This past weekend, Lynne, Jeff W, and I braved the heat and road in Cycling Kansas City’s Summer Breeze Ride.  Apparently I can’t read a Calendar anymore, because I decided to wake up early on Saturday, get ready and drive out to to start.  Luckily Lynne was nice enough, and awake enough, to respond to my “On My Way” text and fill me in on the fact that the ride wasn’t until Sunday.  Several choice words were uttered by me, of course.

So Sunday we finally did ride the 50 mile option of the Summer Breeze.  To summarize, It was hot,  there was indeed a breeze, and pretty much the month off that I’d taken since Ragbrai, had an effect.  At least for me.  I had a brutal time of it.  Props to Jeff and Lynne though, they crushed it.  This was Lynne’s longest ride of the season, and I’m guessing that if they’d have wanted too, Lynne and Jeff could have left me behind.   Here’s our route, and pic below as Usual

Upcoming Rides

The GRAN BREWDO is upon us!

For September, instead of doing our regular BBBR, we’re going to ride a longer ride that’s going to take us through KC and to Several Breweries and other stops along the way.  Then, later that evening, we can all meet up at my house for a Team BBQ Dinner.  Details can be found here!  I even have the route mapped out and all of our stops planned now.

I ask that you PLEASE REGISTER for the event so that I can plan for the ride and the dinner afterwards.  It’s free, it’s a few simple clicks, and I would greatly appreciate it.

This and other Rides can always be viewed here:

I’m also planning on attending the Thursday Night Ride and Velo Garage and Tap House (6:30 pm start time) and I do believe this Friday is a Critical Mass Friday.  Speak up if there is any interest!

See you soon!  Hopefully while on our bikes!

We’re starting to get back into it now.  Sometimes after a week of doing nothing but riding, it can be hard to get back into the rhythm of not riding 65+ miles a day, but it’s slowly starting.

This last week, Tara, Lynne, and I (James swears he was there too, but there’s no proof) met up on my 40th Birthday, Thursday night, to ride in the Velo Garage Thursday Night ride.  The ride took us through KCK and down to Stockyard Brewery where BikeWalkKC was having an event.  Part of the proceeds from the beer sales at Stockyards went toward BikeWalkKC’s upcoming Women’s Bike Summit (Sept 15)  Ladies, check it out.  Could be a fun event.  The rest of us menfolk will have to figure out a way to ride and have fun without you.

We finished off the Velo Ride with a stop at Caddyshack for shots, and then back to the Velo Garage for a couple rounds of Beer.  I had a really good time, I think everyone else did too, and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate by 40th Birthday.  Thanks you guys!

Here’s the route we took

Saturday, Jeff, Megan, and Brandon also got out for the BBBR ride, starting off around McLain’s and finishing at Jeff’s (Bier Station West) for a few brews.  Good on them for stepping up and ensuring the BBBR rides continued whilst I was busy with a family weekend.

Upcoming Rides

First, The Summer Breeze Tour is scheduled for Sunday August 26th.  There are several distance options.  Who is game for what distances?  Let me know and we can try to get organized around it.

Next, The BBBR Gran Brewdo is scheduled for September 8th.  Its the inaugural event for our Team.   This will take the place of our regularly monthly scheduled BBBR.  Plan on 30-40 miles of riding to several KC Breweries, Beer Specialty Bars, and biking fun spots.   I started the work of planning the route last night.  I also added an RSVP option to the Event on the Page.  This is so I can get an Idea of how many people are going to be riding, and how much food to prepare for our BBQ at the end of the day.

I also would love to see more people at the Velo Garage and Tap House Thursday Night bike rides.  They ride start at 6:30, goes 10-15 miles,  There are a lot of great people there that love cycling and the cycling culture.  Plus they usually have some good beer there too.

The Tour De BBQ is also coming up at the end of September.  Megan posted a comment on the event about riding for Children’s Mercy (and perhaps a special code to use when registering).  Please go check it out and register for this great ride.  You’ll get good BBQ and have fun.

