Friday, January 9, 2009

What this year may bring

The first full week of 2009 is ending and it's been full of bad news. The economy is the big player as we all know. I feel lucky to be in the Automotive Industry and still be employed. Two of my teammates, Brain "The Wrench" and Gerry 'Captain Terror", work in my office with me and it's funny because usually this time of year we are already talking about the upcoming race season.

We as many know I have no plans to race at all in 2009. In fact I don't even own a complete mountain bike. I have a frame, fork, a set of wheels and some other scattered parts but not enough to throw a whole bike together. I sold all my race stuff to cover xmas this year so we didn't have to dip into our savings to pay for it like we do every year. My company is still going but none of us are sure for how long. My family is more important than my race season. Sue and I have made a few changes and started preparing for the possible "worse case scenario" in that my company goes under and I lose my job. We had put our cottage up for sale in Sept with the plan to build a new one across the lake on her dad's property. It actually sold last month but now we plan to just keep the money in the bank until we see how this economy thing plays out.

It's weird not having a mtb to ride. I still have my road bike and recently acquired cheap used bmx bike. I have already developed a complete parts list for the new DJ/Urban bike I want to build but honestly I can't justify spending the money right now. Even with the big cushion we have from selling the cottage going out and building another bike just seems like a bad idea.

It's funny because a good jump bike for me would be the deal Captain Terror could get me on a Redline D640...but I know if I ended up getting it I would not be completely satisfied and I would end up upgrading most of the bike. So I want to piece together the exact parts I want to make sure I will be satisfied when it is done. Have I become a bike snob as to where I just can't ride a normal bike anymore??? I am not even happy with my bmx bike, I keep looking at upgrades for that and I hardly ride it. But really, even after you build the exact bike you want is it ever completely done?

So to keep me busy and away from spending lots of money I have decided to tamper with building wheels. I have a couple extra bmx wheels laying around and I figure they will be good practice wheels for my first couple tries at this. Might cost me $20 for some new spokes and nipples but that'll be it. Once I gt a couple good wheels I hope to start building my own mtb wheels. This should keep me busy along with having the new baby.

And last, as for milage.....I am so out of the game. Rode about 100 miles in November on the trainer, 0 in December and none yet in January. There are a lot of people who are faster than me now.

I'm still going to d my best to cover the team events this season. I have always felt like the team's Public Relations rep. Sue and I have already talked about the Tour De Cure as well. I want to ride it with Ashton this year so I will be planning to do the short ride instead of the metric century like I normally do. I may even pull Abi in the trailer as well so she can be involved.

So keep tracking this blog. We'll be more diverse in the cycling world this year. Road, XC, CX, bmx, Urba, DJ, Park riding....never know where the team will show up.

Keep the tires aired down and the layers built up, it's cold outside.

Aryn