Outstanding

This weekend, the crocuses bloomed.

The red wing blackbirds arrived.

These guys are regulars since the wetland restoration in our neighborhood was completed.

That can mean only one thing:

And so, with a hearty breakfast

Hell yeah!

we set out for a day of mountain biking. Our plan was to start at the Overmountain Victory Trail, riding to the end of it and then ride the road to the Warrior Creek Trail, ride a lap or two there and then ride back on the Overmountain Victory Trail. We headed out on the OVT, taking it easy and warming up well. The temperature was around 75 degrees according to my new-to-me Specialized Speedzone computer (thanks, Jeff!). The sky was that strange mix of sunny with dark rain clouds mixed in. The trail was perfect - fast and flowy. We didn't see anyone on the OVT on the way out.

We hit the road and covered the roughly two miles of pavement pretty quickly and went flying through the Warrior Creek parking area and up to the trail head. We downed some food, mixing espresso Hammer gel and Perpetuem solids and washing it all down with Endurolytes Fizz and then headed out for a lap at Warrior Creek.

Warrior Creek was in perfect condition. We flew, riding faster than I ever have there. It is difficult to describe how well I got into the flow of the trail. It felt amazing to get out in the woods and ride fast.

We saw the great folks from the Brushy Mountain Cycling Club building a new bridge to replace the one damaged by one of our numerous winter storms.

These guys work hard. Thanks!

We ran into a group of riders from Boone Bike and Touring (Shaw Brown, Donovan Carroll, and Chuck Luddeke among them), but other than that, it felt like we had the trail to ourselves. Warrior Creek really swallows up riders and makes you feel like you have the place all to yourself.

We finished up a lap of Warrior Creek, took the road back to the end of OVT and rode the trail back toward the car. We took a detour to include Shiner's Run on the way back in. We passed a few people, but not many. The amazing thing was that it rained several times on the ride, but we really felt anything since we were in the woods during the rainy spells. We got back to the car and took off for home. We were eager to get back to Owen. It was fun riding long and fast, but I missed pulling him on the tag-a-long.

Owen and I shot stomp rockets into the sky as Golden got cleaned up and then it was our turn. We headed out for dinner with my parents and filled up on salad and pasta. It was a beautiful, wonderful, fantastic day filled with so many things that I am still giddy with happiness, but the absolute best part was Owen's steady stream of hugs, kisses and "I love you, daddy"'s.

Thank you, Spring. You were worth the wait.

Speedgrips and Footis-head screwdrivers

Bike shops are one of the last bastions of unfettered equality left in the world. Sure, you can walk into those big, posh bike stores where everyone performs a visual credit check on you to decide whether or not to help you and how long they should wait before actually acknowledging your presence. But that isn't what I'm talking about. I mean your good old rough around the edges, slightly crusty in a charming sense local bike shop where the shop employees love bikes and love to talk about them.

These shops try very hard to offer help to everyone who walks through the door, no matter who they are. This brings us to the topic of today's little entry: equality for all doesn't mean that some people aren't still a little touched in the head. There is a whole cadre of bike shop customers who are united by a few things in common-
                1. They love to talk. They love to talk and the bike shop provides a perfect audience because our first instinct is to be nice and greet everyone who walks through the door. Problem is, these people not only love to talk, they love to talk crazy. Not weird or eccentric, CRAZY. Some barely pause between sentences to breathe. They will talk for as long as you give them an audience, so you have to figure out a way to signal that you need to get back to work or that you need to help other customers.
                    Example of actual, first person experience: Customer asks, "If a cheetah could ride a bicycle, how fast would it go?"
                  2. They ride bikes everywhere they go. I like this about them, so don't think I'm bashing anyone for using a bicycle for basic transportation. These customers don't have a driver's license and while you would think it was for DUI, it is usually because they just can't possibly pass the test to get a license or they have had their rights taken away by the court (I'm not kidding on this. I know this because they are usually very forthcoming about telling you they have had their rights taken away.)
                   3. They are usually going to make some very odd request that is going to provide an easy nickname for referring to them in the future.
                        Example of actual, first person experience:
Customer: "Do you guys have speedgrips?"
Me: Do you mean grips for your handlebars?
Customer: "Yeah, speedgrips (speedgrips spoken slowly to help my understanding since I am obviously a little slow).
And thus, the customer is now known as "Speedgrips".

The true beauty of this type of customer is in how they sort the experienced shop employee from the inexperienced. Experienced shop employees have a sixth sense that warns of the approach of the "touched" customers who are known. Be it the tell-tale squeak of their bike coming to a stop or the faint sound of their voice outside the shop, the experienced shop employee senses the approach of a known "crazy" customer and suddenly finds a need to organize things in the back of the shop, step out the back door to fetch something from somewhere/anywhere else or needs to go to the bathroom, thus leaving the FNG employee to enjoy a new life experience with the "crazy" customer. It helps if the experienced shop employees place themselves in such a way that they can make eye contact with the FNG as this provides an unexplainable amount of entertainment. The FNG usually slides quickly from a friendly persona to that of a trapped animal in under 10 seconds. Their eyes go wide as their brains desperately try to make sense of the nonsense that is being spoken at them.

I enjoy this aspect of the bike shop life. It shows that we are providing a welcoming atmosphere to everyone. It's also funny seeing the reactions of our mainstream customers when the "crazy" customer comes in. The reactions are usually along the lines of wide-eyed, open-mouth wonder. The times when a straight customer remains after the "crazy" customer leaves, they usually ask, "does that happen a lot?" To which we can confidently reply, "Pretty much everyday" and keep right on working.

New beginnings

The seed catalog from Burpee showed up in the mail yesterday, so you know Spring can't be too far behind. I've come to a good place in life when something like a seed catalog brings excitement and anticipation to the house. Golden sat beside me on the couch, flipping through the pages, circling the plants she wants, and asking me, "What do you think of this?" every few minutes. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one champing at the bit to get Winter over and done with.

Owen and I hung out in the backyard for as long as the weather tended toward warm yesterday afternoon. We turned the two mountains of compost in the bins, keeping an eye out for bugs and snakes in the inky black mass, but unfortunately, we didn't see any. I have to admit that I like composting more than gardening. There is just something about watching all of that organic material become on uniform black mass that really brings happiness to me. O played in the sandbox for the first time this year, while I took old plants and wove them through the fence for I don't know what reason, but it was contemplative and peaceful.

photo by Dvortygirltalk

This little shift in the weather back to a more seasonal coolness is good as it will give us a little chance to catch up in the shop. The first warmth of Spring always brings a flood of repairs that are typical of bikes that have been sitting in a basement or garage all winter. To help you with your early season bike repair triage I offer the following Public Service Announcement:

Bike tires are inflated with air inside of tubes (true, some tires are tubeless, but if your tires are tubeless, you know it because there is a lot of effort required to actually utilize tubeless tire systems and no, your MegaMart bike is NOT tubeless) and it is natural for these tubes to leak air over time. Just like you have to inflate the tires on your car periodically, you need to put air in bike tires frequently or else they go flat. If they do go flat, they probably just need air, so inflate them and see what happens. If you don't have a bike pump, buy one. Being able to pump up your own tires will save you money in the long run and shows a basic level of self-sufficiency. And no matter what you do, DO NOT take your flat tired bicycle to your local bike shop and expect them to patch the tube. Bicycle shops replace tubes, people patch tubes in their spare time or in acts of desperation on rides that involve multiple flats and a limited number of replacement tubes.

