Liner Notes

Took a few minutes this morning to adjust the sidebar links. Updated some, added some, just trying to switch things up a bit. One winter project is to maybe redesign/customize this blog a bit, or perhaps move the whole thing over to WordPress- that's the hip thing to do I guess. Or at least the cool kids think so. Of course my list of winter projects is loooong, and my motivation is loooow so who knows.

It occurred to me that the blogroll / link list is kind of the new version of the liner notes that used to be included in records. You know, records- those vinyl Frisbees that music used to come on? Well, back in the day I used to scan the liner notes of all my record purchases to figure out what the people I liked were into. Then I'd buy records from those bands, or read those authors, subscribe to those zines- whatever. It was a gleaning process, and really the only way you had back then to learn more about the scene (true of punk and to a lesser extent cycling). The was no Google- no internet (at least as we now know it)- pretty much no easy way. It was a slow process, and you had to work for it.

The upside of that process being slow is that it allowed you to formulate your own ideas- sure, you had influences from outside sources- but the heavy lifting was done all by yourself. Or if you were lucky maybe by a small group of friends. And doing that gave you a sense of ownership and of pride in your 'work'. One of Mike Watt's bands, Unknown Instructors has a song titled: Punk (is whatever we made it to be). And that was really the essence of it- it was (and is) what you made it, and it wouldn't exist unless you made it exist.

So go click around. Read. Think. Then go make something of your own.

Slow Thinker Quick Linker

So for the past week or so- probably longer- I've been thinking about the long discussion over on the New England Cross list about categories, start times, etc. For the most part it's been a good discussion, but as always there is a lot of 'you should...' and not enough 'how about if I...' going on.

There is a lot of talk about using Colin's amazing CrossResults standings for the series call ups. Which is ok, the data is actually really cool- but nobody has pointed out that wranglin' all that data is simply one guys hobby. He's got a day job and his own racing to think about. Perhaps someone should ask him first before we draft him to be the call up czar for the entire series. I can assure you that bike racers tend to take themselves waaaay too seriously waaay too often. Do we want to subject poor Colin to the inevitable internet wrath of some dude who got called up on the 4th row instead of the 3rd row? If that data is worth using- and I think it might be- perhaps we might think about actually paying him for his work? And by "we" I mean the bike racers who are going to potentially benefit from the improved call up system.

On top of the whole "we should use Colin's data" thing, the annual "what about timing chips" discussion came up. Again, it's a legitimate question, and another good idea, but frankly nobody really gets the costs involved with implementing it. For Pioneer to invest in a reliable chip timing system I would have to pass some portion of the cost along to the promoter. And the reality of that means I would have to charge some 5-6 times more for my services in scoring a cross race. So does the improved scoring/timing really justify that?

It makes me think a lot about how we (both the cycling community, and people in general) value things. And it makes me think that our value system might be out of whack. Is seems that the balance of what we want vs what we will pay for is off. And by "pay for" I don't just mean money- I mean time and effort as well. If you want better and more accurate timing and scoring at a race, will you pay more for an entry? If you want better call ups is that worth paying for on some level? If you want a race category or a type of course that's not currently being offered, are you willing to step up and put it on yourself?

There's some interesting comments about 'value', and what things are worth in this article on Freeman Transport. It took me a bit to get past the hipster bandwagon track bike thing, but buried in there are some pretty good quotes, and I think some of those quotes can be applied to 'cross racing specifically, and bike racing in general. I guess what I mean is this: If you want something of quality- be it good results, good call ups, a good choice of categories there is a very real cost associated with it, and you need to be willing to bear those costs. To put it another way, if I can mangle a quote from the late Al Kreitler: "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweet taste of a deal."

Pay to Play

So 2009 is here. Time to burn off all that holiday excess- to play in the great outdoors and enjoy what will be an all too short off season. There's a ton of fun stuff to do out here in Western Mass during the the winter- ski, snowshoe, hike, bomb down the frozen snowmobile trails on the mountain bike whatever you're in the mood for. But this year there's work to be done first.

Remember those gnarly ice storms that hit back around the time of cyclo-cross nationals? The Hilltowns got absolutely slammed during those storms. Some estimates are that up to 1/3 to 1/2 of the trees there suffered some sort of damage. Falling limbs and trees took down power lines, crushed cars and houses and closed roads. Many people were without power (and thus heat and running water) for a week or more. Well now that the power lines and telephone are back up and everyone has gotten the roads and houses clear it's time to work on the trails.

So at high noon on day one of 2009 Pioneer Valley NEMBA and friends assembled in Hawley (at the top of the Tour of the Hilltown's East Hawley Road Climb) to start trail work. Despite it being a whopping 5 degrees out there were over twenty people there to get busy. Our goal was to get into the woods and start clearing the side trails- the local snowmobile club would be working on the big fire roads. 3 hours later we'd only gotten part of two trails done. With 20 people and 4 chainsaws going non stop. Every ten feet there are blowdowns- so you cut and cut, drag the debris to the side and move down the trail another ten feet. Odds are it will take most of the winter to get it all done- the next work days are already scheduled. But if you're gonna play, you've got to pay.

If you're wondering what sort of New Years resolution to make here's a suggestion: The International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) has often promoted a 20/20/20 program. $20 to the national IMBA office, $20 to your local chapter, and 20 hours of trail work/volunteering per year. If you're not doing that now..... get on it.

Getting in the workout, any way you can.