It's Not An Adventure If You Don't Measure Every Second Of It

If you missed the BSNYC BOOMB!* Pre-Fondon't Ride this past Saturday then you missed the BSNYC BOOMB! Pre-Fondon't Ride this past Saturday:

(Photo by Jem)

Hills were scaled, derailleurs were destroyed, and the passive voice was employed afterwards by me to sum it all up.  Rest assured there will be a full accounting of the ride (in the active voice) in the not-too-eventual future.  In the meantime, the success of the ride (and by "success" I mean nobody pelted me with stones afterwards) gives me the confidence to curate a full-blown BSNYC Gran Fondon't ride in the coming weeks:

(Artist's rendering of what a Gran Fondo could look like, but won't.)

So stay tuned, and in the meantime thanks to everyone who rode on Saturday.

Indeed, the only thing that would have made the ride even better would have been if I'd been using a state-of-the-art power meter:

Yes, nothing says "adventure" like meticulously quantifying every facet of your mediocrity.

If you're wondering about what makes it adventure-specific, it's that if you don't meet specific fitness goals it simply falls off the bicycle, leaving you stranded in the wilderness.

And no, nobody jumped over a Lamborghini at any point during the ride either (that I'm aware of, anyway) but you can't have everything:



And another angle:



This is an entire genre of video apparently, who knew?

It's also now my favorite style of video.

Hey, you wanna drive a $300,000 shim around town you don't get to "curate" what kind of attention you receive.

Some people will be impressed, others will think you're a douchebag, and still others will just wanna ride over that shit.

If you want to inspire complete indifference while driving I recommend a Hyundai:

I mean I could have a Lamborghini if I wanted, I just choose not to:

(Evidently their interest in performance stops the moment they step out of the car.)

What would really impress me though would be seeing someone hop a Lamborghini on a folding bike--and speaking of folding bikes, Dahon has launched a Kickstarter for their new Curl model:

Which, as far as I can tell, is basically a Brompton:

Or am I crazy?

By the way, the US leg of the Brompton World Championships will take place in New York City this year:

As always, the Brompton World Championship USA will begin with a "Le Mans" style start, with each competitor racing to his or her folded bike before unfolding and taking off on the course, which consists of ten laps around NYC's Marcus Garvey Park. Brompton owners from all corners of the country are invited to compete in the United States leg of the Brompton World Championship series.

I've been flirting with the idea of entering this race, and if I can figure out how to retrofit an Oral-B electric toothbrush into a secret motor you could very well be looking at your new champion.

Just let me know whether you think I should race or not via this online poll and I'll do whatever you decide:

Lastly, I was very sad to learn about the death of Michele Scarponi:

Scarponi was killed on Saturday morning when he was struck by a van while training just two kilometres from his home. The driver of the van was a 57-year-old local man. “We know each other well. I’ve lost a son, but I’m thinking of him too,” Scarponi’s father, Giacomo, said.

Enjoy every ride, it's all you can do.