Heckle-cation the other months of the year.

rick81721 said:
We are seriously considering retiring in southern florida (venice) later next year. Is it really that bad cycling wise? Fatbike on the beach every day? I hear there are some decent trail systems down there but obviously no elevation.
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Yes it is that bad. It is worse. After a week you will have ridden every road you will ever ride inside a 2 hour radius. In the week we were down there I rode every day and maybe saw 1 or 2 hard-core cyclists the whole time. Most of the riders were casualists out on a 2-wheeled stroll.

As I understand it the mountain biking is more in the north. But I have never much looked into it.
 
Norm said:
Yes it is that bad. It is worse. After a week you will have ridden every road you will ever ride inside a 2 hour radius. In the week we were down there I rode every day and maybe saw 1 or 2 hard-core cyclists the whole time. Most of the riders were casualists out on a 2-wheeled stroll.

As I understand it the mountain biking is more in the north. But I have never much looked into it.
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Good food for thought. We have no commitments yet, just that we have to get out of this stinkin state (at least during the winter). Another idea we threw around was to get a small condo/cabin in Maine for the summer months. At least the biking up there would be awesome.
 
rlb said:
Love SFO, wish I had an opportunity to do this. I've been there twice w/ my wife, she doesn't ride much so the most we did was cruise over the golden gate on horrible rentals. Still a ton of fun! I'll have an opportunity to do some nice riding in San Diego this August, looking forward to that. Enjoy Florida, any break from this crap has got to be a good one.
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If you go to San Diego you must ride this http://www.mountainbikebill.com/blog/?p=115
I did that once at night with local guys, what a blast😀
 
Lazy Sunday - On hobbies and such.

I'm having a great Sunday of doing nothing. I woke up, had pancakes, put the slicks on the CX bike so I can ride the trainer this week, and have been listening to music all the while.

On non cycling interests:
These threads are fun to recap and reflect. I'm in a reflect mood. Here's a little about what I like to do outside of cycling.

Music:
I listen to a lot of music. 8 hours of Spotify at work, then records when I get home. Music is important. Alt-rock, indie rock, post punk stuff, mellow stuff, loud stuff, classic rock, math rock, all kinds of stuff.

My most played albums of 2014 were probably:
1. Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow, Blue
2. Shakey Graves - Roll The Bones
3. Sylvan Esso
4. You Won't - Skeptic Goodbye
5. Hurray For The Riff Raff - Small Town Heros

Currently getting a lot of play:
1. Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
2. Benjamin Booker
3. Maps & Atlases - You and Me and the Mountain EP
4. Born Ruffians - Say It
5. The National - Trouble Will Find Me

I started buying vinyl records last year. I used to get digital music from friends and rip CDs from the library and occasionally buy albums off ITunes. There is the quality of sound argument to be made but I'm not going to pretend to pretentious about it. I mostly enjoy the interaction with the media as well as the mechanical aspect of playback. Also having an additional responsibility to take care of the media makes buying music more worth it for me. I've been collecting some old staples I never payed for as well as new stuff.

Photography:
I've been taking increasingly less photos the last year and a half but I have a history with black and white analog photography and home development/enlarging. I wish I had more time to work this stuff in. I'm captivated by the chemistry and enjoy the fully mechanical operation of my 1967-1970ish cameras. My favorite lenses are my Hexanon 50mm f1.7 and my Hexanon 21mm f4. I had a 50mm 1.4 but her age caught up with her and the aperture ring ceased up. I enjoy wide angle composition as well as low light shooting.

I actually took my Konica to California last year. These two are from the last roll I developed, almost a year ago.

Tilden Park from Grizzly Peak Blvd. - 2/2014
TvkCgMkl.jpg


Washington Square Park, San Francisco - 2/2014
I love me that 21mm.
lNhdL93l.jpg


Guitar:
I've been playing guitar since I was 12. Played in a pop punk cover band in middle school, then a post hardcore band in high school. The high school band was taken pretty damn seriously. We wrote a lot, and practiced basically every Friday and Saturday for three years then went our separate ways before college. I haven't really played with anyone really since. I learned some classic rock back in college then picked up an acoustic and have been mostly playing that since 2010. Guitar has become more of a winter activity. I almost cease playing once the spring hits and don't consistently play again until December. Effin bikes.

