Category: Bike stuff

Smart — or stupid?

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 2 Comments

The Smart car folks have been branching out a bit, from four wheels to two — first with an e-scooter, and now with an e-bike.

The story from the LA Auto Show hadn’t been posted for more than a few seconds before some wisenheimer (not me) pissed all over the e-bike’s tires in comments:

“Sweet look, but impractical for commuters. There is no rack on the back to accept panniers. There does not appear to be any way to attach fenders/splashguards. The cellphone/lock idea is nice, but not practical for anyone who rides in the rain. It does not appear to be securely held in place, from viewing videos of the bike from Smart (available on YouTube), and may be subject to ejection when striking bumps, curbs, or holes in the road/path. I hope they do more than produce this pretty looking thing and make something much more practical in the future.”

Frankly, the e-scooter does look a tad more practical for anyone not living in San Diego, though its top speed of 28 mph ain’t gonna cut the mustard in a hilly place like Bibleburg, which also happens to be full of lead-footed libertards who think speed limits are the thin edge of the socialist wedge.

Here’s a gallery from Gizmag.

Here’s mud in your eye

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

Judas Priest. Today’s Superprestige cyclo-cross in Hamme-Zogge looked like a cross-country run through an open sewer in Hell.

If you missed the live streaming video, you can catch an edited recap at the series website. It’s worth watching, believe me. One of the running sections took a minute-fifteen to cover, and there was more than one running bit. Eight-and-a-half-minute laps. Filth everywhere. My kind of race.

World champ Zdenek Stybar looked like someone had stuffed him head-first down a septic tank, and Niels Albert wore a pained, muck-slathered expression that said, “Fuck this noise, I’m going to get a job in a nice dry factory somewhere.”

• Late update: Katie Compton and Tim Johnson both crushed it today in Fort Fun. It looked like a fun course, a little tackier than yesterday’s, which you’d think would favor a powerful dude like Ryan Trebon, as it clearly did KfC. But after a fast start the big guy popped like a nickel rubber and that was all she wrote. Meanwhile, Todd Wells screwed the pooch while bunny-hopping a barrier and was hauled away on a stretcher, which is rarely a fun way to leave a race. You get to be an old duffer like me, you git off an’ run them sumbitches.

’Cross comes to Fort Fun

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 1 Comment

If I didn’t have to work weekends I’d be up in Fort Collins today and tomorrow, spectating at the New Belgium Cup.

But I do, so I’m not. If you’re in the same boat you can catch the action live via streaming video over at VeloNews.com.

• Late update: Jesus, these guys suck. No focus on the real action, no details of same, lousy camerawork, no sense of timing. It’s like watching your dad’s home videos, if dad smoked a lot of weed. I updated my Flash Player for this? I don’t care how many Clif Shots Colt had — I want to know what lap folks are on, splits between the leaders and the chasers … you know, all that boring journalisticky kind of stuff.

• Even later update: Bad ugly mud up there at Fort Fun. Brick-making stuff, like the evil adobe goo we have in sections of Palmer Park and Sondermann Park, as I discovered the hard way. Now I stay the hell out of those places after a bout of what the Irish call “soft” weather. The Fort Fun car washes will collect many quarters tonight, while local motels endure the dread Brown Towel Syndrome.

And now from our Good News Department

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

One of the Old Town Bike Shop wrenches scored some nice ink in today’s Colorado Springs Independent, the local alt-weekly.

When he’s not puzzling over one of my beaters, Brian Gravestock spends a couple days each week refurbishing donated bikes for the homeless, with the help of three volunteers and two trainees, in a donated garage in West Bibleburg.

He and Peter Sprunger-Froese first started doing this sort of thing back in 1993, and today they have more “customers” than they can serve, thanks to brochures and word of mouth at the local shelters, halfway houses and soup kitchens.

Small acts of kindness and generosity often get swamped by the daily tsunami of evil tidings. It’s reassuring to see that not every good deed escapes notice.

• Editor’s note: Meanwhile, from the News As Usual Department comes Charles Pelkey’s take on the Eagle County hit-and-run. Bob Mionske weighs in, too. The Vail Daily, which broke the original story, urges the judge to reject the dimwitted DA’s insane plea bargain with Mr. Moneybags. And last but not least, a good-news/bad-news report: An LA fashion designer bumper-tags a cyclist, drives off, turns herself in, pleads no contest to two misdemeanors and gets 90 days in jail — that she will be allowed to serve on weekends. Jesus wept, what’s next? Letting rich folks hire homeless dudes and illegal aliens to do their time for them?