Friday’s post on Thursday afternoon.

I feel like squeezing a little milage out of this post cause it’s another long one, so I’m gonna throw it up early-like.
With that being said, there is a baby about to be born.
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My pals at Handsome Bicycles are just about to have a throwdown in celebration of their 2010 product launch. They are good people who are responsible for some good stuff. The time and the place are here in black and white, so you should be there, if for no other reason than the free beer.
Now then, while I doubt Liz would be very appreciative of me putting this photo up front and center, I can’t help myself. I really love it that much.
Graham Watson has got nothing on me.
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See, Jordi is a very old friend of mine, and during a recent trip through my burgh, I had the pleasure of spending time with him and meeting the new lady in his life, Liz. It always is a singular hope of mine when meeting the mates of my friends that I will be as fond of them as I am of the person we have in common. There is nothing worse than meeting your homie’s new love (whether it be a girlfriend, or a boyfriend) and having an immediate disdain for them.
I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of character and while putting away a ridiculous amount of rum the night before, and then burning a bright blue flame during our ride, I have formed the opinion that Liz gets a star.
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I like good people, and she is that.
Of course the other highlight of the ride was while at one point riding side by side with Jordi, with his right hand off the bars, watching in terror as he dropped his front wheel into a hole, sending him at full clip into me, which in turn sent me full clip towards a huge void on the side of the road that dropped off into a three foot deep ditch.
It was by the grace of Cheevus that we somehow both recovered and continued riding peacefully along with nothing to show for the incident but matching adrenaline rushes and permanently etched expressions of horror and surprise spread across both of our faces.
It would appear as though our years of unintentional training while engaged in various derbies finally paid off.
Now on to other news.. There is so much stuff going on, and so many directions to look, I find it safer to just sit at home and rock back and fourth on the floor.
Case in point, on Wednesday I got an email from Ray letting me know that due to an outing followed by some crashing at the following series, he’s laid up with a clot in the superficial artery in his right calf.
First race of the season, and my man is already on the couch.
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2008 Dirt Derby Halloween Party from Pirate Race Productions on Vimeo.

More information if you care, and I demand that you do, can be found here.
You know, I frequently feature Loudass on here for a myriad of reasons, one of which is because he’s the kind of individual who you either love or you hate, though truth be told, I occasionally hold both feelings for him simultaneously. The following email from him sums up just exactly why it is hard to sit on the fence regarding one’s feelings for the big guy;
“I am waiting with Gus in the Westlake Trader Joe’s parking lot listening to Super Tramp on 103.7 The Band, and this suburban mom pulls up next to us in her Prius. She immediately walks over and starts saying how cute Gus is.
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I said “Thanks. He’s Latvian. We got him for half of what you pay for a Russian, and waaay less paperwork!” I don’t know if she was more shocked or disgusted…

For my part, it’s things like this that make him so endearing.
The first race in the dfL’s latest series has come and gone, and I wasn’t there.
That isn’t to say that I won’t be in attendance at the Friday’s photo show however;
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Then again, I might not be…
Going to places where there are more than four people that isn’t the inside of a dive bar can sometimes be a tricky proposition for me.
One guy you’re almost guaranteed to see at either the race, the show or the inside of a dive bar is the previously celebrated Papa Joe;
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He may only look to be in his mid 40s but the man is a hundred if he’s a day.
In news of fallen compatriots, Captain Dave got ahold of me with a plea to help a friend. It would seem as though due to an accident during a recent ride, the lovely and talented Carrie, seen here in dark days, finds herself in a bit of a pickle;
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It seems as though our girl is dealing with a shattered thumb- Two words that should never go together in a sentence, but what’s even crappier is that her insurance company seems to have pulled up stakes, and left her in the lurch for an enormous sum of money. Luckily, I’d like to think that among our community here, she has an army of dirtbag friends that fan out across hill and dale, and if everybody who travels through these parts were to look deep within their hearts and throw down a dollar or five, she would be somewhere between a dollar or five on up to much more to contribute to getting herself fixed up, so she can get back to careening around town, being the the apple of Portland’s eye.
Please, if you would be so kind to help out a person who really is one of the good guys, throw a little bit of scratch via Pay Pal to savecarriesthumb@gmail.com.
And maybe just ask yourself.. What would the Fonz do?
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Beyond that, if you ever need a place to crash in Portland, or just want someone to buy you a cocktail, simply track her down and tell her that you were one of her saviors.
She’ll owe all of us favors, forever.
Here we are, once again at the tail end of the week. I’m happy to say that I once again hoodwinked the powers that are from the Interbike offices into a working press pass for the show.
I got the same concerns expressed to me that I received last year about not being an industry related website, chock full of regurgitated press releases from companies highlighting their newest advances in belt drive technology, or whatever other crap is being pushed down our throats on the regular, to which I simply responded in kind;
“It’s not necessarily just industry information that I intend to focus on due to the fact that there are a million other websites that do that, but rather to expand the focus outside of the industry as I am of the opinion that the industry can only cater to itself for so long.
The long term goal is to bring folks outside of the bicycle world as a whole into our fold, because as I see it, we can always use as much new blood (i.e. attention, i.e. money) in the industry as we can get.
It’s a big umbrella that I’m putting up, and as many folks who care to get beneath it are welcome.”