We are getting new bikes in for the season all this week. Both Fuji and Specialized have had a fair collection of 2010 closeouts that we have grabbed in order to offer people the most bang for their buck. There are some ridiculously low prices on 2010 road bikes while the inventory lasts from both of these companies. We are also getting in 2011 bikes in road, mountain, and greenway varieties. We'll be building them up and getting them out on the floor all week, so come by and check 'em out!

I heart you

Valentine's day is all about sharing love with someone important. I got to thinking about all those emotions of love, lust and passion, and it was passion that I got hung up on. Passion is a strong and rare thing.

I'm not talking about passion between two people despite the fact that it's Valentine's Day.  No, what got me thinking was the idea that we can be passionate about something, not someone. How completely and utterly you can fall in love with something. I stand in awe of people who have the extreme good fortune of having turned their passion into their vocation. The really tricky bit is once it becomes your vocation, staying passionate about it.

FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.

I guess it should come as no surprise that my passion is bicycles. If you have read this blog for more than a moment or two, I hope that the sense of love and wonder that I have for two wheels has been evident. It is beautiful to watch the care and effort taken to produce a handbuilt steel frame from start to finish. It is funny how disdainful people can be about the cost of a handbuilt frame, but I hope that watching the video above gives you a better appreciation for how much soul a builder can imbue a frame with as they build it from start to finish. What magic there is in taking a pile of tubes and turning it into a bicycle frame.

So whatever it is that you do, try remembering the passion that you feel for it and give it that little bit of extra love that it has been lacking. Hopefully, you'll see a little magic in the results.

ps - Oh, yeah - the song in the video is from The Mattson 2. They're rad as hell, check 'em out!

The great snowdown

 I'm pretty sure I speak for us all when I say that I am tired of winter. Sick and tired. Sick and damn tired. So now that yet another snow storm bears down on us and the prospect of having school on Saturday looms, I have to say that I am officially declaring Winter over. I am reversing the decision of Puxatawney Phil. Seriously, how many major life decisions are you going to hand over to a rodent? So why trust one with a major weather prediction?

From this point forward, we will no longer use the term snow. Instead, we will discuss "dense humidity" and its natural air conditioning effects. If we change the language, we will change the very nature of our reality.

Or we can just hunker down, suffer through and look forward to the sweet, breathtaking rewards that Spring will heap upon us in the not to distant future. As soon as next week, we may be frolicking and cavorting about in shorts with the sun dappling our pasty vitamin D starved knees and arms. We will spin along on group rides, turning the pedals over effortlessly and playfully joke about not being under 12 layers of clothing just to survive being outdoors. Ladies and gentlemen, our discontent may - nay- must draw to a close soon.

The hamster wheel

photo by Klaus

I've definitely been silent from this little chunk of the internet this past week or so. Funny how the beginning of the semester for me as a teacher and as a grad student is always the same:  scrambling around trying to find a groove I can get into and get things done. I had my second Web Design class last night and spent an hour and a half discussing the basic web pages that we have created so far. I haven't created a website from scratch since 2000, when I made a horrible site for a class at NAU. It's amazing how easy it is to have a significant web presence these days without doing any backend work to build a website. This blog, facebook, and twitter allow the shop to have an internet reach (I'll refrain from calling it a broad reach) without really doing much coding in html, except when I want to make things look pretty.

It's been an odd few days at school as my colleague Alex and I have been getting a great deal of attention for the scores our Physical Science students made on the NC end of course test last semester. What I felt was attributable to low standards, is still significant as we outperformed the other high schools "significantly" as administrators have put it. They have started asking us how we did it in order to try and duplicate our results with other teachers. If this were a movie, it would be shortly after this initial glow of success that people started accusing us of cheating. Let me go on record as stating unequivocally that I do not care what my students test scores are, I don't feel that it is a complete measure of who I am as a teacher nor do I feel that standardized tests are an adequate measure of a student either. There are too many intangibles in this life that cannot be neatly quantified in the form of a multiple choice test. Simply put: I don't care enough about standardized testing to cheat and since there is no monetary incentive, that can't be used as a possible motive either. I get paid the same no matter how good their scores are.

I don't know what to say. We were as shocked at our scores as anyone else, so us giving up the "secret" to our success is akin to asking the bird why he flies so well or the rabbit how he jumps so far. They don't know, they just do it.

I've been hitting the greenway every school commute and it is such a peaceful way to cover the miles. No cars and no one on the greenway when the weather is cold and wet, makes for an empty path that I can fly along on. I love having such a long car free stretch to commute on every day and our town is lucky to have such a progressive project going on. I've ended up facing two cars driving head on at me in my lane this past week and incidents like that really make you appreciate a safe, car free alternative.

As part of my MS 365 Project, I'd like to update you on the stats for January. Yes, I rode at least 1 mile outside all 31 days of January. I have ridden a total of 345 miles as of January 31st; maintaining a >10 mile a day average to stay on track for 3,650 miles total for the year. I have no idea if I have raised any money for Can Do MS nor have I received any new pledges since the opening weeks of the project. I promise not to shill too much for donations to this cause, so I will limit myself to some NPR-style, end of the month pleas for a small donation. If you can, take a moment and give a little to this worthy group so that people with MS can learn that a life full of exercise and activity is the way to a healthy and enjoyable life with MS.

Thanks.

Redemption and ending

Last weekend's 'cross race was not a lesson in perseverance, but a test of mettle. Multiple trips to the ground, hanging out well off the back of the race and periodically having to stop to remove clods of mud and grass in order to get the wheels to roll was a test of not giving in to the siren's song of dropping out. It is those times that mean you must be satisfied with simply completing what you started. DNF'ing is a slippery slope; each time you dropout, it gets a little easier to do it again the next time.

So I headed to the last race of the NC Cyclocross series on Sunday with an eye towards redeeming myself in my own mind. My previous race in Wilkesboro was not how I wanted to end my season. Those low points and bad performances can haunt you until the next season comes. I had a better race left in me and I needed to let it out.

After spending about 4 hours resurrecting my bike from all of the mud and crash damage suffered in Wilkesboro, I was shocked to get to Greensboro, hop on the bike and start hearing a loud and disturbing creak emanating from my bottom bracket. After borrowing some tools (thanks to Kerry Shields and the mechanics from the American Classic team), I got things right and set about warming up. Riding the trainer, listening to Girl Talk put doubts about the bike out of my head.

For some reason, the bright sunshine gave the illusion that it was warmer than it actually was. I arrived to the line with simply a long sleeve skinsuit to keep me warm. No gloves was my call and it was almost the wrong call as my hands got so cold that braking and shifting were difficult, but at least not impossible.

