Velo Cult http://www.velocult.com/index.php en iheartmybeard@gmail.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-10T17:46:07+00:00 Gran Fondo 2010 http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/gran_fondo_2010/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/gran_fondo_2010/#When:17:46:07Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

The Gran Fondo is a long ride (not a race) with options of 100, 53. or 32 miles. There were two things that surprised me this year: 1. It was pouring rain in San Diego and 2. People still rode! Most San Diegans are not accustomed to riding in the rain so it was really cool to see people still getting out there. All in all it was a great event and will probably be remembered for the weather in years to come.

]]> 2010-03-10T17:46:07+00:00 San Diego Custom Bicycle Show 2010 http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/san_diego_custom_bicycle_show_2010/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/san_diego_custom_bicycle_show_2010/#When:22:15:21Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

]]> Misc 2010-02-27T22:15:21+00:00 A Colnago and The Scorned Woman http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/colnago_and_the_scorn_woman/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/colnago_and_the_scorn_woman/#When:23:00:30Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

This is a story of a beautiful Italian bike and the scorned woman.

This frame came from a War of the Roses type household.  The owner of this bike, Frank, was your typical avid cyclist that liked really nice bikes. After cycling for many years and slowly upgrading bikes every few years he eventually felt it was time to drop the cash on a Colnago steel bike. He got this bike and he loved it more than anything. Like any of us he spent hours riding it and even had it displayed in his living room.

His wife was not a cyclist and couldn’t understand the fascination with the bike or cycling for that matter. Apparently she tried a few times to ride but got aggravated and gave up quickly. It wasn’t for lack of trying as Frank tried over and over to get her at least to like cycling for a random ride once in a while. He was going to be a rider for the rest of his life and he was hoping she could be one of those cool wives that went on big rides or at least would ride to go to dinner and maybe to the movies.

If you were to ask me they should have never been together. I always thought she was an angry and bitter woman. Her absolute hatred of bikes and Frank’s riding didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t the only one to skillfully sit Frank down and talk about his unhealthy relationship with his wife. I learned later that others had done the same. After 19 years of marriage he pulled the plug and split ways with her. Now he has 6 bikes in his living room and he rides twice as much. He seems pretty happy to be out from under her restrictive ways.

About 6 months after the divorce she went on a drinking binge, broke into the house by breaking the sliding glass door and found the Colnago. He had several more bikes there but she recognized the gaudy (as she puts it) Colnago. As you can see by the photos she went to town on it with a 3 pound sledge hammer. She must have hit it at least 20 times on the top tube from different angles. Like I said, an angry bitter woman.

Let this be a lesson to marry well I guess…

(A story by Sky)


Well that’s the story that’s runs through my head every time I look at this frame. The story above is all BS but doesn’t it sound about right? I mean, how else can you get that many dents from so many different angles. It’s got to be a scorn woman. It’s just gotta.

Since I obviously can’t ever sell this frame I decided once to build it up fixed just to see how it went. It actually rides beautifully. It tracks perfectly straight and riding without hands is effortless. I usually don’t have any issues with riding bikes with a dent on the top tube but this one is an extreme case to say the least. Who knows, maybe it will be a café bike for myself. I will keep a really close eye on it though. That or replace the top tube and install a standard round tube in place of the shaped tube. Such a shame to put a torch to the chrome and paint though.

]]> 2010-02-19T23:00:30+00:00 Velo Cult & Citizen Video Film Screening: The Bicycle Thief http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/velo_cult_x_citizen_video_film_screening_the_bicycle_thief/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/velo_cult_x_citizen_video_film_screening_the_bicycle_thief/#When:18:56:52Z

]]> 2010-02-17T18:56:52+00:00 Ride to Suzie’s CSA Farm http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/ride_to_suzies_csa_farm/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/ride_to_suzies_csa_farm/#When:19:32:50Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

