The week evolved into a bit of a roller coaster in terms of riding. It started out at a high point, pleasant temps, clear streets and light post holiday traffic. Then it quickly plummeted into a winter, freezing mess of snow covered ice, congestion, multi-modal navigation and arctic temperatures. Fittingly, today marked the high point of the work week; the last little dip before pulling into the station for the weekend. Here’s my homage to today’s ride.
• 10 year old pair of blue REI long underwear tops and bottoms, with a hole in the right leg where I cut myself almost clear to my femur while skiing 4 years ago--$2.00
• Striped red REI base layer, one of the best base layer shirts I've ever worn--$15.00
• Pair of expedition wool, SmartWool socks with the heels practically worn through--$.50
• Neon-yellow Gore Windstopper Cycling jacket given as a birthday present by my lovely wife for my 30th, now complete with some stubborn grease stains--$50.00
• Fleece balaclava that's actually too big for my gigantor head--$5.00
• Cheap glove liners that won’t last an entire season but fit comfortably inside my outer gloves-$.10
• Manzella rancher glovers with a bit of crustiness on the right thumb (it washes out, it washes out)--$10.00
• Shimano mtb shoes I got from Doc’s Ski and Sport for %75 off when I worked for GearDirect.com almost 10 years ago…I can’t believe these shoes are still functional…$1.00
• Neoprene shoe covers with some knock off Italian name on them, which I pulled out of a grab bin of miscellaneous used crap at VeloSwap 3 years ago for $1.00 --$.25
• Carrera ski goggles snagged on a sweet deal at Sniagrab 4 years ago--$5.00
• Rudy Project HART team helmet from the 2008 season, for me $0, for you--$20.00
• 1984 Cannondale touring bike picked up off Craigslist for $85 complete now with rear racks, panniers, lights, same foam wrapped bar tape now nearly falling off, new VeloSwap drive train and a frozen rear brake (its a classic)--$20.00
• A 7 mile, 18mph average speed, all out TT to work on relatively carless streets over glare ice, slush, mag chloride and other gross on a -3.5 degree morning---priceless.
If it actually hits the 33 degrees they said it would be this afternoon, the ride home might seem anticlimatic by comparison.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment