Last Bacon

Toasty

Sub 50 degree temps coupled with 100% humidity resulted in frosty wool. Felt wonderfully warm in the merino.

Bacon posse rolling past Elmwood

Had a great crew this morning for the last Bacon Ride of 2010. Eileen, the waitress, was happy for the season to be over and was already excited for her Winter job....cleaning construction sites or something crazy like that.

Gooble

'

Last plate of the year...."one and done" all year long

Motoring back with Bruce (crushing all the way home) and Wes (He-Man on the Big Dummy)

Fall is here.

Wilderness

Fall is here. Awesomeness.

Hit the park on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It was in great shape prior to the rain. Leaves are fallin'. Watch those corners.

Jim and Andy have matching socks.

Went out for a delayed Saturday morning ride with bunch of cool cats. DK, Wills, Malcolm, Scott Big, The Dark Knight, Andy, Schmidty and Shawn. Am I forgetting anyone?

Palmyra refuel

DK went for the Potato Cheddar poppers with mustard and a chocolate milk. Just what the body needs!

Turnin' back home

A group of five of us continued on Hwy 2 (new and old sections) to Syracuse for another refuel.

Knee warmers would have been nice

Got rained/misted on for the large portion of the ride back. Not soaked to the bone, but definitely wet. Also got damn cold on the way back. Pretty much pinned it all the way back in order to stay warm. Yeah, Fall is here.

Just riding along...

Bacon Ride action - lights required

Lots of downed branches on the Mopac Trail kept the ride interesting

Busted out the wool for the first time on Sunday - 50ish degrees with a light mist and the jersey worked perfectly...I love wool.

This doe followed me around for a bit while on the other side of the fence line

Wes has some great ideas for making the world a better place via bicycles

Wes' business Shifting Gears- get a hold of him if you need some green pedal power

Hitting the park with Wills

Time to start chargin' the light...first day of Fall is today

It's time for long sleeves and knee warmers....

8 AM meet up at D Street...several surprise guest riders along for the fun!

$1.05 at Tvrdy's in Valpo

MW leadin' the charge on Oak Road with the drop bar fixie

Road 30 MMR goodness

Lots of Rasta on today's ride

Great ride today everyone! That was a lot of fun. More fun tomorrow morning with the Bacon Ride which leaves the Mopac Trailhead at 6 AM. Plenty of our Omaha brethren will meet us at Platte River State Park. Rumor has it there will be a Bacon eating throw down. My money is on DK. I bet he can eat 30 pieces before vomiting.

It sure is awesome outside right now

D Street Posse heading out of town through the madness of Husker nation

Thanks for the ride today everyone. Bacon Ride tomorrow at 6 AM. BTW, I don't recommend racing a cross bike at Branched Oak Area 7.

Dakota Five-No

Saturday morning gravel posse heading out on 27th

So I bailed on the Dakota Five-0. Third year in a row where I paid for the entry fee and pulled the plug the day before the scheduled departure. I've been trying to defend my decision to the homeboys ever since. Yes, it's sweet singletrack and a great race with plenty of great friends, but and this is a big but, it requires two full days in a car to get to and from the event. I've only got a three day weekend and don't want to spend two of those three days in a car. Twelve hundred miles in a car for 50 miles just doesn't add up.

Prairie singletrack at Branched Oak Area 7

Plus, I got a really bad case of amotivational race syndrome. Why? I have no idea, but maybe it's because it's the end of the summer and I'm shifting gears to cyclocross or maybe I'm just burnt out the travel. I've done a lot of traveling and racing this year and a weekend off with plenty of local riding sounds like a great idea. Besides, is racing really necessary to define one as a complete cyclist? Is racing the pinnacle of cycling achievement? I don't think so.

Jesse's patriotic photo

I really love riding my bike right now. Racing can be fun too, but riding is by far much more enjoyable. With the weather forecast to be absolutely beautiful here in Lincoln for the next three days it makes the decision much easier.

Coach and Wills

Coach and I were chatting about race burnout. He agreed if you're not feeling it, don't waste your time. You gotta have your head and heart into racing mode. If not, it just becomes like a job which kills the joy.

Coach and I hitting the Star City BMX track on the way back into town

So today we rolled out for some gravel, singletrack and BMX action. Fun times with plenty of great efforts on the gravel rollers mixed in with some techy mountain bike action. The BMX track was wicked too. Coach and I hit it five times and managed a 50 second run. I'm sure The Dark Knight can do it in half that.

Wrapping up the ride with a brownie and coffee from Cultiva

More fun planned for tomorrow. Bacon Ride! Then some more fun on Monday.

Wednesday Night Gravel - It was one of those rides....

Shawn, Bruce, Malcolm, Scott and I trying to "get the funk outta here!"

Well, the Wednesday Night Gravel didn't turn out as planned. We only made it a few miles from Princeton when it began to sprinkle and threatening clouds moved in. Fob was the smart one and turned around while Shawn, Bruce, Malcolm, Scott and I continued on. After a few large bolts of lightning we decided to get the funk outta there and made a b line for home.

The Mysterious Lemon Man aka Malcolm...or is that Malcolm's aura?

Unfortunately, it was too late. We were surrounded by multiple storms that were going faster than we were and heading in the same direction. Several bolts of lightning had us shitting our pants and sprinting for home. One bolt was probably only a few hundred yards away as I heard the tree splinter when the bolt struck. Ah, good times. To top it off we got completely soaked to the bone.

Post rain ride steel bike ritual

Got home and quickly removed the seatpost and inverted the IF Steel Planet Cross. Soon I won't hafta do that anymore once the Ti Planet Cross arrives.

Dryin' out

Yep, it was one of those rides...