Interbike is all cool and shit but it’s the after-parties that make it kick-ass.

Ritte is demonstrating some good attitude and I ain’t gonna miss out on this:

In Ritte’s own words: Every year at Interbike we throw a party that attracts the Cycling Industry’s bottom dwellers and red-headed stepchildren. Every year’s been better than the last, but this one is gonna be even divier, louder and drunker than ever before. So after a long day of schmoozing with dealers, vendors, the press or pros… unwind with us.

Muy Festiva AnImUAx!

I’m no Lance-Lover {or hater} but enough is enough.  The hard line of the USADA confuses me.  I’ve heard nothing that  justifies the attack.  {yeah, yeah; he said, she said, we’re heard those stories.} The U.S. judicial system tends to work well and the glory of the U.S. Constitution follows some fairly decent guidelines but apparently it’s not enough for the USADA.  Thi$ man jacked OUT the entire Cycling Indu$try and without a doubt created a lot of friends and enemies, pa$$ed every drug te$t admini$tered, created an avalanche of media attention that helped fuel a full cadre of  U$ Pro Cyclist$ to national attention and yet the attack$ continue.  This is like Cycling Industry HIV {its own style of Auto-Immune Deficiency}.   “More than a dozen witnesses” [LA Times] {is that how many are willing to testify against the strongman?} should be flip’n the bird, not sing’n a song.  Sounds like a lot of Weakness to me.  They’re let’n us down on Rule-V.

I ask the USaDa a simple question: Can you give us a reason to Love you?

It’s time for some Machiavellian affections.

Michael Hiltzik writes a good piece in LA Times (Business Section): Anti-doping authorities don’t play fair against athletes

chingaso AniMaux!

Leonard [proprietor of Tri-Pacific on Naples in Long Beach] had a BMC trick’d out by the artist Paul Paiement.  I love the enthusiasm.

Remember the Sotheby exhibit of Armstrong’s Treks jacked over by the likes of Shepard Fairey, Damien Hirst, Kaws, Yoshitomo Nara, Marc Newson and Kenny Scharf (?)  Visit a review of the Sotheby show:   http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/11/view/8036/lance-armstrong-its-about-the-bike-a-livestrong-auction.html

Tri-Pacific carries a big selection of BMC frames.
The 2nd slide is the unpainted version: BMC TM02.

Frank Peters is a cycling advocate I thoroughly admire. His approach to the mission is all about safety and he understands and promotes the upside benefits to local business when a community embraces policies and builds infrastructure to increase the safety of cyclists on their streets.

He lives in Corona del Mar and has been instrumental in establishing sharrows in his city’s master plan for Pacific Coast Highway through their community.  This is a part of the transformation that’s stretching out along the California coast and across the U.S.

Frank “Rides the Ride” so he can “Talk the Love” and he’s jack’n it out on both fronts at a crack’n ass extreme.  He came to embrace cycling later in his life; he’s turning a respectful 60 on August 21 while on a family cycling trip in the Pacific Northwest.

Through his riding, he came to realize he needed to understand the mechanics of bicycle maintenance so he and his son recently completed a week long course at the United Bicycle Institute in Portland, Oregon; he’s proudly holding the certificate of completion in the photo.

He talks about cycling like an eager evangelist full of enthusiasm and promotes his advocacy principles with the cool, level headed approach of a savvy businessman.

Visit his blog(s):
http://cdmcyclist.com
http://bikenewportbeach.org
http://theFrankPetersShow.com

FYI: Frank interviewed Mark Bixby about his advocacy efforts. The interview is available in an audio resource: click HERE

Feliz Cumpleaños AnImaUx [Francis] !!

Bicycle advocacy comes down to one thing and one thing only: It’s about the safety stupid.

Many issues stated by bicy.cling(on) advocates as their primary goals of advocacy befuddle the real objective; increase safety. People, in general, are naturally concerned about the environment, health and city planning concepts that strengthen a sense of community, but ask them why they don’t ride their bikes and you’re likely to get the answer: “It’s not safe.”

Studies have shown when people feel safe they’ll venture out on their bikes, and studies have also shown the safety quotient naturally increases as more people ride bikes; it’s a symbiotic relationship.

