No Lycra No

I was riding up Mt. Galbraith the other day when I passed a couple dudes fully decked out in skin-tight lycra pants which are ironically gayer looking than lycra shorts even though they cover more skin. Whats the deal? No one, and I mean no one looks good in lycra bike shorts/pants. Take a girl with a perfect butt and put her in chamois padded lycra shorts and boom, you have an instant gremlin. Imagine, if you can, what happens to an average female body in lycra... such dark thoughts keep me from sleeping at night. My worst nightmare become real would be following an average girl on an uphill climb and never being able to pass her, and yet not being able to fall behind, always just 'there' stuck behind that most terrible sight.

Dudes aren't any better. Unfortunately when I passed those two guys the other day I vomited all over my handlebars and fork, but fortunately enough dripped onto the which trail caused them to slip and fall thus alleviating the risk of them passing me later on.

Lycra is the reason mountain biking has not hit the mainstream in a bigger way. The mental image of a 125 pound nitwit in a full neon lycra get-up, adams apple sticking out past his nose, wheezing up a hill through a deviated septum is not a picture of health or popularity. For shame... it shouldn't be so. These days we have cool looking, technical bike clothes, stuff you would feel good wearing off the bike as well as on the mountain.

To those who would accuse me of vanity let me say this: if appearance doesn't matter why not walk around with a tube sock around your junk? Or for the women, why not just go naked? All-natural! If image doesn't matter don't shave ladies, grow gardens in those armpits! Surely image does matter so stop embarrassing the rest of us with your 80s' get-ups. Some images you just can't 'un-see'.

Thought or Two

I watched a lecture a few months back by Sam Harris in which he argued against adopting the lable 'atheist'. The argument can be summarized something like this:

• 'Atheism' is not a worldview it is simply the statement that there is insufficient evidence to warrant belief in god(s). Nothing more.
• We do not generally make a habit of defining ourselves by things we don't believe in. I don't call myself an a-ghostists or a-astrologists; it would be a collosal waste of time to adopt labels for all the phenomena we don't subscribe to.

There has been some work done in this area; Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennet have promoted a re-branding campaign for atheists under the label "brights". I personally find the idea of calling myself a 'bright' a little too nauseating to handle even though I can appreciate the conotations.

Maybe its because I like the study of philosophy that my bias lies towards the term 'rationalist'. Not in the Cartesian anti-empiricist sense, but in the common-language use: one who employs reason and skepticism in their life.

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In other news, there is a new trail being built on Galbraith that is going to be super long and fun. It is tying together parts of three other trails with a bunch of new stuff in-between to link everything together, removing the need to use fire roads to commute around. It certainley lies on the 'free-ride' side of the spectrum so it will present fun challenges. I must say I was impressed with Trillium, the owners of Galbraith, they paid for and installed a 400 foot long, nice and wide bridge through a swamp on the new trail. How cool is that? I rode the bridge back and forth a couple times and it is completely stable, a proffesional quality job to be certain. Its also not skinny at all so you can carry pretty good speed.

We Alaskans, more than anyone else, love our summers. The thing is, we basically have three good months to get outdoors and do whatever we’ve been dreaming about for the past nine cold months. The problem with this mentality is that it creates seasonal sports, and seasonal industries. But, to the true bike commuter, the rubber doesn’t leave the road once the temps depart the lycra comfort zone. I’ve had no problems biking in temperatures down to about 20 below zero, as long as I'm geared up properly. Still, I hope this upcoming winter will go easy on us.