After the events of the past few days — an assassination attempt that instantly brought out the worst of nearly everyone with a social-media account; the roundfiling of what Esquire’s Charlie Pierce calls “The Pool Shed Papers” case; and the elevation of the faux hillbilly shapeshifter J.D. Vance to the No. 2 spot on the 2024 Repuglican ticket, which is starting to look like a mortal lock come November — is it any wonder that I turn for enlightenment to my favorite philosophers, Calvin and Hobbes?
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Spot on, that. What was that line in the Bible? The dumb shall inherit the earth. That’s right.
Do you remember the Calvin and Hobbes series where the kid and his tiger flew a magic carpet downtown to see what the dad was up to? I thought of you guys the last time I read that one.
Incidentally, I was rocking my old DBR Prevail TT road bike with its Steelman fork on today’s ride.
Wonder who paid the tuition for the Yale juris doctor sheepskin? I think we could learn much about dumpster and his minions if we could follow the money.
Four years in the Corps, doing public affairs work, so he prolly had lots of time for correspondence courses and maybe some GI Bill. Got out in 2007, somehow graduated from OSU in two years — again, might have “earned” a few semesters of practical work experience — so then the post-9/11 GI Bill would have kicked in. And it pays by the semester, not by the actual cost, so it covers Yale, the local community college, or a six month coding school (hi! 🙋♂️). But Yale was four years, so Uncle Sugar’s money would run out half way.
But that’s all speculation. What we do know is, after Yale, all of a sudden he’s running buddies with Thiel (rhymes with “heil!”), Case, Schmidt, Andreesen, and a bunch of others in the Billionaire Boy’s Club.
There is a good piece on Vance on the Associated Press website. He was silicon Valley venture capitalist prior to the senate. Musk has been lobbying dumpster on Vances behalf and is donating $45M a month to a dumpster PAC. That says something.
Lots of good pieces on what a toad Vance is, m’man. The Atlantic has at least two, one by David A. Graham and the other by Tom Nichols.
And my boy Chazbo Pierce at Esquire brings the snark as well.
PO’G: Unrelated to politics. How do you choose which bike to ride when you have so many?
Studies show (https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/having-fewer-choices-can-promote-happiness) that the more choices we have the less satisfied we are because we tend to think one of the other choices would have been better.
Probably applies to toothpastes, bikes, guitars, motorcycles (any of you Mad Dog readers I’m missing?), underwear, food, ad infinitum, etc. and forever.
Not to mention bike tires, geometry, brakes, saddles, wheels, suspension, pedals, etc.
🙂
Interesting question, JD. Every so often I go through a drill I call “Ride the Neglected Bikes” to see why I continue to hold onto them. What I find as I ride my way through The Fleet is that I keep them because I like them, generally for the same reasons I liked them when I got them — comfort, simplicity, quickness, complexity, versatility, specificity, whatever.
Most often I ride the New Albion Privateer because it’s comfortable, uncomplicated (Silver friction shifters), and has nice fat 38mm tires, great brakes (Paul’s MiniMotos), plus subcompact gearing (46/30T IRD crankset and seven-speed 13-34T cassette). Today I took that titanium DBR Prevail TT on a group ride because it’s five pounds lighter, stiffer, livelier (shorter in chainstays and wheelbase), and a whole lot quicker. STI brifters, compact gearing (50/34T and 13-28T nine-speed cassette), with 26mm tires on Neuvation wheels.
If I think I might want to slip off pavement for a while I’ll take one of Brent Steelman’s Eurocrosses, which have compact cranks, 12-28T cassettes, 32-35mm knobbies, and cantilevers (Paul’s on one, Spookys on another).
My custom Nobilette is my dress bike, for when I feel like showing off. The Rivendell Sam Hillborne is kind of a show-offy bike too — it’s just so damn pretty — while my scratched-and-dented Voodoo Wazoo (flat bar, single-ring, seven-speed) and Soma Double Cross (drop bar, triple-ring, eight-speed) are my sport-utility bikes.
The Soma Sagas are fendered touring bikes, my station wagons/pickup trucks, and the canti version gets the callup in wet weather.
