I’m partiall moved to Austin, but still in Houston this week.
I only have my tri bike in Houston, with the wheelcover on, and the tools to take it off are in Austin.
So I am riding around training with my wheel cover every day.
REALLY windy too
Heck…once I mount mine on my PT wheel for the season, I leave it on because of the hassle. I don’t just bolt it on, but also run tape around the outside rim/cover interface as well. By the time I do a meticulous job of that…I don’t feel like doing it 5 or 10 more times.
If that makes me a Fred…so be it.
But I also used to ride a set of Specialized TriSpokes as daily trainers and racers…so maybe I just don’t care!
I could not for the life of me find my helmet yesterday so I did a 2 hour training ride with my aero helmet on. Fredsville … population me.
I avoided eye contact with all other cyclists.
You’re racing today, right?
No problem, then!
I leave my wheelcover on quite regularly. Just too lazy to always take it back off again.
Also train w/ my (old) aero helmet on - it’s very nice for cold and/or rainy days, keeps the head warmer.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
I’m not the Mayor of Fredville, but I did vote for him.
Also train w/ my (old) aero helmet on - it’s very nice for cold and/or rainy days, keeps the head warmer.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
I do this on all my winter long rides. The aero helmet covers my ears and they never get cold.
I am a citizen of Fredville. It can sometimes take weeks before I take off the wheelcover. My bike is on the trainer right now with the wheelcover and H3.
Fewer/no vents + long tail = no cold rain running down the back of your neck.
so I can spill all the things I’ve done this week
.
Why not? It’s about the same thing anyway. Fred, Fredette, it’s all good.
OK, here’s mine: wore the aero brain bucket today (ok, we already discussed this part).
Here’s the double Fred grande with extra Fred frosting - it took me 50 minutes to change a fricken flat today.
Yes - almost an hour. :-p
Now for the short story, long:
Plan was to run 4m, ride 4 laps in Harriman, run 4m.
Run #1 went fine, most of first lap fine, hit a rock on the last descent on LWD, and about .5m later, the dreaded HISSSSSSS… pinch flat.
No problemo! I’ve got spare tube, CO2 inflator, Park patches, tire lever, mini pump - I am sooo all over this.
Take flat tube out, cursory look for holes, uh, whatever, it doesn’t matter - Mikey has shiny new tube.
Run fingers inside tire, no sharp stuff, so I partially inflate new tube, install, inflate a bit more w/ mini pump, then CO2.
Bada bing, bada boom - hard as a rock, perfect.
Then, as I’m mounting it back on the bike, HISSSSSSS… you gotta be f’n kidding me.
Take tube out, run finger around again, still nothing sharp, check out tube, there’s a hole near the seam. OK, maybe there was something sharp? Check again.
Check rim, rim strip, etc. Nada. Patch new hole w/ Park patches, takes 2 before it sticks, OK, I’m good.
Install tube, pump up like a madman w/ minipump, hard as a rock. Perfecto.
Install wheel back on bike. Hmmm, what’s that faint noise? Is it?.. HISSSSSS… FUCK ME.
Wheel off, tire bead out, tube out. WTF? There are more holes near the seams, several of them.
(This was my “race spare”, which spent all of last season strapped under the saddle of my bike. Good thing I didn’t flat in a race, or you would have seen me toss my bike at least twice as far as Normann did)
Did I mention? It starts snowing during all of this. I’m starting to get kinda cold. Swell.
Now back to our story, already in progress…
OK, this tube is crap. Time to patch the original one.
For some reason, it took me like 5 mins to find the damn holes. There they are, snakebite. Little f’er, I got you now.
Slap Park patch on there, air in tube, seems to be holding.
Pump up tire w/ minipump, part tres. Getting quite the arm workout. Not hard as rock this time, too tired. Too cold.
Mount up tire, ride. Rides ok, finish lap, do one more lap, starts snowing again, OK I’m done, don’t want to be tempting fate here.
Put bike in car. Sun comes out. Of course.
On the plus side - EVERY rider who went by asked if I needed anything.
As did at least 3 cars. Very cool, good mojo there (if no place else today)
I went to the mall to get an outfit for my thesis defense and all I came back with was run shoes.
I’ve ridden without a sports bra twice this week. just a fleece top and a windblock shell.
I still haven’t gotten another little flat kit, since one got lost on a ride in AZ.
I had 2 croissants for dinner.
hey, I ride with a mirror and hairy legs, every time… embrace the fredliness !
CC and jackmott, NEWSFLASH: You both already were Freds.
OK, in the spirit of confession, I pulled a Fredette yesterday. I had a 20 minute w/up run followed by intervals at the fastest I could run. It was a fairly warm day but not hot. I wore a sleeveless shirt but then added Moeben sleeves to keep a little warm. Once the intervals started I knew I was going to get really hot and having the sleeves on made it easy to get rid of that layer. As if that isn’t bad enough, the only visor I could find to wear was my m-dot one. So, pink shirt, black visor, white Moeben sleeves and my bright green earphones. My neighbors are no longer surprised by what I do. I had a fantastic run and the sleeves ended up being really smart. I have leopard print ones that I haven’t worn yet. Maybe those will be for today…
I wore a cotton shirt on the trainer today. Does that count? I mean…no one actually witnessed the catastrophe.
It could be worse. Your name could be Fred and then you’ld be a Fred every day like me.
I’m partiall moved to Austin, but still in Houston this week.
I only have my tri bike in Houston, with the wheelcover on, and the tools to take it off are in Austin.
So I am riding around training with my wheel cover every day.
REALLY windy too
All week and weekend in Rancho Mirage
I only have my tri bike, with an 808 and powertap on those tires you LOVE SO MUCH.
I’ll have a double of Tito’s at Tommy Bahama’s tonite in your honor…(but I’ll refer to it as a Tufo)
I now ride a 700c bike and don’t own 700c training wheels. I’m a Fredette indefinitely (could be awhile before the reg. wheels arrive). And the race wheels are tubulars. Good stuff…
Jodi
ML - ahhh jackassery when changing a flat, always fun. As dirty secrets are being told I recently took about that long and destroyed a couple of new tubes IN MY LIVING ROOM. At least it was not snowing in the house.
I always ride a rear 808 as it is my only pt wheel. Really super bad when I put it on the road bike 
I’ve done my last four rides with the wheelcover and new Gigantex 85mm front. It’s been windy here in CO too but want to get used to the deep front wheel. It can be a handful when it’s really gusty.
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/clothing/arm-and-leg-warmers/product/tattoo-arm-warmers-10009
I rode the crit last week in my red team kit, with yellow shoes, and brown Wyle E. Coyote socks, cos I’d forgotten my race socks.