Finally, a conflict.  Derek Nelson has brought to my attention an incredible riding opportunity that just happens to overlap with the Tour De BBQ:  The Bourbon Country Burn.   It’s three days of riding around Kentucky to different distilleries drinking Bourbon.  Unlike Ragbrai, for this one you camp in a central location each night, and then branch out on various loops to go hit different distilleries each day.  At the end of the day, there are more tastings back at the base camp, and music.   My other vacation plans for the year got canceled, so I’m torn here.   I could get the time off and make a go at this.   I may even do it in style with an RV.   If your interested, let me know.

And now.. Pics

 

 

 

Sorry;  This update has been a long time coming.  Sometimes, after spending a full week riding and camping, you need a bit of a break before you get back into the saddle (both literally and figuratively).  I think we’re all pretty much recovered at this point, so time to fill everyone in on how it went!

The Beginning

This year, Team Bad Decisions had four representatives make the full week trip across Iowa; James, Tara, Scott and Myself.   On top of that, Bryn joined us for the first 3 days of the ride, and Robert joined us for the First Day, drove back to KC to work part of the week and then came back up for the last  3 days of the ride.   Tara, Scott, James and I drove up to Davenport the Friday Night before Ragbrai began, and then caught our early morning Charter bus across Iowa to the start town of Onawa.   Bryn Drove up to Des Moines early Saturday, and caught a Charter Bus from there to Onawa, and Robert, Drove his car up to Denison Iowa Saturday (The ending point for Sunday’s Ride) and rode the route backwards into a headwind to join us Saturday evening in Onawa.    In Onawa we were able to go into town and check out the Expo, which is always an interesting display of crazy Bikes, People, fun music, and good food.

Day 1

Team bad Decisions came out in Full force, all wearing our new Jersey’s.  If you’re wondering, we got a lot of good feed back, and fun questions from the Jerseys.  Day one was a short day with only 43.5 miles and 1500ft. of climbing, but we aren’t sure that climbing counted all the hills we had to climb once we actually got into Denison.  That town is Hilly A.F. and our campsite ended up being at the top of it all.  The ride was fun though.   The beginning felt a little strange because Vendors weren’t allowed to setup outside the proper stop towns due to county regulations.  This led to Mr. Porkchop setting up in the middle of a town street, and the 1st Iowa Beer Tent stop being at the end of a town, but all in all it was alright for us.  By the end of the day, we were out of those counties and vendors were along the side of the road as is usual.  We even had our first encounter with the Northern Chapter of Team Bad Decisions at the First Beer Stop.   We ended up seeing these guys a lot and we had a lot of fun bull shitting with them all week.   Day one was also the the scene of one of my favorite memories of the whole week.

Starting on the west side of the state, we had to climb our way out of the Missouri River valley and get into the state proper.  This led to a pretty major hill about 13-15 miles into the day.  I was sitting at the top of the hill with a few others waiting on everybody to complete the climb.   A little bit down the road from us was a sign that read “Backpocket Brewing, 3 Miles.”  The veterans of Ragbrai know this as a beacon for the Iowa Craft Beer Tent.   They setup 2-3 stops a day on the route and offer terrific craft beer from local Iowa Breweries for $5 a pint.  If you stop at enough of them throughout the week, you can get a #EarnedIt T-Shirt from them.   Anyway, we were at the top of the hill waiting when we saw a kid (maybe 8-10 years old) and his father huffing and pumping it up the hill.  The kid was really working it, and so was his father to be honest.  For a kid to climb that hill was actually a pretty big success, as it was a decently serious hill.  Anyway, the father reaches the top of the hill with his son, see’s the Backpocket brewing sign, and calls out, “Cody…   In 3 miles you’re going to taste your first beer!”  We all cheered and laughed.