The others get out less often, and betimes I consider selling them off. But then I’ll ride one of the extremely neglected models and think to myself, “Damn, I sure like this bike. …”
Damn, that is some serious rationalizing! I tried to talk Patrick out of the Jones with no joy. Now I don’t ride anymore, so there’s that. You wanna sell a guitar? Bet if I had brought that mahogany GS Mini up there we could’ve done some trading. Now it’s too late baby.
Thanks for the reminder, Hoss. I need to take the Jones out for a spin. It’s a very neglected bike lately. The wingspan of Jeff’s H-Bar makes it tough to fly through some of our extremely narrow trailhead gates. And the heft of the beast tends to crowd the likewise-narrow singletrack, lined as it is with cacti, sharp rocks, buzzworms, and what have you.
Nine times out of 10, if I want to ride off-road, I’m gonna be on a Eurocross, the Voodoo Wazoo, Soma Double Cross, or the venerable 1995 DBR Axis TT mountain bike, with its 26-inch wheels and rigid chromoly fork.
“Damn I sure like this bike” is a good t-shirt idea.
Interesting about the discussion about which bike to ride. A pleasant escape away from the news with repercussions that could affect us for many years to come.
I decided today to roll out a bike on my routine course that hadn’t been along that route yet. Other than the ghost shifting (Ultegra triple brifters that need some TLC), the frame felt nice, especially on the straight flats. Unfortunately it’s a cm or so too large for my scrawny physique.
But regarding the question of which bike to ride, POG and others with plural bikes, have you ever thought about trying to ride all of them in one day? Not just around the block and back home, but perhaps something like 10 miles for each bike? My mind is skewed with imbibement at this time, but I believe I have about 8 bikes around the abode and it would be interesting to roll each one out for about 10 miles. If I were more energetic, I could spin each one along my 16.7 mile routine course. Now that would be a fun challenge. It might even cause me to build up the one I still have tucked away in a box.
Regarding JD’s mention of the Harvard “happiness” study, my thoughts are a bit different about that. As one who struggled to afford one race bike and appurtenances when I was a mighty-hungry student, having more than a couple of bikes around now and scratching my head about which one to ride is just fine. None of them will ever be perfect but it sure is nice to have a choice. I only wish that I had more time to ride.
// My mind is skewed with imbibement at this time, but I believe I have about 8 bikes around the abode and it would be interesting to roll each one out for about 10 miles. If I were more energetic, I could spin each one along my 16.7 mile routine course. Now that would be a fun challenge. It might even cause me to build up the one I still have tucked away in a box. //
Funny, just minutes before reading your comment, I had been reading this:
What sounds miserable and absurd to one is enjoyable and thrilling to another. We get it.
https://www.focofondo.com/
Jeez Louise. The quad looks like a hump and a half. Bring your own body bag, eh?
All in pursuit of a bolo tie!
(And, well, the after party is usually pretty epic. Never heard of this year’s chow partner, but the last 7-8 years have never disappointed.)
Zack and Whitney used to deliver coffee for Whitney’s dad, who ran a pretty awesome small batch roaster after retiring from HP. If you lived in city limits, within two hours you’d see a racer in a Clif kit with an over-stuffed messenger back at your front porch.
Ran into Dave Towle at the race two years ago. Chatted him up a bit about previously chatting him up at the Tour de Georgia so many moons ago. That guy is just always in a good mood, but talking about bikes ones entire life might do that to ya.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1051rzbC2GXrl
As for these bikes hanging in POG’s garage….I take comfort in both knowing he’ll ride them and also hearing about this/that ride and the players involved. A healthy and eccentric collection sez I compared to say….old cameras or antique footstools. It’s not like he’s a crazy cat lady (although it ain’t over yet) who dies and someone has to deal with 82 cats. I see POG as a quarterback, mixing up plays on this blog instead of just handing the ball off to Jim Brown every play. Like POG, I ride a lot of the same routes but change bikes to keep things from being dull. Did 22 miles last Sunday on a 3 speed and that twernt dull…it was painful!!
