Thursday Gravel

Last night Ho Fo Sho, Kew, Greg W. and I saddled up the fat tires and headed south on the Jamaica trail to the Roca tavern on a perfect night.  After a couple of cold ones and some good storytelling (ask either Kew or me about our embarrassing falling while riding clipless pedals stories), we decided we were hungry, so we got back on the trail and headed back to town for some Mexican food at the usual post ride gathering place.  Definitely my kind of ride.

I haven't posted about rides for a while, so here are some random thoughts and pics from the last month or so:

I had a great 45 mile SOLO ride last Saturday while evidently some people were still recovering from FAC.  You know who you are - you missed a great ride, and I was disappointed to not get the opportunity to ride with you and laugh some more, but it was a great morning, and I enjoyed myself anyway.  The only thing that bummed me out was when I took the turn at Hallam to go back to Highway 77, and realized that they had covered that perfect, smooth, road with chip-seal.

Since returning from vacation badly out of shape, I have tried to get out more on some of the group rides.  The Monday ride has been a big one lately, with lots of folks showing up and a very reasonable pace.  With a lot of riders, it seems like we get more flats, though.  One night a guy showed up who had never had a flat or changed a tire, and was ready to call his wife to pick him up until we convinced him that it is possible to change a tube on the road.  Here we are waiting for him to finish learning how to change a flat.

The new chip-seal on the shoulders and some of the roads around Sprague is also contributing to more flats than usual.  There have been Jendeluxe sightings on several of the Monday rides - here she is recovering after catching up to the group when she had to stop to fix a flat.

The Wednesday ride has also been well attended.  The pace has also gone up.  The first ride I did on the Wednesday after vacation I got dropped, which I expected since I hadn't ridden in a while.  However, this last Wednesday I got dropped again, which really had me questioning my fitness until I checked my average speed when I got home.  I averaged 18.5 mph, and that was doing the last third of the ride solo after getting dropped.  That is faster than that ride usually goes, and is a pretty healthy speed for me on any ride, so I guess it's not me getting slower, it's just that everybody else got faster.  Here is a pic at the turnaround spot at Bluestem Lake.

I enjoyed last Friday's FAC - let's all get out together to ride bikes again sometime.

Oops!

This is Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz riding clipless for the first time.  Notice how this clip incorporates both jazz and bikes!

This Made Me Laugh

From the Road Bike Rider newsletter this week:

A roadie gets up early, as he has for so many Saturday morning rides, and softly slips out of the bedroom so as not to wake his wife.

He dresses quietly in the next room, grabs his helmet and water bottles, and goes out to pump the tires. As the garage door opens he's confronted by a windswept rain.
 
He's ridden before in these conditions. He doesn't like it, but when it's Saturday morning he never misses. He ponders the dismal conditions and then retreats to the kitchen to tune a small TV to The Weather Channel.
 
The forecast only sounds worse. Tornado watch. This is one Saturday when he just can't make it happen.
 
As thunder booms in the distance, he slips off his shoes, quietly returns to the bedroom, undresses and slips back into bed.
 

There he cuddles up to his wife's back and whispers, "The weather out there is terrible." 

To which she sleepily replies, "Yeah, can you believe my husband went riding in that crap?"

This was pretty amusing too, posted in the same newsletter:

This is a must do

I believe this to be a bike trip must this fall. Who's with me?

Nacho ride report

Peter B., Kim, Nicol and I met at the bench to ride out to the MoPac trailhead at 5 - which for further reference was about 15 minutes late if the desire is to get to the trailhead by 5:30.  After meeting up at the trail with my musician friend Scott V. and Gravy, we left Kim and Gravy behind to wait for Loup Garou, who had gone to the bench at 5:30 instead of to the trailhead.  After a nice ride on the trail, we all met up with Peter's wife and my wife, who had driven out to Eagle to meet us.  Afterwards, Loupy G, Nicol and I rode back to the trailhead, where I took leave from them to ride to the Oven East for a nightcap with my wife and friends.  Good conversation, nachos, tacos, beer, a ride back in the dusk, and a beautiful night made for a fun ride.  Thanks to all who came out!

Check your credit card statement carefully

If you've purchased anything online through Nashbar anytime in the past year or so, you should check your credit card statement carefully. They had a security breach and 150,000 credit card numbers were compromised. The breach happened last December and they didn't catch it until May.

We noticed a handful of mysterious charges dating back a few months on our card. Since the amounts were small, we didn't notice them for a couple months. We have since canceled our card. Not cool.

Mmmmmmmmm, Nachos

Anybody interested in doing the Nacho ride on Tuesday?