Twice as nice

Woke up before the sun this morning so that I could get in a few miles, it's been a while since I've had a single ride over about 20 miles so figured it was time. By the time I hit the road the sun was up just enough to not need lights and it was chilly, 50 degrees with a decent breeze. The shadows were down right cold, signs that the seasons are changing are in full effect. 

 

Been seeing more Blue Herring around here lately, beautiful birds. 

Fields of green have turned to fields of brown, only a matter of time before the leaves start falling and all the color fades for another year. 

Decided to head out to Cortland riding into the wind on the way out, with the wind at my back on the way back. Yo-yo'd back and forth with these guys on the way out, actually they would pass me and then stop at which time I would pass them. They seemed much more serious about the ride than I felt however, I wasn't really in the mood or shape to burn it out and back. 

Should have gotten out sooner for the second ride of the day definitely wanted to check out Streets Alive but by the time I made it out most of the booths were cleaning up and getting ready to call it a day. It was still nice to see all the people out wandering on the closed roads and there were still plenty of interesting booths open. 

Love the work these guys do, Lincoln has an awesome network of trails. 

Not sure who this band was but it looks like Abe approves and that's good enough for me. 

Watching a little Star City CX

Today was the first of four races for the Star City CX series so I decided to wander out to Seacrest Field to catch a little of the action.


Scooted down Sumner St, either I've never ridden this section of Sumner or I somehow missed this mailbox.


First race was already underway by the time I got there, the Cycle Works barriers looked pretty sweet.


Lone cyclist silhouetted in the setting sun.


Course looked in really good shape, someone or a few someones spent a bit of time getting it ready.

And they're off... start of the second race, these guys were hauling ass.


See, I told you they were moving. Biking at the speed of blur.

MG out on the course.


Mr. Taylor on the course.

Race leader, as far as I know he led from start to finish and he was tearing it up. Some people just make it look too easy, of course I am almost certain there are hours of training behind it. Not sure who gets the credit for thinking up cyclocross but they guys a genius, modifying road bikes originally and waiting until the weather turns from the blazing hot mountain biking season to more mild temps, that dude twernt no dummy.

Circles in the dirt...

Been pretty lazy lately, no gym to speak of, not much riding either, somethings gotta change and soon. Lazy has a way of creeping in and taking hold, problem is it's a hard housemate to evict once he unpacks his shit. In a slight effort to start the change I decided to get out and cruise through the park tonight before it got dark, lights out is coming way too quick lately.


Love this time of year, when the temps start to drop but before the leaves fall and everything turns to a dull gray. Best time to ride out in the woods by far.


Water crossings are almost bone dry right now, first one is but the second one still has a little trickle running through it. I was actually a bit surprised how dry it was considering the rain we've gotten lately.


Switched out the flat Salsa Pro Moto 2 that came on the Mariachi for an Easton Monkey Bar, not sure what it is about flat bars but they always seem to make my hands numb. I gave them a try I really did but they were getting so bad that I could barely feel the brake levers on longer rides, the junky Giant grips probably don't help, zilch for padding on them. They might be the next thing to go here soon.


Some new urban art out on the biker side.

Saw this sweet ride in Van Dorn park on the way home, always get curious when I see a bike and nobody around... bikes tend not to ride themselves. Scanned the park for a bit before spotting the old guy who owned it, he was walking the park with a metal detector looking for anything of value. Chatted him up for a minute or two before completing the journey home. Need to figure out how to do more riding and less working myself, might be time to play that Powerball.

The difference is like day and night...

Picked up a L&M Stella 600 a week or so ago for a really decent price thanks to Nathan but hadn't had an opportunity to try them out until last night. I really love what L&M is putting out lately for lights, usually use an Urban 500 but I had a need for a second set of lights.




I was not disappointed by the light that the Stella was throwing out, the sharp focused beam pattern really helps to make them seem brighter than they are.


The only real dig I had on the lights really isn't that huge of a deal but on the Conquest with the dual lights that sit really low on the bars the cables and brake hoods caused shadows. On a mountain bike bar this wouldn't even be an issue, it really isn't on the cross bike either as it still throws more than enough light onto the trail but it was something I noticed.

Went for an early morning ride this morning, crazy Husker fans were tailgating already at 9:30, not sure if I could dedicate that much time to football.

Sun was out, temps were down and just a slight breeze, hoping it stays like this for at least a good month or two. A little less rain would be nice, haven't hit the dirt in a week or so. 

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Temps were pretty good for the ride today, kept getting spit on but never did really rain on me although it had off and on during the night and early morning. Forecast has lots of nice temps for the next 10 days, come on fall lets have a few weeks of decent weather before it gets colder.


Dreary day in the LNK but the clouds make for some decent pictures.


The boys of summer are long gone, nothing now but empty fields.


Normally not a huge fan of spandex per se because it is usually worn by the wrong type of people but sometimes you just have to revel in the beauty that spandex can provide when worn properly.

Marin - Bikes so bad you'd rather walk?!?

