Large Fella on a Bike

Things & Stuff...

Been very busy lately with selling stuff for our Relocale Fundalini.  The pot is filling up quite nicely too.  The temp. however is dropping faster than Pamela Anderson's boobages at a Knife Show, and as such we are in heavy-duty acclim-a-mode i.e. figuring out what works, what doesn't and when.  That said, all the wieners on their plastic & alum bikes have pretty much disappeared around here so I guess that means they are inside on their trainers or over at the gym [3 blocks from their condos, but still within easy driving distance with their BMW SUV's].  Cool, more road for my girth.  ;-)

19 miles today and chilly, 29 degrees w/15mph winds.  The front of my wool balaclava had snotcicles attached to it.  Yesterday 12 miles, a tad warmer at 35 degrees and 17 miles the day before at a downright balmy 41 degrees.  So far, haven't missed a day on my bike since mid-September [when we went to Vermont for 2 days]... I just love riding everyday & am getting a serious bug up my trunk to start getting it on twice a day.

I regularly pass by this very old Italian guy who 'Speed-Walks' around our 'hood in sweats & a parka.  Nice guy, and he always has a huge smile, hearty wave, and loud, "Heeeeeey!!!  Lovely Night RIGHT?!?!?" for me when I go by.  I dig him.  Tonight I rode by him and he screeched out, "Son of a Bitch!!  You sure do like THAT bike, don't you??  Good for you... keep ridin' son, you're shrinking right before my eyes!"  I greeted him, thanked him... and smiled for at least 10 miles.

In other news: finally got around to installing one-half of my early X-mas gift from Amy & Chloe, my Paul's canti brake, the Neo-Retro front... still have to get off my ass and do the rear Paul's Touring brake, but figured I'd wait until I get an additional X-mas gift from Amy & Chloe that is currently *or in the near, near future hint/wink* being built up out in St. Paul, Minnesota.  To fit the Neo-Retro I had to move my Schmidt E6 headlight down further on my fork blade, and also decided it was a good time & opportunity to replace the bulb in it as it was definitely growing dim [always cool to use something until it really goes through its life, even if it's only a bulb in your headlight... I'm finding that to be a rare thing in our culture these days, of course it's also very cool to use things that are built well & thoughtfully enough to allow for the replacing of parts vs. just chucking the whole shebang into the garbage and buying a whole new something or rather].  So anyway, I did the front brakes, moved the E6 and replaced the bulb...

My Schmidt E6 is now like a pissed-off Klieg light again [scaring the shit out of peds on darkened streets and mixed-use walkways... they always assume a silent motorcycle or electric car with one blown-out headlight is coming at them] and the Paul's Neo-Retro... holy crapola, they have some serious stopping power.  No, no incidents of near-endos or any such thing, but Sweet-Assed Mary, they got some power!  And of course [at least to my eyes & tastes] they look stunning.

In case you were wondering [and you probably weren't]... yes, I am in the throws of trying my best to Un-Shimano-Ize my cycle [and not go Campy either].  In the next month or so, gone will be some other essential parts that are Shimano-branded.  Nope, not 'cause I've had problems [actually the shit has been rock-solid as is usually the case with all-things Shimano] nor because I'm in the throws of some Charlton Heston meets Ted Nugent Pro-American gun-toting pig roast... not like that at all. 

The reason is much more simple... I want to get the parts I've always wanted, and basically ran short of coin on, when I was having my cycle built by Bob Brown, and to save some coin I opted for a few Shimanoish parts that only made their way onto my steed because the Piggy Bank had a fairly large [and pronounced] echo to it.

...now if only I can talk Bob into fabricating a One-Off, custom front & rear derailleur?!?!

Minn. On Our Minds...

Things are moving along nicely regarding the move, especially this early in the plan.  Already I have sold off enough stuff that the costs of the physical move [truck, packing materials, gas, some 'hired-help' to lift stuff] are covered.  Done, Check.

Amy has sent in her applications, etc for her temporary Minn. RN license... and is starting to talk to a couple different hospitals in the Twin Cities.