We took off from the line going up a paved climb and then swinging right on to a grass field. The course was undulating with lots of flowy turns on grass with a few patches of mud peeking through to keep you focused on your technique, a double sand pit and a nice set of stairs. There was little flat riding as the course was either going up or going down.

It was good, close racing as the course was open enough to see everyone around you. It is a lot of fun to see the people ahead of you as you chase them down and motivating to see the people behind you chasing you down. In other words, you couldn't let up for a moment. I rolled across the line in 8th place, having flirted with 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th during the race. I didn't crash. The bike didn't explode or fall apart. And I redeemed myself with the best finish of the cyclocross season.

Thanks to Carroll Composites for the fantastic King Louie cyclocross frame and carbon wheels that I and the Fiets Maan Racing team have been on this season.  The King Louie is hands down the best cyclocross frame I have ever raced and it has been a pleasure to ride it every time I have swung my leg over the top tube. The cyclocross specific carbon wheels have proven to be light, fast and confidence inspiring with their wider rim bed to get more glue surface for the tire to adhere to. They've never even hinted at allowing the tire to peel off the rim.

With the close of Cyclocross season, I'd like to encourage you to get out there and race this coming season. You've got 7 months to get ready...

What is mastery? Proficiency?

photo by Leo Reynolds

I'm deep into standardized testing week with my students. I long ago gave up the stress that many teachers associate with this since, to read any major educational researcher is to know that standardized testing is not a  way to measure learning, but rather a way to measure the students preparedness for a test. With that in mind, my attitude is that the test cannot possibly measure what I do as a teacher, whether students do well or not.

After getting my student's scores back, I am shocked at how high they are.  Almost all of them showed a significant amount of "growth" from what they were predicted to make to what they did make. Now remember that I said this test doesn't measure what I do as a teacher. Many teachers say that when the scores are bad, but then take credit when the scores are good. I am not one of those teachers.

I started digging into the numbers that were given to me for all of my students.  This somewhat cryptic data set that isn't clearly defined ended up being somewhat decipherable after spending a bit of time with it. What I deduced from it was shocking to me as a teacher and really makes me feel like a cog in a big, dirty, broken machine designed to churn out intended results rather than alert and able people ready to strive and make positive contributions to society.

To be considered proficient and on grade level meant getting 50% of the multiple choice questions correct. If the test were complex and complicated, I would agree with such a percentage, but it isn't. It is a fairly basic and low level test of mastery of just a few basic facts, ideas and methods.

I hate the implications for our future that this current testing regime in education has. When students do little, know little and then are branded as proficient or even said to have "mastery" of the content, we teach them that little is actually a lot, that poor results are actually good, and average results are actually excellent. We are electing people and encouraging the gaming of the system. We aren't encouraging results, we are tabulating numbers. It is smoke and mirrors. It is as if I decided that I am no longer middle class but actually quite wealthy because I now consider every dollar I have to actually be worth ten dollars. That is just a numbers game and signifies nothing in reality. Unfortunately, that is the education system that we have gotten.

Have you noticed how since education became politicized (beginning with Kennedy and then exploding with Reagen) that everyone is busy trying to fix education, while everybody else is busy measuring how broken the system is? We are in an educational ouroboros that is spinning out of control. Meanwhile, we grind our future into dust by tacitly encouraging mediocrity in the generations that will form the future of our society. It is a recipe for disaster.

In defense of friction

photo by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Friction is usually the enemy.  It wastes energy, turning it into heat.  It resists force and motion.  It's the reason why our world doesn't behave in perfect Newtonian ways.  Imagine getting on your bike, pedaling up to speed and then not pedaling anymore, but never slowing down.  Friction is what you have to blame for the constant need to pedal.  Whether it is the friction where the road meets the tire or you having to fight through the thick soup of gases called air, friction is the steady hand that pushes back on you.

But friction is not all bad.  Before we had indexed shifting systems on bikes (yes kids, shifters used to not "click"), there was good old downtube friction shifting.  Pull the lever and the derailleur shifted.  Push the lever and the derailleur shifted.  It was simple, elegant and bomb proof.  But more than anything, it was a direct connection between the rider and the drivetrain.  The rider had to get the derailleur in the right spot not to make noise,  The rider had to learn where the gears were in order to shift smoothly and cleanly.

Index shifting has introduced a level of convenience and dependability to cycling that allows the newest rider to shift cleanly and smoothly.  By eliminating the learning curve for clean shifting, however, it introduces a level of abstraction between rider and machine.  The beginning rider understands less and less what is happening in the drivetrain.  The race to incorporate electronics into this equation introduces and even greater level of distraction.  

I have ridden the new Shimano Di2 electronic group.  I've also ridden bikes equipped with Mavic Mektronic, Mavic Zap and I've even seen a mountain bike that had a Browning Automatic Transmission on it.  Di2 is remarkable not just in the fact that it works (unlike any of the Mavic attempts - at least in terms of reliability), but that the shifting is so extremely precise and requires no thought on the part of the rider.  I rode it trying every dumb shifting combination and technique that usually results in a thrown chain or missed shift and it handled it flawlessly.  

This means that the rider can now buy perfection rather than seek it within themselves.  I don't think of this as a step forward.  There are trials and tribulations that we have to go through in order to initiate ourselves into things.  We must be cautious about offloading the difficult things to technology.  I am no Luddite, but I fear a loss of intimacy with the things that we love and depend on.  The only upside to the electronic shifting movement is that the cost is still prohibitively high, but the trickle down is coming soon.  Within this decade, it is safe to assume that electronic shifting will become the most common form of shifting on bikes (at least road bikes).

If you ever get the chance, take a bike that has friction downtube shifters out for a spin.  Feel those tiny, elegant levers move smoothly through their range of motion.  Notice the fluid sweep of the derailleurs as the move fluidly with the lever.  Note the quietness of the shift and the different tones of chain on cogs as you adjust the shift to the perfect position, known by the lack of noise coming from the chain on the cog.  It is a simple, beautiful thing and it will be gone before you know it.

The buried winter

Every mile is two in winter. - George Herbert (1593-1633) Jacula Prudentum

Ray's Weather has officially buried their mild winter forecast having realized that we are experiencing one of the coldest winters in quite a while.  Their previous seasonal forecast said we would have a very mild winter with no snow and warmer than average temperatures.  As I write this, it is 14 degrees celsius, the roads still have patches of ice on them from last Sunday's snowfall, students have been out of school all week and are on a 3 hour delay today.  So much for a mild winter.  It is little comfort to have your hopes dashed and then receive an apology for having them built up in the first place.  But such is the nature of weather forecasting.  Despite our best, most advanced attempts at quantifying data and observation into prediction, Nature just does not neatly fit into a data table and behave as it should.

Winter for a cyclist can be a grim and lonely affair.  The warm group rides of spring and summer are like hazy mirages seen in the distance.  When group rides do occur, they provide relief from the loneliness of riding the trainer, locked up with your thoughts on a solitary hamster wheel in your basement, but the quest to remain warm, to keep blood flowing through your extremities can put a damper on the camaraderie of the group.  

