Monday, February 28, 2011

NAHBS Coverage


It's that time of year again. Time for the gorgeous bikes of the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show to pop up on the web. There is just no shortage of imagination and talent and dedication to all things cycling when you start to look through all of the galleries out there. I found galleries at the following web addresses:
www.urbanvelo.org
www.cyclingnews.com
www.bikerumor.com
www.fixedgeargallery.com
www.mtbr.com

If you see a good one let me know. I would say it's a tossup for which show I like best, Interbike or NAHBS. I guess I'd rather see the NAHBS bikes that are sculpted, hammered, poured, layered, brazed, CNCed, lugged, and cobbled than the sanitized and safe commercial offerings at Interbike, so I have to say NAHBS is my favorite of the two. Wouldn't it be cool if Minneapolis hosted some year and I somehow got to go?!

One more thing I have to share. If I see one more bamboo bike, just one more, I swear I am going to kill the next Panda I see! That has to be the most annoying trend I have seen in the last few years. It's bamboo people, so what! You take a piece of bamboo, put it between some lugs, and make a frame out of it. Not that interesting. I saw a tallbike made of the stuff, a mixte, and too many road bikes to remember. I have a suggestion to make before someone makes a bamboo framed, belt drive, fixed gear with internal 5 speed hub, tandem niner tallbike, with drop bars and a beer rack. Go right ahead, but for every bamboo bike built, a Panda must be ritualistically slaughtered. Checks and balances. Move beyond. Next trend, re-bar bikes! I've already seen a couple. Later!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Hot Rumor FYI

For anybody interested, I have it on good authority that the 12/24 hour race at Seven Oaks may well be moved from its traditional date of Labor Day Weekend. The newest I'm hearing is that it will be moved to the last weekend in August. I hope that this will help to boost numbers back up to where they were in the second through fourth years. It makes sense that some people just don't want to give up a 3 day weekend for the purpose of self-degradation and torture! Now if I could get Kyle(s) and Ron to take me seriously about a midnight to noon 12 hour grouping ( a little help anyone?) maybe I could convince myself to try this silly race again! My case for this time slot is simple. I won't have to take a weekend off to race, and I can hang out in the pits and do nothing until the bell tolls to get on the bike and ride for half a day. As Kyle Robinson said when I first asked him about a midnight start, there would probably be a lot more night laps ridden. That's kind of the thing with an event like this. The night riding puts you way out of the box and into a new dimension. Also, I think racing toward sunlight is more energizing than racing into the darkness. It would be nice to be given the choice, so I guess we'll see. Hoping to ride gravel Sunday and/or Tuesday. Later!