Redfield Depot

Dad rode out to meet me on the ride today. Offsides pizza & beer. mmm beer

Paris Hilton

Good picture of a bad dog

7K

I was looking at comments on my post yesterday and Griz informed me I had rode 6900 miles so far this year, so after adding in the miles from yesterday I was at 7016 miles I thought that worthy of a little bragging. I admit some it is with beer and at 15-18 mph and some is on Bike Trials but I'm not even in the same country as perfect (doesn't the Oboma live in DC) but I still will say 7k on the bike and less than 5oo in my car. Tomorrow will be my 13th century this year I am a little disappointed I didn't get a double century in this year that ride to Lincoln NE last year was the best 14 hours I've ever spent on the road (at least that is the way I remember it).

Taco Cross

Since my wheel on my mountain bike is still in the shop I took my Cross bike to the taco ride. This was like bring the knife to a fist fight (with Mike Tyson) Cross bikes are a little faster than 29r mountain bikes but 32c tires offer no forgiveness on the dirt those little sticks and sand and walnuts force you to slow down more than usual in corners, but it was still fun I was even able to ride hillside with my higher gear ratio.

After much thought (my head hurts now) I'm not doing quarter rage on my cross bike tonight, but I will be riding down with beer and my son (who is already dress and has his water bottle filled up and ready to go) to watch the "race". I could have made a new class the over 30 minute class.

Nice Racks

part 3 & 4 on the touring bike

this is a borrowed wheel from the pile.

ya he likes the bike shop

it doesn't work with the 16" bikes

Cyclocross = Pain

After last nights Renegade cross I have decided I'm not racing cross this year. After the 3rd lap my back hurt so bad just the impact of dismounting was almost to much I slowed down to a medium pace and finished the 45 minutes out, this is some personal thing about finishing stuff. I stop at AK's with some of the riders for a couple beers and the O'conner blue burger (good burger) I think the final nail in this cross season for me was the 3 hours laying on an ice pack and washing asprin down with wine, so I'll be out there to watch (drink beer next too) the races this year so look for me and a beer hand up at the top of the hill.

Today I have also ordered my lighting for the touring bike. I of course got the son28 but the newest light looks to be the coolest thing since freewheels (they were cool) Busch & Müller Lumotec IQ CYO This light is brighter than the fly from last year (60 lux compared to 40) but the picture of the light output is impressive. So next year (if I ever find enough money) I'll be the blinding light on the road/trail.

Feeling good.

Took a "medium pace ride this morning before work with some of the guys on the rassy team. I as usual brought the knife to the gun fight, however I always get a good work out with that bike. The medium pace included 32 mph bombs down hills in glen oaks country club and grand ave. On the fixie-cross thats fast but I'm getting a lot better at holding the cadence on the downhills and still having something left for the climb that always follows. I thank Lou for the push back up to the peloton after I fell off the back going down grand. Then some fun on the "dangerous" bike trails. Some kind of run this morning going downtown at least the runners don't seem to mind us blasting through at 20 mph. We also climbed the famous hill at McKrey (I'm sure thats spelled wrong) it's not as bad as I thought it would be with the way everyone talks about it. Anyday that I can get in a 30 mile ride before work is always a good day and most of my congestion and yuck from the last 3 days seems to be gone.

Century 12

Yesterday marked the 12th Century for the year. Uneventful except my body didn't think I was going to make it and threw a lot of stuff at me. First my stomach hurt who new caseys pizza was bad for you. My legs started complaining too and around 70 miles or so I realized that I was riding on a new brooks seat so my butt hurt a little. 70 miles was when I grabbed a beer at the Panora store and then I felt a lot better. Century 13 next weekend at the Dr Bob ride.

"Taco" race.

Sunday 9/13/09 marks my first mountain bike race. Time trials on hillside/rollercoaster and Targetto. This may all sound like a big fish story so I'll get the fish story out of the way:

Ended at Fish camp on the river I was the 5th person to start the second time trial so I was there for a while waiting for everyone else. There was beer there as I recall. Also Swag, a "taco", and a lot of poison ivy.

Okay the fish story out of the way heres the day. 5:45 am up and ready to go quick stop at mcdonalds for some race fuel and off the the races. Got down to the trail at 6:30 and started to set up the course. We were going to run roller and hillside backwards. I haven't ever done rollercoaster backwards so I was in for a treat.

The race started at 9 each of the 48 riders left on 1 minute intervals I had signed up early so I was the 9th rider out (ouch). First lap started with some speed and I flew (by my standards) through hillside. I had spiked my heart rate to 195 on the first climb and not let it recover until I was onto rollercoaster. I made it through everything on rollercoaster except the last hill (root climb from hell) I was really close but let a rider pass me at the bottom and I think that and maybe a couple other things(being 25lbs over weight, old, single speed, fat, ex-smoker, and lazy) left me running up the hill. My first lap down 4 miles in 21 minutes I was on top of the world (possably seeing things) I planned for the first root climb on hilside that I ran up the first lap the plan was hit it fast. This climb is a 110 degree turn onto a 25% grade with sand and roots. I hit the turn at 15-16 mph and picked a bad line and planted my tire on the root at the bottom, right over the handle bars. Got up collected myself and ran up the hill. My front wheel was "taco'd" so bad it wouldn't clear the fork. I hit it a few times until it would clear and was ready to call it a day. So I rode at a medium pace for 5 minutes or so and decided that the wheel would make it and I was going to finish even if it was with the bike over my shoulder. The rest of the ride was great finished at 48.09 so my incident cost me 5 minutes. Still I was very happy with that time first mountain bike race 2nd week on the single speed and only minor injuries.

