Time to try and organize another Breakfast Club MTB ride.   Most of the crew have more/less defected to the road or other clubs so  I didn't expect may riders.  I knew that Kent wanted to ride so I figured it would just be he and I.  To my surprise,  Mike and Dave were also there after my ride over.  

We do all the small talk stuff and off we go.   Kent is up front setting a pretty hot pace!   It's a good thing that I was warmed up from the ride over, otherwise I wouldn't have been happy.    Dave and Mike were having a pretty easy time of it, but I was struggling a bit trying to get those 2.35's to turn over.    Finally we are done with that initial double trak and we are on to the single trak.   Kent was still up front with Mike close behind.   Mike looked really comfortable sitting behind Kent and I was thinking that he probably has the most natural strength of everyone in the group....

Unfortunately my rear brakes were making all kinds of noise so I stopped a few times on the climb to try and fix it but all that did was put me further behind.    Dave had also had chain suck and had to stop once, but he quickly caught and passed Kent to set the new hotter pace.  Looks like Kent was able to hang pretty well, with Mike not too far back. 

At the summit we regrouped and rode as much of the techy stuff as we were comfy with.   Kent was doing the most aggressive stuff on his old school  Dale fitted with a 130mm  fork.    We did the rim rock stuff where the group split with Kent and I trying the Left route and Mike and Dave doing the right.    I probably should have done the right, cause I wasn't really feeling like climbing the technical rocks, but I figured I would keep Kent company.     It was challenging with neither of us able to clean all of it, despite a few do-overs.

On to the Blue sky trail but not before doing those nasty steps.  Kent just rolled them pretty easy, but the rest of us didn't.    I was happy to get onto the Blue Sky trail.    I am noticing that Kent and Dave are much better on switches than I am, so I need to go out and practice these.    Dave has gotten alot better with his descending skills and it was evident when he would get some gaps on Kent.

The Indian summer climb was on us and Dave set a good pace up the climb.    I was wishing for my Trek YSL which would have made this a walk in the park.  I was hemorrhaging watts all over the place and I wasn't sure how long I could keep this tempo.   At least I was warm at this point and the effort was almost welcome.   I did get to rest at the top when Dave flatted.

The descent from Indian summer was a blast.  Dave, Kent and I were all over that one.   Dave was flying and it was all Kent and I could to to stay with him.   I used to be able to walk away from him with the Yeti on this one, but I have to admit , there's no way I could have done that today.

Now it's over to the Devils BB trail head where we tried to clean some of the technical sections.    I have cleaned it in the past, but it's gotten more difficult.  Try as we might we couldn't  conquer it, despite way too many do-overs.

Back down and Dave is setting a good pace over to  the Indian summer loop which we wanted to do in reverse.  I don't know if  Dave was testing us but it was a pretty hard climb.   Kent and I were able to keep Dave insight  until the descent when he just checked out!   Kent was unable to stay with Dave and I made a few bobbles which let Kent get away.    I notice once again, that Dave and Kent can hold much more speed than I am comfortable doing on the switchbacks and they get a lot of time on me.   Dave's descent on this one was impressive, and probably the best display of descending skills that I have ever seen from him...

We climb towards  Coytoe where Kent amd Mike head back to their cars at the trail head and Dave and I take Blue Sky.    We stopped to make sure that this young woman was OK since she was making repairs....  I let Dave lead on this one since he was fresher than I was.   I hold his wheel for a bit, but I am burning too many matches to stay close.  I figure when we get to the sections where I can pump the bike that I will be able to bring him back, and this was the case.  

Now it's on to Lory and the trail is flowing nicely.  Dave is setting a comfortable pace and it's a beautiful day.  We make if over to the pump trak where we do a few laps.  Dave needs to spend some more time here, but I don't want to encourage that too much, cause if he learns to pump well I won't be able to keep my advange on some  trail sections. .    

Off we go and I am getting tired.   We take the road back and I am dreading that climb up Centinnial.   At about the 1/3 way point, Dave walks away from me and I don't even try to go with him.  I find myself wishing for the YSL again.  

