the revolution took an unexpected pause this morning.  you may have noticed, but not noticed.  actions produce subsequent reactions.  these may by physical phenomenon, such as sound or heat or light, or may be less tangible.  events like this are like that sometimes.  you just have a feeling.  an appropriate popular culture reference might be a "disturbance in the force".  it can be like deja vu, though in this instance, jamais vu is the more likely sensation. 

like a small pebble thrown into a pond, these ethereal ripples flow outward, in concentric circles of ever-increasing diameter.  transparent, and unable to be captured, like radio waves, they nonetheless convey their message to all who are attuned.  i assume that all cyclists in northern virginia felt this eerie, ineffable, uncategorizable sensation this morning.  this sense of loss, not profound, but solid, inescapable, unsettling, must have echoed out from it's origin.  please, don't continue to worry or feel any sort of anxiety.  the feeling resulted from two riders, abandoned by their commuting partner.  in the same way that philosophers ponder whether a falling tree makes a sound if there is no one to hear it, up to this point i had wondered if a ride was held and no one showed up, what sort of consequences might follow.  we now know.  this person who opted for the comforter, rather than the chainring.  these things happen, but we move past them with more ease if we can understand them. 

check out this little gem.  pretty choice huh?  there goes my weekly trip with ben to the indian buffet and reston kabob.  those asshats don't know when to quit.  i could package up a vial of ben's tears at his disappointment and post it off to them and they wouldn't bat an eye.  i am this close to demanding that all cyclists be armed at all times.  forget helmets.  too passive, too defensive.  if they are gonna play like this, so am i.  let's become asshats ourselves.  that car beginning to move over on you?  take out your piece and rap a few times on the windshield with the barrel to let 'em know what you're all about.  and since handguns should be legal in the district any hour now (thanks democratic senate judiciary committee cloture voters!!11!!!) it be best to stock up now.  so go and do what has to be done.

updated below

The Racing Union deems it necessary to respond to certain recent
baseless allegations of stupidity in the use of speed bars during the
Tuesday night Reston ride.  Let us be absolutely clear: The People's
two-wheeled representatives categorically deny the stupidity of speed
bars and are deeply offended by this accusation against all
aerodynamically-minded cyclists everywhere.  We reject and denounce
the use of the public MABRA list to further the egregious claims made
by a "member" of the cycling community and can only hope that
aggressive and remedial re-education for all such misguided
individuals can lead to a more enlightened understanding of physics.
To this end, all confused individuals are hereby required to attend
"training" this Thursday at 12:05 p.m. at Hains Point for a hands-on
appreciation of the forces of fluid dynamics on moving objects.

The People

update (by scott): i offer my profound thanks to the people for their contributions to two-wheeled civility.  i would like to further point out that, a scant three days before the incident being referenced, I made it all the way through the cold toes a race, predominantly on my speedbars, without anyone getting upset or even saying anything.  I rode straight, I cornered; all seemed ducky in speedbarracingland.  until that fateful day.  i am now officially very annoyed.  i will endeavor to emulate the people and act with civility, even when pointedly snubbed.

i have been doing a lot more thinking about the transition in cuba, and finding some parallels between the state of their revolution and the state of our revolution.  infrastructure is a major limiter in both cases.  now i'll be the first to admit that cuba, being on an island and all, and facing a crushing embargo from the greatest hegemon of the last 400 years, probably has it worse than i do.  not by much, mind you.  i'm just trying to set some perspective here.  revolutionaries operate on shoe string budgets.  observe.

up until recently, i had two pairs of cycling shoes.  i noticed that i was having a lot of trouble getting out of my speedplays in both pairs.  so i did something that all cyclists talk about doing, but rarely actually do.  I took a good, long, hard look at my equipment.  now i started with lowered expectations, being a revolutionary and all.  but this was too much. 

complete detachment of the sole.  you won't believe this but I tried putting gorilla glue between the sole and the upper to see if the shoe could be saved.  no dice.  then i tried some sort of mcgyver by wrapping duct tape around the upper and sole.  ripped apart after just spinning around on a connector trail in my neighborhood.  these things were absolutely shot.  so i'm thinking to myself that it's a good thing i've got this other pair of shoes...

