Fixed link

Well, I guess the old link was broken, and you can't seem to embed videos from the site, so click this link for downhill amazingness: Downhill Mountain Biking in the French Alps

So rad.

Video report

We watched the whole I wanna live video tonight and it was pretty scary. This is one part and it either makes you wanna throw in the towel or get on your bike and have fun. You are dead either way.

Ride report: I screamed today

Rapha Rides The Tour of California from RAPHA on Vimeo. I have 3 days of meetings in the morning and working at night. It sucks. The weather has been awesome as we are in the middle of a crazy warm snap that ended tonight. The past few days we have had temps in the 20s and, not being one to miss it, have been biking to work in shorts and a T shirt. I knew it wouldn't last and was very happy because all the seasonal bikers have been out crowding the roads and smoking while shifting gears. I passed a guy on a carbon road bike only to hear him change gears like a paranoid chick changes dresses before a first date, or any chick for that matter, and he passed me. Poor guy fell so far behind it wasn't even funny. Not because I'm fast but because my shoes aren't dunks and fit in my clips just like pants are raveys and don't act as a parachute. Then I yelled at a guy who thought that opening his door slowly made a difference to someone who had no place to go. Sometimes I feel bad for yelling at people but today wasn't one of those times. I got home to a great stew that my sister in law made and two beers in the fridge. I clicked on the web and saw this video and now all I can think about is how great life is. Plus it's 2 degrees and there won't be any kooks on the road. v(*-*)v-oooOO

BRING BRING

I wish I could say that I was rolling in money and could afford to quit my Japan, cycle across Canada and still put the kid into an Ivy league preschool but I am not and can't. Instead my world remains happy and small with each day being a fun ride to work and a party at home with the dancing boy! Sometimes extra cool stuff happens like an annual bonus. Now this may sound good but when you think of how much unpaid overtime Japanese companies expect you to work the bonus might as well be coffee money. Good thing I go home right on the dot and say screw you to the man. A new bike computer and a $4 beer! The cubling and I hiked out to the bike store that you can't get to (?) according to the guy who gave us directions. I know this post is border line bragging but I am stoked and at least it ain't about new gear that you can swoop or something.

The theft

I have been in a quandary about what we have done. We as in a friend and I as we have stolen a bike using his car. I say stolen because it wasn't ours and we didn't pay for it. I have worked out my justification over the past 2 years of seeing the bike languish in a parking lot under garbage and other broken bikes but the truth cannot be ignored. Sure, it hadn't moved for 2 years, the tires had rotted through to the rims, The spiders living inside the handlebars had died or moved out BUT somebody could have been coming back for it. I feel neither regret or remorse about having removed this bicycle and then stripping it down but the eerie thing is that it came apart so easily. Almost as though some unknown force had been maintenancing it after it started to rot. It could be that the previous owner had been a bike nut and wanted it to be ridden long after he or she had passed on. So in a sense, I am like the bicycles Godfather and it shall stay with me long after the initial rider's demise. Cool. Scarily, as I cleaned and began to strip parts and paint I found a PANASONIC mark and I clued into the destiny that had brought the bike and I together as we all know my fondness for Panaracers. I intend to upload more pics and seeing as how I just managed to buy a jug of paint stripper with my new found wealth you will be seeing be seeing more bare metal than a 25 to lifer, son. Any and all tips are welcome as I may run into snags that I don't know about.

Get yer wait up!

There is a series of these promoting cycling, commuting and something to do with a sega game about a dolphin that saves shit. I cut the company name off of it and I am thinking about putting it on my bike. I started thinking about that, my bike I mean and if it would want me to put a sticker on it. Does it care? Surely if it did it would have puked grease and clenched it's BB tight when I put the supreme sticker on it so many years ago. My friend named his bike. He wanted a woman's name but the bike is a canondale badboy and he needed to make it gruff so
Vasquez it was and boy oh boy it is fitting. The way he explains it i pretty funny. I guess I really have nothing more to write so that's it for now.

This post is brought to you by CAPITALISM

I saw a t-shirt with the ubiquitous Che stencil on it and a caption under it reading This T Shirt brought to by Capitalism I laughed and wondered how many people would buy it. I have seen similar things on the onion.com talking about Marley posters in frat houses or University anarchists who's parents are capitalist. Pretty funny but not that memorable until I encountered the uber consumer while I was riding to work. He was riding one of the newer cross bikes that used to be called city bikes that used to be called hybrid bikes that used to be called road bikes with riser bars. You could tell he had put a lot of thought into his "kit" since the bike, still gleaming new, already had stickers and something of a spoke card in the wheel. What caught my eye more than the bike was his pseudo cyclist uniform. I guess in order to ride a bike you have to be as uncomfortable as possible to get "street cred". The low slung messenger bag that had the red Manhattan portage logo double sized on the flap acted as a counter weight to his 3 coast 3 cadence while his north face jacket made sure the 15 degree plus weather wouldn't chill his bones. He had chosen to go with the Velcro strap around his trousers since rolling up expensive jeans probably irreparably creases them. The buttons on the man purse were neatly across the flap and they were, in order, a pentagram to show how much he didn't care about God (yet riding without a helmet puts you in his hands entirely), a middle finger that was flipping me off for looking at this buttons and a Che button. WTF! I had no idea what that meant but the implication of Che being a satanist who was flipping me off almost ruined my morning. I quickly averted my eyes only to lay them upon the pre-faded/written on vans. If you know the ones than you can imagine my dismay and if you don't you can find them online and they look like ass. How lame do you have to be to pay more for shoes that already have writing on them? I passed him and was happy to be on my way but he must have felt my scornful glances because he ended up at the same bike parking lot that I was at. He went out of his way to flaunt his affluence by asking the staff if they could break a 10,000 yen note. He didn't have any change for the vending machine I guess.

Tour de Saint-Laurent

Or, Le Tour de Nouvelle-France. Who knew this even existed at one time? Looks totally effin' dope. (Can't figure out if you can embed vids from the NFB/ONF, so I've posted the link below).
All commentary is in French, but there's not much anyway, and if yer a good Canadian you should understand it all perfectly.
60 Cycles