Weekend Of…

Not much, really.  After riding bikes pretty much all day on Friday, I thought I would continue the trend for Saturday and Sunday.  That didn’t really happen.

One thing got in the way:

This is an IPA that I recently discovered, and it was pretty delightful.  Hop Notch IPA from Uinta Brewing, is pretty dang spectacular.  In fact, it’s one of the better IPA’s I’ve tried.  That’s saying a lot too, since you all probably know I’m a full-on hop head.

I dig it.

On Saturday, I got to sleep in for the first time in who knows how long.  I didn’t have to get up for a race, group ride, or work, so I took the opportunity to sleep in for a little bit.  I didn’t really make it much past 8 a.m. though, so I found something to pass the time.

No, I didn’t have beer for breakfast.

I cleaned up the house a little bit, then grabbed Darth-O (my geared bike), and took it up to the The Cycle Path to have the seals on the Fox fork replaced.  I was hoping to just buy the seals and take care of it in the shop while I was there, but I ended up just hanging around and shooting the shit…for hours.

Look at Mark pretending to be busy.

I actually helped out a little around the shop, but never ended up getting to my own bike.  I left it there, and Mark said he will get to it soon.  In the meantime, I “borrowed” a bike for some top secret testing.

Yeah, I’m gonna give this Niner a try for a little bit.  Even though the geometry is really close to what I currently ride, the slightly smaller frame size always made me think that it would be too small for me.  I found out differently when I test rode a Niner down in Georgia, and I’ve been itching to try one again.

Unfortunately, the rain started coming down on the way back from the shop, so I didn’t get a ride in.  Sunday, it rained some more.  I didn’t really have time to ride anyway, since the family and I had to take a trip up the road to see my Mom on her special day.  We went out to dinner and hung out at her house, so I didn’t get any time on the borrowed bike.  The rain continued yesterday, but I did get a chance to ride it on my own little "private" trail last night.

I can’t keep it forever since it’s a demo bike (and I’ll have to go pick up mine anyway), but I’m hoping to get in a little more trail time soon, even if it’s only another short ride.

Are bike changes coming?

Who knows.

I like to change things up a bit every once in a while, even though I really hate change.

Stay tuned.

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.

Fixed It Right This Time

With the chain dropping issues that both Lunchbox and I experienced during races, it was time to take care of that shit once and for all.  And no, I didn’t put the full set of geared shit back on.  I’m talking about the N-Gear Jump Stop.  Two of them arrived at the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters and it was time to put them on.

That other shit had to go.

Rather than take the time to wash both of our bikes before the installation, I cheated a little.  I used a Pro Towel from ProGold to get the grime the hell outta the way.

The Pro Towels worked great, even though our bikes probably could’ve used a good washing.  I eventually washed my bike, but if you don’t feel like washing and want a quick clean up the Pro Towel is the way to go.

Anyway, I installed the new chain retention device and adjusted it.

I still needed to clean my chain though.  Don’t worry, I did.

Anyway, since I did this over the weekend, I needed to test it before I raced last Sunday.  We figured that the best place to test such things would be on a short, social ride during the Tarheel Trailblazers ride and cookout last Saturday.  The trail down there had plenty of roots, and I was pleased with the performance of my new N-Gear Jump Stop.  No chain issues at all, and if you recall, I didn’t suffer any during my race either.

We didn’t just ride down there though.  In fact, we spent most of our time off the trail.

Lunchbox wondered why we weren’t really riding much.

This little guy is the answer:

Actually, he wasn’t a little guy at all.  We stopped to play with our new found friend, and it seemed like we may have spooked him a little.  When I tried to pick him up, he wasn’t having it.  He just kept trying to get away, so I let him get the hell on.  He was about six feet long, and his body was so big that I had a hard time getting my hand around it anyway.  Maybe he just ate a big meal or something. 

We ended up leaving him alone, and looked around for more snakes to play with.  It didn’t take long to find this peculiar looking feller on the trail.

This one was a little smaller, and a whole lot friendlier.  He didn’t seem to mind me handling him, and we both stayed really calm.  I even got to help him climb a nearby tree.

Before you get your panties in a wad, I like snakes.  In fact, I’ve been handling them since I was a little tyke.  I have plenty of experience with snakes, and even once dreamed of being a herpetologist when I grew up.  Now I just dream about growing up.

The ride/snake wrangling session eventually ended, and we joined the rest of the partygoers for some grillin’ and chillin’.

After that, we headed over to Free Comic Book Day.  Wait, what?  Yeah, Lunchbox is a pretty big comic book fan, so we make a point to hit up a few local comic book stores every year on the first Saturday in May.

I don’t read comics anymore, but there was still plenty to see.  The Ghostbusters even made an appearance.

I ain’t afraid of no ghost.

That’s enough for today.  Bike mechanicin’, snake wrangling, and ghost busting, has worn me out.  Plus, I rode last night with the Dirt Divas and didn’t even talk about it.  Damn.

No Rest For The Wicked

My back is still pretty sore, but I can’t really afford any time off the bike to rest.  I’ve been doing my best to get myself right again, but it will probably be a slow process.  Even though I didn’t have the greatest race on Sunday, my effort was good enough to bump me up to 3^rd in the overall standings for the series.  I guess that’s okay, but it also means that I have a long road ahead.

I found two reasons that Sunday’s racing fiasco transpired.  For one, the Dirty Party Cycle grabbed one of my tires when I loaded the bikes up after the race, and noticed that I had way too much air in them.  That’s one of the things I forgot to check before I started, and it probably made the ride a lot rougher than it should’ve been.  I think I had a hair over 40 p.s.i. in there, which made the roots beat me unmercifully the whole time.  I guess I better check that shit from now on.

