Roadie Fun

I think my road riding is getting out of control.  I mean, I actually enjoy it now.  I’m riding on the road more and more and having a good time doing it for some reason.  Perhaps an intervention is in order.

Since it’s football season here in ‘Merica now, my Sundays are booked from 1:00 p.m. until late in the evening.  While this is pretty much the only television I enjoy watching, I don’t enjoy the fact that I can’t ride my bike all day.  Well, I can I guess.  It’s a choice I’ve made.  Anyway, I figured that the only way I can get in a good ride before foosball starts is to put in some road mileage.  Rather than go at it alone, I invited Little Miss Sunshine to come along.

“How far are we going?” she asked.

“Maybe fifteen to twenty miles” I replied, knowing that I was full of shit.

She bought it and we hit the road bright and early Sunday morning.

She wasn’t the only victim though.  The night before when we were hanging out with TomTom, we started talking about our ride and he mentioned that he had borrowed a road bike.  “Awesome”, I thought.  We invited him to join us, and after a short ride from our house we uh, picked him up.  He is borrowing a single speed road bike, complete with flat pedals (he doesn’t believe in being clipped in.”  We rolled out from his house, and to make things fun, we took a not yet traveled path through a construction zone.

It was nice having zero traffic around.  I thought it would make TomTom comfortable on the ride, since he’s not used to all this roadie shit.

Baggy shorts, a mountain bike jersey, and flat pedals...on a single speed?  Who gives a shit.  He’s still riding.

Anyway, after a little tour of the soon to be new Interstate loop, we headed for the hills.  Not the real hills (as in Pisgah), but the hilliest neighborhood around.  I wanted to get in some climbing for uh, training purposes.  There are a few tough climbs along the route I picked, and TomTom rode them like a champ with his one, tough gear.  It kinda made me feel like a douche for riding gears.  My road bike is the only geared bike I have left though.  Perhaps I can change that.

So we made it through some steep hills, with one in particular that was leg burning.  We hit the final stretch, which was a gradual climb back towards the main road.  I let the single speed roadie take the lead.

And the little lady wasn’t too far behind.

Even though it was fun for the most part, some of it was a little tough.  I felt good getting out for a ride so early though, you know, pedaling a little bit before I did practically nothing for the rest of the day.  We ended up with almost twenty seven miles, which for a road ride isn’t really too much.  I enjoyed it a lot, but mostly because I had company.

Oh shit, is the beginning of a regular roadie group ride?  I don’t even know who I am anymore.

Hey Eastwood, aren’t you healed up enough to ride around on skinny tires?

Skills On The Farm

Saturday, I had the pleasure of helping out our local women’s mountain bike club, the Dirt Divas with another one of their skills clinics at Fisher Farm Park in Davidson.  I enjoy these very much, and any chance I get to help out I will (I guess it helps that Little Miss Sunshine was leading this particular one.)

We had a pretty good turnout of ladies and Dirt Dudes (as we are affectionately called.)  We hit different areas of the trail to work on some of the features, and after giving a quick demonstration we let the ladies get at it (we spotted them of course.)

  

The photos are blurry, I know, but at least you can see the Maxxis logo on the little lady’s tire.

The ladies are real encouraging towards each other, and we really don’t have to do much other than catch them if they start to fall.  Even though we hit each feature first, they don’t really feel like they can do it until the other ladies get them going.  Sometimes they get pushed beyond their comfort zones…

And with cheering from the other women they do just fine.

I mean who the hell would want to try something with just a bunch of creepy dudes standing around watching?

It was a good day.  Fisher Farm is a great place to work on this sort of thing, with all the features out there.  There’s nothing too advanced or anything, and with a little practice you can ride it all.  It has a good mix of terrain, structures, and other goodies, so tat makes it my favorite place to help with a clinic by far.

Thanks to the Divas for letting us help out.

There are some features out there that are creepier than us dudes though.

Or maybe it’s us dudes that make it creepy.

Um.  Yeah.

