Oh my god! I want to do more riding but I'm a lazy bastard. I've got into the post holiday funk and it's a hard climb out. I will, no matter what, start getting out again in two weeks. Really. It's not that I have to for some weird-o regiment here. It's that I have to because my whole world just sucks when I'm not getting out and riding a few miles first thing in the morning. I'm going nuts here. Why two weeks then? Well, Liza is in Ashland OR at UBI. That's a bike school. She's learning bike maintenance and loving it. That will hopefully relieve me as the primary bike fixer in the family, and I'll finally learn the right way to do things from her. Anyway, I'm on my own until she gets back and it's sort of frowned upon to leave your 4 year old at home alone in the morning. So that's my excuse for now. Come back in two weeks and see what it is.
Bike Swapin'
Ok, Spokane needs a bike swap. Make that "the Inland Northwest." I'm on a mission with some friends here to put something together. Watch this space.
Dumb bike update
A month or so ago I wrote a review on 63xc.com about our funny Fuji fixed gear mountain bike. Here's the URL if you're interested: http://www.63xc.com/johnspeare/laidback.htm. Anyway, I expected not to like this bike. But I've been digging it. It was intended for Liza, but she pretty much hates it. Way too much reach. I tried mustache bars, flared drop bars, flat mountain bars and we've finally hit on something she doesn't hate as much: big-ass flared albatross bars. I'll take a picture one day. Anyway, I haul Maddie to school with this bike every day. When I have to make a run to the store, this is the bike I grab. It's like an SUV. It's got huge studded fat tires on it. It's geared super low and as a fixed gear, it can just go everywhere as long as you're willing to sacrifice your knees to get there. With the albatross bars, I really like it more than any other iteration.
The end-all-be-all-bike update
I think I've ridden my Garyized trek a total of about 11 miles. There were a couple days there where snow was not covering the ground and I got in a couple short rides. It rules. I've not changed any of the issues I wrote about in the last blog -- so, there's still work to be done. I've decided that I really can't provide a full on report on exactly how much it rules until I do a really long ride on it. Like at least 50 miles. But really, it should be around a 100 miles. Those in the know say that low trail bike are better handling for folks that are about to fall over from exhaustion. So I need to test the bike under those conditions. At my current rate of non-ridingness, maybe I'll only need a 10 mile ride or so to test it out.
Ugg. I don't even want heat here. I just want clear roads. Not roads that are mostly clear with the randomly, yet well-placed ice patch, but clear. And above 30F.
I have been thinking about a bike garage sale myself. I decided I would wait until spring (day before bloomsday?), put an ad on craigslist and put some boxes on the sidewalk in front of The Elk. Most of my stuff is outdated brakes and shifters but my plan was to offer them for pennies. I just can't bring myself to throw the stuff away. Let me know if you get something more organized.
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