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Interesting article translated from Respekt on Prague TV.

Their clothes are a bit EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN for my taste, but I’m willing to give it a shot. Have pretty much worn directly through the old Marmot slicker I’ve had for 10 years… If anyone has some experience with their stuff, let us know!

Their website is under construction, but there are a few photos up and a link to their Facebook page:

Read the translated article here:

http://prague.tv/articles/art-and-culture/style-in-the-saddle-segrasegra-respek

 

 

Boldog karácsonyt, ty vole…

As some of you might have noticed in the comments of our “Buy/Sell” section, the Herce-Hurca guys in Budapest have opened up a shop! They have a nice online assortment of bits and pieces and the prices are reasonable, so leave your wives/girlfriends/husbands/boyfriends/parents/dogsandcats a nice, subtle hint to check it out Christmas style It’s about as close to local as fixie shops get!

 

Canada Goes the Way of the USA

It’s sort of a blog-crime to repost things that Bike Snob already pointed out, given that all 6 readers here read the Bike Snob first, but this video of some fat douchebag politician from Toronto is too sick to let go. I know it’s all stereotyping, but I really had this closely guarded illusion that, as weird as Canadians are, they are at least “progressive” in that that they aren’t generally outright evil. Wrong, I guess. This fat bastard was recently elected Mayor of Toronto, but could just as easily be mayor of Vysočany. Thank God for the triple bypass.

Speckled Green Map

The Auto*Mat guys, always adept at polishing up the edges of thunderclouds until they look something like chrome, have published this “Green Map”, which includes cycling-friendly spots in the center of Prague. It’s a vaguely situationist undertaking, and pretty cool to see. These folks really are trying to put a brave face on and start changing perceptions a bit. The map has some unique features, one of the most interesting of which is a time legend – a legend which shows how long it would take an average walker or cyclist to cover a certain distance. You can also use it to locate a bike rack in the center of Prague – the first person to photograph all five and post them here wins a super prize!

Auto*Mat are looking for partners and advertisers to help bring the map online. Given the stated mission of the undertaking, it sort of begs the question: why didn’t they save the paper and just put the thing online in the first place? Will another free throwaway map really help convert the great “over-washed” masses or just create more backpack lint and white space for Americans to scribble “eshtay yeden peevo proseem”? Either way, it’s got to be more effective than the graffito scrawled on the construction barrier at the ongoing experiment in urban vomit that is the Narodni trida metro plaza. “We Love the Auto*Mat” writ large in red spraypaint beside “Fuck Police Ganga Anarchist!” or whatever, only reaffirms to the Tesco-shopping public that anyone who cares about their environment is a young white twat with greasy dreadlocks, an underfed dog and too much free time.

Auto*Mat ought to organize a “rychla akce” down there this weekend to repaint a nice hippy mural on the construction barrier and weld some bike racks onto it as well.

 

In the meantime, “mainstream” Prague has responded:

The Right Place?

I wanted to pass on a link to a nice little article in the Guardian today where a staff writer waxes nostalgic over a cycling trip taken by one of the newspaper’s early lead writers. The excursion took him from Manchester to London – a 19 hour trip, at the time. Today’s columnist, after all the requisite “I am not worthies,” propositions his readers for a few detours to help make the trip repeatable under modern circumstances.

Given the quickly encroaching ring roads, a few trips like this in and around Prague might not be a bad feature to add to the archives. In a few short years, a quick shot out to Zbraslav or a comfortable ride on small village roads to visit Svijany for a pint or two may well be practical impossibilities. On the other hand, the way things are heading with gridlock and pump prices, cycling might be the only way to go… Either way, a few well-planned and illuminated routes might not be such a bad idea.

To that end, I’ve started up an account on BikeMap.net which lets you create a cool little GPS route, complete with description, elevations, distances and detailed road conditions. Salo has been using it for a while now, and worked out some way to upload and download the GPS data to his Garmin. It’s pretty easy to do, so if anyone is interested in having access to the account, let me know and I’ll give you the password.

Big Flat Lovin’ Group Ride

Look, I’m gonna skip the pictures of dog’s nuts and all because it’s frankly weird to me to post pictures of dog’s nuts all pubic-like. Dogs can’t help it that they can’t buy boxers – I blame the International Banking Conspiracy for not giving them credit cards.

However, I think Victor’s well spotted stretch of highway (part of the new ring road off the highway near Cerny most) calls for an organized ride sometime real soon. Let’s tentatively have a look at Saturday? I think we should do a ride, then co-opt a bit of it for a polo game.

It is evidently being populated by a horde of “in-line skaters.” We all know what the hardest thing about Rollerblading is… Best answer in the comments wins a PrahaFixed stencil to lay down in the middle of that ring road

On Front Brakes And Snapping Chains

I kind of got over telling people what they should or should not do with their lives long time ago.  So when it comes to cycling, I’m not an advocate of helmets, fenders or front brakes.

However, these days I find myself wearing a helmet most of the time while I’m on a bicycle.  And at times when I don’t feel like it, I just don’t wear it.  After all, for most of my life I didn’t wear a helmet, fell off my bike countless times and I’m still here.

I also put on fenders when the weather warrants it.  I don’t know about you but I don’t think cyclocross mud stripes look manly when you are on your fresh pastry run on a rainy Sunday morning.

And I do have a front brake on my fixed gear bicycle. I don’t use it very often but I’m glad it’s there when I need it. Like this morning when my chain snapped.

Boring technical stuff and guessplanation follows: From the damage I observed it looks like the half-link was made from a weaker steel than the rest of the chain and in retrospect it also wasn’t such a great idea to put it right next to the master link, since its side plates aren’t as tightly pressed together. The result was that at some point one of the half-link’s side plates bent, pushed the rivet out and then it all rapidly disintegrated.

While I adore the clean lines of a brakeless track bike just like the next guy, I’m willing to sacrifice some street cred for moments like this and live to tell about it afterwards.

Whatever your choices are, ride safe.

Where can we order some?

These conversion dingbats are being trialed in London now, according to Wired

What a great idea, especially for spending-averse cities like Prague where there is literally nowhere to lock up your bike. I’d love to get a hundred of these and bolt them up all over the city. Please note, they appear to be designed for use with fixed gear bikes

The Cyclehoop is a steel hoop which clamps onto lampposts, street signs and other urban poles and turns them into proper bike racks. The advantages to the host city are great: it’s a lot cheaper and quicker than the digging and re-concreting required for normal racks, and the Cyclehoop takes up almost no space in comparison.

Zbrojovka

Just wanted to post a gallery of my old Zbrojovka. I’ve pretty much taken it apart now, aside from a very stuck stem which is soaking in WD40 for the night. Anyone have any idea what that reflector-looking dingus on the seatstay is? I can’t see any way to get it off without breaking it, but I’d at least like to know what it is before I start cutting…

Riding through the winter?

NEWS FLASH! Kolopolo tomorrow at Letna at 2pm!!! NEWS FLASH

Are you riding through the winter? I posted a “helpful” little guide on my blog here:

Winter riding with teh Roderage

How do you deal with the Prague winter? Do you have a secret oil that keeps your socks dry? Share with us on the forums, won’t you? Everything from where you store your bike to what you wear and how to deal with the bike at work. Seriously, lots of people just give up once winter sets in, but biking can be the best way to go even in the cold – skipping the flu incubator that is public transportation is only one reason.