A mighty cold wind was blowing this evening in Iowa City. The group ride was large. It was mostly an unpleasant ride, but for some hijinx and flashes of good conversation. The guttering was non stop for those of us not fit enough to get up in the mix and get a decent rest while drifting back. I got popped just outside Sharon Center, and was sad to see that I was the last one to come off the group. If I coulda just hung on I coulda just hung on. But I couldn’t.
Better luck next time!
Things are going well over at the shop. We have much constructing done. Today I got the pegboards up for both benches. Tools should be in early next week. Bikes to follow shortly, but we are not ready to say which ones yet. Except for Niner. Yep, that is right, we are a commuter / touring shop at heart but we are people too. So we won’t be a stocking dealer right away, but if you want a really nice big wheeled bike we can get it for you. I want one!
Anyways, in addition to working I have done a few rides. I went on last Tuesday’s ride, but it was cold and pouring rain so after a mile or so I turned for home. In my youth I would have done the whole ride, but I am older and wiser now. And slower. Wednesday I did some Bikes at Work style cargo riding on shop business and townie’d over to Bike Night, too. We talked about bike racing, drank beer, etc. Check out this photo of Jason pulling off the front in their TTT. Jason is well known as a strong and smooth rider for that discipline, no surprise to see that Cancellara wants his wheel or the hurting looks on the rest of his teammates back there trying to recover in time for their next pull. Also at Bike Night, Kenny and Norb showed me the amazing wood fenders they have made. We are trying to work out how to sell them at our shop. They are beautiful! And renewable! And locally made! Thursday I tried the group ride again and we did the Sugarbottom - Tiffin loop. It was a good ride for me, even if I felt like death a few times. I took a few pulls, hid a lot, rode off the front once, hid some more, took a couple more pulls, and finally got dropped a few miles from town. Last night Cody and I rode out to Linder Point and took a hike, it was great to get away from it all for a couple of hours.
Kent Park, shown above rendered in all possible springtime pastel glory sans snow or bike racers, is tomorrow. I am planning to race, but it is snowing right now and they may cancel it. The last time this happened was in Y2K, and they made the call just as we were lining up – possibly due to computer malfunction. It was cooooold and windy but dry and we were all dressed and ready to go but the officials are the officials, officialy, so their decision stood. K-Dubya and I went to the Java House and caffienated our troubles away. Might get to repeat that stellar performance of yesteryear tomorrow, but if the race is on I will just suck.
The frame & fork survived their trans-continental journey in fine shape. That Ira sure does know how to pack a bike!
And his green ethos which here demonstrates the second R [reuse, in this case a bike box] does not get in the way of his attention to detail. Style and ease, my friends.
I can’t wait to get done building the bike shop so I can start building this bike. For now I have stationed an attack cat upon it to keep the usual new frame gawkers at bay.
He never sleeps. No, you’re right, he mostly sleeps.
What have you been up to this month of March? For a couple of people the answer is easy.
“So far? Just walking across Alaska is all.”
It’s still on. I continue to not want to do the Ultrasport. At all. But it is always great reading! That said, if I were to ever do it, I would either walk or ski. Check out the ski trailer setup! Roadie infiltration…
Thanks to Tony for the pics.
The biggest thing I have going on in my life right now is opening a bike shop, it is true. If you have not heard yet, because you did not read the previous post I guess, Cody and I are opening a small bike shop here in Iowa City called 30th Century Bicycle. We should be up and at em in April. As we whoop the shop into shape, I hope to continue to whoop myself into shape, too. It has been a slow spring due to the rigors of small business planning as far as my training has gone.
I have made it out for some rides now, and while yes I am slower than I like to be I have been heartened at times that my 16 days of skiing and my general active lifestyle may have kept me in some sort of decent form to build on. I had a six day ride streak going up until Wednesday, including group rides on the weekend (one 3 hours long!) and the Tuesday group ride, too, but then I got sick so that had to stop. I am feeling better this morning after an 11 hour sleep and reading the live Milano-San Remo coverage has me chomping at the GU to get out and ride again. Plus Ira has shipped me my bike and I want to do it justice once it is built up.
