My Own Ride For Others

I had a nice three day weekend.  I did a lot of stuff, but of course it wasn't enough time.  The fact that I had an extra day off wasn't lost on me though.  I know why we "celebrate" Memorial Day.  To me, it's not for cookouts or any of that stuff, but it's okay if that's how you celebrated.  As a veteran, I wanted to do something to honor those that came before but gave much more than I did.  At first I wanted to go the National Cemetery up in Salisbury but that would have required driving.  I wanted to do a bike ride of some sort (and didn't have the legs to go that far and back), so I eventually decided to ride down the the Mecklenburg County Vietnam Memorial.

I took off out of the house a little later than I wanted to, but that's okay because I pretty much had all day if I wanted.  I rolled out of my neighborhood and said a quick hello to some of my friends.

My route into the city is pretty easy, and without even trying I was making good time.  That is, until I got within sight of the tall buildings.  I heard something that sounded like whistling, so I stopped for a minuted and noticed that I had a flat.

No problem.  I looked in my bag and found a brand new tube and some co2.  I changed the tube and when I went to fill it, I realized that I had forgotten to put an inflator in the bag.  Shit.  With almost two miles to my destination and no bike shops open nearby I had to figure out what to do.  I briefly considered calling the little lady for an extraction, but she was on call for work and I didn't want to bother her.

So I did what any former soldier would do...

I hoofed it.

It was hot outside already and my shoes weren't exactly made for walking.  Still, I pushed on, considering that my little bit of suffering was nothing compared to those that I was thinking about on my ride.  Besides, the views were sorta nice.

It didn't take too long (maybe 45 minutes?) and I had made it to my destination.

The monument honors Vietnam Veterans from Mecklenburg County, and it also lists the names of those from here that lost their lives in that conflict (think smaller version of the one in Washington.)  I walked the entire length of the wall, and I read all 105 names on it.  I must be getting soft in my old age, but it brought a tear to my eye.  I was definitely moved.

While I was there, a group of bikers rolled up (motorcycles) and I chatted with them.  One thing I've noticed about bikers is that many of them are veterans, and they do quite a bit to honor those that served.  They told me that they do this every year.  Awesome.

I'd spent quite a bit of time there until I had to get back to reality.  I still had a flat, no air to fill up my tube, and I was far from home.  Again, an extraction was out of the question (because I'm stubborn) so I walked over to the local department store to see if they anything to help me.  On the way, I was mocked by some local wildlife.

I walked inside the cool store and I found a little shitty (but expensive) air pump and bought it (along with a snack and something cold to drink.)  I sat on a bench out front and attempted to fill my tire.

The gauge said it would go up to 120 p.s.i. but I had trouble getting it to 60.  That would have to do.  I hopped on my bike and rode away, trying to keep my 230 pound ass off the seat so I wouldn't get a pinch flat.  So far so good.  Since I was still in the area, I stopped back by the wall one more time...

Then I hopped on the greenway and started to make my way home.

The ride home was nerve wracking.  Every time I would go fast downhill, I imagined my tire giving out and sending me crashing to the pavement.  That didn't stop me from taking a selfie though.

Just before I got home, I made a slight detour to the local VFW and chatted with some fellow veterans.  These guys were from the Vietnam era, so they talked about their experiences and the friends that they lost.  They were very welcoming, even offering me some food and a beer.  I declined since I had to get home to my own beer.

After many more hours on the road than I had planned, I made it home.  I parked my bike, grabbed a beer, and sat on the deck with my buddy Carl.

It wasn't a "happy" Memorial Day but it was a good one.  I think I'll do this every year from now on.

Across The River

Although I primarily ride mountain bikes (when I actually ride), I've been spending a lot of time on the road lately.  I still have a rental vehicle since mine is in the shop, and that makes transporting a bike anywhere a pain (I barely got me and a bike to the Short Track Thingy on Sunday.)  A road ride is still a ride, and I still have plenty of exploring to do around my new hood anyway.

So off I went.

I headed west, with my goal being to cross the Catawba River.  I'm really close to it actually, so before I knew it I was there.

Wait, what does that little sign back there say?

Playful?  Like how?  That's sorta creepy.

Crossing the river has always been a funny thing to me.  It's different over there.  I may joke about it, but I really do like it out that way.  It's quite country, and dare I say, a little backwards.  Much like where I grew up.  The pace seems slower over yonder, and it's not too city-fied.  I'm actually more comfortable over there, sorta like it's where I belong.

