August 21, 2008
Cyclist - Part II
As for my road bike: The frame was manufactured by Ganna, which is small company from Vicenza. It has an aluminum frame, carbon forks, ITM handlebars and levers, miche breaks, compact 18 speed drive-train, all black paint with gold detailing. All and all it is a well respected company that earns a decent amount of 'street-cred' around these parts. I was invited to a 90 km bike ride last Sunday, which I very foolishly agreed to. I thought I was ready for it, but they chose to head into the mountains...which was almost the end of me. It was a very beautiful ride. But I have never felt on the verge of cardiac arrest so many times in a single day. Most of the other riders in the group were wrinkled Italian gentlemen twice my age (or more!). This only added to my angst, as they dusted me to pieces in the mountains. Unfortunately, this was only to be the beginning of my trouble.
After somehow surviving the trek through the mountains, we were on kilometer #50 or so....already my longest bike ride ever involving by far the most elevation change ever. I was feeling pretty punked but I felt that I might be able to survive as we were heading into mostly flat territory. At the bottom of the last mountain, we were cruising though the center of a small town, most of us taking a stab at our water bottles. I was in the process of gulping when the car in front of be stopped abruptly. I was drinking with my right hand (stupid rookie!) and only had my left hand available for breaking. The left hand break is for the front wheel... Well, if you are cyclist or motor-biker, you know that using only the front wheel break in an abrupt stop usually ends rather badly. And a 'rather badly' is exactly what happened. The bike almost immediately jack-knifed and I was quickly involved in an altercation with the asphalt road. The road won the argument of course.
I was lucky though. My bike was fine and I was only a little banged up. Thank God for helmets! I hoped back on and tried to soldier through the rest of the trip.
This only cued up the next problem which was the speed that the group wanted to finish the ride in. Before long the group started into 40 kmph speeds along the flat roads. When riding by myself, I rarely exceed 32 kmph. I was in even more trouble...
My being thoroughly beaten by the mountains, exhausted by the sheer distance covered, and beat up from a fall, met head to head with my sheer competitive stubbornness (i.e. foolish stupidity!).
I kept up...sort of...and finished the 90 km. But it was a near thing. It has taken four days for me to feel even remotely normal (today). *sigh*
Aurora thought the whole thing was pretty funny, and started jumping on me as soon as I got home. lol
Cyclist
One of my gentle readers posted a comment implying that there may be some exaggeration regarding the recent biking activity of Aurora and Lucas. I assure you, there is no 'poetic embellishment'. ;)
August 12, 2008
August 08, 2008
Spam Slamed
I'm sorry about all the Spam that has built up over the last few months (previous entries). I'll try to get it cleaned up within the next few days. Nasty stuff!
August 07, 2008
Suitcases, Bikes & Un-Architecturalness
The four of us are happily reunited and are trying to settle into our new house in Marsure Italy. I say ‘trying’ because none of our household goods have arrived; it will be at least another month or so before we see the first of our things…or so they keep telling us. In the mean time, we are making due with loaner furniture and a few household items that we collected from an Ikea store in Padova. -- Which is to say things are very hectic and unsettled for us. We are only a few levels removed from living out of suitcases. But it will get better soon.
Shortly after moving into the house, I purchased a road bike (a la Lance Armstrong) from a local Mom-and-Pop shop in the town of Aviano. Road Bicycles are eminently popular here and are accepted and revered in way that they never will be in the States…I ride it to work almost every day now. I even wear all the crazy cycling clothes… Lucas and Aurora have also hopped on the ‘bicycle band wagon’, and can be seen tearing up the neighborhood streets on weekday afternoons. They usually ride with a pack of four or five like minded, like aged, and like sized cyclist. This usually results in a rather difficult set of obstacles for me to negotiate as I return home from work each day. Lucas and Aurora do not wear the cycling clothes…usually, it is all we can do just to get them to wear clothes at all.
I have an important but highly un-architectural job here at the new post. So as ever I am back to double fisting copies of Dwell in my right hand and Armchair General in my left...or maybe its the other way around (that’s the whole problem isn’t it: which one has precedence?). Here’s betting that most readers have never heard of either publication….and that any reader that has heard of one has not heard of the other; each one desirable and interesting to specific groups of individuals/professionals; groups that think little of each other and have even less in common. Ah well…
** Interestingly enough, this is the 200th entry in the Frantz Workshop blog. So Happy 200th to the blog!