Spring Break Cruisin'

My grand plan today was to wake up ass-early, ride out to Quail Hollow, put in some laps, and ride back home.

Well, spring break happened. I slept in until 2 o'clock. Whoops. I guess it's a perk of someone who just lost their job and doesn't have shit else to do.

So with day light dwindling, I figured some riding was better than none. So I suited up and decided to take the Salsa for a spin to make sure everything was in order for the OMBC race at Mohican Wilderness this weekend.

One thing I quickly realized is that a single speed mountain bike's gearing is less than optimal for riding on the roads. I was pushing 32-19 and felt like a hamster on a wheel. All that work and nothing to show for it. So after cruising speed was established on flat at a glacial 15 miles an hour. I forged ahead.

After a quick spin around the block to loosen up the old hams, I figured I should try to hit as many hills as I could find, being that Mohican Wilderness it chock full of them.

See, the problem with this thought is: Portage County is pretty much farm land. There are no hills. Here's a snap of Meloy Rd, from the top. Something's wrong when this was the biggest climb of the day for me.


After conquering that grueling climb, I pedaled on. The weather was right on the verge of being cold. My body could not make up its mind whether I was sweaty or freezing. It sucked. I'd climb a hill and start to feel myself working up a sweat, but quickly on the ascent I'd be caught with a cold breeze and feel like I was going to free to death.

Onward I cruised. Up Howe Rd, over to Meloy, North on Powdermill, where I snapped this picture of my shadowy doppleganger.


After Powdermill I swung back by Brady Lake for my daily dose of nice scenery. I need to perfect the excellent take a picture of yourself while you ride move, because man I look pissed off here.


Bikin' on by the lake I was home free. I turned in about 15 miles in little over an hour. The Salsa felt good, and I'm really excited to see how this weekend fares at Mohican Wilderness.

Tomorrow is the Summit Freewheeler's group ride. So hopefully having a group of people to ride with lights a spark under my arse to ramp up the training a bit.

Good Weather = Off Road

So in celebration of the great weather today, 67 degrees!!!! Andrew and I decided to go to Mohican Wilderness. Get a change of scenery and ride what some claim to be the best singletrack in Ohio.

So after stopping at a gas station to get some snacks, time warp two hours, and we're at Mohican by 1pm.

It's something else down there. It's strange to think that the geography and culture an hour fifteen from my house is quite different. I realized it would be neat to live down there for maybe a month before I got sick of nothing to do.

We quickly found a place to park, suited up, and hit the trail.

Holy shit it was hilly. Seriously. My Salsa is overgeared, and it failed to cross my mind until I hit some of these climbs. I stood no chance. The second I got home I started pricing out 32t Salsa chainrings, credit card grasped between my trembling fingers.

Here I am struggling up an old logging road, which crisscross the single track and serve as a connector to many of the sections. All I can say is that anyone planning on racing the OMBC race here is in for a treat.


Here's Andrew, reaping the benefit of gears:


So after these wild climbs come some pretty fast downhills. I really enjoyed screaming down them and railing some berms. It should be awesome to hit them race speed and hold on for dear life.

The one problem we faced on this ride was our inability to find the trail. The typical situation went a little something like this: cruising along all is well, and we'd be faced with a treacherous climb, being the naive guys we are, we would huff and puff and struggle up to the top of these climbs. When we got to the crest of the hill, we'd look around and there'd be nowhere to go. So back down the hill it took us fifteen minutes to climb. And what do you know, there's the singletrack! And it's not at the top of a HUGE HILL. So safe to say, wasn't the fast riding here today, but man it was fun. After finally getting our bearings we found out the last portion of the trail has super good flow. Here I am navigating a little step down between 2 trees.


We quickly cruised through it back to the trailhead. Along the way, Andrew's stem stripped, which cut our day short. Sucked, but so it goes...

Bike Polo?!?!?!

I saw a few fliers posted up around campus the last couple of weeks about a bike polo game. I didn't know who was putting it on, so I was a bit skeptical.

That being said, I headed to check it out today. I browsed the parts bin for stuff to throw on my long-dissassembled monocog, and came up with this:



Color me wrong, it was super super fun. I guess organizing the game was some sort of class project for some Park Management majors or something. Long confusing story that I wasn't paying attention to.

