Ambition Knots

                                                                                                             July 8, 2024

Whew!  That last entry was long!  Here’s something different.

Friday I decided to get out for an afternoon cycling excursion.  It’s not that common for me to have such an opportunity, but you see here in North America’s mid-section we are on the backside of the national holiday we call Independence Day or, colloquially, the Fourth of July.  This time I had some free time and so I hopped on the dusty, prematurely aged Wear-Yellow-Ride-cycle.  

seen here in younger days

It’s fun because it goes pretty fast on flattish routes.  It’s prematurely aged because I leave it out back under the canopy where it’s kind of sheltered but still gets a fair bit of dust and moisture and, hence, character-enhancing rust.  So I filled her tyres with a bit a ye olde aire, strapped on a couple of gear bags with one of the few tubes lying around that seemed like it might be the right size, and spent some downhill time trying to re-familiarize myself with the feel of the skinny-tyred single-speed.  It felt quite nice to get out on the trail.  I had a tail wind as I headed southeast on the West Papio Trail (I hopped on at around 132nd & Q, by the big Tyson plant).  I was probably going about 14 miles per hour (around 12 knots for the nautically minded, more on this later) on the way out.  On that leg of the tour I noticed a relaxed looking fellow walking his dog whilst reading a book.  Sorry, no photo, I was too busy going fast.  I did refocus my ambition relatively soon: first I was ambitiously bicycling out and then I was ambitiously riding back towards Pint Nine brewery.  As part of this shift; however, I did snap a photo of this intriguing sign.

I couldn't find out anything about the Iron Riders Tribute Bicycle Ride 2024

The Iron Riders have had a few documentaries made about them and there was apparently a re-enactment of one of their expeditions out in Wyoming somewhat recently.

On the way back, there was a headwind to contend with, but this only served to sharpen my thirst for a fermented beverage.  Eventually I was comfortably perched on an outside bench at Pint Nine.  A fellow with a computer was sitting at the table with a 4-glass sampler and we conversed a bit about various topics, including bicycle- and travel-related things.  It turns out that Seth was into bike-packing and had bicycled across South Korea!  Apparently they’ve got a great trail that traverses the entire country and is mostly paved and well-maintained.  You can get a passport-type book to collect stamps at TARDIS-like stations along the route and if you collect them all you can take your book to the trail HQ to collect a golden medal of some kind!  How awesome is that!  Plus, the US dollar is pretty good over there right now and you might meet some convivial K-pop stars or at least some of their fans.  If I ever ride this trail, I would like to attempt to do it in a track suit that celebrates some type of K-pop group or maybe even just K-pop in general.  

When asked about his bike-packing rig, Seth stated he had a Giant hybrid that he currently uses but that he’s got his eye on a Poseidon.  I was not hithertofore aware of this brand, but it sounded like they have some pretty great deals, so I looked at their website and here’s one of the bikes that they had that I thought might be good for bike-packing.  https://www.poseidonbike.com/products/flatbar-redwood?variant=41091788963991

Mrs. Snot and I were both not sure that Poseidon was a good brand name for a bike company. My wife has a deep understanding of mythology and she pondered the many facets of Poseidon.  He was full of surprises.  For example, you might think that Zeus or some land-based god created horses?  Nope - Poseidon did!  Mrs. Snot suggested that the website might have an origin story.  So I looked around on their website and found the following:  https://www.poseidonbike.com/pages/who-we-are  

“Poseidon Bike takes its name from the God of the sea, a place where you can find serenity and stillness and discover the sea's strength at a moment’s notice.”  

So I guess they are stating that bicycling is like being at sea?  Maybe that is true in some ways, but I don’t think it’s common to get motion sickness on a bicycle?  Anyway, I couldn't find any other specific reason for their brand name.  As a direct-to-consumer bike manufacturer there are a few things I think about:  

1.  Not good for your local bike shop.  But money’s pretty tight these days…  tough decisions  

2.  Not sure where frames are made.  

3.  To keep costs low, some parts are probably not the greatest.  

Nothing really jumped out at me when skimming specs, but a few reviewers stated that they upgraded brakes or wheels (possibly these were on older versions).  I also feel like spending more on a bike up-front is typically a good way to get good components that can take some abuse and perform reliably.  It looks like the Redwood, sorry X Ambition, would probably be my pick for a bikepacking rig.  If you use any kind of ride-tracking technology, I'd recommend switching from km/hr or mph to knots just to honor the god of the sea and avoid angering this jealous deity.

Seth also recommended the Superchief.  It was strong, so I got a mini!

So the weather is pretty good for bicycling these days, unless you want to do some riding on dirt, which has been kind of soggy lately.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get out for some mountainous bicycling in the near future and I’ll let you know how that goes.

All the best to you and your bicycles,

BSO