Why Station Wagon's are cool.

Like many mornings here at work the topic turns towards cars.  Today's discussion went from "good gas mileage" to classic station wagon's.  How did this this noble people hauler get such a bad rap in America?  Why do the words "Station Wagon" conger up images of the green, wood paneled bomb from American Vacation?  How did the wagon loose it's battle to the Mini-Van?  MPG, Comfort,  Drive ability, maybe one or all of these but don't tell me it lost on account of it's appearance.  Sure there have been a few ugly wagons.  Tell me how many good looking minivan's you've seen lately thou?  Take a look at the 2012 line up.  Which one looks good?  Further proof...

Which would you want on appearance alone?

Bike Email

Good friend of mine sent me this the other day and I just had to share it.  Great responses by all.  Enjoy....

Simon - Aesthetics.

It's no secret bikes now are ugly.  Fat hydro-formed square plastic tubes, 15 colours stripes, racing stripes and anything else they can come up with to make this years new, and last years out dated.  Need an example? The new rocky mountain element or just about any road bike you can buy.

As you all know I am playing with the idea of a ti true north road frame.  Smaller tubes, no paint, no decals.  clean. 
I don't want the bike to be outdated, but classic.  So my question is...silver or black bits?  15 years ago, black components on a road bike were rare. now, everything is black.........but is it worth finding old stuff?  Like silver square taper cranks.  stem, headset.  build wheels with silver hubs, spokes and rims.................
Does a grey bike need the black for contrast or would silver make it classic-ier?

Todd - Silver!!!  Enough said.

Me -  Long reply to follow soon. 

Gerald - Simon, I’m  drinking a Tank House right now, and now I’ve got to think about aesthetics. Silver all the way, but perhaps a bit of anno with a seatpost collar and headset. Definitely silver for the cranks, hubs, rims, seatpost, and stem. Don’t forget the chrome pegs for the front and back.

Me - Simon, you know I have to disagree, thou on some points your totally correct.  I don't mind some of the hydro-formed frames now days.  There light, strong, flowing lines, good looking bikes.  Do I agree with all the stickers and misc stripes that adorn some of the same bikes...no.  I've included a few examples.  I know you like the nice symmetry of a couple triangles.  I get that.  I'm just saying it's not that bad.  Not bad at all really.  So just remember what a old friend said when your in a bike store next time and some Hydro-formed, 29er, 1.5" headtubed, tubeless bike is raising your blood pressure.

"It's all about two legs, turning two cranks, turning two wheels. Its just too simple for most people to comprehend." - Chris Cannon

Enjoy your Friday bud.

Simon - i'll let gerald answer................

Gerald - Hey I’m still laying in favor of more traditional straight tubed frames. I don’t mind a bit of hydro forming and understand that it does provide a function in some circumstances, but when I checked out the photo’s Garrett submitted, I could not help but think Chris Bangle on acid.

Whether you like it or not, Chris Bangle upset a lot of BMW fans with his ice and fire hydroformed  body panels. For some strange reason Car+Driver like a bunch of other wankers love the styling of the new Sonata which to me is taking  Chris Bangle to the extreme as if they are on acid.  Unfortunately I see this on the way the big boys design their bikes. As far as I can remember, Rocky Mountain was one of the first in not the first that took hydroforming to bike frames. A lot of you will not know this, but a lot of the first hydroforming of tubing was  pioneered right here in Woodstock Ontario. Rocky’s tubesets were Easton RAD tubing.

At first these tubes added a certain cachet to the look of the bike and then everyone else jumped on board, and this is where they started going ape-shit to outdo the competition. If I think of some of the current frames that have toned down the use of hydroforming, I think of the Ellsworth Truth, the Titus FTM and Ventana. I really wonder what we will think of the Santa Cruz, Yeti and Uzzi ten years down the road.  I just have to think of the old curvy framed Cannondale Raven from the past and think who in the hell would want one today in their collection. It might be a collectors item, but it sure is not a thing of beauty.

I have a question. Imagine you have a custom built or for that matter, just a high end frame. You have the frame for a very long time, say 5-10 years, and it shows no signs of fatigue. The  frame  can be  straight tubed steel, straight tubed or mildly hydroformed aluminum or a wildly hydroformed aluminum frame like the Santa Cruz, Yeti etc. Which one would you send to a frame painter for a custom repaint?   I’ve had several repaints over the years.     