The Rest of the Days

Yeah, I started with an intent to chronicle each day, but I’m already tired, and honestly, it’s hard to remember everything that happened, so hear are some of the highlights.

• On Day 2 we road through Templeton Iowa.  They’re building a brand new Distillery there for Templeton Rye whiskey and had a big party going on at the site with tons of whiskey drinks, free bacon, and good music.  Day two was the longest non-optional day with 72 miles of riding, 2500 ft of climbing, and a brutal stretch going north into a Headwind.  The day ended though with us riding right in to a church meal of home made chicken and noodles, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pie that was amazing. The meal totally made up for the brutal ride.  Our Charter, Pork Belly Ventures, also had an amazing blue grass band play at our campsite,  Missouri Stomp Grass.
• Day 3 we road into Ames Iowa and stayed on Iowa State University’s campus. Unfortunately, we had to say farewell to Bryn once in Ames for the week so she could go off on another, different vacation with her family.  Hard life.   We did attempt (and succeeded by the standards set by the Wright Brothers) to fly a tent like a kite.  We also went into downtown Ames that evening, via a nice cab driver named “Tater” (like the tots) to hit up the Expo again.  We ended up eating at a fantastic Thai restaurant called “The Spice.”  Highly recommended.   I believe day 3 is also the day the route took us right by the home of Jay, one of the organizers of Team Good Beer.  He’s ridden with us before in KC for the Ride to Boulivardia.   He setup his place for a big party.  Tons of free beer to taste, a stage setup for a band, and nice shade tree out front.   It was a good stop.
• Day 4 Highlights!  The zip line!  It was towards the end of the ride, but we came upon a farm that had a man-made lake.  On the dam of the lake they had built a huge slip-n-slide down into a dug out splash pool.  That’s what caught our attention as we rode by.  The farm also offered “by donation” beer in a shade tent, AND we discovered, they had built a zip-line into the lake.  The platform looked like it had been built…  Yesterday.  I successfully slip-n-slid without injury (though rumor has it several people broke ribs on that slip-n-slide that day).   I also attempted the Zip-line…  not so successfully.   My had was wet and the bar was slippery, what can I say?  I didn’t get hurt though and it was tons of fun.   We even saw a jet-ski hi-jacking on the lake.  It was a great crowd and tons of fun.  That day we also ended up playing a game of GIANT beer pong, played with dodge balls and trash cans painted to look like Solo Cups. That night, in Newton IA, Robert joined us again, and we were visited by a brief, but somewhat intense storm with 40mph winds.  The police tried to evacuate the campsite to a school that was 4 MILES away, but most of us are Mid westerners.  We staked down our tents, then stood around watching the storm come in.  We learned our tents do pretty well in a storm when properly secured.   Though James got a bit worried.  He was prepared for the worst though!
• Day 5!  Timmie and Robert completed the optional century loop.   They road 108 miles by the time they were done.  It was Roberts longest ride to date, which is awesome.  Specially since some of the roads on this day’s ride were downright awful.  But we made it.  Several of us also completed our #EarnedIt” Challenge, having sucessuflly stopped at 10 Iowa Beer Tent stops (I got a perfect 14/14 by the end of the trip).
• Day 6 we got to check out the future birth place of Captain James Tiberius Kirk in Riverside Iowa!
• Day 7!   We stopped in Atalissa Iowa.  The once home of Last year’s Team Bad Decisions Driver, Mick, and also the home of the infamous Bunkhouse from “The Boys in the Bunkhouse” by Dan Barry, which my book club has read.  There were rumors of a Killer hill that day, that ended up not being anywhere near as bad as the killer hills the year before.  We road into Davenport, got “hammered” at a local brewery on the riverfront, then packed up and drove home.  Though that was in question for a while as I couldn’t find the keys to my Jeep!   After tearing through my bags 2 times, we got smart and asked the people at Pork Belly’s if they had found any keys.   By some chance..  THEY HAD!  They must have fallen out of my bags pocket at some point while they were being transported from town to town. This earned them a nice tip from me.  I don’t know what it would have cost, and how long it would have taken to get a new set of properly coded keys from the Jeep dealership, but I don’t think we’d have gotten home that night.  The tip was worth it.  On the way home we stopped at the World Largest Truck Stop on I-80 for dinner, and learned about the joy of massaging chairs for truckers and “Zone 3!”

