Monday, January 11, 2010

It's always showtime here at the edge of the stage

I know, it's been a long time, but I'm listening, I'm here for you, and ...a placeholder continues to hold places in 2010, bigger, badder, and chewier than ever.

For the most delayed Ice Weasels related blog update on the whole of the internet I'll keep it brief, as lots has been said and it's not fresh on anyone's mind. It was super excellent, snowy, and fun. But cold. I got to park next to the porta-johns. My race was won by a guy on a Surly Pugsley. HUPcakes are delicious.

In a sad follow up to the last post, it would appear I'll never end up driving that killer looking new Saab 9-5. I'm supposed to get some literature about it in the mail but I imagine they ultimately didn't sent it. Rumor has it the car will live on as a Buick (it's sensible not to discard a fully cooked product before it's released) and despite evidence of a corking new lineup in the wings, it's GM and I have full faith they'll screw it up. Prove me wrong, GM, prove me wrong.

Winter is the time for side projects, and it certainly is the winter. Cross season is over, the city (and Africabike) are covered in salt.
A whole bunch of the side projects are bikey in nature. The Bianchi is now properly winterized with full fenders and lights. Dan M and I repacked the BB and now it's good to go. This week is set to get back over 30° so maybe I'll ride outside.

For the other prong of my two-pronged training solution, I am set to the gills with all sorts of awesome Cycle-Ops equipment. The key bit is my awesome new rear wheel, which is laced up to a Powertap SL+. It's super cool to get wattage, (rear-wheel) speed, cadence, and time without any kloogy sensors or wires. It's the bee's knees.

To know what I'm supposed to do, Coach Scott Cole (who really needs a website) puts all the goodness on Trainingpeaks. Even if you're not getting coached, it's an easy way to keep track of your training and the version with ads is free.

The last bike project I'll mention, this one still in the works, is my dreamy new front road wheel. Without divulging too much, I'll just say it's a theoretically excellent Franco-Swiss synergy, and you know I love good synergy. It's 16.3% more excellent than you think. More about that later.


I did finally get a new subwoofer for my receiver and so far, the tidy cubbyhole it's living in doesn't have any annoying resonances going on. Sadly, I no longer have the cable station that shows Die Hard on loop so I'll have to find something else to properly assess the boom-boom.

Also, I bought an iPod Touch from Seth. I'm not generally an Apple guy but the price was right and this is a slick little device. I might have to abandon my curmudgeonly ways and start using Apple products like everyone else now.

Bryan, I'm sorry this took so long. It's Jesse's fault.

Some music videos are timeless and always feel like they could have been made this year. Some are not.