Every Year

Last week was crazy.  Return of horrible rib pain, crazy work schedule, and obviously, not much blogging.  So here goes another stab at being regular.

Friday morning started early, due to the kickoff of BIKE! Charlotte.  The first event was the Mayor's Ride, and with having an actual mayor this year we were in.  As always, we do a "ride to the ride."  It's been in a few different locations over the years, but this year we returned to a location that we've used in the past...  Uptown Cycles.  Great shop, and with a a few changes they are getting even better.  I'm grateful that they let our local mountain bike club, the Tarheel Trailblazers, meet there for our annual BIKE! Charlotte kickoff.

Anyway, after the crowd gathered we hopped on our bikes and headed to the meeting spot a short distance away.   And here's where I give a special shout out to DeFeet for letting one of their employees take the day off to support cycling in his community.

Lunchbox!

On a side note, that little ride full of climbs hurt me.  My ribs suffered a setback last weekend when I decided to ride on an actual trail, and after taking a bunch moar days off to heal my fitness went right back down the shitter again.  Meh.

Anyway, we met up at the usual spot just south of Uptown Charlotte and the crowd was small.  After a few minutes of concern, a huge crowd rolled in and our group looked better.  I heard that the count was about six hundred.  Not bad for a bunch of folks that are supposed to be working.  After a short speech by our new mayor, we rode through the streets and headed for breakfast.

The Mayor's Ride concluded at the Government Center, where we were treated to an awesome free breakfast.  It was a great way to start the morning.

I do this every year, and haven't missed one since I moved to Charlotte.  Although it seems like they hate people on bike the rest of the year, events like BIKE! Charlotte are a good way for people to see how important cycling is to our community.  I'm glad we have stuff like this around, and an awesome community of cyclists to support it.  

Now, if I could just get myself back together.  Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.

Let’s Start Early

Today is my Friday.  I’m off tomorrow, and it’s a pretty important day.

BIKE!Charlotte kicks off tomorrow, starting with the Bike to Work Breakfast.  We're rolling out of TotalCyclist bright and early tomorrow morning, riding from there to meet tons of other cyclists from all over Charlotte.  This was called the Mayor's Ride a few years ago, but our mayor ruined that...

I digress.

So I guess you figured out that I won't be here tomorrow.  If you're local, then I expect to see you on your bike tomorrow morning with the rest of us.  It’s a really fun ride and very important for us here in the Queen City.

Bring any kind of bike.  I’m bringing my Klunker.

See y’all Monday.

Fun Friday (Thursday Edition)

What?

Well, I'm busy tomorrow. I'll be up early for the kickoff of BIKE! Charlotte.

We're rolling out of Total Cyclist bright and early tomorrow morning, meeting tons of other cyclists from all over Charlotte for the Bike to Work Breakfast.  This was previously called the Mayor's Ride, but since our mayor got in a little bit of trouble a while back...

Anyway, I won't be here tomorrow. I'll be there.  Having fun and riding my bike.  If your're local, then you should be there too.  It really is a good ride, and very important for us here in the Queen City.  I can't wait.

And yeah, since today is the Thursday Edition of Fun Friday, I shall try not to disappoint.

Yeah.

Okay, one more.

Happy?

Neither am I.

See y'all next week.

Bike Riding Is Fun

You know, in spite of what I wrote yesterday.  Keep those guys in your thoughts (and prayers if you do that sort of thing.)

Saturday was the Big Bingo Ride here in Charlotte, and a whole mess of us met up down on the south end of the city to participate.

The object was to ride through a predetermined route while stopping at certain checkpoints along the way to get numbers for your bingo card.  We rolled out at a casual pace towards the first checkpoint, while some people were treating it like a race.  Good Guy Greg and I spent the first leg chatting with Faster Mustache team member Zac about single speed gear choices and whatnot, and when we arrived at the Common Market South we almost forgot to go in to check our numbers.  I guess we were more concerned with the social aspect and riding rather than the bingo.

We got separated form the group, but eventually we caught back up.  The next stop was the McGill Rose Garden, which was pretty neat I guess.  I’d never been there before, but it was pretty…what with all the flowers and junk. 

