Gravélo

Winter Project

2011-12-15T23:27:00.003-06:00

Among the things I want to do this winter is to build, or at least source all materials and ideas for, a conversion of my old Burley into a bike camping trailer. I have seen a lot of ideas so far and the concept is quite intriguing to me. The Burley will serve as an excellent platform to build on as many have proven. I'm not going to aim for carpeted sleeping quarters or a gas stove, but it will be a nice little spread. I'm thinking screened windows, awnings, and a sky light so far. Heck, maybe there will be enough siding and roofing materials from our current house update to do a mobile home of sorts! I have an idea for chopping and channeling the frame to a narrower profile, then cantilevering a platform out over the wheels, and walls/roof from there. A sketch will be up in a few days. Then I'll see what changes/additions anyone wants to suggest. Later!

Occupy Third Street

2011-11-19T23:26:00.003-06:00

In an attempt to acclimate myself to the harsher side of "recreational homelessness", I have been field testing some of my gear by sleeping out on the deck. As the weather began to cool this Fall, I started with a fleece blanket and overnight lows of mid 50s F. Over the weeks the temps dropped and I broke out my zero rated bag. Mid 30s were no problem. I think I actually slept better, and felt better all day, from the mid 30s nights. So naturally, once I had set a new low temp. mark, I wanted to go lower. My current low is 15 degrees F, and it was actually pretty comfy too. I used a double bag system (one inside the other) and the only thing that was cold was my nose. I had a scare in the night though. I put the bag up over my head to warm up the inside, fell asleep that way, and woke with a gasp! I think I had depleted all of the oxygen in the bag and nearly choked myself out.
Temps will continue to drop as Winter comes, so the records will keep falling too, until there is nothing to prove. But not until then. I see a drift-based snow cave in the not too distant future! Here's a picture of my last Hooverville. Later!

All In A Day's Work For...

2011-11-13T22:25:00.003-06:00

Bicycle Repair Man! Did your neighborhood have a guy who could always fix your bikes? You and the guys would do something stupid on a bike, and after picking up the pieces, bee line right for the guys garage? We had one such guy. Jerry Grady. He had tons of old Schwinn parts (old by today's perspective) and would just knowingly set about repairing or replacing anything we had destroyed. Not big on lectures or demanding to know what we had been doing, just a great guy who would fix your stuff. He even helped us jam one set of forks into the top of another set to make a chopper fork! Welded? Well, no, but we didn't know that welding existed so... I took my awesome Yamaha Motobike apart once, too far apart, and he helped me get it back on the rode, (alley actually:)
Well, it seems that yours truly has acquired the cape and unitard of Bicycle Repair Man. You see, there is a family who have relocated their lives from Detroit to Boone, and their bikes came with them. One of the boys, 15 years old, has been riding around with:
-No drive side bearings in his rear wheel
-Seat post slammed all the way down
-Back break only, shoes worn down to the studs
-Cable housing taped with electrical tape, no ends
-No shifters front or back
-It's a girl's bike!!
Well, he came to the door one day, and asked, as best he could, if I had a wrench. Before I knew it I was 10 minutes late for work. Most of the problems were fixed though, so win/win! He's been coming back any time he sees my car out front, asking if I know how to fix this or that. It's a good feeling to be able to help someone out. (I look like a master mechanic from the other side, just doing the basic stuff that keeps a bike rolling.) Also good to realize that gifts are given to us for sharing. On any little level. The first day that kid rode away with a functioning bike, I can't tell who was happier, me or him. The smiles were ear to ear for both of us. He said simply, "Thank you," and rode off. I think that my time spent hunched over all my old janky beat up bikes has found a purpose for someone other than just me. All in a days work, all in a days work. Later!

Photos de Randome

2011-10-25T22:53:00.005-05:00

A few random pictures to post, just to keep stuff on the blog. These are from the car show/shine in Stratford, and the "Big Show" burnouts from the Lehigh corner (punch up 491437 on a calculator and look at it upside down) and a few from Don Williams Lake in Boone County. I had a chance to share with the boys something I have ALWAYS wanted to do! We walked on the spillway and down to the basin at the bottom. Since the earliest days that I ever went there with my Dad, it was such a strong draw to want to walk on it. Actually, in the skateboard craze of my youth, I wanted to ride it. Now in my "mature" years, I would rather ride a bike on it or slide down it on a sled, or my ski bike! Hurry Winter, a middle aged man needs your magic! And lastly, a weird looking bug from the trail to Ankeny, and a fox right smack in the middle of Ankeny. He tried to hide from us, but I got a distant shot. We rode Slater to Woodward today, gorgeous weather. Kelli even rode 2 miles of gravel! I'll seduce her into the dark side yet, mwah-ah-ah!!

High Trestle Love Affair

2011-10-12T22:34:00.007-05:00

I have spent the last 4 Tuesdays riding my bike, and have barely ridden 4 miles of gravel during that time. I have been riding the now famous High Trestle Trail! The last 3 Tuesdays were with Kelli. We rode Madrid to Woodward, Woodward to Madrid, and Woodward to Ankeny (each round trip) Kelli was a goer for trying the big day, given the stiff South wind, and made all but the last 8 miles before asking for a bailout. No problem, she rode 4 times further than any of our previous efforts. So this week I was by myself and rode Madrid to GRAVEL, down to the river, and back. I rode the bike I call Karate Klunker, a campstove green Hawthorne with 2.3 Tioga downhill tires on it, skip tooth drive train, super short stem, and a goofy Troxel seat that is amazingly comfortable. A fun bike for sure. More like a tank! Here are a few shots from my solo day:
Senior Citizens taking in the views in a horse drawn wagon.
The Karate Klunker looking studly in the foreground, HTT bridge looking mighty in the background, God's creation dominating all ground!

Yes, this is a multi - user trail! This guy leaves much smaller droppings than some other users.
Klunkers on Chunkers - sounds like a good name for an organized ride...Hmm?

Also recently spent a few Sundays on adventures with the boys. One was our annual trip to Stratford for the stopover/show and shine of the cars in Run To The Woods. The burnout corner was moved to Lehigh, and the drivers were there to please the crowd that had gathered. Even saw a Lamborghini Countach, in Stratford Iowa! More pictures to follow on that. Last weekend we went to our favorite fishing hole, Don Williams Lake. It is being lowered by about 12 feet to allow repairs to the spillway, so the lake bed is exposed and full of mysteries and treasures of all kinds. More pics of that later too. TTFN my friends!

What Is Freedom?

2011-08-25T23:13:00.002-05:00

I was watching the news earlier this week with my sons (Marshall and Mitchell) and a thought struck me as they were showing footage from Libya. I know they're fighting to remove Ga-Daffy Duck from power and gain their freedom, but think about how much freedom they have that you and I don't. Could you take a clapped out old truck and mount an anti aircraft gun in the bed? Go driving at whatever speed you and your friends want and shoot at whatever you see? Cut the roof off of a Taurus and mount a bazooka on it? Don't like some guy?, shoot him. Some guy doesn't like you?, shoot him first. Out of ammo?, steal some from the government. Don't like the government?, steal more than you need. Gun metal AK47 not blingin' enough? Steal a gold plated one from the boss. When do these people find time to ride?! I thought MY schedule was full...
They showed a CNN reporter hunkered down beside a compound wall, gunfire and rockets everywhere. She looked scared witless, while Libyans were calmly strolling down the plaza, not a care in the world! How would you like to ride gravel over there? Not so much! I would, however, enjoy the challenge of mounting an RPG launcher on my top tube ;) Incoming!

Day Three

2011-08-16T23:11:00.004-05:00

My third day of this year's ride was a real switch up for me. I rode the entire paved route! As I lay in my impromptu "tent" on Monday night, listening to the previously mentioned Hair Metal/Oldies band killing some good old music (think Skid Row covering China Grove and you're getting an idea) I crumbled to the sense that I really did need to get home in one piece, and had nothing to prove to anyone else by riding off-route again. Mix up a hot cup of troublesome bottom bracket, a dead cell phone, heat index of 110 plus, (for any British readers, the plus here is humidity in the range of tropical areas, which adds to the misery of the heat) and an original plan to ride only gravel all the way back to Boone, and I had to reach the conclusion of riding the route to home. How, and who, would I call if I heat bonked or had a mechanical?
"911, what is your emergency?"
"I'm too hot...."
"Sir?"
"I'm too hot?"
"OK, so is everyone else in half of America. What is your location?"
"I'm riding my bike on a gravel road somewhere East of Carroll."
"Good luck with that sir. Have a nice day." Click/death/decay.
So I just rode along with the herd and took advantage of the food and beverage accommodations that come every 5 miles or so on RAGBRAI. I kid you not, I have never felt like I needed to drink water as much as I did on this last day. I drained my 3 litre Camelback, a 1 litre bottle, and several Gatorades. As I approached the infamous Twister Hill on the edge of Boone (so named because it was used in the filming of the movie Twister, and infamous because it is unrelentingly steep and long!) I thought it was going to be easy to get home. I resigned my pride and decided to walk the hill since my bottom bracket was crunching even on flat sections. I sat down at the top and had a couple of bottles of ice water from the family that was selling them in their yard. When I was done and thought I would be home in 15 minutes or so, I noticed that I had stopped sweating. Strange, I should be pouring out sweat today, hmm. Body shutting down perhaps? Pushing the envelope? NAHHH, I'm invincible, right? 45 is the new 20 man!
So it was back on the bike, take it slow, and just get home! And to my absolute delight, my wife and sons were waiting on the edge of town for me to come in. They had been sitting since mid-morning watching the droves of people come in, shouting out encouragement, and even helping with traffic control! There were some ice cubes in a cooler, which I held to my scorched melon and blissfully realized that I was home again. Ahhh, Boone Iowa. Home. Family. And as it so often goes, I said to myself, "I don't want to ever do that again!" only to realize 20 minutes later that I can't wait for next year. Keep your knees in the breeze! Later!

RAGBRAI-ish

2011-08-08T23:22:00.011-05:00

Day two of my journey started out late by RAGBRAI standards. I got up at about 7:45 and made my way down the hill to the Wal-Mart Super Center that I had camped near. I saw this bike in front of the entrance. Must be a veteran rider with all of those wrist bands wrapped around the brake line!

Knowing the way out of town made getting going easy. I took the same sections of gravel and B road from Sunday. Passed this cool octagonal house again, so I took a picture this time.

B roads are plentiful down here, that's for sure. Flat sections, sections with corners, even up/downhill sections. And all dry and rideable. Smooth and quiet. Lucky dogs down there have it made. I often wonder if I am the first to track a road, B or otherwise, on a bike. Ever think about that?

This section was 3 miles long!Upon returning to gravel I began to see tire tracks. I could tell that many other people had chosen to get on the T Bone Trail and ride a li ttle "off route" for the day. This was a great choice as the trail goes through many small towns as it tr acks up to Audubon.I had a couple of other sight seeing targets to hit, and they were interesting in their own unique ways. The first was Plow In The Oak Park. The back story? A farm hand had been plowing a field, Civil War era mind you, and upon learning he had to go to war leaned his plow against a shed. A volunteer tree sprouted up and grew around the plow, eventually consuming it and continuing to grow. The shed collapsed and left the tree/plow for posterity. You would have to know your way around a horse drawn plow to recognize it today, but luckily some folks do, and made a park to go along with it.A little further up the road was Audubon. Home of Albert The Bull! He was freshly painted for the possibility of riders coming through, and I guess the tradition of signing your name on his balls must have been lost on the RAGBRAI crew. They were unmarked as far as I could tell. I just turned my head, coughed, and rolled on.I did stop at Casey's for some grub and a pop, and asked a guy if he was "from here" so I could make sure I was going to find my gravel connector out of town. So he says he's from Audubon, and I ask him if this road would take me to the county road blah blah, and then to Jay Avenue. "Oh I don't know the roads" he says. What the... what, you just know the way to Casey's and back home? Thanks for acknowledging that you were from Audubon moron! Anyways, I made it to Jay Avenue, and road a lot of rollers along the way. I went through 2 very small, let me repeat, VERY SMALL towns along the way. One looked like it might have had 30 people if everyone was home, and the other was about 50 or so. The second of these was Roselle. A small town with gravel roads leading in, and gravel roads leading out. Small. Yet despite its small stature, there was a gigantic Catholic church there. I could see it for miles.
The signage in the front of the church told of how the materials were taken to Halbur by rail, then transported by wagon to the site. It was very cool. Also, there was a tavern, Roselle Tavern, attached to a guy's house. Like he built an addition and called it Roselle Tavern. The OPEN sign was on, but I wasn't ready to slow down too long, so I boogied out of there.
My next three miles were very interesting, as a county crew was in the process of turning B road into gravel road, so I had to talk to the crew foreman about getting through their work area. Another occasion arose of someone suggesting that I was lost, and that RAGBRAI was way over there! Don't they realize that I choose to ride alone? Silly people! RAGBRAI is way too mundane for an adventurer! Another few miles and I landed in the town of Templeton. Home of Templeton Rye Whiskey! I was looking forward to this stop, as a tasting party had been arranged for this special day, and you never pass up a taste of the good stuff! Unless there are 300+ people waiting in line, in the sun, to get a taste of the good stuff! No Way! Eat, drink, leave in short order. Back on the chunk and I knew it was only a few miles to Swan Lake, where I planned to set up camp, swim in the lake for a while, then crash. Well, "$10.00 No Exceptions" just to tent camp didn't feel like a welcoming mood, so I took a dip in the lake in my riding gear and headed for Carroll. You know, scamming the overnight towns on the route so that I can ride gravel all day is a great deal, but charging $10.00 to put up my own quarters was a bust. I found a nice place on the grounds of a grade school and set everything up, dried out my kit, and went in search of more food! Greasy pizza was just the thing. Get a belly full of dough and cheese and you'll sleep like a baby. Now, a sense of normalcy overtook me, and realizing that I hadn't talked to wifey in two days I decided to call home. Pull out the cell, no service. Must be a dead spot, I thought, so I walked to the downtown area and tried again. "No Signal, Emergency Calls Only" in big bold letters. Nice. Come to find out there is NO AT&T service on the Highway 30 corridor. Great. Now what? Ahh yes, I'll find a payphone and call. So I got $3.00 worth of quarters and walked around trying to find a payphone. For 2 hours! Did you know that there is no such thing as a payphone anymore? Now you do. Alas, I was hanging out at the Walgreen's, and I saw a customer from work coming out the door. I begged the use of her phone, explaining the situation, and quickly called home. Turns out Kelli wasn't worried about me at all. Thanks Honey! What a day. About 65 miles of gravel/B road. As I lay there drifting off to sleep to the strange sounds of classic rock songs, sung in an 80s Hair Metal sound (strange is a mild term) I re-planned my final day for this year, and wisely so. But that will have to wait until next time! Later!

Lately

2011-08-05T23:09:00.007-05:00

Long time since I posted any of my exploits. I just fell off the wagon for blogging I guess. Still been riding some good stuff lately though. I actually did two days of RAGBRAI, and a day of awesome gravel sight seeing. This year I traveled lighter than my last attempt. Ride smarter, not harder kind of thing. Still had a lot of stuff to tote around, but not a whole Burley full! 6 X 8 tarp, 12 feet of paracord, clips, shelter!

I was able to get a ride to the first overnight town, Atlantic, but had a wasted day on Sunday, since the "real" riders were coming into town that day. So I decided to ride free and aimlessly, yet fit in some landmarks. A little research and map study yielded two must- see destinations.

