On first blush, I thought this was an interesting saddle design. I don’t have business-problems from a medical perspective, but I do have issues sometimes with finding the sweet spot for sitting, especially on very long rides fixed, where there’s so much more… friction… than the roadies experience with all their coasting and cafe drinking. Hard leather saddles in general are very counter-intuitive. They look uncomfortable. In some ways, they can be. But the principle has been sound for a century: a harder saddle with proper support at the sit bones is better for long rides and frequent riding than soft, cushiony or ultralight saddles, which flex and conform and allow you to slip into positions where you aren’t supported properly. Everyone has a preference. Mine is the leather saddle.

Adding the junk-saver slit seems like an OK prospect. I was wondering how the leather holds up over time with that cut out. It’s analagous to cutting a hole in any other tension membrane… then adding perpendicular forces on it. And the review suggests the hole does start to deform, with a comment later about stitching up a fix for that. But worse, and exactly what i feared from my general experience: getting something caught on that edge. All of my junk-saver saddles in the past had soft, rounded edges to avoid that.

Anyway, if you’re hot to save your junk and spend more than you would on a Brooks, this might be for you!

http://urbanvelo.org/selle-an-atomica-t … more-24066

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2. New Batch of Limited Edition Brooks Saddles
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Oh yeah? I PRINTED IT.

http://boingboing.net/2011/09/23/3d-pri … steel.html

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For travelers that don’t need to skirt the oversize baggage fees, this is a great solution for traveling by bicycle. It’s essentially a giant burlap or canvas bag, just big enough to hold a frame, fork, and wheels and components all tucked within. Watching him disassemble his ride reminds me of what we’re doing with the couplers anyway, just without that added step (and extra rock) of further compacting it into a normal luggage parcel. But unlike our otherwise sweet softpack backpacks used for carrying the bike, he gets to roll that sack up and wear it even more compactly. Very cool!

http://urbanvelo.org/mit-dem-fahrrad-unterwegs/

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I know this isn’t the first time we’ve looked at this guy, but doesn’t this photo make you want to ride a trike, with a keg in it, and go over modestly bumpy roads?

http://urbanvelo.org/the-bootlegger-keg-trike/

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This year’s SF Bike Expo will the best yet. Why? Because of that dope poster. That’s why.

You can read more about the event here:
http://sfbikeexpo.com/

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There’s this wonderful moment in the wonderful film Anchorman, comprised itself of back-to-back wonderful moments, where Ron Burgundy has thrown a delicious and filling burrito out the window while driving, where it struck a Harley guy in the face and sent him sprawling. The Harley guy, Jack Black with a beard and beans on his face, begins his assault with:

‘What the hell, man!"

In a very specific low-key cadence.
I tend to use this whenever I’m struck dumb with the strange bullshit behavior of others, or self.

Today, after a stop off at the bank and at Peets, I returned to the office to find that someone came along and ganked the crank bolts out of my bar ends, which I used as end caps (because you never know)…

I mean, what the hell man! Really?

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Readers and fellow riders will recall my obsession with the 2003 Look racing frame, the KG381. I coveted it at the time. I got it’s skinny cousin used in 2006, and gave it away to a thief with a Bic pen. I got a consumer line KG381 Jalabert Edition, which I rode for about 3 years, and then scored a KG381 Team spare frame from the Tour, and after building it up as a fixed-gear for awhile, I finally converted THAT frame into my road bike, and sold off the Jaja.

Well, the Team frame was always big for me. I had the seatpost slammed, I had the stem low and small, and the seat forward on the rails as much as possible. It was doable, but after my pelvis and back injury, I’ve come to find the Look to difficult to ride comfortably. I can RIDE it, but I don’t LIKE riding it. The bigness haunted me, even being only modestly too large. But as I’ve come to find, fitment becomes even more important once you’re injured. Thus, I poured a sip out of my coffee for ole Villain, and started the hunt for something new.

With a baby on the way, and a need to not screw myself over financially any more than I already have, I knew I was working backwards on technology. I wasn’t going to find a carbon frame I liked to replace the carbon frame I loved. But riding aluminum (Crook) over long distances, including to LA, taught me that I could deal with the road vibration when properly insulated. So that helped: it would be lighter steel, or aluminum. Looking around, I couldn’t shake my disinterest in almost everything out there. No cash for a custom frame. I narrowed it down to Cinelli. I wasn’t a fan of their graphics these days on the road bikes (all sorts of lines and grids like 80s Tron merchandising) but started looking backwards in the line, at new old stock and used frames. After a few days of hunting, I stumbled upon a small shop in Oregon that was sitting on a few Cinelli frames they got as a closeout from a Canadian distributor. Few, as in one S, one L, and one XL. Unused, still packed up, never built up. And for a SONG. So, best part: these were 2008s, when Cinelli offered generally monochrome schemes on some of the bikes. And in nuclear trigger red/orange! So, I snatched it up. The unboxing pic is above.

