Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
As far as I am concerned, there are only two mobile phone carriers for serious phone users who are also cyclists.
You want the hooptie phone with the built in camera, organiser, e-mail reader and web browser right? But do you really want to be hauling around some big choad phone and risk dropping it in the street when you cross the rail tracks on your training ride?
Answer: no.
So you need a mobile phone carrier that lets you swap out your SIM card between different phones. Two different phones, same phone number. That means one of two carriers: T-Mobile or Cingular.
Verizon, Sprint, Qwest, blah blah blah, all these carries have the SIM card built into the phone so what ever phone you have is the one you are stuck with. With T-Mobile and Cingular, you can pull your SIM card out and put it in another phone.
In my case, I use the T-Mobile MDA phone (shown above) off the bike so I have all the sweet mobile phone features.
On the bike I use an old Nokia 6610 phone (shown above). It’s lighter and, with less features, less susceptible to damage if dropped. If this thing does get damaged I can just buy a new phone on eBay for a dollar.
For cyclists it’s the way to go.
Posted by smithersmpls at 10:04 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
Flooder made a very generous contribution to my Tour de Cure ride and blew my sponsorship goal out of the water. So I made a modest adjustment and raised my goal to $500.00. So who is going to step up and make me look like an idiot for only going for $500? Come on, sponsor Smithers.
Posted by smithersmpls at 8:43 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
4/12/06:
I’ve pretty much decided that I am not going to race at Opus this year. Nothing against the Loon’s or the others who race out there, I am just tired of Opus. I have spent too many evenings out there going up and down on Yellow Circle Drive and I can’t take it any more.
Sheesh. I don’t know why all you guys gave me such a hard time last night. I mean, I posted that I was not going to race at Opus over two weeks ago. A lot of things can change in two weeks…like having all my riding buddies being booked and having no other hard ride options other than Opus. So I raced Opus. Sue me. You really shouldn’t believe anything I say anyway.
S-dawg was out of town, P-doggie was at jury doodie, only one other guy wanted to go on the training ride so I bagged it and headed out to Yellow Circle Drive. I got out there early, registered and got my race number pinned on just in time for Loon Stater Jim Cullen to tell me that he needed me to pin on a different number for the race…
After re-pinning my number I still had almost two hours to kill before the race so I spun easy out to Wayzata. Once back I decided to test out my new jar of Qoleum embrocation.
In 1991 I spent a few weeks racing in Belgium and everyone over there is all about the embrocation regardless of the outside temperature. Getting ready for the races I would always see guys pulling out little jars of various brands of cream and slathering it over there legs before pulling up to the start line stinking like Ben Gay. I finally gave in a bought a jar for myself and tried it out and it really works. It does not feel like much when you rub it on but once you get going, and the skin pores start to open up, your legs really get hot and you feel all fast like. For the last 15 years I have been on the look out for something similar here in the US but never really found anything that did the same thing. Until now. Qoleum is made in Belgium so you know that it’s the real deal. The only thing is you have to be ready for the post activity pain as the stuff keeps burning when you get off the bike. It normally takes a shower and alcohol wipes to get the crap off your legs so if you try this stuff be ready for a bit of agony at times, like standing in the shower crying because it burns so bad. But I think it’s totally worth it.
Once the race staged and rolled up to the starting line DS had the great idea to go for the non-existent first lap prime. I thought he was kidding at first but when he said that he was going from the gun it was obvious that he was serious. He turned around and asked Cruiser if he was in and got an affirmative answer. So the gun goes off and DS launches a savage attack right from the start line. I chased as did Cruiser and one of DS’s Cat 6 team mates and by the time we got to the bottom of the course we had a huge gap. Once we hit the climb that huge gap started to disappear but it looked clear that DS was going to win the first lap prime without difficulty but he couldn’t close the deal. Jim Cullen, not satisfied delaying the start of my warm up ride 5 minutes, also had to deny DS the honour of the first lap glory. Oh well. At the top of the climb Cruiser said “Oh, you guys were serious about this.” Kinda.
We were caught by the hard charging pack on the decent and the next 10 laps were all about recovery for me and I am not ashamed to say that there were a few moments when I was in some difficulty hanging on the back of the pack. But a break went clear off the front and the pack slowed a bit to let the break go and it was all I needed to recover and stay in the race. So that was satisfying.
Towards the back end of the race I actually went to the front and participated in a groups effort to separate themselves from the rest of the race. We didn’t make it but it did prompt another move to go splitting the race into three different groups. Being in the third group was nice and it meant that I would have no problem finishing the race.
Once the race was over I put on some warmer clothes, said hello to Gilby, thanked the police officer working the race and rode back to Minneapolis with DS and Tuffy. All in all it was a good workout and a pleasant evening on the bike.
Posted by smithersmpls at 6:41 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
People who drive SUV’s or other gas guzzlers and complain about the price of gas are like people who where Brooks Brothers suits or other really expensive clothing brands and then complain about the dress code at work.
There are other options dumb ass. If you weren’t so concerned about your sweet ride you wouldn’t spend so much on gas.
Posted by smithersmpls at 2:53 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
