Inspiration All Around

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The alarm went off at 4:30am yesterday and I fumbled my way to the tea kettle to press myself a nice strong cup of coffee. I wasn’t up this early go to work, or even to ride. I was branching out and heading down to the town lake to watch some friends compete in a triathlon. I was bringing the camera in hopes of getting a couple cool pictures of the sunrise over the city while I was at it. My dislike of tri-geeks is no secret. It is an attitude I have developed and refined over a decade of bike shop employment and dealing with the typical Tri customers. If you have ever spent time wrenching in a shop, you know where I’m coming from with this one.

I set all my prejudices aside yesterday, drank my coffee, snapped some pictures, and cheered on my friends out there suffering in the pain cave. It was interesting being there and just observing from afar. I saw $7000 carbon plastic bikes and dudes in banana hammocks wearing aero helmets. I saw scantly clad women parading around looking for attention. I saw super fit people completely enjoying some suffering and first timers finding out what it means to push themselves past any limit they thought they had. When I got home and reviewed my pictures, one stood out from the rest and gave me a little bit of inspiration:

run whatchu brung
Run what you brung. Forget the rest.

Later on in the evening I had the pleasure to see a wonderful artists, William Elliott Whitmore, perform live. One person on stage, making a whole lot of good music and telling stories with his lyrics. His love of family, pride in where he is from, and love of nature is inspiring to me every time I listen to his music. Check it out, it just might do the same for you.

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A couple other good songs here and here.

This is also my one hundred and first post and what a ride it has been so far. I cannot begin to describe how much the DC family inspires me on a daily basis. Thanks goes out to each and every one of you guys and gals for everything to this point. As long as you keep reading, I’ll keep writing my stories and telling my tales. So far this summer is looking to be pretty great and I can’t wait to bring you along.  Enjoy the day(don’t forget to call your mom!) and as always, keep it dirty…

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About dirty biker

I am a fan of singletrack, singlespeeds, single women and single malt. Currently in Carbondale, CO Follow on Instagram @dirty_biker

35 Replies to “Inspiration All Around”

  1. Yo DB I hear you on the disdain for tri-geeks. I have been in the sport since 1986 and I call them peacocks. But down inside they are no different than hipster fixies, the BMXrs, the mountain bikers, the roadies or anyone else that likes to ride and loves their bike. Every one of those groups has their attention seekers, the tatoos, the piercings, the boob job on the 4% body fat tri-geek chick, the gorilla suit, the baggies, the booze, the profanity laced posts, the pious, the lack of hair and the abundance of carbon. I am happy that you set aside your prejudice, leave it on the shelf, it took me years.

  2. A year ago I was starting a small tour in an unfamiliar city and forgot my trusty pressure gauge. So, i aired up with my lipstick pump to what felt close-ish and set off to find a shop to check them before starting out on the first of several long days.
    The shop I found was a dedicated Tri shop but hey, They use wheels too so in I went. After a short struggle with language issues I got across to the tech that I just wanted to air up and to check pressure.

    Then I watched with a mixture of horror and humour as the tech completely deflated both my tires trying to figure out how to use the pump. The first time he tried to connect the schraeder valve receiver to my presta valve. !!!
    oops. Deflation no. 1.
    Then after he inspected the presta valve (for what appeared to be the first time ever) he attempted to attach the correct receiver on the pump head and cocked that up also several times. if it had any pressure left from the first attempt it probably would have deflated again. Still, he persevered and finally got it connected, and voila. pump,pump it worked.
    Then he repeated the procedure for the other wheel minus the schraeder mix up. Complete deflation, followed by struggle, and finally success.

    The whole thing took about 20min. ..to check pressure on two road tires.

    i laughed for a good while about all the tri-geek stereotypes that nailed.

  3. i was so beat from the week i couldn’t make the WEW gig, i was jealous once again of Dirty and his adventures. keep us posted on all things Dirty…..looking forward to post #201,#301,#401,#501….and everything after that. VIVA LE BICYCLETTE….it brings the world together!

  4. …@kark…“After a short struggle with language issues…”…bwahahaha…after reading about your ‘experience’/slash/tri-avesty, i’m sure you could get results more quickly through sign language amongst the natives in eastern bumfuckistan or down in putolicka…

    …as far as inspiration, yep, that chick with the schwinn deserves props for doing what might not come as easily to her as it would to the hours-every-day dedicated types…

    …we, or at least some of us including moi, may be accused of chuckling at other kinds of bike riders at times but the fact is, if you’re out there doing it, that’s what counts…

    …ride a bike & you’re doing good for yourself & the world in general…

  5. Thanks Dirty! I dig it, you’re writing and shooting are things I look forward to. More BMX trails vids are always appreciated. They motivate me. I’ve also recently offered what road cycling experience I have to a new Tri guy because he said that the bike was his weakness. Hope he takes me up on it.

  6. It’s seems apparent then, that Dirty needs to do a Tri. DC would of course, fully support that endeavor.

  7. Agreed,

    full chorus of ‘Tri, Dirty, Tri”.

    The swim in the Gorilla suit would become that stuff of legends and the ‘banana hammocks’ comment is appropriate.

  8. @rhfd, I don’t think gorilla is trying to reign burrito supreme, but I might think otherwise if he were “racing” against 300 other gorillas. All kicking and slapping at each other. I think he might start smashing shit then.

  9. That’s right up there with

    ‘Charlie don’t surf’

    You could have your own tshirt.

  10. I like local tri, especially when some madman organises a Ironman distance race around his village – Limburg 226 – because he is mad.

    Small races have good barbecues and great beer (I am allowed one after a good race) not too many support stations and space without crowds where you can make friends with pain in peace.