Next up...

an actual date and time off of work, etc to get our asses out to Minn. for a sight-seeing, job interview, [hopefully] rent a house, etc tour.

That's it for now...

The New Cool: Not Blogging...

Recently I've noticed two things:
1.  That a decent amount of my [and others that blog] links to other folks who blog are broken.  "Broken" as in, i.e. aka. defunct, gone, split, funked out, kaput.

and...
2.  That I've seen lots of folks announcing that they aren't going to blog anymore because [pick applicable response]:
A) Everyone does
B) It ain't the same as it once was...
C) I'm tired of sharing my life with people [*Editors Note -Mine- I suspect that to mean, "No one reads the boring shit I write so I am going Bye-Bye"*]
D) Because, like man... fill in reason

All of which I know because these very same folks have either announced this in their final posts and/or repeatedly at and on others folks blogs.
LOL
Somehow that cracks me up.  I guess I am easily amused but it seems these 'Goodbye cruel blogging world' send-offs are, in fact, another form of blogging...

but even worse than their blogs were in the first place.  Take your toys and leave the playground, Champ, because you had it wrong from the start... it was never about popularity contests anyway, you classic American Male dickweeds filled with your abundant testosterone and fueled with McDonald's-style competitive bullshit agendas... it was about you, and I suppose [strongly] you're as boring as your blogs [were].

Bye-Bye. 

Me?  I blog because I wanna do this in some way that I can access it regardless of hard drive crashes or a lack of computer [if that happens] so this crap that I write is 'out there' for me to find, read [if someday I feel so inclined] and in the process [read "Byproduct of"] if anyone else finds it: amusing, offensive, great, shitty or anything else for that matter, in the duration... so be it, and good, great, sorry, oops, or whatever-to them.

What a strange time we reside in, where people feel compelled to announce everything, even the boring stuff [the good/bad stuff sorta makes sense because, well, it's Good/Bad, right?].

"I'm leaving, sorry you missed out on my greatness... there's nothing you can say to make me stay" then repeated on 110 different blogs by the same writer, yeah right whatever.

Final Thought:
If your thing is to be competitive in the world of blogging and drive the most amount of folks to your blog [for whatever worth or intention that actually has]... idea/suggestion/clue:

Write something that is worth fucking reading.

Or at least & at minimum:

use Spellcheck, compose complete sentences, have a Point to your posts, have at least one or two pics be in focus out of the 14 that weren't, and don't chat away about shit like having " ...$2.57 left in your bank account and it's 4 days until payday and I need to buy a Snickers bar, condoms and 3 kegs of Boone's Farms".  I can abstract a lot of shit, trust me I can... but reading that day after day-you can't pay me enough to come back and keep reading that day after day.  Why?  Because if that's your real life...

you're living one boring-assed, tired existence.  Sorry, Chief.  No wonder you stopped blogging... you bored yourself right to sleep, along with the rest of us.

Rivendell MUSA Review...

Since mentioning that I gifted myself with some new garments recently I have been sorta hit hard with email about those purchases.  Important for me [and I assume some others as well-judging from the email] is something you can wear that works nicely and as intended on a bike and off your bike without making you look [or feel] like a Stormtrooper from Star Wars [refer to photo top right corner of blog, Thank You].  However, and maybe the most important part of why I received so many emails is, "Fit".  Being large and finding something to wear is difficult enough [unless of course 'finding something to wear' includes and/or means: huge sheets of colored textiles that look like shit, are made like shit but yet for some bizarre reason cost 2 to 3 times what other fashions cost that are made better, look better and are... well, err, actually fashions] but for bike stuff... well unless you max out at 2XL in the fleece world for tops, or 3XL in spandex for shorts from Borah [and sorry... but I don't wanna see anything that fits in 3XL in Spandex ever-including me, Thank You.  I respect the Natural World too much to do that], you're shit out of luck.

Until now.

Rivendell Bicycle Works started a line of clothing [a seersucker shirt, shorts, knickers and long pants to be exact] a year-maybe longer-ago.  They called it MUSA for Made in the United States of America.  Gets right into your Bob Seger/Bruce Springsteen jones doesn't it?  But hey... you gotta name stuff something, so why not name stuff what it is, right?  Right.

