Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas, I'm off snowboarding Chrimbo Day, hope your Turkey is top notch! : From Christmas James

The past two weeks here have been unusual for Portland. We got hit with an exceptional amount of snow, last Sat saw about 8" and high winds and many inches over the last week, Sunday and Monday. The normal is 1.6" for December. This combined with a layer of rain last week has cause ice and snow build up, which pretty much put the city at a standstill, I think Portland has a total of two snow plows, so all of the roads were just left alone!

My Car From portland snow

From portland snow

From portland snow

The snow in the city has not made a bit of difference for snow on the mountains. Last weekend saw the opening of most of the snow resorts. I headed up to the hill on Sunday and on Tuesday to get some good snowboarding done. the Subaru 4WD and snow tires make for pretty easy driving and not having to use snow chains, even though teh road conditions were pretty crappy.

Mount Hood : From snowboard is natural

From snowboard is natural

What are you up to this weekend?

I'm off snowboarding this weekend, and a spot of shopping for houses (real estate)

December, December oh december...

It's been a while since my last post, so here we go....

Cycling -The last week saw the end of the cyclocross season. Not sure how I feel about that, in a way racing with 140 other riders and all the grandeur bells and whistles of an overly extroverted Cross Crusade setup every week gets a little wearing. One thing to note is that due to the large amount of mud around here, sing;e speed cyclocross is definitely the way forward. Since the weather is about turn cold, i'm gonna turn to the rollers for indoor fitness, at the moment my rollers and track bike are at work, where I have been riding once a week at lunch, along with my regular 30mile commute to and from work. As things have been cooling down the fog in the morning creates some beautiful scenes. Here's a regular view:-


Work - it's been a strange couple of weeks, large pressure has been going on at the executive level, the bad economy realization is putting pressure on the top brass, they in turn make non inclusive decisions and put pressure on the middle management layer below who are now all pissey because they feel excluded, guess where this pressure goes next, yeah you guessed it , down to me. Being in a job role where I am essentially a "change generator" it makes things difficult when change starts to be seen as economic risk, as the economic pressure mounts my role gets harder, all of a sudden the middle management layer are short term focused and cannot see beyond the end of their feet. Is this the right attitude, i'm not one to debate, but i know it impacts me and the willingness to think outside the regular boundaries for product/marketing managers who I work with. Some call this swimming upstream, but at the end of the day i'm employed to change things, new product development does this in a manner of ways. the cycle of "no can do" is depressing, the cycle of "not gonna even consider that" is even more depressing. Time will tell, maybe I will stop pushing as hard for cool stuff, but i doubt it. Change and cool stuff doesn't have to be taken as cost adders, it's just that when the heats on, that's exactly what the middle management in the short term take it as.

Snow - Today (Sunday) we got the first snow in the city, with wind blowing hard we got about 2" accumulation. Portland unlike Chicago or other cities that are used to getting snow, is pretty unprepared, many roads are sheets of ice. This snow is a good and bad for most, November was a mild month and the snow resorts on the closest mountain (mount hood) have been closed to lack of snow. As I speak, Mt. Hood Meadows resort has opened and has 30" of snow at the base - the begining of good news for those of us who want to go boarding (like me). Roll on next weekend.

House Hunting - When I first moved to Portland (March) I said to myself that I would eventually purchase a home and gave myself a year to get to know things, see how the job worked out etc. Well, 8 months later - now, I am searching the market, the timing is good, interest rates are down, there is a glut of propertys on the market and the state of economy is needing stimulation, ie rates can still drop more :) At the moment the current rate is about 5.25% on a 30yr fixed, which is historically the lowest.
I have looked at a few homes (bungalows) and condos (Flats) in the area, but I still have a lot of searching to do. I have a good real estate agent who lives in my area and knows the goings on, so we will see.

CX Krugers 11_24_08 PDX

A smashing cx weekend, The morning started off at a brisk 34 degrees (1degree c) ride out to the race) but it warmed up to a sunny day. smashing pumpkins followed alright, as you can see, mud was galore, riding over pumpkins , jumping in puddles and generally being a bike nut. There's a photo in here of Jordan from Hufnagel cycles doing it like a proper fairy over the barrier.

Jordan Hufnagel showing fairies how to do it.

twisted egg

my mum just sent me 2 of these.

Cadbury Creme Eggs that have been twisted into a bar... yum.... but i have to say I do like the Eggs better.

bike polo

Ricky, God, Animals...funny

Cracks me up....

Dave, keep your chin up mate.

