Cycle Jerk

RIP Tom Palermo

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:14:00 +0000

The DC area lost a good one.

Thomas Palermo, a senior Johns Hopkins Hospital software engineer recalled as a master bike frame builder, died Saturday after he was struck by a vehicle while cycling in the 5700 block of Roland Ave. He was 41 and lived in the Baltimore County community of Anneslie.

Read the Baltimore Sun Article here

Read the Baltimore Magazine article here.

There will be a memorial ride for Tom Tomorrow at 3:30 at 3636 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21218. Details Here.

I met Tom at NAHBS 2010 and was as impressed with his character as I was with his bikes. He built my neighbor's touring bike which is a masterpiece. He was a true craftsman.

Thank You Sprocket Man!

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 19:07:00 +0000

My daughter just attended a safety demonstration put on by Montgomery County. I have to give the county props, they sent a ladder truck and an ambulance to show off to six little girls. Way to go big MC. As fun as it was for the girls I think the real gem hear is the 1975 safety comic classic "Sprocket Man" she brought home. A comic book hero hell bent on bike safety education. What government warehouse has this been hiding in all my life?

Let's break this down:

He rides a bitchin 10 speed. (steel)
Head to toe spandex and an unvented helmet which means he too bad ass to worry about overheating
His weapon of choice (besides awesomely delivered bike safety fundamentals) is a giant cassette he keeps on his wrist (varies from 4 to 5 speed).

He actually HITS PEOPLE WITH A GIANT CASSETTE!

Please take a moment to consider the implied gore and carnage of the following scene. KA-BLOOM indeed. The woman has clearly been chopped in half and Gene Simmons in the wife beater is loosing that leg and probably some intestines for sure.

Main take away: The 70's were awesome and no time to be a bike thief.

Smell The Glove

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 15:43:00 +0000

I just saw this on Instructables and am all a flutter. I'm not very experienced with making electronic gadgets but this seems pretty easy to do and extremely useful. Yellow LEDS on the back of this index seems like a nice ways to say "Hey friends, I'm headed in that direction. Please don't run me over". After some thought I believe a separate conductive pad could be used to put red LEDs on the back of my middle finger. This would give me a nice way to say, "Hey friends, I hope a pack of ██████ gets loose in your ████ and just goes to town on your ██████ ███ while your dog ███████ your ██████, you ██████ ███ █ ██████!"

Just a thought.

What I Do In Whistler

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 14:38:00 +0000

This video is pretty good. I've never been to Whistler but I imagine my trip being a mix of the first and last segments. Bonus Girvin sighting!

What I Do In Whistler from nsmb.com on Vimeo.

Road Bike Road Rage: Happy Ending

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 20:53:00 +0000

This morning I woke up in the middle of a shitty dream. Not a nightmare mind you but a real pile of shit. This was not a good way to set the day in motion. I was in a crappy mood at breakfast. I had less than the usual amount of patients with my girls, (Who are freakin' awesome.) which made me feel even shittier. I hopped on the road bike and headed to work with my shitty crappy attitude in tow. After a mile or so I was doing swell; fresh air, bike, etc. Then someone honked at me and the shittyness of the morning came on like garbage truck, dropped off the Empire State Building. My mind swirled with the fictional altercation that would ensue. The perfectly dispatched justice the honker would receive via my mouth and fists. In the middle of the swirl of anger my rational side would intersect words of calm. "You are really spinning on this. Take it down a notch." Slowly my mind stepped back from the edge and I let the bike ride consume me. Thinking about nothing I crested a hill at a busy intersection with no light. An Escalade pulled up behind me. With no chance to cross I circled back around to let the big guy get in front so he could make a right turn. As I passed his window he rolled it down and said in a loud voice...

"You know, it really annoys the shit out of me..."

I'll stop the quote there. It was at this point that the bear woke again. This is going to be the culmination of my mornings shit pile. This mother fucker has no idea what he's about to open up. It may result in some jail time but this fuck stick is about to get the business end of a beat down!

