The coolest bike ever?

From Antbikemike.com, comes the Major Taylor:




Oh yeah, as pictured, it's $2600. But can you put a price on something with so much retro-cool that it drips off the frame. Antbike is the shizzle!

SIUE Workday- Saturday, April 29 + Other Happenings

We'll be cutting a short connector trail between the 1st and 3rd sections of trail out there, and doing some maintenance leftover from the construction of the 3rd section last fall. You might even learn the (im)proper way to carry tools. The fun starts at 8:45 am.

SMBA is also having a workday on Sunday, April 30 at the Cove Hollow Trail near Carbondale, IL.

This weekend is also the official dedication of the 200+ miles of continuous Ozark Trail. There's going to be bbq, music, hiking, and a shuttle for mountain bikers to ride North Trace. Details on the festivities can be found here.

Self Chilling Beer Can

Now you can go for a 3 hour ride on a hot summer day, reach in your camelback, grab a can of Miller, and enjoy a cold beer on the trail. Check it out!

Coming soon to a trail near you?

Yes, folks. Segway is now making and selling an off-road model, the Segway XT Cross Terrain Transporter.

From the website:

The wider track increases stability on uneven ground, and the Segway XT happily navigates a variety of surfaces including sand, grass, gravel, dirt and pavement. Depending on local regulations, it may be possible to use the Segway XT on multi-use pathways but it is not intended for use on sidewalks or pedestrian walkways.

I wonder how it will go over at Segway Polo games.

Then they've got the Concept Centaur, not for sale. It's like a mini electric Segway ATV that can switch from two to four wheels on the fly, i.e. ride a wheelie for you, in case doing that on your couch was too hard. I first saw this in one my my freebie electronics magazines but now it's on the Segway website.



I'm offering a six-pack to the first person to provide me a picture of someone navigating the steps at Chubb or the slab on donkey kong with either of these. 30-second photoshops don't count.

Thank goodness these things cost so much and we have hard trails. Hopefully that's enough to keep them on the golf course and nowhere else. I don't think the sky is falling yet. To be fair, I'd still play on either of them if given the chance.

Links:
Segway XT Cross Terrain Transporter
Concept Centaur article
Concept Centaur

South Trace plea for help, and free beer

The weekend is almost here. The Ozark Trail Association is pretty overwhelmed by their own festival planning, and some major storms and a few fires have caused an abnormal amount of trail maintenance needs along the Ozark Trail lately. So to help out GORC has volunteered to do some deadfall clearing on the South Trace Creek section of the OT. This is from Council Bluffs to Bell Mountain. Who am I kidding, it's selfish. There's an awesome trail here under a bunch of logs, and if we clear them, it'll be like a brand new trail in our own backyard. Plus we'll make it fun.

The plan for this weekend is pretty simple right now. We'll meet at the DD/hwy 32 middle fork trailhead at 9am Saturday morning (april 22). Yes it's early, but if we get a decent start and have enough help to do three crews or so, we could probably get an unencumbered ride in afterward. On Saturday we'll break up into groups to divide and conquer the deadfall on South Trace with chainsaws, USFS-certified sawyers, bob trailers, and helpers. We need all the help we can get because sawyers can't work by themselves and there will be lots of cut wood to move. We'll camp saturday night, then ride whichever trail we want just for fun on Sunday. This type of day is noisier, but less backbreaking than normal trailwork and we get to ride our bikes from point to point. The more people we have the easier this will be.

To sweeten the deal, I'll bring at least a case of some quality beer TBD to share on Saturday night, better than and in addition to my usual cheap camping beer.

Stay tuned to this topic in the gorc forum for updates, to express interest, maybe set up a carpool, etc. If anyone without a bike wants to help, say so on the forum or let me know and we'll make arrangements for a hike-in crew too.

tom

Tour of Georgia ---- It's ON!

Oh yeah, Things are heating up down south of the Mason Dixon line.

They even got the Godfather of Soul himself shootin' up in the air Saddam-style!!!
















the skinny --> Linky

velonews.com is carrying the stages live. Starts at 1:30pm today.

