Fat tires and drop bars — does it get any better than this?
Y’know, beaches are swell and volcanoes nifty, but there’s definitely something to be said for spending the first day of spring noodling around some familiar single-track on 700c wheels.
Palmer Park was packed, so I had to yield trail quite a bit — mountain bikers, dawdling hikers, one kid on horseback, led by her parents — but it was all good. Everyone was in a chatty mood, nobody was a dick, and Monday doesn’t come until tomorrow. I didn’t even fall off or anything, which always adds to the enjoyment.
As I waited for one pack of mountain bikers to clear a section one grinned, shouted “Crazy cyclo-crosser!” and slapped me on the shoulder as he passed.
“No brain, no pain,” I agreed before clipping in and carrying on.
Mad Blog Media 
March 20, 2011 at 4:47 pm |
We celebrated the Equinox by taking the tandem out for a couple hours of road miles. Whopee!
March 20, 2011 at 4:51 pm |
Clicked over to Ecopress. Good site, by the way.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/17/on-nuclear-power-regulating-our-reaction/?tpref=ecopressed
March 21, 2011 at 7:25 am |
Makes me miss my old B-stone MB-1 setup with drop bars for SoCal fireroads…but not a lot, since my LeMond Poprad is almost as good for dirt roads – which I rarely ride on…it’s mostly the winter bike. Sort of like a gas guzzling SUV, the old, “not that you would (drive off the pavement) but that you COULD” as the TV spots used to say.
Spring here arrived with howling winds and spitting rain over the weekend but I was out on the bike almost every weekday before this so can’t complain — and it’s less than six weeks before we’ll be in Italy anyway.
March 21, 2011 at 9:43 am |
Tomorrow (Tues) I bet I’ll have all the trails to myself. Forecast calls for 8+” of snow and 40 mph winds! Spring has arrived in northern Mn.
March 21, 2011 at 11:37 am |
I’m headed up to the Twin Cities at the end of the month Boz, should I NOT take off the gnarly winter tires on our ancient Mitsubishi? They’re noisy and I’d really rather drive up there on the “all-season” rubber — snow is all gone here on the brown plains of western Iowa. I’m hoping this could be the last winter we spend here.
March 21, 2011 at 11:48 am |
Larry – I’d leave ’em on. We’ve been known to get nasty storms all the way into May. You never know when the Cannuks will send down some polar air to collide with some moist southern air mass trying to kick start spring. I’m always cautious this time of year. After all, the old Minnesota joke is that we have 2 seasons : Winter and road construction!
March 21, 2011 at 5:24 pm |
I thought those were the seasons here in IOWA too! When I lived in Southern California the joke was we DID have four seasons – fire, flood, earthquake and riot were their names! As we might not have much use for the gnarly tires after this winter I suppose I’ll leave ’em on until early in April at least.
March 21, 2011 at 5:32 pm |
We used to have seasons in Colorado. Now we just have weather. You can be freezing your tits off on Memorial Day weekend and sunning same in February. The one constant lately seems to be a lack of measurable precipitation. And now that I’ve said that, we’re gonna get about four feet of snow all at once.
March 21, 2011 at 5:38 pm |
Lest we discuss bicycling too long, in honor of our latest attempt at national liberation in Libya, I offer a listen to the Fugs:
March 21, 2011 at 7:12 pm |
“Kill for Peace.” God love ya, Ed Sanders. And looky here … they’re still at it.
While we’re enjoying this blast from the past, did anyone notice Paul Krugman’s Monty Python reference in his takedown of Alan Greenspan yesterday?
March 22, 2011 at 10:10 am |
Back in the day with FEMA Region IX, Cally’s four seasons were earthquake, mudslide, fire, and riot.