More “when” and not so much “if”…

The title of this post is a phrase I’ve started to think about a lot lately, especially with the amount of recent bike dependence I’ve been practicing. With the number of drivers out there who are completely unaware of anything around their vehicle and tossing in the few that hate sharing the road with bikes, it’s more when and not so much if I’m going to get doored/hit/cutoff and crash.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve fallen off my bike plenty of times, usually a bit inebriated, (most recently at the Between the Bluffs Beer and Cheese fest) but never suffered anything more than a few scrapes and a bruised ego. I’m talking about a real crash here; bruised or broken appendages, nasty road rash, blood, high speeds…stuff like that.

Well, last Sunday morning was my “when”.

With about three miles left in a 50+mile fundraiser ride, three of us were flying down Lake Drive at about 23 mph in a mini peloton. As we got closer to Lincoln Memorial Drive, the pace car for the 75 mile route pulled up next to us followed by a HUGE peloton of 25 or 30 experienced riders. They easily overtook our little crew of three (which included one guy on a fucking Trek hybrid with shocks, somehow riding with us at 23mph) and passed by at around 25mph.  Our buddy on the hybrid fell in and joined the end of the group and I looked back at my riding partner, asking him if he wanted to try and join too. He said he was out of gas to sprint but I should go for it.

Went for it I did, and in the process, left some skin on the pavement in front of a beautiful East Side mansion.  I bit it, BAD. How did it happen? I really have no fucking clue but my best guess is that I was switching hand positions getting ready to take off toward the pack and missed the handle bars or hit a pothole…or something?

Lake Drive is beautifully lined with trees and foliage, but that can also cause problems with the road;  tree roots dig under the pavement and push up channels of earth making it feel like you are riding over moguls.  On a normal ride, navigating them is no problem but after 48 miles, just over two hours of holding an average speed of 19.6mph and a bit of fatigue, things can go tits up in an instant.

After collecting myself off the road, assessing my cuts, road rash, torn clothing and bruises, I asked my buddy what happened.  His response was on par with as much as I knew, “I have no fucking idea what you did, but you slid like 20 feet! Your front wheel wobbled a bit and you went down, hard as fuck!” We reconed a bit, checked the bike (which needed some major tweaking), reset the chain and let the guy who was walking his dog and staring in horror know I was OK.

It’s now a few days later and the road rash on my right hip/elbow is still nasty and sticking to my underwear/sleeve (through the bandages — sick, I know) and I’m still popping ibuprofen like an addict, but I consider myself pretty God damn lucky.

Lucky that no one was drafting my back wheel, causing a two person pile up. Lucky that I was wearing a long sleeve jersey (which is completely ripped open and trashed) and not a short sleeve, since my right arm took a bunch of the fall. Lucky that even though I was wearing a helmet, I didn’t crack my dome on the pavement. Lucky that a vehicle wasn’t involved with me, like how I pictured my first serious accident would go down. Lucky that besides a few scrapes that will heal, I came out pretty much untouched.

Biking obsession is a funny thing. You’d think after a nasty fall and a near miss, I’d be staying far away from anything with two wheels but then you’d think wrong. I’m actually upset that my mishap has kept me out of the Bike to Work Week activities, but instead of dwelling on it, I spent most of last night at the Bike Co-Op, repairing the all damage I did (bent ass front wheel, mangled handle bars and wrap, bent derailleur hanger, etc.) so she’s ready to ride the second I’m healed.

Now that I’ve had my first “when” and it wasn’t even that bad, I can only hope my next one is just as mild. The same goes for you, and like L.Jerome said to me last night, hey…scars mean you’re still alive, right? Amen to that.

Pretty colors are coming through.

The spandex saved my ass, literally.

Somewhere between there, I’m part of the road.

Glad it was material and not my arm

And I JUST rewrapped them. Shit.

Club Animals in NYC

I happened upon these folks on the interwebs. They’ve been keeping it silly in NYC.  I’ll admit, this is funny and I would love to happen upon such scenes somewhere in Chicago.  I’m certain plenty of people would just get scared and perhaps alert the authorities, but those people simply scare too easily.

