
Gravel circa 1994 – 26″ wheeled mountain bike and hip pack (not being used for Enduro™) included.

Gravel circa 1994 – 26″ wheeled mountain bike and hip pack (not being used for Enduro™) included.

Apparently motor-paced racing was all the rage back in the early 20th century. I’ve seen a few photos from races here and there, but this one has to be one of my favorites. I’m not sure which subject I find more interesting and/or odd; the 10-year-old kid in his underwear, racing a bike with 14 inch wheels or the steely eyed, leather clad, Oliver Hardy looking motorcyclist who appears to be on his way to a Judas Priest concert as he straddles the fuselage like it’s a giant, metal phallus.
It’s been said that racers could get up to 60 miles per hour, I’m not sure how fast this little dude was going, but I am certain he would have kicked my ass.
Now cue up the song below and imagine Oliver singing it.

Pseudo hashtag-a-go-go: eddy, cannibal juice, pipes, chops, burns, legend, mineral water chug contest, sponsor gawker, eddy don’t use no hashtags, no photo of post-chug cannibal belch
Photo originally found at fabbricadellabici.com
Monkeyed with by me to get vintage newspaper feel I wanted.
Beverage provided by Perrier

Bonuses: Got my ride in, beating the rain by 10 minutes. Found one leftover burrito in the fridge, served cold.
It’s only mid-October, but with the leaves falling, you can’t help but think that the snows will be here soon enough. Time to yet again formulate a winter time survival plan for fitness and sanity… and to look at photos of cyclists who are way tougher than I was or will ever be.

J.D. Wilkes & The Dirt Daubers (formerly The Dirt Daubers) are quickly becoming the number band on the imaginary soundtrack in my head during dirt road rides. At one time it was the sounds of Hank III that country-fried my brain and filled it with images of the critters, farms, landscapes and undercover back road meth labs of rural Michigan, but Hank is on the back burner now, replaced by J.D. and his Daubers.

Today I enjoyed the last of my miles on the Superfly 100. During my time with the bike I got close to 65 miles on it and I am pretty impressed, but it’s time to say goodbye and get it back to my friend Mike tomorrow. I should probably take him a sixer or something to say thanks for the good times.
The pic above is of a short, smooth sandy section up at MMCC. It’s one of the few places that you can ease up and take in a bottle easily. From the amount of tire tracks it looks like lots of folks have been taking advantage of the sweet fall weather we have been having.
While I am not that big a fan of cyclocross racing, the video below from the ABRA Cyclocross Race Series #2 is freaking bad ass. On top of being a cool video, the course ACTUALLY looks like it would be fun to race. So often I see cross races and I am left thinking how much cooler the race would be if it wasn’t just doing laps in park with man made barriers so small that every Joe Chain Ring is hopping over them. I am either watching and asking myself why I am doing so or riding the course and asking myself why am I not in the woods. But this course looks fun(er).

Yesterday, as I came home from my ride and sat my ancient, well stickered box full of gear on the kitchen table, I happened to glance down at the large 2002 24 Hours of Snowshoe bumper sticker that adorns one side (right between a bikeman.com and Merge Records sticker). I have obviously seen the sticker a million times in the past eleven years, but for some reason yesterday it hit home and reminded me of what all that ONE race spawned.
The photos in this post are from a road ride I did in the early spring of 2013. It was a chilly 42 degree morning; damp, foggy and of course had a bone chilling, Michigan breeze that contained scents of moldy corn husks, mud and manure. Continue reading →