Is This Bottle Under Warranty?

When do you finally draw the line and say it's too cold to ride? 20 degrees when we left home this morning with not much wind and by the time we made it home 3 hours later it had reached a balmy 25. Ran into 3 riders from Stark Bicycle Club going east on Fulton and rode with them for a while, now at least I know we were not the only people crazy enough to be out in this.

I have been having problems with things freezing this winter, not me but things like derailleurs, brakes and water bottles. Today I thought that I would finally beat the frozen bottle. Alcohol doesn't freeze so if I were to put a shot of gin in my bottle I should be OK. A slightly piney taste would be better than no water. It was all good, it was cold but no ice was forming, I thought I had it made...............but no. That dog just had to give chase. It was one of those days when the legs wouldn't go fast enough to outrun him and he wouldn't let up, so I figure a good shot of gin water should discourage him. I pull out the bottle and go to squirt him in the face and that's where the fun began. Instead of a nice stream of water the entire bottle cracks wide open. Now I've got water on my gloves and tights, and running down onto my shoes, but at least the dog gave up. I thought that it might have been time to head for home but instead of soaking in, the water just froze and flaked off. So we were able to continue the ride.

I learned a couple of lessons from this.

1: The boxer mutt dog on Coalbank Road likes to chase bikes and doesn't give up easy.

2: Cheap water bottles from a certain bike shop in the Massilon area are not rated for sub zero use.

3: If the water froze that quickly outside of the bottle, there was definitely not enough alcohol in it!

NEXT RIDE = MORE GIN

Winter Wonderland

After spending most of the last week in the woods hunting, it was time to get a good ride in. Who says that it has to be 80 degrees and sunny to have fun. Frozen roads and single digit wind chills! It makes you glad to be alive. We were not the only ones out today, saw cross tire tracks on the Sippo trail. So at least we were not the only insane people out this morning.

Who needs to spend the time and money into buliding up a single speed? A good sub zero ride will do it for you. Just make sure you are in a gear that you want to suffer with into the wind.

This was a bad choice of gearing, cold legs just couldn't spin it fast enough.

Staying hydrated at this time of year is not a problem either, just do it before or after your ride. 30 minutes in, the spout of my bottle had frozen and by the time I made it home the bottle was frozen solid.

Wangpig, the Belgians and I

That's who was out on the road most of the week. If there is an upside to getting laid off it would be that I have gotten to do some really good snow rides over the past week. Some on the cross bike, some on the mtb. There is something about riding in this weather that makes it better than summer. Speed does not matter, distance doesn't matter either, it's riding for the fun of riding. There is just something about suffering into a 15 mile per hour head wind, knowing that when you finally turn for home you're going to have it at your back. Or being on a section of trail and seeing no tire tracks in the snow in front of you.

Unemployed

Well I guess all good things must come to an end. As of 11/18/2008 I am offically on the roll's of the unemployed. I was laid off from Rayco. I can't really get upset about it, because if you look at what the econmy has been doing for the last year I guess I was lucky to have stayed with them for this long. So now I guess it's time to start job hunting. If anyone is looking for someone to run a manual lathe or other machine shop work let me know.

It used to take me really good chemicals

It used to take really good chemicals to see things like this, and then I was the only one who saw them.

To everything there is a season

A table full of home canned tomato products means that the annual Labor day weekend marathon canning session is over. Now there will homemade pasta sauces, pizza sauce and stewed tomatoes for another year .

The last 12 of Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat I could find means that summer is over.

The first 12 of Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale means that fall is here.

And a 12 of Fat Tire Ale means Whitney is back at college.

And a new pair of frogs for the cross bike means that Cyclocross season is finally here!!

Commuter

It all started in late May. Gas was fast approaching the 4 dollars per gallon mark and I was getting sick of paying. I had been saying for years that once the new US 30 was finished it would take most of the traffic away from the old route and I could start commuting, but somehow I never seemed to get it started. But like I said before, that all changed in late May.

I started out just riding one of my cyclocross bikes. I think of all the bikes I own this one has to be my favorite one. Since May, the bike has seen the addition of a full time rack and panniers. I am lucky to have a place at work to keep my uniforms and I can change there. But I still have to carry in lunch and coffee (I refuse to eat out of a vending machine and would sooner drink battery acid then have to drink vending machine coffee). And I will tell you that a thermos of coffee in a messenger bag is not a fun thing to have digging into your back.

Then, with a lot of talking, I was able to convince the wife that there wasn't much in town that we couldn't do by biking or walking.

Now, most weeks we do our grocery store run with 2 bikes and a trailer. I can manage to get a week's worth home without her needing to carry a pack. The Amish bulk store is on my commute home from work, so there is one less place to drive. And the wife works just down the road from one of the best meat markets in the area. So also, it's one less trip.

I have tried to talk her into riding to work, but she is still holding out. Something about it being uphill both ways or something like that.

I do drive to work one day a week, so I have the energy for the Wednesday night club ride.