Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Circle Jerk
Just what Lincoln needed, one more roundabout because the drivers here have already proven how adept they are at circumnavigating the ones we currently have. 11th and D, it's your turn to go right round.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Flight of the Bumblebee
TNNDDR got canceled today, which was probably a good thing as I was in a bit of a funk this afternoon that I just couldn't seem to shake. Decided to get out for a ride anyway even if I didn't really necessarily feel like it, sometimes the best rides are those we don't want to do but do anyway.
Looked like it could have rained at anytime but looks can be deceiving around here when it comes to weather and it never did. Headed down to take a look at Wilderness and see what kind of shape it was in, it was actually in decent shape, still a bit too wet for me to feel comfortable riding it but it should be perfect tomorrow barring any additional rain.
There are certain color combos that should be avoided, especially in certain patterns... like this one. When wearing black and yellow together one should BEE careful to avoid stripes of alternating colors, especially if you're going to be bumbling around in the open.
Looked like it could have rained at anytime but looks can be deceiving around here when it comes to weather and it never did. Headed down to take a look at Wilderness and see what kind of shape it was in, it was actually in decent shape, still a bit too wet for me to feel comfortable riding it but it should be perfect tomorrow barring any additional rain.
There are certain color combos that should be avoided, especially in certain patterns... like this one. When wearing black and yellow together one should BEE careful to avoid stripes of alternating colors, especially if you're going to be bumbling around in the open.
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Golden Ticket
Last night Cycle Works hosted Bikers Love Beer at the shop and a whole lot of awesome followed after that. The concept was to get a bunch of home-brewers who like to brew and ride bikes together in one spot and have a friendly little competition to see who could brew the crowd favorite IPA. Luckily finding volunteers to judge such and event amongst the cycling community wasn't all that difficult, something about beers and bikes just go together... even more lucky for me, I managed to get my hands on one of the tickets to get in.
If you didn't have one of these...
...you couldn't get in here and believe me in there was where you wanted to be last night.
I think the unofficial count for the night was somewhere around 150 people, most of whom biked, we showed up about 5 minutes before the event and were greeted to a full bike parking area. It was pretty rad to see that many bikes outside the shop at one time that weren't for sale, if there hadn't been beer and burgers a person could have spent hours looking at all the different bikes but who in their right minds is going to do that when there is cold beer and hot grass fed hamburgers to be had.
Those that chose not to ride were almost the lucky ones as far as parking was concerned, on this night it might have been easier to find a place to park your car than your bike.
Once inside you were treated to 12 different home-brewers with their own take on an IPA, all you had to do was grab a Hoegaarden sample glass (which was free to take home... like a drunken door prize) a score sheet and then just sample each of the 12 beers and rate them. Krampus and Mukluk from TNNDDR fame, unbeknownst to me until now, are also home-brewers as well as dirt shredders, of course they weren't at the booth when I snapped this picture but they brewed a very tasty IPA.
Nathan, the man who brought it all together, giving out instructions. It was loud in there and just got louder as the night and the drinking progressed, I am guessing Nate's voice is gone today but that's a small price to pay for pulling off such a hugely successful event.
Damon's idea of a modern day two wheeled station wagon, I have to talk him into giving me a ride on this one of these days, those bells are calling my name and really what would be cooler than sitting on the back of this constantly ringing those bells while people stare at you in disbelief.
Those of us who decided to ride our bikes to the event were also eligible to win one of these sweet door prizes provided by the awesome sponsors of the event if you were lucky enough to have your number called.
If riding your bike on a Sunday night, free beer and door prizes weren't reason enough to come out, they also had grass fed beef hamburgers for sale at a minimal charge supplied by the great people at Open Harvest. And I do mean minimal charge at $3 a burger I'm guessing they just broke even.
The event was so big they even had staff photographers on scene to capture it all, I guess the budget was blown by this point and all they could afford was Joel... he looks a bit perplexed by all those buttons and knobs. Kidding of course, good dude right there but of course that can be said of any of the staff at Cycle Works.
Once the competition was done, Corey was hard at work tabulating the votes while the rest of us went back for seconds, thirds and perhaps even fourths of our favorite brews. Even though there had to be a winner, none of the brewers that came out and competed had anything to hang their heads about as all of the beers were top notch, I opted for a pencil while voting as I often changed my vote as I made my rounds of the booths. It seemed like each one just kept getting better than the one before, the fact that I was getting a good buzz on probably also helped those at the end of the voting string but everyone has their own method, that's just mine.
The winners of the door prize raffle with all their swag.
And the winning brewers... If I'm not mistaken I think Black shirt took first, White shirt second and Gray shirt third but as I said all of the beers were really good.
Even the ride home was an awesome experience, albeit a much slower ride with a belly full of beer and burger than the ride there, I didn't win any of the swag (except the Hoegaarden glass) but the GF walked away with a t-shirt. I guess if you want to look at it from a different angle everyone who came out was a winner, great beer, tasty burgers, a chance to socialize with people who love bikes and beer in a great venue... if you rode away that night somehow feeling cheated because your number didn't come up for the raffle you missed the whole experience of the night and the purpose of the event. I can't even imagine the amount of time, planning and prepping that Nate and the rest of the crew at Cycle Works put in for the event but I sure hope they do it again. I'll be first in line to sign up for that.
If you didn't have one of these...
...you couldn't get in here and believe me in there was where you wanted to be last night.
