You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own, you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.
To say it's been a crazy December for weather would be an understatement, 60 degrees one week, snow the next, rain the following and then back to the 50s. With rain looming in the forecast for Friday night late and all day Saturday, I decided to head to Lincoln on Friday afternoon to avoid the potential for freezing rain overnight.
The early arrival was actually a good thing because it also meant I could meet Larry for his little get together at Method to celebrate breaking the 10,000 mile mark for 2019. Friday night was mostly dry with just a little nip in the air, we did get caught in a little rain on the way home or more to the point we looked at the radar and decided it was time to head home and just mistimed it by about 15 minutes.
Saturday morning we weren't so lucky, it rained pretty much all night Friday after about 10 pm and it was still raining when I got to Cycle Works. Rider numbers reflected the cold, wet, miserable morning but I was determined to get in some sort of ride so we decided to ride over to Cultiva at East Campus for some coffee and breakfast.
Doug drove over and snagged a table and managed to stay dry in his automobile, Sarah and I were not so lucky but we did manage to find a bit of a reprieve in the heavier rain on the way over and the way back so we didn't get as wet as we could have. Despite being the shortest and wettest SMNDFBR on record, it was still good to get out for a short ride and breakfast with friends is always a good time. Next Saturday looks to be much drier and a little warmer, hopefully that holds and we can get in more than the 2.2 miles we had today.
Well shoot, in my excitement to get the blog out I forgot to mention why it was important to have a ride on Saturday, even if it was only two riders and a driver. Saturday was 5 years and 1 day since the inception of the Saturday Morning No Drop Fat Bike Ride! It's hard to believe that it's been that long but on a cold December 27th morning in 2014, 6 of us took off from Cycle Works for the first official SMNDFBR.
Winter temps showed up this week for the Saturday Morning ride, with the brisk wind temps were just barely into the double digits. Since creating heat requires more energy, a good breakfast at The Hub seemed in order.
Pretty good crew of hearty souls.
With colder temps and the wind the plan was to head into the Park and hide from the wind at least.
Wilderness was in great shape, with the cold the trails were frozen solid and rolling fast. Snow missed us by one day, would have been awesome to ride in the snow we got today but it just wasn't to be.
Once we popped out of the park a few of us decided to go find something warm to drink and ended up at Method for a hot coffee or an adult beverage. Followed by a slice of pie at Yia Yias, was a good day to be on two wheels.
Saturday was Global Fat Bike Day and our 5th annual GFBD ride at the shop, everyone has been a blast and everyone has been slightly different from the one before or after it, you just never know what you're going to get. Like a giant donut on a 24 Pack Rack or two dudes staring at each other while they share a bit of said donut but it happened and if you weren't there, you missed out.
2015 I bought my first Fat Bike, the Trek Farley 6 which was only made for the one year as a alternative to the spendier Farley 7. The following year the Fat Bike would really blow up and Trek would offer what seemed like 8-10 different models. GFBD 2015 was a bit of a warmer affair and the trails were no good so we stuck to the pavement... and forgot to get a picture at the start so we took this one midway through and probably missed a few folks.
2016 was a cold one but had promised to stay dry, little did we know that this would end up being the most idyllic GFBD of them all so far. A mile out from the single track Mother Nature decided to start dropping big, wet snow flakes on top of us and the ground was covered with a fair amount of snow by the time we got there. We did however remembered the pre-ride photo this time and stared the Chili Cook Off as part of the festivities.
2017 was a really warm winter up to this point, I remember it being dusty on the way to Wilderness Park. We had a big crowd that year, the weather probably played a lot into that but the Fat Bike was also the king of the bicycle world as far as new bike sales went. This was just before the industry started turning toward the next big craze in the way of the gravel bike, it seemed like everyone owned a Fat Bike in 2017; the fire sale on Pugsley and Ice Cream Trucks probably helped that cause.
2018 was cold and wet which kept the crowd down to only the hard core Fat Biker. While it was a smaller bunch it was also the die hard, rowdy crowd so what it might have lacked in size it made up for in good times.
Now that the little recap is out of the way, it's on to this years ride. The importance of a tasty beverage or a mascot cannot be underplayed in their importance for a great ride and we had both so it was almost like we couldn't go wrong.
With the blessing of the dog and the Fireball a decent group of riders did in fact show up for the ride. Temps were supposed to get into the 50s but with a pretty brisk wind out of the south, it never did feel overly warm.
Since some folks are the single track kind of people and some aren't, we had two different routes but both of them headed out through downtown and then to the bridge behind Good Life Fitness.
Fireball was dispensed to the riders on the bridge, initially by tossing them but as it turns out folks who ride bikes cannot necessarily catch flying liquor so they were then handed out at a more personal distance. Thanks to McColgan Photography for the mid air shot.
We did this same route from the bridge a couple of GFBD rides ago and I still love the two lines of Fat Bikes snaking down the trail in a long procession.
Wilderness was in pretty good shape, would have been a little better a few degrees cooler but the few slick spots that were out there were easily avoided.
A little more single track and a regroup on the southern end of the route before heading back seemed like a perfect place for a trail beer. Since it was a bunch of Fat Bikers there were several varieties to choose from at the stop.
Once back on the pavement and heading back, we did have another regroup when a train decided to cut our group in half.
A few more paved miles and we were back at the shop for the rest of the festivities.
Beers (courtesy of White Elm), brats, chili and cake were on the menu for the hungry and thirsty riders.
Bonus points were given if you could do most of them at the same time.
After socializing and eating it was time to get the results of the Chili Cook Off from the judges and announce the winners.
Third place claims to have not known his chili was called so he was not pictured but it's possible Mark was just camera shy. Second place went to Rick and Debbie for their great offering.
The first place winner was Jason with his white chicken chili and it was a fantastic tasting chili with just the right amount of heat; if you didn't get it quick then you didn't get any because it went fast.
After the winners were announced some folks decided to take a self guided tour of the upcoming Containers on Vine. While they might look a little small on the outside a walk through the inside showed them to be more spacious than they appeared and I could definitely see a few beers getting drank while sitting on that top patio on a warm summers night. Cannot wait to see the finished product since we've watched them grow up before our very eyes. Thanks to everyone who came out and rode, made a chili or did both; it was a great time and you all are the main reason for that. Let's regroup and do it all over again next year, everybody start doing your snow dance now and maybe we can get some more of that white stuff next year.
**Edit**
I almost forgot the short little video of us rolling into downtown.
Aaaaaaannnnnddddd I finally got my Academy Award that I was promised at the Groveler Race weeks ago but it didn't come from the race organizers; instead it came from Joe. Thanks, Joe... I'd like to thank all those who helped me win this... or NAH!
