Houston, We Have a Problem

Boy what a difference a week makes, last Saturday it struggled to get much above freezing, more so if you factored in the the feels like temps. This week Saturday was already in the 40° range at the start of the ride on it's way to the mid fifties before we were done. Due to the weather last week I didn't get in the traditional birthday ride that is supposed to equal the number of miles to match the number of years old you are on my actual birthday weekend, but this Saturday cooperated and allowed us to check that off the list. The plan this week wasn't really for the birthday ride, it just worked out that way, the actual plan was a pretty flat spin out to Cortland, Nebraska and the increasingly popular Paper Moon Pastries, named after the 1973 Crime/Drama/Comedy of the same name... minus the pastries part.




Flat might sound like some people's idea of a great ride but do it for any distance and the constant pedaling, constant saddle time and monotony are enough to make you wish you had some hills to liven things up. No hills on the way out but we did come across a few wild Turkeys to give chase to, the feathered variety not the alcohol type in this case. I guess I single speed faster than ole Tom runs because he got annoyed with me after a bit and took flight, I have to say it's a little whimsical to watch a 20 lbs bird take off and attempt to look graceful while trying to maintain altitude.



The old railroad bridge still makes for a good bridge beer stop but with the new beltway looming not too far away now the sounds and sights of the constant traffic is less ideal than it used to be. Progress they say.




They're known for their cinnamon rolls and throw back atmosphere and dress but I tell you what, that little German Chocolate cupcake in the forefront there gave those rolls a run for their money, IMO. Generally they also have very delicious Kolaches as well, a few in our group were looking forward to them actually, but a couple of tour buses has rolled through before we got there and snatched up all the Kolaches. Tour of what I have no idea but it's great to see a small town Mom and Pop type establishment getting that kind of business. Big chains are great for implied quality and consistency when traveling but it's hard to beat the home cooked taste and feel of a local outfit.




After a bit of a rest and a sugar high, it was time to hit the gravel for the journey back to town.


Hit up the Roca Tavern on the spin back for a cold refreshment. I discovered a flag on the back patio area and did my best impression of a color guard waving the Big Red flag to and fro. The flag had seen better days for sure but, then again, so has the football team so I suppose it's a fitting representation of the state of things in the Husker football state.




We jumped back on the trail after departing Roca and made quick work of the remaining miles back into town, thus ending another fun Saturday Morning Ride. Weather this week is looking like it might try to look more like winter again on a few of the days so hopefully it won't impact next weeks activities too much. Two weeks from now we are bikepacking from Marysville, Kansas to Americus, Kansas and then partaking in the Flint Hills Gravel Ride so I suppose if this week wants to misbehave so that next week can be more like spring again then let it do it's worse this week and get it out of the way.

 

ThNNDRR - Strava Made Me Do It

~ To the tune of Waterfalls by TLC ~

Don't go chasin' faster dudes

Please stick to the rhythm and the cadence that you're used to

I know that you're gonna want them KOM’s or nothing at all

But I think you're pedaling too fast

Skinny roadie has a natural obsession

For segments that he just can't beat

Strava gives him challenges his body can't handle

But all he can say is, "Baby it's gotta be me"

One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror

But he doesn't recognize his own face

His health is fading and he doesn't know why

Three letters took him to his final resting place, 

y'all, don't hear me

Don't go chasin' faster dudes

Please stick to the rhythm and the cadence that you're used to

I know that you're gonna want them KOM’s or nothing at all

But I think you're pedaling too fast

Awesomely, fantastic group for last nights ThNNDRR, huge group as well with 13 of us at one point during the ride. I was feeling pretty good and ambitiously, perhaps too much so, and decided to try to make it to Cortland and back before it got too late. 

We rolled out of Cycle Works and had a few miles of neutral start via the always excellent city bike paths, it was pretty cool seeing all those bikes riding along in a group.


Once we got out on the open road the pace picked up a little bit, nothing crazy but faster than I generally like to ride on the populated trials within the city.


Had a really strong group as well and the couple of regroups that we did have were fairly short as we were mostly within a few minutes of each other.


How awesome was the group last night... so awesome we even had a Bike Rack rider join us for a bit. He might not have actually joined us as much as he was riding the same direction at the same time but I'd like to think we were one cohesive unit of like minded cyclists.


What wasn't so awesome were a few of the pictures from the Cycle Works staff photographer, if you want my opinion I think that they pay that guy too much money given the quality of some of the stuff he puts out but they don't let me make those types of decisions and probably wisely so.


The group made it to Princeton by about 7 pm, I had hoped we would have been in Cortland by this time but it just wasn't in the cards with the fairly decent headwind we were fighting but sometimes you just have to make the best of what nature gives you. It's a shame that Princeton doesn't have any services in the town, it would be an ideal refuel stop and an enjoyable ride destination in itself if there were anything there. 9 of us decided to push on to Cortland while 4 of us decided that they should head back to Lincoln and save a little fun for another day.



