Ooops, I Did it Again.

I'm still trying to get to know some of the neighbors, and last night I met the owner of the one of the last two houses I share a property line with. Nice guy, but really needs mow his lawn. Smarty Pants and Wifey love his two dogs: a bull mastiff and a min pin/chihuahua mix. I digress. I notice he is standing there in a pair of Shimano cycling shoes. So I bring up riding and yada yada and say we should go ride sometime. Great says he. Then he asks where I like to go and what kind of bike I have. And then I see we will never ride written all over his mug. Just like the guy next door and the guy down the street. And the guy that stopped by the house a couple of years ago.

No one wants to ride with me.

As soon as they hear words like titanium or carbon fiber or climbing, they shut right the hell off. Suddenly they think "Whoa, this dude must be fast. I can't ride with him." Here's a tidbit, my days of being fast were over before they began. Let's make a few things clear shall we:

- I'm not a natural athlete.
- I don't have great genes.
- My metabolism has metabolized.
- It's called a ride because it's a ride. A race is something separate. Though a ride can become a race but it's all good fun, right?

A few years ago I was washing my bike at the old house and this guy pulls in the driveway. He lives down the street and saw the bikes in the garage. Turns out he rides and finally saw me out front. Now his original plan was to see if I wanted to go and ride, until he got a good look at "the bike." Then all I heard Captain Twoofy yammer was "Wow, uh yeah it would be fun to go and ride but that's a really nice bike and you are probably way faster than me. Yeah, yeah I'll uh give you a call." Never heard from him.

We had the couple down the street bring us some cookies as a welcome to the 'hood thing a few weeks ago. Same thing. Hubby rides and does some triathlons for fun. "Hey, lets' go ride sometime!" he says. Then the brakes come on. "Is that your bike. Gee, uh, that's an awful lot of carbon fiber there."

And those are just some of the examples. Having nice stuff doesn't make you fast, but apparently it makes people think you might just rip their legs off faster than a combine on a tractor. While this feeling is great for the ego, it's always fun to ride with new people, especially when they are right there, literally next door.

So, when trying to meet new people to ride with, here are a few things not to mention:
- the word "interval"
- your bike, especially if it's nice (even though you really feel like a poseur riding it)
- singlespeed
- XTERRA
- 4-5 hour ride
- detailed knowledge of trails (soil types, rock locations, best places to pee, etc. it shows you go there often)
- long climb
- number of bikes
- XTR

Well, there's always the normal crew I ride with. Here's to y'all. I also have one new riding partner, I promised some video of Smarty Pants and here it be. Not bad for being only two and a half years old I'd say. I'm a proud Daddy, I'll admit it. Sorry for the marginal quality, a new camera is in the werks.