This is a small look inside the enigma that is "The Heckler."

I hope you read the whole thing and feel like you wasted valuable time! 😉

OH SNAP! It's 41, HEAT WAVE.

RIDE TIME.

EDIT:
Ride was a success. The 28s on the CX bike went well, still definitely far from being in shape.
 
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The Heckler said:
Music:
I listen to a lot of music. 8 hours of Spotify at work, then records when I get home. Music is important. Alt-rock, indie rock, post punk stuff, mellow stuff, loud stuff, classic rock, math rock, all kinds of stuff.



I started buying vinyl records last year. I mostly enjoy the interaction with the media as well as the mechanical aspect of playback. Also having an additional responsibility to take care of the media makes buying music more worth it for me. I've been collecting some old staples I never payed for as well as new stuff.

Photography:
I've been taking increasingly less photos the last year and a half but I have a history with black and white analog photography and home development/enlarging. I wish I had more time to work this stuff in. I'm captivated by the chemistry and enjoy the fully mechanical operation of my 1967-1970ish cameras. My favorite lenses are my Hexanon 50mm f1.7 and my Hexanon 21mm f4. I had a 50mm 1.4 but her age caught up with her and the aperture ring ceased up. I enjoy wide angle composition as well as low light shooting.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am really into music as well. I'll listen to the radio on the way to work and on the way home, this amounts to about 1.5hrs of music. The stuff that grows on me I'll play at home but I find I need to take a break from listening otherwise it all become noise after awhile.

I grew up listening to vinyl and agree there is something to be said about spinning a record on a turntable and holding the album cover in your hand while you listen. Despite this I don't do records, digital is just too easy. I will listen to CD's on occasion doe.

When I lived In my first apartment I built a darkroom in the basement and developed my own film and printed photos in black and white. It was cool to have control of the whole process. It doesn't surpise me that things like vinyl and film still exhist. These are lost arts but still have value to the user.
 
pooriggy said:
It doesn't surpise me that things like vinyl and film still exhist. These are lost arts but still have value to the user.
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Vinyl is having a pretty big resurgence right now. Most of the new stuff is being pressed and sold with "mp3 download cards" included.

Film has still been spiraling down in availability. The actual film variety is becoming more scarce. Also much fewer chemicals and paper available. Kinda a bummer.

I have some infrared film I need to try out this spring! But I've been saying that for two years now. Damn IR filters are expensive!
 
Awesome, I am also very big on music and usually listen to 8+ hours a day at work to both relax as well as drown out outside noise in leau of not being the guy with the closed door.

Born Ruffians has been loaded......I will report back later. I may attack some of the rest of your list as the mood strikes me.
 
I prefer Vinyl for some music but not all.. I do like the warm & crackling sound texture of vinyl.

Reviewing Born Ruffians today...
 
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The Great Escape 2015 - Prelude update

My bike has made it safely to her destination.

Now the only question is how bent my front wheel is. True-able, or full taco? Or maybe the frame is just broken in half....

Or maybe that nice enve fork is a pile of splintered carbon dust.

or maybe the steel unbrazed itself.

Ideally it won't be ride-able and I will sip margaritas on the beach for 5 days.

"excuse me, I asked for no salt on my margarita...."

Today I'm taking my father to the Rangers game as part of his x-mas / 60th birthday gift so I get to speed pack after work and tonight after the game.

Still debating taking the film camera. I always regret when I don't but I'm thinking a will settle with the Sony and my cell phone.
 
The Heckler said:
Music:
I listen to a lot of music. 8 hours of Spotify at work, then records when I get home. Music is important. Alt-rock, indie rock, post punk stuff, mellow stuff, loud stuff, classic rock, math rock, all kinds of stuff.

