MashSF X Saglife

My Chrome bag has been giving me some

back pains (a side effect of getting older

as well as going on 70 mile rides with the

bag loaded down with weight) so I thought

it would be wise to invest in a backpack

with two straps as opposed to the messenger

bags asymmetrical diagonal strap.

After a fair amount of research and shopping

around on the internet, I kept coming back

to this SAGLife X Mash collaboration. While

the price was substantially more than other

considerations, the overwhelmingly positive

reviews of the bag in tandem with the assurance

that the bag was designed with my specific

demographic in mind relieved the pain of

separating myself with the money.

While I only have my initial impressions to

report, I am very pleased with the bag so far.

The laptop pouch fits my 17" MacBook Pro and

the amount of cleverly designed pockets highlight

how flawed the Chrome "huge void" design really

is.

I will be taking the bag to Boston in two weeks

and will be able to give a more thorough report

after having traveled and ridden with the bag.

Bike Check: Ryan gets Gears and Brakes.

So, this post has been in the works for some time.

I referenced the build in an earlier post when I

took shipment of the group that I spec'd for the

build. The reason for my hesitation was the fact

that the bike had not been released yet. The frame

set is a test frame of the 3 series Madone which

is Trek's new entry level carbon offering. The neat

thing that sets the bike apart from other models

are the fender and rack mount bosses on the drop

outs. I built the bike for RAGBRAI and have since

put roughly 2000 (hard) miles on it, which included

(but are not limited to) getting airborne off of a

crashed pace line member, off roading into a ditch

and mashing up a 19% grade for a mile in my big

ring (Somehow the bike and my kneecaps held

together for that event).

Working at Trek has given me the opportunity to

ride some extremely expensive high-end road bikes.

While I would be lying to say that I have no desire to

own said high end road bikes, the 3 series Madone was

the perfect entry into carbon/road/geared bikes. The

Sram group had performed flawlessly, the frame has

taken my abuse in stride and has even gotten me into

the exciting world of lycra.

Kwame visits the Dog Park.

Kwame and I went down to the Sun Prairie dog park to

rough up some lesser dogs. He proceeded to ignore any

dog that was not at least 4 times his size and he managed

to hold his own. His only distraction from the big dogs is

when a really fat Chihuahua showed up. He went investigated

the portly toy dog for a few moments before returned to

picking fights with a fully grown greyhound.

He did incur some physical harm when he intersected paths

with a boxer. When the two dogs tumbled, the boxer stepped

on Kwame's right rear leg. After a small yelp and a moment

or two of limping around, he was back to 100%.

The best part was he slept like he had just eaten Thanksgiving

Dinner for the next 2 days.

Hans.

Wears his sunglasses at night.

Upside down.

Zurich Old Town.

A parade of drunken euro 20-somethings.

Soft Focus. No Glasses.

David Bloome. Deceptively quick on a bicycular vehicle.

Dela.

Eurobike Bartender of the Year.

Sharp as a tack in his second language.

Let me behind the bar to get my own water.

Hope to see him next year.

Post Eurobike Dinner.

Serious talks about the future.

Less serious conversations afterwards.

Electra Girls.

I wish you girls could make babies.

I want to see how cute the offspring would be.

Eurobike: Part Deux.

Vendors to Manufacturers.

Sensory Overload.

Faggin.

They wanted 5000 Euro for this Cromoly Brakeless Track

Bike wrapped in leather.

That's a lot of money for a gimmick.

Pork Products.

Man that is a nice presentation for what was essentially

really thin meat loaf.

Bronze Horse.

Made for riding.

Schutzengarten.

My german is shaky at best, but I am fairly certain that means

"shooting garden".

Prep Time.

Our 9am departure turned into a 11:45am departure due

to a stripped seat post tube. After some scrambling,

improvising and some impressive MacGuyver-ing the

12 bicycle designers and engineers were able to get

everything fastened.

We were on our way. Going Clockwise.

Ryan Looking Uncomfortable.

Photographers take photographs for a reason.

They aren't photogenic.

Pretty.

Clouds mask alps. Bell Towers mask clouds.

Awkward Phenomenon.

At Hugo, German people would come up to me in pairs and

ask me to take a picture of them with my camera.

However, they did not ask for the picture, nor did they ask

where it would be posted online.

Weird.

Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Not much unlike Shanghai Pudong.

Just bigger, more clownshoes.

Zurich. Old Town.

Super. Pretty.

Detroit Spokes.

If I ever make a scraper bike. You better

believe I am spec'ing this wheel set.

Mark my words...

Trying to put out a fire with a paper napkin, does not end

well for anyone.

Trekkers in Europe.

Some of the best people in to world to get

drunk in Europe with.

And yes I realize I ended that sentence with

a preposition.

No Brakes!

I don't know why this happened, perhaps Bianchi had too

many "No Brakes" stickers laying around, but this "track"

bike was not only set up with brake bosses in the Fork and

Frame, but was actually equipped with both front and rear

brakes.

Krautbauer took offense.

Knog.

Knog is, without a doubt, having fun with their product.

Mannequin.

Why would you even make a mannequin in

that pose?

Because you want people to take pictures like

this.