Minneapolis Bike Blog

My Review of CygoLite Cygolite MityCross 350 LED Bike Light

2010-05-15T22:26:00.001-05:00

Whether you're riding on or off the road, the incredibly small MityCross bike light will impress you with its brightness—it features a single beam yet offers dual beam brightness.

Nice little unit but....

By R.O.P. from St. Paul, MN on 5/15/2010

Gift: No

Pros: Great visibility, Helmet/Removable mount, Low battery indicator, Rechargable

Cons: Not good for high speeds

Best Uses: Night commute

Describe Yourself: Competitive Cyclist

This is a really nice light for general use. However, it is not bright enough for higher speeds. It is pretty easy to "over ride" the visibility the light provides (especially in the "pothole central" of Mpls/St. Paul or MTB trails). The dead spot between the two led's light pattern only exacerbates this issue. That said, I do use this light for my work commute.

(legalese)

Alex Frias' schematic of the Pussy Fuzz

2010-03-11T08:25:00.001-06:00

Alex Frias from the freestompboxes.org bulletin board has figured out the schematic for the Pussy Fuzz. No small feat given my poor photography and dubious help of my attempts at reading the values on the components.

Thanks Alex, I can't thank you enough for your efforts.

An inside look at the Pussy Fuzz

2010-03-07T15:13:00.006-06:00

I didn't realize how bad my reading vision has become. I will need to get a magnifying glass to read the values of the smaller components. The top of the circuit board is the bottom of the internal shots. Feel free to post questions as needed and if you would like full size photos leave your email address. I moderate the comments and I will not publish your email address.

Renewed Pussy Fuzz Link

2010-03-01T01:46:00.001-06:00

Another big change...

2010-03-01T00:02:00.004-06:00

...after the better part of 25 years spent living in the heart of Uptown Minneapolis, I now live in Saint Paul. Besides the need to escape a certain someone, the bar I have called home (and the scene of many of the best shows I have ever seen or put on) closed last year. The Uptown Bar has been destroyed and so has my defacto (sp?) home/social center/showplace. New corporate owners, even if it reopens the place is dead. Arguably, it died the day Maggie MacPherson was fired/quit. Mark Lokowich and I used the pay phones next to the corner booth as our business phones while we ran Sonic Warp. (We really hated our home phone ringing constantly at all hours.) Oddly, I really appreciate not having to worry about being run over every time I cross the street in front of my house in St. Paul. Living in a ghost town after 4pm is not a bad thing.

My apologies!

2010-02-28T23:31:00.005-06:00

It has been almost a year and a half since I updated this blog. I can only claim that major life changes over this time period have prevented me from being interested in posting anything. Some of you may already know that my marriage fell apart due to my ex-wife getting pregnant by a co-worker at MCTC Nov/Dec of 2008. It was very Jerry Springer like. Seriously, I thought my apartment had become a double wide (strangely, I look very much like Steve or vice versa). Oddly enough, my ex's best friend was going out with my new GF's husband at the same time. I know, a strange odyssey, but if you friend me (Jon Senum) and/or my GF on Facebook, it will all make sense. On the bike side, I still don't own a vehicle and commute to work by bike in spite of the really crappy snow plowing our cities provide...or not. Pussy Fuzz photos posted next weekend....seriously (either that or I will invite my one follower over for a beer and he can inspect it himself).

The best cover song ever...

2008-09-20T02:50:00.006-05:00

...Devo covered Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced" as a total protest over Warner Brother's treatment of their music. Hmmm...take the greatest guitar song ever and use no guitars to cover it. Pure genius!!!

Uuuuuhhhhh.....this is why U.S boxing is so bad at the Olympics...

2008-08-21T18:40:00.005-05:00

Uhhh...that guy might win the gold medal or maybe lose in the quarterfinals...uhh...i remember throwing a left hook at somebody at one point in my career...uh...Papa come over here so I can throw some punches at you, den maybe people will see I should have won a medal....uh...in some year I can't remember....uhhh.....Papa, did you here dose bells??...uhhhh...no that kid looks good but he won't make the cut ...uh...because he can't throw that left hook I showed youse guys ....uhhhjh...Papa can you clean the drool off my sport coat?...uhhhh...no really I am a member of MENSA...uhhhhh.........don't turn me off to watch the Flava of Love.......

You have to be kidding me!

2008-08-16T02:22:00.020-05:00

It's hard to decide if Figure Skating or Race Walking is the most absurd "sport" in the Olympics.