We're doing weekly polo now in Kent to coincide with Professor's Pub Tuesday bike nights. So if anyone is interested in playing some polo and going to get $1 PBRs after, drop me a line. Goldsprints may happen soon. We'll see if I can figure out the logistics of it.

Riding to See the Parents

I figured mom and dad probably missed me, so I cruised up to their house from Kent. It was the first time I've taken the Waterford out this year. Super smooth!

Here's the route. 70 miles, 2100 feet of climing. Not badddd.

Adulthood

Nothing too much going on in the bikin' front lately. I have been going for a run when I don't have the time to ride. I think I really like it, and i've been working out muscles I didn't even know existed. I've also been really watching what I eat and dropping weight. Pretty close to my goal weight of 150 lbs.

Why no bikin' you ask?

"Well, adulthood." I would say. I'm graduating school in May and here's and abbreviated list of what I need to do by then:

1) Find a job. Know anyone looking for a video editor / motion graphics designer :-)
2) In order to find a job, I need to have my demo reel site up and running, so I've been putting a lot of work into that. Look for it soon.
3) In order to make myself more marketable, I'm learning Cinema 4d. It ain't easy.
4) After finding a job, find a place to live. My lease in Kent is up in June, and then hopefully I'll be heading back to the Cleveland area.
5) Stay strong in all my classes. I'd like to finish out my last semester on the Dean's List. For personal satisfaction and to keep my cumulative GPA high for the possibility of grad school if all else goes to shit.

Dang.

Jeez it's warm

I wake up this morning to my alarm going off at 8am, and a strange booming sound...

What could it be besides thunder. So after assessing the weather situation. I went back to sleep.

At the luxurious hour of 12:30PM I roll over, open up my curtians, and lo and behold, it's nice outside! I start a pot of coffee brewing and check my weather widget. 72 freakin' degrees. Wow.

So I figure some saddle time on the Salsa would be nice, so I have my two cups of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal, and I'm off.

Since pretty much all all off-road options are off limits for a while, I figured I'd hop on the closest thing to a trail. The Portage Hike and Bike : ). Beggars can't be choosers, and some spots are a little less maintained than others, so at least it's a little bumpy, right?

So I end up doing an out and back starting on the MUP that runs on Kent State Campus. Here's my Salsa in it's native environment. Click it to go big, dude:

The nice MUP, right on Kent Campus. Not too long but good for a run or a romantic walk with the lady.

And here's the Portage Hike and Bike:


The Portage Hike and Bike ends in Ravenna, and sorry to all that live there, but my humble opinion is that it's the most depressing place on earth. Here's a snap of me next to an animal rendering plant that runs next to the MUP. Not pictured is the silo that says ANIMAL FAT on it, nor the smell that was pretty harsh to my weak vegan stomach. Poor animals :-(


So after a bit of an out and back, I realized that the Kent MUP is done! I don't know if anyone reads this from the greater Kent area, but man it's nice. Super smooth and realllly really wide. You can hop on it immediately south of the Crain Street bridge. Parking is available at the old diner on the corner of Crain and 43.

So all-in all not a bad day, all things considered. I'm absolutely thrilled for spring and summer to be here.

•18.8 miles
•1:28 saddle time

Ride and Smile

The Salsa is done!




So as a result of finishing it up I'm broke.

Here are some future changes / additions / tweaks.

In the for sure category:
• Higher volume tires. Either Maxxis Ignitors or Schwable Racing Ralphs. Mayyyyybe Stans tubeless.
• Longer Stem, hopefully a Thomson

In the maybe some day in the future / pissing away my tax return / financial irresponsibility category
• On One Mary bars or Groovy Cycles Luv Handles. I'd really like to get the Groovy's as it's a local company and Rody seems like a cool dude, but a wait to get a set and the substantially higher price is discouraging.
• A new rear wheel, probably a DT Swiss 240 disc hub laced to a Mavic TM719d.
• Last but not least, who doesn't love a Thomson post.

None the less, I'm pumped to ride this thing. First race is the OMBC Mohican Wilderness at the end of this month.