Cross Worlds are over. Nys crashed out of contention, that’s about the only big news. Oh and Page, homeboy got 10th! Hellz yes kiddies that’s a big deal. Go Jon. And he was even rolling a Cervelo! Nice timing from the boys up in Cannuckistan. Not to take anything away from anyone, but gol’darn I wish ol’ Team USA would act like fkn Italians (or Dutch, Belgian, etc) and have everyone else in the national stripe ride for Pagey; he’d freekin’ podium for sure. Of course it’s more American to have everyone just ride for themselves. Whatever. Ann Knapp rocked 9th – you go girl and yeah we told you she’d do well this year back in our report at day one of the season. The Bella’s did a respectable 24th & 25th, Selander the phenom took 7th in Jr’s and in the Espoirs/U23 well, we weren’t so hot. We’re wondering what happened to Rebecca Much, who showed such great form as an all-arounder last year after winning silver at the World Jr. Time Trial and going on to medal at the ’04 cross Nats. Guess her new road team is keeping her out of the mud and hurdles in the winter. C’est la vie. Good on all the boys n girls who went over and threw down though, you know it caint be easy.
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Four Weaks In A Month
Thirteen whole days of riding this January, including Midnight Ridazz, out of twenty-eight past just hence. Whatever, yesterday looked like this: Griffith Park Dr. to Victory Blvd., a stretch which Sellers spent most of the time impersonating a Hummer driver on a cel phone, 
to Western Ave to Mountain St. to East Mountain St. to Camino San Rafael up to Emerald Isle Dr. down to Chevy Chase Dr. to Highland Dr. to Linda Vista Ave. to Colorado Blvd., through Toonerville to Los Feliz to home. That was the ‘let’s take it easy and also check out some new terrain’ ride on Friday. For Sellers and me, this year it’s all about the grind. Base miles. Camino San Raf is muy steeps ese. Long, tall and chock full o’ high percentage grades -stop pedaling and you’re going backwards grades. 
We were rewarded with the view at the top and the knowledge that everything up or down after this would be candy. I’m glad I don’t wear a heart meter ‘cause I redlined way before we hit the Emerald Isle escape. The more familiar and mostly downhill spin through East Pasadena to Glendale was lovely in the crisp afternoon. The air was fairly fresh and easy to brethe and traffic was light. It wasn’t’ long then til we hit the river-adjacent communities of home, where the freaks come out to detail their vehicles by the park. 
And thus endeth month one of the year of taking this shit seriousish. One month of four weaks. There’s a big hole in the middle of the calendar with no riding but a generally positive chunk of miles for the first 30odd days of the year. Finished today on the fixt two-four, sunset and spinning. Grand totals: 373.17 k’s/233.23 m’s and about 20 hrs in the saddle. Not bad for less than half the month on the rig so what the hell, it’s something. 
Thursday past was Aught for Poetry at Brand Books; packed with some of the finest poets in LA and curated by Stosh Machek of Big Chicago, the Brand is always a must – it’s the last Thursday of every other month (so March’ll be next up). Worth hitting to see Don Newton, S.A. Griffin, Brenden Constantine, Teka Lark Lo and who ever else drops in. 
It’s an A-game, invitation only affair with great orators in an awesome setting – an independent bookstore! Check Machek's link for details in the future. A good 2006 to everyone – viva February.
Northern Report
We'll it's back to Montreal at the moment; snow, slush, ice-rain and bad attempts at conversing in French. As is often the case around the start of a new year, many old friends have reconnected as we all embark on new activities and look for ways to combine our efforts and skills. One such entity is the Canadian director William Morrison. Brother William wears many hats, including that of guitarist for Skinny Puppy. He's mainly a bang-up filmmaker who's work I highly recommend you check out. He's also got a pretty cool blog that he posts to from his travels; if you scroll down on it you'll find a QT file of a great interview he did with Ramsey Clark. Despite all the freeze and wet, there's plenty of rolleurs on the streets here, whetting my appetite to get back to the hills of Los and the rigs in the garage. 
