March 14, 2019

Monster Energy AMA Supercross Round #4 (Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum), Oakland CA


What. A. Day. And for sure, this is a whole day. You can arrive to the Fan Fair (team pits) at noon, spending the afternoon watching all the goings-on, checking out vendors, trying out stuff... and then head into the stadium about 6pm for the start of the racing, which itself goes for 3-4 hours. That's a whole day folks. You can cram in 6-8 hours of supercross action, no problemo.


I started in the fan area, where I find the pits to be the most interesting, especially scoping out the vintage bikes and watching the mechanics work on their riders' bike(s).








Then head into the stadium proper (this is where the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders and Oakland A's play their home games) for refreshments and finding the seats...


No...

Warmer...

Yes!

Although it was clear, being in the 2nd row has it's advantages, but one of them is not being able to see the whole race/track. Advantages include being able to really see the riders fly over the jumps, smell the fumes (very unique smell) and see things at a more close-up level in general.

Lights down for Star Spangled Banner and rider intros...


"Fans, please turn on your phone's flashlight to light up the stadium..."


Watch out, flamethrowers!


Now, let's get to the racing...











Great product here. Well-done event. The only thing that could top it off is a hot-fudge sundae - I don't suppose you have one of those too? What, you do?!










March 7, 2019

Sunday Marin Civic Center Farmers’ Market, San Rafael, CA


How could I stay away from the State of California's 3rd largest farmers' Market? I can't. And why would I want to? Sure, it was a little rainy out, but the food, the people watching, the community, and the FOOD.





Breakfast needed to be sourced, and it was hard... to decide which amazing offering I wanted in my belly! It turned into Deli vs. Pork?!


Pork won (and deli was out of salmon anyways... I know, it's rough)...


I added a local coffee purveyor too...

They also do something special for local chefs - they have carts available for them to handle their daily shopping, which I thought was genius.


If you can't tell, I am sold on this market. If you're anywhere near on a Sunday morning, I would very much recommend.

February 28, 2019

Marin Museum of Bicycling Part 2-Cranks, Fairfax, CA

Warning - this is a bike nerd posting of the highest order.

For some reason, I was drawn to all the different cranks on display when I visited the museum. So much so, I found myself taking at least two shots of almost every interesting crank I came across. What follows are the pics and tidbits of all these cranks.


1-inch pitch chains start us off... so overbuilt, I love it...





Look at this fancy high-polish crank...








This is a shaft-drive... from the 1890's... everything old is new again.


Cook Bros...!!! 181mm

Jammin'; Jimmy Deaton's Yeti from Kamikazee, 50t Chainring
What is the crank, TNT? I'm now told it's Grafton.



Ah, classic XTR...


Specialized branded...


Man, CODA...


The original SweetWings... Titanium original Cro-moly goodness...

transplanted.chicagoan

powered by .mk.