Nah, it was pretty quiet up my way.

NEW BIKE! Cool. What'd you go with?

Well, I haven't actually bought it yet. But I am nearing a decision (counting the days to a decision, I guess).

Buying an '03 Litespeed Tuscany frame, and building hopefully with Dura-Ace 10 (if I can get a good price); otherwise I'll probably buy an Ultegra 9 custom kit from COlorado Cyclist.

Their custom build kits are great, great deals - full component group, Ritchey handlebars, decent Douglas saddle/seatpost. The real seller, I'm sure, are the Velomax Ascent wheels. Never ridden them, but I've heard positive things.

The System
 

Very sexy bike.

So I tested out the system the last two days. It is about 1.5 hours in the saddle to work. I don't have time to ride 3 hours on any given day so Thursday I drove to work with the Trek on the roof. I rode home from work leaving the car in the lot. It was a sunny warm ride with a nice swath of new pavement on Powderhouse road. Powderhouse is one of the few smooth ascent/ decents around without any really steep sections. You can really mash the pedals along there. That is followed by a substantial climb up West Hill road. Then this morning I rode in in the fog and actually had the driver of a van pull up next to me to say my dayglo green jacket was all that. He went on and on about how well he could see it. Very Cool. Its nice to have a pleasant interaction with the car set. I got to work and accepted accolades far beyond the scope of the accomplishment but what the heck. Anyway it worked like a charm. I got to work in a really good mood and carried it through the day. :)

Shindagan Hollow
 

I rolled out early to meet the guys and ride Shindagan Hollow State Forest up near Ithaca (ten square miles surrounded by reality), NY. Fantastic ride if you've got the time to get up there. Miles and miles of single track and jeep trails.

Some of the local youts have put together something they call Area 51. It's basically a whole bunch of playground equipment for mtn bikers. Elevated ramps, jumps, teeter totters, log barriers and other stuff designed to break things. Brian and I had to hold our guts laughing at our bud Sam as he failed miserably on several obstacles we were too um sensible, thats it, sensible to attempt. I watched Sam load and attempted to unload his front wheel to hit a ramp properly except that when he loaded the wheel (put weight on it) he basically stuck it in the ground. His rear wheel came almost 2 feet off the ground and he was pedalling like a cartoon when he biffed, freaking hilarious.

The real joy was in the single-track though. I'm finally in decent shape and was able to hammer the full time we were there. Usually you get tired and you start making foolish mistakes which cost blood and treasure but today everthing was clicking perfectly.

Couldn't have asked for better weather, today? Freakin' beautiful here in NYC ... I got out for 60 miles, which felt fantastic because I haven't done that much mileage since mid-summer. Up to the GW bridge, over to Jersey and up 9W (Palisades Pkwy) to the NY border. Now there are always 5,000 cyclists on the route, and if I'm riding solo I usually link up with a group within the first 10 miles or so. But as many riders as I saw going the opposite direction, I never caught a single rider on my side of the road (except for one older lady). That really sucked too, because it was pretty windy at one point. Oh well.

I almost spilled going from grooved to fresh pavement on Riverside Dr. A car came flying up my left side and squeezed me into a nasty rut. Not fun.

But I felt awesome after the ride, despite having a raging hangover. Then I wandered over to Central Park and parked it on the great lawn, and saw quite a few hotties sunbathing in bikinis. Gotta love that ghetto urban lifestyle. :)

I do some biking myself. Actually I only really started this year an did about 500km during the summer. I'm more the swimmer and runner, but i'd like to do some triathlon.
So last week I did my first race : 106km. I never did as much. And the first 80km were very pretty, because there was a lot of plain riding in group and you just do incredible speed (roughly 2h45 for 80km). The last 2 were very hard, I got real problems and had to stop for 1/2 hour, due to cramps. I pushed my bycicle for 5km uphill. I couldn't ride. So I finished after 4:46. It's okay with me. This race is very popular in Luxembourg, named after our best racer ever : http://www.lacharlygaul.lu/ (sorry only in french or german) I did B-Race with 106km and 1100m heigh differences. Very nice and not so easy.
I own a Trek 1500, bought it for about 1500€. But I'm not very happy, I had to change some pieces and also the chain (too short). I think I also have to change the handlebars...

:thumb: Well, I bought a Burley Encore last night, and took the munchkin on her first ride. I was so excited I didn't even care it was sprinkling. She loved it!! After the first big hill, all I heard was: more! more! MORE!!! Now I can ride whenever I want, so long as I bring Blankie and plenty of fruit snacks! Go me!

Very Cool. Make sure you put a really obnoxious flag on there so you're seen by the gas burners. We had one (burley cart) when our youts were little, its good fun if they are entertained or asleep. :D

Whenever I am walking on certain trails, it makes me wonder how many kids are growing up looking at their dad's ass.

or mom's :D

friday did 9 mi, sat, 10mi with kid in tow. it was great. she had her baggie of cereal, sippy cup, a book, Blankie, and Puppy and still plenty of room for her. On sat's ride i stopped at a park and let her play off some steam. while we were there a couple of boys put up a chair with a sign by the side of the road that said basically "wanna go with us to homecoming?" lots of people honked, and i might have offered to go if i thought i could still fit into an old formal dress. went for a run Sun instead since my tush was too sore. trees along the trail were really pretty now that they are changing. sorry, no pics. i'll have to talk my hubby into bringing his work camera home some night so i can get one of my rig. hope the weekend was as great for all of you!

You are so lucky! My own children hated the bike trailer and after the maiden voyage could never be coaxed into it again. I'm still bitter about it too....

Duct tape Jinx, remember the duct tape. ;)

Fall Rides
 

I broke out the wool yesterday. A little rain, very little sleet, wind gusts, and police patrols... all in all a perfect day for a ride. The rain/sleet in my eyes kept me from my normal 45-50mph descent through a 30mph zone, which was fortunate since SP Officer Bacon was on the scene. I had a tough head wind coming down powdwerhouse which forced me to pedal harder and I had a tail wind going up Powderhouse which gave me life causing me to pedal harder. By the time I finished my 3 hour cruise my thighs were completely burned, perfect. I'm gonna search the net for cold weather gear cuz that friggin rocked. g

Watched my buddy trash his old GT frame on a ramp today, ugly ugly wipe. He was coming down off it and stuck his front wheel something had to give, at least it wasn't his neck. GTs old frames were practically bullet proof but enough hits over enough years and it had to crumple. Met a couple guys with a map of Shindagin, turns out there is a 15 mile loop we hadn't found yet... must keep riding.

Sat was REALLY windy but almost 70F here, so I took out LO (little one) for about 2.5 hrs. We went to the library and got some books and videos about real animals (why must there be so many cartoons????); stopped at FAREWAY and got groceries to make monster cookies (where I left my wallet to be retrieved this morning. lucky girl); then stopped at a park and went down the slide 50 million times. After all of that, when we got home, she refused to get out of her Burley. So, she sat in it another 20 min while I put stuff away and got lunch ready. Definately $$ well spent. Was a great morning. My tush gives me no troubles anymore, so that makes it a lot more pleasant. (original seat) Was thinking about getting an indoor trainer to keep up what progress I've made over the winter, anyone have any experience with these? Waste of money? Worth their weight in gold? Hoping to do another triathalon before I get knocked up and have to be off again for another 2 years.