The Return Home

VIP experience

Angry Catfish....shop was unreal

Cool local frame builder

Cars R Coffins

Salsa Mariachi Fat tire build, new bars

Mr. Eric Sovern and Mr. Tobie Depauw

The titans: Marty Larson, Guitar Ted, Ari Andonopolous

New Brooks Colors

Talked to the nice guys from Chris King

Pizza Luce....Great to see Joel Wandrey

Eric passed out under the bed

Frostbike was made up of: an overload of bike information, a "man's vacation", late nights, whiskey, scratch and dent deals, checking out local bike shops, Cutters ball at Peacock Groove that was really fun and had a great DJ, and overall a great weekend besides getting snowed in up in MN, car troubles upon returning home, and a very slick drive home. Thanks to all the Salsa, Surly, QBP, and NCC crew for the great experience!

Frostbike 2011

One on One....keg beer?



Walkin in to QBP



Look forward to the scratch and dent, and seeing my buddy Joel



The men drinking whiskey with the Surly guys...RIP hellmut

Frostbike is a great time. Quality Bicycle Products puts on this show to display the new products for 2011, lots of informative seminars going on, lots of food samples that usually last me until june or july before I have to buy more, lots of bike stuff...information overload, scratch and dent sale where I have gotten 2 of my frames and 1 bike in the past, pizza luce!, whiskey, hot tubs...this is a highlight to the early season. It is going to take me off of the bike for a couple days, which is probably good since last wednesday till today I have ridden 260 miles. I look forward to spending some quality time with my good friends from NCC and having a great weekend!

- JB

Odds

When did Valentine's Day turn into Christmas? Apparently a lot of love in this house



Been watching the Tour of Flanders....I love images like this, flemish flags everywhere, people screaming at the riders, the biggest sporting event of Belgium....so awesome.

Is your meat loafing? Don't let it....

- JB

Week in Review

Despite windchills -15 below zero for the beginning of the week, lots of snow and ice...I was still able to get in some solid riding this past week. Mostly Thurs-Sun...you've already seen some of my riding troubles from earlier in the week. Thursday was able to hit 30 miles for the day heading down Curran road to get home through the country. Friday pushed on to get 40 miles with some riding after work. Saturday commuted again and met up with Steven "Gravemaker" Graves for some miles after work. Steve and I have known each other for a while now but this was the first time we had ever ridden together. Had a strong wind out of the south, did the 20 mile wednesday night ride and then hooked up to auburn and hit the brick/cobble road that led us to curran and on into springfield. Talked about what I usually end up talking about with my buddies while riding, the 3 B's....booze, babes, and bikes. It was great to have some company on the ride and we enjoyed warmer temps with a beautiful sunset to look at. About 5 miles from home I had a flat and my hands did not warm up after that. The CO2 did not work so well and I limped home with about 15 psi in my rear tire. Will be investing in a hand pump soon. Regardless, got 50 miles on Saturday. Sunday met up with the racers and brought out the BMC since I felt I had been neglecting it lately. Almost all of my miles have been on my SS29'er....so, met at Gary's house, had a very strong group of riders. Headed south to auburn and then virden, back through Loami and home. Did a metric for the day and the legs felt great and I was surprisingly able to hang with the racers...guess all the early training has been paying off. Ended up with 250 miles for the week, 20 hours, feel very good about that. I will be riding this week until I meet up with the North Central Crew to head up to frostbike, Hope to have close to 1000 miles for the year before we leave for Minnesota. Get out and ride ya'll!

- JB

Weekend Viewing

Just some entertainment for the weekend, warm weather approaches, time to hammer some miles like Fabian before Frostbike comes. Thanks to Steven "Gravemaker" Graves for letting me borrow these!

Also....that rat bastard will be flying to Germany in April and then driving to see BOTH of these races, luckiest man alive...

Who's got Soul?

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

T.R.

Payday is on tuesday...I think I deserve a treat...


- JB

wool

Just about the coolest jersey ever....congrats to Ari on buying this, to bad I don't wear a 2 or 3X.

