today i was riding into work. having one of those driver kind of days they all were being stupid. either not seeing me before turning left in front of me or not caring if they ran me over.so i was riding on the sidewalk for a few blocks to get across a busy street. a guy in a pickup looks right at me then last second before i cross he pulls out onto the road yelling a well reasoned & insightful exclamation. i invite him to come back & fix this misunderstanding with our fists. as he is yelling out the window he runs into the back of a car stopped to turn at about30 mph. beautiful ! then the guy pulls away & drives off. wow the other driver whipps a u turn & follows him. moments later i hear a police car. about 10 blocks later i see the guy being cuffed against his truck .
perfect. all the stupids iv’e ever almost been runover by have been erased. that guy took it all. so the world is perfect!
acme closed it’s doors this week. yes all you hip midtowners acme closed this week. a institution for it’s few years for a bike shop is closed! it was owned by two wonderful gals sarah & christi they both walked their talk & supported grassroots cycling .all the alley cats in the last 6 years ended up there. they were the back bone behind critical mass before guys in girl pants found it.all the people that started into fixed gear or cool older bikes acme was your only place to get started . i got to go in before it closed & take some pictures.
it took me a while to find the best picture of sarah & christi. but this one works. from left to right michelle, sarah, dean ( old part time help at acme), & christi. i really don’t know what they are all doing with the banannas but i think in might be a form of worship.
a blurry picture of my patron saint of cycling.
inside the front door. it felt like home there.i guess i’m a big softy but i get a little misty in the eyes when a place like this goes away.
wall bicycle art.
one of the faithful, trailer brian, a real hoss on a bike.
how many shops are there one of these in & they used it.
a gas mask & a skeleton good stuff
a picture of a man we called king kelly. he won it all except for the tour & on toe clips & down tube shifters.
sarah’s well loved work bench…being a mechanic this it a thing of beauty & sorrow.
a coffee table and plant we all sat around & shot the bull
christi’s work bench. definitely well loved work .
i will miss this shop. sarah & christi i love you both. keep waving at cars with a fuck you attitude.sniff , sniff , tear, tear.
last night i was surfing l’eroica videos on youtube. videos of old itialian guys struggling up gravel climbs. good stuff. then i saw pantani’s name on a video clip.
damn it pantani made me happy. that little italian was the best climber since my favorite gino bartali.tuff as nails but a beautiful climber. i guess a big guy like me falls for someone who can do what they can’t.i got a tear in my eye & pissed that cycling used him badly .but we still can see my favorite climber.
not many guys dropped lance at his best .
not many of us can say we are that sexy. but he was. still my favorite(joel tearing up) pantani.
the guys in emporia set us up with a sweet video. scott bolley at im design group did a awesome video for us. jim & i are pleased as punch.
have a look .
we are super glad to have all the support form all the good people in emporia. scott, tim moen, lelan dains, the whole high gear clan, matt & family. all of you rock!
look out for a bigger & better dk200 next year.
michelle & i have had alot of good date rides. one of the first ones was a sunday ride we just went where the wind took us. i showed her a little meadow & cool rock formations i used to camp out at .then we had a picknic in loose park near the rose gardens. it was one of our first rate rides.good times.
this last weekend we went to smithville lake to ride mt bikes. it had a long time since michelle had ridden off road so we packed up & headed out for the day. the drive to smithville is a long ont . but worth the drive. the trails are second only to the swope park trails.
michelle ripping up the trails, well having fun at least. the swoopy windy single track was a perfect restart to get michelle feeling fine off road again. we took our time , took pictures of fungus.
a good lookin fungus, we’ve had a wet & cool summer so the fungus is lovin it.
lots of people were out enjoying the day.
this was a hedgerow that they set the trail along. it was a perfect canopy to ride under. really cool to see. after the ride we had a small picknic that i packed. good food ,& good company with my honey.
since we were halfway to st. joeseph i decided to go & use the menards gift card that dan & alice gave us for our wedding. we are going to do a complete demo of our livingroom, dinning room ,& master bedroom. so we need insulation! thanks dan & alice.
the before shot. how was all this going to fit into that small truck?
presto majico…all 7 rolls of insulation fit. i might put one of the three bike racks on my car one of these days.this was a good date day..time & riding with my honey.
well a few weekends ago i had a date with some gravel . good clean nebraska gravel.the lincoln crew & cory put on a first rate gravel road race , ride , whatever .all i know is it is great.i missed it last year so no more excuses. i’m doing all those rides i love to do & this is one.
friday night joe fox & i headed out of town to lincoln. we got to spend the night at matt gersibs crib . matt is a cool cat he’s fun as all get out. we bedded down after much good bike talk , to sweet dreams of gravel. up early to ride the 4 miles to the start. all kinds of good people were there guitar ted, david pals , too many more to name all good folks.
we rolled down a gravel rail to trail for the first mile. then we turned onto the first gravel road & BLAMO!!!! we were off like a crit start i tried to hang on the first pack but i knew i would cramp up like a baby if i did this pace for more that 45 minutes. steve fuller was hanging on like me & i realized we wanted to finish not do this stupid pace. i think i told him i going to finish but not at that speed. we backed off to a more real pace. for the first 40 miles i could not get into a good rhythm. the hills were hard & my legs felt bad really bad.
so at the first stop i dug into my magic long ride food the gas station bean burrito.
oh yea , my legs came around a little later i found john from olathe. one strong man he was riding a dual suspension mtb & putting up a good hard pace. we linked up with joe & another cycle city rider. we rode together until about the 90 mile mark i gapped off them to chase for 15 miles .
the last 30ish were into a hard headwind & i couldn’t find anyone to ride with. so it was head down & head for the barn. i was super glad to finish under 10 hours just barely .next year i’m staying for the party after. we missed it the lincoln guys put on a first rate event. a really hard course, good small towns to refill , great route!
