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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@Harminator
Errr, what motorists? Those surfaces look pretty sweet too . . .
B+1 for sure. Having imported the first edition from the UK, I will also be the proud owner of the US edition. As cool as it would be to see the book in a book store, I think it would be rad to walk into a bike shop and see a few copies on the counter.
@wiscot Its a fair point you make there @wiscot. Their are some good stretches of road. Usually out of town leading to obscure locations of no significance. The main roads are hairy enough that taking rolling pics is not recommended. Its difficult to explain the contradictions here. The donkey cart may well be followed by a Range Rover. Good roads get trenches across them or makeshift speed bumps or dug up week to week with no backfill or repair. Potholes get swerved around for months with no regard. Last ride we passed a hole from a missing road hatch that had been "repaired" by putting a lounge chair in it. Short cutting roundabouts or driving on the wrong side of the road now and again is considered normal. I stuck to the MTB or rollers for 6 months before trusting that Friday before prayers was inside acceptable limits of risk. It is - just.
@Harminator
Wow! And I thought Milwaukee roads were bad! (Hundreds of millions being spent upgrading interchanges while regular roads fall apart and road marking fade into invisibility.) My cousin lives in Alexandria and I hear the traffic (and pollution) is awful.
@Harminator Respect for riding in Cairo traffic. Makes our lot look easy.
For anyone trying to imagine it... you know how there was a fashion a few years ago for town planners to remove all traffic controls. The theory being that if you tell motorists they have right of way and can drive at 60km/h then they will, but take that away and they are more cautious and make their own judgements.
The few times I've been to Cairo it's always struck me like that, but in a city of 8 million people not some little Dutch village. It's anarchy but not chaos and somehow it seems to work. Nobody follows any
Condolences on the loss of your family member Frank. I recently moved from my then new family's first home where our first dog is buried. Not seeing that small stone monument in the back yard has left an empty place inside. My VMH bought a copy of the UK edition, looking forward to the latest US edition. I'll keep an eye out for the NYC signing. I'll have to get my V kit order in.
@Harminator
That picture is oddly disturbing in a way that I can't fully explain.
Anyway, @Keepers, I'm looking forward to purchasing the sacred tome for the benefit of our household. I knew I laid off procuring the UK version for a reason (it certainly was NOT because I'm a lazy fuck. Nope. Not me).
NA Bike Show report from Charlotte, NC on Saturday.
A very fun day, a nice mix of folks, from cyclists to people who just seemed to drop in. Pretty cool to be able to talk to a guy making five bikes a year in his basement as well as...Gianni Casati's son. They were excited to know I owned a Casati Laser, nice to speak with, and even offered to mail me some rubber ferrules I saw on one of their display bikes. They also had two bikes lost/missing on the flight from Milan. Ouch.
Very cool to turn around and say, "Oh, there's Tom Ritchey." Then a few minutes later, "Hey, there's Craig Calfee." Also saw Chris King, Dario P., some other great builders, and I'm sure some I didn't even recognize.
Pegoretti had, let's see, the coolest booth, the coolest paint jobs, the best shirt (he was in a tie-dyed t-shirt that looked homemade) and every time we meandered by he was posing for photos. He was one of the very few builders to have just frames on display. Saw a guy buy one, then get a photo with Dario.
This was my second one. A fun day. Incredible how even for a cycling enthusiast, those dudes are coming up with new innovations, new frame designs, new ideas all the time.
The only shortcoming, for me, was that I left and realized I didn't see very many raceable cross bikes. Lots of crazy frames, lots of discs, but I really don't recall seeing enough bikes that I'd have raced - most were so nice I'd never want to risk crashing them. I know it is a showcase for builders and their skills, but it would have been nice to see more race-ready cross bikes.
Also, I think Fizik saddles were on 95% of the bikes, with the new Brooks saddle (which looks just like a Regal) on the other 5%. It was pretty crazy how many builders went with them.
One of the coolest bikes I saw was called the "Old Potato." It was a Ti road bike with an 80th anniversary Campa gruppo, low profile Campa wheels, and an old Flite saddle. A simple looking, but very classy build. I think it was a Moots.
Also spoke with this fella. He's an electrical engineer with a full-time job who decided to start making bicycles...in his basement. Some really nice work for a guy who is pretty new to it:
http://lundbeckcycles.com/
And this company was founded by a former Czech roadie. Some pretty impressive bikes in a few different disciplines and some nice paint jobs too.
http://festka.com/en/
@frank
Sorry for the loss of your beloved pet - never easy. But I'm sure you gave her a great life and home. Our cats are also under a strict contact not to die...and just think: I used to be a dog person. Again, sorry.