and the parts come rolling in...

new king...
Originally uploaded by divine_gear.

i've said this before, and i'll say it again...god, a king is a beautiful thing...

i used to do this...

on my other blog, but since i stopped posting there...i'm going to do this every once and a while here. i know it's not related to the art of the single speed, but oh well. i enjoy reading up on, and understand superheroes. so i often get a kick in putting up these heroes, and information about them on my blog. so i hope you enjoy.


here we have uatu the watcher. he is a member of the marvel universe, and is an 'observer', he is an observer of earth's solar system. he adheres to his race's vow of non-interference. to not intervene in the matters of earth. so he sits in his base; which is located in the 'blue area' of earth's moon; which is an area on the moon a few miles wide with an earth-normal atmosphere (got it?). he possesses vast psionic abilities. these include telepathy, energy-manipulation, and illusion casting. he also possesses vast intelligence that allows him to 'monitor' the solar system. the only way he is able to die is to lose the will to live. nice.

o.k., so here we have what appears to be a pretty powerful guy. vast powers. immortal.

so what does he do? nothing. he observes. that's it. he, by his race's vow, is unable to interfere with the affirs of earth. though, often he has, and has been reprimanded for it. the lost of powers, his expulsion from the watchers. however he has regained his statues in the watchers.

he's a funny character. it seems that there is an amoral attitude with the watchers. it goes against the whole 'with great power, comes great responsibility' thing. here is someone that has great power, but does nothing with it; unless the 'fabric of reality' is in jeopardy.

so as i was sitting down...

and enjoying a beer the other day it hit me. why not put up reviews of beers that i have tasted? so why not indeed? it is the understanding that beer is a very important part of the single speed culture, so since it is important to the single speeder, then it is relevant to me here...

a friend of mine stated a couple of weeks ago that he was thinking about doing the local beer tour here in our area. i thought about doing it with him, until i remembered why i stopped doing it. but then he suggested about just doing the new ones on the tour rather than the ones we have done so many years in a row. however; still the problem remains about going to the same establishment to have a beer. now my new thought...just buy different beers at my local shop and drink them. well his retort was, 'what if you get a beer you don't like?' valid; however that same thing may happen at the bar, and i wouldn't have paid as much for it. checkmate.

so that is what i'm doing. choosing beers from my local beer store that i've never had before, and writing my reviews on them.

so what i plan on doing is giving information about the beer as far as brewery, taste, aroma, and appearance. even giving some information about beer itself.

so here we go...beer one...

here we have black sheep ale from black sheep brewery from yorkshire england. this brewery is only eleven years old. the brewery was originally called 'sheep brewery' for the sheep that have always been in the area; however the name was swiftly changed to 'black sheep brewery' to beef up the name a bit.

the beer is an ale. now what does that mean? well, it is brewed from barley malt and hops. in this process the yeast rises to the top of the fermentation tank, rather than falling to the bottom, as with other beers.

the appearance of the beer was a rich brown; which leads me to believe that it was more of a scotch ale. the aroma was very strong and hoppy. i have to say i enjoyed the smell greatly; however the taste left something to be desired. there was not a lot of taste to this beer, at least compared to the aroma. i believed with the strong aroma, i'd get a strong taste, but not. as i drank the ale, i noticed a very strong bitter after taste; which bothered me greatly. this might have been a descent beer on a hot summer day, but that after taste is not something i would want on a hot summer day.

needless to say i did not enjoy this beer. it left my palate empty. if by changing their name to 'black' sheep to 'boost' their image, it didn't work. kant stated that 'being' is not a real predicate, meaning that you cannot 'define things' into existence, and i believe that is what they were trying to do with this beer here. change the name, and it will give more of an existence.

conclusion: will not buy again.

so there you go. i hope this helps beer drinkers choose something different next time they are out. so often have a beer now and then, so i should be putting up many more posts like this of beers i have had and enjoyed, and new beers. if you have any suggests about what i should taste, or something that you'd like to see, somehow i can make my reviews better; let me know.

namaste...

happy national turkey day...

we were able to do our annual turkey ride this year. god i love this ride. it marks the start of cold weather, and winter riding, and it being a national holiday is good too. good stuff. randy, sweet j, and eric made it to the ride. getting ready was the hardest part. we knew it was going to warm up, so it was stuff crap in your camel, and go...

as the ride begins, we drop down into a valley; which is never dry...

splashing through the mud on a cold fall day...

sweet j ran into a little bit o mud. i love this shot...

and then it was across the creek...

after a wonderful hill climb, as it was said 'i've got a two wheeled walking stick' it was time to head down this hill. i was the only one who bit it. too big for my pants...

