Big Bikes

Do What You Can Do (With What You Got)

That’s my new motto, taken from a Constantines song lyric. My old motto was “You Can Do It (Put Your Back Into it)” taken from an Ice Cube Song Lyric. It was either that or “You can try to smoke an ounce to this while I pronounce this shit”. It was a toss up. The new motto is more appropriate for a single speeder. You got one gear, do what you can do with what you got. It only applies for me once the race starts, seeing as I spend countless hours deliberating over what gear to use at a certain course.

Not a bad week on the bike. Monday, rode Dover, talked about that already. Tuesday, took it off and saw Bill Peterson. Wednesday hit the Dover TT. It was a humid, windy, hot day. On the first hill I went slightly anaerobic and felt like I had bronchitis. A crazy rattling coursing through my respiratory system. I’d kind of been dealing with this feeling all week, but somehow not feeling too bad otherwise. Felt totally miserable during the TT but was only 8 seconds slower than last time. Not exactly forward progress but I’ll take it. Dave Donato was out there again taking photos, he is pretty damn good. The photo above is one of his.

Thursday I did a truncated version of The Danish Pastry House Ride with Matt O’Keefe, not CCB Matt O’Keefe but Seven Cycles Matt O’Keefe. Always a good guy to ride with. He floats over the trail like a butterfly and spins like a bee. That sort of makes sense. The ride was shorter than usual because I had to do a racer-dork workout on Wright’s Tower, throwing myself up the thing twelve times to simulate hard starts, or to stimulate heart stops, or something. Matt has a brain so he skipped this portion and left me to the self-flagellation-fest.

Can't quite take an hour on the tower of power...yet.

Friday I spun easy as usual on the Road bike, Saturday Miriam met me at work and we rolled out to Cutler Park from the shop, me on a Demo Fisher Hi-Fi. I need to do a couple more rides on the thing to formulate a proper opinion. At this point I’m useless on a geared bike and freaked out by little wheels, there’s way too much going on for me to process all at once. It does feel like a vacation for me though, although sitting comfortably and spinning small gears over rough terrain, the five inches of travel smoothing it all out. Going down hill all that travel cries out “Hey! Do really stupid stuff, like hopping off that huge thing right…THERE!”. That’s pretty fun. More on the Hi-Fi later.

Uri holding down the fort. Steve Branfman of Team Kermit. Rainy Rodeo.

Sunday I worked the Kid’s Pan Mass Challenge for IBC with teammate/Co-Worker Uri. Just as we arrived to set up the tent the skies opened up and a deluge began. The little kids ride went off regardless, the little guys more impervious or oblivious to the rain than adults. I went hypothermic just watching. I hopped in the follow car for the 17 mile Teen Ride. We were in a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, a huge, honkin’ SUV from Muzi Motors. Don’t think I didn’t derive just a massive amount of pleasure out of watching through the rear window as irate Dover Motorists laid on the horn…at a bunch of tough as nails kids out on a charity ride for MS research in the rain, every beep putting another brick in their pathway to hell. I ride these roads a lot, I catch a lot of flack from these people, but honestly…where ARE you in a rush to get to at 9:30 on a Sunday morning? C’mon! You’re not going to die if you lay off the Dick Pills for one day.

Ride leader Matt McGinty of Fitness Together ."I decided not to ride fixed today". Awesome.

After the ride which went off without a hitch, I shot down to Wrentham to do the big Wrentham-Foxborough route out of Gramma’s house. I wanted to put a bigger gear on but had forgotten my tool box so I was stuck with my 33 X 18 for the super-flat ride, Do what you can do…yup. Recent rampant use of ATVs and Motorbikes (you’d think that the price of gas would chill these guys out…how do they still afford all that crappy lite beer?) had put a lot more ROUGH in Foxborough. The trails were churned up as hell. Made for a challenging day, but a good day. Got back to Gramma’s house covered head to toe in mud and ready to eat the weight of John Goodman in Strawberry Shortcake, grilled Tofu, and corn on the cob. That’s right, grilled tofu, but washed down by real beer.

Escape from F.Gilbert Hills. Kinda spooky out here. Let there be rocks.

Heading up to Putney this weekend for the Root 66 so check back Monday for something actually worth reading.