If you want to see some classic frame design, new and old,  pick up the current edition of Paved. In this issue they have a interesting interview with Sky Yaeger and then add a pictorial of some of her faves. She does have good taste in her builds.

Simon - let me put it this way.  james and i hit ray's in december.  me on a 98 element, him on his pivot..............i love the pivot, it's a great bike.  but the rocky got the comments.

Me - This email is going on my blog. Awesomeness. 

Simon - I'm just saying......the pivot is definatly a better bike.  100000% better.   

Todd - My official response to all of this nonsense is brewing.

Gerald - Come on Todd,  it’s  shitty outside and we have nothing better to do? 

Todd - Fine.

My official response?  You all suck. 

I have never been a fan of hydroformed tubing.  Take a traditional American-made Reynolds tubeset, make it from aluminum instead of long-lasting quality steel in one of 4 factories in Taiwan to "save on manufacturing costs," and then just for fun, square the tubing with high powered water-jets or however the hell they hydrofrom them and THEN weld them together?  i am just not convinced that makes for a better made frame.  

But whatever floats your boat I guess.

So why do you suck?  Because I own such a bike.  I have always known this.  One of my bikes is an 08 Trek 69er,  a ridiculously expensive single speed that if I'm not mistaken, was one of the first hydroformed bikes.  I say this because there is no other apparent reason for that bike to have cost as much as it did OTHER than to have incorporated state-of-the-art manufacturing processes that were not used on less expensive bikes of the day.  Admittedly I bought it a year or so later at half price because it didn't sell, but that's another story for another day.  And now every $400 Trek 800 has similar tubing, but what the hell.

Having said this, I have always preferred the more classic designs.  I prefer the simplicity of a good hardtail.  When I finally did purchase a full-squshie, it was a older design that had a more classic look.  It does NOT have hydroformed tubes.

So because of this email I went downstairs to go determine why I like my bikes  as much as I do.  And then my eyes wandered towards my favorite bike.  The bike the rides better than the rest.  The bike I've put more money into that any other.  The bike I reach for when I ride for escape and comfort.  That's right - my Santa Cruz Chameleon.  And then I looked at it a bit closer.  It's a little squared off in the back.  Hey, those rear tubes are squared!  Oh shit - those are hydroformed.

Apparently I own two such bikes.  Damn.

Which I suppose validates Garrett's comment, which is that it is not necessarily the tubing, but the horrible paint jobs and pin striping that is on most all modern bikes these days.

Which I apparently don't own.

So I take comfort in the fact I still love bikes with bits anodized in lots of color - just like high dollar bikes in the 90's.  Thus making me old school cool. Except fo the fact I am apparently decorating hydroformed tubed bikes, making me a big old loser.

Sigh.....

Oh, and Simon?  Back to your original question?   Use silver parts.  More classy.  More elegant.  And all the hydroformed bikes come with black parts as you know.  So go against the grain my friend.  Stand out against the common $5,000 boring carbon Trek.  Be one with the titanium and use parts that are not only long-lasting, but compliment the color and appearance of a classic road ride. 

Todd - I just read what I wrote.  Somebody needs to take the keyboard away from me when I have drunk too much vodka.

Sigh.....

Simon - dude, i woke up to it, and it had me laughing.  true to form todd.....loved it!

Me - Same here epic.

 

Curt Gowdy - EARLY 2012

With such a mild winter and very dry spring so far we were able to get out to Curt Gowdy before April.  Here's the vid...

http://vimeo.com/39627192

Gowdy_00 2012 from Garrett Olsen on Vimeo.

The film doesn't show the blood and gore that happened.  Josh was showing off in the parking lot and found a way to open up huge bloody patches on his hands and knees.  Joab tried playing with his older brother and managed to clothes line himself on a strand of barbed wire.  Jake came out pretty much unscathed as did I.  Fun time had by all.

The Sweet Sweet Smell of the Commute

That is some high quality O2 out there this morning.  Dropped the car off for tires this morning and rode to work.  It was slightly foggy, moist, cool and perfect.  It was a nice steady ride into work.  Totally uneventful.  However, here's the funny thing.  Maybe it's like this for most riders and I'm just now talking about it.  If a car passes me and they are smoking.  I instantly feel like I just took a tug on a cig too.  I can't believe how much it smells.  When walking into the building I noticed the smell of a woman's skin creme.  It smelled like she bathed in the stuff.  The heightened sense of smell does subside.  I just found it odd that it does that.

The Toshiba Thrive and me.

