ecxhc

A big part of the reason I decided to come to Eau Claire to finish up my degree is that I spent a lot of time as a teenager coming here to go go to shows. Since I was 15 I was bumming rides to come check out shows here, and now that I'm older I'm still really proud of the music scene here.  Anyway the kind and talented folks in Purge the Woods recently put out a new album and it is available for a donation now.  If you are into metal or punk or crust or grind or impressing your friends it's worth listening too and putting on your cyber-pod for cyber-workouts and stuff.   

Check it out

And while I'm pimping Eau Claire punk bands...

Don't forget that CAH Records super headquarters is right here as well. Rock and roll my friends. 

turtle shell

 Every once in a while I find myself needing to carry something large but not heavy.  This can be a pain in the ass, that's why I made these little dealies.  They are just simple strap extensions that I keep in my bag just in case I ever need them.  Like yesterday when I needed to bring home a couple of large tupperware containers.

 Wham bam thank you maam, no sweat.  So yea, if you ever find yourself in such a predicament, I highly recommend putting a couple of these puppies together. It takes almost no time, and they are small and light enough to always have with you.

thurs

 Last night was an ultimate adventure ride filled with railroad bridge crossings, fence hopping, sewer crawling, and even a little bike riding and beer drinking. Ride Thursday nights y'all.

hills

I've thought about trying to organize a hill series like this in the past, but this just takes the cake. As long or steep as some of the hills in Eau Claire are I don't think the twin hills of terror or anything else in EC could compare.


Dirty Dozen Race 2011-Canton Ave from Matt Dayak on Vimeo.

update

I've been taking my time relaxing and staying away from the computer. Holidays means a lot of eating and drinking and sleeping, and unfortunately other than commuting I've been off my bike more than I would like to admit. I think this is the time of year when the winter blahs really start to sink in for most people.  Even with ridiculously warm snow free weather I've been a total bum the past couple weeks.
 Anyway, here's a little inspiration to get back riding regardless of the weather.  Say what you will about Lance this is still pretty fun.

Merry Christmas!

kids

GoPro On Board - Strider World Championship - Toddler Balance Bike Racing from Balance Bike JoJo on Vimeo.

Too cute.  I can't wait until I'm an old man and these kids are ripping by me on their space bikes.

farts&farts&farts

I think that it's awesome that someone who is incredibly intelligent and super passionate about cycling can make a living off of it.  On the flip side if you buy a $275 pair of rain pants no matter what you are a complete tool. FACT  No ifs ands or buts about it.  Don't try to rationalize it. It just is.  Hate to break it to you.

Actually,  no I'm not.

coming soon

Jake disappeared and I haven't seen him or his bike in ages.  Apparently it's because he's been busy having birthdays, stinking up hotel rooms, getting loaded, and pushing wood with a bunch of ne'er-do-wells.  That is as good of an excuse as any I guess.



You can tell they're skateboarders because the bottle of Jack wasn't finished in the first pass around.

Via the turds at tortoised.  Get off my lawn longhairs.

junkyard cross

Junkyard Cross Race from Erik Silverson on Vimeo.

If only we had known snow was going to hold off for so long we could still be organizing cross races.  This looks like too much fun. Total inspiration for the next ghettocross.


Bilenky Junkyard Cross from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

gunday

I feel like I need to preface these pictures with something.  I don't like guns.  The sole reason for their existence is to kill and maim.  The ready availability of guns does nothing to contribute to the liberty of a nation, it just gives certain people with limited intelligence/resources/money/self esteem something to feel good about.  The prevalence of guns in any society is a major issue.  I have/will never own a gun and think that firearm production should be drastically cut and licensing and ownership should be increasingly difficult and more expensive to obtain.  

Now here's the other side of that. Guns are super fun to shoot. I get the double-think going on here, but they are really interesting machines.  I grew up in rural Wisconsin and despite my dad not owning many guns, like many kids in Wisconsin I grew up reading guns and ammo and other magazines in school.  Tbis and hot rods were the two staples of conversation through out my early teens.  And while my peers went hunting and shot the family guns, my interest never piqued enough to actually pursue buying a gun, and probably never will, but I still find them interesting.  I know lots of people who own guns and are incredibly intelligent, safe, and qualified to do so.  Far more qualified than myself.  They use them to hunt for food,  recreation, and for collecting, not to wave wildly and shoot at neighborhood pets.  While I maintain my philosophical opposition to guns, on the flip side I know that, well, guns are pretty neat.  And that's why a while ago after shooting my sisters 9mm we were sitting around the Court n'House on a Thursday night having this exact conversation.     