"You know, it really annoys the shit out of me how fast you got up that hill! I just started biking. It's changed my life! I've been doing my best but god dammit!"

In that instant the several things happened:

I got happy. I'm not going to jail!
I got really happy. My previously mentioned bear was now on a tire swing made out of marshmallow dandelions, blowing kisses at squirrels and bunnies.
I got pride. This dude found biking.
I got gratitude. I was grateful this guy took away my rage and replaced it with some deep introspection to chew on.

"If it helps you I kinda feel like I'm gonna throw up a little bit" I said. An with a belly laugh he exclaimed "Bless you!" and sped off.

I don't often feel that kind of anger, but today I did and was lucky enough to have someone come along and extinguish it, and for that I am grateful.

I should say this is not a car vs. bike thing, it's just where the two of us happened to be this morning.

The Big Question: What Kind Of Bike Should I Get?

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 20:08:00 +0000

I think I have an average amount of friends, family and acquaintances. I'm not going to count them because I don't care and you sure as hell don't. It's probably a fair amount of people. I thought about this number just now to illustrate the point that a very high percentage of those friends, family members, coworkers etc. have asked me the same question which is usually is the beginning of the same conversation.

Person - Hey man,(son, bro, pal, coworker, handsome, dipshit...) I want to get a bike, what kind should I get?

Me - What do you want to do with it?

Person - Well I'm looking for a pro-level all mountain big dropping race ready road bike to do cyclocross centuries on while I pick up the kids from the downtown grocery store on my way to do a two night bike tour with the rotary club.

Me - Awesome! How much do you want to spend?

Person - $250

Me - No.

Person - Huh?

Me - NO! Spend more money on bikes. You'll be happier.

Person - No.

Me - Huh?

Most if the time this is where the conversation ends. If prodded I usually recommend a Surly of some shape and size. I've had two Surlys, I love them, and they are a good bang for the buck. The problem is my idea of a good deal doesn't jive with most civilians. To me, $1100-ish for a bike that will never quit you seems like a pretty good deal.

I'm A Sucker For A Good Infographic

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:46:00 +0000

or two...

MacAskill Solo Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Thu, 22 May 2014 17:21:00 +0000

I like Danny MacAskill. He talks funny... he bikes funny too.

Here's my favorite of his videos.

Quick note: The Jezabels, who do the second song on this video will be in DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel on June 18th. Should be pretty good.

Xtracycle: Always Pepared

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Fri, 16 May 2014 15:05:00 +0000

I'm always ready to haul.

Morel Mushrooms And A Bike

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Tue, 06 May 2014 19:19:00 +0000

I found tonight's dinner at lunch today! These yellow morels like to pop up where dead Elm Trees can be found usually near Tulip Poplars. Remember, when you see a mushroom in the woods you are only seeing the fruit of a massive mycelial(?) network.

Oh yeah! I saw this bad ass Jones with a truss fork too.

All in all it was a good lunch break.

Girvin Sighting!

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Mon, 05 May 2014 21:21:00 +0000

I saw this proflex on Sunday. The legends are true, mine isn't the last one.

This is a Yuba Mundo with a copper sissy bar. Very cool.

Bike To Work Day 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 15:50:00 +0000

CamelBak Relay Review

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:56:00 +0000

It's no secret, I a fan of quite a few of CamelBak's products. Not all, but quite a few. A little while ago I was lucky enough to receive a CamelBak Relay to test out. The Relay is Camelbak's first venture into the home water filtration market and it's about time. I only have my Brita to compare it to and there isn't much of a fight here. The Relay is a vast improvement over my Brita.

The first improvement I noticed is the speed. With the Brita, you fill the reservoir and wait for 7 minutes for the water to filter. This doesn't seem like a big deal but if you have to do it over and over those 7 minutes add up. The Relay filters the water as fast as you can fill it. It also filters the water again when you pour it into your glass which can't be bad.

