De Groodt /31/

gearpatrol: “A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in...

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:54 -0700

gearpatrol:

“A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in the 1950s.”

Learn more here.

Video

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:44:51 -0700

lanarchie: HAUAUAUAUAHU

Fri, 04 May 2012 22:31:49 -0700

lanarchie:

HAUAUAUAUAHU

Photo

Fri, 04 May 2012 22:31:01 -0700

benjaminjtaylor: Ummm…

Fri, 04 May 2012 19:20:12 -0700

benjaminjtaylor:

Ummm…

Stolen Bike Alert (Siren Bicycles) Polly Ann

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:35:36 -0700

From Brendan and Mary Collier owners of The Hub Cyclery and Siren Bicycles:

Stolen bike! A very special John Henry (Polly Ann). Could likely still be in Idyllwild. I built it for Mary two years ago. It has a custom machined “hammer” made of polished stainless steel brazed into the stays behind the seat tube. We want this bike back home.

…

Our bike shop was robbed Saturday night/Sunday morning. They came in through a window and left through the art gallery door. Took cash. I didn’t notice the bike missing until I couldn’t sleep last night and checked. Our personal bikes go back and forth from home so I didn’t notice right away. I believe the thief is local and the bike could likely still be in town.

For what it’s worth, and should my readership include the bicycle thief, this is probably the wrong bike to steal. First, the nice. Mary and Brendan are good people, doing good work and trying to make a living by putting smiles on two wheels. So maybe you want to go find a fellow thief to steal from instead. Second, Mary’s one bad little lady and I’d hate to be on the receiving end of her hammer. So for the sake of your own well being, maybe you’d think twice and return said bicycle (and the cash and fix the broken stuff too). In either case, I’d highly recommend returning the bike ASAP and attaching a nice handwritten note to the bars with an apology.

More details here.

I’ll save my personal rant on bike thieves for now so as to not scare anyone away from returning it. And for friends of this site, please repost, like, re-tweet, etc. This bike is unique enough that it should be returned with a little digital canvassing.

And It Shall Be Called The Siren TED

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:55:57 -0700

Or Blanca if it’s mine. I’ve had my newest Siren Bicycles MonsterCross bike for about 2 weeks now and all I can say is this is one bad mother. This adds to my John Henry and my stolen-since-recovered Song. I’ve loved each of the bikes Brendan has built for me and I’ve espoused many times over the virtues of being able to put your hands on the person that builds your bikes here in America. Nothing against the other guys, but Brendan and Mary have been very good to me when I’ve needed help and I doubt very highly I’d have gotten anywhere near the support I’ve gotten from them from the 800 number support center of Mega Bike Co. So they get my bucks.

I’d been interested in a drop bar mountain bike for a few years. Ever since I had my first cyclocross bike. I’d take my cyclocross bikes pretty much anywhere I’d ride my mountain bikes, but they never were as sure on the more technical downhills as a mountain bike and a mountain bike was never as fast up those hills as my cyclocross bikes. So I kind of back burnered it until a couple of years ago when I raced Leadville and saw Travis Brown on a Trek drop bar mountain bike. That reignited the bug, but I still didn’t see any options that would have worked for me.

I stopped in The Path over the winter and there was a Salsa Fargo built up that just about had my vote. I called Brendan and he said it was a great bike, great build, but he thought I could do something even greater for me. Fast forward past a couple of months of back and forth and collaboration (OK, I listened and said yes. Brendan thought and did.) and you get what we have here.

Not only is a fast machine, it looks absolutely gorgeous. It’s like walking a puppy on the beach. You get nowhere fast with all the comments and questions—but you feel great sharing the love.

I had a chance to pick up my bike from Brendan and Zander over some tacos and coffee. I had a few questions afterwards and thought I’d share the conversation readers here. Enjoy.

From what depths of your mind did this new MonsterCross come from?

My own riding brought it on. There’s a lot to see here in Southern California by way of dirt roads; be it a burrito stand or a roadhouse bar. I’ve come to realize the “adventure over the horizon” is just a fire road away, and needed a bike for it. It’s primarily made for fast riding on dirt roads, but secondarily suited for singletrack or pavement.

Any chance it’ll make its way into the regular Siren production lineup?

Certainly! It’s a design worth spreading. Maybe we should call it TED.

What are you calling it?