At least no one saw that.  Except you. 

Shhhhhhhh.

I’m Here, Not There

Interbike starts today and I didn’t go.  Unlike the other times I didn’t go (which was all of them except last year), this year I had a few opportunities to attend.  Various supporters invited me to tag along but I wasn’t able to make myself available for any time off this month.  I’m on the outside looking in again like usual.  Maybe it’s not like usual, since I’ve been before and I know what I’m missing.

Yeah, a lot of the “Industry” folks complain about some of it, but I found quite a few things that made me want to go back.  The best part kicks off today, the Outdoor Demo.  I had a lot of fun riding new bikes in the desert.

I rode a few bikes, and came away from a demo for the first time ever with the desire to actually own one of the bikes I abused, I mean test rode.

It was a good decision, because after almost of year of riding my ROS9 I really love it.

Although I don’t ever make a big deal about cyclocross racing, I will admit that it’s fun to watch.  I got a chance to check out Cross Vegas, with a little help from a strategically placed rock next to a fence surrounding the race course.

Not a bad view for free I suppose.

One of the biggest things I will miss out there this year is the Ride For Reading Interbike Book Delivery.  It was so nice to be a part of something that made a difference.

I was tempted to call in sick to work just to fly out there for that.  Srsly.

Inside the convention center, there will be lots of booths and exhibits again this year no doubt. 

I get to see new stuff, shoot the shit with old friends, and even make some new friends.  That part is pretty cool, even for a barely in the industry asshole like myself. 

And let’s not forget the free beer…

Yeah, I certainly enjoyed that.

So, no Interbike for me this year.  I just couldn’t make it happen.  It's okay.  I’m not there, but luckily the Internets will be.  I’m sure I’ll be checking out the show reports and highlights, and maybe I’ll even text a few people that are out there to get the inside scoop. 

With this being the year of the 27.5 and E-Bikes though, maybe it’s better that I stayed here in Charlotte.

There’s always next year I guess.  You know, if I haven’t pissed off all the people that will invite me to go by then.

Back to our regularly scheduled nonsense tomorrow.  Live(ish) from North Carolina.

Fun Friday

This isn't your typical “find stuff on The Internets to share” Fun Friday post.  This time, it’s actually something fun I did.  Da udda day when Lunchbox and I finished at the DMV, we took a stroll through the local electronics mega-store to check out some stuff.  When we got near the mobile phone displays, Lunchbox gave me some wise words…

“Always look through the photos.  People take dumb ones on these things.”

Hmmm.  I’ve never considered that.  He was right though, and when we started looking through the display phones/tablets we got a treat.  Here are some examples, zoomed in for your viewing pleasure.

Lunchbox even got in on the fun…

I took it a step further, and used those goofy images to change the desktop image on each device.

That was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.  We laughed about it for a long time.  My kid is goofy, and apparently I am too.

See y’all next week.  Go out and get rad or something.

Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

I’m not always kind to roadies here.  Take it however you want it, but it really doesn’t mean a whole lot.  If you ride a bike, we’re good.  I like to give people shit for being so serious all the time, especially since riding a bike is supposed to be about fun.  A lot of roadie types don’t get this and I understand…

Because I am one too sometimes.

Sometimes I’m embarrassed to ride on the road, mostly because of the shit I talk about other people that do.  Truth is that it’s pretty fun.  In fact, I’m enjoying it a lot more lately.  On Labor Day, after mountain biking and hiking the day before, I wanted to get in a few more miles and work on my fitness.  The road bike is the best way to do that I figured, so I took off from the house with no particular destination in mind.  Being on the outskirts of the city, it doesn’t take long for me to get on some country roads.

Since it was a holiday, traffic was almost non-existent.  I mashed up some killer climbs, sped down some fast downhills, and took it easy every once in a while just to enjoy the ride. 

