Black Dog Down

This is exactly the sort of buffoonery you'll miss if you don't come pubride with us Thursday night at 7:

Cranksgiving

Think you know your way around Fort Worth better than anybody?

Or, do you just wanna ride your bike on a Saturday, help a local charity, and get a free beer or two to boot?

Join us here at the shop at noon, Saturday, November 4th, for Fort Worth's first ever "Cranksgiving" alleycat race, co-hosted by us and Rahr & Sons Brewing.

For those of you unfamiliar with alleycats, it is a bike messenger-style event with multiple checkpoints and no set route. Cranksgiving's checkpoints will be grocery stores, and riders' "signatures" will be specific non-perishable food items that they are to purchase at these locations.

Start line is our shop (1306 W Magnolia Ave), and the finish line will be at the Rahr Brewery. Fritz Rahr has generously offered to let us stay around for an hour or so after the race and quench our collective thirst.

The race is FREE, but you will need to bring some cash to buy food items. You will also need a means to carry food items with you on your bike (preferably a Masi Bike: since they gave a prize for the race), a lock (Preferably Kryptonite: another prize-giver), and a stapler or tape to organize your receipts.

Cool Acting Company

So the Aquila Theatre Company (based in New York and London, I think) was at Bass Hall last night doing a one-night-only production of Romeo and Juliet.

It was a great classical production, with a traditional, minimalist set and costumes, so I knew I was going to enjoy it. I hate it when some theater company tries to do "Romeo and Juliet, set during the Civil War!" or "King Lear on Rollerskates!"

This company did have one really unique twist, though. So unique, I had to share it with all of you.

The actors lined up on the edge of the stage just before the lights went down. One of them made an announcement:

"The six actors in front of you have each learned every single part in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Tonight the hand of fate, provided by you, the audience, will decide who plays which role."

With that, each actor individually went into the crowd with a velvet bag full of names, and chose an audience member to pull a part from the hat. If they pulled a part that was already taken, they chose again.

It ended up that a a woman played a couple of man, and one man played a woman's role. But they pulled it off... it was damned impressive.

Texas Time Trials

Thursday night I stayed out way, way too late and drank way, way too much. A really bad idea since I was supposed to do a big event, the 12-hour Time Trial, on Saturday.

So, I spent all day Friday trying to recover from the night before instead of getting ready for my race. So Friday night at home I was up kind of late getting all my stuff ready (Food, cool-weather clothing, lights charging, etc.).

Then, in the middle of the four hours of sleep I'd managed to allot myself, my dogs went absolutely beserk, and I spent half an hour just trying to figure out what the hell was going on with them.

When the alarm went off at 3 a.m. I'd had a whopping 2.5 hours of sleep, and I knew it wasn't my day to go ride a bike for 12 hours. I'm disappointed (kicking myself for my terrible planning), because for me the Texas Time Trials is the coolest road event that happens locally.

When I finally got up and got ready to come to the shop Saturday morning, I found out the dogs' problem: my neighbor's truck, which is parked on the street below the window the dogs like to look out, had been broken into overnight. We were pretty busy at the shop on Saturday anyway, and Jason would have had a really hard day without me, so perhaps it worked out for the best.

To my friends that went (Frank, Brad): congrats on your rides. I wish I could have been there on the course with you guys.

1937-2006

A legend passed this weekend; Freddy Fender, a star on his own, and then a member of the supergroups The Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven, died at 69.

We'll play the Best of the Texas Tornados in the shop today and have 'uno mas cerveza' in his honor. Come drink one with us.

10 Good Reasons to Use Panther City Express Courier Service

1. It’s Fast... Downtown in 30 minutes, crosstown in 40. Nobody does that (except us).

2. It relieves congestion... One less car, one more parking space, and no drowsy side effects!

3. It’s Cheap... Cheaper than [insert Texas-ism here]. And there are no fuel surcharges, ever.

4. It’s Green... Our delivery vehicles are powered by renewable energy sources like Ramen noodles and caffeine, with only occasional (and discreet) greenhouse gas emissions.

5. It’s Patriotic... Every call to us supports our troops, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and helps prevent tooth decay; you don’t want the terrorists to win, do you?

6. It’s Safe... We’ve never hurt anyone (unless we count ourselves, which we don’t).

7. It’s Guaranteed... Our couriers are quality inspected and guaranteed not to peel, chip, crack, or fade - and they never need sharpening!

8. It’s Good for Business... Especially ours.

9. It Saves lives... Not only do we transport life-saving images for the medical community, but we also swerve to avoid striking wayward squirrels (as long as it’s not gonna make us late).

10. Best of all, It’s Easy... For you, anyway. We pedal our tails off;
All you have to do is pick up the phone and call 817-401-0146 today!

Carola's new wheels

In the comments thread of the last blog post, Carola mentioned the new wheels we built her... check them out. Her bike has a blue back end and a yellow front end. So, we built her a set of wheels with Velocity rims powdercoated to match:





Pretty cool, huh? Dura-ace hubs, DT-Swiss competition spokes, and red alloy nipples.

My first fixie

And my first day riding it to work was a rainy one!

B Double-E Double-R U N

Beer Run!



A cell-phone pic from the ride to Rahr Saturday... thanks Ken!

And I forgot to mention...

that we have a keg of one of Fritz's seasonal delights, Summertime Wheat, here at the shop, so come by and taste it.

If you like beer...

and you like bikes, then you need to be here at the shop at noon on Saturday.

Do I need to explain myself further?

If you've never been on one of our monthly Brewery rides, here's the story: Fritz Rahr of Rahr & Sons Brewing has for the last two years been brewing some amazing beers, right here in our neighborhood. This is the only commercial (non-restaurant) microbrewery in Fort Worth, and it's just about a mile from our shop.

But it's not just the fact that Fritz runs an independent brewery in the coolest city in Texas that makes him worth supporting. It's not just marketing at Rahr; he backs it up with fantastic brews.

Case in point: in a recent survey, Zymergy magazine asked readers to name their favorite commercial beers. They didn't have to be nationally available; just commercially available somewhere in the U.S. Well, the top 40 list includes four of Rahr's brews (Bucking Bock, Ugly Pug, Red, and Blonde). Readers also ranked Rahr & Sons the 5th best brewery in the U.S.

So, this is your chance to come out and support not only great hometown brewery, but a national treasure as well. Then, after Saturday, keep supporting Fritz Rahr. Stock your fridge with Rahr. If you're at a restaurant or pub that serves Rahr, have a pint. Let the bartender or restaurant manager know how cool it is that they support an independent Fort Worth brewery. Tell them it makes you want to come back more often.

See you Saturday.