trail map of  the paved trails in central iowa. for you adventurous types there are tons of little side trails along the route.

Grays Lake Park/Water Works Park:
there is a small arboretum at the far east entrance to water works park....just across from grays lake. its a great place to people watch at catch your breath in the shade

4th & Court...if your thing is vintage architecture, coffee and good beer (love'um all) then this is your spot. home to the "original" des moines coffee house and roaster Java Joes is the spot for java downtown. conveniently, the royal mile next door has a wide selection great beers and a lunch menu that's a carb loaders delight


 Downtown Sculpture Garden....... from downtown i road west on walnut, through the cobbled bus depot (side note: bus drivers DO NOT  like it when you split bus traffic on the center line) and cut across 12th St to check out des moines' most expensive public space, i'm very vocal about what i consider a gross misuse of  what is a prime piece of downtown green space...yet i'm strangely attracted to the ever growing sea of over priced art work that lives there.        

  Woodland Cemetery: from downtown i was up to ingersoll to MLK for a quick stop off  a couple laps of  the cemetery....its a brick road roller coaster, lined with old growth trees and grave sites dating back to the 1700s....found this headstone and thought it ironically poetic. after expending what little juice i had left on the

 ups and downs of woodland it was time to head home....as previously mentioned i don't have an odometer on my bike (nor do i want one)...but all in all i think i rode about 30miles....and had an amazing afternoon...................RIDE FREE!