We recently lost our beloved Great Dane, Kirki, who we nicknamed Beene for reasons that elude logic. She was a good dog, more sweet than clever. A sad side effect of big dog breeds and their short lives is that it wasn’t until nearly the end of her life that she made certain key discoveries about the world. Such as that weighing nearly 65 kilos meant she didn’t necessarily need to be terrified of things like shadows and doorways. Nevertheless, throughout her life she somehow managed to skirt through challenges completely unscathed, utterly oblivious to her shortcomings. In an effort to immortalize her spirit, the VMH and I have taken to referring to situations where we succeed despite our breathtaking incompetence as being “All Beene”. For example, on the occasion that I skied over a cliff I had failed to notice, subsequently rode my tails through a stand of pine trees at unprecedented speed, and emerged the other end without so much as a hair out of place – that was All Beene.
You might say that Velominati itself is All Beene. We Keepers didn’t intend to become the stewards of class, style, and etiquette on the bike; we just mainlined the Word of the Prophet and the Apostles and jotted it all down. The rest just happened because of the Community who caught on to the fun we were having and joined in. Same goes for our writing; we’re just passionate about this stuff; we obsess about it all the time and want to share our love for the sport with others in the hopes they might identify or – better yet – catch the bug themselves. All the while, the truth is that we have no idea what we’re doing. English isn’t even my first language, for Merckx’s sake.
But the journey continues. The Rules: The Way of the Cycling Disciple was originally released in the Commonwealth on June 20, and surprised us with how well it was received despite various mistakes and errors throughout. In fact, it did well enough that some bright spark got the idea to release the book in our home US market as well, and we subsequently duped WW Norton into bearing that cross.
The Rules will be officially released in the United States on May 5th, 2014. We’ve put quite a lot of work into the US Edition with the following results:
There will also be several book events across the country which is part of the reason we are not doing a Keepers Tour this year due to the time constraints the book tour imposes. Each event will start with a group ride and conclude with a signing at a local bike shop. Events are planned for the Rapha stores in New York City and San Francisco, as well as one in Minneapolis, Boulder, Seattle, and Portland. Details forthcoming as the event schedules are confirmed.
From the bottom of our hearts, we’d like to thank everyone in our Community, those who bought (and didn’t burn) the book in the UK and Commonwealth, and everyone who comes by here every day to read our musings. This is all a lot of work, but it is work we gladly do because of each and every one of you and the fun you bring to what is Velominati.
Tune in during April as we’ll be publishing one new Rule per week in the lead-up to the book’s release. We have also added a landing page for both the US and UK editions of the book including information on where to buy; post insults and corrections on there.
All Beene.
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@frank
If you are implying we are morons, you would be correct.
@harminator
In my personal book, you get the badge for best reference to contemporary fiction.
@Barracuda Expect a cumpulsory acquisition order. This must be lost on non-Oz types.
@Brianold55
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118826/
Fixed that !
@frank
It's my inner project manager...
Actually I was thinking it would be cool to have 99 Rules, and if you were going to be at 97 then it was just a short leap.
Not 100 Rules though - that would be wrong.
@Brianold55
at last report he was a living in the outer north-western Sydney suburb of Cairo
@Mikael Liddy Aaah... the serenity!
@asyax
If there's one thing I like more than serenity, its a two-stroke motor at full throttle.
@Brianold55. Cairo it is, Mate. Last week one of these trotted through a small gap in the bunch at an intersection. Barely raised an eyebrow.
The Cairo Cyclists Club is all V. I have only just joined but its obvious that you don't ride here for the scenery, or the fresh air, or the road quality or the friendly motorists. Its all about the ride.
@frank
That's because nobody in their right minds, let alone a commercially astute chain, would go anywhere the fens. It's a bleak windy place without hedges to hide behind and populated by web footed inbreds.
Only a really stupid twat would think that a 100km straightline point to point ride across the fens with the wind somewhere between a head wind and a crosswind would be a good idea after six weeks of no riding and only a complete dickhead would find out, mid route, that his energy bars were in fact protein bars. The Man with the Hammer is no stranger to the fens.
@fenlander Good to see someone else relatively local to me (near Warboys). We may have to organise a Cogal.