Before departure there were some rainy but lovely afternoons on the trails in which tires, machine and engine were put to the test handling the slick unpredictable conditions. A fun time had by all. More sooner, til then Viva!
Fuse/ReFuse Review w Bonus Ridazz Report
Test pig part deux. The Fuse and ReFuse against the streets of Los. The Fuse was my shortie for a bunch of miles. Red and knurled, front and back, the Fuse got me through. This is one of maxy’s training tires for road bikes. I run 23’s, you can get’m in 25 if that’s your thing. A nice thing about Maxxis is that you can order direct from their website but better yet, help out your local and ask the shop manager to order you some. The Fuses fit my requirements of affordable, new, colors and Kevlar. Because I really hate flats, I usually run Spinskins tire liners. The Mr. Tuffy’s are more affordable, but I splurge for the Kevlar – I’m sure the weight savings makes me faster. The Fuses do not have what the maker calls Silkworm technology, which is a casing or liner between the inner layers of the tire, helping it be resistant to flats. Now, when I was a kid there was a popular brand of skateboard that put a sheet of black paper in the ply’s and claimed all sorts of bullpuck about strength and flexibility due to the ‘special’ layer. So that’s pretty much what I think of when I read about things like Silkworm, but I would soon find out that there is some truth to Maxxis’ claims.
The Fuse’s are not exactly racing slicks, but they don’t have a tread either. Continuing the skate comparison, they too have the durometer stamped on the wheel - 62a, fairly soft but not as sticky as their freeride tires. What they feature is a surface not unlike that of the Hookworms reviewed in Pt. 1, only without the crop circle groove. This diamond-shaped texture is plenty grippy while allowing maximum patch contact with the road, good shit. They brick up at 120psi, I usually run closer to 110. The roads around here are multi-condition of a unique sort. On the street you’ve got glass, metal plates, paint, tar, oil, cracks and potholes like any other city. Once you get up in the hills, you have more potholes and cracks plus fallen branches, sand traps, mud, road erosion, water bars, puddles, algae, falling rocks, gravel – loose and packed, thorns, dry leaves, wet leaves, horse shit, dog shit, coyote, raccoon, skunk and human shit, snakes and strange gay men lurking in the tree line. It’s a great place to test tires. As previously noted on this site, I have an affinity for the muck and grime. I was the kid who rode through every puddle, until I learned about cyclocross and started racing through every puddle. I look to the Spring Classics for inspiration on the road rig. If the big boys can ride roadies on 20s and 23s over cobbles, through sand, mud and water, then so can everyone. Road bikes are not fragile bits of paper to be coddled, they are rugged machines; same for wheels and tires. If you have good balance and practice handling skills you can steer a skitterish road bike through most any obstacle you’ll encounter riding some old fire access road in the hills. For tires though, this means that I demand constant contact with the road even when it’s wet and cold. They must perform, grabbing where they can over rocks and gravel. When floating through sand I expect the highest degree of cooperation from the rubber. I am hard on my road tires, which is why I do not buy gossamer thin ‘racing’ slicks. The Fuse’s held up during months of this sort of abuse. They also spent months sitting in a garage without getting dry, chapped or flaky. Can’t say the same for last season’s fat man in a marshmallow suit tires. Changing flats is made easier by the relatively supple casing of the Fuses, which allow you to get the tire off with minimal use of the irons. More important in the valiant effort to avoid pinch flats, you can get the tire back on without the levers at all if you’re clever about it. Riding these tires was a pleasure – I felt safe taking descents through particularly bad sections of road without touching the brakes. When I did have to decelerate there was very little fishtailing; the tires would not break loose unless I really shifted weight and skidded on purpose. After five or six hundred miles, wear was minimal and even. Sadly, the Fuse’s life came to an end at the hand of a drunkenly tossed vodka bottle, laying in wait for an unsuspecting tire to slash. We were riding calmly along at a good clip when the bottle revealed itself out of nowhere. We avoided the main cluster of glass around the neck, but the body had flashed out across the ground and in the low light it was not reflective enough to notice all the danger. Why people throw anything, especially bottles, out of car windows is cause for much reflection. I watched the wheels bounce over the knife-edge of a long sliver from the bottom of the bottle, and then in slow motion the shard flew up between the chain stays and bounced off the edge of my helmet. When I finally came to a stop and assessed the damage, I found a thumb-sized gash in the rear tire, right down to the casing threads, but not punching the tube. Bravo. The tire was too wounded to risk going further into the hills. Bummer ‘cause I had set out fully intending to do 3hrs and it was only 40 minutes into the roll. I poked around for another tire, since it was just the rear I needed to replace, but I couldn’t find any Fuses in the local shops so I limped along with last year’s Speedium on the backend. In a fit of the spendys, I went on-line and ordered a set of ReFuses direct from the factory. When they showed up, I shoed em both and made the old red Fuse the spare.
