HumanPoweredTransport

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

LA favorite son Orlando has been taken down by motor vehicle ignorance - help the brother out if you can. Here's some sweet links. Hellfire and cycle-stoke are brimming at Wire Donkey, bookmark the link 'cause these cats post frequently. If'n yer out in LA, across the street from non-profit co-op The Bicycle Kitchen exists a cool for-profit shop called Orange 20. These Angeleno's make nice kit under the mark Swrve. One of the best frame builder's in the US finally got a website off the ground. Bernie's up in the Bay Area, where the Bay Guardian's been waxing on about fixed gears. I can't even print what I think of the Saiz situation. Ok two words; organized gambling.
In more serious developments, there's a really brave 24 year old girl in Baghdad who has a blog you should check out; she's been posting for years, so peep the archive. YouTube has already started cleaning house under legal pressures. All sorts of heat about global warming has been hitting the foreign press, so what do the animals think? The elephants, for one species, are pissed! The School of the Americas has apparently opened an annex in the Middle East; Salvador Option is a term that demands further investigation. Viva! Now go ride.

Bullshit, Not Just From Texas

In any language, this shit still stinks. Organized, criminal, gambling, cheating, high-corporate stakes are the norm in pro cycling. From CyclingNews - " Spanish federation drops Operación Puerto cases. The Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) has released a decision based on recent judicial rulings in the Operación Puerto affair. The RFEC has closed all disciplinary files opened against the cyclists implicated in the investigation. The announcement comes weeks after the judge in charge of the case ruled on October 8th that the investigation documents could not be used by national federations to take action against riders. The news will be a huge setback to the UCI and its efforts to combat alleged doping in the peloton. It comes less than one day after the against the Italian cycling federation (FCI) permanently shelved the case against Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso, who was also implicated in Operación Puerto documents. The Spanish federation has emphasized that the riders who were part of the investigation had never had their licenses suspended, and now that the disciplinary investigations are closed, they are free to compete with their respective squads. They have not excluded the possibility that the files would be reopened once the judicial proceedings are concluded. However, the RFEC has decided to initiate disciplinary investigations on the former Liberty Würth director, Manuel Sáiz, Comunidad Valenciana's Ignacio Labarta and Vicente Belda and the doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. This action could set off a whole new round of legal wranglings regarding this action, as well as the status of ProTour license of Sáiz's former team, Astana. Sáiz still holds the rights to the Active Bay Sports/Astana ProTour license, and does not plan to transfer the license to the new organisation. Following an appeal from Astana, the UCI licensing commission refused to withdraw the Active Bay license. The UCI said today that they "regret the circumstances which have obliged the commission to take this decision, which is undoubtedly correct in legal terms, but which is most likely due to the lack of information from the Spanish authorities and the extremely confusing state of affairs with Operación Puerto". This year's Tour de France was seriously affected by Operación Puerto, with riders such as Basso and Germany's TdF winner, Jan Ullrich, withdrawn from the Tour. " Onward.

Views Of The World

YouTube narc's on it's users. Alternatively, Steven Johnson has an awesome new tool for you to play with on the web. Also on the web, a video link to human rights surveillance; chalk one up for the good guys. Too bad your laptop can now be confiscated without warrant at any US border. The pres has signed into law an act that gives him Stalin'esque powers, eliminating habeas corpus among other draconian moves. Don't forget to vote.

