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...for a bib number?

She bought her own bike today. It's a Cannondale Quick 4 Women's. The color caught her eye. After that it was all mom and her Jedi mind tricks. Anyway that's what she blames for the purchase.

...and I don't remember this ad at all.

...or, for that matter, @dennis? Was @Dirtyhip in Klamath Falls in 2014? It’s hard to believe that the first Oregon Outback, that incredible 363-mile gravel race, was just five years ago. It’s almost like we live in a different world now, so much has changed… Back then, the idea of running a race that traversed the entire state of Oregon from south to north – on gravel roads! – seemed completely outrageous. So seemed the idea of riding the entire distance non-stop. And the idea of riding a road bike on these gravel roads. More than one rider told me at the start that they were astonished to see me on my Rene Herse for this grueling event. I am sure Ira Ryan, on his Breadwinner B-Road, heard similar comments. A joyful crew rolled out of Klamath Falls on Memorial Day weekend in 2014. Most were on mountain bikes equipped with bikepacking gear. Nobody knew what to expect. Would it take two days or a whole week to reach the Columbia River at the other end of the state? There were few options for bailout; there was no support – this was a real adventure. It did not take long for the race positions to shake out. By the time we reached Switchback Hill (above), there were three riders at the front. Ira Ryan was the favorite, having won the Trans Iowa race in his home state. He was riding on 35 mm tires – which was considered wide! Another strong racer was on a mountain bike. He had opted for narrower 700C tires. I was on the widest rubber, with our just-released 650B x 42 Babyshoe Pass Extralights.

15.4 miles with WoJSTL on the tandem. Over 100 miles total since we bought the bike and we have crashed or argued yet.

...from the world of @Dottie's neck of the cycling universe: Semper Porro's Cory Lockwood has denied allegations that he intentionally caused a crash last week at the Cascade Cycling Classic, telling Cyclingnews his disqualification from the race sprang from a misunderstanding and that none of the USA Cycling officials, fellow riders or team directors involved – including his own – approached him to get his side of the story. The incident in question occurred on the final climb of stage 3 at the USA Cycling American Road Calendar event in Oregon. Lockwood, who won the overall at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in March, was in a chase group languishing nearly six minutes behind a seven-rider breakaway that was riding away with the stage win and eliminating all but a handful of riders from general classification battle. Lockwood was on the front of the group on the long, gradual incline when, several riders say, he locked up his brakes and caused a crash among those behind him. USA Cycling officials disqualified Lockwood from the race, and the governing body told Cyclingnews it has started an investigation into the incident, with a suspension for Lockwood a possible outcome. In a phone conversation with Cyclingnews on Wednesday afternoon, however, Lockwood denied intentionally causing the crash. "That didn't happen," Lockwood said. "Actually, the race had been over for some time, and I was basically out on a training ride and I was trying to tell people I was out on a training ride. My teammates and I were riding, the break was up the road, the race was over," he said. "I made it explicitly clear, verbally telling people, hand gesturing, waving – and not hand gesturing with the middle finger, like somebody else posted. That was nonsense. I never did that. I was hand gesturing people to ride around me. "I even made an attempt – and not like when you see people on television where they swerve across the road to get people off their wheel; I wasn’t doing any of that – I moved over to one side of the road, completely outside of the peloton, and the other riders would come over to me, go around in front of me, and then slow down in front of me. And so I'm trying to just go to the other side of the road and stay away from them, train on my bike, tell them what I'm doing, and they would pin me on the front. I'd slow down and move away from them," he said. "This happened so many times to the point that I think we were going 12 miles an hour up a hill, and I think it clustered and ran into the back of me while they were doing this, after they came across the road to me, rode in behind me and then ran into me – the giant six-foot-three-tall rider in bright-red riding gear with his hand up motioning them around like we’re on the bike path." The crash took down two-time Cascade winner Serghei Tvetcov (Floyd's Pro Cycling), Luis Villalobos (Aevolo) and Hangar 15 guest rider Daniel Lincoln, a 39-year-old physician who was a 2004 Olympian and former American record holder in the 3,000 metre steeplechase. Tvetcov, Villalobos and Lockwood were able to quickly remount and finish near the front of the chase group, while Lincoln suffered more damage to body and machine and struggled across the line more than a minute down on that group. Aevolo and Hangar 15 immediately registered their complaints with chief commissaire Dot Abbott, and the race jury decided to disqualify Lockwood. Semper Porro manager and coach Jordan Itaya posted on social media that he would have pulled his rider from the race if the officials hadn't done it for him. Lockwood took issue with how the disqualification was handled, saying no one consulted him or asked for his side of the story before making the decision to remove him from the race. "I made sure I went back and made it clear and talked to the Aevolo director," Lockwood told Cyclingnews. "I even went over and gave the kid a hug. What was his name? Villalobos? I offered to fix his shoe and buy him a new shoe. I even bent over and straightened up his sock on his leg. I went over and shook [Aevolo director] Michael Creed's hand and talked to him. I went over and talked to the Hangar 15 guys. I didn't find the Floyd's guys, so I didn't get a chance to talk to them. "I made sure I went and smoothed it all over. Then, in the meantime, I motioned to my team director that I was going to go back down to the van to go load up. I never saw him, I never talked to him. They then went over and had a collective decision to remove me from the race without even talking to me, which is fine. It’s their right to do that. Maybe they should have consulted me first and got my side of the story. I’m not really angry about that at all. I guess I’m more disappointed that nobody approached me and got the facts first before they did all of this." Lockwood said the allegations of intentionally causing a crash would be completely out of character for him, and he would never intentionally try to crash another rider. "I've spent my entire life riding a bicycle," he said. "I literally wake up at five o'clock in the morning, do everything from measuring my food on the gram scale to going outside and riding for four or five hours, posting on Strava and doing my Instagram. My whole thing is that I just want to race my bicycle, because I feel it is a journey and I want to share it with people. I'm not trying to do anything malicious here. And, unfortunately, things happen in racing. Sometimes there's accidents. That's by definition why it's called an accident. People run into each other and you didn't mean to do it. "I wish they would have come and talked to me, but nobody has reached out to me," Lockwood said. "My team manager hasn't reached out to me. He's my ex-coach now, because I don't agree with the way he's been representing me online. It's just unfortunate that a lot of things are just coming to a head right now, and it's boiled over onto social media, and I feel like it’s turned into this giant forest fire. I don't even know what to do with it right now."