The first would be the legendary "Tree in the Road" just north of the interstate , South and East of Brayton. A few sketchy notes, a general idea of where it was, and I was off. Tons of real hills, not your central Iowa generics, but "real" hills down there! I stopped to chat with an old farmer and his wife, to be sure I was in the right area. They were boiling corn for canning, and told me that I must be lost if I was looking for RAGBRAI. They would be the first, but not the last, to suggest this. The man assured me that if I "went down to Mark Johnsons, turned right until I got to his hay field road, and just looked for it," I would find it! Oh, yeah, I know Mark Johnson of Nowhere, Iowa. Know right where he lives...
So the story on this tree goes like this. A surveyor was marking a spot between plots and stuck a Cottonwood twig in the ground to keep his place. He left it there and time took over. The roads grew around the tree, the tree grew around the roads, a couple of World Wars came and went, and now we have a very cool landmark. Even has a couple miles of smooth B road on the West approach.

From there I rode East by South to the site of the first train robbery in the West. On my journey I saw a crop duster flying over a corn field. Too bad the field was along the road I was riding, and I have no mites, chiggers,(or chegroes, as my dad always called them) weavels, gnats, root worms, grubs, or other undesirable hitch hikers on my person. I put my arms up in an X and motioned like a tomahawk chop that I would like to pass without having 2-4-D drift over me. He gave me a wing tilt to confirm, and took a dry pass as I booked down the road. That was cool. Silent communication. Upon reaching the paved road I needed to ride to get to my next stop, I stopped for a drink. A car pulled up to the stop sign and the driver told me that I was lost. If I recall his exact words, it went like "Shit Hoss, you're damn lost!" I assured him that I was in the right place, and he proceeded to tell me exactly how to get to where I already was, and called me Hoss about 10 more times. Nice guy though;)

So this was the spot where none other than Jesse James and his boys derailed a train, hoping to score $75000 in gold. They didn't know that the shipment was a day late, and stole $2000 cash from the people on the train instead. The engineer and stoker died of their injuries, and the guys went on gain infamy.
Got in about 60 miles of light touring, all gravel but about 4 miles of pavement and 3 of T Bone Trail, and tons of hills. I thought I had some rollers around home, but these are some rollers now! You know when you crest a nasty hill, and look down the other side, and the top of the next hill is higher than where you're sitting, you're on some rollers. Also, there are many subtle changes in gravel composition along the way. One county has chunky tan gravel, the next has nice pea gravel makeup, and another might have the hated white rock! "Never packed, always hungry for flesh, white rock. You're what's for breakfast."
Home after 9 hours of fun in the sun, showered and crashed. Saw this headstone along the way and had to have a picture. How about having that hanging over your head for eternity, mocking you with what you should have had more of! Kharma is indeed a bi#@%! Later!

The Down Low On The Down Low

2011-06-22T23:33:00.009-05:00

Squirrel asked how I did this mod for my Schwinn cruiser, so I am putting up a brief explanation of how I did it. Actually, it came to me in a kind of accidental way. I had chopped a Huffy frame apart to make a door handle for my firewood box, and since I used only the headtube, I was looking at the rest of the frame and thought, "What else can I make from this?" So I just started dinking around with it, trying this and that. I kept thinking I wanted to make what would look like a girder fork. Then I "saw" what could be done, and in about 20 minutes had this roughed out and fitted, ready for a little paint, and wah frikkin lah! Low riding action was achieved. I put the double brakes on some time later, just as overkill. I only have this one pair of cruiser rims that have enough sidewall for brakes, so they're on it most of the time. I have a killer chrome set that looks nice with some old Goodrich tires too, just have to remember not to use the hand brakes:)

Top Tube, Seat Tube, Chainstay of Huffy donor.

Stem and bars go into seat tube.

Front wheel bolts on per normal location, then the rear dropouts bolt on to the outside of that.

Grab an old, sturdy front brake wire hanger, flip upside down, and bend the end to fit inside of the center of the top tube. I had to Dremmel out about an inch by inch and a half section of the tt to fit the hanger.

Lastly, to strengthen everything up, I pounded a star nut into the tt section, ran a bolt down to it, and cranked it down. Did exactly what I needed it to. Stayed tight over the years too. The only problem I have had is sometimes the stem wants to twist inside the seat tube. I could section a small piece of seat post and re-do that, easy fix. Or hit it with a weld or two, but then it wouldn't be all bolt on, now would it?

To get the seat back and low I simply left the seat post in the clamps, slid it between the top of the seat stays, (wedging the end point of the seat rails around the collar of the seat tube) and made a little block of wood into a spacer to line up with the angle of the seat tube. Finish with a stainless clamp for some extra security, and you're ready to ride!

What else? I would not cut tubes until you get a good feel for how long they need to be to line up. You can always cut more off, you can't cut more on! The whole reason I had to use the star nut was that I cut the tube a little too short to just go straight down through the tube with a bolt. But you know, I think that part is the stealthiest part of the whole mod, so whatever! That's the art of "ratting" on something. If you mess up, fart around until you make something work, right? Later!

l

My Own Solo World Championship

2011-06-21T23:15:00.002-05:00

I was thinking today, on a ride, that I might try a shot at riding my 26 mile gravel route for 12 hours, just to get a feel for long distance gravel. The loop is loaded with rollers, a few decent hills that are poorly placed (right after some rollers), and great views of Boone Couny, Iowa. I'm thinking a 6 am to 6 pm time frame, get some grub at Casey's or Hy Vee, and loop it as much as I can. I wouldn't mind using my light, so maybe a 6pm start to a 6am finish would be better. Sometime in September perhaps.

Also, I got more gear for Father's Day gifts which will enable me to do some recreational homelessness. A self-inflating sleeping pad, a camping pillow, and a sleeping bag (rated to zero degrees) Add these to my arsenal and I will be out in the wild for weeks!

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-06-10T23:21:00.005-05:00

Just when I think that we're somewhat insulated from cool stuff, I read this article about, uh, something cool! Bike Iowa had a story about a miniature velodrome being built at ISU by a group of students and their mentors. If you've been around Iowa MTB racing and 'Cross you know Jason Alread. He's part of the leadership on the project. Along for the ride is Kim West, aka Grandpa Kim, aka El Diablo, aka the other bike guy with a white Volvo wagon:) They have a blog set up for it at www.cyclodrome.blogspot.com so check it out, and keep an eye on this. It will be cool! I knew there was a reason I have 9 fixed gear bikes. Later!

Meanwhile, Back At The Louvre

2011-06-07T22:57:00.003-05:00

This is a preview, exclusive to you, of a cartoonish statement I will be sending in for publication in next week's 'Toons cartoon weekly, published by the renowned gentleman, Mr. Rick Lem. I think it says a lot about LA and his pathological lying about what I believe to be an inescapable truth, the guy cheated like all of the people he "beat" in the TdF. I don't really have a problem with all of the top riders cheating, it doesn't impress me or bother me either way. But to continue to deny that he cheated, that is a problem I have with the whole mess. And, it's not even a problem really, just wish he would say, "Yes, I cheated, here's how it went down." Surrounded by a team of lawyers, he spills his guts, and all is forgotten.

This cheeseball graphic I made shows what I think he could have done to cheat, while technically maintaining a stance that he never cheated or failed a drug test in his career. OK, so NO dissing him for fighting through cancer. I would never say anything bad about the guy for his efforts to help others with their struggles. Bravo to him, in fact. Likewise, I will not make fun of the fact that he lost a testicle during his fight. Again, not making fun of that!
Lets say that he was a really promising cyclist before cancer nearly killed him. I give him all props for training hard, racing with passion, and laying the wood down on the best in the world. So he loses a part of him that produces testosterone. I personally have two such glands, nothing out of the ordinary about them as far as I know. Now let's keep going down this road. Say I produce a T level of 4 on some scale of averages. Maybe you, if you're a man, produce a 4 too. So, in a sport where it's shadowy as to what cheating even means, the rule makers say that you could, maybe, if you're a stud, make a level of 6 before they would look at you as a cheater. OK, I want to play the game at the highest level possible so I am going to find a way to kick ass! I get a simple topical creme and apply it to my skin, and suddenly I can ride all day at a crazy level. Levels I thought unattainable now come with ease. Going from a "normal" 4, to a "still under the limit" 6, is a 33% gain. I'm crushing it dude!
Now the unthinkable happens. I lose half of my T production crew, and now I only make a 2 level:( But wait, let me continue to train, harder than ever, and see if my fitness will remain high. Ride, ride, rest, ride harder, rest....yep, it's working. I am maintaining a world class fitness level through hard work and good nutrition. Yes! Still, that 33% boost was pretty nice. Maybe I could get back to a T4 if I go back to the creme. What's that? Now I can get a 66% boost from my current level and still be under the T6 limit?! Awesome, I'll train even harder than before, do my extra 33% shot over what all the other guys can do, and still not be braking the "rules."
I know, I'm no scientist, but it seems possible to me that this could be a way to cut around the rules and get away with it. Landis must not have read the script on the day he put on the patch. Too strong of a shot there chief. Busted! EPO/ don't need it if you dose your T correctly. Wishful thinking, but maybe someday all of it will be known for certain. I just have doubts that it will. See ya!

He's Toast

2011-05-20T23:57:00.004-05:00

Well, it looks more and more like Lancey-pants is going to go down in history as a cheating liar! And that's a good thing! As if Sunday's impending 60 Minutes interview with Tyler Hamilton wouldn't be enough of a bummer for the guy, now Gorgeous George is "coming clean" too! BOOM! goes the dynamite! I do believe that Roberto Heras is the only former Postie to not sing yet. Him and Johan. Maybe soon we'll hear from him too? And I wonder what Sheryl Crow knows?
I'm trying to work out a reasonable mathematical explanation of how I think a guy with only half of the testosterone production of a normal man could use his condition to cheat. As soon as I think it makes sense, I'll post my theory. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, "So Lance, what do you make of all this 'doomsday is here' talk that is going around?" Later!

Low Riding The HTT

2011-05-17T23:12:00.004-05:00

A pair of ratty classics.

As a treat to myself, I used one of my last two "kid-free" days off to go for a bike trail ride. Last week I did a single speed gravel grinder and it was good, but I need variety these days. So I dug out my most outrageous bike, the Schwinn I call Hardley, and made a run for the Madrid start.

This bike is somewhat of an attention getter, as it is old, has white fatties on it, and a very, Very, VERY low riding position. It's chopped only in the sense that the seat post is outside the seat tube, and the bars are lower than the top tube. LOW my friends. But I have to say, it's no problem to ride it for long distances as long as you don't try to mash the pedals. Just turn big circles and enjoy the scenery. Well, I stopped on the observation platform to observe, duh, and this guy and his buddies started going apeshiznits over the bike. Like over the top crazy ape shizzle! Well, sure enough, one of them wanted to ride it, and he said it was "the coolest damn bike I've ever seen!" I felt a little proud just explaining the easy mods I had done to it. They were still scratching their heads as I rode away, trying to figure out from the pictures they took just exactly what I was riding.
A few pictures tell what my words cannot. This trail is so cool. Come and ride it sometime and you'll understand. Until then, Keep It Real! Later!

TRON

2011-05-13T22:56:00.002-05:00

About an hour's worth of gravel riding gets me to this! I need to ride an all white bike, wearing all white clothes, and get some cool pictures of this. Do you know what "this" is?

The Miracle Mile

2011-03-29T22:16:00.003-05:00

Made the trek to the section of B Road, but it almost didn't happen. We woke up to about a half inch of wet snow here in Boone, so I immediately dropped my expectations of riding 14 miles each way to hit one mile of B Road to about a 10 % chance. Thinking that even after getting there the road would be too soft to ride. Well, after I got Marshall and Mitchell dropped off at school I drove to the nearest gravel to "interpret" the sitch. Much to my delight it looked like pretty good conditions. Snow was good and firm, gravel under it was a mix of sand and snow. Got back home, geared up, brewed up some java, and headed out on the Miller fixed gear. Along the way I found that the temps were slowly creeping up and some of the snow was disappearing from the road bed. Line selection was a no-brainer, although the opposite of what I thought it should be. I thought that the wheel track would be the way to go, but it was actually way too soft. The un-tracked snow was faster and firmer.
Now I have seen a lot of pics of B Roads, especially on Guitar Ted's blog, but "MY" B Road, The Miracle Mile, is not like any of the others. I didn't see a single stone larger than a peanut M&M. In fact, most of the surface is like a fine grained pea gravel. It was completely rideable. Someone had ridden a horse down it earlier in the morning, and there were a few tire tracks in the black dirt, but it was rather like a carpeted hallway of gravel. No massive mud wallows, no man eating ruts, no wheel eating clay. Actually, once things warm up around this joint, if ever, this will be a favorite ride for sure. There is a creek running alongside the road for about 3/4 of the mile, and plenty of snake grass to luxuriate in come 90 degrees.
Want to know the best news? I asked Kelli to send a Facebook message to a friend of ours who works for the county, Mr. Bob Matt, and he sent me a link for ALL of the B Roads in Boone County! Turns out there are 9 miles I never knew about. Guess what targets I'm mapping out:) Why the new found love of Bs? I don't know, but if it gets me out there it must be good. Thanks Bob!
Camera had about half battery charge upon the start, but the cold sucked the life out of it, so after about three minutes of pressing it between my palms I got only one shot. The Miracle Mile!

Its A Must Do

2011-03-28T22:50:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago, on my day off, I made a wise choice and skipped bike riding to go shopping with Kelli. I didn't really feel like riding, even though it was really nice (55 or so) and not too windy. I guess you can take the boy out of the gravel, but not the gravel out of the boy, as we drove gravel all the way to Story City! And she didn't even question why! Anyways, I saw a section of B road that I never knew about, and it's within range, so I am going to ride to it tomorrow! NO DOUBT! It terminates on the Boone/Story county line, so an out and back should be about a 30 mile affair. Nice. East wind will help me home. I think I might even take the Bear Grylls Ultimate knife with me for a warm up fire. Pics for proof will appear Tuesday night. Later! Travel Gravel!

Trending?

2011-03-22T23:56:00.003-05:00

I found some images of re-bar bikes as mentioned in my NAHBS posting, and had to share them. Seriously, except for the seat, the last one looks pretty cool. What do you think?

Photo credit: somewhere in public domain!

What Will It Take?

2011-03-22T23:33:00.002-05:00

What will it take to get me out on the gravel on a bike? I haven't been out for weeks. I tried to convince myself to go out for some night rides, but to no avail. It was even warmer on those nights than it was on some of the nights that I went out in the winter. Just couldn't get myself out the door. I guess I know enough not to force it. Let it work out, I know I still want to be out there. Would it be too much to ask for about 80 degrees?! That would sure help.
I saw something yesterday that made me chuckle. It made me think back to the days when all I wanted to do was get on a bike. I was driving home for dinner and saw a kid, maybe 3 years old, pushing a Spiderman bike around the apartment complex where he lives. Just pushing his bike through the grass, looking at his tracks. I remembered the days of riding endlessly up and down our alley and following the same tracks over and over until there was a "race track" in the dust. Perhaps that memory is what makes riding gravel such a neo-classic favorite? Have you not ever turned around on a ride, just looked back, and followed your tire tracks back as far as you could see? That's all the odometer you'll ever need! It doesn't show how far you've gone, it shows how far you've come. Later! Travel Gravel!

NAHBS Coverage

2011-02-28T08:52:00.006-06:00

It's that time of year again. Time for the gorgeous bikes of the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show to pop up on the web. There is just no shortage of imagination and talent and dedication to all things cycling when you start to look through all of the galleries out there. I found galleries at the following web addresses:

www.urbanvelo.org
www.cyclingnews.com
www.bikerumor.com
www.fixedgeargallery.com
www.mtbr.com

If you see a good one let me know. I would say it's a tossup for which show I like best, Interbike or NAHBS. I guess I'd rather see the NAHBS bikes that are sculpted, hammered, poured, layered, brazed, CNCed, lugged, and cobbled than the sanitized and safe commercial offerings at Interbike, so I have to say NAHBS is my favorite of the two. Wouldn't it be cool if Minneapolis hosted some year and I somehow got to go?!

