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Giro D'Italia 2013
Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: mcsqueak

Order: Black Order Velominatus

Location: Portland, OR

Infinite amount of time and weight away from peaking. I've never raced and I've only been cycling for three years.

@mcsqueak's activity:

La Vie Velominatus: The Sound of Silence

In most situations, silence is an ominous thing that signals impending doom. Having never been in any danger myself, I base this largely on my experience watching box-office movies. As a general rule, I use Hollywood as the principal source of information on all subjects as they relate to doom and politics, principally because I’m loath t...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. My ‘fancy’ wheels are giving me goddamn fits right now. Creaking and stuff, annoying the piss out of me. My older, heaver wheels are silent. So hopefully the hub just needs some TLC. »

Guest Article: Down with the YJA

Bicycles and automobiles- can’t we all just get along? @Kah writes about this universal (do aliens have this issue also?) problem of us co-existing with humans in cars. We all drive cars too and have cursed the occasional cyclists for some good reason. Cars are our greatest threat. We can crawl away from our own bicycle crashes, thanks very m...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @Ron Most of the large manufacturers make white jackets, which I personally think is the appropriate color if you want to be “visible” and not look like a nuclear waste hauler. I have a pretty thin rain shell from Castelli which is a semi-opaque white, … »

The Rules

We are the Keepers of the Cog.  In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this list.See also The Prophet’s Prayer. Continue reading...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @scaler911 No kidding, awful article and worse comments. It seems like people who don’t wish to wear lycra have to do a lot of rationalizing and putting down of those who do regarding their decision. Wear whatever the fuck you want, but don’t be sad w… »

  2. @Chris Ha, touche. »

  3. @Steampunk Winston Churchhill looked a bit peckish in many photographs… »

  4. @snoov So basically cook like the British cook then, yeah? »

  5. @G’rilla My anecdote: PDX cogal: had a tofu po’boy for dinner and absolutely cycled for shit the next day. Seattle cogal: had a burger and dipped my fries in mayo and managed to finish 160k without embarrassing myself too much the next morning. I mea… »

Descendeur

We close out the 6 Days of the Giro with our sixth and final installment.A body at rest, stays at rest. A body in motion, stays in motion. Things get a bit more ambiguous when it comes to a body on a bicycle tearing down a twisty mountain descent at speed, particularly in the rain. But it is here, on the boundary between clarity and ambiguity, wher...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. I had a ~200 meter gravel descent on my road bike yesterday. That was pucker-city. I thought I was going to eat shit a few times. »

KT 2012 Gear Review: fi’zi:k Shoes

It was Marko’s love letter about fi’zi:k’s points-of-contact that started this off. It led to a conversation that resulted in us heading off to Belgium with some fi’zi:k point-of-contact items to test. Most stimulating was the notion of testing Italian cycling shoes. Both Marko and Gianni have publicly admitted their cycli...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @teleguy57 Yeah I’ve been wearing my white R3′s a lot recently as the weather has been really nice, and I quite like them. Not *quite* as comfy as my Sidi’s, but I think I’m still breaking them in. I probably have less than 500 miles in them right now. »

The Rules

We are the Keepers of the Cog.  In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this list.See also The Prophet’s Prayer. Continue reading...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. Someday I’ll pass it on to my son. I hope he appreciates the sacrifices I made to get that Garmin out of Korea. »

  2. Ha! »

  3. @Tobin Yeah I thought about one of those things, but then decided that I didn’t care enough about the information during the ride. What I really like to do is put it on Strava after my ride and look at it then. I recently swapped to a shorter stem and m… »

  4. I finally got sick of how my Garmin looked on my stem, so I started riding with it in my back pocket this week so I still have “ride records”. Seems to record just as accurately from the pocked as when mounted on the bike… and I like not having it in my… »