This is a little shout out to my friend Dave, of current, I work with Dave at Yakima and he also rides for the Bike Vigilantes. Of current Dave is a man of injury, this great injury came of greatness, courage and speed. Dave broke his collarbone by executing a large man flip over the handlebars of his zesty cross bike, of course this was under race conditions and at high speed, thus resulting in bone breakage.

The other bit of a bummer here is that Dave is a monster, yes, a bike monster, Dave has had a particularly good season, getting faster winning races, catting up. really fearlessly tearing it up out there, unlike myself who had a few mechanical but then lost all motivation mid season like a big looser.

I can also sympathise with Dave, for when I tore my bicep where it connects at my shoulder, I soon realized that life is pretty tough without the use of one arm and also the long long time it takes to heal. The good news for Dave is that bones heal quicker that tissue, and there are less long term side affects (I think my shoulder still bothers me now) so he will be back on the bike in no time at all, getting some fat and dark winter miles for the onslaught of next season when I'm sure he will be a Cat 3 roadie.

Dave keep your chin up mate.

Dave in action (read more about Bike Vigilantes by clicking the image )

British post box design - could it be any better?

Take look at this photo, store it in your memory banks and next time you go to one of those American blue boxes, think about this image and how well the type is designed, the legibility and at a glance clarity, the kerning and lettering size, then you will come to the conclusion that Yes, the British are design savvy in too many ways to mention.

Did somebody just make a new sexy?

sexy rain bike

Windmills, Foampits, Jetlag and lack of motivation.

Being wide awake at 5:30am on weekends is not fun, I blame this on jetlag.
Now that i'm back in the US I have such mixed emotions, each time I go back to the U.K. I am reminded of what I really love and what I can leave behind. There are so many British attributes of the culture that I dearly love. But the freedom and public cycle paths of America still win.
My family is well and my gran has no clue who i am - she has alzheimers, but she is well.

Really , I will get my UK photographs sorted and posted to flickr.... soon, soon.

Anyway onto something totally different. This weekend was a big cyclocross deal. The Single Speed Cyclcocross World Championships were held about 10miles from my house. On the was a 20ft windmill with rotating arms and a well wicked foam bath. I did not race this weekend, apparently I have a problem with motivation.

The foam pit - people rode through this mess.

The windmill about to chop some bloke.

UCI Track World Cup - Manchester UK

After Sunday the Brits had won 15 out of 18 events! Taking away
A sliding finish - Mens A Match Sprint, bars got tide up, Jason Kenny (Brit) slid over the line to take Gold.

Amazing- Manchester Velodrome & training center - pure track luxury for an indoor velodrome. (wood, 40 degrees). TT's, Match Sprints, Keirins, Madisons and Points Races... f'in amazing. Needless to say the Brits won 6 Golds on the Saturday I was there and a ton on Sunday as well- stellar.
UCI Track coverage was on national TV today - gotta love the Brits - Track racing on TV!

As if that was not enough - A Brit becomes F1 world Champion!


Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion in Formula One history by the skin of his teeth after a nail-biting Brazilian Grand Prix.

London - Just as non British as I remember

I remember when I first came to the US I thought a lot of people lacked manners in general day to day interactions. Now i'm in the UK it seems like the US has rubbed off on me and i'm the one lacking manners. Funny how that works.
I saw my sister over the last few days, I headed down to London (2.5hr train ride from Leeds) to check out some galleries and architecture. Ended up meeting my sister there as she lives pretty close to London in Brighton. Went to the Tate Modern which had a Mark Rothko and a Cildo Meireles exhibitions going on, the Meireles was really good, very spacial and interactive modern art with a social twist. Then we tooled around london for a while, checked out some well wicked buildings - The Lloyds building is pretty sweet looking when you are there in person. Ended up in South Kensington (very snobby mate) in the Conran shop, which is fulla designer furniture, nick nacks and what nots all costing a mint or two. Jumped on a train, went to Brighton, went to the Pub, had some bangers and mash then stayed at my sisters place before heading back to London the next day.
London to me is in the same standing as Manhatten, London's not really British, it's too much of many cultures in that the essence get's diluted into a more aptley put "London Experience", I sorta felt this way about Manhatten also, the "Manhatten Experience"

Off to Manchester Velodrome tomorrow, home of TeamGB!.

