Do those crank arms look long?

Found a picture of my great-uncle Arthur Dingfelder. I'm guessing this was the early 1930's and he was maybe 14-15. It looks like he can hardly get on the bike but he would often ride from Brooklyn to his parent's summer place in Pennsylvania. Because 100+ mile rides alone through New Jersey is what you did as a kid in the 30's.

Ridin with Josh

I've had good intentions to add content, but...... I don't have a good excuse. Here is a short story about a recent ride Josh and I took on 8/2/2009.



Josh: "Dad, I want to ride to Eric's house tomorrow."

Dad: "Josh, you know it is far and up a massive lung burning, lactic acid generating, you are gonna whine the entire time type of climb....." [I've taken the liberty to add in how my brain interpreted his request]

Josh: "I know, but I want the challenge"

Dad: "Let me ask mom if I can take you on a 1:45 min ride on the road in the pouring rain"



I knew Josh theoretically could do it, we've been mountain biking all summer and we've already done several 15+ mile rides on/offroad. He just finished a week of mountain bike camp and got a new mountain bike a few weeks ago (an upgrade to 21 speeds from 6 speeds - wahoo!)...... I'm semi-confident he could do it (I just kept telling myself, maybe Nicole will put the kibosh on it and be the evil parent). No such luck....



(the next day)
"I'm ready" says Josh. "I'm almost ready", I said as I grabbed my cell phone unsure if I'll need to make emergency call to pluck an 8 y/o boy off the road. We saddle up under grim and threatening clouds and head out to our friend's place on top of a mountain in Etna, NH. About an hour into the ride it starts to rain. I try to block it out and hope Josh doesn't notice. "Dad, its raining". No response, I'm hoping it is just random things kids say. "I like the rain". "Huh?" I guess given all the rain we've had recently he has gotten to embrace it instead of despising it, this is a welcome relief and we continue pedaling on. We finally make it to our friend's place (ahead of mom) and Josh is pumped. He spends the next hours riding with his good friend Eric in the pouring rain. They even left a nice rut at their place as a memento and I'm happy to point it out to Eric's dad as I'm getting in our car.



This climb is phenomenal, it is one of the staples of my riding diet and I ride it to work almost everyday in Lebanon, NH. There a few cars, great road surface, dirt roads, lots of wildlife and even a small waterfall. In fact, the day that Josh and I rode, we saw a bear and cub cross the road about 50 yards ahead of us! In the early morning with low hanging fog, I end up riding above the fog for a few miles then descend down into work back through it. It is unbelievable..... I look forward to sharing it!

Josh and his new bike. This was taken on one of our mtn bike excursions. This was the day after he finished mtn bike camp and was eager to share ALL the trails with me on the same day.

What I have been up to in the last 3 months. By KWPS

So I haven't posted in way too long, sorry guys and gals. To give you an update I moved out to Los Angeles to pursue my professional photography career. I am loving the southern California weather and riding a lot as you can see from a screen grab on January 13th. I did end up hurting my knee in the last cross race of the 2008 season, actually held on January 23rd, 2009, gotta love LA! I had a fun time but ended up hurting my knee on the first lap, I banged it into my bar end but finished the race. Please see my Video. I didn't take a rest like I should have and I don't wear my insoles for my flat feet. I developed a knee problem in my left knee, hmmm stupid? Yes. I went a little crazy, riding every group ride I could find. The weather was so nice I didn't want to rest. I tried to record a few rides using TrailGuru but didn't have much luck with my iPhone and the crappy Cingular service in Los Angeles. I did get it to work on the 3rd try, here is the famous Saturday morning Montrose Ride and see my TrailGuru data here. I ended up buying a fancy Garmin 705 from this guy, GeoMan the cheapest place on the web! I won't have anymore dropped data rides again. I have taken it easy the last few weeks waiting for my knee to heal and getting over a cold. I tried out the Backbone Trail, one of the best single track rides in the Los Angeles area on Sunday with a local group Corba. They are a really well organised group of fun loving mountain bikers. I had a great time, we did take to many breaks for my taste but check out my tracks from the Backbone Trail. I am going to get some custom insoles this week and a bike fit for my road and mtn bike and see if that helps with the knee. Take a look at some of the photos from the last 2 months here. I will keep you updated with photos, tracks and videos! We love Bicycles!

This is why!

A few pictures to show why we (Melissa and Dan Coady) are heading to the Cyclocross World Championships on Hoogerheide, Netherlands.

This picture is from Cross Worlds 2007 in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium.  Look at all those people.  This is just one small part of the course and people were lined up like this along the whole course.

This was outside the train station in Brugge Belgium.  The low countries love their bicycles and their Veldrijden.

I will post a race and trip report including photos and maybe a video or two when we get back!

Representing team WLB

So this has nothing directly to do with cycling but here's a picture of me sporting a sweet WLB t-shirt.


This was on the climb to the Taktshang monastery in Paro, Bhutan.


-J