Progress on DeClue Reroute at Greensfelder

While we were listening to Tom's safety talk at the Tower parking lot right off of Allenton Rd. this scene presented itself:

Here's one of the turns that passes right above a nice waterfall. While the reroute does bypass one unsustainable climb plus another short one, it's certainly not going to make the trail any easier. Go see for yourself. You can ride the lower part of it below the current trail right now.

more Greensfelder goodness, coming right up

The MMBF is over and now it's time to get back to business. Lucky for us, business is building trail and riding bikes. What could be more fun?

So it's Easter weekend and you can't leave town. Come out to Greensfelder and start work on the next phase of the DeClue improvements. This time we're doing a pretty big reroute for the doubletrack hill climb heading uphill from where DeClue crosses Allenton Road. We'll reroute a little bit of high-maintenance singletrack too but don't worry, we're not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater, most of the old trail remains untouched.

This hillside is covered with rocks and ledges and the new trail goes through a lot of good stuff and some historical oddities. It's buildable in three sections and if we have enough people at both of the spring workdays we'll be riding a bunch of sweet new trail there this summer instead of a piece of low-quality trail with water problems.

The first workday is SATURDAY APRIL 15. You should register with St. Louis County Parks RIGHT NOW to ensure a free lunch. See the gorc homepage for details and directions. We'll post a map of the new sections when they're built. In the mean time, check out Ron's new mountain bike map of the Dogwood and Declue already. Then ride it all with us after the lunch on Saturday.

MMBF...even more

Here's some random pics:

The Iowa Posse spanked all in many events. Including the HillclimbTT.



The No-Touch event was off the hook!



Things got a little weird Saturday night...



Good times were had on all the rides.



Stay Tuned to the GORC website for more pics from this weekend. OR - Send 'em if you got'em!

More MMBF

I think the image speaks for itself...Friday night's ride was one for the books.

2006 MMBF is in the books

Yes folks, the 2006 Midwest Mountain Bike Festival is history, and it appears to have been a rousing success. If this photo doesn't convince you that EVERYONE had a good time, then it probably isn't going to be possible. More to follow...

Festival Music

If you're a fan of the whacked-out traditional music, don't show up late on Saturday.

The band lineup is looking great. Big thanks to Mesa Cycles for footing the bill for us to get so many good bands.

noon The Monads, punk bluegrass rockabilly, think split lip, but with more strings on the bass, I bet they hate that. Click the link and find out for yourself. Or better yet, just show up. The beer starts flowing at noon too.


2:00 Maid*Rite I don't have a link, but these girls rock country style, or play country rock style, or something. It's always a good show.

4:00 Red Ass Jones: You saw them last year but this year they'll have two more people, a mandolin, and electronical amplification. Another good country-style thing, maybe more traditional bluegrass than the others.

6:00 Dub Kitchen. Dub is kind of like reggae, but more electronic. Don't take my word for it, find out why these guys have such a big local following.

8:00ish The Choir: You might recognize Matt Black Matt James, the guitar player, as a local bike shop wrench (big shark, now mesa). Mr. Ray-of-Sunshine's band will be playing "balls-out rock and roll" as soon as he catches his breath after the night time trial, and hopefully puts on some pants.

After that, who knows.

So, fans of the stand-up bass, don't put off coming out. We have three in a row right from the get-go. Get your stuff together now, enjoy the show, get a demo bike and enjoy the trails, whatever.

Early registration is closed so when you come out you can pay your $25 (still a bargain!) for the whole shebang or pay $10 for the cheapskate limited-benefits saturday-only registration.

FEST

No Monthly Meeting 4/05/2006

There will be no monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 5th due to final preparations for the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival this weekend. Kirby says it's ok to go drink beer and talk about bikes if you like. See you this weekend!

Hell Tour

I watched this movie over the weekend. It follows Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag of the T-Mobile team during the 2003 Tour de France. It's a great movie for several reasons: 1) It has really nice footage of things you never get to appreciate through the grainy, flickering video that OLN shows, including b&w archival stuff; 2) You get to hear a lot of talk about how it really feels to go through 3 weeks of the Tour--crashes, road rash, suffering, exhilaration, not the canned answers from some riders about how everything's perfect, couldn't be better, etc.; 3) Not much about Lance.
It turns out that Zabel and Aldag are really funny as well. You find out lots of interesting things about the "glamorous" world of professional cycling--with one French historian equating the origins of the tour with a way for riders to improve their lives by getting out of the coal mines. The title in english is Hell on Wheels (Netflix), but it translates more literally as Hell Tour. In German, French and English with subtitles.

