Getting back into the cycling game takes patience, perseverance and a will to control your own destiny. I was in the market for some cycling kit, so after a combination of asking around and doing my own research, I decided on Castelli clothing. They were the company that were going to help me re-establish myself as a premier ham-and-egger/poseur deluxe-I mean, inspire me to ride.
Castelli has an excellent reputation, second only to Assos in terms of quality but less expensive depending on where you make the purchase. The best prices that I've found were at Merlin Cycles in Great Britain. Added to their already low prices was the exclusion of the VAT (value added tax) that we Americans do not have to pay. That 20% savings, plus free shipping over a certain dollar amount purchased, adds up to more clothing and more savings. For anyone looking for a great deal, you can look these cats up on the internet.
Here is a list of all the stuff I bought during the winter-
1) Castelli Prologo V short-sleeve jersey (6)
2) Castelli Prologo V long-sleeve jersey (3)
3) Castelli Fondo jersey (1)
4) Castelli Puro jersey (1)
5) Castelli Mortirolo 4 jacket (2)
6) Castelli Endurance X2 bib shorts (2)
7) Castelli Free Aero Race bib shorts (2)
8) Castelli Omloop thermal bibshorts (2)
9) Castelli Thermoflex arm/leg/knee warmers (1 of each)
10) LAS helmet (white)
11) Sidi Genius 7 (white)
Castelli arm, leg, knee warmers and gloves-
Castelli bag and LAS helmet-
Castelli base layers-
Castelli bibshorts-
Sidi Genius 7 Cycling Shoes-
If you're going to get back into the game, do it in style and have your kit organized. No jersey from one company and bib shorts from another. Also, don't let the hoi polloi shame you out of purchasing high quality clothing from another company-that's right, Rapha. Their videos are corny and sometimes a bore to watch, but again catch them when they put stuff on sale and you'll do alright. Though I must say Castelli has the most comprehensive list of cycling apparel, so there really is no reason to go anywhere else.
The last part of this series will focus on the completed bike. Stay tuned.
Let's take a look at some gadgets that every 21st. century rider needs to look like a complete poseur-I mean, dedicated cyclist.
First off, a cell phone is crucial to get the various cycling gadgets up and running and coordinated with one another. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Refine is inexpensive and does exactly what I need it to do.
The Wahoo Elemnt cycling computer and GPS is arguably a better product than anything Garmin has put out, and it communicates well with the Favero Assioma power meter pedals. Then you have the Wahoo Tickrx heart rate monitor that will send the info it collects right to the Wahoo Elemnt so you can monitor yourself as you blow the fuck up and are left for dead by the rest of the riders in your respective group.
The Wahoo Elemnt quarter turn mount adapter makes the computer/GPS compatible with the Garmin Edge stem mount that goes with the 3T Integra stem. It is necessary to mount the Wahoo on this particular stem, which is what the stem was made for.
Ray Long has published the most comprehensive set of yoga books currently on the market. The drawings are anatomically correct and meticulously done. It is also a step-by-step manual into the ways particular sets of muscles are stretched depending on pose. You're not going to find anything better than this series of books for yoga.
Here are various gadgets to aid in your yoga/stretch/recovery sessions. The black box contains an ice pack from a company that makes excellent products-
This is where we get even more creative. In the photo below we have the Garmin Vivoactive 3 watch, which tells you everything you need to know, and it's great for tracking heart rate and total steps taken during the course of a particular activity or for the whole day.
Next we have the Perfect Ab Carver Pro which comes with detachable handles, and a portable back massager (the contraption with the blue balls) when your muscles get tight from riding in an aerodynamic position. The rest are various rollers for different parts of the body.
For more intense recovery, you could get the TimTam percussion massager ($199),the Hyperice Hypervolt (($349.99), the RXGun ($399.99) or the Theragun ($600),which is nothing but a Workx 20v jigsaw with 5 attachments. The other three are nothing but bootleg copies of the Workx, which retails for $69.99. You can get the attachments that are pictured on Ebay without having to retrofit any of the parts. Then you have the Ryobi car buffer, which can be used for deep tissue massage. The youtube videos will explain in detail why you should purchase these power tools to aid in recovery-
This video shows the Ryobi car buffer in action. Also shown is a Ryobi jigsaw retrofitted for use as a deep tissue massager.
