Today featured a very, VERY short ride. It was a short ride for one reason and one reason only: wind.
Tag Archives | dirt road life
In The Heat of The Dirt
After a blazing hot (and slow) dirt road ride on Monday, I made special efforts to hydrate (with water) better Monday night (when not digging hooks out of my thumb). This proved the right thing to do in advance of another hot (for Michigan) 90˚ day on Tuesday.
Salty, Dusty Goodness
I tried to get out early this morning for a dirt road ride, I really did. Sadly, my “early” turned out to be 9:45, and things were already starting to really heat up around Michiganderburgh. We get less than ten or so HOT days a year here and today was predicted to be one of them with temps going up into the low nineties by afternoon. Which if you’re from Michigan feels like you’ve been set on fire and thrown into a pool of gasoline.
Unworthy Activities
The past few days have been pretty un-blog worthy (much like the past ten years), so I felt it best to write nothing at all (until now). During that time of unworthiness, I did all my normal summer activities: rode my bike, did some fishing, grilled meat, took some photos and drank a few beers.
Smell My Cob
With the week pretty open and void of hours at the shop I headed out for another dirt road ride on the Boone today. This time I headed south of town with hopes of more dirt, less pavement, and a few more miles.
Overprocessed Tuesday
After several failed tries, I finally got back out on the Boone today for a dirt road ride. The last time I was on it (last Thursday) my ride was only about six miles long due to a broken spoke. Since then I have put the newly Napper laced rear wheel on, so today I was able to ride with a bit more confidence (at least until I break another one due to my expansive figure and muscular, thick thighs.
Mud Rambled & Rumbled
After Thursday’s failed ride on the Boone due to a broken spoke and the subsequent fat bike ramble to salvage the day, I just went ahead and planned on riding the fatty on Friday. This was a wise and a stupid decision.
Best Made Plans
After working eleven hours at the shop on Wednesday and knowing that I had the next two days off, I had a plan for my Thursday: sleep in (8:45 AM) and get thirty to forty miles of fast dirt road riding in on the Boone before cutting grass, trimming some hedges, going for groceries, doing laundry and getting B off to his last night of soccer camp, after which he would leave to spend the night with some friends and teammates while I enjoyed some white trash Mexican food and a cocktail or three while watching pre-season footy.
Here is how that worked out…
Why Would You Do That?
After four days in a row of riding, which included: a mountain bike ride in the woods, a fast dirt road ride on my Boone and two fat bike rambles on the Farley, I was back at work at the shop today. As always, it was nice to get back to contributing to society for 8+ hours. Of course I am not sure how much society appreciated me there to contribute to it.
Notes on Gravel (Dirt Roads)
The following is the unsolicited opinion piece you never knew you needed.
I’ve read various things, both positive and negative, in the past few weeks about gravel riding, gravel racing and gravel bikes [Gravel™]. Because I am a negative person, I tend to dwell on the negative comments rather than the positive. Guitar Ted writes that some folks feel that gravel racing has gotten “too big.” Yeah, a fringe race genre within a fringe sport, that 98% of America hates or doesn’t even know IS a sport has gotten too big. That’s like saying Fugazi got “too big.” For fuck’s sake people!
To my knowledge no one has ever put a gun to anyone’s head to do a gravel road race or any bike race. Of course I can’t rule out that some crazy ass Italian put a gun to someone’s head back in the early days of the Giro, or that more than a couple Keirin racers haven’t had a guns pointed at them by nut jobs with gambling arrears so as to produce desired results. But I digress…
