There was a May Day gathering at Civic Plaza yesterday but we gave it a miss. Instead I formed a rolling rally of one, equipped and clad to suit the occasion (in red) and the weather (brisk).
A quarter inch of rain fell overnight, and at high speed, too. The wind and water blew us out of a sound sleep shortly after 2 a.m., and while the rain stopped the wind was still with us at 11:30 when I took the red Steelman off its hook and rolled out to spend 90 minutes trying to find shelter from it.
We did honor the general strike. We bought nothing and did no paid work; I’ve gotten pretty good at that since retiring in 2022. To feed the starving masses I made three meals out of fridge and pantry: toast, tea, oatmeal, and fruit for breakfast; grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch; and pasta with a sauce of tomatoes, onions, jalapeño, garlic, black olives, red pepper flakes (there’s that red again) and chicken sausage for dinner.
This morning as I arose at 5 a.m. the furnace ticked on, which really lets you know it’s May. Forty-two, said the weather widget. We get summer in March and winter in May and if we’re lucky a little rain sneaks in there somewhere.
Today I will have to re-engage with capitalism in a fairly significant fashion. The pantry is bare, and the People’s Army, like any other, marches on its stomach.
Mad Blog Media 
You rode an older bike, and I played an older, 2008 Taylor GC8, guitar yesterday. Ket’s hear it for getting older stuff out and about.
Is that the original fork on the Steelman?
Nice. Old boys playing with old toys. What’s not to like?
The original fork on that Steelman was a True Temper Alpha Q carbon number that I never really warmed up to. It felt dead, especially on technical bits. Brent was building for the Clif Bar team that year, True Temper was one of the sponsors, and thanks to his generosity I found myself with a really cool frameset that that I didn’t deserve.
Not wanting to impose further, I bought a steel fork from another NoCal framebuilder, Chris Kelly, and replaced the Alpha Q.
I always felt guilty about it, though. And so when a carbon fork on my DBR ti’ road bike tried to kill me once on a descent at the Air Force Academy I got Brent to make me a steel replacement for it. A vast improvement over that plastic bullshit, and beautiful, too.
I put joy juice in the truck yesterday but otherwise stayed away from malls, etc. Gas has been going up in price every day around here so why wait. And seriously, what’s the point of boycotting yesterday if we all go out and spend money today? Especially since just about every business in the People’s Republic of Santa Fe is left of center. Kinda shooting your own folks in the foot.
Well … if anyone were serious about gauging the economic impact of a day without shopping, that would be useful.
“Hm, spending was down X percent from usual May 1 levels. Time to surrender, boys, the Revolution has triumphed.”
In related news, as far as I can tell, The New York Times homepage never carried a single, solitary word on the nationwide International Workers Day rallies. They buried their coverage deep in the U.S. news section.
Meanwhile, a 68-minute read (!) featuring Fucker Carlson is right out front and in your face like a pair of fake titties.
So, I guess we shouldn’t hang by our red neckerchiefs while awaiting that incisive fiscal analysis.
The ABQ journal and People’s Daily up here covered the rallies front page, above the fold.
I guess if I were to be staging a boycott, I’d suggest we boycott businesses that support the MAGA movement rather than an indiscriminate general no-shopping day. Apparently there are some web sites identifying these bad boys. I found a couple, but this is not an endorsement.
https://washingtonsocialist.mdcdsa.org/ws-articles/25-03-peoples-boycott
https://bigbeautifulboycott.us/
It rained all night here which is a blessing. The MTB trails are so dry and slippery that there aren’t that fun to ride. A bit of rain packs everything down making cornering so much more fun. Oh and there’s that drought.
I’ve got a Niner carbon fork on my steel gravel bike. I run 50mm tires so I can’t tell if the fork is compliant or not. I am thinking of getting one of those Redshift stems that have the elastomers.
Lucky you! I haven’t been on the trails since bollixing my back, and this being a weekend I may stay off them for a couple more days.
My “gravel bike” is that old Soma Double Cross with its Tange Prestige main triangle and Tange Infinity fork (nicely compliant). I can just squeeze a pair of 45mm Soma Cazaderos in there. And that Redshift stem looks interesting to me too. Team a boingy seat post with it and Bob’s my uncle.
I tried a suspension seat post once on a Cannondale Road Warrior 2000, because that bike was fast but extremely stiff, and my knees immediately sent up the white flag. Having an inch or more of constantly changing effective seat height resulted in sore knees and less power. When I changed to a stiff enough elastomer to reduce the travel, the suspension became ineffective. Comfy ass or knees, but you can’t have both. The stem is interesting, but with 3/4″ inch travel would another fit problem happen? I am skeptical. But, I’m generally in a shitty mood today, so maybe I’m full of beans?
I had a Rockshox seatpost back in the day on my hardtail. It seemed ineffective until I took it off. It was working, I just adapted to it. The stem I would like to try before I buy. My bike is super comfy with 20psi in the 50mm tires but hitting a hole that I didn’t see sends that shock wave straight to my neck.