This is for my oldest son, and all the others who think you will never use Algebra. This weekend I was introduced to the best Algebraic equation ever.
A + 1 = B
A = Number of bikes you currently own
B = Number of bikes you need
Yesterday's "Rollers Riding Rollers" ride made me wonder how some of my favorite hill rides stack up. None of them are near the same length, but it appears that all three of these rides are pretty close in proportion.
Chad's loop is definitely an impressive one. No matter which way he goes for a training ride there is not a completely flat stretch for about 10 miles in any direction.
Next Saturday we are planning the B2B Fall Colors Ride. A one way map of that shows that is stacks up admirably as well. The catch? Most of it is on gravel, and in spots some loose gravel that makes climbing tougher. It too is a beautiful ride however.
Last but certainly not least is my favorite solo ride. An out and back loop -- more by necessity than lack on loop imagination -- is to Laurel, NE. I've never taken anybody with me on this loop for a couple reasons: Many times I get picked up along the way to Laura's Grandparents/Aunt and Uncle's house and due to narrow roads that are hilly, I'm a little nervous to encourage a group ride on it. The road is moderately low traveled, but to take many on this hilly road makes me nervous. It's definitely a "ride right" and not two abreast ride.
Analysis: They are all epic hill workouts that I'm throwing out there for your "enjoyment". Need a riding buddy on any of these, let me know!
Due to far too many Saturday events going on, I had to go for maximum participation points and I headed over to the early ride of the day so I had time to complete the rest of my family duties. Chad Pond sent out a ride early in the week that he's been teasing us with for quite some time and I have to say that I'm impressed. I've ridden in the area a few times, but the route he chose for us definitely had some serious rolling hills for a 47 mile ride.
It was a small group of Lane Hogs attending, but I can see this ride becoming a bigger deal in the future. It really is a great ride with some awesome views from the top of some of the hills. Other than Cycling Cathy's complete stand up comedy routine in Hawarden that had us all in stitches, the memory of the day had to come from "Frank" the combine (that a Disney Car's reference for the uninformed) chasing the riders uphill and then having the bikes pull away downhill. Running through my mind the whole time was: "That's Frank!" (again...you have to know the movie). Here is a photo of "Frank" chasing 'em down.
Here is the profile of the ride. It may not seem like much, but it is nearly constant rolls.
It was a great ride and many thanks to Chad (and his wife Cathy) for hosting!
Oh yeah...FAB boys...the "crazy tire changing chick" was there. She said she'll be there to change your tires for you in the future.
There was much talk after B2B (spring edition) about having a B2B Fall Edition. Luckily, when there is no entry fees or much in the way of planning, you can create a ride with not too much effort, especially when nothing has really changed from the spring ride.
Two minutes, two calls and two excited bar's later -- apparently we are good for business -- B2B Fall Colors Tour is a go for October 4th. The plan is to arrive at Bunyan's between 10 and 10:45 depending on how many Bomber's you feel it will take to prepare you for the trip. We will roll out at 11:00 for Martinsburg, NE and the infamous Bob's Bar and their legendary proportions.
Bring your camera as it really will be picture worthy for those of you who take the gravel (and to a lesser degree for those of you who don't). Please email me or leave a comment if you plan on attending. Some people may be choosing only to go to Newcastle, NE (about a 30 mile round trip) and that too is fine. The important thing always is to ride!
Prior B2B Posts can be found HERE , HERE and HERE.
As always I feel obligated to include my usual disclaimer:
Disclaimer: and I repeat: I legally am not organizing this ride. Some friends may or may not show up to ride this event. Some may or may not drink alcoholic beverages. They will do so on their own fruition. I am not responsible for lost (or found) riders. I in no way am responsible for those who have not adequately trained and may be found on the side of the road gasping for air.
I'm a guy with a lot of faith. I think I'll keep my helmet on thank-you-very-much.
It's always the guy in the red shirt...
Only three lost fingers due to this picture.
Optimism: At least he didn't fall into the puddle on the floor...
Warning: This post has nothing to do with cycling. Sometimes I need a non-cycling release. Turn away now. Okay, you've been warned.