Many of the advocates I’ve met recently (who seem to be an “advocate” first and a “cyclist” somewhere else down the chain of priorities) focus on the outcomes of  increasing the number of people on bikes rather than the solution to increasing those numbers; they focus on environmental issues, health concerns, community and social engineering and not safety as the primary motivator to getting people on their bikes.

Those outcomes will be a great consequence of increasing safety and would unlikely be achieved without addressing safety first.

We need to keep people who ride their bikes safe from harm. Solutions that protect cyclists will also protect motorists and pedestrians too.  The rest will follow.

nO hablas tOnTas AniMaUx!

Fix gear riding may simply be a cultural fad but it has influenced the awareness of cycling, vis-à-vis the urban experience, in a bigger way than anything here(to)fore, and consequently has awakened a force of change, a different kind of cultural revolution, that will ultimately produce a confluence of ideals in pragmatic living with a focus on environment, expectations in the redevelopment of community and resource challenges that will reverberate with deep political resonance.

My sons have been exposed to cycling through my enthusiasm their entire lives but it’s only recently that my youngest son has developed a vibrant interest of his own through his exposure to events we’ve attended together in the Fix Gear Community.

He recently asked me to help him change his handle bars from a standard urban riser to track bars.  I’m considering replacing the road bars on my city bike to track bars too because I loved the sensation of the ride it produced or maybe it was just the feel of the jack-raw steel of a simple set of bars and the sharp drop at the top where standard bars are still parallel to the ground.

Henry’s Globe:

Muy Cambio AniMaUx!

The floor pump: an essential weapon in the arsenal of bicycle tool essentials.

My first year in college, I remember my good buddy from high school {Toby} showed up for the Race of the Redwoods (Humboldt County, CA circa 1975) and unloaded his steed and the rest of the support jibber jabber from his car; I was curious about the floor pump.

“What’s that?”
“Floor Pump” he says.
“You gotta have one to pump the tires before the ride; can’t use a stinking hand pump, you’ll tire yourself out before you start.”

When I bought my first Silca (Downy Cyclery) it made me feel like I had arrived.   It was positive, smooth and precise. Pumping tires is part of the basic ritual and you gotta have a unit that reverberates the zen essence.

Compared to models you can buy now, the volume per stroke (VPS) is considerably less with a Silca Track Pump, but fuck-it; stick to the Silca, what’s a few extra strokes to be in the zen with heritage.

The old pumps use to boast Columbus Tubing.

Muy globo de aire caliente AnImAux!

Wolfpack Hustle put on the Downtown Los Angeles 2nd St. Tunnel Drag Races on Saturday July 28th.  It was super crack’n with over 2000 spectators.

200 competitors went two up, standing start sprints, 1000 feet, single speed and fix gear only, then the top 16 did drag heats to determine the winner: Tim/Smiley McGee

I asked a half dozen riders before the races started who was the favorite.  More than a couple of boys pointed over to this young kid {pictured here} sitting on rollers warming up.  He spends a lot of time at the Encino Velodrome.  The fix gear crowd is transforming. A lot of those kids are getting serious about competition.  It’s a burgeoning community and I don’t see a lot of primadonnas in the crowd.  They embrace all comers.

Read an article about the event in the LA Times.

Visit Tim (Similey) McGee’s website: EverythingEaten {You can see him racing the Keirins on the Home Depot Velodrome}

Rapha’s clothing details are impeccable, the colors are well suited to current sensibilities, the craftsmanship is of the highest quality, however, brand names prominently displayed and big brand tags bug me.  Bike shop kits make sense; the shop name and logos boast one’s community connections.  One cannot have a visceral connection to Rapha itself; it’s a clothing company, although I appreciate their well designed products and their life style approach to marketing has an emotional appeal and is produced with a high regard to esthetics.

Lots of these pieces would be jacked-uP with the local bike shop’s name and locos blazoned across the front and back of the jersey and shorts {no brand names in sight}.  Maybe if Rapha used a logo instead of their name, some pieces would have more appeal.

La Comunidad AniMaUX!

Rapha does marketing extremely well but their emphasis on splattering their clothing with the brand is in danger of making the brand the product.   When product design is exceptional and a line of product is deep and relevant to customers’ needs  {& Rapha does both of those things well} you don’t need to bludgeon the customer with the brand name; let the product speak for the brand.