This year’s Tour was one of the most exciting and entertaining of any in recent years. And it wasn’t just because of the wrecks, I can actually do without those. It was more the spirit by which the racers went about the task of racing. No gifts, all was earned. Thor winning on a mountain stage; Gilbert attacking at some point in every stage; Eddy Boasson Hagen making the winning break two days in a row, and making good on his second attempt; Voeckler making the break that made the Tour. All these things kept me glued to the TV every night. I could go on and on in whirlwind of post Tour analysis and speculation but I’ll keep things simple. I have assembled a small list below of my Best and Worst of the Tour 2011.

Best Podium Shoes – Team Europcar

Best Sprint Call – Stage 10 Happy Norwegians

Best Break – Stage 13 Thor chases down Roy and Moncoutie on a Mountain stage.

Worst Sock/Shoe Combo – Mark Cavendish’s horrific black shoes/white socks. What’s next, a fanny pack?

Best Second Attempt – Stage 17 Eddy Boasson Hagen after being nabbed at the line by The god of Thunder came back the very next stage and got his.

Biggest Surprise – Thomas Voeckler

Best Cape – Cadel Evans

Best Rolling Recovery – Johnny Hoogerland and his battle with barbed wire.

And if you’d like to see some awesome photography from throughout the Tour, I would highly recommend Totally Cool Pix (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3)

Happy Halloween!
I just finished this bike moments ago and thought it might make a nice Halloween greeting.
Cheers, Hugh

Thanks Hugh

We’ve got some really nice looking bikes and some really nice looking photography to go along with some of my favorite old and crappy.

Just like last year, these are DIY PDF calendars and print straight to your 8.5×11 scrap paper. They’re 13 month calendars just to buy me a little extra time next year.

2010-11 OTSG DIY Calendar Small (7.6mb)

2010-11 OTSG DIY Calendar Large (26.8mb)

I will have a Jpeg Desktop Wallpaper version available shortly.

Enter the Cycl-O-Tread 2000!

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January 22, 2008 we began this little adventure into Meh! Two years, 508 posts, 1566 comments, 300,000+ visits, 200,000 unique visitors, 153 countries, dozens of gems, and lots of crap later we show no slowing or stopping. Here’s to another year of boundless enthusiasm for that which most discard and disregard.

Your host and biggest fan,

Cameron

Found on Flickr

Way back in March I posed the question, would you like/use a OTS specific classified section on the OTSG.  I then put the question to a vote.  You kind of overwhelmingly approved of the idea, so for the past 3 months I’ve been working off and on in the development of just such a function.

I had toyed with idea of opening up the “posts” to a “For Sale By Owner” category, but knowing my track record of tardy posting I figured this should be something I hand over to you the reader. I chose a FREE, somewhat intuitive classified software package and configured it to my liking. I named her Emporium and she should be just that.  All things old, crappy 10-speed brought to life in commerce and community.  

I approached this project very loosely and open minded, with a couple exceptions.  

Here how I see it:

• It’s FREE, but if you sell lots of stuff on it, say thanks with a donation.
• Use it or don’t use it, I don’t care.
• If no one uses it, I’ll just remove it. No skin off my back.
• It is VERY rough.  I am counting on you, the user, to report any issues, flaws or general suggestions to me.
• I am requiring registration to post on the Emporium, but you are free to browse without registration.
• I am requiring a “Request for Registration” to prescreen potential users, and to thwart the spam-asses.
• Any personal information you share with me will not be used feloniously or shared with any third parties.  If you don’t want to share the information—don’t.  All I need is a valid email, an alias and preferable your first and last name.
• I have not written any Terms of Use or CYA legal jargon, so if I grant you registration, I am expecting you to use this service respectfully and responsibly, or I will remove you and your postings immediately. 
• I reserve the right to reject or remove any user for any reason, but don’t worry, I’m a nice guy.
• I have limited the registration through requests for several reasons, including but not limited to: no spam bot protection currently in place on the site, no Terms of Use and legal jargon, in an effort to control the traffic and user base during fine tuning and development.
• I would like the Emporium to stay on topic.  I will delete any non-relevant ads as soon as I see them. The whole point is to provide a speciality market.

Thats pretty much it, but I may add  to or edit this list in the future.  

Go ahead, take a look around.  There isn’t much to it, just a shell. But with your help, it’ll be the bumpinest little 10-speed flea market on the planet.