The pace was decidedly quicker from Princeton to Cortland than it was from Lincoln to Princeton, I think everyone realized if we wanted to make it back to Lincoln at a decent time we were going to have to bump it up a notch. We quickly invaded the unsuspecting Sinclair EZ Stop, dripped a little sweat here and there while refueling for the push home.


With the wind at our backs and a steady decline into Lincoln the guys were flying, Chris was pretty quiet on his recumbent until we pointed back toward Lincoln and then beast mode came out, that guy can absolutely fly on his recline- o - bicycle.


After a few of miles of trying to stick on Chris's wheel a couple of things were apparent, keeping this pace for the next 20 something miles didn't sound enjoyable and we were dropping a few people off the back end maintaining the pace. Not wanting to have anyone ride home alone in the growing darkness I decided to give up the ghost and drop back to see where everyone was, several still decided to give chase and the rest of us decided to hang back, spin at a nice pace and enjoy the beautiful night it turned out to be. Totals for the night were right at 50 miles in just a tad over 3 hours for about a 15.5 mph for the average, not a bad ride at all.

Thanks to all that came out and made it even a more enjoyable ride, for me it's never been about how fast we go but that everyone has fun and hopefully we accomplished that last night.

Saturday is for Spelunking

Twas an awesome November morning, that didn't feel at all like a November morning 50s at 8 am.


Just look at how gorgeous it was, not sure if it was dew or if it sprinkled last night but the cement was a bit wet this morning but nothing too bad.


Headed out to Meadowlark Coffee at 8 to meet up with M.G., haven't been out on much more than solo rides since the group rides stopped for the season so the company was going to be nice.




Got there a bit early, had no idea how long it was going to take to ride there for sure and figured early was better than late. Was a bit of a busy morning in the five minutes I sat there waiting, had two fire trucks go by with full sirens and lights and the life flight helicopter lifted off. It's kind of a shame a few somebodies were have crappy days already on such a beautiful autumn day.


Headed straight into a pretty brutal headwind on the way to Cortland, winds started out at 16 mph and just kept getting stronger. Riding into a wind that strong is like riding uphill for the 25 miles out and I was definitely feeling it today.


My view for a lot of the ride, it's pretty humbling when you're deep, deep in your pain cave, your legs are on fire, your lungs are screaming, you'd probably be screaming as well if you could spare the oxygen, it's all you can do to muster up the will to go on... and you look over at the guy you're riding with knowing that he could ride away from you like you were standing still any time he wanted to. Don't get me wrong it's definitely a very humbling experience but it's also the only way you get better at anything, getting your ass handed to you every once in awhile, while it sucks, also helps you improve in ways you never could on your own. There's always going to be someone faster, better, stronger than you are at whatever you do, that's just a fact of life but it's how you respond to the situation that either builds you up or knocks you down. The pain you feel today is the strength you'll feel tomorrow.

Great end to a terrible afternoon

Day started out awesome, I have been looking for a geared cross bike to replace the singlespeed Redline 925 for awhile now, was contemplating waiting for the new bikes to come out this year because it seems that the discs have finally caught on for cross bikes but figured I'd go see what was out there on closeout from this year. I had only a few basic requirements really, had to have disc brakes (just a personal preference there) and had to have gears. It didn't necessarily have to be a cross bike but the disc brakes kind of eliminated road bikes at least for the 2013 model year, the fact that I'm vertically challenged eliminated more than a few closeout bikes right out of the gate without carrying a step ladder to get on and off the thing. That is one of the problems with waiting until the end of the year to look for a bike, you might not find anything in your size. I narrowed it down to two bikes that fit everything I was looking for and that were reasonably priced, the Kona Jake and the Redline Conquest Disc. I had thought it was going to end up being the Kona just because it had a more attractive price point but thanks to Nate, Joel and the rest of the awesome people at Cycle Works they were able to get the price to the point that it made more sense to spend just a little bit extra to get a much nicer equipped bike. Did I mention that Nate and Cycle Works rock?!?

All that was left was to sell this one as quick as I could and hope that the bike was still at Cycle Works, I have posted a few items recently on a Facebook boards buying and selling bike and bike related items and was able to sell them but it took a couple weeks to do it, I assumed this would be no different. To my surprise however it sold within a half hour of being posted, not only was it sold within that time frame but there were at least three people who were interested in buying it but it was first come first to buy and it went to a good home. Just goes to show that I am not the only one who enjoys the simplicity of a good singlespeed, but for me a singlespeed road bike just didn't fit in with what I wanted out of it. The sale paved the way for a quick turn around on the new bike and picked it up early afternoon, unfortunately I had a pretty full day and wasn't sure if I was going to get a ride in today or not. I would say I had a softball game to play, but with the way it went for me I could have helped the team better if I had stayed home... the game left me a bit bummed so I decided I needed to get out on the bike and put some miles behind me and do a little mental clearing.