The main differences with the Re’s are this: they have an extra layer of anti-stab substance (Silkworm) and they only come dressed like Johnny Cash. They probably weigh more – who cares. The ReFuses have had exactly two rides – one hour up and over and around the hill and Midnight Ridazz on Friday the 13th. First of all, RIDAZZ! Ok, more on that in a minute. On the hill I used every dirt track shortcut up the hill and took the more beat up, gnarlier road down. Since the tires are identical in tread, width and pressure there were no surprises. I had a scary bobble at speed through a longish stretch of loose sand, but that had nothing to do with the tires. I was conscious that I had opted not to run any Spinskins or Tuffy’s, preferring to allow the refusal of puncture to come from the new shoes solomente. It made me worry through some sections of glass but after awhile I forgot about it. The oddest thing was getting used to black tires with black sidewalls but that didn’t take long either.
The next night was the second Saturday of the month and so, Ridazz. Friday the 13th, full moon, Ridazz. Life is funny that way. I wore plaid for the occasion and pulled the Gunnar from the stable, instantly rolling it though dog poop in the yard. Nice. Double D and I met up at a bar near the start, had fun being laughed at by the room full of cabrons and chiquitas, finished our beers and went across the street for tacos. From the number of cyclists we’d both seen on the way over, it was shaping up to be a big group. As the parking lot filled and spilled out into traffic, we went to Nirvana’s for fortifications in paper bags. Looking back we saw at least a hundred people, probably more. 
One of the cooler things in the lot was a Ulock Mobster passing out stickers listing the civic code entitling cyclists to the full use of the traffic lane. After a little longer someone came round with spokecards and we knew it wouldn’t be long before departure. 
Spokecards, for the uninitiated are the laminated 3x4’s you see in all the messenger’s spokes. In alleycat racing they are often a means of denoting the event and your number in it, but in mass rides like this, they give you a cool souvenir of the ride and a bonus route index on the back. With a plastic bugle salute we’re off following some of the usual routes through downtown, out to the edge of Boyle Heights, looping around the river, etc. until we basically wound up a few blocks from Squadra HQ. DD’s broham and his BMX crew were with us, along with some cats DD’s been rolling with lately. 
Since the last time I rolled a Ridazz, Brother Chris had built up a sweet new/old stock with an internal 3pseed hub. One o the BMX cats, Wyatt, was running a 20” with 10/29 ratio and busting moves throughout the ride. Apparently he’s pro motocross and the pushbike is for training. Rolling 360’s on the street is one thing but at speed on the banks of the LA River? Impressive. The ladies seemed to think so too. The stops along the way did more to string out the pack than hold it together, and when the route narrowed along the river we found ourselves pretty far back in the field. Finally we reached the designated conclusion of the ride, a cul de sac deep in Rascals territory and about six blocks away from the SO command post. One police heli was making ever-tightening circles in our general area. He didn’t have the klieg light on yet, but I heard the writing on the wall and saw the opportunity to get out before the pigbats showed up. Picked up a six of Newckies at the Copper Keg and went home to chill with the dogs and write this review. ReFuse, so far it hasn’t been very far but thumbs up. Ridazz featured plenty of glass, garbage, broken pavement and holes to bang through and the ReFuses held up to it all. Sometimes puncture-resistant means a thick, stiff and unresponsive tire. Not so the Maxxis treads, they are responsive and reactive without sacrificing the protection of extra layers. Sounds like a freekin’ feminine product. Like their brethren the Fuses, these are economic tires that perform well, look sharp and resist the evils of the street. We’ll check back on them in a few hundred miles.
