And then youre sitting there saying, "but what does Burt Reynolds have to do with anything?" and to that I offer this;
Burt Reynolds has to do with everything.

You know, theres this thing called The Hell Ride that Santa Cruz Mountain Bikes does, where they round up a bunch of very fit folks, drop them in a small mountain town with a couple other possibly slightly more fit folks, and let em ride their damn brains out in hopes of getting something shiny and new.
Well, this dame here gets my vote.
Ill give you one guess as to why.
And its not cause shes tougher than I am.

Might I suggest you throw in your two cents as well.
But like I always say, I dont really care who you vote for, just as long as you vote.

Josh in Atlanta wrote in;

Stevil,

Just wanted to send you this image of a little prank we played on our buddy.
I find it completely hilarious and disgusting. (Its not real hair but oh did he think it was.)

Just another day avoiding the bummer life.

-Josh in Atlanta"

Id probably think that was funny if that wasnt exactly how my soap always looked.
I cry the tears of a hirsute clown.

And speaking of which, I know you all are dying to know who won my moustache. Well, firstly, Id be fibbing if I said I wasnt a little surprised that the virtual walls werent torn down by a stampede of ladies trying to get their hands on it.
There wasnt even a tiny flutter, or even a single email.
So much for thinking I know what girls like.
Anyhow, there were some truly inspired pitches for the hair, but as with every race, there can only be one winner, and our "winner" is Mr. Waggle, John Ryan;

"so heres my submission for your mustache hair. First I do have a genuine need for it as I could unlaminate it and use it to cover up my bald spot on the scar that i received from the bouncers exactly two weeks ago. Secondly, one of the guys who threw me into that sign had the last name of none other than Bacon. No lies. I'll scan the police report for you if you don't believe me. Also, did you know exactly two years ago on this date it was 6/6/06. You know I actually thought about the coincidence when it all happened but I was to busy getting rad on my skateboard in LA for the first time in my life and had no one to share it with. That was a pretty special occurrence and the only time it would ever happen. Most importantly I would rather see the picture of you bald upper lip because I don't believe you. I'm still thinking you shaved your balls and are giving your ball hair away as one big joke.

John"

And as far as a shot of my hair free upper lip goes, some might say "your wish is my command" but in this respect we might have to respond with "you asked for it".

Of course at this point, I wasnt freshly shaven as Id already been on the road for some time, so youll just have to take my word for it. Well, that and the fact that the other hair you mentioned has a committed relationship with the bar of soap in the corner of the shower.
Lets take this out of the gutter and back to the inbox, shall we?

Marko writes;

"hey stevil---i caught this shot the other day while searching for a watering hole mid-way through a five hour gravel ride. at first i thought "gee, what a weird looking door" that's when i saw it.

also, do you still happen to have a freebie to sswc? i talked to my bro james and he is considering making the trip, but thought i'd see if you decided to give it a go before he made any plans. hope the mpls trip was eventful."

Who knew the Dark Lord was such a patriot?
And as proven by Russell, a patriot with expensive taste, in crappy brakes.

So are you ready for your daily dose of the rock?

There are some cats from L.A. that go by the name Who Rides The Tiger and their new album "Transylvania Baby" is quickly becoming one of my favorite new slabs. Ive exchanged some emails with them, and they seem to be pretty solid folks to boot. If you have a soft spot of big, ugly guitar driven bliss, pick yourself up a copy.

I should also mention that while wearing my Who Rides The Tiger shirt through O'Hare International airport Tuesday, the faces of everyone who took note of the graphic emblazoned across the front immediately dropped into one of intrigued sadness.
Classic.

We got an email from Josh, whos putting on a gig in our own backyard;

"Hey there Stevil-
the Santa Cruz Wildcat bicycle race and ride is coming up this Saturday.

Race Starts at noon, registration at 11am, Saturday. Meet at the Bicycle Church in Downtwn Santa Cruz.
I rode the course the other day and was very pleased, and the food and drink will again be excellent and abundant.

I will be giving away a frameset again. If you and the fine friendly folks at swobo have any desire to donate any prizes, your wooly offerings will be warmly welcomed and thanked.

In other News, I just returned from a fine bike ride (2 weeks or so) and posted some fun photos here..

Thanks and take care
josh"

Josh came by on an amazing new cargo bike creation of his, and I loaded him up with some Swobo love, so if you care for a good time, get on it.

I havent spent much time trolling Craigslist as of late, but luckily we have foot soldiers like Matt whove picked out a couple of classics for us;

"Hey folks,
Found a sweet fixed gear bike on craigslist. Seeing as how I've almost reached critical mass in my small apt (I might have room for a Vanilla Speedvagen just in time for cross season....hmmmmm), I can't swoop it up so I figured I'd pass on the hotness to you guys.

Read on.

And this one...

Good luck...and let the bidding wars begin!

Matt"

Craigslist always knows the fastest track to my heart.

Chris gave us an update on their recent event that went down in Bellingham;

"Howdy Stevil,
I think we did the spirit of Donny proud this weekend and I thought I would share a few post 'cat thoughts and photos with you. Seeing as how Donny loved bowling, we had an assorted variety of bowling stops for the event including bowling bowling, lawn bowling (bocce ball), alley wheel bowling, and bike bowling.

The bike bowling (which at time more resembled body bowling) culminated the obb-stackle course set up to ultimately determine the male and female winners and proved to be the most entertaining part of the race.

I have to give you credit for providing the inspiration for this one with your "one handed hill climb while eating a hot dog" race. I guess you could call our version the "one handed obb-stackle course while drinking a caucasian" race. And it provided plenty of spills and thrills.

More words, photos, and video footage can be found on zee blog.
Good times, Good times. And thanks again for the shwag."

You all are very welcome, and we were happy to have been able to help out. Also, Im glad to have been able to have given you all some ideas for the race. Sadly were presently in the midst of our second wild fire in as many weeks, and the spot where we usually meet for the tom foolery is presently pretty close to the burn zone, so upcoming feats of strength might include the "not getting burned alive game" and later, the ever popular "not getting attacked by a displaced mountain lion challenge".

You might have noticed that Ive not had any Wednesday night ride reports for a few weeks. This has been due to the fact that Ive been absolutely buried under work, and/or have felt fairly anti-social as of late, but as Devon pointed out the other night, it might soon be time that I spread my wings like the big, beautiful butter fly that I am, and stop being such a baby.
Note taken, Devon. Note taken.

JMac wrote in with an email that simply stated "The Japanese are genius."

Im sure you all are familiar with the television show "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge".
I recently saw that theres an American version coming out soon where the contestants get even more humiliated and battered, and if you know me even a little bit, then you know that this is something that makes me absolutely pee my pants with glee..

When I came home from my trip I had a care package from The Bike Snob;

and then an email from him a day later;

"Ah, the Apocalypse...nobody's safe.

In the meantime, here's my unsolicited art submission. It's the best I could do without Photoshop or talent."

The angels are truly smiling upon me.

And now finally, an email from another one of my favorite pen pals, George;

"Dude,
Enjoy the random moments in time of the superfly weekend from lovely Fort Collins.
1. When your yard hits the road for the bummer life

2. lady turns…

3. jump jam

4. he came in through the shower window

g"

And with that I offer a fond farewell. Everybody get down this weekend.
xo