Dirty Bike Part II

Spent a good chunk of yesterday taking the fork legs off. It really shouldn't have been so hard; each leg is held in the triple clamp by four bolts. Loosen those four bolts and slide the fork out, pretty simple right?


Almost ready to take the engine and transmission out and redo the frame. That is the goal before it gets too cold since the paint stripper and paint should be used when it's still warm out.

I've banged up my knuckles a couple times - the usual. Luckily I haven't done anything so bad I ended up like this:

My interview with the Vandy grad went well. Turns out the gentlemen who I spoke with is very connected to the law school and the Vanderbilt community in general. He highly suggested that I visit the school and take a tour, saying the admissions department takes kindly to those who show enough interest in the program to visit in person. So next Wednesday I fly to Nashville. Hopefully my LSAT results on Monday are competitive, and that combined with my experience and visit put me over the top and I earn admission to Vandy's Law School.

With Halloween falling on Sunday this year, the entire weekend can be devoted to parties. Tonight Penny and I head to a neighbor's place to partake in some festivities. Tomorrow we'll go to Penny's aunt's house for some food and then possibly on to an "adult party". Sunday we drop the costumes and enjoy the Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium.

All in all it should be a fun, if not draining, weekend. Enjoy the candy and be sure to check your apples for razors.

Cancellara Wishes he had a Motor like This

I went out a week ago to ride a nice, easy 17 miles. About 400 meters into it I crashed, scraped up my knuckles, and bent my derailer hanger. Clearly the rust that has attacked my simple cycling skills is powerful. The down time between my rides has been filled with my other bike:

It doesn't run, most likely because it needed a new spark plug. But, since I don't have a lot to do each day, I decided that I needed to tear it down to the frame:



The plan is to strip it down to the frame, repaint the frame and possibly the swingarm, and then put it all back together with some new plastic. It might take a while, but I hope to get it done in time to ride it next summer.

I attended an open house at KU Law last Friday. Tomorrow night I have an interview with a Vanderbilt University Law School graduate. I know that this interview won't make or break my application, but it will give me a first hand account of what Vandy is looking for.

Until next time I leave you with this:

Race of the Falling Italians

Saturday brought us the final major race of the season, the Giro de Lombardia, known affectionately to most Americans as the Tour of Lombardy. Also known to those 'in the know' as the Race of the Falling Leaves due to the amount of leaves on the roads. To stick it to the peloton one last time, the weather was less than perfect:

Of course that didn't seem to stop Grandpa Horner from exhibiting his usual 'smile'. Having recently hit the big 3-O myself and already feeling 'old', I can only assume Horner's smile is hiding the aching of his joints.

After his amazing run last fall and his recent victory at the Tour of Piedmont on Thursday, Philippe Gilbert was clearly this year's favorite. He was marked by Vuelta winner Vincenzo Nibali until Nibali attempted a new, untested descending method:

From the results I gather that Nibali will not be trying that technique again. Notice the leaves? See what I'm talking about now?

In the end it was Gilbert and diminutive Italian Michele Scarponi, that is until Gilbert got tired of the company and simply rode away from Scarponi:

It didn't hurt Gilbert's break that Scarponi missed a shift, but that's racing. At least he didn't throw a chain. At the finish line Gilbert celebrated his back-to-back Lombardy wins alone:

Gilbert's win wasn't the only storyline from the race; world champion Thor Hushovd raced in his rainbow jersey. Despite not planning to race after the world championships, his win there changed his mind so he could 'honor the rainbow jersey':

I enjoy watching Thor race, but he seems to have fallen into the same trap that has been ensnaring many riders recently, namely color coordinating their gear with their specialty jersey. I hate to tell the big Norwegian this, but wearing rainbow striped Jawbones is doing nothing but honoring the almighty (insert local currency here).

I hope you enjoyed the racing season as much as I did. We saw a lot of things: Landis admitted doping, Lance denied doping, Alberto was caught with and illegal substance in his blood and denied doping, and as expected Fabian won the world TT again. Of course there were other things that happened, but I don't care enough to type them.