Until today the weather has been somewhat agreeable the past couple weeks which has enabled me to get in two back-to-back 350+ mile weeks. For me, I actually feel and perform better the more I ride so at last I'm riding and feeling good.
Yesterday I had the esteemed pleasure of being part of the pseudo-organized mayhem known as the Judson ride. With killer cross/head/tail winds it wasn't a particularly nice day but decent enough until I managed to get myself an unintentional ass massage and busted wheel when I nailed a pothole large enough to have it's own zip code. Yeah - I broke my wheel. My Zipp 404 (with wireless Power Tap hub, no less). That is going to be a costly repair - like close to $1000. Over a freaking pothole. I was planning to have it rebuilt after the end of this season, hoping it would survive a few more months but the pothole gods had something else in mind for me. Fortunately the guys I was with were empathetic (for a few minutes anyway - they started killing it once they realized the wheel was ride-able) and made sure I got back to Evanston. Ted was kind enough to loan me a wheel to get home on after dropping my busted Zipp off at the Pony Shop. Thanks Ted!
It's become abundantly clear to me that riding on nice equipment around here is just not a smart idea. I have a deep appreciation for blingin' stuff and I'm the first to oooh and ahhh over superlight, supersexy bike parts but it really doesn't make sense for me to own and use such equipment when it's so easy to damage said stuff. I like to think I take reasonably good care of my bikes and gear - I keep it clean and maintained the best I can. The bottom line is that cycling is an expensive sport and having quality equipment is important - which means choking up the $$ from time to time is part of the game.
Yesterday I had the esteemed pleasure of being part of the pseudo-organized mayhem known as the Judson ride. With killer cross/head/tail winds it wasn't a particularly nice day but decent enough until I managed to get myself an unintentional ass massage and busted wheel when I nailed a pothole large enough to have it's own zip code. Yeah - I broke my wheel. My Zipp 404 (with wireless Power Tap hub, no less). That is going to be a costly repair - like close to $1000. Over a freaking pothole. I was planning to have it rebuilt after the end of this season, hoping it would survive a few more months but the pothole gods had something else in mind for me. Fortunately the guys I was with were empathetic (for a few minutes anyway - they started killing it once they realized the wheel was ride-able) and made sure I got back to Evanston. Ted was kind enough to loan me a wheel to get home on after dropping my busted Zipp off at the Pony Shop. Thanks Ted!
It's become abundantly clear to me that riding on nice equipment around here is just not a smart idea. I have a deep appreciation for blingin' stuff and I'm the first to oooh and ahhh over superlight, supersexy bike parts but it really doesn't make sense for me to own and use such equipment when it's so easy to damage said stuff. I like to think I take reasonably good care of my bikes and gear - I keep it clean and maintained the best I can. The bottom line is that cycling is an expensive sport and having quality equipment is important - which means choking up the $$ from time to time is part of the game.
