Just Checking in

Hello Everyone,

 Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Keep visiting my page from time to time and check out my "Resource Guide" tab which features some real interesting articles along with helpful cycling tips from an unofficial expert (myself, then again, no-not really).

Please keep up the enthusiasm for my blog. I have acquired several more vintage finds since my last articles, some which I might post in the near future. I have been weighing several topics in my head which I have wanted to discuss on my blog, but none of them have seemed worthy of an article so far.

I will however highlight that I went to Austin on a trip recently just to check out the downtown area in more detail. It was a Saturday, and I didn't stick around for the nightlife that Austin is known for, so maybe my opinion is a little skewed. My overall impression of the downtown area was...meh. I was expecting to be more impressed than I actually ended up being. Yes, Austin is very bicycle friendly, but they are way overdoing the hipster thing. Don't get me wrong, as a creative and artistic individual, I like displays of originality and ironic things. That is, until everyone in one area is doing it, then it is no longer original. Case in point, downtown Austin. All the twenty somethings were on single speed bicycles wearing either what I would call a stocking on their heads or dreadlocks, although I am skeptical of there being that many devoted Rastafarians concentrated in just one area. This along with 4th street (for reasons I will not disclose, just go there if you dare) in downtown are my chief complaints about the city. And although I know deep down inside that I'm a cool guy I just wouldn't be able to hang in the city of Austin. It hit me while I was there that I had outgrown this city on a social level. The images of the cyclists that I saw fit like a glove into some of the stereotypes of cyclists Eben Weiss describes in his book "Bike Snob NYC". I wasn't seeing anyone in business suits commuting to work, or anyone that seemed like they even had a bit of responsibility. That kind of turned me off a little bit. In world class bicycle cities like Berlin you see that sort of thing, and as I can recall I didn't see even one hipster throughout my whole visit there. Maybe it's the old man talking, but I doubt it. I'm afraid that in Austin's case cycling has to do the the bigger trend of hipsterdom and Lance Armstrong worship. Once it's no longer cool to be a hipster that might effect the whole bike thing in Austin, at least that is what I fear.

I am currently following some of my own advice and dieting. Yes dieting. I am on a mostly vegetarian diet and am staying away from breads and sugars. I also joined a gym to lose some annoying poundage before the summer (and bike racing season) starts. I am going to try my hand at racing (and probably losing) once again pretty soon. More info on that later. I am strongly considering showing up to an official race on a 30 year old bicycle, so I need to be in shape if I am in it to win it. Anyway, we'll see how that goes.

Let me also add that I do get too busy to blog sometimes. As outrageous as that sounds,  I too suffer from the malignancies of living a normal life and having projects, tasks and errands to run each day. Most of these happenings aren't bicycle related topics, although I do have interesting things happen to me on a regular basis.

Keep reading, subscribe if you are just visiting my page, and stay tuned for more exciting news from a Bicycle's Point of View.