A very interesting article about Bonanza (Stingray?) bicycles of the seventies from Spiegel. Unfortunately in German.
Archiv der Kategorie: 2008
Bonanza Nostalgia
Eingeordnet unter 2008
Jerome Hill
Took half a day off from work today as I will leave for Germany tomorrow. Will attend a trade fair and finally pick up my new frame. So I thought it might be good to do half a day of cycling. I rode to Jerome Hill in one long stretch, gave everything to ride to the top and was completely exhausted when I finally reached the top : 9:13 min. Tom, I am coming, there is only less than a minute gap to your best time. By the way, I also moved the times of David and david to the appropriate positions on this occassion.
Was back at my house after 4:20 hrs and about 110 km and no breaks at all. Nice trip, nice weather. Wish I would have a new bike.
So I will be back in Japan on March 1st (Saturday); perhaps I will be able to do a rather lazy ride on Sunday then.
I also applied today for the 1st Tour du Japon race on March 16th at Kawagoe.
Please think about the team jerseys if you have not answered yet. The reaction so far is not very encouraging.
THIS SUNDAY Feb 17….
Anybody riding this Sunday? I’d be interested in a real lazy ride starting not too early (even 9:30 or 10:00 from Sekidobashi would be OK)…
MOB : Tried Yabitsu
As nobody else was interested to ride on Sunday I left the house at 8.30hr and rode along the Tamagawa and Asagawa to Takao. I didn’t want to spend all my power at Otarumi so I made a rather slow and steady approach which took about 23 minutes up. I then went along road 412, 413 and 64 to Miyagase Ko and made a rest at the entrance to Yabitsu Toge. Just when I turned around the corner after the rest I saw the road block and one guardman stopping all cars who want to enter. As usual before the end of the fiscal year, the remaining budget is spend to work on the roads of Yabitsu. I like the idea as a bicycle rider and I hate it as a tax payer.
Construction works are scheduled to be completed by February 24th.
I thought about pressing forward in good „spilliaert-fashion“ but the guardman was nice and proposed to take the road 64 to Atsugi. This is exactly the same road that David and me took last year when we were trying to attack Yabitsu early in the year. It is wide and always down so one can go there with good speed. I made the run to Hon Atsugi where I packed my bike and took the train home. 100 km in total. Nice trip but it is still so cold and snow everywhere in the area.
TOM : New route to Akiyama-mura and beyondGot up late this morning leaving the house only at 10:00. Like Michael, my first climb of the day was Otarumi. Unlike yesterday when I desperately exhausted every muscle trying in vain to keep up with NFCC elite hill climbers, I enjoyed a leisurely „my pace“ ride to the top. Experimented a little with my „heso belly button“ technique and found out that the horizontal pull on the handle towards the navel should not really be real energetic pulling but simply exerting a constant „tension“…just think of it as removing the slack in the muscle groups in the back and sides of your upper torso…no need to firmly stretch them but just keeping them tightly in position that’s all (well, not really all…you still need the legs to do the work) and you’ll instantly notice the difference. Moving and keeping your butt in the rear of the saddle adds even more momentum. Went as far as Akiyama-mura (where I begged Lady Kannon for mercy on my Colnago’s soul) along a great new route. As Michael wrote, the snow is still everywhere but fortunately the roads are perfectly ridable. Feel like going up a bit higher (Matsuhime) soon!
Escape from Tokyo
I was on a business trip to Osaka on Friday and looking at the weather forecast for Tokyo I thought that I might better take my bicycle with me and stay in the Kyoto area. To escape the snow and do some nice rides in so far unchartered terrain.
The girls from our Osaka office were so kind to book me a hotel in Kyoto which was quite difficult due to the extended weekend. On Saturday morning I assembled my bike and wanted to start to ride. However within hours it looked like this:
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[psychological tension built-up trap]
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The rest of the day I spend in museums, department stores and other cozy and warm places. I even went to the local Sento around the corner and took a long bath. Much more than Onsens, Sentos have the tendency to be hot. Very hot indeed. This one was no exception, I could lower myself only up to the belly into the water and when I went out again I looked like the Polish flag (red below, white above). The only basin with an acceptable temperature was the one with free distribution of electric shocks, which I found out only after I have moved inside. I encountered one of the rare occassions that I wished to be born without testicles.
