From today's ride

Creepy Carpetbaggers at SX

I understand marketing firms trying to standout in a sea of standouts at SXSW. But the way these yanks are couching their disgusting publicity stunt in the language of helping the homeless is pretty awful.

Austin has resources for the homeless; we don't need a troupe of techie carpetbaggers conducting an "experiment" in homeless entrepreneurial models. If they really wanted to help the homeless, they could just look out their own window.

I mean, really, the notion that homelessness is a business model problem is so ludicrous it's offensive. These people aren't homeless because they failed to "modernize the street newspaper model." When you study the causes of homelessness, antiquated method of media distribution is not high on the list.

Not waiting for trains: Superbus

When Google started really driving their autonomous cars around, I wondered if trains of autonomous cars on existing road infrastructure could replace plans to develop train infrastructure in the US.

This Dutch concept Suberbus, is another take on that idea. They would use dedicated roadways and an improved bus concept to provide high-speed public transportation.

It just makes sense to me, to tweak our use of existing automobile infrastructure in order to provide the same service as an entirely new rail infrastructure. Because, really, the goal isn't trains, it's increased mobility and increased connectivity.

Perhaps sensational smart cars and stretched supercars are only distractions that prolong an unsustainable model of personal transportation, a la GM and electric streetcars. But I really like the idea of mass transit innovations that are available now. I also like how flexible autonomous cars and the Suberbus are. It wouldn't cost millions/billions to change routes and it could be done immediately.

Of course, it actually is available now, and has been for a while down in Brazil, in Curitiba. If they can so handedly substitute buses with dedicated lanes for subways, why couldn't we do the same thing for interstate rail?

Spring Classic at the Driveway

Great race at the Driveway this morning for the Spring Classic. I raced to 7th in the category 3/4. The weather eased up from the thunder and lightning from when I woke up. I thought it was raining during the race, but there was so much spray from the tires that I couldn't really tell.

I had a weird vibe the whole race. It felt like we were all taking it a little easier because of the wet course, which made it feel like we were all waiting for something big to go down that just never did. There were small attacks that didn't really go anywhere. There weren't any crashes, save for a small one on the last lap from a guy who came out of his clips going up the corkscrew hill.

I just kept counting down the time and the laps, focusing on the riders around me and my position in the field. Like Santiago in the Old Man and the Sea, I tried to keep my mind from wandering (I'm a sucker for kits designed by Jed Rogers) and just focus on the race around me:

What can I think of now? he thought. Nothing. I must think of nothing and wait for the next ones.

I had grit in my teeth from all the road spray, and my right lens was completely fogged up so that I had trouble perceiving the distance to the riders around me. Wiping the lense with my glove was no use and twice I pulled my glasses off to lick them clean. Oh tosh, swimmers do it all the time.

The pace rolled faster as the sun came out and the course dried off a little and as we all settled in. By the last five laps, there was no finer place to be, and I finally understood what we'd all been waiting for.

Drew Hochstatter, who rode to second place, captured the last couple laps on his handlebar camera. Watch him making coming around half the pack in the last kilometer look as natural as eating a caramel. I'm the guy with the blue buns in the center of the frame right when the video starts.

There's a million ways to provoke a reaction on the road without ever running red lights or stop signs. It's all about attitude, and motivation, and your expectation.

A man I admire described it as leaning in. It's never about what you do, it's about who you are. And, really, I'm the guy that drivers don't like to share the road with. Nevermind that, in general, drivers don't love sharing the road with cyclists. Within that context, there's a spectrum and I'm too far to one end.

Time to change that

Yes please.

HTC 'Detour Warsaw' - Director: Seb Edwards from Tom Lindsay on Vimeo.

Base 2 Week 3

I've been working hard this winter to set myself up for next season. I've got my race wheels built up, my training schedule planned out, my races picked, team dues paid, kit bought, and my bike fixed up. I've been doing everything right to make sure I ride faster this spring.

But it wasn't until this morning, having just gone to the library last night, that I realized how much better I ride when I'm in the middle of a good book.

Best New Club

My team just earned USA Cycling's Best New Club of 2011 award!

It’s no wonder Credo Racing (Austin, Texas) won the “Best New Club” award this year. In addition to co-sponsoring two events and winning multiple regional and state titles, Credo’s members make community service a priority. In fact, the group beat out the Austin City Limits Music Festival to take the Keep Austin Beautiful Litter Abatement award. The members are also very involved with two middle schools where they provide after school bike maintenance and riding classes to at-risk kids. Read more at www.credoracing.com.

"Monkey Detectors of Spurious Coin" [truth]

An excerpt from the San Saba News, March 15, 1889:

Monkey Detectors of Spurious Coin

The Siamese Ape is said to be in great request among Siamese merchants as a cashier in their counting houses. Vast quantities of base coin obtain circulation in Siam, and the faculty of discrimination between good money and bad would appear to be possessed by these gifted monkeys in such an extraordinary degree of development that no human being, however carefully trained, can compete with them. The cashier ape meditatively puts into his mouth each coin presented to him in business payments, and tests it with great deliberation. His method of testing is regarded in commercial circles as infallible; and, as a matter of fact, his decision is uniformly accepted by all parties interested in the transaction.

What's the best part of this article? The term "cashier ape"? The assertion that no human being can compete with them? Or the notion that parties to a business transaction are satisfied with the ape's decision?

This article does raise the question, though, of what to do with a Siamese cashier ape in the 21st century.

Source: Library of Congress

The Ride

Riding in McKinney with Ed. Music by The xx.

Favorite things on the internet right now

It's the Matrix in board shorts shot with GoPros. Yes please.


It's Motorcycle Diaries in the American Southwest without, you know, that whole "guess what, I was Che Guevara the whole time" twist ending.


Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to introduce my write-in candidate for 2012!


What?! Is this for real? Is it too late to do every single thing in my life differently, starting with not being born in West Cornwall.

Bollywood Mustache

I can't grow a mustache, but if I could I would grow this man's mustache:

It's cool...

I started helping with this after school biking program for middle schoolers. Today, before we headed out, we noticed that one of the kids left his helmet in the locked bike locker. We told him to go find a coach to unlock it and get his helmet. So, of course, he tells a smaller kid to go get the coach.

I only half-caught that part when it happened, so I asked the first, bigger kid to confirm. "Did you just make him get the coach for you after we asked you to do it?" "Yeah, but it's cool. I'm gonna pay him a dollar."

Damn, next time I'm going to go get the coach.

Chillin' with my bros

Another typical Saturday afternoon, chilling with the dudes at the laundromat.

[Rick Ross playing from a boombox at the feet of the peacock on the right]
Me: Nice socks.
One of the peacocks: They're blue; hens seem to dig blue.
Me: I guess they also dig stripes.
One of the peacocks: That's genetic. What's your problem?
Me: Whoa! Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone. What are you guys doing here anyway? Do you actually have any laundry?
That same damn peacock: Wouldn't you like to know. Come on fellas, let's go. We don't want to get arrested by the laundromat police.
[As they strut away, the peacock on the right picks up the boombox with his beak]

The peacocks walked across the narrow parking lot and hop-flew over the chain-link fence landing just on the other side. The peacock with the boombox faced it back towards me. It was still playing Rick Ross' Hustlin' single, seemingly on a loop. The spokescock for the three stepped over to the boom box and pecked the volume button until it was at its max and then the three just stared at me with their violet throats and golden chests beaming in the early afternoon sun.

Last night at the Driveway

via Jim Hicks