Last Saturday Velo Cult, BikeSD.org and SDBikeCommuter.com hosted a really fun bike ride. We rode though downtown and took the Ferry to Coronado Island. There were about 30 bikes on the little ferry so it was packed in there. From there we rode all the way down the strand and ended up at Suzie’s farm just this side of the San Diego/Tijuana border fence.  In fact the farm is in between the border fence and the border patrol station. The ride was fantastic as we had beautiful San Diego weather and a nice long uninterrupted bike path along the ocean.  There were 4 kids on the ride too I might add, something you don’t see nearly enough in SD. Three of the kids were on the back of Xtracycles and one on the back of a Bike Friday tandem.

We did this ride because quite a few people active in the bike community are also very conscious of where they buy their produce. They want to eat well, buy local, support small farms and well, support good business owners. The owners of Suzie’s farm rode along with us the ride. BTW, they both have Surly Big Dummy’s with baby seats for their twins!  When we got there we got a tour of the farm and we were encouraged to grab as much produce as we could hold. It’s really fun to pick your own food before eating it. In a day and age where everything is factory farmed and you don’t get to see the process it’s nice to have a small local independent certified organic grower in your town who just happen to also be bike commuters.  The kids and adults alike had a great time picking between all kinds of different vegetables.

This farm also does CSA (community shared agriculture) boxes which quite a few of us (me included) partake in.  CSA programs happen all over country nowadays and it works like a membership. Basically you buy a share of the farm for a set price a month. Then every week or bi-weekly you get a box full of produce that’s picked fresh the day before. It’s getting us back to eating seasonally again. I love the program because it forces me to learn new recipes and try exotic veggies.  You really get to feel connected with what and you and where the food came from.  Having a CSA that does tours which allows us to pick out own produce really makes it personal.

After leaving the farm we went to a local restaurant named MZM Bistro where we were served a vegan lunch using nothing but veggies from the farm.  It was damn good food and obviously very fresh. 




My Mountain Goat “Lombada Goat” tandem

Maybe this carrot was not quite ready






Produce was flying all over the place







Kids and commuter bikes are so cool.

The wife and myself rode the Mountain Goat tandem since it was Valentines Day weekend.


Here’s Brian sporting a Velo Cult wool jersey and riding his newly built Astro Daimler city bike that came out awesome.

Here’s some photos of some of the riders throughout the day





This little ferry had bikes everywhere. They were on the piled up inside and outside.


Here we are on the Coronado Island side of the ferry getting our stuff together again.







Yummy!

]]> 2010-02-16T19:32:50+00:00 New Cadence Straps, Arm Warmers and Backpacks in stock now. http://www.velocult.com/ http://www.velocult.com/#When:01:35:08Z We just got in a shipment of Cadence products. We have Double Toe Straps in grey and black, Arm Warmers and a limited run of Backpacks in two colors. Available online and in the store.

]]> 2010-02-11T01:35:08+00:00 Anza Borrego - The story of a bike tour gone bad albeit with a good ending http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/anza_borrego_-_the_story_of_a_bike_tour_gone_bad_albeit_with_a_good_ending/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/anza_borrego_-_the_story_of_a_bike_tour_gone_bad_albeit_with_a_good_ending/#When:22:58:00Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

Anza Borrego - The story of a bike tour gone bad albeit with a good ending.

Recently some friends and I got the itch to do some off road touring.  We set our sights on Anza Borrego state park about a 2 hour drive east of San Diego. We anticipated a very difficult two day one night tour in the beautiful state park on the 4x4 flash flood trails. We knew it would be very sandy so we picked a day that was 3 days after a large storm hoping it would make the trail a bit easier.  Perhaps 3 days was too long…

