DC Bar-si Ride

Riding with DC Tony is always an adventure. On MTB Rides you know what the score will be. A broken chain and maybe a flat. Ok. On an urban ride it's different but the same.

Traffic Lights? Ignore Em!

Stop Signs? Suggestions!

Lane Marks? What a Joke!

Directions? For Spaniards, Not Italians.

If nothing else it was entertaining risking life in limb in the heart of DC thumbing our noses at the collective multitudes of DC.

I met the group at Haines Point and did a lap before by myself to warm up. DC Tony was at the Club House and warned me they might close gates before we got back. So I moved my car to the Tennis Courts. The group arrived a bit late, a bit after 7 and we waited a bit for Larry and Liz to catch up. Then we were off, finishing across the 14th st bridge I think and up to the Capitol to meet with Joelski who had Metro'd down with his shiny nused Dawes road bike, he bought for $35 bucks earlier in the day. What a great find.

We then took pictures at the Tree and of the nuts protesting at the Capitol. Then we were off to our first bar (2nd technically, the club house bar was closed). Ended up at the Capitol Lounge. They looked at the 13 of us like we were nuts. We had beers and rolled out a bit after 8. Off to the Argonaut on H street. Damn good we had a bunch of pitches of Bells Double Cream Stout there and DC Brau and some Long Hammer IPA. I had an awesome Cubano. We took off from there to misc rowdy cheers as we headed up I and headed towards The Big Hunt in Dupont Circle. Some scary ass riding later and we arrived, shaken but not stirred.

The Big Hunt was also busy but we got a table in back and beer pretty quick. Unfortunately I fell prey to one of the big issues at the Hunt, my beer was soured. I didn't even finish it or feel like arguing. We rolled out of there a bit after 10:40. Back down past the Cap.

I split from the group and went down to Haines Point at Ohio. Ended up doing another lap, but I was pooped and couldn't push it as hard as I wanted. Barely averaged 15. Maxed at 22. LAME!

Still not bad night probably 19-20 miles of riding for me. 4 Beers, 1 Cubano. Good times with good people. Can't wait to do it again. With someone else leading. :P

Last weeks Wakefield ride was nice to be out on the dirt. Trails weren't optimal but it had been to long. Most stuff was dry enough a few area's were still wet.

I'm off this next week and hoping to get in some rides in new places to try and finish Trail Rat 2010. We'll see.

Uh yah it's not the beer....really.

4th Ride of the week was a bar ride down in Shirlington since we got too much rain to ride trails at Wakefield.

Getting down there sucked, I should have just parked up at Madfox and road down. But that would have turned at 12 mile ride into a 20+ and honestly my legs don't have much left in them.

We hit 3 bars on the ride. Hitting Freddies first, then we hit Galaxy, then finished at Lost Dog. Met up with a ton of folks at Lost Dog and enjoyed a couple good beers and an excellent Pizza.

Also on the way over I accidentally Snot Rocketed someone....oops, I thought I'd moved far enough to the side and angled away enough.

Kept up pretty well except for one point between Freddies and Galaxy Hut where my legs got tired. The final down hill before turning back onto the trail was a blast.

EF on Sunday. Am I excited? A bit. Nervous? My legs just sent me a text complaining about over use. Oh well. For now I'm relaxing till Sunday. Maybe a very short spin to loosen up Saturday. And the weather for next week is looking up!

Shameless Pimpage

Part 1 - The Pimpage - Easy money for MORE



Part Duex -
New light mounted and lightly tested - Check
New tire mounted with stan's - Check
Ready for a whole lot of Rosy - Check (\M/)

Also in another strange coincidence my new flashlight ALSO came in yesterday a Fenix light I got off SaC. Pulled out my untouched batteries from last winter for the knock off version that sucked, put in and left on for 2+ hours with no problems. I'm rotating all the batteries thru the charger. I do note one side of the charger is broke-ass. With it's reflector at short distanced the damn thing is BRIGHT!

The new tire was almost painless to mount, I think I spent about 10 getting it on one side, getting the bead aligned then getting the other side 2/3'rds on. Added a ton of Stans and then a few minutes to wrestle on that final third of the bead. Then I hooked up my wimpy floor pump and was able to easily inflate it to 60 lbs setting the beads. Then a few hours of shake and set. I'd say by this morning it hadn't lost any air! That's awesome. Even when new on there the ardent had some minor bead leaks/etc. The power of running a REAL toobless tire. Can't wait to try it out at the Rose tonight.

Also trying to layout a Falls Church based Bar Ride so far I have:
DFH
4 P's
Mad Fox
Dogwood Tavern
Public House #7
Clare and Don's Beach Shack
JV's

Now I just have to figure out a starting point. Maybe Vienna.