A Plan

Cool composite image from today's
computed tomography (CT) scan.
Navicular fracture circled in red.

Today I went to the Exton Mall for my CT scan. Main Line Health has just opened a snazzy facility right in between Victoria's Secret and Radio Shack. It is a little weird and a lot genius. Check in, grab a latte at Saxby's coffee, get your CT scan, and grab a pair of socks at Macy's on your way back to the car.

The CT scan confirmed a break all the way through but non-displaced which is good, but still looks like I'll get that titanium I've always wanted. I was thinking ti bike frame but will have to settle for a ti surgical screw. I will get my titanium on Monday followed by 6-8 weeks immobilized in a splint then (hopefully) saddle up and begin training for The Tour duh on May 10.

At least now I have a plan.

Chris

"Safe biking is no accident"
     -- unknown

Torture

Business Plan took up the entire
back of the beer menu. So YES
Bryan we did pick up a pencil!

Yesterday I tortured myself by:

• Buying a new Reba fork from Merlin Cycles dot com for $276. That's a really  great price for a fork that I can't install on a bike that I can't ride.
• Meeting some fellow bike riders at Victory so we could start developing our business plan for "The Tour duh"

At the same time, I saved myself some pain (and a lot of one fingered typing) by stealing Mark's email summary for my blog post. I think he wrote it in the form of a list to make it easier for us to grasp (short attention spans):

1. Corinne will be our waitress moving forward.
2. MR now knows what FW means...again.
3. The "happening" beer is Dirt Wolf.
4. Next time go with the salesman, we are MTB racers.
5. Free alcohol from the table next to you is good.
6. Our enthusiasm for all things Cranston related is very much alive and can bring everyone off topic instantly. Special thanks to Chris R for this.
7. We are a tall group...well most of us.



Guest Blogger and future
Baja 1000 winner

8. Oh, we did agree on the date. The Tour Duh is slated for May 10 @ 9am. This means FW around 7:30 am.

Cinco

"You guys are so funny. I thought you were short."
     -- our favorite waitress

Clairvoyant

This is the third time I have posted an x-ray
on this blog. I think three is plenty. 

For the record, yesterday afternoon I made the following predictions about the impending Friday Happy Hour Ride and what might happen when we enter a drinking establishment clad in muddy sweaty bicycle clothes:.

1. At Chelsy's it is awkward initially but by the time we leave everyone is asking when we'll be back (this is based on first hand experience).
2. At Crossroads it is antagonistic and it ends very badly. We leave violently out the side door, one person goes to the hospital in an ambulance with sirens blaring.
3. At Station Taproom a couple hipster beer snobs put down their calamari long enough to roll their eyes behind their nerd geek retro eyeglasses but that's about it. Nobody notices when we leave.

The awesome thing is that all of these places are within a half mile of each other, we can make a game time decision on which experience we want to blog about tomorrow.

Looking back I'd say Clairvoyant is not too strong a word to describe these predictions. Let's examine them one at a time to see if you agree:

Prediction #3 - pretty much spot on except instead of fried calamari it was hand cut fries seasoned with black truffle infused sea salt. But the nerd references were pretty spot on and I have to say the craft beers were excellent.

Prediction #1 - again pretty much spot on except we were a little disappointed that some of the original artwork is now obscured by an obnoxious duck hunt video game. 

Prediction #2. No we did not stop at Crossroads which is probably a good thing but the remainder of the night did have some uncanny parallels to the "goes to the hospital" part of this prediction. It started with a track stand held 1-2 seconds too long and devolved into one of those classic "I'm falling over and I'm clipped in and it's really gonna hurt" situations. And yes it did hurt but honestly it seemed like one of those "I'm gonna feel that in the morning" hurts. Not one of those "go to the local clinic in the morning to learn you've fractured your navicular (wrist) and ulna (forearm)" hurts. 

We somehow finished our 5 mile ride home complete with the traditional derby race to the base of the dam (I think Mike and I tied).

It's not easy being Clairvoyant.

Chris

“You do something stupid, you gotta act like it didn't hurt"

     -- unknown

I am not so I won't

If I were superstitious I would keep this to myself for fear of jinxing it.

But I am not so I won't.

With a touch of rain, a lot of cold, and a little luck the east coast could have some out-of-this-world riding on Monday night (see infographic). We're talking east coast slick rock. Grip like velcro. Mountain biking unconstrained by trails. The last time we had this kind of riding was in 2007 and it was just awesome. Anyone who experienced those rides in '07 knows what I am talking about.

So yeah, a lot of stars need to align for this to happen, but they seem to be moving in generally the right direction and if they do align YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS IT so be sure your lights are charged and your long undies are ironed because you may need them Monday night.