Outside of a very few people who read my blog, Cathy Jo and maybe a few others, not too many people knew my Dad. Those who did learned to deal with his quirky sense of humor. "How's it hangin'?" was a staple greeting for my Dad at the gas station our family owned. It didn't necessarily matter if you were a man or a woman either, the greeting was almost always on the tip of his tongue.
Some years are harder than others remembering my Dad on his Birthday. Today he would have been 84 years old. As busy as I was today, my thoughts went to my Dad often today. Most of my thoughts were about baseball. He would be enthralled with the Twins as they try to make the playoffs right now.
Dad loved baseball and so did I. I played until I was 19. Then I opted for softball once USD dropped it's baseball program for "Club" baseball. For reasons I didn't always understand, Dad refused to come to my games. He did see me play softball (fast pitch and slow pitch) but never seen me play the sport that I was best at.
He never told me the story himself, but I heard that he was good at baseball as a kid as well. One day he hit a line drive that hit the pitcher and almost killed him. He never played again.
He always tried to take a break from working at out gas station on Saturday to watch a little Saturday afternoon baseball on TV (BC - Before Cable). We listened to our share of baseball on the radio: Dad listened to the Twins, myself the Royals. It was the one really strong bond that we shared.
Dad was a hard working, no nonsense type of guy and fairly non-emotional. The first time I seen him cry was when I left for Desert Storm. The one and only time I heard "I love you" from him was when he was going in for surgery and after I said it first. It was a moment that to this day was important to me though.
He'll be gone six years this Thanksgiving but it often seems so much longer. I learned much from him and also learned some things I didn't want to be as a parent. I know he loved me as my kids know I love them. Unlike my Dad, I rarely miss an opportunity to tell my kids that I love them. For those of you with kids, I hope you don't either.
Today's ride started out with noticeable pain in the arm but seemed to get better after about the second mile. I decided to hammer pretty hard to see if my legs can still do it. I rode hard until about 3 miles from town when I caught Mike B. on his mountain bike. I hadn't talked to him in awhile so I cruised back in with him. Even though he was on a mountain bike, he was moving right along. I had my Garmin with me (since I went all year without a computer on my bike) to see how I did. Amazingly I held 18.8 even cruising back in with Mike. Road test successful. Gut Check training can now commence.
The arm? About 85% healthy with minor aches. The feeling of a 22 mile after work ride after a 4 week layoff: Priceless.
I had toyed with the idea of riding tonight, then talked myself out of it. When I got home and knew how nice it was, I talked myself back in. I asked Laura if she wanted to get on the Big Blue Tandem but she was already starting the grill and declined. It was at this point I said hello to my road bike for the first time in quite awhile.
It felt good to get a few hard miles in. I just rode over to Hwy 12 in Nebraska and back, but I would be hard pressed to remember when I was so happy just to be out on the bike. I was getting a little stir crazy.
Our local "shopper" newspaper (the Broadcaster) had a section in it for a city wide rummage sale. Laura pointed out that one of the sales had a rode bike on it. Instantly my selfish mind thought "OOOOH....possibly a bike to turn into a single speed or a fixie!" I scouted the place on Friday night with no sign of a road bike. The paper said 10:00 for the start time of the sale on Saturday, but I cruised by at 9:20 and she was putting stuff out and there it was...a Bianchi!
Instantly I could tell it was HER bike and she was not real tall. I checked it out and it was obvious that she hadn't ridden it in awhile (dust, cobwebs, flat tires). It had Campy Daytona components (I believe they may be Centaur wrapped in a different name) and the bike was in relatively good shape. She had an extra saddle to go with the Terry saddle she had put on it, a few tools, tubes, bike computer, and a couple other things.
I called Laura to get her butt over and bring the pump along. She did and I pumped it up and sent her on her way for a test ride. Luckily Laura and the lady are close to the same height and the test ride went fine. Laura said it turns real quick which scared her a little. She's not used to the stiff frame bike. I tested it and thought it rode great. She took it out again and decided that she liked it a lot!
