Turkey Day Ride

Cookie was gracious in making the trip towards us on Turkey day. We loaded up the bikes and headed down for a good day of trail riding in Palos. We arrived there and hit the trails around 920 am. The morning was beautiful and we warmed up very quickly. At some point my hands were boiling and I rode without my gloves. I had my trusty Mariachi and Cookie had decided to bring along his Surly Neckromancer. His bike was literally flying down the trails while my 29er had to pick and choose all day long. We had a great ride with about 4 hours of riding. We enjoyed the fresh air, the great sunshine and the woods in all their glory. We figured out some shortcuts for an extended loop and the Singletrack was just amazing. All trails were dry and fast. I was really happy we got out there. Thanks for the company my friend. Later on we feasted and layed on the couch in a full zombie mode. We were in such comas. 
Ari 

Ultimate singletrack Bike

Cookie and I found a short cut around the flooded quarry area. 

My Daughter kissing the crystal 

My daughter always having a good time.





This weekend is supposed to be mild,


get out and ride


Ari
Slender Fungus Cycling Association. 

Turkey Day Singletrack Smack

Turkey Day Singletrack Smack

Cookie is coming over my house

then 

we are meeting 

at Ghost town around 10 am 

I assume. 

Ghost town is the Sout east corner of Archer ave and Willowsprings Road which is there called 

Gilbert. 

We will park where 

2Bici Bicycle is located. 

If you want to come and 

meet us there leave a comment and let me know. 

Bring your Mountain Bike, tubes, food, and some liquor, it is a celebration day anywho.

If we don't see you may you have a great holiday and Thank you for stopping by the site and reading.

Ari

Slender Fungus Cycling Association.

Slender Fungus Freeze Riding

We had had a nice weather pattern going for a while around here and this past weekend that all changed. A strong front came in and dropped the temps and froze us to the bone. Most of us were still scrambling to find the hard winter stuff. Jakey La Cruz and I met up early morning on Saturday to ride out west and meet up with Dereek Von Weider. He was coming in from Dekalb. We met up in Batavia and cruised back to the headquarters. 
On Sunday Cookie came into town and we had a group of 4. Cookie,Jakey la Cruz, Dereek von Weider and me on Mtbs. We headed down to Palos for a long day in the saddle. We rode double track, singletrack and just had a blast exploring some new areas to us. We topped off the day with 5 sets of stairs and a long ride back to the cars. Thanks for coming out and making this a great riding weekend despite the frigid temps. My face is wind burned this morning but it was worth it. 

The Singletrack in Palos was beyond perfect. Dry, fast just perfect.

taking a break in the Sun. It was warm in the woods.

Last warm Ride??

I ditched the spd pedals and all my cycling outfit and rode in gym shoes, dickies and my regular jacket. Baseball cap with wool hat over it and my trusty Crosscheck with Lambda pedals and SKS longboard fenders. My knee got messed up somehow and it felt great not to be clipped in. I have been toying with this route that will enable me to get to places without riding on any major roads that will get me killed at night. So I found what I was looking for. It was dark and misty. Some trails that I rode were very muddy and slick specially with the Paselas. Bald tread tires are not the best for muddy surfaces. So some Tiger Balm, stretching and flat pedals have been helping my knee come back to normal. 
Keep on Riding!
Ari 

Homes of the rich and famous. 

Salt Creek near York rd.

Graue Mill 

Creepy underpass.  A great place to hangout and chat

My diamond encrusted Surly Crosscheck. 

This is Why

I have had many a friends,family and customers inquire about my reasons to do Trans Iowa. It is sometimes hard to explain the reasons and the passion the Slender Fungus has for this bike race. So, I figured I post this video to give you a better understanding. 
thanks for reading,
Ari 

Some real ugly riding

I had the stupid idea to check some connector stuff out tonight. So I got dressed, bootied up and got the Singlespeed 29er out with a blinker front and rear. I was happy to sport a new rainjacket that actually beads and keeps the water out. It was truly miserable out there. Temps were low and the rain just came down in a constant fall. So I had some time to myself and at times I had a good spin going. I could have used some rain pants and some rubber boots with flat pedals. The roads were slick with some mashed up leaves that make roadies shake in their cleats. I was able to withstand 20 miles of the misery before I had enough. I left all the soggy stuff in the garage and entered the house to fresh baked bread smell. After some hot tea, a piece of fresh bread the 20 miles in miserable rain did not seem as bad. Time to work on the lower extremities
Ari 

It is not dawn. It is light polution

Ped bridge over 294. Those drivers are nuts. 

The streets are covered in a slippery mess of ground up wet leaves. Time for a 29er. 

