You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'sjfixed' tag.
The iMD alleycat race and grand opening took place yesterday. It was probably one of the more eventful Saturdays that I’ve had in recent memory.
Photo by Trangalang
Trangalang took this picture of me before the race. He said that I was “carbo loading” before the race; stuffing my piehole with pizza and surrounded by balloons while sitting by myself. Sounds exactly like one of my birthday parties. Suc.
Riding the 50 some odd miles was c*ck brutal; I had a hard time keeping up with my pard’ners Darin and Matt. I remember shouting some pretty absurd obscenities the entire time. Suc this and suc that.
Photo by Anna Marie
It was all worth it because at the end of the race we were greeted by a table full of delicious food fit for a hobo. $5 buc suc pizza from Little Caesar’s, Natty Ice kegs, and $2 buc suc wine. Then Mark had to ruin it by ordering 7 gourmet courses of catered vegetarian food from Tofoo Com Chay. Haha.
One of the best moments of the night was when I heard my number called for the raffle. I was overcome with joy. My prize: the Macaframa DVD, which I have long coveted, but could not afford on my hobo budget.
I think the camaraderie between new and old friends from racing and mingling with friends afterward was the best part; after winning the Macaframa DVD of course. Just look at my facial expressions. Yes, I am very self-involved.
Photo by trangalang
Photo by Birdman
Photo by Birdman
Thanks to Mark, Anna, JP and everyone else for putting this one on.
Don’t wait until the last minute to get your Halloween ’stume together. I went all over San Jose the day of just to get my stupid ensemble together.
After getting all my supplies I rushed over to the shop for the alleycat. A good amount of people showed up, considering all the other races/events going on in the Bay.
While we were waiting for people to register, the topic of blogs came up. JP, Jared and I were saying how everyone has a blog now. Which is literally true.
I looked into it, and I found out that my blog has it’s own blog. And in it’s blog it talks sh*t about my blog. Can you believe it? The suc??!?? Linky. I’m about to slap my blog.
In any case, the race, Ghoul Sprints and Halloween party at Darin’s was sick. I think I just wandered around the entire night, and I tried to make it rain from the balcony onto the dance floor but failed.
Sorry for the lack of updates. You would think it was because I was super busy, or because I was on some super amazing blowout trip. Not the case. Just lazy.
Case in Theory played at the Blank Club in the middle of the week, and it was good to see them playing. They had new songs which were pretty sick.
Finally saw Quicksilver on Thursday night for free at Camera 12. The SJBC is hosting a monthly bike movie for free with prizes and everything. Quicksilver is soooo sick because it stars “Larry Fishbourne” and in a way sums up my life. Definitely sucwiddable. Gonna snag that DVD.
The iMD/SJF swap meet was earlier today, and it was a good time. There was a good amount of people who showed up. My total net earnings was -$3. Don’t ask me how that happened. Oh yeah because I came up on a brand new Castelli beanie for the $5 buc suc.
I gotta say I was a little disappointed with people at the meet. I brought my “riding jeans” to sell, but nobody took. Guess my jeans were too baggy for the hipsters with 1.2% body fat. Yea so I’m curvy, I like myself that way!
This is me after my first and only sale.
Nhan brought his dog out to the park. It’s rare to see a Vietnamese dog that is still alive. Suc!
My boy Mattias (I think people call him that sometimes, or maybe its just me..) made this sick suc video of our trip to Vegas. Do you dig?
Darren Hirose made this sick ass time lapse/still photo of the epic Bassett Track Sprints.
Enjoy.
Thursday Night Sprints Flyer posted as per JP’s request.
Lately the people at Hellyer have been really cool about us riding on the track with riser bars and other silly fixed gear modifications. As long as you sign the waiver and have a helmet you are good to go. Absolutely free! It’s great because it introduces a lot of people to the track who normally don’t get a chance to ride it.
Riding to the track was a bit of a treacherous journey with part of the trail being blocked off. No worries though, where there is a will, there is a partially broken fence to peel back and climb through.
I just got back from my Anaheim we are in you trip last night, and it was all laffs to say the least. We had 18 people in 3 different hotel rooms, and we were able to score everything on the cheap. I think everyone went over their budget, but when its fun and with friends that’s all that matters.
Being back in LA just reminded me how much I love the Bay Area. It seemed no matter what day or time of day, traffic was always at a standstill. That is the ultimate suc.
Here is just 10% of the activities that we partook in:
Traffic...and more traffic.
In-n-Out feasts.
venice
beach
Riding down Melrose.
Eating like kings on the cheaps.