I bought the long pants, two pairs precisely.  One in 2XL... the other 3XL cause I wasn't sure how the fit would be and I knew I would initially [for Winter] be using them with other garments for layering against the cold.  The 3XL are roomy for sure but actually pretty damn enormo on me, yep even with wool tights/long johns underneath [also from Rivendell... review to come later, maybe-but I love them MUCH, seriously].  So really I've been in the 2XLs mostly with wool underneath for riding as well as for lounging around the crib, cooking, being Dad, being Husband... being fabulous [as usual].

I'll shut up now and do a pictorial on them with comments [because HEY, everyone LOVES the pictures... "SHOW US MORE PICTURES!!!"].

That's them, the Rivendell MUSA pants in 2XL.  Nylon fabric for slippery goodness on the saddle [and I really like that too-makes for easier transitions from nose to rear of saddle when accelerating or maintaining speed, and most notable for me: they don't bunch up or sit weird when I climb out of the saddle on hills and then sit back down like other materials did and do-namely sweatpants].  Nice color too... Grant calls it Butternut w/Olive [for accents and the pockets-you'll see that soon] and we cook and eat loads of Butternut Squash so I know Butternut.  He's right, it's Butternut colored.  Maybe a little more orange in it would be a little more Butternutty... but not by much. 

The Backdoor-40 view.  Two roomy pockets w/buttons.  One thing I noticed right away, they are cut in the hips for sitting but not just any kind of sitting mind you, sitting on a saddle which is quite different than plunking your rear quarters onto a chair.  A saddle eats up more fabric i.e. 'space' just by its very nature of getting pushed up into your Unmentionables, and usually makes fabrics/material pull very tight around your hips due to that.

The Business Side.  Olive elastic belt with a nice clip, easy to adjust, a touch of elastic in the waist too.  You can wear them Homey-style or pulled tight and snug right up to your nips and probably make your way into a Lutheran Pot-Luck Supper with no real detection.  Go large or go home.

Pocket View.  Nice olive color offsets the butternut tastefully and even has some red stitching which makes me feel fancy & festive, okay... and sassy too.

Ahhh, you probably wondered when I was gonna do the infamous [and patented too] LFoaB Pocket Depth Test huh?  Yep, right now, Chief.  That there is one drumstick-no not the eatin' kind fool... the playin' kind, that's 16" long and made outta Canadian Maple.  That pocket is mighty DEEP.

Or you could go with 2 large-sized bicycle water bottles, no problem for the MUSA pants.  Easy Peasy.  **  'Props' to Bob Brown Cycles for permission to use his bottles for this review ;-)  **

Or even two of these.  Hey, what are those anyway?!?!

Holy Persnickety Snaggery!!  Thems is Paul Component Engineering touring & neo-retro canti-brakes, I'll be pitchforked in the gaddockery!  Review to come soon.

But[t] probably the single coolest thing about these pants is the 'Diamond Crotch'.  Not only makes 'em comfy for smooth/seamless riding on a saddle but, for a larger fella like me, because they aren't traditionally seamed down and over the Spanish Onions, you got some xtra room period.  And that is Good. 

Last snap... and they are very lightweight, thin [like I said... use them in the cold WITH wool or other things] and therefore, roll as tight as a Mummy-style sleeping bag, 'cept they are 9 times smaller.  And that was a 3 Second Roll by the way... I didn't even really try to roll 'em tight.  They'd go much tighter i.e. smaller if need be.  And you can even use the velcro ankle cinchers [threw ya a curve ball there didn't I... not mentioning those till now eh?] to hold the roll tight.

Price: 40 smackers.  Not bad considering they are thoughtfully designed and smartly made right here in America, Fuck Yeah [nod to South Park].

In the end, 3 Thumbs Up

Thoughts:  Yep, a couple.  Hopefully make a heavier version too [I know Grant has mentioned this]... and get the seersucker shirts sized up a notch or two, dammit!

Peace & Axle Grease...