Upcoming Product Reviews, Events & Going, Going, Gone, and, and…
I’ve been meaning to mention – between my daily fluctuation – that the guy’s over at cantitoeroad.com sent in a sample of Caffelatex Tubeless Tire Sealant – an alternative to Stan’s – about 8 weeks ago, and now it’s happening. Thus far, I’ve been “testing” it with excellent short-term results on multiday and daily rides since it arrived in the mail. That said, I’ll be working out a “product review” of the Caffeelatex Sealant in the coming days for anyone (like me) who has been wishing for an alternative to Stan’s NoTubes. So far, it looks to be promising.
Product test number two – which has also been on the back burner for months now – is a freshly installed 700c Xtracycle FreeRadical provided by biketrailershop.com. Again, it too is promising and I’ll have a full write up of the pro’s/cons of the install & the ride in the coming days. At this point, I can say that anyone wanting to put some utility capability (that’s right) 
into their townie/commuter needs to consider this on. Esta si bueno. And this first review will appropriately be numero uno in a multipart series as there are many ways to modify and upgrade it for personal needs which in my case, involve one totally badass two year old (see pic below). The 3 part series shouldn’t take more than a few years to complete. And while I’m dropping the knowledge, biketrailershop is absolutely exploding these days which gets me a all fuzzy-stoked as it’s good to see fortune bestowed on the purveyors of not just trailers, but the all encompassing cycling lifestyle. They’re doing good things over there.
Last plug of shameless propaganda is that Lt Dan over at milewidesports just received an ass-load of Shiman components, Fox Forks and other blingery & whatnot which is now fronting at a discount/slash-price/sell,sell, sell rate via the milewidesports ebay store. Go have a look as there are huge deals to be had in them thar pages. Consider this an APB for the deal seek’n misers in all of us.
Events
On the local tip, the MBAA is in town tomorrow for the State Finals. They’ve got a rip’n course that ought to test Keller and the Reedy Brothers once again. As well, Local talent Josh Kelly will be in attendance. Expect that kid to rip legs off a few.
On the personal tip. Your’s truly has been flat broke for going on about 35 years with the last few weeks being the most impressive point of all that. In consideration of that constraint (being broke like joke) the blessing is that while I had to sub-lease my apt for the summer to save on the quan, I gave it up to none other than Mr. Morris, the mondo-epic cyclist of topofusion mapping systems and all around AZT tomfoolery. He’s probably sitting in the basement right now making sure the Spot-tracking for the Tour divide is full-speed-operational. In conjunction with lending him my flat for two months while I couch surfer & squatt @ places like Blaircamp to ponder the point of everything, I expect to share some killer rides with him around the AZ northland. He’s got some good things brewing on the horizon. Welcome to town Mr. Morris. Good to have you here!
Random Photo Set
On account of originally spying this Punk Rock image over at the bummer life. I felt somewhat dismayed that I had not observed the Charles Chips van myself which is on one of my daily routes here in Flagtopia. I Therefore required myself to snap an image of it for my own records next time I passed it. BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME!
Potato Chips. Cookies. Punk Rock. Totally Bitchen. And since we’re on the level of totally bitchen things, the following GMC 4400 – which I didn’t know even existed – I spotted in Kingman. It too is completely bad ass, paradoxically unlike this. Some people just don’t get it.
Last up on the bitchen tip is this completely bitchen O.G. Whizzer that Brycles has been displaying outside his shop for the past few weeks. I don’t remember what year it is, but whatever. It’s totally bad ass. Just check the size of that sprocket.
On the way out, This is what I got. If done right, the weekend promises to be a good one, full of adventure and curiosity. Find your inner child by bike this weekend and you probably wont regret it.
Done. Gone. Happy Friday.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I’ve had an XtraCycle for about 2 years now – it’s mounted to a ‘93 steel Stumpy w/36 spoke wheels. It rocks. The only thing that consistently bites me is the Footies accessory foot plates. I catch my feet in those things constantly on slow rolling starts. But my daughter loves them, so my future broken ankle will be at the expense of her smiling face.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I used to have a teammate who drove us to race at T-Town in his Charles Chips truck. Sitting on those big cans of chips wasn’t all that comfortable, but there was always something to eat on the ride home.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I have an XtraCycle mounted on an old steel Benotto road frame with 700c wheels, old Campy record high flange hubs and beefy Mavic rims. It has straight bars, platform pedals, and twelve speeds, delivered via a mixture of old Campy and Dura-Ace components.
It is a complete dream to own and use and ride. I always suspected I would like having an XtraCycle, but until I got one I had no idea how much I would like it.
It’s just plain life-changing.
June 12th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
i really think one of the extra cycle tests should involve me on the back with some combination of whiskey, a really big hill and maybe even some fire works
work on that.
thanks.
June 14th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Thanks DH, it’s damn good to be here. Can’t wait to work less on SPOTs and more on pedaling up those big mountains north of here.