Follow Up Bizzness

Bike shorts are awesome, I adjusted my seat a tiny bit and I’m all good. My first day riding with them was like “Oh, that’s why they all wear these things!” All in all a good thing. I foresee purchasing a few of them because washing and drying the same pair daily is pretty annoying after only a week.

My bike chain indeed was an awesome super dark black (CHING!) and the black water cannon lid fit my neon pink bottle just as planned. However I ordered the wrong size seat post clamp, like for no good reason. It was ridiculously beefy and I look forward to having the proper size. It’s quite the odd giant hunk of metal but I welcome it to my bike.

Next purchase should be a helmet, so many options… all so terrible. We’ll see though.

Going with it…

So let’s just say I been getting a little roughed up in the soft spots down below since I recently adjusted my seat. However I can’t just put my seat back to how it was because it is much better positioned now and I can ride more aggressively and it gives me a better posture. I was reading around that it could be from riding with cotton, which is usually what I’m wearing. I have been commuting for like 6 months now in cut off jeans and it’s never been a problem. More reason to believe it is related to the damn seat positioning.

canari gel liner

So in hopes that the seat can stay where it is and I can get some crotch relief I purchased a pair of gel padded biking underwear. These can go under any regular pair of shorts and hopefully will work out for me. It is the next logical step (well I guess adjusting the seat would be, but hey…) They actually feel pretty cool and I can see why roadies would dig on dressing up in cycling gear. Although the gel chamois makes it feel like I am wearing a tiny diaper under everything.  I will be giving them a chance today. I may report back depending on how great or terrible the whole thing is.

Esoteric Agenda

Pretty cool movie, it’s an intermediate learners guide to conspiracy theory. It touches on a few topics that were new to me. Mainly Agenda 21, Codex Alimentarius and the Kyoto Treaty. The thought of a secret society planning the planets depopulation from 6 billion to 500 million was a bit mind blowing.

It also reminded me of other stuff had forgotten about like Fluoride and the effects of living in fear based society on genetic human evolution. If any of this is true it is safe to say we are fucked and must embrace the idea of dystopian blue jump suits, soylent green and Orwellian newspeak. It looks really bleak and it’s only like a year and half away from starting:P

Bike Part Bidness

Picked up some goodies a few days ago from… get this… Amazon. Let it be known I have never ordered a thing from Amazon, ever. First time yo! And the best part is I didn’t even click on my own link to get credit on my affiliate account (dumbshit!)

Anywhoo, I picked up a new chain, seat post clamp and a huge black… water bottle (the shit was only $2.99!!)

Spank Tweet Tweet Chain

The chain is a Spanky’s Tweet Tweet chain, I got the black one. It looks tough, has half links and is black. It looks really black like that stuff foot ball players but under their eyes or burnt cork. That being said I’m hoping that the chain looks like the one in the above pic with something of a thick black coat of paint rather than being anodized like the red and blue. Maybe the black is also anodized and it just looks better who knows. Either way my bike has been doing me well for over 9 months so it deserves a little love.

Surly Constrictor

Next is this hefty hefty seat post clamp. The Surly Constrictor is friggin massive and flat black so I’m down. I’m super into hefty, I want my bike to be a tank. Flat black everything is the way to go. I read around before buying it and it’s a good clamp if you are a fat ass and you keep pushing your seat down or if you are not a fat ass and your seat is sliding down on it’s own. I don’t really have any problems with my seat post slipping but my current clamp is dying, it is wound very tight and the screw is sticking out of it even though there is no exit hole for it. It’s a P.O.S. and needs to replaced so this part will be greatly appreciated.

water bottle

Lastly for no reason other than the fact that it was $2.99 I picked up this massive 28 oz water cannon! I believe a regular old bottle is like 11 oz so this thing is over twice the size. Really, I don’t ever see myself needing that much hydration. While the thought of aiming a massive bottle at my face while on the road is pretty awesome I really bought it because the lid on my hot pink bottle has bitten the dust and I think I can take the black one off of this one and apply it to the pink one. If toy collecting has taught me anything it’s that you can make some plastic do just about anything you want if you hit it with a hair dryer for a little bit.

And a good bye treat, if you don’t think this is funny I don’t wanna know you. I apologize if the skanky pizza girl is offending to you but I found it more appealing Howard Sterns stunning visage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7UNG8a33AQ&NR=1

One Week Ago Today

I touched ground in SD from Tennessee. It was pretty awesome. I’ve always been to Tennessee in the winter so everything was always dead and really cold. This time however with spring in the midst I got to see some beautiful greens, yellows and purples.

