tnr

Don't want to rain on anyones parade but this needed to go up.

TNR tonight!

mystical

"Let's Get Mystical" - End Montage + Credits from Mutiny Bikes on Vimeo.

And that's just the end. Check out the whole video free here.

wet

It's a wet one out, so I've been wasting time on the internet and this is what I've dug up to share.



Watch around 3 1/2 minutes in a cyclist goes off a cliff and is pulled up with tires tied together. Bad ass.

The Goat Sprints from Corey MacGregor on Vimeo.

Rumble Through the Bronx 7 2010 New York from crihs on Vimeo.

And finally I tried to put another one of these together. Really low quality again, but what do you expect with a point and shoot.

BikeEC! from David Smuhl on Vimeo.

olympic gangsta

"During World War II, José Beyaert served in the French resistance, presaging a later life behind the lines. Prior to the 1948 Olympics, Beyaert had minimal credentials as a cyclist outside of France, winning the minor Paris-Briare race in 1947, placing third in the 1947 Paris-London stage race, and finishing 11th that year at the World Amateur Championships. After the 1948 Olympics, he turned professional and had a few minor wins in 1950 - the Grand Prix d'Isbergues and Paris-Boulogne sur Mer. He rode in both the 1950 and 1951 Tour de France, placing 47th in 1950 and abandoning in 1951, and rode several of the one-day classics in those years as well.

Beyaert then settled in Colombia where he won the 1952 Tour of Colombia, but he rode for only a few more years. He spent most of his life in Colombia, returning to France to live only in 2000. His activities in Colombia are poorly documented, but a biography Olympic Gangster, by Matt Rendell, tells much of what is known. While there he worked at various times as a cycling coach, an emerald trader, a logger in Brazíl, where he had a lover and several children, and as a businessman, as he and his wife, Louisette, ran a café in Bogota. There are many holes in the story that cannot be fully filled, but Beyaert probably worked as a drug smuggler, trafficking in cocaine and heroin. He made many trips throughout South and Central America, and back to France, and his associates were known to be in this trade, notably several of those whose story was later told in the book and movie, “The French Connection,” about the French drug trade. The book also details suspicions about possible murders Beyaert committed during his work, but so much of his life was mired in mystery, that it is difficult to be certain of this. Later in life, Beyaert helped train and coach some of the first Colombian teams that rode in the Tour de France, and served as a cycling commentator for Colombian television and radio."
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/be/jose-beyaert-1.html


This sounds insane. Must read.
Seen first on Hipster Nascar

good ol days

Not much news. Been busy working and riding my bike. Last Thursday we went to the postal carriers tower in Elk Mound and paid our respects to those brave lost souls. It's gorgeous outside so I'm not going to spend a bunch of time ranting about nothing, so here's some pictures.

25k

As of today Bikeec is at over 25,000 unique hits. Here's to 25,000 more.

long shot

I've been out and about the past week so pardon the lack of posts. Last Thursday was a birthday ride aka a drunk ride and the next few days kind of followed suit sending me to work pretty hungover most of the week. Then Sunday Jen and I took off for a much needed vacation camping up in Duluth for a couple days swimming in Lake Superior and tromping around waterfalls. But now I am back in action, so here are some stinking pictures of the past week or

Whats with all the pictures of food you ask? I like good food. And the Internet is the perfect place to brag about what I'm eating, so there.

A while ago I posted a site that had all of the old Miyata catalogs on it and lately I've been wasting a lot of time looking up other old bike catalogs. Not only do I love the goofy old pictures of people grimacing while hammering away in neon spandex on their 94 Cannondale. But it's just an interesting thing to read about the newfangled bike technology like double butted tubes and get to read what people said about your bike 30 years ago. Take a look

Cannondale 94

Centurion 84

Panasonic

Trek

You might also remember hearing about the kid who built a velodrome in his college library.

Well he did a short documentary on the piece and it's pretty interesting. If nothing else it is a pretty cool little track. About half way in he rides up on the boards and you can see how lose he gets to nailing his head on the ceiling.

Circulus from machine project on Vimeo.

And finally in the Tour Schleck took the yellow jersey(also holding the white) with Contador on his heels picking up 7 places through the mountains to make it to second overall. Green jersey is back and forth between Petacchi and Hushovd and the Polka Dots are back and forth between a couple Frenchies, Pineau and Charteau. In general the sprinters look like they have fallen to the middle and back of the pack with favorites Cadel Evans at 18, Chavanel at 38, Cancallera back at 103, and cry baby Cavendish waaaay back at 145.

Stages 12 and especially 13 look like really good places to pick up time however.

Check out this downhill on stage 7 near the middle. These guys just tuck in and roll down the thing at 90kph or for the rest of us around 55mph.
http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/LIVE/us/700/index.html

Tour update

Pretty killer finish by Cavendish on stage 5.

Stage 6 is up next. Longest stage of the Tour and a shot for sprinters to take charge. We'll see if Contador can hang on before stage 7 and 8 when they enter the mountains until around stage 11. If not I can only see him losing another few places which I can't imagine is a fun place to be this early in the tour.