One more thing I have to share. If I see one more bamboo bike, just one more, I swear I am going to kill the next Panda I see! That has to be the most annoying trend I have seen in the last few years. It's bamboo people, so what! You take a piece of bamboo, put it between some lugs, and make a frame out of it. Not that interesting. I saw a tallbike made of the stuff, a mixte, and too many road bikes to remember. I have a suggestion to make before someone makes a bamboo framed, belt drive, fixed gear with internal 5 speed hub, tandem niner tallbike, with drop bars and a beer rack. Go right ahead, but for every bamboo bike built, a Panda must be ritualistically slaughtered. Checks and balances. Move beyond. Next trend, re-bar bikes! I've already seen a couple. Later!

Hot Rumor FYI

2011-02-09T22:25:00.002-06:00

For anybody interested, I have it on good authority that the 12/24 hour race at Seven Oaks may well be moved from its traditional date of Labor Day Weekend. The newest I'm hearing is that it will be moved to the last weekend in August. I hope that this will help to boost numbers back up to where they were in the second through fourth years. It makes sense that some people just don't want to give up a 3 day weekend for the purpose of self-degradation and torture! Now if I could get Kyle(s) and Ron to take me seriously about a midnight to noon 12 hour grouping ( a little help anyone?) maybe I could convince myself to try this silly race again! My case for this time slot is simple. I won't have to take a weekend off to race, and I can hang out in the pits and do nothing until the bell tolls to get on the bike and ride for half a day. As Kyle Robinson said when I first asked him about a midnight start, there would probably be a lot more night laps ridden. That's kind of the thing with an event like this. The night riding puts you way out of the box and into a new dimension. Also, I think racing toward sunlight is more energizing than racing into the darkness. It would be nice to be given the choice, so I guess we'll see. Hoping to ride gravel Sunday and/or Tuesday. Later!

Thanks to Urban Velo

2011-01-25T22:37:00.003-06:00

I came across this random collection of absurdities. It's funny though! Check it, www.dearblankpleaseblank.com There's something there for everyone! And, sadly, thanks to Cycling News and Bike Rumor, et al, I will have to tell my 10 year old son, Mitchell, that his favorite cyclist most likely will be stripped of his 2010 Tour title and receive a 1 year ban. Details and hard facts due Thursday. Never trust anyone with a professional racing license! Later!

An Ice Ride, A Nice Ride, or Anice Ride?

2011-01-05T00:12:00.005-06:00

Trick question, I didn't bring any Dutch licorice along. I had just about an hour and a half to get in a ride today, so I drove myself out to Ledges Park and rode the creek upstream to the end of state ground, stopped for a snack (no licorice, or Anice, but I wasn't disappointed)
and rode back to my starting point. Since I had time, I rode up the river about 300 yards. The ice was perfect because of the 1/8th inch of crusty frost on top of it. That was a nice ride, an ice ride, but my choice of snack prevented the triple play anice ride. Oh well, maybe I'll bring some Absinthe next time! Later!

Bicyclette a la'ronge

2010-12-27T10:50:00.002-06:00

Look what I got! A bike for Christmas! I have never, since I was a kid even, received a bike for Christmas. Well, thanks to my awesomely generous bro in law, I got one this year. And it's fixed. And it's ORANGE! No more 'no orange bikes' blues. I thought it had 700c wheels, so I dug out some tires with decent tread on them, got the back wheel off, and took the tire off to try some combos that would maybe have clearance on this road bike frame (the source says it's a Schwinn.) Much to my dismay, it is actually a 27" wheel. So now I will have to find another pair of 27" gumwalls to put on there. Let's see, where have I seen those? Ah yes, Sioux Falls:) I'll just ride over there some day and pick those up. Later! THANKS MIKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Workin' On The Night Moves

2010-12-24T00:02:00.003-06:00

Tryin' to make some front page gravel ridin' news! Went out again this week for some after dark graveling. It has become a favorite way to keep myself from getting bored, and I have not had much S.A.D. this year. We're only part way through though. A great option for keeping the soul alive. A few miles, a lot of smiles, and a beer or two for good measure.

Seger, " I could go East, I could go West, it was all up to me to decide..."

I REALLY! wanted to go out and view the lunar eclipse this last week. So much so that I slept on the couch so I wouldn't disturb my wife at 02 hundred. Well, I got up, looked out the window, and saw nothing but clouds overhead. Again, enough with the clouds already! Then I see on the news that Des Moines got enough of a hole in the clouds to see the eclipse at its maximum?! I can't get a break. Total eclipse, on the Winter Solstice, and it gets clouded out. Oh well, maybe it will line up like that in another lifetime.
Hope all is well with everyone/anyone reading. Please have some fun, enjoy your family, and keep on riding! Later!

I GEEK GEAR CHANGERS

2010-12-15T23:51:00.003-06:00

I just checked one of my favorite sites, Urban Velo, and saw this site recommended for anyone who loves to geek out on bike equipment. It is a collection (vast from a first look) of rear derailleurs. Organized by a variety of preferences, nice well lit photos, and a cool lead-in about the name "Disraeli Gears" Now I know. Check out www.urbanvelo.org for the link. Get your Geek out!

Geminids

2010-12-14T23:50:00.003-06:00

I went out last night at 11:00 PM Central to a primo spot for meteor viewing, and came home about an hour later with 22 Geminid "streakers" spotted. They were out in record numbers, but the viewing here was limited. And again tonight, the meteors are out there doing their thing, but so are the damn clouds! Arghhhhhhh! Every good event this year has been ruined by cloud cover. Last night started out great. I saw one as I was getting into my car. I saw one immediately upon getting out of my car (not even dark adapted yet) but within an hour, and 20 meteors later, the low clouds started rolling in and the light dome from Ames was bouncing off of the clouds, and I said, "Later!" I am becoming more aware of Fall/Winter constellation locations, which has been a cool thing. I never knew how to find so many constellations from just the Big Dipper. I am finding a new one each time I look up! Big Dipper, Gemini Twins, Leo, Orion, Draco, Signus, what's next? I was thinking last night about all the history that has been witnessed by the stars. Presumably all known, and unknown history, I guess. From the dawn of time and before. And thinking that some pea sized grain of extra terrestrial flint has now come to shoot across the sky just brings a sense of the vastness of life. But also the shortness. Weird stuff out there.
Hey, isn't this a bike blog? Yes it is, so let me say I am still out there once in a while! I went on a night ride last Thursday night. About 2 hours in a new moon night with an hour of juice in the Stella! That made for a dark ride home for sure. No problem though. Some jackass yelled out of his window as he drove past me in the opposite direction to, what did he say, ah yes, "Get the fuck off the road!" (This occured when I still had light power mind you) I stopped immediately, turned my light to his vehicle, and flipped him off with both barrels. He didn't turn back around, but his brake lights flashed momentarily. Why do people have to be so stupid?
I forgot how warm I tend to be on winter rides, and God knows I have enough gear to stay warm, so I think I will be doing more winter riding this year. Night or day. Even my "bad" hand has taken to staying fairly warm, although the entire length of my left middle finger is still numb and dead-cold! The two year anniversary of my surgery will be coming up in less than two weeks. I am lucky to have had the procedure done and gained back the use of my hand. I still have to stretch the thing daily, and have been staying on top of the squeezey putty too. I'm not out of the woods free and clear, but about 90% good to go!
Besides some kind of orange bike, I want to do 2 others over the winter. I have an old Hawthorne cruiser that I want to work into a fixed gear with 27" wheels. That will be an easy one since I run skinny knobs on those wheels, and the frame was set up for balloon tires. No clearance issues, just need to get the chainline right. The other project is a Schwinn cafe racer I started last Summer. It has Grip Shift twist shifters for brake "levers", a dropped and set-back seat location, and needs only a triple clamp fork and clip bars to be considered done. That should also be easy. I will even get to use my home made , gas-pipe work stand. Indoors. Sweet! Later fools!

Orange You Sad?

2010-11-12T23:54:00.004-06:00

That I don't have a single orange bike? I am. With over 40 bikes, you'd think at least ONE might be orange! I'll have to remedy that situation somehow. Either find an orange bike, or :( paint :( one that I already have. Whatever, Winter's practically here, so I'll need something to do...

This one's cool, but not mine

Also cool, and seasonally appropriate, but not mine!

"My" Bike Trail

2010-10-31T23:45:00.006-05:00

Does "your" trail have a view like this? I bet not, since this is "My" trail.

"My" bike trail is the High Trestle Trail. I took the boys down today to do a quick ride. We took the "junker" camera, but managed to get a few decent shots.
It's a rock. It looks like Iowa. It's limestone. It's... not the state rock:(

We went out for a ride since we had a few hours before trick or treat and a food drive for the church. The best part of the whole ride was loading Marshall's basket with large rocks and dropping them off of the side of the bridge into very soft mud. This bridge is 12 stories tall, and the mud is very soft and deep. The impact of the rocks into the mud made huge craters! We were laughing our heads off at each Splash! Oh what fun boys are! Later!

Not quite cold enough to freeze his tongue onto the pole. This is Mitchell, the impulsive one!
His third can of pop in almost 14 years. Marshall, the conservative one!

Outdoor Beer Drinking Weather, 45 Mile Ride, Orion

2010-10-22T23:36:00.002-05:00

Outdoor beer drinking weather has begun! Crisp weather, classic fall cold snaps, and a decided lack of bugs makes this a great time to get out there with a few cold ones and pound 'em! I would go for any India Pale Ales right now. You can try to keep them cold if you want, but their origins are from long ago, before any means of prolonged cooling were available. Like when they would stick a bunch of casks of beer on a ship and head out to sea. Maybe chuck some ice on the casks and spread some hay over the ice, but probably not too often. So a few miles of gravel riding is really where these beers are at home. My favorite? Boulevard "Singlewide"IPA. I'm sure that there are some better ones out there, and I'll search them out, but I do like me some Boulevard. I bought one of their "Smokestack Series" specialty beers last year. The IPA. Now that was tasty! But at $9.00 for a 24 oz. bottle, it is a rare treat.
I recently passed through the anniversary of my birth, 45 years ago on the 19th, and celebrated in my own silly way by riding a nice 45 miler to Stanhope. Stopped at the Sinclair station for some snacks and a Coke. I had a rare experience on the way back home. An 18 wheeler snuck up on me from behind! On gravel! In the dustiest conditions of the year! I had my MP3 in my ears, so I guess I deserve the scare. He must have pulled out of a farm drive. I know he wasn't there a mile ago:) As you know, riding gravel gives a person the luxury of seeing who is around you by simply observing the gravel plumes. "Look and Live" I always say. Good riding though. A very comfortable range for me. I was playing a version of an old drinking game that two friends and I invented a long time ago. We called it "The Sheep Game" and as drinking games go, it was a total riot. Any game that makes you laugh so hard that beer shoots out your nose is a good game my friends. I will post the rules, and my modified MP3 version of it, in a future post.
Lastly, I had a great night of Orionid Meteor Shower viewing last night. I brewed up some coffee and put it in the Thermos, and suited up for cold conditions. I had planned to ride 3 or 4 miles out of town, but the moon was so bright I figured that there wasn't much sense in trying to find any dark spots! So I camped in my own yard and caught 13 nice ones between 2:07 and 3:15 or so. Two of the trains were very long lived, a full 2 seconds after initial burst and they were still visible. Do me this. If you have never learned or been taught how to find Orion in the night sky, click up the "directions" and go out and find it. If you can find The Big Dipper, you can find Orion. You'll have a constant riding buddy for any night time miles after the midnight hour , as this constellation is HUGE! It is so easy to find, and dominates the night sky once you get to know where to look. Happy Hunting! Later!

'Tis The Season

2010-10-12T23:10:00.008-05:00

Full on gravel season right now. I went out Saturday night for some after dark action. Saw a lot of critters out in the fields, an old dumb looking opossum (sorry George Jones, but there ain't nothing nice about 'em)and the business end of 5 SKUNKS! Luckily they were in flight mode, not fight mode. Must be their mating season or something? Also, I kept catching this emerald green/sapphire blue glint in the chunk every once in a while. Jewel like. Finally,after 4 or 5 times, I swung back around to see what I thought would be a rock. Turned out to be a brownish spider about the size of a fifty cent piece. It's eyes were reflecting in my light! That was cool. Same bike, same route today and only saw a few snakes and some white wading birds. Some pictures then. And again, Blogger is being difficult and I can't get captions typed in under the pictures. Nice. So here goes, from the top: The totem pole is looking nice. The caps have a very rich patina on them now. Added a Goose Island 312 today. *Rolling Yield sign. Big, green Yield sign! * The coolest part of this old Fuji I have been riding lots lately. A coaster brake tied to a 700c wheel. Stock. * The Fuji in a panoramic vista. Like the sparkly purple seat? * The road from whence I came. Rollers for miles around this joint!

The Road Giveth, The Road Taketh Away

2010-10-06T00:39:00.002-05:00

Went out for a great day of riding, 3&1/2 hours of gravel crunching goodness. Along the way my cycling cap fell out of my Camelback cargo pocket. No big deal, you can get a new cap anywhere these days, but this is one I just got out in Sioux Falls this summer, and I really wanted it back. So as soon as I realized it was missing (about 2/3 of the way home) I re-traced as much of my route as possible. I thought, "Probably when I stopped to pull that beer out." Nope. "Probably when I stopped to drink that can of Coke." Nope. "Probably when I stopped for that Gu packet." Nope. The rest of my tracing would include about 2 miles of busy paved road at the edge of town. Funny what you find out there on the roads sometimes. In my searching for a cotton cap I found a 5/8" Matco chisel, a 9" rubber bungee cord, and a nice pair of Craftsman channel locks. Not bad. And due to time issues (had to get Mitchell to piano lessons at 3:30)I had just enough time to drive the rest of my route to find the hat. Well, the only hill on this route that requires me to stand up was where I found my cap. The side to side sawing motion must have thrown it out. And wouldn't you know it, since the maintainers were out today, it was mostly buried in gravel! It now has a nice golden tan patina that I don't intend to wash out. Next time I think I'll just wear the darn thing! Later!

80s Ruled!

2010-09-28T23:51:00.003-05:00

I put up a new background because I was reminded of the days in the 80s when my friends and I all had boomboxes. Pudge, Toad, Weeds, Konch, Appy, everyone had a different box and we would take them with us on our mopeds, or in our parents' cars. DC converters, you know! I had two at one point. One was a double tape deck AM/FM/shortwave with a ten bar, twin LED output meter. The other, which I still have, is a single tape player AM/FM/shortwave, with a programmable search system that would listen for the gaps between songs and allow a person to skip ahead (ff) up to 5 songs. White woofer cones with black center domes. Oh man. Take me back to the times of listening to the Saturday Night 6 Pack on KKRL, or the midnight albums on KGGO, and taping them all on cassette! I totally lusted after one I saw in a catalog that had a vertical turntable built in! Then I bought a SWEET Pioneer "Walkman" all-weather tape player for use in bean walking. That thing is sweet, and yes I still have it too, but a battery leaked in it and roached one of the posts:( The coolest part of it was a cassette sized adapter that you could pop in and it picked up FM signals and played them through the tape head. It scanned all FM signals and you stopped it on a guess as to which station you were on by hitting a button. Crazy. We could pick up a station from Des Moines (KUCB) that played Urban music that we could never have heard anywhere else! I heard a 20 minute version of a Prince song one time! Those were the days, long live the 80s!

Wasted!

