Living For The City

No secrets here; I like stuff. The only thing I like more than stuff is old stuff.

With a whole whack of new stuff being made to look like old stuff and and other old stuff being reissued as new stuff as well, I was stoked today when I hit up John’s blog to see a couple of new reissues that had my heart a flutterin’.

First up is the Ciöcc Mockba ’80 reissue track bike – a replica of the bike Ciöcc made for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Giddy up. They really, really should have done something about that stem, though, really.

More details here or download the full “Vintage” catalog here.

As if that plus the reissue of Unicanitor (which I don’t have much interest in but think it’s neat, anyway) weren’t enough excitement for day, how about these Vittoria 1976 Track Shoe reissues? New hotness, indeed.

It really is too bad for me that an 1890s house is taking financial priority over 1970s / 80s bike junk. Old and busted, indeed.

It looks like that piece of shit cop that bodychecked a cyclist during Critical Mass in NYC last year has been fired, rightly so. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, will happen in terms of criminal assault charges or a civil lawsuit down the line.

You best believe; if someone knocked me off my bike like that and I wasn’t in a position to knock their teeth down their throat I’d take them for all their worth, or whatever I could get, whichever came first.

In any case; I was reminded of that when I saw this picture of Garrett Chow being knocked off this bike by a rent-a-cop while crossing the finish line at the Tour Of California. I have no idea what happened (I’m sure info will come out shortly) but I can only imagine how disheartened and angry I’d feel I were thrown from my bike after riding all stages of the tour… on a Vigorelli.

For those of you that don’t know; some of the Mash SF guys did the tour this year, all 750 miles of it, on track bikes.

Even without the weather that they’ve been having this would be an enormously difficult task for anyone and I’ll gladly give them a tip of the walz cap for their dedication & determination.

This is how they did it in the old days (on fixed wheel bicycles) and it’s great to see a group of guys keeping that tradition alive. Rumor has it that they’re going to do it next time around on Farthings. Can’t wait.

Rent-a-cops / real cops with attitude problems get The Gas Face!

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Via Arktip & Mash SF

I love a lazy Saturday; wake up, work out, eat breakfast, go antiquing with the sundog, eat guilty pleasures and hang out at the shop for the rest of the afternoon.

Liam was kind enough to float me some of his old Eggbeaters so I can try them out because I’m really not digging the old Speedplay setup that I have now.

Paul wasn’t kidding, they really do have tons of these straps at the shop, a few of which are already falling apart.

Pre-delaminated straps are the new pre-distressed jeans like two hats is the new one hat. Trust.

Speaking of Marinoni, Chris‘s Pista came in this week; all white / chrome, no branding, giddy up!

More to come on this bike as it grows…

We kicked ‘er into a slightly higher gear for the evening starting with sketchy snow storm rides (well, I did, anyway) and veggie wings at Clinton’s.

I couldn’t kill enough time without going home first so I ended up at the race as the ‘boni was making it’s rounds and were riders making last minute adjustments to their ice bikes.

All in all, the race was a great time and the turn-out was fantastic. I know I said it last year immediately following the race but I want someone to hold me to it this time around; next year, I will build some properly studded tires and partake even if it means taking DFL.

I skipped the after-party to pay a visit to my man Damian‘s birthday party. This is what my camera does after 4 hours in the cold.

Yesterday after a quick roll around, mostly to steal ideas for my new home from Commute, I was turning into the driveway and blam!

I’m not really sure how this happened; overlap mishap, perhaps?

Last year’s event was a lot of fun as a spectator so I decided right after the event that I was going to compete this year…

…but then the reality of screwing a thousand tiny screws into my tires within the limited amount of time I have (the race really crept up on me this year) set in and I decided to remain a spectator, once again.

Dress warmly and bring a couple of bucks for snacks, coffee & hot chocolate at the best rink house in the city. The after-party is being held at Bike Pirates and all proceeds from the night will go towardsChris Kasztelewiscz, who lost his leg in a case of road rage with a taxi late last year.

I love Rapha. I may not own any of their stuff because most of it is a little out of my pay grade but I do definitely think that they have one of the slickest and well developed brands in cycling today.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, then, that when they make short movies about the Tour Of California (as it is happening) that they are absolutely gorgeous little nuggets of cinematic goodness.

Enjoy.

For those that don’t like them fancy movin’ picture shows there are a bunch of beautiful photos in the galleries; Stage 5 up now.

