Not surprised. It would take a conviction of sedition in a federal court to make the 14th stick for the supremes to vote otherwise. Maybe next year. The decision that really counts is in July, and I can’t figure out why they delayed that one.
I’m maybe one of the very few who truly believes tRump will get his ass whipped once we get to the big dance. So I’m glad he’s pulling funding from the pockets of the GOP (Greasy Old Pissants) Sure the polls are looking grim but that is how the media likes it. Can’t have us living without fear and loathing every day eh? Mostly being apathetic as hell, many liberals will finally get fired up late summer into fall. I’m also figuring that Lil Adolph is going to cost some votes down ballot as he did by backing candidates in the Michigan midterms. Jeezus did they lose biggly. I’m just glad the Rethugs aren’t running one of their other asshats who might very well beat Joe the Biden. Well…maybe not Ronnie since he just didn’t have the dick-tater spiel down and is a dweeb. I’ve been told I’m full of shit many a time but I do remember a guy name Obama- who we were told didn’t stand a chance in hell of taking charge in the Oval Office.
I haven’t abandoned all hope yet. Despite what the press has been pushing on us, the campaign is only now starting. Everything else has been prologue, pretense, laziness, and business as usual when it is anything but. It’s time to pick a side, and abandon what Tom Nichols at The Atlantic calls “wishcasting.”
Oh I wondered what the calliope music was that I heard from afar. The 9-ring circus was in session. I wondered if they had roasted peanuts available? I’m sure the bearded fat lady sang afterward with the appropriate “Me, Me, Me” vocal warm up.
Meanwhile back in the world of cranks, pedals and handlebars it looks like Trek and others are getting slapped around pretty good on their balance sheets. Big cuts and downsizing are the word I get from buds still in the biz. Looks like some serious deals a’comin on certain bikes. I’m told not on parts so much. That’s ok…while no where near the stable POG rides (and by god he does ride em) I have enough bikes to hold me until I’m tits up. If I can just get my leg up over the top tubes…..alright I admits….I’m eyeing a mixte frame but need room for at least 700 x 38C meat so the pickins is slim out there. Probably go back to Rivendell and see if they have a scratch and dent deal.
Trek is “right-sizing,” according to The Big Boss Man, John Burke, via BRAIN. This means cutting spending (and jobs), and “simplifying” product lines. Commenters say Trek peeps have been getting the heave-ho for a while now.
Mixte frames were always attractive to me, especially for a commuter or errand runner. I should have scratched that itch, but didn’t. The SOMA Buena Vista Disc frames will fit a 42mm tire. Don’t worry about components. We will visit Patrick, I’ll distract him with a guitar, and you can go in his stash and get what you need. We should act fast before Herself sells it all on Ebay.
Well, at the risk of seeming like an uber-retro grouch, Herb you might look for a mid 1970’s Raleigh Gran Prix in a mixte frame. The bike would cost you little, though the refit might drive it up. My brother got one for my mom when it was new in 1975 and she’s been riding it ever since. Let me think. The remaining original parts are the headset, the crankset (yeah the original cottered steel TA) and the brake calipers (good old Weinmann centerpulls). Fits good, rides nice. If I remember correctly it came in two sizes, a small (19″-ish seat tube) and a large (21″-ish seat tube. Was when they were still made in England.
Ooo, cool. Speaking of retro (but not that retro) I had Weinmann cantis on one of my early cyclocross bikes, a Pinarello that my old buddy Tim Campen helped me lay hands upon, if memory serves. That was when I was still rocking Sidi cyclocross shoes, double-sided alloy pedals with Christophe toeclips and Alfredo Binda straps, and Wolber or Vittoria sewups.
Ah Jon worked on many a Raleigh of that vintage and some were from the venerable Carlton works and she may have one. Is it a Super Course? But when I read “cottered crank” my left eye began twitching and I spilled my coffee. We had many a battle with those trying to get them true and righteous. Weinmann brakes of all kinds got a bad rap back then since they were often mated with chromed steel rims which caused no lack of angst once moist (humid days) let alone wet. Ah but on aluminum rims they were all-stars since their pad compound could do its job and if cantilever, look out cause they had some leverage.
