This Camera is a Cannon

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[thiscameraisacannon]

To everyone's great surprise, yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day. @stravacycling

[thiscameraisacannon]

When life piles on the stress sometimes all you can do is let your mind wander through windows in the pavement. Tomorrow I race my first cyclocross race. It will also be the first race since my second knee surgery two years ago. Am I worried about it? Yeah. But knee 2.1 is finally, practically as good as the original so it's time to open the throttle and see what she can do.

[thiscameraisacannon]

Today, we took the fight to the mountains. The objective: Foss River Road, a 13 mile climb on gravel and mud, holding steady around 10%. Having not seen the road before I had to decide which bike would be the best tool for the job. Would it be the Colnago with her feather weight, efficiency, and wider gear range; or, the Specialized Crux with its versatility, familiarity, but fewer climbing gears? In the end I chose with my gut: I would sacrifice climbing gears and weight for a bike that handled more predictably. This would prove to be a wise choice. 

Embarking from the lowlands, we shuttled east on Highway 2 to the top of Stevens Pass. As the elevation gained, so too did our sense of foreboding. Gone was the sun, and in its place tempestuous clouds. As the rain began to fall, we began to climb. 

In the soft dirt of the road I quickly found my easiest gear and settled in for the slog. Focusing on efficiency and muscle recruitment I turned over a dismally low cadence but kept enough in the tank for contingency. The pitch was fairly consistent and it was easy to find a rhythm, I’ll be it a slow one. 

Coming to the end of the road we were treated with mere glimpses of the surrounding peaks; enough to whet our appetites for further adventure. We began a frigid descent where I would suffer a flat front tire and Seth would cope with his lack of experience off asphalt. Riding my rim down I appreciated the bike handling skills that I have acquired over the past two years.

Foss River, we will be back.  

[thiscameraisacannon]

It seems like the rain has returned to Seattle. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this transition in seasons. There is just something about stormy weather that brings out the best in me as a rider. They say that you have to train the way you race, and I have certainly put in my share of hours steeping.  

[thiscameraisacannon]

Last night, some good friends and I returned to a trail system that has been “closed” this summer due to fire dangers (there was much deliberation as to whether we could or should ride there, but after some rain last week, the lack of posted signage or notice about any closures, and the lack of any fires anywhere in the vicinity, we tentatively ventured out). After so much time away from our…

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[thiscameraisacannon]

Colnago Master Art Decor

Colnago Master Art Decor

As a bike mechanic I build a lot of bikes for people, but rarely for myself. So, when the opportunity arises to indulge myself I often try to do something a little different. One part classic platform, one part modern speed, and a measure of personal eccentricity. My friend, Seth, has been hounding me to get back into road racing. After crushing a few local KOMs on my cyclocross bike with…

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[californiastreaming]

Partial list of things VeloNews could do for people of color with their column inches instead of having a white dude get mad about Oleg Tinkov’s racist Tweet

A white dude got Internet outraged at another white dude for a racist tweet so he wrote an op-ed at a publication for which he’s an editor in chief. That’s a good use of white male privilege? 

Look at me making this face: ://////////////////////////

Keep reading

[thiscameraisacannon]

Well said and well worth the read.

[thiscameraisacannon]

Intro part Deux

A quote from Camus that has always resonated with me. Taken with my favorite but recently broken lens (more on that later). As sort of an Intro Part Deux I wanted to say a little about the title of this blog, Three Great Images. I took the title from a quote by Albert Camus that has always resonated with me: “A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art,…

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[thiscameraisacannon]

All built up! #allcitycycles #purpledeath #rcdreamlabs #redmondcyclelife #whiteindustries (at Redmond Cycle)

[thiscameraisacannon]

Ready for radness! Made it out just fine and they put me on the good stuff ;) (at Virginia Mason Medical Center)

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Caught some summer sun on yesterday's ride. (at Tolt-MacDonald Park And Campground)

[thiscameraisacannon]

-Mitch Payne Captures the Ono

great design, simple but attractive lighting. It tells the pre-race story. Particularly the mental head space one must fall into while warming up before the event.

[18milesperhour]

IN PRAISE OF WINTER RIDING.

The long, hard, cold months of winter training are over. The concern whether I had enough clean base layers, arm and leg warmers, booties and all the other stuff up there in that photo…done for a while.

The warm weather is here.

So as I look back on those months of opening the front door of my house at 6am in my kit and having a blast of frigid, morning air hit me like a bucket of icy water, I ask myself why I did it.

There’s a brilliant Nike ad from years ago that pictured a runner slogging through waist-deep snow and the headline read: Somewhere there’s a nice, warm place where all the second-place guys train.

That used to be my mindset back then.

but now it’s different.

Now, the advantage I have by getting out there in the cold is not that I got more fitness, but that I got more riding. More time out on the trail and road.

It’s not me versus them.

It’s not me versus anything.

It’s me giving to me.

Kinda makes me miss those cold months.

Kinda.

[thiscameraisacannon]

Purity in the sport

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"In other words, big-wave surfing can be incompatible with modern society. Or could modern society be incompatible with big-wave surfing? Modern society tries to make us do things that don’t come naturally, things that we weren’t genetically programmed to do. It tries to make us value things that don’t make us happy, things that don’t give us Flow. We shouldn’t worry about surfing being incompatible with society, because whatever is inside us to motivate us to surf has probably been inside us for thousands of years."

                                                                     -Dr. Tony Butt

I've never been a surfer, but as a climber, cyclist, runner, and photographer, I can relate to a lot of what Dr. Butt talks about in this article.

http://www.thecleanestline.com/2013/04/flow.html?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thecleanestline+(The+Cleanest+Line)

[thiscameraisacannon]

Sunday's ride on the Serotta. I really can't get over how much fun this bike is: one speed, steel frame, super simple. It makes the hills a little more committing and the flats and downhills a little shorter, and the saddle, frankly  sucks. But it is just great to jump on and bomb some dirt roads. You feel so connected. Listened to a lot of Beastie Boys while riding so was pretty jazzed the whole time. proud to see the elevation profile afterwards. I don't know, I don't feel strong, but I'm doing pretty well for my self all things considered. Friday's race might not be such a disappointment after all...

[thiscameraisacannon]

from the recovery series

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I've been riding the Serotta a lot recently. Built up a new wheel for her about two weeks ago so now she's running as a single speed. The new challenge and the simplicity of only having one gear have been really fun. I also don't feel so bad taking her out on the dirt and gravel roads as I did with the Orbea. Had a nice little ride today out in the sun. hit some closed down roads with beautiful vistas out over Lake Raystown before cursing on home through the farmlands around Route 26.