Blue and yeller, ’crossin’ feller. The mango Steelman Eurocross is practically camo’ in the rabbitbrush until you lamp those electric-blue Mavic Open Pros.
They’re a’ight, K. I don’t have that much time on them, but they’re holding up OK down here. If you pump them too hard it’s easy to lose traction while climbing out of the saddle, but they’ve been treating me pretty well so far.
Sandy has used rabbitbrush to dye yarn yellow and green for rug weaving. She used alum as a mordent to make the yellow, and a rusted iron mordent for green. I had a set of Mavic Ksyrium wheels with hubs and rims anodized that electric blue color.
Our trails being on the narrow side I generally collect a rabbitbrush sample at the junction of shifter cable and handlebar tape. I’ll start saving ’em up for Sandy.
I was going to make an artistic joke, something along the lines of “still life with spokes and brush.” But then I thought you might take offense at the “still” part. But then I said it out loud anyway.
Gawd! A steel bike with aluminum wheel rims? No motor? No battery? No disky brakes? How retro!! I’m afraid none of the current demographic targets of the bike biz would be slightly interested in that.
But the bike company now owned by Louis Vuitton has just what they need – it’s even named the Costista … oh wait, it’s Crossista.
I didn’t see where the motor or battery was…but I’m sure an e-Crossista is on-the-way!
That was shortly after a few of us seceded from Rainbow Racing to form Team Mad Dog Media-Dogs at Large Velo. Most of us were (ahem) entrepreneurial sorts with flexible schedules, and we were logging insane training mileage and racing a ton. Were it not for heavy stout consumption I might have dried up and blown away.
Toe clips and straps even!!! I laugh at the kids nowadays when they say, “Ya know, you can get stuck in those things.” as if I just fell from space and stumbled onto the bike by accident.
I usually follow up with, “Yeah, I do know that, thanks. This bike also forces you to reach down here to shift the gears…and there are no clicks, snaps, crackles or pops to help you. Amazing that anyone can ride such a thing, no?” When I climb on my vintage bike I’m always amazed at how quickly the muscle memory(?) comes back when it’s time to flip the pedal up to put my foot in or reach down to shift the gears. I find myself doing it a time or three even when I climb back on my bike with automatic pedals and shifting on the brake levers.
I still have a set of Lyotards, some Alfredo Binda toe straps, and my old Sidi cyclocross shoes. I just need some Christophe steel toe clips to go all like retro an’ shit.
Sometime in the 70’s I spent months trying to get a stock of Lyotard touring pedals. They were easy to find if you bought the entire bike. Yet French bikes were notorious for shitty wheels and lets not even bring up Simplex derailleurs.
Sometime in the early 1990s, K. Casey B. Gibson shot that pic in Bibleburg’s Monument Valley Park. It was before I bought my first Steelman, a CC that Brent Steelman used to call “a 700c mountain bike,” and which may have been one of the first 29ers.
Mad Blog Media 
Clement MXP’s? Those look nice.
They’re a’ight, K. I don’t have that much time on them, but they’re holding up OK down here. If you pump them too hard it’s easy to lose traction while climbing out of the saddle, but they’ve been treating me pretty well so far.
Sandy has used rabbitbrush to dye yarn yellow and green for rug weaving. She used alum as a mordent to make the yellow, and a rusted iron mordent for green. I had a set of Mavic Ksyrium wheels with hubs and rims anodized that electric blue color.
Our trails being on the narrow side I generally collect a rabbitbrush sample at the junction of shifter cable and handlebar tape. I’ll start saving ’em up for Sandy.
No need to save the rabbitbrush! We have a large patch of it on a wash about 1/2 mile down the bike path behind our house.
I was going to make an artistic joke, something along the lines of “still life with spokes and brush.” But then I thought you might take offense at the “still” part. But then I said it out loud anyway.
Me? Take offense? I usually give it. Haw.
What pressure do you run those MXP’s?
Between 35 and 40 psi, K. They call for a low of 45 but that’s too high for the trails around here. I wanna roll over stuff, not bounce off it.
Gawd! A steel bike with aluminum wheel rims? No motor? No battery? No disky brakes? How retro!! I’m afraid none of the current demographic targets of the bike biz would be slightly interested in that.
But the bike company now owned by Louis Vuitton has just what they need – it’s even named the Costista … oh wait, it’s Crossista.
I didn’t see where the motor or battery was…but I’m sure an e-Crossista is on-the-way!
Wow. My first real ’cross bike was a Pinarello. Didn’t look a bit like the Crossista.
Photo by Casey B. Gibson
That feller looks like he has to run around in the shower to get wet! He can’t be a member of the OGWGFIWRT.
That was shortly after a few of us seceded from Rainbow Racing to form Team Mad Dog Media-Dogs at Large Velo. Most of us were (ahem) entrepreneurial sorts with flexible schedules, and we were logging insane training mileage and racing a ton. Were it not for heavy stout consumption I might have dried up and blown away.
Toe clips and straps even!!! I laugh at the kids nowadays when they say, “Ya know, you can get stuck in those things.” as if I just fell from space and stumbled onto the bike by accident.
I usually follow up with, “Yeah, I do know that, thanks. This bike also forces you to reach down here to shift the gears…and there are no clicks, snaps, crackles or pops to help you. Amazing that anyone can ride such a thing, no?” When I climb on my vintage bike I’m always amazed at how quickly the muscle memory(?) comes back when it’s time to flip the pedal up to put my foot in or reach down to shift the gears. I find myself doing it a time or three even when I climb back on my bike with automatic pedals and shifting on the brake levers.
I still have a set of Lyotards, some Alfredo Binda toe straps, and my old Sidi cyclocross shoes. I just need some Christophe steel toe clips to go all like retro an’ shit.
Sometime in the 70’s I spent months trying to get a stock of Lyotard touring pedals. They were easy to find if you bought the entire bike. Yet French bikes were notorious for shitty wheels and lets not even bring up Simplex derailleurs.
Wow. What’s that picture? Nineteen-eighties?
Sometime in the early 1990s, K. Casey B. Gibson shot that pic in Bibleburg’s Monument Valley Park. It was before I bought my first Steelman, a CC that Brent Steelman used to call “a 700c mountain bike,” and which may have been one of the first 29ers.
Early nineties. Back when we were men, rather than whatever it is we are now.