Well, I knew this Mad Blog Media watering hole would provide endless education for me, but I must admit to never having heard of a mixte bike. So I looked it up. Popular for men and women in Europe, but mainly for women in the USA. Culture drives the market yet again! 🙂
Anyhoo …. I then had to recall my Schwinn front coil/spring bike I used as a paper boy back in the late 50’s (1950’s not 1850’s) to deliver some 60-plus papers in St. Petersburg, FL. The front wheel dropped off when I went off a curb and had forgotten to tighten the axle after putting a patch on the tube! Never happened again!!!
I then had a 3-speed bike I rode all over the town and to school some 8 miles away.
Then followed two 10-speed Bottecchias that both my wife and I rode from the LBS to our apartment on the stiffest leather saddles known to man/woman. I had bone bruises that lasted a month and couldn’t ride for 3 weeks.
The industry has improved markedly since then in performance and comfort….. but the prices have increased exponentially …. and Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” has once again tapped many on the shoulder with bad news.
Maybe Darwin should have been an economist?????
As one who has used numbers and proofs created by others as tools to create marginally different mouse traps, my use of numbers has not been wise enough to have stumbled across the works and thoughts of Adam Smith. The invisible hand was something that I did not recall stumbling across. Interesting. According to a part of Wiki, it is the idea of the “incentives which free markets often create for self-interested people to act in the public interest”? Would this be like NPR assisting me in their support of them by offering me a free “Endeavour” coffee mug when I send them a few schillings? If correct, then one could apply the idea that health and fitness is an indirect incentive benefiting the public interest by purchasing a new bicycle. I believe that’s an invisible hand that we can’t argue with. Certainly Charles wouldn’t because he’d realize that it’s the application of the survival of the fittest.
As for the idea of the mixte bike, one only needs to look around at those of us who through various choices and circumstances, have found ourselves living without homes and motorized vehicles. The mode of transportation by those in those circumstances, and the necessity of maintaining that transportation with various parts available “at hand”, can certainly be the idea of “mixte”. I have a brother that resides in a desert region at a level fortunately above the non-home level and he has a Reynolds 531 Raleigh that he has been playing “mixte” with.
Iddn’t that a good’un? I was going to post something about it and got distracted. I guess Road & Track didn’t learn anything from Sports Illustrated, which paid Hunter S. Thompson to write a 250-word bit about the Mint 400, didn’t like what they got and “aggressively rejected” it, giving a big thumbs-down to what would eventually become “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
Michigan International Speedway was built waaay out in farm country with nary a 5 star hotel in sight and the closest runway for corporate jets not close enough for the upper crust. Over the years they lost one racing event after another. The Grand Prix went to downtown Detroit, and then onto Belle Island adjacent which would supposedly bring huge dollars into a poor city. All it did was get the ultra rich closer to their penthouse suites since most of us won’t go anywhere near the businesses in the area while this planet wrecking bullshit takes place. Thereby spreading money elsewhere when we avoid the area. Sure the fine hotels and expensive cuisine ops get a boost but not the locally owned joints. Ok, gotta run, my Lear is idling outside ready for Vegas so I can have lunch with the CEO of ScrewUInc.
POB: I’m not sure I’d want him to answer if he was. Such a response might invite pitchforks, heated projectiles and comments about “Come on down, the water’s fine.”.
Mad Blog Media 
Not surprised. It would take a conviction of sedition in a federal court to make the 14th stick for the supremes to vote otherwise. Maybe next year. The decision that really counts is in July, and I can’t figure out why they delayed that one.
No reason to delay it that I can see. Not one that any of us is eager to seriously entertain, anyway.
Charlie Pierce wasn’t surprised, either, though he took the scenic route to saying so.
The best court that money (and power) can buy. Dale in Mid-Mo
The slow motion coup continues. I hope young folks are paying attention. Or as Samuel Jackson said, “Wake the fuck up!”