On Sunday morning I move on to Hamamatsu. I have lived there from 1998 to 1999 and I liked it very much. There is much less to go, see and do compared to Tokyo, but it is so much easier to do something. So in the end, in Tokyo I do nothing because it is too much stress anyway, while in Hamamatsu I had a lot of fun.
On Sunday I made a round trip at lake Hamanako. This 
is the tour I always made when I lived there, it is only 63 km long and the hills are ridiculously easy to climb today, but 10 years ag
o it was very hard. The landscape is beautiful, especially in the north of the lake. The civil engineer in me rejoices, seeing all these fine examples of bridge building culture. I was aiming to do this round in 2 hours in the past, but this time I rather tried to stay in high cadence of 90+ and make a lot of breaks at temples and sightseeing spots and take some photos which I never did in the past.
Here is a nice photo of my bicycle enjoying the view at Bentenjima with four Japanese mops.
All in all it was a little bit cold still, but much better than the day before at Kyoto. The only bad experience I had came when I went to the CYCLE POP shop and asked if I could use their pump to inflate my tires. The owner said no, even after I repeated my question and even after I offered him money for it. This is actually the shop where I bought the pump I am currently using in 1999 from exactly the same guy. There are many Japanese-Brazilians (or Brazilian-Japanese) in Hamamatsu and the town is famous for its prejudice against them. I guess I was mistaken for one of them, despite my super-expensive Assos gear.
On Monday I went to the North to Tenryu
and than up into the mountains. One needs about 25 km to come out of the city but then one is in the middle of the country side. I opted to go to in Western direction first, then took a smaller road leading me over a 400m elevation pass. There were no signs of snow and the roads were in good shape. The area is similar but somehow different to the Okutama area where we do most of our rides. A lot of tea paddies deep in the montains, some lonely houses here and there, I even saw a small waterfall. Also there are many temples and shrines in the area and virtually no traffic. If I encountered a car, it used to be a minicar or a minicar type van, rather than tourists crusing the area. For the friends of WADA, there were also 
some difficult steep slopes.
I only made about 90 km, but in high cadence and took a lot of breaks. It is clearly different to ride a track which one has ridden many times before or to go into new terrain where you don’t know how much more meter you have to climb before you reach the pass. This showed me, that I have become a little bit complacent in recent times, as I did not try to many new things, more variations of the same theme.
In any case, it was a very good experience and as there
are many nice onsens in the area like Shibukawa Onsen, I wonder if we should not go together there in spring before it is getting really hot. The trip by Shinkansen from Shinagawa to Hamamatsu is about one and a half hour and a return ticket costs 16.000 Yen. I stayed in a pretty good business hotel close to the station for 6.500 Yen per night – so if we leave by first Shinkansen on Saturday we could ride both days and visit some Onsen for 24.000 Yen plus this and that.
Please let me know if there is any interest.
Infrequently asked questions
Awhile back I posted answers to some infrequently asked questions. And because knowledge is power and we all want to register big wattage on the SRM of life, I’ve gone ahead and answered a few more below. So read and be misinformed. If you’ve still got any questions once you’re done, check in with Fat Cyclist, since he may have some answers for you too:
What is a “century?”
A century is a word people who ride Serottas and Cervelos equipped with mountain bike pedals and compact cranks use to describe what the rest of us just call a long ride. There’s also something called a “metric century.” Riders use the same type of bicycles, but a metric century is shorter and probably involves more camelbaks and helmets with visors on them.
A century is a word people who ride Serottas and Cervelos equipped with mountain bike pedals and compact cranks use to describe what the rest of us just call a long ride. There’s also something called a “metric century.” Riders use the same type of bicycles, but a metric century is shorter and probably involves more camelbaks and helmets with visors on them.
What is a “training ride?”
This is how roadies describe what the rest of us just call a ride. It can be long, short, fast, or slow. It can also be intermittently fast and slow, which is called “intervals.” Roadies call rides “training rides” so people know that they race. In fact, roadies only do two kinds of rides: training rides, and races. Any other type of riding is considered “garbage miles,” or “junk miles.” Garbage miles include any miles ridden offroad, any miles ridden for purposes of commuting or transportation, any miles not ridden in full team kit, and any miles during which the rider has any fun.