I’m a craigslist junkie; I probably hit refresh on the bike and free sections 150 times a day so I’m usually pretty good at spotting the deals as they come up. Today some ‘Noni straps came up for next to nothing and I don’t really neeeed any new ones right now but I figured what the hell? To my credit, I also sell a lot of stuff so while I spent $10 on some used bike stuff today I also sold over $100 worth of stuff this morning that I wasn’t using any more so I’m pretty good at not ballin’ out of control on craigslist finds.

Turns out my man Leon is selling a bunch of stuff (including these beauties) and he was the one selling the straps – he lives around the corner so I swung by there tonight for the pickup.

I wish I’d had my camera out because Leon has built a pretty impressive little stable for himself; if you see a guy riding around on a trispoked makino or an aaaarrospoked vigorelli, that’s Leon and he’s a nice dude, say hello.

Marinoni straps, and I suppose many laminated leather straps, are notorious for splitting apart and it wasn’t long before I noticed that these were no exception.

No biggie, though, I’m a faithful Gorilla Glue user and I’m sure that these puppies will be better than new by morning.

See?

While I was at Leon’s helping to remove a cog/lockring I managed to snap the chain on my trusty chain whip but I’d seen it coming for some time so I wasn’t all that surprised.

Fortunately I’m a hoarder and I had a good length of Izumi chain kickin’ around which I could use to fix it and keep it Japanesey up in this bitch.

I’m on a boat.

I woke up to another 0° day here in Toronto and, despite not being able to get up at 7:30 to meet up with Wes & co., I knew that I had to put in some time on the saddle today.

With the thaw still taking place and the roads / trails being relatively clear it would be the perfect opportunity to leave the winterbike at home and relieve Lucille or rollers duty for her first road ride of ’09.

The city has done a pretty good job of plowing the Martin Goodman Trail this winter so it was pretty clear but a few sections have been closed due to condo development waterfront revitalization..

I headed east toward Tommy Thompson Park but decided to take a pitstop at Cherry Beach to soak up some sun and watch the dogs play in the water / chase the swans.

By the time I was ready to leave Cherry Beach, though, the rumble in my tummy was getting too hard to ignore so I decided to turn around and pay a visit to T & T to fill my bag with as many vegan vittles as my trusty bag would carry.

All in all, it was a beautiful day for a ride and I can’t wait for the warmer weather. Winter is seriously harshing my buzz.

Word on the street is that our boy, Scotty Hammell, is going to perform his “Down & Out” escape on his birthday… today. I’d wish him good luck but he doesn’t even need it; he’s got the skills and the confidence to achieve anything he dedicates himself to and I’d say that moving to California, training hard and skydiving every day might fall under some folks’ definition of dedication – let’s also not forget that this fella has over a decade of magic, illusions and escapes under his belt.

I know you’re prepping hard and not reading this but have a happy birthday, do what you do best and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Toronto is very proud of you. I’m very proud of you.

I have prior obligations that day (helping my better half move and going to an old friend’s wedding) so I’m not going to be able to make it, which is a shame, but Toby’s races are always a lot of fun and Maija is super rad so undoubtedly this will be one heck of a good time… Let’s face it, who doesn’t love a booty call? Much less a super XXXtreme one?

Feb 28th. 2:00. $5. Bombshelter. Bring a bag. Get busy!

You gotta give it up to the King Tobra & Maija for coming up with fun new concepts for races and helping to keep this part of Toronto’s cycling tradition alive.

I thought that these spiffy little numbers were pretty neat when Tracko and Prolly posted them up last week and thought they’d fit in perfectly at the tweed run but wasn’t nearly smitten enough to even consider having an animal killed for them or paying upwards 300 Euro for them, come on now!

I may have wavered in my commitment to being a super-duper-go vegan or go fuck yourself-vegan in recent years (although the new Propagandhi record may have me bombing slaughterhouses by next week) but with few exceptions I’d like to think that I’ve been pretty good at not buying leather for a guy going on 15 years.

With that said; my heart nearly stopped when Hipster Nascar posted these beauties.

Will someone please buy these, wear them for a week or two and then sell them to me so that I don’t have to feel like they died for me specifically? Ease my guilt, please, I must have them.

I forgot my camera at a friend’s house the other night so I don’t have any pics of riding in the +0 degree weather we’ve had this weekend but I thought I’d break you off with a little sumpin’ sumpin’ for the weekend; new Propagandhi – out March 10th. Cop that sheeeeit!