After a pitcher or two consensus was reached and we headed to Sheels for a couple hundred rounds of ammunition.  We hit up a local dumpster for a garbage bag packed of produce and finally Sunday we drove out  and wreaked havoc on heads of cauliflower and flats of tomatoes with a couple Glocks.  So that's how I spent my Sunday, well that and eating pizza and watching the Packers lose, take from it what you will.  

amps to 11

      Loud music linked to drinking more
Alcohol tastes sweeter when loud music is playing and the noise could make it difficult for drinkers to judge how much they are consuming, new research has claimed.

Turn it up and read on here.

goldsprints

I've been cleaning out my computer, and I had a bunch of goldsprints clips from the past year or so, so I put them together in a pot with special seasoning to form what you see above.

Music by The S.A. Move 

food

 Almost vegan chili, fresh baked bread, and something dark.

 Gnocchi with a red wine reduction, mini baguettes, and veggies.

 Tofu scramble with cous cous.

And just for posterity sake something about bikes.  I don't follow the bike industry.  I try to keep fairly up to date on what is going on, but for the most part I don't have the motivation to follow every product line on the market. So when I saw the new Campagnolo EPS system that came out last month I was caught off guard. As if Di2 wasn't ridiculous enough, now anyone willing to drop upwards of 3 and a half grand on an electronic group has an 11speed Italian option. Anyway, owning one of these groups isn't even in the realm of possibility for most people and that isn't the part that I found really interesting.  The interesting part is that Campagnolo has apparently been finagling with an EPS system since 1992 working with an 8 speed drivetrain. They have a really cool website giving the history of this whole endeavor here. Interesting stuff, check it out.

cats

 Eat your heart out.

theatre

I'm not an engineer.  I love welding and soldering and working with my hands but at the end of the day I couldn't design my way out of a paper bag.  Well, maybe, depends on the bag I guess.  But anyway, it always floors me how endlessly creative an innovative some frame builders are.  To not only build a beautiful unique thing, but to also have it be completely functional is a true art. After seeing a few of these bike in person I can see what all the hype is about with them.  Very cool stuff.


Deep Custom from Royal Antler on Vimeo.

And while I'm bringing the video pain train check out this video from the Deerfly Chase this year.  Bummed I didn't make it, maybe next time.

CMX

I've seen pictures of this bike around, but never knew just how over the top awesome it was until now.

Campagnolo BMX drivetrain , way too cool.   Check out more info on this steed here

LB

While Lucas Brunelle comes off like someone who I would never like to hang out with one on one, like a lot of other people his videos have always really blown me away.  And while it's wet and sloppy out here this recent interview with the man himself  inspired me to watch some of these gems and be reminded me of how much fun alley cat racing is.  Can't wait for the next one.

off

 It's been a while, but I've been keeping busy with a bit of a bug, and interneting is pretty low on my totem pole in December.  I absolutely love when winter comes barreling in and the Holiday season begins.  And the internet just does not have any pull over snowy bike rides, walks, and holiday cheer. Thursday was nice and chilly and the annual tradition of switching cycle computers from miles ridden to beers drank happened.  After a night out of riding and visiting several dens of ill repute we ended up at the Labor Temple for marathon shuffleboard.

 When the night was done we hopped some fences and I ended up in my bed.  Saturday night Magyar, Derek, and myself headed to Menomonie to do the first goldsprints event of the year hosted by the kind folks at Acoustic Cafe in Menomonie.  Before I go any further I just want to say that the hummus hogies at acoustic are one of my little guilty pleasures, they are slathered with hummus and sauce and shredded lettuce and consequently always require me to abandon all dinning etiquette use my fingers to get every scrap of food and wind up with a face covered in hummus.  Anyway, the event was a blast.  Lots of enthusiastic racers, good food, and good beer. Overall champ was an underdog in both mens and womens, which is always a lot of fun to watch and always earns me a premium in our under the table gambling.    

