Speechless

It's been a quite some time since the lemming has brought up the guys over at RoadBikeRider. Heck, the lemming has even enjoyed a couple of articles lately such as the Hot Date and Tour de Shrink in Scott's Spin, finding them witty and entertaining, in a RoadBikeRider sort of way, not that there is anything wrong with it.

However, the lemming worked himself up in to a frenzy today when he saw the title, "Is it OK to Alternate Water and Sports Drink?" in the current newsletter.

Is It OK to Alternate Water and Sports Drink?

Q: I'm confused about the proper concentration of sports drinks. If I carry one bottle of sports drink and one bottle of water, alternating swigs, won't I dilute the sports drink and reduce its effectiveness? -- Mandy W.

Obviously the reader is confused and needs a lot of good advice, so it's time to put on my coaching hat and answer her question.

Mandy, first of let me just say thank you for letting the lemming chime in. You are wise to be concerned with mixing sports drinks and water. You didn't give indication of your sports drink of choice, but hopefully you are using one with a magic 4:1 ratio carb-protein ratio so that you can increase your time to exhaustion should you want to do a lot of one-legged exercising (no comments from the peanut gallery please, you know who you are :)).

But even if you aren't using a magical 4:1 ratio drink, reaching a personal best on every ride you do will not happen alternating swigs of water with sports drink. Do you think Stevil ever alternates swigs of Bud with water? Hell no! That would decrease Bud's effectiveness. Remember the guy the marathon is named after? Legend has it he died. I'm no historian, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he didn't have access to sports drinks. That should say enough right there.



Now let's discuss how you are drinking your sports drink. While reaching your personal best, you are going to encounter a lot of competition that don't even know they are racing you. You don't have time to reach down for a water bottle or risk having that alter your heart rate beyond the plan your CTS coach has prescribed (if you are not training with power that is {wink}). That's why I recommend the contraption from AeroNet pictured above. As a bonus, you don't even have to reach back in your pocket to eat, perfect for those impromptu bike trail competitions.

So, summing it all up, and I know I'm hard to follow. You never EVER want to mix sports drink and water AND you want to use a sports drink on EVERY ride regardless of how short it might be, don't forget the recovery drink! You need those 60 grams of sugar. Lastly, please let me know what sports drink you are using so that I can buy stock in the company.

Ten thousand spoons?

Why ten thousand spoons? Every time I hear "it's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife" I think of a gray field of thousands of creepy-assed spoons standing around staring at you while "The End" by the Doors is played off in some barn, clear enough for you to hear as if it was right beside you. Ten thousand spoons, that's a lot of spoons. It would have been easier to say, "it's like a drawer full of spoons when all you need is a knife", but even then it still wouldn't be ironic.

What might be considered ironic though, is riding on a busy street, encountering a firefighter (Charles Diez) who wants to give you a safety tip about about how unsafe it is to ride on a busy street, and then shoots you in the head to teach you that lesson. Amazingly the helmet stopped the bullet, which opens the door to a whole bunch of easy jokes for an unfortunate situation. Read all about the irony here.

I'm not sure what's worse, getting shot in the head but being saved by your helmet or getting hit by a full can of Coors light at highway speeds while out on a ride. I suppose the lesson here, going by Charles' line of thinking, is that getting hit by a beer can may teach you how unsafe it is to ride on a road while others are out unsafely drinking and driving. The can of Coors light again opens the door to a whole bunch of easy jokes in an unfortunate situation.

Irony aside, just goes to show there is a lot of crazy shit going on in peoples' heads out there...

Taper complete

Well the lemming is back from the blog taper, RAGBRAI was a success. I suppose now that my taper is complete I should peak and enter blogging in a pure race form that only J-Lo could surpass. Is anyone still out there?

Uncovered: Tour de France conspiracy

As many of you know, I'm on a self-prescribed blogging taper as RAGBRAI gets fully underway. Putting my entire blog training plan at risk, I decided to put in a little post today as some material was simply too good to pass up.

Anyone following the Tour has undoubtedly seen or heard the drama that developed when Big George got away in a break with some serious horsepower that managed to stay away. The US-based team Garmin-Slipstream worked hard on damage control for some vague unknown reason, with a little help from Astana in the beginning.

