Things I ride on

Couple of people have asked what gear I ride on and why. So here's some totally unbiased opinion.

Bikes:

1) Giant Iguana Mountain Bike - I've had this bike since shortly after Rachel and I started dating. I beat the living snot out of this thing and it just works. When the Pugsley gets built up, this is the bike it's going to have to content with for riding. What's on it? Basically everything is stock. I've had to change stuff like grips, rear casette and chain over the years but nothing else. If we had more trails here in Illinois (fat chance I know) I'd ride this more during the summer. In the past I've put street tires on this and ridden it all summer long, but now that I'm more used to riding the Cross Check, it's mainly setup for trails.

2) Surly Cross Check - First road bike (yeah, it's s cross bike, cut me some slack). I can't rave enough about this thing. It's versatile, comfy (yes a road bike can be comfy) and goes about anywhere I want it to. This is my workhorse bike during the warmer months. If I start riding with the Slender Fungus guys, maybe this thing will get some miles this winter. Oh and for what you get in a complete bike, the parts are decent quality and really inexpensive (sub $1000 range). This is the bike that I train on, did the MS Ride, and will be doing the New Glarus Eleventy and probably everything in between.

3) Cannondale R600 - I got this for doing some tech work for a friend and I'm not too sold on it yet. It's a great race bike, full Campy setup, and light as a feather. I'm just not sure if the light, fast, stiff Cannondale frame is for me. I may wind up selling this to put some $$ toward the Pugsley build. I will say that it's a blast to pedal, it takes a little work to get it going (race gearing and shorter cranks) but maintaining speed is really easy. And it's so much faster than the Cross Check. I just wish it was more comfortable for longer rides.

So that's the bikes now onto the bits and pieces.

Cycle computer: Cateye Micro Wireless - one word...simple. This takes about 5 minutes to install, has a basic set of features (ride time, odometer, trip odometer, clock, average speed, max speed and mph) and is bombproof. During the MS Ride, we got stuck in a HUGE thunderstorm. SItting in a field in a torrential downpour, this thing started right back up and worked flawlessly for the remainder of the ride. No drying it out or having to mess with it. Most of the time I forget it's even on the bike until I look for it. That's how reliable it is.

Tires:

1) Schwalbe Advancers 700x35 for training and daily riding. The Schwalbe's are the shit. They are comfy tires, they ride well, have some traction for the Dekalb County section of the GWT (basically two ruts in the road) and aren't so balloon-y that a big guy like me doesn't flatten them out. I put these on last season and have had no complaints whatsoever. Well worth the money. Oh and they weren't 80 bucks a tire either.

2) Continental Gatorskins 700x25 for long distance stuff like the MS Ride. While the Schwalbe's are great all around tires, the gatorskins are durable, low resistance, fast tires. I was able to maintain much faster speeds with these on than I was with the others. I did feel a lot more bumps in the road but that's the price you pay.

Bar Tape: Lizardskins - best tape ever made. It's a bit more of a headache to install, but it's the most comfortable stuff out there that I've used. I really like this. When I was working on cleaning up the Cannondale, it was suggested that I use this instead of lesser stuff. I don't think I'll ever go to anything else. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that on the Surly, I could ride without gloves on, it's that comfortable.

Taillight: Planet Bike Superflash - Awesome little blinding flashy thingy. On 2 AAA batteries, this thing has ran on every commute to and from work since November of last year. That's almost 8 months. It's bright and annoyingly flashy. Just what I want to make people notice me and not run me off the road.

Bags: I don't have a bike with racks or panniers yet but I do commute every day with a Timbuk2 Outawack Daypack. I have owned 2 Timbuk2 bags, the first one I sold to a coworker after getting this one. I wholeheartedly support this company, they don't make crap. Yes the bags will cost you a little more but here's the skinny, I've wrecked once, fallen off more times that I can remember and generally abused that bag as much as possible and it looks like it's new and the Macbook Pro that it protects doesn't have any damage from any of my adventures. I have carried a ton of junk in this thing and it has never failed me.

Clothing - I have some Hincapie thermal tights, and neoprene shoe covers, Louis Garneau dual layer gloves, and this funny thing that can be a hat, neckwarmer, over the head thingy that my LBS recommended, all for winter. It keeps me warm and dry, that's all I need. For shorts, I can't remember the manufacturer but they work well. My jersey is a Dos Equis one that I've had for years. Too bad I don't really drink anymore. May have to replace that this winter. All I can say about clothing, is try it out, if it doesn't work for you, find something that does. There is no shame in saying something doesn't fit right but it sucks riding in uncomfortable stuff.

As for other stuff like saddles, headlights, etc. I really don't have an opinion yet. I'm still trying stuff out to see if I like it and won't really comment until I have made a decision. Usually it's pretty obvious. If I like something, you'll see it on either me or the bike.