2010-09-28T22:59:00.006-05:00

Blogger is being weird and won't let me caption these as I normally would, so here is a bullet list of caps. - 14" diameter tree splintered like a match stick - Steel guard rail disappearing into a tangle. Somewhere under there are massive corrugated culverts, smashed flat - 5 or 6 feet deep in this area, loose rock and sand - Flattened crapper - The iconic bridge at the park. Check out my attempt at digital camo on the bike frame. - More debris - All of the grass is raked, by debris, in the same direction. I could see that the stone bridge withstood a direct assault. - The reddish rock here is about the size of a recliner. Just tossed up there by the water. - The first bridge in the canyon. There are 8' by 8" rails on this that were bluntly snapped into small pieces.

These images are from Ledges Park here in beautiful Boone County, Iowa. It's hard to appreciate the scope of the damage that the park sustained back in August of this year. Most years it's the backed up water from flooding, which has been a real disaster since "they" put in Saylorville Lake and Dam(n)that does the damage. This leaves 3 or 4 feet of river mud in the western half of the park, shuts it down for a couple of months, and then the budget comes through to clean it out and by October it looks great for fall colors and clear sky ride-throughs. This massive damage came from the other end of the park. It all happened from the numerous feeder streams that dump into Pea's Creek having been turned into raging water hammers! The power of running water, especially with debris in it, is immense! Some of these pics are a bit poor in quality, but you'll get a feel for the power and awe. I wish I could have seen this event as it happened. I can tell you this, it would have been other-worldly. Later!

Motivation Level

2010-09-23T23:14:00.002-05:00

I had to check my motivation levels on Tuesday of this week. I was off work, as usual, and had plans to go to Ankeny to do some shopping with Kelli. But first, I wanted to go for a quick one hour ride. You know, first things first. So I got dressed, discussed a short route with Kelli, and headed to the "bike lab" to choose a rideable bike. The first one to speak up was my Poorman's Niner/monster cross Diamondback (major miles on this Goodwill re-build)so I pulled it out. No sooner than that it starts to rain. Spitting to dribbles, so I sat in the garage for a minute or so to see what else might happen. Well, it showed no signs of stopping, so I said "WTF!" and rolled out into it. "Maybe," I thought, "I can ride under and around it, come out at Ledges Park, and ride home dry." That didn't happen, but I had fun splashing around, hitting puddles, and having fun knowing that I really shouldn't have been out there. I haven't ridden in that hard of a rain since Millville Minnesota SEVERAL years ago. Now that was a memorable race. Maybe I'll try to recap that sometime over the winter. Yes, I said WINTER! Prepare your brains, I feel a good old fashioned snowy mess coming our way. Later!

41 comments!

2010-09-07T22:52:00.003-05:00

Someone, or something, left 41 comments on different blog posts. So I figured if there was a malicious program running on my somewhat dormant blog, I might need to update. Well, this isn't an update but it will do for now. Let me toss this one at you. Have you ever been out on the chunk and you hit a rock just right, with the side of a lug, and it shoots off to the side? I call those "capacitor rocks." As if they have stored up energy from being run over, graded, and otherwise moved through the life cycle of rocks. Until they reach maximum capacity, and then shoot through the ditch to find a more dormant life. Most rocks will sit in place all of our lives and never be touched by anything but sunlight, precipitation, and other rocks. Imagining a little further, I wondered what it would be like to ride gravel if rocks really did store up the massive amounts of heat and compression that they endure during creation. Lying there silently, absorbing the suns energy, maybe even wind, (and certainly some tidal action,) until the wandering rubber vagabond gives them that little tick of energy to max out the capacity! Suddenly sediment, heat, mineral compounds, and ENERGY all blast outward in a huge display of destruction. Possibly setting off chain reactions as fragments of one rock explode into the other capacitors on the road. Now then, your little gravel escape from the boring just got a little more intense, didn't it! Then I think we might understand why people call us crazy for riding gravel. What if you hit a meteor fragment capacitor, and it unleashed a space-born bacteria on earth! Like an "Ice Nine" scenario! The freezing point of water re-figures to 114.4F and we're all screwed! Damn bikers and their space rocks! Oh well, I think we're all safe from that one, but still, avoid small black rocks if you can. Thanks. Later!

R Avenue Ravaged!

2010-07-07T23:34:00.004-05:00

The bank in the top picture is usually about 6 feet of black dirt and a little trickle of water. A sink hole ready to eat my bike, not tonight! And below, nothing better than a flask and a whole bunch of nowhere! All's well that ends well!

A storm popped up about eight miles North of town last night, dumping 5 inches of rain in just over an hour! Yikes! Kelli told me that there was a story on KCCI about how bad the roads were, and after seeing it on line at www.kcci.com, I just HAD to ride out and see for myself. Sure enough, the signs of high water were all around. One part of the story showed a father and son kayaking through the stuff. Wild.
Some of the roads were scoured down to the original dirt that lies below all gravel roads. I couldn't believe it. At least it was an intensely isolated storm and didn't dump all over the county with this Biblical proportion. Still riding gravel, just not Blogging about it much. Tried to get time off for Guitar Ted's Death Ride, but the "Boss" at work said no go:( Later!

It's That Time Of Year Again

2010-07-01T00:20:00.004-05:00

So peaceful and alluring that it draws people from all over just to stare at it.

Somewhere beyond that flask, beyond that water, into the misty beyond, the trails of Seven Oaks are waiting for a hero to come and ravage every rock and root. Will you answer the call?

A little exposure never hurt anyone, right?

Poor man's 9er, complete with 1X6 drive, clips and straps, and a set of floor jack- spread Cinelli bars on a Cinelli stem, rolling on 2.1 Notos XCs. Hummmmmmmmmmmm!

Safe-schmafe, just drive over it and pay your gas taxes. We know what's good for you, you don't!

Time for the river to flood out a major highway and foul up a lot of plans. Lord knows I don't need more obstacles in the way of people who might possibly be trying to get to our little furniture store. Close Hwy 17 for bridge repair, well, OK. I guess the good suburbanites of your western Des Moines areas will use their in-dash navigation screens to find a way to Boone to buy furniture. Close Hwy 30 so that all of our western Iowa advert audience has to pause before driving to Boone, not so good. Not funny how a few extra feet of water can screw up a solid 6 consecutive weeks, full page,(outside back mind you!) color advert in the major Western Iowa paper.
This water will be around for a "damn" long time, and we're barely into Summer. Oh Well...:( At least the gravel has stayed dry. Good old gravel. Give it an hour to shake off the rain and you're on the wheel! Later!

Cue 38 Special

2010-05-30T23:24:00.006-05:00

And push play on "Chain Lightning!" because that's what I just escaped! I left home at about 7:30 in clear weather, nice wind out of the North, and headed out on my usual route. I reached mile 13 (ominously) and the beautiful sunset I had been enjoying (think Klein Sunset Fade, Tinker Juarez era) turned to distant lightning. No biggie, I rationalized, as long as it stays in front of me. Well that didn't last for long, and before you can say, "When the time is right, the sparks ignite," it was all over the sky. Left, right, above, behind. Everywhere! Since there was no thunder, I re-rationalized, there can't be any harm in dropping down to my last gear, using the sweet tailwind I had just paid for, and rolling on...right? Clicked off a couple more miles and the sitch got to be too much for my nerves. Flashes of fear fired through my brain. "How did those guys on Trans Iowa keep rolling?" "Where is the next bolt going to contact the ground, or something else?" You know when you can imagine the news anchors saying, " A 44 year old Boone man was struck by lightning Sunday evening, while, of all things, riding his bike on a gravel road," that it's time to get off the road. So I whipped out the trusty celly and called my awesome wife for a ride home. No shame for me, just plain smart I thought. The fact that I continued riding until I met up with her, not so smart, but meh, I lived. She even interrupted her chic flick to haul me home! How do I rate?
I have been doing some night riding lately, just works better for timing with work (2 long days from 9:00 am until 8:00pm) and school schedules for the kidlets. Hard to work the tan lines at night, but as Guitar Ted witnessed the other night, the moon has been bright! The miles fly by at night when you don't try to keep track of where you are on a familiar route. I was out Friday night from 10:00 to about 12:45, and I felt like I was only out there for an hour tops! Had an interesting experience too. I noticed a strange track of some kind in the gravel. It was a cross hatched trail, about a foot wide, that criss-crossed the road for several miles. I guess I didn't think too much about it until I stopped at the beer totem to down a quick Miller (love the new/retro labels)

and started to hear voices down the road. Well, the breeze was straight out of the South, and the night was otherwise very still, so I figured it could be from a few miles away. Somebody banging something metal with a hard object, voices in distress, then quiet. For a moment I considered going another mile over before heading home, to avoid whoever it was, but decided to finish my champagne and roll on the usual route anyways. Well, I crested the top of a roller and saw what was going on. Some kids had blown a tire, rolled the bead, and continued to drive on it for about 10 miles with the tire flopping around. They had parked it in the bottom of the rollers to figure out a next move. Those bits of fender lining and tire tread I had seen now started to make sense;) It didn't take a BP executive to figure out that they were drunk and road tripping, so I immediately squashed any ideas of stopping, and put the hammer down! I flew past them, tires crunching gravel, Light and Motion Stella blazing, and calmly said, "What's up," to which one dismayed kid replied, "What the FUCK!!!!!?????" Must have been shocked, huh? I made it home fine, sure they did too. They didn't seem too phased by having driven on their rim for 10+ miles! I guess you never know what you'll see out there. Happy rides. Later!

*

2010-05-20T22:43:00.003-05:00

Andreu
Vaughters
Hamilton
Heras
Beltran
Landis
...

Me Likey!

2010-05-05T23:15:00.004-05:00

The Scorpion, by ETON. I saw this in a magazine, Outside I believe. All I can say is, "Must Have!" Stored power for the phone or MP3, and a bottle opener, among other amenities. Weather permitting (read:Sunshine), a person might be allowed to use this on Trans Iowa? Hmm? Launches this month, but I can't find a retailer for it around here. We cut up our credit card :), so I can't easily order one on the web :( Oh Well, Later!

One, Two, Moocher's Coming For You...

2010-04-29T23:46:00.008-05:00

So my beloved Moocher is the new Freddy Krueger! You gotta love that mash up! More mileage out of the Freddy story, and a second career for JEH, who's not loving that? Jackie Earle Haley is the greatest cycling actor of all time! Costner? Not so much. Quaid... not! I'll give Daniel Stern a shout out for even trying, and certainly the runner up must go to Dennis Christopher, but he lacks the bike handling skills that Moocher has, so he must remain seated! The award, for Meritorious Cycling Skills, held by a Screen Actor's Guild Member, goes to... "The little guy! The little guy is riding a lap!" Jackie Earle Haley as Moocher! Go to your DVD, cue it up to Moocher's 40 foot skid/dismount/handoff, and observe. Now that's how you do it son! Later!

Minimal is Fast

2010-04-18T23:40:00.004-05:00

This is my Brother-in-Law's bike for Trans Iowa;) He'll have the light kit on there somewhere and that's it. 320 miles fixed, on a 96/11. Watch out for sharkbite, that thing looks hungry. Good Luck Striker! Later!

FYI

2010-04-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

Cyclofiend has updated a couple of galleries. Thought you ought to know:)

Tesla Said It Best

2010-03-30T23:06:00.006-05:00

I believe it was the band Tesla who jammed out the bit of wisdom...

The Way It Is...

The Way It Was...
The Way It Shall Be...

26 WINDY miles of gravel and pavement today. Yes, half of it turned out to be a stint on pavement. It was just so nasty heading into the wind, with the gravel being so soft and deep, that I resorted to finding the easiest way home. I was trying, and failing, to make headway so I could pick Mitchell up from school, but ended up calling my lovely wife to beg her to do the fetching. Worked out fine, but I came home shelled and had no time for a little nap action:( I finished the usual 2 hour route in about 3 hours 45! So "The way it shall be" is more miles! Later! Hope the Trans Iowa riders don't have to suffer in a wind like this!

If You're Not Reading Urban Velo...

2010-03-28T23:40:00.002-05:00

You should be. How else are you going to find far out stuff like a disc brake caliper mounted under the chainstay, actuating a brake with the chainring as the rotor! www.urbanvelo.org Check it!

Gripstop

2010-03-17T23:55:00.006-05:00

So what was I to do when I saw this un-loved, too small, $9.99 deal of a Schwinn at Goodwill?
Well, I took it home and made a cheater's version of a Flying Gate design. I'll get the rear fender on there soon.

And as a "twist" I re-purposed some Grip Shift gear changers into brake actuators. A first, to my knowledge, but there are so few firsts these days. They do pull a lot of cable. Indexed brakes, what will they think of next! Later!

Jumping The Shark

2010-03-08T21:42:00.004-06:00

Well, I think that the novelty of riding on gravel has taken a huge step backwards. I see on Cycling News that the field for Strade Bianche this year was super stacked with talent. Pro riders, pro rigs, pro kit, all on Italian gravel. Hit up the thumbnail gallery for a look. Looks damn beautiful! Still, our little cycling secret is pretty safe until RAGBRAI announces a gravel option, right? Time to move on to a new "under the radar" cycling genre? Anybody wanna do Cycle Speedway this summer?

Now that's what I'm talking about!

My Route's 15 minutes Of Fame

2010-02-05T23:05:00.003-06:00

My little 25 miler that I ride all the time has been partially immortalized in digital film. "What's he going on about?" The end of my route was featured in a TV spot sponsored by the Farm Bureau. It has an interview with the man who owns one of the most picturesque parcels in Boone County, Mr. Jim McHugh. I stopped one late fall day last year to talk to Jim and found that he knows me as more than that crazy fool who's always riding his bike around, putting beer bottle caps on the fence posts. You see, the back story is a good one. My dad, Joe Moore, was the county assessor for 22 years. Now that is a hard job to do, collecting taxes from farmers! Easy to be disliked if you do your job right. Well, Jim is the stereotypical Iowa farmer if there ever was one. Huge hands, the size of a tilling disk, a voice so powerful that it cuts right into your heart, even without yelling, and eyes that look right into your intention! The type of person who has come to a level of wisdom via a life of hard work and honesty. An Iowan. Well, I saw Jim working some round hay bales with a tractor and gave him my usual "Hello there" wave. He shut down the tractor and motioned for me to come his way, which I did, wanting to tell him how I appreciate the land that he tenders so well. It really is a nice 40 acre place. Well I pulled up and he's sitting on the tractor and we exchange hellos. Then he casually says, "You wouldn't happen to be Joe Moore's boy." (not a question mind you) Well Shit! I can't get away with anything in this town, or in this whole stinkin' county! I have been told all of my life that I'm a dead ringer for the old man! So I fessed up and said, "Yes I am, but don't hold it against me." We both had a good chuckle and Jim related as how he admired my dad for sticking to his guns as the tax man, and as Jim said, "I wouldn't say that we were enemies, but we went around about a few things now and then." We talked for about a half hour about his land, how he decided to take it out of production and restore it to wetlands and prairie, and about the wildlife that has flourished there since he took steps to preserve the area. The enviro-geeks from Iowa State come out often and research plant life and water quality. There is even a guy writing part of his Master's on some research he did out there. Pretty cool, huh! Well, about a week later I saw a 30 second TV spot featuring water quality, and who do I see but old Jim McHugh himself. And some shots of his wetlands and Q Avenue in the background as Laurie (Groves) Johns gives her wrap up. It's a small world sometimes, and I love my little bit of it! Later!