Now for this big reveal POG- how do you manage the computers twixt these bike? Multiple Cat-Eyes? Due to various wheel sizes I would think so? Or are you using your watch? I did take your advice and use an Apple Watch which I bought for hiking but found it does a decent job as a bike computer. It’s a bitch trying to read the map function on the small watch face, and you sure as hell don’t try that while pedaling but it beats fishing the phone out of the rack pack. I know this is nutty but I try and touch my cell phone as little as possible each day.
Another question- does anyone know Calvin’s parents names?
Any couple who would name a kid Calvin are probably named Harold and Flo.
Herb, during the last 5 years of my riding, I just didn’t use bike computers. It started on my mountain bikes. I knew the distance of my favorite rides, but I didn’t keep track of mileage anymore. They became a distraction. I would slap on one for group rides like the Santa Fe century.
Herb, old data-cruncher, I have several bikes rocking 38mm tires, so I shift one Cateye Velo 8 around that lot (it has a bit of duct tape on the starboard side with the number 38). There’s another for the bikes rolling on 32mm, 33mm, and 35mm because hey, Kentucky windage, I ain’t fussy. Weirdos like the DBR Prevail TT (700x26mm), DBR Axis TT (26×2.1), Co-Motion Divide Rohloff (29x50mm), Voodoo Nakisi (29x43mm) and Jones (29×2.1 inch) get their own Cateyes.
As for Calvin’s parents, they have no names. Says Bill Watterson in the Tenth Anniversary Book:
I have a Garmin GPS watch that was gifted to me by a wonderful woman. I use it when I take a bike out that I don’t have a cyclometer on. It works well for timing but I find that it fails on maintaining an accurate trip distance. Because I don’t periodically upgrade it with new software, I believe the GPS data points that it receives are not accurate. I don’t like wearing big watches anyway so on a bike that I ride often, I prefer the tried and true wired cyclometer. Someday I’ll have to set up my old gen 1 Avocet cyclometer (one with taped on “Avocet” letters on the front) on one of my bikes.
Avocet Gen 1? Man did you get your investment back 100 fold on that one! I once had. Ciclomaster that had every feature known to man and those living on Jupiter too. Cept it was touchy as hell and was my first go-around with tech-no-logical bike gear. I’ve only reverted to tracking distance as I’m chronicling bike routes for my granddaughter. When I’m done I’ll go back to my low-tech ways.
I want one of those fork mounted odometers with the star wheel and the striker mounted on the spoke.
Tick tick tick….ah the old Lucas cyclometer. Like their auto electronics, those mile counters either worked….or didn’t. Installed many of them and our “warranty “box always had them inside. Same with the cabled Huret speedometers turned out during the fabled bike boom. Before brazed on rack bosses and padded seatstay clamps or brake hole mounts; ye olde clamp on Pletscher rear carrier scarred many a bicycle’s hind quarters. And the first time Eddie tried to give his buddy a ride on them the rack stays would fold like a small town newspaper. I have deep seated PTSD over Regina freewheel removal flashbacks as well as cottered crank pin fiascos.
I remember those old Regina freewheels. I still have a couple of the removal tools where the ears are starting to deform. ie: The point where they slip and you slam your knuckles into something hard and spout loud French profanity.
Yeah, the early versions didn’t have the graphics on the front so the to get the name out there they made sure the teams (7-Eleven, etc.) had homemade adhesive letters that were cut out so that “Avocet” could be clearly read on the front.
I have one bicycle with the Shimano Flight Deck setup that is a pain in the ass to use. The engineering logic for it’s use leaves a lot to be desired. As Shimano likely discovered, it was better to leave that part of the bike componentry to the other guys.
I truly don’t care too much about my biking numbers, but it’s an old habit and keeping track of them reminds me of data collection days of the past. The only bad data is that which wasn’t collected. Also, since I don’t have any children I need something to remind me about the years and the miles going by.
As for other cyclometers, how many of you scoundrels had a real cable actuated speedometer on one of your youthful rides?
Old habits die hard, for sure. I did without cyclocomputers for a while and then went back to them, for my own amusement. My numbers will never impress anyone, not even me.
I do an occasional time trial up Tramway from I-25 to the County Line BBQ, and regardless of which bike I’m riding, I always seem to cover the 5 miles in 28-30 minutes.
This should tell me something. I’m just not sure what it might be.