Bikes `n´ booze #1 - Cycles Gladiator

I'm starting a monthly series of posts showing alcoholic beverages with cycling related labels. Yes I'm a cycling freak.


I start off with a flashy one, Cycles Gladiator. The bicycle chick label is based on a advertisement poster from 1895 by Georges Massias, made for Gladiator bicycles in Paris. Cycles gladiator also sponsors cycling teams and events.

Cycles Gladiator
Producer: Hahn Family Wines, USA, California, Central Coast
Vintage: 2007
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon (50 %), Syrah (25 %), Merlot (13 %), Petite Sirah (12 %)

A wine hipster remark, this wine is a special blend made for the Finnish state Alko shops. I.e. this is not the varietal Cabernet Sauvignon that you see on the web. A varietal should contain 75% or even more of Cabernet Sauvignon, depending on the market (USA, EU, ...).

The review
Careful tasting and consideration produced this review.
It is a red wine. It contains 13.5% alcohol by vol. It is good. Goes with burgers `n sh*t.

Bike stamp for today #4

This is a stamp from 1963, printed for the 80th anniversary of the Belgian cycling league. It has a surcharge, raising funds for the Belgian cycling team to race in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It shows an interesting track cycling sport (motor paced race, steherrennen, stayer).

Some handlebars on the motorcycles... and the gearing on those bikes. The roller on the back of the motorcycle prevents a crash, in case of contact. (sorry no sound)

Steherrennen auf der Radrennbahn in Bielefeld. By esgibtsie.

Oops...

Steher crash. By bahnfahrer.

Upgraded motor pacing: 110mph=177kmh

Cycling Speed Record. By crankfilms.

And faster: 152mph=245kmh

And even faster: 167mph=269kmh

Check out the gearing on Rompelbergs bike, 114.2ft=34.8m on one turn of the crank. That equals some 436 gear inches (36 gear feet). My fixie has a puny 75 inches.

It would take the 50ft woman to ride a bigwheeler that size.

See London FGSS for the 50 fixed women.

Seen in Helsinki today

Kallio_29062009_1, originally uploaded by Mr_Lefa.

Kallio_29062009_2, originally uploaded by Mr_Lefa.

Bike stamp for today #3 aka Chicks and Bikes

My third pick is a Chinese stamp from 1959, 1st national sports meeting. This stamp is especially cool since it is probably the first ever stamp showing a woman cyclist, a fixed gear girl from 1959. The graphics is nice. Not sure what she is riding though, looks like a track bike but you can see the brake lever. Her foot is not so well placed on the pedal either. But overall graphically one of the best I have seen. Extreme riding position, her hear flowing in the wind, clean and fast...

Finnish summer

Went for a spin down to the beach. The Finnish summer is nice, the sun still shines at 10pm. I'm on holiday for the next few weeks. Good times.

The white nights are great for late rides (10:20pm).

burgers ’n sh t

burgers ’n sh t, originally uploaded by jimw.

I would have my lunch there.

Bike stamp for today #2

Konnichiwa. (^o^)/
The second one in my series is a Japanese stamp printed for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Track cyclists make nice motives for stamps, clean and dynamic. Here is some detail, nice artwork.

This guy is clearly in better shape than the Soviet dude in the previous stamp. Go Japan go...

I designed a logo

Kinda hurts!

My finger got cut from Super Fly on Vimeo.

I am planning to start a new series of posts on bike tools. I have a lot of them and they look cool. I like to do the repair and maintenance of all my bikes. Hope I'll never see my thumb looking like that. Thanks for recording and sharing.

Parallel parking in Berlin

Fixie Parking. By faubspin.

Nice!

Bike stamp for today #1

I am starting a new series of posts, I will call it "Bike stamp for today". For younger readers, stamps were used to send regular mail (snail mail) before email and SMS were invented.

The first one is from the good old Soviet days. The 3rd International Spartakiad in Moscow 1935. The comrades are pedaling hard, the poor guy looks tired.

My late high carb lunch

I went for the carbs, not thee looks.
Bon appétit!

Bicycle drifting

Bicycle Drifting - For more amazing video clips, click here

This one made me laugh, cool. Yeah, smoke that tire...

Extreme skidding

Bike Drift - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Extreme(ly stupid)... looks kinda cool though. Hope the guy is still ok.

My current fixie

Favorit, Helsinki, originally uploaded by mr_lefa.

This is a Czechoslovakian 1970's Favorit fixie conversion. Bought it from the local recycling center. It included frame+fork, bottom bracket, cranks, chain ring and brakes. Everything else was already stripped. The rest are also recycled parts = very cheap, but I polished everything and the parts look like new. Some old French hubs (Maillard and Normandy) with Belgian Weinmann rims. Rear cog from American Cyclery, San Francisco (went there once and had to by something). The cog is just forced&glued on = Suicide hub, but with front&rear brakes it's no problem. I also added a Russian (Soviet) leather saddle. Current gearing 51:19. I will change the brake levers and bar tape soon, and then move on to my new fixie (a 1980's Nishiki). Pics on Flickr when I get something done.

Ride in style Lauren

Lauren. San Diego. Barefoot Fixie. By slohcinnerual88.

Wow...

Starting up my blog

Posting my first ever post...
This blog will be about cycling and more or less related stuff.
BTW it was surprisingly hard to find an available blog url.