Liamaniacs!

June 12, 2006

Bicycling through Tibidabo, and other kooky Bicycle Things.

So. You think you're in shape? This weekend Hiro decided that it was time that I finally got out with him and hit the trails on Tibidabo mountain (and it's surrounding hills). I'd managed to squirrel out of things like this before because we always have goofy, conflicting schedules, but this time I actually got up and made it happen. I ran downstairs after oversleeping a little bit, and found Hiro waiting with the car and also his brother, Shuhei. Instead of riding to the mountains, the boys gave me a break and we managed to squeeze all three bikes in the car with a little room to spare. Once we arrived at the parking lot at the bottom of the hill, I thought, man - so this is why they wanted a mechanic along!

Flat tire fixed, and we immediately started up a gentle but unrelenting grade. That's me dying in the background.

Not even this helmet could make me feel worse than I did. On the plus side, it was better to have it than not, so thanks guys. I'm like, are we there yet?

Actually, no. I forgot my decent gloves, and combined with some other technical issues (like my being out of shape), it was a little rough to say the least. We would crisscross back on forth between fireroads, single track, asphalt, and brush. The hill never gave up, and it always seemed like we were headed up.

Hufffff. Pufffff.

We were up there. I couldn't see straight enough to enjoy the view, I was concentrating on survival. We rode for about two and a half hours, which was an hour and a half more than I'm used to. Plus hills and offroad. I'm dizzy just thinking about it - but it was still fun.

More of the Vista from Tibidabo.

Yay!!! Downhill! You can see that Hiro has taken my GT, while I'm riding a tricked out KTM. After my heart popped out of my mouth, I swapped bikes with Hiro because my GT is built a little bit beefier - and weighs in accordingly.

After the killer workout, we dropped the bikes off at Hiro's place and made our way towards the beach for a well deserved Coca Cola Light. I was wiped out and ready to fall asleep, and the guys agreed that was a nice, little warm-up. We didn't get any cool pictures of the offroad, really hairy stuff, but if this was a light workout for them, I don't want to know what the real deal is! At the beach, there was a long procession of bikers who passed our way.

Some kind of social statement? I have no idea. What I do know is that the bashful ones were wearing backpacks.

Now if I could only work on this:

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