Here is a section of their statement of relevance:

Can you think back to a time when you didn’t care how much money you had in your pocket? Can you remember a time when you just wanted to play? Club Animals has embraced childhood, and the time when what was valued most was fun, horseplay, and experimentation without worrying about “reality.”

They provide more than just free bouncy rides on the subway, but I’ll let you check out the mini-marathon, human petting zoo, and other projects on their site: here. The Free Bouncy Rides can be viewed here.

Again, I fully endorse this sort of behavior.  However, all of this madness  illustrates questions that frequently present themselves. On their site’s Q&A you can find:

Q: What is the difference between Club Animals and Furries?

A:We don’t have a “fursona”. We are artists being ourselves. My God.

Does calling yourself an artist count? Is any sort or behavior ‘excused’ or made cool because you refer to yourself as an artist? That is to say, if you are not an artist, is this behavior then perceived differently? Do you have to refer to it as art so that the cute girls don’t get creeped out?

Most important here is the question of whether it counts if you call yourself an artist. Isn’t it other people encountering your work that perceive you as an artist? If you have to tell everyone encountering your work that you are an artist so that they perceive the work differently, what does that tell us about your art? Is the art more valuable when it exists independent of the artist excusing it? 

For the third time, I’m definitely cool with these artists’ playfulness. But this find returned these questions to the front of my mind and gave me an opportunity to present just a few of them. I suppose I’ve tainted this post a bit with these questions.  I thought their stuff was very funny and wanted to share it.  Sadly, finding their declaration of themselves as artists distracted me from the fun of it all. Perhaps it is my prejudice or perhaps calling oneself an artist truly does distract from the art itself.

Here’s to artists who refrain from declaring themselves as such and instead get to making art and changing the world.

Club Animals will providing laughs and free bouncy rides on the L train platform from 11pm-12am at Union Station in NYC on May 23rd. Go take a ride.

Milwaukee’s Getting Fat (Tire) Today

Believe it or not, earlier this year, Men’s Fitness named Milwaukee one of America’s fittest cities.

If they were talking about beer and not fitness, Cream City’s rankings would be in grave jeopardy as of 6pm tonight.

Finally New Belgium Brewing Company is bringing their beer, including Fat Tire Ale, to our great state, and I couldn’t be more excited. When the clock hits 6 bells, I’ll be making my way to Blatz Liquor to get my first taste of the delicious brews from one of the coolest beer makers out there.

If you aren’t acquainted with the New Belgium Brewing Company, do yourself a favor and check them out.  Like most delicious craft breweries that are pumping out frosty libations today, New Belgium started as a dream in a basement and blew up from there with door-to-door sales and word of mouth.  The rest is now history, as they say, with a new chapter being written in Milwaukee as of today.

What’s particularly interesting to me about New Belgium is how well rounded of a company they are. Keeping customers and employees happy, endlessly promoting a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a sustainable operation aren’t just marketing gimmicks for the Fort Collins, Colorado company, they are the things that define New Belgium.

First U.S. brewery to run on wind power? Check. Employee ownership AND a free one-of-a-kind cruiser bike after one year of service? Check. A ridiculous number of efforts to have as little impact on the environment as possible? Check.  Remember this and this? Yeah, all thanks to New Belgium.

Also, their beers are delicious, but you don’t need to take my word for it. Trek down to the Blatz Cave in the Historic Blatz Brewery Building at 6 tonight to get a taste for yourself, as long as we don’t drink it all first, of course.

Between the Bluffs Beer, Cheese, and Wine Festival: Sights, Sounds, and Flirting with Wisconsin

Whew. That was a doozy.  

The Between the Bluffs Beer and Cheese Festival continues to grow every year. This 7th installment was large and in-charge like Marge on a barge, of beer. Golly-pops, it was a hell of a time. 

Word is, Joe Steve will have a review for you soon, however, I wanted to be sure to check-in and post a video of some of the events.

I was lucky enough to head into Western Wisconsin a few days early. There was great weather to welcome me to this beautiful part of the country, so I took my opportunity and borrowed a bike to coast my way around some farm roads.