Few cyclists are solitary creatures.  Sure, there are the time trial specialists who prefer to suffer alone in the quest for perfection in the balance of power and aerodynamics and there are the triathletes whose complex multisport workouts don't lend themselves to more than a training partner or two at best.  For most of us though, cycling is as much social interaction as it is athleticism.  The bonding ritual of shared effort that comes from group rides is of great importance to all but the most elite cyclist.

This is what is missed most by me in the winter.  Seeing friends.  Riding with friends.  Meeting new people out on the bike.  Having new people come visit the shop and ride with us. So how do we capture the magic of the balmier times while suffering through the bitter doldrums of winter?  Rather than putting off riding until it is warm, or grinding away on the dreaded trainer in solitary penance for your misdeeds, the answer is to ride indoors together.  

In our ongoing effort to eradicate SCAD (Seasonal Cyclist Affective Disorder) from the world, we will be holding group trainer classes beginning Wednesday, Jan. 26th and then every Tuesday/Thursday after that.  Classes will be from 6:15 to 7:30 (please try to arrive by 6:00). Classes will be $10 per session or 8 classes for $60 paid in advance.  These will be structured workouts featuring loud music, lots of motivational yelling and anything else that can be done to help you through this bleakest of winters.  You will need to bring your trainer/rollers (we have a couple of loaners), a towel and water.  We need to have 5 people prepaid by Monday, January 24th in order for the class to take place.  No matter what level of cyclist you are or hope to be, a solid winter base will help you achieve your riding goals for the coming season.           

Hell sNOw

Cottrell Hill descent on Sat. 1/8/11

Don't get me wrong, I like snow.  There are a lot of very cool things you can do in the snow.  Fun, active things that make steady, predictable amounts of snowfall enjoyable, even something to look forward to.  But that isn't the case here.  Sure, every now and then it snows enough to make me wish I hadn't gotten rid of my cross country skis when I moved here, but that is only a couple of times every few years.  That isn't exactly a record that would indicate this place is a winter wonderland of snow sports and activities, now is it?

No, snow sends most people here into an apoplectic tizzy that results in everyone stocking up on batteries, generators, and as Charlie Frye is fond of saying, French Toast ingredients (eggs, milk, bread).  There are those who react with an opposing level of indifference as indicated by their false belief that a 4 wheel drive vehicle can be driven the same way regardless of weather and road conditions.

We find ourselves blanketed with snow once again today.  The 2 to 3 inches of unplowed snow currently on my street makes everything feel isolated and remote.  There is no rejoicing with such a snow event here (other than students being happy that school is canceled).  You get a sense that now everyone will hunker in to their bunker-like houses, cautiously optimistic that everything will be ok, but also keeping an eye on the family pets just in case the isolation runs longer than anticipated and protein is required for survival.

I must also confess that all of this bad weather is probably my fault.  Resolving to ride 1 mile outdoors every day for a year seems to alter weather patterns pretty dramatically.  In the past month, we've had snow, winds that threatened to lift me and my bike off the ground, a week of sunshine and temperatures approaching the mid-50's and now more snow.  Consistency we ain't got.

Zen and the Art of Pillow Fighting

The pillow fight is an ancient, venerable form of combat that stretches back millennia.  The earliest accounts come from ancient Greece where young Hectorus of Nod is said to have first picked up a pillow and struck his brother, Boger the Nosy, as retribution for being wronged.  But while we have this deep seated tradition that is passed on from generation to generation, few of us receive any formal training in the pillow fighting arts and it is that egregious oversight that this guide hopes to overcome.

Know your opponent

 Appearance is the first offense of the pillow fighter.  Their reliance on a carefully cultivated look of both innocence and defenselessness is a time-honored first attack that is designed to get you to relax and drop your guard.  Do Not Fall For This Ruse!

 For in reality, this innocent is a highly trained, highly skilled adept of the combat arts whose favorite weapon is whatever is closest to hand!

Exploit the weakness of the Offense

The classic opening attack

The typical opening salvo of the 4 year old, classically trained pillow fighter will be pure offense: an overhead blow designed to strike the head of the opponent and calculated to leave them momentarily dazed and confused.  This leaves the opponent open to the more devastating side blow attack which can and will inflict maximum damage.

The side blow (or Roundhouse) sequence in 3 shots

But let us note the weakness of this offensive posture: the knees.  At the opening of each attack, the knees and lower legs of the attacker are clearly undefended.  Confident of their training and intoxicated by the knowledge that their training has given them, the typical 4 year old pillow fighting adept forgets to protect their foundation and concentrates solely on the attack itself.  As the pillow fighting master, it is incumbent upon you to show the young adept the error of his or her ways.

At the beginning of the attacker's power phase (or the windup), a well placed low powered blow to the soft spot just behind the knee will send your opponent crumpling in a heap to the ground and leave the open to a fast and merciful final blow.  Thus will end the pillow fight.  Dispatching your opponent without regard to their age, size or attempts to use laughter, giggling or feigned outcries of love and affection for you will only make the pillow fighter into a pillow warrior, ultimately saving their lives in times of battle.  Teach your children well for the Pillow Wars of old may one day yet revisit us...

Topic of discussion: Is steel really real?

I walked into the shop after school yesterday and sitting on the counter was a brand new, gold Niner SIR 9 frame.  A bit of disclosure before we continue: I have been lusting over this 29" wheeled bit of Reynolds 853 steel goodness since before we became a Niner dealer.   Those slim tubes, that huge, oversized eccentric bottom bracket shell that allows the SIR 9 to be converted from a geared bike to a singlespeed....  Sorry, I'll pull myself together.

Its funny after owning a lot of bikes, riding a lot of bikes and seeing thousands of brand new bikes at countless industry tradeshows, I still get excited and to be honest, fall in love with particular bikes.  Its like being attracted to another person.  There are no hard and fast rules about what will be attractive, but when you feel it, you know.  Well, needless to say, this particular frame caught my eye when looking through a bike magazine and I happened to catch a glimpse of it in an advertisement.  Now the object of desire was in my hands.

I don't know what it is about steel, but it just looks right as a bike frame material.  It has the right blend of strength and fragility to my eye, I guess.  The other frame materials like aluminum and carbon with the large, oversized tubes look like they are trying to hard.  While titanium with its dull gray color looks cold and uninviting.  But steel in the raw with its rainbow of heat marks around the welds looks fascinating.  Then when a lustrous paint job is applied on top of that it becomes this warm, inviting to the touch frame that just begs to be ridden.

But everyone has their different tastes.  This I know and understand.  And while I would love to sell a lot more steel framed bikes, I am not such a hopeless romantic to think that steel is right for everyone or even attractive to everyone.  Enter the Jet 9 full suspension frame from Niner.  To most reviewers, the 29" wheeled full suspension bike is the sweet spot of bike set ups; the "if you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one bike" bike.  This I cannot speak to with authority, since I have not ridden one.  The beauty of it all is that both of these bikes are being built up as Demo bikes for anyone to take out for a day of riding on the local trails so they can see exactly what they are like where it counts.

I might just have to take that SIR 9 out and make sure its okay before anyone else tries it out. Kind of a quality control check...