Two Winter Olympics ago a figure skating commentator claimed that a skater didn't get a medal because her costume "wasn't up to snuff" (and let's not forget the adulterous French judge that was bribed for good scores at the same Olympics). Oh, and a major factor in race walking in the present Olympics is "trash talking" to your competitors to get them "off their game" (with that assessment, the best race walkers in the world should be Teamsters, of course we are paid by the hour not per km). Are these people fucking serious???? Since the virtual elimination of the compulsory figures in skating, skill is no longer a factor in scoring. The compulsories were accurate assessments of a skaters skill on ice (67% of scoring). Now the "costumes" are more important than skill (maybe the skaters should get my ex-GF to make their costumes, she made Ms. Jackson's Superbowl tit exposing costume). Racewalkers get to "run" 3+ times per event (no limit on the distance, damn, they call the warnings "paddles", lame BDSM mofos). The commentary on tonight's 20K race is the most inane BS I have ever heard. These idiots are the plastic pen pocket nerds that have found a niche that any real athlete would never go (hence no one is there to kick their asses). Too bad they still won't get any "chicks" that find their "trash talking" sexy (is that the reason their "hand action" is so exaggerated?). OMG! The Russian pen pocket nerd has entered the stadium first (assuming he won't get another "paddle" according to the commentators, are they privy to something we don't know?). Oh the Ecuadorian (the powerhouse country in race walking) dude comes in second. And Sponge Bob Square Pants gets the Bronze. Sorry, Kenny DNF'ed when he was killed in the 12th kilometer by some nerd from Boznia-Herzegovina (who only got two "paddles" for the offense).

You gotta love wrestling sometimes...

2008-07-27T17:59:00.003-05:00

I found this on Dvorak Uncensored (a great blog, you should try it sometime) under "Never Ask the Audience to Throw You a Chair". I thought they may have to resort to using the "jaws of life" to get those wrestlers out of there!

http://view.break.com/539758 - Watch more free videos

2008-05-26T09:17:00.004-05:00

Keith Olbermann is an anarchist...

2008-05-26T09:17:00.003-05:00

...That's why I love him

Too sad.

2008-05-25T09:02:00.006-05:00

Earl Root died on Friday due to complications from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. He was a major figure in the Minneapolis metal scene. He ran Root Cellar records, did the "Root of All Evil" KFAI radio show, played in Morticia, Aesma Daeva, God-Awful, and Disturbed. He leaves a big hole that will never be filled in our music scene.

Earl Root Guest Book.

I just can't get enough of this!

2008-05-22T05:49:00.001-05:00

All I can say is, "WOW! This guy is as Dumb as Bush."

MN Aids Walk

2008-05-14T23:59:00.003-05:00

I will be doing it on Sun. In the last year my wife's uncle has died from Aids and a close family friend was diagnosed with AIDS. It's a very small effort in the big scheme of things surrounding this issue, we are doing something. Feel free to contact me if you would like to make a donation through our efforts. Thank you!

F7 Tigercats

Minnesota Aids Walk 2008

169.222

2008-05-10T12:46:00.003-05:00

That's my new mantra. Anytime some small dicked dude in a 4 wheel drive pickup or SUV hollers at me for using my rights I holler back "MN State Statute 169.222, read it and shut the f*ck up!" (Why is it never someone in a Toyota or Honda?) It happened to me on Thurs. on my way to work. My bike lane became a part of a turn lane. I followed the 169.222 law and took the full lane because it became a "non-standard lane", too bad it was a turn lane with signal. (Why is it that men with "little penis syndrome" are always in a hurry, it's not like they are going to get any when they get where they are going?) He started his tirade and I let loose with my mantra. It shut him up for few seconds, he started hollering again. "I gave you the specific law I am following, what law says i can't take this lane?", I said. More silence then he threatened me with his vehicle. I took out my cell phone (which totally fried last weekend, don't bother calling me) and pretended to take a photo of him and his license plate. "You are threatening me with a deadly weapon and I am going to call the cops", I replied. Now he threatened me to beat me up. I said, "Do you really want to explain to your friends how you got beat up by a guy wearing lycra?". Funny, that shut him up. The law didn't work, the threat of using the law didn't work, but the fact his friends might find out he got beat up by a man in lycra (thus exposing his little penis to his friends) was more than enough motivation to shut up. Go figure.

I may be the stupidest person on earth!

2008-05-10T12:37:00.003-05:00

I installed Windows XP Service Pack 3!!! I should have waited to see what kinds of carnage the excessive codes would reek on other people's machines first but I couldn't wait. We have 7 computers in our house. 6 Macs and 1 PC, although one of the Macs runs Windows. I have been a Mac and PC admin in previous jobs. Why anyone would prefer Windows over Mac is completely beyond me. My wife claims the only reason I use my PC is because I like fixing things, which is totally true. I might do maintenance on the Mac once every 3 months as opposed to every day on my PC. Thankfully, I was smart enough to ignore the biggest failure of the new century, Vista!

