Hey, 2 Posts in One Week

Since the weather was so warm this weekend (though nothing like it is today - 70 degrees), I managed to get two rides in outside this weekend.

Sunday's ride I did by myself and just rode around some backroads of Clark Co. Here are a couple of photos from it.

The first one is the cement plant in Sellersburg. At one time, there were about a hundred cement plants in the Sellersburg area, thanks to all the lime stone in the area. The second is just a tree out in a field all by itself.

Finally a new post

I know that it has kind of been quiet around here lately . . . . . . . crickets chirping.


But, hey it has either been too cold to ride outside or raining a lot here in the Ohio Valley. Not sure what the problem is out in Tsukuba, hem, hem.

Anyway, today was going to be a nice, sunny day, plus Kate was working, which meant I got to play :) (sorry, can't believe that I just made smiley face icon).

I ended up riding with one of my teammates out into Floyd County, which is the next county over from Clark. The ride went up into the Knobs (which is Indi-ucky speak for steep hills). However, the knobs we were climbing were preceded by several other climbs, so all in it turned out to be a lot of climbing today. But that was alright, cause I was riding in area that I have never ridden before. The first picture is from one of the valleys inbetween the knobs.
The second is what the back of my bike looked like at the end of the ride. While the weather was great riding, the roads were still wet in lots of places (actually there was quite a bit of mush and ice on the roads still). The ride ended up being about 2 hours and was probably around 35 miles total.


This last picture is of some hubs that I just purchased on ebay with the idea to build up a tubular wheelset for cyclocross. They are extremely light and nice and shiny (guess that is the magpie in me). Anyway, these hubs are unlike any that I have seen before, the center is titanium, while the flanges are aluminum. I figure that they should build up into a wheeleset that is around 1200 grams, which is almost a pound lighter than the lightest wheelset I have now.

Bamboo Bike

Amazing what they can make bikes out of. This one has bamboo tubes and the joints are wrapped in hemp. Of course I am sure that it has some really strong glue and probably lots of layers of some sort of plasticy stuff to hold it all together, but it still is mainly bamboo and cloth.

It was built by Craig Calfee, who has being building carbon bikes for a long time. The bike is currently for sale on ebay, but I found a link to it on one of the bike message boards that I read.

The dropouts are titanium as I am sure the bottom bracket sleeve, head tube sleeve and seat tube sleeve all are. Not sure if I was want to race this bike, but it would make a great conversation piece and probably has excellent ride characteristics.

Sandy's Jersey

Here is Sandy in her jersey.

"Pale Humboldt opened his mouth. Through small teeth he gave his near-silent laugh."
p. 33

A Picture

Here are Mike, Linnea and Britta representing in the north.

Where is everyone else?

Beer

Since it is rainy outside, instead of a ride post, here is a beer review for Ommegang's Three Philosophers Quadrupel.

Dad and I split a bottle of this when we were up in Bloomington for Christmas (Thanks Annie and Jim for buying it, as it was really good).

Like all quadruples, this was a very rich, heavy beer, weight in at 9.8% alcohol by volume, and it certainly tasted like it.

Ommegang is an American brewery that started brewing Belgian style beers several years ago, and was subsequently bought by Duvel a few years back. Being purchased by Duvel must have only helped the brewery because it brought in so much Belgian brewing knowledge.

Anyway, back to this beer, it is a blend of beers actually, containing both Belgian ale and Kriek, a cherry lambic, which only adds to the complexity of its taste. Add to this the fact that it is a top fermenting ale, and that gives you its rich, heavy flavor with the hint of cherry in it. All in all an excellent beer, but not one that you would want to drink alone, no, this is a great cold dreary day session beer.