I don’t care about which bike I ride.  While I may have gone over my two road rides a year quota already that doesn't mean that I’m turning into a full time roadie.  I’d much rather be in the dirt or up in the rocky hills, but most of the time as long as I’m on a bike I’m happy.  Maybe riding on the road helps to keep things fresh, or maybe it will help me with the fitness aspect of mountain biking.  While I don’t see any way to build technical skill that translates to mountain biking from riding on the road, just the fact that it’s fun is enough for me.

I’m a “mountain biker.”  I enjoy riding on the road too. 

Who gives a shit.

Weekend Running

With a four day weekend at my disposal, I figured I’d be on the bike quite a bit.  Friday was a wash, with another trip to the vet to check on Fat Kitty (she’s okay so far by the way), an appointment at the DMV for Lunchbox, and a two hour massage for me.  Saturday morning I decided to volunteer at a local trail running race.  The promoter, Dirty Spokes Productions, holds the race on one of our local trail and donates a portion of the entry fees back to our club, the Tarheel Trailblazers.  All they ask is for a few volunteers to help setup/tear down the course and to help with the water stations.  I was down.

After the racers started coming by our station, I noticed that they were tossing empty cups on the trail and in the woods (this is normal by the way.)  Rather than wait until the end to clean it all up, I got proactive and took a trash bag to get ahead of the game.

Real exciting, I know.  I was glad to help out though.

Being out in the woods enabled me to cheer on the racers, a few of whom I knew (because they also ride bikes.)  I stayed out in the woods until the finishers started coming in, and I caught my man Marcus Barton on the final leg. 

He finished second place in the 10+ mile race.  Really awesome, especially since it was really hot and humid out there.

When everyone came in we got out to tear the course down.  Some people were on bikes and some of us walked.  When it was all over a few folks even went for a ride.  I’d forgotten my shoes like a dumbass so I just hung around and shot the shit with Marcus and a few others.  When the ride group came back, we headed to a local eatery to have some beer and burritos.  After that, I walked across the street to get some more beer, and we all headed down to The Cycle Path so I could drink it.

I didn’t ride that day, but I still had fun.  It was nice to volunteer, and even nicer that the race gave us a little love in the form of money that will go back to the trails.  I wouldn’t call it an uneventful day at all.  I still had a ton of time left to do anything I wanted, so I washed my bike.  I won’t bore you with pictures of that.  However, I will bore you with a picture of a butterfly that wouldn’t leave me alone while I cleaned.

It seems that in his incapacitated state, The Butterfly King (I mean Eastwood) sent one of his subjects to harass me.  

Bastard.

Such an exciting life I lead.

Bonding

Over the weekend it was just me and the boy.  The little lady took off to Buffalo to hang out with her family so that left Lunchbox and I on our own.  Like we usually do when we have the time (he’s a busy teenager these days), we made plans to hang out somewhere.  We decided on a trip to the (almost) hills to ride.  He’d heard me talking about Lake James State Park and how fun it was so he wanted to go.  We loaded up our bikes in the morning and rolled out.

When we got there it was already really hot.  We changed our clothes and hit the trail and it felt like a sauna.  I’ve been in swamps that didn’t feel that muggy.  Still, it was fun.

Lunchbox enjoyed it too. 

The ride was awesome but since we were so hot when we finished we sat in the shade for a while to cool off.  When I asked Lunchbox what else he wanted to do he said “Mountains.”  I understood, so we drove over to Mount Mitchell State Park.  Even though at 6,684 feet it’s the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River, you can drive almost all the way to the top.  A short hike up a paved path later, you’re at the summit.  We loved the views.

Recovered from our ride, we decided a hike was in order.  We took off on a trail that the touristy type folks were shying away from for some reason.  

Some of the rocks and junk were pretty cool, and some of it reminded me of the Forest Moon of Endor.

We weren’t done sightseeing though.  Since we originally hail from flat as hell Florida, we decided to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while to check out some more incredible views.

It was an awesome day of father and son time.  It was the kid’s 18^th birthday too, and he made it memorable for both of us.

Damn I love living in North Carolina.