Also, I somehow managed to forget my music playing device.  As soon as I started slowing down due to the pain in my back, I realized that I was riding in silence.  I heard every root go right to my back, and that made it much more painful.  At least with music, I would’ve had something to take my mind off of it.  I got there Sunday morning with plenty of time to get ready, so there was no excuse.

I don’t know what the hell I was thinking trying to race anyway.

I forgot to mention one other thing, although it doesn’t relate to my race at all.  My pal D-Wayne didn’t show up, because he was busy racing his bike somewhere else.  He did have his better half pass along a gift though:

He made this sticker, since he is a fancy designer. 

Very nice, and much appreciated.

I did some other stuff over the weekend (besides racing), but I’ll get into that tomorrow.

Here’s a little hint for y’all:

Number Two Ain’t So Great

Okay, I won’t take today’s post in that direction, although my race yesterday was certainly in the crapper.  I guess I was referring to my position in the race before it all fell apart.

Photo credit:  Lunchbox

Yeah, I sprinted up that damned Derby Hill.  I didn’t mean to do it, but somehow I ended up around 2^nd (hence the number two reference.)  I felt good lungs and legs wise, but something else happened when I got to the top… my back kinda locked up.

Shit.

I’ve been a little sore in my lower back area this past week, but I figured that once I got going in a race that it would work itself out.  That wasn’t the case, and I quickly dropped to 3^rd in the race, with the rest of the pack gaining fast.  I was in pain no matter what I did, and I wasn’t even a mile into the race.

Didn’t I already say, “Shit”? 

Yup.

I lost a few more places, but kept riding along.  I wasn’t about to quit.  In fact, the only way I would get out of there without crossing the finish line was if someone carried me out.  I “raced” on, and a few miles in I saw my kid hiding in the bushes again.

At this point I was still in 6^th place, and I just knew I would eventually work my way back to DFL.  I didn’t care, since my goal was just to finish.  Once again another guy in my class went by, and there was another right on my wheel waiting to do the same.

The seven mile lap actually went by pretty quickly even though I wasn’t riding very fast.  I started to loosen up a little towards the end of the first lap, so I slowly started picking up speed (and losing the guy behind me.)  I crossed the start/finish line at full sprint, but that stupid ass hill was waiting for me.

It didn’t matter, because I actually climbed it pretty quickly.  The guy in my class that had been on my wheel was gone, so I started thinking about catching up to the rest of the group.  About four miles into lap two I caught a glimpse of Rodney, and I heard him yell, “Come on, Chris!” 

Weird.  I’ve never seen anyone cheer for someone that was trying to catch them.  It’s all good though, because he’s just that kinda guy.  In fact, the guys in my class are all pretty good guys, probably because most of us don’t take ourselves too seriously.

But, I digress.

I later learned that there was no way I was catching up to Rodney, since the switchback action on the trail made him appear a lot closer than he actually was.  I still felt good about the fact that I was able to pick up the pace a little bit though.  When I saw my kid waiting in the bushes again, I knew I was almost at the end.

I sprinted out to the finish line, and crossed the line in 7^th place.  As I tried to spin around for a minute to cool down, my back got really tight and I had to stop and stretch before I fell over.  I felt like shit, and immediately started thinking about how I could get myself right again.  I stretched a little more, and I was finally able to walk back to my truck and change.

I needed some medicine for my aching back, so we got the hell outta there and headed to downtown Winston Salem.

I found the perfect remedy for a shitty race.

We sat around and enjoyed the nice weather, and I even gazed up into the sky for a while to forget about my ailment.

I finally did start to feel a little better, so me, Lunchbox, and the Dirty Party Cycle (did I forget to mention that he was there?) took a walk around the downtown area.

It was good to stroll around the city, and we even found out where the Super Friends have been hiding. 

Now if I could just find the Legion of Doom…

Ready For The Weekend Again

Another weekend starts tomorrow, and this one couldn’t get here fast enough for me.  I had a long week at work, so now it’s time to play.  Of course by “play” I mean drink lots of beer and ride my bike(s), but you can do whatever you want.

I saw this sign at a local store da udda day:

I could probably teach the Beer School, but whatever.

Did you notice the “enjoy: Wheat beers for Mother’s Day” on that sign?

I wonder if my Mom would appreciate some wheat beer as a gift.  Maybe I’ll try it and see.  Worst case scenario, she hates it and I keep it for myself.  Sounds like a win-win for me.

I have some things lined up this weekend, first and foremost being beer:

I haven’t had this in a while, so when I saw it at the store I just had to pick it up.  Of course, I have a whole assortment of fine hoppy beverages in the beer fridge.  I’ll try not to drink them all at once.

On Saturday, we’ll be heading down to the south side of town for the annual Tarheel Trailblazers ride and cookout.  It’s one of the may events during Bike Charlotte, and we like to get down there to ride and socialize.  Not too much riding though, because I have to save my legs for Sunday.

Sunday?  Yeah.  Early in the morning, I’ll drive on up to Winston Salem, NC to ride at Hobby Park for another race in the Southern Classic Series.  I have a love/hate relationship with that place.  I love the trails, since they are fast, challenging, and just a little bit technical, but I hate that damn Derby Hill.  It’s a long road climb that goes straight up and seems to go on forever.  I’ll have to climb it twice during the race, and it sucks the life outta me.  On the plus side, I’ll probably get to hang out with my pal D-Wayne since it’s in his neck of the woods.

Who knows what kind of shit we’ll get into after the race.

See y’all Monday.