Because I’m fairly certain there are a number of people reading this who have never been to Western Wisconsin, the first bit of the video shows a bit of her beauty.  The farms, rolling hills, high cliffs, deep woods, and rocky terrain are a far cry from the flatlands and skyscrapers I’ve become accustomed to in Chicago.  The stark differences hit me so much harder nowadays and I’m able to appreciate long quiet rides through the country so much more.  Don’t get me wrong,manically attentive urban biking through Chicago is fun, but sometimes it’s nice to pedal and stare off toward the horizon breathing fresh air.

The dog, Professor Barkington, got to run free in the fields and had his first encounter with some pregnant Angus Beef cattle.

Threatening weather seems to be a tradition of BtB; for the last few years we have had forecasts of thunderstorms for Summer’s Opening Ceremonies. After days of Sun and 80 degrees, thunder and lightning ripped through the sky the night before the much anticipated festival. I laid in bed watching the curtains flicker as the hours counted down.  As we are used to happening, the weather cleared and was grand when the gates opened.

Joe Steve was kind enough to bring along an extra set of wheels so that we could have a ride before the extravaganza.  The bikes helped us to get around the city quickly and gave us prime parking spots. 

Once we got our glasses, it was on. Everyone becomes friends inside the gates of BtB.  I was very pleased with the Homebrewers addition – very interesting stuff. And the number of breweries was nearly unmanageable - nearly.  I didn’t plan on sampling any of the wine, but after a bunch of the breweries ran out of beer (seems sinful, but the number of festers was staggering) it just seemed to find its way into my glass. And the cheese, as usual, was to die for. Grilled, tooth-picked, pepper-jacked, oh man.

All in all, it was an outrageously amazing time that lasted into the night. Of course, no recap or video can do the festival justice – you simply need to come.

See you next year – April 24th, 2010.

Beer, Buddies, Bikes and (hopefully) Babes

In case you’ve missed it, LJerome and I plus our crew are pretty fuckin excited about attending the 7th annual Between the Bluffs Beer Festival (I purposely left out wine and cheese…I’m all beer, baby)  this weekend in La Crosse, WI.  My co-host has made every single installment of BtB, sans maybe two, and if my memory serves me correctly, this will be my third consecutive year in attendance.

I’m not looking for a badge of honor or a gold star, but our little group of Festers have been sipping on the tasty 6oz samples since the event was confined to a small banquet hall; this year BtB is making it’s debut at the mighty and vast Oktoberfest Grounds.

I’m pretty excited about the move to a much larger space since, on the surface, it seems as if is a direct result of the event growing and gaining some more followers.  I say on the surface because some investigation has lead us to believe that City Brewery, the original sponsor and location of BtB, is no longer involved.

One of our goals for the weekend is find out WTF is up with the absence of City Brewery; nothing on the website, no sponsorship on the tickets, and zero mention of their existence/involvement on the event poster. If they are, in fact, no longer affiliated, I’d be pretty bummed since City Brewery and LJerome’s college years as a worker bee in their Tour Center is the sole reason I came across BtB.

I digress…it would suck but who gives a shit, right? I’ll still be there with my buddies, regardless if City Brewery shows or not.  In the mean time, have a few cold ones and enjoy the weather.  We’ll have a full report on this weekends events, including where City Brewery has gone, next week.

Between The Bluffs Beer, Wine, and Cheese Festival: The Lists

BtB is THIS WEEKEND.

Reports are coming into the ATS info desk that tasters are already losing sleep as a result of the building anticipation of the 2009 installment of BtB. Moreover, the reports can be validated by eye-witness accounts; trusted women in the healthcare field lay awake all night flooded with thoughts of the glory to come.

Because the ATS staff has been concentrating on the event of the year, we’ve been maintaining a slow posting pace.  Nevertheless, many posts are in construction and this weekend we will have you all in our proverbial pockets as we slurp down frothy suds with tasters from far and wide.

Tasting what, you ask? Well, that’s the point of this post. Many BtB updates have come and gone, however, this one will culminate the list-building monotony. 

As painful as typing all of this is again, it is my pleasure to present the (presumably) final list of breweries, wineries, and creameries.