A better idea is to get the Workx jigsaw and get the attachemnts from Ebay that require absolutely no retrofitting. Just pop the attachment in question in and you're good to go.
If all this is not enough, the next two contraptions are for the seriously dedicated/hardcore athlete-
1) Compex Wireless 2.0 Muscle Stimulator Kit w/TENS. This is both a muscle simulator and a muscle recovery tool. The eight individual pods are wireless, and believe me that makes a huge difference in terms of convenience. It has other features that makes this the best in it's class. Catch it when Compex has them on sale and you will not regret it.
2) The Air Relax compression system. If you're a cyclist you've seen these before. Or maybe you haven't. There are more expensive brands out there, but this one is the most inexpensive in relation to what you get. For less than a grand, you have the air compression unit, a pair of white foot massagers, right and left leg sleeves that have four chambers from feet to the upper thighs, and shorts that deliver dynamic compression covering the quads, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, lower back and abductors. The arm sleeve is self-explanatory. It's for the arms. You only get one because it's not a good idea to do both at the same time, though there will always be some fucking idiot out there who will purposely not follow the instructions and then sue the company if something goes wrong.
If you're in the market for an air compression system, this one is impossible to beat in terms of both price and quality. Don't think that if you spend more money you'll get a much better product. That is simply not true. You could always pay $3545 for the Normatec Pulse Pro 2.0 if you got it like that, but if you don't the Air Relax system is the move you need to make.
(I forgot to mention two invaluable peaces of equipment-a good, solid massage table and the Teeter FitSpine Inversion table. Spine decompression relieves back pain, especially for cyclists who spend the majority of their riding time hunched over the handlebars. Photos to follow.)
Part III will feature the type of clothing you'll need to avoid looking like a right wanker. If you are the one constantly getting dropped like an anchor as soon as the road tilts that slightest bit upwards, might as well get dropped in style.
I've been off the bike for quite a number of years and felt the time was right to join the ranks of the deluded pack jelly motherfuckers who think they're Chris Froome just because they can beat you up a hill.. When the weather was nice, I thought of those long mountain passages of the Tour de France and the snow-covered peaks of the Giro D'Italia. Every time the weather was cloudy and cool, I thought of the Ardennes Classics with their short, sharp and steeps climbs. I thought of the racers, who are insanely fit. I thought of the cutting edge equipment they use and how much I enjoyed researching the newest technology. Slowly but surely I began the process of re-joining the peloton. Here is the journey.
The heads of state, 1993 Tour de France-
I decided to purchase another road frame. Realistically I didn't need one. I just I said "Fuck It" and did so. I've found something to like about all of the frame materials (never rode steel), but there were limitations to consider. Today's carbon frames today are cost prohibitive. As for aluminum, I've always been annoyed at how North American frame builders don't bother to sand the welds. Those thick, industrial welds told me that the frame builder either couldn't be bothered or he figured no one cares so why go the extra mile. And they look absolutely hideous.
I have ridden titanium in the past, and felt if I could make a few changes to the geometry I would be happy. Aesthetically, no one did titanium road frames like Litespeed back in the day. They shaped all the tubes of the frame to the point where it looked like you were riding a rocket ship. Alas, the company split into two different entities (Litespeed and Lynskey) and Litespeed no longer offers custom frames. So I decided on a custom Lynskey R480.
With Lynskey, there were details like tube shaping, bottom bracket size and internal cable routing that were not possible. That was fine with me because those types of changes were superfluous to the quality of the frame. Why would I go through all this and not get exactly what I want? Well, no other titanium manufacturer come close in terms of quality and price. The bottom line is the price for the Lynskey was absolutely mind-blowing for what I was getting. So the trigger was pulled and the process started.
The infamous 1-2-3 finish of the Gewiss team at La Fleche Wallone, 1994-
As for the geometry, here are the basic specs-
1) 54cm seat tube, 55cm top tube.
2) 72.5 degree seat tube angle, 73 degree head tube angle.
3) 4.3 mm fork rake.
4) Seatstay length 41.5cm.
