This is from last nights Wheels of Glory III. In the first round I rode 1.24 miles in 2.5 minutes. It was the overall high but I lost in the second round by about .01 of a mile.

It was a lot of fun...

2009
Time to resume my blog.
Last year was busy but I wasn't very inspired to keep up with this.
Most of my bike miles last year were at work but I did get some recreational riding in. I didn't keep accurate records but it was over 4,000 miles total. The recreational rides were not organized rides by Trailnet or Hostelling International but maybe this year I'll be able to ride some of those. There was a couple of fund raising rides. One started out as a 220 mile ride that we were going to complete in 36 hours, without sleep. Mother nature, goodyear, a vampire butterfly, some suicidal frogs and a killer turtle had other plans for us. We only got 120 miles in 24 hours.
My first Moonlight Fiasco was last year in November.
Oh one more big event, the Ride 64 ride. December 14th we rode on the newly finished highway 64 the day before it opened. It turned out to be a great event!

This year I plan to keep track of my bicycling adventures and anything bike related. So far this year I've attended the 7th annual St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation's Swap/expo, the North American Handmade Bike Show in Indianapolis and Bicycle Day at Jefferson City, MO. Patty, Kevin and Jackson are going to Washington D. C. for the Bicycle Summit.
Also, I participated in two of Will Cycle for Charity's, Wheels of Glory races at Atomic Cowboy. The last Wheels of Glory race is Wednesday March 11th at 7 pm. That also happens to be a Moonlight Fiasco night.

I'm considering trying to ride one century a month starting in March. It will be mainly self-supported rides. More on that later.

This year I've also decided to restore/rebuild my vintage 1981 Trek 710. The frame was purchased in March of 83 for $325.00. Its been painted a couple of times, stolen once and ridden for thousands of miles. So its time to restore it. The Stronglight roller bearing headset that was on it, is going to stay. Also the Dura Ace seatpost, I just like the way it looks. It was stripped and painted by a company in Fenton, a dark blue with metal flake. It looks great but its starting to chip. Not sure what to do about that. It didn't start chipping until the decals were placed on it.

This is what it looked like in 2006, after 6 centuries and 23 years of hard riding.


Most all Dura Ace, including Dura Ace Biopace chainrings!!? and of course a Brooks Saddle.

This is what arrived in the mail today;



and on the inside...


It has an adjustable chain line feature. Very cool.

These shifters were purchased at this year's StL Bike Fed Swap/Expo (thanks Tyler).


Sparkly paint job!

Oh and one more part,


The front Derailler.

This is going to be fun building. I've used the parts from this bike and some extras that were laying around and built a stand in to ride while I'm getting this one finished. It will take a while to do. Money is short and NOS Suntour parts aren't easy to find.

Happy New Year!

2007 was a recovery year for me. I did ride a lot. I started a new job in July with the St. Louis downtown Partnership as a Bicycle Guide. I average about 20 miles a day and I rode until the last week of December. I didn't really keep track of my milage last year, as i said it was a recovery year. December of 06 I started having problems with my right hip. I think it was a result of my fall while riding the Beer and Brat Century.

I am starting this blog again and I will probably add stories about work and post pictures of my bike projects. I have 6 new bikes. 4 Schwinns a Huffy and an AMC. Some of them will be projects and some I may just end up selling.

I have just finished a "fixie" for Kevin. It is an Austro Daimler. Its dark blue and looks really nice (pictures to follow).

The swap meet is three weeks away. I hope to pick up a few good sales...oh and pictures too.

Final Century for the year?

Camp Hihaska make-up ride
Saturday October 7th

Two century rides in two weeks. Not much down time in between. But I did it. I rode in 5 Centuries for the Gateway Council's 5 Star Century Challange. I actually did 6 centuries with the Ride the Rivers Century thrown in for good luck but I didn't get credit for it from the HI people.

It was a cold day for a ride. I wore my wool socks and all my cold weather gear. It warmed up enough so that I just wore tights and my Bad Dog Jersey in the afternoon. Its great country down South in Bourbon Missouri with rolling hills and alot of coountry roads. It also has alot more dogs as well. I was chased by more dogs this ride thatn all of my other rides put together. I also met a woman who rode in the Beer and Brat Century. She also fell on the gravel at the first rest stop. We had matching road rash scars (mine is bigger).

I did this by myself (I found out later that other Chain Gang riders were there) and there were about thirty others who missed the Sandy Creek ride who rode as well.

Stats; Dst: 100 miles, Avs: 14.6, Mx: 39.5, Tm: 6:30

My average went way down from the first century. I always thought it should get better but it didn't. I'm not sure why.

I don't know if I'll do another 5 ride year or not, we'll have to see what next year brings.

One thing I know is I'm going to be wearing my Chain Gang Jersey to all the Centuries I ride in.

Ride the Rivers Century
October 1, 2006

It was a great ride. Tom and I met early in the parking lot of the Tap Room. This was a good sign, we were going to end in the parking lot of one of the best micro breweries in St. Louis. We also got a free beer ticket to use when we were finished. The great people of Trailnet also gave us socks as the ride premium and as I was wearing my sandles I was glad to have the socks.

We started riding West through St. Louis and headed to St. Peters and the Missouri River. The food for this ride was great. Normally you get the usual cookies and banannas but on this ride there was clif bars, apples, orange slices, oreos, trail mix and enough so every one got as much as they needed.

At the fist rest stop I saw Bob Foster who had a broken spoke on his front wheel. He left the rest stop after Tom and I did and finished the ride with a broken spoke and the front tire wobbling. He is a better man than me...

Well the first half of the ride was hilly and very scenic. Very peaceful and a great ride. We crossed over two rivers on ferries. The Golden Eagle and the Brussels ferries. The Golden Eagle ferry has a fee for crossing but the organisers took care of that and the Brussels ferry is free. After crossing the Big Muddy (the Mississippi) we went through Pier Marquette State Park and arrived in Grafton for lunch. It was sandwiches but you got a choice and it was made to order for you. The bathroom accomindations were lacking but the stop was really nice.

After lunch we rode South on the River Road out of Grafton to Alton. I've ridden this many times in the past but it was always earlier in the day. We were in the midday sun and against the wind. It seemed like we rode for 40 miles this way and I was getting tired but I had the Tap Room to inspire me to finish.

Once we were out of Alton we took stayed on the levys along the river until we got to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. We then took the River front path to Laclede's Landing. There was a couple of events going on at the same time and we actually got stuck in traffic on our bikes.

Tom and I arrived at the finish around seven hours after we started, thirsty and tired.

Stats; Dst: 100 miles, Avs: 15.1, Mx: 32.5, Tm: 6:25