Not that I haven't been riding, but just haven't been writing about it much lately. Yesterday I went after work for a lovely drive up to "Sabino Canyon and back":http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=10953+E+Tanque+Verde+Rd,Tucson,+AZ+85749&daddr=sabino+canyon+road+and+sunrise+drive,tucson,+az&hl=en. I got motivated to do that ride because it looked very pretty going up there on Sunday with my evil stepmom and Zachary, and as a bonus it was hilly without being Mt. Lemmon. The ride up was lovely, although I was almost out of water by the time I got to the "rec area":http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/forest/recreation/camping/sites/sabino.shtml. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when it gets even hotter; either put more bottle cages under my seat, or start carrying some full Nalgenes in my messenger bag. I'm just now getting over a cold I've had since my doctor's appointment last week, and all that stress wore my immune system down to a nub, and I immediately caught a cold from Kim, who had caught one from Zachary, who probably caught it from some germ-factory at his school. It felt good to ride, to be out sweating and having to work to keep cadence. I saw some bikers out, and I always feel vaguely silly that I'm riding some sort of middle ground between the guys riding the Lance Armstrong Trek bike (with the Lance Armstrong USPS clothes and the Lance Armstrong testicle removal plastic surgery) and the guys riding a beat-up mountain bike clearly going to school/work. I'm out there usually in baggy mtb shorts and a jersey without all kinds of gaudy logos and such over it, messenger bag on, riding my fixie.

Considering how cycle-mad this town is, I'm suprised that I haven't seen more serious fixed riders; although I did see a guy on a single-speed mountain bike the other day (shades of old "bmj":http://anklebiter.net/log/). There is "a decent site":http://www.arizonasinglespeeds.com/ out there, ("the home of ASS"), but the events don't seem to be updated all that frequently.

Anywho... on the way back I noticed a blur of a chunk of something stuck in my front tire, just left of center. Thinking that I probably didn't want to put my weight on it making a leaning left turn, I slowed down and stuck my glove over the tire to brush it off. Big mistake. "fwip" "sssssssssssssssssssssss" Yup, I flatted right on the Tanque Verde Wash overpass. Changing the tire was quick and uneventful, but my handpump doesn't seem to be worth a shite. I could only get the pressure up to about 60 without putting the little pump lever all the way through my hand, so I limped on it to the "LBS":http://sabinocycles.com/. While there I picked up a replacement tube ("David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ told me to always keep two on hand) as well as one of those universal CO^2^ cartridge pump dealies. Still need to get a computer to start keeping track of my rides, since I seem to only get around on the fixie these days, as well as a slightly more comfortable split saddle. More toys, more toys.