wheelin n' d-lin

deerhunter 2011

2011-02-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

so i guess its been about a year since i started this blog and that means another round of a now valentines tradition - the heartbraker alley cat. a race that combines your scavenger hunt manifest score with your teams gold sprint times. brutal to say the least. colin and i took first place overall last year and were only 5 points short of defending our title this year for the best manifest score. the guys with 5 points more then us also killed it on the sprints BUT we still got first place couple! more to come on this event, but for now here is a photo i found from last year's race:

team deerhunter 2010!

bike wall!

2011-01-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

we have been needing this set up at our home practically since we moved in two years ago. it finally all became a reality on saturday with the help of my wonderful boyfriend colin who put this whole shindig together for us. we got rid of an awful green couch that had manifested into pierre's burrowing cave to dedicate the space to the bike wall. besides the endless search to find our nonsensically placed studs it seemed to come together quite nicely and we got the cardboard from a new neighbor moving in down the street. it hangs 9 bikes with ample space below for extra bike shit, bmx bikes or boxes. it seems crazy to think that we still have like 5 bikes in the basement but one can never have enough. right?

ronde van retaard part ii

2011-01-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

finally! part deuce to one of the most awesome things i have ever had the pleasure of doing. such a great day and seriously one of my proudest accomplishments. i hope that one day i can return to sweden and do it again, only this time on a bike that doesn't crap out and probably fixed gear.

number tjugo

goth siting!
she was walking somewhere with her animal backpack and we were literally in the middle of the bush. if i wasn't racing at that moment i would have loved to see where she was headed.

patrick.
an expat from humbolt county who's english was so choppy you would have never guessed that he grew up in california. he's been in sweden for two years, and was the only other american that i met on the ride, besides my cousin of course. the majority of the riders were swedish but there were also people from germany, the u.k. and australia.

hans rollin

so european...
in the sack: homemade power bar, cheese sandwich, chocolate bar, a mini spirit and a single cigarette. somewhere along the way there were people lined up on the path so we could scoop this life saving satchel and keep on rollin.

lunch buffet! half way there! oh, and because this was in europe it tasted a million times better then you can even imagine. check out that can of pickles!

and we ate on a boat!

me rollin

sausage!
cooked by the homie bad wolf. he had some mutual acquaintances from pdx and east van due to the mass plosion of the bike polo community.

after lunch the ride started to take an interesting turn. we had already gone on some back roads and through farmlands but the routing for the next bit was so untouched that i swear the race plotters blazed it themselves. being towards the end of the pack had an advantage for me this time, as one of the flaggers was not at his spot when the first group cycled by. they ended up doing a big uphill loop but by the time i got there i was ushered to a path that went directly into a swamp. after trying to get the bike to pedal through 6 inches of mud i put it on my shoulder and climbed over logs and such. there were tiny frogs scattering away at my feet and luckily there were striped markers randomly stuck in the mud so there was a feeling that i was headed in the right direction. suddenly the more serious riders are all behind me, racing to catch up. i heard the commotion of them but also random applause and yelling in front of me. at this point is was also pouring down rain and i was so confused. i saw white cardboard families, dogs, and human like shapes ahead of me and realized that this, like the poet in the field, was just another push to get you out of the swamp. these stationary figures were the ones cheering us on.

carbo load.
beer, bread and bikes.

although this carb stop was only a few hours after our lunch feast it was much needed. it had been pouring and the flats were nailing everybody, including myself. i rolled up on a girl right before i got my flat and she had just propped her bike on a barn fence to fix hers. i did not realize that there were horses on the other side that wanted to check it out. they came fucking galloping down the hill. mom, dad, the kids. it was kind of intense because they came right up to the edge but it was also really amazing to see how majestic horses can be. i never liked them that much, but these guys were alright.

bitches rollin.
there were only four or five other females on the ride but we held it down. the girl directly behind me fell early on and ended up riding until just the very end. the next day at polo she told me she had broken her collarbone. bamf!

cousins. yay! we made it.

end with a bang. fireworks!

