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DT

posted by DT @ 11:29 PM 2 comments

Swampy

posted by gwadzilla @ 7:57 AM 1 comments

Shameless self publicists....

Someone should buy this:
Goldman part deux!

posted by markie @ 6:25 PM 1 comments

Good Thing He Ain't Packin'...

Who is this guy and why is he so damn angry?......Popeye Doyle from The French Connection?
(Top image lifted from buffalo2step.com; taken at last year's 12 Hours of Lodi Farm.)

posted by Blue-eyed Devil @ 1:08 PM 2 comments

Bars and Bars

Waz up Bikecentric brethren? Long time reader, first time poster! 8~)

So when I was in my 20's the only bar I was concerned with was the kind that you got drunk in and possibly got a "hook up" in.

Now happily married and in my mid 30's I'm obsessed with another kind of bar. Yes, bike related bars. There are so many coming out, I just can't stand it. I must have and try out all of these bars. But do they really make a difference? Are they as purpose specific as say, tires? For years I was content with my flat bars with bar ends. I didn't think too much about sweep, or rise. Most of my 90's bars were cut down super skinny and had bar ends, frankly now I don't know how I maneuvered with these things. My latest obsession began with my first set of riser bars. Granted they weren't the widest in the world, but I liked the feel. I then moved to Carbon bars that were wide! Wow, these felt really good and I didn't smack my knuckles nearly as much as I thought I would. Now I've graduated to Mary's and just hooked up with some Jones H-Bars. I've even been eyeing some moustache bars and some cruiser bars. Will it ever end?

posted by fatbob29r @ 8:19 AM 3 comments

CriticalMass CP?

This just in from the "That's news to me" department... Evidently there's a monthly Critical Mass ride in College Park, MD. Knowing there are a few CP locals reading this blog, I figure I'd mention it.

posted by gmr2048 @ 7:01 AM 4 comments

When love breaks down

So its Wednesday night, which normally means a bit of cycling, then a trip to the bar for some light refreshment afterward. But today at mid-day my boss tells me I have to interview somone right at the time I am meant to be hitting the trails. I sulked all afternoon, I wanted to go and play with my friends in the snow. Hopefully the two stalwarts who kept the tradition alive had a good time.


Another picture of the last Wednesday night ride the Outlaw led. But the replacement ride leaders reign was somewhat ignominious. Last Wednesday after hitting Frisco Burrito for beer and vitals we decided to take the trails back to the Park and Ride. Right at the trail head Jay turns round to me and says, " Be careful on the trails, you are still healing" Twenty seconds later and I almost ride over him. A root flicked him to the ground and he landed on his shoulder. From the sounds of it his shoulder looks like mine did 3 months ago. This is how mine looks now.


See the nice "bridging bone" where there was just gap before. It means I can ride trails with the doctors blessing, although he told me not to crash, so I'll be taking it easy for another month or so.

The cross-check got a bit of a face-lift after the swap-meet. New bars and tape and a new saddle. The On-One Mungo bars rock. Lots of hand positions and a nice high position means the WTB bars that Ricky reluctantly gave up can return home.

posted by markie @ 8:38 PM 8 comments

Elephants in the frozen tundra...

Growing up in PA getting large amounts of snow was not uncommon, so I've gotten to build everything from your run-of-the-mill snowman (or would that now be snowperson?) to pretty complex igloos with mazes of tunnels going throughout our backyard. One thing that never crossed my mind was to make a snow elephant. Well now I can say I have... with the 21.3" we got in Ellicott City MD this could quite possibly be the world's (or at least Main Street's) first snow elephant...

posted by DiscoCowboy @ 4:20 AM 0 comments

Lazy Boy 2...

What's more, you don't have to air up your tires from the last ride, even if it's been months!

posted by Blue-eyed Devil @ 6:59 PM 1 comments

Lazy Boy

One of the side benefits of riding in the snow? Your bike usually ends up cleaner after the ride than before it.

posted by rickyd 2 @ 3:25 PM 0 comments

Vote for Markie

Vote for me!

A vote for me is really a vote for the much more personable than me Outlaw and Goldman. Those two are so touchy-feely.

posted by markie @ 9:17 PM 1 comments

'Shed Break-In

This season, any time clouds loom overhead, I'll remember to bring a rain jacket. JoeP and I took six Frederick Watershed virgins down into the belly of the beast. It wasn't raining when we started, but not 20 minutes into the ride, the skies let loose. Since it was primarily all downhill to that point, and because all of them have never been there before and wanted to keep going, we pressed onward.

By the time we got to our destination over an hour later and several miles out, we, i.e., the ones too stupid or proud to bring their waterproof gear, were completely soaked to the bone. Couple that with temps hovering slightly less than 40, and we made perfect candidates for hypothermia. My "waterproof" Seal Skinz gloves were completely soaked inside. Great. It started to become hard to even clasp the bars. Since I broke my Lake winter shoes a couple of days before, I was wearing my summer issue shoes, and my feet felt like they were encased in ice. More suckage. Rain and the constant mud and water crossings drenched us completely.

After giving directions on the last uphill, we all made a beeline back to the car at our own paces, losing one wife along the way. We eventually recovered her on the side of the road after driving our cars up and down the steep cinder multiple times. Seems her husband was shiveringly delirious when she asked him for clarification of the directions, and he absent-mindedly gave her the wrong ones.

So six 'Shed virgins painfully broken in. For them, any ride hereafter should be cake.

posted by rickyd 2 @ 7:24 AM 5 comments

Cracking Good Times

I have not had much to say recently so tonight seems like as good a time as any for a roundup. The wife is watching must see T.V. -- what a total F$%@ing misnomer. Ahh, must stop paraphrasing Trainspotting. It was a Sick Boy line and well, I have been a sick boy:


It has been almost three months since this happened. Three months without mountain biking. Thank God for booze, ice cream and pussy:


I have feel lucky being able to ride at all and even the wet, windy, monotonous road rides have put a smile on my face. Sometimes it might be hard to distinguish it from the dead Elvis snarl, but it is a smile, honest.

The best of these rides was two weekends ago when five of us got together to slog along the W&OD to Leesburg, get some food and booze at Thoroughbreds:


Then return home on the C&O canal, via Whites Ferry:


The vultures were gathering by Great Falls:


I guess they didn't think there would be much good eating on Joe P, even his lycra is baggy.


Last Wednesday may have been the end of an era. The Outlaw lead us Banditos to Tiber River in Ellicott City for what maybe the last time. Jay has appointed himself as the new ride leader; let's hope there is not a mutiny. Is it my imagination or does Ricky only wear clothes that are shiny?


Hopefully Sunday should see a nice big group ride after the Westminster Swap Meet. See you all then!

posted by markie @ 6:36 PM 2 comments

The Asphalt Jungle...

This would be more impressive if the subjects were riding fixies, which is the initial (and erroneous) perception. Still, it is entertaining footage of some pretty tight riding that makes you want to pick up a helmet cam and go play in traffic.

WARNING: Contains images of geared bikes and at least one phallus that is NOT riding a bike. (Oh yeah, and if you're the squeamish type, please know that the opening scene involves the convergence of a glass pipe and a substance of questionable legality.)

WARNING 2: Contains music by Guns-N'-Roses.

(Tip o' the hat to The Old Bag for the link.)

posted by Blue-eyed Devil @ 7:31 PM 3 comments