By: Ryan, on June 12, 2009

I thought I was driving into a zombie movie this morning.

By: Ryan, on

So true.

Via Married To The Sea

By: Ryan, on June 7, 2009

I don’t know how I missed this in all my years on the Internet. Daisy Owl, a web comic by Ben Driscoll.

There’s so much about these to enjoy.

By: Ryan, on June 4, 2009

Oh how I loathe mornings, especially the early kind. You know, when the sun hasn’t even come up yet and it’s chilly despite the fact that it’s June? Those mornings, can’t stand them. On the other hand, I love to ride bikes. So every Thursday there’s this ride that starts at a trail (normally chosen the day before) and bikes are on dirt at roughly 6:15am. This morning I suggested the Glenwild Loop since it’s pretty good singletrack and happens to be across the street from my office.

Last night I decided to mount my rigid fork back up. I thought I was being a little crazy, the Reba has served me well on the rocky terrain so far in Utah, but the ODIS (stands for “Oh Damn It’s Smooth”)had been sitting in the closet looking for love. I also converted the bike back to single speed (34t-22t gearing) and put my bell back on. God knows you need the bell.

4 other insane clowns showed up for the ride. OilcanRacer “Hollywood” Larry (unofficial nickname), Matt, Corey and a new guy named Jeff. I look really fat in this picture, and classy. From front to back: Matt, Corey, Oilcan, yours truly.

It turns out that my fitness has been improving quite nicely over the last month or so. I don’t feel winded on the climbs like I did when I first got here, and I feel like I’ve got some power in my legs. The 116 mile road rides are no doubt helping with that. The choice to put the ODIS back on turned out to be sheer genius. I don’t know why exactly, but I felt smoother and faster with the rigid fork. I was paying better attention to my lines and flying over stuff that had given me issues with gears and suspension.

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By: Ryan, on

I do, I love them. They convey complex geographical data in the most simple way possible. I’m going to start featuring subway maps when I find them since I’ve seen several really good ones lately. Here’s the inspiration for the theme, a full map of the Eisenhower Interstate system.

The display of complex information and relationships, distilled to the simplest and most easily understood form, is really something that we as interaction designers strive for. Subway maps achieve this goal better than most types of infographic.

The map was created by artist Chris Yates of Boulder, CO.

Via Laughing Squid

By: Ryan, on May 31, 2009

Yesterday I did the single longest continous ride of my life so far. It was also the single climbingest ride of my life so far.

I met up with Andrew at his house at 6:15 am yesterday morning for what I was told was going to be a 90ish mile ride with about 5500 feet of climbing. Seemed easy enough, but I came prepared with extra GU and Clif Bars. Andrew’s friend Rob and his girlfriend (who’s name I’ve forgotten) also showed up although they vowed to turn around earlier in the ride. At the end of the ride we had done close to 115 miles with about 8,200 feet of ascent. The closest to that I’ve done was at a 24hr mountain bike race where my bike failed, otherwise this might have been the second longest.

We started in Rose Park, which is in Northwest Salt Lake City. We rode up to Wasatch Blvd all the way down to Draper. We took Suncrest (a super difficult climb, both mentally and physically) to the mouth of American Fork Canyon and rode all the way up and over to Sundance Resort and back. The climb up Suncrest is about 3 miles of 10% grade with the wind constantly against you. The climb up American Fork is even harder. It’s roughly 14 miles of grade that vary between 6% and 12%. Once you get up to 7000 feet the grade mellows a little bit but the road still climbs another 1060 feet over about 4 miles. On the other side you come bombing down a narrow switchback road past Mt. Timpanogos and to the Sundance Resort. We stopped at Sundance and got Sandwiches from the grill. The woman making the food clearly took exception to the total clown show that was being put on by these 4 guys in lycra and put a lot of extra huff and grunt into taking our orders.

After Sundance it’s all downhill to Orem and flat back to SLC. Around mile 90 I started occasionally reminding Andrew that I hated him. Andrew’s extra effort on the hills really started to hit him as we got back into SLC. I found my second wind on the flats and found myself waiting for him for the first time the entire ride (maybe ever, he’s usually the patient waiter). We finally got back to his house at 6pm after having been in the saddle for 11.5 hours. What a ride.

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By: Ryan, on

From CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/05/30/france.jewelry.heist/index.html

My favorite part of the story is this little excerpt.

“He provided no other details, but police investigator Olivier Lebon told CNN’s Paris affiliate BFM-TV, “From the first elements we have, it would be a man who’s around 50 years old, who was wearing a suit and a Borsalino-style hat, who, like any client, walked inside the jewelry store, held up employees with a handgun, was then given items displayed in the window.”

