...the weekend madness (installment 12)

Unfortunately, I never made it to the Goldsprints Friday. I got home, armed myself with marshmallow essentials (bicycle, beer, and bud), and was all set to head over to hipster central when the sky opened up and a deluge of precipitation came down on NYC for the next 24 hours or so...

I really need some fenders.


Anywho, since Saturday was a flop for riding (for the aforementioned reason), I packed my sparse belongings into boxes, preempting my move back to Bed-Stuy, and watched youtube vids of bike races all day.

As I mentioned recently, I'm becoming quite the track racing fan and can't wait 'til I've got a bike worthy (and legal) for the velodrome. So of course I'm spending countless minutes in front of the computer watching races, studying tactics, and drooling over impossibly pretty bikes.

We all know (or if you don't you will soon) that track racing originally gained popularity right here, in NYC, over a hundred years ago; and Madison Square Garden, in its original 'sportway', was a velodrome that garnered widespread attention and created it's own event, called of course, the madison.

Sadly, track cycling lost much of it's popularity with the american public in favor of newer, more intense "sports" like Nascar and football. Fortunately, the sport held fast in other parts of the world like Japan, where it has enjoyed the status horse racing holds in the west, as a venue for state-run betting.


They organized thier own special event called the Keirin (ケイリン) where 6-9 cyclist sprint for 600m or so after being paced by a motorized bike for the first 3/4 of the course.

Needless to say, its a ripping good time and really fun to watch the color-coded racers muscle for position behind the pacer before all hell breaks loose and they fly to the line.

Like this:



I don't read Japanese, but I'm pretty sure all the writing is just betting odds and finish times.

Of course, like all state approved vices, gambling won't maintain continued financial success without manufacturing some desire... Check out these commercials I found for Keirin from Japan:





Pretty seductive, huh? I wish I could understand the speech and text to know if it's cheesy, epic, or epically cheesy.

Anyway, if that doesn't get your pistons pumping for some high-cadence action, just check out this viddy of a Keirin racer training:



Wow. The Japanese will conquer us all... on the track, at least.

...SHIMANO!

Amid all the loud, annoying nonsense this weekend past, I staved off extreme boredom by buying more new shit!

I had noticed that my chain was wearing down after the daily abuse I put it through, so on Sunday I went and got a Shimano Hyperglide chain as a replacement for my previous stock one.


Again, after consulting the late Sheldon Brown, I came away with a deep understanding of the finer points of drive train maintenance and theory. One of the most profound statements I've ever heard regarding shift quality is that your derailleurs don't do the shifting, the chain does. At first this seems a little odd, because surely the sole function of a derailleur is to shift gears right?

If you think it through, what the derailleur does is move the chain so that it can shift gears by hopping up or down the cassette to an adjacent sprocket. Thusly, the chain is where all of the actual shifting of gears takes place, and verily, it is frequently the culprit of many of the discomforts of a well-used bicycle.

Taking this advice to heart, I bought and installed the highest-end chain available; which at a measly $45 is one of the best places to spend the extra buck on your bike. I immediately noticed a profound improvement in my shifting thanks to Shimano's latest technological advances.

Their brilliant engineers have developed a kind of chain that can shift very quietly and smoothly under full power, as opposed to having to let up a little on the pedals as in older drive train setups. In order to further facilitate smooth shifting, they also developed Hyperglide cassettes with oddly shaped sprockets that appear to be broken or missing teeth, though are carefully engineered to quietly accept the chain as it moves from sprocket to sprocket.

This is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of bicycles since chains are usually grease-covered pant-leg enemies, though many similarly discreet advancements have been made by Shimano and have since become standard fare in bike componentry.

Having read up on the curmudgeonly Campagnolo and their famed snootiness, I have developed quite a bit of respect for Shimano as a multi-national corporation. Most innovations in any technical field are introduced in the "top-down" manner, where the latest improvements are available only on the most ridiculously expensive components until they gain notoriety. These improvements then eventually trickle down to the lower end components that regular people like me can afford until they are proclaimed "industry standards".

Shimano worked in the opposite way for many many years, where they focused on using heavier and cheaper materials to focus on improving the basic functions of drivetrains. If the innovations caught on (and they did) they would bring it to their more finely crafted and expensive products to cater toward those concerned with outright performance.

Using this marketing strategy they've introduced and continue to manufacture the very best in modern cycling equipment such as Shimano Total Integration (STI) brake/shift levers, Shimano Pedaling Dynamics (SPD) clipless pedals, Shimano Linear Response (SLR) brakes, Freehubs, etc...

Basically everything that you take for granted while riding is thanks to Shimano and their egalitarian business practices.

Then again, some people like to paint themselves as 'purists', rejecting anything that dares challenge the good name of Campagnolo. Personally, however, I am a staunch Shimano customer and Campy parts are as welcome on my bike as Obama is in middle-American classrooms.


(Oh yeah, I just discovered that true-to-form, Campy is copying Shimano's new electronic shifting with their own version... way to innovate, huh?)

...keepin it real Thursdays

In keeping with this week's dorkiness-theme, I thought I'd relay this charming little snippet of intrigue that is unfortunately born of some hardcore real-ness.


Remember back in 2003 when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry (depicted above in all its sparkling horror)? Well, when it happened, lots of pieces of shuttle and crew rained down on Earth's surface as opposed to burning up as most earthly matter would. However, among the items recovered from Columbia's wreckage was, amazingly, the flight diary of an Israeli Astronaut named Ilan Ramon.


I haven't quite figured out how a bunch of paper managed to survive a 100km fall from just beyond the Kármán line at speeds approaching mach 7 (5,328.5 mph). Regardless, a group of astronauts and oragami masters in Japan have decided that based on this evidence, they will fold up about thirty miniature paper planes and release them from the a box on the exterior of the International Space Station, where they will begin a lazy descent back to Earth that is expected to take several months.

The planes will be printed with instructions in several languages requesting that the finder kindly notify Mr. Shinji Suzuki of the University of Tokyo's aerospace engineering program about when and where the plane was found.


I like this "expirement" because unlike the shuttle's violent and abrupt end while attempting to return home, the quiet and slow glide of the paper plane speaks of peace and moderation. Of course it is only possible due to its extreme lightness of construction, though it is a beautiful metaphor for the calmness and composure we should all strive for amid swirling social atmospheres that take us this way and that, unknowing and uncaring of our desired destination.

Speaking of strange things falling from the sky, in Greenpoint recently, two young perigrine falcons were rescued from gangs of pidgeons that were preemptively attacking their future predators. As I've heard, the adorable lil flappers are ok, as one is now at the Animal Medical Center and the other is apparently hiding in a bush near McGorlick park.


It most be something about New York City that fosters a gang mentality amongs the local animal populations. As I had noted a while back, dolphins were seen forming rival pods and established "turf" in our tidal estuaries.

Anywho, fly safe friends...