New Year 2013 early bird special.

New Years is going to be an early rise for me since the wife has to work at the coffee shop. I can start a ride out of Downers Grove or meet you guys somewhere else. So, if you are in the mood to start off our 2013 season on the right foot let me know. I don't think the weather is going to be that intolerable so there should be possibilities to at least get a 40 miler in. I already got my Norman Rockwell calendars to start jotting down my mileage. I have no idea how much I rode in 2012 but I know I rode almost every day. 
Comment below or shoot me an email for what you guys have in mind. 
be well,
Ari 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you family, thank you friends, thank you readers. I hope we ride together again and more often in 2013. I hope we get our kids out to ride more often. A big hug to all my SFCA group. 
Have a safe and good one, 
Ari 
Slender Fungus Cycling Association. 

Fighting for power of leadership

My 9 year old daughter and her cohort cousin are planning on over throwing the Slender Fungus Goverment and converting it to a full-on dictatorship. I call for inmediate action as in a ride on the 1st of the new year to maintain our souls intact. More on this as soon as I devise a plan of action. 
Be well. 

Ari 

Iowa mission #5 completed

So I woke up at 4 am on Sunday and had everything ready to go. Made a mocha pot, loaded my bike in the Bu-Bu and headed to Sycamore to our meeting place. As I pulled in Cookie showed up and we loaded my stuff into his car and away we went. Man, it really is a gift to have a reliable riding partner.  About 15 minutes ahead of us was the Bonk-King blazing down the road on the Exploder. He was desperate for some gravel and could not get there fast enough.
     We arrived at SF secret meeting place around 7:30 am and rolled out at 8:00a.m. We headed west into a stiff, humid wind. The initial hills bit our legs good and the cold that we felt soon mellowed out with the heat we were producing. We did one roller after another. Cookie and I were on Salsa single speeds running 34x18. Bonk King was on his beloved Titus MTB. 
     At 8:35 a.m. we stopped to catch our breath after the initial hills and had some Whiskey and Jerky. I later commented how it would of killed a bunch of roadies if they had to eat and drink what we just had. We also dealt with an unusual amount of loose dogs all day long. Non of them bothered us but I was a bit concerned when two rottweilers came off a porch in a hurry. I did not stick around to find out whether they had the Magic fence or not. 
     As we reached our furthest west point we started to return east bound with a calming tailwind. We stopped at a Casey's and bought Chips. We ate some sandwiches I had brought and I slipped some chemical warmers in my frozen feet. They quickly warmed up and away we went. 
     The return route was amazing with beautiful roads going through wooded areas. We were blessed with the presence of 2 beautiful bald eagles. The gravel all day was supersoft. It had rained plenty and our going was super hard and tiring. The bikes got heavier and heavier as we rode and the hills continued to be relentless. 
     We finished our awesome ride and thanked each other for  the good company. No flats, no mechanicals. After the ride we had some pizza and pop and booked it home. 
63 miles covered on soft gravel. Did almost 6 hours with an average speed of 11.1 mph. Max speed was 36mph. We ended up doing around 1500 ft of climbing in the 63 miles. 

Beautiful roads. I did not realize we were going to climb so much. 

Saw a lot of these T.I. style grinders. Non existent in Illinois

The start of our ride was like a rollercoaster.

This one took for ever.

Cookie with a loose cage. Gravel rattles everything loose. Including your brain. 

Bacon King and the Hormels. 

We stopped and stared at this view for a long time. 

That hill in the back ground would prove to be the toughest one of the day. 

Bonk King, Lieutenant , taking photos for the future. 

The emotional guys from Rapha would have cried if they saw this.  

Here it is again , just in case. Rookies prepare!

The last strech of headwind for the Bonk King. He rode a solid  4 hours and booked it home. Good Job!!!

I would lay here and take a rest. Hopefully we will find one like this  at T.I.

Cookie and I took this wonderful trail heading back. I envied  Cookie's Barmitts all day. 

Hello Hills. 34x18  all day long. 

Bye-Bye. 

 Thanks for reading and looking . By The way this is Post # 801.

Ari 

Iowa mission #5 is underway for Sunday Morning.

Tomorrow we will be chasing these guys for special cross training.  (Helps in B-road  portaging)

The Slender Fungus will meet tomorrow at undisclosed location in the Godly state of Iowa. We will roll out at 8:00 a.m. and will ride 70-80 miles depending on mood, amount of whiskey consumed and how abrasive the wet gravel is going to be. According to the weather Gurus, the weather is supposed to be cloudy and about 43 degrees. I will be aboard the freshly tuned Salsa Cycles Selma (Adventure by Bike). I will be riding some Hutchinson Tires donated by  King Keyser Specialty Sports of Hinsdale, IL.  I you want to make a last ditch effort to come out please let Jay or me-self know.  It will be great to be out there in December. Hopefully we can tackle a B-road in the Mud. 

