Ya know those rides?.. the ones that show you exactly how unfit you are? Today I attended my shop's Saturday morning road ride. It's supposed to be a 28 mile loop. I'm embarrassed to say that thanks to a handy bail out point along the way, My ride was about 20 miles. I was SLOW!!! At least I was warm though; my jacket, while not as insulated as I had hoped, is a total wind barrier. My tights, plus leg warmers both did their job as well. My toes were cold though, so I'll be duct taping my shoes to stop wind for tomorrow's ride.

I suffered a good bit today, on what for these guys, is a casual ride. I have a special respect in my heart for the road bike. There is no hiding on a road bike, there is no granny gear. The difference I'm talking about, that makes "roadie fit" more real than "mountain bike fit", is that on the road you almost always pedal. Terrain does not limit your speed like on a mountain bike. In most cases, the only limiter on a road bike, is your body screaming for you to stop.

To make things worse:

This afternoon I swung by the shop to buy a few things and add air to my front wheel (mtn bike) which happened to be in my back seat. I just switched to tubeless, which uses a sealant in the tire to fill the little pores in the rubber instead of an inner tube. I added too much air and about 30 seconds after I removed the air chuck from the valve stem, while holding the wheel at arm’s length, the tire blew right off the rim! This scared the hell out of everyone in the shop and Jackson Pollock’d the whole left mechanics area, myself, and Hassan. I stood there, hand throbbing, ears ringing, wondering what the hell just happened. The explosion carried so much force that it blew the wheel out of true. I built these wheels by hand last summer and have not had to true them once since I built them, till today of course. Grrr!

Planned for tomorrow? A big, long, epic ride out at Catherine’s Furnace in the Shenandoah Mountains. Catherine's Furnace is all that remains of an old coal fired metal foundry that was built in 1846. This furnace made more than its share of Civil War cannon balls. Lets hope I don't blow up any wheels! But hey, I packed the camera!

Also my last post was rife with misspellings…I apologize.. I’m working on that. But I'm going to continue to join sentences with dot, dot, dot.

BS