The afternoon at sycamore was also a blast I got the wheel "trued" (beaten on the ground) and was ready to race took off 5th in front of Kyle. After all the jokes ahead of time about passing I was determined to stay ahead of Kyle it's only 2.6 miles I told myself. As always confidence come before the fall I slid off the side of a rut and over the bars. This trail is a 6 inch wide peace of dirt in between 2 deep 4 wheeler ruts. The wheel is taco'd again. There were some choice words and a good wheel beating. I didn't even look at my time as I knew it would be bad. Some day I'll finish a mountain race on a working bike.

Pics From Squirrel

Here are my pics

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017193&id=1243456583&l=43023c0b9f

Morning Mountain Ride.

Any morning that you can wake up early get on some bike clothes and hit the dirt trails before work is a good day in the making. 2 Laps in Denmans this morning was exactly what I needed. That and 4 cups of coffee. I'll be heading down early in the morning to help set up for the time trial tomorrow should be a good time. Hopefully I won't be the slowest newbie-mountain biker but you never know.

Trade offs. :)

I turned this...

Into this....

Using Craigslist I'd like to thank the guy named craig that invented this because I love the new mountain bike and the truck was well useless. Now that I have the new bike I also am useless the new bike takes up too much time so I don't get anything done. So Obama can kiss my stimulus package!! Plus I still have $500 dollars left after the deal. Parts for the touring bike.

Empty.

My son went to his first day of school today. Now my house that is normally insane is empty. This is the first time in a long time that I've been bored before work. I Still need to fix my commuter (broke a spoke) but Retro-bike is doing just fine as a commuter. I did miss my cup holder on the handle bars last night as I had to hold my beer all the way down the trail. Maybe I need to stop drinking and riding. My back is a little better today so hopefully a short road ride tomorrow night to martensdale or adel.

Nice hill (seven oaks)

awesome

Touring!

Touring!

nothing like the open road.

100 miles on the new Haro

After 100 miles on the new single speed mountain bike (7 days) I have to say why didn't someone make me get one of these years ago? 90 miles on center trails and 10 on summerset today. Summerset is easier on the single speed.

Century 11 Learning the darkness.

Yesterday I set out around noon for a gravel century. I'm not calling it a gravel century though because half of it was on paved highways. I rode through Grimes, Granger, Woodward on my way to seven oaks (near Boone) It was 51 miles to the trail at seven oaks I had come to watch a couple hours of the 24 hour mountain bike race. I arrived around 4pm with a dozen beers in my trunk pack so I was set for good race watch'n. I found a good spot to watch on the top side of the camp grounds (my single speed barely made it up the long gravel climb to the camp grounds) I got to talk to several people from Iowa city that had people in the race. I still think 24 hour mountain bike race = Insaine, but that's just me so next year if I'm entering anything like this please throw beer cans at me (make sure there cold) or something. Around 8:15 I decided it was a good time to head home. I wanted to be home before midnight. I have rode in the dark alot but never 50 miles and never on gravel. The paved 10 miles from seven oaks to R ave went by fast and I hit the gravel at 18mph or so (18 is the fastest comfortable speed on my single speed cross bike) Normally I slow down and dodge rock piles and other stuff on the gravel, but since I couldn't see any of them I held this pace for a while. At Granger (half way) I turned off the gravel and took R30 (Alice's Road) me and the bike are covered in white dust. In Walkee I noticed Wendys and that look good enough. I have to say after 90 miles and nothing to eat but trail mix and nuts that was the best burger I've had in a long time. Had my last 2 beers under the overpass entering clive greenbelt trail around midnight then took 60th/EP true home for some sleep. My 3 hr night rider light ran for 4 hours on the way home and was still running when I got home.

Limited edition Brooks swift

48 of 250

Last chance for a beer before the highway.

Bikes, Trains and Automobiles

Wednesday night is always a good time on the taco ride but yesterday took the cake. It was my first taco ride on my new single speed 29r. I was surprisingly able to keep up with everyone we went through Denmans from Rassys in under 20 minutes. After a beer I lead one group that split into Squirrels nest as we approached the train bridge I was determined to make it up the hill and over the rail onto the bridge. I did make it over the rail the 4 guys behind me got on the track and one of them yell there is a train. I look back as I'm already on the bridge about a hundred yards back is the train. So I yell go fast and we rode across. We had 50 yards of clearance when we got off the bridge but it was still cool. A couple of laps of hillside I learned that I can make it up all the hills and switch backs on hillside! A quick run (like 4 minutes) down rollercoaster and it was off for taco time. On the paved trail there were only 8 or 9 of us left in the group and we took off down the street. This is the Cops part of the ride a mini-van hit the group head on ( no injuries) however we were angry that he sped up to hit us so we had the great idea to chase him down and drag his dumbass out of his car. We did show some restraint and didn't hurt him (everyone knows if you want to hurt or kill someone you do it in a car that's the only legal way to kill people) maybe next time he'll think before doing stupid stuff in a car. I guess the lesson is don't mess with mountain bikers. The other lesson is don't bring a cross bike to the taco race someone might toss you in the river or at least next to it.

In the Dirt.

Went out for the second day in a row to center trails. I have found that even on a bad day a ride through the woods is the best cure. I got to denmans with the hopes of a couple of slower laps and going home early (first time I stuck with my plan). It wasn't really a bad day but my stomach was upset and felt kind of bla the last couple days however there was still a smile on my face the whole ride. I thought about the years I've spent in a car angry and frustrated while I waited (patiently) for 10 minutes for a train to cross next to Squirrels nest. In the car you I would have been angry impatient and irritable. On my mountain bike I just set and enjoyed the click clak of the train cars and felt the thunder in the ground as it went by I then resumed my ride. All I have to say is Thank God for the Woods.