Got up early at Cabell’s house, Puck came over and we all headed over to Joe’s Inn for a hearty breakfast, Richmond style. We chowed down! No waiting! Fast service and fast talk. Awesome.

Said goodbye to the ever-inspiring Mr. Harris and headed over to the North American Hand-Made Bicycle Show.

My mind is blown. Some beautiful stuff in there! Incredible craftsmanship and this contagious spirit of independence with all of it. People, taking matters into their own hands, and making it work. We dig.

Felt a little out of place, but savored the good design. I mean, hell, I live in such a kick-ass bikin’ town and I rode my bike like two times or something this last summer. That’s dumb. This summer: More time on a bike. Get the ticker pumping some.

Puck’s a BMXer, so he knew a bunch of cats walking around the show. Portland was representin’ too. Vanilla bikes were there, and were the highlight of the show, in my humble, Portlandized opinion. Great, great stuff. My old buddy Jered from Cinco did the type for it years ago, and man, they have such a great, stoic spirit all over their bikes. Impressive.

More Portland action. Got a handshake from one Chris Distefano from Chris King Precision components. He reads the site and came up to introduce himself. So cool. Just freaks you out to have a stranger come up and instantly have a connection. Pure awesome. Thanks for the good words, Chris!

Even more Portland! Met Slate, too. Hell, I think I’ve met the guy like 12 times, but you know, we run hot in Portland. Nice cat, with a great bike brand called Rapha. Best design of the show! Tight accessories and clothes for the cycling world. Great photography and type, too!

I just love this shit. I have absolutely no connection to the bike world, but appreciated the hell out of the stuff we checked out. The only dick we came across was some tall Euro guy from Brooks seats. He didn’t like me looking at their catalog, of which there was a big pile of them sitting there for the taking, and like we care. Nicest seat I’ve ever saw, hands down. Which got me thinking: I should commission them to make me a big tractor leather seat for my big butt that I can switch out with the seat on my Aeron chair. Hey big tall Euro guy: Stay the fuck out of Portland! There you go.

Thanks for taking me, Puck!

And then I hopped a flight the fuck out of Richmond, and am transmitting these words from 34,000 feet, high above a sleeping Wisconsin. What a world.

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RECOMMENDED BY PUCK: Richmond’s Slaughterama!

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HEY RICHMOND: Thank you! To Puck for the hospitality, to Cabell for the inspiration, great dinner and bed to crash in, to the good people of the Richmond Ad Club for having me, to Josh Leutz for being all kinds of kick-ass, to Kira the eco-hippie for the rides, to the Commonwealth Suites for such a nice room, to judge Samantha Warren for the web knowledge, to Tyler for the Uncle Tupelo knowledge, to Jeff Fucking Dryer just because and to all the cool folks we chatted with at the bike show.