Lecherous

Whoa. Stop the track. I want off.

This weekend marked quite possibly the most mid December fun I've ever had.
Not a hard feat to accomplish really. The past few years I would have been sweating over 'the perfect gift' and trying to organize my plans for the upcoming break. It seems that this year, I'm much more on it. My xmas shopping is pretty much complete, leaving me time for debaucherous acts of bike sex and drinking. (comma intentionally left out from in between bike and sex).

Friday brought us another MC3 ride.
Or is it the MCBC? Jim keeps balking that not enough people are on choppers. The fact is, people are showing up in DECEMBER to ride bikes! BIKES IN DECEMBER! Anyways, there was about 25 people, (40ish % on choppers) that met up at the Gazebo. We took to the South side of false creek doing stupid bike stunts. Skylar ghost rides the whip, sans jazz hands. Up and over the Cambie bridge, and into Yaletown.
The library steps were a good spot to stop and drink. Paul gapped over half the steps on his 243, and some curious japanese girls chatted us up.
There was some disorganization as the crowd couldn't collectively decide on a plan. After a brief stint on the Granville strip, we headed down to the Inukshuk statue at Engrish bay.

I wheelied up the grassy embankment, flipping my bike into its parking spot at the top, and landing on my hip. I gazed up at the trees. At that point on the bay the trees have been decorated with lights, so that if you stand under them, you are not only illuminated, but have an incredble hue about you. If you wear a helmet under the trees, every light can be seen compressed onto the helmet. An infinity of xmas, on one piece of safety gear... or a tea kettle.

Rhiannon convinced everyone to join her for a magical half hour at the Hotel Vancouver. Bike parking in the parkade was a little sketchy, with fewer locks than bikes. I kinda wasn't feeling the idea of 7 bikers shuffling through the hotel, to get to a room for 30 minutes (to not have sex) then leave. I wanted to ride. Morgan and I offered to 'guard the bikes', which meant, we would lap around and check in on the bikes every few minutes. First we headed up the parkade. It was a pretty standard setup of ramps for vancouver, until we got to the top. the 7/8th level was half uncovered, as a corner of a building stuck out over top of it. So climbing at speed under the lights was a little trippy.

After chilling on the roof and admiring the art gallery from above, we decided to get it hectic. We started doing laps of the parkade, gaining and losing a level here and there.. something like 8,7,8,7,6,7,6,7,8,7,8...etc.. It felt like some kind of 3-dimensionaldrome. I think it would be fun to do that with more people, on different levels. I made myself a little dizzy.

Sure enough, the bikes were safe and sound, so we did a lap around the streets of downtown as well. Our energy was starting to bleed off. All of the bikers came out of the hotel, clothing in its original place.. Exept for Haley and Skylar, who got up to some adventure on an abandoned floor of the hotel.

We ended up waiting for them at the art gallery before breaking up and making our way back to eastvan, via Main street for some reason. I needed to get a stem from N1cks house, and it was right where it was promised. SR Sakae Giger alien looking thing. Kind of cool, kind of fugly. Its black, drillium, and 10mm longer than my other one. Thanks NikC=D


^My new stem

The next day, after going out for Projekt-Breakfast, I got to work on the bikes. I didn't spend too much time on Morgan's new Miele, just a few tweaks here and there. After my stem swap, I managed to rewrap my bars using my orignal tape too.

Around 7 we gathered to head to the Drome for our LTR2 class. It worked out really well, as it was Myself, Morgan, Andrew, Brandon, and Simon F. Just 5 of us, with the track to ourselves. Innuendo to make Clair blush. No handed laps. The reacharound. Only one near crash for me, as Morgan got all up on our paceline without me knowing. The Trackies were actually impressed with our riding, as was Clair.
It was a pretty good class. Stop the track, I want off.

After the drome we got geared up(down) for Jackie and Adam's sexy Global Warming Xmas Beach Party. Swim trunk and sunglasses. Which way to the beach? ..7 blocks south of course. Hot bikers getting sweaty without their steeds. Debaucherous, and Lecherous are two words that come to mind. I had to make a quick getaway just as things were getting really steamy, which sucked in some ways, but was good in others. I didn't want to get a sunburn.

Sunday afternoon we (slowly) made our way to OCB to scrounge up some parts. I got spokes and balls for Kira's wheel, and morgan found a decent 110mm, 52T ring. We then hit a Martini brunch with the Pod6 crew, where we were served exquisite truffles and other holiday treats. We also admired Drew's new Surly Cross Check, outfitted with a Shimano Nexus-8 hub. We didn't make it to Mighty, but MEC had the stuff Morgan needed anyways.

Building Kira's wheel last night, proved to be quite difficult. I was lacking in brain power by that time, and I couldn't get the wheel to lace together properly. As it turns out, the new rim has a 'slightly' different ERD due to its profile. So my 296s were too short for the drive side, and my 298s were too short for the other side. I used the 298s on the drive side, and I'll have to get some 300s today or something. Confusing? Try it hungover with little sleep. It should come together pretty easily tonight though... that is, if I don't do Louises Bridge on Bridge action ride.