Bike Tokyo

I am leaving for Japan for a month on Saturday. I will be back in the end of January. I may post some stuff here from abraod, but chances are I am going to be bouncing around the country most of the time.

Stay warm and ride hard. See you all in a month!

2 things

A couple of things stolen from elsewhere.

1. A guy pulls up to a biker with his kid in his car and shoots the cyclist in the head. He was sentenced to 4 months.
http://www.wyff4.com/news/20187786/detail.html#
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/cyclist-shot-for-riding-with-kid.php

The only thing that stopped the cyclist from being killed was his bike helmet. Think about it...

2. no chain!

Liam Fahy Hampton Animal Edit From Stowmedia Dec 2009 from StowMedia on Vimeo.

snow

Yesterday a foot or more of snow was dumped on us. School got canceled, and work closed early. So naturally I rode my bike all day. It was freaking awesome. Ane and I rode around Carson park and town and I picked up some beer and coffee to top off the afternoon before heading home and doing some shoveling. It soudns like everyone was out riding around enjoying the weather yesterday, we are bad asses to the extreme. It is days like yesterday that make me wish my camera wasn't such a piece of junk. Well, we will have plenty more snow.

Thats all TNR tonight. Same time and place. I will be in Menomonie, but you should be there.

capitalist

I think everyone in the world has seen this, but I think it's worth posting.

Bike Crackdown in Phillidelphia

I just recently read more details on the proposed legeslation for bicycles in Philidelphia. It includes $300 fines for wearing headphones and riding on a sidewalk and $1000 for riding brakeless. It also would force anyone over the age of 12 to register their bike like a car. Pretty freaking rediculous.

More

banned!

Christoper Felix Hahn, a student at the theater science in Gießen located in Germany was just banned from cycling for 15 years, which also includes riding a skateboard or any other unlicensed vehicle. Read more.

-

I'm at the studio avoiding homework by reading comics online because I'm grumpy and stressed out.

mitchclem.com/mystupidlife

garfieldminusgarfield.net

13,000

My body and I are fighting today.

It doesn't like it when I ride my bike and drink and stay up till 3am on weeknights. I however like all of those things very much. Even if it means sleeping in late and missing two quizes.

Last night I got a flat tire, we rode our bikes all over the place, hopped a median and ran across the highway, went back downtown, ate cookies, and then we got drunk and rowdy at the Last Chance. Dupster dove some pizza and went home. It was very fun, I am very tired and am going to go pass out at home now.

Lets build our very own x-games bmx ramp course. http://eauclaire.craigslist.org/bik/1493521026.html

Also, magyar showed off his first custom made bag. It looks fucking awesome. Rumor is that he will be making more this winter so keep your eyes peeled...

Beauty and the Bike Short

" This is an 8 minute version of our 55 minute documentary Beauty and the Bike. The film follows two groups of young women from Darlington and Bremen. Between them, they discover what makes - and stops - teenage girls from cycling."

via Bikejerks

I think it is funny to hear the guy say that they make a deliberate point of putting cyclist rights in front of motorists. It is interesting to think about how much of a shit stork that would raise here. But when you think about it it only makes sense. A completely non-obstructive form of transportation that has almost no impact on the environment, is better for the rider and every one else around them. vs one of the most environmentally detrimental machines ever made responsible for the deaths of thousands every single year.

I don't really like making bold anti-car statements most of the time because I do feel like their is obviously a place and time for cars. but when you actually see places giving priority to alternative transportation you can't help but wonder what is so gad damn backwards about this country and it's priorities.

TNR!

I'm stoked to drink beer and ride bikes tonight, it's going to be my last TNR for over a month so I hope lots of people come out.

See ya then.

6:30 Tonight
Meet at racys
kick ass

3 hour walk

So I haven't posted in a couple weeks. Where have I been? Busy. Last Thursday was turkey day and I didn't end up riding. I did however end up drinking and eating a bunch. The thursday before that we just rode all over the place. Magyar had his new bike set up and Dan was around. We went to the beeramid for a while and rode all over town before heading back to Cliftons parents place for snacks fire and beer. When I'm not busting ass I've been riding my BMX bike around a bunch, eating great food with people, drinking a lot of wine, and trying to catch up on other projects. I leave for Japan in less than a month. not much else is new. I will try to get more stuff up here ASAP, but my camera is broken and I am going to continue to be super swamped untill I get back from Japan.