You can still get tickets – April 25th.

Breweries (not including cities this time around):

August Schell’s Brewing Company / Grain Belt Brewing

Bell’s Brewery

Capital Brewery

Central Waters Brewing Company

Cold Spring Brewing Company

Furthermore Beer

G&F Distributing / Madison River Beers

Goose Island Beer Company

Gray’s Brewing Company

Horny Goat Brewing Company

Hub City Brewing Company

LAGERS: La Crosse Area Grain Enthusiasts & Related Specialties

Lift Bridge Beer Company

Milwaukee Brewing Company

New Glarus Brewing Company

Oskar Blues Brewery

Pearl Streat Brewery

Pig’s Eye Brewing Company

Potosi Brewing Company

Rush River Brewing Company

S&S Distributing (Michelob Brewing)

Sand Creek Brewing Company

Sprecher Brewing Company

Summit Brewing Company

The Grumpy Troll Brewery

Tyranena Brewing Company

Viking Brewing Company

Wineries:

Barefoot Wine & Bubbly

Burr Oak Winery

Maiden Rock Winery & Cidery

Forest Glen Winery

Penfolds

St. Michelle Wine Estates

Tola Wines

Weingut Janz Vineyards

Seven Hawks Vineyards

Spurgeon Vineyards & Winery

Vernon Vineyards Winery

Creameries:

Castle Rock Organic Dairy

Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery

Nordic Creamery

Pasture Pride Cheese

Westby Co-op Creamery

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board

See you there, my fine Americans.

The Force is Strong in Scotland

 

BBC News reported that 10 members of a police force just outside Glasgow, Scotland “listed their official religion as Jedi on voluntary diversity forms.“

Apparently, it is the only police force in the UK to have admitted that there are Jedi faithful in their midst.  Interestingly, however, in the 2001 census of UK citizens about 404,000 people listed their religion as Jedi.

Police Review editor Chris Herbert stated, “The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde Police with their Jedi police officers and staff. Far from living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, some members of the noble Jedi order have now chosen Glasgow and its surrounding streets as their home.“

Much of the article seems to be quite tongue-in-cheek. I find their lack of faith disturbing.

May the Force be with you.

Read the full story here.

Pornography/Video Games May Affect Children

New Belgium Poster Guy

Hey, that kinda looks like me…

Holy shit, that IS me! What!?

What. The. Fuck?

That was the reaction I had yesterday to this splash page for the 2009 New Belgium Urban Assault Ride:

Like the hat? Mos def not as easy as it looks...

Totally by chance, I came across that page yesterday morning, having no idea I was a part of it. Though it wasn’t the first time I had seen that picture — or laughed my ass off about it –  I was pretty damn surprised to see my goofy grin on the page.

You may recall that L Jerome and I participated in the first edition of the Urban Assault Ride in Chicago last Fall. (If not, check it out: here, near the bottom)

Basically it is an organized, brewery sponsored urban scavenger hunt on bikes that includes Double Dare Physical Challenge type acts, mystery check-points across Chicago, and (free!) Fat Tire beer.  Our duo took 31st in the male pairs, with one severe mistake (skipping our first planned check-point) costing us significant time.  We vowed to do much better next time.

A few weeks after the race, results were posted and a link to a photo gallery from the day was sent out.  I came across a bunch of photos that LJerome and I were in, including a few looking similar to the one above.

I couldn’t resist the urge to have friends and family share in the hilariousness of them so I passed the links on.  After a good laugh and a few weeks, I totally forgot about the pictures and figured they’d never be seen again.

Guess not.

Yesterday morning I got an email update from UAR that was sent to all of the 2008 participants, since it opens this weekend in Tucson.  I looked at the dates in mid-winter when they were officially announced, but now that that I’m starting to schedule my summer, I checked exactly when the ride was coming back to Chicago, which led me here: UAR – Chicago.

My next click was the fateful one, that lead me to the photo page above, and gave me a laughing fit.  Lucky for me, New Belgium is an awesome company that makes great beer and strives to promote healthy, happy lifestyles; I’m actually a bit flattered to be on the poster, even with my stupid hat/look/smile.