Reflection

Yesterday's ride capped off an almost complete year of riding.  I managed to be on my bike 360 days in 2010.  I rode back and forth to my teaching job through snow, rain, wind (one particular gust stopped me dead in the middle of Hwy. 18), sunny weather, heat and humidity.  I've developed a pretty thick skin when it comes to how some people in cars act towards a cyclist on the road (waving - its like a weapon to be friendly to rude people).  I've ridden for sheer fun on the road, the mountain bike and cyclocross bike.  I've hauled 6 ft. folding tables, loads of 2 x 4's, carried a complete mechanic's work station to do neutral race support for the local triathlon (it was especially great to ride up the hill fully loaded past the triathletes walking up the hill because it is "really steep"), done a bike tour in a new to me section of the Blue Ridge Parkway while hauling camping equipment and a wiggly 3 year old.  I've raced the disciplines I mentioned previously, and even managed to find the podium (3rd place at the Warrior's Creek 6 Hour mountain bike race in the co-ed duo division with my wife, Golden).

What started out as a Facebook challenge called 30 Days of Biking, became a passionate quest to do as much by bicycle as possible.  For 2011, I have started the MS 365 Project which ups the ante a little bit.  I plan on adding a Surly Big Dummy to my stable of commuter bikes and I hope to get a Surly trailer to make hauling lumber, bikes and other big items that much easier.  All in all, I hope to a have another great year of health, family, riding bikes and meeting new friends and hanging out with old friends all while keeping a thriving bike shop running on all cylinders.  I hope your 2011 has as much fun as you can stand plus a little more for good measure.

Happy New Year!

Warmth?

With temperatures forecast in the 50's this weekend, it is looking like great conditions for getting outside and on a bike.  The traditional New Year's Day rides are popping up all over the place and there will be a lot to choose from.

The Ya Ya Hula Cycling and Social Club will be having an 18 mile ride at hangover pace leaving from the Lake James Fire Dept. at 11 am on Saturday for anyone who is interested.  They are a great group to ride with and always have fun on their bikes.

The Boone crew is going to do a ride in our territory leaving from Setzer's Creek Church at noon.  Since they could use an escort of locals, I think we should leave from the shop at 11:30 and ride out to meet them and join their ride.  Meet at the shop around 11:15 and we'll leave promptly at 11:30.

Saturday will be the first day of the MS 365 Project.  I'm working on an introduction, a facebook page and a blog that will be specifically devoted to the project.  It will be a celebration of my 20th year with Multiple Sclerosis and I hope you'll join me for 365 days of riding.

I've been thinking about my MS more in the past few days than I have in the past few years.  It is a little sobering to contemplate what my life might be like or what the future holds for me, but that is really true for anyone.  None of us knows what the future holds, but only a few of us aspire to live our lives to the fullest.  I want to crack open the bones of life and suck out the marrow!  As we move into this New Year, we all contemplate the new beginning it affords us (no matter how metaphorical that new beginning may be).  Let your resolutions be important and take hold of the opportunity to turn them into something real.

from Surviving the World - check it out, it's great!

A dusting...

Early on in the week, meteorologists crowed about the coming white Christmas.  As the week progressed the snow fall predictions began to ebb from 5-8 inches to 1-3 inches to not much if anything. Bold words to throw out the possibility of a white Christmas and then back it off as the big day arrives.  So we're up fairly, but not ridiculously early thanks to Owen's discovery that Santa did indeed stop by and leave a few things.  As we enjoy Legos and Playmobile adventures, a gentle snow begins to fall.  After a while it gets a bit more serious and then begins a long phase of earnest snowing that lasts the day and into the night.  We got our 5-8 inches all right.

Now the wind is blowing like the jet stream ripping at the peak of Mt. Everest with gusts of what sounds like 400+ mph.  Thankfully, all of this weather comes during the holiday break, so no makeup days on the backend of this winter wonderland!

The mechanic's class begins tomorrow evening and there are still spots left if anyone is interested or has been waiting until the last minute.  I'm excited about the class and it has been obvious how eager everyone is to get their hands dirty and learn about the down and dirty of their bikes.  I've been reading a fantastic book, Shop Class as Soulcraft - an inquiry into the value of work by Matthew B. Crawford that has really inspired me to integrate more hands-on instruction and DIY ethic into the shop.  Essentially a criticism of modern industry and education, the book puts forth the concept that we are becoming increasingly abstracted from our mechanical possessions.  One example is of the new BMW that doesn't have an oil dipstick, so the owner can't even check the oil let alone change it themselves.

By getting your hands dirty, you are able to gather knowledge of the machine that you rely on,  You learn its idiosyncrasies, its needs and develop a deeper understanding of the thing in the process.  Crawford also points to our lack of respect for tradesmen (not to be confused with craftsmen, the artisan or artist) and trade work and how our education system pushes everyone to go to college and be a knowledge worker (which in reality is just the modern assembly line).  Crawford echoes my own disillusionment with the present day education system, especially when he discusses the dual roles that had to be played by Soviet Union middle managers who had to support the party line and deal with the reality of Soviet communism as it applied to their daily functions in the workplace.  I see this in administrators who have to support the current regime of standardized testing and data collection while seeing the reality of this approach and its breakdown in the real world.

All I really know is that no job has ever brought me more happiness than bike shop work.

Impressive

As mentioned the other day, Jeremiah Dyer has been stranded in Belgium at Euro 'Cross Camp without a bike or clothes.  He's missed a few races that he could have participated in because he couldn't get his bike or a loaner from anyone.  Up steps Jonathan Page.  Love him, hate him that's on you, but the most successful American cyclocross pro in history sent his personal mechanic to Belgium to deliver one of his spare bikes to Jeremiah so that he could race.  THAT is class.

Thanks, Jonathan, for helping an up and coming kid out in a huge way.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

I'd like to add a new Zen koan to the vast collection that are already out there: What does a lunar eclipse look like in a cloudy sky?  Yes, for the first time since 1632, a lunar eclipse happened on the winter solstice and was visible from North America, but guess what?  The cloud cover here was waaaaaaay to thick to see anything but the orange glow of reflected sodium vapor lighting.

So if eclipses throughout history were seen as omens or portents of bad things to happen in the future, what happened if your tribe or village was so clouded over that nobody in your area saw it?  Did you get to shrug your shoulders, say, "Couldn't see it." and blow the whole thing off?

"So, Ichabod, I heard Hespeth saying that the moon turned to blood over your village and now you know your crops are going to rot in the fields."

"Yes, Jebediah.  Aren't you afraid for what will happen to your village?"

"Hmmmmm.  Yeah.  Um, it was pretty cloudy last night and we didn't really see anything, so..... I think we're good."

I'm not really disappointed despite getting up pretty early to shuffle out into the cold night and see not much of nothing.  Sure this was the first one in 532 years.  I guess I'll just have to exercise patience and wait for the next one...

I have failed to mention a very cool development that most of you may have already heard about, but it bears mentioning with some depth here.  Jeremiah Dyer, Sonni Dyer's son, was chosen to participate in Geoff Proctor's Euro 'Cross Camp and is currently in Belgium to do a slew of the pre- and post-Christmas cyclocross races with an international field of hot shot juniors.  Jeremiah is the first rider from the Southeast to go to the Euro 'Cross Camp and it shows how the sport is growing in our area.

