mardi...

old school litter...

made it...

reward...

money shot...

Friday not quite, all good now...

a twisty bit...

way prettier than this picture...

Later,

TK

nice try...

The wind attempted a payback today for the beat down I gave it on Friday:) NNW, steady in the teens with gusts @ 20+. I foiled its plans with a straight West, then South, then straight east route. Problem with this plan was I found myself in Panama with one option, 20+ miles of cross head & head wind to get home. Whatever...I put my head down & rode right back in to it. Your going to have to do better than that, I win again.

Yesterday's rain left the gravel a bit soft so I decided to give it a day off & test ride my new Fisher Cronus. Now I built this up from a frame set so if you go to the link I gave, mine is not nearly as pimped out. I recycled a bit from here & there and ended up with a very sweet ride. I'm not a bike reviewer & I won't pretend to be, I'll keep it simple...it rides & feels great. Looks awesome with its massive carbon tubes, the downtube is like a baseball bat. Crazy light.

we rode to the beach but it was closed...

we rode some gravel...

we acted the fool...

we tried to be creative...

we hopped on the Jamaica back to Lincoln...

The Jamaica was full of folks heading South on bikes. Warm, beautiful day brought a lot of rides out of the garage for some adventure. Smiles on their faces, saddles too low, chains squeaking loudly, wind at their backs...I'll bet their's a lot of tired weekend warriors right about now after they decided to finally head back to Lincoln into that wind, I'm sure a bunch are still battling their way back in as we speak.

70's this week & more battles with the wind are planned, bring it on!

Later,

TK

not quite...

Punched a hole to Cortland last night, the wind threw everything it had at me...I win.

SW 2nd & I can't remember right now, not quite...

Pouring rain as I write this, have to work today anyway...

Later,

TK

sizzed...

weather has been really decent this week, 50's tempered with a strong NE to keep you honest...

Tuesday grinder to the silo, took more pictures but forgot to adjust the picture quality away from high-res so I'm not messing with downloading them or editing, have to settle with this one, the fabled silo entrance...

lower-res Wednesday, MMR is about 95% dry, we even checked B Rd just out side Valpo...

late in the day, still working towards Valpo...
dirt, tail wind, weeknight Valpo run, all smiles...
Valpo is pretty quiet late in the day, hell we thought Tvrdy's was closed, it wasn't. As usual the locals were curious. "you rode up from Lincoln? on gravel?"...
work in progress, no money shot here..
or here...
Later,

TK

next...

Snapped a hundee on Thursday so Friday's snow & ice blast didn't affect me that much. Some of the crew ventured out Saturday morning on the ice but I passed, too much to lose & very little to gain. Hard men though, right on.

I had a shop day instead. The Arc Pro is getting passed along making room for my new Cronus. The Arc Pro served me well, the aluminum frame with carbon rear & carbon fork performed really well, no complaints at all. Snappy may be an overused term, but it was well...snappy. I experimented with this crazy high Euro position w/ the levers & I have to report it didn't go well. I ride on the hoods a lot so that was comfortable but when you're in the drops it was hard to shift & brake w/o reaching. Oh well, it was an experiment...looked sweet though.

New ride & new garage furnace. Wife got me this propane blast furnace for our anniversary earlier this month & this was its maiden voyage except for a test run when I got it. When I got out to the garage it was 33 degrees, fired this up (on a pretty low setting) & w/in 30-45 minutes I was in the 50's & eventually the 70's until I shut it down because I was way too hot. Thanks honey!

Pile-o-bike...

done...

