Back in the saddle.

The-Judas-Cradle-copy

For those who don’t know, the device depicted above is what is commonly known as a ‘Judas Chair’, and is what looks to be, a total bummer.

Now then- After a refreshing 48 hours I’m back before you with a brand new array of stuff you won’t remember two minutes after you’ve walked away…

That is perhaps with the exception of the following video I came across while Googling ‘animated classical paintings doing stuff is a relatively comic fashion, but in a way that would probably offend my mom‘;

Obviously I’m not yet super positive about how the Googles works;
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Then again, I guess you can’t mess with success.

Now let’s dip into a bit of information regarding a small enterprise that was, and then wasn’t, and now is again, I’ve long been fielding questions regarding the whereabouts of one 685, or Pentabike Dave as he’s been known to most. Between time spent in the caves of South Western Colorado and fighting off clowns on the Front Range, he’s been diligently whiling away his hours with plans of relaunching his little empire. Apparently the planets have begun to realign because as of about two days ago, Pentabike(dot)net is back on line with a few items for your consumption;
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Snap up some goods now and keep your eyes peeled for some future projects he has in store before he melts back into the hills for another possible hiatus.

In news totally unrelated to any of that, are you familiar with this person?
Mo Bruno-Roy is going to have a little bit of laundry to do
Photo by Dan Seaton
Her name is Mo Bruno Roy, and not only is she both the one of the honchiest honches to ever throw her leg over a bikecycle, and thousands of dopey bike nerd’s imaginary girlfriend, but she is a peach of a human being, so when Joey’s OK contacted me with this recent CX Magazine feature on her, both thumbs went up;

For you see, beyond being happy to see a friend in the cycling press, I was also very excited to see that upon her head sat one of my very own AHTBM/Chuey wool cycling caps;
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Dare I say she provides far more appeal than my first true love, Chlöie;
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But when you spend your days toiling away in a dank basement, you find company where you can.

It’s winter time almost everywhere though, and besides wearing a hugely impractical heater suit;
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-donning one of these chapeaus is almost the best thing you could do for yourself.

But like I said, it’s winter almost everywhere else. It just hasn’t happened to have yet landed in the Bay Area, and despite my declaration after my trip to the mythical State of Jefferson to never ride a mountain bike again, I faltered and have anyway.

One trip in particular aboard a mountain bikecycle was just on Tuesday when I rode around my backyard and surveyed the most recent bit of work done there;
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This effort was completed by the fine people of the BTCEB and can be read about here.

Unfortunately I was either out of the loop and/or out of town for all of the trail work days for this project, but they’ve made the trail we worked on in July look like a light landscaping project. I’m most impressed with the cooperation between Oakland land managers and trail conservationists, at least as far as this park is concerned, and hope that eventually it can be used as an example for sustainable trails in other local regional parks.

Of course for the bike googah and doodad dorks in our midst, I will note that I indeed popped this trail’s cherry aboard my Krampus which makes more and more sense to me every time I ride it.

When I first had it assembled, I wrote this and took some nice pictures of it in a stream.

Then at some later point I went to Sacramento with it which resulted in this post.

Some time between those two entries the Krampus’ formula snapped into place, thanks in part to conversations I had with Blue Collar’s Robert Ives about the world of fat(ter tires). Also in that time, I made a little change to the stock setup by removing the thirty foot wide Salsa bars, and replacing them with some fancy pants Easton Haven riser bars;
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It’s a stupid fun bike to ride on all types of terrain (though my favorite so far is rolling river trails), and the idea of bringing it back for a future Homie Fall Fest is of the utmost appealance to me.

However paying any airline more than a couple of dollars to fly with my bike does not.

Lastly, and relating the the mention of Easton- On Wednesday I spoke with a fellow in that company’s employ named Scott. During our phone conversation he’d referenced their Dream Bike Charity Raffle.

You’re not familiar with the Easton charity raffle you say?

As Dain clearly explained, it’s a project where five custom bike builders make frames that are then decked out with the high zootiestness Easton has to offer. These bikes are then put up to be raffled off and all of the money that’s generated is donated to a cause of the builder’s choice.

The current one has been built by Todd from Black Cat Bicycles, the revenue raised from which will go to a place very near and dear to my heart. According to Scott, the local Pajaro Valley High School’s art department had exactly $1.80 allotted for each student involved in it.

One. Dollar. And. Eighty. Cents.

