Engine Work

After enough time around cycling you realized that there's no further purpose to trying to find the latest and greatest to put on your bike. Shaving weight can only go so far...go too far and you're riding around on a fragile death rocket. Luckily I've stayed away from these temptations (mostly) and have a garage of bikes that are durable enough for my size.

I feel like I've reached an almost nirvana-like place. No more do I feel the need to read through the latest catalogs that show up in the mail, looking for the latest and greatest component to purchase. Let's be realistic, will I really get a 30 second improvement riding up Highway 9 if I shave off 30 grams from the stem and seatpost? Probably not, but my checking account would certainly be lighter.

In this state of bliss I find myself thinking long and hard about what's next. The goals for 2009 are done, written and communicated to those who need to know. So where does one go next? Well, I'm going to the garage to work on the engine.

My "garage" are those roads that we commonly travel and train upon. There's a lot of work that's going to be done in the garage over the winter. The engine cylinders will be larger, intake manifolds doubled and perhaps a turbo thrown in for the hell of it. The garage door will be open and the engine will have to battle with whatever storms, wind and rain blows through. But when this engine is done and it's brought out into the late spring/early summer sun, I think it will be purring just like the Ferrari F1 engine pictured above.