scenes from the circus i never went to, having only gone to the circus once that i remember i think about the other circusi. just riding down the street can be a circus. warming up for cross nats in san fran a few years ago was like riding through the big top. along the waterfront the people and scenes looking across to alcatraz was surreal. me in my colored suit hardly stood out compared to the other characters going about their day. like the time i was warming up for a race in new york and i saw a jamaican riding a fixy with a fishing pole going home after catching dinner. the bike can take you to such wonderful places. the jamican guy had dreads done to his butt and a smile as big as the fish he was carrying. he looked so happy riding around on his old viner fixy. i wanted to tlak to him about what he did and why he chose to ride that instead of the standard big box store cheapo mtb you see mexican commuters riding in the west. he had the form on the bike with a grace about him and certain smoothness to his pedal stroke that defied just being a guy on a bike going from a to b. when i lived outside philly we had thursday night mtb races on the belmont plateau in west philly, not the best neighborhood. will smith sings of it in his jam "summertime" a group of about 30-50 racers would show from all over and set a course of about 2 miles around (not a ton of trails but we used it all) and decided what each category would do expert 9, sport 8, beginner 7. the race would start and the group would go off. local shops would send representitives with random prizes, a tube in a ripped box or a tire that hadn't sold, an old set of grips that were a take off. while racing the "locals" would offer to sell us their wares, not that they were threatening us they just found our thursday evening practice very curious. offering various stimulants, the last thing i needed while looking at my heart rate monitor readings, they had it all to sell, right there on the singletrack. i always waved a polite no, not wanting to make any enemies, figuring that drug dealers in west philly are probably carrying a gun, or two. again a wonderful place to see other parts of the world you wouldn't normally see, thanks to the bike...