We got our bingo numbers, and watched as one staff member sifted through used coffee grounds for some reason.  

The next stop was just up the road at the Trips For Kids Recyclery. 

We nosed around there for a bit, and once again got separated from the group because good Guy Greg and I were too busy checking out bikes.  We eventually caught back up again, but only because I had to really pay attention to the arrows marking the course.  I kid, it was actually the easiest navigation I’ve ever done in my life.

Rolling up the street towards the next stop, we passed a place that wasn’t on the route but we couldn’t pass up.  I mean, I like beer and all.

It was as if the whole group was drawn to the NoDa Brewing Company, and it was a welcome stop on a warm, sunny day.

The ride was good so far, but the fun factor increased exponentially after that.  After only one beer, we managed to pedal up the road to Smelly Cat Coffee.

We had some cold coffee and brownies, grabbed our bingo numbers, and made the trek down to Common Market (again, but this was a different one.)

And of course we had more beer.

Lando Calrissian approved.

And everybody was Kung Fu fighting.

At this point I was really hungry (and still didn’t have Bingo), so I was happy that one of the next stops was for frozen yogurt.

They gave us cups that we could fill up however we wanted, and I made the most of it.

Maybe I was drunk or something.

With only a few stops to go, I was starting to think that I would never get Bingo.  We had to hurry, because all that stopping for beer had put us way too close to the cutoff time.  We rushed though the last couple of checkpoints to head to the finish, and it was still pretty fun.

  

We were one of the last groups to roll in, and I bet we had the most fun.  It was probably the slowest I’ve ever ridden a bike in my adult life, and I don’t even think I got the slightest bit tired.  We drank a few more beers, ate some food, and reflected on how great of an event that was.  Riding around the city for beer and food is pretty cool, and hopefully a lot of people realized how easy it is to get around on a bike in Charlotte.

I know I did.  Now, I’ll have to do it a little more often.

All Bike Stuff

Just the way I like it.

Last night, we had an impromptu trail work day at RTS (formerly known as “The Trail” only days ago.)  We recently acquired some new features via donation.

Since I didn’t want these sitting on the side of my house too long, so Good Guy Greg came over and we met TomTom at the trail to get these out there.  We have an idea for a good use of these skinny little bridges, but we didn’t really have time to get them installed.  Lugging those heavy ass structures out in the woods took a little longer than we thought, but we’ll be back out there soon to put them where they belong.  It’s spring, you know, which means longer daylight hours so we can get shit done.

It also means that we’re gonna start seeing more critters out and about.

Springtime has brought new life to the trail, and it has a whole different feel now.  With all the leaves and new growth, it makes it seem like you’re in a more remote location, rather than in the middle of one of the busiest areas in Charlotte. 

That’s the creek we re-routed back in the winter, and it’s doing quite well, thank you.

Man, it’s so nice out there now.

In other news, I have lots and lots of two-wheeled action planned for this weekend, starting tonight.  As soon as I can get outta work (early I hope) I’m heading down to The Spoke Easy for their Bike Charlotte Party.  I’m not sure what’s going on down there, but it’s all good because there will be beer.

That’s pretty much all I need to party.

Saturday will be a first for me.  Instead of heading out to a local trail, I’ll be riding in the Big Bingo Ride.  I’m not sure what to expect there either, other than the fact that I’ll be riding my bike all over town at a leisurely pace.  And yeah, there will be beer there too.

I like beer, but you already knew that.

I guess that sounds like a full weekend and all, but if the weather cooperates then I’ll get out on my bike somewhere in the woods on Sunday.  I’m sure I’ll be having dirt withdrawal by then, so the rain better stay the hell away.

And now, I’m gonna get outta here.  I told you, Fridays are slow, and most of you have a short attention span on the last day of the week.

Later.

Why Am I So Tired?

I’ll tell you why.  It’s not because I “raced” in the Rivers Edge Mountain Bike Marathon this past Sunday.  It was all the shit I did leading up to it that wore me out.  In fact, it might have had something to do with my performance out there.