the day ended with a nice, slow ride back into town. hans and i were lucky because the post race gathering was down the street from his flat and so we got to go home and shower before heading to the free beer and lasagna. not everyone had this luxury and hans joked that we could charge people 10 bucks for a shower. its probably a good thing that we didn't because between the two of us we washed away an entire beach's worth of sand and grime and his tub looked like shit. i ended up throwing away my beloved converse because there was really no way they would ever be clean again. all in all a great fucking day that i will never forget. here is the route: ronde van retaard race route via google maps

ronde van retaard part i

2010-10-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

shit balls! i was meaning to create this post a long time ago but just have not gotten around to it. anyhow, while in sweden i competed in the ronde van retaard which roughly translates to a round of retarded. although it is a swedish event the origin of the name is dutch. i have not idea why. the race tries to emulate the conditions racers had back in the day. single speed or fixed gear off roading madness. geared bikes were allowed, but they had to tape their shifters.

my retaarde bike!

there were about 100 racers that boarded the train at seven in the morning to a completely random countryside location outside of gothenburg. lots of awesome bikes to see, most of them specifically built up for the retaard and one of which had been iodized in copper as an experiment. it looked fresh. my cousin observed that there were definitely more brakes this year then there had been in the past. apparently it was typical for someone to give up or break a bone so riders were getting wiser.

see the copper!

we received our numbers and after a short swedish announcement we continued as a group to the official starting point. the ride was split up into 10 bouts with a total course length of about 62 miles. sounds like a piece of cake but don't be fooled, this had some extreme terrain to conquer. me and my janky ass bridgestone that my cousin hans and i put together the day before. the bike itself wasn't janky but the spring in my chain tensioner was not cooperating and practically every time i pedaled the chain would jump. without toe clips and through the rain and mud, my feet kept slipping and i found myself becoming quite frustrated but i was determined to finish.

we rode through the farmland and i saw in the distance giant scottish cows which reminded me of jim henson creatures. during the 2nd bout we were rounding a corner along one of these fields and i heard an amplified voice. a solitary figure was standing on top of a boulder with a megaphone reciting swedish poetry, and unbeknownst to us, was filming everyone ride by:

crazy swedes.

sykkelen norge

2010-09-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

so it has been forever since i last wrote but no body reads this anyhow so no worries there. i am in norway and will travel to sweden tomorrow. my cousin is building a bike for me to ride during my time there and he is quite an expert so i can't wait to see what he has put together. it will either be a fixed or a single speed because the race we are participating in is an off trail fixed/single speed event. i do not really know what to expect but i know it will be an awesome time. here are the guidelines. ahhh! i cant wait!

i have rented a bike three times here in norway and each trip was very different. in balstrande i rode along the beautiful fjords on a narrow european highway and ended up having to turn back after about 10 kl due to my fear of getting ran over by the speeding drivers. it is true that everyone in europe drives like a very skilled mad man and a girl on a bicycle would have no chance, although i suppose i could have trusted them since they know what they are doing. i am just not used to it. i rode along orchards and pastures with sheep. each of the individual farm houses had a subtle detail which seemed to identify them from one another but was still among the traditional norwegian style.

the second trip was in bergen which is one of the major cities and it was fun bumping around on the cobblestones and finding little shops and cafes behind twisted alley ways. once again this expierience justified to me why traveling via bicycle is truly the best option. its all about the ground you can cover and the details that you can observe. in the city the drivers are very aware of cyclists but like in portland i found myself being too passive with them. another "i am used to seattle drivers" advancement issue.

in voss (like that fancy water!) there is a lake with lots of lovely trails but unfortunately i did not have the time to ride around the whole thing. my trip to voss was by mistake because i messed up my dates, etc., etc. but regardless, it is a really nice little town and was a pleasure to see on two wheels. i even got to visit a family owned farm and lodging house called skjelde gard which my great aunt bitten has been running for years and has been in the family for even longer. definitely a bonus and worth the extra day that i unknowingly already had in norway.

here are some bikes i saw in bergen:

flat thirty three appropriately.

fuck. yes.

2010-08-05T00:55:00.001-07:00

this is what i will be doing in sweden!

