Flahute

"The type of rider who wins races where 125 riders start and one finishes—that’s a Flahute.

A Flahute thinks the Tour de France is just a bunch of long training rides. A real race is one where it’s pouring rain, it’s cold, the roads are treacherous, and the prize list is about the same as your 8-year-old neighbor’s allowance. When you’re a Flahute, that’s racing."

OK so I don't race but the point is the same.

Rolled out of bed this morning and listened to the wind howl. Thought to myself, it's blowing at 30 mph plus out there; there is no way that this would be a good day for a training ride. The wife calls from work and tells me one of the big trees at the corner is down, blown over in the storm last night. The TV is reporting flood warnings and how thousands are without power. Looks like a good day to spend inside, maybe ride rollers and spend the rest of the morning drinking too much coffee.

But no, at 8:15 the first text arrives: Flahute training ride today. No, it can't be...has Wangpig even looked outside? I try to tell him the wind is coming out of the west at 30 plus, but to no avail.

We roll out at a little after 9:30 for a 2 hour sufferfest into the wind. Legs feel good at the start but the bike feels off. Two hours of trying to figure it out, hill after hill into the wind.

Finally, we are at Wangpig's house readjusting the headset because I am starting to notice some nasty shudder every time I brake. Wow, you're getting another flat; it feels like you only have about 30 psi in this tire. Then and only then it dawns on me, I switched rims the other night and when I remounted the tire I never inflated it all the way, just enough to make sure I had not pinched the tube!

Why Beer is Better Then Religion

1. No one will kill you for not drinking beer.

2. Beer doesn’t tell you how to have sex.

3. Beer has never caused a major war.

4. They don’t force beer on minors who can’t think for themselves.

5. When you have beer, you don’t knock on people’s doors trying to give it away.

6. Nobody’s ever been burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured to death over his brand of beer.

7. You don’t have to wait 2,000 years for a second beer.

8. There are laws saying that beer labels can’t lie to you.

9. You can prove you have a beer.

10. If you have devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you stop. Could I rock this look on a club ride?

Devil’s Triangle

Riding the triangle on Dec 26, it's all that needs said.

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.