Recent Events

hey guys,

this is just sort of a generic update, before it becomes longer between posts than it already has. the past few brocycle rides have been shortened to simple coffee hanging-outs because of the weather and everything. as such, we've talked about switching to sunday rides or something, but the people who have cast a vote either way continue to prefer thursday night rides. so if you guys want to just bundle up and keep doing the same thing, that seems like a good idea to me. on that note, if a few of you guys want to self-organize into a group ride on the weekends, that would be awesome. jon and rishi have both talked about doing a sunday morning thing. i know that brett and i are planning on doing 50+ miles on sundays from here on out, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the crew can't get together! a little brocycle autonomy would make it easier to pool everyone's desires, i think.

in other news, there have been a lot of unofficial night rides as of late. too many to blog about. brett and i have decided to train for a century (100 mile) ride, to be accomplished within a couple months. this is why we're out of sunday brocycle rides, because that's the only day we can both commit so many daytime hours to. on that note, we will be taking three night rides on weeknights, plus the chillaxed brocycle thursday night cruise. if any of you guys want to step up a little from brocycle cruises and put some easy miles in, you're welcome to join us on tuesdays, which will be our recovery ride, and not more than 20 miles, i'd think.

also, we've gained a couple of new members lately. rishi, who came out for the last brocycle coffee jaunt, and catherine, who is a UAB student and fellow urban cyclist. we're stoked to have you guys, and hopefully we'll see you at the next ride. and maybe if it's not cold and misting, we'll actually get a ride in this time!

--switch from group update to blog--

today, brett and i did our first hardcore ride. we left from my place and took niazuma east until it became montclaire, and then montclair until it became HWY78, and then 78 to leeds and beyond. the ride was relatively uneventful, beyond a flat... brett somehow managed to pick up a staple--yeah that's right, an office staple-- in his rear tire just outside of leeds. so we replaced the tube and pumped the thing up, taking shifts with my mini-pump, trying to get the shit to a good PSI. on brett's turn, he assumed the position with the wheel in his lap and went at the pump double-fisted... imagine a samurai kneeling before committing hara kiri... and proceeded to snap the valve stem off, immediately deflating the tube. either a faulty part or brett's gargantuan strength was the cause, depending on who you ask. luckily, i had packed two tubes, and so we did the whole thing over again and i went ahead and popped in the CO2 cartridge and inflated the mofo that way. the ride was solid from there on out. it was a beast of a headwind for the first 25, but that made the ride back that much easier. with a lot of 20+mph riding and a maniacal climb or two, we made good time on our way back across 78, through irondale and mountain brook village and up to chez lulu, where we enjoyed tuna melts and high fives. solid.

we calculate the total trip time to be somewhere between 3:45 and four hours, once we've factored out multiple stops for stretching, peeing, flats, and gas station refueling. overall trip length was a choad-punishing 55 miles.

i would love to see a lot of you guys come out for this thursday's ride... we're looking at the last weeks of tolerable weather, so let's get together, spread some love, and make them count!

solidarity!

p