Slender Fungus Saturday and Sunday Riding

By now y'all know what happened in IL this past weekend. Our thoughts go out to all those people that lost their lives and the ones that are suffering with all the destruction. In our area we had bad storms and lots of wind. 
Saturday the weather was cloudy and misty. We rode out to Waterfall Glen and were able to get in a solid 30 miles of riding. 
Sunday was another story. We arrived at training camp at 9 am and did two loops of the coveted yellow trail. The trail was swampy with leaves and water everwhere. 
It was warm and we quickly had to adjust clothing with temps hovering around  the 60's. The forest was packed with people walking, running and riding. We then did our climbing on some ravine area, then 10 sets of the stairs. The weather was looking ominous. Jakey la Cruz and A.G. took off for work.
Dereek von Weider and I decided to check out some double track and that is what we did. The Doubletrack was great. It went thru some prairies and it reminded us of some B roads in our glorious state of Iowa. We reached the end of the road and walked knee deep in water with our bikes on our shoulders.We tried  figuring out where we were and then the storm start to brew in earnst. 
We then got on a paved road to head back to the car and all hell broke loose. 
The storm chased us in full fury mode with tremendous winds, lightning and breaking limbs off trees. I kept thinking I would get hit by flying debris while I completely spun out my 34x18 at 25mph. 
We made it to the car and loaded up the bikes in an incredible downpour. We sat in the Subaru drenched while we tried to defog the windshield. The car would shake violently until it warmed up. We drove home dodging downed branches and puddles. We were glad to have ridden that doubletrack since it know opens all sorts of possibilities.
More to come.
Ari 

Sunday was wet and cool. Perfect riding conditions. Photo courtesy Dereek von Weider Productions. 

Dereek's Singular Kite. Built on Friday and beat to shit on Saturday and Sunday. 

My incredible Gunnar Ruffian with Luxy Bars. 

Sir Jakey La Cruz followed by Dereek

He would overdress and later pay for it. 

A.G with her trusty Karate Mucker

Bibs make great storage for extra clothing or a stuff sack.




I wanted to put down our list of participants for TIV10
Dr. Giggles (Manlius N.Y.)
Special K. (Syracuse N.Y.)
Cookie (Woodstock IL)
Dereek Von Weider, aka Blue Demon, Dekalb,IL.
Sir Jakey La Cruz, Dekalb, IL.
A.G. Riverside, IL.
G.D. Ashton Naperville, IL.
Ari  Westmont,IL.
We will also be riding with our beloved Llama from Dekalb, IL.
We also have an incredible support crew from My wife, Gumby and Family, T.J and family, The Bonk King family.
We are truly grateful.

Thanks for reading 

and when you think it sucks out there get dressed anyway and enjoy the hell out of it!

Ari 

Sponsorship and Sunday

1) The Slender Fungus Cycling Association is proud to sponsor the Trans Iowa Race in the form of a Surly Crosscheck Frameset to the Grittiest rider for Trans Iowa V10. All members will chip in their hard earned Drachmas for this occasion. We could not be happier to have th opportunity to join our fellow Gravel Thumpers in the festivities that will take place in the holy city known as Grinnell, Iowa. Thank you Guitar Ted for all the efforts and sleepless nights for doing this. 

2) Let it be known that the Slender Fungus will be at their training camp this morning for hard training excercises. The weather is stormy with tendencies of dropping a little tornado our way. So, if we don't appear by Monday morning please come and find our corpses. 

3) Upon meeting at the headquarters this past Friday the head training coach has declared December 1st as our initial day for training for the big Dance. Our coach has programmed our training regime for the coming months so we can be prepared for that one Saturday in April. Members will have the luxury of obtaining a copy of the much worked document. Thank you A.G. for doing that. 

3) Mr and Mrs Bonk King have worked on getting us to look pretty with some apparel that we can wear when off the bike and attending public functions. Thank you for that. We are honored to have you both. 

4) We are going to ride our bikes now so be well. 


thank you in advance, 

Ari 

Riding for this Weekend

It has been a long, long week for some reason and I think that this weekend will be a long, long ride. Get in toucn with me if you are interested in doing something. 
Ari 

A fine Discovery.

I almost got rid of my Gunnar Ruffian 29er Singlespeed since I have an incredible Salsa Selma Ti. However I had an idea to use up my Luxy Bars  on it and give it one last chance. The older Geometry on this Gunnar meant it had a long headtube and that just worked out amazing with those drop bars. I have been riding this bike in Palos with a 34x18 and I am really enjoying it. I think the geometry works just fine on this frame with the dropbars and it reminds me a bit of my Fargo. The Gunnar has nice light tubing, a Vicious Cycles fork and it has and amazing ride quality. 
Ari 

Luxy Bars, Tektro levers for V-Brakes, All city saddle and a 34x18 gearing. 2.1 tires on Salsa rims and surly hubs.

Trans Iowa Registration.

Yesterday the Postcards have been sent out. So far Cookie and Dereek Von Weider are on the list. Tomorrow shall be a good day of checking the roster to see if my name appears on there. No matter what happens the Slender Fungus will be there. Now I must get ready and get outside. The miles await. 
Ari 

Honorary Chairman of the Slender Fungus Hellmut Kost

Hellmut Kost regaining energy during a hard Trans Iowa training ride. Yes, that is leftover fried Chicken.