Armstrong: “When the break got to be about five or six minutes, we put two guys on the front so it didn’t get to be 10 or 11 minutes. There were 13 guys in the break and two guys riding moderate tempo. That is by no means a chase. It’s the Tour de France. You can’t let a break have 15 minutes. When George became the virtual leader, AG2R decided to ride. We immediately stopped, everybody back in the peloton. They started to bring it back, and they got it down to about a minute. Then Garmin came and closed the rest.”

This caused Hincapie to miss being in the yellow jersey by a mere 5 seconds. Big hit for George, great guy, helped Armstrong win all of those tours, late in his career, and really just deserved to be in yellow.

Bruyneel: “I think it was more personal, or a clash between two American teams, and one American team not wanting another American team, or another American guy, in the yellow jersey. I don’t think that is nice. Everybody, of course, has to decide what they want to do, but I think if you start to race against others having his moment of attention. If Hincapie takes the jersey, I don’t think it affects anything in terms of Garmin’s race.”

Being George you had to imagine he was pissed, and he was. Lots of friends in Garmin and worked so hard as a lieutenant for Lance all those years. I knew there had to be more to the story, and to get that extra information I turned to the pulse of cycling, recreational riders such as myself who simply watch the Tour. The following is true depiction of a conversation overheard this morning.

Cruising along by myself, enjoying the scenery, I started to overtake a small group of 3 friends on a small incline. Not wanting to be one of those riders who gives it everything he has to pass someone, then dies 30 feet in front of them, I decided to hang behind and wait for another small incline where I could pass without "wasted efforts".

I mentioned, "hey, just letting you know I'm back here. Let me know if that's ok, not really feeling the power to pass you right now." The rider in front indicated it was no problem at all, while simultaneously surging to pick up the pace.

Lead Rider: "Did you hear what happened in the Tour the other day? Just goes to show there is more going on then what we're told."

Chase Rider: "What happened?"

At this point the lead rider was picking up the pace so much he was dropping one of his friends and a good-sized gap was growing. I proceeded to pull up along side the friend and ask if he'd like me to pull him back to the group. He gave me a sort of angry, "no just go", so I swung around and caught back up to the lead rider, anxiously wanting to hear the rest of the story about the Tour conspiracy.

Lead Rider: "Some American rider was very upset because he was positioned to be in yellow and some Swiss team worked to close the gap."

At this point I wasn't sure how to respond, I assumed the American rider mentioned was Hincapie and the Swiss team mentioned was Astana, but even having a hard time getting excited about watching the Tour at times myself at least I knew that much. The little devil on my shoulder told me to construct an amazing story about the politics involved with the move and hope like hell to hear the story propagated to legendary status, but just at that time they pulled off to wait for their dropped friend.

So the inside story on Hincapie not being in yellow is, "Some American rider was very upset because he was positioned to be in yellow and some Swiss team worked to close the gap." I know this new and highly enlightening information was worth the 2 minutes used to read this blog. Have a safe week out there and back to my taper.

Working on my taper

The lemming is tapering this week. A normal taper should include a reduction in blogging volume, while maintaining a small level of blogging intensity. Since I’m not a sandbagger but really just lazy, you’re getting this single blog of short duration and medium intensity.


Next week is RAGBRAI, the great bike ride across Iowa. As far as I can tell, I don't have any readers who are headed off to this unassuming little state, but if I did that would be stellar. Myself, I'm thinking about heading there and winning a few stages. Of course winning a stage at RAGBRAI is not like winning a stage in the MS150, winning a stage at RAGBRAI entails drinking lots of good beer in non-suspecting small town bars along the route. Of course, the task would be much more difficult had Team Good Beer not completed the arduous task of compiling the list and sampling bars.

So wherever you are headed this next week, be safe out there. I may find some energy during my taper if I carbo-load well enough to put up a Friday fun post tomorrow, if not I'll see you July 27th when normal blog training continues.

Friday fun, beer, music and picture roundup

Well another week has come to an end and that can only mean the beer, music and picture roundup. I have the Tour to watch and so do you, so we'll keep it short. As always, I'll give my half-hearted apology to Rantwick for such an early in the day, beer-laden post, as he will most surely be frothing at the mouth.


And frothing at the mouth he should be as this weekend I'll be enjoying Haywire Hefeweizen from Pyramid Breweries out of Seattle. I know, I know, I've really been stuck on the old Hefeweizens as of late right? I have, but it's because they are so dang good!

