Wooden Velodrome

A while ago I had the opportunity to ride on the wooden Velodrome in Los Angeles. This indoor track is one of the best anywhere and a blast to ride on. If you've never ridden on a Velodrome, you have to try it. First, you will have to go through a class and get certified. They don't want people on the track who don't know the etiquette and rules of this kind of riding. It looks chaotic and crazy, but there is an method to all of it. You have to ride a fixed geared bike with no brakes so that things don't happen too quickly, and you need to be aware of a host of things that keep you and the rest of the riders safe.

The other nice thing, is that you can rent a bike from the facility to give it a go, so no big initial investment is needed. The surface is raw wood with no varnish or other weird coating to affect the grip. The main thing is maintaining sufficient speed when you go around the banks. This keeps you upright and enough angle to keep you from dragging a pedal or sliding down the walls. At 16mph minimum, it's actually fairly easy. Yeah, the first couple of laps are a little intimidating, but it doesn't take long to find that comfort zone. I just followed the guide rider in front of me and in no time I was flowing around the track. Pretty cool.

Indoor Training

Living in California means you often get spoiled by our weather. We can ride our bikes year round, but there are times when Mother Nature throws a curveball. December of 2010 saw a solid week of rain. Not the drissle for 20 minutes kind either, it was non-stop for what seemed like an eternity. At first I welcomed the much needed rain to our drought plagued Southern California, but since it started to extend in to our weekend ride and was showing no signs of letting up, I needed to dust off the trainer and do some pedaling indoors.

My trainer rarely gets used and there is a good reason. It is boring as hell. Sure there are ways to spice it up and I've heard of guys with all sorts of computer simulations, rollers, etc., but the reality is that it will never be the same. There is no way to match the adrenaline, the cornering, the wind in your face.  This is what makes riding unique.

Where's my sun?

Cuyamaca

When I lived in San Diego, I had a group of friends that would get together and ride on a pretty regular schedule. We would load up the trucks and go to east San Diego more often than not. The mountains out there are big and you really get away from it all. It's one of the only places in Southern California where you can find big trees. This is a shot of our group with me in the blue t-shirt facing the camera.

We had just got done climbing up to Cuyamaca Peak and stopped to take in the views and fuel up. The peak is about 6,600 feet and takes a lot out of you. The trails there are just awesome. This was shot way back in about 1991. Check out my rig, it's the one with the yellow Rock Shock Judy SL fork which was pretty awesome in their day. That was one of my first rides. It was a Mongoose hardtail, and I put on XT V-brakes, grip shift and climbing bars with Panaracer tires. I would pinch flat the hell out of those tires in the rock gardens. We thought we were the shit. Ah, memories.

Tecate

Recently we were invited to go down to Mexico to tour the Tecate plant. It was to be an article in our magazine and looked kind of interesting on paper. Anyways, we thought we could have a pretty fun adventure and we drove down at the crack of dawn to east San Diego where we would board a train for a nice tour. The train has cheap tickets and is fairly rustic.

We settled in and took in the views, which by the way, aren't exactly that nice once you leave the 'ol US of A behind. I don't think anyone down there had any idea about the concept of recycling or even something as simple as a trash can. Anyways, the train chugs along much like a bay cruise and right through the heart of the desert. We decided to post up in a car that had the side door open with only a chain to keep us from going further. It was a nice day, not too hot and we enjoyed a few cold ones. As we approached the factory with anticipation, we noticed a big group of people who we had traveled with on the train had the same idea. I did notice, this wasn't exactly a fun, let's get down and party kind of crowd, instead it resembled more of an AARP convention, with hipsacks, Dockers, and  ends up playing bingo rather than tying one on and ringing the bell. After getting off the train we were corralled like cows and lead to something "special."

Like a bad "Love Boat" rerun, we were put in front of a pretty cheesy Mexican "authentic" dancing squad (let the golf clap begin). Of course this was done below huge Tecate banners and we were handed one "Free Sample" beer. If we'd like to have round two, we were going to have to shell out our own hard earned dough. That was going to be pretty much required when you are sitting in plastic chairs for about 2 hours.

