Month: April 2010

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Sunday Dirt – 100k Pre-Ride

The usual suspects (and a new face!) rode a preview of the dirt on the Cafe Cruise 100k Populaire that I’m running in collaboration with the New England Randonneurs on June 13th. The ride is being billed as a VT ‘Intro to Rando’ – we start in Burlington, head to Richmond for the wonderful On the Rise bakery, then climb up to Jericho for the Village Cup. Rough guess is that the route is 50%+ dirt, with one section of single track (doable on a ‘road’ bike).

Official route is pending RUSA certification and I’ll have more information up on the NERds website (and over there –>> in my ‘pages’) in a week or two after work and travel and house finding settle down. Also look for a return of the Champlain 200k/300k (and some more pictures here) with chartered bike ferry and the first official running of the Fall Dirt 200k.

And I should note: physics cannot be avoided. The climb from the river on Stage Rd. hurt. In a good way. If you like suffering as an out of shape, out of form, still looking for a house, stressed out parent of a two year old… excuses excuses.

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Tweak

H-Bars on the Soma

A small tweak. New Titec Jones H-Bars on the Soma Juice. I threw the Ergons on as I ran out of time to tape. So far I like them over the Soma Odin bar. Time will tell.

Enjoyed a really slow roll on the lakefront Monday morning. Was under geared for flat riding – so I cruised along at whatever speed 32/19 would take me. Listened to the birds. Watched cormorants fishing. Sat by the lake. Slow bicycle movement – maybe I should sign up.

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Recent Snaps

Random, in no particular order or category. Can’t wait to find a place to live. Then to pack, move, unpack and feel settled. Sigh.

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Dirt Spam

My postings titled ‘Sunday Dirt’ triggered a filter somewhere on several spambot search functions. Checking in on my comment filters this morning had a slew of trapped comments linking littlecircles to vacuum cleaner bags, house cleaning information, and soil remediation. Sad, that I get more action from robots than from readers.

Oh Jim, Where art thou?

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Sunday Dirt

3/4 usual suspects took to some dirt north of town on a cold gray morning. The dirt felt like oatmeal – smooth and slick in some spots – but a drag on the tires for sure. 43 some odd miles from house to John’s for the neutral coffee garage start and back. Was a pleasure to blow off some housing steam and start to feel human again.

(photo courtesy of Mr. McM. and his iPhone)

And there is some hope on the housing front. But I’m waiting to get excited until we start moving furniture and unpacking…

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Rainy Gray Saturday Morning

Not much riding lately. Housing search complicates life along with the roller coaster ride of finding a place, putting in an offer, and having the reality of an inspection dash our hopes. Wish there was some magic document that would show a history of materials and improvements that people have made to their homes over their life. Poor decisions made by previous owners are then passed on (often unseen) and inherited by future owners. We are investing a large chunk of savings and future income – and folks wonder why we ask so many questions and are particular about electrical systems meeting code (basic safety things!), cracked chimneys, water damage in all the basements we’ve seen, window upgrades, ancient furnaces, and the list goes on. (It doesn’t help that I’ve lived and worked in the hand crafted and custom home building world for the better part of my life…)

Burlington – we love you and want desperately to stay in town… but your housing prices are outrageous for the quality we’ve seen. As a working family its hard for me to see how others make it work – the college market hyper inflates prices in an already tight market. Lovely Victorians and Colonials hacked to pieces by the college slum lords… and the smaller, odder pieces inflated to pre-bubble levels left for the folks who want to put down roots and stick around for more than four years.

But, Saturday mornings with my sweetie make it all seem worth it. Strawberries, heart pancakes, and a big smile. Time to color on recycled architectural prints…!