A PACKET OF CRISPS.

NOW. I WANT ONE.

NO I HAVEN’T BEEN DRINKING.

ONE OF THE HORRIBLE WALKERS FLAVORS WOULD BE QUITE NICE, THATS ALL.

100 mile ride on 03-09-2007. A dog almost gets the tyre treatment.

I havent had time for many posts as of late but this is an important one, so i thought i should post it.

I was supposed to wake up at 7:15 and ride to 15th and High to meet Andrew, Brian and Justin from the considerbiking.org site at 8:30 to start riding…i didn’t actually force myself up until 7:45 and its usually around a 30 to 45 minute ride from my suburban hovel to the city. So i took a quick shower and stretched, threw on gear and put some peanut butter on sandwich rolls and started riding. Sprinting while eating is not a good idea but i made it there in about 30 minutes right at 8:30. After the pleasantries were exchanged, as it was my first time meeting these guys, we were off to circleville!
um yeah.
circleville, ohio.

I couldnt have asked for a better group of guys to ride with on a first meeting. Stories were told and future plans made, im looking forward to more long rides with them. After we got to circleville, i thought we would be getting lunch but i was wrong, we were going to lunch in ashville, a town northeast of circleville by about 20-25 miles. I think. I took over as pace setter at that point and only 1 thing was on my mind: FOOD AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. This was at around 40 miles or so, i started out on an agressive pace, over 20 mph. FOOD! We got to ashville and there were 4 places to eat, one of which was closed. It was some type of barbeque place, so needless to say i wasn’t disapointed. However the other choices were not a whole lot better. FOOD! A Bob Evans American country type place, a McDonalds, and a Subway sandwich place inside a gas station. We decided on the Bob Evans because they serve breakfast all day and that means lots of carbs. FOOD! We stuffed our faces with FOOD! I don’t remember the last time i was in a Bob Evans restaurant, it has to have been at least 10 years.

I don’t remember when the dog almost got it, but we were ascending a steep incline, and this little mutt came out of no place alongside the road and almost knocked Andrew, Brian, and Justin over, in what would have been a chain reaction crash. But with luck and good technical riding skills it didn’t happen…

So we carried on past Rickenbacker airport and headed back toward Columbus and more food. When we were nearing the city we saw the remnants of a motorist crash or something, there were the remnants of a pickup truck that had caught fire…it made me more hungry for some reason.

I think Im forgetting things, im going to make some edits later.

Here is the route map from the city:

Route

12-8-07 Cottagers fail. Im in New York. No bike.

My beloved Cottagers have lost. They scored in the opening minute on the pitch and then held off Arsenal  for the next 80 minutes until the equaliser was scored. Our keeper Tony Warner was ace, and equal to almost everything that ARSEnal could throw at him. In the end it was too much and too many mistaked by Fulham defenders that ruined it.

So Im in a foul mood and I would like to take it out on my bicycle but i cant BECAUSE I DONT HAVE ONE FOR NOW. Bollocks. I may have to look into renting a machine for the week, I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know that i will have time to be arsed with it though as it going to be work from sunup to sundown supposedly. Maybe I can just run in circles beating myself in the head with something and ill feel better, yes ill try that.

Last night when I arrived here I met up with some of the others involved in the project and we went to an extremely nice Japanese restaurant where i stuffed my face with all sorts of vegetarian sushi, and agedashi tofu. It takes a lot of Japanese food to fill me up and that translates into a lot of money but in the end i successfully spent a lot of money (not mine) and still was not full. It was great food though.

Time to get to work.

Todays Ride 09-8-07 Rain+Awful Restaurant Service.

Todays Statistics:

Total miles:25.4

Max speed:30.7

Avg speed:18.5

Near Death Experiences:0

Clif Bars eaten: 2

I’m starting to tire of not having time for long rides. I love riding fast and sprinting, but i feel rushed. Between school work and 9idsfklsl;afd’s; yeah. Anyway, rushed to university, showered, was almost late for class and starving, with nothing to stuff in my face. Left class worked in the studio for awhile and then started the ride home, it poured. I was drenched. It was great.