Pants On The Ground

2010-01-24T00:25:00.004-06:00

I was watching American Idol with Mitchell a while back and was mildly amused when General Larry Platt came out to perform his now-mega-hit ditty, "Pants On The Ground." Good for a few reps of the hook, and our own jumbled mixing of verse and chorus, then it was off to bath and bed for Mitch.
Next thing you know, the video is everywhere! The DSM Register ran an article about the man and his stand up past with MLK Jr. et al, and a performance by Randy Jackson and Jimmy Fallon/Roots had cemented the ditty's place in my head! I couldn't get enough of it! Well, The tipping point to insanity was near at hand, and then the levee broke when I caught the clip of Fallon performing the song AS NEIL YOUNG! Pick your favorite conduit to this awesome clip and enjoy! I admit fully that I don't know how to link a video, so go to your favorite and watch. Then, use those imaginations and picture in your mind's eye what it would be like if performed by these fine folks:

Elvis
Guns - n - Roses
Talking Heads
Devo
Bob Dylan
Stevie Nicks
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Dave Matthews Band
Cold Play
The Boss
The Eagles
The Beastie Boys
Bon Jovi
Ray Lamontagne
B-52s
Macy Gray
R.E.M.
Grateful Dead (2 hour jam mix)
Amy Winehouse
or , perhaps the best mashup, Susan Boyle!

Sorry for that last one, but it would be fun! Jimmy Fallon should add a new bit to his show and have "The Pants On The Ground Jukebox" where he and The Roots spin a big wheel with the names of different artists on it, and then perform the song under the impression of the artist. I would love it! One thing is for sure, that song will give me PLENTY of ride stoke this year, I'll do all my own versions! I will be riding alone no matter what! Later!

P.S. Check out the new link, "No Visible Lycra" on the right. It's the blog of a guy from England who surfed to my blog with the Next Blog button, and read down to my Stanley post, after having bought the same "Thermos" himself! Puttin' the "World Wide" in www! Later!

Enjoying The Day

2010-01-12T22:31:00.004-06:00

Some pictures from today's merriment. The frost on the trees, bushes, wires, etc. was so brilliantly white! My ridin' camera doesn't show it very well, but it sure was cool. This one turned out blurry because of condensation on the lens, but it has a weird effect.

Some of the drifts were a good 12 feet tall, maybe even more?

I rode past one of the county grader operaters, Mr. Bob Matt,(a personal friend of myself and Kelli) and gave him a big wave. He immediately texted to his wife that she would never guess who just rode by on a bicycle, happy as hell! Well, I think she knew that it was either me or Sherwood Salem, the only two guys in Boone who would be on a bike today! Bob's wife is a beautician where Mitchell and Marshall get their hair cut, and Kelli had Mitch in for a trim today, so she had to answer all of the usual questions about my bike riding choices(Is he crazy? Isn't it dangerous? Does he go out in this weather all the time? etc. Yes , No, Yes:) I can't get away with anything in this town!
Oh, and the coffee I poured at 10:30 was still warm at my turn around spot, and when I returned home, and at 7:30 when I sipped the last capfull! Later! Travel Gravel!

New Riding Partners

2010-01-12T08:51:00.004-06:00

Select rides for the rest of this winter and into the coming years will now feature this beauty! 1.0 litres of fun loving, coffee hauling, green hammer-textured, made in the USA! convenience. For the heck of it I actually read the leaflet that was inside of the bottle, and picked up a valuable tip! I never would have thought of this, and when I mentioned it to a few people at work, they looked at me like I was retarded! If you pour some hot water into the bottle and let it warm the bottle for 5 minutes, then empty it and pour your beverage in, the bottle is pre-warmed and keeps the coffee warm longer. Works with cold drinks too. Hmmmmm. Who'd a thunk it?
Now I'm no coffee snob, not by a long shot, but I do like the idea of stopping in the middle of my route, popping open the pour valve, and sipping on a nice warm cup o' joe. Just black coffee with a little sweetener, no foamy crap, no pinch of nutmeg, no special, super-cool recipe. Water, grounds, 5 minutes to brew, and it's ready. Good to the last drop!
Did you ever notice that the coffee at work, wherever you work, tastes different than any other coffee? It's like the work coffee becomes the standard for taste, an index of flavor,and all other coffees, wherever you get your mitts around them, have their own flavor. At least that has been my experience. I only recently started making coffee at home, so maybe the home brew will take over as the benchmark taste. I hope so, as our coffee at work is CHEAP coffee! In a one-coffee-drinker household though, it is hard to get anyone else into coffee. Kelli HATES! the smell of coffee being brewed. Something about her first job, and having to get up at 5:00 am to go to work at the old folks' home, and preparing their Sanka, has spoiled her from ever liking coffee again! Too bad, as I read recently in the Wall Street Journal that there is valid scientific data that proves coffee to be beneficial to a person's health and well being.
So, I think I'll post this bit of non-sense and load up the Stanley, and hit the road! Oh, and I'll be buying this companion piece later today too! A little creature comfort goes a long way out there! Later! Travel Gravel!

Great Night Ride

2010-01-01T12:53:00.009-06:00

Wednesday night presented me with an opportunity to go out for a nice Winter night ride, so naturally I jumped on a bike and took off on my usual route. Conditions were perfect, about 25 degrees, fresh snow to the tune of about 2 inches, and a slight wind from the North/Northwest at about 10mph. Just enough to give me some boost on the way home, but not enough to really chill me on the way up.

I was also interested in testing out a couple of Goodwill apparel finds. I love Goodwill. It's so interesting to stroll through there and see what others have decided they don't need anymore. If you are patient, and a little creative, you can find some stuff that you will actually use. I snagged a pair of Thinsulate booties for a buck forty nine, and a Cabela's fleece lined, polyester shelled cap, for $.79! Still had the tags on both! The rest of my layering and outer shells always works pretty well, so these "new" elements needed a shakedown cruise. Both pieces worked out quite well. I rarely wear a helmet, so the hat was a great fit and is multi-adjustable for wind buffering capabilities. The booties were a little snug with thin socks on, so next ride I'll probably just go with the booties inside of my boots.

So, onward through the night, I rode the 10 miles up to my first turn, sat up to coast around the corner, and my rear wheel crunched and the cassette came loose from the freewheel body! Not Good Sauceman! Have you ever been 10 miles from home, in the middle of nowhere Iowa, in spitting snow, only one other person in the world knows where you are (and they were happy to get rid of you for a couple hours,) and your wheel craps the bed on you?! I stood there in disbelief for a few minutes, then thought of a way to MacGuyver the situation well enough to get back home. (No cell phone bailouts in my world:) I took a couple of zip ties out of my M.U.L.E. and a boot lace out of my left boot, and wrapped the lace around the outside of the cassette, between it and the drop out. A couple of zip ties to hold it in place. One more zip tie to close up the boot and I was moving again. I walked 2 hills just so as not to stretch my luck too thin, but rode all the way up to the point that seems to always hang me up when I really want to get back home, the UP main line crossing at the end of the Boone Yard!
Rolled home in a little over 2 hours and 15 minutes, thumbs up for the new riding wear, and a confidence boost for thinking and solving, without any panic ,for the mechanical issue. Gotta love it! Later! P.S. Northwestern just made the best comeback of any bowl game I've seen in the last several years!

One Year Ago

2009-12-27T01:05:00.003-06:00

Couldn't let today go by without recalling what I went through a year ago on this date. I had surgery on my left arm to relieve Pronator Teres Syndrome, and Carpal Tunnel! An hour and forty five minutes on the table, and a year-plus of rehabbing my hand/arm and I feel WWWWAAAAYYYY better! I have a nice scar for my efforts, and an operational hand and arm! Still having to do a lot of stretches to keep my hand from feeling like an M-80 just went off in my fist, but it's all good! Use the search mode on blogger if you want to see pics! "surgery" "stitches" or "nerve" will get some results! Later! Beware of Boxing Day!

60 Of One, 130 Of Another

2009-12-23T00:00:00.003-06:00

How is it that I rode gravel on Sunday for over 2 hours, no music except the wind in my ears, and rode inside today for an hour, and the times seem to pass at about the same rate? I rode the same gravel route I always do, stopped at the totem pole (Use the blog search for an image) for a Boulevard "Lunar" and rode back home. The gravel was sweet! About 90% snow, with a little gravel sprinkled on top. Made me want a coffee:) and it didn't hurt that I had "On The Loose" by Saga, stuck in my inter cranial MP3! Sometimes I think musicians are cyclists at heart, but that could be a cool post for later, so I'll carry on. (Seriously though, hit the lyrics for that one and read it through.) I rode the trainer today for an hour, no music this time, and it sure felt like a lot longer. Maybe it was the latest project bike staring me down, "Shine my chrome! That bike gets more love than me!" Or the gift wrapping I was allotted to get done, or the million other things I was going to do on my day off? Oh well, wheels were turning at any rate. Still, time passes at alarming rates either way doesn't it? Hoping to enjoy some good family time this week, and hope all your plans unfold for you too. Mike and Amy will hopefully be home Thursday, and my sister will be in town too. That's all the gifts I would ask for. Later!

Green Tires

2009-12-13T22:07:00.003-06:00

Does anyone remember a 26" tire from the early 90s that was a green color tread? I'm NOT thinking of Michelins, (although they are my favorite tire ever!) or Geax. These were a skinwall tire, had an arrow or dart tread up front and a block/paddle rear tread, and were a Kevlar bead perhaps? The rubber was a pine green color. I had a pair and couldn't get them to seat onto the rim for crap, so I sent them back. I'm just curious as to the name of them. I feel like I remember "Commando" or "Comanche" or something, but could be way off. I also wish I had my old Tioga Farmer John/Farmer John's Cousins back, just for old time's sake. Panaracer "Smoke/Dart" with Magic rubber, still in the garage. Onza "Racing Porcs", gott'em. (I would kill for a set in the white rubber!) Old tires are weird. I saved the sidewall on my FJ Cousin with some Shoe Goo, got a few extra miles out of them, and then tossed them. ARGHHHH! Oh well, there's a ton of old good junk I wish I had back:( Like my first ever MTB, a yellow Diamond Back Ascent which was sold to me on the premise that if I straddled the bike, and could pull it up an inch before the top tube hit my inseam, then it was the right fit. Seriously? Wish I had the old pair of Duegi shoes that got me through the mud race at Millville in ?'92? even though they were black with neon yellow and hot pink on the tongue. Or my neon green seat leash that I bought in Algona on RAGBRAI. Every purple ano bit I ever had!!!!!! My Mavic "Sunset Ano" rims that were built up with White Industries hubs, rudely eaten by a large stick, ripping the eyelets out of the back rim:( I could go on, but will never get that good old junk back. I guess I'll just have to save more of my current junk huh? Later!

Blog Surfing

2009-12-03T23:06:00.005-06:00

OK, I'm probably the last person on Blogger to discover this, but if you go to a blog and hit the "Next Blog>>" button at the top, you will be directed to another blog with bike content. How could I not have known this earlier? So I have become addicted to Blog Surfing and spend a lot of my online time doing it. Should cut down on porn viewing. What? No, I mean bike porn!:) I will compile a list of blogs from the linked blogs on the right, and you can see who your neighbors are. I got in about 35 miles of gravelicious crunching Tuesday. Good thing too, given today's weather! I stress tested my conversion of my poor man's 29er to a 1X6 drop bar monstercross setup. It seems to work well , stayed bolted together, and as I always say on a maiden run, "Bust it or trust it!" Later!
P.S. Find an issue of Outside Magazine and check out the "Parting Shot" on the back page! No, it's not my van, but it could be! I spy a Nishiki Alien on the lower right of the pic, two Schwinn Worlds, a GT-looking frame with a plastic pie-plate, it goes on for ever!

Sadly, I Want This To Work

2009-11-18T22:44:00.008-06:00

An indoor trainer. What has this world come to? I bought this fluid trainer and have actually decided that it will be good to have around for the winter. I thought it would be boring (which the first 15 minutes are) but I enjoy tuning out and jamming some tunes. BTW, Def Leppard Pyromania is a gem of beats and tempo:) So anyways, the concern I have is this, should there be this much wear on my tire from 4 hours of riding?

And should there be this much rubber all over the floor from it?

I think that this is what is happening, but have no experience with rollers or trainers to go by. That is, except for the rollers I made about a year ago, but they really never got ridden for long;)

I think that the contact is adjusted right for the start, the counter weight wheel spins just a smidge when the tire rotates against it. But a few minutes into the "ride" the tire expands from heat, and there is too much friction? All I know is, there are no "Bandag Bandit" stickers on my bike, but the rubber sure does fly when I drop the hammer! Any suggestions would be appreciated, I'll run out of trainer tires in a hurry at this rate.

The top image was from a day in October up in Stratford when the hot rodders came to town, and then left in a hurry. Yum, I love the smell of spent rubber and race-octane fuel! Later!

I Guess I Better Paint All Of My Bikes Black?

2009-11-11T22:55:00.003-06:00

I just saw this on Craig'slist DSM and got a chuckle out of it. Part creative writing homework, part coherent ramble. Read it and decide for yourself. Just watch out for me as I approach on the wheels of death and fury! "Baddest Tricross ever 4 sale" You gotta see this, trust me.

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T09:47:00.003-06:00

Thanks to all of the Vets in our country who have served in wartime and in peace. You can't have one without the other it seems. This year might be another year where my son's essay for the Ladies Auxiliary of the VFW could win the essay contest. Here it is:

When Is The Right Time To Honor Our Military Heroes?

When is the right time to honor the military heroes that call this nation a home? It's when America is staring down the barrel of the enemy and brave men and women stand to take the bullet for those who can't, for when the bullet strikes, when a loved soldier meets God in the life of eternity. And when he is gone you cry, you're devastated. But you must remember why he did what he did, for you. You must honor what he did for you. You can honor those war time heroes in peace times, sad times, happy times, and especially in the times that they must stand up to protect America and all of the people inside it. So I guess it would be wise and honest to answer this question as follows: The right time to honor your military and all of the people that make it is all the time in every place, way, and time. These men and women deserve America's highest regard for what they do, did, and continue doing. For all the blood shed overseas, and the sad, sad families of lost loved ones. These men and women are the pride of America. For doing what they do. This is why they should be honored at all times of their lives. For those who have a loved one missing in action, don't give up your faith, if they passed on, remember to honor them still as you live your daily life, stop and think, "I'm proud of you!" I honor my military in my heart a lot. What about you? Because as I said before, when is the right time? The right time is all of the time in every place, way, and time. Remember to honor. Honor the soldiers with all of your heart. God Bless America!

I'm going to ride over to my Dad's and visit with him this morning, and go to my Grandfather's grave and sit for a while. Unfortunately, I also have to get my car to the shop for new struts, so my day off will be full. Hope someone out there gets in a good ride! Later!

"Riding For Fun" Season

2009-11-08T19:20:00.004-06:00

The need to ride for conditioning is over for me, so I can ride more of my non-traditional bikes now, for the hell of it! And spend time building up bikes out of junkers! Here is an old Huffy Shadow that I started farting around with. It served first as a wheel trueing exercise. The back was a little out, but the front was a mess. So I loosened all of the spokes, tightened until the wobbles were out, then snugged up the rest. So far it's holding, but hasn't had any real cruising on it yet.

I think I like the drop bars better than the drag bars, not sure though. It will also have a 6 speed shifter on the right seat stay, another bolt for the relocated seat post, (gotta get it back and low for the ratty look) and the seat post blacked out. This will be a great bike for cruising to Kum & Go for a pop, or hitting the High Trestle Trail with the boys. Might even get brakes later:)

Here's a brain teaser for you. I was making my Diamond Back poor man's niner into a monster cross setup and found these little spheres somewhere in a metal tube. At first I was stumped as to what they were. Then I cut the round one in half and it became clear. Strange I never heard them rolling around in there until I started the teardown. We'll see how the monsterizing ends up, could be a rideable bike for Jinglecross? More to come on that later. Any idea what these are, and which metal tube they came out of?

Blue, This One's Got "You" Written All Over It!

2009-10-28T22:45:00.006-05:00

I stumbled upon this guy's site when looking at Rat Rod Bikes. Seriously, this guy should be making big bucks doing something this cool. I never got this much talent for anything! Check it out!www.cancars.webs.com Later! And with any luck I might even do Spooky Cross Sunday!

