What do I do with My Rapha Bag?

A very kind person recently gave me a Rapha 'cross jersey--a fine thing in both the world of gifts and the world of cycling apparel. I don't wear many things that are not wool, but so far I am quite impressed with this jersey. Twice I've left the house wearing nothing but the jersey (and pants, etc.), and the temperature has fallen drastically during my ride but I've stayed warm. There's a classy and thin shoulder pad on the right shoulder, for carrying my bike over barricades, I presume. As I'm not leaping many barricades these days, that shoulder is where I keep my parrot. In any case, the jersey isn't the point of this blog.

The jersey came with a little bag, that in itself is also quite fine. I own very few things that are made as well as this bag. Someone even took the time to write a little paragraph about...well, I'm not sure what, exactly, it's about. It may be about an animal that accidentally wandered onto a cyclocross course.

It may also be a rewrite of that Schwarzenegger movie Running Man, which was probably a rewrite of "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. Clearly, the protagonist, or "you," are certainly going to be eaten if you get caught by these gun-toting, jodhpur-wearing, hunter-cyclists. This reader was unfamiliar with the word "jodhpurs," and a quick google image search explained that jodhpurs are the answer to the question, "What would I wear if I wanted to look silly?" In any case, close reading isn't the point of this blog.

The point of this blog is to pontificate the function of this little bag. I'm going to presume that, the Brits being such tidy people, the bag is for toting your dirty cross jersey home after the race, because you don't want to get the back seat of your Aston-Martin muddy. However, if you're the kind of person who either doesn't race much or who rides to and from races, that leaves you with a very nice bag that has no function. Obviously, I tried this first:

This wasn't ideal. The bag has no insulation, and carrying beer at the end of a tether tends to shake it up. I then though it might work well as a tool bag, so I put a spare tube into the bag. It immediately turned into a Rapha-style premium inner tube.

This fine, premium inner-tube is fully woolen and stylized with a pink stripe. When I used this spare tube, I felt just like I was on Le Mont Ventoux, losing the Tour de France in the 60's. Unfortunately, the bag isn't ideal as a tool bag, as the straps, as fine as they are, tend to get tied up around almost everything else in my bag.

The only function that occurs to me now is to ship a bunch of these Rapha bags down to the south pole and distribute them to the penguins there to be used as Huddle Sacks.

"I'm dry and out of the wind. Thanks, Rapha!"

Obviously, saving the penguins has been the overall goal of this blog since its inception, so I guess we've met with success. That's not to say we're giving up. We'll be back next week with a first look into penguin mittens. They're so cute! We'll see you then.

Snow Day

I was going to write a post about biking in the snow, but this video is essentially 10,000 pictures shown in rapid succession, which is worth 10,000,000 +/- words, and I don't feel like writing 10,000,000 words. So here you go!

The Yawp Cyclery Wool Jersey Pre-Order

We're going to order a run of our first shop jerseys. If you want one, there are two ways to get on board. The first way is to sign up for the Yawp Company. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should read this. If you don't want to sign up for the Company, you can still order a jersey. Yes, you too can look good and feel even better. These merino wool jerseys are being made by Soigneur, and you can find their website here. Check out their customer feedback page, too. 

If you haven't worn merino wool before, you should know it's woven from condensed clouds, fluffy sheep magic, and distilled puppy joy. Its soft, doesn't itch, is cool in the heat and warm in the cold. You can wear merino wool--even a jersey--for days in a row without washing it. 

We're still waiting for final approval from the manufacturer, so we might tweak the design here and there, but the jerseys will mostly resemble the mock-up below. Expect the price per jersey to be in the neighborhood of $175. Yes, it is expensive, but it's a fine garment. You can read some third-party reviews here and here. 

Sizing

Soigneur's website gives the following chest measurements:

• XS – < 88cm = < 34.6 inches
• S – 88 - 93cm = 34.6 - 36.6 inches
• M – 94 - 99cm = 37 - 39 inches
• L – 100 - 105cm = 39.4 - 41.3 inches
• XL – 106 - 111cm = 41.7 - 43.7 inches
• XXL – 112 - 117cm = 44.1 - 46.1 inches

Here are some additional measurements: 

For the ladies: We know that often when a garment is supposedly unisex, it means it's cut for dudes and you have to deal with it. We checked with Soigneur to make sure these jerseys are for you, too. They said they make a women's jersey without the elastic hem, and that the response has been very positive.

Deadline

We need to have your order and your money by Monday, March 2nd. Please stop by the shop or give us a call.