Unfortunately, Jeremiah has been caught up in the European airport closures and has become separated from his clothing and his bikes which now circle in some airport purgatory with a scheduled release date of God know's when.  Be thinking of Jeremiah and his slowly building ball of disappointment and anger.  Think, too, of those poor juniors he will unleash this on when he does toe the line this week and tries to make up for lost time.  Good luck Jeremiah!  We're rooting for you!

Besides our own Fiets Maan Racing team trying to lend some help to Jeremiah in covering his expenses for the trip, the class act guys at MSGCross leant a hand, too.  If you ever get the chance to go check out their races, you won't be disappointed.

Hidden gems

We headed back from my sister's house yesterday morning after a leisurely wake up routine.  The get up and hang out morning routine is a sure sign that we are hitting a vacation period.  Although we have a snow make-up day today, it sure doesn't feel like we should be doing anything but starting our Christmas break.

Driving back from Sanford is no easy task.  The road is long, the landscape is dull and the radio station selection is bleak.  We rolled in to Asheboro and decided to look for some lunch.  Prominently located at the top of the highway exit was a sign pointing us to downtown.  We followed the directions and came into downtown Asheboro and were greeted by a tremendous collection of restaurants, art galleries and shops.  Being Sunday in the South, I was dubious about any of the local businesses being open, but there were several restaurants open and bustling.  We gravitated toward The Flying Pig, a nice little sports bar/bistro combination that serves great pizza and sandwiches.  I ordered a Buffalo Chicken sandwich with their handmade chips.  A heaping mound of chips with a tremendous sandwich the size of my face was brought to the table in short order.  Owen dug in to a grilled cheese with fries (mainly he dug into the fries), while Golden had a salad.

For Owen and I, the noble potato ( or pomme de terre) signifies the true mark of the chef's abilities in the kitchen.  While his gustatory passion lies with the fry, my heart yearns for the perfect handmade chip.  The true bistro chip is a tricky thing.  Too thick and it doesn't cook right and is essentially a french fry gone wrong.  Too thin and it cooks too quickly becoming a dark brown, fryolator flavored drink coaster.  But the chips at the Flying Pig were at the very apex of the fried potato arts.  They occupy the rare air that is the zenith of the handmade chip universe, right up there with the previously unequaled Sledgehammer Charlie's.

To a greater extent though, our sojourn into downtown Asheboro was a glimpse at what a downtown should be.  A thriving, bustling ecosystem of locally owned businesses, each imbuing the town with a dash of character that makes it unique and different.  A place where the locals can go and see each other by happenstance and where visitors can feel that they have "discovered" a unique place to visit.  More and more I hear people from Lenoir saying that they haven't been downtown in years.  If you haven't been downtown, then our town is nothing more than a generic collection of fast food restaurants, chain stores (especially dollar stores) and a sprinkling of locally-owned businesses that survive amidst the generic bustle.  When I visit these little thriving downtowns in other places, I see what Lenoir could be, what I and many like me want it to be, but we must make the conscious effort to support and grow the fragile downtown area.  Our locally-owned businesses, especially the new and risky ones, are fragile and need support to make it through these dark economic times.

Wherever you may happen to live, make the conscious effort to support your local businesses and especially your downtown.  The hearts of our cities and towns are what make us unique and makes our homes much more liveable.  Vote with your dollars to support your local economy!

The Road

We drove down to my sister's house for a holiday get together yesterday.  For those unfamiliar with NC highway routes, there is literally no good way to drive to my sister's house in Sanford from our house in Lenoir.  The route looks like a giant zig-zag across the whole state from the Blue Ridge foothills to the Sandhills towards the coast.  Suffice to say, a 3 1/2 hour snaky wandering through scrub oak, long-leaf pines and rolling bumps of sand make for a long, slow slog of a trip.

I shut down the shop and jumped into the car with my dad and headed down the road towards the Sandhills, my ancestral home.  We passed through areas of snow on the ground, but luckily were not in any active winter weather.  The trip was uneventful, but my creeping dislike of long car rides was in full bloom with about a half hour to go in the trip.

We got a ride in yesterday morning despite the chilly temperatures.  Dubbed flauhute Saturday, 7 of us headed out, bundled up and eager to generate some body heat.  The ride was a welcome break from my overly bundled, weekday hard man commutes as I was able to get away with wearing half the layers.  It was a nice change to do a ride with more substance than my 20 minute commuter blasts, even if I had to turn off early to open the shop up.

Sister Futs Cafe hooked me up with some post ride food (cold fried chicken, baked beans, green beans and coffee) while a healthy dose of Flight of the Conchords on iTunes made for a nice transition into the retail day.  A little bike building, a little chatting with friends and some regular, old bidness made for a nice, relaxed Saturday.

Today is my eleventh anniversary with Golden.  Between the long shadow of the holidays and a make-up school day tomorrow, our anniversary is wedged into a tight, stressful spot this year.  We might hit up some Korean or Vietnamese restaurant outside of Fayetteville before we head back since we don't have access to any Asian restaurants of the caliber that you find in my hometown.  Heck, we may even hit up some pawn shops, scope out used cars and play "name that military weapon" to round out our Sandhills adventure.

What does a bad decision look like?

There are few times in my life when I recognize that I am doing something stupid.  Now don't take that to mean that there are few times that I do stupid things.  I do stupid stuff all of the time - I just don't normally realize it's stupid until AFTER I've done it.  Swallowing nails, locking myself in the closet, setting the house on fire, etc. were all good ideas that turned out to be stupid when the consequences hit.

In education parlance I'm a Kinesthetic learner, I learn by doing.  So it was a big surprise to me yesterday when the thought "Hey, this might not be such a good idea" came percolating up through my brain about 2 minutes into my commute.  I had the Xtracycle  loaded up with my school stuff and a bunch of stuff that needed to be shipped for the holidays.  My 10 minute dressing for riding ritual had increased a slight amount with the addition of a third pair of gloves (my Bar Mitts are on back order, dammit) to prevent my hands from freezing.

At the two minute mark of the ride, my fingers were alarmingly cold.  I could them getting colder like some time-lapse movie that shows frost forming on a window.  By the time I made it to Smith's Crossroads (about 5 minutes from my house), the deep ache of seriously cold extremities was very present and I was beginning to question my decision to commute on such a cold day.

But then I thought about all of those super cold Belgian cyclocross races where you see the racers on the line and they are trying to keep warm before the start.  A lot of riders do an aggressive self hug kind of maneuver that looks like they are trying to hit themselves on the back.  I gave this a shot and lo and behold it worked a treat.  By pounding warm blood back into my fingers, the hands warmed up nicely and were fine for the rest of the ride.  A quick refresher self-hug/hit maneuver at the next stop light was an added bonus.  The hands stayed warmer than they would have, plus I looked even crazier than normal (an added bonus!).  So if you see some guy on a bike, stopped at a stop sign and vigorously hugging himself over and over again, he's not crazy - he's just trying to keep from freezing to death.

Ok, he's a little crazy.

Beware of waxy skin...