So yesterday I was running around the shop as usual balancing bike stuff with our remodeling. I went back to the work area and as I was coming out Hellmut was just standing there, in silence. I couldn't believe my eyes. It is typical for him to do these things since that is just part of his personality. Hellmut and I have spent many a nights riding out in the wastelands of Dekalb County, IL. 
We both trained for Trans Iowa and would meet up at 10 pm and ride thru the night. He was an amazing riding partner. Sometimes we went hours without talking, to the point were we brought mP3 players to ignore eachother even more. We were together just to get thru the night. He brought me back home on a very cold night where I thought I had adquired frostbike in my lungs. I couldn't breath and I was weak. I had arrived home that night to find ice inside my jacket. I felt blood coughing up. 
So, this guy has had a huge impact on my riding. He consequently moved to Florida to escape the paws of winter and now he has bounced over to Lake Tahoe to hit up some incredible trails on his Mountain bike. 
I was so excited to see him. I also want everyone to know that because of Hellmut we are what we are with the Slender Fungus. He had the idea to call us Slender Fungus. Then it turned to Slender Fungus Cycling Association. The name came up as we listened to an old album from Tones on Tail. We creeped at night. We were quiet. Nobody saw us as we rode in remote parts of the countryside. 
Hellmut is still representing out there but I doubt anybody sees him. He is quiet, elusive and keeps to himself. 
Thanks for stopping by buddy, 
We always miss having you,
best 
Ari 

The Blue Mariachi

I love riding this bike and I know that it also needs some improvements. On my latest ride up to Lake Geneva with Cookie I had a couple of issues. First of all my seat height was about 1" too low. Sometimes I have my bikes at work and people ride them and forget to put the seat up again. I had also experimented with some Ghetto Tubeless on my wheels. One mistake I made was using some presta tubes with non-removeable valves. Getting the stans thru the valves is the only way to juice up the wheels. So on Sunday I had leaky tires. I arrived home with soft tires and a low seat. No wonder my knees were screaming at me. 
So, this week I am putting on some different wheels. I feel the stock Salsa rims are a bit heavy and don't roll as well as they should. I will be putting on some Chris King wheels that I have sitting in the garage. Been too busy to switch over the rotors but it will be done. 
I am excited for this time of the year. Trans Iowa registration is this weekend, the frost will kill all the nasty stuff that gives me allergies and Asthma. I hope to participate in the DDD and ride with my friend TJ. Yeah, lots of stuff going on. 2014 will be a great year. In the meantime I will get the Blue Mariachi ready. 
Good luck to all registering at Trans Iowa V10. For me it is the highlight of every year. 
Ari 

The Blue Mariachi. Pretty much Stock. This bike is awesome. 

A Slender Fungus Training Weekend

I am blessed to have the group that I have. I remember this all the time and once in a while I have to send that email out and remind all my gang that I truly love them. The Slender Fungus is an amazing group of people. We work together, we stay in touch. We have different levels and different skills yet we are able to ride together and support each other. Yes, I am blessed to be the President of this Association. So, for 2014 we have lots of riding plans. We are going to race, ride, get together and continue what we do so well. So.....
on Saturday Jakey La Cruz and A.G. and the Giaco and Me self got together for what we were planning to do:Get the heart pumping.
We met up at Palos hills and did the 9 mile yellow loop for a good warm up. Then we hit the stairs to get the legs hurting and the heart moving. We believe that riding long distance all the time becomes so routine that there is never any improvement. So, doing some "crosstraing" or "CrossStraining" is what is needed. I was trashed after the 10 repeats on the Stairs, all 125 of them straight up this long, steep hill. 
I later went to work and spent the rest of the night on my feet. My legs were mush. I slept somehow, then I woke up to drive out to Woodstock to meet Cookie. 
He was on his Pugsley and I was on the Mariachi with my leaky ghetto tubeless tires. We rode from the Woodstock square with the company of the Bonk King and headed north to Wisconsin. Our goal was to make it to Lake Geneva and hit the great trails at Canopy Tours where there is some great singletrack. 
We rode and rode and I enjoyed the heck out of this day. We met Butch, the trail builder at Canopy Tours and it was great to chat with him in the woods. 
We rode back heading south to Woodstock into a stronger and stronger South East wind. My legs were dying and my leaky tires made it worse. So, I stopped to pump the rear since it was so low the sidewalls were getting wrinkly. We made it to woodstock and i hit a coffee shop. I was shot to say the least but felt great being able to spend time with some of my best friends. 
Thanks, thanks, thanks,
Ari 

Cookie and the BonK King heading to Wisconsin. 

Coming into Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. 

Pure metal, no suspension and ready to hit the trails. 

Cookie could not get enough of the fall colors. 

Great Bikes that we rode for 100Kms on this day. 

Zip Lines adorn Canopy Tours. What a great place.

Butch, on left , is responsible for the great trails. 

Saturday riding with A.G.., Giaco, and Jakey La Cruz

Gang photo. 

Hiking without the bikes. Its good to diversify

Balance, Balance

Leaving Lake Geneva on Sunday.