I think the name needs to be changed

from the Pumpkin Pie ride the the Oz bicycle club puts on to the Pumkin pie - choclate cake with whipped cream and cherries - pumpkin soup - cinnamon candy corn - hot cider ride. 15 or so Ozzies braved the breezy 40's temperaturs for a 30 mile ride today from Heartland Cycle. This 4th annual ride has become a favorite for the local cycling community.

Salsa Baby - Ride and Smile

I jumped on the Salsa this morning to ride to do the weekly gardening radio show. http://www.knssradio.com/ I can get a 20 miler in on Saturday mornings commuting to the radio station. Unless the weather is icy, I try and do the ride year around. By years end, it should add several hundered miles to my total for the year. Today I came through the hispanic area of town and had to stop for a photo at the ElMarichi store. This is one of Salsa's mountain bikes, so I thought it would be a good photo. Today it started out in the 40's and ended up in the 50's, very little wind, and sunny. Like Salsa says, Ride and Smile

Thursday Mornings

I meet my brother, Linden for breakfast at Clear Lakes Cafe, our favorite local diner. Unless it is raining or icy, I almost always ride my bike. Clear Lakes cafe is less than 2 miles from home, so in the winter it is hardly worth the effort to get layered up for a 4 mile ride. It is hard to get up much earlier to get miles in on the way to breakfast, so I try to take a longer route home. Wichita has been adding to its bike paths the past several years so I take a route along the Arkansas (that's R-Kansas, not R-Cansaw). This morning it was a beautiful, calm 34 degrees during my ride along the river.

Giant TCR SL project

The frame arrived a couple of weeks ago, and today I ordered the group, Campagnolo Super Record 11 speed. Nancy gave me a set of Zipp 404's for my 50th birthday and now I have a carbon fiber bike to put them on. Stay tuned for the build, hopefully it will start later this week

11/25/09 Byron from Heartland Cycles sent me a message yesterday - "Super Record". I knew at that moment that the parts, or Groupo had arrived. I didn't drop what I was doing, but I did make my way down to the bike shop and check out the parts. With Thanksgiving being this week, I hope the build can be done by this weekend. This carbon fiber rear derailleur is a piece of art.

11/3/09 The build is getting closer. The handlebars need to be switched out and wrapped, the chain put on, the seatmast cut to proper length, and the bike will be ready to ride.

I passed up the State CX race today,

had some things to do. Besides, spending 5 hrs in the car to ride for less than an hour just is not worth it. I decided to spend the day in Wichita, had wanting to check in with the stores (http://www.jonsonsgarden.com/) and go for a ride later in the day. It was overcast, rainy in the morning, but by mid-day it had stopped raining. With the temps in the mid-40's I headed out on the Gunnar. I headed into the north 10-15mph breeze, going about 15 miles. I found a perfect spot for a photo at an old shed on what was the highway way back when. I set the Argus bean camera on B&W for this shot. The ride home was much quicker than the ride up, but with a little mist falling I was ready to be home.

Salsa Chili Con Crosso, my go-fast CX bike

Or at least as fast as I can make it go. My first Cyclocross bike was a Surly Cross-Check. A great all around bike that does it all. Put road tires and it and ride across the state, or country if you wanted to. The Salsa is a bunch lighter, weighing in at 19 lbs. I do some gravel road riding, even tried the Dirty Kanza race this year, a 200 miler. I would not say that the Salsa is a do anything bike, but it is a blast to ride. I've done 1 cyclocross race this fall, and hope to do a couple more. There is a 3 race series in the area which is all on gravel roads, hopefully I can get out and do a couple of those events.

I packed my Salsa up and took it to The Netherlands last summer. The gearing was better for the hills we rode than my Gunnar Roadie. The Salsa with road tires did great.

Why Via Velo?

I thought it would be fun to have a blog about places I go by bicycle. I guess to start off, I'll do a rundown on my bikes. Here is my Schwinn Panther, Santa brought it to me for Christmas a few years back, not too many miles on it, just over 200, but it is fun to ride. Nancy got a Pink Panther the same year.