Right out of the gate, Im gonna tell you about this.

And then Im gonna say "just as the last tube was tucked away in its place";

Crap.

We got another shipment of bikes in on Friday, which very nearly swallowed The Skipper and myself up.

Two people plus hundreds of bikes equals roughly a 13 hours day, but when all was said and done, we got all the bikes counted, processed, put away, and most importantly shipped to all of the awaiting customers, but because of this, Ill be damned if I can even hold onto a cup of coffee.
The kung fu grip is little more than a mere pinch at this point.
Ice packs and Ibuprofen might get me up and running again, but somehow this time around, I doubt it.

The warehouse is going to be a bit of a ghost town this week as The Skipper bounced to Alaska to go fishing with his dad, so as per the usual, when I run the show solo, I will be manning the helm in my underpants and wrestling mask.

When solitarily operating a machine as immense as this, you gotta find the perks where you can.

Looking of all of these boxes reminds me that we got an email from our dear friends at Knog in which they included pictures of a recent creation that, if it were even possible, has them burrowed within the recesses of our hearts even further.

"Greetings Swobo!

I’d like to introduce you to 'Swobot'…’Defender of HARD!’ Our latest window installation here at the Knog shop in Melbourne.

His eyes are powered by 2 frog lights, his mouth by a bullfrog and his naughty bits by a gator 605…other than that he is created entirely from the boxes that your bikes were shipped to us in (and miscellaneous packaging materials found inside). He’s sure to frighten the little ones!
Note that he is holding a customized Sanchez between the pincers of his left hand.
Yours bikes are proving to be a real hit! Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Woodie
Store Manager
100% KNOG"

That totally rules, and as soon as our soft pellet guns arrive, I suspect The Skipper and myself will be making a bit of body armor that looks similar.

Curtis and the rest of the team have been tirelessly working on the final preparations for the upcoming Worlds. If you havent stopped by to check on the progress, theyve got a weblog with all news, new and old.

The amount of stuff theyve gotten from sponsors is absolutely off the chain. When we put the race on in 2002 It was kinda like pulling teeth to get stuff from alot of companies. Of course the standards were there in force, but from a couple companies whos names I wont mention, I got like, a tire and a sticker pack, with which we made due, but if I was a betting man, Id say it looks like Curtis has got somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 worth of stuff, which beats the hell out of a sticker pack any day.

I hope I win a Swobo jersey.

Though one sponsor who did us a huge honor in 2002 was Independent Fabrications. Now Ive never made this piece of news public before, but they gave us a custom mens frame with a stock paint job and a stock womens frame with a custom paint job.

Being the post-modern, OCD laden rocket thinker that I am, I concluded that it was only right to give the womens frame away to the gal that got 6th place and the mens frame to the fella who got 66th place, who as it turned out were friends.
The way I see it, the ones who work hard and only forever maintain marginal fastness on a bike (like me) shouldnt always be excluded from the booty, which on this day, these two definitely were not.

Now, in a totally unrelated email from LJ;

"'The Blackest of the Black'.

I love the quote..."There are none more black...for they are...the blackest of the black". WTF is this, Spinal Tap?

have a nice weekend...

LJ"

Yes... Spinal Tap that actually takes themselves seriously.
But really, its begs the question- How can you get blacker than black? I dont think its possible.

JB writes;

"Georgia?.. Really!?...
That's disappointing. The idea of those hairy knuckles in my backyard has been scaring the crap out of me for years.
good thing we have this little pick-me-up,

John Bergschneider
Good Times Bicycles
Ashland - Oregon"

Oh rest assured, thats not the only Bigfoot. There are way more out there and when they found out some dumb rednecks got one of them, boy are they gonna be pissed.

Jason, who is the Grand Poobah for the Michigan Mountain Biking Association got ahold of us with some good news from his home state;

"S.,

Maybe the stunts aren't as crazy as in BC, but the track is just outside of Detroit, so that is pretty "extreme", eh?
Peep the clip here.
j.
Director of Advocacy
Michigan Mountain Biking Association (MMBA)"

As I responded to Jason, the most extreme aspect of that clip from this end was just listening to Lila Lazarus shriek.
But seriously, I cant imagine how much effort putting a park like that together must have taken, and a huge congratulations are in order for all of the hard work put forth to make that dream a reality.

If youd like to know what other pies the MMBA have got their fingers in, all youd have to do is stop by their website to get the full skinny.

Now to get to my quasi-regular insight (slash) rant. As I rode to work the other day I began thinking about the abundance of recent car/cyclist conflicts that have gained a fair amount of visibility in the media as of late.
Basically, as I see it, bicycles have only begun to creep into the American consciousness beginning as recently as within the last couple of years. Sure, weve all been well aware of 'urban cycling' for a very long time, but on the whole, to society in general, its a brand new phenomenon (primarily due to a higher visibility and increased numbers), and obviously to many, a huge annoyance. Think about it- we as a group and culture are in the process of attempting to reprogram the masses feelings of entitlement to the roads that for all intent and purposes have strictly belonged to car culture for not only decades, but generations.
It should come as no surprise when tempers flair, as bike folks who are relatively new to the fold (insert your average, run of the mill Critical Mass participant here perhaps) rightfully are insisting to their slice of the pie, but who it seems to me are going about it rather clumsily, as well as arrogantly, which the media will continually devour and blow out of proportion, and sadly will ultimately serve to work against us..