I’m still not sure. Should we seriously call it TED? The Every Day’er…

You have a personal bike which is similar to this one. In discussing the similarities, you said it was that “If-I-Could-Only-Have-One-Bike” bike. We know how new bikes and new obsessions can be. But you seemed really serious that this is the killer bike of bikes. What makes it so?

I do. Mine has similar geometry to yours, but with the Twinzer top tube design. In practice, it adds some spice to the familiar routine… after-work singletrack livens up a bit; calling for more skill but also providing the tools to get it. We all want to have more fun on the bike and this takes a different approach than say, a new suspension design. Those tend to “dumb down” the trail. I want to engage it.

So I have another fine steel creation from Siren Bicycles. You chose to use Columbus steel tubing. Why Columbus vs any of the other usual suspects?

I build mostly with Columbus but also with True Temper. I picked Columbus for your bike because it’s very “hard” but also has those nice curves. Gives good heel clearance, a nice ride, etc.

You built a gorgeous fork for this bike. Walk me through the difference between this fork and some off the shelf fork. (Besides being a functional piece of art!)

Besides great looks, the TED fork stands out from off the shelf stuff in a couple ways. I wanted a lower axle to crown height than the OTS stuff, and curved fork blades for a smoother ride. OTS forks tend to be unicrowns, which are less expensive to produce but less desirable for the opposite reasons. In practice, our fork is smoother but also tracks very well in the rough.

It’s a fast bike! How about the frame geometry? The bottom bracket sits a little lower. The bars are dropped. What else separates the frame design from a “standard” mountain bike?

The fit is more like that of a road bike. But the front-center (distance from the BB to the front hub) is more like that of your mountain bike. The front center and BB drop are really where the magic happens with this bike. It rails at high speeds but feels more sure footed than say a cyclocross bike.

cadenced: Koppenberg stars in this photograph taken by Marcel...

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:26:36 -0700

cadenced:

Koppenberg stars in this photograph taken by Marcel Deschamps during the 1978 Tour of Flanders and found on Cycling Art Blog.

bisikleta: Ian In Front! (by Andrew_Dempster)

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:26:07 -0700

bisikleta:

Ian In Front! (by Andrew_Dempster)

pedicabconfession: Crisis? by kaputniq on Flickr. WHAT fuel...

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:25:46 -0700

pedicabconfession:

Crisis? by kaputniq on Flickr.

WHAT fuel crisis?

There were plenty of bananas in the shops today. And cake as well. I don’t know what the media and the government are working themselves up into a frenzy about.

dp-illustrations: I Want To Ride My Bicycle Poster design ALL...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:02:34 -0700

dp-illustrations:

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Poster design

ALL THE TIME

by MilliJane.

posted by dp{i}
etsy//facebook//twitter//google+

Brew your own beer! No turkey fryer required!

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:49:11 -0700

Brew your own beer! No turkey fryer required!

Photo

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:40:33 -0700

Photo

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:38:11 -0700

#Business as told by the #Bicycle (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:14:33 -0700

#Business as told by the #Bicycle (Taken with instagram)

Getting Itchy for Some Stagecoach 400 Action

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:03:59 -0800

So this week has been a reminder of the old saying “Light, strong, cheap, pick 2.” In preparation for (what I hope to be able to report at the end of 2012) lots of bikepacking this year, I’ve spent some time in Patagonia and REI looking for Light and strong. Fortunately Friday was payday. So with a fist full of nickels I picked up some new goodies.

First up was a new stove. I’ve been using a Jetboil for years. I thought it was light enough until I started to have to do more with it than haul it from storage to car to camp to car to storage. Turns out finding a place for this oversized (context is everything) stove/pot system just wasn’t going to happen in a way that made me at all comfortable. So I went for a snow peak LiteMax Titanium stove. For $60 it’s unbelievably light and small. Strong we’ll have to wait and see. Unfortunately the fuel canisters they have to use are a bit larger than I’d really like. I think snow peak and others could make a decent decision by pandering to ultralight packers with a canister that’s half the fuel of their standard ones.

Even better if they’d figure out a way to get those MSR cans to connect and let the stove sit on some sort of triangle platform. But then they wouldn’t get you on the fuel “comeback” would they? Anyway, I’m still amazed as I look at this thing. I could easily put it in my front pocket and have 80% of what I need to cook up just about any meal I could dream up—and most certainly anything I’d eat on a 4 day bikepacking trip. (1.9 oz plus fuel.)