Down the road and over to Maxwell and I follow Dave on this one.  Seems like Dave is getting tired as we are not letting the bikes run as before.  It's all good though and it gives me time to study some of Dave's lines on the couple of switch backs.     I can't say I learned anything on those, but I did see some areas where I think I have better line choices.....

Finnally out to the road and I am spent.  Well, not really spent but I have had enough riding.   We take it pretty easy on the way back and end up seeing Ron in the parking lot of the FCHS.    Ron says he did 100 miles with a 20 mph avg solo! .   He's still getting close to 300 miles per week!   We bid him adieu and head for our homes.

A good time was had by all.  ~ 45 miles and a lot of hours!   Only bummer is that my camera didn't save the pics I toook.... Oh well. 

  Another road ride and I am not sure that I am really up for any suffering.   Since Gale stated that she would keep it aerobic, then there's hope that things won't get too out of hand.   Seems that everyone this summer had a goal for some big rides and since I took it pretty easy, this puts me a bit behind in the necessary fitness to enjoy these rides as much as I could.

So I decide to ride over to Gale's in order to insure that I get some kinda warm-up.  True,  Gale does like a warm up but it seems like there are always a few folks that come there ready.    In some respects this ride is somewhat like racing.   The pace can be fast, but I mean, just like in racing someone is always feeling good and you have to be able to go with whatever move or suffer like a dog......  Now I not expecting this to happen but it's always a possibility...

So, a bunch of folks show up,  Gale, Peter, Ron, Sledge, Ed, Shawnee(sp?) Bruce etc.   There's the usual small talk and then it's off we go.   The 1st 10 minutes are good and then I don't know what happened.  Ok, that's not really true.   Like I stated earlier, someone is always feeling good.   I am not sure who was the 1st to hot up the pace, that  but there were plenty of folks guilty of stoking the fire....

I am smart enough not to have any party of driving this train, cause 1, my HR is already higher than I would like and there ain't no way I can hold that for 60 miles....   I find a way to get to the back of the line as much as possible, but at times it's not better back there cause folks are opening and snapping gaps closed.! 

We are traveling up 34 and the pace is pretty good.    I didn't get a chance to see what happened to Ed, but the word was he was mumbling something like,"I don't need any of this S%#$".     I am glad someone else besides me was suffering ....  Had I heard Ed say that I may have gone back with him

Finally we are off 34 and the group had splintered.  Gale was back, looking for Ed and the  group was motoring on.  I took this time to drop out of the group and chill.  I could see folks look back to see where we were, but it took them a while to slow to  pace where I was going to chase.   Gale didn't seem to have a problem with the boyz not slowing too much, but I am thinking that if I am going to ride alone I could have done that without all of the suffering..  OK, enough wining for now!

The ride continues with folks pushing the pace, but by now I am warmer and sitting in is OK.     Gale manages to stoke the fires and get the boyz to do some sprints to help get ride of some testosterone.  This helped some.  Sledge in any case was already beginning to cook!

As we head towards Lyons the pace is brisk and Peter, Ron, Bruce, Gale are all doing big tempo up front.  I think I saw the front maybe twice on the way down.  I am not proud of it but a man's got to know his limits.   There was a sprint on the way down where Peter took off and I went after him that was probably a mistake.   I wasn't close enough to get him, but it told me that I was capable of burning a few matches if need be.... .

Finally we are almost to Lyons and the testosterone is wearing off a bit.   Gale is short on time so we turn back after hitting 66 or whatever that road to Lyons is.   The group works fairly well to together now and  I am sure that I will be able to hold on.   I was pleased when Gale offered me a leadout on one of the hill sprints and that I was able to hold off Peter.   Yeah, I know I didn't do any work all day, but it was still fun.   Folks like Ron are doing 270 mile weeks and compared to my 50- 70 miles......

We make it back to Gales and Ron and I decide to get in a few more miles a go check out the races at CSU after getting some food.   There were only 6 racers there!  Kinda sad, but I don't thing the advertising was as good as it could have been... In any case  It was fun to cheer on Brad and Taft.  ...