I haven’t slept well over the last few weeks, and I could’ve used a good night’s rest before my big race on Sunday.  Instead, I got up early to ride with the Mayor for Bike Charlotte.  We met at 7:00 a.m. sharp Friday morning at Queen City Bicycles, and the crowd was a lot bigger than I expected.

Photo Cred: Bart from Queen City Bicycles 

We hung around for a few minutes to wait for a few more folks, and we rolled to the meeting spot near Uptown Charlotte about one hundred riders strong.  We had a police escort and everything, so it was pretty rad.  Once the mayor showed up, he gave his little speech and we rolled out again, this time heading into the heart of the city.

Once we got there, everyone started lining up to get the free breakfast.  That’s when I saw Dicky sneak to the front of the line to get his before everyone else.

Since the line was really long, we took an opportunity to talk with the mayor (who has recently been nominated to be the new Secretary of Transportation.)  Lunchbox got a nice photo op with him.

The fun didn’t stop there though.  We hung around for a bit, then I had to take Lunchbox back to school (he’s a good, responsible kid you know.)  The rest of the usual crew wanted to meet up for a ride, so once we all got our shit together we took a nice stroll through BYT.  I didn’t take any pictures, but I can assure you it was fun (and tiring.)  We headed over to a local watering hole afterwards for some grub, and after we ate and had a few beers, I received a survey that for some reason was already filled out.

Pffffft.  I took it with me instead of turning it in.  Bastards.

I still had more to do that night, so I headed home to get cleaned up.  I had a rolling birthday party/pub crawl to go to later that evening, but instead of managing my time responsibly I ended up falling asleep on the floor while I was stretching.  I woke up with what I thought was plenty of time to spare, but when I checked the start time I found out that I had only about thirty minutes until I was supposed to be there.

Shit.

I texted Good Guy Greg (who was also unaware that we were gonna be late) and told him that I would be there as quickly as I could.  Since he lives near where most of the festivities were taking place, I parked at his house and we rolled through the city to find the rest of the cycling pub crawl/party goers. 

We rode through Uptown Charlotte for quite a while, and we eventually found them all.  It was after they had already hit one brewery, so we had a lot of catching up to do.  We rolled into NoDa Brewing Company (which we had passed earlier in our quest) and did our best to catch up with beer consumption.  After spending a little time there, we rolled out to the next destination which was a small pub up the street a bit.

We had a good group of nearly drunken cyclists by that point.

We stayed there a while (still drinking of course), and eventually we rolled out again to head to Common Market which was only a short ride away.  We were all feeling pretty good at this point, and having a shitload of fun.  The details are fuzzy after that, but I do remember being on a rooftop with a pretty good view of the city.

Eventually I called it a night, although a lot of people stuck around for even more drinking.  I didn’t crawl into bed until 2:15 a.m., and I had one last thought before my head hit the pillow.

“I’m getting too old for this shit.”

I still had to get up the next morning for another full day.

All this happened on Friday, by the way.  I got into a whole bunch of shit on Saturday too.  Of course, I’ll get into that tomorrow.

Ride Your Bike

Because that’s what I plan to do.  All damn weekend.  And by the way, that starts tomorrow.  I took the day off from work, so that means I’m taking the day off from here too.  I’ll be busy first thing tomorrow morning with the start of this:

That’s right, Bike Charlotte kicks off here this weekend, and the first event is the Mayor’s Ride.  And once again this year I’m leading a group from our local mountain bike club, the Tarheel Trailblazers, starting at Queen City Bicycles.  We’ll roll out in a big group to meet up with the mayor and tons of other cyclists from all over town, then we’ll ride into the city like one big happy family (roadies included.)  We'll have free breakfast, get free t-shirts, and talk with our local politicians about bicycling here in Charlotte.  All after starting off our day with a bike ride. 

Although the ride isn’t very long, it’s very important.  If you’re a member of the local cycling community here, come on out and show your support for bicycling here in Charlotte.  It’s a really fun ride that has a huge impact.  Besides, I’ll be there.  Isn’t that enough reason to show up?

In other news, I plan on trying yet another endurance race this weekend. 