So being the sucker for art nerdery that Todd is, he chose to send all of the money generated there, which in my opinion is pretty awesome, for without my high school art department I would have grown into a derelict of magnificent proportions, as opposed to the derelict of respectable proportions you’ve grown familiar with.

Anyhoo- If this sounds like some action you could get behind, and wouldn’t mind the prospect of waking up one day soon with this between your legs;
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Then all you have to do is either go here or as their Facebook page instructs, if you’e a mobile user, go here.

I don’t know what the difference between those two pages is, but it’s probably something…

Five dollars is all it costs and beyond the fact that it could net you a pretty sweet bike, you’re helping out the kids, and that right there is a damn fine directive.

Anyway- on that note, I bid you yet another fond farewell. I won’t have much time to write a proper post for Monday so chances are better than good I’ll be back here again with you on Wednesday the 14th, typing furiously, and perched high atop the pointy comfort of my ergonomic Judas office chair.
newlittleskull

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13 Responses to “Back in the saddle.”

  1. msantos November 8, 2013 at 6:06 am #

    Yo…ahtbm, I’m one of two art teachers here at Pajaro Valley HS. Thanks for the shout out and to everyone else, let ’em know.

  2. One Eyed z November 8, 2013 at 6:10 am #

    Welp, Stevil I have to say thanks. I didn’t sleep well last night (very rare) do to some uncomfortable stress at work so I woke up in a bad mood. Not feeling motivated to ride my bike not to mention a day of frustration with, well with people I should mention.
    However the Jungleboys video has made my morning. My cup coffee and listening to Black Sabbath (loud, like there is any other way) also helped but the video made me laugh which I needed this morning.
    Thanks

  3. Matt November 8, 2013 at 6:19 am #

    It’s like I’m part of some small cadre of cool…I know both MBR (indeed, super nice and super fast) and a guy named Scott at Easton…which isn’t to say THE Scott you spoke with, but yea probably! I don’t have a mountain bike though, so its a short stay I suppose….

  4. spokejunky November 8, 2013 at 6:20 am #

    That beautiful Mo Bruno Roy looks wicked fast in the AHTBM Chuey lid. Not to mention she through a shout out to Shanna at Endless Bike at the end…yet another beautiful SS woman.

    • phatty P November 9, 2013 at 10:16 am #

      She deserves a MUCH better interviewER than that voice fry yabber!

  5. Judi November 8, 2013 at 6:26 am #

    Pop some bmx risers on that fattie, you will love it even more.

  6. rogbie November 8, 2013 at 6:52 am #

    Those wide bars work best with a teenie tiny stem. That said, the flatness of those salsa bars is also a drawback. A 50mm stem, 780mm wide bars with >1.5″ rise makes for a happy steering front end on the Krampus.

    Glad to see pentaDave up and running.

    Now, to ride to Denver’s-best-record-label-no-one’s-ever-heard-of’s discog. starting with this sharded 7″ record: http://youtu.be/8wwHZyeGcjk

  7. benjo November 8, 2013 at 10:42 am #

    Just pointing out that the Dream Bikes are raffled, not auctioned (you don’t have to spend the most money). Us cheapskates might otherwise be deterred.

    • Stevil November 10, 2013 at 9:27 pm #

      I said auction. That’s not right. I’m fired again.

  8. dark dragon god of f*k ups November 11, 2013 at 5:56 am #

    Not to play the my school is a bigger disaster than yours card but if Pajaro Valley has $1.80 to spend on each art student they are doing pretty damn well. I got my BS in Environmental Science and became a teacher through the Soldiers to Teachers program. I became the Science Department head after 2 years. We had a science budget of $.60 a student. I got grants to keep the department solvent. I couldn’t handle school administrations apathy/derelection of duty, I left in disgust two fingers up. I now work at Chemical plant and train and higher former students through a program funded by other local Vets. My former district and surrounding districts are churning out uncultured, obese, morons with no understanding of consequences.

  9. Matt November 11, 2013 at 7:20 pm #

    For a real interview with Mo, may I suggest any of the videos with Thom Parsons (aka Ultra Enduro Dyude) where she lets her true Boston roots shine. For example:
    http://dirtwire.tv/2013/09/gpcx-2-mo-bruno-roy-with-ultra-enduro-dyude-lookin-at-whales-and-holding-wheels/

    • Stevil November 13, 2013 at 6:09 am #

      I agree- Thirteenth is the luckiest numbah.

  10. slappy November 11, 2013 at 9:50 pm #

    Stevil you’ll feel much better if you load that krampini up with camp and ride due east-ish you’ll be in homie town in no time