I should really be doing this post from my thrive to test out it's blogging capabilities however there is something to be said about a real keyboard.  So the story.  Well it all starts when Jenn needed eye surgery.  We had to be in Denver the day before the surgery.  She had a brief consult with the doctor that was doing the operation.  After that we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.  We had a beautiful fall day in front of us.  We decided on Beau Jo's for lunch.  Ate our fill at the buffet of awesome pizza and while we were there found us a hotel.  So we checked in to the hotel and then drove around a bit to explore.  We didn't get far before we found a Best Buy and Ross.  One for Jenn and one for me. 

Here's the thing.  I've liked the idea of a tablet since they were introduced.  Liked there idea, but hated there price.  I couldn't understand paying $600 plus for a tablet when you could buy a really nice laptop for that.  Plus the laptop would do so much more.  My price point was around $300-400.  That's where laptops end and the price gap in technology existed.  A friend loaned me his almost new Ipad2 for a weekend.  I wanted to know what it was like browsing the web from bed.  Playing with apps on the couch.  If you have ever owned a ipod touch, you know what a ipad is like.  It's the same thing except bigger.  Your inside a very pretty white fence, with a beautiful groomed lawn to play on.  Problem is you can just sit back and watch the party going on outside the fence.  I didn't like the ipad.  Apps felt limited, couldn't see the file structure, couldn't manipulate the look of the front pages, it just wasn't what I was use to.  I wanted a bigger version of my phone.  A Android tablet.

So Jenn went to Ross and I headed into BestBuy.  I already had a pretty good idea of the specs on all the tablets.  I knew there memory capacity, physical size, OS version and current price.  After spending time with the Ipad I thought I wanted something smaller.  However after flicking thru and playing a bit with the small Asus, I rethought that.  I spent a hour holding, touching, and playing with all the different tablets.  Even if they were out of my price range.  Just to see what a higher price might add.  Jenn found me after she was done and we went back to the hotel.  She knew I wanted a tablet.  So for the rest of the night and even then next morning in the waiting and recovery room it was a joke with us, about me getting back to Bestbuy.  After Jenn's surgery the doc asked us to stay one more day.  We were prepared for it.  Everything except for the green peas which we needed for Jen's face masks.

We had a Natural Foods grocery store next to the hotel but I ran to Target and grabbed some.  Then hit Ross for some more spatulas that Jen wanted to give as Christmas gifts.  Temptation got the best of me and I went back in too Bestbuy.  I did a little more playing and then decided.  I called Jenn to make sure she was doing fine and told her I'd only be a few more minutes.  I found someone to get me a tablet and ring me up.  Jakob called while I was checking out so I didn't get the hard sell on the optional insurance, memory card, cables, etc..  Got back to the hotel, took care of Jenn and put the peas on ice.  I didn't get to actually open it till later that night.  I needed the hotel's wifi and a little time.  So when Jenn took some pain med's and nodded off for a bit I unwrapped it and fired it up.  Didn't take long for it to register and get signed into my google account.  Most apps from my phone ported over.  I browsed thru some forum's getting suggestions on "must have" apps for tablets.  Used some and uninstalled others.  Battery time was excellent.  I also loved that fact that in the future I could replace the battery myself if I needed.

Fast forward to the end of Febuary.  I've had my Thrive for a few months now and can say that I am totally happy with it's performance and ability to replace a laptop.  I love the ability to draw on it.  I've mocked up several watercolors I've done.  Adobe has a ever expanding suite of apps for it.  Some are good, some better and some need a lot of work.    However for the most part it's great.  If your looking at any tablet be it Android or Apple, weigh what your going to use it for and then make a decision on what to get.

2012 Video's

Trying to get my feet wet and use Premier pro 5.5.  You can watch tutorials till your blue in the face.(and they will turn you blue in the face)  I like to experiment and get a feel for things then have someone instruct me a bit.  I need a reference point to expand on.  Anyhow...here ya go....

A day at the farm.  Some time around mid January 2012...

Slush Sledding from Garrett Olsen on Vimeo.

I wasn't totally happy with the video quality of Youtube so I switched to Vimeo.  So far I'd say much better everything. 

Sketches and stuff I've been doing...

This was a test that I liked so much it's led into a series of water colors I've been doing.  It's more for learning then for the art.  Some have turned out well, some not so much.  Anyhow here's the original.

From Art

I'll post more from the one's I do on a daily basis later.  All consist of coffee stains for the wheels, inked frame and some/most are water colored.

Here's my Halloween contribution.

From Art