It’s spring, the birds are chirping, crickets croaking (not yet) and the domiciles are being cleaned out. For some, this time of year is a time to boot to the curb all unwanted and unused items, that is, items which were stored all winter. For others, this is a time to collect! There are great things on the side of the road this time of year, and here is a great example from Alan Yates:

Several months ago I was walking home from the post office [and,] nearing my place [,] I saw it was “clean-up week”: the curb [was] dotted with various piles of junk [that] people had put out to be disposed off [sic] by the council pickup. The pile outside my block of units had mostly busted furniture, but one item caught my eye, an Aluminium bicycle rim.

Now, I try to ride my bike most places instead of drive, which really cuts down on the “I found it on the side of the road” tendency I have. Also, I’m not one for schematics of any kind, but this seems neat, if only to the geek in me.

Taken in front of an historic home in Rome, this photo captures the true spirit of anti-doping. In fact, wine might just be the most anti of all anti-doping crusades in the bicycling world. I love it. Called “Antidoping at Critical Mass”, this photo gets me in a few places: one, I love yellow bicycles, two, I always try to jam anything I can into a water-bottle cage, three, when you zoom in on the wine bottle you can see two people hanging out in the reflection, and four, I LOVE yellow bicycles. Thanks for this one, corscri!

Earlier today I was perusing the local not-so “dumb friends league” site for a potential friend. I found a great Australian Shepherd mix that we would probably name “Campy.” You see, we have a kitty-cat named Shimano — who we call “Shimmy,” and therefore I can only see (or rather, hear) our other pet being named “Campagnolo.” Shimmy, Campy, it all stands to reason, yeah? Speaking, then, of brilliantly cute pups, this one is bound to make you smile, or at least wink.

The really nifty discount website steep and cheap [link] had a nice bicycle pump up for around $100.00 today. I thought, $100.00 for a bike pump?! WTF! Then I remembered the $10.00 bike nashbar pump I’ve used for a year or so and how the other, beautiful, glorious day here in Denver, CO, I broke that cheap pump in my excitement to get on those 120psi slicks after a winter of hibernation. (Well, not really, we ski all the time around here, but that’s for another day.)

A five-figure bike pump (that would be including the cents, smart guy) does sound ridiculous. But $60.00 for the Blackburn Air Tower 4 ain’t that bad, especially considering it will probably still be around at the beginning of next season.

Featuring a chain ring shelf — handy for stowing magazines/books, your bike shoes, a bottle of wine, or maybe a kryptonite chain or two — here’s a perfect guest room table for you bicyclist BIYers. You can always check out more bike part furniture here.

I love this sign; it’s almost as if they made it especially for this site. But alas, this was taken in Argentina (at least that’s one of the tags).