here randy is noticing an obstacle in his way, he clears it and moves on...

what to do?...

what to do?...

eric was the only one that made it with no worries...

pedaling through the woods...

a moment of immortality...

this was a great section of down hill. everyone had troubles, except me. i took the line left of randy in this pic., took my butt way off the bike to where i was scrapping the wheel, and just let the bike go where it will and went with it down the left side...

sweet j hung on for awhile...

this was ascary bridge, just worried if it would hold...

traveling through the pines...

heading home on the 'bike and hike'...

and the preverbal self-portrat...

i think i should make an ibook of all my self-portraits, that would be interesting...anyway a good time was had by all.

after some mantence on the smoothie she was good to go. man, how do things go wrong when you don't ride the bike? oh, well.

update on my new project...my frame will be ready at the start of the year. roll sent over, and i approved all the measurements. man, a custom frame. hope i don't want to sell this one in a couple of years. i don't think i will. they said they could get it to my by x-mas, but i don't care, because mostly i've got another wheel set to build up, and those parts are on their way. so there will be pics as that happens.

also, been listening to a lot of heavy metal. spinning right now is through the eyes of the dead; crazy...

until next time...remember there is no such thing as an subjective innate idea...

namaste...

so i took off to...

columbus for the weekend to hang out at roll: for their be:spoke program. where they were promoting their custom bike program. they had carl from vicious there, along with matt and joe from i.f. there as well. they gave a talk on saturday night about their companies, and talked with a lot of the people there. the turn out was great. i got to talk to carl for quite a while, which was what i was looking forward to. got to talk to matt for a bit towards the end of the evening. it was a great freaking time. by the end of the evening i was ready to order my new project...more to come later on that.

sunday morning was the mtn bike ride at alum creek. we first did phase two, the 'most difficult' of the two phases, at least that was what the signs said. i can't tell you how great it was to see all the single speeds there. you don't find that up here in the cleveland area.

just before the ride...

(yes, i've gone rigid, and it felt great.)

carl had his groover...


the trail was a great trail for single speeds, hence why almost everybody down there was riding one. what a sight. the trail had a great feel to it. it had some technical sections to it, and some parts where the trail split to allow for some more challenging parts, but didn't hit those. i just followed the guy in front of me.

after that we hit phase one next. a little less technical, but still had that great groove to it. i left with the front eight, and thought 'what the hell am i doing?', but kept up well. at one point we came to a valley, and then right up a hill. i noticed one rider to the left, and one to the right that didn't make it up. i just yelled 'up the middle,' and kept smashing the pedals, and then looked up, and i was right behind carl. i didn't think i made it that far up to the front.

finished the ride, and had a great time. had some slips and falls, but no worries. i know that i'll be going back down to the shop, and i'll get in touch with the guys at roll if anyone wants to ride, and let them know that if they make it up this way to drop a line to ride with them, or meet in the middle. the people from roll are all great people. i believe that that has a lot to deal with the owner, stuart. a great shop needs a great owner, and that is what roll has. i have never spoke so highly about a shop before, and for good reason...i can't find a really good one up here. sorry, it's the truth. so i think i'll have to call roll my bike shop. here's to you.

closing shot of carl and i...


namaste...

so to my...

surprise, what do i see?

i open and leaf through the latest 'bicycling' mag., and what do they have in their 'gear' section of the mag? first they have that wonderful gt peace niner. gt's singlespeed. and then on the next page they have the jamis sputnik, their fixed. and just when you thought that it was over they have the bianchi san jose, their singlespeed c-cross. what has this world come too? talking how great this bikes are for cross training, and how these bikes are able to help you in your riding. basically telling most of us what we already know. however, we know how i feel about these bikes...build them your self. these types of bikes are not cookie-cutter types of bikes. this is why i'm moving onto my next project for the winter. to give a hint (but by no means a bit one)...remember when i said i was in no hurry in building up another set of wheels? well, i guess the hurry is over, because that is what i'm going to be doing this winter...again. oh, well...good times.

on a side, but unrelated, note...if you make the relation that is up to you...but in a magalog i get of my other passion (the likes of which i will not discuss here), there was a one page article that i found inspiration in. i was looking for it on the web, but i couldn't find it to link it. the title of the article is 'a doctrine on the theoretical improbability of originality' by a gentleman named steve brown (who is a legend in his own right). in any case...wrote "create something that will outlive you, and teach it to everyone you know...and if you can't do that, then at least help other people to learn what we do create. teaching is a noble profession, and a doorway to immortality. spread the word...and make people think." just some words of inspiration. enjoy...

namaste...