Velo Ipsum - Lorem Ipsum for Bike Nerds

Lorem ipsum petacchi petacchi rouleur derby is for lovers horizontally stiff but vertically compliant leberg, flanders venga venga venga cavendish ronde van belgie allez. Lanterne rouge nokere koerse, omloop het nieuwsblad bonk randonneur sanchez tiegemberg campagnolo.

Gp ouest france plouay wevelgem muur vaughters. Ullrich paris-roubaix with, randonneur bromont giro del friuli luz ardiden kelly bartali, suitcase of courage gimondi the Druber. Chicane gruppetto for maillot jaune.

Cog domestique once bonk driedaagse de panne-koksijde bartali, mmmaiko supplesse. Fabianese ullrich rouleur cornet grimpeur, vandenbroucke landbouwkrediet col de perjuret an grimpeur ronde van vlaanderen? Col de perjuret off the back gavia contador tour de mont aigoual bottechia.

You liked that didn't you?

Want some more?

Need to fill some empty copy space with the language of velo love?

You know you want it.....

Go to Luke's Velo Ipsum page to grab some copy or copy the code to generate your own oily sprocket.

And whilst your at it you'll discover Rouleur Derby and can wonder wt how so many 'safe bets' by Velopaint have put me consistently in the top ten in this season, yet how the Vuelta could dash all my hopes.

Sub 5 - Weight Update

After a fabulous start I backed off from mentioning the whole weight thing. Two weeks of sampling the Northwest's craft ale and Voodoo donuts can do that.

Funny thing though, two days in bed with no food and frequent trips to the .....ahem... has inspired me to share my current weight. With less than two weeks to go I'm just under 150lbs!!!!

So If I don't eat between now and then I should be good to go.

Unfortunately the two days in bed may have cost me my last chances to ride hard before the event. I am a 'stay at home Dad' but when 'go to work Mom' has to go to lots of extra work then the calender doesn't leave me much room to go ride. Seriously. The only other Sub 5 detail that is bugging me is whether to hire a car and drive out there at 5am on the Sunday or try staying overnight and riding 10 miles to the start in the morning. Decisions, decisions.

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Etape Cymru

I am kinda startled by this.

On October the 9th the Etape Cymru will take place on my old stomping grounds.
Starting from the factory my dad worked at, passing the house I lived in and using a variety of all the roads I rode on daily. Everytime I go back I wish I could go ride them again, they are truly magical roads with beautiful countryside. And to think they are considered tough enough for this. The most surprising aspect is that the roads will be closed. It must be a rolling closure but for 2 or 3 hours at a time, some of the roads being used are through villages with pretty much only one road of access for the residents.

Above is a promo image of Geraint Thomas riding up the 'Panorama', below is the Valley of Llangollen and the peak just to the right of his bum is Castell Dinas Bran, one of the rumoured resting places of the Holy Grail or of King Arthur, it's a most romantic ruin. The ride from my house to where he is in the photo used to be 16 minutes all up hill (in the opposite direction to which he's riding), the descent on that road involves evading errant sheep and rocks from the cliffs above and the occassional 'Boy Racer' in a Ford Escort Mk1.


More info on the event here: http://www.etape-cymru.co.uk/

Click on the map to download the route information:


A couple more impressions of Castell Dinas Bran and an interesting site concerning it's history here: http://www.castlewales.com/dinas.html

Artist: Keith Bowen


Artist: Ian Philips



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Iron Bike Fit

Having been experiencing some knee pain since my riding has increased I figured it would be a good idea to have my bike position etc looked at by a professional, as opposed to mucking about with it myself. Iron Cycles is one of my LBS and seemed the most flexible in regards to doing a bike fit without the aim of replacing components or making loads of adjustments. They were happy to try and fix my 'niggle'

Anyway after lots of chat and measuring and angles and plumb lines and new cleats the ultimate decision was that everything looked great. My fit, position and pedal stroke are fine. If anything my saddle is little far back but it might help if it went a little further back as I don't fancy raising my saddle.