What is a “session?”
A session is a word fixed-gear freestylers, freeriders, and BMXers use to describe riding around in circles doing tricks. The term “session” is also used in relation to the Senate, therapy, and band recording. All of these sessions share in common the fact that they are generally self-indulgent, boring to watch, and in the end go nowhere.
How do I know if it’s time to replace my frame?
Inspect your frame closely for URLs. If your frame has any URLs on it, it means it is too new to be considered “vintage,” yet too old to be considered up-to-date. URLs on bikes went out in the late 90s and early Oughts, when manufacturers finally realized that even the dumbest person can figure out how to find a website without seeing a “www” and “.com” around the name.
Which is better, threaded or threadless steering setups?
Threadless.
As a cyclist, should I obey all traffic signals?
Absolutely not. The surest way to disaster is mindless adherence to rules, routine, and procedure, because they do not account for the unexpected—or, as I prefer to call it, the stupidity factor. Take pedestrians, for example. When you have the green, pedestrians will not think twice about crossing against the light, right in front of you. They will also usually look near you but not at you, as though they’re following Jerry Seinfeld’s procedure for admiring a woman’s breasts without being caught. Conversely, when they do have the light and you have a red, they’ll generally stop dead and look at you as though you’re about to run them down. When you’re dealing with this sort of stupidity, all bets are off. If you don’t believe me, go outside right now and stand at a busy corner. Wait until a large vehicle is approaching, and then run across the street. I guarantee at least five people will follow you to almost certain death. These bovine are simply too stupid to live, and if you blindly follow traffic rules they will take you right down with them.
More aggressively stupid are drivers. If you wait at a red light and then proceed when it turns green, you’re virtually assured death by yellow-miscalculating idiot.
Rules are not designed to protect you. They are designed to trap and kill you. Rely only on your wits, because that’s the only thing that will keep you alive.
Can I purchase a fixed-gear-specific hooded sweatshirt that is inspired by a Huey Lewis and the News Song?
You absolutely can! A reader just forwarded me the „Dissizit“ hoodie. (Just wait for the chorus to find the Huey inspiration—if you can bear it.)
Eingeordnet unter 2008
The Positivo Espresso Jersey Design Contest + Entry No. 2.1 +
I have to admit that I can hardly think of any other thing any more than the Positivo Espresso design. I looked and the last version again and again and did some more changes:
- I checked some of the other WAVE ONE designs and found out that it does look good if you change the background color only in accordance with the different parts of the jerseys. So I made the dark grey area a little bit bigger, cutting over to the front.
- I showed the designs to Anna and she made the wonderful suggestion to arrange the flags like a ring on the edge of the sleeves. So I selected some other flags, including the Flemish lion rather than the Belgian flag for Tom, the Portland City Flag for David and the Moenchengladbach City flag for me instead of the seal of the pope.
- I put the Positivo Espresso Name higher on the front of the jersey, otherwise it might get compressed by an inflated bottom line.
Ok, we can have endless discussions about the background colors most likely.
But later please.
So after I did all this I thought, hey let’s make some special versions for some prominent riders from the team which you can find below. Just by chance, with the yellow background, the cross is now matching perfectly the national flags of Belgium and (East) Germany.
Of course in case of Jerome, a completely different approach needed to be choosen.
The Positivo Espresso Jersey Design Contest + Entry No. 2 +
I found it hard to accept a jersey in white [thinking of our poor wifes who must wash them] and without any orange and grey, my favourite color combination and the basic design concept of my new bike.
Please note the fine details which you might only see in the full view, including the two German flags. Everybody who orders one jersey of the first batch should have his flag included. We might want to edit the flags a little bit although due to the origin of our members:, East-Belgium, East-France and East-Australia comes immediately to my mind.. I have the „East design“ of the German Flag ready, so we can easily edit all other flags. I would refrain however to replace every star of the American flag with hammer and compass.
Eingeordnet unter 2008
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there is no "I" in cyclyng 