Sugar Bottom 1997

2009-09-30T22:50:00.004-05:00

Once upon a time, back in "the day," there was a Mecca for Iowa mountain biking. The Holy Grail of dirt. That place was, and is, Sugar Bottom Recreation Area. A race there was absolutely going to be stacked deep with fast and talented racers in every class. This weekend should prove to bring back some of the glory of SB in the two day races that are slated. The Collegiate Championships, are you serious? Fast guys you've never even heard of will be jammin' out some fast laps for sure.
All this is purely conjecture at this point, for as I tap this out there is a decent lightning show crashing through the skies. If you've never been on the trail at SB when it is raining, you don't know the hell that could be faced. With the variety of soil types found on course a rider can go from greased-snot slick, to 300psi-packed-in grime, to a Euell Gibbons choking mash of pine needles in the course of one lap! The people who steward the land there are usually pretty picky about the conditions under which they will run a race. If it's sketchy they have sometimes ,in the past, called it in favor of saving the trails from a bludgeoning. If the rain comes Thursday in the quantities expected there may have to be a later date for the racing. That would suck, so hope for the best.
So anyways, I was looking back at my scrapbook (that's what I did before blogging was even a thing) and saw a results sheet from 1997! And not just from a race at Sugar Bottom, but the final race in a 4 race series! All of them at SB! In one year! Like I said, it was the place for racing action. One year it was rumored that Deadly Nedly was going to make a showing after a race in Traverse City the weekend prior, but it never came to be. That would have ruled. I looked down the results sheet and began to notice a few names that seemed somehow familiar to me. Hmmm. Could it be that I just happen to have a long memory, or are some of these people still out there givin' 'er! You decide for yourself. Among the people I remember are the following;
Landon Beachy - winner of 35+ Beginners cat. for this race, second o/a in Beginners, 4 race series overall winner! As close to Ned as we have around here? Must be the mustache.
Stiles Cummings - Fast kid, a memorable name, and I'm sure still killing it somewhere. First in this race for age, O/A, and Series!
Steve Bullerman. Bike Tech. Fast! 1.56.31 in two laps.
Mike Johnson. Bike Tech.(But not at that time I don't think) Fast Now! 2.36.54 back then. Remember those days when you had to race that long Mike? Now you're back in the Magnum uploading your PowerTap to your coach by this time. Love the kid!
Chia Chad Vandelune. Old and fast. Guy has the must of three men!
Jeff "Auto" Maddox. Old and fast. Again, the old man strength that only age can bring. And the hairline to match.
Sterling Heise. Old and, well, he has some kick ass watches that he has begun to enjoy since racing has ended for him. Who new that he loves MMA and can talk UFC 103 all night. I do!
Tom Scholz. The guy from Boston? Prolly not!
Rick Cheevers. A teammate from the Irwin's days. Fast back in the days. 2nd in 35+ this race, 8th O/A this race, and 12th for the series.
William Stoffel (the elder) - Fast old guy, even in support of his son and daughter. Hey, he beat Striker in this race!
John Newell - DNF this race, but his rep speaks for itself these days.
Mark Mangrich - Unrealistically fast. Ditto his brother Adam. Genetics gone wild! Shades of the Brothers Carney.
Tony Hibbs - 7th this race, always modest in his speed. Supposedly quit racing?
Chris Maharry - 11th this race. Uber promoter and cool dude!
Bill Stoffel (the younger) - So casual in his rage! Smooth and silent. Bill stopped racing for a while there, and I actually beat him at Decorah one year! OOH!
Honorable Mentions - Brad Patty, Jeff Anker, Jason Alread, Marc Hollander, Nate King, Cully Todd, and some Jason Mc Cartney or something like that? Big deal I guess;)
Oh the memories. I remember so many of these guys. It sometimes freaks people out that I remember them when they have NO IDEA WHO THE HELL I AM! So don't bug if some soft-spoken guy with a mole on his jaw comes up and says "Hey" at a race. It's just me. Later! Hope to see somebody, anybody, everybody, at SB this weekend! Later! Travel Gravel!

The Pics

2009-09-22T21:51:00.004-05:00

Precision American Engineering, cast in concrete.
Note to self: I need to make a trials bike!
The whole enchilada! That's an impressive bridge, but I like the old one better. Too bad it will probably not stand for long (the old one) because as it continues to age and weaken, they can't afford to risk it falling onto the new one.

High Bridge Loop

2009-09-22T21:10:00.004-05:00

Finally! It has been about a year and a half in the making, and I was finally able to go out on my original gravel loop. The loop that created my thirst for ridin' dirty. The loop where I would bomb down washboarded gravel and suffer like a pig on the other side. All altitude is bought and sold on this loop as the downs are almost exactly equal to the ups. This is the loop where I would head out the door and my wife, not knowing if I was going road riding or gravel grinding, would have to ask! (That was a long time ago, she knows now that if I'm on a bike, I'm on gravel:) I would simply respond, "High Bridge Loop!" The route was impassible because of the construction of the UP's new bridge. They had a cement batch-plant set up on one side of the valley, and a multitude of trucks, excavators, etc. constantly droning around. I think they even had guards posted at the ends of the old bridge to keep snoopy locals and FRNs away.
I realized today that there is quite a bit of pavement on this loop. In fact, the first 20 minutes are on pavement, then you approach the top of the river valley and the gravel is waiting like a dusty, gritty escalator to take you down the first bombing run. Rumble over the Wagon Wheel Bridge, under the new High Bridge, and it's up, up, up! From there it's over the Humpback single-lane bridge, down and up through Hippy Holler, down immediately to Tilley's Hole, around to Water Works Hill (Iowa Games roadies know this hill) and home through town. I had not a single problem while on the dirt, but had 3 morons encroach upon my rights while on the paved roads in town. You know the story, it never changes. Some day I'm going to make a billy club and mounting rack. Make it quick release so I can pop it onto whichever bike I'm taking. Got a problem with me riding my bike Buddy? Say hello to my Little Friend! But I digress, for the post here is about enjoying a favorite old route. I used to keep track of my times on this route, and the fastest I ever road it was 56:06. Today was a lot slower than that, but I did stop for pictures, and I guess I'm not 34 anymore. So I'm told anyways;) Later! Travel Gravel!

Ideas For Strange Bumper Stickers

2009-08-26T22:26:00.004-05:00

Inspired by Speedblend Guy's random thoughts post, I have decided to share some equally random, and hopefully laugh-inducing, sniglets of my own. Let's back up and try to understand where this post began. I work at Redeker Furniture as a salesman. We are a family owned business, a fairly successful company, and overall pretty conservative as a bunch. However, as with all groups, there are a few nuts (you know who you are;) and among the nuts are (were) myself, my buddy Kurt Phillips, and a super-cool guy named Dave Wagner. Dave has since moved on to a real life and now works in HR for a company in Ames. Now Dave can sure think outside the box and we had many a hilarious conversation that would start with a simple telling of our weekend adventures, a recounting of a conversation with a customer, or a tale from times past. One person would start talking and the other would take it in a completely different direction, and before you knew it we were laughing with tears streaming down our faces! You know the times, right? I hope for your sake that you have time to laugh that hard at work!
So anyway, I was telling Dave about a bumper sticker that I had seen on a truck. It read, "Don't move firewood" and for the life of me I could not figure out what the hell it could possibly mean! Some nut actually took the time to have a bumper sticker made, to express his beliefs in a classic American format, and he comes up with "Don't move firewood"?!!! (I later came to understand that it is common for pests and insects to migrate from region to region via firewood bundles, hence the sticker.) Now we couldn't just leave a mystery a mystery, no, not us. We had to start screwing around and making up our own stupid bumper sticker ideas! Sadly, we didn't have the wits to right them all down, so some of the first ideas are not recorded. I started keeping a record of them one day and I guess I'll try to share some of them for the heck of it. Keep in mind that these are ALL direct quotes from actual conversations. The laughs come from the mis-placement of the context and re-purposing of the quotes into potential bumper stickers. Get it? If you were behind someone in traffic and saw a bumper sticker with any of these phrases on it, you would surely have to scratch your chin and say, "What in the hell?" OK, so here we go:
Do Not Rent Things

I'm Riding My Brakes To Help My Wife Eat

I Don't Know What Cheese Is

I've Never Been On An Island

Am I Going North?

Why Are We Both Doing This?

Magnetize Your TV Now!

I Don't Want You To Say "Notions" Around Me

Don't Sniff Bread

Read This With An East-Indian Accent

Move Your Eyes Like You're Playing A Piano

One Time I Wore A Space Suit At A Food Service Convention, And You Didn't

Don't Write "List" At The Top Of A List

and the ever popular Milk Is Not A Savings Account

Now I realize that this may not be at all funny. You had to be there, right? If, however, you would like to know the real context behind these quotes, just leave a comment as to which one(s) you find most perplexing and I'll respond. Let it bounce around in your noggin for a while before asking. You'll never get it on your own though, like I said, you had to be there.

In other news, I'm sick to death of every bike I own and want a new bike! I would love to lay down for a 1X9 rigid 29er, but it's not in the cards right now. Plus, it's so close to Interbike and the subsequent droolfest that follows, that if I bought a new bike right now I would be crying so hard you could hear me from your own digs! Some day though. If a GT Peace9er with Rasta paint showed up in my sights though, I would have to find a way. Love that bike. I had people laughing at my poor man's 29er at the race at 7 Oaks. That's OK, it's not really intended to be a legit bike people! Do you think someone would take a hybrid bike from 15 years ago (it was a Rassys sale originally) and stuff some 2.1s under it, and take it seriously? With an eighth inch of tire clearance front and back? With a chain stay bridge that had to be hammered forward a quarter inch for the tires to even fit? With a road cassette and stamped steel chainrings? With a quill stem to Aheadset adapter? With an SLR seat on a twenty seven pound bike? No, no, no, no, no, no, and no! I saw Marc from Bike World Ames talking with a couple of his bros at the roll-call, and one of the other guys tried to slighly point at my bike and get him to look over at it. He's too cool though, and didn't totally double take in disgust! Besides, he knows a thing or two about cobbing a bike together. He once raced Targhetto on his Schwinn cruiser. With a blue milk crate on the bars. With a pair of DH tires stuffed under it. With a one piece to three piece crank adapter! So there! Later! Run What Ya Brung!
P.S. You need these links! www.stickerjunkie.com and www.stickernation.com

Take A Minute, Laugh An Hour

2009-08-21T23:42:00.004-05:00

Do yourself a favor and click on Speedblend Guy's link to the right and read his Random Thoughts post! That's some funny shit right there! I have a list of quotes I have taken from "deep conversations" with co-crazy people at work that I have dubbed Ideas For Strange Bumper Stickers. Maybe if I can remember to bring them home I will post a few?
Racing 7 Oaks this Sunday, be there with some mud tires! I'm racing SS with my old friend the GT, 1.5 on back and 2.0 up front. Abuse will be induced!

Gravel Season Approaching

2009-08-14T23:54:00.005-05:00

The time is nearly here when the riding is at its very best. The time when those after work rides are the perfect temperature, the light is just perfect, and the gravel dust is a little heavier and clings to your legs. Ah, fresh gravel dust, makes you want to ride all day. You know when you can scrape the sweat-and-dust created mud off of your shins that you've been putting in some miles. Better not get too far ahead, we still have to deal with August after all.
I went out tonight on my classic loop. Added another cap to my totem pole. Appropriately, it went on the lowest possible spot. This was the last bottle of PBR that I brought back from Minnesota. Pure rot-gut, but it's 6 point rot-gut, so whatever. Can a person even buy PBR in bottles in Iowa?

I am kicking myself for not going down to Indianola last weekend. It started raining here as soon as I got my car gassed up, so I pulled the plug, stayed in Boone, and watched the Iowa Games 1 lappers come up Waterworks Hill. A beast for damn sure. One ballsy kid came up it on a fixed gear. Nice. My list of hopeful races for the rest of this year is a short one. 7 Oaks, Sycamore, Sugar Bottom. Can't see a way to race the 24 right now, but you never know what might happen. The solo men's should be a real fight this year. I hope that attendance is good for the sake of the event. Too many people go just to hang out. You need to race people! The sport won't grow from people watching!

If there are any of the Iowans out at Leadville who might be surfing blogs, I wish you all the best of luck! Leave an update in the comments if possible. And please, if there is a way Lord, don't let Lance win. That would be nice of you. Thanks. Later!

This picture shows a couple of interesting features of Central Iowa Gravel. Notice from the shadows and vehicle tracks how deep the stuff is here? This is typical of my area. About 2 inches deep in many areas, making the search for a good line a challenge. Also, a classic Q Avenue rolling obstacle. These two were not afraid of me at first, but probably smelled the PBR funk as I got closer and took off for safety. One still had a wad of grass in his mouth as he scampered off. Also, the top of this hill is where Marshall and I watched the meteor showers Tuesday night. We saw a total of 74 in about 2 hours! What a time we had. A great way to bond even tighter while strengthening the love of being out in the "wilds" of this great state. Do yourself a favor and check out the Orionid showers in October. Should be the nights of the 20th-23rd, but they're wildly unpredictable so who knows. Hop on your favorite ride and check it out! Travel Gravel!

Camp Ingawanis Race

2009-08-03T23:46:00.002-05:00

I put a number plate on my bike last Sunday up in Waverly, and actually felt like I raced my bike! It was fun again, finally, to try to beat people. Fun to have a strategy for passing or sitting on for a while. Fun to have fun! This was only my second time racing since last August at Seven Oaks, and I guess I can relax about my arm/hand now, since neither seemed to bother me during the action. A great feeling since the surgeon who did my work just released me from his care on the Friday before, I was loving that for sure. The trails were fast and dry, and I decided to leave my poor man's niner in the van and ride my 26" wheeled KHS. I think I made a good choice since the course is all twisty singletrack. I was sitting sixth wheel behind 5 niners for most of the first two laps, and I could see their lines were very different from mine. I think I was able to cut in harder and for sure was carrying more speed and momentum out of corners than the niner guys were. I ended up picking off all but one of these guys as the laps ran out. Hard to say if this was a great niner trail or not, but it is a GREAT trail for mountain biking. To think we only rode half of the system up there is crazy. Those guys have it made. I would rather have that trail in my immediate area than I would something like S.O. which I love, but something about fast and twisty is more interesting than steep and off-camber. A night race in Waverly, say 6PM to 6AM would rock! Plenty of facilities, great trails, awesome people. Perhaps the state could do with a second 24 hour event? Quick choppy write up, time to get ready for a week in the Okoboji/Minnesota area. Later! Travel Gravel!

Still Riding Once In A While

2009-06-30T23:42:00.005-05:00

I haven't given up on cycling, contrary to the appearance of my blog. I just haven't been updating much because I usually ride the same 25 mile route. I have had a few cool things happen lately though. I went out last week thinking I would have a nice hot ride. I've been waiting for the heat, because I'm more comfortable riding in heat than anything. Well, I took off in about 92 degree heat and nice sticky humidity, with a tailwind. Got to my turn back point, and stopped for a beer. So far so good. As I sat I could see the darkness of a storm coming from the Northwest, and thought I had better "beat feet" for home. As soon as I was about a mile into my 12 miles back I caught the mother of all tailwinds! It pushed me back to Boone at about 40 mph! That's my speed, not the wind! On gravel, on a road bike with gum wall Kendas! In 52/14 nearly spun out! The darkness soon swept in front of me, casting an eerie light on the sky. Gravel dust whipped down the road like smoke, and every power line was groaning a sinister, rumbling, death growl! It was surreal to say the least. I was counting the lightning strike/thunder clap ratio and had the strike pegged at about 5 miles back. Safe enough at the speeds I was moving. There is a mile stretch I have to ride pavement East to hook up to the last bit of gravel into Boone and I was damn near blown off of the road! I wish more rides were that eventful:) Tonight I was out after dinner and ran into another dog. By ran into I mean I ran my front wheel into his mid section! He charged out of the driveway of the farm my Aunt & Uncle Wirtz used to live on and just never even slowed down! I managed to keep cool enough to pull a lunge wheelie and clock him good, without going down on the road. He got up and ran back home, and I rode on for a half mile before I stopped to straighten my stem/bars back to center. This dog has never even looked up at me before, must hate Nishiki bikes? Damn Japs! as my Grandpa Cy would have said. So that was fun I guess. I'll leave you with the beer cap totem pole I have been creating. This is where I stop on my rides to have a beer or two and reflect on the events of life. You have to unravel somehow right? I have imagined some old farmer seeing this and wondering what the hell is going on in today's society when some nut puts beer bottle caps on a fence post! "Probably that nut who rides his bike past our place all the time. My dog hates him!" Later!

