Lazy and Shiftless

Good morning.

[Ahem.]

Yesterday I was on the radio because they haven't locked me out of the studio yet, and you can listen to that show here:


(They really should be wearing helmets.)
Of course the real reason I took the radio gig was because of the nearly 40 (!) mile round-trip bicycle commute to Brooklyn, which yesterday also served as something of a recovery ride since I did a mountain bike race on Sunday that kicked my ass:


I raced in the singlespeed category, and as you can see they staged the fat bike category before us.  (They like to keep the novelty bike doofuses together, you see.)  An aborted Central Park race the weekend before notwithstanding, it had been quite a few weeks since I'd raced a bicycle; moreover, it had been a good two years since I'd raced a mountain bike.  (I believe my last competitive outing was the so-called "Singlespeedapalooza" race in 2017.)  And on top of all that, this particular race starts with a lot of climbing, which meant that within minutes my face was bright purple and my heart was trying to eject itself from my throat.

Despite my distress, I was able to move up a bit, though as you might expect it's really hard to pass fat bikes on rooty climbs, especially when you're on a singlespeed bicycle.  See, the fat bike is all about taking advantage of a low gear and lots of traction, whereas the singlespeed is all about getting up that climb as fast as you possibly can so you don't lose momentum and fall over.  So basically, with a bunch of fat bikes ahead of you, it's like trying to sprint up the subway steps at rush hour.

Anyway, despite moving up I never really recovered from the effort, and by about halfway through the first lap the rest of the singlespeeds passed me and that was pretty much that.  Ultimately I did manage to finish in the top five, but I should probably disclose that the singlespeed field consisted of exactly five riders.  (Singlespeeds are totally out of style, remember?)  Even so, the race was well worth it, because signing up for a race ahead of time and paying a bunch of money is pretty much the only way I'll ever ride someplace different for a change.

Also there was beer after:


Also also, in addition to riding someplace different, racing is also pretty much the only situation in which I'll actually hose my bike down afterwards:


The politically incorrect plastic shopping bag is to protect the Brooks.

Finally, this past Friday I received a delivery from Classic Cycles:


Which went right onto my new-to-me Litespeed:


Now it's a "forever bike."