You know what gets my goat? When the bike tire is rubbing on the brake. Didn't have time to deal with it this afternoon so I just rode home. It was raining steadily so I brought out the rain cape for the first time in several months. It looked like a homeless person had been using it as a bed sheet. The rain was going south and I was going north so it was over in a couple of miles.

Beans and ice cream combo last night made for gaseous ride in. Now worsened by the fact that I forgot to pack underwear so I'm going commando.

Rolled the dice and left my rain gear at home for the commute to work. Needed space in the panniers for the vat of Pad Thai tofu I had made for my meals at work this week. Listened to Skeletonwitch on the way in. Their utter pointlessness was somewhat mitigated when they drowned out whatever some idiot was screaming at me from the sidewalk. Slipped the Cortina in the highest gear and made it down the hill on S Archer at 27.5 mph.

Work was the same grind, livened up somewhat by a hilariously intense argument I got into with my co-worker (Lee) about the relative greatness of Michael Jackson. I maintained that he had a few songs that were cool when I was growing up but everything after Thriller was horrific. This guy (21 yr old) found my opinion unfathomable. He kept saying, "But he did the Thriller". Apparently in high school Lee had reenacted Thriller (the song) for a talent show. His friends were the zombies. We asked another guy Lee's age who was picking up his Adderall to weigh in. This guy took Lee's side. Later I mentioned that by 1986 the only Jackson anyone cared about was Janet. Lee had never heard of "Control" and he was incredulous when I mentioned that it sold 14 million copies.

Ride home was cool. One of the panniers kept getting sucked into the spokes though because it was too empty without the Pad Thai. Started raining about 5 minutes away from home but it cleared up soon afterward. I couldn't help but worry about my strawberry plants as I rolled up. They are fighting some fungus and getting wet at night only makes it worse. Sometimes I wonder how people were ever able to survive because gardening is a bitch.

Did my 2 mile x 4 loop. I didn't go absolutely apeshit with my effort but it was respectable. Still not noticing a big difference with the Sempre. I weighed it and it is 2-3 lbs lighter than the Imola. I expected there to be more of a difference but I think weight is a little overrated anyway. I experimented with different riding positions trying to find the right balance between aerodynamics, power and comfort. I enjoyed the ride though. It's interesting the last quarter of a mile I stand up out of the saddle and switch to a harder gear. My heart rate hits around it's max, my whole chest feels weird and I get light headed. I kind of don't want to push it harder than that because if I pass out going at that speed it's game over. So I kind of explore the boundaries of what I can do with a modicum of safety.

Rode over to Bikes and More to have them check out the Sempre. Brian (big friendly mechanic with the beard) adjusted a cable so it would ride a little smoother in the smaller chain rings. He also tilted the seat forward a click to maybe help with the rough time my ass is having. Talked to Paul about ordering the power meter. Maybe I'm an idiot but the variability of cycling really annoys me (wind, hills, traffic). I didn't see the Imola anywhere so as an afterthought I asked how it was doing. Paul said it sold 2 days after it was put on consignment to some Bianchi enthusiast. Talk about burying the lead.

So there is no going back now. Like Hall and Oates sang the Imola's gone and I better learn how to face it.

After riding Gainesville Hawthorne trail I rode with Virginia to Leonardo's 706 brunch. It had been an every other Sunday tradition for us, but we hadn't gone in over 2 months. V is crossing the Gateway of Doom in the pic above. The sign on the right says to walk the bike across due to being at the bottom of hills on either side with terrible visibility. One day another biker will be flying in the opposite direction and I will have to go Leonard Smalls on the situation and pull out a hand grenade.

The food was awesome by the way.

We should form a band called Bikes In Heaven just so we could use this photo for our album cover. Of course there are no bikes in the picture, but they are obviously implied. It would be a prog-metal concept album about biking on the Gainesville-Hawthorne trail. There would be a 13 minute song suite about the solar toilet alone.

So we biked the trail. The first of many cold mornings on the G-H trail. At least I was better prepared than last year. Rode slower than usual, taking a moral victory in just being out there at 8AM in 42 degree weather. After generously lubricating my ass this morning, it was a little less sore than yesterday.

It was cool just dicking around biking down the connector trail that goes all the way from G-H trail to 6th st and checking out the progress on Sakara Sweets.