RIDEABIKE

GMSR//Volunteers Needed!

The Green Mountain Stage Race, Vermont's most prestigious cycling event, is coming up this weekend and the GMBC is looking for volunteers to help out.

Details below:

We are still needing help with the 2010 criterium. If you have had fun this summer on ANY GMBC event, the time trial, Sunday tours, Wednesday or Tuesday training rides, anything at all, here is your chance to give something back.

Some people are concerned about devoting a whole day to the event, but this is absolutely NOT the case. We have three shifts, noted below. Just give 3 hours or so. What will you get?

1. You will provide MUCH NEEDED help in Vermont's biggest cycling event.
2. You get a cool t-shirt
3. You get the best seat for the wildest bike race you've ever seen (if you have never seen a criterium, you absolutely MUST see this).
4. You get a cool t-shirt
5. You support the GMBC in providing this stage of the Green Mountain Stage Race
6. You get a cool t-shirt.

It's easy. You will simply make sure that people are able to cross the street in a manner that is safe for them and the riders. You don't need ANY knowledge of bike racing at all. We will show you what to do and how to do it. You will be busy enough that you won't be bored, but it's not too stressful.

The bottom line is; we need you. We really do. Please consider taking a few hours to watch this amazing race through the streets of Burlington, and help out YOUR club. To sign up, please contact:

1st shift 8:00-11am Larry Colletti- larryc@ebpabenefits.com

2nd shift 10:30 am to 2pm David White- whiteknight@burlingtontelecom.net

3rd shift 1:30 to 5pm Sandy Dupuis - dupuiss@us.ibm.com or srdupuis1@yahoo.com

Bicycle City!

Upstaging Copenhagen in the bike-friendly category? Dream big:

Bicycle City

The Lost Cyclist//Burlington

In 1892, Frank Lenz, a young American cyclist, started his journey to bike around the world with his camera. Traveling east to west, he got as far as Turkey before he vanished. Author David Herlihy brings to life not only this great story, but the early days of cycling and the wonders of adventure tourism.

The Lost Cyclist: Slideshow and Presentation by author David Herlihy
Wednesday, August 11th, 7-9pm in the Fletcher Room
Fletcher Free Library, College Street, Burlington
Directly following the talk: Meet the author for a post-event party at Stone Soup, 211 College Street.

Herlihy has traveled coast to coast giving this presentation. To learn more about him and his book, click here. This event is sponsored by the Old Spokes Home and Local Motion, and is free and open to the public. For more information contact: adele@localmotion.org

Bolton TT

I finally made it into the sub 30min club! It appears that there have only been a handful of guys that have made it up in under 30min on the GMBC TT course that starts a few miles east on Rt.2.

Liam's Last Stand

The Burlington Water Front (yup, TWO words...) redevelopment takes no prisoners, and though easy issue can be taken with the fact that this crew considers it a "bike polo court" rather than a hockey rink (or flatground skate spot. -Ed) the fact is that the local bureaucracy is planning on dozing the bike polo gang's spot. Info on the big send-off here:

THE LAST STAND

Gear Diary: Ride

Holy Moses, it was a scorcher today. A dry heat, near on a million American degrees, winds from the south blowing hot, dusty, nasty. Was going to ride in the early afternoon but decided to wait to see if the temps got any better. This bit of intelligence did not work.

Did a loop that included pock marked hell RT 125. The upside of the heat was that the shit pavement ceased to be the main concern.

Hat's off to anyone that rode today...felt good, didn't it?

PS_I didn't take any pictures today, but here's a little sign for you to dig on...

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Total Mileage: 448

Gear Diary: Ride

Did a good mixed-surface loop today. Farm country happens to be pretty gridded out, making for very scalable rides, with the only downside being that some of the configurations you create can end up involving dirt roads. This ride included a couple dirt sections seen below:

Franny emailed me this photo the other day, straight from the Rapha Continental. Same weird scene, riding a road bike on dirt, except the dirt he was navigating happened to be the last seven miles of the Leadville 100 course.

One of these days he'll update us on this adventure as well as the race he won a couple of weeks ago.

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Total Mileage: 434

Gear Diary: Commute

Yeesh, did my morning ride to the bus in the quickest time ever. The bus stop is a weird scene. Tallboy of Steel Reserve, unopened?

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Total Mileage: 418

Evolution

A few years ago, I gave a presentation to my peers about how "I think" trick-track will do to fix gears, as to what freeriding did for mountain biking. At this time the only videos on the in-turrr-net were the Mash kids. Going fast and skidding. Then on Cadence we saw Tom LaMarche airing out over pallets. I knew right then riding a fix gear would forever change.

Think about mountain biking. It was fucking boring to see or watch until Freeriding was born. Kids were hucking 10-15ft drops to flat concrete on DH bikes. Then the mountain bike industry got wise and started making freeride specific bikes. Now 10 years later...BOOM. If you don't know what I am talking about, you shouldn't be reading this.

Don't get me wrong, I love riding single-track (I am not a freerider), I ride a fix gear, but I don't do tricks (It's a great commuting bike). But I understand why cycling needs to evolve. It will get boring with hardtail xc bikes and $12k road bikes...

