26 Easy with Gina and Tough Guy Video ha ha!

 Set out for a nice 26 miler with Gina today. 16.0 average speed so it was nice. She has been off again for 3 weeks, the heat, out of town visitors, and ashes. Not taking her out on rides with the way the ash has been. We don't see much smoke at home but the ash is crazy.

EDIT: Believe it or not, just found out this guy's group had a serious crash today with serious injuries, but yet he is worried about my handling skills? What a dope! And this was their second crash in a short time. Wow! seems this idiot ought to worry more about his own.

So we did our thing, nice and not too crowded. Ran into Bad Bob at the coast for a chat. He rolled out then a few minutes later, we rolled out. Pretty empty trail by this time but once we approached the bridge, that is when we ran across the big mouth ha ha!

Funny thing is, as he is complaining I did not have my hands on the bars, he's waving madly at me with one of his hands but he has a group of guys on his wheel and they are trying to increase their speed. I'm sure, he wants me to put my hands on the bars so what? He can do 25 on a trail with a 10 MPH speed limit? How hypocritical is that ha ha!?

Another funny thing is that as we got closer, I recognized the group as the group of which one of my friends rides with, Tio's cycling group. I'll get a kick out of showing this video to my buddy ha ha! With a little description of what I think of his tough guy friend ha ha! They're always tough in a group ha ha!

I got a kick out of it because my buddy was in the group. But seeing the guy who shouted, I thought he was on the small side and I got a kick out of how the small guys many times have a big mouth. Then I got home and looked at the video and saw one of his legs totally busting out with the varicose veins ready to burst at any second. Then the overall look of his legs, pretty scrawny and a strange upper body slightly larger than the rest of him ha ha! Almost makes you wonder how those scrawny little legs can support the rest of him ha ha!

SO I made the vid, post it on fb as well as the pics and a descrip. Why not, the dude is a dick and if he comes looking for me, I'll tell him so! Of course I hope he doesn't think he's bad ass because one swift kick to the veins, he's had it ha ha! Plus he does look old and fragile skinny legs, I'd almost hate to beat up on this guy, it would be like taking candy from a baby. Of course it would not come down to that anyway. I'm pretty sure he's the guy who wants to look tough in front of his buddies because his wife pushes him around ha ha!

As mentioned before, I am always surprised by the stupidity of cyclists. Another idiot on the trail today. As Gina and I were approaching the coast, I see a big group of riders approaching from the opposite direction. A long line of hybrid/ friend type of riders. Doing a decent pace but not race pace, maybe 15 of them.

I see some race looking riders going around them so we're approaching each other at a good rate. 2 guys make it around and swing back to their side once passing the hybrid riders. Which was imo, stupid to start with. BUT!!!! Then I see 2 more race type riders only half way through the group and not slowing and NOW WAY are they going to clear the hybrid riders. The first guy just goes to his far left and goes off into the dirt. OK idiot, you deserve to get your bike dirty cause you're stupid! But the second guy holds on longer so I just give him the look like you're going down. Then he cuts off into the dirt as well. Opposite side of the trail of which he was traveling. He was actually getting pretty close to us when he made the cut out move. Good you idiot! But as he passes he looks at me and says, "yeah yeah yeah!!" as if he knows he's stupid and did something wrong so of course I let out the loud, "IDIOT!!!". Can't believe how stupid these cyclists are. I love bringing this up because if you go on a cycling forum, first thing you will read is how dangerous and inconsiderate drivers are when in fact, these stupid cyclists are just as bad. And a little more stupid as I have to say, they don't realize how much damage a cycling accident can cause to another person. Too many stupid people on bikes!

I did however make a couple of new friends at Edna Park. Couple of drug addict looking dudes who were in the women's rest room. Not sure if they were doing drugs or what, but one guy came out and asked if we needed the restroom, they would be happy to exit. Gina was good though but I did say, "hey man, thanks for asking, I appreciate it after having had to deal with a few idiots not long ago!". So we got into a conversation about how disrespectful young people are nowadays. They agreed!

One dude was 50 but Gina and I thought he was about 65, wow, don't do drugs ha ha! The other was 33. They asked how I was so I said 57. The 33 year old turned to Armando, the 50 year old and said, "damn dude, he's 57 and you look thrashed!", ha ha ha! Good thing I took up cycling and not drugs!

So we start talking and I tell them that when I was a kid, if an aunt asked for something, we did it and did not talk back. Nowadays, young kids tell their grandparents to screw off! 

So we chatted a bit and it was pretty cool! I did use my ghetto tone, every other fucking word was the F word ha ha! Got to communicate with these guys that way. I grew up on the rough side of town so I know. Dad wouldn't let us talk or dress like the rest of the guys around us so people would never guess we were from the ghetto by the way we speak. But, in this case, we got to get the foul mouth going so they understand me. Ha ha ha, they were pretty cool and as we left, we got the fist bumps going on! But yeah, this is how you deal with these guys, be cool then let them know what's up. If not, you got to talk a lot of trash to put a little fear in them to get their respect ha ha! But today was a good fun talk shit and fucking run my foul mouth lingo to communicate and we had a good fucking time ha ha!

So now, if I have to use the restroom, I can ask these guys to get the fuck out while we use the restrooms ha ha I've seen them there before so if I ever have to, I'll fuck with them ha ha!

Gina trying out her new pink mask.

In the train station. Got my mask on as required. Surprised at how many homeless are in here without masks. Guess that's why they're homeless, can't follow simple rules.

Gina keeps her mask on all the time. I only use it when we get around people outdoors. Too hot and hard to breath.

Gina getting in a warm up before the ride. I have to put my bike together so she gets a chance to warm up. I think she's planning to bury me today ha ha!

Oh, tough guy ha ha! One kick and those legs are broken ha ha! Scrawny little legs, big mouth! ;-)

Doing stupid things! I just can't get myself to do them ha ha! So yesterday I had a flat. It seemed a sidewall issue, wasn't sure. But today rolling through the 405 freeway tunnel, I remembered I did hit something in the road that bumped my tire off the ground a bit. Not sure if it was something in the road or I hit a seam in the construction. Totally forgot till today not knowing why my sidewall was damaged. Till I retraced my steps but it did blow about a mile down the road.

So I read up on boots seeing this was a fairly new tire, GP5000. I have read about sidewall issues with Conti since the late 90's but never had one myself. Till this so I was curious as to why hoping it wasn't a quality issue with the GP5000. 

So most say there is no permanent boot, only emergency get me home type. My damage is not big at all more like a pin hole. But I did read about people gluing stuff in their tires looking for permanent boots, like leather patches. Yeah but where would I get the leather, not going to cut up my leather jacket or a baseball glove ha ha!

So I read about tape and a few other things. I had put a SCAB patch on the inside of the tire when I was making the roadside repair. Once home, I did not the patch was looking a little damaged itself. So I placed some strapping tape over a strip of rubber from an old tube. Patch, rubber, 2 strips of tape, I tried it out. I slept on it but wasn't happy about it in the morning. I was going to ride it today again as a test. But I figured, why mess with it, so I just replaced the tire with a new one, piece of mind.

Though I did read some people with not so worn tires do the boot trick and use it in the rear of the bike so that it would wear down a bit faster, faster than the front wheel. Also, I would have to take it out after a few rides to see how much damage is going on with the boot. Plus I would also just ride it around the industrial center so that I am never far from my truck. I may consider that cause I just hate the thought of losing half of my tire life! :-(