You know, I had a lot of misgivings about giving up the Look. I loved the matte black carbon and minimal decals. I loved the exclusivity of it. But I have to tell you, I’m adapting JUST fine to this new frame. It’s like… magma!

I have the Levi Leipheimer King Ridge Gran Fondo this Saturday, so the race is on to have it built up and road tested by then. I snuck in last night and started the process. I got as far as headset, cockpit (complete), front and rear strung brakes, and wheels. I’m waiting on some used SRAM Red cranks I ordered, to play nicer with my derailleur, and then I’ll do the drivetrain. It’s admittedly easier to build up a road bike when you’re stripping a road bike you only built up a year ago. Everything’s in great shape. I had to change the brake cable routing (the Cinelli isn’t internal routing like the Look) and a few other things, but so far so good. The blurry picture above shows the current state of it: orange and black.

I had a few scares: for one, when I was trying to pull the front Dura Ace brake caliper off of Villain the nut was bound up, and in muscling it, I felt the brake explode in my hand and heard something ping across the shop. I have a rock floor. Losing small parts is the bane of my work down there. Anyway, all was not lost: the spring had come loose from the calipers and the plastic sheath for it was what had tried to escape. And miraculously, after about 20 minutes with a head-mounted light, I found it, and fixed the brake.

Also, when I brought the frame into the shop from the car, I was mollified to discover paint scraped away all over the seat post receiver. I couldn’t believe it. Did I grind it against something? Was it effed up and I didn’t notice it in the unboxing? I was conjuring various electrical tape based fixes, when I found the cause: the seatpost collar, which I had been missing, was on the floor in the car, and the paint scrape was from the collar clamping onto the frame, and being pulled off somehow in my loading/unloading of the MINI. Found it as I was loading Z up for a return trip to the office to search the box for seat clamps. HA!

Anyway, build in process, but I’m pretty pleased about the Phoenix-style rebirth of sweet-as happening here.

PS New bike name, influenced by the bright orange/red color: ROGUE

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despite being on a bike nearly every day of my life, and using a bike as my main form of transportation for the same amount of time, i’ve only been what you’d call a "cyclist" for the last 7 or 8 years. when i say "cyclist," i mean someone who goes out with the specific intent of riding something more than 10 or 20 miles. and in those 7 or 8 years, i’ve discovered something unfortunate. i have a predilection for cramping. every mile i go over 40 or so, i run the risk of my thighs, hams, hip flexors, calves, or inner thighs cramping up BAD. there have been times when my cramps have actually driven me off the road in excruciating pain, where i have to wait a few minutes, super-hydrate, and stretch. i tried lots of things to combat this over the years — stretching a lot, using a half-gatorade-half-water mix in my bottles (not a bad idea even if you DON’T cramp, and so on — but not a lot of them were working.

cut to 5 months ago, when i went to check out the new MASH SHOP. while i was there, i found a product called SALT STICK CAPS. i’ve been using them for that entire time and i have to say, they work phenomenally.

the usage specifies that you should take one capsule with water every 30-60 minutes that you’re exercising. i take one before i leave for the day and i pop them roughly every hour after that, and i’m pleased to say that i haven’t had cramps in my legs since i started doing so. (i should specify that i actually DID get cramps on a metric century on the 24th of september, but that was because i had to cobble together a bike out of spare parts after one of mine had been stolen and the only seatpost i had in the shop was too short, meaning my legs couldn’t get full extension and hence – cramps.)

in cruising their site to prepare links and so on for this post, i stumbled across a little something i’m DEFINITELY going to invest in, and that’s the SALT STICK MINI.

it’s a little dispenser that tucks inside your handlebars. it looks just like any other bar end that might be holding your tape in, but when you turn the end, it pushes a single capsule through the little water-resistant diaphragm at the end.

fucking BRILLIANT. as it stands right now, i always have a handful of pills in my jersey pocket, where they’re susceptible to sweat degrading them. this way they’ll just always be there, whether i need them (long rides) or not (commutes).

these capsules are definitely a 10/10 CLANK! product as far as i’m concerned, as they’ve taken away one of the most painful and counterproductive physical impediments that my body’s chemistry has. if you get cramps too, i recommend you try these.

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Wow now you can just take all your fancy leaves and pikachus. I’ll take a bike rider in my coffee thanks.

http://menstrualcycles.tumblr.com/post/ … ur-morning

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Letterpress… with bike parts… are you INSANE, MAN! Why, it’s brilliant!

http://nikaaabeee.tumblr.com/post/10269 … w-freaking

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