Dan Action

Pool Party June 10, 2009

Well, here in Philly the best harbinger of summer comes in the form of the bike race, the Liberty Classic. This is the race that used to be the determiner of the U.S. pro. It is a time where a huge part of the city shuts down and fans, drunks, and drunk fans head to the race course to indulge and watch some world class racing on the very streets we ride every day.

Leading up to race day, there are events on top of events going on at various shops all over town. Meet this team, ride this bike kind of times. At Bicycle Therapy, we were lucky to have served as the service course for Alex W. and Ed N. from SRAM for the better part of the week. They were also followed a few days later by the SRAM Neutral Support crew. Butch and Bernard came to spend some time at the shop which was absolutely excellent.

These folks were a joy to work around and chat with. Especially after a bombarding visit from some of the folks at Shimano, Alex’s calm and quiet way of explaining their various gear was heartily welcome. Add that to Ed’s meticulous breakdown of Sram’s engineering and super dedication to rider and customer service, I just can’t figure out why I’d buy another component from some other manufacturer. Not to mention their stuff, including the new, super-hot, Force group, works so incredibly well.

Friday came with an open house party with our SRAM friends and the OUCH/ Maxxis team as our guests of honor. The house was absolutely packed. Lee, Therapy’s owner, had done a fantastic job arranging beer and food for the throngs of folks in the shop. The OUCH team were fantastic and gracious guests. Their attitude even whilst being packed into a room with a bunch of half-cut cycling fans and amatuer racers was still overwhelmingly positive. Nice work guys.

Pretty much every shop in Philly and Jersey shuts down on race day. Most shops can be found popping up tents on the course somewhere and firing up the grills. It’s a day of drinking and cajoling with friends and acquaintances.

The racing was fantastic as usual. High Road pretty much took everyone to town by winning in the women’s race and going 1&2 in the men’s.

There’s plenty to drink, that’s for sure. A whole bunch of us lingered around in the park til way after the race and kept drinking. I eventually entered a race of my own. Proposed by some weird frat kids putting up a case of terrible beer to the winner of a three against three race to the top of the hill, we happily took the prize and pretty much just used the beer as props to bite into and splash on each other. We then took a caravan ride to one of the city’s ample fountains, and in the middle of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, started up what felt like a thirteen year old’s birthday pool party. Then on to some wonderful sandwiches followed by thorough sleeping.

Oh, I have a Flickr page now. I just put one up yesterday.   Click Here!

Mountains May 23, 2009

 

I’ve just returned home to Philly last night, dropped off by such good friends I’ve just spent the better part of the last two weeks with in vans, hotels, pools, bars, and roads twisting through the Appalachian mountains.

As a Rapha Continental rider I went southward to take part in a few of the hosted rides put forth by folks as part of the Continental Calling project. My trip took me on rides starting in Tennessee to Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and ultimately, to D.C.  As they post, I urge any reader to check out the more or less daily reports posted on the Rapha Continental Site, which I will add, has gotten a great facelift. Also check out some extras and behind the scenes takes posted quite often on the Embrocation Cycling Journal Blog, as Jeremy himself is along for the ride as well.

It’s hard as I sit here to really convey or even truly unpack all that has occurred in the past twelve days. Rides, drives, storms, meals, conversation, and drinks are only now being digested and becoming actual memory. The best I can do is show all of you some photos for now. In the coming days I will find a way that I can best break down the trip into something more manageable and post more cohesive stories. 

J. Dunn at Gran Fondo

Hotel Rapha

Strictly Recovery

Pretty OK

Tax Man’s Work

Weird Treats

Breakfast at Tryst, Thanks, Sol

Weather the Weather February 3, 2009

  Upon getting back from California, I entered into a sewing frenzy. Nathalie and I were trying to get a whole bunch of our stuff made for this punk flea market here in Philly. After a couple of intense days of working, we were able to bring somewhere close to fifty hats, ten pouches, fifteen neck warmers, and a bunch of random bike parts literally to the table.

The event itself was really pretty encouraging. Besides selling a fair amount of our wares, we got to talk to a lot a folks, and if nothing else, assert our presence to a greater base here.

Along those same lines, we have been getting a ton of positive feedback on the stuff that we have sold so far. It makes me really happy that you could actually enjoy and appreciate something that I make.

Anyway, with all that over, I feel I’ve been unpacking and cataloguing memories from my trip to California with Rapha. 752 miles in 7 days for a 49 hour ride week. Suffice to say, there is a lot there to go through. We saw the terrain and landscape completely change in the trip as we traveled roughly north to south. From lush coast and climbing through dense redwood forest, to mountainous pastures giving way to the brambled, brown hills of the Sierras, and finally the scrub and rocky facades of high desert climbs like Angeles Crest and Palomar mountain.  Carey, who pretty much kept us all from losing our minds got some amazing pictures and videos, and they’re up on her Flikr page.

Words are so small given the space that the ride has taken up in me. It would take too many to fill. The gorgeous, aching photos and film that has come from this are probably the best way to really see it.  As a photographer, you pretty much couldn’t miss. It was all that beautiful.  Jeremy also has some great content on the Embrocation blog.

Here the weather is erratic. Yesterday saw me getting out for a couple hours on the bike exploring some new routes; today huge snowflakes are falling with no signs of abatement. After riding in mostly sunny weather on the west coast, getting back on the trainer here is a special kind of torture given to those with only the deepest resign. Damn.

