NAHBS is about to start

As someone who has much bigger hopes than his wallet allows, I'm super thrilled to see what NAHBS has to offer this year. Here are a couple of bikes that have surfaced already that I'm in awe of.

Local Cleveland builder Cicli Polito build a Jack Taylor inspired pathracer. This is so nice. I think if I ever get a custom frame It'll be from him.



Utilitarian is good, therefore ANT Bikes is good.


And of course I'm drooling over 29ers, here's one from Ellis Cycles. It actually looks similar to how my Salsa is going to look when finished, so it gets bonus points.



Anyone have anything they're looking forward to / any good photos to share? Post them up in the comments!

Race Decisions

Got in a 20ish miler with Andrew today. It continues my quest for winter base miles just to get myself in shape.

Speaking of, I've been watching the diet lately a bit moreso than usual. I'm trying to get my weight a bit down before the season really starts. As someone who loves food, this is killing me. Oh well.

So here comes the first real dilemma of the year, conflicting race schedule:

Should I do the OMBC race at Mohician Wilderness on March 29th

or

Barry Roubaix, a really fun looking gravel road race in the Grand Rapids Michigan area.

Decisions, decisions.

Found someone to ride with!

The Camba site is one of my daily visits to learn about the goings-on in the Northeast Ohio mountain bike scene.

Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well through the site, I ended up getting in touch with Andrew who lives like five miles away from me. Small world. He posted up on his blog that he was riding around the valley, and heck, I love riding around the valley. So after a few emails back in forth, it was set.

We took off today at about 1pm from his place in Tallmadge. Cruised on to Munroe Falls, and picked up the Hike and Bike at Galt Park. Here I am lookin' swauve at Route 8. Click on the photo to be taken to Andrew's blog and read his ride report too!


We ended up taking the hike and bike to Barlow road, and heading West past Akron-Peninsula Rd. We then bombed down Truxell into the valley. Fun as usual.


So when you're in the valley, what do you do? Climb some hills!

Here's Andrew going up Boston Mills Rd.


So after my arse made it up alive, we hung a right on Olde 8 and headed south towards 303. Right on 303, and what do you know, another fun descent.

After a fun descent comes a not-so-fun climb. Truxell served that purpose and got us back home free to Kent.

Uphill

Downhill


All in all it was pretty neat to find someone to ride with it my area. Hopefully I keep up the mileage and soon to come are the hill repeats. Oh my...

Stats!
• 56.26 miles in 3:43

Homework..

Over run with homework lately. This school thing stinks. I keep telling myself that I'm done in May, and quite frankly it's the only thing that's keeping me going.

But nonetheless, check out my work in progress, oh three people who read this blog. Thanks by the way :-)

Watching a set of cranks on ebay right now, bb7s in the mail, dreaming of a light wheelset, American Classic perhaps?

Click to make bigger:


And the real question is, 1x9 or Singlespeed???

Lake to Lake

The schedule at work got revamped, so I get Tuesdays off now. Greatest thing to ever happen to me.

I guess we can thank global warming, because it is 54 degrees here in Ohio as I right this. Up yours Al Gore.

Today was as good as any to shake the cobwebs off and get out on the old steed. Because of the sheer amount of homework I've got, I needed to make it sort of quick, so I gave myself two hours.

Poking around mapmyride, I found the Pedal with Pete route. It seemed pretty good and combined some roads I'm on a lot with some I'm not too familiar with, so why not give it a shot.

So Cross Check underneath me, I was off.

Leaving the house, cruising up Hudson Rd, I swung a left on Johnson Rd.


Since it's farm land, the lack of trees made the headwind a real treat.

So going on, I'm feeling actually pretty fresh in the legs today, and the weather helped immensely. Not trying to sound too excited, but I had to take off my long sleeve wool jersey and ride in my short sleeve underneath. Unreal.

Crusin along good. Newcomer, Cook, Stow Rd, etc etc, and then the route led me to some wild side streets I'm not too familiar with.

They were smooth, wide open, traffic free, and most importantly downhill. No complaints.


So after actually finding out where I was, I was dumped off at a familiar site. Graham Rd and Silver Lake.

Silver Lake is where the bourgeois in the greater Kent area live, I'm pretty sure. The houses are niceeeeeeeeeeeeee. Here are a couple 'o snaps, including one of my handsome mug.




Maybe one day my college education will pay off, and I'll have a big house. Heh, yeah right.

After cruisin through Silver Lake, I was feeling particularly spry, and I figured I'd give the beloved MUP path a look-see and see what was up. No business there. Tons of snow on it.

I decided to man up and ride up 59 from Silver Lake. I figured the traffic would keep me sharp in the reflexes.

So taking 59 to 91 and hanging a right on Graham again, I was headed back toward Kent. When I got there I decided I was feeling good so off to Brady Lake.

I cruised down Lake Street, hung a right, and did a loop around the lake. It was downright scenic, beautiful some might say. Too bad my dumb ass left the camera in the saddle bag. Whoops.

So after my second lake sighting of the day, I hung a right on Merril, which is always nice and smooth and fast. Worked my way back to Lake Rockwell Rd, Ravenna Rd, Hudson Rd. Home free.

I'm going to be sad to see this weather go. Here's to spring.

• 34.5
• 1:58
• 17.4 mph average

Lazy Days

Riding has been pushed to the back burner time and time again recently because of my hectic school schedule.

Sucks so bad.

I was able to ride out to Brecksville Reservation on Friday, for a nice 45 mile out and back. Here's a snap from the ride:



I'm going out today to finally enjoy this good weather before it's gone.

Super Bowl Century (Sorta)

So in my search through local cycling blogs, I saw that Brett Davis posted up details for a ride he was planning on super bowl Sunday. I emailed him and he said it was cool to tag along.

Hmm, a ride in such bad weather? Sign me up, anything to escape the rollers. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to do it on my fixed Cross Check. Not saying I regret it, but I'm sitting here at work today feeling like I got run over by a truck. Watch out CAT 5's, Sport MTBers, and aspiring cyclocrossers, I'm getting crazy base miles!!!!

So after leaving Kent at 6:45am, which is pretty terrible for a non-morning person such as myself, I was en route to the east side of Cleveland and Brett's house. Upon arriving, I introduced myself to Brett, Ross, and Steve, who may I add, are all really good guys and a blast to ride (and snack) with.



The nitty gritty details of the route we went are up on Brett's blog, so check it out. Since I'm very confused by the east side, I'll give you an abridged version:

Upon leaving Brett's house we made it up to Cleveland, and headed west. Riding along the lake and into Lakewood and Rocky River, we were treated to a spectacular view and some stiff headwinds. After making it to Rocky River, we started heading south into the metroparks. Through Berea, Strongsville, my hometown of North Royalton, we were about half way through the ride. Going into Brecksville Reservation, I was treated to some fun no footed downhills, weeeeeeeee!

After bombing into Brecksville reservation, my legs started feeling the burn a bit. Seeing my computer at about 75 miles had my spirit a bit down too. I kept thinking I was going to keel over dead. The climb up Riverview road was... um, interesting. Whatever juice I had in my legs was long gone after that. So after cruising for a bit more, we were left at the Durham creek climb, which was taxing both mentally and physically. Looking down at your speed when you're climing and seeing 6MPH staring you back into the face is one good way to let you know you've got nothing left.

After that last killer climb, we were home free. My spirits were a bit lifted and I fought hard to catch up with Brett, Ross, and Steve, who are all way too strong and kept me working my ass off the entire time. So we finished off at 95 miles, and I'll grab the rest of the stats off my computer when I get home. Good ride guys.