GORC Does the DRJ Bike Clinic

A few of us helped out with the DRJ sponsored Bike Clinc at Castlewood State Park on Saturday. We gave a little talk explaining what GORC does and a little about proper bike etiquette on the trail. We had a lot of interest in GORC and the Festival. Rich Love and the rest of the presenters gave GORC huge props for the work we do, very nice of them.

local bike things happening this weekend

There's a lot going on in St. Louis this weekend for bikers.

On Saturday the DRJ Racing team (and host of the local norba race series) will have a free mountain bike clinic at Castlewood state park from 9:30to noon. Rumor has it GORC will have a table and help out a bit. All ages and skill levels are welcome.

Saturday night is the cargo race in the city. Scroll down a few posts for more info.

And on Sunday 4/2 there is an informal work party at the Penrose Park Velodrome. So if you want to go help clean up the place and do some general spring tasks there, 11:00. See this thread on fis stlbiking for more info.

Oh yeah, and there's always bike riding...

Trigger traffic lights with your bike shoes

For those people not named Skywalker, this cool article shows you how to impregnate your shoe with a powerful force capable of triggering traffic lights to switch to green. Not sure if it works, but it's easy (and cheap) enough to try out.

Check the link out!

What can you carry?

This flyer just floated into my mailbox. I've seen some around town here and there too. Someone must know me well. I've long enjoyed riding my bike, carrying stuff around on it, racing, drinking, olde-timey line-art, and Engrish.

Here are both sides of it. Blogger resized the images so click them for the full effect, or click on this pdf if you want to print it yourself. Four for the price of one.

Batten down the hatches!!!

The GORC World HQ recieved word late last week that the Surly Crew from Mini-Apple-Puss, will be dropping in on our little party known as the MMBF.

THey're bringing a couple of items worth noting, a lemon/lime green 1x1 frameset to give away, and a bunch of demo bikes to ride. So, after you ride the Trek, Specialized, Orbea, or Kona, Get your freak on aboard a Surly Pugsly.

Oh yeah, it's a crappy pic, but who cares....


Get the skinny:
Surly Blog

Lost Valley - The "In" Place To Be

Yep, there were all kinds of people out there on Sunday enjoying the beautiful sunny weather, and nearly perfect trail. We ran into the Beeg and a couple of his buddies, Pete, GiGi, and Joe, Mike Dunston, and Rob, Barb and Boone. JohnnyD's car was at the Mound, so he was somewhere in the area. Supposedly we just missed Dug and the Pirate. There were lots of other hikers and bikers as well. Hopefully, everyone will be happy about helping to build trail that so many are getting out and using.
There are a couple of trees down right before the bridge, but you can ride under them. Otherwise the trail looks great, and is ready for lots of visitors from the Festival.

The Velodrones

SRAM commissioned some robot sculptures made out of parts from their various products. They look pretty cool, and are made of "brake levers, crank arms, suspension forks, cassette teeth, and other components. " This one here is the "evil" one.

South Trace Steeplechase

First off, nobody but bikers divides the Trace Creek section of the Ozark Trail in two. As far as the OTA is concerned, it's just Trace Creek. It doesn't matter, but we usually think of the section North of the Council Bluffs connector as North Trace and South as South Trace. It does make sense in a way because the trails feel different and not too many of us do day trips that involve both.

Second, the connector to C-B is a mess thanks to a bottomland trail put underwater by some enterprising beaver dam construction. It's short anyway, and you can avoid it if needed.

Anyway, a recon team of three hit the South Trace last weekend. We parked at the Middle Fork DD/32 trailhead and rode until our turnaround time and rode back. South Trace Creek is clearly one of the gems that makes the Council Bluffs area the quadruple crown of Mark Twain National Forest mountain biking, with well over sixty miles of singletrack ridable from one place -- in three directions from a really nice campground! I can totally see why two friends of mine had their bachelor parties on this trail. It's better than pole dancers and shower scenes, and the only thing you'll need any ones for is if you rip a tire!