Chris

Closer

Fatties drawing a crowd at The Beer Tree

Six of us closed out the 2013 season with a morning ride on the frozen tundra of Marsh Creek. Befitting an end of year ride, we had a little bit of everything. We had angry single speeders leading out. We had fat bikes, skinny bikes, mountain bikes, and CX bikes. We had mechanical breakdowns, flowy single track, and some rough stuff too. And we paid homage to The Beer Tree. Overall it was a fine wrap up to '13.

But today's ride was not just a teary-eyed and sentimental reflection on '13. We also looked forward. Kirk reminded us that we need to start thinking about the Cinco de Mayo ride because it is "just around the corner" (apparently time flies when you are having fun). We also commenced planning for the 2014 Tour de (pronounced too r duh). Already we know almost ten things about this soon to be epic event:

Blind taste test

1. It will be about a 30 miles mix of single track, gravel, road, and small town urban decay
2. It will involve forward positioning of supplies at strategic locations
3. We need a logo and team kit
4. It will include a stop at Rincon Tarasco
5. Mark is the chairman of the 2014 Tour de planning commission
6. It will include Harmony Hill, Marsh Creek, and a white knuckle ride across a decrepit railroad trestle bridge
7. It will be the perfect antidote to the mid-winter biking blues
8. The planning commission will meet at Victory Brewing some time we don't know when
9. It will be stupid fun

Thanks for all the memories in 2013, and I look forward to more memories and adventures in 2014.

Chris

"2014 is going to make 2013 look like a picnic."

     -- unknown (I have no idea what that really means, but it sure makes 2014 sound interesting...)

Grippy to Slippy

Trails still grippy but soon to be slippy
at The Beer Tree.

Today's post Christmas ride started with Bryan's one-line email yesterday afternoon. It was succinct and it covered all of the bases. It said "Merry Christmas where are we riding tomorrow?"

The ride was badly needed after the previous day of unbridled gluttony and materialism run amok. Fortunately four of us were able to gracefully (more or less) get exemptions from family plans to exchange gifts, spend gift cards, and generally wallow in the soulless black hole known as the King of Prussia Mall.

Temperatures were in the low 20s and the trails were rock solid. The usual spots were pretty torn up and so just a little treacherous when frozen (unless you were Bryan on a fat bike), generally the trails were in great shape. We took our breakfast break at The Beer Tree and marveled at the partially frozen lake (beautiful), Kirk caught us up on the epic SSCXWC from earlier this month, and we debated the merits of centimeters versus inches (inches won) and attempted to measure Kirk's custom frame but failed miserably.

About then, our pithy discourse was interrupted by a lone snowflake that drifted down (presumably from a mile or more over our heads) and landed smack dab on the top of a metal flask that we happened to have with us and was sitting upright on the ground at our feet. We took this to be a blessing straight from the biking Gods and we were right because no sooner had we saddled up the the ride home when it began to snow BIG TIME. Huge flakes, Visibility dropped from miles to a few hundred feet, and the trails went from brown and grippy to white and slippy in about 10 minutes. It was a magical example of being at the right place at the right time

And most of all it was a great example of not being at the mall.

Chris

"You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning."
     -- Celia Rivenbark

Everyone Loves a Parade

The mean streets of
Downingtown

 This time of year, the North East weather can be soul sucking for a mountain biker. Days of sloppy singletrack the consistency of peanut butter punctuated by periods of ice and, if we are lucky, a couple days of dry frozen trails. Too much down time between rides. Too many YouTube biking videos. The email traffic gets edgy and it's obvious we need to ride. Even a rainy day gravel grinder would be a welcome distraction.

Bryan and I turned today's ride into more than a distraction by grinding the gravel to The Cup in Downingtown. Our own private rainy-day parade. At The Cup we figured the Sunday morning crowd might not appreciate a couple muddy mountain bikers mixing with the Sunday crowd, so we got our coffees to go and parked our butts on a sidewalk stoop to drink our coffee and Snap, eat Christmas cookies, and watch the Sunday morning traffic roll down Lancaster Ave.

Coffee and cookies finished, we took our parade back to Marsh Creek and cracked a couple of Jai Alai's (a stiff IPA from Cigar City brewing) at the top of the dam while watching the mist gently waft across the lake. For the ride home we had Pandora streaming Christmas Jazz from my pocket, and finally Bryan and I parted ways with a fist pump and and a copy of his traditional annual Christmas mix on CD (old school).

Even the rain couldn't rain on our parade.

Jai Alai and Christmas cookies

Chris

"Keep riding, Nancy. It's just water and dirt."
     -- Huck And Roll