I shared the link with some friends and family to join in the laughter, and one buddy even bundled it all up for a post on his blog: Beer Runner: Beer, Bikes and New Belgium.

The good news about all of this is that New Belgium beer is FINALLY making their way into Milwaukee, thanks to Joe at Blatz Liquor. More good news is that there is going to be a meet-up May 5th at his store (a few hours before the Dan Deacon show at Turner Hall) to test it out and maybe pick up a case.

More details New Belgium meet-up are sure to follow on ATS, and don’t forget about the Between the Bluffs Beer, Wine and Cheese fest coming up next weekend.

In the mean time, I’m going to drink some great beers, laugh my ass off about that stupid picture and work on a plan to see if I can leverage my silly mug being on that poster for a free bottle or two of Fat Tire…

Evolution of the Trek

After some feedback from the other riders in last Saturday’s 8th annual Milwaukee Messenger Invitational, I was informed I was running a pretty aggressive gear ratio for the MKE terrain on my single speed Trek. I tried a much smaller gear ratio that I had laying around, but it was far too “slow.”  Going down hills, if I was running fixed, I would have been in a world of hurt. (Picture the Road Runner’s legs)

Luckily, the annual Wheel & Sprocket Bike Expo is going on down the road from my house in Wallis, so I rode over to check out what EighthInch.com had in stock.

I made a list of things I might need/want to upgrade on my bike and set a budget.  I walked out of there with a new beefy 1/8″ 47t chainring, a new white saddle, and a new 1/8″ white chain.  When I made the decision I was going to commute by bike as much as I could, I had a vision of what that bike would look like when it was “done” where I wasn’t going to add any parts.

Sans the new, proper track wheelset I’m working on procuring, I’m pretty stoked about how it looks…quite close to that vision.

Installed a new drive train today.

If you can see it in the next picture, the bike wasn’t always set up as a single speed.  It was a leftover that didn’t sell in a rummage sale my parents had, and whoever was the original owner never picked it up.  It sat for 2 Summers until YOINK I snagged it and took it back to Eau Claire with me.

Leaning against the stack of beer boxes

I used it as a proper road bike to bomb around the Eau Claire county highways for a few months at the end of college.  I enjoyed it so much, the first summer after graduation I picked up a new Felt road bike for a bit more performance and endurance riding.  The Trek sat idle until I realized I was working with dropouts that could handle a single speed or fixed set up.

The deconstruction began and so did the frankensteining.  The first version of the Trek had a funky breaking system, a mis-matched gear ratio, and a pair of stubborn rims and tires.  I didn’t know any better or have the funds to make a change, so I left it and rode it as is.  I even brought it with me on a few trips down to Chicago, once hitting the beach after Critical Mass.

Hanging out on the shores of Lake Michigan

Due to a crash last fall resulting in an oblong front fucking wheel, the stubborn wheelset doesn’t exist, but a mis-matched duo does.  I’ve been sharing the front set of my Felt roadie between the two frames since I’m too lazy to true up the other wheel.

That time will come, but so will the new track wheelset I’m looking into.  Until then, I’ll keep doing what I can to make things reach that vision, like I did when I fixed the rigged up brakes and dropped some new white bar wrap. I added some flare, too.

New brake lever, cables and bar wrap

That’s where I was at last Saturday, freezing my ass off waiting for the MMI to start.  I didn’t understand what the guys were talking about with my off gear ratio until I was riding into a nasty head wind up KK trying to catch up to a pack of fixed riders.  I just couldn’t do it.  The combo of the wind, my little bit of tiredness and the lack of the torque/power needed to catch up make me realize my gearing mistake.

Anytime I told anyone with any fixed or single speed knowledge I was running 52/16 and then 40/16 I got a bit of a chuckle out of them.  Thankfully, I also got some suggestions and a new direction to go with my drive train.  47/16 seemed to be the ratio that would fit me best, so I went with it.

A trip to the Bike Expo, $50 in parts, 25 minutes of greasy hands and a quick test ride, the Trek evolution is one step away (new wheelset) from being exactly what I had envisioned when I started the project.

Almost done