I rode all four bikes this week, 5 if you count the trainer last weekend.
The name just came to me. I’ve heard people call their bikes a fleet, a stable, even a quiver. It always seemed kinda weird to me. I just called them my bikes. and I never anthropomorphized them. but the Harem had a nice ring to it, kinda nasty, kinda dirty, and i haven’t heard anyone call them a harem before. At least I’m first in my own mind. Perhaps it is a subconscious reaction to having a pregnant wife, and a toddler who sleeps in my bed. but i still like snuggling with G, and it makes me calm knowing where she is when i fall asleep and when i wake up.
The Harem
whatever. the name seemed to fit. and its porn-tastic riding them all in one week. Just writing this is giving me a chubber.
The commute was a chore. and a relief, as we announced 10% layoffs and lost one from our group. My sprint workouts have utterly and completely failed. Perhaps next week.
Wedneday I rode Pass Mountain wtih Alex and Ray. My rear tire was shredded.
On the approach from the Levee Trail i quickly realized i had no traction, banged my knees into my top tube twice spinning out before we even hit the Wind Cave junction. In my yearning to be free from the burden of pads, and their knee protection…I gave up the idea of going big on any lifts. It was a slippery ride, yet i rallied on the north face and got the hard tech stretch better than i have in years, and nailed a corner 5 minutes down from the saddle that also had my number. I lost my rhythm in the descent when my front derailleur quit shifting. I had the vaguest memory of this happening to Beckie once from a tiny rock lodged inside the cage and the frame…indeed it was. Ray and I rolled on, Alex had long-since dropped us, only to endo into a cholla at the bottom of the descent. For all of us, it had become that kind of shitty ride.
Friday I had a nice quiet roadie to Sagauro Lake.
Some deraileur issues
I solved them
Saturday we took Kila and our bikes around the Red Mountain Ranch community yard sale. The bikes made mockery of all the cars, and we found this.
it was only $.25. It was comical, us desperately looking for more things to buy, so i could give the owner of the $250,000 house an even dollar. Yard sales are what they are, and kinda creepy, and kinda fun if you put iced coffee in your water bottle and approach it all as a doggie-park-ride.
yesterday i built this
in expectation of 
it cost $32 from Ace, which was pricier than Orange Hell, which was disappointing. But i like my neighborhood Ace. They are nice, and helpful, and nice and helpful. They let G run around. They give useful advice, and know how to operate a register.
Sunday. Hawes
Oops
Ironic that earlier in the ride thought to myself “I haven’t fallen on Hawes in like 5 years“.
Three stitches, a rejected x-ray and script later…
it was weird, signing in to Urgent Care on the computer, getting processed, getting sewn up, getting offered extraneous services for the purpose of covering the liability, getting processed again, getting to the bar in 1:15 later — it was just perfect for someone like me since i knew good and gawdamn well when I did not fracture my elbow. The efficiency was wonderful, and scary…if the nurse just gave me a hug on the way out it would have all been perfect.
The Eagles won. Me, G and K rode to the fire station, then crashed the church’s fall festival. bouncy castles abounded, G went nuts and I went nuts playing with her, it was an awesome way to end the week.