Commutant

Monday I braved temperatures in the teens to commute to work. Not knowing how the trail conditions were after the blizzard I ventured out anyway. The trail was good for the first 6 miles, a layer of ice was covered by a thin layer of snow so the trail was still very slick and I couldn't ride too fast. I got about 6 miles from work and the plowed trail just stopped. There were sled-neck trails on the 12" of snow so I was able to ride for about 2-3 more miles on those. Soon the snowmobile trails faded and I was reduced to walking....3-4 total miles of walking. I was a little frustrated when I showed up to work just as I was to open the shop up, showered, looked in my bag and forgot my pants at home so I had to wear some baggy cycling shorts from the shop. Called the village of chatham and asked if they were going to plow the trail....no response. My boss Matt called them again later in the day and they said they had a broken plow but were planning on plowing the trail with a tractor. I took the long way home down curran road through the country with 15-20 mph head/cross-winds. This was a good 2 hour ride that gave me a feeling of isolation I am no doubt to be expecting come trans iowa...so it was a blessing to have done this ride. Many cars slowed and I'm sure were wondering what the hell a cyclist was doing out at night in such bad weather...the answer was simple...getting home...ended the day with 3.5 hours of commuting time and 35 miles. Woke up today to -15 degree wind chills, braved the weather and got on the bike. Glasses iced over immediately and eventually I just took them off. I was going to take the trail most of the way and then ride the road to work....to my surprise I found that they plowed the trail this morning, how nice! Well this was a blessing and a curse because it was plowed but it was sheer ice. I wiped out on the ice pretty hard and hit my wrist pretty bad, traction was horrible and tried to ride in the snow as much as possible. I left early to allow for bad trail conditions and I am glad I did, I imagine I was crawling at 5-7 mph on the ice. I saw the plow and tractor that had previously plowed the trail, I waved at them and thanked them and hoped that they felt a sense of pride that someone was actually using the trail that they had worked so hard to plow. About 3 miles from work, I losts feeling in my fingers. My toes and the rest of my body were warm, I had chemical warmers on the toes but not on my hands (dumb decision...or lack there of), tried moving the fingers as much as possible and as soon as the ice cleared i sprinted as hard as i could to the shop. Could barely open the door and my hands hurt so bad....immediately ran them under hot water and my hands were in pain! I imagine this is the closest I have come to frostbite before. Glad I got to ride in this morning but if it doesn't warm up I might need to look for a ride home considering I will be riding with a cross-wind or head-wind the whole way home. Hopefully the thaw comes soon and this nasty weather breaks. Happy Tuesday....don't let your meat loaf!

- JB

Random

The original ...some other great pics on here

Coppi once said of Bobet. “He knows like nobody else how to suffer and his powers of recovery are unmatched. The bike means everything to him. It is truly his life blood and his application to his chosen way of life is an example to every aspiring champion.”



The ever amazing artwork by Jeff Williams....(now a Team Wheel Fast rider)



I really think this is not this persons last name....however, beerme 6: screams a DUI, very innappropriate for a blue chrysler minivan, sums up the local yokel

Kits

Vive Pantani

Interesting Rapha Blog post on cycling clothing, and some of the horror shows from the past. Thanks to senior Dale (keepin it simple with the blog) for bringing this to my attention.

- JB

Rollers

You could say I took advantage of the Rapha sale...I bought a lot



Snowy/icy roads have reduced me to the rollers...I need a pugsley

This is the amount of rubber that came off my rear wheel in a 45 minute roller session

Been riding the rollers every night since the storm of the century hit the midwest. I will be purchasing a pugsley next year so I can ride year round. My 29'er works well in the snow...but not 1.5 ft of snow. Hopefully the city will plow the bike trail so I can resume my commutes, if not I will be doing lots of roller sessions and finding loops through the city where I can just mindlessly tack on some february miles. Stay warm out there.

- JB

January

Results for January: 560 total miles (original goal: 500 miles)

Goal for February: 800 miles, we shall see how much of this happens considering snowmaggedon is on the way, it is a short month, and frostbike will be eating up a weekend. Stay safe ya'll.

- JB