Shortly after my arrival Oliver joined, dressed in proper roadie garb - a full team kit! WTF!?
Okay, so it was a MWC team kit, so he gets a break. In fact, you have to admit, it looks pretty dang cool. We had plenty of time to take pictures as we waited at 27th and Highway 2, so I got a pic of his totally sweet La Cruz, again, and my totally insanely awesome Surly:
Real men ride Brooks saddles. Actually, men who like comfort ride Brooks saddles, and that's all there is to it. I will eternally bash other saddles relentlessly because they may be good, they'll never match up to a Brooks. In fact I know lots of folks who love the stock LHT "complete" saddle, but seriously, after you experience a Brooks - it's all over - for the most part. There are those who don't like them, but they will be known as "those of whom we do not speak" or "heretics".Anyway, Cory P had some alarm malfunctions, so we got a bit of extra miles in heading north to meet up with him. No worries, was a nice relaxing ride to get the blood properly flowing through the legs. Met up with Cory P at 19th and O, then headed back South to intercept the Jamaica trail. I got much banter about my refusal to ride over a certain set of train tracks because, seriously, dang things are cursed. Every time I ride over them I get a busted spoke within 20 miles - no joke. They will forever be known as "those train tracks that Ben walks over" or "those tracks of which we do not speak". Please mark it down.
Now finally on the Jamaica, it was gorgeous. The LHT is buttah smooth on this trail, something I really appreciate. The Trek FX was capable of riding such trails, but it beat you up pretty bad. That aluminum everything coupled with tires that needed at least 85psi to roll decently really made for a ride that was jarring, to say the least. The one time I rode with the tires at the recommended 120psi, well, we just don't talk about that. Certain parts of your body should never go numb like that.
We had a great ride out, finally stopping something like 18 or 20 miles out in Princeton to grab a quick snack from our backpacks. For some reason I thought it would be amusing to take a picture of Oliver taking a picture of us. Not sure why.
See the Jamaica trail is awesome for a couple reasons. First, it's really close to a highway that can get you back to town very fast in a pinch (more on that later), and second it's isolated enough that you are pretty much out there by yourself. Either people haven't discovered it yet, or they still like the MoPac better - I don't care which one, I just dig it!Anyway, we headed off after a quick snack to Cortland, which was a fast 4.8 miles away. I rode pretty conservatively the whole time, still trying never to repeat my painful bonk last summer, and it really paid off. I felt great the whole time, and the rest stops really helped. So in Cortland Oliver fueled up on gas station hot dogs, and we all took another lazy cyclist break. Gave me a chance to get a pic of our sweet bikes (hi Scott!).
Cory and I were of the "let's take the highway back" wussy patrol, but Oliver kept suggesting we find a gravel road then make our way back. In the end he won, and it was pretty dang fun for awile!
We got about, oh, maybe a mile of gravel until Cory P noticed his rear tire was "squishy". Upon stopping, we came to find it was rapidly losing air - rut roh. A quick fill up, and we headed back down the gravel only to find again it was rapidly losing. The "gravel" route was abandoned in favor of heading back close to the highway so we could have easy/quick access to get home.
Oly and Cory changed the tube in record time with Cory's spare after we found a pretty large hole that cut through his Nano Raptor's and his tube. Ouch, hurter, etc etc. While he changed the tube with a new one, Oliver and I patched the old tube in the event it was needed. I'm pretty sure we cursed ourselves (or Cory) by even saying this).
Yup, that's the front wheel. We noticed a thorn at the previous stop in the front, and Cory had planned to just ride with it in, but when the decision was made to hit the highway on the way back to speed the return trip as spare tubes were running low - He decided it'd be a pretty good idea to do something about the front. I don't blame him at all, blowouts at speed on the shoulder of a highway usually equal front page newspaper item.
Hurter for Cory, but it was a great ride. The trip back on the highway was fast, stupid fast, but makes me wonder what roadies like so much about this kind of cycling? I mean sure, it was fast, and smooth but man - you also have gas guzzling emission belchers blowing by you at 80000 miles an hour the whole time. While just about a half mile away is a nice smooth crushed limestone trail with trees, birds, mosquitos and all that jazz - sure it's a bit slower, but so much more enjoyable. You can actually TALK to someone without going "HEY CAN YOU HEAR ME DUDE!?"By the end of the ride I had clocked about 57 or 58 miles, and felt dang good. Kind of a rough day followed that for other reasons, but I made the best of it. Got 21 miles in yesterday (Sunday) attempting a "recovery" ride which mostly was a "getting annoyed at roadies" ride.
Seriously - tangent warning - this city is chock full of a bunch of really nice and respectful people on bikes. The vast majority of them, in fact, fall into the "really nice group. Even the vast majority of "roadies" fall into this group, I've ridden with or by them many times and exchanged pleasantries (the Great Plains Cycling Club and Team FIRE in particular). Heck, I rode with a really really nice guy on a really nice Madone with a matching Trek jersey while on my way home from the gravel on Saturday, dang nice guy who was curious about my Surly.
But there's this other tangent of, well, assholes on expensive bikes. It's this one - or maybe two - groups of morons who are completely inconsiderate of anyone else on a bike. They are the embodiment of what happens when you take the asshole out of the SUV and put them on a bike. It just never ends well.
That's all for today, folks. I have a rear rack that apparently arrives today, and I'm way stoked about it. Pics will be coming as soon as it's here!
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