Uniquely unUnique

Bigger and smarty

So technically I'm in grad school now, although not currently in term for the summer.  So technically I should be reading and sketching and kicking ass like a good student.  I haven't even touched a pencil except to cut 2x4s and tiles at work, let alone pick up a Copic to make some hotness (which I can't really do anyway, yet).  But I am a wicked strong flatland rider currently, thanks to a pretty good amount of time behind the motorcycle.  I can do breakaway efforts like never before. I wouldn't even have to beat Myerson in cyclocross sprints anymore.

But this isn't really about how awesome I am, cause you know that already.  This about BIGGER FASTER STRONGER, which is, IMHO (big ups to my man Sachs!) is a good documentary (if you have netflix, you can watch it on demand via your computer, or hook it up to your tv like we do).  Watch the trailer:

Now I think pretty much anyone with muscles is on the juice.  It's to be expected, really. We're human and competitive.  Winners get more pussy, right?  I was lured into considering that steriods weren't so bad, as the documentarian leads you down a path of questioning the validity of concern.  A lot of points he makes are pretty valid and interesting, from Air Force pilots (on the uppers) to loser wrestlers.  He interviews Floyd and that ridiculous guy with the huge arms(watch trailer). 

You guys all righteous about anti doping and calling out everyone-don't bother commenting.  Its gotten quite boring really.

Milla just purchased one of these badgirls, 40+mpg booyah!

I just realized Thomas Voeckler looks a lot my old teammate Boyd.
Poor Thomas.

Riding in july feels special, feels better. The tour is just so beautiful.

hicksters vs hipster

I read this bicycle design blog and for a while that dude started every.single.post with something like 'i'm so busy I can't write too much, but here goes...'

I'm not that guy.  But somehow school is over, summer kicked in and I find myself being a handyman from 9-5, sweating balls off all day then jump on the bike for 3 hours, eat then sleep.  That simple little algorithm has made this summer just fly by. 

Plus, I'm starting to get annoyed with every hipster design kid trying to redesign a bike for 'normal' people or some super amazing new and highly improbable commuter bike that will change the face of America once and for all.  I love to make fun of hipsters as much as any of us (since you are probably a hipster, too, right? I mean who isn't?) and the most satisfying hipster bitch-slap happened at a lecture earlier this year by a researcher from Ideo.  She basically said during the development of the Shimano Coast system, they realized that people where sorta freaked out walking into a bike shop and being told by some tattooed hipster kid that they needed this and that in a bike.  At that moment, the sea of hipsters (all dying to show their cred, tight jeans and cute obscure cap) froze, and some coughed.  Hopefully their thick-with-irony persona allowed them a small personal snicker.

That was a highly tangential rant about nothing.

So I rocked a cannonball trip up to PA for a surprise family visit[slash]Trans Rockies training camp in my beloved Rothrock and newly beloved Raystown Lake trails.  Holy DANG! 32 miles of the most fun singletrack-I swear 30 miles of it is downhill.  If you get a chance to make a day trip, don't hesitate.  Plus you get to watch complete hicksters drive either faux cigarette boats or pontoon boats around the lake.  You know how fun it is to stop on a ride and start making fun of people you don't know or understand.

Ohh-and I got to ride a stage of the Tour de Burg. Next time its gotta be the whole stage race, but hopefully I don't have to get a hideous haircut like the locals.  Look for an article in Bike mag sometime in the future.  Although Vanity Fair and The Economist are the only magazines worth reading, really.

I'd totally give you my weekend TSS and average power and modified beefcake outputs but, NOBODY CARES.  But more importantly: I had a super fun time with some of my favorite people (chipper, dr.thorne and richie rich the pussy bitch).  And I saw a rattlesnake.

Remember: the best parts of bike riding you just can't quantify.