buying food tickets @ chicago jazz fest

a lot of bikers down at the fest.

señor sandoval

i need me a shirt like this to go with the lowrider bike.

window shopping in west roger's park

'el gordo' lowrider bike, on sale for $150.

jehovas

...or mormans out in force

orthodox biker

i'm in chicago for a wedding. while i'm here i'll try to check out the scene (even though i'm without a bike while here). during the cab ride from the airport i saw some fast messengers in crazy traffic, and a few really hot girls on cervelo road bikes, but they all zipped by way too fast for me to get a pic in time. but this orthodox jewish guy was going slow so... here ya go.

one speed is all i need

heading out to the ep bridge.

mwc tues night ride

nate, ep, and the rest regrouping at the 14th parking lot.

flat

we wait for jace

jamaica

heading home on the jamaica trail.

funky german grips

put some new ergon grips on the B.U.S.S. for the tuesday night MWC ride. yes, they look funny, but we've been hearing that some enduro riders are using them because they are suppost to be so comfortable. as for me, it's too early to tell if they really are more comfy than a standard grip. my forearms and wrists were pretty sore, when usually it's just my palms (with my old oury grips), after a fast ride through the park. so perhaps i still need to get the angle adjusted right. i'm guessing that for smoother riding (gravel, enduro, commuting, etc.) they might be perfect. but for rough stuff (like the single track in the park) i think the grip doesn't matter as much if you're like me and running a rigid fork and aren't wearing a good pair of padded gloves. you're going to be sore no matter what.

sunset

it was getting dark fast, and i was still 7-9 miles from home, but i had to pause for a sunset shot. it was another beautiful Nebraska evening.

pyramids

no group ride for me tonight, ended up doing a ~45mi solo loop (south on 77, then through Sprague and Blue Stem, and almost to Crete). while cruising north through the Denton alps (and trying to get back before it got too dark and avoid getting run over), i snapped a few of the pyramids. atleast thats what i've always called them (dept of roads has always had two neatly poured piles of gravel there). they are at the halfway point between denton and hwy 33.

sported the old school italian liquigas cap tonight, one of my favs. a friend who was studying down in Australia got it for me some years ago.

bike lanes

nutter butters

fueling up in Denton on my way south.

night ride

met up with a few peeps for some night fun. franky was riding her P.U.S.S.

il était une fois

monday night easy ride

a good group of people came out tonight.

somewhere

started back to Lincoln. here i think was about 26-30mi out, and the road was very nice, but that soon changed. i don't ride out this way hardly at all, so i wasn't sure which hwy to take back. for a while i thought i was going west but actually the road was going north. almost made a wrong turn which would have added an extra 25mi atleast, but i figured it out and started back on hwy 6. all total, about 70miles. it felt longer, only because the last 15-20 miles really sucked because of the rough shoulder from Greenwood-Waverly-Lincoln. it was not fun on a super stiff race bike. my hands, arms, shoulders, and butt took a beating.

haunted house?

saw this old stone house outside of Ashland. looked to be well built, and was probably a fancy home for someone a long time ago.

secret military base

crossed I-80 and passed by the SAS museum on my way to Ashland.

killed it

gone in no time. i wonder what the people who were eating inside were thinking. after riding i never have a problem scarfing down huge amounts of food. i needed it though because i didn't have any breakfast so my tank was empty.

platte river state park

made it up to platte (near south bend) at a pretty good clip, big ring all the way. it was partly cloudy and not real hot... yet. so i wasted no time in fueling up @ the restaurant they have there at the observation tower. i was too late for the breakfast buffet, but the lunch menu was fine. two slabs of roast beef, steamed mini potatoes and carrots, mash potatoes and gravy, corn and green beans, roll, plate of pasta salad, and a pumkin desert. mmmmm...

sunday

i woke up way too late to join cvo and the guys on their ride, but i decided to head up to platte anyway, and on the road bike (way faster). got out of Lincoln around 9am. here i stopped for some fuel in Elmwood.

chillin in AC

it's damn hot out. took refuge @ planet sub.

thought farmers

rode down to the haymarket tonight to check out the renegade art

kids? who needs kids anyway

yep, i have a bianchi road bike again, a used 2001 EV2 frame with new campy 10sp parts. i shouldn't be buying a crotch rocket like this, but it was a killer deal so i bought it anyway. plus as a few of you who know me are well aware of, i have an addiction to bianchis. it's pretty much the same frame that Pantani rode between '98-'01. it's damn light and responsive as any race bike should be, but it comes at a price. it's a bit too unforgiving in the 'vertical compliance' department, so you have to have it dialed in perfectly or you will feel the pain.