It's cold out there kids.  And windy.  Serious cold and driving wind the likes of which have driven many a frontiersman to pick up an ax and begin whittling away at the family with a glassy-eyed zeal that just screams "C-R-A-Z-Y".

It takes about 10 minutes for me to put on all of the extra stuff that is keeping me alive on these brisk morning commutes.  From the normal clothing base (pants, long underwear, wool socks, undershirt, shirt, sweater) a fleece lined balaclava goes on, followed by a fleece jacket, alpaca scarf, windproof jacket, a toque, double gloves, helmet and glasses.  I feel like that kid in "A Christmas Story" who falls down and can't get up he's so bundled up.  And despite all of that clothing, it's still a cold ride.

This morning I'm waiting at Smith's Crossroads for the light to change, wondering why my thumbs are burning while my normally wussy pinkies and ring fingers seem to be just fine, when I feel two hands grasp my shoulders.  Now sudden embraces from strangers are not normal when waiting in traffic, even when exposed on a bicycle, so this was a bit unexpected.  As in "WTF?"  I turned and there was Sandman.  "I just wanted to say 'Hi'".  Awesome.  A nice change of pace from the slow freezing to death punctuated by furious pedaling that I am otherwise mindlessly pursuing every morning lately.

The light turned green, we took off and I hammered up the hill into a headwind.  A car passed me, honking that long, frustrated honk that I assume is meant to make me realize that I am riding a bike where cars belong.  I wave back - with all five fingers, thank you very much, trying to feign friendliness while repeating my favorite line of Jayne's from Serenity - "You are starting to damage my calm..."

I wheel into the school, safe and sound.  The disbelieving looks of my colleagues are largely unnoticed now as I strip off layers and try to make my hands work well enough to sign in.  The best thing is the flush of heat that you feel once you are inside.  Open up the thermos of hot tea, and BOOM! you're good as new and ready for the work day.  I don't know what I'd do without it.

Got aspirations of doing some winter bike commuting?  Figure it is time to go from mildy eccentric to downright weird?  Well, we've got some gear to help you out.  We just got some balaclavas to help extend your riding from merely chilly to bone-crunching cold.  And I'm taking it up a notch with the addition of some Bar Mitts because I'm fond of having all ten of my fingers.

Frozen perspective

Riding provides me with a rich conversation with myself.  Sub-freezing morning commutes provide a heightened sense of introspection and contemplation.  Thus, my commute this morning was a meditation on the philosophy of self inflicted pain in bike racing.

Now before you go thinking that I am a masochist or that this is about suffering, stop.  I'm talking about the pain of effort, the pain of driving yourself to the limit of your capability and then going a little beyond.  The quest for "a little bit faster" is never ending in bike racing.

I had some wonderfully insightful thoughts on this idea while I was bundled up and riding to work in the 18 degree morning, watching a beautiful sunrise sky of peach and fuchsia.  To me, the purest moments of my life, the things that make me feel quintessentially alive with the animalness of being are the flow state moments that come on the bike.  That moment when you are pure effort, when vision narrows to a tunnel and your self talk is coldly clinical in its analysis of the moment.  That strung together series of moments when nothing in the world matters but what you are doing right then, is the essence of bike racing.

This season of 'cross has been my brink season, my hover season. I hover just inside or just outside the top ten.  I ride in a no man's land of solo effort; passing some, being passed by others.  This past weekend in Statesville, I had a large group chasing me the whole race.  45 minutes of being pursued.  Somebody would pass me and I would pass them back and never see them again.  This went on for 4 laps.  After I get past the start of the race (where I use positive visualization to see myself riding through everyone to get a good start, finding the holes in the chaos), after I burn through the smoke and mirrors (let's face it, my only training right now is commuting, so I gotta rely on muscle memory and fakery as much as possible), I settle down to the hard task of digging deep and pushing every ounce of effort out of myself.  I have to admit - I love every moment of it.

How cold is too cold?

Every morning commute this week has been in sub-freezing temperatures. I bundle up in layer after layer, topped off with the bright yellow commuter rain jacket that I have, put on a thin skull cap under the helmet and then some gloves with fleece-lined gauntlets.  With this setup, I'm a little chilled at first but stay comfortable to almost too warm all the way to work.  The key is to not be warm at the start, if you start out warm you will overheat, guaranteed.

As I shot through the underpass, I hit a big patch of frozen silt (from the massive rainfall earlier in the week) which was crusted over with a frozen layer and still had a frozen tire rut from my previous morning commute.  Naturally, the crust broke through slightly about halfway down towards the underpass, my front tire migrated into the very narrow, frozen rut which caused my tire to grab a little bit at speed.  All of this plus my momentum (little real-world physics in action) had the net effect of pitching me towards the flowing stream to my right at an alarmingly quick rate.  Don't forget that the work supplies that are resting in the panniers behind me get in on the action and are pushing me towards the stream with a zeal that they had not previously demonstrated, preferring instead to really just hang out and create more drag and friction.

In a 'cross race, a sub-freezing dunking in flowing water would be a bad, but not wholly unexpected outcome.  For this to happen on a morning commute though, would be an egregious error of epic proportions.  As I yawed wildly toward the stream (which it must be noted lies below the bike path by a few feet due to a built up wall so the true experience would be a dropping through space, a dunking in the stream, and then a darkly comical struggle to climb up the wall and out of the stream while rapidly losing core body temperature and wondering how you were going to replace your ever important laptop and would you have to completely overhaul the bike or would you freeze to death before any of this could be a real concern) I let my brain take over, a somewhat dicey proposition, but there wasn't much choice.  Firing up the old reflexes and remaining relaxed despite the growing inevitably of a frozen bath under highway 321, proved to be a winning combination.  The bike arced gracefully away from the stream and towards the underpass.

I have not, as of this writing, added a wet suit to my layers of commuter clothing.  I do now have a healthy respect for the underpass and will be less cavalier upon my approach until the cleanup of the flood debris is completed.  I feel like I'll have a little bit of a leg up on the competition at this week's 'cross race since it will be cold and wet.  The daily commute is the truest expression of the flauhute ethos, since getting out and riding is the only option.

Remember always, the mantra to live by when you are forced to ride in foul weather, "There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad equipment."  With the right stuff, you can be outside in just about any weather (hurricanes and tornados represent difficult riding conditions that should be avoided unless you live somewhere very flat and a 110 mph headwind presents you with a good climbing interval opportunity).  Don't skimp on winter or wet weather riding gear.  The toes you save may be your own.

bikeability=liveability

Lyon, France has a large commuter bike program called Velo'v - a kind of take a bike, leave a bike program.  Each bike is equipped with a computer that gathers all sorts of data which is stored in a central computer.  From this data comes the first large look urban bike commuting habits of a city.  The findings are interesting, but the one that struck me most was that the average speed of commuters is consistently fastest on Wednesday.  It's like everyone attacks humpday with the zeal with which they attack on the hills in training rides.

I've been riding the new 321 underpass on the greenway as part of my commute and I have to say, well done Caldwell Count Pathways (full disclosure - I know sit on the board of the Pathways organization, but this effort was begun long before I joined).  It is well built and is as nice of a tunnel as I have seen on a greenway.  This big effort to build it has added significantly to the bikeability of our town.  And that idea of bikeability really ties in with my concept of what makes a place liveable.