I’m maybe one of the very few who truly believes tRump will get his ass whipped once we get to the big dance. So I’m glad he’s pulling funding from the pockets of the GOP (Greasy Old Pissants) Sure the polls are looking grim but that is how the media likes it. Can’t have us living without fear and loathing every day eh? Mostly being apathetic as hell, many liberals will finally get fired up late summer into fall. I’m also figuring that Lil Adolph is going to cost some votes down ballot as he did by backing candidates in the Michigan midterms. Jeezus did they lose biggly. I’m just glad the Rethugs aren’t running one of their other asshats who might very well beat Joe the Biden. Well…maybe not Ronnie since he just didn’t have the dick-tater spiel down and is a dweeb. I’ve been told I’m full of shit many a time but I do remember a guy name Obama- who we were told didn’t stand a chance in hell of taking charge in the Oval Office.
I haven’t abandoned all hope yet. Despite what the press has been pushing on us, the campaign is only now starting. Everything else has been prologue, pretense, laziness, and business as usual when it is anything but. It’s time to pick a side, and abandon what Tom Nichols at The Atlantic calls “wishcasting.”
Tom Nichols is a good writer and thinker.
Oh I wondered what the calliope music was that I heard from afar. The 9-ring circus was in session. I wondered if they had roasted peanuts available? I’m sure the bearded fat lady sang afterward with the appropriate “Me, Me, Me” vocal warm up.
I almost forgot. Have a Super Tuesday afternoon ! May the rats escape safely as the GOP rowboat goes down with the trump.
breathe deep the gathering gloom
Meanwhile back in the world of cranks, pedals and handlebars it looks like Trek and others are getting slapped around pretty good on their balance sheets. Big cuts and downsizing are the word I get from buds still in the biz. Looks like some serious deals a’comin on certain bikes. I’m told not on parts so much. That’s ok…while no where near the stable POG rides (and by god he does ride em) I have enough bikes to hold me until I’m tits up. If I can just get my leg up over the top tubes…..alright I admits….I’m eyeing a mixte frame but need room for at least 700 x 38C meat so the pickins is slim out there. Probably go back to Rivendell and see if they have a scratch and dent deal.
Trek is “right-sizing,” according to The Big Boss Man, John Burke, via BRAIN. This means cutting spending (and jobs), and “simplifying” product lines. Commenters say Trek peeps have been getting the heave-ho for a while now.
Mixte, y’say? Riv’s Clem is a nice ride, for sure. I wouldn’t mind trying one of their Susie W. Longbolts/Wolbis Slugstone models myself.
And you can get one of Soma’s Buena Vista models in a rim-brake flavor.
Mixte frames were always attractive to me, especially for a commuter or errand runner. I should have scratched that itch, but didn’t. The SOMA Buena Vista Disc frames will fit a 42mm tire. Don’t worry about components. We will visit Patrick, I’ll distract him with a guitar, and you can go in his stash and get what you need. We should act fast before Herself sells it all on Ebay.
Well, at the risk of seeming like an uber-retro grouch, Herb you might look for a mid 1970’s Raleigh Gran Prix in a mixte frame. The bike would cost you little, though the refit might drive it up. My brother got one for my mom when it was new in 1975 and she’s been riding it ever since. Let me think. The remaining original parts are the headset, the crankset (yeah the original cottered steel TA) and the brake calipers (good old Weinmann centerpulls). Fits good, rides nice. If I remember correctly it came in two sizes, a small (19″-ish seat tube) and a large (21″-ish seat tube. Was when they were still made in England.
Ooo, cool. Speaking of retro (but not that retro) I had Weinmann cantis on one of my early cyclocross bikes, a Pinarello that my old buddy Tim Campen helped me lay hands upon, if memory serves. That was when I was still rocking Sidi cyclocross shoes, double-sided alloy pedals with Christophe toeclips and Alfredo Binda straps, and Wolber or Vittoria sewups.
