Felt Like Spring!

although it was a bit nippy at the start, the sun shone brightly for another fun day out on the bike.

originally it seemed to be four riders were going to be heading out of davisburg with the idea of going to pontiac lake for a loop and then heading back. the ride quickly transmigrated into a dual effort of paula and i trying to make it out to bham and hook up with some people riding back to dburg. ahh, but that was not to be had. the sirens song of the caribou locked with an imaginary grip on our senses and lured us in. on the return trip, getting smacked in the face with the blunt force of a headwind and slightly sogging dirtroads was not so imaginary.

3 hrs and 42 miles were the stats for the day. paula was a trooper and survived my incessant banter, commentary and possibly annoying pavement riding behavior. shhh... i know the flowers on her bike were happy to see the sun and play in the mud. :)

after hanging out at the mmba expo for a bit, doug and i went over to las piramidas for a super burrito attack and a few sodas to wash them down.

did you know that torino/turin, where the winter olympics are being held, is the 'motor city' of italy? i believe i read that fiat was founded there. wonder if drivers over there are as uptight as in metro detroit?

Ride Stats

from the times of calls on my phone, i can trace out a semi-accurate picture of the total ride time: 7 hrs (9am -> 4pm). i probably stopped for a total of 30 minutes for lunch/flopping around on the pavement and phone/gel/bar breaks.

from the map, i'm estimating the trip was ~80 miles. i couldn't cross i-69 where i had planned and probably rode 5 miles out of the way to get over and back on track.

time to hit the dive shop and check out the deep sea diving dry gloves. :)

WRCS XL aka Down on the Dirty River

what a great ride, at least on the way down to detroit on woodward. could you imagine that a group of riders could take up a whole lane on woodward ave. and not get run over? must've been pete's horn that scared them away. :) the ride back was hell. straight into the wind. cold. wet. good thing those guys decided to hammer, i was off the back in about 2 seconds. no cops, no stops. note to self: not good to take a 30 lb pack and a rack of about 15 more lbs of gear on these rides.

so what's with that pack and rack you must be wondering? ahh... that's the xl part. the toor day twa. riding from lansing to detroit. and back. riding to the ride. well almost. my plan for the superbowl weekend was to ride to alex's place saturday, do part of the wrcs on sunday and weave my way over to my friend joe's in dexter, then back home on monday.

well that was the plan, until about 5 minutes into the ride and i was soaked to the bone. after about 4-5 hours of riding i was finally crossing under us-23. (my computer died at some point, so i was clueless as to time and didn't pay attention when i used the phone.) stopped for some lunch and called alex to meet me in highland, where my route crossed m-59, which was still about an hour or so of muddy wet backroad riding away. i sure was glad to see alex at the gas station. thanks for picking me up alex! and thanks for having those sweet ass heated seats in your car! saturday night, alex, his friend jamie and i went to salvatore scalopini's in birmingham to eat, then to the party store to pick up some beers and head back to his condo to relax and watch the trans-alp video. the condo is sweet! lots of big windows and high ceilings. loft style living. thanks for the accomodations and hospitality alex! it was then that i decided to cancel riding to ann arbor on sunday, do the wrcs ride from bham -> dtw to check out the superbowl festivities and have my wife pick me up at her sisters in berkeley sunday evening.

i'm pooped today and i didn't make the whole ride. now i'm up to 3 loose ends (rides i've started but not completely finished): pip140, mohican 100, toor day twa. due to technical difficulties, i couldn't tell you how long or how far i rode over the last two days, but it was great to be back out on the bike again, it was a great workout.

anyway, here are the pics that alex took with my camera downtown. if you click and zoom in on the third pic, you can see pete's car horn rigged up to the handlebar. powered by his light battery!

me:














alex:














wrcs crew: