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I think I cracked. My buddy Mike who is coming back from some knee surgery in December took me out for some base miles. Out of 20 miles we rode there was atleast 1 hill every mile. I think I cracked 3/4 through. A good crack though, nothing a good shower and food won’t fix.

It was great to ride with someone that flows so well. Mike is a cyclist through and through. A good person to ride with too. Never commented we were going to slow, waited if I ever dropped off his wheel.

The good part of the ride? A caramel latte after. Waking up at 6:20 for the past few days is slowly wearing me out. But guess what? I don’t work today or tomorrow!! I have found two good riding partners in the past week – now to only keep riding and hopefully be in some sort of shape in 8 or so weeks.

Speaking of cracking – check out this non drive crank arm. Craziness.

Now for a shower & then entertainment from the Burns. I found a pair of Merrel hiking boots on sale last night. I hope to go back and purchase them today….

Sidenote : The Damselfly is doing well so far, still playing around with the position.

A little bunny rabbit over at Chainsaw Panda decided to bring up helmet laws. I take wearing a helmet pretty serious. After being in several accidents & my helmet saving me from being a vegetable – you got to take them serious. As much as it would be great to have a helmet law, I think it would be pointless. It wouldn’t make folks wear the helmet anymore than now. Education is were it is at. Education on riding and DRIVING safer. Being aware of what is going on around you. Being aware of what your limits are.

I get a bit wearier when friends ride without helmets. I yell at my boss when he wears his “pretend” helmet. No I’m not saying you should wear a mouthguard & eye protection. I would rather be toothless & blind than a vegetable on a machine, or my mom not being able to tell who I am in my wooden box because my brain was splattered on the side of the road.

Rode the roadie this morning. A tad bit nipply to start off with but ended up into a good ride. Been off the roadie for a few weeks due to travel and riding the single swizzle. Missed it more than I realized. I had forgotten how comfortable I am riding on the road vs the trail. Almost like I went home for a visit when I rode this morning. Looks like I found a riding partner. Two days in a row & tomorrow is another day.

Also been trying out a new saddle. Terry Damselfly. Once I get a couple more rides on it I’ll have a review or two. I also am ordering a set of new Sidi roadie shoes.

A reminder that the ROAM Premiere is tonight. Entry at 8pm, & film starts at dusk. BYO Beer & Food. $5 donation at the door.

Another rain out for riding. Woke up early and everything. The rain was DUMPING buckets. I’m going to bed early again, to wake up early – again. Here’s to hoping that the rain delays until about 11:30am.

Forecast? Doable.

The plan is to be at the friends house by 7am. On the bike by 7:15am. After that I have no clue. Gotta be at the shop around nooner.. other than that life is where it leads me.

Found this on one of my MySpace bulletins :

Just wanted to open a few eyes toward this oil issue:

-It takes the energy equivalent to 20 barrels of oil to construct the average car. This includes “hybrid” cars.

-The average PC will consume 10 times its weight in fossil fuels during construction.

-The average meal travels 1500 miles in the United States to get to your plate
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-Hydrogen fuel cells require platinum, silver and copper — all materials that must be mined, refined and manufactured in oil-powered plants. Platinum is in a permanent state of scarcity.

-To produce a ton of copper requires 112 million BTUs or the equivalent of 17.8 barrels of oil. The energy cost comparison of aluminum is twenty times higher.

-According to ExxonMobil, the amount of energy distributed by a single gas station in a single day is equivalent to the amount of energy that would be produced by four Manhattan sized city blocks of solar equipment. With 17,000 gas stations just in the US alone, you don’t need higher math to realize that solar power is incapable of meeting our urgent need for a new energy source that – like oil – is dense, affordable, and transportable.

-A single hydrogen fuel cell requires apporoximately 20-50 grams of platinum. Let’s say we want to replace a quarter of the world’s petro powered cars with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. 20-50 grams x 210,000,000 fuel cells = 4.2 billion – 10.5 billion grams of platinum. World platinum production is only about 240 million grams per year, most of which is already earmarked for thousands of indespensible industrial processes.

-In 2003, the US consumed 98 quadrillion BTU’s of energy. A whopping .171 quadrillion came from solar and wind combined. Do the math and you will see (.171/98), and you will see that a total of less than one-sixth of one percent of our energy appetite was satisfied with solar and wind combined. Thus, just to derive a paltry 2-3 percent of our current energy demands from solar and wind, we would need to double the percentage derived from solar/wind, then double it again, then double it again, and then double it again.

-It would cost $350,000,000,000,000 to replace half of our current automotive fleet (700 million cars worldwide) with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. That ignores trucks, boats and planes.

-It takes 11 acres to grow enough corn to fuel one autombile with ethanol for 10,000 miles, or about a year or driving, the same amount of land to feed seven people for the same amount of time. To power all our cars with ethanol, we would need to cover 97% of our land with corn.

So you see, oil affects far more than your trip to work. It is what powers our entire industrial complex right down to the two-legged SUVs we call humans. I am just glad the President is at least speaking publicly about it, be it pandering or not.

My shop is hosting the Roam premiere for Bike PASA. I’ve gotten to get a sneak peak of the movie & it is well worth the $5 fee. It made me all giddy and want to buy a big bike. Also freaked the crap out of me but whatever. There is good music & we get to play with all our new theater equipment.

After there is even a raffle for a Trek Bruiser! So come on out to your favorite bike shop & get your freeride on. Even Team Dicky is coming out.

Info :
Black Sheep Cycles
8pm – Movie will start at dusk
$5 gets you in the door.

Rained out again today.

Roadie ride tomorrow – more details when I wake up. Or rather after the ride tomorrow before work.

Out of it – need sleep.

Tried to go on a group ride today. I mean a real organized/planned group ride. I was ready – chamios was on, mtn shoes were on, helmet & gloves ready to rock. Then it dumped rain. Buckets fell in the matter of seconds. In the hopes it would pass we sat in the parking lot. It didn’t pass. Instead we were cold & wet with no riding to justify how we were feeling. We did what any sensible people would. Went for dinner.

I atleast got on my bike today, rode between work and home. That was probably 1.4 miles right?

Tomorrow is the opener of the local Summer Series. The race is at Catawba which I haven’t ridden but hear it’s a bugger. Who wants to pay my $13 entry fee for me to come in last? It will be good times. I’ll be there to volunteer & maybe grow the balls to race. If I end up racing – don’t plan on hearing from me till Thursday night. Got plans backing up by the truckload. If you have MSN go check out my calendar – seriously it is freaking me out.

In other news – Gwadz got his new Karate Monkey. “Squirrel Crap Brown.” Sov we need to talk about these colors ya’ll chose.