Rest assured however, I will be bringing back reports on all of the cutting edge technology that only serves to make your bicycle ride, as well as your life in general, that much more enjoyable.
After all, it’s common knowledge that the more you spend, the more fun you have.
In closing I will now throw up a few flyers for events that are happening around the way. First from Stewart, and all of the good people in Hotlanta we get an offering that’s so big I almost had to break it up into several different posts;
“Stevil!
I wanted to give you a heads up that the baddest alley cat on the planet is going down this weekend in Atlanta: FM24. It’s a 24 hour urban relay with 4-6 man teams and solo riders. 250 people have preregistered! Fuck yeah!
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And check this! There will be a race tracker for all the people in Denmark who just love them some Alley Cat action. Follow the action starting at noon Saturday the 12th and check back every hour or so to see how your favorite team is crushing the other teams. Stevil, your favorite team will be Race Riot. I just thought I would make that easy for you.
The race tracker has a twitter feed. Just throw a little #FM24 in your message…..
Stewart
Atlanta”

Alley cat races go high tech. It was just a matter of time.
And from Landon at the Tonic Fabrication (Group) I have this beaut for a ho-down in Portland;
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There is a promise of sweet jumps and yelling? Oh holy lord, I’m there.
And then all the way back down the coast to my own backyard, which unfortunately I will be out of town for, yet again.
Joshus from Frances Cycles writes;
“If you care to post such things at seemingly late dates, then do:
3rd Annual Santa Cruz Wildcat.
This Saturday, Sept 12th, 2009
Registration at 10am, start at 11am.
At the Bicycle Church
703 Pacific Ave (enter on Spruce) Downtown Santa Cruz
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The race will be roughly 30-35 miles of on and off road, quality dirt to low-quality dirt, potential river crossing, friendly and challenging. Beautiful.
Finish followed by hearty food and drink with meager prizes (including frameset from Frances).
$5-$10 suggested donation.
thankyou thankyou.”

I was really looking forward to this too, but alas, I will be on a bike and behind a bottle in points North, so I will just have to wait for a post ride report.
On that note- Everybody (except Carrie) say it with me. “two thumbs straight up, and we’re off to the weekend.”
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15 Responses to “Friday’s post on Thursday afternoon.”

  1. Duncan September 10, 2009 at 5:17 pm #

    Watching guys on cyclocross bikes ride over jumps is like watching midgets fuck: fascinating, yet disturbing. Then when they start running over those planks, it’s like a whole goddamned Oompa Loompa orgy.

  2. brado September 10, 2009 at 6:12 pm #

    that Fastermustache poster art rocks, thanks for the daily inspiration

  3. Punkass CG September 10, 2009 at 6:22 pm #

    I read “by the grace of Cheevus” as ‘by the grace of Cheever’ and instantly had a mental image of him with no shirt, a can of PBR, completely disheveled hair, and genuflecting over a band of followers.

  4. Jim September 10, 2009 at 7:17 pm #

    Punkass – Cheever? You gotta specify whether you mean John, Eddy, or my favorite, Gary. (Technically the last one is a Cheevers but we’ll give the old bastard a break here).

  5. Stevil September 10, 2009 at 7:27 pm #

    Jim,
    She’s actually referring to this Cheever. He’s the best Cheever in the world.
    http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2576/3835999209_ff09d9d552.jpg

  6. Rotstein September 10, 2009 at 9:22 pm #

    getting radtarded for the wildcat. Going to be a good one this year

  7. dfl brad September 10, 2009 at 10:54 pm #

    we will miss your presence! you better make one!

  8. dfl brad September 10, 2009 at 11:08 pm #

    photo cred!

  9. hillary Waddell September 10, 2009 at 11:45 pm #

    when you say Liz….. do you mean THE Liz, Liz Hatch? Just curious.

  10. cary September 11, 2009 at 4:51 am #

    First, I’ve followed the social and anti social styling’s of this Loudass fellow for quite sometime. I even stalked him at a certain SSCW even to observe him in his natural setting. Until now the jury was always out but who couldn’t love a whit that quick.
    Secondly, from one Cary to another Carrie, I too severely injured my thumb a long time ago. The injury resulted in me going on full disability due to the fact that I couldn’t perform my job which at the time was managing commercial construction projects and standing around with said thumb up my ass. I got your back sister.

  11. d*pow September 11, 2009 at 9:51 am #

    “a mental image of him with no shirt, a can of PBR, completely disheveled hair, and genuflecting over a band of followers.”
    Ha ha, love it.

  12. Teemac September 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm #

    That is so weird, because that’s exactly how cyclo cross FEELS!

  13. sabine September 11, 2009 at 4:12 pm #

    Liz’s quads alone deserve a star.

  14. snombie September 12, 2009 at 8:09 am #

    IS that Cthulhu in the Fastermustache poster? If so, “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn,”

  15. Stewart September 13, 2009 at 6:03 pm #

    That Faster Mustache thing, it was all fucking kinds of killer.
    Stewart
    Atlanta