Weekly roundup October 29, 2009

The aforementioned G4 Power Supply go boom story is still effecting what I can and cannot do. I have had almost no time, it seems, to my computer since I am now forced to share it with my wife who is in college. That, combined with the ridiculous amount of work I’ve been doing, and the added house work with said wife in said college… Ugh. I actually was debating which is likely to happen first; lose my freaking mind or have a massive heart attack. No kidding. So, for now I’m going to get out what I can. please enjoy a Weekly Roundup, and my apologies for keeping you hanging… I’ll try to get better about keeping current here.

Fat Cyclist: I’m just going to leave Fatty at this; check out Fat Cyclist’s Blog! Fatty has been writing about the awesome Austin LiveStrong Challenge, and the Ride For The Roses. Congratulations Fatty on having the record for most money raised by a team at more than three-quarters of a million dollars! WOW! I guess if we must be exact $773,874.30… Give or take a few bucks. That’s a LOT of cancer fighting, and a lot of people being helped. Check out his blog, the last week is pictures of the Austin events, stories, videos, and pictures of the Team Fatty members who were able to make it out to Austin. Congratulations Fatty on doing a wonderful thing. God bless, man!

HighwayMunky: My buddy across the pond the HighwayMunky has me worried lately. First he posts a blog about the pros and cons of wearing a helmet now this, Slipping The Traffic. That’s right, he’s taken to the risky behavior of playing dogems with the metal monsters on the road. PLEASE Munky! Please be careful man. I have, however, decided by reading his blog that I really need to get to England and ride. It sounds awesome and beautiful. By the way, Munky… Arm warmers are AWESOME!

50K Loop NS: Poor Bluenoser’s cross season seems to be over before it started. He took a header before, and apparently it was pretty damn bad. Well, now apparently it’s official, It’s Over. Yup, the fat lady has sung, and he’s calling it dead. Sorry bout the shoulder, Blue… I’ve been there YEARS ago. When I rode dirt BMX I was on pavement and went over the bars… It sucks. I hope you’re better soon!

Harp Rider: There are two reasons I am posting about Harp this week… One is I, too, Need More Singletrack. I think I might not remember how to ride, it’s been so long. The second reason is that he MIGHT just be more geeked out on Kevin Smith than I. Way to go, Harp! Hope you get at least one more epic ride, before the white stuff.

Cozy Beehive: Finally, today, Ron touches on a subject near and dear to my heart. Mainly, Velo Taboo: Wearing Underwear Inside Shorts. I had a friend who was talking about lycra, and was asking how I could wear them without underwear. First off, I wear boxers… Yeah, big baggy pants under tight? Second, I had a friend wear tighty-whities under jeans for a 25 miler… He called me, nearly in tears, because he had blisters from the rubbing. This is a GREAT point, Ron! Keep up the good work.

Well, that’s all I have for this week. Snow will be here soon, ride while you can! I’m the Phun Cyclist, stay classy Cleveland.

Time, Time, Time... Where Has It Gone? Where Can I Get More

So you may have noticed that I've been kinda MIA lately. I promise that I will be here, I've just been consumed by "the new project." By that I mean The Art Of Brew. That's right! It's been a long time coming but my brewing confidante, Thomas, and I have officially launched the craft brew blog.It's long been a passion of mine, and I have been wanting to get it out for some time. Well, now is that time. I found the right person who had a very similar idea, and similar passion and, as they say, the rest is history!

We still have a few kinks to work out, but the site is live, and we've started to populate! Please take a minute to stop by, check it out and let us know what you think. We'll be opening up to comments very soon. I will also still be here, doing Phun, so keep checking back here as well.

CHEERS!

Spin Bike Shop Presents: The 2009 Cross My Heart And Hope To Die Willoughby Cyclocross Spectacular!

It's that time of year again in Cleveland. There is a chill in the air, the leaves are changing, and a bunch of psychopaths are readying themselves for thirty minutes to an hour in hell. That's right, kids! It's time once again for the Cross My Heart And Hope To Die Willoughby Cyclocross Spectacular (CMHAHTDWCS). Last year was an amazing race. Great turnout, technical course, hill that made people wish they were dead, what more could you ask for? Well, it's all happening again, this Saturday!

Saturday October 17th cyclocross, again, returns to Willoughby, Ohio as Spin Bike Shop brings back the Cross My Heart And Hope To Die Willoughby Cyclocross Spectacular. (I just love typing that) The registration for the event will be from 11:00 am - 1:15.

A's (Novice/JRs) group will start at 12:00 noon and will run thirty minutes.
B's (Intermediate Men/Women Open) at 12:45 for forty-five minutes.
C's (Expert/40+ Open) at 1:45 for one hour.

Entry is $20 and you'll need a USCF or NORBA licence. One day permits to be had for another $10 USCF permit pending.

If you need more information on the race you can find it one of sixty two places. You can Visit:

Spin Bike Shop
Team Spin or HERE for a PDF of the specifics of the race, or go HERE to acess the actual PDF with a map to Todd Field in Willoughby.