This bike is fast, really fast, on her maiden voyage I shaved almost 3 minutes off of my best 10 mile time, that's not that easy to do but with all those gears to choose from it didn't seem all that difficult. The color is deceptive in this picture, it looks black (which it is technically) but if you get it in the just right light the metal flecks in the paint sparkle like Team Edward trying to get a tan. I know that Redline isn't quite the name it once was, although it still does well with the BMX crowd, and isn't as big as Trek, Giant or Specialized but I've owned a few Redlines over the years and haven't had anything but good luck with them. Love my Monocog 29er and probably won't ever get rid of that bike, loved the 925 it just had to go to make room  and even after just the first ride I can tell that the Conquest isn't going to disappoint either.

The ride really helped to forget the crap from the day and clear the mind, getting passed by a farm tractor hauling whatever the heck it's hauling didn't help the ego any but shit happens.

It was an impromptu ride and I was racing the daylight so I decided to fly out to Cortland and back, this dude decided to tag along again.

It's a good thing I decided to bring the lights, probably could have gotten away without them since it was still somewhat light by the time I made it home but figured it's better to be safe than sorry especially when riding on the side of a highway. As a reward for getting out I was treated to this awesome, amazing, spectacular sunset... icing on the cake of a great ride. Looking forward to getting more miles on this bike, it opens the doors for all sorts of rides I've been thinking of but never really quite had the right bike for... BRAN, RAGBAI(maybe), Going to the Sun Road in Glacier NP, STP (Seattle to Portland) maybe a few gravel rides and a few others that have been on my radar. Haven't owned a "10-speed" type bike since I was 12 and not really sure what brought me back to one but it just seems like a good fit right now and an excellent addition to the stable of bikes currently in the barn. 

One-speeding to the land of Cort

So... I have this bike, it's sorta, kinda a road bike but it's also sorta, kinda like a cross bike but it's not really either; it's actually probably close to a commuter but it's got these skinny tires, although not as skinny as the ones it had on it when I bought it used a few months back. I got it at a heck of a deal on it for a bike not from Wal-mart but I just haven't really been able to figure out what to do with it, so I figured I'd take it out and see how it did as an open road bike. Not wanting to be too adventurous on my first outing I decided that Cortland would be a nice enough distance without being too far. Having only one speed I wasn't sure how the hills were going to be, they turned out to be fine as long as they weren't accompanied by a 20 mph headwind.


Not really sure if runners are out every Saturday at 7:30 a.m. en masse but they sure were today, had to be almost 30 or more of them on the Rock Island trail.


Truth be told in all my years here in Lincoln, I've never once ridden on Hwy 77 so I was tad bit apprehensive.


Once up to speed and a few miles behind me it actually wasn't too bad, as long as you didn't linger on about those 2,000 lbs+ hunks of metal screaming by only a few feet away from you at 70 mph. You really do have to put your faith in the guy behind the wheel because if they were to veer off the road at the same time they were passing you my guess is you probably wouldn't even hear them until they were sending you flying skyward.


Princeton seemed to come up much quicker than it does via the Homestead Trail.


Roughly an hour and a half later the water tower came into view, to be honest I can't say that I've ever been there before today... drove by a few times but never stopped.


Lucky for me they had a sign up letting you know how fast you were going, I'd hate to get a ticket for speeding on my first visit and get off on the wrong foot.



They were either having a tractor show of this is just how they roll in Cortlandia.


This is also how they roll apparently, so if you're ever need to get your picture taken in a large cat box you now know where to go.


Town greeter?!?

The way back completely, totally, unequivocally sucked donkey balls, big, fat, hairy, juicy ones. The wind wasn't supposed to be howling through the prairie quite so quickly until later in the day but just to be nice it decided to come early. I can't really say for sure how strong it was but my best guess from riding in wind before is that it was at least 20 mph, it took everything I had on the uphills to try to maintain 9-11 mph; 12-15 on the downhills was even a struggle. I do have to say though it was nice to be able to jump on the bike and pedal non-stop for 22 miles straight without needing to stop or dodge pedestrians, so I guess you take the good with the bad as they say.


Dude must have been late for the tractor gathering, as slow as he was I'd bet he was still going 2-3 times as fast as I was; lucky bastard had the tailwind.


I've never been so happy to see this turn off as I was today, after struggling with wind for the better part of 2 hours I was spent. Even the little relief of turning slightly out of the headwind felt like heaven. I'm not going to turn in my baggy shorts and mountain bikes anytime soon for a lycra bodysuit and sub 11 lbs carbon fiber road bike but I definitely will probably give this ride a go again on a day where it's not quite as windy.