So even though I was expecting to raise, tilt and slide various things, maybe get a new stem etc etc and it felt successful. It gives me confidence in my set-up and that the knee discomfort might be just be that, discomfort not a problem, or age or something. Still I just need to be aware of it for the next week or so.

Thanks to Steve at Iron Cycles for working with me. I haven't had a lot of interaction with the store but it has always been friendly and their mechanic was great when sorting out my wife's bike. They also have a very active road and cyclocross team with a fantastic looking jersey.

Sub 5 #12 - kicked my ass

OMG!

I set out at 6:30am and headed due West on Irving Park Road.
Traffic wasn't exactly quiet that early in the morning! Not only that but I rode most of the 30 on the shoulder, not something I normally do or would recommend. Occasionally having to get back into the traffic in order to avoid potholes and the like. Anyway just outside of Elgin the road starts to roll as the landscape makes room for the Fox River on which Elgin grew. Elgin itself at first glance is quite pretty especially the river, later I was to see just how any of the pretty stores are infact vacant shells.

30 to Elgin and back is 60, I had already sworn not to ride Irving Park back and figured the Lake Road would be as bad if not worse, that left the option of following the Illinois Prairie Path back to the city. But first I needed a few more miles. 15 miles further east is Hampshire High School which is the starting line/HQ for the Sub 5. How could I not do it?

Wow, what a contrast. Beautiful and gently rolling country roads, just like Blighty. Quiet too, just me the odd car, wildlife and grasses, great stuff, well worth the journey. At one point I remembered Lance Armstrong saying something about riding the backroads of Texas and being forced off the road by 'redneck' pick up drivers and such, literally seconds later I had the living sh*te scared out of me by the full on blaring horn of a white pick up that passed me. Weird, it was definitely obeying the speed limit, gave me plenty of room but still needed to scare the out of me - what is with these people.

The country roads turned into farm roads, and I was riding through endless fields of corn. The only landmarks were the water towers which act like giant pushpins marking the locations of the nearest settlements. I pulled up next to the school, noted the playground which may come in handy for Molly, the enormous school football field and well, turned around. 45 miles in 2.5 hours. Not too shabby.

Back in Elgin I found a great deli called 'In The Neighbourhood' and on stepping outside to go eat at the river I was hit by a wall of heat and retreated to the air conditioning. Here I should have noted two things, probably ate too much, too fast and it was bloody hot outside.

I found the Illinois Prairie Path and headed for home. It soon became the expected crushed limestone trail which obviously takes a couple of mph off the speed, but this wasn't about that.
Again it's quite beautiful, leading you through expanses of wild prairie plants and grass, some edges of forest preserves etc. I chose the more direct 'Great Western Trail' for the final run in.

It all went pear shaped around 70 miles in. Just lost it. Those two earlier points. Lunch wasn't sitting too well. And it was hot. The trail went through stretches of broken shade from nearby trees to open fields with blazing sun above. Also the white surface of the trail was probably bouncing light back up at me. And I was struggling to find enough water, my bike's frame is too small to take two bottle cages. The last 30 miles were ridden at around 14/15 mph with the odd flash of recovery. The final stretch of the trail is also too interrupted by the roads it crosses on the outside of the city sprawl. If I had been able to think of an alternative I would have taken it. 7 miles from home I saw a sign stating the temp was 94 degrees, last night they predicted low 80's - if I had known that!!!

I got home at 2:45pm with any thoughts of the rest of the day forgotten, desperate for a bath and a nap. I probably slept for 30 mins before my family came home and we made the right decision to get take-out for once.








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Project One: One Woman Takes on an urban Mount Everest

Jamila during the 2009 Lifecycle Fundraiser.

Tonya Bray of MTBChick recently interviewed independent film producer and cyclist Jamila Gaskins about her 'Project One'.