Their website mentions,

"Our deliciously deranged American-Style Hefeweizen is an award winning take on this Bavarian classic. This refreshingly unfiltered wheat ale delivers a distinctively smooth flavor worth sharing with friends."

Deliciously deranged? I knew there was a reason I liked it.


And speaking of deliciously deranged, check this non-lemming out. Chris Plesko, riding from Canada to Mexico on the Continental Divide, broke the singlespeed course record by over 4 days, turning in a time of 19 days for nearly 2800 miles. There are a lot of words to say about that, but incredible sums it up nicely. The Outside interview is spectacular in a lot of ways, done on a singlespeed sure, but averaging 147 miles a day off-road for 19 days is super human when you read about the snow and mud they encountered and fathom how much climbing was involved. The story did not mention if he had to wheelie the entire way. Maybe I'll try to get an interview with Chris or dig up a fictitious one if I can't. Anything you are dying to know?



Putting in that kind of mileage day to day he has to listen to some music right? Perhaps we'll never know, but I would. I think I'd have to listen to something such as Son Volt, kind of mellow, rock-a-billy-ish, sit back and cruise for hours on end.

Son Volt - Drown

Take a listen to that, let me know what you think, and let's do the picture roundup. I have to mention that pictures are sometimes my favorite parts of blog reading, even with all the great stuff that is out there, such as Heidi Swift's very entertaining So, Mr. Voeckler, We Meet Again entry the other day.

Courtesy of Velocorapture

Courtesy of Sonya Looney

Courtesy of Sonya Looney

Courtesy of Road

Courtesy of Road

Courtesy of Racing with K-Man

Courtesy of Cyclelicious

Courtesy of Copenhagenize

Courtesy of Copenhagenize

Courtesy of Mrbill's Bikenbreakfast
Well that wraps it up for this week. Give the bike some love this weekend and get me some pictures for next week. Have a good one out there and be safe.

Be prepared for your next group ride

I've had this message sitting in the mailbag from Frilly for some time now and have been wondering what to do with it. I think today I've decided to do a quiz, BikeSnobNYC style. From the lack of comments on my last few posts I figured they were lame and had to get back to basics.

Study the email from Frilly carefully, once you are done there will be a small quiz. Answer correctly and you will be rewarded with this AMAZING picture (hint: zoom in, it's worth it). Answer incorrectly and you'll be sent to a link which helps you figure out why you are wrong. That out of the way, let's get on with it.

Frilly said:
Yes completely drenched is spot on. Well, I sucked tonight big time. When I got there I saw a guy who looked like the group leader, however that was not the case. I was chatting with him anyway about how fast they go and any serious hills. He said they do around 15 to 16 mph and yes there are a couple of sorta big hills. Okay, not tragic. A fairly good clip by my standards and I guess I can deal with two or three big hills.

I never got to find out cuz he lied. 15 to 16 my ass. Those fuckers never got below 19 or 20 the whole six miles I managed to hang on. Shit. I got behind almost immediately and some guy was nice enough to pace me back to the group and I got dropped again. Well, the dude was a little in front of me and his buddy was passing me, so I told his friend to tell him I was done, I couldn't keep up, and I was heading to Grant's Trail. He said okay and bye. Fine.

So I rode over to the trail and did the thing end to end telling myself I was not going to let my speed dip below 15 ever. Well it did a couple of times cuz there was a bit of a headwind, but only to around 13.8 to 14.

Anyhoo, I ride back to the shop where my car is and there are still a few people in the parking lot drinking beer. Damn. The ride of shame. Well, one of the people who I think might have actually been the group leader asked me if I rode in by myself. I told him no that I had been dropped a long time ago and just went to ride the trail. He said that he hoped I wasn't discouraged and I should come back next week. Apparently quite a few people didn't show up cuz of the heat. Those people being the slower people. The guy said that they usually splinter into two groups--fast and slower. Figures I picked this week to go. So, I told him I had planned on it anyway and I was going to hang on as long as I could and continue to come back until I could ride with the group the whole way. He just kind of chuckled and left.

Well, I'm putting my bike away and lo and behold the dude who was trying to pace me comes walking up. He asked me if I was okay and I told him what I had done. He said that he was sorry I didn't stay cuz he had stopped to wait for me! He said his friend told him I had gone back to my car. The pace setting guy, Rob, said for a split second he almost rode back to get me. I told him that I was glad he was still there cuz I wanted to thank him for being so nice in pacing me. He told me to come back next week and he would stay with me the whole way and we would finish. Oh, and he also had a cooler with him and gave me a seriously cold Bud Light. I think I might just be in love.