I think the unofficial count for the night was somewhere around 150 people, most of whom biked, we showed up about 5 minutes before the event and were greeted to a full bike parking area. It was pretty rad to see that many bikes outside the shop at one time that weren't for sale, if there hadn't been beer and burgers a person could have spent hours looking at all the different bikes but who in their right minds is going to do that when there is cold beer and hot grass fed hamburgers to be had.
Those that chose not to ride were almost the lucky ones as far as parking was concerned, on this night it might have been easier to find a place to park your car than your bike.
Once inside you were treated to 12 different home-brewers with their own take on an IPA, all you had to do was grab a Hoegaarden sample glass (which was free to take home... like a drunken door prize) a score sheet and then just sample each of the 12 beers and rate them. Krampus and Mukluk from TNNDDR fame, unbeknownst to me until now, are also home-brewers as well as dirt shredders, of course they weren't at the booth when I snapped this picture but they brewed a very tasty IPA.
Nathan, the man who brought it all together, giving out instructions. It was loud in there and just got louder as the night and the drinking progressed, I am guessing Nate's voice is gone today but that's a small price to pay for pulling off such a hugely successful event.
Damon's idea of a modern day two wheeled station wagon, I have to talk him into giving me a ride on this one of these days, those bells are calling my name and really what would be cooler than sitting on the back of this constantly ringing those bells while people stare at you in disbelief.
Those of us who decided to ride our bikes to the event were also eligible to win one of these sweet door prizes provided by the awesome sponsors of the event if you were lucky enough to have your number called.
If riding your bike on a Sunday night, free beer and door prizes weren't reason enough to come out, they also had grass fed beef hamburgers for sale at a minimal charge supplied by the great people at Open Harvest. And I do mean minimal charge at $3 a burger I'm guessing they just broke even.
The event was so big they even had staff photographers on scene to capture it all, I guess the budget was blown by this point and all they could afford was Joel... he looks a bit perplexed by all those buttons and knobs. Kidding of course, good dude right there but of course that can be said of any of the staff at Cycle Works.
Once the competition was done, Corey was hard at work tabulating the votes while the rest of us went back for seconds, thirds and perhaps even fourths of our favorite brews. Even though there had to be a winner, none of the brewers that came out and competed had anything to hang their heads about as all of the beers were top notch, I opted for a pencil while voting as I often changed my vote as I made my rounds of the booths. It seemed like each one just kept getting better than the one before, the fact that I was getting a good buzz on probably also helped those at the end of the voting string but everyone has their own method, that's just mine.
The winners of the door prize raffle with all their swag.
And the winning brewers... If I'm not mistaken I think Black shirt took first, White shirt second and Gray shirt third but as I said all of the beers were really good.
Even the ride home was an awesome experience, albeit a much slower ride with a belly full of beer and burger than the ride there, I didn't win any of the swag (except the Hoegaarden glass) but the GF walked away with a t-shirt. I guess if you want to look at it from a different angle everyone who came out was a winner, great beer, tasty burgers, a chance to socialize with people who love bikes and beer in a great venue... if you rode away that night somehow feeling cheated because your number didn't come up for the raffle you missed the whole experience of the night and the purpose of the event. I can't even imagine the amount of time, planning and prepping that Nate and the rest of the crew at Cycle Works put in for the event but I sure hope they do it again. I'll be first in line to sign up for that.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Another Saturday, Another Rural Cycling Adventure
The weather gods were shining down on me today, last night the forecast called for 40% chance of thunderstorms but when I woke up this morning and checked I was pleasantly surprised with zeros all across the board.
Decided to head out on Hwy 2 to Bennet and then turn north toward Eagle before heading back for about a 40-50 miler.
Farming... the original "work from home" career path.
Ribbons of cement stretching for miles in either direction.
Happened upon this little B&B while taking the wrong road between Hwy 2 and Hwy 34, talked to the guy for a bit and snagged a brochure, might have to check it out a little further and see what pricing is like but it'd make a great little overnight get away perhaps. Ended up on 148th St. because I turned too soon, for a deserted looking road it had a ton of traffic including lots of large trucks, roller coaster hills and no shoulders, wouldn't be my first choice of roads to take if I had to do it again.
Spotted this Caballero in Eagle, the guy that rolled up in it, Fred was his name, was twice as old as the car... guessing the guy bought it new more than a few years ago and just never let it go. It worries me that our generation seems to view almost everything as disposable and everything you own needs to be replaced every couple of years, doesn't bode well for the whole sustainability concept.
Almost ran this monster over on the way back, probably would have caused a flat at minimum if hit just right... not sure why but picked it up and brought it home, didn't seem right to leave it laying out there for the next unsuspecting person but didn't seem right to just throw it in the ditch either. Guess if you're in the need for a big ass bolt hit me up, I have one now.
Rural riding is good for getting in the miles but city riding is awesome for the views as well... dat ass.
Decided to head out on Hwy 2 to Bennet and then turn north toward Eagle before heading back for about a 40-50 miler.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Great night for a ride
Mid ride Rockstars went down pretty smooth.
Stopped at the pond behind South Pointe to take in the beautiful night and got swarmed by ducks and geese looking for handouts, damn Democratic waterfowl.
Dudes just came right up to you all quacky like, obviously not afraid of people.
Ride ended with some post ride adult beverages, have only been in the hood for about two months but I'm loving having such a great selection of beer so close.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Black is the new Black
There is a reason for the phase "whatever" is the new black, it's because black is sleek, sexy, timeless, never out of fashion... and hard as hell to keep clean, I guess you can't have it all. The more I ride this bike the more I love it!
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