Like any client huh? I guess the current economy is forcing customers to get really pushy with their haggling. That reminds me of a book I really need to read again. Eats, shoots & leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Oh, and yes, I know my punctuation sucks, that’s why I need the book.

By: Ryan, on May 28, 2009

By: Ryan, on May 25, 2009

Marion came to visit this Memorial Day weekend and on Saturday we decided to try to get Grandeur Peak under our belts. This would be my third attempt to summit this relatively short, however steepish, peak that’s right next to where I live. My previous attempts had both been marred by somewhat foul weather (or the threat of it) so I was hopeful that we’d be able to put this one under our belts this time.

Sadly, it didn’t happen. Marion started developing major knee aches and we turned back about .5 of a mile from the summit. We still had a great time, and managed to do most of the mountain. In what’s going to be a slightly new trend for me, I’m naming and rating the gear that I was using for the activity on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being stupendously awesome). I’ll try not to be too repetitive with this, but it helps me keep track of what I was using. I’m in no way being paid or rewarded for listing these items from any vendor. Check the ratings after the break.

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By: Ryan, on May 22, 2009

PARK CITY, UTAH (May 21, 2009) — Starting today, there’s HuckNroll.com, a store dedicated to dirt riders and our take-your-personal-best-and-shove-it-up-your-ass, meat-hucking, scab-picking habit known as mountain biking.

HuckNroll.com is an online mountain bike shop. You heard right. Online. And we wouldn’t be putting it lightly to say that the bike industry didn’t want us. The consensus when we first approached suppliers about launching a high-end online mountain bike shop was, “It will never work, the bike industry is different.” Our response? “Damn right, it’s different. It’s the last industry in existence to accept the Internet as a viable sales channel.”

So we went for it. And along the way we’ve made friends with the industry’s best. In fact, the raddest brands in the biz are snubbing the status quo to team up with us. (They mentioned something about Specialized and Trek pushing them out of bike shops…) We’re stocking more than 6,000 products from 130 high-end bike-specific brands. We have components from Shimano, Race Face, Truvativ, Avid, Easton, and Gravity; apparel and accessories from Fox Racing, Troy Lee Designs, POC, Sombrio, Dakine, Endura, and Zoic; and complete bikes from Santa Cruz, Intense, Titus, Look and Rocky Mountain. (We’re the only authorized online dealer of Rocky Mountain in the U.S.)

HucknRoll.com is staffed by mountain bike gear freaks (including that dude who rambles on about the frame geometry of the 1993 Fat Chance Yo Eddy every time he laces a wheel). Only USA Cycling race-certified bike mechanics will touch your bikes, and only fully trained customer service gearheads will take your calls and answer your live chats. Our goal is to provide, hands down, the best customer lovin’ in the industry.

HucknRoll is community-powered, with gear reviews, Q&A, and images all submitted by you and other riders on the site. That means you get the god’s honest truth on the goods, whether the guys that make the bikes like it or not.

We mentioned our friends. As more proof that we have some, log on to HuckNroll.com/sweepstakes to check out the vid of pros and bros who at least humored us enough to say our name on camera. If you can ID all 15 in order, you’ll get the chance to win $2.9k-worth of gear, including an Intense Tracer VP frame, a Giro helmet and gloves, and an ass-load of Cutter swag.

HuckNroll.com is another store from Backcountry.com, who pretty much realized that skiers and climbers don’t know jack shit about mountain biking. Probably against their better judgment, they gave us some room to do what we do, the way we want to do it. We are proudly related to Chainlove.com, as well as the two shave-your-legs-to-your-scrawny-buttocks roadie sites: RealCyclist.com and Bonktown.com.

So here we go, y’all. It’s a whole new day in the bike world. We don’t give a rat’s ass if you love us or hate us, but we’re here and we’re open for business.

About Backcountry.com:
HuckNroll.com is owned by Backcountry.com—an online retailer of high-end outdoor gear and center for gear knowledge online. Backcountry.com carries more than 400 brands in various categories, including backpacking, camping, cycling, hiking, climbing, trail running, paddling, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and adventure travel. Backcountry also operates RealCyclist.com, Bonktown.com, Chainlove.com, SteepandCheap.com, Dogfunk.com, Tramdock.com, Brociety.com and WhiskeyMilitia.com. Backcountry.com is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA).

Edit:

Ah and the vid that goes with the launch.