Normal In The Bike-ist Way Possible

Got a quick post work ride in the dirt tonight. I only did 1:30/12.5 miles, but hey some nights you take what you can get. Legs felt spanky, and the after 5 hours on the mountain Saturday, the single track at Boyce seemed pretty tame. It feels like going from a the trail to the road. What, you mean there's no rock garden? No granny gear climb? It's still some of the sweetest suburban single track in the area, so I'm not complaining by any means and had a sweet ride on some twisty single track.

Some of the lesser used trails are like riding in a Costa Rican rain forest. Weeds higher than your head, and sorts plant like things and critters wanting to wrap themselves around your bar ends and cassettes. Nothing a good machete can't take care of, but wouldn't you know I left mine in the car. Just as an F.Y.I. there is a trail work day at Boyce this Sunday put on by P.O.R.C., P.T.A.G. and Dirty Harry's. Not sure what they have planned work wise, but I'm there will be a few machete's being wielded! If family commitments allow I may try to stop over. They'll be ridin', grillin' chillin' and swillin' after the work. B.Y.O.B.

Ran in to Don P. on the trail again tonight. He was totally geeked. He just took shipment of a Salsa Mamasita via Bikeman.com today. He could no longer fight the not so subliminal messages hidden within the writings of this blog. I have to say it was cool to see him so stoked about the frame. He's got a cool build planned and I'm anxious to see it. Good luck Don. Maybe you can work a Salsa P-Man tattoo into the ink you got goin' on? :) )

Once home I cooked up some grilled marinated portobello burgers, and brown rice. I hit the rice with a few dashes of fajita seasoning and it friggin' rocked! Better than any boxed flavored rice and lacked much of the finger swelling sodium too. The burgers were good, but I've yet to figure out how to prevent them from becoming a friggin' mess when I'm eating them.

I was able to get new wheels on the Mamasita tonight. Stopped in Pro Bikes at lunch and they slapped some rim tape on and swapped out my cassette (thanks for the lunch time service guys! So after dinner I changed out the rotors and slapped the Cross Marks on them. She feels light and snappy now. Anxious to get it on the dirt tomorrow(?).

Have you ever been at Wal-Mart and see that one other "normal" looking person? You know, the only other person in the place NOT sporting a mullet, riding a motorized cart, wearing a "lone wolf" t shirt, sporting a prison tattoo, or screaming on top of their lungs at their kids and threatening to "beat their asses". Whenever I see the "other normal person" I find myself trying to make eye contact with them to say "Hey I'm normal too!! I got your back if these people gives us any grief" OK, now that you know what I mean, I think I can tie this in to cycling...

Seeing another cyclist in my neighborhood is rare. There are people on bikes, but it's mostly D.U.I Cyclists and helmetless kids riding too small or too tall bikes and running stop signs. Tonight as I unloaded the Soob I saw a dude on a sweet Kona CX bike, wearing a helmet and paying attention to the rules of the road. I practically tripped over myself to make sure I waved, made some eye contact and made sure he knew there were other "normal" people in the neighborhood. By "normal" I of course mean obsessed with just about all things bike. Because lets face it, in just about every other way, I'm pretty much the freak of the neighborhood! Time to go get my bike freak on in some way.

Later.