Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Commuting miles... setting goals.. and funny shit.

I rode to Tampa the other day to wait in line to pay for a traffic ticket... damnit... and I rode to Downtown St. Pete yesterday to see the little woman at school. I rode in today and home from work and Im at about 320 miles for the month... and ive got two more days! I think I can make it to 400... I have about 60 in commuting left to do so im close... I think i can easily get 500 miles next month. lets set that as a goal here and now.

This little kitty was trying to tackle a fish that probobly out weighed her. It was a pretty funny situation.












Click on this to see a bigger version, its an emergency phone at the USF campus in Downtown St. Pete. It says 'out of order' and then someone wrote on it 'keep running!' ...i found this a bit humerous.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Cars R coffins


This is why driving a car is stupid.... lady pulled out in front of me and i could not stop in time. I hit her hard... though it does scare me that if i were on a bike this would have hurt a lot more... i was ok and only thing i got was a pretty bad burn on my right arm from the airbag... but those air bags and the seat belt definately saved me from a hospital visit, and possibly my life. it was her fault and she got a ticket for it so her insurance will possibly buy me a new car. its still drivable but the work it needs will probably cost more than the value of the car. whats crazy is this is the fisrt week i started driving the car to work again... looks like its back to the bike again for me for a while... but good for me... ill be able to get the training i need for the pisgah race. becareful people... cars are dangerous!




this pic was after i stuffed the airbags back in so i could drive it to work this morning

Sunday, February 17, 2008

195 miles... and car sinning... and some other crap

im not doing too bad this month... though the weather for the first half of this week put me in the car. which im not too proud of. with the car running its hard not to just sleep in in the mornings... though i will be getting in some off road riding this week hopefully, i need to get in some serious training for the Pisgah adventure race. We decided to race single speed so the intensity is going to be double. im building a road bike to get some real training in and ive got a decent set of wheels... though i need a frame... and im poor so thats difficult. i think im going to ride 5 miles today to put'er at a solid 200... i need to beat last months miles though so i need to spend some serious time on the bike... been busy on the job front... the shop is really starting to see some repairs and im getting more and more hours because of it. oh and im working for every cent, no bullshit sallary anymore. which reminds me... i need to call my lawyer back. rambling over.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Florida Cycling Hall of Fame


Through out the history of, well, just about everything, history has been kept in some form of record. Most sports have thier respective halls of fame, and cycling is no exception to that. One thing that was recently pointed out to me however is that there is no such hall of fame specific to the State of Florida. My ex-team mate Kurt Leverette, founder of the Building Champion Cyclists FL organization, wants to document this piece of history specific to Florida cycling.
Building Champion Cyclists FL(BCCFL) was formed by Kurt as a way to sponsor and fund up and coming cyclists to possibly give them a better chance at competing at a national level, and obtaining profesional sponsorship. The Florida Cycling Hall of Fame is being introduced to bring attention to BCCFL, and to document Florida's cycling history, and those that contributed to it.
Kurt asked me to be the chief webdesigner and webmaster, in charge of the Hall of Fame website. It is a great honor to be part of something that could potentially be a lasting tradition in our State and in Florida's cycling community. I am proud to accept this position and will carry it with pride and dedication. I plan on having a viewable website up and running sometime this weekend with more information on the Florida Cycling Hall of Fame, untill then check out BuildingChampionCyclistsFL.net to find out more about the future of the Hall of Fame.

Monday, February 4, 2008

The Little MAn is a little less little



The Peanut Head turned 6 today. Hes only a little bit heavier but hes gotten a lot taller than he was at 5. His race career has been on hold as he has been focusing on academia. He can count to 100+, he can add, subtract, multiply and divide. He is a member of his schools 54 letter club (yes i know theres only 52, figure that one out) and has been since his first months at school, he can write all of his letters, and he can sound out words very quickly. He still gets in some rides every once in a while but will be attacking the summer races with the fervor of a cheetah... all you other 6 year olds better watch out... not only will he be fast but hes damn smart.

As of now he's still riding his Giant Frantic but soon he will be on a custom Trek bike. It will perhaps be the lightest made kids bike ever. More details on that as his sponsors are able to come up with funding. As for now Team Dad is still searching for a decent source of sponsorship dollars for the team riders. For those interested in following the Peanuts race exploits, please stay tuned here at brianRidesBikes.com.

Sheldon Brown has died


Cycling guru Sheldon Brown died last night of a heart attack. He was diagnosed with MS last year and put up a good fight. For those of you who dont know, Sheldon Brown was a cycling guru and living legend. His web site sheldonbrown.com is an enormous and extensive resource for weekend warriors and professional mechanics alike. His crazy antics and unusual tips sections have sparked the imaginations of cyclists worldwide. He will certainly be missed, yet his website and his legend will go on forever. In fact I have most of his website downloaded to my home computer as it is a great sourse of information when stuck in a pich or when need of new ideas. Farewell good buddy.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Commute by Bike... and enjoy the ride.
















Found a cool website today after my own commute home from work. http://www.commutebybike.com/ has lots of great information for the uninformed and perhaps the knowledgable bicycle commuter. This commuter took some pics today on the way home... the sun was coming right at me for most of the trip which was annoying, but it made for some cool pics. Im at 45 miles so far this month.





Saturday, February 2, 2008

Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race

throwing around the idea of training for this...
http://www.pisgahproductions.com/home.html
my buddy Ron asked me to be his partner and i think it would be a fun race. Its basically an adventure raceonly the whole thing is done on the mountain bike... I think it could seriously be a fun time.