Test Pig Returns!
The Test Pig. A place in the soul of the pain cage where products that we own get put to their limits in our special Squadra Obscura way and then posted randomly as information for you our dear readers. It is time again for some real world testing; this time on everyone’s favorite opinionated topic – tires. Maxxis tires, to be precise. Got some silky phat 2.4x24 Hookworms on the tejas fixt fire truck, and the Gunnar’s been running Fuse shoes for around 9 months. Recently, we ran her through the garage and reshod with ReFuses, so those’ll be looked at too. These are money spent, not given to me product, put under the daily use criteria and written about here at the HPT. Prolly if you’ve been following along, you’ve seen previous posts covering cold weather gear and other odds n ends. It’s meant as a forum to the readers here – got something you really swear by on all your bikes? Send it in or post it as a comment. Hopefully, it all helps people find some good options in the gear they choose.
Maxxis is a Cali based company with a good value and wide range of tires. We at the Squadra ride a mix of tires, though Michelins have been the home choice for a few years across the stable of rigs. Sellers is all into Vredsteins, other folks like your Vittorias and Contis. The choice to try the maxy’s here at HQ was economic and a wee bit marketing driven. I dig Kabush and Larsen. The price was right for some roadie training slicks with a bit o Kevlar – the Fuse’s run around 25 skidoo and come in colors just like the song sez. I picked red. We ran long and hard together, but an errantly discarded vodka bottle put a thumb-sized gash in our relationship. Testament to the Fuse, the glass cut away most of the rubber down to the Silkworm barrier, which apparently stopped it’s evil path to the sacred tube. More on that later, but hence the replacement with the ReFuses.
First up, the Hookworms. Two point four inches deep. These are classified as 'freeride' tires and they are meaty. I had to fab up some shims just to get the front cleared of the inner fork crown. Phat with a capitol F. Slickish in that they have no knobs, they do have tread in the shape of a wavy groove weaving back and forth like a crop circle course around the whole tire. The inset pattern, combined with general sharkskin like knurled texture to the soft compound rubber makes for a tire that grabs tarmac almost like a road bike clincher. These tires are made for the street assault crew – the dual slalom in the city bombers that run your town with the skaters every night. For Squadra purposes, they’re some crazy ass street shoes for a weird bike – a 24” new/old school bmx gone fixed gear. Grippy, fat slicks were the way to go, and most of the best choices were in the Maxxis range. The other options are the HollyRollers, which we have in 26” but can’t find a brake hanger that’ll clear’m to mount. Again with the phat. I wanted a tire that wouldn’t collect gravel and road crap between the knobs, so the worms were the way to go. They’ve been running on the bike now for about 200 miles and they rule. You can vary the air pressure a lot, and run them really squishy and soft, but I prefer the higher volumes, 55-60psi. Suckers are rated to 65. Even pumped up rock, they feel really grippy. They even mark the durometer (50a) of the rubber compound right on the tire just like a skateboard wheel. Fifty is pretty soft, so I opted to run some Mr. Tuffy liners to help minimize puncture wounds. Even though the tires are built solid, I doubt they’d handle the busted bottle shard the way the Fuses did, but who knows. Hope I don’t find out. Steering and general handling is solid, you can lay it down a bit in the corners and they grab through the radius like a moto. Keep in mind that this bike runs a springer Brooks seat, lanky geometry and an easy gear ratio – it’s made to cruise, not assault. 