Perhaps the best improvement over the Brita is there's no black shit in my glass! The only downside I've seen so far is the filters are more expensive but the last twice as long so it evens out.

In closing, this image pretty much sums up my first impressions of the Camelbak Relay.

Bottom line: Highly Recommended.
Buy It If you use any another pitcher water filter product.
Don't Buy Them If you already have one.

Xtracycle Sighting

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:53:00 +0000

I saw this long bike in Silver Spring over the weekend. Props for making a sissy bar out of the footsies. I never considered putting a bar on the back like that. When my girls are big enough I'll have to follow suit.

Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 18:10:00 +0000

Contrary to the frequency of my posts as of late, I bike to work quite often. On Monday I saw a dude on a tall bike cruising down Georgia Ave (a major artery just north of DC) in rush hour traffic. I should point out that this section of Georgia Ave had eight full lanes of morning commuters. My first reaction was a jaw dropping "What The Fuck?". That was also my second reaction.

This got me thinking; when I'm in my car I often see cyclist doing shit I would never do. Taking the lane on upper 16th Street where the flow of traffic is above 50mph during rush hour when there's no shoulder for example. It's perfectly legal to do so but in my view it's incredibly stupid. There's is also a bike lane on 14th, so why not cut over two blocks?

I try not to judge, I know that some times perceived danger is relative to ones own experiences. There are plenty of things I do now that I would have thought too dangerous 17 years ago.

BUT

There's a time and a place and eight lanes of morning traffic going past the 495 merge lanes seems to be neither.

Kick Start: Buca Boot

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:35:00 +0000

I'm more of an extracycle, carry 3 hay bales kinda guy but I'm not gonna lie, well designed bike solutions make me randy. I wonder if I could put that on a front rack?

The Armstrong Lie

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 14:46:00 +0000

I'm so numb to this story but I'll have to watch it anyway. I hope it's in 3D.

Furlough Merlot - Shutdown Chardonnay

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:11:00 +0000

I threw this together for all my non-essential feds out there. You know who you are.

After that this seems pretty obvious.

No Bike Parking

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:06:00 +0000

I arrived at the office today to find this sign in my bike parking space.

I'm pretty sure I know who it was as I was fucking with this person pretty good yesterday. Below is my response.

Nobody tows a cops bike.

Father's Day Haulings

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:01:00 +0000

I spent my father's day running errands with the kids. We went to the pool and then the grocery store. The XtraTrucker handled the load with ease. The only sketchy moment was when my youngest decided it was fun to throw her weight from side to side to make the bike wobble.

When I got home I used the bike to return a neighbor's tiller with plenty of room left over.

Happy Father's Day to me!

"They're Just F*ckin Bikes Lady" - Jon Stewart

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:30:00 +0000

NYC Bike Share: A Begrimination!

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:03:00 +0000

It's not often (well sadly it is) that an oped comes along that is so utterly shittastic that all one has to do is quote it to render the piece useless. Thankfully BSNYC has the shittastic stomping skills to do slightly more.

Bike To Work Day 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:59:00 +0000

I usually try and make it to the Bethesda pit stop but this year I made it to Silver Spring while taking my daughter to school.

We were running late and the guy with the camera caught me off guard so I did a good amount of blathering.

Meanwhile, three years earlier...

It's crazy to see how much my girl has grown. I think I must be doing ok in the father department if can watch her growth and development (as well as the graying of my facial hair) in the pro-bike culture movies she's... HOLY SHIT! Am I wearing the same god damned clothes!? Jesus.

As usual it was a great event not matter the pit stop. Props to the sponsors and everyone involved.

Awesome Is As Awesome Does.

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:13:00 +0000

RIP - Jeff Hanneman

noreply@blogger.com (Cycle Jerk) — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:32:00 +0000

Like biking, Slayer is one of those rare things in life that's just as much fun now as it was when I was a kid.

RIP - Jeff Hanneman

"Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed. Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 - 2013)"

God bless Slayer.