North Trace is singlespeed central. So are council bluffs and middle fork. South Trace SS would be a real challenge if you don't put an easy gear on. I liked it just fine with gears, especially with the leaves and logs. South Trace is more technical than North and goes up and down steeper hills steeper, if that makes sense. There is a lot of cool scenery and creek valleys to ride in and out of and lots of exposed rock. Between the OTA and its adopt-a-trail program it's signed well enough to follow if you're careful when you cross the fire and logging roads. We weren't careful enough. Remember, two markers on a tree or one marker angled sideways usually indicate a turn.

OK, I mentioned the logs. Right now there are tons of logs across the trail. That needs fixing to make this as fun as the other three and Berryman. Many of the logs have been cleaned up with the handsaws so they're not hard to walk over, or if your name is Randini you could hop a lot of them, but it gets old. GORC just got six members certified to run chainsaws in the MTNF so we're trying to set a date for a sawyer run after the festival to put it right. Look for something in late April or May. We'll need help, and we'll NEED to ride it unburdened the next day. It's gonna be sweet.

links:
OTA's description
OTA's hi-res maps of TC
Our little gallery from Saturday (it was a riding day, not a picture-taking day)

The Science of Mountain Biking

The National Geographic Channel is running a show called "The Science of Mountain Biking" which looks pretty interesting. Of course, I didn't find out about it until after it ran for the last time this month. Here's a summary of the program. The listing showing the next few times for the show is here.

Land Between the Lakes

The short story is, GORC changed gears and went to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky this past weekend instead of going to Syllamo. The weather looked better, so we opted for the sure bet.

Seven of us went down and rode the Canal Loop on Saturday and the North South Trail on Sunday. We put in some serious miles for this time of year. We found out that the Pirate is a travelling convenience store as everytime we stopped, he pulled something else out of his pack to eat. Paducah has a pretty good little wood-fired pizza joint downtown. They chose to stick us out on the heated patio since we didn't make a reservation, "like" whoever heard of a pizza place needing a reservation anyway? Salsa Dos Niner frames will crack, sorry Kirbs.

We had a great time, covered over 50 miles of singletrack and I am feeling the pain today.

When is the next trip?

Berryman report

Just a quick update on the Berryman Trail. A few of us rode it a week or two ago. I had planned to haul the chainsaw around and put my new USFS sawyer certification card to use. I somehow forgot the skewer for my front wheel so I borrowed the one from the BOB trailer. No chainsaw for me that day, thank goodness. The Mark Twain National Forest people have spent some of our tax dollars on an Americorp crew to help clear that and other nearby trails. They're clearing both deadfall across the trail and hazard trees near it. Plus they've put up new "BT" trail markers and better markings at the BT/Ozark Trail intersections too. It's all money well-spent if you ask me. The Berryman is a great ride right now.

Expecting lot of dead wood in the way, I carried my new "big" folding saw, the Silky Gomboy 300, with a foot long cutting blade. Getting through a 9-inch diameter log didn't take long at all. It's much better than carrying a power saw for a day that's going to be mostly riding and with no big logs. Full review of Silky saws to follow someday.

Ron got a good GPS trace of Msr. Berryman and Matt and Ron have been working on the map and descriptive text, so stay tuned at here for a simple and printable map from us in the near future. In the mean time there are Berryman maps and info at MissouriTrailMaps and STLbiking

a dang lot of links:
Mark Twain National Forest
Silky Gomboy 300
GORC future home of berryman map
Missouri Trail Maps Berryman page
STLbiking's Berryman page

Klondike Double Switchbacks

Here's a pretty descent picture of the double switchbacks out at Klondike. This past weekend we had 18 people come out and do a little pre-fest maintenance to the trails. We re-worked one of the switchbacks on the Hogsback and did a little benching here and there where needed. For the most part, the trails were in good shape. The west side of the park was totally ready to ride despite the deluge of rain we've had recently. After a couple dry days, I think the Hogsback would be in similar shape. Most sections were slick, but solid underneath.

Greensfelder Scouting Mission

A few GORCsters were out this weekend checking things out for the partial re-route of the DeClue Trail we're going to be working on in the next couple of months (4/15 & 5/20). We walked around a lot below the current trail looking for features that would be cool to run the trail over or around. Pretty soon there was pink tape fluttering all over the place. Terbo and Matt have spent a lot of time working on this, and it looks like their hard work is really going to pay off.

