"I'd like a time trial helmet, made out of hair, please"
We’ve remarked many times on the connection between the pained musician and the Cyclist. Layne Staley and Marco Pantani being a prominent example of a reflection in a pond of mental strife. Perhaps something about finding strength – or at least some kind of peace – through suffering is a personality trait that Cycling shares with being an Artist. But sometimes it is much more simple than that. Sometimes, you just want to get psyched to get out and ride. Or to stay in and ride, as the case may be. @blackpooltower lets us in on his own dirty little secret.
Yours in Cycling, Frank
Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and the other assorted Ramones like Linda (yes, really, I checked) might not look like God’s gift to the performance-minded cyclist, despite Johnny’s quite aero hair, but in fact they’re practically a secret weapon.
I’d love to say that my training is all Man-With-Hammer-seeking epics and Moser hill repeats but frankly I live in central London, an hour from anything resembling countryside so, whisper it, I do also spend some time on the turbo. Filthy habit, I know. Sorry.
Although, you know what? Graeme Obree did a fair bit of indoor training and if it’s good enough for the JK Rowling of cycling (which is to say: made it with no one’s help, on welfare/benefits, therefore a total hero) then it’s good enough for me.
Of course indoor training is a bleak prospect without music. And it can’t just be any music. It has to be the right music.
So, if there wasn’t a band whose entire output was recorded at between 90 and 100 bpm, with irrepressible energy levels and just the right blend of anti establishment individualism (totally fake in Johnny’s case), catchiness and outright dumbness to keep an underperforming wanabe racer spinning those stupid fan blades round for one more effort … you’d have to invent them, no?
But no need. The Ramones, AKA punk rock pot belge, exist. Or at least their music does, and that’s the bit you need.
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@wiscot
Some of my buds just saw them locally. Fuckers didn't drop me a line about it and I'm still bitter.
I left my rollers at my parent's house when I moved 1000 kms south four years ago. Haven't done any riding indoors since. While I miss winter sports, I don't miss rollers.
As for music...I just realized "Holiday Road" from Vacation is not Kenny Loggins but Buckingham! How have I been going around thinking that for this many years?
@Matt
Not suprised you're bitter. There should be a law against that sort of shit.
For me, it's a lot of Between the Buried and Me. Their more recent concept albums tend to clock in around the 70 minute mark, which is just about my tolerance for the rollers. And the albums themselves are incredibly varied, mostly thrash/death metal, with some jazz-flecked interludes for a little break here and there. And the fact that they're recorded to sound like a single, transitionless track helps me get lost in it.
@wiscot
I was at that gig too;actually every one I went to at MK bowl it pissed it down.
The worst events for bottles of piss being thrown was the Monsters of Rock festivals;I 'may' have received a direct hit at one of them,,,
Thirty some-odd years have gone by with these albums and each get me amped like I was 13 years old. Although the engine is 130 pounds heavier and well worn, the effect is still the same when I need the boost. Nearly as well a few Sudafed and a doppio macchiato....or so I'm told..... ( walking away whistling)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuqg83BsAX4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ9cyFnkb38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAITxlCsj4Y
I think U2 has now sucked for more years than they were good for. Man, they've been putting out shitty music for too damn long.
@Ron
U2 did good stuff?
@chris
Apropos of nothing, did you catch the Radio 1 Ibiza Prom - live orchestra playing many favourites from the 90s? Faithless' Insomnia is particularity hypnotic on a turbo.
@Daccordi Rider
I could probably name 4 or 5 good U2 songs. All of the rest of their recorded output basically sounds like a bad covers band doing those songs.
I may cause ructions saying this, but I feel the same way about the Rolling Stones...