Anoher Century and the Giant Turd.

Shhhhh, do not disturb, man sleeping

Me and the Lard'O bike decided to ride a metric C on gravel today, following a 100 miler on the FatSo two days ago, made the legs work and me tired. Energy was good for the ride but feeling it now.
Tomorrow, I am going to lighten up and take the CX out for some gravel, I don't think I would have the ummph, for another long Fat Ride. Seems I need to ride. Thinking another Metric C. Totally clueless on how many centuries this year, I'm thinking 50,60ish mayhaps. So no tracking for the Cup-O-Dirt run this year.
I think I said a bad word too, I must confess. Wasn't paying a attention, flew over some ruts, bounced out of the saddle and my foot popped out of my pedal, crank spun around and put dent in my shin. I didn't have the right size allen wrench along with me to tighten the clips up, and with a very sore shin, a bit later I did it again on the same sore spot, that time I know I said a bad word.

Not sure where I am headed with all this fat bike, biking. Thinking about a couple of snow races, my favorite, this winter. Riding a lot of FatTire doesn't make you faster, but makes your ride stronger, you don't move fast, but you keep moving for longer period of times as you develop. Riding long hours is pretty much the standard for snow rides.

What I have to say next is nasty, please click the X in the upper right hand of your screen for those of weak stomach. I ran over the mother load of all turds I think it was either Yeti or a 150 lb St. Bernard. It splattered all over. I had to hose everything down before my honey would allow her back in the dining room. Geeeshh!!!

Ya'll come back now...

Makes perfect sense to me.

I'm riding, I'm cold, and I'm wet. It wasn't supposed to rain but it did. I am soaked to the bone, it is about 50 degrees and daylight is leaving.  I need to stop and dig my light and battery pack out of my back bag and mount  them on my bike, it is getting dark, I don't want to stop, I want to get home. I am riding on dirt trail, the trail is covered with walnuts and it is getting too dark to avoid them. I hit a pot hole, I didn't see it coming, my teeth bang together, so I stop and mount my lights. Today's plan was to ride 100 miles on anything that isn't pavement on the Fat Tire Bike. I have just over 80 miles in. After the thundershower from hell, I was hoping I would dry up, with the ride,  but with the sun going down it is not happening, my hands are cold, and don't want to open up easily after they have been squeezing on the handle bars.
I really want to get 100 miles in on a bike that weighs 40 and some lbs after I put her on a  diet and losing a few pounds, riding on dirt and gravel roads. I suppose none of this makes any sense to most the population. To those that know what I mean, Amen.   I'm home now, I finished, I'm happy, I'm tired, I rode my century.

I think I shall do this again as soon as I can.  

Meet my friend, Mr. Cliff Tree as we share a snack before rain and darkness.

Thanks for stopping in.

Dave

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be bicycle riders.

I am riding shotgun in Craig's vehicle. Craig is my manager. We are headed to a meeting regarding obtaining Natural Gas from the local supplier for our electrical generation. My mind wanders as I stare out the window. I am following an adjacent gravel road as we travel along the highway. I think about riding my bike there, and begin my bicycling daydream. I remember checking out weather.com early this morning after crawling out of bed, 2nd only to pouring myself a cup of coffee supplied by Mr Coffee and his automated timer. I am planning this weeks rides. I want to know what day I should take off work for my weekday long ride. Thursday looks like the best weekday to do so. I think about pedaling the big fat bike 100 miles on gravel, Craig speaks, and wakes me from my bikedream, back to the chore at hand, and my day job, as we pull into Black Hills Natural Gas distributor parking lot.

Back at my desk at noon. I google for a riding plan on Google Maps for bicycling. I work out a tentative route for Thursday.

The work day is now over. I stop at my local bike shop on the way home. I want to talk tires and tubes and some ideas I have for weight reduction. A standard 4" FatTire tube is 1.2 lbs. TOO HEAVY!!!  I am going to try a 2.8 mountain tire tube at .65lbs. I chat with Parrish the owner and David who is helping Parrish put together a 3 wheeler on the shop floor. David and his Son Evan are just back from Sunday's Cheq race in Wisconsin. A Shout Out to Evan he has got a lot of heart, soul and endurance, and is an up an comer.

I pull up in front of my house and see a UPS box sitting on the front porch. It has been my plan for several months now to obtain all the necessary parts to have 4 bicycles all ready to go at all times. Instead of needing to rob CycleCross parts to pay for road bike parts to ride that bike for the day. I am just about there, working on bike #4 my Hard Tail

In the house I see my bike still leaning against the dining room table from yesterday's ride and an invitation to attend lil Trent's baptism. It is scheduled for a Sunday in Oct starting at 11:00 a.m. In my mind I think, I will go, give my blessings, and ride later that day and have lights and bike ready to go ahead of time.