-Photo by Jared
-Photo by Jared
With daylight savings time in full effect, and good weather, last night’s Tuesday night crowd was the biggest we’ve had in a while. Granted, not everyone made it out to the ride, which consisted of Yerba Buena and Fowler Park.
After our meal at 4th St. Pizza, Dennis stuffed his medium sized Freight Baggage with the whole entire Rock Band kit.
Went up to Santa Rosa today to witness the first stage of the Tour de California with Lance Armstong. Yeah!!!! Also participated in goldsprints, and improved my time. Hopefully I can break the 20 second barrier next time. Tell me why San Jose has the fastest riders around!?!? We got all of the top spots. Even I came home with some free swag, a set of Hutchinson tires baby!!
Lance Armstrong.
Photo by Anna Marie.
Yesterday’s premiere of the It’s a WRAP alleycat presented by SJF was sensational. Well over 200 people showed up, and close to 150 people raced. Everything went smooth as butter, Land o’ Lakes style. Checkpoints at various locations in San Jose, depending on the route you took it was around 20-25 miles. Afterparty was at the Lab. Again, I’m too tired to do much writing. So I’ll leave you with some pictures. Mark did a good job setting everything up, thanks to everyone else who participated and helped out.
Let’s see, Halley was having one of those not party parties at her house, so we all gathered around for the typical fun and festivities. There was plenty of aero stuff going on, like knitting and baking, so we had to even it out by grilling some man meat.
After we had enough grub and fun, we rode over to Kaleid Gallery for the art showing they had over there. Because we all know about art. We even instituted our own art piece, by bike piling right up against the glass for all to see. Then it was on to South 1st Street Billiards for some pool and PONG. Finished the night with another great show by Case in Theory. Ahhhhhh, unemployment gooood.
I cut my little vacation to Southern California short to attend the Race for the New Year in Pleasanton. The race didn’t seem like it was planned all too well, but I figured the company was good so the race would be good.
Tim and Dennis figuring out where to go.
There had to be at least 15 San Jose riders who made it to the Tri-Valley, which accounted for at least a third of the racers. When we arrived, things didn’t seem too legit, as none of the checkpoint doos contacted the organizer. The race commenced anyway, and about half way through most of us pulled out since there were no checkpoint guys. A few of the guys did finish, and Bennett ended up taking home the grand prize of $60.
I thought JP found the checkpoint guy; but no he just needed to relieve himself behind a tree.
Some girl in a nice little SUV shouted out Mark’s name, so we backtracked and flagged her gas guzzler down.
Luckily Ben lived in the area, so we rode over to his pad, where he graciously threw an impromptu BBQ. BTW, I’m sitting in my jammies as I write this.
Alright, I’ve been a little behind in updating with the upcoming holidays and all, so here is something that went down last Saturday.
Completed Winter Wipeout Manifest
The folks up in Stockton put on the Winter Wipeout Alleycat, which had seven checkpoints at Starbucks shops all over town. It was nice to see the boys from San Jose take home a good amount of prizes, in both the race and tricks competition.
I think we had more than a few riders finish in the top ten. Except for me, I came in 42nd place, which is funny considering there were only 30 racers. Whatever. I still got a prize!
I know I used the term ubiquitous in the last post, but Starbucks is ubiquitous. The entire race was based on the different Starbucks locations around Stockton. Shoot, I mean it’s like they completely saturated the coffee market everywhere. It was really funny/ironic, because I just happened to be reading a book about Starbucks, How Starbucks Saved My Life. I didn’t think too highly of Starbucks as a company before reading the author’s (Michael Gates Gill) memoir. After reading the book, it changed my view of da Starbuk doo; I don’t think of them as the Walmart of coffee shops anymore. It was actually quite the contrary. They treat their Partners well, by providing health insurance, education reimbursement, relocation assistance, etc.
On my way home from work I ran into Richard Masoner, who is somewhat of a flickr and bike community celebrity. He asked if he could take a picture of my mini spoke card collection, and we spoke for a quick minute. Apparently his commute is 90 minutes each way, from Scotts Valley to Menlo Park and back!
-Photo taken by Richard Masoner
The City of San Jose was sponsoring a free light and helmet giveaway at the MLK Library, so I raced down there to try and snag one. I came a little too late, they had already run out of lights, but the scene was still crazy.
People snagging lights and helmets in front of the library
Luckily my buddy Raf was able to nab one, so he gave me his old light which is exactly the same, only with a North Face sticker so it “knows.” The headlight is worth $20! I owe you a drank doo. Unluckily for me, my battery died and I couldn’t take any more pictures for the rest of the evening.