MS Ride Day 2 Report

Today's ride was all about "Let's try this one again". After a seriously eventful and wet day yesterday, this morning looked like much of the same. Cloudy, no wind and dreary out. For the 75 mile route we started at 7am again, heading out north west of Dekalb. Checkpoint 1 was very well staffed, good food, lots of volunteers helping out and in a good location too. Ryan and I managed to maintain about a 20mph pace on our own for a while so we were pretty happy with that. Past checkpoint 1 came the hills. Nothing too ball busting but a few were quite long. Most of the hills had a pretty good descent leading up to them so if you weren't totally out of it, you could build up some decent speed on the way down to help with the next uphill. At one point, I hit a new max speed on the bike computer. 32.4 mph! I think I actually broke the speed limit on that road at the time too. Checkpoint 2 was fantastic. Awesome amount of room (no bikes parked in the road) tons of volunteers and they mixed the Gatorade right! We stayed there for a little longer than we originally planned and got back on the road around 9:05. Stopped for communion at 9:11 (if you don't know what that means then you need to ride with us on Sunday) and continued on to checkpoint 3 (lunch). About 5 miles prior to checkpoint 3 we got caught up in a pretty large group of riders moving at approximately 22 mph. We decided it was a good idea to try and stick with them for a while and we managed to make it all the way to the lunch stop with them. It's strange going from riding by yourself or with a few others, to riding in a huge group. They literally pull you along. Lunch was much the same as the other stops and we didn't stay there long. After checkpoint 3 was when it got really open and exposed. Thankfully the wind still had not picked up so we made pretty decent time heading to checkpoint 4. From there we turned back south and west and although we were starting to get tired, still managed to keep up a decent pace. We only got passed by much more capable riders and only struggled up a couple of long hills. There is a section of the route that is about 4 long hills after another, then a turn to a hill with a S curve on it. That was probably the hardest climb of the entire day. Made it to checkpoint 5 just as they were starting to shut some things down. They had heard the weather was going to change and didn't want their generator or radio getting wet. We only had about 8-9 miles left so we stayed there just long enough to stretch, refill bottles and hit the road again. The last sections of road were probably the most busy as we were on Glidden and eventually Rt 38. Shortly before turning onto Rt. 38 we picked up a guy that we had ridden with earlier in the day. He was visibly exhausted so we offerred to pull him for a while. (For those that don't know, pulling is when you ride in front of someone and block the wind for them) We got him to Rt. 38 and he dropped back as we continued on to the Convocation Center. I was glad the road to the convo was downhill because I managed to make a decent finish without looking too exhausted. We stopped there for a while, had a burger and some potato salad and headed home.

Total ride time: 6.5 hours.
Mileage covered: 77.23 miles
Total time pedaling: exactly 5 hours

We managed to average about a 15 mph speed the whole day. I'm really happy with that considering I've never done any rides anywhere near this long and we had already done 44 miles the previous day. For now, my wrists are a little sore, as is my bottom, but my legs and arms are doing ok. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

MS Ride Day 1 Report

Ok, day 1 of the MS ride down. Sorry to say we didn't make it the full 75 miles. Something to do with the organizers pulling everyone off the route because of the storm.

Here's the scoop: We started along with the other 1000 or so riders at 7 am fine. Ryan and I made good time to rest stop 1 and continued on the road to rest stop 2. It was humid but not too hot and almost no wind (strange for Dekalb, but nice). At rest stop 2 was where it all started to go to hell. We got stopped (along with about 150 other people) at a rest stop that had 2 pop-up shelters and 4 port-o-potties. We got stopped because of the storm that was bearing down on us. Personally I didn't think standing around waiting for rain to hit you is a good idea, plus we were near the top of a hill, and there was no shelter, and we were getting eaten alive so we asked about continuing on. The next rest stop was in Waterman and was at a high school so if we made it there, at least there would be shelter. We were allowed to continue on after about 45 minutes and managed to make it to within 7 miles of the next rest stop before the storm hit. Yes, we were outside when the rain, wind, and lightening were upon us. Pretty much all we could do was pull off the road and lay low in some tall grass waiting for the storm to pass. Ryan and I managed to find a spot off the road near some small silos that at least gave us some shelter from the initial rain. That was until the lightening started. (metal silos) I dove into the grass away from the silo because the first lightening strike felt close. The first 15 minutes of the storm was energetic. The rain HURT when it hit you. Thankfully is was at least warm so yes we were soaked to the bone but all I could do was laugh at us. As the storm subsided the SAG wagons started showing up to ferry people to the next rest stop. Ryan got into one and I waited for the next one. The driver of mine, didn't know the route and couldn't read a map. (Basic orienteering fact - Most maps are oriented to the north, if you're driving south, the directions you will turn are reversed when you're looking at the map.) Anyway we both got dropped off at the high school where we sat for about an hour and a half while the ride organizers made up their minds. It was eventually decided to cancel the rest of the day and we were told that busses were coming to pick us and our gear up and take us back to the start. Along with about 50 other people, we decided to ride back to Dekalb. We made a stop at out favorite bike shop for a cup of strong coffee and a little conversation, then headed back to the start of the ride for food and drink.

When we got back to the Convocation Center, we got a beer, learned the food wasn't all ready yet, had a salad and a potato and a Goose Island 312 and rode home.

All in all it was an eventful day. Personally I have to say that the MS Ride organizers did a great job planning for a ride that would go off without a hitch. Mother nature on the other hand decided to see how much she could screw with those plans.

Oh well I got home fine, took a shower, took about a 3 hour nap and now I'm going to do stuff with Rachel and Anna until it's time to pass out and do this all over again tomorrow! YAY!!

First Post!

Ok, so I some people have wanted to know what's going on with the family and stuff so I'll start putting updates here. I figure most of the posts will sound something like "Anna did XZY that was cute today!" but she's cute so that just goes with the territory.