i am gonna be killin' it for cyclocross season

what's 45 minutes of 110% effort compared to breaking your jaw and biking home, and then having surgery.

it's all about perspective, i've been to the pain cave.... ain't no big thing!

jaw wired shut, titanium in body

luck still not running out, same area as a injured in 1985, different surface/abrasion. is it rad or just plain stupid! i have never seen as much liquid percacet as i have now in my possesion. (0) (0)

weekend riding and family

ella has a new bicycle, turns 4 tomorrow and she's up and at 'em. jakob is happy to be riding tandem with dad on the trail-a-bike, it's good to be 7. we loaded up both and my wife and i met our friends at lake harriet for a picnic. my buddy had a large trailer and brought a grill, cooler, tons of food.
i might race or i might take some long road rides. MTB racing seems most attractive at the moment. we'll see how i feel after taking a few hot laps at theo wirth trails. it's gonna be a great summer.

update of sorts

• bridgestone xo2 : riser bars, no more road levers and mustache bars, geared, need some new tires ,think i found a pair 1.75 with some tread
• meister: 42 x17 ss now that the bridgestone is up i can pull the cx tires, and ride fast
• schwinn le tour: as close as it's ever been, crank and shifters close

been riding a whole lot more since the van bit the dust 3 weeks ago. $1500 in repairs on a 15 year old van means it's time to donate that money pit. so the wife and i are car free. april was cold may was a little bit too, riding is great and i'm doing it as often as i can. Not thinking about racin' until fall. i'd rather ride than blog about it

out on the road in the cold

i like riding in spring and fall the best of all. and the beer in your bag stays cool, y'all

from the hip

enough of the fore play let's just spit on it and shove it in. hipsters have seized on the concept of bicycle touring. One local bikeshop was lousy with the kids looking for a consultation. and this is a bikeshop that's only open on a saturday from 12-4. i mean really it was like waiting for the record shop to open so you could get in line to talk about that album from somebody you've probably never heard of. and there you have it, i don't need anything special just want to get my crap , talk a little bit and get out and back on my bicycle ASAP. buy the print above at HC


you knew it was coming to this, the signs where all there, rivendell waiting till they became fashionable again, brooks leather saddle more popular than ever, and the immortals a Rapha UK staging a road bike clothing revolution. i'm not gonna talk anymore the bike and coffee-shop combo either, i kinda like that. gravel road racing is good and i respect the ethics of the trend. but in the end its people thinking they are better than you cause the have more time to pay attention and actually follow through on things that are kinda cool but ultimately not all that big a deal. i've always said that being a hipster is a full-time job and i have children to raise and food to put on the table.
Now where i am find that 300 bucks i need to finish the touring bike i've been putting together for the last 2 years? you see i actually know a little bit about bicycle touring like an old man should. the trick is to do it on the cheap and expect the unexpected , bring a chain tool but don't bring an extra chain. you see, being a hipster is cool but don't get all excited about it, and spend too much money. on a lighter note, i think i found a cage for the pickled herring i plan on taking on my next spring road ride/tour, is that for a quart or a pint.

spring fever

alright, so i didn't commit myself to anything this year. i had signed up for almonzo three years running and canceled in april every year, not gonna even hope for it and maybe then it'll happen.

[insert photo]

well.... there is that visit to crc before the doors close. ya, uptown is so over, except of course for this guy, but he's Pittsburgh. we'll see if i ever feel like blogging again, i could tweet my life away. if you can't say it in a haiku, then yinz aint no friend of mine. enough name dropping for now, see you in the funny papers

update, bike build

the meister has bell lap cx bars and white tape, i'm riding as often as possible, maybe tonight.

cyclocross summer

yea i'm thinking i should re-build the sin-glee speed psycho-cross. last month after hearing about it for years i had occasion to ride on the single track in theodore wirth park. it was nice, but i just have a feeling i would be more comfortable at high speed and with the style and grace of a cyclocross bike.


we'll see where this takes me

what's up with that....

so i have a quirky taste in bicycles. actually i'm a broke mother fucker, and i ahven't the time to make everything work correctly, the bridgestone needs a renovation. i went out on an off road ride recently, it was fun and challenging. the single track wasn't the problem it was the ride there and back. gotta get that bike build thing figured out, i'm not happy with the stem height or the bars. of course that little fix would require that i invest some money, slow down old man.

Cyclocross season is 5 months away, i don't normally race in september, too fucking hot. Nice rain tonight/today. maybe i go rebuild the meister as a CX rig again and that means i have to build up the schwinn and that means money...it can wait.

riding many more miles that i used to, biking to work a full week of commuting would be sure to give me....let me see, about a 150 junk miles. they would be junk if i commuted like most, i don't. so i'm getting about a hundred miles a week in then, a few days i get a ride there and bike back or i drive both ways, better than nothing.

last week and yesterday

so i've been riding my bike to work recently, from SW mpls/Richfield to NE mpls. 12-15 miles each way depending on how much traffic i want to avoid. takes me between an hour and an hour a quarter or maybe an hour and a half.... i could probably do it faster. first day i went there and back, hurt my taint that ride. i've been getting a ride on some mornings and biking back home. today again we'll hit there and back again, let's hope it doesn't rain.

no photo

i'm not a commuter, i ride my bike to work

to work 12 or 14 miles

here we go, bitches...

so it has come down to this. i did a recon ride in my home town last weekend. i realized that i am a cheap date. after 3 pints in an hour and a half, i was loopy.

so, i am riding. took my bike to wisconsin, didn't ride as much as i wanted to, but then i never do. 30 days without a break should be easy.

witches hat

photo courtesy of jim thill

can't say i made it to the highest point in mpls today, but i did go on a bicycle journey. mechanical issues prevented me from fully enjoying the ride. the meister has been in more mechanics stands today than is has seen in the last year. i'm not going to bore you with the details, suffice to say it sucks to be my mechanical support team.

• fitness; nominal.
• saddle time; maybe 2 hours,
• ride time from door to door; 9:45 to 14:00, 4.25 hrs
• weather: glorious, 55-60 F, pt sunny to clear
  
• road conditions: lame, moist in places, loose sand/gravel everywhere else

hasn't hit me yet

fixed gear or single speed? 42 x 16 should be nice. either way there will be losers. single speed or fully loaded touring , there will be hills. i guess i could just get on with it

considering the future

like the immediate future

this summer....

gravel road racing
almonzo
dirty benjamin

mountain bike racing
wors

ice and snow

rode to and from the 46th street station and took a bus to/from rosedale. where is the angry catfish and why ain't they open at 9:30 pm? had to stop by a liquor store in nokomis cause i couldn't get a decent cup of coffee. Oh yea, i missed the bash at CRC and i could have had both i guess. but 34th ave is not 34th str. and driving a bus all day takes a little motivation out of you.

weather: 20 F and little snow on the way home
roads: excellent winter riding conditions

monday night cyclocross

someday, there will be a monday night cx race, and you'll be sad you didn't show up. i'm just warning you....