4luvandlife

got to go up against the clock and other riders for the first time this year. 20th annual Decorah Time Trials. very cool event. got out to pre-ride the trails the day before. i was just ahead of the guy marking the course so i was a little confused. there was one part of the course that had cross traffic...that's right, cross traffic. i was thinking, "am i smart enough to go through this correctly tomorrow". turns out you didn't need smarts. there just happened to be a big party including beer, tents and a huge fire at the cross traffic point. you actually went right through the party. race organizers placed about 20 beer drinking volunteers there shouting "this way!! and that way!!". that was fun. first 1.6 miles or about 14 minutes of the race was pretty hellish. Decorah TT pretty much said, "here guys, go straight up this bluff here for about a mile and a half." i think they like doing that. after the uphill things got a lot more en...

Pearl Izumi came through and backed up their product. i called Erik's Bike Shop yesterday and was told that a brand new pair of replacement shoe covers are waiting for me. Same bike shop but 2 different locations and 2 different salespeople and 2 different results. One "not our problem" and another "we'll have the Pearl Izumi rep look at it". Again, not a rant but good info for the future.

some pretty inconsistent riding lately. maybe about 4 or 5 rides in the last couple of weeks. my back is trying to tell me to take it easy. the other morning it told me, "ease up, there is a lot of season coming, you and i should sit here and rest and when i am ready to really get going i will let you know". i did not argue because i know my back has had me sprawled out on the floor in pain before and i did not want to go there. so my back is letting me plan on a time trial in Decorah this weekend. i hope to get a daily ride in this week to have some legs for that. also planning on a 50 mile race in Rochester on May 9th. i don't know what i was thinking to sign up for that (i think my longest race ever has been 15 or 16 miles) but i am looking forward to see how that goes.

The old Trek 990 has had quite a time the past few weeks. She will be 19 years old in October and was still using her original components. The shifters had barely worked for years and the brakes took about a block to come to a stop. I thought it would be fun (and necessary in the case of the brakes) to put new components on. It took more money than I planned but I got the new components on and the old girl was looking good and running like a top. I took her out for her first ride and it was good to have shifting and brakes running well for the first time in about 10 years. I decided to see what she could do while coming out of a curve. I pushed down hard with my left foot and all of the sudden got way too intimate with the top tube. What the?!?! Came scraping to a stop with my foot and looked down to see a broken crank arm. So now the old 990 has a shiny new crank arm on the left side along with her shiny new brakes and shifters. She's pretty happy. Here she is before a...

bought a pair of Pearl Izumi shoe covers in mid-January for $60. i love them but they both ripped in the sole within a month. took them in to Erik's Bike Shop today in hopes of a replacement as was told to contact Pearl Izumi. Here is my email to Pearl Izumi: I bought a pair of Pearl Izumi Booti’s in mid-January this year for $60. They are the Booti PI F9 Mountain Barrier size XL. I really like them but within a month of regular wear they were both ripping in the sole. It looks like they will not last many more rides. Please see the attached pictures. I took them in to the dealer that I bought them from (Eriks’s Bike Shop) in St. Louis Park, MN. They told me to contact you for a repair or replacement. Please advise on the next step to get these replaced or repaired. Thank you, xxxxxx This email came back from a Pearl Izumi robot in about 30 seconds (way faster then any human could have responded to): Hi Dan, Sorry to hear you're having a problem with one of our product...

finally got a chance to ride the beautiful roads around Afton yesterday. i have been wanting to get out there for a couple of years. took a bit of a chance with a back that was bad for a couple of days. funny enough the ride was the best my back felt over those 2 days and it has been better today. left Josh Collins house with Josh, Andy, and John. a great 26 mile loop at about 16.9 Av. with coffees in Afton and a couple great hills in the second half. thanks for a great ride JC, Andy, and John.

75 minutes. 21 miles. 16.6 Av. sometimes it's just too beautiful to go fast. much needed sun this morning. rode into a glorious sunrise and then back home with the sun rising at my back. weatherman Russ across the street says today is the last warm day and then dipping down. hope he's wrong but I'm ready if he isn't. felt like 43 at the start today. finally got a bike light in from China that i ordered in early Jan. seems good. fits well and secure. wasn't very dark when i started so i'll have to get out earlier to put the 900 lumins to a test.