So I tried to go to my favourite place to stuff my face, the Dosa Corner. Its a south Indian place, the best in the city. It is owned by one of my mates parents. I walked in there was only one table available and it was not cleared. I waited. Finally someone came and cleared it and I sat. They never came back, well no, someone brought a menu after about 20 minutes, and then never came back. After about 35-40 minutes of other tables being sat and served I left. Although not until i told them i was never coming back. I couldn’t believe it, I’ve been a regular there for several years. It was never dodgy before. Now I can never go there again.

Bollocks.

So I carried on to another place, had a wonderful dinner and i finally got to stuff my face. With potatoes. Brilliant.

Finally, jacket potato.

Yes im eating 2 of them now, well worth the wait.

Im enamoured. Sigh…the potato, gods greatest gift to man. Forget all that crap about love, mercy, and faith. Heaven is here on earth, now. It has been gifted to us in the form of a root vegetable. Heaven has a name and it is “Jacket Potato”.

The angels trumpets sound, and herald the arrival of the jacket potato.

Todays Ride 2-01-07

Todays Statistics:

Total miles:28.1

Max speed:30.7

Avg speed:20.7

Clif bars eaten:0

Near Death Experiences:0

I didn’t have a lot of time today to get miles in…argh. So i had to make do with sprinting to school and back home afterwards. Although i wore my new Castelli shorts today…it was like heaven was residing on my rear. I am not opposed to paying $160 for a pair of shorts that rides like that. The inside of the shorts were almost completely dry when i took them off, and they stay cool. I’m speechless. I usually ride Pearl Izumi’s but Castelli may have won me over. I still miss my Assos though…And now its time to get to work.

1000 is going to have to wait another day…sigh.

And i still want a jacket potato. I guess i know whats for first dinner.

I am wholly uninteresting today.

I want a jacket potato. Really badly.

Todays Ride. 31.7.07

Todays Statistics:

Total:46.8

Max speed:31.5

Avg speed:18.6

Clif bars eaten:1

Near Death Experiences:0

Number of times the militant cyclist forgot to zip his saddle pack causing blackberry to fall out and come apart on the ground upon impact: 1

I also got a new taillight a cat eye something something and its blindingly bright.

I didnt start riding until early evening afte getting called to come into work early this morning. Then class, then chipotle with a bunch of art grad students, then a stop at used kids record store where i picked up 2 old gorilla biscuits albums for $3 apiece and the new iLiKETRAiNS album ive been wanting for only $5.50 (BRAND NEW!!!) , and the Futureheads’ News and Tributes album (the US version that has songs the UK version doesnt) then a meeting at Cosi (i had a great caprese!), then finally starting out at around 5:30? I think.

I did the first 25 miles at a high pace, trying to keep above 20mph and when i had to slow down going into an all out sprint to get back up to speed. After the 25 miles i was averaging 21.7 so I did okay. I rode 14 miles of that 25 on the bike path so i was contending with joggers and bladers and dogs and blahblahvbopifjlkd. I had that crazed sprinter look in my eye and people probably thought i was insane.

I might have been riding a little bit obnoxiously…maybe…and i may have run some lights…….maybe…….not normal behaviour for me, but i knew that I didnt have much daylight left and i wasn’t going to get a lot of miles today.

I turned around when I came to the south side of downtown and started heading back home. I went straight up High Street and didn’t have a problem. No honking, no yelling, no throwing mcdonalds cups at my head. Nothing. Just respectful drivers.

It was a good day, I didnt even have to use my CRKT

915 total miles since 29-6-07…closing in on 1000! Maybe tomorrow i can get it, but i have to work. Ugh. Probably 2 more days. Ugh.

Ugh.