'Jamila conceptualized Project 1, which is a film about her upcoming 12,000 mile cycling tour of the U.S. Jamila will ride in a giant circle, from Los Angeles, through the South, up the coast and back West along the North before dropping from Washington back to L.A. During this ride, Jamila will take on the additional task of educating, inspiring and empowering young women, African-American in particular, to gain control of their lives and conquer the tragedy of young women and the spread of HIV and AIDS....
...
Project 1, a 12,000 mile bike ride, will make stops in major cities where women are affected by HIV and AIDS. Stops will include Health Fairs for women, getting to know the areas where the population of affected women live, and spending time in clinics, women’s shelters and other community areas where she can bring knowledge and education to the people. Project 1 also includes cycling fundraisers to rally the Nation around the empowering cause.' - from MTBChick.


You can follow Jamila on:

Twitter: @Project1Movie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectOnetheMovie
Project 1 the Movie website

Project 1 officially kicked off on Saturday, August 6.

Read the whole article on MTBChick here: http://mtbchick.com/2011/08/02/project-1-launches-saturday-one-woman-takes-on-an-urban-mount-everest/

EMP - Experience Music Project

What a building.

Housing primarily a museum about the 'experience of music' and a collection of Sci-Fi memorabilia it certainly has architectural elements of both.
Stunning curves and arresting colours and surfaces.

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Graffitti Bike Book

I recently received an email from Greece asking me to send Hi-Res files of some of my pieces to them so they could appear in book form. Having also been approached by a Belgian out in the Atlantic on an oceanographic expedition who wanted to buy a painting if I sent it to Nigeria I was a little suspicious. Anyhow it all turns out to be perfectly legit and what a fantastic opportunity this may have turned out to be.

Carpe Diem are a mural art team based in Athens, Greece, their main man Kiriakos Iosifidis is putting together a book of bike art. A collection of art centered on cycling, everything from painting, drawing, murals, illustration, sculpture, jewellery, industrial design, tattoos, recycled - pretty much everything. I am honored to have been even 'found' and chosen to participate in the book.

Their previous book Mural Art published by Publlikat shows the kind of quality to expect:
http://www.carpe-diemact.gr/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=14&lang=en


I was fortunate to be in a pretty neat bookstore near Seattle which held a couple of copies of Mural Art and it only made me more excited to see the finished 'Bike Art' book and made me wish I had done a better job of writing my artist's statement etc.
The book is due out in December - ish..

Carpe Diem can be found: here
and Publikat: here

One of the other talents to be featured in the book is Jessica Brilli.
Jess is a freelance graphic designer and painter hailing from Watertown, Massachusetts.
She was kind enough to talk with me when I was first approached by this strange unknown Greek emailer and was able to put my mind at ease regarding their validity. I owe her one. Here are a couple of images from her site: www.jessicabrilli.com - I can't bring myself to show her bike painting yet, it's brilliant, it should be another reason for you to order the book. Not that we get any royalties mind.



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Scene on the Pacific Northwest

My family and I spent 2 weeks travelling from Seattle, through the Olympic Peninsula, Portland to Oregon and back to Seattle. Along the way I kept my eyes open for the infamous bike scene up in those parts and made a point of meeting a few store owners.

What a great trip though, we learnt a few things about vacationing with a 3 year old, such as Molly's interests do have to govern our own, otherwise it just gets a bit frustrating. I have always thought I would love the huge tree covered mountains and at first sight they are so beautiful and impressive. After a few days and lots of driving through tree lined corridors it all got a bit samey. The trees actually hide a lot, they are a blanket over the ridges and textures on the mountains. When we got to the exposed foothills down in Ashland it all clicked into place, this is where the mountains were half tree clad, half exposed and weathered. And I realised they reminded me of Wales.

Here are a few random shots from the trip, I'll post about the stores later.


Powell's book store bike rack, Portland.


