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I took my last final exam of my second year of law school yesterday. I promptly followed that with a few drinks. I talked to a bunch of friends, watched a movie and slept like the dead. And, today, I actually had time to ride a bike.
I figured it was high time I got in with the cool kids and took a cellphone pic while riding a bike.
The legs are white and weak. The body soft. The mind is cluttered. But, god damn, was that some fun. One hour. 80 degrees. 42 x 19 fixed. I drank two bottles of water. I am no longer in showroom condition.
I should mention that is not a heart rate monitor strapped across my stem. It is wrist watch. The only thing my fat stupid ass needs to know while riding is what time it is. I am already well aware that; 1) I am slow, 2) my heart rate is surprisingly high, and 3) the average hamster produces more watts. There is nothing to see here, folks, please move along.
Tomorrow, I hope to do it again.
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…props to ya gianni…you deserve a ride…
…nice that you also took your pet raccoon out for the ride…
…oh, wait, sorry, i just realized that furry thing is your leg…my bad…
HOLLA! congrats jonny!! damn you got some hairy ass legs too! time to shave that shit off!
Leave the hair, be a man man man. Congrats on your return to two wheeled therapy!
You know you’re an over-the-hill cyclist when there’s more hair on the legs than on the face. Grats on completing year #2.
good job buddy
After years of shaving I now take great pride in riding with my legs in full pubic bloom. Because, really? Are you that fast or are you falling down at 50kpm that much?
Good day to roll, and I wouldn’t give too much credit to the average hamsters… theyre all juicin these days.
The ThNR is alive and well. Best to come out and get the legs and the liver back into fighting form.
One thing I shall say to the learning:
When you are smart, write.
When you are dumb, read.
When you are done with words, do.
Senna Littlejar, 2010
…and god damn, those wide pavement matrices. Those black patches that reflect funny with polarized sunglasses. Choose life, Jonny. Choose life.
Get the Burley and all the orange flags and poles and *boom* you’re on the protected list. If you ride it, the tan will come. What neighborhood is that?
the bike never disappointments. it always comes back to the bike. it is about the bike.
Yep, that’s looking like a Sasquatch sighting looming….
Good on ya !!
@Loren,
Absolutely. I race roads, I mountain bike & I commute on a bicycle, yet I still have these arseholes telling me that I’m not a real cyclist because I don’t shave.
I love this explaination,
“Shaved skin is both easier (for the masseur) and more comfortable (for the cyclist) to massage”
That’s so Gay, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Rear brake on a fixed gear? Not knocking it. Just something I’d never think to install.
Unless I ran freewheel on the flop. Nevermind.
good man. I just painted and re-built the KM. I’ll post pics at some point, I just have a lot going on right now.
10 AM Thursday. Mummy Mtn. Be there.
Joe – I like having two hoods to hold on to, and I own the pair of calipers. So, I threw it one. I used it to, braking as I normally would on a geared bike.
zMud – I missed you this week, sorry. And, I’ve got a class starting next week, Mon-Fri. Nice “break” I’ve got, eh? All of five days.
At least I can ride this week!
Hey Jonny, like I said, whatever works.
Me, I got two aero levers on my 1976 Raleigh Supercourse, but just a front brake. Thought I’d need the other hood for hand position, but I’m running a Nitto Noodle bar, and the ramp (the part where you put your hand behind the hood) is so roomy, I think I’ll put the original lever back on and use the aero levers on something else.
And I got Mary bars on the fixed gear Crosscheck, so just the one brake lever for the front(which I use a good bit since I’m running BMX pedals) is all I need.
Of course the fixed Monocog has just the one lever, but those are risers. Don’t ride it much because it’s always felt a little small and I’m not as flexible as I used to be. Still feels like a Porsche on dirt, though, but afterwards I’m sore for days.
And there’s the Schwinn Traveler. It’s getting built as a grocery getter with the big panniers and stuff. Four fixed gear bikes I’ve got. But I can quit any time I want.
Jonny, is there anything in this world more therapeutic than the first ride on a fixed gear when you haven’t been on any kind of a bike for awhile?
Joe, to answer your question: Probably not. It is simply fantastic. No thinking, just pedal. Perfect.
I love you.
Bravo!
Jonny-
Did you catch the Amgen Tour of California insert
with the latest mailing of Velonews? I think he needs
thicker panels above the padding insert on his racing shorts?
Brakes will help the knees last longer.
ugly, a FRONT brake on the fixed gear is a knee saver. Anything a rear brake ever did for me with a freewheel, I can do better on a fixed, just by resisting. It didn’t take me long on a fixed to realize that for me, a rear brake is redundant, just as a front brake is essential.
Heck, like I said, I run platforms on my fixed Crosscheck. With a good canti up front I don’t miss foot retention OR the rear brake. And it’s the one I ride the most. Love how it’s set up. And yes, I went brakeless awhile on another bike. On the flat dirt twotrack of our local canal towpath it was great, but my first trip to the city convinced me there was a better way.
But again, run whatever works for ya. Just one rule here: Bikes good. Me like.
canti brakes suck.
Nah, you just gotta be smarter than they are.