Back from Florida, back on the bikes...

I got home from Florida about two weeks ago, and as usual, the weather followed me back. My work schedule plus the extreme temperatures (with the heat index topping off at 111ºF!) kept me off the bike for most of those two weeks, but never fear, I am back riding again.

Most of those rides were on a new single speed I got for riding around campus. (I'm going back to MSU, in case you didn't know! I can't remember if I mentioned it here...) The decision to get a single speed was based on several factors, but mostly I just wanted a simple bike to get me around the flat town of East Lansing. It goes against my morals to clod around on a 40 pound mountain bike from Walmart, so for about only $50 more I bought the cheapest bike on Nashbar and put it together myself.

No bike of mine is complete without some pink, so I threw on some hot pink Oury grips and called it a day. (I also tore off the cheap houndstooth stickers that came on it.) The whole thing, complete with fancy-pants grips, cost me $213. I think it's a pretty decent bike for being pretty cheap. There are more tweaks I want to do (like getting a seatpost and saddle for it that don't suck), but all that can wait.

I'm in a minor dilemma about the pedals. For a campus bike, platform is okay, and maybe preferable. I hate riding without clipless pedals, but I don't want to come back from class and realize my means of putting power to the cranks has been stolen. I've been thinking about throwing some toe clips on there, but I dunno. Worth it? I also figure, if I want to take it to the track, I can just put my spare set of Speedplays on it. (That's another thing I like about this bike—flip the rear wheel and throw on some drop bars...boom, super cheap track bike.) Speaking of the track...

I'm officially digging it. Had my first track experience today, and it was awesome! It's been a while since I've had that much fun on a bike. I can't wait to go back.

There was one small hitch: about halfway through when we were doing some paceline exercises, all of a sudden I noticed my right pedal didn't feel quite...right. I promptly moved off the track and onto the infield, only to discover my pedal was hanging on by a thread. Literally, one thread. The rest were stripped out.

I believe the appropriate reaction is "EEP!"

After a quick swap, I was off riding again. I find myself wondering why I didn't try it before, especially since my boyfriend (who I've occasionally mentioned on this blog as TrainerDan™) started prodding me to give it a try over a year ago. What can I say? I may be late to the party, but I'm glad I'm here.

Hi there!

Oops...it's been a while since I've wrote anything. I'm in Florida again and having a great time, though as usual, missing my bike. I can't say the weather has been very nice this time around though, so I don't think I'd be enjoying it much if I had it.

Simply put, last Saturday we survived what was easily the most scary experience of my life. The boat (Morris) was anchored out on a beautiful piece of water near Jewfish Key. We were perfectly situated to see the fireworks show—along with at least fifty other boats. We saw the storm coming, but I underestimated how swift and powerful it would be.

The calm before the storm

Dan and I were watching the fireworks and lighting off in the distance when the rain hit as if someone turned the hose on at full blast. An instant later, the wind arrived. Small, open motor boats were crashing into us and much larger boats were losing their hold and drifting right past us. Feeling the wind force the boat over 45° degrees is terrifying.

Overall, we fared pretty well—no damage to the boat and no damage to us. That big boat in the photo above nearly hit a boathouse behind us, other sailboats were knocked over so far their windows were submerged, and there was a lot of yelling over tangled anchor line once the storm passed. At least one boat ended up on the beach. I've seen some pretty awesome storms roll in off Lake Michigan, but this takes the cake. We later found out from one of the other boats that winds were in excess of 90mph that night.

Me on Morris

Even now, the weather's not that great. It started raining yesterday evening, and it hasn't stopped since. More wind, more lightning, more water. My Marmot Precip jacket is getting a workout, and I'm beginning to think it's monsoon season.