Sleep well, 

Ari 

Already the Old Days

Just going through some old pictures and I realize how quickly time goes by. This is the reason I always carry a camera with me. At some point in my life I will have time to sort and straighten out all my images. For the time being I just keep shooting. I am dissapointed that film has been just plain killed. I have found a walgreens that still develops and will try to shoot some film soon. 
On another note the Slender Fungus is toying with the idea of having another mission to Iowa this coming Sunday. Depending on how the weather is we might be going out there. We'll see. 
In the meantime here go more images. 

We really froze on this ride. Hellmut, trying to get some feeling back.

Hellmut on his awesome green Gunnar Crosshairs. 

Long winter ride to Woodstock. We saw the sun come out. It was  cold

My Quickbeam getting frosted by severe night humidity. Only Wool works in this stuff. 

Hellmut with his only thing to eat on a long ride: a piece of fried Chicken. 

Hellmut, Evan and Jay. 

Hellmut was always up for some crazy riding. Always. 

This day I almost decided to quit riding. Way undersdressed. 

Jay building up my La Cruz. He would turn out to be an A+ Mechanic. 

We rode through the night on some Trans Iowa Training. 

At midnight we met this nice officer. He was amazed that we were riding through the night. 

Ari 

Monday Morning Mountain Biking

Got up early Monday and went to the woods. I am really liking Palos. No traffic, no cars, not as windy. It was cold and again I had frozen hands.
Ari 



Hope you all had a chance to get out. 

More off-road riding

Stayed local and just enjoyed two days in a row of riding in Palos Hills. Saturday was mild and the singletrack was good. Sunday It was cold and rainy. Stayed off the singletrack since it got so muddy. I did a lot of gravel riding and arrived home starving and frozen. 
Ari 

T.J.'s Great Adventure

I don't know all the details but I do know that T.J. had some demons to burn and ended up riding his Space Whore all the way down to Bloomington, IL. 
I know mileage-wise it was around 130 miles. He loaded up the All City, mapped out the ride and just hit it solo. 
Good job Buddy, 

Ari 

Going Solo again.

Downtown Batavia around 10:30 pm

Took the Prairie Path back for a while. Thats my generator light 

Got out last night for some solo training. It was warm at 9 pm at 63 degrees for December. I was dressed in short, baselayer, jersey and a light wind jacket. Rode the Gunnar with Generator hub, 3 blinkies and headed straight into a 25-30 mph headwind. Rode out to Batavia area and then sped home to arrive around 1am. Felt good on the bike. Had 1 waterbottle and no food. Got 50 miles in for the night. 

Mountain Biking in Palos

I have found the routine that best works for me. I have everything ready the night before. I load up and drive to Ghost Town in 20 minutes flat. Park, unload, go behind the Coffeehouse and then hit the trail that connects to the Yellow trail. I do the whole loop plus the Out and Back, which is the Black trail, then pack up and cruise home. When I have more time I will attempt to do a complete 2 loops of this great workout. You are welcome to join me. The trail is not super technical but you will for sure work up a sweat and enjoy being in the woods. 

Ari 

This Week.

We still have nice weather around here for it being the last few days of November. We have been commuting to work by bike on a daily basis and it has been really good. I have been working around some fit issues with the Gunnar and getting prepared for the new frame. I am currently running a little shorter stem and want to give my Beloved Nitto Noodles a break and try some Compact bars. I tried the new Salsa Cow Bells but buying them in a 46cm was a mistake. I feel like my arms are wide open like Superman. Maybe after all those years of riding narrow bars on my "road" bike I just got used to it. And I believe as the bars get wider,the stem should get shorter. So I switched my bars and stem and that seems to work great. I thought my cranks were ge-cracked but upon inspection they just have a scratch and they are fine. My Crown on my bianchi cyclocross is definetely cracked and I am thankful it did not explode and caused a bad crash.
On another breaking news my DT swiss fabricated Edco hub is cracked and 2 spokes are dangling in the air. So I will have to take that wheel apart and relace it. Was really not in the mood to do that. I have installed my Tubus Rack on my Gunnar Crosshairs, it has a Toplite, I switched to Touring tires and the front wheel is a Shimano Generator that powers a Planet Bike Dynamo Blaze. 
I already got sick of charging batteries. With this getup you saddle up turn the switch and away you go. Easy. 
Today we went with the wife to do the Stairs at Swallow Cliff. I got my ass handed to me by a bunch of older women and men. I did 5 repetitions and was looking for an oxygen tank. I suck. I was doing the stairs, hanging on to the rail and older folk were running and passing me. How am I ever going to climb 20,ooo feet of elevation in T.I.? 
So, we will be going there again and try to make it all the way to 10 reps. On top of the hill they have an Abacus type device where you can keep tabs of the hill climbs you do. 
Get out and ride before it all goes to pot. 

Alfine Generator Hub gives all the light you want

Blaze light specifically made for Generators. This gives more light then a  2W  battery model.

Jannd frame bag. The original

Lights for drivers that can't see objects in front of them. Old school Cateye and UsB
Owleye underneath. 

Touring Tires that go on road and off road. 

Ari