Tag Archives | fall riding

I Feel Wham!

By soiledchamois on October 3, 2014 in Cycling

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It’s been some time since my last post. I figured it was best not to post since the weather has been windy, rainy and crap-tastic, I haven’t been riding and I’ve been taking the Black Dog for a long, LONG walk of late. People barely want to read about an old, fat dude riding his bike, let alone read about an old, fat, depressed dude NOT riding his bike. Sigh (drink)… Those days are now sort of, almost, not quite behind me now, and I have moved on (sort of) by getting a new bike that I have no right to have really got (Is that right? It doesn’t sound right… gotten?..purchased?… fuck it, we all know I’m an ass hat).

Thanks to selling some shit, a generous Wifey and the amazing bare assed folks (don’t ask) at Terry’s Cycle in beautiful downtown Alma, Michigan, my winter racing and riding plans are now as solid as a post-Golden Corral buffet bowel movement: KAPLUNK!!! Yep, today I took delivery of the very black and very anodized Trek Farley 6. It’s sort of like Jay Z and Wham! guest starring on Drop Dead Diva. I have to say, I am pretty darn, nonplussed about it.

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Catching Up (with opinions)

By soiledchamois on September 29, 2014 in Cycling, Mountain Biking

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The past few days have been filled with three things: beer, football (er, soccer) and dirt. In other words, three things I dig.

I skipped riding on Thursday to drive down to beautiful downtown Alma, Michigan and pay a visit to Terry’s Cycle where I picked up a Trek Farley 8 demo bike. I spent some time getting it dialed and had it out on the trails Friday morning for a lap at MMCC.

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Trek’s Farley 8 is SOOOOOO light compared to my heavy assed Pugs! It really is an awesome bike… sort of.

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Rolling Along

By soiledchamois on September 24, 2014 in Cycling

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The thing that sucks about the mythical land of Michiganderburgh is the lack of open space we have.

I’m trying to make up for last week’s time off the bike by getting in what I can this week. So far I’m up to about 6:20 of gravel roads and singletrack. Sadly, my aging, talentless, flabby, all too often beer fueled body, on the rebound from last week’s illness, is feeling every minute I’ve put in thus far– even today’s 32 mile ride on the flatter gravel roads north of town.

Since I’m tired and have important things to do like lay on the couch, watch soccer, fall asleep for an hour, drag my ass up to my bed, stare at the ceiling for two hours wondering how I became such a useless, hollow, shell of a man, who contributes nothing to society, fall into a fitful sleep and get up at 6 a.m. and do it all over again (whatever “it” is), I will just post up some pics in a gallery below. They’re from today’s ride, so it’s dirt roads, barns and shit like that. You know the routine.

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The Falling of Fall

By soiledchamois on September 23, 2014 in Cycling

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Apparently today is the day that Fall falls. I’m OK with that, especially since the temps are nice, there’s plenty of green left on the trees and very few leaves are covering the trail. However it seems that the acorns don’t give a shit about what the leaves do and decided to go ahead and rain down upon the trails. This made for some interesting handling in a few hard pack corners. It was sort of funny to be riding along and hear things bouncing off my helmet.

Welcome autumn, feel free to stick around as long as you want.

Finally Back At It

By soiledchamois on September 22, 2014 in Cycling

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After six days off the bike due to illness and a quick weekend get-a-way to Chicago with my family unit, I was FINALLY back on the bike today. If you’re reading this blog you most likely ride bikes, OR you got here Googling photos to satisfy some bizarre, crap covered chamois fetish you have. You disgust me! Welcome to the blog.

No matter how you got here, bike ridin’ type folk know that time off the bike sucks, and that it sucks even more when you’re off the bike due to coughing up snot and sludge for five days. Most will also know that the first ride back from such a break simultaneously rocks and sucks.

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More Bad Ideas

By soiledchamois on September 16, 2014 in Cycling

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Earlier this month I thought it would be a good idea to take a 30+ pound borrowed fat bike out for a ride on dirt roads. That wasn’t a bad idea, but it wasn’t a great one either. Since I am not one to avoid doing stupid things (in fact stupidity is sort of my thing), I one upped myself today and took my 40+ pound Surly Pugsley out on energy sapping muddy dirt roads… while sick. How bad could it be?

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Some Days

By soiledchamois on September 12, 2014 in Cat 5 Cooking

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Some days it’s fun to go out and pedal through the drizzle, mud and crisp fall winds; the past two days were not those days.

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The Second Season Part II

By soiledchamois on September 7, 2014 in Cycling

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My “seconds season” of riding has kicked off and I am fairly stoked with the results: ten hours and forty-five minutes in the saddle of a borrowed fat bike, a shit cross bike and two different (excellent) mountain bikes on pavement, gravel roads, dirt roads and singletrack.

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Let’s Go!

By soiledchamois on September 2, 2014 in Cycling

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The ushering out of summer is done. Well, almost done. Now it’s on to fall and my Second Season.

The past few days have brought me nearly 60 miles of singletrack (twelve of which were on a borrowed fat bike). I have to say, for a big-boned, has-been, mid-pack racer type who enjoys beer a bit too much (and pizza, pasta and cheese even more) I am happy with that. Sure, there were days in the past that I would do more than that in one afternoon; these are not those days.

My only real goal going into the fall is to get as many miles as I can in while looking for work (I think the miles will be easier to get than the job). If I can even get 8 to 10 hours a week of riding in, while being good bout my eating and liquid refreshments, I think I’ll be happy enough. It would be nice to lose some fat off my man-hams, but I’m not going to hold my breath for that.

This fall–unlike last fall and winter–I am forgoing the gym. Yes, yes, I know, I mentioned (too) many times last year about how going to the gym helped me gain strength, added muscle, got me out of the house, etc., etc., Well, it seems (from looking at my “training” records) that my time at the gym fell off significantly after I purchased the Pugsley and realized, yet again, that being outside is way more fun than being in a gym, even if it is lacking the numbers of spandex-clad lady-types.

Fall may not officially start for another twenty days, but in my world it has.

Later.

Photo: by me. It was the lone photo taken during the second of two, 14-ish mile laps on Sunday.

The Geek of The Tree Rings

By soiledchamois on November 16, 2013 in Mountain Biking, Random

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Balls Deep In Deer

Even though Michigan is balls deep into deer season, I took a chance and rode in the woods today anyway. My local trails are on non-hunting land, but they still come close to private land and have a slight reroute to try and keep meaty bike geeks like me from getting capped in the buttocks, but it is still a bit of a risk since I think I read once that a rifle bullet can travel like 32 miles or something ridiculous like that. OK, maybe not that far, but pretty far. I left my fur riding vest and antler helmet at home just in case.

The Pic

The tree in the pic above fell across the trail a year or two ago. I pass it EVERY ride but only today stopped to take a look at its rings (mostly due to having to wiz). Pretty cool to see the rings n’at..

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