9 - 5

2010-06-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

holy crap! this was one of the most fun events i have been a part of yet. the 2nd annual 9-5 scavenger hunt was clever and extremely well organized with over 150 items on the manifest along with some time sensitive check points. i joined up with ross, krystal and payton who i always seem to run into at these kinds of things and it was perfect because i had no team and this was definitely a race where numbers had an advantage.

within the first two hours we had completed a lot of the photographic check points which included shots of neighborhood street signs or businesses with the names of the neighborhood in it. bartenders holding the spoke cards, fortune cookies, toothpicks, stealing white crayons out of the boxes and anticipating a child's sorrow etc. right after purchasing 47 cans of tomato paste in greenwood we were stopping at the am/pm and jack in the box on aurora for some hot sauce and artificial sweetener packets when payton got hit by a car coming out of the parking lot and tacoed his front wheel. luckily he was not injured at all but we had to be at our first check point in an hour! the guy that hit him was really apologetic and slightly intoxicated so he agreed to drive payton to my house where i had a spare front wheel for him AND the first checkpoint was at the colonnade which is half a block from my back door.

since we were already close to a few more of the neighborhoods we smashed up 80th to the lake city sign which ross had remembered being conveniently intersecting with roosevelt. we got our lake city neighborhood shot and bombed down roosevelt all the way to my house picking up some coffee cups and energy drink cans along the way. roosevelt felt like a dream compared to 80th with 25 cans of tomato paste in your bag. it was really more the awkwardness and the poking that bugged me as opposed to the weight. but if you have ever ridden southbound on roosevelt for 5 miles its a relaxing jaunt regardless.

we got to my house with about 20 minutes until we had to be at the colonnade so we gathered up the things i had. fake flowers, a seattle pi front page, fake tattoos, balls, dolls, seashells, pine cones, driftwood, and a million other things. there were many advantages for us with my house being so centrally located and directly on the route. we ended up leaving everything there for the south end portion of the ride to be picked up later.

after the colonnade we split up into two groups. krystal and i hit lower queen anne, south lake union and downtown while the boys got capitol hill and sodo. we got both of the designated clock photos, one of the pemco clock and one of the starbucks clock at 1:30 am. after we hit all of our spots we rode back to my house to drop stuff off and see what else we could scrounge together. my neighbor giles rolled through the alley and poked his head in to see that we were frantically pulling shit apart. he was a big help and we went to his place for a golf ball and he had a missouri quarter which was one item with a higher point value. he also loaded us up with snack bars and cookies. it was perfect. and the house next to his was getting demolished so we found the bricks and cinder blocks we needed as well.

the 2nd meet up was at the marginal way skate park. we regrouped with the guys but decided it would be best to split up again for the final stretch. ross rode to the south park bridge to write down the vietnamese translation of a warning sign. ross and krystal rode to georgetown and hit up a grocery store for a few of the last items. i was selected to ride to laurelhurst which was the only neighborhood we had left. i stopped at the house and grabbed everything i could. abandoning the couch cushions for the teammates to follow. after that it was basically burke gillman all day and riding back to gas works as the sun was coming up and the birds madly chirping was a wonderful experience.

i was the first of my team to arrive and started counting the points that i had and anything else i could remember. we had to have our manifests in by 5:11 sharp and the time was nearing rapidly. the rest of the crew rolled up with about 6 minutes left and we tallied everything up and handed it in. ryan and melissa had provided a beautiful hot breakfast buffet and i only wish that i wasn't so caffeinated and excited because i would have enjoyed it much more. regardless it was awesome watching the sun rise over our magnificent city from gasworks.

to our surprise we ended up coming in 2nd place. it was not announced at the race but when the placements were posted on go means go i got a text from ross saying that his friend brendan had seen it. brendan lives in portland so it was funny that none of us heard about it first but it was a very pleasent surprise. the winning team had brought in 96 cans of tuna, which upped the ante on our 47 cans of tomato paste. but if it really was boiled down to the wire i think that their 1969 moonwalk pi front page would win over our 2008 obama election pi front page. they also were able to find copies of boys life magazine which we knew had no chance in finding.

