it's the stickers

i've found it very hard to get to the old blog lately. work has been a bit hectic, and of course the thanksgiving day festivities take a toll on time, as well.

the beautiful mrs k and i have both been logging all of our bike time on the trainer lately. yep, it's still boring after all these years!

i first started using an indoor training device back in 1980. i got a very cheap set of plastic rollers and used my bmx bike on them. i would just do some sprints and ride along for a few minutes and call it a day. they were bouncy and slow. about a year later, i bought a really nice set of cortina aluminum drum rollers (i still have them!!) and i did more. 1981 was right about the time i became serious about training, so the rollers were not just for cold and rainy days. i had a set of radio headphones that i would tune in to 103.3 khtr or 107.7, majic 108. or even kshe if the music was right. i set up a beat-up clock on the wall in the wash room in my parents basement. i had workouts that i would do. 30 on/30 off, to simulate back to back to back to back bmx races. i would spin up to 175+ rpms on the bmx bike and hold it there for the 30 seconds, which isn't an amazing feat if you remember that with 20" wheels and a 41/16 gearing, the wheels weren't going that godawful fast. my goal was always 12 sets. by the time i got to 8 or 9, my mom or dad would be yelling down the laundry shoot that i should be getting done pretty soon. i guess those rollers would really sing with the little knobby tires. later on in my bmx career, the rollers became a regular part of my weekly workouts. tuesdays and thursdays were roller days, monday, wednesday, and fridays were my outdoor sprint days. i never got on the rollers to do more than 30 minutes. a couple of minutes of warm up, a hard/fast sprint workout, and a little cool down...done.

along the way, i replaced one roller belt, regreased the bearings one time, and repainted the metal rails once. the sweat really ate away the original paint, but the bearings still sing along pretty well. there are still tons of stickers on the front roller, which look really cool when you're humming along.

that must be the problem with riding the trainer...not enough stickers.