Fun fact:  When I first decided to move to North Carolina, I'd planned on going to Gaston County.

Anyway, this wasn't a training ride.  Or was it?

Even though I got some decent mileage in, I was primarily interested in exploring.  Sure, I can drive around those small towns to the west of me, but the best way to see anything is by bike.

Hell, I never would have found this neat little coffee shop if I had been driving by on the main road:

Oh, and did I mention that there was still snow on the ground?

Dirty snow.  Meh.

After I explored over there for a while, I headed back across the river and towards the whitewater park.  That's when I spotted the end of the Carolina Thread Trail (which branches off from the mountain bike trails out there.)  

That trail flows along a creek, which just so happens to be the same one that's behind my house.  I decided to try to follow the creek back towards my house (the best way I could without getting off the road) and I saw some promising signs that made me think that I could actually get to the trails at the whitewater park from my own backyard.

Eventually, it got pretty country, and by country I mean out there.  A kind of place where even the signs aren't safe anymore.

Redneck target practice.  We've all done it.

I got out of there, taking a couple of country roads back towards the house.  I was inspired and excited about the possibility of my new trail.  I couldn't wait to tell my neighbors all about it.

Their long faces would suggest that they weren't as excited as I was.  Horse problems I guess.

More consistent blogging has returned, but more importantly, more consistent riding.  Hell, I may even get out to the shop to put some new bike parts on for future rides.

It's like that.  Like it was.  Again.

Who gives a shit.

Good Times, Bad Luck

A bit of rain ruined my scheduled ride for Saturday, so I ended up doing something else (more about that tomorrow perhaps.)  So when Sunday came around I had to figure out something to do.  I didn’t really feel like driving somewhere to go ride my mountain bike so the only other option was a road ride.  Yuck.  I figured I could make an adventure out of it though, and the plan was to head into the city to keep things interesting.  First, I had to get out of the house.

It had been many moons since my last road ride, and when I went to grab the bike I noticed that the front tire was flat.  I inflated it and all the air came back out in a matter of minutes.  “No big deal” I thought, and grabbed a brand new tube.  I checked the tire and rim for anything that may have caused a flat, and satisfied that there was nothing I put the new tube in.  Lunchbox and I were standing there talking, and a minute or so later we heard a loud BOOM.

Shit.  I grabbed another tube, and right away noticed that it had a hole in it.  I discarded it and grabbed the last one I had.  Happy that everything was good, I put the front wheel back on and rolled out.

Since it was Sunday, the roads were pretty clear.  I took the back way into Uptown Charlotte, avoiding any major roads.

It was a pretty nice ride.  I rolled through the city, enjoying the near-empty roads and beautiful views.  Unsure where my ride would take me next, I headed south.  Suddenly, I spotted a brewery that beckoned me to pull over.

So I did.

The Unknown Brewing Company, near Uptown, is one of our newest breweries here in Charlotte.  I hadn’t tried anything from there yet, so fifteen miles into my bike ride seemed like the perfect time.

It was a single hop IPA, which was way on the Belgian side.  It was pretty good, but I couldn’t leave there without trying their flagship IPA, Over The Edge.

Much better. Bitter, hoppy, and delicious.  I will be back.

I decided that I should get back to my ride, but when I walked out to my bike I saw that the front tire was flat again.  Out of tubes, luckily I had some CO2.  I inflated the tired and hoped for the best.  Instead of doing the smart thing and going to a bike shop to get some spare tubes, I rolled back through the city to meet up with Eastwood.

Just across town, Eastwood and I met up at another local beer place.  Sure I had more beer, but I had to eat too.

We hung out for a while, but I had to drag my ass back home.  I topped off my tire with air again and rolled out.  Instead of hammering out some serious miles, I was out to have fun.  I mean damn, I even wore baggies on the road bike.

Anyway, with only thirteen or so miles to get back home I hoped that my tire situation would be okay.  I made it about eight miles when I noticed that my front wheel felt sluggish.  I stopped and put some more air in it.

I took off again, but a minute later it was flat again.  This was it. No more tubes and barely any CO2 left, I started hoofing it home.

I texted the little lady to let her know what happened, and moments later she called.

“Where are you?  I’m coming to get you.”

I tried to fight it, but she wasn’t having it. I’d walked over two miles already, and with only about a mile and a half left I wanted to keep going.  It didn’t matter what I wanted though, and moments later she rolled up.  Even though I tried to be stubborn and finish my “ride” she was there to rescue me. 

