On new goals and more thoughts on upgrades

The newspapers of utopia would be very boring.
- Arthur C. Clarke in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

I really should rename this blog. I don't dream of skating and seemed to have lost my passion for it somewhere in the process of finding a passion for riding. Oh well! (At least its not a passion for sitting in my under ware in front of the T.V. watching the football match.) I used this handy tool to measure the distance from Burloak Drive to the far end of Hamilton Beach, about 20km, add that to the 60 to get to Burloak and I have a nice even 160km ride ahead of me. Nervous? Not really, but damned excited, hopefully this time I won't get another blow out.

I bought a proper bike repair stand last night a Park Tool PCS-1. I tweaked the rear deraileur and gave the Roubaix a proper inspection, I was able to find an entry hole in the rear tire, which was probably the cause of the tube failure on Saturday, whatever it was must have been pretty long and cylindrical, probably a thumb tack or something similar. I am not entirely satisfied with the job I did on the deraileur and will have to keep working on it.

I suppose I ought to be happy with my bike... no scratch that, when in the history of the human condition is a person happy with what they have? I wanted the very best skates and, well they aren't but they are good, and you know what, I got sick of skating. That in a nutshell is my process, start with something modest, and build on it and improve it, keep dreaming of ways to improve and build on what I already have (until I am at a point where what I have is so good that it becomes boring). A few years ago when I went into skating in a big way, when I was not actually skating I was dreaming of ways of improving things, better technique, better equipment, you name it. I don't understand where it comes from, but if I am not riding I have an insatiable desire to upgrade my bike. Saner voices are telling me that I should not bother, its just not worth it - better to buy a better bike - but buying a better bike takes away all the fun. I am a mechanical person by nature, not the most deft I admit, but I like to tinker. The thought of just riding and then storing the bike until the next ride, well that would spoil the experience. I don't want to win a race, I could care less for racing, what I want is to have something that started good that I made better.

Last year, in Duluth I got 1:47:12 (it was cold and there was a strong headwind... stop laughing, it was a reasonably good speed, really, it was!) I guess a better way to say this is, last year in Duluth, I came in 23'rd in my divsion (there were 129). This year I want to do better than 20 out of 129, or whatever that ratio is based on the number of people in my division. And when I ride to Hamilton in a couple weeks of course I will have a better speed than last time, I will know where I am going, but in six or seven weeks my speed to Hamilton should be better still, not just because I will know the ground even better but, because everything will be better, I will be stronger, my bike in subtle ways improved. For me its not about greatness its about starting somewhere and improving, as long as I am moving forward in all respects then it is a thing worth doing.