your daily bicycle log

FWIW this has happened to me also (although not quite as dramatically!) and almost everyone who bikes in downtown San Francisco. Hope you heal quickly!

thanks! a lovely bloke came out of his shop and got me bandaged up, and the hospital i went to (public health is free here) checked joint movements &c. and established nothing was broken.

I think I might be on the verge of getting a Brompton y/n

what for specifically? depending on your situation you might be better off with another folder

commuting. one of the ways I can get to work that isn't driving is commuter rail + bike the rest of the way

I guess it'd also be nice for bringing along on trips, too, as a number of airlines will let you bring them on as carry-on luggage

ah brompton then. for portability there’s no competition.

you’d want to consider things like # gears v weight, expensive light titanium v weight, etc. i went for six gears in standard metals, so it’s heavy but not too expensive. if your ride doesn’t have too many hills, you could get away with a three or two speed.

Call is going out:

http://coloradogravelgrinderchampionship.com/pony-xpress/details

May 18, 2019. I'm hoping to lasso a gbx, as much for wanting to meet a legend, as anything else. :^)

i've had a lot of... dreams and setbacks as i've ventured through the last couple years, but i'm confident i can make it through this one. i'm comfortable being a reliable 50+ ally, as opposed to "ima set a pr" guy, though if asked to pull or die, i'll ride til i die.

Anybody wanna walk through the process of doing this? i'll be on a minimally loaded drop-bar, tubeless, 26x2.1" mtn bike. This kinda monster-cross shit is considered "fashionable" by my understands.

hope all are well. i see most of yall through strava and the fatmantis group, but while few, we are strong.

also:
"NEW for 2019 Class 1 Ebike for 85 K distance with later start time (no age or gender classes )."

that gravel ride looks terrific hunt3r, very jealous - you'll have a blast on that!

i've been upping the miles here in an effort to tire my son out. it's not working at all, it's absolutely killing me while he's just getting fitter and faster all the time. i had a virus over the last six weeks so i did manage to get some time just sitting on my arse, but i think i'm over that now and it's all beginning again. 100 miles last monday, and then 55 yesterday up four of the big climbs in the area - we were going to do another couple as well, but thank the lord we ran out of daylight :D

main riding goal this year is mountain mayhem which is the longest running uk 24hr mountain bike race. i'm not really into racing at all anymore (i'm soooo slow) but they've just dropped the lower age limit to 14 so we're doing it as a pair. with any luck i'll just be able to do one lap and then let him ride the rest - seriously i'd just be slowing him down, he's just ridiculous

viewing a kid's increasing capacity is always amazing, that is v cool.

hunter! I'd actually tentatively planned on targeting the pony express as my first gravel event / goal to keep me honest (standards have uh fallen very far). It'd be great to see some other mantii show up too

encouraging news, i'm checking the forecast already. i'm not much of a mudder no matter what my enemies say.

i'm not much of a cyclist these days, tbh, so having some incentive to get back in the saddle would be nice

http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2xhzsfNBN1r0wqrdo1_500.jpg

i did lol

http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2xhzsfNBN1r0wqrdo1_500.jpg

http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2xhzsfNBN1r0wqrdo1_500.jpg

i so rarely image-ify here i've forgotten the commands...

Rode a bike a couple days ago after being out of town for months. During those months I also lost weight and I could feel that on the climbs!

Only now I have to keep the weight off. When I complained about this to a couple girl friends of mine the lack of sympathy was palpable. Understandably.

if i could lose the weight i've gained in the past 1.5 yrs, i'd be like, _faster_. which would be cool, but my body and mind are distracted by other battles, too. my power isn't terrible, i guess. not willing to deprive yet.

I'm entered for a time trial on Sunday. What with my calf injury this time last year destroying the whole season and a general loss of enthusiasm for racing (and the necessary training), I'm not really in top shape for this. I've only been on one proper bike ride in the last five weeks or so (and I got dropped then). I haven't done a race for about 18 months. I haven't touched my racing bike since the start of November and have no idea if it's ready to roll and my aero bars are presumably buried somewhere in my shed. On top of that, I picked up a bizarre big toe injury a couple of days ago while sitting down and working at my laptop - somehow I must have bent it too far backwards. Having to hobble around everywhere at the moment, hopefully won't stop me cycling. The weather forecast says 6C with a 41mph crosswind. Oh joy.

i do not want to _ride_ in a 41mph crosswind.

i have an aaaancient rear disc that takes up to 10sp if you want it though, could be adventurous.

i just found the aPower metric on golden cheetah, i want it injected in my veins. (lol it claims to normalize your power readings to sea level where i'm totally a viking).