What was Frilly's first mistake?
a) Joining a group ride in the first place
b) Believing the pace would be 15 to 16 mph and there would be a fast and slow group
c) Not using a 4:1 sports drink for optimum performance
d) Using aero bars in a group ride

Among other things, what does the group rider leader also probably have as a claim to fame?
a) Winning the local MS150
b) Winning a local citizen's race and teaching the young guys a lesson, averaging 20.7 mph over 205 miles
c) Winning an entire racing series, in the bottom category.
d) Mentioning it is "nothing" to go 30mph on a bike these days with the new technology.
e) Possibly all of the above.


True or False, a person can win the MS150, a charity race.
a) True
b) False


A sandbagger is:
a) someone who races in the same category year after year so that they can win or place highly regardless of great past success and encouragement to upgrade.
b) someone who underplays their ability, or races in a lower category, in order to gain an advantage.
c) considered by most to be scum of the earth.
d) All of the above.


What is the favorite saying for riders after demoralizing a newbie?
a) Glad you found your way back, we took you on some crazy strange roads trying to force you to do extra mileage once lost and shattered
b) Keep showing up and getting dropped and eventually you'll get faster and keep up, or you'll lose heart and quit
c) Sorry that the slow group didn't show up this week, show up next week, I'm sure they will
d) Watch my video and better luck next time
e) Both b and c

Lemming Tour de France prediction

Hinault and Lemond, a picture that has nothing to do with this year's Tour de France

I had a revelation today. I don't know where this vision came from and honestly it's so crazy that it could never come true, but I have a feeling this is how the Tour is going to do down this year.

Lance attacks in the Pyrenees, putting Contador a good 5 minutes behind at the end of the day. On the second Pyrenees stage Lance will go for a seemingly suicidal solo effort on the first mountain of the stage. It will be one of the boldest in Tour history, appearing to drive the nail in to the coffin for Contador. For a few hours his lead will grow and it will look like all hope is lost, but then Contador, with the help of teammates will catch Lance when he appears to be cracking, and Alberto will power up to a solo win. Lance will fight back, keeping his yellow jersey, the maillot jaune, by a mere 40 seconds.

More drama will ensue than at a birthday party of junior high girls, with the English speaking riders riding for Lance, most of the non-English for Contador, and a couple being neutral. Triumphantly up Alpe D'Huez Armstrong and Contador will come together, join hands, and sing Kumbaya as they cross the finish line. All will seem well and good until Lance mentions, "in Texas the race isn't over until it's over", foreshadowing his intent to attack Contador at the final time trial.

The final time trial will arrive and Contador, nervous as all get out, will crash a couple of times as a female counterpart gasps. In the end he'll come out victorious and Lance will mention he was simply attacking to break Contador's opponents and to help Contador become a true champion through adversity.

A mere example of Armstrong's dismal future

Armstrong will go on to man the podium at the Tour de France, that's where all the hot podium girls are, while Contador, injured in a carrier pigeon hunting accident, fights back to win two more Tours before retiring amidst a bizarre disease due to lead in his mitochondria and the undeniable fact that everyone else must be doping.

Highly revered by his fans, Contador will undoubtedly go nuts and alienate everyone who once thought he was a great athlete when he can't seem to let go of the fact that he believes everyone is doping and vehemently speaks out against anyone he feels accomplished more than himself.

I have no idea where this vision came from, it just seems so crazy that it can't possibly come true.

Exposing the myth of the outlaw cyclist

Have you ever driven in inclement weather, going your safe reasonable speed, only to come up on someone going what you feel is too slow. "What a chicken shit," you say. Suddenly this overly cautious driver is a menace to the other cautious drivers such as yourself. A few minutes later someone passes you, "what a crazy fucking idiot," you say, "he's going to kill someone." Surely this other driver is overdriving the conditions and is dangerous to everyone out on the road.

We've all done it. Society has a perception unfortunately that anyone doing something different is wrong and doesn't deserve the respect and freedom to do what they are doing without ridicule and criticism. The critic believes what he is doing is justified and they always uphold the law, and they feel the need to police everyone else as well.