BTWW The Bitter End

2009-05-15T22:52:00.003-05:00

Well I got my garage opened up ;) and dragged a bike out and rode back to work Thursday after lunch. I knew that from there I would have to drive back to work after supper so that I could drive to Ames to pick up my car once work was over. I now have brakes on my car, and am $220.00 lighter. Friday was a mess of weather so I just caved in and drove both times. I will make up for my missed time on the bikes by commuting as many times as possible for the rest of the month, and beyond. One nice thing that I discovered again this year during BTWW is that my fuel gauge stays pegged at the top of the tank for a very long time if I just do a little schedule tweaking and make time to ride in to work. That's always nice. Plus, I have pretty much quit drinking pop since Lent, and have saved myself some bucks from that. I could so easily turn into a miser right now...kill the TV, put up a clothes line, start a garden and I'm there! Later! Travel Gravel!

BTWW Days 3 & 4

2009-05-13T23:21:00.002-05:00

Didn't have to work Tuesday, so no work ride. I did ride to my Mom and Dad's to borrow a C clamp, and rode back to Boone after taking my car to get the brakes fixed! I hate cars, especially mine! Today was super rainy in the morning. As in, "Damn, I don't even want to leave the house." rainy. So I rested my hopes on riding back to work after lunch. It was looking good too. The sun and wind combined nicely to dry the cement, and the clouds filtered out the direct sunlight perfectly. So I puttered around the house and went to pull out a bike for the ride back. I ended up with my '83 Free Spirit "D nasty" with tons of chrome and fenderage. Tires still aired up, check. Chain oiled, check. Looking alpha nerdy, check. What could possibly get in the way? Drizzle, that's what. A fine mist which gave way to a moderate spritz. I sat for a moment trying to talk myself into it when a gal in a Hover-Round came zipping by. A Hover-Round with an American flag proudly taped to it no less. Now you just don't see that every day do you? Well, instead of taking the obvious sign that Somebody wanted me to take, I said, "I can't go back to work looking like some drowned rat! Damn it!" and I hopped in my borrowed minivan and slunk back to work. Thanks to my disgust with my situation and general moronitousness ,I managed to lock my "bike vault" with the spare key inside and my main key in my car in Ames! Crap! So now I have no way to get a bike out for tomorrow unless I take the reciprocating saw to the lock in the morning, and buy a replacement lock before Kelli finds out what I have done. Oh I do love me a little intrigue! Lucky for me I had the supreme intuition to keep my saw in the basement. Me Smart! Later!

BTWW Day 2

2009-05-11T22:07:00.004-05:00

Today was a scrambled mess of running out of time and too many things to do. I worked on getting the brake pads out of my car for a good part of the morning, then realized I had to get some new pads to put back in (duh) so I rode to O'Reilly's and ordered them. Rode back and started dinking with a pocket bike I'm putting together, and next thing you know I should have been at work 10 minutes ago! Anyways, today was a shared set of fixed wheels on a Bridgestone RB3, and a Nishiki that I totally love. I know you see quotes on FGG like, "This bike is soooo smooth" and so on, but I think I finally understand what these people are trying to convey. This bike just doesn't need much from me except a few revs from the legs. One other rider at work today, on his own bike too! Yeah! He is trying to quit smoking and has been successful so far. Riding to work or for fun is a good substitute I would say. Good going Krengel! Tuesday is my day off and is already full of unwelcomed duties, hopefully I'll blow something off and go for a ride! Later! P.S. 100th Post!

Bike To Work Week - Day One

2009-05-10T21:21:00.003-05:00

Drop bar single speeds were the first and second bikes for this year. Saturday saw a black Fuji in the morning, red Schwinn after lunch. Looks like Monday will be a great day to commute, so I will have to choose a pair of fixed gear bikes for duty. In fact, I will be doing one pair of wheels on 4 or 5 bikes for Monday and Wednesday. Lucky for me it is BTWW because the brakes are out on my Volvo! Ride 'em if you got 'em! Later!

2 Things

2009-05-07T22:30:00.002-05:00

1. I am setting up a signup sheet at work for anybody who wants to borrow one of my bikes for Ride to Work Week. I will make any and all of them available (except brakeless fixed gears) for any of my co-workers who do not have a bike. I just want to try to encourage as many people as I can to at least try a day or two. I'm even going to offer to deliver a bike to their home for the times they want to try. Should be fun. Last year we had 5 bikes in the back room on Thursday of BTWW, this year we need to blow that up and hit a dozen or so!
2. I am in good with our Amish table maker and am going to ask him to turn me out some solid Hickory flat bars. Possibly steam bent too. He'll do it I'm sure, but at what price? Leave me a comment if you are interested. Sizes can be worked out in metric or fractional. This guy is genuine Amish, not some corporate "Amish image" hack! I want some single speed spacers too. Oh yah! Geek factor 10+++! Later! Travel Gravel!

I Bet Stephen Hawking Never Had This Problem...

2009-05-01T23:04:00.001-05:00

But when it comes to my biking hobbies I'm running out of space and time to continue 'em! Doh! Besides, he was always on two wheels! Later!

The Kids Are Alright

2009-04-15T21:36:00.010-05:00

Raleigh, sweet polished rims and a pretty solid build.
Unknown black and white. Nice!
Never-before-heard-of brand, Ghetto SS, lugged fork crown?,Fargo NDlicense. Nice in a
Sanford and Son kind of way!

Whacky green Duct Tape bar wrap, style points for front wheel knock-off nuts!
Cool Raleigh. I love the straight blade fork, and classic teal paint!
Serious mojo-itis going on here.
Easily the oldest bike I saw, and argueably the coolest.
Surly gettin' some love. Flipped commuter bars:)
John Deere mixte near the Ag Building(naturally!)
A Pacific! Yes!
Very nice Schwinn World Sport FG!
Sweet black tubes with white lugs. Carbon fork, Bonty bars, spoke card, etc.Must ride in with the Spicer Guy, Blue WS, and IRO!
Spicer, nice.
Old Nishiki commuter. Solid. Note red IRO behind it.
I totally love this bike. Whoever you are, you are the coolest biker on campus! CBOC!
Dark dark gray Trek at the DC. Flip-flop rear hub, and drum brake up front. Someone took a lot of time thinking through this bike and it shows. Nice!

Dahon folding bike. Actually looks quite cool. Good spec on it, plus it's blacked out! Bonus!
The kids at ISU that is! I rode over to Ames on Tuesday in hopes of finding a couple of cool bikes to post on here. I found that there are more than a few! I snapped these pics in a mere 45 minutes of geeking. If you have Google Searched "ISU Fixed Gear Bikes" and landed here, please take a minute to let me know if I have your bike on here. And if you like what you see, let a friend know! Later!

Check It!

2009-04-05T16:41:00.002-05:00

Here is a way cool home page that I was looking at. Looks like our own 24 hour race needs a computer graphics person in order to keep up! www.salsa24fest.com. Take a look. Later!

In No Particular Order

2009-04-02T22:41:00.003-05:00

I was looking at my roster of bikes today, a list I wrote up once to keep track of my bikes, and decided I would post it for fun. I wrote all of my bikes down on a square Post-it note, and surprisingly they all fit! I was inspired by a post from my Blogging Buddy Dwight ( Speedblend Guy). He posted his list the other day. I know sometimes it seems like I have too many bikes, but then I read posts from people who feel the same way about having six or seven bikes and I think, "Hmmm....I must be weird." So, at the risk of seeming weird, or looking like a bullshitter, or a bike slut who will ride anything on two wheels, I am putting up a roster of bikes that I currently own. They are all riders, not parts bikes or "leaners." I just received a nice old Peugeot from a guy here in Boone. Thanks Jamie! I will ride this thing! So anyways, here they are, with short annotations where prudent.
1. Red and white Hawthorne balloon tire, free from my Dad.
2. Avacado and gold Westpoint ballooner, $1.00 at church auction. Former BOTW.
3. Black Schwinn board track racer looking bobber, $15.00 garage sale bike. Former BOTW.
4. Campstove green Karate Klunker, free, former BOTW.
5. Red,black,white KHS Team Softail. My "race bike" $1200.00 online. Hate it/love it FBOTW.
6. Yellow GT Avalanche SS. The bike I have had the longest. Love it! FBOTW.
7. Flat Olive Drab Green Specialized Rock Hopper. Police Auction, $1.00 SS "Army of One" custom graphics by myself. Stuck 27" fixed wheels on it.
8. Silver Diamond Back Approach. $5.00 at Goodwill. Bought as a hybrid, converted to 29er. Tons of gravel miles on it. Love it! "Poor Man's 9er"
9. Flat Black Bianchi road bike, "Il Pirata" tribute to Pantani. 52/16 SS, used to be purple. I bought it for $85.00 at Bike Country, has a Sunshine Cycles shop sticker from Hudson, IA! Love the crap out of this bike. I used to ride it on the road before the day I first rode gravel:)
10.Baby blue metallic Falcon San Remo. Tasty old road bike I received from my lovely wife. Bought used at Bike Barn. All Superbe with Campy hs and bb. Too nice to ride very much, but has the miles on it.
11.Yellow Puch. Free from a garage sale (end of the day, wanted it gone) Ghetto SS. FBOTW.
12.Gold with green and red lugs Puch. Free from a guy. One of the few bikes I have painted. Inspired by Miller beer cans. FG. Sticker on seat tube says it came from an implement dealer in Decorah.
13.White Bridgestone RB-3. Free from a guy. Way too big for me, but too cool not to ride. FG. FBOTW. Love it!
14.Blue Sentinel Sophomore. Weird brand, originally sold in Council Bluffs @ Bill's Cyclery. SS. FBOTW. A solid old bike.
15.Maroon Mitzutani Seraph Spree. Free from a guy. Coolest head badge I have ever seen. FG.
16.Blue Rolls Racer Deluxe. Can't find ANY info on this one anywhere! 10Speed. $1.93 at Goodwill. License from Fullerton, CA.
17.Lime Green Schwinn ? Free from a guy. Fendered hot rod. FBOTW. Love it!
18.White Raleigh 10Speed. $5.00 at Goodwill. Internal cable routing.
19.Black with Rasta tape Huffy. 1X5 "Buffalo Soldier" Shifter on the seat post! FBOTW.
20.Silver Dodge Viper. $50.00 at Toys R Us. Bought on a dare to fix, ended up SS. FBOTW.
21.Faded red Columbia. Throwback MTB. Fun bike to fart around on. 2X5. FBOTW.
22.Black '84 Miyata. $40.00 at garage sale. Classic 80's graphics, hard ano rims with the awesome Panaracer Pasalo(?) tires.
23.Black Nishiki Rally. Fast fun bike. 2X7 FBOTW.
24.Orange Schwinn ? Free dumpster diver. FG. Slammed the stem down as far as it will go, modded seat post to bolt onto seatstay bridge. About a 60cm frame, just for fun.
25.Silver JC Penneys bike. $5.00 garage sale. 1X5. Has a bitchin' disc brake rear wheel and springer seat. My "goin' to get a coffee" bike.
26.Blue Schwinn Sprint. Dumpster Diver. FG. Great fitting bike for me. Vetta saddle I love.
27.Brown and gold JC Penney's FG. Free from a guy. Has a 4! ring crank! I call it "The Meat Grinder" Fun and snappy.
28.Blue Free Spirit Dynasty. DD. Ghetto SS. Full chrome fenders, chrome rims, chrome seat pin, chrome bars wrapped only on the drops. A lovely bike.
29.Black Hercules. Free from a guy. SS with foot brake. White tires, rims, pedals, and seat. My attempt at making a Pashley Guv'ner. Laid back geometry. Grocery getter.
30.Royal blue Performance MTB. DD. FG. Flat bar. FBOTW.
31.Blue and silver NEXT snowbike. DD. No gear, gravity drive! Absolute fun! FBOTW.
32.Blue and silver Raleigh Super C. $15.00 FG. Deep drop Cinelli bars, front brake only. Thanks Alex!
33.Gloss black GT Outpost. Free from a guy. Rad 80's graphics. SS. Needs more purple ano! Looks killer with Michelin green tires.
34.Black Columbia 10 speed. DD. Spotless old ten speed. Story City bike license.
35.Dark navy Nishiki Century. DD. FG. Lovely.
36.Blue Free Spirit Dynasty. DD. Ghetto SS. A twin to #28 but needs fenders.
37.Red Schwinn World Sport #1. $.25 at Police auction. FG. Was a total wreck, loved it back to a rider! Reminded me of an Eddie VH guitar, so I put 5150 on the chainstay.
38.Red Schwinn World Sport #2. $.25 at auction. SS with Michelin CX Muds. Love this one. Was also abused.
39.Gold Pacific MTB. $.25 at auction. FG. Was originally dark green but faded to gold. Looks like it's gold anodized so I wrapped it with hand made Miller graphics. Future BOTW.
40.Black Huffy MTB. Stripped down to SS with more Rasta graphics. Hardly ever ride it though. Cool curved/radiused bars.
41.Black with blood red splashes Pacific. Free from a guy. FG. Panniers and bags. Has a "Posi Track" front shock with no actual travel! Springer seat, comfy stretched out ride. Good for bike trail/path cruising.
42.Gloss black Fuji Silhouette. $25.00 Craigslist. SS with foot brake, 700 c wheels. Risked my life to pick up in DSM during a snow storm, cars littering I35, major ice etc. The guy was 10 minutes from calling the second person on his list when I finally showed up. It was worth the white knuckles! Love love love this one!
43.Red Huffy Rocket. $.25 at auction. This is a toy bike, but is rideable! Ask Striker! This is a 10" or smaller tire. Future BOTW, too funky to describe! SS!
44.Black Peugeot. Free from a guy. FG. I have wanted a Peugeot for ages! I am totally in love with the Lion graphic and the 4 color fade on the seat post. Always reminds me of TC's chopper on Magnum P.I. Why do I like that? Who knows, I just do! Have to research the bike shop sticker on this one. "Wheeler Dealer" with a guy on a penny farthing. Who knows where it's from.
So that is the list that I have compiled so far. There are a few bikes not on here , as they are not riders just yet. They'll make the team someday I'm sure. Plus, There are ALWAYS people ready to unload bikes onto some poor fool. Hey, I'll never say no! My dad helped me cart home 7 bikes a couple of weekends ago, and all but 2 will end up at the scrap yard. I took all of them because I felt like it would be cheesy to just cherry pick the two good ones. One of these is a cherry old Free Spirit 3 speed, fenders, rack, springer seat, and a bell! That one will be cruising to the pool this summer. I need to pull them all out and get a group photo. Anybody have a panoramic lense? Later! Travel Gravel!

If I Twittered...

2009-03-30T09:19:00.002-05:00

my blog would still look this barren! Devoid of substance! BORING! Bring on the hot weather please, I have had enough of this. Until my next Twit, Later!

