The great Snowmageddonpocalypse Tsunami of death has come and gone here in North Carolina. Where I live, in the Triad, I didn’t get it as bad as some folks. I think at most, maybe four to six inches. Folks a bit north of me got somewhere in the neighborhood of a foot. Being from New England originally, for me, it wasn’t really that bad. I do pretty well at driving in snow and ice and I know how to prepare for a few days being snowed in.
The rest of North Carolina, not so much.
I don’t currently own a Diamondback bicycle. As a matter of fact, the last two I did own, they provided me with a fair bit of troubles. Mind you, this was all back in April, before I went under the knife for a bum ankle. The first one, the derailleur exploded after about 10 miles. The second, which they sent me as a replacement (I’ll get into that in a minute), it ended up having a small crack in the frame by the bottom bracket shell, right next to the drive side crank arm.
I’d still buy another one. In a second.
With my birthday being tomorrow, I got a little bit of unexpected cash from a family member and decided to treat myself to a birthday present. Obviously, given the nature of this blog, it’s fair to say that I rather enjoy bicycles…so I bought a new one.
Maybe this is a midlife crisis, or I’m trying to recapture some bygone era of my youth….but I bought a BMX. I’ll go into the specs later. I may even make it my first vlog, and do an unboxing.
I am a firm believer that a good multi tool is king. This is mostly because I hate pushing my bike. I’d much rather be pedaling it. Anything that can let me fix a (minor) mechanical on the side of the trail and get me back to rolling, I’m a pretty firm proponent of keeping around.
I’ve actually got a few multi tools floating around. A Spin Doctor, which is Performance’s in house brand. I think I’ve got a generic ebay one or two floating around here somewhere as well.
The Topeak is the one I keep in my bag for a few reasons:
This post is nothing super special, to be honest. I just thought I’d throw out a few pictures and specs on my bikes, you know, in case anyone cares to see what it is I pedal around on.
When I decided I wanted to try racing come the Summer, I realized a couple of things:
One, being laid up from surgery has left me horribly out of shape. Horribly.
Second, I really needed to fix that.
I figured, since a lot of my hope in writing this blog is for it to be a learning experience, that maybe by putting this out there, some folks that stumble across it might offer some tips, I figured I’d share what my “workout week” looks like. Granted, people may just tell me I’m a loser, I should probably kill myself, or try and sell me “Male enhancement products and/or pumps”. Or no one will ever see this and it will get lost in the massive void of cyberspace. This is the internet, after all.
There’s sort of an unwritten rule about cycling and coffee. To say they go hand in hand would be, well, a bit of an understatement. A ride, punctuated by a good cup of Joe, is somewhere between a wonderfully delicious carnal sin and godliness. Continue reading
So, to challenge myself and set a goal for the Summer when I can really get back into riding, I’ve set my sights on the Pisgah Enduro. It’s one of two goals, actually. The other is to ride up a mountain on my roadie. What can I say? I dream big. I’ve even put together a training regimen and everything. Now, I’m by no means a Physical Trainer, so I may end up shooting myself in the foot with it. That, however, is a story for another day. I’d rather talk (briefly) about the race and why I want to try it. Continue reading
Let’s be honest, Youtube is probably one of the greatest sites on the interwebs. The sheer amount of content on Youtube is mind boggling. You can literally learn everything from how to rebuild the engine of an AMC Gremlin from the ground up to more efficient ways to poop (seriously, go watch the squatty potty ad, it’s hysterical), and then there’s everything in between.
Given that I’m very much into bikes, cycling, and so on and so forth, that tends to be a lot of what I watch on the ole Tubes of You. So, with that in mind, I thought I’d offer up my five favorite YouTube cycling and cycling related channels, in no particular order:
This is a simple recipe for a protein shake that tastes, surprisingly enough, like Banana Pudding (Hence the title). I’m not sure if you’d consider this a smoothie, or a shake, but who cares? It tastes good. To be honest, it’s not much different from a million other similar recipes, but I dig it. Personally, I’ll whip one of these up either before or after a work out if I’m pressed for time and don’t have enough time to actually prepare a meal. Continue reading
Given this is my first post, I figure it’s proper form that I introduce myself, talk about what I’m going to, well, talk about, and all that jazz.
So, Let’s get this party started. This is my story: Continue reading
Average Guy on a Bike 