2 Wheels Maybe

(Another lunch-time lesson in dirt and humility.) I raced BMX as a kid. It was only four decades ago. I should still be good at it. Right? The local weatherman told me a cold front was passing through -  it wouldn't reach 90 degrees until lunch. My brain instantly dreamed up the next micro-adventure: BMX, baby! Flora and Fauna Report Local Flora Local Fauna: I'm gonna need a longer lens, a longer lunch, and more patience to post fauna pics, but I did see two great blue herons, one great egret, two burrowing owls, a few dozen prairie dogs, a black-tailed jack rabbit, and a half-dozen kids on Razor scooters (at the skate park). How about the ride? Four laps on the BMX track Did I get air? No. Did I need oxygen? Absolutely. It's been a dry summer, so all of the low ground is sand trappy and killed any speed I built up from berms and backsides of jumps. I spent the whole time in second gear pedaling hard. Bring your fat tires. Bring your vi...

It was a great week for biking. The 60% commute goal - I made it this week! I might've made 80%, but there was this flat tire on the back of the e-bike Friday morning. So, I threw the poorboy BMX in the car and tackled a lunch-hour getaway. I learned this week that Lubbock has another skatepark (and BMX track) and it's about a mile from work. This week's microadventure -  my first-ever shot at riding a skatepark. A view of the skatepark from the BMX track (I really need to work on photo quality.) The good news - I survived the trip! The bad news - I was not amazing, or even competent, but there were no broken bones or serious sprains. The other bad news - the bike didn't completely survive. I blew out a freewheel sprocket. (My heart and lungs were quite relieved when that happened - I definitely need to keep exercising!) (In case you're looking for it) (Green border added to balance the local dirt) Panorama from the BMX track Wit...

The didn't-make-it-this-time  Indiegogo campaign So, how did I miss this one the first time around? A big, bad, electric BMX straight outta Fort Worth - bring this thing on! As I keep looking at klunkers, I keep running across the big-boy BMX bikes. I keep thinking I want one. In the early '90's I bought my first mountain bike, and I enjoyed it a great deal, but I remember an initial disappointment when I realized that it was not just a bigger BMX with gears. The geometry was all wrong for wheelies and hops and jumps and such. Back then, there were companies making Big-Girl BMX bikes, but I wasn't aware of them until much later. A 26" Redline Big-Person BMX (for us retro dorks) So, I gave up wheelies and hops and spent a lot of time on my mountain bike, but the 10-year-old in me was always a little sad about the whole thing. (Which may explain why, forty years later, I've become obsessed with klunkers, Big-Being BMX bikes, dirt-jump bikes, and ...

Yes, I know it's a lesson in futility, but every day I check Lubbock Craigslist to see what random bargains pop up. I always check bicycles first. Here and there I run across something cool, but today I was a little shocked to see one of those things that's not like the others. Yep, the street trials bike that Danny Mac rides was the very first ad. Wowser! It's rare to see one pop up anywhere, and this one has been gathering dust just a few miles from my house. Wowser! And it's very inexpensive for a quality trials bike!   Check out that top-left corner!!!! There it is - right behind the Canada Dry and Gatorade!   (What? No Red Bull?)   So, am I going to run out and buy it? Absolutely not! $600 right before Christmas for a bike that I have no business riding - nope, just can't do it. But, man, that thing is cool!   I gotta stay off the Craigslist!   May your surprises be good ones! (And, if you go buy it, please send us a pic!) ...