I've written this post because the lemming is tired of hearing it. Let's be realistic, almost EVERYONE breaks the law at one time or another whether it be driving, cycling, or walking. Get over it and worry about yourself. Anytime the local news posts some story about cycling or a cyclist hurt or killed, a bunch of deadbeats contributing to the current recession all hop on and the comments section explodes with incredibly broad and uninformed statements bashing cycling and blaming the cyclist regardless of relevant information. I loathe posting a comment on those news stories because the saying that you should never argue with an idiot as he'll bring you down to his level and beat you with experience is way too true. So I've decided to post this, and now anyone can just put a link back to this blog on those news articles and refute the statements like:

"I'll start sharing the road when cyclists start following the law"

"I've yet to see any cyclist obey the rules of the road."

"Cyclists are too slow to be on the road. If I come around a corner and see a cyclist, my only choice is to hit them, go in to oncoming traffic, or swerve in to the ditch."

"A law requiring drivers to give cyclists 3-5 feet while passing them will force me in to a head-on collision with an oncoming car."

Let's address those last two first. If a person believes that they HAVE to get in to a head-on collision with oncoming cars to pass a cyclist, then we are doomed as a society. Perhaps it really is true that only stupid people are breeding and because of that society will implode upon itself. That statement is ludicrous. Furthermore, if a person can't stop in time coming around a curve then they are going too fast and it is THEIR fault, no matter what is in their way. What if a policeman is standing in the corner at the scene of an accident? Is the only choice to hit him or swerve in to the ditch?

To refute some more uninformed statements with reality:

Some cyclists run red lights, just like some drivers run red lights. In Denver, the red light camera program issued 125 red light violation tickets in a 12 hour period to motorists. Similar results were seen in Seattle. Cyclists don't rock as much metal as cars, so we can't trip the sensor to change the lights. If we don't have a car going the same direction as us we'd have to wait indefinitely for someone else to come and trip the light. The key here is drivers run red lights too.

Some cyclists roll stop signs, just like this study found nearly 50% of drivers roll stop signs. Who really, car or bike, comes to a COMPLETE stop? For cyclists, it's hard to get started again and drivers get mad if we take too long, so we gravitate towards Newton's laws of motion that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. It's still a perception issue and why I wrote the articles Bicycling should write that would change cycling forever. What excuse do drivers have when criticizing cyclists? It's just slightly pushing the right pedal down to get going again. Again, drivers run stop signs too.

Some cyclists seemingly rudely try to sneak by walkers unannounced, just like some walkers illegally have their dogs off the leash. Some walkers have their headphones on so loud that they don't hear "on your left, and some pedestrians jaywalk outside of a crosswalk.

Some cyclists rudely don't say "on your left", just like many drivers illegally turn on a walk signal. Some drivers illegally continue through crosswalks when a pedestrian is present on the side of the road.

Some cyclists take more of their lane hoping that cars will give them space and not try to squeeze by within inches of their head or ride two abreast so they can talk, while almost all drivers at one time or another illegally sit in the left lane even when not passing. Some sets of walkers span the entire width of the trail and only grudgingly move after a cyclist says "on your left" 3 times.

Almost every driver speeds. In DC the photo radar program issued 170 tickets per hour when it was first introduced.

Some drivers park illegally.

Some drivers drive drunk and some drivers drive aggressively (ie road rage).

Cyclists wear spandex so that they'll be seen and not run over and because pedaling 100 times a minute for any prolonged amount of time wears away skin while sitting on big cotton seams. You wear a glove and baseball hat when playing softball so that the ball doesn't smack your hand and the sun doesn't get in your eyes.

Let's see some more facts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted two nationwide surveys, one in 1997 and one in 2002 to collect data on speeding and aggressive driving.

Taken straight from the site referenced above:

"Speeding is a pervasive behavior with about three-quarters of drivers in the survey reporting they drove over the speed limit on all types of roads within the past month.

A majority of drivers of all ages admit to speeding.

At least eight of ten younger drivers report speeding at least monthly on each road type

Six in ten drivers age 65 or older report speeding on all road types

Males are 50 percent more likely than females to drive over the posted speed limit.

Perceived Threat of Others Speeding

While many drivers believe that the speed limits on interstates should generally be higher, 68 percent of survey respondents feel that other drivers' speeding is a major threat to their own personal safety. Perceptions of this threat increase significantly with age, from just 48 percent of drivers age 16-20 believing speeding by others is a threat, to 86 percent of those age 65 or older. More than three-quarters of drivers feel that it is at least somewhat important that something be done to reduce speeding on all road types. This finding suggests a strong "it's not me, it's the other guy who is a problem" mentality among many drivers.