Now I am one tired puppy! 80+ miles for me!  A good time was had by all.

OK, time to get out on the road again with a BC ride.  I had been having a few weeks of solo fun doing some MTB, SS fun.  I can't really remember when I did a road ride and well, most of the Old Guard of the BC has been doing other things ....

With the ride posted and it's time to see who will show up.  The weather is kinda iffy and it's a bit cold but it's OK.  A bit too wet for a good MTB ride so this is a good choice.   

Looks like Ron is the only one to sign in for this one and it's no surprise that he's the only other rider.  With just the 2 of us we decide to go and see if the Velo1guys are out and that we might catch them.  Well, we guessed wrong on the route they would take so we just decided to stick with the plan and do Cater.

The pace was pretty mellow for the most part, but I think I expended too much effort trying to stay within sight of Ron on the hogbacks.  Since I took the bike with the 23 cog, it was a bit of a grunt, but it should help my SS efforts so its all good.

We make it too Carter riding through some brief showers.  Its a lot colder than I thought it would be and it never did warm-up.  My hands were cold most of the day, and in hindsight I should have brought some heavier gloves.

We stopped at the new store at the top of the Carter Climb.  Ron got some food and we chatted with the clerk/owner.   There was a family there using a chess set to play checkers which I found amusing, but didn't let it show.   Anyway,  I am glad that we stopped since it gave me a chance to warm the hands a bit.  

Off and running again and it's no warmer.   We make the nice descent and head for home.  Without anymore riders the sprint wasn't worth it, bit we rode it pretty hard, but without any competitive spirit.

We decide to go and take the hogbacks back to Fort Collins.  Now for me this was a long ride since Ive only been doing 50..70 miles.    Ron on the other hand has been doing  250..270 miles per week and had hit 9000 miles for the past 12 months , so this would be a walk in the park for him.

On the way back some Euro-pro guy wearing just a soft cap passed us and Ron decided to test him on the 1st hogback.   This guy lifted his pace but didn't catch Ron, but he did put a lot of distance between me.  At this point I am pretty much spent but am OK to ride, but not to do any chasing...   

The rest of the ride was un-eventful.  It did warm-up a bit by now, but nowhere near the 57 degrees that was forecast.  Anyway a good time was had by us.

Another Fall and another Old Flowers road is upon us.   I haven't done this ride since I got the Yeti and I am looking forward to using some of  5 inches of suspension to bomb some of the rocky sections.

I meet Ron, Dave, Michael at the FCHS and we take 2 cars over to Stove Prairie.   We are some of the 1st to arrive, and are joined by, Gale, Scott, Todd, Mike, Bill, Mike, Mike.  Yes there are 4  Mikes on this ride!

After all of the Photos and intro's and small talk is over it's time to hit the trail.  We are all en-mass for about 1 minute before Ron and Scott go off the front.  It's not that they were going that fast it's just that the rest of us were just taking it easy.   Scott is training for Iron-Man Florida, so he needs to train and it was nice of Ron to keep him company.

So we are now in 3 groups, Scott & Ron,   most of us and  Mike and Mike and Mike? bringing up the rear.   Usually we regroup at the last gate before the rocky double trak but this didn't happen...  No biggie, just not what I expected.

We are  ramping up the effort as is dictated by the hills.  I can feel the extra weight of the Yeti, but it's not too bad cause I am not going hard.   Dave and Bill and Gale pass me on the 1st climb but I have no interest in staying with them cause I haven't been training and don't want to blowup before the end of the day. 

We go up and down and up and down.  I am not up front with the leaders so I don't know who the best climbers/descenders are.    We do regroup at the top of the  1st big climb as we wait for some of the others.   Everyone (11 of us) are finally there and some have time constraints so 3 Mikes turn back at this point.

Now we descend and play and the Yeti is performing super on the rocky descents.  Having that bike really inspires confidence.  Even in the air the bike feels at home even if the rider doesn't.    The descent was all too quick and now it's time to climb.  I have good hopes in cleaning all of the climbs ("Which I did").  The ground was damp which gave more traction and there were a bunch of folks who cleaned all of the hills today that had never done that before.

