epiphanatic » 2003» July

Posted on 07.28.03 by jstoner @ 1:34 pm

My birthday was this last Saturday. I was born on Mick Jagger’s birthday. He had a concert, I had a nice lunch with Mom. And a nap. Oh, I was also born on my mom’s birthday. At the restaurant we got a free sundae. You gotta work it, you know?

I had rather more excitement the night before. I rode with Critical Mass in Chicago–last Friday of every month, baby–and it was magnificent. It was humongous. We were shooting for a thousand riders, and we probably made it. I haven’t seen a count report yet, but the thing was enormous. You can see pictures. Such a great time. Harmonious, peaceful, friendly, fun. We went through the South Side.

And we passed out the new t-shirts! They were a hit, though it’s hard to miss with free t-shirts. People did like the design. I think it was a good first draft. It looked great on my screen, but it was so useful to see it on the back of a t-shirt. It needs more visual impact.

I love the story of how they got made. I posted a note about the design, with links, to the Chicago Critical Mass mailing list. James Council, who works at a t-shirt printing shop, took it upon himself to raise money for twenty-five shirts, and print them up. Tim (don’t know his last name), who owns Urban Bikes in Uptown, kicked in the dough. I went downtown to help, but they were done when I got there. So we just hung out, and I packed up a bunch to bring to the Mass the next day.

We had a great time passing them out. I tossed them to the crowd at Daley Plaza, along with some oranges I picked up on the way in. Not sure how James got his out, but there was much joy.

The joy lasted pretty late. The Mass ended up at 31st Street Beach, and I headed over to Chinatown for fantastic cheap Chinese food with some cool people. I sacked out on my friend Craig’s couch in Logan Square.

So you can see why I needed a nap on my birthday. Thanks to all who got the t-shirts out: Tim, James, even Maureen helped–she has a much louder voice than I, and we needed someone to get the crowd’s attention for the t-shirt toss. And always, thanks to Alex Wilson, Critical Mass t-shirt king, for inspiration, and for the CCM logo.

Filed under: bike and life
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domain name of the moment

Posted on 07.25.03 by jstoner @ 12:47 pm

cheesebikini.com. Why didn’t I think of that one? Maybe I’m just not sick enough.

Anyway, it’s a fun flash mob site.

Filed under: of the moment
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human powered vehicles in Northbrook

Posted on 07.23.03 by jstoner @ 11:53 pm

So this last Saturday, I went with my friend Todd and some folks from the Chicago Cycling Club up to the Northbrook velodorome to see the human powered vehicles race. It was a great trip, though it was challenging.

First we biked up to Northbrook, from the lakefront in Chicago. Which is 25 miles one way. I don’t think I’ve ridden that far since high school. Not to mention that these CCC types were very serious cyclists. The spandex, the fancy bikes, the 25-mile-a-day bike commute to work…on my city clunker backup bike I was having trouble keeping up. I’m not in bad shape, but I’m more strength-fit than endurance-fit. So it was a trial.

But it was worth it. The velodrome in Northbrook is kinda cool, but the HPVs were awesome. The Barracuda was a big banana-yellow full-fairing machine, that got up to 42 miles/hour. In a 100 lap race it lapped the next fastest competitor five times. You could only see a little bit of the rider’s head sticking up in the canopy, and he was riding hard. I think he averaged in the high thirties. I kept thinking of the old Heart song: “Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Dum-da-da-Da-Da…”

I got to check out some of the bikes up close. Some of the coolest ones were “stock,” or non-fairing bikes. There were a number of Velokraft bikes. Velokraft is a Polish company that makes these carbon-fiber frames that are ridiculously light and super low. The frames on the site are in the 5 1/2 pound range. Some were also front-wheel drive, which was interesting. Some also had solid carbon-fiber wheels. Feel the techo-lust.

It was also interesting to hear about the development of the technology. It’s very much an ad-hoc competitive field, with people of varying degrees of engineering professionalism. There was the guy in a crash last year: he had mounted a camera on top of his bike, and the wire between the cam and the screen got caught in one of his wheels. He was blinded, and he slammed into a post. I think they banned camera bikes after that.

Aso, it seems that trikes are out, too. Three wheeled low racers were big until they started losing races.

The world record stands right now at 81 miles/hour. It’s increased about 20 miles/hour in the last few years. They seem to think 100 is possible soon. imagine doing 100 miles an hour under your own power.

I wish we had gotten to stay for the stock race. It would have been cool to see those Velokraft bikes in action.

Filed under: bike and science|technology
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Maureen, this is your fault

Posted on 07.14.03 by jstoner @ 2:06 pm

My friend Maureen mentioned that there was something I’d be interested in in the Chicago Reader, that might be on their website. It wasn’t, as far as I could tell. But there was a distracting link to The Straight Dope site, with Cecil Adam’s fun answers to those niggling questions.

There, I found a link to this hilarious discussion called “Modeling physics of heaving, bouncing, jiggling, swaying video game breasts”.

Maureen is trying to corrupt my mind. I can tell.

Filed under: ha
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a very subtle thing

Posted on 07.10.03 by jstoner @ 4:14 pm

I was at a Border’s coffeeshop yesterday, when a woman walked in with a big pile of books about divorce. She sat down at a nearby table and began to go through them.

She reached up to brush her hair out of her face with her left hand. I noticed her wedding ring was on her middle finger.

Somehow I get the feeling theirs is not an amicable parting.

Filed under: life
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I’m just ever so proud of myself

Posted on 07.09.03 by jstoner @ 12:38 am

I just put a new t-shirt design up on the Critical Mass flyer exchange site. Here’s a version that’s easier to look at:

http://www.generosity.org/stoner/images/tbfy.gif

Message for a broad political cross-section: righty-nationalist or lefty-greeny, we can all agree that biking is right. Energy-saving practices should have more appeal across the political spectrum: reducing dependence on foreign oil is a national security issue as much as it is an environmental one. But then, I’ve thought so for a long time.

Trying for a very yellow-meme message. Let me know what you think.

Filed under: bike
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