Shop day was yesterday, today we ride! Rolled out of D St. with temps in the upper teens, chilly. W. A St. assault was the plan, hadn't done that route in a while, took Van Dorn on Wednesday. W. A is way more hilly than Van D. & we were throwin' down pretty hard. Found ourselves in Milford, second time in a matter of days for me after a long drought.
An eclectic bunch today...Ryan, Dane, DK, Kid-dew, C-bread, FOB, & Brian D.
We visited the Milford Mini-Mart & I had some business to take care of. Powerball apparently wasn't hauling in enough cash for the lottery syndicate so they've added MEGA MILLIONS! To show there creativity, instead of the "powerball" they call it the "MEGA BALL"! It's just another powerball except the drawings are on Tuesday & Friday, so there's "powerball" four days a week now, oh boy or whatever...
South out of Milford to Yankee Hill to hook up with a strange twisty bit of gravel that passes a curious group of "homes" along the Big Blue River. If you've ever seen the dwellings on the east side of the Platte pedestrian bridge you would be in the right ballpark with your imagery. I've been down here a couple times before & I'm always left wondering about the inhabitants. BTW-it's called Council Oaks Rd. between Denton & Yankee Hill between SW224th & SW196th. We skirted Denton heading back North into the headwind re-crossing our path @ SW 112th & W. A with Malcolm as our next stop. Haven't had a RBC for a while so we got reacquainted...

Brian & Kid-dew...

C-bread...

me...

Another great day on the bike. Damn, riding bikes is fun.

Say farewell to high-res pictures, takes to long to upload.

50's all week:)

Later,

TK

march madness, day 2...

Yesterday escaped work early for an adventure, plan was to head somewhere I hadn't been before. With a strong SSW my direction was sort of determined for me. As I cleared town I remembered the water bottle I had jettisoned in my first crash on SW 40th on the snowy day that I later crashed & hurt my wrist which was like 5 weeks ago & it's still a bit sore. I scanned the roadway & ditches as I passed the crash site, yep there it is! Kind of amazing I found it, no lid though. I didn't grab it, I'll get it when I'm coming in from a ride some day.

The wind...oh the wind. I decided Wilber would be my first stop, that was a seriously tough 36 miles. White rock, dried ruts, deep gravel, & the wind made it a super-grind. This barren section of MMR @ SW 114th & Olive Creek looked inviting...why not?
Looking back on the just traveled section, not bad. That low portion was soft & I had to ride the edge...
As I remounted I looked down, no freakin' way! So I'm on my first section of dirt in 2010 & I spy a fiver, suh-weet! I spent a couple minutes scanning the surrounding area for more of the same, nothing. Anyway...I parlayed the five into some powerball & pick-5's in Wilber.
Ok, new territory. Headed South out of Wilber working my way down to Dewitt. Now, officially, I have no plan. I stopped & paid homage to this jumbo cottonwood, rolled through what's left of Dewitt & headed SSE along a road skirting the tracks which I assumed would end up in Beatrice. This area is flat as flat can be, I might of enjoyed the flats a little more but that damn wind was pounding me from the right side. This diagonal was fittingly called Railroad St. or Rd. & eventually merged into North Blue Ridge Rd. Yep, new territory.
50 miles in I arrived at what I decided would be "the turn", SW 103rd & Hickory. By the turn I mean, now I will have the wind at my back as I head East. The push felt good but I soon encountered some of the deepest white rock thus far compounded with heavy truck traffic from a refinery (I think). I wanted to get over to the gas station on Hickory & HWY 77 on the North end of Beatrice but after getting buzzed by multiple semi's kicking up dust & rock I bailed at SW 45th to begin my race North. SW 45th jogged & became SW 42nd, all of sudden this started to look familiar. C-bread, Coach & I had traveled this road going the other direction a few winter's ago. Actually that was the ride that C-bread told me about DK & I decided that a ride of that distance was ridiculous:) Below: SW 42nd MMR, another gentle giant...
It wasn't until HWY 41 that the roads went from a technical challenge to something I could really open up the legs up on with the help of the tailwind. I was in Cortland before I knew it. This is the first picture I've had the chance to take while moving, until yesterday I have always had a coat or vest on & I can't get at my camera on the fly...

To wrap things up...hit S. 25th, in great shape by the way, caught the Jamaica along the way, also in great shape, & cruised back into the capitol city. I had the hammer down & I didn't even acknowledge the spot where I trashed my wrist on that snowy day.

It was the classic " a few miles short" ride & had to "get creative" once I hit town which involved a buzz through the Haymarket. Rolled into my drive with the odometer showing 100.0 miles. Looking back...I earned that one, that first 50 was a bitch.