Shortly after, we were whisked in to a theater where we were shown a movie by the folks at Tecate. In reality, it was a bad marketing scheme with 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Oh, and by the way, no cameras allowed in the plant. We felt as important as a fly on the wall. Ok, maybe that's a stretch, since they did appoint us a PR representative to hand us a photo CD with pre-approved images for our use. Awesome.

Not long after, we tried to slip out the back without creating a PR nightmare for our magazine (well we were trying to do a story on the factory with hopes that the company might increase their advertising budget for us) and find a local tavern to enjoy a bit more of the local scene. Well the Tecate plant is huge and one of the only reasons why the town exists. In fact, they make a lot of beers; Tecate, Sol, Bohemia, Modelo, etc., along with soda like Pepsi. If you think all those beers are made by some tiny, cool garage type operation, with some guy in the background who happens to be the second most interesting person on the planet, you'd be way off. The plant stretches for as far as the eye can see, and a huge part of the Mexican economy. You are more likely to see a forklift or a huge bottling machine than anything else. You think Anheuser-Busch is big, this thing may just rival it, in fact its just part of a huge network of distribution and manufacturing worldwide. Only this company isn't exactly used to the big marketing budgets of the American breweries and have about as much tact as Spicoli. So other than some quickly thrown up tourists shops in town, there wasn't much to see or do.

Oh well, we did make the best of it and really didn't have too many options. After all, the train conveniently left just shortly after the tour of the plant, and if we decided to skip out and enjoy more of the town, we were stuck for another 24 hours. Wow, chalk that one off the list of things to do.

Brown Ale

I like Brown Ales. Spawned from mild ale, these tend to be a bit sweeter and be a little more malty with full body. Don't go and get your panties in a fix since many don't consider a brown ale that complex, but sometimes there is nothing better. Like having a domestic beer at a sporting event, there are times when a nice brown ale just hits the spot. Yeah, I have a sweet tooth, but there is something nice about having something so simple and so tasty. You can grab a big sip, a handful of peanuts and not miss too much of a conversation, and most of the time that fits the bill nicely.

Great Reading Material

 

I'm a sucker for good books and magazines. A well written and laid out piece takes my mind away to a different place where I can imagine and think about all the cool things in life. For that short period of time, I can forget worries, stress, and problems I might be having. If the photography is good and compliments the story, then it starts to elevate. 

I came across this book when I was reading a blog online. I ordered it and it came by mail a couple of weeks later. Like a kid at Christmas, I pealed open the package to reveal the bright and colorful work of art. It's obvious that whoever did it was passionate and probably didn't create the project with the intention to make a ton of money. It had reviews on cool items, travel pieces, events, thoughts, etc. Some of it could have been left out, but overall I found myself staring at the pictures and admiring the little things that I had never seen before. It showed true craftsman in their own element; painters, athletes, welders, etc., all showing their craft for us to admire. I respect that, in fact, I always respect the work and dedication of people who are creative and have the skills I can only dream of.

I'm sure there are a lot of people that do the same thing as me. They buy these small bits of amusement, browse and shortly after, they retire them to their library that is on display in all of its proud splendor. Okay, maybe some of those pieces end up sitting next to the Porcelain God. After all,  traffic in this area is high and extra time for viewing is always in short supply. Unfortunately, my library is getting too big and if I don't watch it, I'll be walking that fine line of stepping over in to "packrat" status. Then it's time to make room for more.

40 oz. Shootout. Ouch.

Okay, our mag decided it would be interesting to do a 40 oz. Malt Liquor shootout to put to bed which was the best "ghetto" offering. We had to do it in cups unmarked. All I can say is that it was brutal. In actuality the shootout should have been like our political candidates; the lesser of the evils. Yeah it was fun to live some of my dorm room memories, but dear god almighty. Without a doubt, hands down, the worst one was the Steel Reserve. I don't know how anyone can drink this stuff. It was like really bad cough syrup with a very strong aftertaste that hit you like a freight train. I challenge you to take a swig and not make a grimace.

If you don't know, malt liquor has to be labeled as such, because the alcohol content is too high for it to be classified as beer. So a 40 oz. is a big volume of heavy, gutt-wrenching swill and there is a reason it has probably been at least 20 years since I touched this stuff, and if I have my way, it will be much longer before I touch any of this stuff again. The winner? It doesn't matter, they are all terrible and should be avoided like the plague.