Thursday, May 28, 2009

Friday, May 22, 2009

Mojo Update!

Drumroll found his Mojo. It was in his bibs the whole time.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Seeing RED


Sorry for the lack of posts. In addition to the normal routine of work, travel, dogs, riding, mowing the lawn on my "rest day" and other glamorous details an amateur cyclist juggles, Dave F. and I have been busy building a local training series. I'll have more of an update on the training series shortly, but we have high hopes of growing/strengthening the local racing scene. That, and once Fall rolls around . . . CX training series. Nice segue. We've gone the legit route and done it with a genuine permit and affiliation with the Onondaga Cycling Club. No sense in losing the house over a lawsuit I guess. Everyone has been very supportive, so hopefully we'll have a solid turnout.

So back to seeing Red. I recently made the proverbial leap. Our team was lucky enough to score a Grass Roots deal from SRAM, thank you Syracuse Bicycle, so that made the move fairly tough to turn down. It all showed up in red boxes with cool red bags. Installation was more or less a snap. The videos on SRAM's website made it even easier. I helped Drumroll remove is ancient Dura-ace crankset. The bearings in his crankset were literally square. Moving to Red probably bought him 10 watts. I'm sure he'll service his BB again in 10 years or so. Maybe his mojo is in my trash with his wasted BB.

Everything I've read and heard had me thinking that it would take a couple of weeks to get used to the shifting. I think I had it more or less nailed in a few minutes. It's really intuitive. For the record, I'm no genius, I still mess up shifts occasionally using Shimano. That said, the SRAM is easy to learn and far easier to use. I won't go into tons of detail because there are about 100 articles covering the benefits, but after a bunch of miles and a few races, I'm a BIG fan. I also bought a mix of SRAM for my Ridley, so that'll be going on tomorrow if I can take a half day. I'm supposed to do a Black Fly shakedown ride on the CX bike on Sunday, so I'm hoping it'll be good to go. SRAM is going to be the shinizzle on the Ridley. I'm a set of tubulars away from having no excuse for sucking.

Make the leap . . .

Monday, May 18, 2009

Hello Mojo? Mojo?

Never thought I'd say that I was happier w/a Crit result than TT or RR results for a multi-race event but that's the way it went down for my 2009 Tour de Syracuse. This is a short post as I gotta go find my lost mojo. If you've seen it, stole it, or just borrowing it, please return it to it's rightful owner. While basically indistinguishable from most mojos, mine will be recognizable as the one enjoying a Rare Vos or good Spanish wine.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Last Week Sucked Big Time

No other way to describe it. Last week just plain Mf'ing sucked. The OCC ride outta Caz on Weds dropped us square in the midst of a dude that lost the battle of motorcycle vs. van. I think we arrived on the accident scene a minute or two after it happened. I was rather shaken after learning the guy didn't make it. Messed with my head pretty damn good ... I wanted to help but there was really nothing anyone could do at that point other than try to comfort him. The icing on the cake was finding a good bud sitting in the ditch about a mile from the motorcycle accident w/a busted collar bone. Plain & simple, a freakin' bad night. Once we got the busted collar bone loaded into a car, three of us rode like madmen back to Caz without saying a word to each other. I think this was our way of quietly screaming WHY with our legs and lungs. Then to make the week a total suckfest, one of my best bud's wife called on Fri. to say that my bud's mom passed away ... and bonus, she was to be buried on Mother's Day. A little dazed and confused after all this but thank goodness for the therapy of the two wheels. Sorry that this is a bit of a downer but just trying to tell it like it is. Thoughts & prayers to the families of the motorcycle guy and the van driver as well as my best bud and his family. I'm skipping a pull in the paceline this time through if ya don't mind ... I just need a little breather if ya know what I mean.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Don't Be "That Guy" - follow up

Thankfully, today at least, I was not "that guy." Enough said.