Time is slipping away, I know I need to get out the door and on my road bike. Daylight hours are running out. I won't feel right if I miss my ride.  Today's/night's ride plans are to push the pace, climb hills, ride 25 miles hard, same medicine for tomorrow. Not sure I even know what I am trying cure, but it's best that way not knowing, I think.

 I am now on my bike. I guess this is what this is all about. The bike feels perfect, everything finally tweaked just right, I am in my own world now, flying by, watching pavement roll past me. My shoulder and knee are behaving well, and letting me run myself out of gas having fun.

Dark now by the time I get home on after work rides.

It is now 9:20 p.m. I still need to shower. I would like to eat some more, but I want to get my riding weight down. any rider knows dropping 10 can put the zap back in your zip, especially on the hills, and in this county you can not go a mile without going up or down. I think of a quote I heard from a Face Book friend, it went something like this "Choose what you want the most over what you want right now" I lean on that.

I am watching the DVD "Bicycling Dreams" as I Blog. Turning TV and computer off now, shower and then well needed sleep. All I can say is.

MOTHERS DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE BICYCLE RIDERS



Living for the moment.

Totally epic ride today, seems most are, or maybe all are I'm not sure. Those that ride have these 'thriller moments' and when they happen, nothing else exists, we are consumed by the here and now, totally living for the moment and then time passes and that moment is gone, most are ultimately forgotten. I thinks somehow they are all stored up, somewhere in our being, that make us, us, or me, me, and you, you.
Like today, flying down a gravel road, the hill gets steeper, I don't like to brake if you are not going to run into anything or anything is not going to run into you. It seems counterproductive to the spirit of bicycling. But the hills gets steeper, and I am now going 25-30 mph. The gravel is loose, so I try to stick to the insides of a tire track where there are few loose rocks. Now I am over 30 mph, the last time I can look I am close to 35 mph and rounding a small curve, I start to slide out of the small tire track, back wheel in loose gravel, my senses are all at 110 %. I'm floating, trying to avoid a disaster, trying to avoid sliding face down on a gravel road, I make it this time, the hill tapers, and I have regained  control of the bike. WoW!!! What a rush. I can not do this moment justice, my words don't know how. I won't remember this moment in a few days, but I will find another one, and another one.

Then over the next hill, I see a farm house at the bottom, my eyes always looking for the "nice little farm puppy dogs" There sat Cujo, looking like a halfbreed between a Pit Bull and a German Shepherd. He doesn't see me yet. I brush my arm against my jersey back pocket, pepper spray in place. My strategy is to pick up as much as speed as I can, and blow by this canine. I watch his movements as I accelerate, he sees me now, stands up, barks, and is now running towards me. We are both at full gallop, I am going to win, I have enough speed built up, safe this time. I'm just saying it doesn't get any better then this.

I made a one page map from Google Maps, if you enlarge Google Maps enough about every dirt road shows up. I make a route plan, and proceed.  So I come to this sign, think about it for a moment and turn around. A mile down the road, I come to my senses turn around and head back. The road goes from softball sized rocks to hard dirt surface. 5 miles latter I am riding on the side of the hill. Even 4" tires are having trouble not sliding downward. I am now at a fork in the road. One lane heads into a valley, the other up over the hill, I stop and look at my one page Google Map, I have not a clue where I am at. I now hear vehicle tires spinning out, I look down the road that leads into the valley and up comes a truck, all head lights broken out, huge monster tires, more rust then body metal, and the truck stops, because I am blocking the way out. Inside the cab sat two monster guys, huge, looking like offspring of 1st cousin breeding, and they are not happy for stopping on the side of the hill. I don't think these guys made it into town or the bathtub too frequently.  I feel the driver look me up and down, like eye candy.  I am wearing Spandex biking pants, arm warmers that have fallen down below my elbows, a bright colored jersey, spandex leg warmers and Velcro strapped bicycling shoes. I am not feeling like the Alpha male in this situation. I swear I hear Dueling banjos playing somewhere off in the woods. I speak first, I ask, "Is that a dead end down that way" He just looks at me funny, stares for a moment, and finally speaks, "Yeap, it is. My cows are down there, don't go down there spooking my cows" He points up the road, and says, "That way will take you North of Farley, you'll find it." They spin their way out, and I head up the hill behind them. I get the to top of the hill and can see for ever,
I look for a town's water tower. I find one, and head that direction.

