Frustration

I has been a really busy week and I have really been looking forward to a break and some personal time doing the stuff I like to do such as; riding my bike. I made plans to ride this morning. The only thing between me and my bike ride was switching out some tires. My road riding these days is done on a mountain bike because my road frame I have is broken. A problem I intend on fixing later this season with a purchase of a new road frame. However, in the interim I was planning on just riding my slicks on the DEAN, which are currently on my Surly for commuting to work.

I could just ride the UST tires I have on my DEAN, but they are practically new and they are not a cheap tire to replace. I could have ridden my Surly, but the group was doing a road ride and the single speed was not appropriate. So, I opted to take the slicks off my Surly and put them on my DEAN. The swap was going as planned until I noticed the tire bead of my slicks was not sitting properly on my UST rim.

Ten minutes of fighting the bead and I could feel the frustration growing. At that point I walked away for a couple minutes. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth stressing about and I would just order some new slicks that will fit on my UST rim, which meant I wasn't going to ride with the group today. A hard pill to swallow as I was looking forward to the ride.

I walked back to the tires and wheels I had pulled apart and started putting things back together as they were. The Surly got the slicks back and the UST tires fit very nicely on my UST rims, once again. However, after an hour of mucking around I was officially right back where I started an hour ago. Very frustrating!

Did I at least learn a lesson? Sure, I did the right thing in walking away when the frustration started to well rather than trying to force the situation to work. And I'm going to start planning a bit better for my riding needs and getting the equipment I need to avoid these situations and the frustration that follows.

Finished

I spent some time this weekend building up a set of wheels for my teammate, Chris. This was my first time lacing WTB hubs to ZTR rims. I was very pleased at how quickly and accurately I was able to dial in the wheels. I'm certain they will ride even better than they look.

Update: I checked in with Chris yesterday and the wheels are treating him well. He has some even better photos of the wheels on his steed (here).

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The world needs ditch diggers too.

Due to the recent wind storms we've had along the Front Range a 20 foot section of fence fell down. I spent the morning and most of the afternoon digging... And digging... And digging some more. While I dug I kept thinking of a line from Caddy Shack when a caddy is speaking to a judge who is playing golf. The caddy explains to the judge about how expensive college is and how he won't be able to afford to attend. The judge looks the caddy in the eyes and says, "The world needs ditch diggers, too."

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Where Christmas Trees Go To Die

I dropped off the Christmas tree at the christmas tree graveyard. This particular drop off is mulched and used by the city.

I use to let it bother me that I would spend 70 bucks on a tree that is pretty for less than a month and then ends up in a place like this. Then I realized I spend that much on a tank of gas and it only get me to work a few times. Or I spend that much on food and we all know where that goes... Flush.

So after putting it in perspective, I consider my tree an annual donation to the city. Plus, from its death it nurtures new life. That is more than I can say about the gas I use every day.

BTW - Happy New Year!

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I'm back in the saddle.

My first day back in the saddle since my botched 24 hours of Moab attempt. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. It felt good to be back on the bike.

Well, three months of over indulgence and twenty pounds heavier, but I'm still weighing in less than this time last year. A couple months of riding and i'll be right back where I was.

I've been keeping busy, but I'm purposely keeping this post short since I'm writing it on my phone. The BlackBerry storm is awesome!

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