Too many words needed to describe what happens in Listener Feedback, Tri-gal calls out to a gentleman to be on the look out & tries to get her angular momentum on, Roz wants to know what to do & not do to keep up with the faster riders, John G shares his complete list of masters dopers, FRR shares pre-race readings- John G quotes the quotable, Sombrero Malo states that dull ti bikes are great looking, understated & classic, Binner follows with a photo of his rub, Smithie asks about cables less stretchie, Frozen Roadie & sealskin socks, another counter steering session compliments of the Chuck Norris All Stars, Sore quarters, tri-cycles we don’t talk about, can the over weight be weightists? tied & soldered Kevy Metal asks? 29′er presents…a polshied turd.
One of my favorite things about sports are block buster trades. Trading value for value. Who could forget such trades as: Ken Griffey Jr. for Brett Tomko and outfielder Mike Cameron, along with a pair of minor leaguers: infielder Antonio Perez and right-hander Jake Meyer or Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorley
and Mike Krushelnyski, to the Los Angeles Kings for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million in cash and three future first-round picks? And cycling trades are no different, except on a very personal level. Why not trade value for value?
The following is a list of some of the more memorable trades I have been involved in.
Who is not a fan of ridiculous looking things from Italy? My neighbor had a pair of new Briko Stingers, not too dissimilar to these, albeit in turquoise & orange livery.
Knowing he had a penchant for odd Frenchie things, I proposed a trade for something I had access to & thought he would find difficult to resist.
Yes, this is it. The shortly seen, Le Groupement jersey. Time has a strange way of changing values & while I got many years of service from the Brikos, I feel I traded away a piece of history with the Le Groupement jersey. The newly formed team didn’t make it out of the Spring campaign that season without collapsing. A line up of current world champion Luc Leblanc, he sporting such handlebar tape as the Gorges Sorel Personal Ribbon, featured in boutiques in Milan, Paris, New York & Brussels (as advertised on the box) & the final team of Robert Millar. They rode Bianchis & were to have the premiere of the Suntour STi type shifter. Such promise, never to be fulfilled. The cherry on top of all this is the truly awful design of the jersey that just seems so French.
Speaking of Frenchies… one of the commandments is thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife. Well another neighbor had this Team RMO Liberia that he no longer rode. He had ordered & imported it. It was produced in the run of the tour team’s with Reynolds 753. The original owner was similar in size to me & the bike was a good fit. I could not manage a trade at the time, but this bike fell into the hands of someone maybe less appreciative than myself…however, the opportunity presented itself for what may be the best trade I have made. Without spending time on the gory details, let it suffice that the trade was a 2 for 1 trade, an american made aluminum frame set & a few components for this, complete except for wheels & cross bike of various parts, needing a little love. Truly a block buster.
A little wrinkle of the deal were the Campy Delta’s. They actually came to me earlier. Native to the bike, the previous owner had been bitten by them. Knowing my appreciation, he knew they would have a good home with me. Lovingly rehabilitated, they have returned to where they had once been- only now working a little better than before.
All trades however, do not work out quite so well. Have you ever seen a Silca mountain bike pump? I did not think so. I should have known something was up when the trade was for another pump, a cheap taiwanese pump I had owned. It worked great! Yet, I was willing to trade it + a pair of leg warmers for the Silca Mountain pump & this fine Suntour Superbe Pro Rear Mech. I think I can still hear the recipient laughing at me. The Silca pump had a canister about the diameter of my arm. My 135# body had to channel all the Mr. Miyagi wisdom of focusing the entirety of force my body could muster into pushing the handle down 4″-5″ to squirt 5 psi into the tire. Pride fueled my use of this pump, until, one day the base failed under the immense pressure required to operate. However, it did not die there. It lived on, now the butt of many jokes, I bolted a 2×4 base to it to get a last few gasps of air into a few tires. The only remaining player in that deal is the unheralded Suntour derailleur.
Like Jupiter aligning with Mars, like Bauer colliding with Criquilion, like a Frenchman winning on Bastille Day this latest podcast coincides with on of the most monumental events in recent history. Yes, the 21 year Haggis import ban has been lifted in the US. I know what I’m having for dinner whilst I listen to this podcast, which includes a (re)visitation of the question of Quality, John G’s gushing over Team Sky, John K’s southern living, then lots of emails. We recommend a double dose of Lipitor before consuming.
Group training rides are truly best form of fraternization for men. As my wife has often observed, men (especially cyclists) tend to a bit less social, ADHD prone, narcissistic, birds of a feather. This time of the year I find myself going on at least one 5 hour odyssey per week with anywhere from 4 to 12 people. An even number is preferred so a proper double pace line can be maintained. The double pace line can be sort of like speed dating meets time travel. You’ll find yourself engaged in conversation about say, why Ryan doesn’t believe in global warming but does believe in reincarnation, then pow! you’re separated due to a hill/light, dog, etc., the line is re-shuffled and you find yourself next to The Pilot who wants to talk about the episode of Top Gear where the Bugatti Veyron drag races the Euro Fighter Typhoon when boom! sprint sign, re-shuffle, now Jeff is telling you about his recent fitting with Dr. Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. It’s wonderfully entertaining really and, as my wife also points out, “men communicate better side-by-side rather than face-to-face.” I guess I agree with that. Just look at a bar with a long row of barstools all side by side. Now, where can I find a group ride like this one in the video below?
All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted, it’s really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.
In what could be our best podcast EVER we get in touch with our inner mountain bike selves, we go north of the border and seek out sage coaching wisdom, we re-aquaint ourselves with Alva, we do math. It is not coldly charted, it really is a question of our honestly, yeah, our honesty.
We start with the usual ramblings where John K. confesses to be possessed by the spirit of the Pilot, then an interview of Sonya Looney, Ergon Topeak Pro mountain biker chick. What?!?? Mountain Bike… It was at the request of the Tri-Babes from Colorado. Next we move into (Emotional) Listener Feedback: Alva returns!! the Pants Man continues to deceive, Hedgemonkey abuses and breaks his equipment, NC Skinny Legs asks 3 questions, Man-Child does his cx bike a disservice, the Polish Sausage seeks power (and wins LFBOTW), Red Kayak goes aero, Auditor Blue bears witness to cx shenanigans, Sombrero Malo asks if we lurk and challenges our math skills, Trigreyhound consumes media, MG Matthew is fixed, Frieza asks about coffee and cold weather, no nickname thinks he needs a hybrid (but he doesn’t), FRR gets advice from Canuck Coach Steve, EPO Man doesn’t stink, A Marine says don’t call him a sailor, Foothill Roadie gets S.M.A.R.T., and the Mild Stallion takes LSD and whines.
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