wow.  check out the speedplay cleats on my sidis.  now i think if you look very, very carefully, you'll be able to diagnose the problem here.  remember, the symptom is that my shoes are not clipping out of my pedals.  look again.  carefully now.  give up?  yes, the cleats appear to have worn right through.  did you see that?  when you try to unclip, those steel plates just sort of bend away from the shoe.  you just have to really, really twist your ankle to get it out of there.  plus, the velco sort of stopped sticking on these shoes, making it very difficult for your foot to stay in there when you pull up on the pedals.  i had never had that happen before.  i tried to clean out the velcro but to no avail.  so my stuff is looking pretty weak huh?  i figure at this point, that i have bottomed out but i'll check the rest of my gear.  and....oh hell...

that's a pretty solid piece of work right there.  no duct tape will help this.  no mcgyver, no way, no how.  not even a joke about a little jb weld to put you back out on the street.  nope, it's toast.  oh, and by the way, that was my race wheel.  oh, and by the way some more, it wasn't the only one, only the most photogenic.

so it looks like the tyranny of the status quo had really caught up with my cycling infrastructure.  i'm on an island and i'll have to make do.  but like our comrades who struggle with limitations, we will prevail by being resourceful: re-using, recycling and reducing.  along these lines, i'll get up a post soon on how to build a bombproof winter or foul weather wheel where the inner tube is replaced with an old tubular. 

that way you can run older tires without fear of burning through the casing.  also no fears about flatting when the weather is miserable, making your comrade brothers curse your stupid ultra-lite tube that you ran on a training ride.  plus your legs will thank you for adding rotational weight and making your body and spirit strong. 

support the wheels of your brothers and sisters
support the work of your brothers and sisters
support the cause of your brothers and sisters. 
-sg

though he effectively functioned as my alter ego, but there's no doubting that he had a vision and followed it. 

conservative william buckey dies at 82

though he worked with the hated four wheeled hegemon, you had to love his creations.  I should be so lucky as to get to spend some time in one.

boyd coddington, our comrade in horsepower, dies at 63

terry passed along this link for a newer type of folding bike.  only people who were raised with transformers can fully appreciate this metal-origami creation.  i have serious doubts about the stiffness of this bike.  look, i'm not stupid, i understadn that it's primary appeal is a swiss-army-knife type folding convenience, but look at it.  even if it weighs forty pounds, how much lateral deflection do you think you could generate at the bottom bracket?  i'd say a hell of a lot but I'm probably too cynical.  maybe they could spin it as passive suspension.  those commuters love them that kind of stuff.

gutless. 

Fear,  Yes, I believe that's it Michael.  I've seen it in his eyes for a while now.  Noted it in his mannerisms.  He's a defeated leader in survival mode.  Let's hope our training camp in the mountains will renew him and our belief in his cause. 

let me very clear.  all the sentiments that are being bandied about; just so much talk.  if you actually read them, they presuppose a position of power.  but that's not where we are coming from, and it's not where comrade fidel was coming from and it's not where comrade chavez is coming from.  we're insurgents.  unlike your typical american politician who spends 80% of their rhetorical time pointing out how they they loathe special interests and couldn't find the washington beltway on a map even if they were being waterboarded (not that we water board people, but i'm just sayin'), we actually do exist outside the power structure.  the people want fundamental change, not flavor of the month. 

you want to see how "change" looks to the entrenched?  how's that freedom agenda working out in afghanastan?  yah, not so good.  and america's domestic policy in pakistan is still to desperately prop up and maintain a leader who is neither respected, feared or liked by the people he "governs".  check it out:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's elections were supposed to usher in democracy after eight years of military rule, but for Talat Hussain life doesn't look much different. Every time his TV station tries to air shows critical of President Pervez Musharraf, the screen goes black.

at least that could never happen here.  oh...wait.  yah, not so good.  they've switched over to their foreign policy plabook for domestic purposes.  teh hot!  their story is about as believable as you would expect.