Two Iowa beasts of Burden and my favorite cliff mushroom.

I am thinking about tomorrow, it is supposed to rain, I wonder what my legs will have in them. 70 miles of hard FatBike riding today, might take some of the zip out of them tomorrow. But I will ride, somewhere.
Thanks for visiting.
Dave

Fat is Fun.

Took a day off work to ride around. The plan was to zig zag around the wide mixture of gravel from Dubuque to Dyersville, up and down the hills, wear myself out, and finish with 30 miles of level Heritage Trail to home.
My FatTire FackBack Bike couldn't be more fun of a ride, handles great, and controllable in the ruts. Some of the hills had even the Fat spinning out on the loose gravel climbs.

Was cold this morning. Cold relative to what it has been. 50s. Seems I have to learn, again, exactly how to dress based on temp, wind, and sun. Fortunately bicycling clothing is in layers, and zippers which allow adjustments as you travel.


DOGS!!! Damn Dawgs, that can be the challenge riding on a road that seldom sees another traveler other then a resident. You become a dog treat. I take out my ear music, when I am in suspect areas. My hope is I can hear them coming before they take you out.
My defense is as follows.
1st. Out run them. See them coming, and get on the pedals, great incentive for high heart rate work outs.
2nd. If they catch you. Get off the bike, get the bike between them and you, and shout like your "Da Man"
3rd. I carry a dog biscuit in my front bag, toss that to them.
4th. Hope the owner walks out of the woods and saves you.
5th PEPPER SPRAY.

Iowa Roads



Check this one out. Craig has got a good idea cooking. A night ride, not a race. 65 miles, Oct 15th on gravel. Beer and campfire to follow.

http://ocolonomle.blogspot.com/2011/09/moonshine-metric-gravel-ride.html

This is the night of my High School 40th reunion, I was thinking one is supposed to go. Then I changed that plan to I need to see my grandson that weekend, was one a few weekends that would work. 

Now I anguish, might rearrange, might do the mighty Cole a.k.a my awesome grandbaby, on the prior week, ride the ride, and skip the reunion. Churning this over.

That's all I should say, because seems I need to get to bed because bosses seem to like you to show up on time. If I had my way, I would get up tomorrow and spend the day rotating pedals. What can I say?


Yours truly
Dave

I blogging....

Been bicycling all over God's graveled earth lately. Not sure how many gravel metric centuries it is anymore, lost track. Riding a lot on the FatBack, fat tired bikes can be a lot of fun, the fatter tires and heavier bike makes your ride stronger, the weight and fat tires takes it's toll after awhile, but that's a good thing.

Found this giant puffball today, I had never heard of these before, I was quite amazed. I was surprised to hear they were edible and delicious this giant dinosaur egg could feed over 20 people.

Tried to find a away across the Cedar Valley River last Labor Day, there was a trail bridge but has been damaged since the severe flood of 2008, weeds and down trees made this a fun exploration. Finally took a county road across.

Yesterday rode with Lance Andre, I was on the big FatSo bike and he was on the ultra light carbon Niner,,,,,as if I needed a handicap riding with Idititrod finisher, DK200 winner, Triple D winner among others. Dang, and he even made me do all the drafting, ok ok, I fibbed about that....

Oh and we were talking about Triple D of 2012, I am not going to let out the date, I'll let him announce, however here's a HINT......Martin Luther.........;-)  wink wink

I'm ready for Fall riding, a freeze to kill off some bugs and leaves to fall, When the leaves drop off the brush new paths open up that have been covered up by all the foliage, Fall is a great time of the year to be bicycling but come to think of it, so is Winter, Summer and Spring..............Ok gotz to go, will try to get here more often...thanks for visiting.

Dave

What to do? What to do this weekend ?

Well I didn't get the garage staining finished this weekend.
Oh, and I didn't get the grass cut either.
Come to think of it, I was going to go to Sam's and stock up, and seems time ran out for that too.

However.........I nailed it out on the bikes this weekend.









Rode the FatOne Saturday for a metric C country style. Really pounded the tires, lots of rocks. Fun and challenging. This bike with enough water, weighs close to 50 lbs, as the ride went on, I had to push myself, keep the pace up, and not drag this out. Heavy pedaling has a way of slowly grinding you down, you start out zippy, and it comes and gets ya.  

