The Joys of a Cycling House

The name of my blog might not be that accurate anymore. Sure, I'll still be traveling every weekend and then some, but for those little times in between I'll no longer be camped out in a Kia Sedona ripping across the US. I have a home base now, and its actually pretty sweet. Sure, I'm in a living room and my lease says if someone wants to watch a movie at 2 in the morning its still technically a common area, and no, there aren't any "doors", and I have to fold up and put away my bed every morning(my contract says I have, and I quote "fewer rights than a Gitmo detainee.") But hey, I have a dresser for my clothes! Thats right, no more living out of a bag for this homebody, and most importantly the price is right.

There are other perks aside from low price and a dresser that make this place pretty sweet and most of them have to do with my most excellent housemates. For the first time in my life I'm living with other people who either race bikes, used to race, or at least understand and respect cycling on some level. Its a revelation. I don't get condescending looks if I walk through the door still kitted up, no one bugs me if I'm stretching on the floor (sometimes they even join in!) and best of all our garage looks like this:

All the cars get kicked to the curb and the bicycle takes ascendancy. Between a garage like this and one verified bad ass mechanic as a housemate there aren't too many bike related problems we can't solve. It is an absolute joy to have the tools and knowledge at hand to keep my bike running like a dream. When the bike is happy, I am happy.

Another bonus to living in a house full of cyclists is the shared love of food. Specifically good food in large quantities. At this point you've surely guessed I don't live with a bunch of climbers. Our resident climber and professional is Max(im) "Casper Stalingrad" Jenkins, and he packs away more food than any of us. No matter what he eats or how much he doesn't seem to gain an ounce, which I think is a combination of black magic and complete crap-o-la, but it may have something to do with the 36 hours he rides every week. No matter how he does it I'm jealous.


Anyway, every now and again we'll get together and bang out bulk ride food. PMTG and I managed to mass produce some flapjacks and waffles with chocolate chips, walnuts, almonds, flax and cinnamon just the other day. Thats a little tip for all you riders, cash-strapped or otherwise: there's no need to pay $2 for some packaged fructose when you can buy a 10lb bag of flapjack mix at costco and have ride food for a year. They taste better, go down easier, and if you time it right they'll even keep your back warm while you start off on a cold day.