Cancellera is on top for points followed by Geraint Thomas(sporting the white jersey for best young rider) and Cadel Evans.

Maybe the second most significant thing about stage 5 is that it was crash free in a race that to date has been laden with some brutal accidents. Having a stage on the Paris-Roubaix course probably didn't help. Anyway, there are some pretty gnarly pictures up on the Gaurdian website that are worth a gander here.

Anyone want to hit up the Joynt pre-ride to watch the action?

UV

The new Urban Velo is out and available online for free here.

I really like Urban Velo, but it seems like every issue there is an ad or something else that doesn't make any sense to me. This ad for Raleigh is the culprit this issue.

Roots

I found a couple articles on the "bike fad" of the 1930s. It's deffinetly worth a read. I think it's funny that they credit a resurgence in popularity to celebrities getting their photos taken on bikes.

Bike Craze Raging

The Bicycle Comes Back

I also found a couple pretty awesome old touring articles. I especialy like the idea for a collapsable trailer/bed. I have no idea why these aren't in production with updated materials.

All courtesy of Modern Mechanix

Top 5

I'm feeling really lazy after a freaking beautiful afternoon bike ride so I decided to do a fun post about my top 5 songs about riding your bike. So here it is in no real order.

Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle (Album Version) by be your own PET


The Clincher: "Have fun and be safe with it, Just kidding, fuck shit up."/"We ride bikes, cars are for idiots."

I realize that this is one of those bands that people seem to either love or hate, and I find myself on the fence about them alot. However, there is no denying how incredibly fun this song is and how perfect it seems to sum up what it's like to just go out and have fun on your bike.



Murder Bike by This Bike is a Pipe Bomb

The Clincher: "Bicycle Bicycle keepin' me sane, without you I've got murder murder murder swimming in my brain."

The quintesential good time, bike riding, band. Loud, fast, and loose, nothing else to say other than these folks are doing it right. If you ever ever get the chance to see them, do it at all costs.

Bike song by Zegota

The Clincher: "Every pedal strikes a blow for freedom, every pedal strikes a blow against global decay."

Loud and abraisive and the most politically minded song on the list. I used to listen to this song at least once a day. In my opinion this is the band that picked up where Refused let go, and then took it to the next level. I also have the album art from the album this song was taken from tattooed on my arm, so that deffinetly help put it in the running.

So Much Beauty In Dirt (Album Version) by Modest Mouse

The Clincher: "Get real drunk and ride our bikes."

Easily one of my favorite bands of all time. I know this song doesn't really have much to do with riding you bike other than that one line. But in the history of one liners about bikes placed into a song I think this is by far the best. This is just one of those songs that sums up all of the good things in life in under 2 minutes. BMX crash by Modest Mouse was barely edged out in favor for this song.

Bikes and Bridges by Defiance, Ohio

The Clincher: "Even Columbus looks better from the back seat of a bike"

Second maybe only to TBIAPB in my book for making really awesome emotional folk music without even seeming like they need to try. Definetly one of my favorites and listening to the whole album and reading all the liner notes only make it better.

Wow, that was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I was going to post some of the runners up for the top 5 but then I just start questioning my picks, so you can use your imagination on who would make top 10. Well, time to make some dinner. Stage 4 of the tour is tomorrow. Check it out. Thursday night ride on thursday.

spandex party

The Tour d' France starts today and runs until the 25th. Two years ago I would not have given a damn less, but now I actually kind of find it interesting, just don't ask me for any details.
The prologue is already done with this guy taking the stage. Lance beat out Contador, but ended up in 4th.

Anyway, heres everything you should need to know for the month.
The Gaurdian has a little better site in my opinion here.

Fail!

Last night I was riding home from work when on the top of Bracket hill I heard a small crack sound. All of the sudden my bike felt kind of mushy like maybe I had gotten a flat. I figured fuck it, the tire is trashed anyway I would ride to the bottom of Bracket hill and check it out at the bottom. About half way down the hill I heard a piece of metal shooting off my bike and flying across the blacktop. I stopped right away to scope out my bike to see what happened and everything looked alright until I got to my saddle when I discovered...




The left rail had busted off clean behind the seat post and shot across the blacktop. I turned around and found the chunk of metal threw it in my pocket and headed home. I'm super bummed because I loved this saddle, but it was on it's way out a while ago and I think this was a fitting death, I would rather see it decimated than just worn out.
And this thing was pretty freaking worn out...As near as I can tell this is the stock saddle that came on the 84' Miyata which is as close as I can place mine which means this saddle has a good 26 years of riding before finally breaking. RIP

P.S. This site. Has everything you would want to know about Miyatas on it. I only wish that the one I found had more stock parts when I found it perhaps I would have attempted to build it up. I will tell you that I love almost everything about these bikes though, and looking through the old catalogs makes me want to hunt them down bad, if only I had the money...