We did the 40-mile route on Ride For The Roses and a few Midnight Ridazz together and had a fine time. My usual run on this rig is a ten-mile flatish loop with a few short climbs, done as a loose time trial. As you know, with fix you’ve gotta spin it out, so it’s a great bike to just set a tempo and hold it from road marker to road marker along the route. On the street, it’s a little tricky mainly because there’s not a track hub on the wheel so the fixed gear is just lock-tite’d onto a freewheel hub, with no lockring to hold it in. Skidding is a hit or miss proposition because you can literally spin the gear off the hub if you jam it free of the glue. Gotta get that squared away better over the next few weeks. Anyway, the tire rolls great through the streets and it handles curbs and cracks like a suspension fork. I think I once described it as being like riding a zeppelin; it’s the ph thing again. On long distance hauls like Roses they really shined, giving me a cushy but speed-holding tire that really accented the ride. We’ll see how this continues to shake out in another few hundred miles.
Part 2 coming soon; Refuse and Fuse go to battle with the mean streets of LA on a Gunnar class destroyer. Viva.
Weak One
First week of 'serious' training is complete. Five days of getting in a ride since Jan. 1st, around 7 hours in the saddle for a total distance covered of 93.26 miles. Sucks to not break a hundy. Looking at it in metric helps - 149.23k. Average speed, 21.9kph (13.68 mph for the reality check). I love the metric system. Yesterday wasn't even gonna happen, but Bruiserella sez 'get the on thy fixie' and so voila, a lovely eight n a half mile fix gear cruze at sunset on the tejas cruxas conquistidor del fiero to cap the first week of the year. Like I said, lovely. Overall, not a bad seven days. I tried to focus on things like bike handling games. Grabbing the water bottle with alternating hands while holding cadence, riding through sand on 23s, taking new lines through old corners, not touching the brakes, keeping the elbows in. Y'know, skizls. I figure on long rides and races, that's what makes the difference. There's a weird Belgian or Basque gene in my pool that makes me relish puddles, mud, potholes and other mucky conditions. I like weather; what the hell, I have the proper equipment. Not that it was foul this week, just saying - conditions make riding fun. hitting bad patches of road at speed and holding your line, that's testament to rider and machine. The crossers take on far worse at 36kph in a bunch. The new Lions of Flanders take on cobblestone warzones like Roubaix at full tilt, and that's on road bikes. If Museuw can do it so can I. So can you. I laugh when I see these guys on their 6000$ rigs lock up the binders and walk around sandtraps and mudpits in the road. Silly humans; they should ride through that shit. Thursday and Friday a local commercial production company called MJZ was up on our hill in Griffith Park, filming an ad that featured bike racing. They had base camp and set and trucks and trailers strewn up the road for a good 2ks. Probably it was for a product that we shouldn't be endorsing as a community but who knows. Sour grapes - someone got paid to ride up and down the hill all day and it wasn't me.
I went through today and they had cleaned up pretty well - the only trash left behind was this mound of fastfood wrappers - likely left by the security company that was posted at the road entrance. For shame. I think I had an epiphany about how to downhill ski while I was decending. Might have to try that one out some time in the snow. It's fun to dodge obsticles - I used to aim for every puddle and sandpit out of some sick solidarity with the Belgians, but now I just pick and choose to keep the skills up - maybe one or two a ride just to prove I can keep it upright. Gotta recognize how to minimize risks and one way is to take less of them. Calculating, it's called in some circles. Pussy might be the call in some other spheres, but I am an army of one this week so fuck'em all. Sellers is busy having a kid and King is probably swinging a hammer elsewhere. Vontz is off in the great white north and Big Sleep - well, maybe I shoulda called him but I think he said he broke his toe. Anyway, I needed to solo it for a week and rebuild the legs a bit, work on cadence and all that jazz before embarasing myself training with someone who actually rides regularly. I was also supposed to do 500 situps every week this year. I did four, so I owe 996 for week two which coincidentally will be harder to stack on the miles 'cause of work and after that it's off to Quebec for me, where hopefully there's at least an excercycle in the hotel. Onward, as they say. I hope there's some 'truthiness' in all that.
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