Every week, I receive a bunch of offers and emails to check out new websites that offer products and services relating relating to outdoor gear, running and who knows what else. I may give some a quick glance and even try some out, but very rarely write about one. Well, The Clymb has done it for me and will sing its praises for a paragraph or two.

The Clymb is the latest site to jump on the private sale/sample sale bandwagon but their merchandise is different. They sell an amazing array of outdoor, bike and ski/snow brand with one company featured every week and a limited number of products for sale, which usually sells out by the second day. I have ordered two separate items from them and except for a delay in the shipment of one Dakine backpack , I have been very happy with the service and the products they have. The prices are great, maybe a little too good as I have to keep myself from buying something every week.

If you want to check out The Clymb, here is an invite code so you can check it out https://www.theclymb.com/invite-from/JeffreyEckhaus

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I have always been fascinated by locks and as a result, lockpicking. Wired has a really fascinating article about the “ultimate lock picker” – full article is here, but check out the video below…

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I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge Hunter S. Thompson fan. I read everything he had ever written (yes even The Curse of Lono) while I was in college. Fear and Loathing is definitely the best known, brought to the mainstream via a major motion picture handled ably by Johnny Depp and Bencio Del Toro. I ran across something today that would appeal to any fan – a board game to help recreate Fear and Loathing. I know what you’re thinking. Hasbro made some plastic piece of sh*t? Not exactly. For $3,500, you too can own this!

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Three months of head scratching, knuckle scraping and endless hours spent with shop manuals has almost come to fruition. My 1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado police is nearly back on the road and ready for a Summer chock full of roadtrips. This past weekend I managed to rebuild the carbs and install a GPS. Just a few more projects and it’s time to put her back together and get it fired up! Just in time for Summer…

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As I have already mentioned many times here i am a huge fan of the Garmin 405 but am beginning to really dislike Garmin the company. Here is why:

In early April of 2008, when I first purchased my 405, the people at Garmin stated that the software, Garmin Connect, for the 405 was not ready yet for Mac OSX users and would be ready soon. This message quickly changed to Fall of 2008. I was a little confused that Garmin would not make software compatible with a Mac but figured they could do it in 6 months, how hard could this be. Well, Fall of 2008 came and went and still no software for Mac users.

I was hoping that maybe the New Year would bring some good news, and looked at the dedicated Garmin page for Mac and saw a note, “Coming January 2009″. I was starting to get hopeful again until I saw another notice a few days later “Coming Q1 2009″. Are you serious?????

For anyone from Garmin reading this, why are you abandoning your Mac users? A full year, probably more, to make Garmin Connect compatible with Mac’s in not acceptable. Step up and take care of this already. If you are not planning on it then let us know, and if there are delays let us know why?

For a company that states “Garmin is founded on the principles of innovation, convenience, performance, value, and service” you have not lived up to your values.

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A few weeks ago the nice folks at Tech4o, dropped a Mens Accelerator Running Watch in my mailbox for a review. Since its arrival I have been putting it through the Dukes of Flatbush torture tests and am ready to report. For the rest of this post I will refer to the watch as the Accelerator, because it is shorter and sounds kind of cool.

For me the gold standard of running watches is the Garmin 405 , and was my baseline for comparison and testing for the Accelerator. The first impressions of the watch are that it is a nice fit and of course much smaller than the Garmin. It sits nicely on the wrist and the display is just OK. It could be a little sharper and is probably a level below a Timex Ironman and without the Indiglo feature, so a little tough to read at night, but adequate.

Now lets get to the fuctionality of the Accelerator. My main test of this watch was to see the accuracy of the distance measured against the Garmin 405. For most runners, any watch can tell time and do laps, but the distance measured is the key feature we are looking for. Let me begin by stating I did not really read the manual too well so not sure if I needed to calibrate the watch, but to tell you the truth it did not really matter.

My first run was an easy 4 miler, that wound around Volunteer Park in Seattle. The results were Garmin 4.01 miles, Accelerator 3.98 miles. Not too bad. The second event was a walk around Vancouver BC and the Accelerator and Google Maps both were within 5% of each other. Since I am never sure how accurate Google Maps are, I consider this a win in terms of accuracy. The third and fourth runs were 5 mile runs around Seattle and both times the results were the same. Garmin 5.02 miles, Accelerator 4.97 miles.

So in terms of accuracy, I can say that the Accelerator worked and for a runner that is looking for a general range of distance and is not obsessed like your truly, it is an excellent lower cost alternative to a Garmin. I think the Accelerator is around $70, so compared to $350 for the Garmin, so a pretty good value. The Accelerator has a bunch of other features such as steps, calories burned, dual time and a countdown timer, but I cannot account for how accurate the calories burned works and a timer is a timer and there was no chance I was counting steps.

