We ride and admire bicycles. We think about everything. A website devoted to cycling. All types of cycling from all types of people. - Headset Press
20 seconds in you will have your day made by Phil’s voice and 3 lovely donkeys.
David Hasselhof would be proud. We have put a lot of work into our product and our presentation, this was a great pat on the back that we are doing things right and people are noticing the extra effort and care.
The Evanator Raffle ends tomorrow at 6pm. Live drawing by Evan himself at the bulldog in minneapolis. Here is Evan rolling out on its maiden voyage. 38 and raining, Evan badger don’t care, The Evanator rolls regadless of the weather, Oh a cobra, some cancer, he don’t care, he just gets back up. Come see it in person at the event, or check back online to see who wins. So many generous folks from our circles of friends, but also just people from the cycling and soccer communities that just want to help have contributed. Thanks to everyone who gave money, time, bike parts, services, etc.
http://www.donkeylabel.com/products/Good%20Karma-19/The%20Evanator-62.aspx to buy raffle tickets tonight
http://www.facebook.com/EvanThorntonPunchCancerinDahFace?fref=ts to learn about evan and the event
See you all tomorrow.
donkeylabel’s photo on Instagram
So A very big blog on cool stuff that is hunted out decided not to feature our pumice soap because
“Although the endurance cream
worked well we found the oils to be a bit too intense (producing a
rather unpleasant burning feeling) and the soap to be no less abrasive
that regular old mechanics’ goop.”
I was walking through menards and saw the good ole mechanics goop there on the shelf and decided to take a look. I thought to myself, if there is no difference between a hand made soap from local ingredients and this chemical swath than bobs my uncle and janes my aunt. I get how the embro can be too much for folks, it is after all, well hot, and when you use the good stuff it does check your man or woman hood out in the shower on occasion. But with the embro I have found not to judge as some people hate the hot and think it is way too hot, but others love it and think it is perfect. Thus the 4 different levels. But the Goop thing just sort of pissed me off. Making soap by hand without water from stuff you can gather within walking distance from your house is at least a notable effort to clean your greasy bike working hands vs. something made in 5000 gallon vats by dr. evil.
In protest me and my special lady friend are making a saddle toolbag from a rapha bib wrap and a thompson seatpost bag.
A bit of Fun with Excel this AM, here is our sales by state so far. -S is the UK, which of course is not a state, but a land of magic. Right Dene.
Not an optical illusion, one of the approved ways to wear the DL merino socks, with business attire and with a friend.
Calling all Donkeys, We got a week to go to get our main donkey evan and his family some funds to punch cancer in da face. We built up the evanator - final pictures will be up soon. but you can see and read about it here. http://www.donkeylabel.com/products/Good%20Karma-19/The%20Evanator-62.aspx
anyone out there in donkey land, if you were thinking about a pack animal, here is your chance to get one and donate some money to a good cause all in one fell swoop. Each raffle ticket comes with a medium pack animal and gives you a shot at the Evanator bike or a donkey label jersey. the more tickets you buy, the better your chances, the better your karma, and the more pack animals you get to give out to your buddies.
Evan loves the Big lebowski and so do I, as I am assuming you do as well. So abide, grab a Caucasian click some webstuff and make it happen. The benefit is next sunday the 5th, so if your in town come see the raffle live and drink beer and I will shake your hand.
We have already raised just over $2,000 dollars man, you know, man, sir. which is cool, but we need more….you know, she has to feed the monkey man. Lets see if we can pour in another 2K this week.
Cheers, PJK
Recovery Ride today - it was going to be 80, so I tried out the non-warming pre-ride oil. I had tried it (obviously) inside this winter when we were finalizing the make up, but had not gotten to try it outside. Again I am totally biased, so take this with a grain of sea salt on a quartered sweet potato fry, but here is my take.
http://www.donkeylabel.com/products/Body%20Care-13/Pre-Ride%20Oil-11.aspx
It smells like a cool north wind through a christmas tree with a bear perched in it in portland. It goes on like all of the oil, makes your legs feel fast and look good. It stayed on for the 3 hour ride and like any oil picked up a bit of road dirt (but I sweat so much that my legs do that regardless). It is a winner. Showered and hit the recovery oil, grilled out with my Special lady friend Melissa, and our friends nate and suzan and got the legs up. Non-warming oil, I stand behind it, if you don’t like it I would give you your money back in a second.
PS. some people ask, why would you need non warming embro or pre-ride oil. I tell them, you don’t technically need any of this stuff, but need is such a strange word to define when it comes to cycling :)
Ken Woods Memorial Race - and product testing
Today was the first day over 45 in in forever, and it decided to get to 75! It was also the first chance I have gotten to test out my fitness and see where I sit. I have been really down on my cycling lately as I have moved, built a house, tried to sustain Donkey Label and a Real job and also prepare for having a kid. My miles, and sleep, and energy have all been down. But I had to try and defend my title (I won it last year in 43 and rain) and I was turning 40 today, so maybe some birthday luck….you never know until you pin on a number.
So I headed down to cannon falls mn for a 63 mile race. Windy, hot, rough roads (almost broke my fork on a huge pothole), and two climbs per 21 mile lap.
I knew it was going to get hot, but wanted to use the mild embro cause I liked it so much last time I used it. New rapha cross bibs (wanted to test them out for ideas on our design of cross bibs) the Mpls mussette donkey label jersey and new matching armwarmers, black polypro DL socks with the light blue stripe to match the kit, the donkey bike, and some chamois balm and I was off and racing.
was feeling strong and positioned well in the first lap of the 35+. The second lap had a really hard crosswind section where the race favorite got a gap and the field chased hard for what seemed like 10 minutes where I was on the edge. Stayed with the top 20 and got a bit of a break, then went to the front for one of the climbs (figured at 200lbs It is better to lead and set the pace, vs let one of the little guys do it). over the top kept rolling and ended up rotating with some guys trying to shrink the gap. (last year I could have done this and been fine) I realized when it was too late that even though I was not in the red, I was working way to hard, and we were approaching the significant climb. I stupidly went near the back to get some rest, but as we hit the climb I realized I had given up my good position at the front, and now these guys at the back where getting gapped up the hill, So not fully recovered I had to ride up and through 8-9 people as one of the guys sitting on started attacking at the front (145lbs). Long story short, I made it all the way back to about 6 feet from the lead group and popped. not like 100% to 80%, 99% to 40%. I looked at the ride after and I had maintained 400 watts for 4 minutes and then it dropped to 150 or something. I was so pissed that I played that entire approach and climb wrong that I hung my head for 30 seconds and felt sorry for myself. Then I realized I needed the training and I now got a 21 mile solo loop to myself to see what I had.
So I rode as hard as I could for the next lap, but when it is not a real race anymore you really can’t push it like you can when you are with the heads of state. The favorite stayed away and won the race, so in the end, working to pull him back was the right move, but not staying with the lead pack was discouraging as it brought me back to when I started racing and could not hang with the real guys. I now feel like I am one of the guys, but today just didn’t have the endurance in the legs.
The real point of the story is that I used a prototype embro remover after the race to wash off the embro, worked awesome, when I took a shower later, no re-heat (not significant anway) and it cleaned up my legs nice. As always the chamois was money and got lots of props on the MPLS jersey.
Will get more miles in the legs for the next one so I can be involved in the race when it matters, at the end!.
