pigeon holed

It sometimes is surprising what associations people make. For example the 70th anniversary P-mount. Yes I do like my '86 waterford paramount. I'm happy with it. My first road bike, purchased for a decent amount of cash with an already mishmash mix of parts. And maybe it is remarkable to others. Granted it is steel and all that jazz. And it is cool. But I have absolutely no inkling of a desire to get that '09 Paramount. Waterford build or not. I mean don't get me wrong it is a wicked cool bike. Wicked cool. But on the list of "I would love to have" it doesn't really register. Sort of there with a Trek carbon bike. Sure if someone gave me one I'd ride it and like it alot and appreciate it for what it is, but it isn't something that has me drooling.

And that got me thinking. Is there a bike out there that I would love to have? Honestly? I'm not sure. That new Giant TCX honestly looks cool. But it is also attractive because it comes in a big ass frame size. Custom bikes like the purple people eater that the now defunct web logger MIF ordered from Zank is wicked amazing and you know it would be awesome to have. But. Going back and forth between steel and big fat aluminum tubes, I have to say. I like the stiffness and responsiveness of the non-ferrous material. The carbon bikes out there are generally too small, and I'd really only consider getting something like a tom boonen special, extra layers of carbon for stiffness and durability.

Being on the outside of the bell curve just doesn't work for production carbon bikes IMHO. Sure each mold may be different and the bigger ones probably have more carbon but, #1 most of the bigger ones still aren't big enough and #2 do they really even have enough carbon? Stories of Pro's leaning their bike up against a wall to take a piss only to come back and find that the wind blew it over and broke the frame just don't instill lots of confidence in the material and the current crop of bikes. Gimme nice fat aluminum tubes. Maybe if I rode a carbon bike that fit me I would change my mind. So far, I haven't. No real desire to. I'm happy with the quiver of bikes i have. I think about the new TCX only in the scope of it would be nice to have another bike so the full fendered TCX now can be full time commuter. But it worked well enough this past fall with it being full time commuter and full time race rig.

That 953 tubing on the P-mount certainly sounds cool and is all the buzz with those thinking about bikes. But the stuff doesn't come in big fat tube sizes. Maybe i'd be more excited if it did. Probably not.

then there are things like this that cross my digital desk from time to time. the opening statement should be a disclaimer here. Opinion often mixed with few solutions. That or my occasional deliberate omission of certain obvious (to me) facts intentionally or not that change interpretations. That article is a good read none-the-less. And the current blog entry there has me feeling hungry.

greenwashing. sad. hell as far as I'm concered a prius is really good greenwashing in effect. Now sure running water through there is solidly wasteful. But how about sticking it through a recycler. Or tapping into the geothermal cooling of the ground? You'd need an extra solar panel or two to run the recirc pumps but it would seem to be not such a bad thing. Sounds like a solution could be made to take a bit of the greenwashing stigma off the product (there a solution is provided with opinion).

Last night as I headed home the back tire on the Adroit was squishy. Wicked squishy. As in fold over when taking a corner and bottom out with a small bump in the road. I'd set em pretty low on the way in on tuesday and heading down to the other facility with it yesterday I noticed the knobs were folding more than the day before but I chalked it up to dry pavement vs slush. heading home though I had not much choice. Riding a flat tire ain't fun. And it wasn't flat, so changing it and pumping it all up again wasn't what I wanted to do in the fading light. So, i grabbed my CO2 inflater and topped it up. And it held very well until I got home. And what does Zinn have there on Velonews.com today? All you ever wanted to know about CO2 cartridges.

Rumor has it that Bread Camp is coming to Providence. Although I can't find any info on it yet.

O'Grady's been writing some good stuff lately. Not so much volume at Velonews (maybe at the BRAIN but i haven't been checking that source) but mostly on his Mad Blog Media page. "The presents you leave for us in there could blow a buzzard right off a gutpile."

great imagery.

big fan of georgia gould now... yes i've been impressed by her riding, but i gotta tell you it is the food side of the web log she's got going that is very cool... one of these days I'm going to get a dutch oven and try her no knead bread... and those oatmeal cookies sounds pretty damn tasty.

Last night I made up some burritos, rice, beans, some seasoned ground beef (the smallest component of the stuffing) with some cheese, avocado, sour cream, fresh salsa, and cilantro - oh and tons of hot sauce on mine. I started with three, then had another. And i was still pretty hungry. And I ate a fifth.

Huge respect to fatmarc... for tying in Hells Angels with Cyclocross quite brilliantly.

then there's Jeff over at bikesafer with a well worded big on how to act around motorists and making sure you don't escalate confrontations. Always good to get that reminder. Don't be like my friend Brian (from michigan) and chuck water bottles at the back windows of mini-vans, because sometimes, as he found, the bottle can break the window.

and then there is this - gotta leave it at it because it is so damn funny.
(thanks for finding that TJH)

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