One Cold-Arse Ride!

These pics are from a Sunday Afternoon "Crazy Bastards West" ride out in Allegan Woods. That's Jasker in disguise on the upper left, CD, Me, Surly, JJ and Berger on the upper right and one of my infamous self-portraits to the left doin' the "Beard-sicle".
















Last Thursday Night I went to GR for the Crazy Bastard Ride that I try and do every week. (www.cbcross.com - but be forewarned of the chance of encountering adult language and rampant outbreaks of surliness and attitude!) The weatherman was callin' for temps in the 'teens so I was anticipating a small-ish turn-out.

Not.

As it turns out, 'tis weather that most folks would pass on riding in that pushes the CB buttons....Im shoulda known. I joined 10-11 other riders for a 2+ hour jaunt on the frozen dirt roads out along the eastern edge of Grand Rapids. We had a blast, there was a minimum of whimpering and whining and the post-ride chili @ The Honey Creek Inn went down oh-so-fine!
I was thinking that there might be some small level of interest in me goin' through the gear I employed ot stay warm @ 15 degrees..........for those of you that don't currently ride this time o' year but are intrigued by the idea.......so here's what was and wasn't workin' for me on this particular ride:
On my head I had a fairly thin lycra-fleece balaclava, IE one of those "hood things" that go under your chin and cover the lower part of your face. Not the thing ot be wearing if you stop @ a 7-11 perhaps but a must in temps below 32 or so. Some of my riding buds were wearing fleece neck muffs or some such thing, but my head was fine. A little more coverage wouldn't have hurt....I was a tad worried about a coupla dead spots on my cheekbones, but they came back okay.
On my upper body I was able to go fairly light....a sleeveless baselayer under a wool long sleeve and then my Pearl Izumi Vento jacket, since discontinued. A pity too, 'cuz that dude is way warm! This set-up was perfect, I even unzipped a bit once in awhile to cool off a bit.
I had Pearl Amfib bibs over knickers on the bottom half. First time I've done that and it might've been just a tiny little bit overkill. Kinda bulky........but warm!
I had Smartwool liner gloves under my Pearl Amfib gloves.......my fingers were numb 'til I warmed up then they were great. So great in fact that I gave the liners to Gid 'cuz his hands were not comin' back 80 minutes into the ride. Then my fingers got cold again, of course, but I made it back.
My feet were the only part of me that was uncomfortable for the whole ride.....I was tryin those disposable insole heaters but I was still hurtin' pretty much the whole ride despite the wool socks and booties. I'd say over half the dudes I ride with in the winter have some kind of insulated winter riding shoes and I might hafta try 'em. ( Actually I ordered some over-the-top Sidi rechargeable insoles.......I'll let'cha know how they work!)
So...that was the set-up. Worked pretty dang good when you think about being out in 15-ish degree weather @ 15 mph or so for 2+ hours. Still tryin' stuff, but I think I'm gettin' it down pretty good. My friends Dan and Danielle go out for much longer rides that that and they do okay too, so it ain't that hard!

Lots of other stuff goin' on, of course. The indoor rides have been rocking, we've been throwing in Sunday rides in addition to the scheduled ones on Wed and Sat and that's a special little slice of Hell to be sure! Join us here @ 8:00 on Wed night or Sat morning and we'll also be here @ 1:30 on Sunday this week.

The next 'Fun-Raiser" is 2/11.....it's the 2nd ever Soup Ride! 2:00 here for a road ride, then soup and beer and such. How could that be a bad thing?

Hard to believe that it's nearly Feb already! Damn...talkin' about how time flies is so cliche' but it's so hard to avoid! At this rate we'll be knee-deep in the season before we know it! And there's so much to do!

Ted's building up a sweet Gunnar Sport right now......I just glanced over to take a peek at it. It's a bee-yoo-ti-ful silver to blue fade, Rolf wheels, Ultegra compact........damn nice bike. They do good wirk over there in Waterford Wis and I'm glad we're hooked up w/ those folks.......even if it is hard to get off the phone when Richard calls!

Okay.....if I'm reduced to talkin' inside-industry gossip it's time to go! Talk at'cha again soon.

KIT CITY BAY-BEE!!!!!!

Well, the long-awaited day is here and so are the brand-spankin'-new VCC kits! Man, we've been waitin' for-frickin'-ever for this stuff seems like! My pulse rate was up as I opened the box...........what if I didn' like 'em, how bad would that suck?

No worries................the jerseys rock, the bibs are prime-o-licious and the arm-warmers are...........................well.............................let's just say they finish off the kit just exactly right.

Can't wait to be seen sportin' it!

Lots' going on. Seems weird to not have had a Fun-Raiser for so long but there's one comin' up on 2/11. We had the first Special Sunday Super Suffer Session last week, there were 9 hapless souls here for 90 minutes of Coach Troy nonsense. Big fun!

We had a huge turnout for the JDRF kick Off Party last week as well. I think we're gonna have a big team full of cool people. It never fails to mess w/ me when I have a sec to contemplate just how awesome a program this is! I feel awfully fortunate to be able to be a part of it and that's no jive. I have a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the year, training manuals, training plans, ride schedules..........man, I better get on it!
(By the way.....if you are wondering what I'm talkin 'about here, check out ride.jdrf.org for the scoop on a very cool way to ride your bike and make a difference @ the same time.)

The Crazy Bastard Rides are more fun every week, it seems like it gets more fun as the conditions get "crazier"! Go figure! Check out the website @ cbcross.com but be warned.....they can be surly! Consider yourself warned.

The shop is rocking, at least for January. Lots of new bikes to build including a gorgeous new Co-Motion tandem, Cannondale 29'ers, lotsa road bikes, the way-cool Amsterdam town machine from Electra and lots more.