On the last descent towards Pingrie Park Rd   Dave and I were flying down the rocky stuff until Dave pinch flatted.  On minute he was with me and the next he was gone. At the time I didn't know what happened to him but  I knew Michael was behind him since he was on the only hard-tail and if in anything happened he would let us know.  In any case I slowed down a bit till the end....

We regroup again and Scott wants to do some more so we head toward White Pine.  Todd turns back since he was spent from riding dirt bikes the day before.   We sorta get lost and separated for a while but we eventually find everyone before it's time to head back.  It's amazing how all of those dirt roads start to look a like back there....

Ok,  time to head back and off  we go.  Now that I have gone half way it's time to push it a bit more and I join the melee for King of the Hill on this 1st ascent.    Michael was really impressive on this one as he walked off the front and   Scott, Bill, Ron etc couldn't even keep him in sight!    Try as I might, without the training  I am no match for the Big men and manage only a 5th place on this one after Michael, Scott, Bill, and Ron.   I must say that Ron wasn't his usual self  today, perhaps too many hard rides in the week(s) prior.

We regroup and now I am spent.   Everyone is all amp'd up now and the ride is turning into a race.    The ascents are really hard for me and I am starting to really tire.  I was following Michael on his hard tail on some of the descents after we got caught back and man was he fying.  I couldn't have gone any faster and  I was amazed how well that hard tail was descending.  We like different lines, so I had to give him some space so I could pick mine.. but it was fun just watching him.....   

After catching the group, it's game on again.  Gale had gone ahead,  but the group caught her as she has some chain suck to deal with.   Scott, Bill, MIchael check out and I could only see Ron and Dave in front of me.   I would make up ground on them when the ground fattens or pitched down but  on the ups I didn't have it to hang on.    I was just about to make contact with Dave on a quick down-up when I snapped my chain!  Ok Game-Over.

Gale comes by and waits with me while I make the repair.   After I get going I find that I have an issue with my front derailleur so all I have is the little chainring.  Gail gets a gap on me and I follow her on one of the descents but I can't reel her in.  I must say that on loose descents she descends as well or better than I do.  Hmmmm Not sure what;s she;s been doing but whatever it is, her skill set has really improved!

Now without the big chainrings, all I can do is hobble back to the cars.  My legs are tired anyway so it's not like even if I hadn't had any mechanicals that I would have been in the game anyway.  I would probably be writing about Dave walking away from me on some ascent and my will  being snapped or some such, but I am spared that.....

Finally back at the cars, and a good time was had by all.   Not sure I liked that  it was a hammer fest on the way back and that we didn't regroup at all but whatever!  Good thing no-one got hurt or  needed any assistance....

So, I joined meetup.com to see what's going on in the world of social networking.  There are all kinds of groups there such as hiking and biking and just plain old social.  A friend told me about this a few months ago, but I haven't been able to check out any "meetups" until last Sunday.

I wasn't  up for a long hard ride to Estes, so this is the perfect chance to do something new. Walter had posted a ride meetup at the Soderburg trail head for a 2 hour ride and this sounded perfect. 

I get up in the A.M and figure that I should ride there cause, well the price of gas is high and well I stiff have the fitness.    Unfortunately I find that I had a flat tire in the A.M, but I figured I had plenty of time since the meetup was at 11:00 and it was only 9:30.  Took me a few minutes to find a tube, but the fix was quick.  Turned out I had picked up some goat heads somewhere last week at the  Lory, probably the pump trak...

So  I ride over to the trail head and I am there early so I get some food and adjust the tire preasures.  Nice that some Racer Type asked me if I needed help while I was pumping up the tires, after letting out too much.    It's 11:00 and  hmmm, no-one is there yet so I go and strike up a conversation with some guy who also had a Yeti 575.  His was black...   Whle we were chatting the Meetup crowd arived.

Walter, Amy, Larry and Katlin introduced themselves and after a bit of chat about Yeti's etc we were off and running over to the Blue Sky trail.

