SF superior in jeopardy

This is serious. This could really mess up justice in SF. I'd rather see the city ditch the Zoo than the court system. After all, if someone owes you money, and the court won't help you, your only alternatives are the mafia, or street justice. Not to mention 15 months for a divorce.

Read about it here and here

bike jock

Watching Dodgers v Giants tonight. Never thought of myself as a jock, but I guess I am. A skinny little bike jock. My friend Deuce pointed out that watching baseball is calming. I agree. You should follow his blog 2+2=2, a truly gritty chronicle of the NorCal road racing circuit. Tour de France minus the steroids, podium girls, and 6-digit contracts. Racing for the pure love of testing yourself and your machine.

Austrian messenger wins Race Across America`

28-year-old bike messenger from Austria wins the Race Across America (RAAM) ... to learn just how difficult that is, read on

landlords who lose security deposits

Here at Docket Rocket, we seem to be serving more and more small claims actions against landlords who refuse to return their tenants' security deposits, sometimes for no reason at all. By San Francisco law, they're supposed to keep the deposits in a separate account. I'm wondering if they made bad investments, lost their tenants' deposits, and invent a pretext to avoid returning the $$$. I'm also wondering if anyone at the SF Chronicle or Examiner is interested in looking into this story.

bike.jpg

banksy_bike.jpg, a photo by chris_rocket on Flickr.

Can you name the artist and SF location?

follow this blog

Read my friend Irene's blog: thislittleplot.wordpress.com. We met in a writing class at San Francisco State years ago, and happily coincidence, she also knew my wife. Irene writes movingly about family, health, nature, and life.

bread

I am becoming a Bread fan. I'm not being ironic. I really like it.

triple rush -- bike messenger TV show

Looks like Triple Rush has flamed out after only three episodes. Keep an eye peeled for repeats on Travel Channel.

Rest assured that my company, Docket Rocket, is nothing like any of these companies.

All I could find on YouTube was this:

double rush / triple rush

I enjoyed watching "Triple Rush" on Travel channel. Like any reality show, it distorts reality and creates drama, and I doubt the people involved were too happy about how they came off, but that's the danger, isn't it?

I just found out that there was a short 1995 messenger sitcom called "Double Rush," featuring David Arquette. It actually made me laugh, in a good way. Reminded me of "Taxi." Check it out (the pilot is in 3 parts). I love the New York 90s look: body armor, full-face helmets... like Fly Girls and ski racers.

Docket Rocket legal courier

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Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

Might as well tell you who we work for. Docket Rocket legal courier, San Francisco's best process serving, document delivery, fax filing, court filing service. Owner and worker-operated. Ten years in business.

http://www.docketrocket.com

'nuff said.

Surf City cyclocross

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Originally uploaded by tedketai

3rd overall in Men's B at Surf City Series, Santa Cruz. And my season is over.

Thanks to Ted Ketai for use of the photo.

muddy fun

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Originally uploaded by SWoo

For once, a muddy start to the cross season. I'm liking it.

Thanks to Mr. Woo for the photo. And the offer of his mountain bike after I crashed into a pole (not the one in the photo, but about 2 minutes later) and broke my front brake lever.

Salsa!

salsa.jpg
Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

Old-school, I'd guess 1980s, Salsa MTB, Columbus tubing. Keeping with the retro-grouch vibe, it's got Shimano 7-speed thumb-shifters. I caved in and got a Marzocchi suspension fork.

Shot on Marys Peak, outside Corvallis, OR.

Felt TT bike

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Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

Felt TT bike, 10sp SRAM, Time cranks, yes that's a Campy front derailleur, somehow it all worked. Ritchey tubulars.

Surly Pacer

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Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

This is for my friend Maria at bicyclekitty.com

This is one of my two main work bikes, a 2008 Surly Pacer with SRAM Rival 10 speed drivetrain. The steel is pretty soft, not sure what kind, generic Chromoly. I think they updated to a nicer tubeset for 2010. I give the frame a lukewarm recommendation. I only weigh 140lb, but with a 35lb banker box on the rack, there's a lot of frame flex. I replaced the stock fork with a carbon (aluminum lugged) fork from some Raleigh.

Overall, a decent bike for day rides, light touring, commuting, messengering. I wouldn't recommend it for racing or carrying heavy loads.

thoughts about Bon Jovi

This has always troubled me ... when Bon Jovi sings "Sometimes you tell the day / By the bottle that you drink" just what the hell is he talking about?

I envision several scenarios:
-- JBJ drinks certain kinds of alcohol on certain days of the week. Monday: Scotch; Tuesday: Scotch; Wednesday: Fernet and so on.
-- JBJ drinks exactly one bottle of booze per day, and clears the recycling one per week, on Sundays. That way, if there's three bottles of booze in the recyk, it must be Wednesday. Right?
-- JBJ is lining up the empties in the window. One quart of JD per day. Four quarts, it must be ... well wait, unless he always clears the window on Sunday, how would the number of bottles indicate anything except that you are a huge alcoholic?

Someone enlighten me. I agree, it's a cool-sounding couplet, but what the hell does it MEAN!

RIP House of Shields

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Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

My Cheers is gone. I'm sad.

haussler.jpg

haussler.jpg
Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

Oh Heinrich likes his beer ...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/haussler-caught-drink-driving

boot2.jpg

boot2.jpg
Originally uploaded by chris_rocket

Yet another cut in the expensive tires, back in Dec 08.

Tried to boot it with a FedEx envelope. Wasn't gonna work. It kept cracking, so this tire went in the rubbish bin.

But its mate has lasted for nearly two years and untold miles, so it's just bad luck, not a knock on Continental.

notes on classic rock while listening to the Bone FM 107.7

-- The distance from SF to LA via I-5 is 381 miles. If it takes Sammy Hagar 16 hours to get to LA, that means an average of 23.8mph. I could bike that fast. Come on, Sammy, do you really expect us to believe that? Or maybe he was driving from Seattle, but I've always assumed he was talking about San Francisco. After all, Brion would always point out that road where they filmed the video on the way to LA. Perhaps Sammy was making use of "poetic license" to drive home his very important point about unfair government regulation. After all, if you can't get your Lamborghini out of 1st gear, what's the point of having one?

-- Golden Earring is Dutch. DUTCH! Who knew. That solves the mystery of the idiotic song title, "Radar Love." It's Scorpion-glish, like "Steamrock Fever" (an actual song title from "Tokyo Tapes.")

-- Is it really possible for a motor scooter to be "bad?" If so, what about a moped? Could it be "moderately wicked?"

-- Am I the only person who thinks of a mongoose when they hear a song by Montrose?

-- Does anyone outside of Modesto ever want to hear Steppenwolf again? And how could a band named after a Herman Hesse novel end up writing the anthem of the Harley nation?

-- Nothing makes me feel 39 years old like hearing Green Day on a classic rock station. But I'll bet they feel older.