Towed Barry Bonds today

:o

yeah that needs expanding on!

how did yr tt go nbs?

Group of four pulled up and sat on my wheel in the Presidio. Went our separate ways but ran into one of them later during a stop. He came up "hey, do you know who that was? That was Barry Bonds. Yeah, he saw you and said 'let's reel that guy in.'"

Bonds rides a lot around here, seen him a few times.

His significant other is a pretty big deal in the cycling world:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Holden

Had no idea!

me neither that's interesting

how did yr tt go nbs?

Car blown around in torrential rain while driving up the M11, arrived at the HQ to sign on and was warned of significant standing water on the course, two of my clubmates had abandoned before I started and warned me not to attempt it - way too windy, broken branches in the road, etc., about half the field abandoned or didn't start overall, I rode it but could only use the aero bars about 30% of the time because it was just too risky at times, in one section of block headwind I could only manage 11mph on the flat, I was very close to giving up after about 7 miles and stopped trying for about 5-10 minutes, but in the end I rode all the way round and finished. My worst time ever, but everyone was much slower than usual. I would expect to be well off my usual pace anyway due to lack of fitness/racing, but combined with the weather it was off the scale. I reached the turn with an average speed of just 19.2mph and dragged it up to something like 20.1mph by the end - normally I'd be over 23mph.

I mean this is in the best possible way, you're a madman.

that sounds insane. i wouldn't have gotten out of the car in that

Velodrome racing season opening night was on Tuesday. I did a guided trainer class twice a week this winter with a handfull of friends (doing it all together in the driveway made it a lot easier to stick to the plan) so I'm a bit more fitter than I've been the last few years, but I was still not able to stick with the sustained attacks on the last couple of laps of the races. 27 - 28mph was fine, but when it was in the 30s, I just couldn't spin my legs fast enough to hang. Still, I felt like I wasn't 100% outclassed out there like I did in the last few years, even if it was nothing like how I felt in my good years when the first 80% of the race felt like I was just cruising and the last 20% was the only hard bit.

I think if I start doing some specific high speed work and throw on a bit bigger gear (I was running 90 gear inches) I might be able to be acutally racing, instead of just hanging on by the time the season is finished.

Lots of fun, anyway.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2261359878

so good, keep in there.

not on the track in my case, but racing generally, you spend so long every winter/spring just to get to the point where you can sorta maybe almost guess where you *might* be or *might* get to--

racing just becomes this ever-growing massive roi equation as you age. you gotta really luurrrve it. or not have other things in the way, i guess.

my last race period pre-tbi was a very isolated jump back into cx in 2014 (after many years off all racing). my biggest friend was def low expectations, generous forgetfulness of previous capacities, and focusing on fun in front of the low expectations.

'forgetfulness of previous capacities' really hits it squarely on the head. Intellectually, I know that at some point in my life I was sprinting for points during the bell laps and winning races (at this level of competition) but physically it feels so far away from my current capacities that it seems like some kind of implanted memory or something. Did that stuff actually really happen or am I just old-timering it? Anyway, the track scene is still so fun and friendly to me that my motivation is high.

Here is a nice photo from that night (I'm the absolute unit in 2nd place here) https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/56476846_10156194113268807_4163668109946781696_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.xx&oh=594ccd87f99ff5bf6b05a79c08ac82ac&oe=5D390586

so many horses on the track, just looking at it skeers me away. nice!

yes very cool photo!

last week i got my first new mountain bike for 15 years (specialized chisel xc hardtail), but already my son already seems to have commandeered it so i'm back in ye ancient rocky mountain which was once such an awesome speedy thing but looks like such an antiquated wreck now with its little wheels and narrow bars and triple chainset - such a perfect embodiment of my own way-past-my-bestness, i'm secretly glad that i don't have to try and pretend to be fast on it

i went out on my modern trailbike last week (27.5x3”, 1x11, 150mm/135mm, nice dropper) and it was great and efficient and all that, but when i’m really happy on trails right now, it’s the 20 yr old ti with dirtdrops, 3x9, 80mm fork, speedy 26x2.1 tubeless. i can take it anywhere, and it will not be the fastest on each segment, but _across_ the disciplines (which is where it lives), it is the fastest if i am the fastest.
one discipline that i try to keep it away from? riding on my car. which is one reason i made it.