well, i think it's about time i reminded people what power is.  the training camp: yah, it's gonna be an old time "come-to-revolution" revival.  plan on it.  we're coming back from that thing tanned, rested and angry.  it's go time...

i was openly mocked on our listserv today for my failure to produce some 15,000 word magnum opus on the transition of power in cuba.  i struggled mightily to describe my sentiments: not a lack of interest or concern, certainly not, but more a resignation to what is occuring there.  i set odds for a likely transition to some sort of hybrid system, less control oriented but not really free market.  not at all like what russia has evolved into or the various stans, but more like what china has ended up with (the second stumble forward if you will) but with more emphasis on person freedom and less central control over the economy.  but then there's this...

Perhaps, deep down, our leader fears a similar fate and cannot acknowledge the possibility—the reality—of the transicion Cubano?  Magical realism has run its course.  One can no longer with integrity practice one’s art as if there were no political consequences.

you know, ben and i were out on bikes this afternoon and i had a funny experience.  we had left the house while the weather was still glorious.  we put some baseballs and gloves and bats in a backpack and rode to a local field and hit balls and ran the bases.  it was a hoot.  on the way back, we were riding one of those little connector trails in reston where it transitions uphill quickly.  ben was close behind me and i heard him slow down, and then fall over.  i stopped and looked back.  he has the funny habit where he jumps up quickly and says "i'm okay" really loud which he learned from a friend who can be sort of clumsy.  anyhow, it went something like this:

me: ben, you okay?

ben: yeah, my bike fell over.  (picks up bike and hits the saddle, two to three times, really hard with his hand)

me: whoa, don't hit your bike.  it's like a machine, it only does what you tell it to

ben: i didn't tell it to fall over

i was floored and couldn't think of anything to say.  there's a depth of sentiment there that i wasn't prepared for.  but it also sort of describes my resignation about the initial topic.  the ship of state is generally thought to be steered with the best intentions.  no one who is sane wants to hit the shoals.  no one who is sane wants to run the economy aground or turn the hopes of an entire generation into nothing but arid dust, like sand that runs endlessly through your fingers.  but the head of state is hardly a passenger.  there was a funny quote from one of the drivers at the fontana race this weekend.  his car was handling poorly and he was on the radio with his crew chief, and said something along the lines of "i'm just riding in it, i'm not driving it."  fidel castro was a driver.  history will probably have a lot to say about his decisions.  when you compare his approach to other local "westernized" countries like haiti or the dominican republic, my personal opinion is that he certainly did no worse, and with added obstacles such as a pointlessly belligerent trade embargo.  but i will wait for some sort of censensus to evolve.  in the meantime, in my house, we will teach his history as one who had a vision and truly sought to produce a tide that floated all boats.

-scott

p.s. possible topics for discussion depending on your proclivities:

1) did cuba accomplish anything over the last 50 years?  reasonable people can disagree, but everything evolves and does this next stage flow from the principles castro espoused or could a country conceivably go straight to this?

2) kyle busch can drive him some car.  he is very close to leading all three of the nascar series: sprint, nationwide and trucks.  you put him in the seat and he just drives the wheels off anything.  can anyone think of someone who had that kind of technical talent?  there was some footage of him from this past weekend, literally running from the victory lane celebration in the truck series to his pits and without even changing the firesuit, jumping in and qualifying his cup car.  amazing.

 

after what seemed an eternity of mixed martial arts "combat" and beef jerky advertising, smiling bob and his army of minions--each sporting full on wood--have returned (along with the Tour of California).

it's great that versus is airing the coverage every night, but why can't they show it before 11PM?  how the hell can an old f'r like me be expected to stay up that late?  it's not as if the chicks from rock racing will be serving jello shooters to cipo off their nakit bodies while draped across michael ball's bentley.  what gives, versus?  do you only have one editor capable of putting an hour of coverage together between stage finish and airtime?

speaking of cipo, i wonder if he can hang past yesterday's performance.  he rode respectably, but he doesn't look right.... he's lost a good amount of muscle and it makes one wonder if he starved himself to drop weight. 

