Happiness is a new bike

The new bike! And yes, those are cows.

She's a 47cm 2008 Cannondale Cross XR6. (Or X6. Or Cyclocross 6, depending upon which website you look at.) Whatever you call her, she's awesome. Still, being the person that I am, I can't be happy if I don't have something to fix and fiddle with. I had been planning on upgrading the Tiagra drivetrain to Sram Rival from the start, but today's ride convinced me. Moving up to the big ring took some time and effort (compared to the snappy Sram X9 I'm used to on my mountain bike) and I definitely need more than 26 teeth back there for the Hadley hills. I wasn't forced to get off the bike and push at any point, but not being able to spin made it difficult and a little frustrating.

I now find myself with more 700c tires than I know what to do with. I already owned some slicks, and this bike came with a set of knobbies AND semi-slicks. I guess I'm set for all sorts of conditions now. I'm excited to start customizing; first order up is some new color-coordinating bar tape and bottle cages (I'm thinking yellow?!) and a set of eggbeaters. Expect to see a veritable garage sale of parts up for sale as I begin fine-tuning this bike into precisely what I want it to be. I already threw on my Specialized Ruby saddle, so first up is the saddle it came with, a black Selle San Marco Ponza. If you want it, make me an offer!

This little boat launch is about a quarter mile off the road and the view (complete with swans!) makes it one of my favorite places to stop and have a snack.

Today's 19 mile dirt road loop was fun. I found myself feeling confident taking fast turns on gravel roads, and even though I was taking it easy, I hit 38mph several times on the roller coaster ride that is Fox Lake Road. Climbing was a bit of a drag with the gearing, but due to the relative light weight of the bike compared to the 29er, I made it work. It was a good ride, and fairly uneventful.

Well, except for the turkey on Fox Lake Road. Normally during a ride on back roads you see all kinds of animals crossing the road. Squirrels, deer, any number of birds, even cats. But rarely do you see them using the road as a thoroughfare, which is precisely what this turkey did. My bike must've startled it, and it started running down the road in front of me. This was at the start of a downhill, so naturally I started chasing it, figuring it would move out of the way. But it didn't. It just kept running in front of me, until I'd get really close. Then it lifted off for a few seconds at a time, gaining ground over me. I was really surprised at how fast the turkey was! This comical process repeated several times, for over a mile and over several hills. I never did catch the damn turkey. I'm just glad there was nobody around to laugh at me chasing a giant bird down the road.

I've been kind of stressed lately and this ride brought me perspective, some levity to my attitude, and really cheered me up. Funny how bikes can do that.

This weekend I'm thinking about doing cyclocross in Waterford. But, I hear that the giant orange thing with steps and a slide will be there, and frankly, I'm not too sure about that. It kind of scares me. We'll see.

The Fox Lake Odyssey

There are not many places in Michigan where you can go from needing the easiest granny gear to the big ring in less than a mile. Fox Lake Road is one of those places.

Today I set out with a goal: to conquer some hills. This area is riddled with lakes and ravines that make for some pretty extreme ups and downs. It all culminates around Fox Lake Road, where the Hadley Hills trail system starts. (I only recently learned it's closed to mountain bikes—equestrians only.) So, I planned a brand new 20 mile loop of dirt roads and hills. And conquer them I did. My max speed was 37 mph—not bad for a mountain bike on dirt roads.

And then I hit mile 11, about halfway through Fox Lake Road, where I saw this.

The pink arrow indicates where I *thought* the top of the hill was.

Then and there I should've turned around and found an alternate route. The sign was right—it truly was impassable on wheels. It's hard to tell from the blurry cell phone picture, but it was really, seriously, incredibly steep. The lowest granny gear could not get me up that hill. When I got to the area of the pink arrow, I realized it flattened out for about a quarter mile, and then took another steep incline...far steeper than the last:

Reaching the top of it (which I am now referring to as The Summit), I had hiked the bike .8 miles. I was being eaten alive by a variety of flying insects, and couldn't bear to pause to take pictures of what lied after this.

The "road" (because let's face it, at this point, I did not consider it a road, but rather the path to Mordor) narrowed even more, eventually turning into a soup of sand, fist-sized stones, and boulders that ranged 10-12" wide. A quick downhill period followed (which was more technical than any of the descents at Pontiac Lake), I hit 35.5 mph, and discovered yet another giant hill awaited me. It was about as steep and long as the first hill. Off the bike again. I cursed outloud.

After enduring that third peak, which put total hike-a-biking at just over a mile, the rest of the ride was gravy. Hills that would've annoyed me seemed like nothing more than anthills. I'm chalking it up to experience, and next time I ride those last two miles of Fox Lake Road, I'm bringing a sherpa.

Whether the weather be fine

Today marked the fourth day in a row of amazing riding weather here in Michigan. It has been unseasonably sunny, warm, and dry, which meant I didn't have to break out the gore-tex, nor full-fingered gloves, nor tights. It is a welcome change from riding in the 40-45ºF rain and mud. Along with the change in weather, I also got to take in a change of scenery. In Lansing there are barely any dents in the flat topography, but in the Hadley/Oxford area there are lots of rolling hills and long, winding dirt roads. On Saturday and Sunday I hit the aptly-named Hadley Hills, which was a great change of pace. Along the way I discovered two things: a new 19-mile dirt road loop near my parents' place, and that nothing beats a 29er on dirt roads. Also, my legs turned to mush. I'm not accustomed to hills...at all.

On Monday, I rode the river trail in Lansing with a friend. We were a little overdressed for the weather—I was in a merino wool jersey and he had on leg warmers. Looking at us, you wouldn't have guessed it was almost 70ºF out. In my defense, I was preparing for a chilly night ride home. Can't speak for the other guy. June was the last time I rode the river trail, and I forgot how annoying (loud) all the bridges are. But it was a really fun ride, I played tourist and saw some cool sights in downtown Lansing I hadn't seen before.

Today I was able to squeeze in a couple laps around Burchfield before heading off to class. I finally managed to pry myself off the pedals long enough to take a picture of Sybil. Normally I'll stop about twenty times on a ride to take pictures of random things—the fact that it has taken me almost two weeks to take one photo says volumes about how much I hate getting off this bike.

Beautiful view, huh?

Those pink bottle cages aren't permanent, they're getting replaced by white ones soon. I robbed them off the road bike (Alice, who has been more or less out of commission since Sybil's arrival), where they belong with the pink bar tape. And pedals.