ghotifish.net

I am the choir. Preach on!

Seriously — there are people who disagree with this movie? I guess there must be, or it wouldn’t have been made. But it couldn’t be anyone I know, right? I mean, most of them went to Carleton! They even have sweatshirts to prove it!

What’s that? People at work? Rubbish. If you’re smart enough to work at a network security company, you’re smart enough to understand the twisted junkie/dealer relationship we have with the middle east. Right?

Oh, it must be that guy who keeps honking at me when I’m on my bike. Yep, that must be it — this movie was made for him. You know, he seems to follow me around a lot. And apparently he honks at some of my friends, too. It’s like that one guy does nothing but drive around all day, burning oil and getting angry at cyclists.

Good thing there’s only one of him!

… so I bought some Vittoria Zaffiros to match Eden’s bike. They’re good, cheap, and manage to look pretty stylish for a black rubber circle.

However, these tires (or at least the 700×28 and 27×1″ varieties) are for some reason more difficult to install than any other tires I’ve used. Like cursing-for-20-minutes (per wheel) difficult. By comparison the old 700×25 Bontrager Selects pretty much fell off. So when I discovered (during a break between wheels) that a Google search for ‘Vittoria Zaffiro “hard to put on”‘ turns up nothing, I decided to do something about it:

Vittoria Zaffiros are hard to put on.
Vittoria Zaffiros are hard to put on.
Vittoria Zaffiros are hard to put on.
Vittoria Zaffiros are hard to put on.
Vittoria Zaffiros are hard to put on.

Ha! Now I rule teh intarweb.

UPDATE: It worked.

This past week I finally took the plunge back into biking to work, assisted by some new clothing (lessons learned: SmartWool isn’t worth the premium over REI socks; don’t be picky about what you use to cover your face) and Eden’s campus-navigating skills. I immediately rediscovered my theory, oft-thought but never articulated, that no bike ride is ever a bad idea. I have been on many rides, and not once have I ever dismounted and thought “ugh, that was stupid.” This list now includes a handful of trips in 10 – 30 degree weather.

The venerable Gmaps Pedometer, which has made quite a few improvements since my last visit, puts the ride to the new work location at 7.5 miles, which is almost humorously short comparend to the old route. An unwarranted sense of competition and pride compels me to point out that I put far more clicks into my route than did D.

And speaking of saddles, I had the recent realization that the vinyl-and-plastic “Brooks” currently attached to Jaques (le Peugeot sportif) is either 1) a cheap, mass-produced, market-share-grabbing ploy that Brooks had no business making, or 2) not a Brooks at all. This realization was so shocking and sudden that I actually looked around to see if anyone noticed. I’m guessing #2 is the most likely. Either way, I’m concerned that I may have offended Jaques’ refined Gallic sensibilities (not to mention my own ischial tuberosities) and that something a bit more comfy and/or stylish is in order. I think that Jaques secretly wants me to get a genuine Brooks. I also think that I am projecting my own desires onto a personified bicycle. Creepy.

Good lord… these are the kind of bikes that make me check the limit on my credit card:

http://www.vanillabicycles.com

I’d link to favorites, but their site is very scripty/framey… plus I’m too busy drooling.

EDIT: Found a link to the one I’m going to call my favorite. Too bad the picture isn’t bigger.

Thanks to Johnny for the tip. I wonder if he’s done any favors for them?

Guy in a Suburban driving through downtown on Hennepin: “Go, Lance, Go!”

Me, riding a Trek, wearing yellow, hoping to make it through the next green light, sotto voce: “Just going home from work…”