There's gonna be a Mother's Day race here in Los. 40 miles of alleycatting for your pleasure. Or, this looks like a fun off-road ride. Consolidated Ghana journal and photos currently on post at Polo's Bastards. A few days back we pointed out Rory O'Connor's questions to CNN's boss. Here's the reply, which is more of a retort. Onward!
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A Little Rain Must Fall
So the safest Ridazz was also the wettest. Go figure. Working with the better-safe-than-stupid credo, I drove to the start - blasphemy! Set to the brilliant soundtrack of the Bloodshot Records decade of sin compilation, there was a little sprinkle here and there but for the most part the skies held off. How can you go wrong with insurgent country music? Around sixty people hovered in the Pioneer lot, which was more than I think anyone expected would show, given the weather combined with rumors of heavy police crackdowns. An announcement was made about looking out for each other, no littering, how to ride and then the ride leader was introduced. Don't remember that happening at any previous Ridazz. The route card was printed on a first-aid pictogram to help seizure victims. Lovely. Folks crushed cans, stowed'm in messenger bags or found a dumpster and we were off, sort of. Noted that many of the hipster/trouble-maker faction had stayed away. I brought the Jonny for it’s first Ridazz, having put a solid on/off-road 20 miles in earlier that afternoon. Full report on the Jonny soon; suffice to say it rocks! Double D was rolling his just-acquired Marinoni track special, complete with 20mm sew-ups. Not exactly rain-friendly kit. Beautiful rig though, yellow with a webbing spray, chrome fork, tail and full campy. Craigslist sweetness. He had to wait for a tardy friend, so I held back with him. Of course by the time we got it together the pack was well underway, so we chased hard to intercept them until a full downpour challenged our better judgment. After some cel phoning and dawdling DD and company, soaked to the bone, called off the night and packed it in. Myself and two other intrepid Ridazz pushed on, finally linking up with a few other stragglers and eventually the whole bunch. At least, what was left of it. With our little groupetto we massed at 26 Ridazz; apparently the rain had been catalyst for much attrition. It was a respectful bunch, stopping at reds, keeping it together through yellows and looking out for each other. Echo Park Lake was the end of the line; long skids and reverse 360s were the order of the day for the true fixers. Long Live Midnight Ridazz, ride on! Wrapping it up, here’s some drizzle for you from the wide world webonics. Some folks just find regular racing to be dull so they invent their own, and this dude has some singularly excellent ideas. If any of them ever come off, I hope Squadra has a man in the break. Mark your calendar, April 19th is Bicycle Day! Lovely to have a holiday for ourselves really, and here’s the kicker, from Wikipedia: “...commemorating April 19, 1943, when Dr. Albert Hofmann first took LSD intentionally. Three days earlier, he had absorbed a small amount of the drug either through his fingertips or by accidentally ingesting it. On Bicycle Day, he took 250 µg of LSD intentionally and, fearing he had made himself ill, cycled home from his lab. During his bicycle ride, he experienced the effects of LSD, making this the date of the first ever acid trip.” Ohhhkeedokee. On a serious note, some jackfuckasswad stole two bikes from the Mint Cycles booth at NAHBS. Karma will get hers, but if you know or hear of anything, let the good folks at minty in on the clue. Now go ride!
Built By Hand
The Hand Built Bicycle Show = Eye Candy Hardcore Porn for bike junkies. HPT just got back from San Jose and we’re full of one-word exclamations like; damn! And wow, sexy, amazing, wild, didn’t know you could do that and DAMN!! See, just like porn. Allow me to attempt mining some highlights from my highly addled brain. The show is the result of a massive brainfart and a hell of a lot of wrangling on the part of one Don Walker. Don’s been building for over 15 years and has a particular love for steep angles, high gears and the need to only turn left on a banked surface. He’s from Texas, so I guess the NASCAR analogy is in order. What a whopper of a show he’s pulled off. Over 50 of the best custom builders in North America and one from England all under one big roof, er, tent plus all manner of your favorite components and accessories, in a casual decidedly non-Interbike like atmosphere. Starting off, Jonny Cycles should win best of show, best off-road and best paint for the Squadra Obscura special that Jon built up, but that’s a rant worthy of it’s own whole post once the rig is safely ensconced in the stable. He had a crazy track machine that was built for his awesome painter, Jason. Calfee Designs has been making composite-material bikes for almost 20 years and working with composites for a few years longer. They make bikes out of bamboo because their pit-bull told them to. I’d buy one. Matthew Feeney is a small batch guy out of SF who makes some really sweet lugged frames and was also showing a cool cargo bike with major rack and small front wheel to accommodate big loads. Nice. Mike Flannigan used to wield a torch for Fat City, and then Indy Fab, and now his own make – Alternative Needs Transportation. ANT Bikes had four lovely offerings including a truss-frame Major Taylor replica and a copper lugged hickory tubed old school gentleman’s bike. Sez Mike, the hickory smells nice when you work with it. Part’s is parts unless they’re made by the likes of Paul Components (hot new cranks out in April!), Paragon Machine Works or Henry James at which point they become works of art. There were booths from many of the other usual suspects along with jig makers, tubing suppliers and bike schools. Joe Ahearne makes those flask-holders that Surly’s been flogging, but he also makes custom racks and custom frames that are very sweet indeed. HPT is particularly fond of his six-pack front rack with u-lock holder. Bruce Gordon also had some madly creative racks and widgets brazed or bolted to his exquiste framework. Freight Baggage was displaying some fine hand sewn courier bags. Mike Desalvo had some lovely Ti frames on offer, as well as boomerangs and propeller toys to give away. Oswald Cycle Works is a builder out of PA. He was showing a sweet Rohloff equipped MTB with his own version of the H-bar design. Outa left field, Co-Motion was showing a bedknobs n' broomsticks tandem, Peacock Groove had a tripple chain, tripple cog four inch tire off-roader, Max Chen set up on the street out front with some truely sick and twisted frames and Retrotec presented a John Deere themed tandem. Waterford and Gunnar were representing with custom lugwork that took an estimated 50 hours. There were so many other builders with sweet kit on display it’s hard to run it all down. Gordon, Sachs, Bayliss and others held down for the old guard, and drew the most crowd too. Who wasn't there? Jeff Jones was reported to have walked the isles Friday and a suspiciously Jones'esque front-end was in a jig at one of the fabrication booths. Matt Chester would've been nice, along with Bob Jackson, Ibis and Rivendell but hell ya can't have it all. There were seminars, speakers, food and beer too. Dirt Rag Brad was in the house with better camera gear and a sharper eye than HPT, so we’ll link to his drool and bling when it goes up Monday. Meanwhile there's more random pics over in the AnotherBunchaBikes album to your right. San Jose was stuporspectacular in the crisp air and surrounding landscape of mountains, the perfect home for this show which can only get better next year. Viva!
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