I’m in. Non-stop from the Burgh to Sin City, thankyouverymuch Southwest Airlines. Treasure Island, that’ll be my home away from home for the next five nights. I wonder if they picked the sign colors to match the crystal blue desert sky?

Today’s the first day of the On-dirt Demo, but that’s not in the cards for me today. The Dirt Raggers who arrived yesterday are already out in the desert flogging fresh 2008 steeds. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to saddle up. I just stopped by the convention center to register, and got the crazy idea to pop into the exhibit hall and snap some pictures of the mayhem that’s otherwise know as “show set up.” I just hope that I don’t get run over by a crane.

There are teams of union workers laying down padding and carpet.

And there’s plenty more carpet where that came from.

I wonder what goodies will adorn the now-empty Italia exhibit? Jet lag from Italy sucks. Note the workers crashed out on the hard wooden bed (lower left corner of photo).

How many union workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Six, you got a problem with that?

Enough snooping. Back out to the heat of the strip. In the meantime, stay tuned to the Dirt Rag Blog for more reports from Interbike.

Recently, I experienced my first full fledge bike tour on a trip with A2Z Adventures (www.a2z-adventures.com) in Portugal. The duration was eight days and covered about 370 miles, depending on how many turns were missed and how disoriented one became. A group of sixteen riders, including Gary Fisher, and growing to as many as 25 on the weekend undertook the challenge to traverse Portugal’s northeastern interior, about two hours from Lisbon and at times very near Spain’s border.

I don’t want to give up too much here, because there will be a full account coming soon, but here’s a highlight and some fun stuff that happened while cycling the sevenish hours everyday from sleeping point to sleeping point with some villages in between.

Everyone has heard the chuckle or fable, what do you call a cyclist without a tube or pump? A pedestrian! HaHa! And on a ride where you may not see another person for two hours, if you were dropped by one group and still quicker than those behind you, this could also be a disaster in the making. But I’ll give Gary Fisher credit, he kept a cool head after flatting on a rocky uphill (unknown to those of us in front of him) and walking off the route for 5K in the wrong direction until he found a road where he cycled another 5K on a flat tire (also in the wrong direction) until he discovered a village. Which also caused him to be missed by the slower group and sweeping rider. I’m not sure why the GPS unit was ignored, but…

To complicate matters, Gary doesn’t speak Portuguese and most of the villagers have no need for English. These weren’t touristy areas and goats don’t care. The people were very friendly nonetheless and even looked beyond Gary’s white skinsuit with red and blue stripes and white stars down the sleeves (a skinny Captain America if you will) and patiently tried to make sense of this lost American in the middle of nowhere with five Euros tucked under his spandex. By the way, American cell phones don’t work over there. So what’s a man to do but convey a need through pictures and draw a taxicab on paper to bewildered eyes that finally grasped his need. Unfortunately the nearest cabby lived in the next village over, also in the wrong direction, but Gary was given a lift there, crippled bicycle and all.

And what luck to be taken to another man’s home that has no use for the English Language, but does have a beer and a daughter that works for the Portuguese national news whom the man calls up. Gary Fisher cycling in Portugal was big news and the daughter already knew he was in the country. But she didn’t believe the voice on the other end of the line claiming to be thee Gary Fisher, a bit lost and standing in her father’s home. After making a phone call to one of our guides she did get Gary returned to our group before dinner was completely finished. We even saved some wine for him.

It’s all fun though. Be on the lookout for a print version of cycling in Portugal with A2Z Adventures in an upcoming issue of Dirt Rag Magazine and a web extra for whatever won’t fit or isn’t fit to print. For now keep spinning circles and carry a pump. –Shannon.

That’s right. I’m calling this a Flog. You might have noticed that we did away with our usual method for posting Brain Farts. We figured it was better and easier for everyone involved to just do our Brain Farts through the Dirt Rag Blog.

Since the term “blog” is a compound of “web” and “log”, I figured I’d join “(Brain) Fart” and “blog” and call it “Flog!”

Anyway…in other news, we’ve just about launched the digital version of Dirt Rag. And we’re calling it DigiRag.

It’s something we’ve discussed for a long time. And we’re stoked that we’re just about finished with it. We just have a couple more things to work on, but you can see how it all works by clicking here. We have a version of issue #130 for you to see and enjoy.

Don’t worry…we’re still going to print the magazine. That’s not going anywhere. We’re offering up DigiRag for a variety of reasons.

For starters, some people have been asking for us to offer a digital version. Some of them say they would rather not waste trees for the print version…though we think “wasting” is a strong word. Other people…especially those who don’t live in the US…don’t like to wait for the magazine to arrive via the postal carrier. Now that we can send the digital version live, people who subscribe to the digital version can read it the day we publish it.

Besides all that, as new technology emerges, we want to flow the Dirt Rag vibe across those new conduits. The web site was one such technology. And now a complete digital version of the magazine is another method. And you can bet, as soon as we can transmit our content directly to your brain, we’re on it.

I keep saying this, but we’re working on other new features for the web site and beyond. It’s going to be some cool stuff, but I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet. There’s a lot of work to be done, and only so much time an energy to get it done.