Dura Ace on sale at Best Buy?

Shimano is testing an electronic Dura Ace 10-speed group. It's going to have these slick little LCD's on the brake hoods, and electronically actuated Front and Rear Derailluers.

sounds cool, but what happens when your batteries die, as your're pulling towards the Schluresburg Road climb? Now that would suck.

I'm waiting for the bigger LCD that'll mount to the stem. All you need is a memory stick, and you can watch porn while you ride!!!

False Alarm at the Oasis

OK, you don't really have to go to the news story to get this one, here's the executive summary.

* Florida band names itself This Bike is a Pipe Bomb in a cheesy attempt to get publicity

* Ohio University student puts band's sticker on his bike

* Ohio University police close off part of campus and call in the bomb squad

* Band gets publicity

The most worrisome thing in the article was this quote from a sophomore who couldn't get around the police tape:

"I'm extremely upset because I walked to class, and it was canceled."

I fear for our future.

I'm not checking out that band because, well, that's just what they want us to do.

Just Say No To Mud

Dirt Rag's website has an article about riding this time of year and what can happen when wet or thawing trails are ridden. Most of the info comes from NEMBA's website, which also provides a little more in-depth analysis.

While we may not be in quite the same situation as they are back east, this photo of the climb out of the valley on the Dogwood Trail at Greensfelder shows that we can develop the same sort of damage to our own trails. (Yes, there are bike tracks there, too.)

Good stuff happening in Southern Illinois

The fine folks at Shawnee Mountain Bike Association, Southern Illinois' IMBA Club, are building some tasty new trail, like the beautiful logride option above. See more pictures from their last workday here. They're working this Sunday March 5th and don't have nearly the number of people in the area as we do. Most of the time that's a great thing. On workdays, not so much. The best plan would be to go ride one of their many trails on Saturday, camp, and work Sunday. I know, too much sh-- er, stuff to do... seems to be a problem for everyone. Go ride down there sometime anyway. It's not all that far.

There's more info on this weekend in the our forum here, and of course at SMBA's website.

Can't wait to ride with these guy's

Editors www.editorsofficial.com

Birmingham, England, UK

Members
Thomas SmithChris UrbanowiczRussell LeetchEdward Lay

Editors (never The Editors) are a British indie rock band from Birmingham, England, who met at Staffordshire University , comprised of Tom Smith (lyricist/vocalist/guitarist), Chris Urbanowicz (guitarist), Russ Leetch (bass guitarist) and Ed Lay (drummer). Their brand of epic, sweeping indie rock is frequently compared to other purveyors of such, including Joy Division, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Kitchens of Distinction, The Chameleons, and Interpol. However, the band is considered to have achieved their own unique identity which differentiates them from these comparisons.
The band were not always known by their current name, but were known as (The) Pride, before they changed the line-up and became known as Snowfield, becoming a popular unsigned band. They remained with this name until they signed with Kitchenware Records in September 2004.
The band's debut single "Bullets" was released as a limited edition of 500 on Kitchenware Records on January 24, 2005; it quickly gained support from radio stations such as Xfm and 6 Music. As other singles were released their popularity and fanbase grew larger.
Their debut album The Back Room was released on 25 July 2005, to critical acclaim.

The crazy folks from down under have done it!

Imagine being a kangaroo. As a kangaroo you naturally love mountain biking. But alas, it is such a hassle getting the bike to and from your favorite trail. You've tried adding a hitch mounted rack to your tail, but it chafes and you are losing patches of hair. You tried putting it into your cool little marsupial pouch. But with each hop the handlebars smack you square in the nose and the pedals dent the 40oz Fosters stored in your pouch.

Well, the cool folks at OnYerBikes have come up with a solution. A folding Mountain Bike! Now you can have a snazzy Full Suspension rig complete with SRAM X9 components that folds up small enough to fit comfortably in your pouch so that you can take it anywhere! Check it out at:

http://www.onyerbike.com.au/

The Pimp putting the hurt on at Froze Toes!

