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Friday, May 22

Nesting and being a participant

I wish my Rodeo Labs Flaanimal 5.0 garvel bike were here... so bad... right now.  Back to back "road rides" on my 34 X 16 full knobby single speed "road bike" IN THE RAIN and muck and whatnot...

I'm jonesing hard. 

And the weather man says I'm due for loads more precip in the next nine days before I go back to work.

Can't wait to ride in the rain today... again.

*sigh*

I have some of my garvel parts for the "build."  I use that term loosely, because the bike will be 90% built when it shows up to my house.

Fortunately, Spurcycle had a Frankenbell sale, so I could get my fourth dinger from them.  Granted, I'm gonna soon enough be a five bike man, but whatchagunnado?  King Cages because I don't like losing my favorite bottles.  Road TOGS because I didn't see myself riding a noodle bar bike without them.  They make sense... like droopers IMHOMO.  Gravel covers because... cush.  I got an Ergon saddle tucked away somewhere around here...

So basically 5-7% of a bike.

I committed to the closest thing to a bike race there is right now to keep me "motivated" for... awhile? 

The Breck Epic in Place.

I'm not terribly familiar with exactly what's expected of me, but I'm supposed to ride so many miles and gain so many feet of elevation and... honestly, I dunno.  Whatever it is, I have to do it before September 30th.

I think.

I'll get a t-shirt.  And... I dunno.  This?

My digital plate... because this is what the world is now?

The closest thing to doing the things I love to do with my little friends until... September?

I dunno.  I hope.

Of course, I'd logged some decent miles over the weekend, and was feeling pretty confident going in...

And then rain.

Also, this:

I once again got the opportunity to keep my box fan alive.

It's been drying out my wet gear after work (and also shitty rain rides... so fun) for over twenty years.  When the handle broke, that was an easy fix.  When the switch (kinda) broke, I just dealt with it.  Randomly spin the knob... high speed?  Low speed?  No speed?  Lotsa spinning and hoping for something that moved air. 

I decided to dig into my box of odd bike parts figuring something would work.  An old XTR crabon brake lever (WITH A SET SCREW) and a little drilling and my life feels... like life sucks less.


I expect my fan to eventually be completely made of nothing but bike parts.

I can't wait until it has a bell.

Lastly...

This will be the first Memorial Day weekend in the last two decades or so that I won't be racing my bike somewhere.  That's just strange.  The Burn 24 Hour Challenge, Trans-Sylvania Epic, Giro d'Ville... whatever.  I've always been doing something, and now I will continue just being in this awkward limbo of nothing.

Still breathing tho so ok.

1 comment:

NordieBoy said...

Gravel covers?
You lucky little Dicky.