The pace was nice and mellow,  just what I was looking for.   The trails were perfect and with the cloud cover and lower temps this was perfect for a trail ride. 

The group was nice and stayed together and waited often if someone got out front to far.  I tried not to lead as much as possible, cause well, I was out for a mellow ride and if I got up front  I might just fall into familiar rhythms.

It was refreshing to be able to chat  most of the time and to be able to look out and enjoy the terrain.   Everyone was so nice and warm and there were no egos here, just a few folks enjoying the trail.

We decide to do the Indian summer loop clockwise.   The group got a bit splintered on the ascent, but we regrouped 3/4 of the way up.  Nice to rest after trying to follow Walter.  Yeah I was able to stay with him, but it wasn't easy....   We took to the descent, but Amy got a flat on the way down.  Katlin had a tube so we made the repair and off we go again.

The descent was fun down and this was one of the few times I took to the front.  We regroup at the bottom and everyone was happy with the descent.   It was all too short as we had to climb up to the Coyote ridge intersection.

Time to rock and roll.   I take to the front but I loose my bite valve when my knee snagged it so I had to stop.   To the back and we are off and running.  This was a good chance to work on some technique when cornering.   The front end still a bit loose, and I am trying to find the right place to balance the weight so I can corner fast even when it's loose.... Haven't found the right spot yet...

On the way back  Walter gets a flat.  We 3 goat heads and it took us some time to get that all patched together again.   Larry comes back for us after we are going and says that Amy has a flat up the trail.   We  get Amy all patched and we are good to go.

The ride is just about over and I don't have time to do lunch cause the family is waiting.  I bid my new friends "good hunting", OK not really but it sounds more interesting than fond farewell. Assuming one is a BattleStar fan, if not then it probably sounds odd... but I digress.

A good time was had by all!   Bummer ,y camera was having issues,  I missed some good shots...

OK, So you probably think this has something to do with Leadville? Well no. 

So earlier in the year,  one of the Guys I ride with, "Vince"  had this thing about picking up the lead tire weights that he would find when we were waiting at stop lights.   This seemed like a good idea so I started picking up this lead too.  There's literally probably 100's of lbs of this stuff on our roads which probably gets washed or pushed into our water systems and since it's so heavy just sits and leaches it's toxicity into our environment.

Here's a pic of my collection so far this summer!  I am not sure what I am going to do with this stuff yet, but I am hoping a local tire shop or maybe the hazardous waste place has some place to dispose or recycle this.

Just think what an impact we might have if we all would help remove stuff like this.  Yeah I know it's toxic so use gloves and put it someplace sealed if you do decide to take up this call.

Guess its' been a while since I have written anything here.  Well I haven't been that motivated to write...

So CG in Wyoming is some place that I have never ridden.  After doing some of the Laramie Enduro course pre-ride with Ron, this told me that there's some good riding up in Wyoming so I jumped at the chance to hit some new trails.

Dave and I met,  Gale, Todd and Scott in Winsdor and we carvan'd up to CG.  The temps were perfect and life doesn't get much better.   While we were getting ready, I noticed that Scott and Todd were riding new mounts.    Scott was demo'ing a Specialized FS uint and Todd got himself one of those  Full Carbon Yeti FS race bikes.

We take off and the trails are sweet.   Single trak that flowed pretty well with the occasional technical area.   Dave and Todd were on fire, setting a good tempo up front.    I wasn't up for a hammerfest, and I was glad that this was going to be pretty mellow.

One fun thing about the ride is that we took some time to do some do-overs to improve our technical skills.   The rocky sections were pretty solid so there was plenty of traction here.  I was wishing that I had some of those elbow guards since I ended up scraping my forearm trying to clean something that Todd made look pretty easy.

Everyone was riding well and challenging their comfort levels along the way.  I was impressed with some of the stuff that, well everyone was able to ride.   There wasn't much that someone in the group didn't attempt, and most of the stuff was successfully negotiated. I am still so pleased with the Yeti 575 as it seems to do everything really well. Even with it's weight penalty, it's well worth having the extra margins it provides....