Racing Union Leadership Threatens MABRA

By Doug Miesterstuck
Consolidated Cycling Press Writer
 
FAIRFAX, Virginia (CCP) -- MABRA ordered its member clubs to be on high alert and USACycling put it's commissaires on guard to protect regional cycling institutions after racing union's leadership vowed Thursday to retaliate anywhere in the world for the assassination of one of its top commanders.

"Imperialist cycling plutocrats, who suckle at the teat of corporate sponsorship, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: let this war be open," Pavel Tarasov told a throng of fist-waving mourners who attended the funeral of Hector Ortiz Chuega, a cuban ex-patriot who served as director of internal security operations for the vast cycling and social movement.

Thousands of black-clad mourners raised their fists in the air, chanting, "At your orders, comrade" in response to Tarasov, who appeared via video. He has been in hiding since the end of the 2007 cyclocross season concluded.

Tarasov's fiery speech signaled the revolutionary cycling group was ending a yearslong policy of battling MABRA only on MABRA's territory, raising the specter of activities in other cycling districts.

Racing union and its backers blamed MABRA for Chuega's death in a multiple drive-by car accident Tuesday in Charleston, West Virginia, near a scenic cycling retreat.  MABRA denied involvement.

Tarasov accused MABRA of taking the fight outside the "natural battlefield" of MABRA and the mid-Atlantic region. "You have crossed the borders," he said.

Unlike more moderate racing union leaders who regularly indulge in exaggerated rhetoric, Tarasov is known for acting on his threats. In 2006, he vowed to take action to free racing union prisoners in MABRA, and in July that year, racing union guerrillas staged a daring mid-criterium raid in silver spring that snatched two MABRA administrators as bargaining chips.

The incident triggered a period of prolonged hostilities between MABRA and racing union that devastated the mid-Atlantic, with guerrillas using asymetic tactics and generating vast amounts of propoganda. It ended with the MABRA administrators still captive and no deal for a prisoner swap has yet been reached.

Fearing revenge attacks after Chuega's assassination, MABRA ordered its officials and member clubs onto high alert Thursday and recommended cycling institutions worldwide do the same.

Thursday's events in Charlestown, WV raised fears that internal turmoil within mid-atlantic cycling could worsen. Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of racing union's young pioneers filled a downtown washington square to mark the anniversary of the revolution in cycling and the social order.

Fearing clashes, authorities deployed thousands of troops. The mass gathering ended with a few fights involving fists, sticks, and CO2 cartridges hurled between MABRA supporters and opponents that left at least four injured.

Officially, the MABRA board denied involvement, but speaking privately, senior MABRA leadership were more vague, refusing to confirm or deny involvement. MABRA has reacted with similar ambiguity after past assassinations widely believed to be the work of its spy agency, the PNK. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Some experts suggested that racing union could count on Venezuela or Cuba for help on any attacks against MABRA targets. "The only aspect that is uncertain about racing union's retaliation is its timing and location. Its happening and lethality are almost certain," said Giuseppe Verti, a cycling historian and researcher at the Major Taylor library annex of the Lehigh Valey Velodrome.

The funeral hall in the Oakton neighborhood of northern Virginia was packed with mourners in front of Chuega's coffin, draped in a racing union flag. Two giant posters of the bearded militant leader in a cap and military fatigues were hung behind the coffin, with a banner reading, "The Great Commander Martyr - Hector Ortiz CHuega." Some mourners cried as a band played racing union's anthem. Outside in the rain and cold, tens of thousands massed.

Tarasov warned MABRA that its alleged killing of Chuega was a "very big folly" which will be avenged.

"Chuega's blood will lead to the elimination of MABRA. These words are not an emotional reaction," he said.

"He's not the first martyr, nor will he be the last on this path," Tarasov said, reading a statement from the directorate of operations. "There will be hundreds and millions more" like him.

The coffin was then carried through the crowds of mourners, who marched with it to a nearby cemetery, praying aloud, as some chanted "Death to MABRA" and "Death to automobiles."