Posts Tagged ‘Mason Robbins’

I started thinking about this a lot over a year ago. The economy had gone south and I, like most people, lost upwards of 40% of my retirement funds. While I’m a long way from retirement, I don’t like handing back 40% of my money. I started thinking about in whom and in what am I investing.

I couldn’t answer my own question. The nature of mutual funds blinds us from where our money is going. The investment gurus tell us that it’s a blended fund to minimize losses and optimize gains — lower risk. So why is it I lost 40%? The most recent market downturn was obviously a result of improper lending. Lending to people who had no business borrowing what they were borrowing. The execs making the decisions on who to lend to don’t care — they’re millionaires who receive millions when they get fired for poor company performance. I wish I could do shitty, careless work, get fired and, as a result, win the lottery.

I quickly realized I was part of the problem. These companies survive on investments like the ones I make through my 401k and Roth IRAs. Unwittingly, I was, and still am, investing in many of the corporations I despise like the automobile industry, the oil industry and shady financial institutions.

Not long after realizing my mistakes, I talked to my financial advisor and long-time friend. Of course, he was a little hesitant about moving my money to socially-responsible mutual funds — funds that choose companies based on their track records for making socially- and environmentally-responsible decisions in their business activities. Apparently, this is a fairly new area for my old friend because it was clear from our conversation that he didn’t have anything readily available from which I could choose to re-invest. Apparently, he still doesn’t have anything over a year later because my money is still sitting in the same places more than a year after telling him I would like to pursue these types of investments. This also makes clear that no one else is asking about these sorts of mutual funds.

As a bike commuter, one of the main reasons I ride is because I’m eternally sick of the automobile and oil companies feeding us lies about how they are working in our best interests. Remember the Saturn commercials which said, “I get tired of these pundits telling us that we don’t make cars that Americans want. Saturn makes cars Americans want.” They went out of business shortly thereafter.

Many of the companies we are investing in do not have mine, yours or our country’s best interest at heart. They are simply trying to make a buck whatever the cost to our health, livelihood and future.

Please, talk to your financial advisors, human resource personell and legislators. Let’s start demanding a higher standard and better visibility to what we are spending our money. Only by making large corporations accountable can we ensure that we maintain and grow the ideals we hold personally.

Our immediate family is okay, just a little shaken up. We still have many friends and family in the capital that we have not heard from. Two of the RPCVs I served with that live in the capital have contacted our Haiti Yahoo Group and are okay (You may have seen one of them — Matt Marek — on CNN with Anderson Cooper last night). The capital is almost completely destroyed.

Please contact me if you would like information on how to help.
Mason

I’m never one to follow fads. I was always reasonably popular in school but never really ‘cool’. I couldn’t wear the right clothes or shoes or drive a cool car or act cool. Thus, when I started learning about the fixed gear movement, about two years ago when I moved to Memphis, I thought that seems really stupid and dangerous. Plus, even if I had a fixed gear, I wouldn’t be cool.

After a couple of friends and I attended the Bicycle Film Festival when it came to Memphis, I figured I’d give it a shot. I had an old Peugeot Monaco frame hanging in the garage which was left by the previous owner. I actually put it in the purchase agreement that the frame had to stay, I forgot about the refrigerator. Dohhhh! So, this summer when my wife and kids went to Haiti for 5 weeks, I made it my project.

I flipped the handle bars and cut them to make bull horns. Bought a set of road rims, tires, seat, seatpost, handle bar tape, chain and pedals. I re-greased the headset and replaced the bearings in the bottom bracket. I couldn’t find a seatpost to fit so I bought a 22.Xmm seatpost and shimmed the heck out of the seat tube. I also added a front brake as I am married with two children.

Peugeot Monaco Fixie

I took the first few rides pretty slow. After riding a aluminum mountain bike and city bike exclusively for almost two years, the feel of the steel frame was inspiring. While still rigid, almost no vibrations made it through to the seat our my hands. I also relish the fact that bike makes virtually no sound. I hate the hum of tires and engines which is pervasive almost anywhere there is the slightest bit of civilization. It feels good to ride something so quiet.

Probably my tenth ride on the fixie, and after a few beers, a friend and I were headed on a trek to find him a fixie frame. While trying to turn left across a busy road, I caught my left pedal on the ground. I came down sideways on the rear tire, which rolled and blew out. That sent me to the ground, hard. I skinned both elbows, my left hand, left knee and right foot (I was wearing sandals). A couple of weeks later after truing the wheel and putting on some new rubber, I discovered that I had also bent the heck out of my saddle rails and seatpost such that by looking at them you wouldn’t notice but once you got on, wow, ef-ed up. Since the seatpost was on back order, at least a month went by before I had the bike ride-able again.

