Man, there have been a ton of good rides this month! Great weather, the trails are in good shape and I've been ridin' w/ my buds. What else can you ask for? Sometimes I get to brooding on what exactly it is that makes a ride "great" instead of just "good", y'know? I'm not sure what "it" is, but I'm pretty damn sure what "it "isn't............it's not the route, or the trail, or how fast we went, or whether I achieved a PR, or any of that crap. Mostly it's who I ride with and whether our (mostly) unspoken ideas about the criteria for ride greatness pretty much match up. As I get older and more crotchety I have less and less patience with dudes ( and it's always a dude) that sees every ride as a chance to whip it out and show it off. Hey.......I race every dang week all summer long and that's a great place to show off what'cha got y'know? There have been way too many potentially great rides blown up, messed up and otherwise pissed away by someone w/ a little too much testosterone and apparently no where else to use it. Sure there's a time and place for riding like that......our Sprint Ride for instance, but if you think that every ride is a chance to beat someone.......might I gently suggest that you might wanna enter a real race now and then? Maynard Hershon said it best, in an article that I first read many years ago............" A good rider can hold a ride together with his or her strength, not blow it apart". ( I'm paraphasing like mad there, but Maynard's a bud of mine and I'm pretty comfy that he'd be okay w/ it).
Just my 2 cents worth, y'know?
But lest you think that I'm just gonna bitch...........I started this out talking about all the good and great rides that I've enjoyed this month..........Yankee Springs w/ Dennis and Mario, C-Burg w/ Sarah and Max-the-dog, all the mornings @ Bass River w/ Ted and Lee and Rach and Max, a whole month of Sprint Rides, mostly w/ Elizabeth "Turbo" Bocks on the tandem, Monday Night Club rides, Lotsa miles w/ Lin on the tandem, rollin' the fixxie around at every opportunity, man.............it's been a great month!
And now it's almost freakin' May! Grattan! Tuesday Night Shop Rides! More club rides! Rock-n-Road's Thursday Night Ride in Grand Haven! Holy Crap! Lots' to be pumped about, that's all I'm saying.
Shop's been busy. Not 100%+ crazy madness full-tilt-boogie hot-damn-tamale busy, but busy. Ted and Lee are cranking repairs, Rach and Da've and Jaq and I are tryin' to keep everyone's questions answered, Doez is around some, Alex is wrenchin' a bit and Tom keeps tabs on the whole dang deal.............that's how it's supposed to work.
It's so cool to listen to Ted go on and on about his race last weekend @ Yankee and his infatuation w/ the Salsa Dos Niner demo that Dennis @ QBP sent us to try out! I don't think I've ever seen him this pumped up! Does my heart good, y'know? Sounds like he and Lee are gonna be doing the whole ATB Time Trail series now.......how cool is that?
Anyway...........come and ride w/ us sometime, eh? We're kind of fun, can carry on conversations about several topics outside of the sport, are usually clean and polite....all in all.......not bad company!
'til next time..................ride safe, ride lots and be strong!
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