One can accuse me of being a retro grouch, as I firmly believe that the 1990's was the best time for cycling; both the racing and the technology. I do not like sloping top tubes, off the rack geometry or disc brakes. And the fragility of carbon doesn't interest me. One crack in the wrong place and you have to dismantle the frame, send it somewhere for repair, have it shipped back and build it back up. Not what I want to deal with unless I had another frame ready to go and would not miss any quality riding time. Even then it all sounds like a monumental pain in the ass. I'll do a carbon frame some other time.
I didn't care about the weight of the frame and never asked about it. It certainly wasn't going to compete with carbon, nor was it ever meant to be. I wanted a frame that fit my needs and was impervious to the latest fads; a frame that would not go out of style in three months. I looked into another aluminum frame from Cyfac, but alas communication issues rendered that moot.
The bare frame is pictured below. It is currently at Horse Cycles Paint Shop in Brooklyn, NY and will be back very soon if everything goes as planned. The only items missing is the seat and the handlebars. I took the measurements wrong and was sent a pair that were too big. Funny thing-I went to UPS, as they were the original shipper. The cost was $374 and loads of paperwork that I did not know tI had to fill out. I went to my local USPS and they charged me a little over $38 dollars. It may take a few weeks to get to Italy, but at least I didn't have to pay that much money (relatively speaking) to send it back.
Here are a few pics of the Lynskey custom frame when it first arrived*- *click on photos to enlarge
Notice the buttery smoothness of the welds-
This is not the finished product. I am waiting for the painter to do his thing, and then all I need to do is have a mechanic build it up. Next up will be the gadgets one needs to recover after a long, hard ride.
I've said it a million times-street basketball is dead, and the AAU circuit has effectively killed it. There is no longer room for cats like the recently departed Rodney Parker (of "Heaven is a Playground" fame) to roam the parks of NYC in the summertime, looking for that diamond-in-the-rough kid who, with a bit of polishing and some creative accounting with the high school transcript, can get a scholarship to a junior college in the middle of nowhere and hopefully get some semblance of an education before inevitably failing out and coming back home more of a loser than when he left.
As it is now, the AAU circuit has undermined the street hustlers and flesh peddlers that thrived in the shadows. That whole world has been replaced by shoe company reps, over-eager parents, and AAU coaches who control access to the kids they wish to make their fame on. The money is huge, and the pressure to get a piece of that cake is an immense incentive to cheat. The fiasco at Louisville and ex-coach Rick Pitino was just one example of the sordidness that accompanies the pressure to secure that one program-changing basketball prodigy.
What this guy was thinking of doing with all this hardware I have no idea. Was he planning a school massacre? Was he looking to take on Negan and the Saviors from "The Waling Dead"? It's certainly clear that he and his younger cousin who was busted alongside him were riding hard on the Dylan Klebold tip. Recently his no-talent younger brother Ethan held a press conference that no one attended and announced that he ws forgoing his senior season at Bison Testicles State College to go to the NBA. He then retracted his statement when he realized there was NO interest.
Funny enough, Stephon Marbury has a brother who posted some youtube videos of his training sessions. He's another special-ed jackass thinking he has a shot at the league. He had the audacity to claim that he's better than Steph. After peeping the videos, it's fair to say that you don't have to be a talent scout to realize this guy needs to take a Boar's Head course in deli management and catering, because making sandwiches at some dusty bodega in Coney Island is going to be the height of his career trajectory.
Which begs the question-what the fuck is wrong with these retards? I remember Lincoln High Schools' then-athletic director Renan Ebeid telling the cameras for the reality show "City Hardwood", in reference to Sebastian's younger brother Ethan, that "it's tough being a Telfair, you know, when you come from money..." Money has nothing to do with how these particular people behave. The Telfairs and the Marburys come from a long line of underachieving on the basketball court and overachieving in self-destructive and typical ghetto-ass behavior. The money just made their collective dysfunction that much more glaring.
Here is the problem. The AAU circus has made flesh peddlers and pimps out of motherfuckers that should be coaching basketball at their respective levels. But because of the obscene amounts of money involved, these jackals forcibly become father figures and advisers to players who are easy prey if they come from broken homes where the father is nowhere to be found. They do this with one goal in mind-to get that money from sponsors by recruiting as many blue-chip prospects as possible to their AAU squads and selling them to whatever D-I school will have them. The competition is fierce, and this shit has trickled down to fucking middle school.