It was a pretty awesome ride though, even if it was on the road and I flatted a million times.  I see more of these adventures in my future.

Especially if there are beer stops along the way.

Fun Friday

I'm definitely looking for some fun this weekend. I was hoping to get up to the hills, but I'm not sure that's gonna happen. Tomorrow’s ride will be an easy one though.

Well, not that easy. I'm doing a group road ride tomorrow. So yeah, easy enough. Lots of roadies plus easy spinning (without roots or rocks) will make for a relaxing day. The only issue is that I don't quite fit in with the skinny tire crowd.

I hope they are nice to me when I get there in the morning.

I guess that's why I normally ride alone.

In other news, I finally got tired of feeling like shit. I was starting to think that it wasn't allergies making me feel all run down, and a trip to the doctor yesterday confirmed that. I am now the proud recipient of a sinus infection. I guess that explains why I've felt more sick than anything else. It should be gone in a few days since I was prescribed a hefty dose of antibiotics. The only problem is that now I'm suffering from what one might call “side effects.”

That could make my weekend very interesting. Especially if I'm out in the middle of nowhere on a road bike.

Lovely.

Y'all have a great weekend. Maybe I'll have a funny yet embarrassing story to tell on Monday.

We Own The Road

It had been far too long since I hopped on a bike. Any bike. I was going nutty, so I planned a road ride for Sunday morning. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because I knew I could get in a bunch of miles and not have to work so hard at it. You know, ease my way back into it. Once I convinced myself that I would actually have fun on the road, I invited Little Miss Sunshine along to keep me from shortchanging myself in the mileage department. The plan was for an easy, 25-30 mile spin out of our neighborhood to see where we ended up.

I packed accordingly.

Honey Stinger goodness in case I got hungry. Yum.

We hit the road, spinning easily up the first hill out of the neighborhood. The first part of the ride would be on our local greenway, so we headed up the road to find an easy access point. We road ride by TomTom’s house, but didn’t want to stop for fear of ending the ride there because we’d get caught up talking all day. We settled for a wave. Did he see us? Probably not. We hit the greenway and enjoyed a smooth ride for a while.

We took pretty much every different leg of the greenway we could, eventually ending up at the end. We crossed a busy road and hit a lightly traveled back road for some “real” roadie action. Traffic was really light (it was a Sunday, after all), but on our way to an intersection a lady in a Prius came buzzing by honking her horn. I gave her the one finger salute, but she was too busy wagging her finger and yelling something unintelligible to see it. We resisted the urge to chase her down at the next red light and just let it go.

Soon after, we found an opportunity to get away from all traffic and get off the beaten path. Construction is still ongoing for a new Interstate loop nearby, so we took a peek to see how far along it was.

Seeing an opportunity to get in some miles without having to worry about old ladies trying to kill us, we hit the newly paved road.

It didn’t look smooth, but it was actually quite nice to ride on.

We could use the entire lane, ride side by side, speed up, slow down, etc. You know pretty much anything we wanted. That section of highway belonged to us for the moment, and it was good. We were having a good time, and the weather was perfect. Just warm enough that we had to drink a little.

I saw that we were getting close to my goal for mileage, so we decided to start heading home. With bike lanes the rest of the way home, I thought it would be a nice, easy ride. Once we got within a mile and a half of our house, another asshole (this time in a convertible Lexus I Own The Road model), got really close to us (we were just about on the white line) and honked the horn. I yelled out a very pleasant, “Fuck you” and waited for him to stop. He turned down towards our neighborhood and sped off.

Dick.

It was all neighborhood streets from then on out, so we tried to forget about that and enjoy the rest of the ride. As I glanced over at a side street, I saw Mr. Lexus getting out of his car with some groceries. We took that opportunity to turn around to see if he wanted to finish our conversation.

We rolled up, but he had gone in the house. I said, “Let’s forget about it. This isn’t worth it.” However, Little Miss Sunshine had other plans. I didn’t want any part of it, since I wouldn’t have been very nice if I had a chance to confront him. I don’t have a middle ground. I can either be really nice, or get really angry. I mean, scary angry. Like, I’ll stomp a mud hole in your ass for trying to kill me on my bike, angry. The little lady is much better at this sort of thing, so she leaned her bike up against the mailbox and walked up to the front door and rang the bell. I tried to stop her, but she wasn’t having it.

“Shit”, I thought, “I’m gonna have to defend her honor.”