Not One Of My Favorite Things!!!

2009-03-10T22:25:00.002-05:00

Somehow I lost all of the websites that I had stored in my "favorites" area! So if you don't have a visit from me for awhile, you'll know why. Most of the sites I go to are on my sidebar, but there are a lot of non-bike sites I'll have to try to remember. Crap!

Go...See...Do

2009-02-27T23:09:00.002-06:00

Go to www.captainbobinc.blogspot.com
See a man's dream
Do as asked, and leave a little sumpin for the good Captain too!
Thanks To All, Later! Travel Gravel!

25 or 6 to 4?

2009-02-15T22:53:00.005-06:00

What do those lyrics from Chicago mean anyways? I went out for 25 miles of Gravelocity on Sunday. Up my usual R Avenue route, back on Q Ave. Just to remind all of the dogs along the route that the moving target they all love so much is still kickin'! A bit of a big gear for so early in the year, but I only walked one hill.

Powered in part by some tasty Point Belgian White. Yum. I love their tag line, "Point. Well Made" More to come. Also, I just saw that Decorah is on a Sunday this year! Hmmm. Later!

Eberyting Is Otay

2009-02-11T23:13:00.005-06:00

I took these pictures before the surgery to remind myself of where I started. I lost almost all of the meat on the base of my thumb, as you may be able to see here. The wrinkles on the thumb/index/fu finger area should be filled out like the ring/pinkie side, not the deep folds that are there.

It is strange to lose muscles that are so small to start with. I went 6 months with no nerve impulse to half of my hand and it will just take time to build it back. Progress so far? I can make an OK sign with my hand now, where as this was all I had back in December.

My plan for recovery? More Cowbell, I mean More Riding! Later!

Send Me Your Good Vibes!!!!

2009-02-01T22:52:00.004-06:00

I am going in on Wednesday for the 6 week check on my arm, and my first question for the Doctor will be about riding my bike. As in, "So, is it OK if I start riding my bike again?" I've been a good boy after all. During that time I have only sat on bikes and wrenched a few in the basement.

My palm feels good enough, and if I could just get the dressings and steri-strips off and start messing around with the scar on my arm,(massage, bacitracin, work on faked out story, etc.) I would be back in the saddle again! So send me some good ju-ju! Panel of Pauls, this is your call to action! Later!

Usetacould Do Drawrings

2009-01-21T23:47:00.003-06:00

I have been bitten by the drawing bug lately. I used to draw all the time and was pretty good at it I guess. I have made about a dozen sketches of some cycling specific ideas, and as soon as I can find my pastels from my college days, I will try to lay down a piece or two. I am more of a precision/graphics oriented person, but I see these as being wildly gestural and unstructured. For me anyways. If anything cool comes out of my hands I will try to post a picture of it. Later!

Third Time's A Charm

2009-01-20T00:40:00.003-06:00

Some of you might remember a post from last year (2-06-08) in which I bragged up my oldest son for winning the VFW essay wrting contest for the second year in a row. Well he made it three in a row this year. I am so proud of this kid I had to share his heartfelt writings with you again. Keep in mind that the entire essay was written in about 10 minutes, after hearing the theme that they wanted it all based on. He was invited to read it at the monthly post meeting, and again, tears were welling up in the eyes of some of the guys, and most of the ladies as well. Here is the complete essay. Hope you enjoy.

Why America's Veterans Should Be Honored

When most people think of a Veteran they see an old guy with lots of cool stories. But they are far more than that. A Veteran is a person who puts their life on the line for their country, and all who live in it.Some of them don't make it out of the war they fought in. Some do. Those who do deserve to be honored. They are those who fought the Germans of World War I, the Japanese of World War II, and in Vietnam. They fought for us, isn't that worth being honored for? I would think so. A Veteran is a very wise person. All of them have risked so much for us, so much for the world. I am very proud to live in a country with these kinds of people in it. The Veterans that inspire me are all around me, and I am very proud of it. They survived being shot at, the harsh and sometimes very hot climate, and the grim sadness of watching his or her friends being killed next to them. You see they may live in pride, but they also have to live in sadness. Imagine sixty years ago, that you were fighting in the war with an Army comrade and then the inevitable happened. Then sixty years later you have to live your life sad and miserable. Seeing someone die is hard to live with, and most Veterans must. So for those who think that Veterans are just some old guys that tell cool stories and fought in wars that happened a long time ago...think again. Veterans should be honored and should always be honored forever and ever. They protected the country we live in. God Bless Them!

Bike Of The Week: Karate Klunker

2009-01-14T22:25:00.004-06:00

Since I am not riding any bikes until my hand/arm is better, I might as well post a couple of bikes to geek out on. This one is one of those that the Salvation Army people just would not sell me. They must get their asses chewed if they don't hang on to merchandise and refuse a sale or two. So one day on my lunch hour I went in to look around and see what else I could find. I asked again for the millionth time if they were ready to sell me that old bike out in the fenced in donation area. A resounding "No" was all I ever got. So on my way back to my car I noticed that the Salvation Army truck was backing up to the back door. Thinking that the bike might be in their way I jokingly said to the guy in the truck, "Hey man, why don't you talk them into selling me that bike and you won't have to work around it anymore." The driver looks at the bike, looks back at me, and says, "Why don't you just take it and we'll forget it was ever there." Nanoseconds later I was wheeling it into the back of my Volvo and headed for home. It sat in my garage for a solid 18 months before I even looked twice at it, but that is the way of these things. They call out to you when it is their time to be ridden. When this one finally found it's voice I was amazed at the condition, or lack there of, that I found it in. Someone had done some screwing around with this bike and stopped just in time, before doing harm. It had a spray job of gray primer all over, and red enamel on the fork and rims. Now I'm not a fan of spray painting old bikes by any stretch. I like the original paint. Fading, peeling, scratches and all. If you can tell that a bike has had a few rides in the trunk of a car, then you know that it has been around. How many miles do you suppose were clicked off in the trunk of some old Bonneville, with the lid chattering on the top tube? Many of my bikes have these tell-tale signs of alternative travel and that's the way it should be. There is a hole about the size of a Milk Dud in the non-drive side chainstay from a bent crank arm rubing over the many miles that were undoubtedly ridden on this old Hawthorne. Also, every bearing cage and cup in this bike was clean and dry. No grease in the headset, bottom bracket, or either wheel. I promptly fixed this near death situation and since the bike was torn down and looked like hell, I decided to paint it. I considered many schemes for the paint, including a Van Halen "5150" red/black/white, and a blaze orange, but landed on camp stove green since Kelli had bought a can at Dollar General to paint a couple of chairs that sit on our porch. I wasn't about to get all hung up on beautiful paint and perfect surface prep since I hate painting bikes anyways, so I just shot some white first, let it dry, and put some vinyl lettering on the tube. Shot the green over everything and peeled off the lettering to reveal painted-on graphics. Blacked out the rims/hubs/spokes and wrapped them in 2.3 Tiogas that I dumpstered from BW Ames. Needed a little chi-chi so I put the bottle opener on for the hell of it. Believe it or not, that seat is actually quite comfortable. I took this bike out for a run through Jordan after I had put it all back together and it rides decently. This would turn out to be my last ride before the surgery I recently had. I love that it is a skip tooth drive train, but it also has a slipping forward gear that will require some tinkering someday. But with my current bike count at 42, there are other things to do! Comments ifnya gottem! Later! Travel Gravel!

Bike Of The Week: Throwback ATB

2009-01-07T23:05:00.008-06:00

I bought this bike, yes paid money for it, at the Goodwill here in Boone. 15 bucks. I was originally only going to take the brakes off (Mafacs) and save the whitewalls that were on it for my Schwinn board track cruiser. But as time passed I saw this bike as a more interesting sum of the parts and kept it pretty much original as it came to me. The only changes on my part were to slip the Porcs on there (Curses, why would I ever have thrown out my pair of Farmer John/Farmer John's Cousins:( and change the seat from the hard plastic Troxel (which I still have:) It is a Columbia and as you can see, the paint has faded and patinaed to a nice two-tone red/base primer. I really like the controls on this bike. You see, back in the day, before men had buffed and clearcoated nails, and used their thumbs for texting their order to Applebees for "Curbside To Go" they used their thumbs to shift the gears on their ATB! This pic shows the direct crossover from motorcycle parts. I mean look at those brake levers! Looks like a Norton Commando gave up its levers. Somewhere, a Honda 50 is saying, "Damn, those are some levers now!"If I had 8 fingers on each hand they would still be roomy! And sorry Ergon, but you're not the first to include a palm pad on a grip. I admit though that the green Ergon uses is cool. I had thoughts of cutting a couple of inches off each end of the bars but changed my mind in favor of the pit drying riding position afforded by a 32 inch bar spread.

You know I have to keep it period correct and ride in cutoffs, a T shirt, and some old Redwings right? White tube socks with two green bands at the top, oh ya! Makes me want to grow out a vintage Tom Ritchey 'stache. Later! Travel Gravel!

A Sore Sight For Eyes

2009-01-07T08:06:00.005-06:00

Here's the damage folks. Too bad that my camera didn't capture the full range of purples and greenish yellows. But this ought to suffice. 8 year old Mitchell says it looks like a baseball that got flattened out. Feels fine and has never hurt above a 3 on the pain scale. Now I'm excited to have the stitches out and get going on feeling better! Later!

Mark My Words!

2008-12-28T22:29:00.006-06:00

There will be some sweet riding opportunities coming in the next several weeks for sure. Like a lot of warmish Sundays, or some Tuesdays with light fluffy snowfall, or maybe an old friend in town calling everyone out for a group ride. Gravel scraped down to a 3 foot wide dirt ribbon with copious amounts of fresh white snow on either side. You know, the kind of riding I would love to do:) But alas, I have had to submit to the blade of a surgeon, and have a rather nasty left arm at this time, so you know I'll have to miss something cool! It's only natural. Wasn't this going to be my first year to take both of my sons on BRR, without towing either in a Burley? Yes. Wasn't it the first year in many for that guy in Napier to offer a frame building class, on Sundays no less? Yes. Did I not get a fleece facemask, Louis Garneau Lavamits, a Surly hipflask and trimmings, and a 20 pack of Michelob for Christmas? Yes. Can I drink a couple of harmless beers while on Oxycodone? No:( Oh, you know it's going to be a good couple of months of riding for the rest of you, you're welcome! The down & dirty goes like this: nerve pinched in left forearm(Pronator Terres) in June. Dr. A says, "Go see Dr.B" who says, "Go see Dr.C" who says, "Give it 6 months, and stay off of your bikes, and we'll see." Flash forward 6 months, barely a tire turned by myself except for commuting every Monday and Thursday and the odd gravel ride or six, and still no improvement. Dr.C says, "Go see Dr.D" who says, "You need me to do surgery!" (wink, cheesy smile, light glistens off of his ultra-white teeth, and a "ping" to punctuate 'surgery') Surgery day after Christmas was for decompression of the Median Nerve, and since he was in there he relieved a bit of Carpal Tunnel! What a guy! "Needles to say" I'll be off the bike for awhile, and considering that feeling anything with my fingers will only come back at a rate of an inch per month from the middle of my arm, it will take about a year to know if it was even worth it. I shouldn't get too far down though. Remember, there are people in this world who are far worse-off than me. Like the people who don't know how cool biking is! HA! Later! P.S. Now I have a reason to buy some Ergon grips! Pics to follow after the wounds are unwound. Right now they're wrapped up "tighter than a gnats ass sitting on a lemon wedge!" and that's tight!CIAO!

This Just In...

2008-12-11T23:13:00.002-06:00

The latest issue of Bikerodnkustom is posted and looks like a lot of good stuff will be in it this time. I have been waiting for a new issue for a long time. Go check it out! Linked in my "Good Stuff" at right. A must read, the Amsterdam coverage. Those guys blur the line when it comes to "biker" images. Taking bicycles and mashing them up with motorcycle looks. All the way down to sleevless leather vests with custom insignias. I wonder what my "Gravelo" bad ass biker vest would look like? Gotta think of a secret biker handshake too! Hmm. Later! Travel Gravel!

Headset Press

2008-11-19T21:46:00.002-06:00

Dwight, here is a photo of the headset press I was referring to. I would suggest that if you try this you should buy a bolt with a hex head on it, not a round headed bolt like the one here. That way you can get a wrench on top and bottom. If you start the headset cups nice and level they will press in no problem. Make sure that the washers are a much bigger diameter than the cups so that they seat the cups down with more equal force. I had to use two washers on each end as the big washers have a big hole in them, so I stepped up to them with a washer that has a hole closer in size to the diameter of the bolt. Does that make sense? It went together like this:

BOLT / SMALL WASHER/ BIG WASHER/ BIG WASHER/ SMALL WASHER/ NUT:)

I'm sure you'll find more creative setups on the web, but this one is easy to do also. Good Luck! Later! Travel Gravel!

How Do I Copyright This?

2008-11-02T23:29:00.002-06:00

I will never start a post about politics on this blog, and this one is really more about a creative idea that came to me today, so RELAX if you don't get it or like it. There will come a day when you hear someone else say the term, "Obamanomics" and you will remember that you saw it here before he was even elected! For better or for worse. Later!

Fixed On Gravel Part 2

2008-10-28T23:50:00.004-05:00

Rode the same 25 mile loop today on my Schwinn Sprint fixed gear. What a beautiful day to ride! Wind was just enough to give some cooling and a slight bit of resistance.

Fresh gravel was a bit of a mixed blessing. Fun to first-track a freshly maintained surface, but there is no hard packed line anywhere, so you're always searching for firm track.

I stopped for some water and the leaves from this tree were showering down like rain. Short post, more later! Travel Gravel!

Fixed On Gravel

2008-10-20T23:29:00.004-05:00

What a way to travel. Rode a 25 miler a couple of Sundays ago with my buddy Sam Adams from Boston;) Started out as a coolish overcast ride in a long sleeve jersey and shorts, finished out as a rained-on, grinning all the way fun ride. I'll have to ride the same route on my Schwinn Sprint, Bridgestone RB-3, Specialized Hardrock, Mitzutani Seraph, Performance, and GT Timberline to see which fixed I like best on the gravel(so far, more bikes are always on the horizon.) I had clips and straps with an old pair of Duegi shoes for a stiff platform, haven't made the trip on clipless yet. For anyone who knows or cares, my hand issue has not corrected itself since June so I am regretfully considering surgery before the end of the year. The hand thing hasn't kept me from riding for the hell of it, but I have only raced one time this year and that has been a drag. I thought I was going to get into cross racing this year:( Maybe next year. Mindless ramble over. Later! Travel Gravel!

Sastre, I Knew It!!!!

2008-09-30T23:06:00.002-05:00

Please see my post from July 28th. Never trust anyone with a professional racing license! Also, be on the lookout for an upcoming cartoon by yours truly, to be published in 'Toons. So Dark The Con Of Lance! Later!

2008-09-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

RIDE MORE.

OFTEN.

One Man's Group Is Another Man's Pain Cave

2008-09-11T23:16:00.002-05:00

With all of the talk and pseudo-legislation about group rides and bans, I was wondering why we cyclists are letting these people define what a "group" is. Who are they to say? If 10 people leave a common point on bikes and spread out, it really ceases to be much of a group almost immediately. If someone is riding even 4 or 5 feet away from another cyclist, at their own pace, spinning or grinding, busting a nut (or labia) against a wind that won't stop, then that is a SOLO ride. Send that same group of 10 out for a ride and have them each record their experience. The recounting of the ten stories will be as unique as the author of each! That singular enjoyment of essentially the same thing is one of the reasons I love cycling so much. I do my thing, you do yours, and we'll still have the shared experience to draw us together. Simple, right? Later! Travel Gravel!