    The bigger races, well they are good for personal best times, but they have more rules (can’t get naked in the bike park etc) and way too much support and assistance. And that’s where you see dudes quitting 50 miles into a 100 miles bike “because they are 10min behind their goal time”. Tri is for enjoyement of pain doing something that no sane person should do. Who cares about the time, just go out and kill yourself, for yourself, not for the bragging rights.
    And remember, Roth, just another race, South Africa, just another race, Kona, just another race…

  11. and the pics of them scantily clad wimmen? link, please. i shall give them the attention they crave.

  12. Love the pic of the Schwinn…that’s my attitude- doesn’t matter what brand of bike you’re on, just be on a bike.

  13. Durn burn you el jefe, ya beat me to it. Serves me right for having a job.

    And it’s “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try”.

    Yeah, I’m such a nerd.

  14. After I had posted it I was pretty sure I had gotten the particulars a little off. -1 nerd point for me.

  15. Your penance will be 20 viewings of “Star Wars Episode VI, Return of the Jedi”. Go and sin no more.

  16. Once you’ve finished there Sparky, the Turtle Gods have decreed that Dirty shall Tri & it is our responsibility to assist him on this endevour.

    For the swim I propose a nice mankini, (ala Borat), in DC colours, it’d look good against the Gorilla suit.

    The selection of cycling & running gear is still open to the list.

    I’m holding out for the ‘Dirty doeth TRI’ t shirts.

  17. I just never did understand the appeal of tri. If you like it, God bless. But to me, why anyone would want to go through all of that is a mystery.

  18. …triathlons are great – except for the running & swimming parts…

  19. I’ve never run a marathon or swum more than 2km outside the confines of a tri… Can’t see the point without a bike ride.

  20. I can’t see the point of getting off a bike to do anything else. Well, sleeping, obviously. Or drinkin’. Or-well, you know.

    But running? Please. The only reason I’m even comfortable with the existance of cross (now that it’s become an arena event) is that when you get off the bike, you at least take it with you.

    But running AWAY from your bike? Maybe I have abandonment issues or something, but it seems just plain wrong.

    And getting off your bike to go swimming? Only if you’re riding to the pool, and they have a poolside bar. But getting off a bike to go swimming in some drainage ditch or whatever that’s all full of ick? No, no, and oh HELL no, thankyouverymuch.

    But that’s just me. If it blows your skirt up, and especially if bikes is involved, rock on.

    Now where was I? Oh yes. Mmmmm, vodka…

  21. Eh. My friend calls triathletes ligers because he says that you can’t combine a bunch of things and call it a “sport.”

    I do know that it wasn’t always about people parading around with fancy equipment and implants. My parents lived in San Diego back when a bunch of lifeguards and Navy Seals would just get together and see who could run down the beach and swim back the fastest to see who owed who a drink that night.

    It’s difficult to have a real open water swim in AZ. Triathlons with ocean swims are actually pretty fun. Perhaps it weeds out certain types. When I lived in Virginia I’d go to Outer Banks, NC for a few and also compete on the coast of VA. There were times you’d see people crying on the shore because they were too scared to get into the surf, and you were pretty much guaranteed to get stung by at least one jellyfish. Also, there was always a keg party afterward.

  22. They do, here in Belgium we get multiple good beer on tap in the finish area with a good braai. Mind you, they have that at any sporting event you can think of.

    Running can be good, but even more so than on a bike, you need to be light… And same as bikes, you need to learn how to do it properly, most people just huff and puff along with the elegance of a wounded hippo. That is slow, that hurts the joints and that’s no fun. Swimming is a 100% concentration exercise, very similar to riding a TT, holding the form and doing everything right is 90% of job done. It can also be “faked” and only be a few minutes slower…
    The bike is the most important part of a triathlon, you need to go fast, recover from the swim, go fast, hydrate and eat, go fast, keep the legs in the sweet spot that allows to run after and go fast. The end result is that we look better than people who only run or cycle, and a little worse than swimmers.

    Plus we can use FUCK THE UCI illegal TT bikes in a race :)

    But yeah, there are a lot of douche bag events (and NO you are not an Ironman after a Half Ironman) and douche bag racers who forget that the aim is to race and have fun. But you get that in any sport.

  23. Tri dorks can be all trendy if that’s what tickles them (full-carbon Cervelos with carbon TT bars are thick as flies on the towpaths around here) and unfriendly (though I simply don’t understand why) but what bothers me is they’re unsafe. I see them wobbling down a crowded towpath at 22 mph with their hands on the aero bars— no brakes. What could possibly go wrong? Idiots.

  24. Tridorks look good? To other tridorks, maybe. Me, I’m old and hairy. But dammit, I FEEL good.

  25. Some days it’s just strange out there. Twice on the towpath today, I saw fast guys coming up behind me, feathered it and grabbed their wheels, only in both cases they were slashing between strollers and old ladies at 25 MPH. Assholes— I sat up and let them go. Guys like that are what give cyclists a bad name. If you wanna haul ass, go bang elbows with the angry, distracted SUV drivers, that’s what I do. Crowded towpaths are for gentle cruising and admiring the babes and shit. Then, out on East Lake, these two guys pulled up behind me and sat on for like six miles, never taking a pull.

  26. Some idiots do that, but they are not real athletes, let alone triathletes… Just show offs. If you wanna show off go do “real rides” with “real riders”, but you would have more problems intimidating them than strollers…

    A “real” athlete hits the trail/pool/road at 6am and is done by the time the strollers hit the paths. And at those times, it’s good to go for a “long and slow” run to oogle the honey momies – and their breast milk inflated “babies”.

    Anyhow, dangerous stupid behaviour like that (not the oogling) would get you kicked out of my team, with no refund, pretty fast.