Sour beer continues fermenting in the bottle - amazing.

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"I'm just a kid racing me bike you know" - Cavendish

Radio interview with Mark Cavendish on BBC Radio 5 Live after this years Tour.

Can't embed - so go hear all 60 minutes here: Cavendish.

Pushbike Song

'W' as they say in Chicago - US Pro Cycling Challenge

Wow.

I entered and won the competition for artwork to be used on the posters for the US Pro Cycling Challenge.

So this is the poster for Stage 4 in Avon, Colorado.


The prizes include the artwork as a poster and stage 4 VIP pass and 4 passes for me to the VIP enclosure at the race finish in Denver on August 28th. Not sure if I can make it out there though.

Its a real honour to be selected and to hear the great comments from the organizers at the race. Thanks to all involved.

The race starts in 10 days and will rival the Alps in terms of climbing and altitude. Not only that but Cadel Evans, the Schleck brothers, Leipheimer, HTC, Rabobank and Vande Velde will be racing as well as the cream of the NRC teams. A pretty stacked field.

I have made a few trips to Colorado and Denver in the past and can confirm that, even though I haven't ridden the climbs, the mountains and surrounding scenery are beautiful. Denver is in fact probably up there with Seattle in terms of cities I would live in next. Sarah and I think there will be a next at some point.

Head on over to US Pro Cycling Challenge to find out more.

Here is where you can see and buy all 12 posters and other merchandise.


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Sub 5 #11 - A Pilgrimage.

A year or so ago when I found out where Major Taylor was buried I figured I would have to go.
At the end of 2010 I put it in a bookmarks folder 'To Do in 2011'.
Today I can cross it off.

The following notes refer to the photos in the Flickr slideshow below.

I left home at 6:30am as the sun was rising and the bike pointed south.
South down Halstead, by the way eerily empty at 7am, all the way to the start of the Major Taylor trail, hey if I am making a pilgrimage, I should do it properly right.
Finding the trail head was hard enough, I don't think it's at the Dan Ryan Woods, but it is alongside it, not that I can get to it. So this meant I ended up riding through the dew soaked grass of two parks. I found the path where it crossed a main road and was happy to get going, a mural along the path gives background on the man the trail is dedicated to and proves I am going the right way.

I was doubting any benefit to riding on the trail, so much slower than riding the streets and this added to my early ride funk. This is about the third ride now where I have struggled for the first 90 minutes or so. Not physically, mentally. Really just hating it. Not really sure what's going on. After the 90 things just start to warm up.

Crossing the Calumet River was the turning point today, first sign of leaving the city, closely followed by the woods over the other side. Unfortunately the other side of the woods is a metal factory and loads of rail tracks. The map I was carrying suggested I could weave through the factory property, trying this I found myself the wrong side of a very long very slow freight train.

The concrete factory in the pictures is directly north of the cemetery.
I rode up to the cemetery office to enquire about finding the gravesite and if I could ride through the grounds. The receptionist knowingly smiled as I tip toed in on cleats and as she was showing me a map another member of staff walked in and offered to escort me to the headstone. As I rode alongside his lawnmower I asked if Major Taylor got received many visitors, he laughed and said 'Oh yeah!' - that's nice to know.

The headstone/plaque is small and simple, there is a nice relief of Major riding and a beautiful inscription. I didn't really know what I was expecting, of myself I mean. I am not religious, wasn't going to pray or anything. I figured out it was just my way of acknowledging what he did and saying thanks.

There's a trail that heads east from Glenwood towards the Burnham Greenway, takes you through some pretty amazing native plants and prairie. Imagine the Midwest used to be covered in grasses like this, how amazing must that have been. Now it's only found in protected growth areas and hidden under the runs of power cables.

