Fixed Fight 4

This past Saturday, April 24th, marked the 4th running of St. Petersburg's Fixed Fight Alley Cat Race. Since I missed out on the Frankencorn, I was hell bent on giving this event a try. Fixed Fight 3 was the first race I'd ever attended (as a spectator) so I thought it would be awesome to make Fixed Fight 4 my first race. True to form, Todd over at Horroh put on a great event. Local sponsors Give and Take and 66Fixed along with many others gave some awesome prizes and support. Tampa's Pete Young finished first in around 45 minutes.

This being my first race I decided rather than go with the foolish ambition of being "in it to win it" I would just be "in it" My thanks to Eric and Brad for letting me follow most of the way. I finished 40th out of the approx. 175 entrants and had the time of my life doing it. It was a really great event with tons of positive vibes and I can totally say I'm hooked. To get 200+ people in the same place laughing and smiling and enjoying ANYTHING together is a feat in itself. Thanks to everyone for the good times.

Photo courtesy of: Cobrabyte

Getting Started

I just found this account that I created over 2 years ago and never did anything with. Well, that is over. This will be my first foray into the Blogosphere. I'm not a writter, so I won't pretend to be one. But you will be able to find many things here that interest me. Music, bikes, geeky things galore, possibly some art, plenty of opinion, you get the idea. Feel free to check it out from time to time or feel free to never look at it. Don't really care.

So, what does the title of this blog mean? If you ride bicycles of any type for any length of time, at a moderate level of seriousness, you might be familiar with the term, "pedal strike" This is when your pedal hits the ground, usually in a turn, and sends you ass over tea-kettle through the air and onto the riding surface. It's not fun...even if it sounds like it.Usually one can avoid such an incident by cornering with the inside pedal at 12 o'clock. Being a rider of fixed-gear bicycles I have become very aware of this issue. I have also learned to deal with it and it has translated into almost every aspect of my life. When riding fixed you are forced to, "pedal through corners" It's just like life, love, work, etc. You never have full control. All you can do is hone your skills, gather knowledge, gain experience and do your best to keep it rubber side down. Take this as you want to. I'm not telling anyone to go ride bikes or stop whining (I do my fair share). I'm just sharing the knowledge.

- Keep it rubberside down