In the meantime look at this write up Derek did about dynamos on the EC velo blog:
http://ecvelo.blogspot.com/

And watch this awesome John Darnielle (from the mountain goats) video

John Darnielle - Autoclave - A Take Away Show from one shot seattle on Vimeo.

Stolen (another one!?!)

Someone stole Adam Flytes old bike. he sold it to a friend and it has become the latest victim of bike thievery. From Adam:

"be on the lookout for my old bike. it was stolen last night from my friend gillian. if you recall, it's a white fuji frame, black velocity arrowheads with black iro hubs. "

It has some orange on it and flop and chop bullhorns I believe. If you see it around take apropriate measures to re-acquire it. This bike stealing thing is getting rediculous. If it is not yours keep your damn paws off.

If it is lock your shit up and hope for the best.

ekg

I think the whole "hipster" thing is really silly. It just seems really dumb all around to pigeon hole people into a dumb sounding group based on interests. Especially such an ambiguous group.

Then I went to Milwaukee and hung out in Riverwest all weekend...

I'm re-thinking my position...

Vids kids

So, despite the fact that every single fixed gear movie out there now seems to hanve the same exact artsy time lapse cloud shot, and a ton of the same tricks and blah blah blah. I think this one is actually kind of neat. Plus it's fun to watch people with such low gear ratios spin.

VéLOrue Montage from Bill Bottriell on Vimeo.

This is also really cool.

KILROY - Teaser I of IV from Gorilla Bicycles on Vimeo.

Cadence

anything you want

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here. I've been pretty busy, and unfortunetly I've been off of my bike other than just gettinga round lately. Last night was the first time in a week or more that I've gone on a ride just to go on a ride, and by 9:30 I realized that I shoul dreally be doing a 100 other things. It's frustrating to say the least, but other than that I am happy with life right now.

Ghetto cross was last Saturday and it was a ton of fun. Lots of riding and drinking and by 7 I was absolutly tanked and dead tired. I wouldnt have it any other way. This Saturday I am going to be in Milwaukee for zine fest. Once again I know that I should be here doing things, but I need the time off, so I'm going to take it.

Not a ton of other news. The weather has been beautiful, so go for a bike ride.

See you tomorrow night.

I'm thinking of selling my bike and buying this instead. There seems to be a rash of them on EC craigslist of late, so strike while the iron is hot.

Things to note

As much of a joke as I think Prolly is he put up a neat tutorial on polishing old components. Here

Also, the new issue of Urban Velo is available online Here

2 on the ground

Holy fuck, it's happened. Bikeec is now officially two years old. I know I mentioned this before, but I think it's interesting how arbitrary time is and the different ways we measure it. We weight everything against time. How long things do or do not last equates to how good or bad they are. We pick these dates that we assign so much value to and year after year when they come around we sit around and reflect on whether time robbed us or not. For the general population that date is January first. For me that date is Nov.1.

I know that when I started this I thought it would be an awesome way to try to capture a bit of what is going on in Eau Claire right now, but in the process it has become a scale measuring much more. My life 2 years ago was so different than my life now that I can't help but cringe and think about it sometimes. The things we feel so dedicated to one moment can completely slip out of relevance a month later. Things we hate become incredibly important. People we care about leave, we find new ones to take their place.

I can't help but get sappy about all of this when I read this thing because I have put a lot of emotion into the little things on here. I don't feel like I've written a post I would ever take back. Which sounds silly, but it is endearing to me. If for no other reason that I can look back on what I've said and be happy that I remained somewhat sane and by some stroke of luck there are still people out there that are interested in what I have to say and want to hang out with me. Or at least don't mind me tagging along. I appreciate that.

All this is really about is that I am happy with this year. Not all of it, there was a lot of crappy parts. But there always is. And I know I write about a lot of the same things, but that is reassuring. Because that means that they are still happening. And I could do these things forever. Even on the crappiest days I can get on my bike and realize that I have that at the very least. Which is something remarkable that not everyone can say. We are lucky to have a scene and friends that get it.

So all of that said I just want to thank everyone for doing everything that they do and tell you all never to stop. Here is to one more year, for better or for worse.

press

Menomonie Bike Polo got a piece in the new V1. As did the BPAC planning thing.
Check it out.