Weird

2008-04-19T20:07:00.006-05:00

I walked to school this week. It seemed nice out so WTF. I was attacked, literally, by some old fat squirrel that demanded food (which I didn't have) in Loring Park. Amazingly enough, I met up with Todd Trainer next to Joe's Garage. Todd is the best drummer alive. He plays in Shellac and I can't give him enough kudos for his drumming ability. He and Bob Weston are by far and away the best rhythm section in music.

So I have to admit..,.

2008-04-19T13:59:00.006-05:00

I have laid some claims to "best band ever", but the Minutemen really were the best band ever. They stayed at my house during one of their many tours. D Boon was really in tune with unionism and the working class (his dad worked in the ship building yards of San Pedro). I wish he had been alive to be over my shoulder during the 1997 UPS strike. The man said so much with so few words. Who else uses dominant 7 #9 chords? Besides Jimi Hendrix?

An embarassing confession...with a happy ending.

2008-04-16T18:54:00.004-05:00

Alright it's truly official, I am a dork! A number of posts ago I made the claim that I was now under 210lbs. Turns out, while I was and am losing weight, my celebratory tone over the accomplishment came to a crashing halt a week after the post as the batteries went dead on my fairly expensive (and usually accurate) scale. It turns out the scale was reading a tad over 10lbs less than actual weight at the end of the battery life. So my 208 was really 219 when new batteries were installed. HOW F*ING EMBARASSING. In complete spin control worthy of any crooked politician, I buried the evidence. I kept all 8 readers (subscribers anyway, I am sure there are probably 2-3 other people reading it too) of this blog in the dark on these new revelations. I hopped on the scale two days ago and I was actually at 207lbs!! Just to make sure the results were not tainted by faulty electrical delivery, I recharged the batteries overnight the next two nights and reinstalled them. Today it read 208lbs and I am now fully confident I have fulfilled my previous posts assertions. Monday I go in for my yearly diabetes study which will hopefully corroborate my findings. My wife actually bought me a belt yesterday. I have a Tackla breezer belt I have used for years but only a few pairs of pants actually needed them as my inflated hips performed pant suspension that would make any belt/suspender manufacturer envious. Now every pair of my pants can (and does) fall off my waist with only the help of gravity and the gyrations of forward locomotion. Coin slot anyone?

I have chosen a race team for 2008 it is.....Peace Coffee! I have way more friends and (way more) roadies on the Flanders squad but somehow it seemed I couldn't turn my back on the social justice Peace Coffee tries to maintain in it's business model. Plus on the selfish side, they will give me free coffee to join. Flanders will only promise to destroy any dignity I might have left after destroying me on every training ride and making me carry water bottles and musette bags during a race.

That time of year!

2008-04-09T01:10:00.001-05:00

Weather safety warnings are everywhere! That and dryer lint safety alerts.

Lunatics

2008-03-29T16:41:00.006-05:00

This has been the best week this year to ride. The snow and ice are gone and some of the millions of potholes have been semi-adequately filled in (if I fall in one now I can at least climb out unassisted). There is plenty of construction going on in downtown Minneapolis. Out of the 10 miles (one way) I commute there is only one block I need to resort to the sidewalk because of the construction which has taken the bike lane away from cyclists and using the bus lane takes 10+minutes. On Weds. I was crawling along the block and all of a sudden I hear someone screaming and hollering. A 60+ year old dude in a cheap ass Men's Wearhouse suit rushes towards me (yeah, notice I was going slow enough that he could catch up to me) and screams that I am in violation of State and MN law for being on the sidewalk. Somehow he thinks he is going to "rally the troops" and have me lynched. "I am a lawyer and you are in violation of state and city law" he claims, along with numerous swear words that even I haven't heard of. For one of the few times in my life I was at a loss for words (trust me, my friends and co-workers will be shocked to hear that). So I just responded with "Sorry about your small penis dude!" to roars of laughter from bystanders (so much for the lynch mob). Anyway...I figured I would run into this asshole again so I spent 5 minutes looking up and printing the MN and Minneapolis statutes and ordinances pertaining to bicycles being allowed on sidewalks (Google is our friend).

MN Statute
Minneapolis Ordinance

Unfortunately, I haven't seen the jerk again. I have taken my camera and tape recorder with me hoping that I can catch his reaction when he has to answer for being either a moron or a liar (his choice, however if he IS a lawyer...well you can guess which one he is). I guess law degrees aren't worth much anymore if this jackass has one.

Big Black kicks ass!

2008-03-23T01:43:00.004-05:00

One of their last shows, in the Entry. Dude! Steve is wearing a "Die Kreuzen" shirt!

Punk is dead!

2008-03-23T01:11:00.001-05:00

How did they know this in the late 70's?

Halo of Flies

2008-03-22T23:39:00.003-05:00

Halo of Flies still sucks! Still not racing for Grumpy's.

By "still sucks", I mean "they rule". Christ only 6 people are subscribed to my blog and one of them knows I love this band.