100 degrees... and windy

went on a group ride that heads out every monday at 6. it's an easy ride, with a mix of newbies and a few racers. despite the heat and wind, it wasn't that bad and i met a few new people.

weekend

doing my saturday afternoon gig @ kzum

flat

steve fixing a flat, again. i think he ended up walking most of the way to the bridge because his patch didn't hold. some guys always flat more often than others it seems, even on the same terrain. i guess i'm lucky as i don't get them very often.... knock on wood.

the old steed

yep, brought out Rocinante tonight. the bike is six years old and still gets it done. ya, i'm a roadie, but i do get out on the dirt on occasion. i should do it more, as i don't ride the B.U.S.S. as much i as should. single speeding is still the way to go for me, atleast for most of the trails around here anyways. i love this bike. it was named for me by a spanish girl from Toledo i knew back in 2000, who took one look at it and said "you have to name him Rocinante, because of the color."

rest stop @ the bridge

dk and cvo chillin`

dropping in...

the park was dry and dusty.

heading out...

tuesday night mwc ride yet again.

tut tut... looks like rain

shortly after this pic was taken it dumped pretty good for about 20min, with a tiny bit of hail too.

bad ass clouds

a storm was coming in, so julie and i went up on top of the UNL parking garage to check out the clouds.

robin egg blue

i ran into my friend julie down at the mill and she was on her new fixed gear. her dad ben built it up for her, and even painted it 'robin egg blue', per her request. looks pretty sweet... it's already up on the FGG.

nebraska sunsets

i wanted to come back on pavement so i split off from the guys as they headed south out of Davey on the dirt. i went east to catch hwy 77. there was a nice evening sky to accompany me as i rode back into Lincoln.

cool old building

the Davey Tavern occupies what was once the Farmers State Bank of Davey, it was built in 1903.

one horse town

we pulled into Davey and hit the saloon.

smooth dirt

stopped to wait up for the rest of the crew. this was one of the nicer road sections, nicely packed and smooth.

1st pit stop

we had to wait up for a few people so we stopped for 'refreshments'. this section of north 7th street is a 'b level' road, and that means 'minimal' level of maintenance. the day before it was probably a mud fest, but today it was dry and soft. there were some ruts i could ride on so it wasn't that bad.

track bike = dirt bike?

one of these things is not like the others. ok, the tuesday night mwc ride, and being that it rained alot on monday any offroad riding would be out of the question, right? i was thinking we were going to do an urban assault/alley cat type of ride... but i assumed wrong. ep was taking us to Davey, on dirt roads. i went along anyway, builds character. ya, i got beatup pretty good on the bumps and washboards, but overall the track bike did ok in the dirt.

waking up

saturday routine... stop @ the mill before the radio show to get a little wakemeup double latte. finally got the track bike on the road again, it's been awhile.

wednesday

the baristes treat me well...

hey san jose

overall i was pretty comfy on the san jose, but i definitely need to change the gearing if i'm going to do more long road rides on this puppy. 42x15 or 44x16 would have been alot better.

headed back

after hanging in Seward a few hours i decided to head back before traffic got too crazy (i guess like 50,000 people head to Seward later in the afternoon for the parade and fireworks). syd and the rest of the guys had headed back earlier... so i was going back solo. the return 25-30 miles took me just under an hour and a half, but it sure was hot and windy. here i am crossing over I-80 on my way south to Hwy 6.

chillin'

enjoying some snowcones with julie on the courthouse lawn.

lowrider

checked out some of the rides at a car show. impalas were always my favorite. orale ese vato... fijate de mi rambla nueva... todas las chucas de mi barrio me quieren por eso. (ok...so my barrio slang is a bit rusty)