(You know you’re onto something when autocorrect on your program of choice keeps trying to tell you what you’re doing is misspelled. That could only mean you’re in for fun—at the tip of the spear.)

Next up was a spot connect. While not as light and small as I’d expected for a 2nd gen device (the other older ones are big ugly prototype looking things) it’s pretty small and it does a whole lot more than the 1st gen. This one even connects with your cell phone by Bluetooth to allow for twitter, facebook, email updates (isn’t that part of what you’re supposed to be avoiding) as well as the standard “I’m in a world of hurt, come get me” functions it’s really designed to be used for. At the upcoming Stagecoach 400 we’re going to be required to use these (potential) lifesavers, so I figured I’d take the $40 rental fee I was going to incur and just invest in my own. I’m safe for solo. (4.9 oz w/batteries)

(Today may well be the nicest day I can recall down at the beach in a year. The screams of kids playing on the beach, motorcycles cruising Pacific Coast Highway and the smell of backyard BBQs permeates. It’s a great day for writing about nearly anything.)

I also picked up a snow peak Titanium Double 300 Mug FH (for folding handles). Another reminder of cost vs weight. At $39 that put me at about $100 for a camp kitchen. Now that camp kitchen won’t exactly handle steaks and eggs, or pretty much anything other than reconstituting whatever items I happen to take with me (or acquire along the ride) but I’m more than happy to trade this off for weight savings.

Finally, I have a couple of great pieces from Patagonia and Arc’teryx (bonus points for anyone that knows that that word actually means without googling it) including some pretty lightweight stuff for camping that all have really saved my hide at one time or another. But for these trips I wanted something even smaller, lighter and able to be stuffed but a bit warmer than my lightest stuff, so I sprung for a

Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover. I have one of their pullovers already, but it has a bit more fill and doesn’t pack down quite to the level that the Nano Puff does. I believe I may be living in this piece from sundown to post-sunrise. I very much hate to be cold, so I have great expectations of this jacket.

A number of years ago on a mountain bike trip to Moab in June I grabbed my Patagonia down pullover and threw it in the car, “just in case it got cold at night.” Well it snowed the entire 3 days we were there and I lived in that jacket with shorts on and was just fine. Ever since it’s been my jacket of choice for anything over a few miles from my front door. And a lifetime warranty!

So now it’s time to start working on finalizing the packing situation and shaking down to see if I have what works for me. I’m pretty sure I’m in the ballpark, but I’ll know for certain in the coming weeks.

Other already parts of my kit include some Relevate Designs bags (bar, tail, fuel tank and triangle), a Mountain Hardware Phantom sleeping bag, Therm-a-Rest NeoAir (best dollars I ever spent for a great night’s sleep), a Moutain Hardware Stiletto tent, and a Wingnut Enduro bag. (Which I hope to God doesn’t come with me as it makes me slightly suicidal. Anyone want to buy a slightly used bag? I also have an Ergon bag I’d happily sell off. I’m just not a bag guy.)

Still working on food, water storage (SteriPen might be what I go for here) and a solving the issue of batteries and electronics while out for 14 hours a day. The battery issue being the biggest unknown for me right now. Lights, GPS, iPhone, Spot all suck battery juice and some of these are pretty critical riders on ride.

On the issue of lights, I’m half tempted to sell off my Lupines and go to some Ay-Ups. Not because I don’t think the Lupines are about the best lights you could ever ask for, but because I think I have some better options available while out on the trail with the Ay-Ups when it comes to power. Anyone care to weigh in on the battle Ay-Up v Lupine?

Looking Forward to Shooting

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:33:30 -0800

I finally pulled the trigger and got me a Contour camera. Now I just need to figure out where best to mount it for some single track footage. I love the GPS integration and iOS viewfinder app that comes with it.

bicyclestore: NAHBS: BAUM

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:30:53 -0800

bicyclestore:

NAHBS: BAUM

Armed With Confidence and a Drive to Succeed

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:30:35 -0800

Armed With Confidence and a Drive to Succeed:

Now here’s a story of determination. Black in segregated America in an historically white business, living in the back of a Crown Vic for three years. That’s drive!

My First Professional Photo Credit (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:17:20 -0800

My First Professional Photo Credit (Taken with instagram)