My most played albums of 2014 were probably:

3. Sylvan Esso
Click to expand...


I saw Sylvan Esso at Union Transfer at the end of 2014.

Loved the show! - they brought a ton of energy and really got the crowd going. I am looking forward to them getting some additional material as their catalog is a little thin but they were great in person.

They have been one of my go to's on Pandora - thanks for the other suggestions I'll definitely be looking into them.
 
I just googled some of this stuff. It's definitely the song playing on the radio on your first grindr date when he picks you up in a beetle convertible.
 
vlkslvr said:
I saw Sylvan Esso at Union Transfer at the end of 2014.

Loved the show! - they brought a ton of energy and really got the crowd going. I am looking forward to them getting some additional material as their catalog is a little thin but they were great in person.

They have been one of my go to's on Pandora - thanks for the other suggestions I'll definitely be looking into them.
Click to expand...

I caught them in the city a couple days before the album went out. Crazy energy, definitely looking forward to more stuff from them. If you like Amelia's voice check out Mountain Man, before she was an electro pop start she sang in a pretty awesome folk group.

gtluke said:
I just googled some of this stuff. It's definitely the song playing on the radio on your first grindr date when he picks you up in a beetle convertible.
Click to expand...

hahahahaha

I was hoping to obscure some of you folks. Luke never fails to let me down. :popcorn:
 
The Great Escape Day 1

I flew out of Newark on the 8PM flight for West Palm Wednesday night. Had some cruddy overpriced airport food for dinner then sat in my technicolor palm tree print "Miami Muscle" pants and waited by the gate. The plane was 30 minutes late, no problem when you're with you're friends.

I boarded in group 3 and found my window seat a few rows behind the wing. As always the fight attendants were hustling making magic trying to fit the final passenders bags into the overheads.

Que The Fat Woman.

I'm not one to typically make fun of someone's weight or really any other physical traits, however this "woman" was a vile, loud, rude creature.

One carry on, and one personal item is the rules. With 10 people behind here this woman approaches row 29 with one of those massive purses, a rolling carry on AND a large canvas cube soft bag which would not have fit in the carry on "bag size" bin.

So this woman hobbles up kicking her bag, opens the overhead and starts complaining there is no room for her stuff. She starts throwing around strangers bags in the overhead and actually removed a random backpack, throwing it to her friend to put in a different cubby down the isle.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun laughing at this woman in front of her for being a terrible, drunk, obnoxious human being with all the people around me.

Pretty quick 3 hour flight, walking out of the plane the heat and humidity hit me. Insta-sweat.

DAY 1
Stayed up to about 2 catching up with my friends on Wednesday night. I slept to about 8 and had a slow lazy morning of coffee, home made banana bread and several cups of coffee.

We went on a little tour of West Palm and had lunch OUTSIDE. WHAT!?!? Take that winter.
dRgaV6il.jpg


We got out around 1:30 for a 3 hour ride down the A1A.

HHHHOOOOO MYGAHD. There is some money down here. I'm talking about miles and miles and miles of cocaine mansion along blue water beaches.

We ended up doing a 60 mile out and back. We had a cross wind from the west that gave us some trouble on the way down but pushed us right back north at WARP SPEED. No elevation, lots of sun. Gettin my base kit tan on.

Obligatory bike shot:
BYY9okUl.jpg


And the route:
https://www.strava.com/activities/260286017

Dinner was at Rocco's Tacos in West Palm. Had the best guac I've ever had made in front of me, two chicken tacos and one fish. I also had a margarita, then a second on the house. #YOLOSWAGBALLERSTATUS

igLGU4Dl.jpg


The mix of young people and retirees around here makes for a pretty funny dynamic.

Oh, found this high quality pay phone.

qpBEomFl.jpg


Maybe I will recap Day 2 (today) tomorrow if I have time.

Field trip tomorrow!!!!
 
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