Thursday is the new Friday, more so when you're taking Friday off

The Wrexican is going in for ankle surgery all day tomorrow.

Went and saw Blitzen Trapper tonight. They sold out The Cedar so the show was moved to First-Avenue; it was a decent show, though I think this band would have been better in the smaller and more intimate environment of The Cedar. They played for an hour and forty-five minutes, so be prepared with enough cash for those extra beers when they come to your town.

Finally, check out Linden pounding a tent stake into 30-inches (76 cm) of frozen Medicine Lake. Incidentally, this is the last time anyone has seen or heard from him.

The Wrexican

Update on The Wrexican, who got crashed by a car the other night.

Flashing the horns, and looking much better than yesterday.

rider down, again

A friend of mine got hit by a car early Sunday morning. Car ran a red light; hit and run. He woke up in the ambulance and doesn't remember a thing about the incident. Seems there was a witness that talked to the cops, which helps tell part of the story but ultimately isn't going to do a hell of a lot of good. The good news is he's talking coherently, though he sure isn't walking. He spent about 12 hours getting patched up at HCMC and will be back many more times in the coming weeks. Of course we're all hoping he fully recovers in due time.

I sure as hell don't understand the mindset behind hitting somebody with your car and driving off, leaving them for dead. I don't give a shit whether the driver was drunk or not, owe up to your actions you fucking coward.

America; land of the free.

soupy sales

Remember how awesome the art shanty's were the past few weeks? Well now It's a soup puddle out there, and a damn slick one at that. The fun's still there, it's just a hell of a lot more uncertain getting from one shanty to the next.

I reached deep in my soul and sung a mean Folsom Prison Blues in the karoake shanty, though there was advisement against it from upper management. What can I say, there were tears flowing - there were tears flowing, people. I stand by my decision, as the lake is a safer place tonight because of my actions.


Windy, cold, slick as slick gets - the whole damn place. The soup was great, thanks Linden. It would have been nice to have a bit of crusty bread though.This next photo would have been in focus, if a can of High Life hadn't ruptured in my bag and disabled a bunch of gizmos on my camera. High Life - it's what drives me, how can I be mad at its shiny golden can?

Like Velcro:

top 10 anti-cycling douchebags

Yep, local car-boy Doucheray made it to the list.

Thanks to Linden for researching the link, god knows his job doesn't keep him at task.  See ya tonight, bring your swim trunks.

(no title Tuesday)

Wet out there, makes riding dirty and likely causes wet shoes. The days feel good, but you know it's going to hit cold again. But I think we're over the hump - know how I know? It's because I got a copy of Dirt Rag in the mail today - it's the first sign of spring!

A faithful reader sent this image on to me - yep, they had MILF's back then, too - and on bicycles for kreissakes! Say no more, please.

Moving on, yes we must. Seriously, did you get that TPS report in on time?


Bourbon, beers, and burrito - is that what Monday has progressed to? Yes, I'm glad to say it has, though not a lot of progression involved.

Large feller - keep in touch.

ice biking

I ran into Eric of Banjo Brothers yesterday at Medicine Lake. Eric was nice enough to send me a few photos taken during a few of the days events.

This is the start of the ice bike race, and also the top 2 finish order:
And the frozen lake bike limbo - there were about 5 of us in competition. We were all given sweet buttons for our effort.
Next weekend is the last chance you'll get - definitely worth a visit.

Anybody go to the bike swap today? Spending money being where it's at, I decided not to attend, though I scored a sweet set of handlebars last night in a pre-sale event - you'll see them debut on the road bike when the weather turns towards summer-ness.

It's the sixth of February, already?

Watch this, then go eat lunch.

51 Marlin Ledin 23 M MN USA

Marlin's account of the race.
././././././././././././././././././././.

Marlin is currently riding the Arrowhead 135 race on his Pugsley with self-built racks. Marlin, you're not showing up in the updates, hoping for the best.



[update] Marlin's still riding, there was a typo on the Gateway check (Martin Ledin 2:03pm bike). "Biker Marlin Ledin arrived at Melgeorges about 9:30pm."

[update 2] Bikers arrived Melgeorges and still here-- Martin Ledin 2:03am was a little nautious but feels good now and wants to go back out, ultimately dropped.

Stupor Bowl 12 - one perspective

OK, so the start looked something like this - I take that back, this wasn't the start, it was the pre-start gathering behind one on one:


I took a bunch of photos of the start, but they include people with alcoholic beverages on city property, so we'd better not go there. Mostly I don't feel like putting them up right now.

So then a few hours go by, I visited a few of the stops, though I was a DNR rider myself, for personal and religious reasons.

So then the finish party. I head downstairs for a minute, as it's just too gosh darn loud up there. I drop a fork on the prize pile, see Zito unconscious on the couch next to Skinny, who is carefully tallying up the manifests one... by one... by one... by jesus Skinny, hurry the fuck up!


A minute later Zito is standing up, somewhat heading for the stairs with an uncomfortable look on his face. There's a few people in his path, one of them being Bobby, who is right in front of me. Zito projectile vomits, twice, both on to the front torso of Bobby's sweater. The stench of bile fills the area, as Bobby tries to give everybody hugs. Meanwhile, Jay from FGAFJAL rolls over the mop bucket, tipping it over in the process, emptying the contents of the stank brown water over the floor, mixing with the vomit, before spreading under all the prizes on the floor - bags aren't absorbent are they?

So on to the winners, eh?