Also I got an invite to play polo with those dudes on Halloween around two. I think I am going to take them up. Contact me if you are interested.
Thats all.

best time ever since yesterday

Cover Thief

I don't have a whole lot to talk about except that while doing research for my capstone I found out that in Googles ongoing conquest of the internet the have begun to digitize government patents. To the point where their patent records are more accurate and easier to access than the US Patent Office. I wasted a bunch of time there and think it is worth checking out. For instance

Campagnolo patent of the seatpost.

Toe Clip

Egg Beaters

A Hub

You can really find anything there with some digging. If you type in "knob" you get thousands of patents. Pretty nuts. I'm going to Minneopolis tonight to see Chuck Ragan at the revival tour, super stoked.

chris-cross

The Ghettocross race is on. In case you haven't heard it's a cyclo cross race put on by EC Velo. What makes it ghetto? Go and find out.
Nov.7, 2pm Cash purse and prizes.
All bikes allowed. Dress warm, get dirty. Spectators strongly encouraged.

In case you aren't familiar with cross racing...

http://vimeo.com/7221943

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRZOa_E9Qs8&feature=player_detailpage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gWxuDZL_420

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zWGnM_1ViZA


On an unrelated note. Someone recently stole a single speed mountain bike from a friend.

It has a gray VooDoo frame, a neon yellow fork, and purple grips. It also has really fat Maxxis Holy Roller tires and a black and red WTB saddle. If you see this bike around town it is stolen, take whatever course of action you deem necessary, but at least notify someone.

eyeglass

It's Thursday afternoon and I've only been up for a few hours. After weeks on end of getting up at 6 in the morining to try and get everything i need in a day done I finally took advantage of last night drank more than I probably should have and closed down Clancys with Jon and Amanda. I slept in and made a big breakfast and took a long shower to battle the hangover. Listened to the radio, changed out the pedals on my bike and went for a little ride before downing 3 bottles of juice and ending up on campus to get some work done. The point of all this is that despite the fact that my head is still splitting, my bowels hate me, and my limbs feel like lead I am happy to be hungover today. It's a rare occurance to feel gratefull for a hangover, but it reminds me that sometimes there is more to life than school and work. Even if sometimes it is a painful reminder. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go sit in the bathroom for 20 minutes.

University Cycling Club ride today at 4. Meet at the clock tower.
THURSDAY NIGHT RIDE!! Same time and place(for 2 years?!), Racys 6:30. Be there or be square.

Also, this is really cool. I've got some serious questions about bike choice/setup(steerer tube length? stock rear wheel?) but still very cool. FGG is also having a photo contest that you can win a new IRO in and support MS research. Check it out here.

More more more!

More pictures of the Tour at the V1 website.

HERE!

Recap

Saturday was awesome. Thats all I have to say. The whole day I was a bundle of nerves, but by the time we got to Maple Manor it would have been harder to imagine being in a better mood. We avoided getting any rain or snow, and everyone was in awesome spirits despite the wind and chill in the air. Tons of goodies were dished out and there was plenty of dancing. The biggest downside I see is that my camera wouldn't work the entire race so I only got pictures afterwards, I'm sure more pre-race photos will turn up.

After the race there was a bunch of skids and foot down and trackstanding. I'll hopefully get the complete rundown of winners on here this week. We picked up and headed to Magyars and Brians place where we ate a rediculous amount of pizza and drank chocolate milk before heading to the Joynt for a couple pitchers before the afterparty.


We drank 100 beers in around 45 minutes and hung out for a while before deciding to head to Maple Manor to continue the festivities.

There was just an awesome energy the whole night. Lots of awesome people I have never met and lots of old friends. Lots of beer and shots for everyone in the bar. Tons of smiling faces and bike talk. I'm a little bummed that I was feeling so tired/sick because I would have loved to have gotten a little crazier with you all.

I guess I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out and making this an awesome day for me and everyone else who helped organize and race. It was awesome. I'm also super excited to hear that plans for an all girls weekly ride may be in the works. Us guys are going to have to step it up a notch now.

Keep your eyes peeled, I will try to get placings up here ASAP. If you would like an additional manifest or spoke card contact me and I will try to get you one seeing as how we have some surplus.

Best bike scene ever.