So yesterday 60 something degrees, a hint of sunburn on my left arm. Right now as I look out the window, heavy snow. See some of you tomorrow...

Later,

TK

2 days...

...of "Spring". 50's yesterday & 60's today then it goes to shit again...

this fellow celebrated St. Patrick's with a face full of mud, cheers...

we were saying it had been a while since we had been to Milford...

money shot...

Later,

TK

S.I.N...

PCL, L-?-L. The question mark between the two L's (earlier in the week) was to be filled in with Valpo & Ceresco as the gravel bound way (weigh?) stations for this gathering of like minded individuals on bikes. The PCL is adaptable & due to the generally crappy conditions of our local gravel the route was transfered to the road & became Lincoln-Seward-Wahoo-Lincoln. We're guessing 30ish or so gathered downtown Saturday for a 7:30am departure from The Coffee House. This was my first visit to this coffee outlet & I left there with a general understanding & new found affinity for chicory, I'll save that for another time. I've got some experimenting to do.

Looking out just prior to departure. FOB, Marc, CVO, & JB...

Saturday was a long, difficult, & generally pleasant journey. The first leg to Seward I found myself & Marc burying ourselves (actually myself) to rejoin with a few that had gotten away on HWY 34. Marc would take these really long pulls while I would come around him just long enough to give him about a minute breather which he really didn't need, I hope it helped to some degree:) I hadn't ridden that hard in a long time, that stretch from the airport until we made contact a few miles east of Seward was my first serious gut check of the year. It was sweet, I wanted cry or puke, unsure. One of those "I could just quit & the pain will be over" moments that you tell yourself "just hang on it'll be over soon" & when it is over it feels that much better because you didn't pull the plug.

Why do I always go to this store in Seward? This bathroom is in my top two worst restrooms category. The other one is the Cubby's on the West end of Columbus, I quit going there all together a few years ago. I can't mention any names for this Seward store because I'm not even sure what its called, but I'm not going back. It always looks this bad...

I needed something strong to erase the bathroom imagery clouding my brain...

The ugly leg, the S.I.N. leg (Safety-In-Numbers). If the 20 mph cross wind to Seward didn't beat you down, the next 20 mile leg to the 92 corner into a 20+ mph headwind sure would. With my water bottles filled with Jim Beam I bid farewell to the store I won't be back to & joined forces with JB, Aaron G., DK, & Brian D. for the upcoming headwind leg. It sucked, but we made it. Somewhere along the way we picked up this outcast...Rafal. Don't know this dude real well but he makes me smile, great energy.

Long live the PCL!

I struck out on my own for awhile after we made the 92 turn, stopped in Weston & talked Saunders County High School hoops with one of the locals. We tried to get the Lady Huskers game on the tv but he didn't have FSN on their satellite. The shoulders were moist all day & a lot of grit ended up on the bike & my person...

We regrouped at Weston & Brian flatted shortly thereafter. JB & Rafal either were discussing bikes or beer. Just a few miles to go & we would be in Wahoo with Mexican food as a reward!

The payoff...

Rafal & I were so stoked to be sitting down & eating that we joined together & started belting out Jay-Z's 99 Problems. "Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo'? Well you was doin' fifty-five in a fifty fo'. Rafal is a big Jay-Z fan, I was just wasted from drinking a fifth of beam...good times.

C-bread, EB, & Scott B showed up...

Bellies full & the last leg to come, 30 miles to Lincoln with a crazy strong tail wind. Motorpace time. We wound it up & arrived back in town in record time...

random...

Saturday was a blast. Glad I got to spend it with some different faces & some of the usual crowd as well. When I rolled out of the house @ 6:45 am I told the wife I'd be gone all day. Yep all day, returned at 4:40 pm. 100 & something miles, plenty. I felt great, I feel great, a great day.

Fast forward to this morning...I screwed up the time change, whoops. Supposed to meet C-bread at 7:00 to ride, I rallied & showed up around 7:30. Below: at rest at D Street this morning...
We managed a wet & windy 2 hour loop with stops at two coffee shops, always a good day to be on the bike...
Later,

TK