being a complete idiot i cleared off the few pictures i took. i’m no match for cory’s picture taking but i tried. so no sweet photo’s of nebraska gravel & our good lookin faces.
sunday we had a big race come to kansas city. boy i hope the politicians don’t kill this thing next year. all the big names , with big time pro’s. real road racing in the usa.this is good fun to watch. so i rolled down strawberry hill ( home) to see the big show. first i stopped by the store to buy pbr. i knew i would meet up with friends so you can’t show to a party with nothing. a 12 pack & up the hill to downtown.
the first corner of the day for me. 3rd & grand down near rivermarket cycles.a cool shop! i figured this would be a good fast corner.man at first i couldn’t get my camera figured out. lots of really bad shots at first , all deleted.
i gave these guys a hard time yelling venga , venga at them being off the back. later i figured the guy in the climbers jersey was probably done having racked up enough points. this was the second corner having missed the main pack. so i headed towards crown center.
this is my first floyd sighting. the photo is a little blurry but i’m sure it’s him a little off the back. he needs a better doctor. this was at 12th and baltimore. i had a policeman’s hand on my chest at first holding me 6 feet back from the white line of a crosswalk . i fugure he had f all to do so he let me know he was in charge. little did he know i was thinking i know a really good take down move that would put him on the ground. but my better judgment took over & i moved away from the guy.
i think the third guy was the yellow jersey dude.
my second mavic car sighting.
my third spot for photo’s near the corner of grand & main . these guys were hauling ass up this fairly hard climb.i still have no idea who this yellow jersey guy is.
my third mavic car sighting, it is always cool. i’m just a mavic geek.
super clint having a beer from joel’s backpack.he was riding the course on his 8 inch dual bouncy machine.having a blast .
this was a breakaway at the kom line at the top of kessler near crown center. it looked like a strong break. but one team closed it down & hard.
another mavic sighting. man i would love to drive this bike!
the corner at main near crown center. i got to molest dean & hand out all but one of my beers here.the acme crew sort of got together here.
this is the finish sprint they are at 200 meters. i was standing at 100 meter line & they were coming fast!
this was the side of the head of the pack in the final sprint. wow i have no idea who won but it was super cool. this is big fun racing at it’s best. i really hope to see it again next year.
while riding up the hill home i saw a piece of public art made buy a friend of mine.
this is a piece of metal plate pushed onto the dirt on a vacant lot. my friend just put it here 4 years ago. it gets mowed around & people have gotten used to it being there. public art should be this way free fun & spontaneous. it hurts no one. it is as artistic as many million dollar public art pieces.& free! so go out & put up your own public art pieces . just remember free fun & no harm to property. look for weird piles of rocks that’s me.
wow, what are the things that make a good life for you? trips to disney world , hiking in the mountians, just paying the bills? well i’ve got few needs & one is fun , second is fun on a bike with my love ( michelle), third i will not talk about ( it’s private). fourth is fun with my friends & family.but that could get mixed up with #1 so who’s keeping count, not me. it’s all fun.
a week or more ago michelle , me & the acme crowd went on a good meandering ride in usual acme style. near the end we got hungry, really hungry. so what to do ? a bicycle picnic that’s the idea.good mexican food on a rooftop near the union station.this was the best picnic iv’e been on in months.
good food & good friends.
last friday i went up to crowder to help set up for rapture in misery. the 12 hour race. jim c. & i owed doug for all the help he gave us at dirty kanza.we set up our reflective posts around the course near the start finish & humped all doug needed. then got to ride the sweet trails doug builds & takes care of.the trails at crowder are some of the best in the midwest.i got to ride 3 laps & all were super fun.
leaving crowder for home.late at night.
last sunday we went to omaha to see michelle’s sister & family. it was a dual birthday party. max her son & audrey’s bdays are within a week. so a good excuse to see family. gary & ellen , michelle’s parents are the best people we could hang out all day any day.love them! we don’t get to see the family as much as we want but it is always good times. michelle’s idea of duplo’s for max was a big hit .the kids forgot about the rest of the presents after opening them.
playing chess .
goofing off.
getting ready to rolll down the hill in a barrel.
another thing i’ve been able to do to make the quality of life get better is . to drive 1 or 2 days at the most per week. when i’m riding most of the week my life gets so much better.
why do you get up? what makes you excited? is it learning new languages, collecting butterflys, showing the world something that can make it better, making a better paperclip? what are your dreams?
well we get caught up in our lives, our day to day stuff. small things that get us off track. well the last few months have been get the internal compass back on track time.thru a great friend i met a Chinese man who is the most amazing tai chi & kung fu teacher . no mr miagi here. this guy is for real.
chun man sit is the first master i’ve met.no fluffy dancing in the park tai chi. this is a martial art. i thought i was in ok shape but this stuff takes real body awareness, balance , & strength. this is a real learning experience. learning is a big thing that makes me want to get up in the morning.
this last winter i met this guy at nahbs.
jason grove is a bad ass welder we talked for 40 minutes about welding, growing up on the west coast, metal music. he really shows the passion he feels for his craft. so if you are not feeling the passion something is wrong. for me it was the mess of my workshop & not getting to work making bikes. now i’m on it.
the other day i saw this guy on youtube. cool.
he said it his dog isn’t he best athlete but has heart.
passion is the main thing i got from him. he looks like a bubba but sounds like a man in line with his heart. passion is the word.
then fun is the other word.
these guys are passing around champagne & beer in the giro.being a super professional in all parts of your life is no fun & you don’t get to open beer on your stem while riding 25 mph.
so i’m back feeling the passion & grateful for a wonderful life!
l down the hill in a barrel.