I think its fruitless to attempt to change peoples minds by force, wether it be about religion, politics, favorite football teams or choice of ice cream. I think its up to everyone of us who rides a bike day in and day out to continue doing so in a passively defensive manner, so that eventually were seen as exactly what we are- fellow travelers sharing the same resource.

For example this means if someone doesnt see you and then cuts you off, to not lash out and slam your hand on their hood, but as Ive done in many cases, chase them down and as calmly as I can, explain that they almost hit me and that I, just like them, am simply trying to arrive to my destination safely, something that your average driver is unused to and as such, has absolutely no defense for.

Ive found that without exception, using this particular brand of psychology of putting them in your shoes, and vice versa, always gets the point across without flaring any tempers.

I will relate one story that sums up this whole mindset for me. Years ago while messengering I was in West Oakland. For those of you familiar with The Bay Area, you know this part of town, and for those of you who dont, before the massive re-gentrification of the last few years, it tended to be a sketchy and sometimes very dangerous part of town, (but make no mistake- dispite the development, its still rough as hell.) One day in particular, I was seemingly intentionally pinched into a curb by a young thug in a gigantic American cruiser of some make... I yelled, but only to alert him of my presence. Upon hearing my voice raise, he took offense and then began intentionally driving erratically. He then urgently stopped and got out of his car ready for a fight.

All I offered was "man, I dont go to your work and threaten you.. What makes you think its ok to do the same to me?"
That was all it took. If even for a moment, he was in my shoes and immediately backed down. He then began asking me questions about what it was like to be a messenger. I said it was great except for when people tried to hit me. He dropped his head, apologized, shook my hand and we parted ways.

If Id escalated the situation who knows what would have transpired? More over, as days and weeks passed by, maybe he even looked out for cyclists and avoided them based on our interaction.

To counter this story, in San Francisco a few years ago after a confrontation with a messenger, a guy stopped his car, got out and took a shot him, and accidentally hit a woman on a lunch time jog.
The scenario was simple, and one we all know too well. The car cut the cyclist off, the cyclist spit on the car, the car chased the cyclist, a few words were exchanged, and within minutes these three people who previously were totally unaware of one anothers existence, were forever linked by violence and extraordinarily poor judgement.

Kevin wrote in with some thoughts on that very matter;

"Stevil,

This story's kinda long, but so is life.
Read it and share in my frustrations and mixed emotions. If you'd like, feel free to share them with others, too.

Bad to get mad.

Kev"

As I replied to Kevin, it only takes one heated exchange with the wrong person to do a whole lot of damage.

So I guess the point of this heap of meandering thought process is this; we as a group are saddled with the unfortunate task of attempting to alter a long standing mindset in this country in regards to our rightful use of the roads, and will ultimately benefit by using our brains to resolve conflict as opposed to our brawn.
Ask yourself the question- do we want this 'first' impression to be a positive one or a negative one, and how might our individual day to day actions as well as interactions effect that image, as well as our own well being, regardless of how unfairly we sometimes feel we are being treated?

And believe me, it takes some serious discipline...

Believe it or not, when I thought all of this out the other day, it seemed alot more concise.

Lets finish this off with a report of some the good stuff from our own George;

"well brohan,

"Hey man, well Henry, get off the phone, I gotta Hey man, I gotta straighten my face. This mellow black chick just put my spine out of place" (background tunes)

My lady and I had a fantastic time on the crest trail complete with hot dogs at the top, riding on cloud nine for miles, beer breaks, euro tourists, swingin singletrack, veteran bike techs at the top

- as the quote from him to my lady was "yeah, I've been wrenchin' about 9 years and it's hard; there's a lot of rookies out there and you got to be careful."

We were both amazed with his enlightenment as a bike shop guru. I don't know where I 'm going with this, but the trip was one hell of good time. the next day we rallied 20 miles of river rafting through class 3-5's down near Canon City on the Arkansas River.

then followed it up camping near the Rainbow loop and spent the better part of the day drinking coffee/beer and playing cards in the tent while the heavens dumped rain and then Zeus through the bolts everywhere.

I finally built up a proper cross bike from the salvaged misc boxes from several shops across the country.

I know its right around the corner and I am just trying to get stoked to redline the heart and want to vomit on lap 1, hyperventilate on lap 2, shiver on lap 3, cough like the dickens on 30 degree air on lap 4, get really hot on lap 5, reach equilibrium on lap 6, pray that there isn't that many more laps on lap 7 and with any luck there will be plentiful beer handouts.

to you and yours have a super weekend and don't piss on your leg again.

slightly more love than usual,
g"

And then not seconds later, he returned;

"well here's some more crap that kinda goes with the other email kinda like "suffragette city" and "queen bitch" and more along the lines of "blah blah blah". this bowie tangent is going nowhere.
toodles,
g"

Inspired by Georges spirit for adventure, I washed out the back of my truck on Saturday in preparation for this coming weekend and whatever hijunx might evolve. Truth be told, Im probably going to end up sleeping under my truck, as I would imagine the bed might end up getting called by GenO and JenO as their own little honeymoon suite.

Id sleep next to my truck and stare up at the stars if I wasnt absolutely terrified of being awoken by the pitterpatter on my sleeping bag of Gene relieving himself in the middle of the night, and theres noway Im going to let that happen.

Again.

I will finish by saying that one of you all who tune in here recently sent me a link for some really amazing artwork by a friend of yours for the 'art that doesnt suck' segment, but Ill be damned if I didnt loose the link.
Stencils?
About three weeks ago?
Ringing any bells?

As Ive said nearly every Monday for the past two years- have a good one, and theres only five more days until we get to do it all over again.