coming soon

The 4th annual St. Valentines Day Hustle ice race is coming up on Feb. 11 in Menomonie.  This is another event that I have missed in years past, but will probably be making it to this year. It looks like a real hoot.  They don't have a flyer so here's a picture of Danezig with his shirt off from Volume One and the facebook info.

  More info here

The weekend prior is Stuporbowl and the week after is Frostbike so it looks like I'm going to be keeping busy.  See ya'll there!

recap

 Saturday was the Powder Keg snowshoe and snow bike race out at Lowes Creek.  Without realizing it until just now this also kicked off a 4 weekend long extravaganza of weekend bike things to do. But more on that in a bit.  

 I went out early to scope out the conditions and lends a hand where hands were needed.  I got to see a whole bunch of people running through the snow and huddle around a fire.  By the time the bike race started quite a few of the runners had cleared out.  I guess that is the risk you run organizing events in the dead of winter.  

 Oodles of people showed up to race and spectate the snow bike race which I was pleasantly surprised to see.  Unfortunately my camera died not long after the Le Mans start

 The group took off together, but by the first lap the skinny bikes had clearly fallen back and the ski trail had begun rutting up enough to make it a chore for everyone.  At this point I was running around the woods hooting and hollering so I don't have much play by play.  The race wrapped up and everyone went in to warm up.  The whole event was fun to go check out and big props to the organizers and racers.

The rest of my weekend was spent laying low and dressing up my cat in onsies I found in the laundry.

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jams

T.G.I.F.





Popeye re-runs were a favorite of mine as a kid and I'm an absolute sucker for all the Uncle Tupelo offshoots.

Black Lips - "Raw Meat" from Urban Outfitters on Vimeo.

Dake

A while ago, well two years ago now, I posted a trailer for "Riding the Long White Cloud." A movie about skating and bike touring.  The whole things is available to watch now and it's pretty cool.  Check it out below.



Riding the Long White Cloud Part 1 from predatory bird on Vimeo.


Riding the Long White Cloud part 2 from predatory bird on Vimeo.

sugar mountain

Some guy named Peter Eaton recently shot a short film about adolescence and growing up and all of that sentimental junk in Eau Claire and it was recently released.  While I'm not overly wowed by the whole thing it's hard not to like parts.  For instance I would be hard pressed to say I can't relate to wasting summer days riding my bike around, swimming, and drinking by the river.  Anyway, it was interesting enough and it's fun to try and look at your city from an outsiders perspective.  Watch it.

p.s. If you check out the guys vimeo channel he actually has a bunch of locally shot stuff that is worth taking a peak at.

Powder Keg

Don't forget this is happening Saturday at Lowe's Creek.  I'm not sure that I'll be racing but I will for sure be down there volunteering at least. You should do one of those things as well.  See ya there.  More information here.

anger

" states will no longer be required to spend highway funding on non-highway activities."
Sometimes I wish motorists had to live with the constant threat that they were going to loose funding for all of their cul de sacs and parking lots.  More info on the continued assault on bicycle and pedestrian funding via Wisconsin bike fed here.

patina

 While taking apart my Centurion I snapped a few shots of the patina which had developed over years of being relegated to being a rain day/winter bike.  Kinda makes me wonder why their weren't more frame failures to be honest.

 I really like bikes that show the love of countless miles on them, and I can't wait to start showing my new rig the same attention, hopefully in a few years it will show the same wear and tear.

for sale

As promise the new EC Velo beer drinking axe wielding wool winter caps from Walz are in now.  I got one to replace my 2 season old on and it is a total gem.  They are available in limited quanities for the low low price of  $25. Get them while the getting is good. More info on spacebook.

new bike day

On the flip side of the previous post with the death of one bike comes the life of another.  Saturday night Magyar helped me piece together my new winter bike.  It's an old SR frame with pretty much all of my old stuff on it.  

 The only substantial differences being the bars, addition of a brake (stuporbowl prep), and this seat post which has got to be one of the strangest and biggest pain in the ass seat post clamp set ups I've ever seen.

Ride on!

snap

 A while back I noticed what looked like a crack coming out of one of my head tube lugs.  It looked like it could have possibly just been the paint so I ignored it for the time being.  Then about a week ago I noticed it had begun to spread and it was more than likely a frame crack.  The last thing I wanted to deal with was an unexpected frame break, so Saturday I loosened up the headset and trucked over to the nearest staircase to ride down and set to putting the steed down.    

