October B.R.E. (Best Ride Ever): 80 miles on single speeds from Long Beach to Solana Beach where the ride terminates at the Pizza Port just as the brain and body start fighting each other over who’s in control when the threshold of regret starts creeping into the soul and rule-5 gnaws away in the cavity of your so-called cranium as you’re telling yourself it’s just a winter training ride as you stop in time to quaff some craft beer and soothe the crinkles in the brain and let the body wind down after its anxiousness that there might have been some trickery and tom-foolery to get everyone to go that extra 25 miles down the highway, over Torrey Pines (at the 85 mile mark), and into downtown San Diego as if it was really a pre-season training ride when everyone’s trying to break everyone else’s legs to show who’s got the shit.

Pizza Port opens the taps at 11:00am so you gotta roll from Long Beach at 6:30 to greet the flow of hopped out relief before the hordes invade.

Muy-Mas AniMaUx!

West River Cycles: Julius (proprietor) evolved his love for cycling in Philadelphia (hence the Keystone graphics) and recently relocated to Long Beach (CA) where he and his wife Kristen (newly nuptial’d) opened their Bicycle Love Furnace and have devoted themselves to all things bikes.  There are a lot of new bike shops opening in Long Beach.  The Revolution Will Not be Motorized.

The inventory is coolly limited in selection but the enthusiasm is as hot it gets.  I actually discovered the shop in a long shot through a link from Rothera Cycling (based in Philadelphia) and paid them a visit the next day.

Visit the website: http://westrivercycles.com/

Visit the Shop:
1233 E 4th Street
Long Beach,CA 90802
562-590-4809

Monday, Wednesday — Saturday 12-7
Sunday 12-5
Closed Tuesday

There’s a sartorial necessity, a commitment, an absolute obligation to one’s presentation when you’re out and about on the bike whether it’s in the team kit, the shop colors or just your day to day city-ride fashion threads and it’s all in the details and starts with the socks and believe me, socks can be a struggle and it’s gotten so complicated with the popularity of  “The Sock Guy” and other producers where every team, club and shop have the ability to be their own fashion-council, losing their sense of restraint, and the noise becomes so deafening you urgently seek unity with the zen of “less is more” to quiet the fashion overload and you just wanna scream for some silence and relief from the fashion chaos of making a statement on every level of attire.

For straight-up white or black socks (no logos, no statements, no nothing) I discovered the “athletic quarter crew sock” from the Gap; comfy, just above the ankle, cushioned sole and good, substantial quality ($12.00/3 pairs).  Sharp.

I also think Rapha’s selection of socks is worthwhile; colorful, elegant and no logos; $25.00/pair.

Click the image to scroll through the pictures.

S.o.C.K.(s) AnIMauX!

Red Hook Crit/Milano (RHC/M) No. 3: all fix gears, no brakes, 22 lap criterium on the streets of Milano, Italy, International Field [100 riders].  You don’t see no cut-offs in this fix-gear peloton.

RHC/M No.1 & No.2 were nite events.  RHC-M No. 3 was in full day light (who knows why; evidence of its success?; something with the Italians?)  The Red Hook Crits are brought to you by David Trimble of  GageDeSoto (bike shop in Brooklyn).  Red Hook Crits started out as total underground/unsanctioned events and represent a new era of bike racing.  Trimble took it to Italy and may be well on his way to evolving it into a classic.  Click the image to view the next photo in the series (7).

It’s interesting to see cars lining the entire course, on the left and right, but no one seems to care; no one gets towed; not in Italy.

Winner: Evan Murphy (age 24 from Ridgewood, NY) Bravo!

Visit the race’s photo website: http://redhookcrit.tumblr.com/ (RedHookCrit)

The Revolution Will Not be Motorized.

Muy bAD aSs AmiMaUx!

The proof is in the put’n.

Cardboard bicycles for pure transportaion; it’s got my attention.

Inventor says it should sell for $20.00 retail.  Is this the answer to world salvation?  It’s the simplest, most straight forward approach to an innovative solution I’ve seen in a while.  So much in “new design” concepts are over the top in their complexity that this is a refreshing idea in its alternative fabrication concept.

Read the story at NPR.

Et tU aNimAuX?

 

 

This jacked-up trick took all the wiggle out of the wrench so a stubborn bottom bracket (BB) fixed cup {old-school} (solidly in place for over 25 years – pictured above) could be easily removed without a specialty tool.

It’s tricky bidness removing a rust welded fixed cup because the thickness where the tool takes its bite is too thin to get a secure grip without first holding it mechanically fastened in place.

Solution: cut enough wood so its thickness extends a fraction of an inch beyond the end of the crank spindle and completely hides it (about an inch thick); drill 3/4 inch hole and place a one inch washer over the cavity with a center diameter big enough so you can tighten the bolt into the spindle and secure the wood against the (Sugino) BB Tool, holding it in place around the fixed cup.  Now you can jack-out enough pressure on the wrench to break the cup loose.  That’s pretty damn cool.

Click the image to scroll through all the pictures.

J.A.Steiner Tool: ~$55.00 (http://www.mtnbikes.net/steinfixedcupremover.aspx)

Hozan BB Tool: ~$125.00 (http://www.bikesonline.com/hozan-cup…)

From Interbike 2012:

Rapha didn’t have an exhibit space but displayed this jacket at the “Urban Yard” on the exterior wall surrounding Chrome’s area.  I love it. It’s a piece I could wear anytime, on or off the bike, but not with the brand name blazoned across the chest; as is, it could work as a shop jacket for wrenching bikes or leading tours for Rapha.

Rapha has great design execution; if only they could be more discreet with their branding.   So many of the cycling clothiers feel compelled to display their name or logo prominently on their goods as though we’re all in the pro-peloton.

 

cIcLAvIA no.5

According to the LA Times there were about 100,000 people on the streets for CicLAvIA no. 5.

The reported estimate for the April event (no. 4) was similar but no. 5 felt more dense.

While the spirit of the crowd in April seemed all about the party, the spirit on Sunday was all about ownership; people sensed being on the street was entirely status-quo; they owned it.  Reign-On cIcLaVia !!

The Revolution Will Not be Motorized AniMaUx!

Tremble Racing is putting on the 3rd Red Hook Fix Gear Crit in Milano: October 14, 2012.  The field is limited to 100 riders and registration is closed.  The talent spreads from across 14 countries.

This is bad-ass shit.

Read the Press Release

Poster by Rocco Malatesta Design: http://roccomalatesta.com/

 

The Sartorialist is a blog-site by a street photographer who’s tuned into the culture of  stylish dress, poetically expressed by day to day people on the street, random finds, whose reality of existence is beyond the pages of Vogue magazine. It’s inspirational and instills faith that the world is actually populated, in pockets, with slender beauty and authenticity.

The Sartorialist’s subjects mostly fall outside the F-Quotient (“F” as in “Fat”):  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported earlier this year; [US rates] 35.7 percent of adults and 16.9 percent of children age 2 to 19 are obese (@ epidemic proportions).

His images are exquisitely composed with beautifully saturated colors; the quality of the scaled reproductions included in this short survey does not do his work justice.

Visit: www.thesartorialist.com

Specifically his shots of people on bikes: www.thesartorialist.com/tag/bicycles/

muCHo gLOssY.AniMauX!