Tuesday, December 28, 2010

on a highway to hell

I'm not very optimistic about many things, but like it when something comes out better than expected.

JFK:
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Monday, December 27, 2010

snowdayz


IMG_9567
Originally uploaded by kelly_macwilliams
12DEC2010 running around the downtown and building snow berms to ride on. Standing on a snow pile in the middle of the street before they haul it away to the suburbs.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

9:ZERO:7 sighting

Stopped into Hollywood Cycles this afternoon to see Smokey and got a quick look at this 9:ZERO:7 before the new owner carted it into the outside world. Rimstrips used here are aluminum foil duct tape with a standard duct tape layer atop; the lightly inflated tubes bubbled the rimstrip outward through the cutout holes, but the strength appears adequate. The rims here are the 80mm wide FlatTop, but they also offer rims in 100mm width for greater float; compare this to the 65mm of the Surly flavour.

Cheers!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Monday morning and it feels like a week since last Friday

Spent a few hours working in the old lab at the U this weekend, good times indeed. This is one of the many former train bridges now relegated for pedestrians and cyclists; I don't get a chance to cross this one in daylight too often anymore:
crossing the Mississippi

Riding home the other night, I caught a glance of the sun going down on Lake Calhoun and had to make a detour. We have lifeguard rescue equipment on a frozen beach, an ice fish house likely filled with some guy drinking alone to forget about his family and problems (but I repeat myself), and a little color, which we don't get too much of in these parts:
sunset on Lake Calhoun

(dark) Tuesday night is going to be the full moon, eclipse, and solstice. I can barely contain myself.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

snowdayz

This is a sweet shot taken from the side of a plow running through the Bryn Mawr neighborhood yesterday. Unfortunately I have to be at work and can't play during the day.

Jeffrey Thompson is the photographer for MPR.

Monday, December 13, 2010

gettin 'er done

Rode downtown yesterday to provide support for the snow berm; things should be awesome by now, and once I bring the chainsaw out for carving purposes, it'll be even more rad.
hosing down the snow berm

All in all an amazing weekend; I came inside to sleep twice, other than that I was outside the whole time. Winter is when some of us tend perk up, it seems.

On another note, I think I found Gene's Roger:
bicycles locked to a pole


Saturday, December 11, 2010

I don't think the hard stuff's gunna come down for some time

Walking around this morning, stopped counting the number of cars stuck, and most of these were on Hennepin Ave, a major MPLS street - don't drive, the shopping can wait.

Saw Tom and Rollin ride by, they were headed to Gigi's for food; I had already eaten. They had ridden about two blocks and were already looking to take a rest.
11DEC2010 - Tom and Rollin

The main streets are sort of in okay condition, but all the side streets are not; don't drive yet.
11DEC2010 - MPLS plow!

This is one of the many cars stuck on Hennepin Ave, a major street in MPLS.
11DEC2010 - don't drive today

11DEC2010 - take the bus

Keeping it real on the Pugsley. Bundle up and ride on, brother.
11DEC2010 - Surly Pugsley


Monday, December 6, 2010

the first weekend of December is behind us

Saturday:

Jeff over at Bikejerks hosted the 3rd session of the Bandit Cross series. The ride was through thick and fresh snow atop a washed out gravel/sand road for about four-miles. The tire choice of the day turned out to be in the 700-by-something-narrow genre. Two riders of the sixteen chose Pugsley's, which turned out to be the wrong choice for the day; unfortunately you have to ride what you brung, and I just got lucky.

Only four miles, but grueling. Advice of the day was don't stop for anything; getting any momentum after a stand still is harder than stopping to rest.

I rode the Steamrolleur with a fixed 42x17 gearing on 35mm Nokians, but was pushing too hard towards the end of the night and would have gladly accepted a 18 or 19 in the rear, but unfortunately missed the NASCAR pit stop (#3 RIP.)
Somebody mentioned this shot has been taken before, but that was after I took it and I'm not going to let it go to waste:
There weren't any hand-ups, but quite a few toss-downs towards the end of the ride:
Three of the sixteen decided it best to ride home, bypassing the LRT. Since the side roads are nothing like they once were around the airport (read non-existent), we ended up taking the looong way around and ended up a bit disoriented in old Fort Snelling. A couple hours and several bonking's later, we finished the ride and began our refueling for the next adventure; the legs were dunn for the day, to say the least.


Chapter 2 (Sunday Sunday Sunday):

Went and fired a few rounds into Zombie Nazis up in god's kuntry:
All in all a great weekend. Legs are still recovering, but am looking forward to the next one.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Thursday, December 2, 2010

a post mid-week pick-me-up

Okay, that last video likely wasn't in the best interest of the internet.

This song will get you going though:

If you are a fan of Mark Twain, check out the Mark Twain Project, where you can even read the recently published Vol 1 of his autobiography on-line. I bought the book at the local dealer, but I'm still a bit old fashioned and prefer the paper format.

Speaking of the guy, I've always been a fan of the letter Mr. Clemens wrote to the president of Western Union back in 1902 (starts on the bottom of page 722 below); the back-handed compliments, elegance, and hilarity is welcomed warmly to this day:

Got the Nokians installed on the steamrolleur, don't think I don't.