Other Thoughts

• Pork Belly’s in an excellent Charter.   Yeah they cost more than previous charters we’ve used, but we also got 3 free meals throughout the week, free hot showers, GREAT entertainment,  Free beer each night until the kegs went dry, optional midweek laundry service, and hot coffee each morning.  They’re a very large charter, so you have to go in eyes open, knowing that this means some lines, and some extra miles of cycling to get to a campsite large enough to hold the charter, but in general we really liked them.
• Though the Charter was cool.  I may have a bug now for building out our own bus.  We’ve got enough people now willing to take a day off and drive, that it should be easier to accomplish.

The Future

• We want to build a bus for Team Bad Decisions.  Surprisingly, buying an old school bus is not that expensive.  Getting it to the point where anybody without a CDL can drive it is.  We’re evaluating options and pre-designing right now.  However, should you want to contribute to the bus, let me know.  This past year, the charter cost us each around $500.  If we can get enough people willing to contribute that much, we could easily have a terrific setup next year.  Our own bus, with showers, some bunks, an awning, a deck for transporting bikes, and storage and room for 15-16.   Think of it as paying for next years charter Kansas City based Charter upfront.   If you’re wanting to Contribute, let me know.

Upcoming Rides

Typically, we’ve done our BBBR mornings on the 2nd weekend of the month.  That would be this Saturday.   Unfortunately I’ve got family coming into town this weekend and will be unable to ride.   DON’T Let that stop you from riding though.  Still I’m skipping organizing this ride in August.   Why am I Ok with this?  Because in September we’ll be riding our Inaugural Gran Brewdo!

The Gran Brewdo

This is to be a celebration of the past year of cycling with Team Bad Decisions.  We’re going to head out for a 30-40 mile ride, stopping at several breweries and cycling related stops along the way.  It’ll be an easy, no drop pace. Then at the end, we’ll meet up at my place for some BBQ and brews.  Friends and Families are welcome for the BBQ.

Velo Garage Rides

This is still happening every Thursday Night.  Ride Starts at 6:30, is a 10-15 mile ride (easy pace, no drops) and ends with fun and beer at Velo Garage.  Come join us!

Other Events!

As always you can learn about more upcoming rides here.

Pics from the Rest of Ragbrai

Jeff and I took a jaunt out to Mission Farms on Friday morning. After a quick stop at Loose Park to play tag, we continued on to Kansas.

We’d originally planned on taking Lee Blvd. to Leawood Park, but fortuitously stumbled upon a very well-marked, shaded bike route that led us to the same destination. It was a lovely ride without a ton of traffic (yay safety).

After a quick stop in Leawood Park, we rode over to Mission Farms and took a break in the AC while we ogled new, fancy bikes at Elite. As we were leaving, Jeff remarked that he’d never been to Martin City so we took the opportunity to stop for a beer (or two) and some pizza.

Sorry for the lack of Strava…I always forget about it until 2/3 into a ride.

Wow…  Lots of cycling this past week.  Hope you all had a terrific 4th of July week and got out there like I know several of us did.   First, Timber, Bryn and I got out the morning of the 4th.  It was a little warm, but a great ride.  We found a new trail that runs from Swope Park north all the way up to the plaza.  The concrete on the new trail is really nice.   I actually road it again this past weekend.  There’s a lot of twigs and leaves on the trail, as it’s not heavily used yet, but I’m hoping that as it’s popularity grows this changes.  Amazingly, the part of the trail that was the least maintained was the area near the Plaza.   Here’s the route that we took if your interested.

