Sites, sounds and smells of a grease junkie

There are not many places I feel normal. Most of the time I feel odd. Left out. Not part of the crowd, even if I am IN a crowd. But on the bike I feel normal. Usually I'm not in a crowd, it is usually alone. I (try to) clear my mind of thoughts. Easier to do when I'm riding off road. Just focus on the breathing. Just focus on the spinning. Where should I position my body? Find the flow. The rhythm. Move those legs old man. Push a little harder Grandpa. Come on. Show me what you got! That all you got? Push. Harder. Faster. More. When my muscles ache and lungs burn, that is when I feel most normal. Some days it is frustrating because even if I push I can't find that feeling. It is still good to ride make no mistake. But my brain gets frustrated. I want to feel OK. Even if it is only for a little while.

Confidence inspiring. That's my first impression of the Remedy 650 (27.5 I don't care WHAT you call it.)  Which is great. I've ridden stuff that I've never ridden before. Again, give me shit for being old and slow all you want. I'm the one having fun. Of course that confidence is a double-edge sword. I've found myself in a couple situations where I was clearly out of my current skill set. Not a bad thing, that's what I bought the bike for. I want to learn how to ride new things. However, I did manage to bang my ribs around a bit when I managed to not clear a rock pile. Also, I'll have to brush up on my falling skills it seems. I'm not going to go into tech-weenie bullshit. Don't ask me how much travel it has or what the weight is. I don't know. If you want to know, let me direct you to trekbikes.com  where you can find out all sorts of that information. Mostly I don't care about the technical side of it. I know how it wor...

Just got home from a Work-cation. Few quick thoughts. 1) I love the Rem Si-Fiddy. Say all you want about that being too much travel for the Midwest. All I know is there is a ton of stuff I can ride now that I didn't before. On top of all that, it climbs. Well. 2) The Farm aka Jim's Farm aka The Trek Trails are a blast. Glad I got to ride them as much as I did AAAAAAND with a night ride! 3) I love the Levis-Trow Mound trails. Also, they are the best way to break up the drive from Madison to Minneapolis. If you have never ridden there, you need to. 4) Sometimes I do not miss working in the office. Sometimes, especially after being there for a few days, I do miss it. There are some really f%cking amazing people who work there. I am grateful that I get to call some of them my friends. 5) Bird's Ruins Disc Golf Course in Marshall, WI is a thoroughly enjoyable course. 6) I have the best girlfriend in the world. That's all for know. Xs Os

Finally got some dirt on the Rem Sis Fiddy. My thoughts: Give me all the shit you want. You can give me shit if you want because it's not a fat bike. Because it has more travel than I need. Because it's not a fully-rigid 29er. Because it's a funny tire size. Give me shit because I'm slow and old. At the end of the ride, I'm the dude grinning like the Cheshire Cat. More to come so for right now, shut up and go ride.

Domane is slang for "rides over everything." Got a new road bike last fall, a Domane 2.3 . The short version of this post is I love this bike and it has made me rethink the way I approach aluminum road bikes. I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of industry code. A long-time industry guy on a 105-equipped road bike? Not just a 105-equipped bike but an ALUMINUM frame?! Don't worry, I had my concerns. Aluminum road bikes do not have a great track record for me. I've tried a few. I've hated them. Every. Single. One. They've always been sooooo damn stiff and rattle the teeth from my skull. A 20-mile ride feels like 40. However, they have the advantage of being less expensive than carbon, so there's that and frankly I wanted to keep the cost down. 2014 Trek Domane 2.3 I've kept it mostly stock. I've swapped out the saddle and bar tape because the stock saddle/tape were white and I don't care for white saddle/tape. This spring I ...

This past winter was long and cold. It was one for the record books. I am glad to see it has finally left. Just the same, I had some fun during this past winter. I've often found bad weather to be more tolerable when you get out and enjoy it. I had plans on writing something a bit more about this trip. It happened the weekend of March 8-9. Mostly because I had a rare weekend to myself. I figured it would be busy. But I didn't make any plans other than "Go to ice caves." Little did I know how busy it actually would be. I've been to Washburn/Bayfield in the winter before. It is normally very quiet. It was not quiet. It was busier than I'd ever seen it during the winter, without a doubt. Anyway, here are a few of my trip notes. Hope you enjoy. I know I did. On the way up I stopped at 50-foot snowman in Gilman, MN. It was...tall. It was actually quite impressive. I then stopped along the way, to get out of the car for a few hours and hiked in the St. Croi...

It has been a long time since I have written. Seems time to write again. The spirits seems to be moving me. I suspect it has something to do with some step work I'm on. But there seems to be more to it than that. Writing is not an everyday thing for me. Though I suspect if I wrote a little everyday, it would become easier. Much like exercise. Or eating cheetos. This isn't much but I hope to explore more again via the written word. Oh and also... Horse head mask. Not just a mask. A way of life. Xs Os