Unsafe and Aggressive Driving

While speeding is the most common unsafe behavior on the road, other unsafe behaviors account for a sizable proportion of motor vehicle crashes. Drivers reported doing other unsafe and aggressive driving behaviors "at least sometimes."

Entering an intersection just as the light turned from yellow to red (40 percent)

Rolling stops at stop signs (30 percent)

Making angry, insulting, or obscene gestures towards another driver (12 percent)

Cutting in front of other drivers (10 percent)"

So, in conclusion, don't throw stones when you live in a glass house, it's not the outlaw cyclist that is the brazen law breaker. There are good and bad cyclists, there are good and bad drivers, there are good and bad walkers, the biggest critics are violators themselves. More than anything else it's the attitude of "it's not me, it's them" that is the problem. Until WE, meaning society at large, or everyone, can recognize that and be responsible for our own actions we are all doomed.

Friday fun, music, beer, and picture roundup

First off, my apologies to Rantwick as this post comes early morning and will undoubtedly leave him frothing for beer all day.

With the 4th of July looming over our heads, fireworks to shoot off, meat to BBQ, and beer to be drunk, it seems fitting that this week's beer not be a haughty import or microbrew. It can be none other than the king of beers, I'm talking of course, about Budweiser.
Besides being smooth and refreshing, I applaud Budweiser for their diversity in hiring practices. Below we can see a blonde, a redhead, a brunette, and a blonde with brunette highlights. Heck, one doesn't even have a hat or belly button ring. The diversity is so pronounced I feel as if I'm watching an airline safety video.



With America's Independence day I feel a classic choice is in order for the music. We need a band that seems like they've been around since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Who could that be? The Stones? Ozzy? Nope, we need a band that's as American as Australia, AC/DC. I've included two songs today, the classic It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll) from their American debut album High Voltage and Rock N Roll Train from their newest album Black Ice, proving that they are still going strong. My only complaint with AC/DC is that they didn't keep rocking the bagpipe, but that complaint is about as lame as telling the bud girls they can't eat crackers.

AC/DC - Its A Long Way To The Top (If Ya Wanna Rock And Roll)

AC/DC - Rock N Roll Train

And while you have the music playing we'll move on to the picture roundup. Lots of great shots this week, as always thanks everyone for letting me repost them.

Courtesy of Travels with my Mule
Courtesy of Travels with my Mule
Courtesy of Sonya Looney
Courtesy of Road
Courtesy of MO7S
Courtesy of How to Avoid the Bummer Life
Courtesy of Copenhagenize
Courtesy of Bike Dreams
Courtesy of bicykel
Courtesy of bicykel
That will do it for this week, be safe out there doing whatever you are doing, and I'll see you on Monday.

Ride for real

The lemming is nitpicking. Here I have a backlog of interesting stuff (to me) to write about and all I can think about is this crazy picture above that I keep seeing as ads in magazines.

The picture, I'm sure you recognize from Bicycling and other magazines, is the very hot and very talented Jen Segger for Ryders Eyewear. Jen has a huge list of accomplishments and is indeed a "real rider", so why make-up artist the photo shoot? Why not just let her go out and get dirty for the "Ride for Real" picture? That would seem much more endearing and genuine to me.

In the picture above, unless Jen was scratched by her cat and bleeds chocolate, or if she was lubing her chain with 10W40 and then accidentally streaked it on to her face with a fine bristled brush, odds are she wasn't "riding for real" for the picture and for some reason that just bugs the lemming, it so boldly says "Ride for Real".

Anyway, I wanted to get it on the action and maybe star in a Ryders Eyewear ad myself. I'm not talented enough to draw streaks of chocolate on to my face, but I can do a crude cut and paste. I tried my best to capture the same essence of "realness" as the original. So, I give permission to Ryders Eyewear to use the pictures below in any ads as long as the original photo owner doesn't mind, that said I have no way to contact them.

Blog for Real

Surf for Real

Play poker for Real

Drive to work for Real

Ride for Real

That's about all I've got, I welcome submissions.

UPDATE:

Reader submissions/suggestions

Skydive for Real
Added on suggestion from Nick, note the lemming must jump tandem, basejumping is more his thing