The Pimp, 3-Bowl, Fixie and I went over and tried our luck at the Winter Worlds (a.k.a. Froze Toes) yesterday. Those guys raced the 19+ 5's while I was in the 3/4's. I took out at 11:30 and did a fairly easy 31 mile loop only losing the pack at the last few meters up to the line. I felt pretty good about this considering, well it's February for christ's sake and it was a 3/4's race.

For the other guys, I expected nothing less than a win. The GORC boys failed to come home with the hardware, but did put on a good showing. Unfortunately, our boy Fixie got segregated from the other two for being an even number. Apparently, there were too many 5's and due to their unsafe riding skills, were forced to half the field. That left Fixie to fend for himself and the Pimp and 3-Bowl to wreck havoc on their own. It sounded like they attempted to stir the field, but couldn't get anything going until the final few miles. With a couple guys off the front, the Pimp attacked dragging 3-Bowl with him to the line. At 30+, 3-Bowl was set adrift and the Pimp came across the line in fine GORC fashion as the picture below will prove. Great job by those guys to make it a race!

Mardi Gras Survived Successfully!

Thanks to all of the tips it was a breeze making it through another Mardi Gras.
Here, our own Sniker risks life and limb to ensure that the keg tap was installed correctly. She gave it a very thorough inspection, and after giving it a thumbs-up, the beer was flowing again in no time.
It was that kind of personal sacrifice and generosity that allowed everyone to have a good time, even on such a cold, blustery day.

The Final List for Surviving Mardi Gras

"From last weekend's Dog Parade. No, really, she had complete control of the situation."


The List

1. Don't give alcohol to minors. They can find it without your help.

2. Bring warm clothes. You can always take them all off.

3. Warn surrounding partygoers before attempting a kegstand. Never interrupt the flow of beer unless absolutely necessary.

4. If two or more kegs are present and one contains quality brew always, always, always, drink the shittier beer first. Never move backwards, it's hard enough to stand.

5. Skanks and bead whores prefer shitty beer, especially Bud Light. Remember this.

6. Never pass out in public.

7. If it's past 3pm, it is not considered inappropriate to ask the hot lonely female behind you if she wants to use the restroom at the same time because, hell, you can just piss in the sink. This can lead to tip 8.

8. Always lock the door when using the restroom. No explanation necessary.

9. The Jagermeister goes quick. Get in line if you want a hit. A $40.00 bottle will disappear in 5 minutes.

10. Drain all combustible motors of gasoline, including but not limited to, chainsaws, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, motorcycles, cherry pickers, tractors, and model airplanes.

11. Hide the drained gasoline - even from yourself.

12. Finally, never ride down a flight of stairs on a sled no matter how badly that hot chick begs you. It always hurts like the sky is eternally blue.

GORC Wants Your Ca$h

Yep, the Trail Pimp's got expensive taste. What with buying new trailbuilding tools, paying for newsletters, posters and other printed stuff to get the word of GORC out, and even putting on the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival, things add up. What better time to renew your membership?
Not a member yet? 10 bucks a year is a bargain to help maintain and develop new singletrack in the STL, isn't it? Don't forget to check out the work schedule to see other ways you can help.

Workdays this Weekend

There are several workdays going on this weekend. Why not get out and help build some trail.

First, is our own re-route and maintenance at Matson Hill on Saturday, from 9-1. We're going to re-route the one climb that's become a little too rough to sustain. As usual, there will be a ride afterward pending the weather.

If that's not enough for you, SMBA has a workday going on Sunday, Feb. 19th to reroute a section of the Cove Hollow Trail. This is a really fun, technical trail which is going to be even better once they get done fixing up a few sections.

Also, for you people in Illinois, Rod is having a workday at Lake Lou Yaeger near Litchfield on Saturday the 18th. They're steadily getting trail built and pretty soon it's going to be a place to go for mountain biking. There's a real nice lake for swimming there as well.

Human hybrids

The Stokemonkey is a human-electric hybrid drive bicycle kit. Think of a really long bicycle with racks, bags, and a back seat that's supposed to pedal easier than a regular bike. From the webpage it looks great for people with long commutes, people who use a bike instead of a car, or MILFs that want to haul their baby home from the grocery store. It's sold as a $1350 kit that attaches to a bike with an xtracycle freeradical kit already on it, so by the time you have something that works you're looking at easily a couple grand. Too bad, but it's still less than it cost to rebuild my truck transmission and clutch.

