Daily Driver

October 31, 2007 at 12:14 am | In Pedaling | 2 Comments
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We are fortunate enough to live in a place that fosters commuting by bicycle. The XtraSiren is my daily driver serving as crap hauler, grocery getter and head turner. It hauls in style and comfort with a giant 29×2.55 front tire up front and xtra long wheelbase, this thing rides like a Cadillac. Brendan passed this frame along to be dedicated to commuter duty and after an afternoon at Siren headquarters http://www.sirenbicycles.com/ we chopped up some chainstays and welded them into the rear triangle, we also welded in some gusseting around the bottom bracket area. The extra bracing makes a huge difference in the stiffness in the rear of the bike. No more noodley rear when its heavily loaded (think extra bodies). This thing is single, fixed and a good time.

Along the lines of commuters, I saw this wild thing on my way to out for a ride this morning. It is made by Bilenky http://www.bilenky.com and is called the Viewpoint. A little odd, but intriguing, and they seemed to be having a good time, This was the maiden voyage, cheers to bikepooling.

Got to get some of this

October 29, 2007 at 11:57 pm | In Pedaling | 1 Comment

After our all too short trip to the midwest/south, we have got to get some fall color in our days. The desert is perhaps the most amazing environment I’ve had the pleasure of existing in but the fall colors of deciduous trees are what is on my mind this morning. This shot was from Madventure 2005 in the Pinaleno mountains of southern Arizona:
In this particular adventure; Myself, Mateo, Critter, Mr. Sadcow and Mr. DanP camped up at hospital flats, pedaled to the top of the mountain in the AM and decended Ash Creek Trail all the way to the bottom. The trail was amazing to say the least. We had a particularly wet summer so the fall foliage was cranked up. Never before have I seen such intense color in leaves. Once at the bottom, we found our way into Safford where we had to repay the mountain for all the joy it brought us. A refuel of sandwiches, water and treats, followed by a fresh layer of clothing and we were trudging our way back up the mountain in the dark. Mateo provided us with an amazing quote that i’ve got to dig up about finding yourself through suffering and privation, appropriate indeed. That mountain was a beast. We all gathered at the top and made a warm meal after 14 hours of ride time.
Must do that on again.

Planes, Names, and Automobiles

October 28, 2007 at 11:50 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Lots of traveling for a wedding this weekend. A longtime friend got hitched on Saturday afternoon in Athens, GA and Katie and I made an epic journey to attend. The whole thing started on Thursday afternoon with a drive to Phoenix, followed by a plane ride to St. Louis where we met my tired mother standing, toes tensed at the faint security line on the floor which segregated the security approved travelers from non-secure family members in the wee hours of the morning. We drove back to the boro got some sleep. After a nice breakfast with the units we meandered around and played with the dog enjoying each others company. Katie and her parents came by for dinner, we drank wine and ate pie. Good night to all.
The sun doesn’t really show itself until well after 7 so our 6am departure to Athens was dark and dreary eyed. We rode down with an old friend Amy, caught up on each others lives and enjoyed the drive down south where we saw lakes, bluffs and fall colors. Really nice to see, just not in the confines of a car.
3 words for Georgia: traffic, kudzu and cheese. Also, as it turns out, you can still smoke in bars there? who knew?
We got into town, checked in and went off to the wedding. It was a nice quite, quick ceremony, no fuss, no frills, not a bad model. Catching up with old highschool/college friends and meeting new was pretty nice. A tour of some of the local bars ended the night for us. Athens is a nice college town, I wouldn’t have problems going back. Congrats to Adam and Heather. you two area amazing for eachother.
We woke early and trolled around Athens for some breakfast before hitting the road for Nashville. Got on a flight out to Phoenix and finally made it home.

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