Todays Ride 29-7-07

Todays Statistics:

Total: 65.8

Max speed: 29.5

Avg speed:17.4

Clif bars eaten: 2

Small children almost run down by the militant cyclist:3

Near Death Experiences:1

Taillights lost: 1

So much for waking up early. Again i manged to sleep until noon. Although i had gone to bed at a respectable hour this time. So i thought it would be smart to cook oatmeal WHILE stretching out. Bad idea. After waking up completely knackered i stuffed my face with oatmeal and currants. Promptly set out on the bike to explore the path i found yesterday. It was completely a waste but it will let me avoid riding several miles on a main road, so its good for something. Headed downtown and made a quick stop at my art studio to get a clif bar and some tofurky jerky. I carried on and stopped in at B-1 bicycles to see if Casey wanted to ride, he was too busy so i went down to indian oven and had dinner with my friend little Rupa. I ate waaaaay too much. I went over to this park and digested for an hour, and started heading home. I was riding pretty well, aroung 24 mph and a guy on a yellow FELT came right up on me, i hadnt been passed in a while and he completely dusted me. I started cranking hard and caught up with him, we started talking and he was a 16 year old kid! Fastet kid ive ever seen, but then if i had a $5000 bike id be fast too, so we rode together for a while and i got about 10 extra miles out of it, and theres nothing like riding on a bike path through the woods at night at over 20 mph…
Somewhere along the way after dinner my taillight fell off. How this happened i cant begin to guess. $40 or so wasted. I cant fathom at all how this happened, but it means a trip to B-1 tomorrow or Tuesday, a good excuse to buy other things i don’t need.

Work tomorrow…ill probably take the day off too, my right knee just doesn’t feel right.

Fakengers.

So I’ve noticed an increase in the trend of, for god knows what reason, civilians impersonating messengers. I hadn’t really noticed it before i was thinking of returning to my job as a messenger, or maybe i did but i buried it deep in my subconscious where it wouldn’t hurt so badly. There are a shit ton of these little monkeys around university right now and its driving me mad. Actually there is a female in one of my classes who i see every day that rides a fixie and carries a messenger bag…WITH WHAT IN IT? Makeup. Yes, it is her handbag, but 10 times bigger and less handbag and more messenger bag. She dresses the part, or what she thinks is the part and gives me strange looks because i bring my machine into the classroom instead of locking it up outside. Or maybe its the spandex. I don’t know. Anyway, one of these days im going to ask her who she works for and when she answers “Starbucks” or some other trendy corporate shit I’m going to just shake my head and walk away.

These idiots are all over the place on their bikes, on the sidewalk, off the sidewalk, in and out of traffic, no helmet, and its pissing me off. They are capable of doing trackstands for a longer time than they can actually ride the damn bike, mostly outside of some emo bar or boutique clothing store, or even worse, urban outfitters. Ive started confronting them about their habits and i feel like a dad but damn it, somebody has to do something, they are the problem with cycling. When i had space at BLD art studios there were a large group of artists who were also messengers and I never noticed this happening back then. This was from about 1999 to 2004? Its a trendy thing to do at university and it will wear off someday, and they will forget all about cycling and ill be 80 years old giving myself a stroke or aneurysm trying to get up a hill whilst still trying to impress some girls in a car. I tell them that i hope they get hit by a car, and ask if they will wear a helmet then…So perhaps its always been that way and i never noticed it but i dont know. Someone suggested that they are “supporting” bicycling culture. I cant agree with this at all, possibly supporting it monetarily but i dont think that buying certain items from companies that make products for messengers constitutes support in the form it is meant to convey. Supporting cycling would not be riding like you are blind, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights and generally being a hazard to drivers who already have a problem dealing with cyclists.

I ran into one of these kids that i had confronted outside a health food store a few days later at this marketplace thing where he was working at a hippie restaurant…i bought a small cake and some banana bread (which was really good and i needed as i rode 75 miles that day and was hungry the entire time) from him and asked if he had gotten hit by a car yet.

he hadn’t. damn.

Or maybe i’m just an ass. That is probably it.