Freakin' busy day today.

A copy of "The Ride" arrived today. 145 pages, lots and lots of photos, over 50 short stories (I even wrote one + Richard Risemberg, and many others). It's issue #1 from Philip and Andrew Diprose from Great Britain. Check it out - just 1,000 copies available at 7pounds.

A 56cm Ritchey Break-Away Track showed up at the office door today, so I had to put it together and give it a test, right? First Nils and I rode up to Suttons Bay, we probably rode 30 miles, Nils on his Marinoni with 49x16 (15?) and me with a 34x14 YOW? Good for my spin Nils says. Also good for just burying me on every downhill. I forced him onto the Leelanau Trail (unpaved two-track) for about a mile. He says he was taking it easy because he didn't want to flat. I think he was just scared to wind out that big gear. We got back about 6, and then I hooked up with a much younger group of fg folk and took them up Paper Birch Dr and back. We did a few fairly fast laps around a residential block - they'd never ridden a paceline fast through corners. Shit they did pretty good, thought it was pretty ok. Showed them how to ride in a chevron in a crosswind, few other things. We rode about 15 miles or so, 4 of the 5 had never ridden that far before. They were all about 20, except Erin - he's 24 I think. Wore 'em out.

Earlier in the ride we bumped into Jonathan and Mark doing some Trials riding on the steps at a law office. Jonathan is damn good. But look at that bike he's got.

Today is Carl's birthday. He's 25. Holy cow.

Anyway, about the '08 Symposium. It's over. People are welcome to come to Traverse City and I'm sure there'll be some riding and fun anyway.

Stuff on the road. I've often thought about having a contest for weird stuff that you'd find riding a bike on the road.

I found this thing today riding on the Peninsula. I was riding (jra) out by Old Mission Tavern and the shadows from the trees on the west side of M-37 made shadows on the 10' wide paved shoulder. You always need to be extra cautious if you're riding fast - watch for junk. I barely missed this thing and it looked so ominous that I turned around to see if it was a dried leaf or what.

Image what would have happened if I'd drilled this thing?

Keep "your eyes peeled."

...................................................

It’s spelled peeled, as in peeling an apple. It derives from an old verb pill, “to plunder”, which is the root of our modern word pillage.

It came to us from the Latin root pilare, meaning “to take the hair off, pluck” (closely connected with our depilate), but which also had the figurative meaning of “plunder, cheat”, almost exactly the same as the figurative meaning of our modern verbs fleece or pluck.

From about the 17th century on, pill was commonly spelled peel and took on the sense of “to remove or strip” in the weakened sense of removing an outer covering, such as a fruit. The figurative sense of keeping alert, by removing any covering of the eye that might impede vision, seems to have appeared in the US about 1850.
..............................................

In Charles Earle Funk's book "Heaven's to Betsy" on words and their origins he writes: To be very observant or extremely alert; to keep a sharp lookout. No record of this American expression has been turned up earlier than 1833, but the fact that it then appeared in a newspaper (The Political Examiner, of Shelbyville, Kentucky) is a fair indication that it was already well known to any reader. The meaning was not explained. The passage read: "I wish I may be shot if I don't think you had better keep your eyes skinned so that you can look powerful sharp, lest we get rowed up the river this heat." That is all Mr. Funk wrote on the matter. As to the expression itself, I think it's self-explanatory.
...............................................

To keep one's eyes peeled means to be alert, observant. This seems an odd phrase, but dates back to the 1820s in Britain, when Sir Robert Peel established the first organised police force. The officers were known as 'peelers, or 'bobbies'. They were expected to be particularly observant and to keep their eyes 'peeled', after their founder's orders! Of the two popular names, only 'bobby' survives.
.................................................

That's enough school work for tonoght. Ride safe.

Last night we had a CM downtown, in part led by LostGears, who has sponsored a raffle at each CM for a new, top model helmet. Either use it yourself or give it to someone who needs it. Anyway, we had about 70 - 75 people riding - that's damn good for up here.

So, I was supposed to drive down Saturday morning to Indianapolis to see Don Walker and ride the N.I.T.E. ride on Saturday night. Don's probably wondering what happened to me because I should be rolling into Indy just about now.

I was in my car headed home last night (bike in the back seat, laptop, camera, clothes, just about everything I needed to roll to Indy. Listening to BBC News and there was an interview with a British National who was rounded up and sent to Guantanamo for 6 years - 3 1/2 of it in Solitary - never charged (he would not describe his imprisonment or interrogations) and then abruptly released to the Saudis where he was kept for another 4 months before being released. I decided right then and there that I was going to a demonstration at Division and the Parkway at 10am instead.

We've generally kept politics out of the Gallery and the Forum, but I thought I'd better explain my absence in Indianapolis. Sorry Don, I'll make it down there one of these days.

People been askin' about the Swamp Donkey, so here's some photos. Yes, I know the chain is a bit slack, I need to file out the vertical dropouts a bit more, or toss on a new chain, but at least the drivetrain is quiet. A stick derailled the chain last night, but if you'd seen the trails we rode you'd be thinkin' "only once?"

Where'd the name come from? I thought it up back in 2000 (or at least I think I did anyway) An internet search back then yielded the info that it was a local term in Liverpool for a Lady of the Night - anyone out there from Liverpool who wants to confirm that?

Ok, so I bet you're like me in thinking that riding fixed in the woods is pretty insane...right?

Back in the 90's I rode in the woods alot, and after wearing out 2 fs bikes (an AMP B3 and a Specialized FSR c.1996), since about 2000 I've been riding a SS - the Swamp Donkey - with a frame from my first mtb, a Giant CFR1 c. 1992 converted to single. It fits me just fine, and it rolled nicely as a SS.

It's been about a year since I rode in the woods, but two weeks ago I pulled the 17T freewheel, the Singleator, and popped in an Izumi "Super Toughness" half-link, filed out the massive alu rear vertical dropouts a bit to snug up the chain, and it's off the the local Thursday evening singletrack club ride where Donny shows us new trails and obstacles within the hundred miles or so of unmarked singletrack that we're blessed to have.

What a hoot. Not nearly as tricky as I'd thought. Tonight was the 2nd Th ride, and I'm learning some new moves to get the bike through some of the tight spots. I'm hooked again after all this time. Try it.

Hey, ok, I have to walk down to the end of the road if I'm going to ride instead of drive