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.
I’ve tried the Rock Shox seatposts (had them on both Steelman Eurocrosses) and the USE post (that one’s still on my DBR Axis TT). I thought they saved me a bit of a beating in cyclocross — it was nice to have a little give during those flying remounts after running sections — and also in mountain biking on rocky bits, which is mostly what was available in Bibleburg and The Duck! City.
Can’t say I ever noticed any knee issues but then pretty much all my original equipment snaps, crackles and pops. If something hurts when I wake up it means I didn’t die during the night.
I eventually decided I didn’t want any more maintenance chores/potential points of failure than necessary and off they came. The USE remains on the MTB mostly because I hardly ever ride it.
My Litespeed Ti-gravel bike came with a carbon fork and I’m running 38 mm tubeless tires around 40 psi on the Rail Trail, which can be bumpy but is generally pretty smooth dirt and gravel and fast. I’d never ride that on a real rocky course, as when I tried it, I wasn’t sure what would break first, me or the bike. For the real singletrack rocky stuff, I use the double boinger.
I’m less inclined to ride the bumpy stuff anymore. There’s the pounding you take while in the saddle and the real beating you take if you fall off the sonofabitch. Everything on the deck around here is hard, abrasive and/or pointy.
Hard, abrasive, and pointy. I got in trouble for being that way at work.
Not sure what kind of newfangled tech the pro boys and girls rode at Paris-Roubaix this year trying to satisfy the competing demands of speed, energy transfer, and cycling “comfort”, but I’m sure they’ve pretty much tried everything. For us mere mortals, especially those of the “Boomer” age group, pick one! The remainder will still cause aches, pains, and moans. 🙂
Just turned 79. Used to go fast and far. Then just far. Now I just try to go. Rubber side down! Rule #1 is FUN!!
They’ve tried and will try everything, JD. I notice that the usual mechanicals (lots of flats) reared their ugly heads.
For me the compromise between comfort and efficiency seems to involve steel framesets, a more upright position, plumper tires at lower pressure (38mm at 50/55 psi being a sweet spot), and a broader range of gearing.
Preferably Reynolds 853 frame sets. Like a Niner hardtail and LeMond Alpe d’ Huez. I parked the Niner in Patrick’s garage a couple of nights and considered myself lucky to get it back.
Still have a 2002 Lemond Buenos Aires 853 steel beauty mounted on my CycleOps trainer for Bibleburg indoor winter use. Great bike ….. fading operator! 🙂
Rule #2. Bring the extra layer. You probably won’t need it. Unless you don’t have it!
And/or lots of bits you can pull off and put back on as circumstances dictate — tuque, arm, knee, leg warmers, and so on. The other day I had so much shit stuffed into my jersey pockets I must’ve looked like I was wearing an extra butt above the original equipment. And a lumpy one too.