The road bike

June 30th and it is finally time to yank the road bike out of the garage. I have been so enamoured with the gravel, crossbike riding for too long of a time. Pumped up the tires last night, working out some squeaks, and will attempt to get used to the thin tires and higher gearing. I still think they are cheater bikes.
best,
Ari

Crazy June

Wife and I in Chicago

My Morning Jacket in Concert, Chicago, IL.

Jelly Boy on the Fargo

Buffalo in Fermi Lab, Batavia,IL

Chicago,IL

Do not follow

Turbo Tuesday

Spring flowers

Gumby and the gang

Jelly Boy

Hanging out with the gang

Werewolf's Singular

Werewolf's Black Mountain Cycles

Slender Fungus Ride

Giugi on the trailer bike finishing 35 miles

Now with the Dirty Kanza over I have been staying busy with commuting and riding with the family. Hooked up with my daughter and did a Turbo Tuesday and have been riding with my 18 year that has moved from Germany. Been commuting and working a lot at the shop. Thinking about a long ass ride in July so we will be posting soon as arrangements are made. For the time being I will leave you with some images.
Ari

Dirty Kanza 200 2011, Emporia, Kansas, USA

At the finish around 3am with unknown missouri man and Phil Ellsworth

Ari and Mark

My BMC after 215 miles of gravel

Some of the long hills in the Flint Hills area

Lots of double track

Early morning before the Sun went nuts

Nebraska crew. I was to finish with Aaron, third from Left. Thank you Aaron

Mark and Ari at 3rd checkpoint. Awesome Jim crewing

Second checkpoint. Very hot, nasty cramps. Turkey and cheese sandwiches, cokes, Tums, and 5 pickles with pickle juice cured it. I was really motivated to not give up. No matter what.

Ari, Jay and Mark at the start

Jay at checkpoint 2. "you are in a lot of pain"

Ari and Mark checkpoint 1

Checkpoint 2 my legs felt like they had been through a meat grinder

I wanted to put up a post sooner but it just became impossible. After completing the ride and having Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to recover it is just today that I am feeling better. I had a lot of muscle pain, my throat was destroyed, bad sunburn, and a real bad rear end.
Our trip there was fantastic. I had the Wife, my 8 year old girl and the 18 boy as my crew. We also met up with riding buddies Mark and Jay and there crew.
Race meeting was on Friday and the race started on Saturday at 6 a.m. We rode all day in the 100 degree heat. Made the first checkpoint at mile 58 and had already gone through about 180 oz of water. Then made it to the halfway at mile 100. I neglected to drink as much and cramped. Then on to mile 160 and I was feeling really good. That's after going through a storm, complete with lightning, hail, strong winds and no place to hide. Made it to checkpoint 3 around 930 pm and then took off to finish the 200 miles. Rode a strong race, and finished up at 215 am with Aaron from the Nebraska crew. Out of 290 starters only 65 finished. I was in 55th position and in the mens open I finished in 36th place. I have so much more to say about all this put it is just not coming out. Maybe in the future I will be able to put it in words. It was truly amazing and I must say that I slayed a lot of demons and rode as hard as a could. Good organization on our part, bikes were perfect, hydration was awesome. Thanks to my family for dealing with this and to good friends Mark, Jay, Jill and Jim for being so awesome. Dirty Kanza was a great event and I hope to participate again.
best,

Ari

Link to Dirty Kanza photos on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20897064@N02/sets/72157626926001964/

The Wolfy 100 does not dissapoint

Mark B., our weekend champion with back to back centuries

It was very hot so we lost lots of electrolytes and salt

West Brooklyn, Il. not New York

Corn drying device

B.B getting burnt by the sun

WE did find some hills and a lot of wind

Our lead cartographer running a brand new Black Mountain Cycles Cross bike.

Taking a break early on

A nice section that we really enjoyed

WE met at 8:00 and rolled out, all 4 of us. It did not surprise us that nobody else showed up since the number 100 keeps them away. The weather was cool in the morning and the weather started to warm up quickly. We had a slight wind in the early morning and then it quickly picked up from the south to a full rage South wind of 30 plus mph. We rode out to Compton, West Brooklyn and finally Amboy. Then we headed north and then started heading back east. We had long streches of bad side wind and the heat started to cook us. I used some elete stuff that Mark gave me and never cramped the whole day. We had no mechanicals except for a lost cleat screw.
The riding was really good, the route was excellent, the scenery was awesome and the fact that we had a tornado watch on our asses kept us motivated. The Slender Fungus will be hosting other long rides and as always we won't make a big deal out of them. We will just post and ride. Everyone is always welcome to ride, it doesn't cost anything and you are on your own. Finished the day with 110 miles.

best,

Ari and the gang.

Here is the Map and all the info for the Wolfy

There will be supplies available in Amboy. Roughly 50 miles worth of gravel.

Any questions shoot them in the comments. Let us know if you are coming.

Ari

Wolfy 100 to meet in Dekalb, IL. Home of the Barbed Wire

Due to some unforseen situations we have changed the location of the Wolfy 100. This event is going to be a nice ride and will give us a chance to prepare for the dk200. Come on out and ride the sucker.

Ari

Address for the Wolfy 100

1291 Chestnut Street #1

Dekalb, Illllinois 60115

U.S.A.

Roster:

B.B.
Mark B.
Ari

Big Events coming up.

May 14th is the Wife's Graduation

May 22nd is the Wolfy 100 (asphalt and gravel)

May 29 is the North Central Cyclery Gravel Metric

June 4th Jay (cookie) and I are racing The Dirty Kanza 200 in Emporia, Kansas.

Now sit back and watch a great movie for the Gravel Metric May 29th at 9:00 a.m. Back of Shop

The Gravel Metric -- More Gravel from Seth Deming on Vimeo.