all in all it was such a blast! thank you to ryan, melissa and go means go! and check out the photos that greg took. a night of epic proportions! i was so amped i could not go to sleep until 9ish but it was definitely worth it. ross took most of the photos so if i get a hold of those i will be sure to post em.

simply gratuitous

2010-06-21T17:15:00.000-07:00

wsi x part ii

2010-06-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

i thought i would have more to add but i think this picture sums it up.
more here and here.

i also forgot to mention that mustache outrageous! (andre, rowdy, and mike) took the wsi polo championship belts surprising the entire polo community and creating one of the biggest uproars i had seen in awhile. the last time i was in pdx vitamin water seemed to have stumbled across the triple crown and this awkward dude was giving it out too everyone. naturally they were back for more and had just assumed that a pdx team would win it all (hah!). they brought a mother load of the stuff for the winning team and had even more to be delivered. mustache outrageous! fit as much as they could into the polo caravan and will have an endless supply the next time they are in pdx. dave took some great photos:

special thanks to case and claire for housing us and brewing coffee every morning, schiable for the most epic van ride of my existence, and to kelsey and evan for the scavenged ride back home where we passed the fuck out and were no help whatsoever.

oh, and to all the talented and not so talented strippers of pdx. you are awesome.

wsi x part i

2010-06-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

the ride up to portland laid the foundation for how the weekend would end up. shag carpet. seven bikes and six people surrounded in the most authentic orange shag carpet. the smell of shit and wet cigarettes. uncontrollable giggling, a dq dilly bar and rap music. plus i found myself sleeping face down in shag carpet every night. just like the good old days.

i completely overpacked because it said it would be raining hard the whole weekend, which was not entirely untrue, but i definitely did not need six pairs of socks. and whenever it got too bad we just found the nearest strip club to camp out in. there are plenty in portland and i must say that they do not lack in variety. it was pretty hilarious to be surrounded by such a sausagefest and get totally broed out. right up there with the rest of those dollar collar fools.

portland is so fucking flat! SO flat. man, it was such a breeze. even in the rain it was still very mild and more tolerable then seattle. but i would not want to live there because i would just eat and drink (cheap as shit) and go to strip clubs and ride around ballard x 100 and never actually get anything done. oh and everyone is super nice but even the people that live there don't know where anything is if you ask them for directions and perfect strangers will let you borrow their u-lock because they have to work all weekend and just make sure to give it to this one dude at polo on monday.

i was not particularly thrilled the morning of the main race because i was hoping to have ridden around portland more to get a better grip on things. everywhere i had been so far was either a bar or a food cart. this quickly changed as i realized exactly how many people were in the same boat. along the way we ended up riding with multiple groups just trying to get from one place to the next. veronica and i ended up completing all five manifests and only missed a few spots. our timing was nothing to brag about but the fact that we did that well blows my mind. and of course they made us climb the two major hills that portland has to offer.

the first of which was mount taber which is similar to interlocken and was a climb that was rewarding at the top. a nice ride equipped with a nice view and all. the second hill was just completely annoying and pointless and reminded me of the counterbalance but instead of an architecturally stimulating yuppy neighborhood it was just a dumb condo yuppy neighborhood. after the main race and some polo watching we rode from 62nd ne down sandy ave and over the burnside bridge into downtown for the awards ceremony. this is about 5 miles of unnoticeably downhill pavement that is slightly comparable to aurora. it was definitely the most enjoyable ride of the weekend because it felt like that summer ride that seattle has yet to provide me.

in the whopping six pictures i took the whole weekend i managed to capture keanu. more to come later.

pdx

2010-05-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

less then one week until WSI X and i am very much looking forward to it. portland's infrastructure has an appreciation for cycling that seattle lacks. portland is also flat and rumored to be warm despite the flash moments of downpour. portland has drinking aloud in their strip clubs. portland has no sales tax.

i was there a few weeks back and surprised the 206 polo crew by rolling up on the first tournament of the triple crown. it was a really seat of my pants moment and i spent a lot of time just riding around. luckily, the city has a pretty straightforward grid of names and numbers but i know i will find myself completely clueless at times during the races. fuck though, this is just what i need right now: a 4 day shit show party and lots of bike riding.

how national lampoon of you

2010-05-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

unfortunately there are no photos to accompany this post, but i just have one thing to say: if you have never ridden a bike while wearing a toga then i suggest that you do so as soon as possible. its as if an unknown void has been filled. some serious statue of liberty liberation. freedom for all!