If you've seen some AAU tournaments on youtube, you'll see teams with names like "Future Phenoms" and "New World All-Stars". These teams have travel expenses and tournament fees paid by their sponsors, with the proviso that the spigot will be turned off if they don't win and if they don't feature top D-I potential talent. The games themselves are boring and pathetic, with the top players on each teasm hogging the limelight while everyone else watches. The coaches don't call plays, they just spend the whole game yelling at the refs and cursing at the players, and if the players aren't trying to dunk they are indiscriminately chucking three-pointers.
The players are bombarded with the type of attention usually reserved for professional athletes. It is not uncommon to see pro players in the stands checking out the latest gonna-be all-time great. And with the pros come the paparazzi and the hoochies. If a top-ranked player doesn't have a ready for youtube "mix tape", which consists of humiliating crossover dribbles where their opponent winds up on the floor, dunks, or any other type of flashy play, they are already late to the party. Let's watch former pro player Jason "White Chocolate" Williams' 10 year old son in a game with other kids his age while grown adults record the antics on their cellphones and ask for his autograph after the game. Real healthy for the kids' self-esteem.
People have a way of ruining EVERYTHING, and if this year's NCAA tournament is any indication, is that beneath all the flash of the AAU circuit, the product coming out the other end is absolute garbage. And young black males are getting fucked over. What happens when you don't make it and have to go out into the real world and find meaningful employment? They cannot go back for help from the assholes who exploited them, because they don't want to be associated with cats who didn't make it. They only find out their degrees (if they manage to graduate) are worth nothing when they are asked to fill out an employment application and the only thing they can put down that they did was play basketball.
Young black males are getting screwed over by a system where everyone gets paid except for the athletes. No one ever went to a basketball game to watch the coach, though I would say there was an exception made for Bobby Knight. He was definitely box office, but for all the wrong reasons.
Night of the Living Dead (Criterion Collection) Release Date-February 13, 2018. Running Time-One Hour and Thirty-Six Minutes.
Glad to be back, boys and girls. Despite the fact that 2017 was a terrible year for film and television, we're hitting the ground running with some excellent recommendations for all you film buffs.
Having been disappointed with the trajectory of both Walking Dead series (yet another letdown for the zombie genre), it is with great pleasure that I announce the release of the granddaddy of them all, "Night of the Living Dead". George A. Romero's 1968 psychotic masterpiece of paranoia, claustrophobia, and flesh-eating ghouls has gotten the restoration treatment it deserves from our good friends at Criterion. Romero played an active role in the restoration, and attended a screening of the finished product at NYC's Museum of Modern Art before he unfortunately passed away July of this year.
This version is a new 4K digital restoration that is sure to blow away all other public domain releases. Criterion doesn't mess around when it comes to stuff like this, so rest assured the blu-ray edition will be THEE version to have in one's collection. Included are all manner of special features, but those were included for people who really want to dig in to the history of how the film was made. It's importance and pop culture relevance cannot be understated, even as we collectively cringe as AMC mangles the genre into the stratosphere of sheer stupidity and ultimate irrelevance. Romero himself was quoted as saying "The Walking Dead" series is nothing but a soap opera with a few zombies kicked in, and he was right.
The new release won't be available for the next few months, but this will give some of you time to replenish some of the classic horror films that have been revamped for blu-ray release. They will definitely be worth purchasing. We will feature some of these titles later in the week. Now may also be the time to upgrade your flatscreen tv and DVD player, especially if you're one of those people who shopped for these items while sumo wrestling with illegal day laborers and overweight trailer park trash housewives at one of those Black Friday loser-thon sales events. Here at "Busting Chops", we offer readers the opportunity to upgrade with dignity. If you have no idea where to begin, do your research. Salespeople are absolutely clueless about audio/video equipment, especially the higher-end stuff, which is NOT sold at Walmart or Best Buy. Take your time and spend the money-it will be well worth it. Watching movies and listening to music should be an experience, not an excuse to tune out your ADD-afflicted crackhead children or for ignoring your overweight, battleaxe wife.