Well, it seems like the bike industry has been answering the demands of the riders. Smaller frames are being constructed, some kids are running 26inch wheels with 42+ width tires! Seats are lower, handlebars are higher and gear ratios reduced. Is this a good thing? Yes. For the people who are still watching this scene prrogress, here are some interesting new builds (yes, they are fixgears):

The best bike I own

Because of it's functionality. It was my turn to get beer for my kickball team. Say what you must about kickball, but 200 people having fun seems okay by me.

Also, say what you must about the Giant Transport. I love it. Sorry. It's an 8-speed.

Gear Diary: Commute

Had to run to the hospital this morning so rode from there down to the studio. Maple Street on a fixed-gear is miserable.
Not riding for the next few days so I rode from Shelburne all the way home. Hammered, if I do say so myself.

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Total Mileage: 402

Gear Diary: Commute

Tailwind home today from Shelburne.

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Total Mileage: 371

Gear Diary: Commute

Usual day. South Burlington to the Studio, Shelburne to Vergennes. Seeing more and more people on Greenbush. Got passed by a guy on a Cervelo TT bike.

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Total Mileage: 352

Gear Diary: Commute

Normal morning. Streets are chopped up in Burlington.
Afternoon ride from Shelburne to Vergennes. Headwind
was gruesome.

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Total Mileage: 333

Gear Diary: Ride

Got to do a bizarre little ride here in New Hampster over the Memorial Day weekend. The Cotton Valley Trail is typical of the converted railroad bed-style bike paths found practically everywhere, except for one difference: the tracks are still there. The photo above shows one of the few sections where you're not actually riding between the two rails.

It runs from Wolfeboro to Sanbornville but my we only went about half-way (on a pair of older Schwinn cruisers.) It is treacherous, with vary little room to move, should you encounter pedestrians, other riders, or horses (yes, gnar.) During the ride my sister regaled me with tales of her recent accidents (she is an avid rider, has a few centuries under her belt, including one through all the notches.) She talked of rim-bending incidents many miles from home, having to hoof it back with slashed feet and bruised ribs. Tough kid.

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Total Mileage: 314

oh shit

First of all, I love Judge Judy. She made 80 mil last year. I know this because I just saw her Nightline segment after the nightly news. Pretty cool chick. Also a little trivia�the bailiff in the show was her bailiff when she was a judge back in NYC family court. She took him with her. Again, cool chick. Plus these kids are hilarious.

Gear Diary: Commute

Short bike path action this morning.
Had a late meeting in South Burlington so am just zipping home from Charlotte to Vergennes.
Have to travel for work the next few days...no riding.

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Total Mileage: 302

Gear Diary: Darkness

Morning: odd backtracking scenario due to an experiment with checking out the bike path repair progress. Looks like they had fix maybe half to 3/4s of the bad spots.

Home? I blew out my tire on my blue bike earlier and didn't feel like fixing it so I grabbed my cruiser. Left for home at 2:11...AM.

A nice time to do some car shopping...26 mpg/hwy...want.

Only 22 mpg...and expensive as all Hell:

Coming into Shelburne.

That expensive restaurant.

Getting off Rt. 7 and heading into the absolute most bizarre bike experience of my life.

Lots and lots of this:

On a moonless night you basically "navigate" via a kind of lo-resolution vanishing point that you can actually see better if you're not looking directly at it.

A quick stop at the Brick Store in Charlotte. 3:10 AM.

More darkness. It goes from terrifying to tranquil and back again. It's a singular experience.

Back on RT. 7. This is Ferrisburg, and the first actual traffic I've seen in over an hour. Greenbush was empty.

The turn onto 22A.

More car shopping.

Coming into Vergennes.

And done.

I do not recommend this, but all the same, it was one of the most amazing things I've done in a long time. It was either the safest ride I've ever had or the most dangerous and to be honest I would do it again in a heartbeat. I felt like I could have done two or three times the distance without even thinking about it. It's the first ride in a while where my head was truly clear, and for that reason alone it was worth it.

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Total Mileage: 288

Gear Diary: Commute (Journey Thursday)

Nice, quiet ride this morning. Home Ave. repaving seems done. Not sure about the bike path.

Ride home: another busy trip, dirty, dusty, buggy and muggy. Took a detour about half way through. Less hilly but with a nice little gravel bonus.

Didn't see Floyd out there. I remember being out at Giant for a meeting a few years ago when The Noid dropped the field by seven or so minutes. Everyone was gathering in a conference room to watch the race and when Landis won the stage, Skip, the President of Giant at the time, tapped his arm a couple times and said "They must have a great batch today..."

What makes the Floyd thing more interesting than anything is that we've all come across someone like him...someone whose desperation drives them to such crazy ends that they're capable of anything. He's gone from being someone that people empathized with to essentially being the least trustworthy person on earth. A pathological case whom you wouldn't believe even if he was telling the truth.

Anyway, he wasn't out there on my road today, and he hopefully wasn't out on yours either. Ouch.

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Total Mileage: 261.5

Handmade Since 1972

Pen/watercolor pen studies to warm up for something 2011-ish for Giant.