But…as they say….Stay Tuned.

After the September 11th attacks, Michael Browne, Dirt Rag’s editor at that time, sent out a request via our eNewsletter. Here’s what it said:

“I haven’t been able to get away from the news for the past week, and I’m sure most of you feel the same way. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, you’ll probably remember the specifics for a long time. But memories deteriorate. While I often find myself begging (almost) for more contributions, this request is of a different nature. Please take a few minutes to reflect on the past week and write down your experiences. I want to know where you were, how you reacted, what you saw, what you didn’t see. I want to know how this has affected people. I will try to find a way to share it with everyone; or no one, if you prefer.”

The response was overwhelming. At that time, Michael Wrote:

What I received soon thereafter surprised me. I not only received more contributions than I expected, but I found myself coming to terms with things through the reactions of those who wrote back.

I encourage you to read each and every response, for they represent a fraction of what I received. Please remember that these are uncensored responses that might offend you. Read and digest. Perhaps it will help you too.

In case you missed the responses at the time, I’ve linked to the stories below. I find the authors’ personal stories quite moving, despite the passing of six years:

New York, NY by Corvus Corvax
Rockaway, NJ by Bob Veit
Alexandria, VA by Dana M. Mellerio
Greenwich Village, NY by D.J.S.
New York, NY by Jeanette Sperhac
Germany by Mike McCray
Prescott, AZ by L.A. Winney
Aurora, CO by Carlton Loomis
Pittsburgh, PA by Karen Brooks
Ashland, KY by Jeremy Bowen
Santa Margarita, CA by Jan Sprague Chaffin
San Diego, CA by Dan McCormack
Lafayette, CO by Eric Szabo
Tamaqua, PA by Mike Phillips

Awhile back I wrote about getting interested in cargo bikes and other ways to carry things by bike (instead of on your back). Since then I’ve used Maurice’s B.O.B. trailer quite a few times, particularly on Mondays, which is the day that the local farmer’s market is located on my way home. It’s getting to be harvest season now, the market is bursting with good stuff, and it’s fabulous not to have to budget bag space when choosing which just-picked, perfectly ripe produce to take home. Of course money is still a concern, but heck, when corn is $2 for a half-dozen, not much of one.

So a few weeks ago I was happily shopping, putting more and more things into the B.O.B. bag. Getting ready to go home, I carefully arranged all my treasures, and put the most fragile things (the eggs) in my messenger bag. The trailer seemed pretty sluggish and tough to get moving, but once rolling it wasn’t a bother. My handlebars did seem a bit creaky though. It was only when I got home, unhitched the trailer in the backyard, and attempted to hoist the bag to carry it up the stairs to my apartment that I realized just what a haul I had made—I couldn’t lift the bag!

I made a list of all the stuff I bought:

- 1 small watermelon (football-size)
- 6 big ears of corn
- 1 small cabbage (bigger than a softball, smaller than a kickball)
- a pint of beets
- a pint of green beans
- a pint of peaches
- a dozen apples
- 1 cantaloupe (oh, I dunno, normal cantaloupe size?)
- a bulb of garlic
- a dozen eggs
- a raspberry-chocolate pie

The pie, sadly, didn’t look so good by the time I got home. I didn’t realize it had an unstable layer of icing-like stuff underneath the chocolate. It still tasted just fine, though.

Cyclocross Nationals
The USA Cycling 2007 Cyclocross National Championships are scheduled for December 12th-16th at Wyandotte County Park in Kansas City, KS. If you’re planning on attending, then you’ll want to note that online registration will open on September 15th, at 12:01am CST. This is important because: “All athletes will be staged based on when they registered for the event.” Register early and often, I say. More information is available at the KC Cyclocross website.

Chicago Cyclocross Cup
The five-race Chicago Cyclocross Cup Series kicks off at 10:00 a.m on Sunday, September 23rd in Jackson Park in the City of Chicago. The grand finale goes down on December 9th, at the Illinois State Cyclocross Championship at Montrose Park. For all the race details visit www.chicrosscup.com.

Month of Mud
The Mountain Bike Racing Association of Western Pennsylvania’s venerable Month of Mud racing series kicks off its 19th season on Sunday, September 16th with a cyclocross race (MTBs allowed) at Mammoth Park in Mt. Pleasant, PA. Click here more information on the five-race Month of Mud series.

SSUSA at DSG
Clay Higgins, the organizer of the Dirt Sweat & Gears event in Fayetteville, TN, announced plans for the advent of SSUSA, a self-proclaimed “cross country and quite possibly a cross-dressing event for the single speed freaks of the world.” SSUSA will begin on Friday May 2, 2008, a day before the DSG 12 hour race, both events to be held on the sweet trails at Fayetteville’s Cotton Mill Preserve. According to single speed 24 hour world champion Dejay Birtch, “It’ll be like the Stanley Cup of the single speed world.” Higgins adds, “This year Fayetteville, next year who knows,” as organizers plan to share the single speed love by passing the event around the U.S. to other promoters. Visit the DSG website for more information.