Zito took 3rd in the men's stupor. Here he is after taking a sort of stage dive after claiming his beer belt, thanks to Susan for her helping hand:


Trevor took 2nd in the men's stupor. Show us your junk:


And of course Nick took 1st in the men's stupor - props to Skinny and Leif for putting this year's show on:


K-mac took women's stupor champ - two years in a row now for this winner.


Austin took first in the men's points category - and he's from out of town for christsakes. Austin wins over the locals by giving away his newly won HED wheelset to the winner of some crazy game nobody's heard of.


Jerk Jeff took 2nd in men's points followed by Matt A. in combined third with 1st in messenger category.

The women's points race is all fucked up because Skinny fucked up the manifests - he's seriously under a lot of pressure so no worries. Steph probably got something as well as Amy C. and Marie or Carrie. I proposed to the organizers that the tracking for next year is all UPC bar codes - yeah I know, genious.

The crowd was large and thirsty - 347 entries, based on my tally of the manifest pile, which I in no way counted.


We'll see each other again next year. Until then remember this - if you don't practice, you won't get the experience needed to be a stupor champ.


An aside - how many people ate shit on the assaultway going home? I rode faster than I should have and managed to stay upright the whole time. Next time pack hockey skates for the trip home.

Stupor Bowl XII

the race is over - select photos here. more later. goodnight.

stupor weekend

That time of year again. I'll be riding behind the police motorcycle escort to reduce the wind and to clear me through all intersections, or would drafting disqualify the rider from an alley cat? Seems not.

If'n you're in need of any tips on riding the race, read up on Safety Commissioner Brad's advice:

As for safety or police issues, [Brad] Emery says it's a matter of being responsible adults. Riders are expected to follow traffic laws, and to not drink more than they can handle.

Uh huh.

Good luck, I'll be watching from the sidelines while my broken rib heals up. Another few weeks or so and I'll again be jumping over snow piles with the best of them.

And this just in - Larger Faller sends me a message saying he's coming back to the Mpls. Just a heads up to give you time to move, and you know who you are. Get on it.

Rock and roll.

Monday is still the new Friday, right?

So I was going to do a taste test comparison of the Bells 2-hearted and the Hop Slammer tonight, but it seems that after about 6-8 drinks the taste buds come down to the 2-hearted being quite satisfying, then the Hop Slam completely devastating the buds with its aroma of a ripe and sweaty t-shirt - but a complete taste sensation nonetheless! What surprised me was the head on the 2hearted being so much chunkier and fuller than the HS - as seen in photo, which was taken with the aid of IKEA lighting. Yeah, I know.


Bottom line is that they're charging way too damn much for the hopslam - twice as much for the same quantify as compared to the 2-hearted. Better yet, buy a case of High Life and get some sweet points and send them to me - I've got a cool delivery shirt, but don't quite have enough for the fleece to stay warm, which would be appreciated right now.

So while I attempt to enjoy a beverage or two, and in this case two, businesses are cutting jobs at a feverish pace. One minute people are waving their US flags out their SUV windows in support of whatever cause requires that to take place, the next they're trampling over each other to see who can fire staff fast enough to save their bottom dollar in the interests of corporate salvation. Let's not forget that without a job you can't have health insurance - so if you or your spouse or family member has say, cancer, diabetes, or anything else that isn't blonde hair and blue eyes, you're shit out of luck getting continued coverage, assuming you can afford it without that job you just got lost of. COBRA wasn't engineered to be cheap, people. Talk is cheap, but if you need insurance and can't afford it, it's the rich that live long and prosper.

As these U.S. companies lay off their workers in the interest of wall street profits, I stop enough to say you're nothing more than dirty, backstabbing, uninsightful, and this is gonna hurt - unpatriotic Americans. Patriotism and capitalism - those are two schools of thought that don't overlap during a recession, or dare I say what is turning into a depression? You heard it here first. Don't worry, it won't be official until after it's over.

But at least it's all going to get better on the near horizon, right? Oh shit, I guess not so much - but we can laugh about it now, because it's like - "it's not us that's gotta deal with it" - am I right?! Heyoh!

On the bit of a happier finish; I just ordered one of these units. I'm thinking that if I'm gonna be walking on a treadmill anyway, I ought to be getting somewhere. So I'm standing by with my indoor trainer ready for when it arrives - cause it's cold out but mostly because I'm not into my neighbors stalking me while I get my exercise on - isn't that what Facebook is for?

Till next year

The ride was a cold and icy one, but 14 riders made it nonetheless. No falls - scratch that, I saw Rich go down once. Twas a good turnout - 13 riders left Chiang with the 14th joining on just as we neared the bench. Nate gave a hell of a speech, the group made sure every scrounged up candle was lit, passed a can or two of malt and a bottle of brown, and hightailed it to the Hex for a warm up period before being promptly kicked out at the 0200 hour.



The 2010 ride will be in Auckland, as Erika is moving to New Zealand in a few weeks. See you there.

Road condition update - slick slick slick. Too cold for salt to work, so they don't bother putting it down.

2nd annual Rachel Dow ride

What: 2nd annual group ride in memory of Rachel Dow. It's been more than a year now since the passing of Rachel; let's get together and raise a glass and ride our bikes to her memory.

Where: Meet in the back room at Chiang Mai Thai in Uptown MPLS, bike to the bench, have a vigil, and bike to the hexagon afterward. Pi's closed, unfortunately.

When: 10pm this Saturday the 24th.



You didn't know Rachel? That's okay, you're still invited to be with friends and ride your bike.

Here are a few photos from last year's ride.

Bring a friend, ride your bike, bring a few beverages, have fun, smile, celebrate life and the memories it brings.

See you Saturday night.