Incredible

This magical creation, made by Ron de Jong, may be the most inspiring thing I've come across lately. The fact that one can switch between recumbent and standard on the fly is absolutely mind-blowing.

The Country Squire

The Country Squire was constructed over a frantic two-day period in August at Chunkstation Zebra in S.E. Portland. Big B. has been delving deeply into no-welds bike architecture, and I found this inspiring, as it's been some time now that I've no welder at my disposal. And a well-placed bolt is actually going to be stronger than a shitty, awkward weld; many times in bike-building, you find yourself making this very choice. I had formerly thought of metal drilling as something requiring a drill press, but no.
I wanted to make something I could take on the plane home.
I wanted to do a rack-and-pinion steering assemblage out to a projected fork, and
I wanted to make something that could be mounted to any bicycle.
As in, a universal (providing one brings a 5/16 metal bit and a drill) chopper front-assemblage, for all those times when you want to bring a chvnk bike somewhere far away. Below is a detail of the steering linkage. I particularly feel good about the front fork: weld-free, made of two front forks and an old 70s rear end.

More Alvord.

These flats spread approximately 15 miles in all directions.

Yrs trly.

The "Willamaconda." Most successfull of the sailchops, Big B.'s modified co-operator carried two sailors (or more properly a Cptn. and a 1st Mate), went about 15 knots, and handled rougher terrain than the two-wheelers.
This year's trip, while fun as hell, mostly laid the groundwork for a much more successful go next year; a lot of the ins and outs only revealed themselves in the testing stages. For instance, as the Willamaconda illustrates, bigger, heavier bikes with larger sails and more than two-wheels (I personally think 3 is ideal) work much better. I'll post a design for next year's entry shortly.

Lefsetz Letter

Bob Lefsetz used to or still does work in the music business. I think he was once a big shot entertainment lawyer. Strikingly, he has an array of very salient and interesting observations on music and the very broad changes currently taking place in how music is dispersed. His blog is here.

Alvord Desert, 29 Sep 07

Recently, we made a trip to southeasternmost Oregon, for "sailchop". We had, as you can see, quite a time. More photos shortly.