Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Cool picture from Brady


This is Waltworks #4 or so from way back in early 2004. Bonus points for rockin' the beard, though it would be cooler on a road bike.

In other news, I have decided to be a mad scientist for Halloween. There may be embarrassing pictures in a day or two. I'll be trick-or-treating with my little nephews in Westminster, then partying all night long at the bars with my idiot friends. 80's night at the Catacombs, sweet...

Monday, October 29, 2007

Dumpster diving!

Believe it or not, when I was in high school, I did an entire project in AP English (like, the biggest writing assignment of the year) about dumpster diving (and subsequently I flunked/dropped out of said high school, but that's another story). Then again, growing up surrounded by scientists and engineers in Los Alamos, there was a lot of interesting stuff in the trash, so maybe the paper was pretty good. I can't remember, and I certainly don't still have it.

Regardless, my lifelong love of dumpster diving was born. I've scavenged all kinds of random stuff - and I live about 1 mile from the main Boulder recycling center, which is "closed" on Sundays, which means there's nobody around to yell at you for jumping into the dumpsters and digging around in the sharp rusty metal. It's worth it, though - in the last couple of years, I've found:
-XT/517 wheelset, perfect shape.
-Complete Bianchi road bike that someone drove into their garage - broken frame and fork, but the complete 105 grouppo, wheels and other parts were all fine.
-The bike rack on our car.

and yesterday:
-A welding table and perfectly matching adjustable height lab chair! This thing is freakin' sweet - I can finally retire the old desk that my dad built me in middle school (it's holding the lathe now). The table has a nice set of adjustable feet to let you level/stabilize it, it's super beefy, and it was free! Kickass.

Friday, October 26, 2007

29er? Screw that, give me a 24!

This bike is so much fun it astounds me. 24" wheels, 12" bottom bracket height, 72/72 head and seat angles, 15" chainstays, rigid, one gear. I built it entirely out of recycled tubes (ie, stuff I messed up or cut too short), Millertime gave me the brake, Theo gave me the wheels, and I scrounged everything else except the bar and stem from the parts bin. Total cost: $18. Not bad!

Happily, it dirtjumps just as well as I was hoping it would, and it's super nimble on the pump track too. Miguel and I wore ourselves out at the Fix jumps this afternoon - good times!

Note that given that a pretty decent BMX costs about $200, I'm not planning to start selling custom BMX bikes anytime soon. Still, I think this bike is really fun and I thought maybe someone else was bored on Friday afternoon and would want to read about it. Maybe I'll get Miguel to take some pictures of me jumping next week so you can see how bad I suck at it...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Famous!

Check it out. Lots of my stuff made it onto Fat Cyclist. Looks like Fatty is rolling on one of the T6/WW frames. Sweet!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Thanks Fritz!


I've spent a long time trying to find a breathable, comfy, warm layer to wear under my helmet, and I think I've finally found it. Thanks for the cap, Fritz! I owe you a beer! Melanzana makes some cool stuff!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Doudy Draw is open to bikes!

I'll just let the picture speak for itself here. Nice work BMA, Horseman's Assn, and BCPOS!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Collegiate Short Track + Booze Cruise

Sarah raced her final race of the year on Saturday, when CU hosted a collegiate-only (no race for me!) short track at the Research park. It was a great race, and a good turnout (the Women's A race had 15, which is more than usually show up at the Boulder NORBA series). Long story short, Eszter won the women's race in good style on her new 29er, Sarah was third, and Jung and Yuki did well in the men's race (my camera batteries died before the start) just afterwards.
The real story, though, is that Sarah did amazingly well, considering what we'd been up to the night before - we rode from Avery to Boulder Beer to Twisted Pine to the Southern Sun, and had 2-3 beers each at each stop. Needless to say, we were wicked hung over when the 9:30 start rolled around. Of course, all I had to do was watch and take pictures. Sarah had a rougher time of it - I think she would have been a solid 2nd if not for the massive intake of alcohol. C'est la vie!
Here's a final shot of Eszter on her new WW 29er.