Today, Sunday, I rode the HardTail. My Ebay special. By the time I replaced all the wore out parts I should have bought a new one. But she rides well now.  Lost my wallet today. At my turn around point I noticed I didn't zip up my back bag. Dang!!!!!!! I figured the chances of getting it back were slim. I had my two credit cards in there, my company's credit card, 100 bucks and other stuff. I followed my path back, watching, looking, gravel roads, county roads, and trails.
I didn't notice a call came in on my cell phone. I class mate of mine, Didi, was walking on the trail with her dog, and found it. Yahoooooo. I will go see her at her work sight tomorrow at noon. Remarkably lucky I'd say.

That makes two gravel metric Centuries this weekend, one last Wed, one the weekend before, and some more the week before and the week before  but I no longer know how many, quit counting, I ran out of toes and fingers. I am just enjoying the ride.

My legs are fried now. I don't know a good reason  why many of us enjoy riding into exhaustion. A fellow riding friend of mind thinks if we ever find out, why we ride as often as we can, as far as we can, in any weather, and preferably challenging terrain, we might stop doing it. I don't know if that is true, but if it is, I hope I don't find out.

I now have three bikes that need work, tuning, cleaning, and lubed. I spose I better take care of this, and try to avoid looking at the garage.......

Going to try to go back this week, and find out what happens to that trail I was on last week that went from manicured to abandoned.

Hope your weekend was fun too.
Dave

Biking on my mind.

It's Friday night, my lady and I went to catch some outdoor music and brews. I found myself leaning against a wall, beer in hand thinking about my riding this weekend making plans. My plans are to hit the FatBike hard tomorrow, on rough trail for 62 miles. Not too hard though, I need to have something left in my gas tank for Sundan and put my HardTail back together and ride  all over Iowa countryside. Cycling fanatic some might say. :-)


Wednesday I took the day off work, so I could take the psycho-X bike and car ride to Cedar Rapids and hop on the Nature Cedar Valley Trail and head out for 80 miles. I did. It was fun. The trail started out boring and was so well kept I could have closed my eyes. That all changed. After a change of counties the trail almost disappeared. It was unkempt, a lot of down trees, and just a small tire rut in 2 feet of grass in some places. Now we are having fun.

See the picture of my bike leaning against the downed trees. Is what the trail turned into. I moved several smaller trees out of the trail paths. Seems nobody was keeping this trail up anymore or using it. After a total of 40 miles I turned around, I would run out of daylight to keep continuing, and was not packing lights. So I turned around carrying my bike across piles of brush and trees. I shall return with lights, I hope soon. A lot of interesting sights along the way as you can see with the abandoned silos.

I got lost, and ran out of water, not good on both accounts. However running out of water at 80 some degrees and humid was a much worse biking sin then being lost. Found the small town of Brandon, refilled my water bottles and asked directions from the town man that rides a bike up down the 3 block main street. We rode out of town together as he showed my the path to Urbana Iowa, and we gave each other the fist high V. I could tell that most would label him as 'handicapped' and growing up in a small town along with the cruelty that often comes out of the playground life probably wasn't always pleasant for him.  But we were both on our bikes and damn the rest of the world we were where we needed to be. We could both forget the thoughts we didn't like, and pedal on.

I made it back to my car before nightfall, and rode an off road to a corn field out of sight, so I could change back into my going home clothes and car ride 70 miles and nobody would arrest me for such indecency. 

I

Tomorrow, I shall pack up and travel again. Food and water, and a good bike being my only necessities. Life at it's simplest, is life at it's finest.

Dave

Off the beaten path.........

Took Thursday off work, and the plan was to ride my CycleX out to the Field of Dreams movie sight, using the back roads of Iowa, and just enjoy the country side. The problem I found out early was that just wasn't enough tire (35CC) for the gravel. I was spinning out on the climbs and sliding around on the downhills. Sometime the gravel roads ride like pavement, and are hard packed, not today, however, too much loose gravel.
What amazes me on some of these rides, is I am on a road that is just two tire tracks wide, winding in and out and up and down, and then I will round a corner, and there will be some body's home. Miles from nowhere, alone, and, no traffic unless you are coming here.

I was on such a road, and heard about a half a dozen dogs starting to bark as if they were going to show me I don't belong here.