46x18

2010-05-03T18:58:00.001-07:00

i know i am not the most athletic person on the planet but switching my set up from 46x16 to 46x18 was like turning a slow jog into a sprint with little effort. i also threw on a 46x17 freewheel for a bit of variety. i thought i was incompetent before, not being able to skid without my knees buckling, or even worse, having to fucking get off my bike when going up certain hills. all along it was just two extra teeth that i needed to give me that glide. living in a city like seattle, i feel that a set up like this is necessary. honestly, i would much rather pedal then struggle and i feel like i have much more control. if you feel that you are struggling i suggest you re-evaluate what your ratio is. amongst other things that could be the issue, this simple change is like night and day and changing my cog was no big deal. luckily, i had help from the boys over at beef city (open mondays, 2111 E. Union) and i quickly learned that without the right tools one can be lost in the dark. its amazing how many random tools there are for bicycles that are only used for one purpose. i can see how they charge up the ass for maintenance at any bike shop but its really not as difficult as they would like you to think. if you have friends that are knowledgeable on the subject then i highly suggest you spend an afternoon with them and utilize it. i know it will save me lots of time and money in the future.

andrew

2010-04-27T12:06:00.001-07:00

andrew on a bike is a scary idea but i feel bad when i have to leave him stranded at a bar knowing that it will only take me a few minutes to ride home. sometimes he reacts poorly to this and i can tell that he feels left out. especially when there is a whole gaggle of us. i have tried to get him riding in the past but it never seems to play out well. hills. sweat. rain. they don't mesh with andrew's style. the first time he fell it was pretty much over. summer is approaching and i can only hope that he will want to try it again. however, he will always make a great bike polo cheerleader.

patch kit

2010-04-23T17:17:00.001-07:00

yesterday i had cory sew on some gifted patches (thanks wentz & colin!) to my bag and my top tube protector, both of which he made. he is truly a crafty genius and makes extreme quality messenger bags and accessories. i am very pleased with how things turned out and will probably resent the placement of my dollar bill patch once people start yelling at me that i have money falling out of my bag. oh well, it is a good reminder to keep track of your money, even its just a dollar. its also nice to have my most favorite thing to look down at when i am riding and i think the rainer patch deserves to go below the deer once i find it (eek!). these pictures were taken with my cell phone but i have a camera on the way for some more quality photos of whatever else i post in the future.

deerhunter 2010

2010-04-22T11:37:00.001-07:00

i just found this video of colin and i at one of the checkpoints for the not quite valentines day race that we WON in february. it was my first alley cat and i had the time of my life! colin won a brand new traitor frame set (below) which was great because he had just found a crack in his bianchi and we both walked away with armloads of schwag.

while most teams started to head south we decided to ride north over queen anne hill, through fremont and up to wallingford, then back down through eastlake and up capitol hill. we finished our loop with various downtown locations and our last stop was at myrtle edwards where we took measures into our own hands when the person who was supposed to take our picture had already left. we made it to the final destination with just minutes to spare, only missing two or three spots on the manifest.

to my surprise the race was not over yet and we had to compete against each other in goldsprints. this was another first for me and i was worried because our combined time would be added to the total of our manifest. even after all of the exhaustion of the day and the lingering feeling of fungus we managed to pull through and take it all in the end. woohoo! i most certainly could not have done it without the support of my excellent teammate.

a few beers and a few hours later my name was called for goldsprints again. why!? confused and tired i apparently had one of the two fastest times for the ladies and so i hopped up there and automatically put my head down while colin screamed in my face and i pedaled my heart out. my legs felt like noodles but i somehow managed to beat the other girl by a couple hundredths of a second. i walked away with a crankset for that one. yee!

the curry dragon

oh deer

2010-04-21T16:49:00.001-07:00

a girl can dream.