Category: Bike stuff

Intelligent design

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 11 Comments
The Front Range seems very far away when you're between Falcon and Peyton.
The Front Range seems very far away when you're between Falcon and Peyton.

Lots of good thoughts in comments about the larval T-shirt/jersey design. Thanks to one and all. I think Jon P. hits the nail on the head when he suggests starting with a cheap T-shirt and taking time to dial in the pricey jersey.

The Mad Dog Media-Dogs at Large Velo jersey never did sell worth a damn through VeloGear, and neither did my Bog Trotters cyclo-cross jersey, so I’m wary of getting stuck with a closet full of these things.

I also need to come up with some amusing “sponsors” to put on the sleeves, pockets, collar and elsewhere, and I don’t feel the need to rush, especially since the DogHaus needs a new roof and insurance is unlikely to pay.

So, yeah — T-shirt first. I’ll have a final design and cost locked down by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, I spent part of the last two days riding the bike, which is a lot more fun than playing with Photoshop. Both times I rode northeast on Highway 24, yesterday on the Soma with fully loaded panniers as a sort of shakedown cruise for that eventual tour, and today aboard Old Faithful, the DBR ti’. Forty miles with panniers and 50 without. Guess which was easier.

Highway 24 is about the closest thing you can find to a flat ride in these parts. It used to be the Sunday group ride, back in the early Nineties, and while the traffic has certainly grown exponentially, the shoulders remain wide enough for a double paceline (or a single fat bastard).

The only hairy moments involve a few pucker-pass bridges, a la Highway 115. I don’t care what Satchel Paige said about not looking back — you hit one of these bad boys with an 18-wheeler in the oncoming lane, you want to take a quick squint over one shoulder to see if another 18-wheeler is gaining on you.

The math is simple: 1 pucker-pass bridge + 2 18-wheelers + 1 fat bastard = 1 closed-casket funeral.

More fun with Photoshop

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 11 Comments
The latest and (perhaps) greatest NWO mashup.
The latest and (perhaps) greatest NWO mashup.

Here’s another take on the whole New Wheeled Order thing. Amazing what a casually employed guy with a digital camera and Photoshop Elements can do when he’s supposed to be working for a living.

I don’t have a faux Cyrillic font on the MacBox, so I went with Cracked, which has a nice punkish look to it. Kinda reminds me of “12 Monkeys” for some reason. Oook ook ook.

Meanwhile, fuhgeddaboud the mean streets — seems a guy isn’t even safe on the damn’ bike path any more here in Bibleburg. How’d you like to be cycling along and look up from the trail to see an SUV and a station wagon falling out of the sky? That’d get your heart rate up, a’ight.

• Late update: OK, I’ve done a few more mockups and a little light research and I’m thinking I can do T-shirts with the design at right for about $20 apiece (local artisan, old pal). The big design would go on the back, with a smaller badge-size logo over the left hooter up front.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that a small run of jerseys (15-24) will cost us in the $80-per-item range if I go with Voler, which did both versions of the Fat Guy jersey and my own Mad Dog Media kit. Stepping up to 25-49 takes it down to $75 apiece, and 50-99 gets us into the $61-per-jersey range.

I’ll post mockups of both jersey and shirt tomorrow after I’ve fiddled with them a bit more.

Hope (hot) springs eternal

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

So the other day I decide I’m sick of hanging around Bibleburg and need a road trip. I’ve been wanting to scope out a route for a lightly loaded, weeklong bicycle tour of some Central Colorado hot springs, so off I went — on four wheels, not two — to examine conditions on the ground, as it were. Call it a recon mission. I don’t like surprises as much as I once did.

The view from the top ponds at Valley View Hot Springs.
The view from the top ponds at Valley View Hot Springs.

The first leg, down Highway 115 to Dakota Hot Springs, is dicey in spots but not terribly so, and only 40 miles, which would make for a nice shakedown cruise. The second leg, 67 miles from Highway 50 to Salida, is something else altogether — practically no shoulder and lots of heavy truck/commercial rafting traffic from Texas Creek to just outside of Salida.

There was a “Share the Road” sign just past Cotopaxi, but that’s not much of a shield for a knight-errant battling diesel-powered dragons. One fuck-up in the wrong spot — by you or somebody else — and under the wheels or into the guardrail you go.

In Salida I calmed my jangled nerves at Amícas with a Ute Trail Pale Ale and a Pan E Salsiccia. Amícas used to be a Il Vicino back in the day, and the menu, beer list and ambiance remain pretty much the same — good food and beer at reasonable prices. Plus they support cycling.

Then it was back on the road to inspect the third leg, 41 miles to Orient Land Trust and Valley View Hot Springs. It’s another short route, but not without its difficulties — day three starts with the gradual seven-mile ascent of Poncha Pass, which tops out at just over 9,000 feet, and ends with another gentle seven-mile climb, on a gravel road, to OLT.

This is where I spent Wednesday night, camping at Valley View and watching the Perseid meteor shower, a light show dampened somewhat by high clouds and a gentle rain. Thirty bucks gets you something like 36 hours of soaking in your choice of eight pools plus a night’s lodging on the ground, in your tent. Pricier options include a bunkhouse, cabins and the Sunset House, a motel-type deal.

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