...with an upgrade to the seatpost and the stem???

...from my LF days??? I DO keep improving!

....from American Airlines! Hopefully, other majors will follow suit! Bikes are shown along with surfboards and skis! FORT WORTH, Texas — As the busy summer travel period quickly approaches, American Airlines has announced changes to its policies regarding oversize sports and music equipment. American is eliminating oversize bag fees for common sports and music equipment, effective for travel on or after May 21. The updated policies, which will be music to the ears of musicians who fly on American, will also ensure that customers can more easily pursue active and healthy lifestyles wherever their travels may take them, without having to pay additional oversize bag fees. Customers can check common oversize sports and music equipment as standard baggage, up to the maximum allowed dimensions and within the weight requirements. Refer to the full policy for additional information.

I'm not sure of the technical name of these two bolts, but I want to replace them as they are also getting corroded and ugly. Can I remove ONE, replace it with a new bolt (setting tight but not torqued fully), remove the second one, replace it, semi-torque it, torque the first one to spec, torque the second to spec, and move on? Or is it more a "if you loosen the guys too much, you have to follow the whole enchilada" sort of thing in the video below? Seems it should be simple, but I have no idea, and if I'm doing the whole shebang, I might as well get the headset services too.

Well, maybe a very light wipe down of the frame with a baby wipe, but I was able to FINALLY swap out my stem's handlebar faceplate's bolts for new ones. The original ones were soooo crusty, rusty, and corroded from several years of my toxic sweat eating away at them. Once again, a trip to HD for a few black metric bolts (from the same drawer as the saddle bolt I needed came from) and a couple dollars covered the switch. Much more pleasant from a cosmetic standpoint. Torqued them down to spec, rode 50 miles, and they passed the test. Also pulled the Speedplay pedals off the Tarmac, pushed in a bunch new grease, and replaced them back on the bike. My neighbor was out washing his cars, and popped his head in to mention that he thought I had just done that to the pedals. I pulled my handy-dandy maintenance chart out (a clipboard!), and realized it was last done June 2nd. We both shook our heads at the way time flies So, two small routine maintenance jobs completed prior to a nice ride. Next up, some other small stuff and other corroded bolts. Baby steps.

...on this NUT JOB!

Stupid bike is all back together. The brake rotor is hitting the caliper mount. What he hell. Am I missing something? Fits well in the drop outs. Cassette lines up with derailleur. Just the stupid brake rotor.

...from the photo where they were writing about ( 2019 Fittest City in America ? Actually, wasn't sure how they would parse it, because realistically, "Arlington" is just an extension of DC albeit across the river and a Virginia city. I consider it the "DC metropolitan area", but whatever. Arlington #1, DC #6. ...and the bottom 20

Finally found the time to finish the rebuild. Started with needing cables and sheathes, and tape, and brakes..... stripped all down, cleaned, lubed. Nice to have a smooth quiet bike again! Unfortunately it was pretty windy today so I can't be sure how much faster it is with the wheel decals stripped off. I will go back and swap in the 11-34 before I head to Vermont, still haven't decided what to do about a long cage 9 speed derailluer

...who apparently has a similar saddle bolt issue to me

..and some pretty scenery. It is always impressive to think about how even a short film like this gets made. Logistics and time-wise.

...and is this bolt gonna snap like a twig at the most inopportune moment? And, since @donkpow cares, it is a M8 - 1.25x35mm (2 for under $2 @ Home Depot). I am not sure if the new bolt is worse, better, or equal to the original that lasted since the early 1990's. And, I didn't wear safety goggles during my install (I'm that kind of reckless!).

Well if you must know: http://www.winknews.com/2019/05/12/naples-man-impersonates-fbi-agent-leaves-catfish-on-homeowners-lawn/ There is a bicycle in the story.

...but oddly, I match these

Needed a couple pieces to finish my rebuild, really want to get that bike back on the road, I can pick them up on my way by tonight. Then let them sit while I replace the alternator on the GTI that crapped out last night. priorities. And my wife needs the truck, so I rode to work in the rain this morning. Tomorrow at lunchtime I have to ride to the parts store for the new alternator that I have no time to work on until Friday night. At least I got the garden planted before the "car won't start" wail.

...is there still a "Newton's Revenge" hill climb up Mt Washington??? Google and the MWARBH are very vague about it. The road is generally closed to bicycles, so the only way to test your mettle up this New England monster is during one of two annual hill climb races (and their designated practice days), the classic Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb and Newton’s Revenge. The weather can be extremely temperamental, with frequent high winds. In fact, until fairly recently, the summit held the record for the highest wind gust not involved in a cyclone (231 mph!). The hill climbs have “weather dates,” and are postponed for ice, snow, very high winds, and/or hard, driving rain.