Day 30: Success and Fame in Blogging

Thirty straight days of biking and blogging. They said it couldn't be done. I thought it couldn't be done. But as I write this post, ride done for the day, Wild Turkey close at hand, I'll have biked and blogged for every day in April. I rolled up a somewhat meager 120 miles for the month, which works out to an average of four miles per day.

That's the "success" bit.

Before I talk about the "fame" bit, let's go over tonight's ride. It was another of my famed head-to-head matchups, this time the venerable Cross Check up against the even more venerable Trek 620:

Four laps around Avery Park, two miles each, alternating bikes each lap.

When I rode these bikes back to back a few nights ago, I came out with a somewhat unexpected win for the Surly. Tonight, for whatever reason, the outcome was reversed. Where the Cross Check was solid, the Trek was lively... it seemed to accelerate better and encouraged me to work just a bit harder. Where the Cross Check could arc through corners like a skier, the Trek could easily change lines with a gentle nudge of the bars.

If you've ever read Bicycle Quarterly, you probably find these terms not surprising at all. Is it a real effect, or just a placebo from reading too much of my favorite bike mag? I can't say for sure, but for the first time in a long time, I'm wondering if the CC's win streak might be in danger.

Oh, about the "fame" in the title: as I was walking into Sports Ohio on Sunday to pick up Henry from a birthday party, I ran into his soccer coach. This wasn't an amazing coincidence, as the party invitees were the soccer team. Anyway, the coach gave me a kind of quizzical look, and then she asked, "I saw your bike setup thing at soccer the other day, and I've read this blog about a guy that took his kids to all of the parks in Dublin with a bike setup like that... was that you?" I think she even used the phrase "well written."

Made my day.