The bike was an old Centurion Cavaletto handed down to me from S.Morfitt some years ago and since then it has been ridden everywhere and taken on multiple personalities as evinced here, here, here, and here among other places in the denizens of this internet blog.  I'm sad to see it go, but I'm happy to see it ridden to death  instead of rotting in a backyard somewhere.  See you in bike heaven. 

Thursday

Old Mil

Now I'm not a big Will Ferrell fan, but apparently he took it upon himself to produce these spots on his own because he is a fan of Old Milwaukee and I think that's pretty cool.  Sure he's no one eyed cowboy singing karoke and drinking Old Mil NA, but it's something.

cold

Cold commute this morning. High of around 2degrees tomorrow.  Love it.

Reggie

When Reggie McNamara was a child he was bitten by a snake, to prevent the venom from spreading he had his brother cut off his finger with a hatchet. Over his career he won over 700 races and broke his collarbone 17 times, fractured his skull, suffered multiple concussions, broke his leg and nose, broke his jaw in 3 places, and received over 500 stitches. King of sixes.

Stuporbowl 15

Coming up fast, start getting excited.

DMD

 Dead Man's Dash went off on Friday night without a hitch.  Turnout was low so it ended up being a group bar hopping ride instead of a race, which was fine by me.  About 10 of us hit up 8 bars around town on a really pretty winter night.

We made it back to the Mousetrap two hours later and Mary took the win for the night.  Dance party started up and feeling pretty wiped I took off after a couple hours of dancing. 

Saturday was Goldsprints at the Trap but I was in pretty rough shape so I skipped it and got to bed early instead.  Pretty exciting stuff!

jams

you got a fast bike

Go Pack Go

ronde van bastardia

Steve recently updated the Ronde Van Bastardia internet website with hot new pictures and information.  As I understand it the Ronde is THE chance in the Chippewa Valley to wear tight clothes, drink a bunch, ride bikes, and stick it to the tax payer by destroying perfectly good roads and trails.  Case in point...

Anyway, I've never been able to make it for one reason or another, but I'm looking forward to it this year.  Seeing as how this event is usually just a week after Valleycat it looks like we had better get our act together soon.  So yea, check out the website and go on the bike ride. It's 4 months away so you have no excuse not to pencil it in.   More here.

Dead Mans Dash

This is happening tomorrow night.  Even if you don't race, which would be a travesty, come out for the dance party and stuff afterwards.  It's going to be awesome, seriously, just do it.  More info here.

flickr

I recently got aboard the Flickr Train.  I added a link to my page and over the next month or so when I have time I will be uploading boatloads of photos that have and have not appeared here there and elsewhere since the invention of the internet. A lot of the stuff up now is pretty old, but I will get more new stuff up in time.  Check it.

big falls

 Today I finally got out the Frenchman and took advantage of the warm winter we have been having.  I headed out for the Big Falls loop east of town. I've done this loops dozens of times and really enjoy it.  It's got everything you can ask for from a shorter road ride; 30ish miles with straight field sections, wooded curvy sections, a few decent hills, a few rollers, and not a lot of cars.

 It was absolutely gorgeous.  I've rode this route spring, summer, fall, and now winter and I have to say this was by far the prettiest I have ever seen it. It might just be the unique factor of riding it with a little snow on the ground two weeks into January, but whatever the case it was really nice. The sun was out and I even got the arm warmers off for a bit outside the shady sections which were a bit cool, but nothing to complain about all things considered.  I just had to brag about this a bit before the single digit temps come rolling back in next week. Ride your bike!

                           

princeton valley cyclocross

Someone put together a little video from the Princeton Valley Race a while back.  Serious race face action from a few familiar faces.

bandit crossing

Their is apparently a full length thing about Bandit Cross in Minneapolis coming out some time.  Right now all you get is this trailer.  Some of us talked about trying to get up for one of these races this fall, but it just never happened.  And while I dig the idea and the races and see a huge similarity in the goofing off in ghettocross and bandit cross I would be remiss if I didn't point out the big differences. Namely we have another year under our belt and we ARE, in fact, for the most part just a bunch of people fucking around in the woods.  


Bandit Cross: Ruining It For Everybody Trailer from Quality Bicycle Products on Vimeo.

Despite these differences it is neat to see kindred spirits in race organizing though.  I think a lot of people think it is something totally distant and unaccomplished when in reality, yes it is some work, but it's still something anyone can do any day of the week in whatever fashion they choose.  Anyway, cool stuff.  Check it out.

VII

 I took a bit of an internet break the past few days to enjoy the nice weather and celebrate my day of birth.  So yea, I guess not much to report. TNR to super tank, river hanging, and bike riding.

Don't forget about Dead Man's Dash on Friday. Be there!