See, told you I'd do a bike post!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

28 weeks later sucked

So I'm a big zombie movie fan. I like George Romero movies, I liked 28 Days Later a lot, and so Sarah and I went out and rented 28 Weeks Later, which is the pseudo-sequel. Mind you, I don't usually watch sequels, since they almost always suck, but 28WL got good reviews. Sheesh. That's the last time I bother to read reviews of a movie - the thing just stunk. I haven't been that disappointed since I paid $8 or something to see Pan's Labyrinth.

I could go into detail about the various gaping holes in the plot or events that make the willful suspension of disbelief impossible, but it's probably easier to just read this review instead. Sarah says "it's like a bad cross between the Paris Hilton sex video and Blair Witch". Wow.

My biggest beef with the movie had nothing to do with that stuff, though, because there are lots of horror movies that have illogical plots and bad cinematography. Many of them are pretty good anyway. But the key is to have _characters that we actually care about_. 28WL dispenses entirely with character building and just presents us with the choice of rooting for the zombies that are trying to eat people, or the zombie-like protagonists, who are (incompetently) trying not to get eaten.

Also, just for the record, a helicopter blade would get smashed to smithereens if you used it to try to mow down a bunch of people running around on the ground. Sheesh.

Bike post tomorrow, I promise.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Stealing some days


The days are getting short, the nights are getting cool, but we've dodged the snow bullet so far, and the trails are still dry up high. Rode a nice 3 hours in Ned this afternoon with Sarah and Rusty, just basically cruising old familiar trails, but it was great. Every ride we squeeze in feels a bit sweeter thanks to the knowledge that people were skiing 3 weeks ago last year. Farmers almanac is saying we're in for another rough winter - Erik, you ready to host us again come January?

I managed to miss the leaf season with my camera, but there are still some nice ones on the trail. I manage to bring my camera on only the most prosaic rides, it seems like. I'm not really a photographer by temperment - I always would rather let memorable scenes stick in my head until I forget, because the pictures never do them justice. I think my loyal readers would turn on me like wild dogs if I did another picture-less post, though.

The Co-op in Ned is the place to go for post-ride snacks. Try the muffins, you won't be disappointed. They also have little half-size ice cream sandwiches for 45 cents!

In other news, I am going to attempt to learn to ride BMX. I've gotten as far as building myself a 24" wheel frame and fork, and I'm waiting for a few more parts to complete it. My friend the Grinch said I'd probably break both my arms if I actually rode it at the skate park. He's probably right. More on that bike in a day or two when it's closer to being complete.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Blog neglect

Ok, so no posts in almost a week kinda sucks. And well, this post is going to be pretty boring too, at least if you're interested in mostly shiny blingy bike parts or incoherent ranting, both of which I can usually supply. Not today, though. I haven't done a recipe in a while, and I'm sure some of you are in dire need a new one to impress your girlfriends or wives, so here we go:

Walt's Pesto Spinach Quiche

Crust:
Mix 1/2c oat bran, 1/2c rolled oats, and 3/4c flour in a small bowl, then add 3 tbsp of melted butted and 1/4c hot water. Oil works if you don't have butter. Mix/knead into a moist dough, adding water if needed. Roll between 2 sheets of waxed paper until the crust is large enough for your chosen pan (preferably a round one, because square quiche is weird). Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, then pull out of the oven.

Goop:
While you're waiting for the crust to bake, mix up 6 large eggs, 1c shredded mozzarella, 1c shredded sharp cheddar, and 1/2c pesto. Mix 'em up good, like scrambled eggs, eh? Put a big handful of spinach in the pan with the crust, then pour your goop on top. Stick that sucker back in the oven and bake for 50 minutes or so. Don't use frozen spinach! Seriously, it has too much water in it.

Next post, I'll hopefully have some details about the BELT DRIVE 29er I'm building!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Nick in Vegas Cross


Nick was 38th of 90, even after being called up 86th. Not bad!