After the second presidential debate (if you can call how the candidates went at each other presidential), a new star arose onto the political horizon-All-American undecided voter Kevin Bone. Watching his porcine neckline struggle to contain itself in that ridiculous sweater (where the fuck did he get that cherry red monstrosity? And here I was thinking that Alexander's Department store closed in 1992. Is their surplus stock still circulating?) His Humpty Dumptian visage and porno moniker was plastered all over the news the very next day, having emerged as some kind of hero because he actually asked a question that was pertinent to the future of this beleaguered country.
The media are idiots, and they think the average viewer is too stupid to delve any further into any particular subject long enough for the development of nuanced thought. This is why we've been presented with this lardass, and it's why he's become a national folk hero-because he is indistinguishable from the so-called "average" American that politicians love pandering to. If you want to check these so-called average American motherfuckers out, you must go to their natural habitat. Take a bus or fly to Ohio, Wisconsin, or Iowa and stroll through a neighborhood mall on any given weekend. You will see these Kevin Bone-types with their grotesque, morbidly obese, pasty white, and equally sartorially challenged offspring looking for the two-for-one special at Arby's. They are also at the local supermarket, with their carts full of Cheez Wiz and Spam. It's enough to give you rectal spasms. These are the so-called "real" Americans that so desperately want to make America great again, and Kevin Bone is leading the charge.
Media darling Ken Bone making the rounds-
Man of the fucking people-
He's Everyfuckingwhere!!!
But like every fairy tale, reality is a bit more challenging to countenance, especially when it's staring at you in the mirror. It seems as if this lovable, inflatable media darling has some character flaws. Or, as we here at "Busting Chops" like to put it, the Ken Bone is apparently connected to the ass bone. He's made some totally ignorant remarks about the Trayvon Martin shooting, claiming that the shooting was justified. and made some remarks in the chat forum of a porn site featuring pregnant women having sex. Apparently he finds this particularly repulsive niche of the adult entertainment industry titillating, like any normal, well-adjusted American would (NOT). He also admitted to insurance fraud, a federal crime. This is the problem with making douchebags like Kevin Bone into heroes. They will always let you down. At least we can buy a t-shirt, just to show our friends we belong in "The Bone Zone"...Somewhere Ron Jeremy is kicking himself for not coming up with this marketing idea first.
Having forever been typecast, he can't even appear on television anywhere without having to wear that repulsive red sweater. I can see him now on the beach in Rio de Janeiro rockin' a pair of Speedos and a red sweater vest. Now that would be a fucking sight. There are now Halloween costumes paying homage to "Don Jueso", and one of the Jonas brothers (the gay one...hold it. Aren't they all gay?) wants to shag his fat, hairy ass. To quote detective Bunk from "The Wire", this whole thing"makes me sick how far we done fell". But we have further to fall, because on November 28th (according to Trump, who can't even get the day we vote for president correct) we get to elect one of the worst of two evil lessers to this land's highest office. How exciting.
In this corner, we have a careerist, polyester pant-suited political hack who, along with her husband, has one of the most despicable records of fucking shit up for poor people of color not only in the US but in places like Haiti, where his so-called foundation is nothing but a supply-side economic stimulus package for their political cronies. The list of grievances are too long to list, but it continued with Hillary as Secretary of State. This adult diaper-wearing asshole and her serial rapist husband have managed to enrich themselves through their political connections to the point where they could offer their own daughter a fucking $900,000 a year PART TIME JOB with their own foundation.
And in the next corner, we have an out-of-touch, elitist, misogynistic neanderthal orangutan who's managed to fail upwards for almost all his life and now campaigns as a man of the people. His belligerent, racist, sexist rants against the country that made it possible for him to succeed despite being a pea-brained, propped up, entitled jackass whose only talent is telling everyone how great he is, has resonated with the American people. These are our two choices.
Thank goodness we have Kevin Bone to cut through the clutter. Get your t-shirt and go out and vote. It'll make little to no difference in the long run due to the quality of both candidates, but if Trump wins you can at least say you did something top try and stop him. Then again, if elected he did promise that Blacks and Latinos will have "the time of their lives". That's something, at least. My peeps can look forward to getting deported to the sounds of salsa, merengue, and bachata blaring from the sound system of a defunct Trump Airlines plane, which he will lease to the federal government for dollars on the penny just so they can get rid of us and he can make a profit.