She had a polite conversation with Mr. Lexus, informing him that she is a real person, and not just some cyclist that was in his way. He made up some bullshit excuse about honking for our safety, but I think she made her point. She wasn’t mean, and I even saw her shake his hand. She has a way of making you feel bad without getting mean, and he got to see it for himself. Hopefully that guy learned his lesson and won’t try to run cyclists off the road anymore.

Even if he did, there are tons of people around that just don’t give a shit. I don’t ride on the road much, but when I do I’d rather not get killed. It seems everyone that I know that rides on the road either has been hit by a car, or has had many, many close calls. That shit needs to stop.

I might actually ride my road bike a little more often if it did. I need to get back in the woods where I’m the only danger to myself.

Or maybe just stick to unfinished highways and greenways when I feel like riding skinny tires.

The Fun Has Returned

I was confused about pretty much everything that had to do with bikes in my life. What I originally thought was me being burned out on racing turned out to be much more. I have all these bikes and I write a blog every day about bike stuff (mostly), but I felt like I was just going through the motions. I needed to have fun, and for some reason I couldn’t see it right in front of me.


Bikes are fun.


All bikes. I have an urban bike, mountain bikes, a road bike, and even unicycles (okay, technically not bikes, whatever) and I didn’t want to ride any of them. After whining to the Internets and hearing from people that care (and even those that don’t), I realized that I was making a big deal out of nothing. All I have to do is hop on one of my two-wheeled machines and pedal.


It’s that simple.


I didn’t need to take a break, get counseling, or even find a new hobby. Just to test that, I decided to grab my least favorite bike and go for a spin.

Yup, I took the road bike out. I went on a route that was very familiar to me, and I really enjoyed it. It was a route that I did a few years ago when I participated in a local shop group ride. I remember that it was fun back then, so I figured it would be a safe bet to try again. I had some beautiful views, fun hills (both up and down), and the weather was perfect. I even saw some wildlife.

That was a gratuitous beaver shot. You’re welcome.


When I finished, I texted the little lady to let her know I didn’t die. I told her I had fun too.


“Who is this?” she replied.


Always with the jokes. Yes, I did a road ride and enjoyed it. I didn’t feel like less of a mountain biker either. Go figure. I guess whatever bike you ride doesn’t define you. I just ride bikes, and I’m no better (or worse) than you because of the bike I hopped on that day. Well, I was Holier than you though, thanks to the new socks DeFeet sent me.

Now I’m hungry. Great. Nothing makes you fall in love with riding again like a little Divine intervention.

I’m back. Let’s have some damn fun riding bikes now.

“Off Road”

I can’t ride on the trail just yet.  I really want to, and the fact that my shoulder is healing makes me want to push it.  I’m keeping myself off the trail even though my doctor said I could “get back when I feel like I’m up to it.”  Honestly, I think I’m ready but I know I shouldn’t.

So the next best thing has been “road riding”

I grabbed my beater bike over the weekend (with trailer), and Little Miss Sunshine and I hit the road.  We had no plan.  We just started riding out of our neighborhood and up the road a bit.  I started getting antsy though, feeling the need to get my bike in the dirt.  With no trails nearby (luckily) I started looking for alternate routes.  We took a “dead end” road and ended up at a construction site.

The construction is actually part of an interstate loop around the city here, and since it was a weekend we decided to poach a little of it.

Trailer in tow, I rode on some dirt highway.

One side was paved, so we rode that part on the way back.

It wasn’t mountain biking, but for me it was the next best thing.  We weren’t there for long but it was pretty fun.  Since I had the trailer attached to my bike, we decided to head over to a local market to get some fresh fruits and vegetables.

With my trailer loaded down with produce (and riding a 34X16), I felt like I was actually getting a good workout.  We kept going up the road, and since it was lunchtime we found a spot for some food and a cold beer.

That beer was so good.  Probably because I had to ride so far to get it.

Next door was a beer mega store, and I used the remaining space in the trailer for fine, hoppy beverages.  Loaded down with tons of extra weight, we made the long trek home so I could enjoy the items we acquired from our shopping spree.

It’s the only kind of riding I can do right now.  Good enough I guess.

Barring any setbacks in my recovery, I may be back on the trail for an easy ride next weekend.  If not, I’ll probably go batshit crazy being off the mountain bike.

This sucks, but at least I haven’t had to ride an actual road bike yet.

I feel like that’s inevitable though.