So it will continue, balancing shop life and my life. It was nice reading along in my pj’s while the Euros thrashed each other and I think it is swell that Cavendish took the win in his first MSR, but now I must get back to work.
So you may have noticed lately that I have been pretty lame? Not much to say? Not doing much but fer complaining about being slow? Well there has been a good reason for that. I couldn’t tell you because it was not a done deal, but after much wrestling and wrangling and work Cody and I are going to open our own bike shop. We should have a schnazzy website in the future, and we hope to be open in mid April.
Hope you will come see us!
Since daylight saving time has been expanded considerable by the grill and candy industries, so too has the Tues/Thurs group ride season. I missed the first of the year on Tuesday as I had to go poo (my blog is nothing if not open and honest) and the weather outside was not very inviting. Yesterday was different.
Ira sat me down with a sucksessory poster and gave me just the pep talk I needed to “strap it on” and “mount up” and “freeze to death while sitting in” so that is what I did. There was a decent group at the park, about 12 I think. We headed North to the Pepsi Challenge Proving Hill and I took a pull on the way out of town, for show ya know? I am slow. Once we got onto Sugarbottom Road I got suckered into taking another pull, uphill and with a freaking cat 2 who has already raced this year. Jeesh. And, I was on my cross bike and and.. and… he was on his carbon racey road bike with – with these white tires and it was just reeeeaaaaly unfair. Hurrumph I say, with my arms crossed defiantly!
So with my legs burning and my eyes teared up (from the wind, I did not cry until I got home – okay?) and my cross tires humming I went to the back and stayed there. I made it over the PCPH with the leaders and hung on basically all the way into town. I veered off from the safety of the numbers and cruised over to Dubuque Street to come home. I ran into another group ride, a more relaxed and gentle crew and a pretty good sized group, nice to see so many folks out riding on a cold night.
And just as I wrap up for the day, the sun breaks through and we are headed for a high of 45, more group rides ahead.
Has the cancer returned? When high school kids yell “Go LANCE” out their car window at Cody and me as we ride home with tortilla chips in the touring townie basket I know at least one of the non virulent strains has.
Sending in my Chequamegon entry tomorrow, cutting it close!
Slow bloggery of late… This won’t help.
As a young boy I would watch my sister leave home with a wagon load of Advertisers every other Wednesday and I would think to myself – someday I will do that too. Later, when my sister handed off the route to me and I had drug the red wagon around and collected my check for $4.40 every 2 weeks I would think to myself – someday I will not do this, too!
It is a leap, yes, but still on the subject of kids, siblings, and wagons – the motion picture American Flyers features a photo of the Sommers siblings with their red wagon, an American Flyer. Go figure. I don’t recall the brand of our long lost wagon, but it was red and I saw this film when I was in high school and I was impressed. I immediatly started riding my Huffy road bike out into the country with my friend Brian. My bike had black bar tape and a stock saddle and likely never saw the light of a repair stand be it Park Blue or otherwise, but this was basically it. Huffy 626.
On our rides Brian and I would shake it and break it, just like in the movie, and sprint dogs (if they were around) and sometimes we rode 40 miles in one trip, verified by my dad’s truck odometer. He would drive us 40 miles from home and kick us out! Child abuse, unless you were growing up in Italy.
So recently, you may have heard, they started up these internets? At first they were only good for sending letters to people faster than ever before but now they are good for at home banking and watching videos, too. Tonight I missed the first group ride of the year and relaxed for a time with the aforementioned most overlooked Academy attention deserving masterpiece. The music is ethereal, the plot sublime, and one of it’s many climaxes is oooo-la-laaaargggh!. Go ahead and put together a playlist and watch the whole movie since I can’t figure out how to do it for you and be taken back to me in high school.
Better you than I…
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