Filed under: Commuting | Tags: Commuting, Madison, Photos, Weather, Winter
I get back from Florida for one day and BAM. Mother Nature finally decides to spring Winter (hahahaha. I’m funny.) upon us by dumping 17+ inches of snow one day, and dropping the temps far enough to need a longer thermometer.
No complaining on my part though. Winter brings some much needed diversity to the year, and the cycling season. The riding season isn’t done by any stretch, it just is altered to deal with the changing conditions. Riding through the cold temperatures, the packed snow, the silence of very few people being out during a snowstorm is just spectacular!
Enjoy some photos from my first real Winter ride of the year. Expect gratuitous gear shots and the like in the future.
Always got dry gear with my Banjo Brothers Commuter Backpack
Slowest commute home ever … biggest grin ever. 
I’ll keep this one a little more brief.
Running the track it’s normal way is even more fun. This track is absolutely awesome. Felt even more comfortable on the bike, we all were running extremely well. Started off with temps near freezing then it warmed up to nearly 60 with sunshine in the afternoon. No mishaps, crashes, blown engines or anything. Smiles from all and stories to keep telling for months to come – we’re already talking about our next destination trip. Barber anyone?
Now … onto PHOTOS!
… one big accident at the end of the day for a rider not part of our group. Coming into turn 2 he lost the front end, the bike slid for a bit, got launched into the air and was seen flipping end-over-end about 20 feet up. When it landed the gas tank split and … well …
The rider is perfectly fine, and I hear he’s selling the bike now … slight heat damage, nothing big.
Absolutely amazing trip, I am so anxious to get back on the motorcycle now – it’s been 2 days since I was last on it and I still get goosebumps when thinking about some of those corners. I should be getting pictures sometime within a week, and I’ll throw the best ones up here!
Awesome awesome awesome time.
I’ve only previously visited 2 tracks on my motorcycle: Blackhawk Farms and Road America. BHF is very much considered my “home” track. Road America is one of the most amazing tracks in all the US. Both are fantastic – but seeing something new is always a little fun.
An opportunity came up for my Dad and I to head out with our track-crew regulars of Motorcycle Solutions down to Florida to America’s ONLY Motorcycle Exclusive racetrack: Jennings GP. It’s a 2 mile, 14 corner track that can be run in either direction. It’s built on some 500 acres of land, completely cleared out of Floridian forest. I bet during the summer you have to watch out for the occasional Alligator coming out of one of the ponds on the property.
So on December 3rd we left the snowy weather of Wisconsin to drive straight down to Florida where … it’s still 50/60 degrees. An improvement, but we won’t be needing those shorts we brought it seems.
“We” consists of myself, my dad, and 7 other guys with equal amounts of two-wheel fixation on our minds. 3 trucks, 3 trailers, 9 bikes. The drive was long, fun, and cold. Friday we spent an exhausted afternoon checking out the track, getting setup in our hotels, grabbing some awesome cajun food at the Rajun Cajun, and passing out promptly by 8pm.
Today was our first day at the track, and WOW! The tarmac is GRIPPY! Even though our day started out in the rain, the track was drying by the second session and completely dry by the end of the third. Having never ridden in the rain before on a motorcycle it was an interesting experience. 50mph around a corner might seem fast, but on a track like this it’s about half as fast as you would be expecting to go in some areas. It worked out quite well – allowed the lot of us to get our bearings on this brand new track and learn the lines before things got fast in our Fast-Intermediate/Advanced group.
By afternoon the sun was shining, the temps were approaching the mid-50s, and the track was in fantastic shape. There is amazing amounts of grip out there – but WHOA MAN does it eat tires. I’m glad tomorrow’s going to be different … I don’t think the right-side of my rear tire could take much more of this!
There’s something truly special about being out on a track like this – since it’s motorcycle only, it just flows so incredibly well on a bike. The tarmac is an amazing condition. It’s very different from the other tracks I’ve been to. I should have videos up in the next few days – the GoPro is working well!
I didn’t get many photos from today, but here are some with more to come later on!
Dicing with the guys again is always fantastic. The adrenaline is on high right now. I’m back to shouting in fits of joy inside my helmet. Tomorrow we run the track it’s regular direction. I guess we didn’t come down this far for just one track – we came for two completely different tracks.
I’ll have more to post on the ride home. Time to give my legs some massaging and get another good night’s sleep. Got some kneepucks to destroy in the morning!!! !!!
Oh … my last 3 CX races were absolutely amazing. I think I’ll have to do a small report on the way back home. ;D Cheers!
Riding with a purpose!
Road/CX: 106 miles
Singletrack: 0 miles
Commuting: 272 miles
Total: 378 miles!
Lots of CX races. Not many training rides, no MTB riding I’m just realizing. December is going to have to really pick up I think.
Picked up a new motorcycle helmet the other day, accidentially left it at the shop.
It gets dark before 5pm now. The lights are charged and ready – I really do enjoy night commuting. Last year at this time the shop was closing at 10pm still – a HUGE difference from our 8pm winter hours now. While I might miss the 11pm rides home in the dead of winter, I can’t say I’ll miss them too much. 
The only bridge on my commute. Was a good night to stop and take in the sights.
Picking up for the CX season. Cold weather commuting is also coming into full swing, really looking forward to that.
Road/CX: 86 miles
Singletrack: 16 miles
Commuting: 272 miles
Total: 374 miles!
On a side note … trainer-hour count: 1 hour for November already. I’m going to have to add in a new category soon I think.
Over 3000 miles for the year. I have 2 months to do another nine hundred. Looks like I might need to get out for a long ride on Friday to help keep the pace.
With the weekend’s Cyclocross races cancelled it left me with a couple days off, and amazingly gorgeous weather to ride in. After remembering why I don’t drink like I used to, and spending most of Saturday recovering from the previous night’s frivolities, I did get a chance to finally ride off the hangover with an around town excursion with friends – a perfect precursor for the next day’s planned ride.
We hit up the Military Ridge State Trail on Sunday and rode out towards Mount Horeb (yay Trolls!) with an loop around County Road JG heading to Blue Mounds State Park. 5 hours, 61 miles and a lot of good riding with good friends. Here’s a link to the route we did and just a few photos from the ride.
The colours (I’m dating a British girl hence the funny spellings) were fantastic, the temperatures were perfect for long-sleeve jerseys, and my bike was completely mis-fitted to me so the day after I had some gnarly knee pain. After an impromptu fitting session courtesy of Andrew the bike’s all good to go now.
For now, though, enjoy some pics and check out myFlickr Photostream for a few more. 
CX race on Sat! I’m also dreaming of winter riding.. Monster-cross also seems to be the latest bicycle genre I’m enthralled with. That … and Xtracycles