Ok so another little issue with the trails is a lack of signage. Suddenly the greenway stops at a main road, across which are dirt tracks which I discover run up to the main train lines for freight. And I mean about 5 lanes of rails. I pondered crossing on foot to see if the track continued on the other side but the sight of a very slow and long train put me off. Back to the main road and east to find a crossing. Nothing for miles. Lots of following industrial roads and dead ends. I knew where I was on the map but the scale didn't give enough info to get around. So a bit of a detour but eventually I found a way, found the road toward the greenway then missed a sign and blah blah blah - made it eventually. Really there should be signage directing you from the end of one section to the start of the next. Apart from the nature and traffic free peace there are times wen you just want to be riding the right way and not hunting around.

I called into the Chicago Velo Campus to see the track. Looks pretty nice, a little steep but if you have survived Calshot you can do anything. Not that I have any plans to return to track racing again. Not really. It's funny seeing the track structure so exposed. What is that 1" of wood then the ribbing below, basically riding on a skin. They've done a great job putting it together. Wondering if there will be any spectator bleachers etc? I guess the center of the track will be filled with bikes and riders. It's a strange sight in this vacant plot.

After the zoo I headed to the Bleeding Heart Bakery. To be honest I am not a fan of their cupcakes, really I think it's an American fad that really seems to be about the frosting. Too sweet for me. I am more of a scone man. And man are these some scones. Vegan too. Very little sugar. Just superb. Unfortunately I can only go get one after a ride of this length and if the shop isn't too busy for me to wheel my bike in.

That reminds me I have a tin of rice pudding, a packet of Angel Delight and a tin of custard from the UK sitting in a cupboard waiting for the end of the Sub 5. What an afternoon that will be.











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Scene in Chicago

Sweet ride.

Ritte in the Windy City

I think it's called a 'YBike'.
Check out the Batmobile rear wheels.

Bike rack or cool tunnel for toddlers - let them decide.

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Boneshaker

Wow what a fabulous magazine/little book.

Issue #4 was waiting for me when I returned from vacation. It was quite a surprise too.
I was expecting your standard news stand magazine format, instead Boneshaker is 240mm tall and 170mm wide and 60 pages deep, full colour and no advertising at all. And it is quite beautiful.
Yep, just beautifully sized, designed, printed, illustrated and written.

The stories in issue #4 cover 'Brotherly Love' at Brother Cycles, 'Headbadges', 'Bratislava..' and 'Ride like a grrrrl' amongst others. The standout for me is 'Tandem Acts of Kindness' written by Mike White about his adventure cycling from northern most Alaska to southernmost Argentina on a tandem. The interesting point being the second seat was always open to strangers, anyone could and would join him for periods of the ride, Mike would meet and learn from many people. Mike's book about the journey is called 'Take A Seat', there is a documentary film out there too.

Maybe overall it's the tone of Boneshaker that sets it apart, it's not about any one thing, it's doesn't seem to be trying to be.
If you see Boneshaker out there, grab a copy, see for yourself.

Boneshaker Magazine lives online here.

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Horse Cycles' Octopus

I am a huge HP Lovecraft fan, which led to a love of all things tentacled.

So a Cthonic bike frame has to be a good thing.

I saw this over on Prolly is not Probably so that's your first place to go before clicking through to see more.

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Spring Classics 2011 - Paris Roubaix

'Paris-Roubaix '11'
Ink on watercolour paper
15" x 20"


Just finished this morning.
The ink is still drying on my fingers.

detail

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Sub 5 #10

I left the house at 6:30 with a planned 3 hour ride - up to Old School and back on the Skokie Rail to Trail. Figured I would make it easy, keep it simple and just try to ride with a bit of pace. Really surprised by the amount of traffic on Milwaukee though, why is everyone headed to Wheeling so early?

To be honest I spent the first 90 minutes hating the Sub-5. Hating the fact that I am 'training'. You know that thing that you feel you have to do regularly and beat yourself up about if you don't do enough. That's why I am at peace with not racing. No racing = no training.
Didn't think the Sub-5 would come to this.

