Exposed

Stopped by Mellow Johnny's early today to hear and see Bike Snob NYC. He's in town for a book signing. Instead of the usual reading most authors give, he gave a slide show of his childhood and the bikes he rode. Amusing guy, but I liked him better when he was anonymous. Now, when I read his column, I'll think of a middle-ish-age Jewish guy with a bald spot and a new baby boy. Not that there's anything wrong with that - just not a very edgy image. Oh, and he even has a name - Eben Weiss.


While I was at MJ's (that's what all the cool kids call it), I also had a chance to check out the new Team RadioShack bikes. That's Popo's on the end.


The graphics are very in-your-face. Very different from the Merckx bikes of the 7-11 and Motorola days.

Bonus

Received my first royalty check today from ASME. I was surprised, to say the least - since I thought we had to sell 2000 copies first before royalties kicked in. Anyway, it was only for the last 2 weeks in June, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.


Spent the night building up Eric's new Cervelo R3. He bought the frameset recently from Excel Sports. It's pretty sweet - and the frame weighs less than 1000 grams. I hung a 7800 series Dura Ace 10 group on it, except for the FSA carbon compact cranks. Nice bike.

Popularity contest

It's been a while, so I thought I'd check our book sales on Amazon this morning. Our sales rank tends to fluctuate quite a bit. We've been as high as #1 in our category, but currently we're #4, which ranks as #129,756 in books on Amazon.


Interestingly, we're selling better than Arthur C. Clarke's 2010.

Shipping now

Word on the street is ASME has started shipping the book I helped my Dad write, Pipe Stress Engineering. Still waiting on my copy, so I guess they're sending out the pre-ordered copies first. It's available from Amazon or directly from ASME. Initial feedback on the engineering forums has been very positive.

Vacation

First of all - Pipe Stress Engineering will be available next week. You can order your copy directly from ASME or at any number of book sites, including Amazon. Odd to see your name as a hyperlink.

My doctor told me on my last visit that he wouldn't clear me to go back to the office until this week. That meant I had to take last week off as vacation to avoid going on long term disability.

The first part of the week was pretty uneventful. Later, I spent a long weekend at Port Aransas. Sun and seafood should be a part of all recovery plans.

Sunday night I went to the Springsteen concert. I sat in the handicap section, so I had plenty of elbow room. Lots of parents with their kids; made me laugh. I've seen every one of his tours since the River tour in '81, including his stop in Houston last year. So this trip was more for completeness than anything else. He's not bad for an old fart. A man, a goatee, and a guitar. This is Seeds from the Austin show:



Because the Night is still my personal fave. He played it in town, but no one has uploaded it to YouTube yet. In the meantime, here's a good version of that song from the 2004 Rock the Vote spectacle:

Random

Looks like the cover has been finalized by ASME Press for Pipe Stress Engineering. The book should be published in a few weeks. The world tour starts soon after that.


Linda just returned from the state Latin competition in Dallas. Of the 86 or so schools that entered, her kids took home the seventh place trophy - Congrats, Sis!

Something I never thought I'd see, Kate in Manolos. Nice. The big question - to cuff or not to cuff?


Taking next week off as vacation.

This about sums it up...

Stressful Reading

The publisher recently sent us their edits for the Pipe Stress Engineering book my Dad and I are writing. Been reading it before bed this week. It's pretty good. I'm getting to the exciting part where the protagonist anti-hero encounters the antagonist, charges him with violating Section VIII code, thus setting up the cliff-hanger that will be patly resolved in the final chapter. Seriously, it's good. Stay tuned for more.

The Final Countdown

Your two candidates speak. The videos are long, but worth it. And they're much more compelling than the last debate.





And concerning the economy, here's a brilliant summary of how the bike industry is handling the situation as blogged by Bike Snob NYC.

And finally, yes - the book is done. Belinda was kind enough to send me the following pic she took of me at Jeff and Ann's wedding reception this past Sunday.

Spinal Tap Moment

Those of you who have known me for a while know I'm a real cheapskate when it comes to the parts I ride. Reaching as far back as the Colnago Master I rode in undergrad, most of my bikes have been put together with parts from used bikes I've purchased and flipped over the years. I've been known to buy a complete bike just for the headset or brake calipers. Which explains the Chris King Ti and Zero Gravities on my current ride. Sure, it may take 10 or more buy/sell cycles (no pun intended) before I can complete a project, but for me that's half the fun. Granted, it also makes my house look the Yellow Bike Project Annex, but I'm OK with that too.

Anyway, that's all about to change. Dating woes and an unexpected windfall led to a little retail therapy recently... It's a new Campagnolo 11-speed Super Record gruppo. Yeah, I know, it was a very Fred thing to do. Again, I'm OK with that. Buying the parts is one thing; let's see if I really end up using them. You should probably know I purchased Campy Record and Chorus 10 gruppos on clearance earlier in the year, but couldn't bring myself to actually install and sully them. I ended up selling most of it on eBay.

As it stands, I'll still probably sell the Super Record brakes and crankset, as I like the Zero G's better and prefer a compact crank for the hills (see wussification rant in the last post). So if you need the finest Vicenza can offer, give me a shout. The ceramic bearings used for the cranks are suppose to be like buttah. See Competitive Cyclist for a nice review of the new 11 parts.

• Book update: finished the preface and Chapter 1, Rev 2. Chapter 4 is next.


• Debate update: After a lot of slicing with Occam's razor, the net result is nothing, zippo, a draw. Biden seemed more accessible, Palin seemed more together (despite her winks and folksy delivery that I loathe). A bazillion web sites out there are doing their postmortem, so I won't bother adding anything more.