Fuck Gas

Dear Austin,

How’s Texas? It’s still cold here and now it’s snowing again. I long for the beautiful, warm nights we spent together. Pedaling around downtown, drinking Lone Star and just seeing where the evening took us. I have a bike ride here tonight. We’re meeting at On Your Left and probably taking a direct route to The Swan Dive because Mother Nature is such a bitch she can’t even allow me this one evening for warm weather and friends. I’ve really had it with her, I think we’re breaking up. It’s really needed to happen for some time now, I just wanted to give her another chance. I’m like so over it, enough about her…

So anyway, about that bike ride. People have been wondering if it was still going to happen so it may just be me and a few close friends, but we’ll have fun regardless. I really do hope people show up. Becca (from the Swan Dive) is even making vegan lasagna, having $2.50 24oz High Life’s in a can and we’ll be watching The Triplets of Belleville. Doesn’t get much better than that… until you add the beer delivery guy throwing in a bunch of High Life hats to give away. They’re pretty awesome, red and black plaid, insulated and even have the ear flap things.I enclosed a copy of the flyer for the ride tonight too. I hope you like it and put it up on your wall with all your other radical spoke cards and punk rock show posters.

I hope everything is going well down in Texas. You know I miss you, Austin. I know we will see each other again some day. Until then, say hi to everybody for me and tell them I love them.

Love,
Jimmy

It’s official duders! Louisville will host the Masters Worlds in 2012 and the Cyclocross World Chamiponships in 2013! Looks like we’ll be getting a visit from Sven Nys after all - how stoked are you?! Now, let’s just hope the Green Monster gets a chance at the big time too…

Huge thanks to Joan Hanscomb from the U.S. Gran Prix and Greg (I think) from the Louisville Sports Commission for working on this. You can read more about it over at VeloNews. I can honestly say I have no idea where I’ll be living once 2013 rolls around, but if any of you (Liz, I know you’re a roadie, but this is the worlds!) need a place to crash, hit me up!

Things are going down this weekend so don’t miss out. Just wanted to give you creeps a couple days head start so you had time to make room in you’re busy schedules and plan accordingly. Friday night is totally non-bike related for me but I just found out it’s going to be a bit more interesting. Louisville Lightening plays a home game and as it turns out, it’s military night. Bullocks! Oh well, the boy will probably get a kick (pun intended) out of seeing a bunch of grown ass men wearing mercenary uniforms.

Saturday will be our bike-in movie night at The Swan Dive with a showing of The Tripletts of Belleville. We’re riding from On Your Left, meeting up at the shop say around 7ish and plan to start the movie sometime after 9. Becca will have beer and food specials so bring your bellies. You know how we roll so don’t be scared to come get your pre-ride drink on at On Your Left and pick up any last minute gadgets, like lights. It’s still winter and that means it gets dark early and stays that way… til May.

When you wake up Sunday morning with that unrecognizable beast snoring next to you, don’t panic. While you probably don’t remember a single thing from the later part of the evening, especially where that came from, or possibly even what your exact location is on the planet, rest assured, it was not pretty. So, with that in mind, get up, get dressed, say your good byes politely and get over to Mountain Bike Depot by 5pm for the Cyclocross Worlds Party. I know it may take you awhile to locate your bike, just hope you locked it up instead of tossing it in some bush in the heat of the moment while entangled with grizzly adams over there.

Just saying. Enjoy your Wednesday bitches.

Found at YouDriveWhat.com brought to you by the fine folks from PeopleOfWalmart.com

With insomnia really getting the best of me these days there’s not a lot of coherent ummmm, things for me to uh say. My kitchen looks looks like I live with 4 dudes again and I’ve got a basket of clean, folded laundry that’s been sitting in the middle of my bedroom for 3 days. That said, I leave you with this…

In Louisville’s bureaucratic efforts to continually shoot itself in the foot with all things bike related comes this gem introduced to the House on January 13:

HB 255 (BR 1113) - D. Osborne
AN ACT relating to bicycles.
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 189 to prohibit the operation of a bicycle on a state-maintained highway while transporting a person under the age of 18 years in an attached trailer or other apparatus.

Essentially this will prohibit many families from riding to spots such as parks and other recreational areas like the Riverwalk downtown, as well as grocery stores, doctors offices and even schools. This occurs due to a less than conscientious road and neighborhood layout that isolates people’s homes from the places they eat, work and play for lack of a better term. This all started back around World War 2 and just continues to worsen. With out a car in a modern American city, you’re fucked.

Now, you may be asking yourself who the hell is coming up with this crap… in comes State Representative David Osborne. You can comment about this bill by either calling him at (502) 564-8100 ext 679 or emailing him here. Just do your best to be polite please. Calling him up and telling him he’s all sorts of less than favorable things that he obviously does relate to really isn’t going to get a lot accomplished.

News from Velonation is that the 2013 Cyclocross World Championships are heading to the United States with Louisville in the lead for likely cities. Hell fuckin’ yeah! Add to all that cross legend and ex-BMXer Sven Nys said he will put off retirement for another year in order to take the start in America. The decision is not final until next Thursday, but until then someone is doing the pee-pee dance in hopes of Louisville landing this.

This, the 500th Fuck Gas post and not a thing to show for it. Look how far we’ve come. Fuck it, this is how we roll. Good news is that it is shaping up to be a beautiful Friday and Saturday for us, the inhabitants of our Ohio Valley. Yes, our goddess valley shits on us more than not with all the allergens and what nots, but the next two days should be quite glorious for the cycling, the running and the general outdoorsing. What about Sunday you ask, well more rain and the temperature begins to drop back to normal winter doings.

Let’s move on to additional non transportation happenings shall we…

That my dears is Zoe Keating. In the ever evolving line up of women musicians that I love, add one more. She’s got all the qualities a chap could ask for… first, she plays the cello (my favorite instrument), second, she’s a computer nerd using a mac, and third, dreads.I believe she’ll be playing to the goons at South by South West this year so if you’re in the Austin area and like crowds of idiots, check it out.

Lastly, not sure who all reads the Black Market so I’m reposting this from there. If you’re not reading Stevil’s blog, you should be…

Scott & John are a duo (duo, not couple you homophobic assholes) out of Scotland that make a kick ass Podcast that goes by the name, Velo Cast.

Episode 61 is now available where the two discuss a high-wire solution for urban congestion, the Bike Station in Edinburgh, and the start of the 2010 season at the Tour Down Under. They also talk about Laurent Fignon, pro teams for women (Liz, call me about that beer), a new range of bikes from Wiggle and a bike made by a Japanese boat builder

Bike!Bike! Southeast is landing in Louisville this year. If you’re not familiar with Bike!Bike!, it’s a national convergence for independent bike projects around the country, ones that are organized collectively, co-operatively, or as all-volunteer. They are typically rather small and aimed at providing people access to information regarding the repair and maintenance of human powered vehicles. Louisville being so centrally located provides a great meeting point for so many of these types of operations to which many, not all being from the Southeast alone, have expressed interest in attending. This years conference will take place March 19 - 21 with an apparently to be determined location. Keep in mind this is probably something you want to plan on bringing a sleeping bag to with a supply of snacks, tools and various bike supplies at there is typically some sort of swap meet. Stay tuned for more info or stay up to date over at the ever evolving Bike!Bike! Southeast website. Additionally, as with nearly everything else these days, there’s a Facebook group you can check in on too.