Thursday night, there was the Velo Garage and Tap House Thursday Night Ride and James and I joined up and road cliff drive with the group.  Then, several of us were out and about this weekend Training for Ragbrai.   Saturday I got a solo 60 miles in with 3100 ft of climb.  James got 68 miles in, and Tara and Robert also got around 50 miles in.  Good work everybody!  James also was still able to get up on Sunday to ride in Velo’s 2nd Sunday morning ride.  They got 28 miles in at a pretty good 13.6 mph clip.  Not too Shabby.

More importantly, a game of Photo Tag has begun!  It all started when James posted this pic of his bike to a group SMS text chain.  Proclaiming the greatness of his all terrain tires.

Of coarse, I couldn’t let this stand, so I found out where he took that photo and posted one of my own.  I then texted my bike in a different location, proclaiming “Tag… You’re it!”  Thus the game begun, and we’ve already had few players join.  You can find out more about the Photo Tag game Here!

Right now there’s a bridge in Kansas somewhere that needs to be identified.  Can you find it?

Jerseys!

The Jerseys have arrived!  I’ve been able to get them to some but not all.  They look pretty damn good to.  They’re getting good responses from other cyclist who have seen them.  I wore mine Thursday night, Tara and Robert wore theirs on Saturday, and James wore his on Sunday.    If you ordered a Jersey, reach out to me so that we can arrange a way to get it to you.  I’m planning on having them available Saturday at our monthly ride.   Speaking of which….

Upcoming Rides!

Saturday is our Monthly BBB Ride!  As mentioned before, this will be a good training ride for RAGBRAI, but also give an opportunity for those not riding RABBRAI to meet up and get some good miles in.  As usual we’ll be meeting up at McLain’s Bakery in Brookside at around 8:30 am, and heading out around 9:00 am.  We’ll make 2 loops.  The first a 20-25 mile loop.  Then we’ll stop at Bier Station as usual,  and then we’ll head out for another 20-30 mile loop.  Join where/when you can.

This and other rides can be found here

It’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks.   That, coupled with the fact that it’s also been excessively hot out, has made cycling a bit more difficult.  However, It does look like Mr. James Currans got out for some good miles this weekend.  He got over 53 miles in and almost 3000 ft of climbing in yesterday.  Nicely Done!  Timber and Bryn have been pretty active, and Mr. Craig Miller also got out for a nice 10 mile ride in the heat last week.  Well done!  Me, I’ve been slacking a bit lately.   Guess it’s time for me to kick it up a notch before Ragbrai.  I’m sure I’ll be fine.  What pictures I could find have been uploaded below.

JERSEYS!

I got the shipping tracking number today.   They’ll definitely be here in time for Ragbrai, and probably even before our next BBB Ride!  I’m looking forward to seeing us ride as a group with our own Jerseys.  We’ll get respect.  People will know…

The down side of this is that only 2 people have paid me so far for their Jerseys.  I fronted a lot of money for these, so the sooner you can pay me the better.  I’d appreciate it as I’ve got medical bills coming in now from the crash 🙁

Upcoming Rides!

Saturday July 14th is our next scheduled BBBR.   This will be a RAGBRAI warm up ride.  We’ll have 2 scheduled loops.  One morning loop of 20-25 miles, and a second afternoon loop of 20-25 miles.  Beer stop in between.  Probably a cold beer or two afterwards as well.  Bring your sun block!

As always, consider the Velo Garage Ride Thursday Night as well as their 2nd Sunday Ride on Sunday Morning.  Why not sweat out that Saturday Night fun early Sunday morning on a easy ride with some good people?

Details about these and other rides can, as always, be found here

Now..   Objectively, Timber and Bryn did follow the Rule of Thirds with this photo, but…   Well…  It is a nice street, and we do love Velo’s fire hydrant.