UK episode 2

I have just realized, it's been 5 years since I have been here and I have not ridden a bike in 6 days. (how those two came together i'm not sure). In place of riding, I have been running, I ran alongside the canal that runs from Leeds to Liverpool but I only ran about 7miles. The fact that I hate running is masked by all the gorgeous new stuff that I see, otherwise I would chop my legs off. A few instances reminded me that America (place with lousy graphic designers) must have set in me, as I instinctive took the wrong line (to the right) on the path when passing people. The newspapers are half full of soccer and the other half of violent crimes...oh so reminds me of home. I have been actively looking around for new trends, seeing a lot of cool cars and the funny thing so far is that I have not run into any hipsters... I think (hoping) that Leeds has avoided the fixed gear thing. Anyway , So i'm sat here trying to research architecture to go look at in London on Thursday. There are some well wicked building which are not on the toursist map like Trellick Towers, 30st St Mary Axe, Tower 43, and the Lloyds Tower with all it's stuff on the outside I have to go look at them. If I had not forgotten my bloody USB cable there would be pictures on here, to my right there are 8 radios, behind me is a wall of about 60 radios in front of me is a computer from 1989. The radios are from WWII and onwards, my dad collects them, it's interesting to see the historic visual language change from radio to radio. That's all.

Live from the UK

As I stepped off the plane (for which I had been on for 8hrs) it immediately hit me of how piss poor the graphic designers in America are, yeah you out there should feel sorry for yourselves. Visual communications in the U.K. are a whole lot better, I'm not sure maybe it's the government in the US that makes em so crappy. I even noticed a mail box, the type so much more readable and logical in design, blame the lack of design on the USPS, silly buggers. Generally US visual communication is rubbish compared to Europe, maybe someone should spend some time abroad instead of designing stupid websites for Crate and Barrel.
So I was a little bit on a downer because I found out I could not ride the velodrome of Team G.B. Then I found out the UCI Track Worlds are being held there...sweet, i'll go I thought, not realizing all the tickets had been sold out for the last six months. Finally I found a set on E bay. Yeah I paid outta the nose for em, but I reckon that you only get to go to these things once. So bring it on, next Sat!

more cross racing, in the fog, in the trees

Paul from Ziba rode. Good times

mr. funny bloke in the picture here is Jordan from Hufnagel cycles

pretty pretty trees, nice mix up on the course

Disgusting right, no I didn't pee my pants.
When you flat both tyres with half a lap to go, it meas you have to run 3/4 of a mile with your bike, and up a big juicy hill as well.... makes your butt sweat!

any camera you see, stick your tongue out.

Well I was rolling between 10th - 14th place for the first 4 laps (10min / laps), then half way through the 5th lap, I got two flat tyres from some spikey thorns on the course, since I hate running with my bike this was not good. I rode the flat until iIcould no more, then when I encountered off camber grass n dirt. I had to carry and run with my bike the last 3rd of a lap. A good 20 or so people passed me. Oh well , that's how it goes sometimes.
Still managed to take #44 despite the run & carry out of 140 racers.

Cartel Bindings! hells yeah

Got some new Cartel snowboard bindings last night, pretty sweet looking. They are the "shop" edition, which pretty much means you cannot buy them at Retail, so they are exclusive.

Cross Crusade #2

gotta make a silly face for the camera, yeah.

Sunday - Cyclocross race #2 - , this was in a dirt construction site in Wilsonville (25 mins south of Portland). The morning started off cold at 40 degrees, no rain, I was up at 6:30 am and throwing stuff in the car. My race was at 9:50am, in the C's. It warmed up a little but not much by the time I had to race.
For some reason people line up at the startline to get a good position, trouble is they line up 30mins prior to the race and stand there and freeze! My start position was behind maybe 60people back. The course was garbage, it was crappy, rutty and not really fun to ride, but whatever it was a cross course (perhaps), this week I managed not to break anything, thankful Felt had sent me a new fork after last weeks incident, that arrived last Wed, so my bike was good to go. I still managed to flip over the handlebars at one point in the course, but no damage done, myself and the bike was ok.

I placed 15th out of 139 riders, not too shabby, the bummer was that when I was coming in across the finish line on my final lap, I thought I had 1 lap to go, so well before the finish line, I sat up and slowed down for a breather, then 3 guys sprinted around me to the line. Oh well, I could have been 12th if I had been a little more aware - next time I guess. Also leaving it all on the racetrack is a good thing, yet something that I find hard to do.

Dave one of our riders had an open house since he lives near by and had nice warm chilli and showers to get clean. Dave Condon cleaned up the C's taking a first, he did a great job and deserved the win, after having won last week as well.
There were lot's of guys from our team out there.

