Workin' Fer Old Man Budnitz!

As some of you may be aware, I'm a big fan of bikesnobnyc. One of his pet topics is Budnitz bicycles, a company that does "High end titanium and steel city bikes, cycling apparel, components, and accessories". Bikesnob has created a character called Old Man Budnitz. He has also test-ridden a Budnitz bike, with less than glowing commentary to follow. You would have to read a bunch of his stuff to know how funny it is.

 

Anyway, Old Man Budnitz made his presence felt on this very blog on Friday! Whether Budnitz will continue to do so, I don't know. You see, I have Google Adsense ads on my blog, among others. I don't control what shows up in these ad spots, except to exclude/filter stuff I don't want to see. Cycling stuff, of course, is always welcome.

 

Given my long standing readership of the Snob, imagine my surprise when I saw this!

Now, I'm not entirely certain of this, but I think bsnyc may not love the googly googly corp in addition to having reservations about the Budnitz corp. Does this make me an enemy of one of my favourite bloggers? I doubt it. The Snob seems pretty easy going about such things. He's a shrugger. As in shrugging off these kinds of coincidences. I hope.

If not, well, it's on, baby. I'm a Budnitz man now, chasing the mighty aesthetic titanium dream. Or, somebody who's willing to grab a few cents off anybody stumbling into said dream. One of those.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Cycling or Cyclists?

Richard Masoner of cyclelico.us recently posted something about the "dangerisation of cycling" that was prompted in large part by a paper by Glen Koorey of New Zealand. I'm glad he did, and that he encouraged his readers to read the whole thing rather than just the snippet he used regarding "dangerisation".

 

This paper seems to me a very balanced and informed piece of work that made me re-think how I see cycling advocacy, at least in some ways. The pdf of this paper is here. Rather than re-hash it, I just wanted to give it big "Amen, brother" and pass it on. If you're into cycling or advocacy or both, I think it is worth a little of your time.

 

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - Every time I resolve to just stay clear of such matters and "just ride my bike", I get sucked back in. At least this time it was by a reasonable voice in these days of rampant hyperbole.

The Sign of a Good Friend

When you are a boy, it is really pretty easy to tell your friends from your enemies. Your friends only pretend they're gonna hit you in the stones. Like this:

 

 

 

 

Totally good buds, you can tell. Right? Back me up here, fellas. OK, the one kid is a bit of a jerk, but still. Every kid has one friend like that and at least they're on your side...

One thing I found interesting was that when I showed the video to my son, he knew immediately what was going on there. Mrs. Rantwick and my daughter, had to really watch closely to figure out what that kid was doing. Ah, boys. I sure like being one.

One other gender based question/observation: have you ever seen any of the women in your lives give the fuel pump nozzle a little jiggle before removing it from the car? I don't think I have. It certainly doesn't matter to me whether they do or don't, but I know I always give it quick shake. I suspect (and think I've seen) other men do it too. Thoughts? Deep and meaningful sidenotes of your own? Rather obvious theories? Mad ramblings? All Welcome.

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K