Sadly, this year I will not be at the race, I will be covering the Fat Head's 1st Annual IPA Fest for The Art Of Brew. I will, however post a listing of the results from the race, so stay tuned!

Weekly roundup October 09, 2009

So I have to admit. I’m burned out this week. The final straw in the week was the G4 (see yesterday’s post) going BOOM! So, for now, I’ll let you you enjoy a Weekly Roundup, and I’m going to try to source a 360w Mac power supply.

Fat Cyclist: Mad props going out to none other than the Fat Cyclist! Fatty wrote An Open Letter To [Himself] About 24 Hours Of MOAB. A great race deserves a great post. Along with a full “to-do” list, list of things he’ll need for the race, and as always that typical Fat Cyclist humor. Best of luck Fatty, and happy riding! Kick some butt.

HighwayMunky: The HighwayMunky posted a great thought on the pros and cons of wearing a helmet when cycling. It covers it from a whole new perspective though. ”To Wear, Or Not To Wear, That Is The Question”, covers the legal side of helmet use. So many focus on the health or annoyance factor, I think this might be the first time I’ve seen it from a legal perspective. Nice one Munky!

50K Loop NS: Bluenoser go to meet one of his longtime blog friends, none other than Bikes Gone Wild in a regular East Meets West event. Keep up with Bluenoser, as he’s going to be starting year two of his Cyclocross addiction shortly.

Ray’s Racing Adventures: Finally, today, Ray. First off, thanks to Ray for the link from his blog. Promise I’ll not make you regret throwing it on your blog, man. Mind you, I need to ride more so as to be more relevant, but… Ray left a post about Photo Credits, Blogs, And A Little Story . The photo credits are, well, photo credits. The blog portion is about Cleveland blogs, did I say thanks? The little story? About cross… a cool story about cross, seemingly true to form, and passionate. It really gets across the beauty and hell that is cross.

Well, that’s all I have for this week. Get the hell out and ride before the snow hits. The leaves are changing already! Phun Cyclist, stay classy Cleveland.

Wednesday Randomness

Ugh... I am going to apologize right now for the lack of posting that is going on and that is sure to come. I woke up yesterday morning to my baby, read that as 1.42DP G4 Mirror Door, has bit it.Total... unadulterated... sadness. I actually feel worse for my wife than I do for me. For me it might as well be a big toy, for the wife... Her college career. Yeah; Epic sucks! So, I would like to use this time right now to say that I will get posts in as quickly as possible, but there may be a lag time. Example, tomorrows post will likely be around dinner time. Further, and more important in my mind, if anyone has a mirror door with a 360w power supply that they need to get rid of; I could use your power supply or the entire unit for parts.

Alright, I need to bail from this right now. I will throw together a Weekly Roundup tomorrow. For today I will leave you with the entire idea behind my blog. Courtesy of none other than Target. I love Target. They have had some great boxers recently, and I promise you this was not staged. I walked down the isle to run straight into an end cap. This is what I found.
That's right, beer & bikes, the epitome of Cycling Phun. Have a goodnight, all, catch you tomorrow!

Everybody Else Is Doing It

You all know where this is going, right? Drugs! Everyone else is doing... OK, I'm kidding. But it almost sounds like drugs the way people talk about it. Of course, as you've likely guessed, I am talking about cross! That's right, cyclocross has swept the nation. People everywhere, it seems, are getting these road bikes on steroids, and getting out in the ungodly weather to abuse themselves. This should serve as an explanation of cross to those who are new to the cycling world.

What cross is, is an opportunity to abuse yourself far beyond anything you could possibly imagine. The bikes look like a road bike, but the tires look like a hybrid tire. They are 700c but wider, like a mtb tire. The goal is simple; be the first to cross the line without getting killed. Simple enough, right? Have I mentioned that the courses can combine any number of the following; paved course, grass, dirt, sand, water, mud-pits, switch-backs, hills, stairs, and foot to foot and a half tall barriers? I'm probably missing something there too, that you are allowed to call me out on. Further, the only time to race cross is about September to about December or January. Yup! That means cold, rain, snow, sleet, and generally disastrous weather.

So why do people do it? Call 'em crazy, call 'em hardcore, you'd be right! These are the die hards. To do a cross race you have to be in shape. Likewise, if you do a few of these you have to maintain fitness. It just comes from pushing yourself so hard. The spectators aren't far from this either. That's half the fun. People ringing cowbells, drinking beers, handing beers off to riders as they fly by, passing off dollars to the riders, and generally going rasp yelling. The only thing I can say is if you've never been to a cross race, you need to get to one this fall. You race> Try your hands on a cross race. Use a cross bike or a light weight HT mtb and try it out this year. They're amazing!

The Perfect Combination Of Bike And Beer

This may be the perfect combination of bike and beer. You've seen Saturday Night Live "On A Boat", right? Now the crazy cool guys over at New Belgium put together "On A Bike"! Arguably the perfect combination of bike and beer.