I recently started working from home so I don’t need to take my mountain bike to work anymore — I had to hop curbs and navigate oft-wet grass. However, I go to a local gym, about three miles away, every morning. Since it’s not to far and the route is void of major roads, I take the fixie. While I’m still getting the hang of it and once and a while forgetting that I can’t stop pedaling, I thoroughly enjoy the bike. I look forward to mounting it every morning — don’t tell my wife. So, while I’m being a bit faddish, I have to say it’s well worth it.

PS: I can’t lock up the back wheel to slow down. I think the bend in the fork and the short run of the stem doesn’t allow me to get my weight far enough forward to take enough weight off the back wheel. Anyone had a similar issue?

I’ve been watching a lot of NFL football lately. Yeah, I know. It’s the bane of my existence. I just can’t pull myself away completely.

During my guilty pleasure, I’m forced to endure at least 45 minutes of automobile (undesirable vehicle) commercials. I’ve tried to DVR the games with no success. Thus, I sit through endless, mindless commercials about undesirable vehicles (UDVs).

I work in the medical device industry. We are ISO 13485 compliant — for the most part. No company is fully compliant. Anyway, the premise of ISO 13485 is that you must maintain a quality management system. Following its guidance leads an organization to better quality products. What most people don’t realize is that it is a customer focused standard. That’s right, you base your quality system on the needs of the customer. Sounds a bit strange but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. The customer wants a device that alleviates their pain, has no side effects, has little chance of complication, lasts a long time, etc.

Among other many other things, the UDV industry has lost sight of their customer….let me rephrase that, they’ve brain-washed their customer. Almost every UDV commercial you see has some claim about how technologically advanced, safe or how full efficient their UDV is. You’re constantly bombarded by these messages wherever you go. The ads are everywhere. They’re pervasive.

The UDV companies have no idea what you want. Have you ever been asked? I haven’t. They spend so much time telling you what you need, what you need becomes what they want you to need.

Case in point: Toyota Prius, version 3, 50 miles to the gallon. Great gas mileage? Wrong. Cars 50 years ago got better gas mileage — check the records. VWs were getting better gas mileage 50 years ago. So in 50 years of UDV development you’ve come full circle. Congratulations! You’ve done nothing. It’s like walking into an othopaedic surgeon’s office because you have advanced arthritis of the knee and them giving you pain pills and some crutches and saying, ‘You’re really going to enjoy this.’ You’d probably choose another Orthopod. Why are you not choosing another form of transportation? Because you do what your told. Toyota claims that their car is even the perfect meld between earth, man and machine. Really? Really? American public, are you at all evaluating any of these claims?! They’re comical. It’s like watching a cartoon.

Why am I saying anything. You’re not listening to reason. You’re not using reason. Neither are the UDV companies. Go to the tele and buy their lies hook, line and sinker. Don’t do anything positive in your community. Sit in front of the tele. Do nothing. Feel nothing. Experience nothing for yourself. You’re missing the life experience. So long. You’ve wasted your life buying someone’s lies.

I love the ease of use of my Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals.  I’ve used them extensively for off- and on-road purposes.  Mud clearance, ease of engagement, ease of clipping out and range of motion are incomparable.  Customer service has also been responsive and informative.  However, I have experienced numerous failures with Crank Brothers pedals.  I have had the spring break, end-bolt disappear, cage bent, cleat fail and other miscellaneous failures.  I’ve even started to have a collection of old pedals where one broke and I keep the other for replacement of future failures.  It isn’t always the same-side pedal so it’s not something funky I’m doing with one leg.

I believe the cleats are designed to fail before the pedal as they’re made of a pretty soft metal.  However, in my experience, they tend to last as long as the pedal.  Overall, I think Crank Brothers pedals are very comfortable to use but have average or below-average durability.

Here are several tips if you use Crank Brothers pedals:

1.  Don’t buy the Smarty pedal.  It’s worthless.  It may fail almost immediately.

2.  Inspect your pedal and cleats regularly after 1000 miles (assuming your an urban commuter).  You don’t want a catastrophic failure to occur when you’re hopping a curb.

3.  Only buy the pedals which have forged cages.  The Smarty and others have a stamped cage that is weak at best — must be built in China.  However, don’t blame it on China.  The designer, in this case Crank Brothers, tells the manufacturer what to make.  The design responsibility lies with Crank Brothers.  They only make what Crank Brothers tells them to make.

4.  Save your old pedals.  You’ll likely want to buy more Crank Brothers pedals because of how easy they are to use but if you ride a lot, the pedals will fail and you’ll need a spare.

A User Need for Crank Brothers:

I want pedals and cleats that will last  5 grand of urban commuting yet are still as comfortable to use as your current designs.