The City of San Jose was giving away free Cateye lights!
After a quick ride and a couple of grub sessions, a few of us decided to hit up Sabor, for a “doos night out” (no aero). Best decision ever. Felipe was there, so he snapped a nice lil photo for us.
The craziest doos West of North Vietnam
I had the pleasure of watching these gents take on the whole damn scene! They were handling every female in the club, on the wall, floor, ottomans shooooot. Ahhh, Tuesday nights.
Started the day off with a Ride-n-Rail up to the city (read: took bikes on caltrain and traveled to San Francisco), did a loop short loop around the Embarcadero, and got attacked by a huge mechanical spider.
Wat da suc doo?!??
It was an absolute gorgeous day in San Francisco, and all I had was my stupid point and shoot camera again.
Worked up an appetite by then, so we headed over to….the Oldest Slot Machine Video Games Manual Hand Crank Devices Museum.
By then I was seriously hungry, but we couldn’t eat just yet. We came across the biggest gathering of Santas south of the north pole, and got a good view of Santa from behind.
After that we finally were able to grab some food, where Bennett hooked it up by way of his broken Cantonese. Can I get a shieng sha jee jee?
where you want to eat doo?
The holiday season isn’t truly complete without some lame lame lame sweaters and White Elephant!
I'm Jared, and i hook it up ariiiiight??!?
Hey you slap da jack doo!
By the end of the night, the true manifestation of my idiocracy had been fully revealed to all. Bravo peoples, bravo.
I seriously look like an idiot 100% of the time; except right here.
Last night the group headed out to Fowler Park in East San Jose. It was actually my first time on this route, and I was pleasantly surprised by the nice neighborhoods and views on the east side. The total ride was approximately 18 miles give or take. It really sucks because all I had was my point & shoot, so the pictures didn’t come out too nice.
View of San Jose from Fowler Park
Taking a quick breather atop Fowler Park
The weather was seriously cold, and to add to that I blew yet another TWO tubes going over a fatty pothole.
Spiro invited us to go to Sabor, and then decided not to show up for his own birthday. Haha. He missed out because the whole team was working it all night long.
Tina was able to find herself a man, err World War I survivor. Good for her!
I would post the next picture in the series, but I’ll try to keep this blog safe for work.
Also had a board meeting tonight for Works, and apparently there is a chance that the gallery could move to….my building! The owner of my building, has two closed shops underneath my apartment. One is an art gallery, and the other is a wine type boutique. Neither have been open for years now. I think it would be a great opportunity for Works, and also it could help out with filling the huge void in my building. And best of all, it would be right underneath me!
The empty gallery as it currently sits....except with more junk now
I was supposed to wake up in time for the 10am train to Sunnyvale, but almost missed it due to oversleeping. Luckily Tim called me at 9:25, and I shifted into turbo mode to make it to the station on time. Haha, I am sooo dramatic.
I carpooled with Tim to San Francisco, where the 3rd annual SuperMarket Street Sweep was being held. The sweep is an alleycat race that helps benefit the San Francisco Food Bank. How does it work? Basically each rider goes around to supermarkets in the San Francisco area, and picks up the items that are listed. Each participant was given a race manifest that included two different types of races; speed, where you try to pick up the items and complete the checkpoints as fast as possible; and points, where you try to purchase as much food as you can possibly haul.
Tim, Wilson and I decided to go with the points option, simply because it would be more laid back. Maybe a little too laid back. I have a few alleycat races under my belt now, and supermarket sweep was by far the easiest one. But the whole point is to raise food for the SFFB anyway. It was fun ransacking all of the stores for items, and then piling them into a shopping cart to take out.
The sponsors for the race donated some amazing prizes and freebies. Just for showing up to race, everyone received a Crumpler Bags cellphone holster case; which I used to carry my camera. Tim went balls out towards the end, and loaded up the Timbuk2 bag that he won from Goldsprints with cans of corn. He ended up winning a North Face hat for his valiant effort.
Tim's bag filled with food for the SF Food Bank.
Dirty Dave and a few others brought cargo bikes with big ass trailers, some so heavy that they were straight oakland scraping the ground.
Bennett trying out some crazy mini geometry cross hybrid flying car bike complete HED wheels.
After the race we jetted back down to San Jose, to watch the epic Manny vs. Oscar, aka Filipino vs. Mexican boxing match at Mark’s house. It was also Matt’s real birthday, so we celebrated in true epic fashion. There was plenty of food, vegetarian and otherwise, and “specialty dranks” to go around.
Hey look at the Filipino and Mexican punching each other
Celebrating the Filipino's victory and the Mexican's loss