After our 1st little loop we went back to the cars for some refueling.   Dave noticed that Joe Bagely's tour truck was there.    I spoke to a woman from Houston that mentioned that there was  whole crew from Texas up here and that Joe was still out on the trails with the rest of the crew...

Time for us to go back out and ride some more.   I really like the trails up here, but they are a bit loose for my taste.   For some reason I am not that good at loose stuff and I haven't figured out the best way to weight the bike so that the front wheel doesn't push on occasion.  I have noticed that some of the BC boyz,  Ron and Kent in particular are much better at loose stuff.... 

We are under time pressure and we take to one of the new trails.   On the way there, Dave had some tire trouble where it got low and then when inflated was wobbling all over and the cause wasn't obvious to anyone.... So  we ended up on this trail with lots of switchbacks which always make me nervous.  Dave seems to have no problem easily working the swithces, but I am barely able to do some of the tight one's if at all.  I am pretty sure it's just me, something I will work on in the future.

This trail that we took was still under construction and Todd was enjoying himself with some of the tools of the trail.   After making it through all of the rough stuff, the group decided to take a different way back which included some dirt road.   We did make it back to the single trak, but it was loose.  Todd and Scott, Gale were moving briskly up front.  This loose stuff here was pressing the limits of my skills to go fast here.  Dave backed off the pace a bit, due to his tires washing all out a couple of times.

Back to the car finally and  I stop and see Joe Bagley's posse,  eating and enjoying a fine post ride time.  I spoke with Joe for a bit and he mentioned a Moab Kokapelli trip he was putting together and said I should think about it and  pass the word to my crew.

A good time was had by all.   Nice to do some new trails.   I wonder where all of the other MTBr's from the BC crew are though!

Another small but quality turnout for the Ginny trail ride.  Kent meets me in the lot and rolls up in his WRX.  Wicked looking ride with the bike hanging off the back.

While we are getting ready.  Randy from the 4:50 club rolls over to us as he and some of the 4:50 crew are finishing up.  We chat for a bit.  Also Chris is there, who was last mentioned on that Old Flowers ride where Matt got injured etc...

Kent and I take the easy loop and it really wasn't all that easy at points.  Kent is riding well and I really don't want to go as hard as he is, but it's OK.  We finish the short loop
and it's time to do the climb.

I get some food before the climb and we then we take off.  Kent takes the lead and is keeping a pretty hard tempo. Way harder than I would have been setting, but then again I am pretty lazy....

It's really hot, but we press on.  We chat with Chris on the way down and find out that Kent and Chris know a bunch of folks in common...

Off we go again and Kent comes to the realization that maybe we shouldn't have been going so hard.  I agree,so we continue but at a reduced pace.  We clean some tough sections and walk others.  I wish I hadn't gone so hard early on so i would have the spunk to clean more stuff.... but on the other hand, this
may save me from getting injured.

We make it to the high point and then continue on towards the fire road.  This is the 1st time I have gone that far.  This trail is much sweeter in this direction and we are having a
good time flowing it.

We grab some more food and turn around.  The flowing trail isn't as nice this direction, but it's all good.  We make the summit and start the descent.

Kent leads on the descent and with his newly Push'd and Dialed in suspension is moving much faster than last time we did this.  Kent is still way technically superior to me on the descent, but i am able to follow most of his lines.  I am pleased that I  cleaned the one section that I never have before.   I did lower my saddle for an extra measure of security, and at times I rode un-cliped.  I must say I don't like these pedals compared to the cheap campus ones as they don't grip as well!

Near the bottom of the descent Kent gets a flat.  We spend a ton of time doing the repair with lots of stuff going wrong. Probably 15+ minutes on this repair!  I am out of water at
this point, but it's all down hill anyway.

Finally back to the lot and a good time was had by all.

So, it's Thursday and time to do a TTH ("Tuesday- Thursday,HP ride").   I haven't done one in a few weeks and I not feeling 100%, but I need to ride....

