Bender sends news of progress (?) in Aberdeen. It ain't much, but it beats the alternative. And then there's this. Tempting target? Yeah, I admit when I first saw the treadmill bike I was shaking my head, but then I explored the website a bit and gave in after reading the story of their couchbike adventure. A snippet: I should never have let us go that fast to begin with, but we had reached the point of no return. Because of the inconsistent dirt surface, I feared that braking hard could cause us to spinout. As the couch hurdled closer and closer to mach speed, all outside noises became muted. I could still here Eivind's last words. "I'm scared", he said. "Don't be scared." I replied with a calmness that was belied by my posture in the couch. I had assumed a sort of starfish stance on the cushions, my legs and arms spread out wide in preparation for attack from all directions. No sooner had I spoke those soothing words, than our worst fears were realized. One wheel jammed and the couch spun into a donut. The world swirled around us. Strangely, at that point, everything felt very calm. This was one smooth donut. heh heh heh. mmmmm...smooth donut.... -----

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Does a BOB trailer fit onto a Pugsley bike? No, unless you have friends in high places. Enter engineer/manufacturer/I've-got-a-machine-shop-in-the-family super friend Scott. He bent a one-off BOB trailer fork for our friend Nate out of aluminum that matches the 17.5mm offset wheel on the Pug. As you can see it has plenty of tire clearance and the trailer is perfectly centered. Nice work. -----

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Now that the ass bruise from my close encounter of the vehicular kind has subsided into a hazy interpretation of Picasso's Guernica, it's time to move on to other things. Mostly riding bikes and tipping back warm beverages. Yes, it's that time of year when the single-speeders of the greater Minneapolis area migrate out onto a local lake and do stupid things for pride and the entertainment of lookers on. You guessed it - it's time for the Snowball's Chance in Hell Formula Ice Race and Snowy Dash for Cold Hard Cash. This time-honored tradition was started some 9 (or 8, or 10) years ago by local luminary Kid Riemer. Since then it's stagnated significantly under the organizing juggernaut that is BrauSovCor. Still, it will be fun to drink beer and knock each other over. Don't forget the ICY FIGURE EIGHT OF TERROR on which we run the miss-and-out, or the frightfully long Dash for the Cash - that's $20.06 up for grabs this year y'all! Either way, get on your bike and get to Brownie Lake, Saturday Feb 11 at high noon. Idiocy will ensue. Bring any bike, dress warm, don't hate. -----

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Hello droogs. The trails around here are fast. The snowpack makes them almost as fast as hardpacked dirt, with some ruts and ice patches doing the part mud would in summer. I rode a 20 minute loop at Wirth yesterday. My average summer loop time is 17 minutes. Not bad. Not that I keep track of that sort of thing. So I got an email today letting me know that MPLS protorocker Dale T. Nelson is once again having his birthday bash at The Entry. His band, Otto's Chemical Lounge, and a spate of to-be-determined loudbands will be playing there the evening of Saturday, February 18. This is QBP's Frostbike weekend, frostbike being a dealer show sponsored by our distributor and Big Brother (take that how you will) Quality Bicycle Products, so if you're in town and want some loud music MPLS style, show up. Doors at 8, and the email says Otto's plays at 11:30, but puh-leeze, this is ROCK, and rock rolls when it wants to, or at least when it stops barfing in somebody's guitar case, so show up early and stay late. I asked (and by asked I mean begged using a lot of exclamation points) them to get the Mighty Mofos on the roster, but regardless it should be good and loud. This show comes with the official Kenny Bloggins Double-Thumbs-Up-Like-You're-Shootin'-Pistols-With-A-Cheesy-Grin-And-A-Wink seal of approval. And for those of you following the progress of SSWC 06 (if I have to spell that out for you you have not been following along): the date is set. Get thee to Singletrackworld.com, where the fine journalists from Singletrack in the north of Wales have secured an interview (of sorts) with Tobias, one of The People sadist enough to take this thing on. Enjoy. Make plans now, espcially as I understand from mulitple sources that Sweden is expensive, especially the liquor. But hey, this is the world championships of being an idiot, so come get one in the yarbles. If you have any yarbles, that is. -Billy Boy -----

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New In Stock Rox, out of Arizona, USA, has made us a new wide rimstrip out of their Super Dut-E material. This synthetic cloth tape is 50mm wide and will be perfect for Large Marge rims. The part number is RS0002 and they are now in stock. Sweet. -----

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