what does that have to do with that or that? what does anything have to do with anything. what’s important what really matters what’s relevant and what is mindless filler well well well what’s the difference. what day is it? a PhD in pancake makeup. structural spackle at the journeyman level to fill-in the gaps and connect the dots.
a bike-share window into human nature as seen in this NY Times article
and in your backyard soon
this lime bike is the first bike-share bike we've seen in our zipcode. an outlier deviating from the standard pattern radiating round lightrail stations. it just took a few weeks to make it up the hill
there's a CETMA rack under that USPS tote but I'd like to draw your attention to the pilderwasser sticker via Chris Murray v1.0 it's so ten years ago clear backing three layers of uberautomotive quality like como se dice if it was on your toptube and you cared for your bike it would still be there today
circuitous routing coming back around again to the same old common themes with one more time around an internal smile that comes with the subtle satisfaction successfully completing a round trip I’m a big fan of barking up the wrong tree sending laser focused misdirected energy with astounding attention to detail only to learn later they were all the wrong details
not obedient just independent alone self-contained entertained unrestrained stacking rocks, riding bikes, building forts, lighting fires kicking pine cones, licking ice-cream cones slurping Slurpees until the brain freeze pinball, bubblegum, penny candy, pump cheese the babysitter smells weird smoking cigarettes watching soap operas Monday through Friday her macaroni tastes funny her tuna sandwiches aren’t as good as mom’s potato salad, dill pickles, baked beans, hot dogs the dog is so hot he’s not moving, panting ice cubes melting in his water bowl garden hose spewing plasticky bathwater warm the lawn yellowing drying dying crunching prickly on tenderfeet they’ll toughen up by Labor day then it’s back to shoes and socks and school
"Pump Cheese" circa 2008
nine years later and/or 39 years later that back-to-school feeling in the pit of my stomach has a little different meaning
with the flat bar and the seat slammed back on a setback post below it was delusional thinking I could get from here to there efficiently on this really heavy rig with huge tires so here and now I put on this giant handlebar above and squishier saddle and completely given up or given in to the idea of taking a slower slow ride and pushing this thing up the hill to get home. in this latest iteration the bike is 100% Bike Works parts all the way down to the bar plugs and cable ends every single little thing on this bike is now from Bike Works.
that's a Campy derailleur more than a full bubble off plumb.
on day 3 of RAGBRAI on the way to Clear Lake Tony's non drive side crank fell off and the bolt was long gone and when he tried to give it a go with just one crank just that first one big crank with his right leg was enough to suck the derailleur into the wheel and end his day waiting for the sag wagon. the derailleur hanger needs more than a little tweak it needs to be replaced. but luckily Tony knows the Daltex guy.
if you're looking for a Campy non drive crank bolt in or around Clear Lake Iowa in late July it might be hard to find even with Amazon Prime
of the few photos I took on RAGBRAI 97% of them involve beer bloody marys coozies beer gardens gas station parking lots bars and beer. this is the "liquid century" on a beautiful golf course parked next to Team Bud
there were some bikes on RAGBRAI too and the Hardees aporkalypse burrito features ham, bacon and sausage as well as eggs and two kinds of cheese
I haven't seen so many pilderwasser t-shirts and jerseys in one place since 2009 westside invite
this big bull was in Postville. I learned a little about Postville in the New York Times years back and it then I got to ride through it a few days ago and it's not the average Iowa town and as a pass-through town they only had 6 kybos
on another beautiful golf course sleeping just off the fairway where a handy bush next to the tent is worth two birds
I heard that more spd sandals are sold in Iowa than the other 49 states combined
back on RAGBRAI after a 6 year hiatus like a born again virgin but not making all those rookie mistakes
every time I felt tired out there on the bike I thought of Jimbo pulling his daughter across Iowa and I felt a little better about dragging myself to the next town
I gave this DANK coozie to Jimbo 10 years ago and a short time later someone hose-clamped it to the bus mirror to hold up a flag for a parade in Grinnell that flag broke off many years ago and this year I reclaimed the coozie and put it back to work taken out of context and put back in
the largest greatest bike ride party in the world involves a lot of interstate travel support vehicles busses RVs cars trucks ATVs airline tickets school busses police cars ambulances fire trucks street sweepers kybo suction trucks traffic signs and a shit load of empty beer cans but...
what if you saw this on instafacetwittgram? attention spans are getting shorter and shorter but that's not what they want you to think from point A to point B what's the point. it takes longer to upload/download a photo to this site than most people spend reading complete sentences in an entire day.