By the time I got to the trail I seemed to have warmed up to the bigger gear and was able to keep the pace high for the next hour, basically until I was back within the city traffic. So that made me feel much better about the whole thing. Probably not going to get to ride again until Tuesday due to better things to do with my wonderful wife and daughter. Molly fell asleep on the sofa as I was reading to her, I wonder what her reaction will be when she is older and sees all the drawings I have done of her whilst she has slept?

Today's ride is here: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/44550664


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Velodrome d'Hiver

There is a lot of interest in the construction of new velodromes and the restoration of the older ones. Which is why this movie trailer caught my eye:






'La Rafle' :

"The infamous Vel' d'Hiv Roundup is the focus of this gripping French drama starring Melanie Laurent and Jean Reno. Two days after Bastille Day in 1942, French police carried out an extensive raid of Jews in Greater Paris. More than 13,000 people were arrested, among them 4,000 children, consigned to several miserable days in Paris's Velodrome d'Hiver stadium before being shipped to internment camps within France, and finally to Auschwitz. Long a taboo subject in France--Jacques Chirac issued a public apology only in 1995--the raid and its political backdrop are brought to stirring life in writer-director Rose Bosch's detailed scenario. With a meticulously constructed script based on extensive research and first-hand accounts, La Rafle (The Roundup) became a big box-office hit in France, and its audiences included thousands of young people who came to learn about a dark chapter in their country's history". - from Apple trailers.

A quick wiki search tells that:

"The Germans demanded the keys of the Vel' d'Hiv from its owner, Jacques Goddet, who had taken over from his father Victor and from Henri Desgrange. The circumstances in which Goddet surrendered the keys remain a mystery and the episode is given only a few lines in his autobiography.^[12]"

"The Vel' d'Hiv had a glass roof, which had been painted dark blue to avoid attracting bomber navigators. The glass raised the heat when combined with windows screwed shut for security. The numbers held there vary according to accounts but one established figure is 7,500 of a final figure of 13,152.^[9] They had no lavatories: of the 10 available, five were sealed because their windows offered a way out and the others were blocked.^[13] The arrested Jews were kept there with only water and food brought by Quakers^{[citation needed]}, the Red Cross and a few doctors and nurses allowed to enter. There was only one water tap. Those who tried to escape were shot on the spot. Some took their own lives.

After five days, the prisoners were taken to the internment camps of Drancy, Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers, and later to extermination camps."

"The roundup accounted for more than a quarter of the 42,000 Jews sent from France to Auschwitz in 1942, of whom only 811 returned to France at the end of the war."

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"When he told me his story, Gasore never brought up the defining cataclysms of recent Rwandan history: the genocide of 1994, or the civil war that preceded it and the renewed war that devastated the northwest in its aftermath. He had grown up in the midst of inescapable violence—at least eight hundred thousand people were exterminated in a hundred days, when the government mobilized mobs from the Hutu majority to exterminate the Tutsi minority. Millions more, most of them Hutus, were displaced from their homes or fled into exile. Gasore’s family was Hutu, but he didn’t speak about that. In accounting for himself, he told only of private hardships, and of how he had pedalled away from them as fast as he could. His only interest in history was to make his mark in it as a cyclist. When he lived on the street as a boy, he had caught glimpses of the Tour of Rwanda, a gruelling, multi-stage bicycle race that winds through the country for a week every year, and, he told me, “I asked myself whether, one day, I would have the chance to do that.”

Phillip Gourevitch: Rwanda's Cycling Team: The New Yorker.

Phillip Lopate of WNYC interviewed Phillip Gourevitch about his article in the New Yorker concerning the Rwandan national cycling team which consists of both Hutu and Tutsi riders.

The interview is here:


and the article here: Climbers


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Other artists

Here are some other examples of cycling specific painting.
These are taken from a Facebook album so I do not know who they are by - my apologies.