Got some good stuff to look forward to though. Battenkill, the Philly race weekend in early April, and maybe even the Grant’s tomb crit in NYC. Who knows, but I might as well use the fitness I’ve been gaining to an early season advantage, right?

Spills, Thrills, still no Chills. August 1, 2008

Not much break in the heat down here. The city feels like a bacteria breeding ground, god knows what is festering in the humid, sauna-like city known as Philly. I wonder what might be growing on the sugar-water covered triathlete’s bikes. A Cervelo P2C in the heat, the “P” comes to stand for petri.

In the week leading up to the last night I got to spend with my mother, as you might imagine, it was hard to keep my focus on whatever task was at hand without my mind going back to thoughts of her. As this pertained to my riding, my focus was shot. At best I’d sporadically sprint with a short fit of anger or a similar sentiment or my mind would come back around to what I was actually doing and I’d be coasting down to 12 mph or so.  At worst, it meant turfing it. While riding in the dirt, I’d be a little spacey and find myself on the ground. Once after riding myself pretty tired I fell off a little plank ride and damaged my ass, not to mention a few other parts of me. Another time led to missing the sight of an object directly in front of me as it put me in prone position into the ground. I felt my teeth push some dirt around, I also worked up a great abrasion on my face. There is not too much that drives me to enrage than to hit my face or head. Most times with a head injury though, I am able to concuss myself out of the memory and most of the pain. The face however, oooh do I get mad. Luckily I have given up the habit of throwing my bike. Well, except any mountain bike I might have. Mountain bikes don’t really count.

Looking so forward to the D2R2 ride. I keep searching for maps or cue sheets or any other ride reports I can find. Milliman is set to shoot this ride by moto. Sooooo sweeeet.

Been tuning up a bit here and climbing a lot on the dirt with the cross bike. One thing a bout hard dirt climbs; they really let you know where you are as far as your core strength is. Woof.

This just in….

Litchfield ride is up on The Rapha Continental site. Photos were shot by Chris Milliman. So gorgeous.  Check it all out.

Where have I been? June 3, 2008

The answer to that question has many sides and as many asides. I will try to cover a good amount of ground here.

Let’s see, on the home front things are truly spectacular. Two dogs now playfully reside in the house. Work is getting to be a really comfortable place. It is completely full of great folks, I don’t even mind, and in fact, aim to get in early every work day if only to shoot the BS over a cup of coffee with everyone. Not to mention all the help and advice I’ve gleaned from them over minute details of the city. The likes of which make it easier to find the genuinely wonderful things in the city.

“What things could this be?” you may wonder. Well I’ll let you in on some of them.

One- John’s water ice. Folks down here refer to Italian Ice simply as water ice. This place is the tops, and I don’t say that just because it’s 4 blocks from my house. They also make their own ice cream. The mixture of their chocolate ice cream and the cherry water ice sends me to dreamland.

Two- It is not as easy as other places I’ve lived to buy beer here. Seemingly very few stores are allowed to sell. You either buy your beer as a 6-pack to go from a bar or go to the local deli or pizzeria to get some. Both of these, I may add, a re usually exceedingly expensive. Taxes on booze are high, as is public demand, therefore dumb, dumb beer prices. Though if you are of more quantitative thinking, you can also buy cases at a beer distributor. Prices vary pretty wildly, and you can not walk out with anything less than 24 beers.

Three- Travel to NY. There are a myriad of ways open to the auto-less Philadelphian to get themselver to Ney York. There is a series of two commuter rails that are scheduled in tandem to get you ther in 2 to 2 1/2 hours. There is also a few different bus companies that run from Chinatown Philly to Chinatown in New York. Each is usually $20 round trip, $12 one way. These buses haul ass and will have you on Canal st. in under 2hrs.

This is the tip of the iceberg as far as the helpful things my friends and co-workers have imparted on me. It works out great.

Riding has been going well. On the Rapha side of things, we all got our new bikes!!! I am riding a Chris Igleheart. It feels amazing!! The other fine folks that made frames for the team of guys were Bilenky, Independent Fabrications, Circle A Cycles (yahoo!) , and Richard Sachs. What a line up. The day after getting them we gave them a 100 mile whirl around the constantly undulating terrain of north-central Massachusetts. Departing from Fitchburg, we plodded north to touch down a little in NH, then returned south and completed the loop just after climbing the mount Wachusett summit. Kind of my old stomping grounds. We made sure to get some good photos, and to stop a lot to make adjustments on our one day old bikes.

Riding here in Philly has been pretty good, and I’m happy to say I’m finally back on a way more consistent schedule. I have actually been getting up to ride before work on most days, starting rodes at 7a.m., and usually going out for a good 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. It’s so much easier when there are people you agreed to meet. Days off, like today I usually do the morning ride, then try to squeeze in a second ride towards the evening. Cross season is beginning to pick at my mind. I need to be in killer shape by the end of September.

I have borrowed the demo Spec. FSR full suspension ride from the shop a few times and gotten out to the trails. There is some super fun riding out here, about four or five miles from the house. I love riding rocky, swoopy trails. The Wissahickon has got them everywhere. Not to mention a couple of long, gross climbs, and some nicely sculpted obstacles and berms. Fast!!!

That’s it for now. I’ll try and scare up a few pictures. Internet here at the house is more or less donated anonomously and sort of cuts in or out frequently, so that is no help for me trying to relieve the absentee-ism from my blog. Thanks.