Living For The City

Everyone’s favorite tiny dancer, Robbie, is back from Jolly Old England for the holidays and I’m super excited. Merry XMas, Robbie.

You’ve met THE SUNDOG…

Now meet THE RAZOR!

An epic battle of stares, wills & hairy chests has begun

If there is one thing THE SUNDOG knows it’s babes, and if there is one thing that babes can’t resist it’s THE SUNDOG.

Yesterday a bunch of us headed out to the Forest City Velodrome – totally new to some and old hat for others, but an amazing time for all who made the trek. I didn’t manage to get very many pictures and literally almost no good ones because I was much more concerned with learning to ride the track than taking pictures. Wes, Mark & Erin did manage to snap a some good ones so I’m including a few of them below, hopefully none of them sue me.

For the 3 of you that are actually interested; The track is 138 meters and has about a 50 degree incline at it’s highest point. The Track 1 course is, besides being mandatory, a good amount of fun and helps you develop some very basic and very necessary skills. I’m sure, had the course not been mandatory, we’d all have opened up right away and just torn around the track at full tilt and at least a few of us would have been coming back with some pretty serious road rash.

During Track 1, you get up above the light blue line (reads white in most photos) but during the recreational ride afterwards you have to stick to the black line pretty strictly until you’ve logged more track time / taken subsequent courses. I found riding the black line to be extremely difficult at first because all of your instincts are pushing you to ride harder, faster & higher. When we seemed bummed about how hard it was to stick to the black line during the rec ride Rob Good, the man behind the whole fandangle, exclaimed “that’s the point!” and he was right – by the end of a couple hours trying to fight your instincts and stick to the black line I think most of us felt pretty damn confident with our skills on the track and will enter our next sessions at an entirely different comfort level.

7am – all packed up

Thanks for the interpretive dance, Keith

The kids get the Marinonis (or Mariposas) with full Miche groups? What the heck?!

Odd Numbers Crew. WHAT?!

Thanks to Keith & Wes for setting it all up and Erin for hauling my ass out there!

Well, I asked for it.

When you come home from a brisk ride in a snow storm and your lady has shoveled your walk – you know you’ve got it made.

I’ve been having a great time and getting a good workout on the rollers over the last couple of days but it was pointed out by Keith that I didn’t even have them set up correctly. Me = total n00b. Note to those new to rollers: the front roller should be more or less directly beneath your front axle.

Wrong

Right

Who has the best special lady friend in the world?

Me, that’s who. I haven’t owned a video game system since the original Nintendo (not unless Game Boy counts) so this should be interesting – I need some ideas of what’s good / fun to play on this thing other than Guitar Hero which is obviously totally boss.

Now, all I have to do is master “Through The Fire & The Flames” on expert while riding the rollers and my life will be as complete as it gets.

Edit:

Winter is officially upon us and for the most part the roads are pretty clear but we’ve had a couple of days of heavy snow and I expect that we will see many more before spring. Even with the major roads being fairly clear, it’s not uncommon to have to ride over some snow or ice and there is very little to stop drivers from pushing you into the hard packed snow drifts in the curb / bike lanes.

I’ve been running some Conti Touring tires through the last couple of winters and they’ve served me well but they’ve seen much better days – dry, cracked, and not so good on the traction anymore I figured it was time for some replacements on the Jamie Roy. Eric at Curbside made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse on these Hutchinson Cyclo Cross tires.

I forgot how difficult some folding tires can be to mount and these suckers were no exception – my poor thumbs were raw by the time I got them mounted.

Unfortunately, my fenders are only rated for 28mm tires and the Hutchinsons are 30mm so I had to make some modifications to get these to fit. After a little while with a drill, some tinsnips and a file I managed to get the front running smoothly enough and to give myself a nice deep wound on my left thumb.

The rear needed another millimeter or so but the rear brakemount on the Jamie Roy has a little knob on the bottom which prevented the rear fender from moving at all.

Given that I wasn’t ready to start hacking away at a perfectly fine aluminum frame just to make some tires fit, I figured a little fender drilling may have been in order.

With that small hole in place, the fender fit perfectly into the brakemount and I got the clearance I needed on the rear.

I find the knobby / lower PSI tires run a little bit slower on the street but I don’t find them overly sluggish and the added traction is well worth the loss in speed – it’s winter, how fast do I really need to go? I’m greatly looking forward to the next big snowfall so I can go out and really tear it up!

WE’RE NUMBER 1! WE’RE NUMBER 1! WE’RE NUMBER 1!

It’s been a long week full of work, birthdays, snow rides, new babies and much more so I haven’t spent much time online – hence the lack of updates. It’s been a fantastic week, though, and I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by a group of people so loving and supportive that I need to check myself from time to time to make sure that I’m able to give back some of what they all give me – I don’t know that I always do, but I need you all to know that I love you and wouldn’t trade any of you for the world and that’s the god damned truth. Pause*

1) Jose Gonzalez is an absolute monster on stage – the man never misses a note. Thanks a lot, Steph.

2) Sparkles (Professional Male Model) is also a monster on stage – representing FHBC proudly as always. Thanks for everything, Spark.

3) I haven’t owned a baseball cap in longer than I can remember, maybe for good reason? Either way, thanks a lot for the hookup Sean.

4) 13t? Fahgettaboudit! I’m going to train all winter and then when sprints get going full speed again in the spring it’s on! Thanks Chris.

5) The stock IRO tires (Duro) look like a Pizza Pizza promotion. Right Aner?.

6) The transformation into “Old Man Rennick” is complete – I spent yesterday behind the wheel of a Buick! Thanks Budget (Budget, indeed)

7) Robbie – I miss you, buddy, and I can’t wait to see you at later this month – I’ve got one of these with your name on it.

*Thanks Ace.

Ace, be proud brother.

I’m having some serious Déjà Vu here – swap out skateboards for bikes and you’ve pretty much got the bulk of my early teen years; the boys come over, we watch a video or two and then set out in search of an empty underground parking lot and thrash. It’s a good life.

As if there already aren’t enough reasons not to wear headphones while you ride. Good job, Toby.