Glory be to the power of faith and love.  One year ago, March 16, we pinned ours on Mike.

When the Big Man whispered in his ear “Mike you gotta Pull Through, the Echelon needs you” he obliged him like the champion we know him to be.

This morning Mike joined in and rolled along with the morning peloton.  He was always with us in spirit.

We love you Mike.

Beast’N iT Animaux!

It’s a cranked-out/jack’d-off war between the one-coque(s) {ooh-KnOw-coques, mano-a-mano-sur-su-coque / monocoque as in uno-coque(s) / mondo-coque / u’r-a-cock } carbon frames and the TuBE bUtT-issue of uP-U’r-bUtT construction methodologies.  I know it’s mondo-compliKådo so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  Essentially, there’s a battle waging out there: the coque vs. your butt (monocoque vs. tube to tube {butted} construction). {That’s cocque; pronounced cock.}

Findings from NAHBS:
Some independent builders, in their struggle to stay competitive in the race-bike category and maybe even lead the advance in technology, are  turning their attention to carbon frame construction techniques.  Essentially, with the current technology, it’s fait-accompli; the technology is widely available and well understood now.  The builders are bringing their special talents to bear and the frames are strikingly beautiful.

It appears that monocoque techniques can create lighter frames but stiffer and unforgiving when needed and entirely too fragile.  The conversation sounds a lot like the arguments you heard in the late 70s when aluminum dominated the crank’d over conversations about dampening and groovy rides.  Sarto had a fully built carbon tube-to-tube that weighed in under 10lbs and a frame without hardware on the headtube and bb that weighed 675 grams (~1.5lbs).  Guru uses a combo method; monocoque pieces that act like lugs.

Each methodology has its proponents and detractors.  Tube-to-Tube construction in the hands of a craftsman can possess exceptional quality over high-tech monocoque techniques.

Landshark is only building carbon now; tube-to-tube construction.  John Slawta is making bikes with his signature paint-jobs as well as machines dressed-out like the One-Up pictured above that possess the appearance and the spirit of a corporate jet and feels at home in any high-profile, market conscious, winning minded, professional team in the peloton.

mano-a-mano Animaux!

Ride your bicycle and jack-in some Autophagy.

Autophagy: a self-eating (yum) process by which cells recycle their constituents; self-cannibalism.

A paper just published in Nature by Beth Levine of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre has determined what it is about exercise that protects against a host of illnesses from heart attacks and dementia to diabetes and infection.

Essentially, exercise jack-starts a physiological mechanism known as autophagy.  From the literature it’s hard to know where the threshold of activity starts that jacks-out the mechanism to crank the autophagy response.

The term derives from the Greek for “self-eating”, and is a mechanism by which surplus, worn-out or malformed proteins and other cellular components are broken up for scrap and recycled.   Autophagy is a hot topic in medicine; biologists seem to think it helps protect the body from all kinds of ailments.

Scientists believe it probably arose as an adaptation to scarcity of nutrients.  Animals that can recycle parts of themselves for fuel are better able to cope with lean times than those that cannot.  Most intriguingly of all, its seems that it can slow the process of aging.

Near starvation diets apparently also slow aging and Dr Levine has shown that near starvation diets also jack-start the autophagy mechanism.  The moral of this story: go out and exercise so you don’t have to starve; allows for more beer and wine drinking.  Animaux.

If we survive the Peloton we might live longer than diabetics and common, run of the mill drunks.

Sources: http://tp-apg.genes.nig.ac.jp/autophagy/

Econmist: http://www.economist.com/node/21543129 (where I read an article)

Cannibaux Animaux!

Off(set) Season Squat Training: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday
{Januray – March: week 8 / 12 }

Set No. 8 of 10: 10 reps @ 225lbs [4 x 45lb plates].
Takes about 35 seconds to jack the bar off the rack; gotta say a prayer to d’Squat Animaux.

After Set 7 @255 the 8th set @225 almost seemed
light; those 10 were easier than the 8 in Set 5.

Set 7:  YouTube.com

sQuAT-jAcK Animaux!

I want to thank everyone in the Peloton, the Echelon, the Paceline, Off the Front and Off the Back for making it all possible. Please, let me thank the Water-Carriers and the Stars, the Domestics, Soigneurs, les Masseuses, Team Support and most of all the Fans and Freddies.

Take a Bow Animaux!

Yesterday’s feature mentioned LandShark Bicycles:  Andy Hampsten animauxed the Pink Jersey in the Giro d’Italia [1988]  spunking a Huffy built by John Slawta, the one man LandShark framebuilder.  John Slawta’s roots run deep in the cycling community.

Visit the website; John Slawta is apparently only building carbon fiber bikes these days. John is the quintessential craftsman and artist; renowned for his totally jack’d-out paint jobs.  LandShark is exhibiting at NAHBS this year.  Have a visit.

FYI: Andy & Steve Hampsten have a bike building company too. Visit their website: http://www.hampsten.com/

aL mAnO a MaNo Animaux!

as witness to quasi racer-boyz’ existentialism and the decadent philosophy of  herr uber-nietzsche in the dictates of all things uber-freddie’alles, it is apparent that steel is no longer real but rather, steel is dead.  carbon fiber leads the hyper-jack’d technological advancement in material science in frame building and represents the moral decline of a cultural transcendence.  carbon fiber technology has spawned an exaggerated uber-sensed reality exemplified by the blind faith in all things technological and therein we find the appeal of the carbon frame and the cycling-simulacra paradigm.

there was a time when lugged frames represented the epitome of esthetics  in frame building.  thanks to the nazi uber-men, materials were scarce after the war and custom bicycle builders turned to fillet brazed lugless frames.  it spawned a revolution.  frame geometry had infinite possibilities in its liberation from the limitations of pre-cast lugs and the angles manufacturers thought popular.  new lugless frames were impeccable and jack’d-over sloppy craftsmanship was as obvious as an ugly canker sore on your lip.

carbon frames tilt the filleted joint to the extreme.  the frames can be beautiful but leave something to be desired. there’s the j’en sais quoi of the apparent handiwork you find in steel frames; something raw and ethereal that has not yet translated into carbon.  steel is resilient while carbon is fragile.  it performs well but doesn’t hold up under the demands of the stresses put upon it.   the fragile essence of the material and the demands on the frame are oxymoronic and i suppose in that is its apparent appeal {besides the obvious}.

i’m looking forward to seeing what’s offered at NAHBS.  there’s gotta be some independent craftsmen doing exceptional stuff with carbon.  think john slawta and landshark; from his website, he seems to be concentrating on carbon over steel.  the switch must have something to do with survival instincts; gotta deliver to the predilections of the uber-nietzsche quasi racer-boyz demanding the uber-alles in frame technology and feather weight construction.  q.e.d.

uBeR aNiMaUx!

photo credits:

carbon lay-up from landshark.com

cinelli detail from http://cinellionly.blogspot.com/2011/02/cinelli-at-2011-nahbs.html

Here it is! North American Handmade Bicycle Show
March 2-4 Sacramento

Last year you would have had to go all the way to Austin Texas for the show.  This year it’s practically in our back yard.

Beer Drinking and Bike Porn Jack’d-up the extreme.

Visit the NAHBS Website: http://2012.handmadebicycleshow.com/

Steel Pony Animaux!

Through JJJJound.com [our old friend] I stumbled onto Convoy at Tumbler.  Convoy drills in on essential living ideals and can’t help to include something about bikes on every page.  Full of inspiration.  Have a visit.

Tumbler doesn’t credit the photos they’ve included so I’ve got to do some research to see where we can find this café with their very solid jack’d-in bike rack.

Todavía Animaux.