The group decides to do "Derek's Dead End", named after some guy named Derek.  This route takes us down Harmony and North on CR5 etc.  

The group "about 12 of us"  is "Gruppo Compacto" up thru Tinmath, and no one really wants to work that hard.  I an happy since I am not-really-feeling it today, so I won't complain.

This is when we 1st see an officer who has pulled someone over on the South Bound lane.  We are on our best behavior as we pass him and make our way to CR 5.

I am hanging out near the back, am I must say, there are some guys just feathering the brakes instead up pulling out in to the wind a bit to slow themselves and then accelerating. which is making it kinda jerky back here..... Yeah, but I'll address this in a later blog maybe someday...

We reach   CR 14, head, West to the frontage road and the pace increased a bit, but it's not bad.  We come to "Vine"? slow down to about 7-10 mph and make a right turn.

"Sound of Sirens" behind us! and we are all pulled over.   One rider keeps going and I don't know what he was thinking.  Anyway, the officer tells us to sit tight as he goes up the road to retrieve the rider who really guilty of "failure to yield..."  

So now the officer and the recalcitrant return.  He asks if we know what we did.  He tells us that we made an illegal turn, by failing it stop before making the right hand turn.    I think he said something about us riding more than 2 abreast at some point, since he had been following us since CR5!

So, we get told that this is a $110 dollar fine for what we did.  This is being enforced since July 1st.   The officer "Brian Ficker" was actually pretty nice about the whole thing but he was firm.    He did say that we didn't need to come to a complete stop. but that we did need to slow down.   I don't think he could tell that we really did slow down, but... whatever".   He said something like,  "You have to give me something here to show that you are at least trying to cooperate".   He mentioned that his phone was ringing off the hook with traffic complaints against cyclists, and visa-versa....  Crotch rockets vs Cars,  Cars vs bikes etc.  

We listened politely and some folks asked some questions so we  could get more clarifications on the law. I don't remember all of the question and comments, but they were well articulated without any emotional content which was good.   We were told and we agreed to spread the word about this crackdown.

Lots of talk about safety and that we need to behave exactly like a car would.

The officer asked us if we were part of that Wednesday night group that rode in packs etc. He states that, "He suspects that we are".   We assumed that he was talking about the "Worlds", but I guess it could have been the peak to pub folks too.

So Notice has been served that no longer will any blatant disregard for the law be tolerated and Tickets will be given out.  Earlier in the ride  someone said that Mario had gotten a ticket last week for making a right onto Harmony from CR5 for $110 so, this is happening.

So, Officer Brian Ficker,  thanks us for listening and bids us a good afternoon and we do the same...

Now, we take off and are very cautious about stop signs....

All is good until  Ben punches it and I can't hold the pace and am shelled.....  I watch as the group slowly leaves me for dead.....  That's OK was I wasn't  feeling strong today....

Now for my Soapbox....

So, this whole traffic law thing reminds me of one of my early blogs where I questioned  whether the group  I was with should have blown a  Red light for whatever reason...... My thoughts weren't received well at the time, but I wonder if I had written that same blog today if the recption wouldn't have been different!...

Anyway, this crack down on "traffic law initiative" is going to change the way we ride, only slightly.   Now, competitive rides, such as TTH or Worlds or Oval may have to change their "Rules of Engagement".  Currently many competitive groups roll  traffic signs etc.  All it takes is someone to do this and pretty much many of whatever group will "follow suit".  It takes a rider who is strong in conviction to be able to just let the group if  they are  consistently engaging in unsafe practices.  

That being said, It could be argued that  Competitive rides are really akin to "Street Racing" which is technically illegal in some jurisdictions.   Sure bikes are pretty much not likely to break speed limits "Most of the Time", but following the strict letter of the Law, bikes are vehicles subject to the same rules as any other and so the competitive rides could be outlawed!    If might be difficult for the Law to prove you were racing, but I could imagine this being taken to the "really strict letter" and  drafting being outlawed since it's technically tailgating, which is not legal, in case you didn't know.

