on the heels of my last post, which was shotty at best, i left out some crucial information......I havent really been riding at ALL. In the past few months life has been throwing knuckle ball after knuckle ball my way. Unlike most people, i tend to ride only when there is a degree of stablity in my life.....rough waters are not a recipe for extended rides to "release life stress"....riding under deress only makes things worse.idle saddle time means my mind spins over stressful situations in concert with each pedal stoke. after 20yrs of mountain biking in over a dozen states, riding in iowa has become an excercise in pedaling futility. After memorizing every trail feature of my favorite trail; riding it day, night, sunny, snowy, cold, hot, single speed, geared, cyclocross, vintage cruiser, alone, with freinds....i can say without a doubt, Im over it. i need new locales, new trails, new challenges.....new bikes? who knows, seems that posting a big fail in life on a tempory basis, means i fail on the bike. my riding is a mirror of my life, not a way to cope with it, rather the coping mechanisms that seem to appeal to me are mind altering in nature. WTF? this isnt the picture a long time cyclist is supposed to paint of his beloved passtime. Sometimes though, a bike is a bike and i just dont feel like getting on the m*&herf@"ker!!!! Anywhoo, guess this entry is meant to create some comments related to how cycling really fits into your life.....lemme know
ps---no editing or rephrasing on this one, you got it in realtime
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Big Boy Bike
Howdy....here's a post that started about two months ago:
This weekend I embarked on the most holy of all missions to a cyclist....teaching my son to ride his bike without training wheels. As a kid, riding a bike was a symbol of freedom....I could now go further in less time and without adult assistance (assistance and oversight are interchangeable terms here)....for me it was the first step of what has become a life long passion ....now I'm not going to bore you with a lavishly embellished tale of riding my bmx bike on the trails of my rural neighborhood, but I could, Oh I could. Let's just leave it with the understanding that I really want the kid to learn to ride.....And "the kid"?....not so much. We are now in our third day of "learning"....."the kid" is up for three to six attempts a day, then its time to play with anything other than the bike. Thats not entirely true, he wants to play with the bike just not ride it. Performing a suedo repair on a perfectly functioning bicycle has a become part of the ritual of cycling for my son. Of course, i do the same thing, switching this handlebar for that, because one has 2 degrees more backsweep than the other....unfortunately it represents the bulk of our bike time together. Never fear friends, patience and perseverance will prevail.
The last line of this partial post is the reason I added the excerpt.....Patience and Perseverance DID NOT pay off. My son has become increasingly disinterested in riding, in no small part because of the what i thought at the time was an awesome idea....get him a super rad RC car for his birthday.
It turns out that my son does indeed have my genetic code, particularly the parts that are enamored with hobbies that require no effort on his part to participate in.
Well, on to other matters....with the onset of foul weather comes a marked decrease in my ride time. Night mountain bike rides are replaced with beer runs, and early morning commutes by late morning drives with coffee and a smoke. Some would say that whats needed here is to add a couple hundred bucks of overpriced "winter" cycling gear.....and i would not be one of them. Riding cold is LAME!now dont me wrong, i have all that stuff and will use it on occasion, but I will not force myself to ride if i dont want to......period. And you shouldnt either, this is after all supposed to be a fun escape from lifes stresses right? I will traditionally, during this time of year list, plan, and connive the method i will use to drop thousands of dollars on gear in the upcoming season. Which, conveniently brings me to a down and dirty review the newest addition to the stable
This weekend I embarked on the most holy of all missions to a cyclist....teaching my son to ride his bike without training wheels. As a kid, riding a bike was a symbol of freedom....I could now go further in less time and without adult assistance (assistance and oversight are interchangeable terms here)....for me it was the first step of what has become a life long passion ....now I'm not going to bore you with a lavishly embellished tale of riding my bmx bike on the trails of my rural neighborhood, but I could, Oh I could. Let's just leave it with the understanding that I really want the kid to learn to ride.....And "the kid"?....not so much. We are now in our third day of "learning"....."the kid" is up for three to six attempts a day, then its time to play with anything other than the bike. Thats not entirely true, he wants to play with the bike just not ride it. Performing a suedo repair on a perfectly functioning bicycle has a become part of the ritual of cycling for my son. Of course, i do the same thing, switching this handlebar for that, because one has 2 degrees more backsweep than the other....unfortunately it represents the bulk of our bike time together. Never fear friends, patience and perseverance will prevail.
The last line of this partial post is the reason I added the excerpt.....Patience and Perseverance DID NOT pay off. My son has become increasingly disinterested in riding, in no small part because of the what i thought at the time was an awesome idea....get him a super rad RC car for his birthday.
the death of toddler cycling (traxxas.com)
Well, on to other matters....with the onset of foul weather comes a marked decrease in my ride time. Night mountain bike rides are replaced with beer runs, and early morning commutes by late morning drives with coffee and a smoke. Some would say that whats needed here is to add a couple hundred bucks of overpriced "winter" cycling gear.....and i would not be one of them. Riding cold is LAME!now dont me wrong, i have all that stuff and will use it on occasion, but I will not force myself to ride if i dont want to......period. And you shouldnt either, this is after all supposed to be a fun escape from lifes stresses right? I will traditionally, during this time of year list, plan, and connive the method i will use to drop thousands of dollars on gear in the upcoming season. Which, conveniently brings me to a down and dirty review the newest addition to the stable
So I got this thing a couple of months ago, and and it rode super great right up to the point i bent the derailleur hanger and trashed the rear derailleur hosing......wah, wah, waaahhhh!!!!! I understand the idea that replaceable hangers are and should be made of material that is softer than the frame material to ensure that the hanger fails before the frame, but this version, which salsa calls the Alternator Drop Out (click the link for a technical drawing) is butter soft. so much so that its nigh impossible to bend it back into alignment. The handlebars are aircraft carrier wide, which when on a trail that is more than 710mm wide is perfect, handling is stable and predictable. When things get tight however, a fair amount of body english is required to navigate the random branch or vine encroaching on the trail. Brakes and drivetrain work great and only require minimal adjust after the standard break-in time. WTB saddles & tires are my personal favs, so for me the were perfect. the Reba29er fork was easy to set up, and actuated butter smooth right off the bat. Being a clydesdale sized rider, fork flex is always an issue, especially when pushing hard into burmed turns. Not so much with this fork, the Maxle through-axle is uber-stiff and easy to use and adjust. One of the nice details of buying a Salsa is that while some bike companys use components like seatpost collar, stem, and seatpost to shave some cheddar off the bottomline, Salsa uses their components; which in my opinion are some of the best in the business.......With the option of running single speed or geared this bike is a great all around, medium travel hardtail and well worth the asking price......
Yahuda Moon Calls it quits
For those of us who are fans of Mr. Moon, Joe, Thistle, The Bike Ninja, and the host of other quirky characters that lived in this strip, its the end of an era.......rick has decided to call it quits on the comic, siting the need to feed his family and not be institionalized. While I'm sad to see the comic go, its also kinda enraging.....Appearently there has been a ton of well wishing, and support emails concerning the end of comic, though theres a not-so-subtle implication that the strip has ended partailly because of lack of financial support......ShaME On US!!!!! for not ponying up a couple of bucks to support this great comic that casts a humorous and satirical light on the sport we love. That being said, we all have a chance for redemption, collected works are available in three volumes at: http://www.yehudamoon.com ......Frickin support this stuff, its the only way to keep seeing it!!!!
think thats all i got for the moment.....as its the day after ill take this oppertunity to wish everyone a merry holiday season and a safe and prosperous new year
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