Big Bikes

Finding Motivation...

to get off my fat ass and ride today was difficult, but I had help. I was lying on the couch reading about Waterproof Digital Cameras (I find that shit fascinating) when I should have been out the door and on my bike. I was playing the dangerous game of not eating breakfast and thinking that I would ride for a couple hours then get back and feast. Problem was, as it often is, I was procrastinating horribly and my stomach was already growling.

Then the guy called Todd Downs called. He wanted to go for a mountain bike ride, with the amount of snow we'd gotten recently and the ridiculous temperature of 60° I knew the woods would be sloppy. I didn't want to spend an hour cleaning my bike after the ride, I had other appointments. I'm a lazy man. Todd informed me that he was watching The Superprestige Race in Diegem. I'm a luddite, I had no idea you could do such a thing.

After a few minutes fiddling around trying to download a new Flash player and a newer version of Stuffit Expander to open the installer (all the while being tortured by Todd who was describing the last few minutes of an awesome race over the phone) I had the race up on my screen. Sweet. Luckily that was the last race of the day and I was up and dressed within ten minutes, ready to hit the road, only I couldn't decide what to ride. I have big problems.

Eventually I decided on The Ferrous and actually left my house to ride my bike, a-freakin-mazing. I think I hate riding my road bike, because on a day like today my M.O. would be to ride out as far as I could tolerate and then turn back, hopefully not into a headwind. The difference between riding my road bike or Fixed Gear was immediately apparent. I was jumping into snow banks, hopping over crap, having a good time. Road bikes are dumb. Anyone want to buy a DeRosa? It's got full, clapped out Ultegra 9 Speed on it, it's mint and tit, it's Minty Tit.

So I rode out the totally sick Minuteman bike path. That's almost not a joke. Once past Arlington center patches of snow and ice appeared, making it kinda tricky. Some of the ice was all knobbelly, if it wasn't just a little bit melty you could lay it down at any moment. I would hit a snow patch and pretend I was Jonathan Page cleaning the sand pit in Diegem, trying to pedal smooth and strong, my hands not even touching the brakes. If I went down I would slide it out. Somehow I never did eat it. Next time.

I would take off down trails on the side, my 36 X17 which was so spinny on the road suddenly an enormous gear to push through the mud and the snow and the slush. At one point I had the brilliant idea to run when I couldn't ride anymore. I am out of shape, this was not fun, I ceased this abhorrent behavior quickly.

At the end of the ride I was pretty damn stoked. It's been hard for me to get out there after my long break. Riding on the road around these parts straight up sucks this time of year, but I'm a-raring to get back out on The 29er. Beats the trainer any day.

The photo at the top of the post was not from today, it is from about six years ago, I just happened to dig it up. Good times, crazy days.