Dave C - C's - 1st.
Jeff - C's - 22nd,
Tony -B's, 23rd
Nick A's - 64th
Corndog in the SS...not sure.
Joe P in the B+ - 103rd (chain snap)
Sautter A+ - 24th



In the meantime check out this t shirt - yeah you got it, naked bird and a cross bike. Let me know if you want one, I know a white van man who can.

How to snap the handlebars off your bike

First cross race of the season, it's raining.
Cat C's @ start line, I scored a nice front row start position, All is ok, just hanging about in the rain waiting for the start.
The whistle blows, power down for 10ft, my starts head traveling towards the floor fast somehow I unclip, then i'm off the front of my bike on the floor. So out of the 120 or so riders behind me, only 3 people ride over my bike.
I grab my bike drag it out of the way, the steerer tube, sheered off right above the headset, yep, Aluminum steerer tube, not the stem, not the stem bolts. The field rides off, i'm really cheesed off, I have a little skin missing from my knees and I don't have a 2nd bike.

if you look close you will see i'm running in the air!

So I walk back to Yakima tent shouldering my bike, handlebars off, fork falling off and rear chris king wheel is now garbage, swearing and bitching.
I borrow a 53 cm bike ( I ride a 59), I swap my front wheel on, swap my pedals on, jack the seat up, realize the brakes are reversed to my normal - 10mins later jump in the race and pass a crap load of people.
Where did I come in ?, 63rd out of 131! hell yes thats some good passing.
I now have backache :) from what feels like riding a bmx but turns out my teammate took 1st, good for him

I am glad it happened here though, could have been worse could have happened on a downhill decent at 35mph or in traffic.

shear man power does this

This is how you look when you ride a bike that is way too small for you and the brakes are the opposite way round to what you are used to.

So far my race season has been a stream of mechanicals - like this:

June - snapped a carbon fiber seatpost in Short-track, 1st race, 2 laps to go.
July - two idiots crash in front of me on the velodrome, bunnyhoppe one guys bike.
August - destroyed my rear cross wheel (cracked rim) on a big fat curb
September - broke the axel bolt on my mavic Ksyrium road wheels.
October, Snapped aluminium steerer tube on my cross bike.

what next? maybe I should sell my bikes:)

Good news - off to see Sigur Ros tomorrow

Check out www.16tooth.blogspot.com

I love Chrome & 5 Day

So just watched a well wicked dvd series, called "5 Day" it's a murder, suspense , drama type of thing. It's on HBO/ BBC UK series. If you into that sorta film, you def should check it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/08_august/08/five_days.shtml

Tycho, Seattle, larch mountain.

Off to see Tycho in Seattle this weekend (sat night). It was part of the electronic music festival called Decibel that was happening in Seattle. made me think it's kinda funny when you go to a show and a lot of people (not all) are a good 10yrs younger than you! There were a couple of opening Seattle act's that I cannot remember the names, but it was alright, I'm not gonna say great, but alright. the whole Capital Hill area of Seattle seems like a nice area, little bit him, little underdeveloped, nice character.

 

Got a message from my mum on Sat, my Gran is doing well, in fact really well, good spirits, alert and what not but she's not eating good, but they have her on high protein drink thingy's.

 

Of course there was cycling this weekend also, a quick trip up Larch Mountain, 4000ft of climbing, great views, cold cold descent.

This made me laugh this morning:

Commute to work

Fog is the SE was dense and thick, could taste it, the regular commuer douchbags were still thinking it's a road race over the hawthorne bridge - like usual, I guess.  I climbed up Montgomery- west side, mid way up the fog started to break, hit Sylvan top of the hill, the sun broke, the skys were blue. All was right. Some euphoric ambient tunes in the ears, made me appriciate Fridays even more.

Snow Goodies, Moontan & interbike

I got all excited by snow goodies. This is some seriously nice snowboard gear. On the subject of snow, check out my summer moon tan, it's strange because it appears that only have suntan on my arms, and the moonrays burnt the rest of my matchstick body.


































Photos - Burton Custom X Snowboard |Burton 3L AK Gore-tex Jacket | pasty white British guy |ics burton channel

Also this week - Interbike in Vegas, I did not go this year, I went last year, so I gave my place to someone else. So a few of teh bike Vigilantes are racing Cross Vegas, should be fun, I have heard that lance is racing it also. I wonder how they did - It looked a blast last year.

Here are a few interbike links to keep you up to date.
www.interbiketimes.com
http://www.cyclelicio.us/
http://commutebybike.com/
www.crossvegas.com