Day: February 21, 2009

What goes around comes around

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This has been something of a mantra for me for many years.   Its a catchy phrase, but do you really get it?   Do you get that its not an accident, its a conscious decision?

I first began to appreciate it playing ultimate, when the way I pressed on D or made calls came back to me over a game or a season or several seasons later.   The democratization of the calls in Ultimate led to balance.   In no other sport could 2 opponents discuss a contention, have confidence in what they knew to be true, and find a happy medium that was fair and let the game be played on a level playing field.   The happy medium might be reached then, later that game with a no-call, or on the next pass with another ticky-tack call, but it got there eventually.   However you analyzed it…karma, common sense, game theory…it worked.

I have been at work long enough for many many people to have met me.   The interaction is not as adversarial, but the dynamics similar.   I try to respond to requests quickly and without baggage, keep it about the issues, and be easy to negotiate with.   It gets me the responses I need when my assignments depend on them, and earns me a long rope with much forgiveness when things go sour, because people know what I’m all about.   It buys me goodwill with my hours and slack for my parenting.   My work behavior is mostly pre-meditated, i make a point to manage my image, and its really not that hard — especially when you get the payoff.   There is a fine line between self-improvement and artifice and developing a job-related skill.   Does it really matter if it makes life easier?:

On the trail, if you are nice to people they almost always get out of your way.   Its not about speed or right of way, its like the kindness you project comes off you and others see it in your posture or your eye contact or how you grab onto your bars.   They feel you’re happy, they get happiness from you, and they move the fuck over.   And it makes the ride so much better.   Another skill like rolling over jagged rocks.   I’ve gotten comfortable enough with myself and my persona that I volunteered to become a Phoenix Park Steward – I figure if people see a well-behaved rider, they ought to know that rider is sorta official.   The times I give   directions or advice are good karma put back into the world, the off-chance that the map and extra water bottle I carry saves a life restores my faith in optimism, the occasional abuse I get from someone wronged by another biker…I can carry that weight.   I can acknowledge their problem and apologize on someone else’s behalf, I too want to know so the bikers can police themselves.   Mostly I want to be a nice guy so i can keep my flow and people realize a coil fork and pads don’t make you Darth Vader…want to hear why i won’t launch a jump because I can’t afford to break a wrist for needing to care for my infant?

Now take it a step further.   Over time I’ve seen how being nice pays off on MTBR – advice, help, invites.   The message board   makes you and everyone else a public figure, and it is obvious when a person is a good citizen, and earns some karma even if only known by a screen name.   The internet creates transparency, in spite of its costumes.   I had an offer to test ride a bike, to get led on a ride, and a killer hookup for parts.   Online you can completely control the message to be what you want to be, and live honestly by you own ethics.

is this a meta-ethic?   Will all social mores follow this rule, or is it a morality by itself?   I think for me it is both.

sorry what? I was spacing

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Seems that has been the better part of my week. I can fob it off as stress and chafe over Alana, but with Bette around to help out and Beckie on leave, the finger points to this:

My thinking went something like this:   i will not get to ride anything->i know what i want but i can not find out what it is->there are a lot of good   bikes->there is no perfect bike->i have analysis-paralysis->i hate orange->$3800 is a lot to pay for uncertainty.

The Bianchi was about the easiest bike I’ve bought.   It fit all our needs and was a tremendous value, I’m still not sure I love it but I think Beckie will, in time if she doesn’t already.   It feels a little like a marriage of convenience, but maybe knowing there are a lot of good bikes but no perfect ones has made me realistic. Is romance dead?   I had a little 6th-grade crush-from-afar on   the Sugar 3, and its drive train blew apart from Day 2.   I   fell in love with the Blur on paper, and plunged headlong into making the most expensive bike purchase I’d made at the first hint of cleavage. But 6 years later its still getting lots of mileage.   I tried to make a sensible decision with the Heckler, but became so overwhelmed with the new minutia of bike geekery that I finally married the first girl i kissed, as it were, and bought it on spec and customized it on spec, and it became the most expensive bike I’d purchased, and it is my favorite bike ever.   Yesterday we rode Holbert, 4 years after trying it on the Blur, and giving up .25 mile in swearing I never needed to ride something that ugly ever again.   This time I rode all but one tight rock passage about 2/3s down past a mortared rock bridge.   I had many dabs and get-offs and repeats, but was amazed by what i rode and with no blood.   Then Bob and I climbed the road, nailed the Spine and the hi-line on Bermuda, and generally flung ourselves skyward like spring-loaded rabbits on the descent whilst elevated by the warm glow of our gnar-smiles.

There are many ways to fall in love with your bike, but I fell out of love with the Salsa Big Mama.   it wanted too much commitment, without letting me know enough about it.   This instinct for self-preservation must explain why i have never gotten myself truly over my head with a woman, no matter how hot she was.   I did not want to stretch 4k that far into the unknown, into the potential of it being a light AM bike that handles snappishly.   It might have, it could have been beautiful, but   i wanted to be sure I got an Aggressive XC bike not a light All Mountain bike.

Enter the Hei Hei, at an ’08 closeout price of $1800 complete.   Doug found a good line and hung onto it like the pitbull he is, eventuallhy convincing me that on this topic he was in fact brillaint.   i did make him promise we would go with different color-schemes so we wouldn’t be stupid twinsies.   Upgrading some parts and selling some others would leave me with a sweet kit out-the-door for   $2500, and a frame that cost me only $500 but was realistically a solid 1k.   How wrong could I go, when I also made a few hundies in value on the kit?   I don’ think I can go that bad, like a mail-order Russian bride with a great photo, a soft mouth, and a sweet disposition.

I’m making her look hot too!

I built this pretty nice, so even if the frame sux it wound up costing me about $500 and I have a nice kit, both of which will move into a better frame.

WAIT! here is the best part! (thank you Kurt Vonnegut)   Beckie was bemoaning how this is not going to be her bike if i pick out my saddle and my seat position, and while true it is also true that i ride like 438% more.   Meanwhile I was bemoaning the meager $45 i might hope to recoup on the heavy stock seat and post, which are list around $80.   So for $45, she gets her own cockpit (mostly) which is way cheaper than $2500, I get to lose almost half a pound and have a saddle horn merge with my choad, and we never have this fight again

This effectively represents the last of the Becticia2 projects – ths list of shit Beckie and I felt needed to get done to move into the post-Alana, or is that intra-Alana, phase?   We’ll just call it the conAlana phase of our lives.   It sounds like salsa.

dammit.

There is no such thing as the perfect bike.