Interest Earned

Day in day out, week after week, I suck it up and ride to work.  No Jens Factor, it's just what I do.  Before working at Benidorm I would schedule the days I needed my truck around the weather.  Now I don't have an excuse.  I've found that after some initial anxiety it really isn't too tough.  On the worst of days I can still get to or from work in less than an hour.  How long does the average American spend in the car commuting to work?

It's like a bank.  A commuter bank.  I look at every day I ride in as like time in the bank for the days I do want to drive.

It's like a real bank too as operating an automobile gets more and more expensive (duh!).

But this isn't about commuting; this is about today.

After completing 2 of 4 trips across town shuttling students, and running errands, I had a few hours to myself.  Beautiful day, in the mid 40s *F and a great friend returned an old  friend.

La Folle*

What's more fun than riding a bike you haven't ridden in awhile?

Days like today are like the interest earned on my commuter bank account.

*La Folle, the madwoman.  Prototype Singular Kite with  Euro high BB and super quick handling.  You've got stay on your toes or she'll be laughing (maniacally) at you when she crashes you into a snowbank.

To the Prius driver who felt so compelled to yell out his window "It's too late to be riding a bike", just keep your eyes on the road.  If it is too hard for you to drive you sub compact down a wide well lit road whilst others legally use it, maybe you shouldn't be on the road?
Obviously your motivation for owing a Prius is only self-serving  and you care little about the environment or your impact on it.  Actually if you did a little research you'd have found while your car may get the almost as good gas mileage as a 1980's Honda, it leaves a far deeper scar upon the earth.
Finally, unless you are offering me a ride, may I so humbly request you shut the fuck up!

A Goal...maybe

As I was riding to work the other day, just loving the way the Fun Machine rolled it occurred to me it has been quite sometime since I rode a geared bike of any kind.  Had I rode one this year?

(I might have on January 10th, although I have it marked as the Fun Machine)

So,  can I go for the rest of 2013 without riding a multispeed bicycle?

I had given some thought to riding gears for some of the early season flatter races just to see if it would make a difference for me.  Do I shelf this idea?

Take a different path?

Might put me off the back on group road rides, but maybe that is a good excuse to be otb and just enjoy the ride?

Your Most Cherished Day

A conversation was started; what was your most cherished day on the bike?

Races were sighted.
Trips abroad.
Time with children.

Beautiful experiences.
All the right answers.

I get that "this is the best ride ever" feeling alot.

On mundane commutes I'll look around at the world and say "fück yeah, this is great!"

Sure winning a race, or an epic trip is awesome, but cherish and appreciate the "ordinary"; you might be surprised...

image blatantly stolen from Dayle's link to Cycle Tree

First commute in since Charlotte / Nemo yesterday and I'd like to say thank you.

Thank you to all the drivers out there who waited until it was safe to pass.  Who gave me enough room.  Who didn't honk or feel compelled to express their opinion of my sanity.

Most of the roads I commuted on had some semblance of a shoulder.  Others not so much.

I rode Blu.2 with two front fenders (like two condoms; double protection for my pleasure); a down tube, and a clip on, plus a clip on rear.  I rightly thought the added security of CX tires, plus the surgical precision of handling would be well worth any loss in speed.

For the most part everything went as planned.  I was boldly carving through roadside slush until I hit a patch after Farmington HS that was slush over ice.  After that "Oh Shit" moment, I decided to exert my right to take the lane more.

Probably ride Blu.2 the rest of the week just in case (plus it's really fun).

I hate giving in, and I'll likely regret it, but I'm going to give the roads another day before I ride in again.

(shut up Pete)

This isn't an invitation

I don't know if you've heard, but we got a little snow this weekend.

After fearing it wouldn't start, my snowblower ran out of gas 2+ hours into pushing it through snow up to 30"  deep...with a lot of snow still to go.

No alternative but take up the shovel, and you know what?  It wasn't that bad.  3+ hours moving snow turns out to be a pretty good core and arm workout.

I'm not volunteering to come over and dig you out, and I'm definitely going to tune up my blower, but maybe embrace what the snow can give me back in terms of a workout.

and I got a ride in too.




For some reason the town plows the roads in neighborhoods with an extra digit in the price a lot better than those that have sidewalks.

Voices in My Head

From time to time I'm post what songs are running through my head as I ride.  This is today's sound track.


  Followed by
 

(dig Fred's moustache!)

 after this piece of crap infiltrated my subconscious

 
I lost a chain ring bolt

 thank god Jello was having nothing to do with that and changed the channel

 

concluding with

On the ride to work yesterday I got to thinking about sports.  this weekend is both the Superbowl and the Cyclocross World Championships.

There was a nice article in the WSJ about the two (you've probably already seen it)

There is such a stark juxtaposition between the two.
Hundreds of thousands of kids play football, but with the exception of the Thanksgivings pre-meal game in the yard how may continue playing as adults?  Are there even adult leagues?  In contrast very few kids compete in bicycle racing, but tens of thousands of adults compete in amateur racing in the US alone.

Which got me to thinking: are there other sports that have world championships for athletes?
Google says yes.

Golfing, Xterra and Tri, boxing, bodybuilding, even pinball have worlds.

What does this all mean?  I don't know.

Another question:  How do you define amateur?
I guess amateur in cycling can be anyone over 35.  To me amateur  racing should be for people who have a day gig other than racing a bike.