So, the trip that was all about me turned into all about Laura. I'm excited though because the wonderful woman who told me earlier this summer that she couldn't see herself riding anything but the tandem with me, was EXCITED about getting the new (to her) bike. We also picked up a couple of jersey's from the sale that looked as good as new.
As far as I could research, I think it's a 2001 Bianchi Reparto Corse SL that initially retailed around $2000.
Watch out everybody...I think Laura's getting serious about this cycling thing! Pretty soon she'll have her own cycling blog instead of sassing me on mine (hint hint).
....Uncle to this little dude. Welcome to the family Carter Wayne...
Here are four generations: My mom, my brother, my nephew and his daughter w/ Carter (okay, so the Great Uncle thing isn't new to me).
Here is Marissa holding Carter. She was quite the proud cousin.
The intensity of the Water Balloon Toss!
How to properly grieve...
Cops saving gas via location change...BRILLIANT!
Scary basement...
Thank you for voting in the "Name the Ford Freestar" poll. Voter turnout was high and the dirty campaigning was at an all time high.
Due to the fact that no voter can be trusted, popular vote did not win. Due to possible voter indiscretion, the final naming decision was turned over to Congress (Laura). Although it appeared that "Fordzilla" was the popular choice amongst the people, Congress demanded that "O Great and Powerful Steve" become the official moniker of the Freestar.
Congress stated the van belonged to her and no poll was going to change her mind. Besides, it does sort of look like the hedge in "Over the Hedge" if you look at it just right.
I wouldn't make jokes about O Great and Powerful Steve. It may end up hauling your bike someday.
I'll be HERE. You should be too.
Room reserved for Friday and Saturday. Making a weekend out of this fall classic!
This ride brought to you from the fine folks at CiTy BiLLy CyCLe. Be a BiLLy!
I've raced in the USD Intramural Bike Race for the past ten years. This year, with the fracture to the arm that still hurts and some sinus issues that are draining (and doing nasty things to my stomach), I have to pass on the race today.
I'm 41 years old. Why do I feel the need to prove myself to kids that could be MY kids? Is it that, or do I just like to show them that the old guy still has something in the tank?
Next year boys....be ready....I'll be back.
This is going to be a short recap of Saturday's ride with more details to come later.
I rolled out of bed at 5:30 to the sound of a pretty steady rain. Not good. I went straight to the TV to the digital weather station which kindly showed that there was no rain in the area. Hmmmm...must be my imagination then. The wonderful world of the internet showed such little in the way of radar echos that there seemed no way it should be raining this hard. As I loaded Fordzilla the rain started to lighten up.
By the time I hit Pro's, the rain had become more of a heavy mist than rain, but still annoying nonetheless. We had 104 registered going into the day, and although I haven't touched the papers since getting home, I think we registered 28 day of the ride. We had a few no shows, but I think we were right at 130 riders.
We added a 75 mile loop this year, but due to the weather we only had about five takers on that route, which was probably good due to some nasty chip seal that was happening on Hwy 19 from Centerville south to Vermillion. The 45 milers hit it as well, but the sweeper had knocked a good deal of it off the road for that group.
It was different being on the SAG/Support side instead of riding. There were a few people that I want to yell out my window and say "SHIFT UP!!!!!!!" as they pounded along at about 50-60 RPM's. It was painful for me to watch. Other than that, everybody seemed to be doing great, the temp was right and there was literally NO wind during the ride. That in itself is a minor miracle for the plains of South Dakota.
Many recaps from other bloggers are out there. The Hooterville Mayor, CDV, Cathy Jo, Tez, Bald-n-Surly, all have already blogged about the ride much better than I could (especially since I didn't actually ride!).
I'll update the totals once I figure out. Early estimates, thanks to a couple very generous donations, is that we are going to have around $1300 to give to the MS Society! Thanks to all who rode and helped support the MS Society as well. Watch for potential changes next year as we continue to try to make the ride a top notch bicycling event!
Current reader poll open for one week. Top choices are in for the name of the Ford Freestar. You vote. You decide.
