4/26/2008

Its rolling!


MVI_4696
Originally uploaded by Target Salad
In fact it is accessorized and has carried people, beer and tequila! More pics soon!

It is awesome!



Ah, more pics is now!


4/22/2008

In yur cabinets, scoping yur bowls



Wink256 gets his bowl on.

4/20/2008

Road find of the week, BRICK!

updated 4/20 6pm, see below
Now that I am rolling my Kogswell PR more often and my Big dummy is really almost there, everything looks like a road find. So far I have brought home a split log and this:



My rules are that they need to be in the street or on the sidewalk, not in a yard.

UPDATE:

Hah, just after posting the above I found this creepy lego dude while running up near Mountain school.



Once I saw a little lego dude head a ways up the trail in the berkeley hills, but when I got to it, I found it sticking out of a giant dog pile. Heh.

4/18/2008

Go kid go


click for source

There is a nice fluff article on Taylor Phinney and family over on Sports Illustrated. If you don't know who he is or who his parents are, go read it.

Taylor is 17 and one of the top five pursuit cyclists in the world and will be representing the US in Beijing this summer in the Olympics. He rides for the Slipstream Chipotle team and with any luck, will be doing one day races in Europe flying the plaid colors and possibly a tacky mustache within a few years. He and his team are good reasons to get back into watching pro cycling, if recent continuous scandals have turned you off.

A short excerpt from the SI article:

"We saw Greg LeMond when he was on his way," says Roger Young, a legendary coach and the director of the Carson facility. "We saw Lance [Armstrong] when he was on his way. You knew those guys were going to do something great. Taylor is going to do something great."


So, uh, no pressure kid. Just go out there and do something great, K?

As an aside, I briefly met his mom, Connie Carpenter Phinney at a ski race last year, I think all I came up with was an eloquent, " duh, huh huh erm, hi, huh huh huh".

4/17/2008

The best food delivery bike in manhattan



The rest of the photos from the short trip here

4/15/2008

Cold snap attractor

Just as a year ago, the apricot tree is in full bloom and it snowed a fair bit last weekend. I missed a couple of inches while traveling, but caught this on 4-10-2008:



No appreciable affect on yield last year, so I am hoping for the same...

4/14/2008

What you say?



No kidding. Coasterbrakes on the cinder track equals some excellent carnage, thanks to my brother for the linkage.

See more good crashes.

4/07/2008

Hip deep in bikes

Oh the bikes are coming along.

Kogswell P/R is done and riding


On and off road


and well loaded


Big dummy is sort of getting built


Project X arrived clad in a frame mumu. No mere frame bag here!


excellent front dropouts on X

4/04/2008

A visit to Thomas Cara Ltd

When I was in San Francisco last week, I took a lunch to walk over to North Beach to visit Thomas Cara Ltd, purveyors of extremely fine italian espresso machines. My La Pavoni (steam driven productivity engine), was bought refurbished from this shop.
Outside the shop



Christopher Cara, son of the original owner, runs the shop now. He was very generous with his time and patiently explained how to change the seals in my machine. He also remembered talking to me on the phone 3 years ago and the circumstances in which I got my Pavoni, (ah! YOU are the famous cat sitter).

Custom mosaic on the threshold, thats 517 pacific near columbus


He also told me undoubtedly well worn tales of the history of the shop and the provenance of the two big machines in the center of the store.

Big machines, argentinian copper and the original chrome giant pavoni that was brought back from italy circa WW2


I already was drooling over some of the newer "professional" models.

New machines lined up for sale


Christopher buys old machines and refurbishes them for resale. The wall in back are almost all Pavonis in various states of repair...

Repairs, refurbished and salvaged machines


Anyhow, if you have a hankering for an expensive but very worth it espresso machine, the shop is a great place to visit. 517 Pacific near Columbus in San Francisco, semi regular hours wed-friday, call before you visit (415) 781-0383.


Not a cat, Sage(?) the sleepy coffee spotted dog

4/02/2008

An epic Mixed terrain ride in Marin

Last week I met up with JimG, Cylcofiend, ride leader Carlos and a Greg and Jeff at the foot of the GG bridge in San Francisco for a long day of many terrained riding. It was good. It started with a road loop around Mill Valley and then headed up over Mt Tam on Railroad Grade. We came down the back side of Mt Tam and over into Muir Beach, out across the headlands, Miwok trail to tennessee Valley and then back to sausalito for some donuts and then back on across the bridge to SF. What a great ride. I put in 58 miles on the fixie friday. It were good! The cue sheet is here for the locals, we bailed out at the tennessee valley trail head to go get some eats as we were pooped and Greg had a broken saddle rail.

We were a photo happy bunch, my arm photo-ing JimE and Carlos who are both taking photos as we ride out across the bridge



Stunning views of the bay and the city from Mt Tam. Cyclofiend snaps happy on the right of the image



Me up there on top of mount tam, west point inn picnic area



Me and JimG on Miwok trail



Post ride noshings donuts and egg sammiches, Carlos, JimG, Greg, Me



It was a good ride. I had met JimG once or twice circa 2000 via the bob list and had emailed cyclofiend a bunch and knew of Carlos, but it was a nice extended visit with some Bobs I knew virtually for a while.

It was a fun bike diversity ride, I was on the friday fixie folder, Jimg on his Fuji cross bike, Carlos on his rigid Habenero mtb bike, Cyclofiend on his A Homer Hilsen, Jeff on his Soma(?) and Greg on a rigid Cannondale Mtb.

I have suffered mightily on many an epic singlespeed race on the trails in Marin, but I think this was probably one of the more fun days I have had. The friday held up well, I got up almost everything on it. Downhills on a fixie with 20" wheels offroad was a bit hairy, but I am still here! Great stuff.

All my pikkys from this ride are here and photos from Jimg, cyclofiend and Carlos.

Finally all my SF trip pics including some other rides around the city are mostly labled and all uploaded here