Finding My Inner Roadie

They came to me during the night...the voices, and images. My three amigos were sitting across a table from me. The room was dimly lit, Moody Blues music was playing in the background, the sweet smell of incense was in the air. The Cook was dressed in flowing robes, bandanna, and sandals. Grasshopper and Single-Track were all dressed in black kits and all had their shiny carbon road bikes in the background.

The Cook is the "old sage" of the group and he was leading the other two in a chant..."Vito...embrace your inner roadie, embrace your inner roadie, embrace your inner roadie." This chant continued until I finally got up screaming, "I embrace my inner roadie and will go for training rides on the road with my amigo friends and others!"

So, now you know why I can't sleep at night. My road bike has sat idle in the basement since last July. Today it came out for the first time and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Now, I must say, that after an entire winter on the Pugsley going from 8psi to 120 psi was somewhat of a rude awakening. Also, getting used to the snappy responding road bike compared to the sluggish response of the Pugsley was a rather humorous experience. Along with actually having a good gear selection other than the single speed I have become so accustomed to.

Storms last night kept me up and also made for some wet messy roads. No sooner did I arrive home after fifty-five miles of riding, and I found myself dismantling the bike and cleaning off all the road grit, dead worms, and dead worm guts. I do not like having a dirty bike! Especially a dirty road bike. It is just not cool.


Ready for more road miles. A friend commented that she couldn't believe I came out of the forest to ride the roads. I told her not to get too excited because eventually I will most certainly disappear back into the forest to ride the gravel roads and trails.