Friday 50

There are several interesting things going on here. We had a nice "mixed" surface ride on friday morning with my boss Bobo and my friend Todd who is a physical therapist and helped me out with my back problems. Everytime that I ride with Todd he always likes to hit as many spots as possible and on as many surfaces as possible. Usually we ride cross bikes and he is on his old "Blue Steel" roadie/cross bike he dug out of the garbage and salvaged....and now loves and rides as much as his two Moots. So, it was a great ride on Friday. I was on the new Gunnar, Bobo was on the new Seven Expat gravel grinder pictured above, and Todd was on old Blue Steel. We found that some of the trails were icy and we were unable to ride and had to walk our bikes. Either way I got to hang with some rad dudes, ride an awesome bike, see some new terrain....and get 40 miles before my 9 hour work day even started. Pictured above is some awesome ski jump just south of crystal lake in fox river grove....I couldn't imagine jumping off one of those things. Great ride...good people...and I love riding with Bob because he is sooo relaxed on the bike, so I need to help him ride more often and relieve the stress of the bike shop. 

 

Yes....people working/owning a bike shop IS stressful...but unless you are in the industry you will never understand. We love bikes....we are passionate about bikes....but sometimes we lose track of how important this "core value" is to us. We ride and laugh and explore....and that is what keeps us going. We need that adrenaline rush of hitting a 40+ mph downhill, or completing a 100+ mile ride, or riding some awesome single track to bring us back down to the reality that this is what we love and this is why we are doing what we do...and why we are good at it. 

Apparently my blog posts turn into mini rants from time to time....

 

This has nothing to do with alcohol

 

- JB