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Update: I downloaded the full record this morning and it’s a serious ripper. Seriously. I fully intend to buy the record when it comes out but the band / associated labels were cool enough to offer two songs for free for download in the meantime if you make a donation to one of three activist organizations so please be a ‘fucking champ’ and do it.

I like it when I return home to mystery packages. Sometimes they appear because I’ve bought things online and forgotten about them and sometimes they just appear. I prefer the latter because that means I didn’t have to pay anything.

A couple of weeks ago Chrome had a little photo contest and I threw a picture from winter ’07 into the ring. The top three entries would receive a Chrome product of their choice. I’ve been eyeing the Cobra and it’s a little outside my pay grade right now so it would have been nice… I didn’t win but I did receive an honorable mention and for my trouble they sent me a free t-shirt. I like shirts. Thanks!

I’ve had Chrome bags for some time now (Metropolis & Sultan) and they’ve served me very well so I thought I’d take the opportunity to shout them out!

The Sultan took me comfortably through almost 3 weeks in Europe last spring but beyond that and the occasional trip or huge grocery run it pretty much stays in the closet so it’s in perfect condition. The Metropolis, on the other hand, gets used and abused daily in all types of weather and about two years in it’s only starting to show some wear in the liner and on some of the straps.

All in all, it’s been very good to me and I suspect that it’ll survive another couple of years before I’d even think about replacing it… unless, of course, I see something that I just have to have. I like things. A good bag is crucial if you spend any time in the saddle (and want to/have to carry things) and if that shiny seat belt buckle doesn’t float your boat, or if you’re too cool to wear a bag that everyone else has, there are dozens of companies making high quality messenger bags and backpacks.

ReLoad, Under The Weather, PAC, Baileyworks & Seagull are all favorites of mine and I’m also a big fan of companies like Fabric Horse and Transient that offer smaller, more practical waist bags and utility belts for the days when you don’t need to bring the kitchen sink with you.

Most of them aren’t cheap, by any stretch, but given that most are hand made in North America by like-minded folks and will take about as much abuse as you’re able to dish out for a good long time, I’d say that the high cost is reflective of the high value they hold.

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On an unrelated note; this tiny little piece of snow covered ground is causing me more greif than almost anything in the world right now.

I hate it… possibly even more than Freedom. That is all.

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Update: This little handful of earth is providing me with more hope, promise and excitement than almost anything in the world right now.

Details to come in following weeks.

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The deadline for Bicycle Film Festival submissions is March 7th but they’d love to see some more Toronto entries so if anyone is working on something, they might be able to work something out.

The fest will be held in late August this year – if any of the BFF faithful have any suggestions on how to make this years the biggest and best ever, Sean and crew are all ears so feel free to pass any ideas along!

Last Saturday marked the 2nd Annual Vegan Chili Cook-Off presented by Left Feet. Last year, both Spark and I took part as chili samplers but decided this year to throw our chef hats into the ring with our main man Robbie Blyth. This year saw 18 different chilis presented by various restaurants and independents from around the city and raised in the neighborhood of $1600 for Out Of The Cold.

As Robbie mentioned, once a week for the last month we would meet at Rob & Spark’s sex palace to try to get our recipe dialed in™. We all had our own ideas of how to make the best chili but I’d say, quite safely, that we produced a chili in the end that we all felt was totally legit™.

Our crockpot fell through on the morning of the event so Robbie and I hauled ass over to Crappy Tire to buy one that was on sale. Without time to preheat our chili or test our new crock pot, we found ourselves serving luke-warm chili for the opening portion of the event (which put The Rennick in an usually crusty mood. Sorry friends, you still love me right?) but between heating runs at Bikes On Wheels, the crock pot finally heating up and the guy next to us running out and lending us his crock pot (thanks Rocky!) we served up a solid 8 liters of the most tastiest chili you ever done laid your lips on.

1st Place: Ronnie’s Local 069
2nd Place: Magic Oven
3rd Place: Thai Curry*
4th Place: Freedom Haters Bicycle Club

I’d like to thank Steve Fish & all the volunteers for putting on such a great event and all the other chiliers and samplers (Do we have any numbers? Over two hundred, right?) for showing up on such a cold day to support it. Huge thanks to everyone that voted for us – we know that winning isn’t the most important thing here but let’s face it, winning rules. I can’t wait until next year when the #1 Chili amongst haters of freedom will become the #1 Chili amongst vegan chili lovers of Toronto.

If you’re interested in trying the official Freedom Haters Bicycle Club Sweet Potato & Roasted Vegetable Chili (aka Big Pot O Hate) then please feel free to download our recipe here.