Video of the Week

The Yawp Company - The Anti-Team

We here at Yawp have a love/hate relationship with traditional cycling teams, so we're going to form the kind of team that we'd want to join. This will probably take a longer explanation than we'd like. We want to keep this simple, but even we have a lot of questions about what, exactly, we intend to do. So let's start by doing away with the term "team."

team

noun

1. a group of people who compete in a sport, game, etc., against another group.

Well, what we're out to do has nothing to do with competition. We won't be attending races. (If you want to race in your Yawp kit, that's fantastic! The Bailey Hundo and other races are fun and do good things for the cycling community. However, races are outside of our ambitions.) In the Yawp Company, the riders in the front have to carry the beer for the riders in the back--that's about all the attention we'll pay to how fast people ride. So, instead of a "team," we're going to be a company.

company

noun

1. companions, associates <know a person by the company she keeps>

Why would anyone want to do this? Here's our rationale. We've tried racing, and while there are some valuable things about it, it's not quite a fit for us.

What we don't like about racing: we don't care about winning, and we certainly don't like when people who do care about winning throw elbows at us. We don't like riding in the angry centipede for the first five miles of a race. We don't like paying to ride our bikes. 

What we do like about racing: the ride! Yeah! Twenty-five to one hundred miles of Colorado singletrack! Yes please! Also, races force us to go ride these amazing rides. Signing up months in advance and plunking down $100 basically ensures that we'll actually get our gear together and gas up the car and go do what we said we were going to do: ride bikes. Races also provide a very good environment to try new things. It's scary to attempt a long ride alone in unfamiliar territory, especially if you're going somewhere you've never been. Riding with a group provides support, and it's fun. 

So we're going to try to take all the good parts from our racing experiences, omit all of the bad parts, and save a little money while we're at it. If that sounds good to you, then yours is the kind of company we want to keep.

What we plan to do: there will be six Company trips--one per month from May through October. We look to keep driving time to a minimum, and probably won't go any further than Fruita (although Phil's World may be a possibility). We'll ride the snot out of our bikes for two days, sit around a campfire, and drink some beer. 

Fancy Clothes: Yup, we're getting some. We're planning to order wool jerseys. We're getting nice stuff, too, so you don't hate wearing it. We'll post some designs as soon as we have them.

Must I Buy the Fancy Clothes? No, you don't.

Women's Fancy Clothes: Ladies, cycling is much better with you than without. We hope you also enjoy these wool jerseys. We understand that "unisex" often means something that men enjoy and that you have to put up with. However, the feedback we've heard about these wool jerseys is that they are enjoyable for everyone. We hope that's true. If not, please speak up.

Dues: We have no dues. We believe riding bikes should be free (see above).

What's Provided: An organizational framework, a good time, and not much else. We'll secure the camping and reserve shuttles if we need them. We'll provide short and long route options. We'll do everything we can to make this rad for everyone, but we aren't going to cook for you (and you wouldn't want us to). 

What is required of me? Please have a current COMBA/IMBA.

Is this just for mountain bikers? Roadies are people, too. If you want to camp with us and ride your road bike/unicycle instead, please do. 

If you're interested, sign up below. We'll have our annual spring meeting on March 1st, 2018 at 7:00pm. Yeah!

Here are the reports from our 2015 trips:

Fruita | Eagle | Crested Butte | Bikepacking with Surly | Salida | Grand Junction | Moab

2014 vs. 2015

2014 was a long year, the longest year we've ever had. I'm lucky to remember any of it, and most of what I remember is "good," meaning that these memories leave me with favorable feelings. In fact, 2014 could've been complete crap, but I've succeeded in forgetting most of whatever crap happened, which in the very least makes 2014 a complete success of selective memory and/or punctilious use of whiskey. 

So 2014 was pretty alright. Can 2015 be better? We hope so. We have big plans.

Part 1: Arbitrary Moments of 2014

Best shop purchase.

Perfect dusk ride turns...

...into perfect night ride.

2014 gets blurry!

Mondays: the Buff Creek parking lot is (almost) empty.

Boss Man!

Sweet Bloom Coffee: you just can't not buy more.

Two dogs, six legs, all of the wags.

Something in 2014 went right.

Some really kind folks gave us some really rockin' records! Thanks to Brent, Brian, Vickie, and Seth! We are gonna air guitar so hard.

Too clean.

Yep! 2014 was rad! Will 2015 be better? We have a couple of ideas that we hope will help.

Part 2: Resolutions for 2015

1. One of the best things that happened in 2014 was an accident: a moonlight ride at Buffalo Creek. It was good enough that we're going to shoot for 3 of them this year. We'll post about these rides in advance.

2. Yawp Cyclery is going to start a "team" that will focus on rides instead of races. We'll have more info about this in a week or two.

3. More snacks.

2015 is looking pretty good out of the gate. Let's help it out by riding out bikes a bunch.

Video of the Week