The day of the tour we drove to end of the trail to hide water and firewood and then drove around to the start of the trail to start the ride. This process took a lot longer than expected and we didn’t actually hit the trail until about 2pm. As soon as we started riding it was very apparent the tour wouldn’t happen as planned. The sand was horribly deep and very difficult carrying full camping supplies. For the first 5 miles we averaged about 3 miles per hour. Still, I carried on since I wanted to see as much of this trail as I could. I had the other riders pick up my 4x4 as I continued on. Eventually when it was too dark to ride safely I quit and started walking. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful as I walked though those canyons alone in the dark. I was probably being stalked by a mountain lion but hey, ignorance is bliss right?? Eventually the truck caught up with me and ended up doing some of the trial by truck that night. There’s a part of the trail called “the squeeze” that is VERY narrow. Getting down it was not so bad but getting back up with full air pressure took about an hour. We came through with the truck in perfect working order so called that a success.

That night we drove back around to the campsite we had planned and got to work assembling the tents and making a well deserved dinner. We all slept really well, in fact I slept 10 hours which is something I don’t think I’ve ever done while camping. So damn quite out there and the deep canyon keeps the sun away for most the morning.  After having pancakes, eggs and bacon we headed out for some more 4x4 action. We probably put 30 or so miles on the truck that day.

So yeah, the bike tour didn’t go as planned but the trip was still a blast. Off road touring is hard to plan, unpredictable, aggravating, dangerous, exciting and fun all at the same time even if it does end up in failure. 

Photos by Brian, Eamonn, Sky (Velo Cult owner) and Nik (employee at Velo Cult)




This mountain is called Elephant Knees

We hiked a bit for this spot. It’s called the Wind Caves. Great views from this spot.

Thats Sky up in one of the caves

Here’s Nik standing outside one of the caves looking out over the beautiful expanse. 

Here is Eamonn with Sky’s B.O.B. trailer

Here’s Sky’s 29er Curtlo with Eamonn’s Yakima trailer. Luckily the Yakima trailer fit the 29er wheel where the B.O.B. would not.





There were slot canyons everywhere.





Here is “The Squeeze”. Going down it was not so bad but going up it took some time.






3 monkeys sitting on a ridge eating lunch.






]]> Misc 2010-02-09T22:58:00+00:00 Gold Plated Campagnolo Parts http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/gold_plated_campagnolo_parts/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/gold_plated_campagnolo_parts/#When:22:20:51Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

While digging through a friends parts drawer I found these gold plated (not anodized) Campagnolo parts. Often times you see things like cranks, brake calipers and seat posts in different colors so it is cool to see less common things like quick release skewers and frame pump heads get some attention. I believe these were made sometime in the 80’s on the east coast.

]]> 2010-02-09T22:20:51+00:00 A ride by the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/a_ride_by_the_pacific_ocean_in_la_jolla/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/a_ride_by_the_pacific_ocean_in_la_jolla/#When:00:37:12Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

A beautiful day warrants a ride by the beach in La Jolla. The location of these photos are taken at Glider port near the famous Salk Institute. The views are fantastic and on a clear day you can see Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles and if you’re lucky you can catch glimpses of dolphins. Near the bottom of this vantage point is a rather fascinating building. The privately owned building was designed and built by Dale Naegle for Sam Bell (of Bell Potato Chips) in 1965. The funicular you see behind the building running up the cliff takes you up to a private residence that was again owned by Sam Bell. A great day for a ride.

 

]]> 2010-02-04T00:37:12+00:00 Meeting with Council member Todd Gloria at Velo Cult http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/meeting_with_councilmember_todd_gloria_at_velo_cult/ http://www.velocult.com/index.php/blog/post/meeting_with_councilmember_todd_gloria_at_velo_cult/#When:17:24:15Z ***Please CLICK the main photo or the “Read More” tab at the bottom of each post to see the rest of the pictures in the set.***

This goes for all blog posts!

Over the weekend we allowed our space to be used for a meeting with San Diego Council member Todd Gloria. It was an open forum for people to voice concerns about their city and discuss various issues. We actually designed our shop to hold events of all kinds so it was nice to see it being used again.

]]> 2010-02-02T17:24:15+00:00