I know, no one's perfect here, and I'll be the 1st to admit that I am guilty of breaking the law so, I am not throwing stones...  We must clean up our act a a bit especially during these trying times with all the recent focus on cyclists.    I have seen a lot of  bad acts on the sides of  Motorists and Cyclitsts and it's only going to get worse unless the community as a whole starts to change their mind set on this.....

A lot of this stuff should be
common sense.   This means being predicable when we are out there and
that means following a common set of rules to make this so.  I won't even address the way many "Freds" ride, but they aren't helping us and they need to be educated about "Riding with Traffic" etc....

Nuff said here,  I think we pretty much need to just spread the word and think before we ride!

So,  My wife car's air conditioning isn't working.   For the past 2 years we have had it recharged and it's good until next summer.  Last time we took it to Spradley Barr (The one on Drake & College), they put dye in the system to help them find the leak which wasn't detectable.

So I take the car down there and they tell me that the condenser is bad.  Ok, sounds reasonable. They find some more stuff, like motor mounts, tie rod etc.  So they order the parts put it in and I pick up the car.    I turn on the air conditioning and figure while I am out I'll just go to the Performance bike shop since it's across the street.    I get no more than 100 yards and I hear this load, "PIIISSSSSSTTTTTT.  sound.  

Shitsy,  I pull over and see that there is green shit all over under the hood, over by the compressor.    So I take the car back immediatlely and explain the issue.   The Tech sees that the hose coming off the compressor has blown off.    While we are looking under the hood, I notice that the hose clamp to the radiator is in the middle of the hose!!! .  The Tech apologizes ("Not the guy who did the work, but the guy who took over after the original guy had taken leave cause his father passed....)   Nothing they can do, so I take the car home and bring it back in the A.M.

I bring the car back and the service manager, calls me later and tells me that the hose will be $125 with free labor.  Ok, that's almost reasonable. 

I get a call later in the week after they put the new hose on and the manager gives me this  story.  Well sir, "We put the new hose on and you clutch burned up and your compressor is bad".    What the frack is this I am thinking..   He give me the damages and say $800 on top of the +125 to fix this.  

So, what was once a small; leak turned into every major component in the air conditioning system being replaced!!   Somethings not right here.    My theory is that they are covering for someone who make a mistake and blew up my compressor and wrecked my clutch.

My theory, with some consult from my brother is that they were in a hurry and somehow got liquid in the compressor.  Besides them, IMHO not testing the fix the 1st time.. So the compressor tried to compress a liquid, which isn't compressible and the hose blew off the 1st time.  Now they put on the new hose, recharge the system , not evacuating the system properly and now we once again try to compress a liquid and this blows up my compressor and fried the clutch. 

Not, IMHO,  I shouldn't have to pay because they failed in so many area's.    The service manager says he'll give me a deal on parts on labor.  He says, "Well. on a car that  old.... yaya yada yada".  My thoughts are that they screwed up, and he new that they screwed up but is trying to cover his losses.   I keep my cool, and  since I have no proof of how they screwed up I don't have any leverage.

Several days later I get the car back and take it home.  On the way home I notice that the car is overheating!    I  check to see if I can get any heat out of the system, but there isn't any.   This tells me that we are low on radiator fluid.  I know that when I brought the car to them that this was not a problem.   I take the car back to them in the A.M and the service manager puts some coolant in the system and all is well.   He mentioned that he had someone test drive the car, so I can't believe any competent tech would not have noticed the temp guage in the red zone, which took all of 10 minutes to occur!

So, this is ridiculous $2000+,  I got screwed!   One things for sure I won't be taking my car back to them ever again!   Yeah, I hear you, so they screwed up once, maybe I should give them another chance?  Well this isn't the 1st time they screwed up.  Last time, they put on the wrong Oil filter on the car "I've got proof of that one" an it scraped the ground causing a massive oil leak.  When I took it too them they just tightened the filter....  Months later it happened again, that's when I noticed it was the wrong filter ("Too long") and the filter was warped from hitting the ground.  They should have noticed this....  Yeah, I've got more to say here but it's not worth wasting my time......  Ahh,, I feel better now..