Tennessee usually means a few things. A few trips to Walmart, a few trips to Chili’s and a gauntlet of food that isn’t available on the west coast and you bet your ass every one of those random eats is washed down with the sweetest of sweet tea. I shit you not I watched this lady pour an entire pitcher of sugar into one of those tea dispensers… yet I still went back for refills. We did some Cheebuger Cheeburger, Cracker Barrel, McAlister’s, Steak N’ Shake, Sugar’s Ribs (fuck me this was sooooo good) I think that was the bulk of it. Oh and I brought some grape heads and orange heads and some fried peanuts that you can eat with the shell (salty, greasy craziness) ~ Thanks Kim! It also means trees with seeds, no whippets and cheap booze! I had a good time and I missed my bike but the week went by super fast and before I knew it it was back home to my dull day to day.

The general purpose of being there was Xty’s sister Sharla was getting married. The wedding was held at Booker T. Washington State Park, it was pretty awesome with its massive river and many trees an shit. Xty totally snuffed some child for the brides bouquet (sigh lol) Yeah… so back to chrons and bike rides =_=

hahaha

Pay No Mind

This place is undergoing a face lift of sorts. Everything is where it should be. I think I will be getting rid of the flickr plugin, it’s not really supported anymore and I don’t think it’s been updated since wordpress 2.7. It was an awesome plugin for the last few years and let me access my flickr photos like a charm. So long Tan Tan Flickr. Also doing away with google ads, it was a fun experiment that yielded absolutely nothing, not even 7 cents… so good bye ads hello cuss words!

Have a Cigar

Tonight at La Purga, 3795 30th Street. A bunch of custom painted cigar boxes by a bunch of local artists, DJ muthaphuckin’ Pound will be there as will a bunch of hipster cool guys and the like. Be there or smell like resin.

Have a Cigar - La Purga

Home… is wherever it aint this hot (I <3 SD)

is sun burnt, sore in the legs, dreading the return flight, getting sick (flu?), almost finished with private parts (thnx Conor!), a little annoyed with mom, very annoyed with T-mobile (49 cents a minute to dial out in Puerto Rico!!), hungry as a drunken frat girls vagina, feeling slightly taken advantage of by the locals (EXPENSIVE!!) and waiting for Tito Lolo to stop by and say goodbye… fucking LOVE that guy! All in all a slightly mind blowing experience, it’s always a trip to see where you come from. I am an end branch in a complex weave of tree branches yet to rear fruit. My moms side of the family is so cool, they made my father cool.

I can’t help but feel a little sorry for my family out here, it’s too crazy. You learn to adapt but I like my little bubble with perfect weather much too much to ever be a resident. At the same time I am amazed that there is a tiny island full of people here who represent a huge part of who I am culturally and feel this pull to join them. Sort of like a black man from Chicago going to Mother Africa.

As a PR x CA transplant I think I am Puerto Rican but upon arriving I realize I’m not loud enough haha. More bitching and a few photos when I get home y Los Simpsons son mucho mas mejor en espanol jaja. Love.

Word of the Day: Retention

Indeed, retention is a good thing. I’d used cages and straps in the past and found them to be a bigger pain to get into and get out of than they were worth. I always wanted them as a child because grown up bikes had them. Up until now I never had used a bike for serious commuting and had never really been exposed to the road for such long amounts of time.

Having a few hills to battle on my way home I figured some retention might help make the climb a little more tolerable. After a while of looking around at different toe clips and stuff I realized I did not want to deal with it and figured maybe straps would be more what I wanted. After deciding on the straps I wanted they had sold out so I picked up a less expensive alternative from Burro. I figured they should get the job done and that they did. It was quite an epiphany. I had been riding with half of my pedal potential just pushing pedals downward when the whole time I could be pulling up too. I knew this before hand but just felt it didn’t apply to me because I wasn’t doing tricks and shit.
Now my legs are enduring a sort of revamping of their routine, new muscles being used. While my pedaling has become twice as effective my legs become tired almost twice as fast… or something close to that, who knows the point is you are never too cool for some good ole’ foot retention. By next week I’m sure my legs will be stoked and they will pump like pistons up those pesky hills.

burro

It is worth mentioning that while I don’t really dig messenger bags and stuff Burro makes some really cool stuff from recycled billboards (NICE).

Brown, Blue and White

Have a Merry Christmas Folks! Here are some videos sure to warm your cockles haha or something. We’ve got some brown dood from a project Conor worked on, Ernest and the Jingle Cats!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cFhR_hKxYA

Testing Testing

1… 2… 3… What number do you see here?
test