For me, an area has to have access to cycling opportunities in order to be measurably liveable.  The more opportunity, the freer and more unfettered those opportunities are, the more liveable an area is.  Variety is important as well.  There needs to be scenic backroads with low traffic for road riding, trail networks for mountain biking and greenways for recreational riding and commuting.  Included with all of this has to be a bike shop (of course) which serves as an all in one hub for all of these different cycling specialities.

To me, Lenoir is getting quite high on the list of liveability when it comes to cycling opportunities, but there is still room to improve.  My wishlist:

1. Keep expanding the greenway.  A good goal would be to link all public schools with the greenway plus a corridor to CCC&TI.

2. Build a viable mountain bike trail network in town.  A trail network at the Aquatic Center would be a great way to add variety to the in town cycling opportunities and could serve as a great place to get people in to mountain biking.

3. Build a BMX track.  A BMX track would provide a great resource to help kids stay healthy and active.  Developing an active lifestyle at a young age has a huge impact on the rest of a kids life.  BMX is a great, low cost way to get kids into cycling as a sport.

These three things can be a reality if we, as a cycling community, want them and are willing to work for them.  It is great that we all ride our bikes and enjoy the company of fellow cyclists, but we must start acting like a community and take an active part in that community.  Find out how you can be involved, donate a little money to Pathways, participate in our local cycling events like Cycle to Serve and Bridge to Bridge.  Together, we can improve the liveability and visibility of Lenoir and Caldwell County.

Simmering

It's a weird thing to start putting irons in the fire this time of year, but there are a couple of ideas that we have been kicking around that fit in perfectly right now.

The basic level mechanics class is progressing nicely.  We are looking at 4 nights of 1 1/2 hours each night for a total of 6 hours of instruction.  The class will be starting the week after Christmas.  In addition to the 6 hours of hands-on and classroom instruction, you'll get a repair manual to help you remember everything, an exclusive t-shirt available to participants only and big discounts on tools and equipment for outfitting your home workshop. This will make a great Christmas present for yourself or the budding mechanic in your life.  Please email me if you are interested.

Other simmerings are the MS365 Project.  I was talking with the Sandman in the shop on Saturday and mentioned what I was wanting to do, and boom, out comes his wallet and he hands me a $20 bill and says "consider that your first donation".  Sweet!  I've got to get it together and get a donation site picked out and maybe build a website to explain what I'm trying to do...

As I finish writing this, it is dumping rain outside.  The rain has come down pretty steadily all day which leads me to think that the dry 'cross racing we have been having this season will be coming to an end with the race in Statesville this weekend.  The holiday break is always a mixed blessing when returning to race after such a long break.  You just don't know what is in your legs until the whistle blows, your heart revs and you start pedaling.  Sometimes you fly, sometimes you go backwards.  The key is to always have fun.

Thanks

Thanks to all of you who have given friendship, support, and loyalty over the years.  I am thankful to all of my friends, teammates, and workmates for making my life richer.  I am thankful for my family in all their kaleidoscopic idiosyncratic beauty for making me the person that I am.  I am thankful for the unquestionable love and support of my wife and the ball of love and energy that is my son.  I am thankful for my continued good health which seems more a lucky twist of fate than the sword of Damocles hanging over me.

Next year marks my 20th year of living with Multiple Sclerosis.  20 years.  It struck me just the other day the reality of that statement; the magnitude of it.  Just like my initial diagnosis 20 years ago inspired me to get out into the world and make something of myself, this 20th anniversary has inspired me to try and give something back.

I have ridden a bicycle every day this year with the exception of two.  No matter the weather or anything else, I have pedaled a bicycle at some point every day but those two.  For my 20th MS anniversary, I have something bigger in mind.

Starting January 1st, 2011, I will start something that I can only think of as the MS365 Project.  I want to take the gift of good health and mobility that I have been given despite having Multiple Sclerosis, and give something back to those who work to beat this disease.  I have set rules for this project and they are as follows:

1. I will pedal a bicycle outdoors, every day of 2011 for at least 1 mile.
2. I will track all of my mileage in 3 categories - Commuting, Training and Racing.
3. I will ride a minimum of 3,650 miles in all 3 categories combined.

I want to raise awareness of people living with and fighting MS in our community and I want to raise money for the local chapter of the MS Society.  I would like to set up a personal fundraising/donation site to help people with donating money in the name of this project. Besides people making straight donations, I would like to see donations along the lines of an amount per mile, or amount per day that I am able to ride.  And that is about as fleshed out as this idea is at the moment.  If you have any ideas, advice or want to help, by all means leave a comment or email me directly.  I'm all ears.

And with that, I am thankful that a handful of people actually read the things that I write.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Big Lunch

photo by turtlemom4bacon via Flickr

I love Thanksgiving. Without a doubt, it is my favorite holiday.  I always envision that movie style Thanksgiving with a house full of well-dressed friends and family mingling around the house while a feast is in the making in an expansive kitchen.  My reality is a little less polished, but no less enjoyable than that. I love doing the recipe research and trying to pull together this epic meal that lingers as leftovers for a week to come.  I obsess over Martha Stewart a little more than usual (I have a "thing" for Martha Stewart, don't ask, it is unexplainable...) trying to find recipes that not only look good, but will taste out of this world.

But what is with all of the Christmas stuff?  Christmas trees in the street, Santa sweating in his suit on a warm fall day, these things overshadow Thanksgiving and take away its simple idea of sharing a meal with family and friends and giving thanks for all that you have.

Have a great Thanksgiving, spend time with family and friends, get out and ride your bike and we'll see you Saturday for some coffee, homemade cinnamon rolls and a storewide sale as part of the 3/50 Project's Small Business Saturday.

Shameless Commercial Post

This is the big, crazy retail sales week that culminates with "Black Friday" (say that in your head with a really spooky voice - an echo/reverb effect works well, too).  Any way, Black Friday is a heady rush of crazy discounts that draws flocks of folks to the malls and big box stores to gather money for megacorporations.  Needless to say, this leaves the Lenoir Uptown Business District rather short on shoppers.  We have our own take on things.

Saturday has been dubbed Small Business Saturday and seeks to get people to shop at the many small, locally-owned businesses that are among the hardest hit in this economic down time.  We will be closed on Friday, but Saturday we are going to be open extended hours and will have a store full of products on holiday discount to help you get ready for a cycling-centric Christmahanukwanzaku!  We'll be open at 10 am with homemade cinnamon rolls (while they last) and coffee (until we jitter ourselves into collapse).

Make a day of it by checking out all of the great businesses downtown.  Rediscover the personal connection that comes with supporting a small local business and help keep our town's unique character and stem the tide of the chain store/restaurant tsunami that threatens to wash it all away.

photo by Hammer51012 via Flickr

Even though we'll be closed on Friday, we'll have a special Black F*Y! Friday deal on our online store! So hang out with family and friends, eat a lot of turkey, ride your bike and then come see us Saturday!