I've never owned or had the opportunity to ride a Marin mountain bike, nor do I know who is responsible for their ad campaign but they need someone new. My first thought when I saw this ad was that whomever is in the picture decided that they would rather walk than ride that bike one more inch. Sure there is what looks like the possibility of a ledge just past the rider but from this perspective it doesn't look like there is going to be anything much more exciting to look at than the weeds we see in the rest of the frame. Even if there is this spectacular breath taking view why would you toss your bike into the weeds and walk over to see it. Mountain bikers are mountain bikers because, well, they ride mountain bikes, if we wanted to hike we'd run out and get some hiking boots for a fraction of the cost of a new bike and become one with nature rather than driving hours in a car just so we can run nature over with a bike. About the only time I lay my bike down like depicted in this ad is when I gotta pee and just can't wait until I get back to civilization, so maybe that's what they are aiming for "Bikes so fun to ride you'll let us take a picture of you walking over the hill to pee", not sure that's a better slogan. I guess maybe I'm cynical but honestly to me it looks like dude just said f*ck it, dropped the bike in the weeds and decided to hoof it home. Makes me want to run right out and find my local dealer.

Doubling up on the B.O.

Headed out to area 7 at Branched Oak Lake for a little singletrack goodness, don't think I have made it out there at all this year. It's odd because a few years ago I was either hitting up B.O. or Wagon Trail almost weekly but this year especially it's been almost all Wilderness Park. That's a trend I definitely need to change, love W.P. but after riding three laps today at B.O. I can definitely tell I need to get back on the hills.


It's never a good sign when the hawks are circling before you even get the bike out of the car, I was hoping they weren't there waiting on me.


It was very dry and dusty out there today, could use a little rain.


Thought I had the trail to myself as I didn't see any cars, then I ran into these two guys... almost literally, I was heading clockwise, which is the way the trail used to be ridden and they were riding counter clockwise. To be honest I haven't been out there much recently so when I saw them back at the road we discussed it and they said the T.H.O.R. website shows it as counter clockwise. Works for me, might need to check that for sure but I turned around anyway just to be safe and ride the same direction. I felt slow out there today especially on the climbs but I managed to stay ahead of them and even opened up a bit of a gap by the end of the second lap so who knows maybe it was just perception... although none of us were riding race speed but it's always nice for this old, fat, slow guy not to get lapped by the youngsters.


Not many boats out on the lake today, it was a hot, steamy one so maybe that was keeping the crowds away.

The tight section in the pines is probably my favorite section of the newer parts, the first or last (depending on if you are riding clockwise or counter clockwise) seven tenths of a mile just west of the road is awful. Riding it clockwise or down hill for the most part is sketchy as hell so maybe they did change it to counter clockwise, it's still nothing but an ass busting, suspension torture test but at least it's at a slower speed which helps to make it less horrible. I appreciate all the work that people do on the trails but until that section of the trail burns in, maybe not even after that because of the ruts from run off and cracks from the lack of water, it's miserable to ride in my opinion and it's been like that for at least 3-4 years.


Creeper alert! Oh wait, I think that might be my car. Tried to get out early before the heat but the heat was already there and brought it's friend humidity, think maybe they both camped out there over night. I am sure I stunk like no other after three laps, I'm sure the ladies at the Malcolm General store were less than thrilled to smell me when I stopped by on my way home.

The more things change, the more they look nothing like they did before

Haven't really been riding a lot lately, haven't really felt like riding a lot lately either, so I decided to do just that to see if I could break out of this funk. Decided to take a ride down around the downtown area, lots of new things popping up in that area lately.


Like this guy, not to stir up anything but unless Bob was a pigmy he sorta got screwed in the statue department, the one on the other side of the stadium of Tom is much, much bigger... I think they put him on that pedestal so that the eight year old fans wouldn't tower over him.


Had to sneak a peak of Bob's game plan, see what he had in mind for the game. As it turns out his game plan was nada, pretty much the same one the Huskers had in the second half, guess somethings never change.


Ah, now that's a game plan I understand.


The Haymarket is really changing, thanks in part to the new arena, everywhere you look there are new roads and new buildings, whole blocks that were just dirt and railroad tracks a few years ago.

New Pinnacle Bank Arena from the back side, pretty swanky.


Looking down the ramp and onto Canopy St.

The infamous pedestrian bridge, looks like it's going to be awhile before it's usable.


The new part of the Haymarket is starting to look a lot like the area in Omaha around TD AmeriTrade Park and CenturyLink Arena but I suppose they probably used some of the same contractors. You can almost see the hordes of people descending on the Haymarket looking to spend thousands of dollars on beer and food before heading into the new arena, suppose it should do wonders for the local economy if you can look past the traffic and the crowds.

After I got done playing tourist I decided to head out to Pioneers Park, it was just what I needed, the legs weren't quite what they should be but it was nice to get out and get in a decent ride. Bonus that it wasn't 90+ degrees out and I fixed the shifting problem on the Conquest, hopefully it will be a beautiful fall with lots of miles of riding left in the year.