This is not to be confused with the human-animal hybrids that a less clever chimp warned us about. We've got labs full of them already and now they're on T-shirts.

I got this link from a decent interview with the founder of Xtracycle in some online environmental magazine called Grist. The interview is pretty good and has some other silly links in the middle. (thanks BobF)

disclaimer: I haven't used the stokemonkey and I haven't seen any human-animal hybrids around here.

all the LINKS:
human electric hybrid
human animal hybrid
Kipchoge Spencer interview
Xtracycle
Grist

Tool Review: Fiskars Loppers

I borrowed a well-worn set of these 15-inch Fiskars Powergear Anvil Loppers for a while at an OTA workday and was pretty impressed. They went through stuff as big as my 24" bypass loppers but were a lot lighter and quicker. I think the geared drive works well with short handles. With the longer-handled geared loppers you have to move the handles a long way to get it onto whatever you're cutting. I like the small size because you can carry them easier and munch through scrubby brush faster than with the big'uns. Long handles are nice for thorn patches though. Anvil loppers are generally better for hard woody stuff, (and trailwork) while bypass are easier on the plants in your yard that you're pruning, not killing. Both work fine. Also, these are made in Finland, so they have that freaky european playschool style going, if you're into that.

If you're looking for a little set of loppers, these are GORC-recommended and worth the twenty-something bucks. Besides, the club already has a bunch of big loppers now thanks to a discount from Fiskars. For some reason Lowe's didn't have them but Home Depot did, although the last time I was at Lowe's they had a screaming closeout on fiskar's 24" bypass loppers for $12, and of the two big-box stores, Lowe's usually has nicer stuff.

Tip List #2 for Surviving Mardi Gras

Wearing too many beads will attract the dirty ladies who think that just your acknowledgement of their existence is enough to warrant them ownership of your best beads.

Beware the female with the most beads. She may be hot but she probably works the pole on amateur night.

Respect anyone who limits their drink intake to shots (or Pun's Hurricanes) all day and later wants to shotgun a beer or two. They will win. Unless that tall engineer guy shows up.

The bathrooms will be backed up for at least 30 minutes, plan accordingly. Eventually they may not even work. At which time you will rely on Plan B and find that bush you scouted earlier on the way down.

Microsoft wins a round in the online mapping war

When Google came out with their mapping service it was the best thing out there, at least the best thing out there free and not requiring installation on your computer. Now they have google earth which is also pretty cool, but dog slow on my old computer. It's neat but hasn't been all that useful to me yet, mainly due to the old PIII-550. And while maps.google draws strange cartoonish maps that are very good in cities, it's worthless for small towns and country roads, even in Missouri where the country has a lot of roads. The roads don't get labels until you're zoomed in so far that only one is on the screen.

Well microsoft has jumped in with both feet with the curiously-named local.live.com. Unlike google, it actually shows the names of the roads at useful times. The maps of the boonies are better and it has aerial views, click-and-drag panning, and google.earth-like zoom-in when you double-click. It works ok for me with firefox on windows 2k, winxp, and linux, although like windows, it makes my computer slower when it's up. I have no idea if it runs on a mac.

Example: where do you think this is? (You have to click these images to see them full-size.)



Worthless... Maybe this will make it more clear.



And what the hell is up with this All Roads Named 3 business? I've seen this all over. Many MO highways get erroneously numbered 3. Maybe that's why they hide the labels...

Google Maps still has some things going for it, but I guess they're going to have to step it up in the accuracy and usability departments. I still use both, and I'm hoping one of them will decide to show us rivers someday...

As always, your mileage may vary.

The Great Randini in Action

Randy shows how it's done at Chubb on Saturday. To put in perspective how big that log is, remember he's on a 29er!

Jedi at SIUE

The only thing missing from the ride last night was the Pimp and his Vistalite.
Between forgotten and half-charged batteries we decided to do about half the ride jedi-style.
The clouds were really low so we were able to get a lot of reflected light from the university, which was enough to make it rideable. If you think SIUE is fun when it's completely dry, you should try dodging the trees when the trails are a little wet-- jedi!

Boonen scores a hat-trick in Qatar.

Somebody's been hittin' it hard in the off-season.