Dirty Romantics

We’re into day three of the Six Days of the Giro series, and it’s time to hit the dirt.If ever a Keepers Tour goes to Italy, then we’re doing this climb. No doubt. Climbing on gravel up a real mountain, what’s not to love? Continue reading...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @Tartan1749 Yeah, for planning out new rides I think ridewithgps is more accurate than mapmyride. The site interface is way better as well. Likewise, Strava has my max climb as something like 300m, when I’ve done a local a 1,000m climb several times no… »

  2. @frank Whoa, that’s gonna be sick! »

The Bikes

The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.It seems in s...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @scaler911 Man, you and David should have given that thing an epic shake down on our ride last Saturday before giving it back.. »

The Lexicon

The Velominati have our own set of nicknames and terms which have developed over time through posts and correspondence. Some of these are names of landmarks or terms in cycling; others are nicknames for some of the riders in the pro peloton. While not intended to be offensive or derogatory, the nicknames in the list represent the riders’ pe...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. Yeah depending on the direction it’s a half-hour to full hour of riding to get ‘out of town’. Sucks sometimes when you just want to enjoy a ride without huffing exhaust and stopping at 50 stop lights, but at least it’s a good warm up before the hills… »

Sur La Plaque: Rule #33

We’re heaping coals on the Giro frenzy that’s burning in all corners of the Cycling world by issuing the second installment of the monthly BigRingRiding Sur la Plaque series while at the same time kicking off the Six Days of the Giro series where we’ll post six articles on the subject of this, the best Grand Tour of the year. Y...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @DerHoggz Are you moisturizing afterwords? I get irritation if I don’t put lotion on after I shower. »

  2. @motor city How do you like the Morvelo stuff? I’ve been running across it on the internet a bit recently, but never seen it here in person. »

Velominati Kit Redesign: Half Turbine, Half Hazard

Change creeps in slowly, it has a way of taking the seemingly immutable and eroding it over time. It’s inevitable; if the great canyons were carved from the solid rock of Mount Velomis by such a soft thing as water, then it should come as no surprise that the Velominati V-Kit would also change with time. As David St. Hubbins says, “Th...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @paolo Golf clap for that, since we all know cycling is the new golf (they say)… »

Sur La Plaque: Rule #33

We’re heaping coals on the Giro frenzy that’s burning in all corners of the Cycling world by issuing the second installment of the monthly BigRingRiding Sur la Plaque series while at the same time kicking off the Six Days of the Giro series where we’ll post six articles on the subject of this, the best Grand Tour of the year. Y...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. Stop at the eyebrows. »

Velominati Kit Redesign: Half Turbine, Half Hazard

Change creeps in slowly, it has a way of taking the seemingly immutable and eroding it over time. It’s inevitable; if the great canyons were carved from the solid rock of Mount Velomis by such a soft thing as water, then it should come as no surprise that the Velominati V-Kit would also change with time. As David St. Hubbins says, “Th...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @Noel Boyd Kit orders haven’t been shipped yet. It’s been submitted to Castelli but they have to be manufactured, sent to Frank, then packed for delivery. http://www.velominati.com/gear/zwarte-v-jersey/#comment-178902 »

Sur La Plaque: Rule #33

We’re heaping coals on the Giro frenzy that’s burning in all corners of the Cycling world by issuing the second installment of the monthly BigRingRiding Sur la Plaque series while at the same time kicking off the Six Days of the Giro series where we’ll post six articles on the subject of this, the best Grand Tour of the year. Y...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. All damn year is the right time to be correct on Rule #33. End of. »

Velominati Kit Redesign: Half Turbine, Half Hazard

Change creeps in slowly, it has a way of taking the seemingly immutable and eroding it over time. It’s inevitable; if the great canyons were carved from the solid rock of Mount Velomis by such a soft thing as water, then it should come as no surprise that the Velominati V-Kit would also change with time. As David St. Hubbins says, “Th...

@mcsqueak's posts:

  1. @Gianni I actually liked the white panels on the old design a lot, especially on the jersey. That being said, the new design rocks and I think it stays very close to the established look while adding some new design elements which look nice. »

  2. @Cyclops I bet you could buy some of Frank’s “pre-stretched” stock from him.. »

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