Oh No

Look out the metamorphosis has begun.

24 Hours of 9 Mile

Tomorrow Team Unicorn heads over to Wausaw, WI for the 24 Hour National Championships. Team Unicorn (named after O'gara) is Bill Fanter, Jeff O'Gara, Ben Shockey and myself. Ben originally planned to ride the whole thing himself, but I bought him a beer and asked him to ride with us and he changed his mind. He is replacing Traitor Brian Fuhrmann of Waukoon, IA. He rode with us last year along with Trevor Rockwell who has since moved to Iowa Falls or something like that to be a teacher. Fuhrmann has recruited 3 Out of Staters to join him in sharing the agony of defeat after suffering a loss to his local Bike Buds.

These Pictures are from last years race. We don't actually compete in the Championships... yet. This year we are in a 4 man open. We'll take turns doing 1 hour + laps starting at 10 AM Saturday and Finishing at 10 AM Sunday.
Correction: 4-Man SPORT Class. Now stop with the chastising. ;-)


Left: 9 Mile Transition Area - Right: Wild Bill Taking Off




Left: The Unicorn Himself - Right: Me and yes, I do race in a wife beater.

The Unicorn

I saw the post below and thought it might be helpful to preface the story. People don't usually want to shoot me... that I know of. So, in response to "Unwanted Nightly Visitors":

For those who don't know, there is a small Unicorn around these parts. He rides a Black Sheep, drinks Miller High Life, and has been impossible to catch on a bike. He's been spotted on the trails, and is rumored to ride Little Big Horn at least twice a day. He does however have a large cave in the middle of Decorah where he keeps his Black Sheep and his Miller High Life. Once in a great while, after an evening ride and post ride beers and cover of nightfall, a brave few dare to seek out this Unicorn's cave. Very very quietly, we sneak in, crack open a few Campaign of Beers, and discuss politics in the deafening suspense that he might actually wake up and kill us all. What a disappointment when all that was in the Fridge was bud light. Hence: an empty Bud Light can in a second story window of a one story cave.

Unwanted Nightly Visitors

It is funny what one might encounter during a late evening in the town of Decorah. Some may see a coon or two, possibly a wayward doe with fawns in tow, or even an occasional fox. However my house seems to be a regular attractant for the ever elusive rafter scaling Jackass. If you happen to run across one, your best bet is to walk the other way and ignore. I on the other hand, will be taking a new approach of dealing with these nightly visitors, a tool very useful in the eradication of vermin.

testing

multiple author test post. we will destroy the fuhrmanator this weekend.

Pugsley in Palli

I took up an offer from Deke this past weekend to ride his Surley Pugsley around town. It is a super fun bike. I had so much fun with it I decided to try it out on the trails. Some friends from Minneapolis and Chicago visited for Nordic Fest and wanted to try our trail system, so Freidhof, Grawin and I gave them a tour of Pallisades and The Van Peenen system. Since these guys were out of towners and probably not very fast on our stuff, I threw my pedals on the Big Wheeled Rig and got it dirty. I was able to ride surprisingly fast. The rolling momentum carried me right over roots, rocks and logs. It felt like I was monster truckin' the whole time. It was a work out on the climbs, but I'm a single speed guy and it's set up as a geared bike so I was able to ride everything. It was a little difficult to keep it on the trail and I could definitely feel the off-camber more so with the wide tires. I just might have to get me one of those.

Who were the ad wizard's that came up with that one?

When I first heard Budweiser was brewing a competitor to Leinekuegel's HoneyWeiss, I thought that was a good idea. When I heard the name of the new Beer, I thought their Marketing Department must have died in a plane crash. Their new craft beer is called "Shock Top". Now I get it.

(Photo: Shock Top Tapper Head and Shockstar Head)

We actually had a pretty good ride tonight, training for the 24 hours of 9 mile in Wausaw this weekend. The HuckleBucks or Unicorns, I'm not sure what we're called is made up of Bill Fanter, Shockstar, O'Gara and myself. Were taking on the world with Single Speeds. Deke is in charge of food and drink, and I hope he brings a lot because I'll have a very difficult time racing 5 or 6 laps in a 24 hour period while sober.

Welcome

I'm new at this. I created http://www.bikedecorah.com/, but I'm not a techie kind of guy even though I design software (design not develop) for Ambulance Services and Police. Doesn't make sense to me either. I had a blog on Bike decorah that was mediocre at best. I saw what everyone else is doing and hope to get something going. My plan is to recruit Decorah Bikers and have a team of Decorah Locals posting on here because I can't keep a blog up alone, and Shockey has so much to write that what he can't fit into his blog could spill into here.