The indoor training rides are rocking like never before. We've had as many as 14 people lined up drippin' sweat on our sweet new shop tile floor and stinkin' up the joint. Wanna join us? C'mon down! 8:00 wed night and Sat mornings and the more the merrier.

I'm glad we're gettin 'some winter, even if I'm not doing much skiing these days. It was kinda cool being able to ride outside w/out 500 bux worth of gear, and I rode the first 16 days of the year, but I still like a bit o' winter, y'know? Still..........I'll be ready for Spring in a month or so.

The big exciting news 'round here s our 100% RE-VAMPED WEBSITE! by the end of the month it'll be up and rocking w/ new words, new pix, fun stuff and the ability for you s\to sit @ home in your PJ's (maybe like right now) and satisfy your hunger for VCC stuff right then and there. How cool is that?
Okay, gotta go, time to meet the 2 bee-yoo-ti-ful ladies in my life for dinner. Lucky me!

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring or at least being curious (or maybe bored!)

Later............MC

A new year (and a confession)

So..............2007 is finally here and we've all (hopefully) survived the hype and the parties and all that crap. I've never been a big New Years' Eve party kinda guy and don't reckon that I ever will be................but it was nice to be w/ friends as we closed the books on '06 and looked ahead to '07.

The thing is................'06 was a GREAT year! Danielle and I were talkin' about that very thing as we rolled into town towards the end of the New Year's Day Ride last Monday. Both of us agreed that we'd be more-than-happy if ought-seven turned out to be as good as ought-six was.

Now....having said that.....I want more, naturally. More riders on our JDRF team, more folks @ the shop rides, more buddies ridin' more bike more often. A little more business here @ VCC World Headquaters would be fine too, natch, but in general Bike Life was a rare and fine thing all last year and we're very grateful for that. (We're grateful for you too, if you played any part in that!) I think it was my main man Edward Abbey that said that "uncontrolled growth is the idealogy of the cancer cell" and I try to keep that in mind and remember that bigger isn't always better and more isn't always what'cha want or need.

The big news @ the shop is that we're almost done w/ re-doing the service area so Ted, Lee, Berger and everyone else that picks up a wrench'll have a cooler and more efficient area to work in. New flooring (installed by part-time wrench and full-time hanger-outer Doez) and a new workbench/counter/bar cooked up for us by riding bud/JDRF rider/semi-hanger-outer John J were the first 2 big steps. Once we get the workstands mounted up to the system I stole from the Chili Pepper shop out in Moab...........we're good to go!

Lotsa cool stuff rollin' in...........the first load of Electra Amsterdam town bikes is here and they look every bit as cool as when we saw 'em in Vegas. Kind of a pisser to assemble what with the lights and rack and "fender skirts" and all...........but way cool. The VCC kit is en route as I write this and we'll see it this week, hopefully. ("Kit" in this context is bike talk for custom shop jerseys, bib shorts and arm-warmers but you knew that, yes?) We've delivered a coupla Niners, folks are lookin' at road bikes and as we head into the "quiet time" around here there's plenty to do!

We're kinda back to square one on the whole "Cruise Director" position. Julia took a shot @ it but it wasn't to be so we're lookin' for that unique person that wants to be involved w/ a cool bike shop and manage our new touring company and also what passes for 'marketing" around here. It could be a full-time gig for the right person.......or it might be 2 part-time gigs. Regardless......if you have any interest get ahold of me @ velocity587@hotmail.com so we can talk about it!

The January newsletter goes out tomorrow. I'm a little tardy 'cuz I wanted to wait 'til Ted got back from vacation and pick his brain about Tool School classes for this winter. If you don't get one by late Thursday (1/4) shoot me an e-mail at the address up there in the last paragraph and I'll get'cha one!

It's time to get crackin' on the JDRF front too. We have our big "Celebrate 2006 / Kick Off 2007" party comin' up on Tuesday 1/9 in GR. If you have any interest in joinin' the fastest growing JDRF team in the whole dang US of A consider yourself invited to the bash! Again.......lemme know by e-mail if you wanna come (so I can RSVP ya) or if you have questions about the whole deal. You can check out www.jdrf.org/ride too.

Man..............I've been runnin off at the mouth (fingers?) so much here that I almost forgot about the "confession" part of this post. Must be 'cuz I'm so ashamed over what's laying so heavy on my heart..................but that's the point of confession, right? At least partly. So......here it goes:

I quit riding my bike to work in about October and have been driving.
I know...............I know...............I know better than that and I suck. I have no excuse. I got seduced by the Dark Side, which in this case is represented by my "new" car.....a '94 Jeep Wrangler. It's just a car, y'know? Just a damn fossil-fuel vehicle. But.........I had a soft-top Jeep back in the day and i've always wanted another one. It pushes what few car buttons I have and when I drive it I feel like George Hayduke in the Monkey Wrench Gang tryin' to elude Bishop Love's search and Rescue squad down near the Maze west of Moab. (If that doesn't ring a bell.....run don't walk to the nearset library or book store and get The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey and read it. Right now. I'll wait). It's a dumb car that fails the main test of a car's viability'cuz it sucks at carryin' bikes and yet I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
I am weak and I apologise to my sport, my town, my country and my world.
It's a new year..................time to examine my weaknesses and shortcoming and try to do better.
I'll ride to work tomorrow. I promise.
Thanks to Zac-from-Seattle for reminding me to put my muscles where my mouth is.
Thanks to Rach and Lee for showing us all how to do it last year as they racked up mega-mileage commuting here from GR and Middleville.
Thanks to everyone that rides when they can, 'cuz every little bit helps.
Thanks again for a great year in '06..........let's have another great one, okay?

Later, MC