So in keeping with my earlier promise I have revamped and improved the FG bike porn feature.

http://www.fearlessgearless.com/bikeporn/gallery

Before it was nested in the forums, using some silly image/forum module function. It was difficult to use and the flash gallery it produced required me to specifiy what images would show. That sucked.

Burnaby Velodrome will be holding a SIX Day race from Jan 2- Jan 7. This race is open to all riders. The Elite Madison division will be one of the best fields of riders assembled the North America in recent years.

Racing
For any of you riders planning on doing the Burnaby 6 Day races you will need to have a 2007 Race licence. Those from BC can do this on-line now at Karelo.com and there is a discount if done before Dec 16. US or other international racers will need to have UCI Licence for 2007. Only Canadian racers will be eligible for one event membership under new rules from our governing body so as stated above you will need to have a 2007 Licence.

Very interesting article about how they come up with velodrome designs...

Some great quotes in it as well...
"Football is considered a great game. And kicking, passing, catching, blocking are all part of the game. If football was like track cycling they would line up the quarterbacks and award a medal to who could throw the best (like sprinters) and then line up the kickers and give an award to kicker who kicked the farthest (like pursuiters) and then line up the runners and blockers and give an award to the best (like a team pursuit).

So I set out to make the craziest looking chopper wheel I could imagine. I had a bunch of parts laying around and decided to try and make them work together.

Materials used:

• Alex MX22 single walled 20" rim, 48H, black
• Old Shimano Freewheel hub, low flange, 36H
• 36x 184mm Wheelsmith stainless spokes,
• 36x 14g nipples
• 12x punk rock spikes

Since I was attempting to lace a 36H hub to a 48H rim, I needed to skip some holes in the rim.
To make it really stand out, I determined that a 3Leading/3Trailing configuration would go well with the missing holes.

From the largely amusing Surly bikes blog

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Fat Squirrel Season

Everybody knows that squirrels store nuts for the winter. They store them in the ground, probably up in trees and they eat them to get a nice fat belly for the winter. But what I notice most about squirrels this time of year is that they are particularly slow, sluggish, indecisive, unpredictable and psycho.

Case in point, I'm riding my bike in a quiet residential neighborhood this morning (with a 100+ pound trailer in tow) and I see a squirrel walking her dog. She's stopped on the corner of an uncontrolled intersection while the leashed dog sniffs around. From a distance, I ring my bell to get her attention and we make positive eye contact. Knowing it's fat squirrel season, I have my fingers on the brake levers as I approach. About 12 feet before I enter the crosswalk, the squirrel decides that her and the dog are going to test their right of way across the street. I skid the rear wheel and start drifting sideways, just barely missing squirrel and pooch. You know when you're skidding and all you can think of is "did that squirrel want to commit suicide?" but you're glad you have brakes and skills to spare it's life.

So there has been a bunch of discussion on recent rides about bike bling... colour matching and various ways of making your ride that 'little bit more special'... Well after I stumbled on something interesting I thought I'd compile a list of gold bling bikes/bike parts...

It should be noted that I am actually not a fan of gold parts... but it seems like the endpoint of showing off bling (outside of diamond tipped cogs/chainrings... which i haven't seen yet).

The fork legs are 3/4 length GOLD plated, with real gold, NOT gold paint. This was a feature on a limited number of Brian Hayes A.I.S. Track Team frames, to commemorate the Australian Team winning gold on the Track at the Olympic Games. From here...

Let's see how this goes... most regional forums have a Craigslist/local buys thread to keep an eye out for fixed (or fixed friendly) bikes for sale.

People will either be inclined to share for the better good of the community or hoard the deals for themselves... I'm hoping the former!

For starters here's some good links...

Craigslist (duh!) - http://vancouver.craigslist.org/bik/

You could also post any local eBay deals and comments on previous posts.

So I'm sitting here over a month after this race thinking 'Is this even worth it?' but you know I have to have something to show my kids when I get old so if peole are even still using the internet then I'll point them to this post and say... 'Here... I did that, or at least I put that race on!'

The background:

I have had the chance to participate in a few alleycats here and found myself eagerly looking forward to the next one as summer began. I feverishly read stoires of races in other towns, laughed at ridiculous themes, gasped at amazing feats of cycling strength and skill... but where was my chance to test my hard-earned street knowledge?

Hey Wease,

I know its already in your calendar, but just thought I would throw up a post about the upcoming Bicycle Bee workshops.

Things are shaping up quite well at the moment, we've got plenty of volunteers and the spaces to make this go off. If you've ever wanted to learn more about making life on two wheels easier now's your chance.

http://www.bicyclebee.blogspot.com/

Schedule of events:

Click to enlarge

Subject: Contact Form
From: monks

G'day Weasel, how are you going, im a courier from sydney, aus and moving to Vancouver in a week and a little, sounds like you guys have just about the same amount of laughs as we do in syd. just checking out the site, top notch. can you give me an idea of what companies are around and where i can get my hands on a decent second hand fixy?ive been off the bike for over six weeks now and im going insane without my wheels, i even dream about them during the day now..after your drinks and sober time, it'd be greatly appreciated if you could hook us up with some info should be in by the 13th of Aug, ready to roll again...

thanks mate, monks

Website: not that computer literate

G'day back at you. How am I doing? Right now I am feeling a wheee bit sick today after a hard weekend of racing. I was able to snag a 2nd in Tour de Delta category 3/4 criterium, and 5th in the 30 to 34 age class for the gear jammer offroad enduro. The crit hurt but the enduro was nasty as hell. I haven't been on a mountain bike forever (actually last week was the first time in over a year). This combined with the fact the course was comprised entirely of relentless pounding single track (3 hours of single track), I was riding a short travel hardtail, it was like 104 °F (40 °C) and I ran out of water almost 1 hour before the feedzone some friends were manning. I think it all caught up with me as you can put yourself out only so many times in a row. So how sick is sick? I had a dangerously high fever earlier today (i.e. hospital visit high) and slept the entire day. I just got up, and got back from buying myself a booster juice and now I feel like tackling your email.