it started as a whim on an old station bike frame, but i found it rules.

nickb if you’re within 10mi of trailhead, dirtdrop/ld stem it, put on fast center ridge-y 2.1s, rip it. if yr not that close, it’s still a comfy way to mtb, if yr new steed has been seized to support the struggles.

lol sorry,long- i’m feelin that religion. part of me thinks i’m just pose-y because style’s got a lot of gravel crossover, but from the other direction.

i'm only about 2 miles from the local trails. probably won't go for drops though, it's a full susser and i think i'd get myself arrested by the trail police for that! have got a pile of junk bikes in the loft though including a nice steel reynolds-tubed voodoo so maybe that could be a little project one day...

yeah full sus would not be natural fit there.

Seems like Er time i get ready for mtb we get another one of these which slows it down
https://www.google.com/amp/s/denver.cbslocal.com/2019/04/09/denver-weather-temperature-drop-powerful-storm-colorado-snow/amp/

When i say it was 80° yesterday, i mean it was actually 80° and i went up 3000’, to 8400’, no gilet or armwarmers. Want more dry trails wah

trails are already pretty dry and fast round here - might do my first xc race in years next weekend and if the decent weather here stays put, i'm in serious danger of running out of excuses

First cycle in nearly 3.5 years this evening. Just under 12 miles, was alright.

Same ride I did last Saturday, except without jetlag and faster.

alright all. my rides are samey but fun in the last few days, but i'm generally doing more of it, so that keeps me feeling ok.

I did that mountain bike race a couple of weekends ago and did hilariously badly. Forgot what it was like to be under pressure on twisty singletrack with a bunch of people right up your arse, so stressful. I ended up losing it on a corner, my front wheel washed out and went down like a bag of spuds - smashed my knee and somehow put the cage of my rear mech through the spokes of my back wheel. By the time I’d managed to pull everything back into shape, the field were long gone and I spent an entire lap dead last before I managed to start catching a few people. Got lapped by the leaders though, and passed by my own son who went past me like lightning while I was slowly exploding on a climb ;_;

Gotta say though that despite my own crapness, it was brilliant fun and I can’t wait for the next one

Only other noteworthy ride i’ve done recently is we cycled back from my mother’s house at Easter mostly using off-road trails ~120 miles, took forever because it was mostly on canal towpaths etc on a sunny public holiday, fishermen and dog walkers and hikers and bloody cyclists all over the shop, had to keep stopping every 100 meters in some places to let people through. Also my freehub fell apart when I took my wheel off to fix a puncture, never had to put one back together before, kept losing bits in the gravel so it was somewhat frought. Survived but the young lad is threatening to take me out tomorrow again for another beasting, oh joy!

https://strava.app.link/mfdAxmojrW

Ha those adventures sound wild. A little jealous your kid joins in the sport, keep it going-

i’ve got adventures coming up, so ive wanted to ride more/get better fitness. that, combined with ~difficult life situations~ which seem to drive me to hammer harder and longer have me spending too much time playing and not enuf time trying to get productive. I srsly bonked last week (like the not able to focus eyes, drowsy, falling asleep on the bike kind of sugar depletion), and started to again today after 5 hrs of pounding.

also weird bike parts are getting bought. it’s sorta bad, but i am optimistic i can get through before loved ones have an intervention lol.

Had a day in northern Wales yesterday (followed by a very long drive home) and took in a couple of climbs that are about five times bigger than anything where I live: https://youtu.be/gDfNDE5gmro

looks lovely!

Thanking the Lord for having me intersect with someone juuuust a bit slower than me toward the end of my ride, so we could pass each other a couple times before I rode triumphantly away uphill. Where I was promptly crushed by two trim young men who each appeared to be at their resting heart rate.

Got some solid miles in at the weekend - rode with my son from Brighton to Winchester and back over the local chain of hills (the south downs), 145 miles all in one hit, 99% off road and 15,000 ft of climbing. Still didn't manage to wear the lad out, he only struggled during the last hour really and that was totally due to a lack of sleep (we left home at 3AM and got back at 11PM). Weather was kind and the puncture gods were lenient (only three, all poxy thorns). Stats and photos and shit here: https://www.strava.com/activities/2397156214

holy shit, guy