Ah Jon worked on many a Raleigh of that vintage and some were from the venerable Carlton works and she may have one. Is it a Super Course? But when I read “cottered crank” my left eye began twitching and I spilled my coffee. We had many a battle with those trying to get them true and righteous. Weinmann brakes of all kinds got a bad rap back then since they were often mated with chromed steel rims which caused no lack of angst once moist (humid days) let alone wet. Ah but on aluminum rims they were all-stars since their pad compound could do its job and if cantilever, look out cause they had some leverage.
Well, I knew this Mad Blog Media watering hole would provide endless education for me, but I must admit to never having heard of a mixte bike. So I looked it up. Popular for men and women in Europe, but mainly for women in the USA. Culture drives the market yet again! 🙂
Anyhoo …. I then had to recall my Schwinn front coil/spring bike I used as a paper boy back in the late 50’s (1950’s not 1850’s) to deliver some 60-plus papers in St. Petersburg, FL. The front wheel dropped off when I went off a curb and had forgotten to tighten the axle after putting a patch on the tube! Never happened again!!!
I then had a 3-speed bike I rode all over the town and to school some 8 miles away.
Then followed two 10-speed Bottecchias that both my wife and I rode from the LBS to our apartment on the stiffest leather saddles known to man/woman. I had bone bruises that lasted a month and couldn’t ride for 3 weeks.
The industry has improved markedly since then in performance and comfort….. but the prices have increased exponentially …. and Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” has once again tapped many on the shoulder with bad news.
Maybe Darwin should have been an economist?????
As one who has used numbers and proofs created by others as tools to create marginally different mouse traps, my use of numbers has not been wise enough to have stumbled across the works and thoughts of Adam Smith. The invisible hand was something that I did not recall stumbling across. Interesting. According to a part of Wiki, it is the idea of the “incentives which free markets often create for self-interested people to act in the public interest”? Would this be like NPR assisting me in their support of them by offering me a free “Endeavour” coffee mug when I send them a few schillings? If correct, then one could apply the idea that health and fitness is an indirect incentive benefiting the public interest by purchasing a new bicycle. I believe that’s an invisible hand that we can’t argue with. Certainly Charles wouldn’t because he’d realize that it’s the application of the survival of the fittest.
As for the idea of the mixte bike, one only needs to look around at those of us who through various choices and circumstances, have found ourselves living without homes and motorized vehicles. The mode of transportation by those in those circumstances, and the necessity of maintaining that transportation with various parts available “at hand”, can certainly be the idea of “mixte”. I have a brother that resides in a desert region at a level fortunately above the non-home level and he has a Reynolds 531 Raleigh that he has been playing “mixte” with.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240301170542/https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a46975496/behind-f1-velvet-curtain/
highly recommend this piece
Iddn’t that a good’un? I was going to post something about it and got distracted. I guess Road & Track didn’t learn anything from Sports Illustrated, which paid Hunter S. Thompson to write a 250-word bit about the Mint 400, didn’t like what they got and “aggressively rejected” it, giving a big thumbs-down to what would eventually become “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
Michigan International Speedway was built waaay out in farm country with nary a 5 star hotel in sight and the closest runway for corporate jets not close enough for the upper crust. Over the years they lost one racing event after another. The Grand Prix went to downtown Detroit, and then onto Belle Island adjacent which would supposedly bring huge dollars into a poor city. All it did was get the ultra rich closer to their penthouse suites since most of us won’t go anywhere near the businesses in the area while this planet wrecking bullshit takes place. Thereby spreading money elsewhere when we avoid the area. Sure the fine hotels and expensive cuisine ops get a boost but not the locally owned joints. Ok, gotta run, my Lear is idling outside ready for Vegas so I can have lunch with the CEO of ScrewUInc.
Rich boys and their toys. And, every year the economic inequality gets worse. It will end badly; it always has.
Patrick, ya dead?
POB: I’m not sure I’d want him to answer if he was. Such a response might invite pitchforks, heated projectiles and comments about “Come on down, the water’s fine.”.
But I also hope all is well.