The Chunk

Photo by Guitar Ted Productions

So I was trying to explain to some people about the roads in Iowa and it only takes this image above to understand what Chunk is. The gravel is more like rocks. They love to bust up tires that are narrow and are run at low pressure. I suggest a minimum of 40mm to deal with this situation. A lot of times we would see a line on the side of the road where the grass is. 

Prepare accordingly. 

Ari 

Buddhist Temple Ride

I had to attend a Baptism on Saturday night and that was a great time seeing family and hanging out with my Brothers. We went to Church in Chicago and then hit up the Banquet Hall. We arrived home at midnight and I was not able to fall asleep until 3 a.m. 
The alarm clock went off at 430 am and I jumped out of bed with burning eyes. I peeked my head out the back door and I made a very cold fog with my breath. It was about 26 degrees out there. I got dressed and hit to road to meet Ron. I instantly felt cold and my toes started to burn. Did I really need to pull out the winter stuff already??
I met up with Ron and we rode Westbound. Around 530-6 am the temps seemed to drop in the pre dawn time. 
We had to dismount and run with our bikes to warm up. My hands were not articulating and I fought to open a vest zipper. We finally made it to the meeting point at 8 am after 40 plus miles of riding. The Bonk King was there. So was T.J, Agatha, Jakey La Cruz and to our surprise Cookie showed up. 
We started to head west and ended up in Cherry Valley. We fought the head wind all the way there and just wanted to head home with the coveted tail wind. The return trip was great. 
I ended up taking some trails all the way back and arrived home 13 hours later. I did not expect such a long ride but was happy to have done it. I know I have that mileage in me. The new BMC road bike was flawless. Maybe I need to tweak the position a bit. 
Thanks to all who came. It was a great day on the bike. 
Ari 
Here is the route we did.
http://www.strava.com/activities/91805712

That's our Gang. 

We always need to rummage in the corn.  A family tradition

Buddhist Temple, Cherry Valley, IL. 

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1961176

Above is the route on GPS . Check it out and see where we rode.
Ari

Slender Fungus Ride

It is time to get together for a ride:

Sunday

October 

27th

@

8:00 a.m.

Intersection

Rte 47 

and 

Great Western Trail

by 

the 

Silo 

on the trail

on 

Wooley 

Road

Wear 

wool. 

Ari.

Boss Says: Shut up, Get out and ride your bikes. Trans Iowa Mission rides are on!!

Another reason to get off the roads, ride in the country.

Watch this man make an ass out of himself.

Careful out there.

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/pickup-driver-fight-cyclists-leads-crushed-bike-jail-165443573.html

Slender Fungus goes the Distance.

The wife had been preparing for the Chicago Marathon for a long time. She did a lot of trail running and finally on October 13th we took the early train down to the city and she lined up for the big race. I had never attended such an event. There were 45,000 runners and all together more than 1 Million people showed up for the enormous race. She was really pumped and had a game plan. She told me she would run her pace. She would drink and stay hydrated. She would use her favorite Roctane Gu's. I wondered around the course seeing a sea of runners. I was amazed as to how well everything was organized. Security was tight with local and federal police. 
At 11am I met up with Cookie and it was just great to hang out with him. We tried spotting the wife with no luck. We finally met up with her and she had had a great race. Finishing her first marathon in 4hours 31 minutes. She looked tired but great. She had never stopped running and had run as she planned. We later walked to Greektown for a much deserved meal. We saw other runners hobbling around the whole day. 
The Chicago Marathon was a great experience and the Slender Fungus is very proud for this accomplishment. Good Job!

Ari

The Corrals

The elite field flying not running

Elites towards the finish

At the reuniting area. She looked great after running 26 + miles. 

early morning before the start

Done and heading west for some food. 

Black Mountain Cycles Road Bike

62cm Assault Bike

more on the build soon.

It rides amazing.

Thanks Mike.

62cm Road Frame from Black Mountain Cycles

Build list
Chris King headset and spacers
Fsa Stem
Salsa Cowbells in 44cm
Cane creek levers
tektro r737 brakes
Shimano 68x107 bb
Sugino cranks 50x34x175
sram chain 9 speed
Dura Ace downtube shifters 9spd
Ultegra rear der 
Dura ace 8spd front der
Mavic hub, Open 4cd front wheel
Chris King  Open pro rear wheel
panaracer pasela tourguard 700x32c tires
Fsa Seatpost
Aliante gamma saddle
junk white tape
Shimano a520 pedals
Salsa nickless stainless cages
topeak road pump
jannd pump strap 
bontrager wireless computer
jagwire segmented gold housing (thanks Jay)
ED coating plus frame saver.
sram 950 level 11x28 cassette

SingleSpeed making me crazy.

So, ever since committing to singlespeed a while ago I have been really hooked. I had a couple of post a while ago in regards to what makes them beat the way they do. Our dear friend A.G. has been studying Physical Therapy and she gave me the term "Law of Parsimony". I am going to look that up. I was thinking that when a geared bike of today, say with either 20 gears (2x10),30(3x10), or 2x11 always gives you the perfect gear to follow that magical cadence number that everyone professes. 
So, if so rider is travelling at 20mph and the terrain is ondulating this rider uses his gears to keep that cadence and that speed. I understand that the rider uses the same muscles and muscle groups to achieve this. When the rider hits a long hill he will shift to the lower gears and try to keep that cadence up. 
To me, and I might be completely wrong, the singlespeed rider is spinning like crazy to keep a certain speed. I think singlespeeding is like a Yo-YO. Speed up, coast, rev up again, coast, hill coming up, out of the saddle, crazy hill, out of the saddle and muscles. Extreme hill, off the bike and walk. Hey at this point you stretch your legs and gluts. 
I am explaining my point or not?? After riding the death ride which was 140 miles I finished the ride tired but to be honest I was quite fresh. That was aboard the Selma pushing a 34x18. On the Demi Dirt I was aboard the Quickbeam turning a 42x18 for 200 miles. I am starting to become a believer that singlespeeds don't tire a riders a much as a geared bike. Do I use gears wrong? Is it Psychological??
I would love to hear more thoughts on this. 
Ari