Thursday, October 30, 2008

First Ride, Long Drive, Freak Out Wednesday!



These wheels, separated at birth, were re-united with each other in time for a woodsie ride.

Wednesday the plan was to hook up with d.p. and do a little B road scouting and some Trans Iowa business. So, after getting my two little ones off to school, I loaded up the Dirty Blue Box with the Badger outfitted with the Edge Composite wheels for the hour and fifteen minute drive. At least that is what I thought! After I got to d.p.'s abode, I found out a bit differently.

After discussing the current situation with Trans Iowa lodging and sponsorship, I went to grab my rig and get set to ride. Problem was, I had no front wheel! Left the dang thing sitting alongside the car when I took off from Guitar Ted Laboratories! Ruh-row! I was freaking! This was an expensive wheel set, probably worth more than The Dirty Blue Box itself. No other choice but to high tail it back to see if by some act of God it would still be there.

To say that there was much cursing, freaking out, and praying for grace would be an understatement. I made it back in an hour and ten minutes, pulled up in front of the lab and whattaya know? There was an Edge Composites rimmed front wheel laying curbside in the street! Lucky for me the crack heads in my neighborhood don't know cycling! That wheel had been laying there for two and a half hours!

So, after I got my sanity back, I decided I may as well go for a woodsie ride in the Green Belt. The recent winds have made a mess out of that area with tons of sticks down and even some very large branches that required frequent dismounts to get over. (Hey! cyclo-cross practice anyone?) It was a good thing to get my head cleared out. Although, I missed out on riding with d.p. and felt like an idiot for not being there to scout with him. (Sorry about that, d.p.!) The results of his scouting B roads can be seen here.


The errant front wheel suffered no permanent injuries due to its separation!
The wheels were fantastic! I will have much more to write about them later, but for now I can say that they were very nice to ride, as they should for a wheel set that should retail at around $2600.00! (Yes.......they are very spendy hoops!) I am just happy that my bone headed maneuver didn't ruin the chance I had to ride and evaluate them. d.p. tells me "everyone has done that at least once". Well, they would probably have to do it about 12 times to catch up with the value of the one mistake I made! Ha ha! At least it all turned out just fine in the end.

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