Lets get known

WQOW



WEAU

"A former underground cycle race called 'valleycat"

Leader-Telegram

Jawfixer

Last night was really really fun. I've been super impressed the fast few Thursday nights at how much fun I've been having. I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that I've been super stressed and this is the one time a week I get a chance to hang out with friends and ride bike and not worry so much. Even if thats a bad thing because I should be studying for an exam. Anyway, we rode all over the place and went to The Metropolis bar for a couple swanky pitchers of beer and to see the fake fireplace. Then we rode out to Sherman creek for a fire and some drinks before heading back into town. I really don't know what else to say but I had a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to tomorrow, as nervous as I may be. Anyone reading this had better be at the Tour, it is going to be awesome. Not sure which saddle you want to use for the race, thry this idea...

Yes that is a seat taped to another seat, seen on campus a few days ago. I also saw the cats play with a box for half an hour and it was fucking adorable.

So little so late

Last night Derek, Zacher and I skipped the ride to go to the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Commission presentation outlining the city's plans for the 20 years. They've been working on this thing for 2 years trying to figure out where the city needs to work harder to make be more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Needless to say we were all kind of interested to see what the city had planned on 20 years down the road. The result?



eh...



It was less than awe inspiring to say the least. The plan basically consisted of making the city better accommodating to bicycles and pedestrians. Not necessarily welcoming, just kind of allowing us to get around a little easier. It is hard to criticize these people because I'm well aware that their hearts are in the right places, but really? 20 years from now all we are supposed to look forward to is a couple new bike trails and sidewalks. Maybe a few new bicycle lanes. Keep in mind this is on the low end of the estimated time frame as well. So by the time I am 45 I can expect Eau Claire to be "kind of" bicycle friendly? I understand budget constraints and planning problems, but I also understand that right now the general population is at it's peak of environmental consciousness and that there is probably no better time to imagine planning a comprehensive bike network.

Derek recomended I look at what happened in Boulder Colarado over a 20 year span, so I did via Craig Brauns blog. And you should too.

Boulder Bike Story from Bikes Belong on Vimeo.

On the upside it was pretty cool to see a bunch of people who have been riding in Eau Claire for years and years(We were probably the only ones under the age of 40) talk about the streets and routes to get around like most people talk about sitcoms. They know every facet of every street in the city and thats really inspirational to see. I doubt most people who have been driving around Eau Claire for 15 years know half of the ways around the city that cyclists learn after half that amount of time.

It was also validating to hear people who have been working on a plan for years say that one of the biggest obstacles to creating a positive cycling community is gaining acceptance as a valid for of transportation by the majority. Most of the time I think BPAC send a message that bicycling is just one big happy fun fair. It's not. It's not fun to have people drive by and yell faggot at you when you are trying to get home from work, or run to the store. No one should have to deal with that no matter what.

I only wish that I brought up the fact that the certain members of our police force have that same adversarial attitude towards cyclists. A certain recent episode with a police officer pulling us over to warn us to "respect the vehicles" and drive away. But the second the police force is critiqued you are branded as some sort of radical militant who throws blind orphans in front of cars.

In any case, I implore you to look at the lack-luster plan online and send BPAC an e-mail with your ideas. Stay dry.

Goings on

http://people.uwec.edu/millerjs/cycling/

"Join Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich on Sunday, October 4th to show your support for the UW-Eau Claire Clean Commute Initiative and to help on-campus bicycle parking.
Check in begins at 1:30 p.m., rain or shine, from the Schofield Hall circle parking lot. This is a 21 mile informal, noncompetitive bike ride around Eau Claire and Altoona using a mix of bike trails and city streets.
Suggested donations: $10 for general public; $5 for UW-Eau Claire students. Proceeds will go to improving bike parking on campus "

Sounds wind makes

57 Degree high today. Wind gusts at up to 41mph. Fall is here and it means buisness.

In comparrison Last Thursday I hung out with Zacher with my shirt off rode bike all day, ate pasta salad in the yard, took a nap, and we rode out to Dan Bakers house for a fire and libations.

Despite being rediculously busy I got to see Sunny Day Real Estate and Grant Hart this week. I bought a new sewing machine, interviewed a bunch of people and almost finished my zines. An almost that seems like I've been resting on for 3 months. Tour d'Eau Claire is coming up VERY VERY SOON, so if you haven't thought about it you had better get ready to rock and roll.

The ghetto cross race sounds like it's coming together to so if you havn't heard about that you should keep your ear to the street.

Interbike also happened. If you don't know Interbike is an annual trade show in Las Vegas.The best coverage I saw was over at Hipster Nascar where they have all kinds of pretty photos. Look here and go googly eyed.

Thats all, don't blow away.

More tour rad-i-tude

Print this. Put this everywhere.