.38 Special

I like to play dumb little mind games while riding. Today was the ride the distance of your years on your birthday game. 38.12 kilometers after around 5 weeks of leg atrophy and bike dust collecting. Since I'm a westerner playing in King Arthur's metric court that translates to being 23.8 years old today. Hooray for youth! Apparently there is going to be a steep re-building stage needed if I plan to tackle any of the remaining cyclocross season, as today’s pace was appropriately jet lagging, or rather, lacking. Some observations on recent Balkan crossings. Commerce is a major motivating factor in the social fabric of all three former Soviet bloc countries I was just in. Most of the bling stores you'd find in America or the UK exist on the streets of Zagreb, Belgrade and Sofia- designer clothing, watches and jewelry, high-end pop market stuff (like skate shoes and denim). Names like Prada, Quiksilver, IWC, Cartier, Levi's dot the otherwise unintelligible signage. Word on the streets was that most of the money used to buy up these licenses, franchises and brands is dirty money. Ex military, organized crime, golden-parachute corporate raiders' kids, it's all funding the restaurants, shops, hotels, car dealerships (never seen as many Bentleys, Ferrari's, Beemer 7's and big Merc's as we did in Sofia, and that's comparing to the streets of LA!). The money trickles quickly into the local economy, providing jobs, security, etc. Not that I have any evidence, or that it's all coming from that angle, but certainly some of it is, based on observation and listening to the locals. Right when I left Bulgaria there was a huge bust of a slave-trade ring; politicians are known for corrupt affiliations with casino bosses and land barons - it's pretty Wild West despite the overall air of hope and prosperity. In Croatia and Serbia, it seemed like folks wanted to distance themselves as fast as possible from their recent bloody history. Still, without anyone wanting to talk directly to the experience save for saying that being in a city shelled by NATO for 78 days really sucked, you've got to wonder how nicknames like 'Killer', 'Wolf', 'Pirate' and 'Sarge' came to be. Especially when the extremely friendly owners of these names are touching 40 and possess steely glares that hide between beaming smiles. In Sofia we saw the presence of an active skateboard community, with numerous shops, a few ramps and the telltale signs of skate spots dotting the city. More prominent was a large core crew of serious mountain bikers. Lot’s of high-end full suspension rigs, a slew of local mountains, plenty of obviously assaulted urban terrain and a handful of well-stocked shops. Something called Bike Week was going on, a mix of a downhill and ramp huck and jive. Sellers and I saw the downhill action by accident when we visited the local mountain range via cable car, and went right over the course. Pretty sweet runs being thrown down from what we could see, and the tech level of the bikes we saw in line for the lift was formidable. It’s an interesting time in Eastern Europe. Realestate is big business, a huge push in all the hotels of Bulgaria to entice western buyers – a condo on the Black Sea goes for around 50,000 Euro, which is sure to double in value when Bulgaria cracks into the EU next year. We are talking about a country where the capitol city still heats over 50% of the apartments and homes with central steam heat piped from a massive boiler operation on the edge of the city. Folks still collect firewood and build open-flame pits in their upper floor modern apartment blocks. Serbia and Croatia also showed signs of this modern veneer pasted over a very shambly Soviet era system. Serbia in particular still likes to flash it’s guns around – there were no gun positions on the Croatian side of the boarder we crossed, but plenty of fortified bunkers along the freeway pointing toward the boarder check point on the Serbian side. As usual, looking at these things with a moderate to poorly informed lens through a speeding vehicle under someone else’s control is not the best way to form opinions about the body politic of a foreign land. Onward with a grain of salt and more scratching from the journals in days to come. Viva.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

Phew. That was a haul and a half. Back in Los La La, recovering and recooping. Coming soon, more rants on the Balkans, Londonistan and elsewhere. For now, some worthy links. In Chicago, the mayor takes after his dad ("The police are here to preserve disorder") and brings the police-state to a new level with cameras on every corner. Back in Hollyworldland, our park is in danger of becoming a commercial ammusement. Yet another web-TV platform, this one seems fairly cool. O'Grady's latest foaming rant is a doozy. Our favorite notebook now makes awesome DIY city guides. Here's a cyclocross team trying to make a difference, and you can help. Learn more about climate change and simple sollutions you can take part in here, and here. Onward!

Rila

Had a day off in the Rila range, outside of Sofia, Bulgaria. Stumbled accross a downhill race/event and was amazed at the quality of rig and level of riding witnessed as we rode the cablecar up the mountain. Drove over to the next range to visit one of the oldest functioning monastaries in the region to cap our day. A quick beer in the lobby bar gained us access to the BBC and Eurosport, where we got to see Betini's hair-raising hell for leather decent in Lombardia, hear of the temporary demise of CBGB's and take time to ponder the future of steam bicycles. Other links of note: Ride Clean, a slain reporter's last post, and what the hell is up with Slater? Onward.

Sofia, Sofia

From London to Sofia, comedy to horror, with hugs. Viva.

Been There, Done That...

create your own visited countries map

Posted here before, but worth repeating. A cool link that allows you to create this map of where you've been. 25 and counting for La Squadra. And then there's this one for States. Onward!

create your own visited states map

More Carnage

Here's more snapshots of the madness. Graf in Belgrade, the former Dept. of Defense after 78 days of NATO rockets, weird cabins made from giant kegs on the Serb/Croatian boarder and the entryway to the Kset Club in Zagreb - no guns, no bottles, no weed or Bruce will kick your ass.
Onward.

If It's Tuesday This Must Be...

Zagreb? Belgrade? Benton Harbor? No, today it's London. Here's a smattering of snaps from the past week's wacky world tour, to be continued here in the UK for a few days, then on to Bulgaria - words to follow soonish. Viva.