Much like the Presidential election, popular vote may not win.
USD's newspaper, The Volante, ran an article on traffic rules being important for cyclists. I completely agree, even though I'm guilty of blowing stop signs when nobody is around.
I did find it funny that the Vermillion PD Officer interviewed doesn't know the law on DUI's on bicycles. He was quoted with the following:
"As a matter of fact, you can get pulled over for speeding on a bicycle," he said. "Also, if you ride while you're intoxicated and start impeding traffic, you can actually be arrested for a DUI."
I was never a fan of the "No-DUI-on-bicycle" law going into effect, but it beat the alternative they were trying to pass (striking bicycles as "vehicles" altogether).
As far as getting pulled over for speeding...VPD has a short memory as to what happened the last time they tried to catch me!!!!
I don't know how much to read into South Dakota being ranked 41st of 50 states in the "Bicycle Friendly States" on the League of American Bicyclists website. After all, being such a sparsely populated state where over 1/8 of all the population is in one city (Sioux Falls), how much needs to be done in cities like Vermillion where I live. After all, a city of 10,000 people isn't that hard to navigate on bike.
Sioux Falls is making great strides with bike lanes and bike paths. All the Sioux Falls bloggers need to get on board and try to garner a "bicycle friendly city" status. I will have to read into this more and see what things I can do down here to help South Dakota's overall status as well.
Below is the information that can be found HERE:
South Dakota
State Rank: 41 out of 50.
Reasons for Ranking: South Dakota has state funds for bicycle education programming but also has discriminatory mandatory bike lane law and no accommodation or complete streets policy.
South Dakota's Bicycle Friendly Communities
Currently there are no cities in South Dakota that have been designated as bicycle friendly communities. Your city can be the first. To apply for BFC designation, you'll need to review the materials at www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/apply.cfm.
What do some of you South Dakota bloggers think? What can we do to make South Dakota more bike friendly? Sioux Falls has a good start. What can smaller to mid-size cities like Vermillion do to be considered bike friendly? Looking at the application I don't see very many cities in South Dakota being able to get past Part I of the application. Not many places in South Dakota have a "Bicycle/Pedestrian coordinator". Of course, maybe this application is a way of saying, get off your butts and push local government to think about it. Sounds like a job for Biking Brady! Did I really just say that? It's Friday and I'm delirious. I need to sleep on this. Comments/thoughts are always welcome.
Nine days after I dumped my bike and I'm not exactly impressed with my progress. As a matter of fact, today had a couple of really painful moments for no particular reason. The kind that had me drop 1000mg of Tylenol.
I took a couple of pictures, but it's hard to see the bruising I still have. The amazing part of the bruise is that it bruised on BOTH sides of my arm. Currently the most daily pain I have is putting my socks on. I can't explain it, but it is just brutal. The pain shoots all the way to my shoulder.
The other thing that caused excruciating pain was when Carson got on the Trail-a-Bike yesterday to go to school before I was ready and it shifted left. I had to hold it up or I would have dumped the bike with him on it. It's been a long time since I have come that close to crying. My arm throbbed until about noon and that might be part of my issue today. Whatever the case, this sucks and I want to go for a REAL ride, not just commuting/errand miles. Can't you just sense how crabby I am?
This is the side I landed on. Tough to see the big brown bruise through all my man-fur.
This is the back side. A couple days ago it had all the colors of the rainbow.
I shall return...soon.
I'll spare you the details of what happened to the Deathstar (frequently known as a Ford Windstar). I like to sleep in my bed so I'll just say that the poor van has been beat up over the last few months. Yes, I was to blame on a couple of occasions. I didn't manage to total it out though. That comment should get me some couch time. Oh well, it's a comfy couch.
Enter the Ford Freestar. The new official vehicle of the Biking Brady's. 
The fold down disappearing seat was a major selling point for Laura. It's a decent replacement for the Deathstar, but needs a nickname. I'll need some help here. By the way, the roof mount bike rack was spared and should fit the Freestar nicely. Oh Deathstar, you hauled so many bikes. You will be missed.