I will keep the Tech4o in my watch rotation along with the Garmin 405 and a couple of Timex Ironmans

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A bunch of kids in Queen have been outfitting their bicycles with car batteries, amps, computers, DVD players and huge bass cabinets. Talk about rolling thunder. It’s all documented in a movie called Made in Queens – could be worth checking out…

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Few things in life turn out to be as good as their name, but Punkin Chunkin is definitely one. Every year, a bunch of people get together to see just how far they can throw a pumpkin. You are probably thinking it’s a strongman competition where giant Swedes throw gourds over a 20 foot wall. No. It’s much better than that. The classes in the competition merely hint at the insanity – Air, Centrifugal, Catapult, Trebuchet, Human Power, Human Power Centrifugal, and Torsion Catapult. I could go on, but a picture is worth a thousand words. Check these out…

Just how far are we chunkin these punkins? The world record currently stands at 4434.28 feet, a little under a mile. Are you kidding me? The event is held in Bridgeville, Delaware from October 31 – November 2 this year. Count me in. I’ll blend in perfectly…

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Radiohead just came out with a new video for their song “House of Cards” off the album In Rainbows. The interesting thing about the video is that no cameras were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. “Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.”

Watch the Making Of Video:

Watch the Video:

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I’m absolutely sick of Hollywood blockbusters. They always show off awesome futuristic crap that you simply can’t live without. I grew up with 8 tracks and wired remotes. My grandchildren will be rocketing around on hoverboards while having sex with a virtual Carmen Electra. I mean it’s good for them, but can I get a little love?

Well, it’s far from Carmen Electra, but I just ran across a browser plugin that simulates an effect we all came to know and love in Minority Report. Remember when Tom Cruise was using that bitchin’ 3D interface to solve crimes? Well, a plug-in called PicLens allows you to search Google and Flickr images, YouTube videos and Amazon products using an exceedingly cool and useful interface shown below. I won’t search those sites the same way again – see for yourself.

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The “New York City Waterfalls” exhibit opened this morning. For those of you who aren’t in the know, an artists named Olafur Eliasson was able to raise $15.5 million and secure Mayor Bloomberg’s help to install 4 waterfalls across the New York Harbor. I like the look of the one directly under the Brooklyn Bridge.

This installation is on the scale of “The Gates” by Christo and Jeanne-Claude that filled Central Park with saffron-colored fabric panels back in 2005. I wasn’t that excited to see “The Gates”, but was taken aback by the beauty and scale when I did make the trip. It was really extraordinary. Make sure you don’t miss this one…

Kudos to Mayor Bloomberg who helped the artists navigate the NYC bureaucracy to get over 30 separate permits to make this a reality. Well played sir.

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I’m trying a new feature called “stacks” at Search Me. It allows you to categorize and share a visual representation of your favorite sites. The end result is similar to an iTunes display. These are the gossip sites I can’t help but ping every day…

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Oh my god.

The Rock-afire Explosion was an animatronic robot band that played in Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants from 1980 to 1991. The show was created and manufactured exclusively for Showbiz by Creative Engineering, Inc. in Orlando, Florida.

Some guy bought one and is running current hits through it. This clip features the band performing Usher. The Gorilla in the gold lame suit and bowtie slays me, as does the Sun who sings backup. The most awesome thing ever.

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Well, the DOFB more than survived it’s trip to Laconia for Bike Week ‘08. In fact, a damn fine time was had by all on a ride that was, as any proper bike adventure should be, filled with hilarity, calamities averted and plenty of cold suds. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but first I’d just like to say a word or 100 about one particularly memorable event.

On the ride up I experienced one of those moments that every rider dreads, the kind of thing that puts a not in your gut just thinking about. I blew a front tire on the Merritt traveling at highway speed in failing light. Blowing a front shoe is one of those things you hear about happening but is by no means a regular occurrence. In fact, most of the folks I know who’ve been riding for a lifetime have never had their number come up. Let me tell you something – it is not a good time.

The tire went flat in about 10-15 seconds. Not with a bang or a pop…just all of the sudden the handling characteristics changed. At first subtly enough to wonder if it was odd pavement. And then, very quickly, the front forks started traveling about a foot in either direction, yanking the steering back, serpentining the bike and generally making it impossible to control. Mind you 75% of the braking on most bikes, and prob 90% on mine, is done with the front brake. So it was a pretty impossible situation to get the bike to rapidly slow while keeping it upright.

With mountains of luck, and a formation of Dukes behind me making sure I wasn’t struck by an oncoming car, I managed to keep the shiny side up and get to the shoulder. Where I no doubt would have remained if it weren’t for the formidable aid and patience of Sergeant Raymond LaPlante of the Orange PD. Ray pulled up on his police Harley to see what was doing and, over the course of the next 12 hours, not only helped us sort out local accommodations, sustenance/beverages and a great mechanic, but actually borrowed a trailer and, (on his morning off with his young son in tow!), pulled the wounded SuperBad from where I’d stashed her in the woods overnight to the shop for an early am fix that got us back on the road.

