Road ID elite

Back in November, I got a Road ID Elite for my birthday. It came with the o.i.r.s.o.s.s.t.t.(online identity response system or something similar to that) for first responders if you ever crash. I got the green band. It's adjustable to any wrist size, but be careful with cutting it, once you cut it, it's that length. It looks good and is high quality, almost like cycling chic (something like that). Can't speak of how well the o.i.r.s.o.s.s.t.t. works, but that's definitely a good thing.

couple of pics

Question of the day

If a car has an aerodynamic bike(aero wheels, frame, ect) on top of it, does the car become aero by association?

motherfuck

Well turns out my only working bike is my 20" bmx bike.

If anyone wants a chain, only one broken link, there's one about 20ft off the trail at the beginning of Hillside.

central trails tonight?

i was thinkin start around 6/6:30. if you're interested let me know.

Little bit of Jingle Cross practice tonight.

Went on an Mtb ride tonight with pops. did part of denmans and hill side. First time testing out the 'stache bars, and home brew ss set up. Both worked great. The 'stache bars weren't too wide for the trees and no chain drop. There were a couple of two wheel powerslides so it's probably good practice for Jingle Cross. Going to Iowa City saturday to watch, racing ss on sunday. After doing nothing but gravel for a couple of weeks and riding a day before I leave for the race, it seems like riding 10 miles the day before RAGBRAI and calling it training, but anyway,  hope to see you there.

Rides from the week

Tuesday, there was an intense(to me) indoor training sessions. I did it on rollers... before that, I rode rollers for about half an hour, an that's ever. Don't follow my lead on that. Riding the rollers while doing intervals was so sketchy it was almost embarrassing. I'm just glad, there was no one next to me.

Throughout the week, there was random bmx rides. They don't amount to much, pretty much just me jumping very small gaps and pussying out on a bunch of easy stuff.

Friday night at 10, there was a gravel ride. When we set off, it was super foggy even with mega-watt lights, you still couldn't see more than a quarter mile ahead of you. The ride was a lesson in mycguyver multi-tool road side bike work. The list of mechanical malfunctions is as follows:

  

Flat front tire (twice-ish)

rear straddle carrier came undone

front straddle cable came loose from brakes

chain dropped (twice)

chain broke (took that opportunity to shorten chain and fix drop)

After all that, I still managed to keep my cool and stop myself from getting it airborne. The irony of the whole situation is that I was the only one singlespeeding of the whole group...

Lastly, Cranksgiving. Of course I did it on the bmx bike, but alas, no 20" disc wheel. I managed to get descent leg extension, but not near enough to be comfortable. With that going on, I was standing up on up hills, and for the most part, on the flats too. This is not good when there's rain on the road. Overall, it was good. feel like I should've done the trackstand contest, there's always next year; and done the leg wrestling contest, there's always next year; and I wish I would've had some beer, next year for that too. A note for next year, 20" bmx category.

Also this. A race organizer in Minnesota apparantly had a bad time with someone.

Ididn'tabike

This is pretty much just gonna be about the Iditabike. I called it 'Ididntabike' because it's something I won't be participating in. Despite not having interest in ever doing it, it is incredibly bad ass and something that makes Trans Iowa seem like a walk in the park.

The iditabike race is a bicycle race through alaska that follows part of the Iditarod trail. It started in 1987. The race is now 1,100 miles long, but there are shorter distances for those who are slightly less crazy as those doing the full distance.

Enough with the knowledge dropping, on to the cool stuff

That's the Moots Rigormootis. The front fork is spaced the same as the rear at 165mm to have an extra set of gears waiting in the wings should something happen to the set being used on the back. The frame and fork are filled with white gas for camping, which explains the funny looking thing in the last picture.

Here is that bike in action:

That is Mike Curiak riding it. He's one the race twice. The picture is 2007 where he did the race completely self-sufficient. He started out with his trailor weighing 90lbs carrying everything he would need for 20 days in the snow.

If you have 24 minutes to spare, there's 'Bicycles on Snow,' a documetary made about the '88 iditabike. Back when mountain bikes had cantilever brakes.

Thanks to MTBR forums and GearJunkies.com

More to come on this subject for sure.