The Rivers Edge Mountain Bike Marathon held in the Uwharrie National Forest is Sunday, and this will be my first time actually “racing.”  I’ve volunteered as a medic/course marshal since this event first got started, but now it’s time I man up and enter it.  Of course I’ll be riding the Falcon, in its full rigid form.  The primary goal is to complete 55 miles, and the secondary goal is not to die in the process.  I’m not sure if I can do it, but that won’t stop me.

Every other endurance race I’ve done has been for a certain amount of time (i.e 6, 8, 12 hours etc.)  This time though, to finish the race you have to complete five laps.  Even if I don’t finish, it will still do me some good.  Good Guy Greg will be out there with me (on gears this time because he’s smart) and I even heard that TomTom is running a duo.  Maybe we can get the gang back together for a party pace lap to ease the pain.

I just want to survive.

It will be a rough day, and I will make it even rougher by staying up late the night before.  I’m heading down to nearby Fort Mill, SC for a crawfish boil, which features beer and live music.  Not just any live music though.

These guys will be there:

My man Shane from DeFeet is rolling into town to play with his band CroMoly, and I can’t wait.  This time, Lunchbox finally gets to see them live.  We’re obviously big fans of DeFeet here at B-43, and also big fans of good music.

That’s a helluva lotta stuff going on, and I didn’t even tell you all of it.

Damn it, I’m gonna die this weekend.

See y’all Monday.

Rollin’ Through The City

Friday, we left the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters all bright and early to meet up at Queen City Bicycles.  Then, it was time to roll out to the Bike Charlotte Mayor’s Ride.

I’ve been leading this “ride to the” Mayor’s Ride for a few years now, and this year I was really surprised at the turnout.  I think we had close to 50 people in our group, and it was really cool to have so many of us on the scene.

Lunchbox is always happy to be there:

Before long, Mayor Anthony Foxx arrived and we were ready to start the “real” ride.

There’s nothing like riding into the city early in the morning.

A free breakfast was provided, and some people were already getting their grub on…

While I took the opportunity to introduce myself to the Mayor as the Vice President of our local mountain bike club.

I swear I didn’t get that photo just for this blog, although in hindsight it was probably a good idea.

After hobnobbing with the Mayor, we hung out and socialized.  Of course, Lunchbox was hanging out with the ladies.

Eventually Little Miss Sunshine tried to get a word with the Mayor, but his personal security team seemed to be ready to take her out.

It was another great Mayor’s Ride, and I continue to be impressed with the amount of cyclists that show up.  Sure, some people only come out for the free breakfast, but at least they are on bikes.  Thanks to everyone from our local club that got up extra early to ride with us too.

My day wasn’t over though.  There was more bicycling adventures to be had, this time in a land far away.

Well, Uwharrie isn’t that far away, but it’s so isolated out there that it seems like it is.  I took my new friend Tom out for a ride on the fun trails out there, and we had a great time.  In fact, we had so much fun riding that I only took that one photo.

Sometimes you don’t need photos to prove you had fun.

Unfortunately, I’m such a shitty blog writer that I need photos to tell my stories.

At least I took photos at the Mayor’s Ride.

The Weekend Is Right Around The Corner

For me, that is.  Tomorrow is a day off, and as usual I’m planning to ride my bike…a lot.  Tomorrow morning is the Bike Charlotte Mayor’s Ride, and we’re starting with our own ride.  You may remember that we did this last year.

We’re meeting up early in the morning at Queen City Bicycles, then we’ll have a group ride to meet up with the mayor and tons of other cyclists here in Charlotte.  If you’re in the area, then you should be there.  You may get a chance to meet me, which is probably high up on everyone’s bucket list.

After that, I plan to head over to Uwharrie for a little single speed action.  I need a day to myself, plus I have to really start thinking seriously about Single Speed USA.  It’s a little over two months away, and I’m not really ready for riding in the mountains of Vermont.  You can bet your ass that I am ready for the beer drinking part though.

I guess that’s it for today.  Since it’s technically my Friday, I don’t feel like going on and on about bicycle nonsense.  I already have my sights set on the weekend, and I’m rip roarin’ and ready to go.

Maybe I’ll have a Star Wars dance party.

Twister might be better.

See y’all Monday.