Ray’s effort not only saved our trip from ruin, it reminded all of us a bit about what’s so special about riding. That it’s appreciably different than traveling the roads in a steel cage. There’s a different connectedness to the experience of moving from place to place. You don’t always know what might happen (especially on an old bike), but that the journey in and of itself is adventure. And, more than anything else, the camaraderie of two wheels and that bikers look after one another.

So a hearty DOFB thanks and toast to Ray LaPlante. We sent many a cold beer to it’s maker this past weekend and damn it all if most of mine weren’t dedicated to his awesomeocity. Keep the rubber side down and looking forward to when we get to ride together!

The SuperBad being seen to by Art Handleman @ Valley Motorsports in Ansonia, CT. If you’re ever in a pinch with your machine in CT – Art’s the man to get you back on the road.
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Turns out – I had a “rust-based failure”. On older bikes that have seen weather at one point or another, the insides of the rims can get to rusting. Small metal filings eventually peel off and will, inevitably, roughly have their way with your tube. Here’s the shop tech de-rustifying the inside of my front rim.

To recap = small metal filings + rubber innertube + highway speed = bad. Put it on your list of shit to think about if you have a late model ride.
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Sergeant Ray and his awesome little boy Nathan flying the DOFB flag after dropping our side-show off at the shop. Nathan’s already bewitched by bikes and shows great promise. Rumor has it Ray may be heading up to NH this weekend as well. Boundless thanks to both of them for spending their morning sorting us out – couldn’t have done it without you fellahs. Have an awesome ride to the granite state Ray!
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Th big man…..Emperor of the Rage Hut, host for this Bike Week jaunt and head of the New Hampshire DOFB Chapter. Not a finer NH specimen to be found.
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Ride on Winni to the Wiers for a peek around, some grub and one (read:10) Margarita.
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Graham lends a helping hand to a parched Hombre
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2300 CC Triumph Rocket Sled….daaaaamn.
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Sweet trike art – Rowwwrrrrrr.
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The next day the Big Man took us on an epic ride up over the Sandwich Notch road, around through Waterville Valley and back over the Kank. Being dirt, recently graded and pretty steep in many places, The Notch road was especially challenging for some of the bikes. Fritz on the Yammie FJR1300 gets the hero’s salute for muscling that beast all the way through safely. That bike was built for smooth speed and she was more than a little ornery about the conditions. He rodeoed it though and, in exchange, was treated to a singular adventure through pristine NH back country. Nice work man.
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Big and mean never goes out of style in NH.
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DOFB, now with more Back Road Action!
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Juanito going native. The arm stripes perhaps suggest some sort of vestment. A man of the cloth? A country bishop perhaps?

Subsequently gathered evidence would seem to contravene this hypothesis.
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Graham loves it.
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Like Rodin’s thinker, this Duke too is made of granite. NH Chapter member (and lead carpenter) Whitney on his KLR. The KLR really is a perfect match for this guy and his natural surroundings.
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Top of the Kank….one of the best roads for riding on the East Coast and my personal favorite. The Dukes relay team will also be running the Kank this coming fall in the “Reach the Beach” 200+ mile relay. A painful reality not lost on those of us who’ll be on the squad as we climbed upward for 13 miles….
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Stop in Chocorua to visit the DOFB patron Saint – Ghee. Here’s she’s getting her annual ride around the block on the back of the Guzzer.
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Fritz on the Yammie. Can you believe he just took that 600lb beast over 20+ miles of mushy dirt logging roads?!?
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Heading back into the Wiers we start to get a taste of the action.
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Bike traffic for miles.
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Some local fauna met in traffic. The lady on the front claimed to have been arrested at last year’s bike week for mistakenly slugging a cop. Oops. Things can get a little dicey at Bike Week but come on ladies. These two sisters seemed a wee interested in a certain debonair Duke.
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This guy – can you believe it? No accounting for taste I suppose…
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Sunset at the rage Hut
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That pretty much concludes our trip. There were some other adventures had…a visit to the Franklin Girls’ natural lair, a few ‘old bike’ struggles with the Guzzi, electrical gremlins with the Triumph and many many coordinated high speed drifts to the curb of the highway for one dangling plate/about to be lost luggage/ atomic wedgie or another. But you’ll get that on these rolling thunder jobs.

Next year we’ll hope to have a bit more time and get a little more submersion into the epicenter of Bike Week. But I know I wouldn’t trade the ride we had on Saturday for much of anything – pure magic.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in making it happen this year…Ray and Chris especially!

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Just ran across this footage of trucks dealing with the silt during the 2007 Baja 1000. It’s the best video I’ve seen that illustrates the insanity of those sections. Also has some crashes that make a brother say “awoooooogah” – enjoy!

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