 The rest of the night started with breaking down the gear and heading over to the Waterfront for some jams and taste of the Menom. night life.  In search of a place with a little more charm we headed to the den for a while before wrapping it up for the night and indulging in a massive smotheralla sticks which my body is still angry at me for.  Again, great time, hope we can come back soon.

 Sunday was one of my favorite days of the year, Christmas tree day. As long as I can remember my family has gone to the same place and cut down a Christmas tree from the same guy.  Real old fashioned trudging through snow, cutting it down, dragging it out, bringing it home stuff.  None of that lame fake tree or parking lot tree garbage.  Afterwards we eat plates of junk food, drink banana shakes, and decorate the tree.  Now I'm not a religious guy in the least.  No one in my family is or really ever has been, but for some reason we have always had a lot of Christmas traditions that turn me into a giddy little kid every year.  Maybe it's the consequence of having a really small family or living out in the middle of nowhere or something, but whatever it is I love it.  Well there you go voyeurs, that the skinny of the past few days.  Well I've got a dance party to get too, later dudes.

history

"Bike messengers leaving the White House on Dec. 7, 1941, day of the Pearl harbor attack."

Neat photo, neat story.
More info here

gandy dancer

TEAM DILLY IS THE MAN TRAILER from Kyle Stark on Vimeo.

Fun with bikes

sunday

 Yesterday was absolutely beautiful out.  Today is just as good.  Get outside and have some fun.

goldsprints

First Goldsprints event of the winter is coming up in Menomonie at the Acoustic Cafe.  Put your rock pants on. Details here

If you really want to have a ballin week next week I highly recomend checking out D.R.I. playing the House of Rock on the 8th  then Collections of Colonies of Bees on the 9th also at the HOR.  Should be a killer time.

huayno

Their are certain things that I would rather just have forgotten.  Then something comes along and reminds you of some past terror from your life. Though how it happened is still unclear to me, today I was reminded of Wendy Sulca.  Who is Wendy Sulca you ask? Turn it up to 11.



Back when we were visiting my sister in Peru several years ago nearly every place you would go in the Andes was blasting huayno music.  Imagine being motion sick on a bus for 5 hours trying to sleep in a cramped seat freezing your ass off while the speaker above you is making that noise as loud as it can go. All night, then day in and day out. Suffice it to say I am less than pleased that this memory that I had buried deep in my lizard brain has resurfaced. While we're on the topic of terribly obnoxious music. Here's some footage of this years SSCXWC set to the inspired verse of Israeli taste makers Infected Mushroom.  Perfect jams for mashing on your equally as ridiculously monikered Thruster Fixie Bike.




Sorry about this one folks, but I just needed to get it out of my system. Now if you'll excuse me their are some m-80s around here somewhere that have a date with my eardrums.

stable

 

 Dug around in the stable for a bit and realized how badly I've really got to get my garage cleaned.

Unfortunately I am just much to busy reading new NN2S comics and pigging out on falafel to do it.  I'll see ya on "Hoarders"

 Wednesday began a very very much needed 5day vacation.  I went out for a nice chilly road ride making it home in time to clean up and spend far too much time in front of a computer watching tv shows.  Thursday Jen and I got up in time to go catch the Packers game at the Mousetrap, which was the only open bar downtown.  They  were kind enough to also have a full Thanksgiving spread out for half time.  This marked the beginning of sustained gluttony that continued up to this morning. We got out of the Mousetrap and headed to my grandmas for dinner which was another amazing albeit nontraditional spread of spanakopita, veggie lasagna, cheesy veggies and pie.  Thursday night we got back to town and hit up Clancy's which began a long long night of debauchery.  I spent the better half of Friday on the couch drinking tea and eating granola bars, before eventually picking my lazy ass up to go for a ride and go curl for a bit.  

Saturday was a nice lazy day in preperation for Princeton Valley on Sunday.  

Sunday I got up with every intention of going to Princeton Valley Cyclocross, but as the morning progressed my body just didn't want to work with me and my desire waned.  I still rode out and caught the action however and it was a blast just to watch.  Which is evinced by the buttloads of coverage from places like the Leader-Telegram and WEAU.   Nice work organizers!

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, because I hear a nap calling my name. Keep on rocking in the free world.