This wasn't going to be good, with all the twists in this road I would not out run them.
Their barking became louder, I couldn't tell for sure if they were behind me or in front of me, the ruts got deeper, my heartrate hit my high zone. Then I saw him walking. A large, strong, fit looking man, 60ish, Tshirt soaked with sweat, a 5 year unshaven beard that went from just below his eye sockets to his Tshirt neck line. He was swinging a large stick in the brush. He knew something was headed his way, his dogs told him. He did not expect to see a man riding a bike out here. I thought he will save me from these animals, I need to say something, nice, so he would like me, something so he would not turn me into tonight's dog food. I started to say something like, "It sure is beautif...." and he interrupted me and said, "You are off the beaten path" with out a smile. He then went on to say, the dogs are all in their pen, and watch out for road washouts" That was it, he was done talking to me, he was living out here so not to be bothered by people, he looked down to the ground, which told me not to talk, and ride through.
Rode to the Field of Dreams movie sight, watched the tourists for a bit, bought a cold pop drank her down, stopped at the local park refilled my water bottles and rode back home.

 





















All in all it was a good ride, my legs were spent, one wipe out in the gravel, and a bike that needed a good wash, air dry, and lube.


Today, (Saturday) I rode with the FatGirl. Those 4 inch tires ride well in washouts, ruts, and gravel.
This bike fully loaded with gear, and water is weighing in at 50lbs. It doesn't feel that heavy, but you really notice the difference when you ride the pavement on a road bike after riding a bike like this for a time, makes the road bike seem like weightlessness.

Rode 70 miles for a gravel Metric. Even took a moment to "plank" it has been awhile, and I didn't want to get rusty at planking.

Saw this sink hole big enough to fit myself and bike in. It twisted downwards and out of sight, maybe one of the 100s of buried old lead mines that are known in this area, that have been covered up and open up sometimes with wash outs. I couldn't resist climbing in.
I rode 70 miles out here, and surprisingly ran into a man that I have seen out here perhaps a couple of dozen times in the last couple of years. Today he called me by my name as I rode by, and told me his. WoW, was a good friend from 35 years ago, and we hadn't seen each other since or so we thought. He had not recognised me either the last couple of years, riding out here, but he read an article the newspaper did about my winter riding, and recognised that was me. He still didn't know it was me he was seeing out here until somebody told him about my century goals and I rode out this way often then he put two and two together.  We had fun talking, and said we will talk again. He is retired and rides as much as I do out here, and he had me wishing I was retired too.

Rode hard, and the 50lb bike didn't feel so light as the day's travel lengthened. Well my legs are now toasted, I hope they have something to give me tomorrow. Well after all it is Sunday, yanno, my day off work.


:-) Thanks for visiting my ramblings.


Dave

Seems I put myself on a bicycle as much as I can,

Been riding as much as I can, did a night ride with lights on trails that primarily serve as Snow Mobile trails, was lotz of fun. I have a very bright 900 lumen lighting system, I rounded a corner and surprised a mama, and her baby deer, they froze with my bright lights. 10 feet away, they just stared at me, I tried to slowly get my camera out and I spooked the baby and she jumped one way, and mama went to the other way hoping to draw me away from the most important thing in her life.

Rode through some serious hot spells a bit back, my legs were starting to feel like I had 20 lb weights attached to my ankles, exhausted, and full of lactic acid. Been riding allot, heat and humidity were taking its toll on me. So I took a day off the bike, hoping to drain the lactic acid  and soak up some energy. I took vacation day the next day, to explore all the flood damaged trails thinking I would be ready to ride all day. Woke up  and my legs still felt like they had 10 lb weights attached to them. But I had the day off, I didn't want to 'waste' it. Spent the day riding the back roads and trails that were damaged from last weeks 15 inches of rain, and severe flooding. Riding in and out of ruts, on closed roads, was a blast.

Been working on my FatBike. Put drop bars, STI shifters and brake levers, aero bars on her, and it is working great. I power better and ride more comfortably with this set up. Aero bars give my shoulder and hands a break if the path requires little maneuvering. The wide flair of the Salsa Woodchipper bars give control in the ruts. 

There is nothing like riding 4 inch tires through ruts, weeds, creeks, fields, sand,  and wash outs. The extra weight and big tires slowly grinds on you. Fattire riders know you ride with great zip at first, and as time goes on the extra weight and rolling resistance comes after you in the form of fatigue. But on the other side of this is the fact you are riding where no other bike could.

Worked 13 hours today proving our method of measuring cubic feet of air exhausted from a boiler stack was accurate and to satisfy the EPA and DNR strict requirements. Now that just seems crazy to me. Need a day on the bike, on a dirt trails, and I think I will just do that after I finish up testing tomorrow. :-)

OK gotz ta go, things to do yet and a body that want to crash.

Thanks for the visit.

Dave