Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Salt Lake City

This morning, a mercifully brief 38 mile jaunt from Lehi to Salt Lake. I rode for almost 3 hours. The first 4-5 miles featured a stiff headwind and dangerous road conditions. No shoulder, rude commuting drivers. Not fun. After that, just miles and miles of stop lights and surface streets. Not too bad. More sad roadkill today as well. Two house cats and at least 3 big recently splattered deer.



As I battled the wind to get over the lip into the basin where Salt Lake City rests, this ginormous tractor passed me going about 28 mph. I tried my best to catch a ride in his air, but just couldn't keep up. I think if I'd seen him coming, and had the presence of mind, I could have really caught a ride, that would have been sweet.



Welcome back to civilization. After biking many miles through desert and occasional tiny towns, it's a shocker to be back in an actual city. Here's a typical moment. Construction zone plus freeway on/off ramps. Notice the student driver in training just ahead of me.



The ditty bops and their team have a power lunch in Salt Lake.



My rear side-pull brakes



Some nice molding around the joints of the old steel frame.



Another nice detail. Bud motif repeated underneath the bottom bracket.
No riding tomorrow, except for around the city to catch a movie or a huge meal somewhere.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sweet bike pics. Thanks for posting those. You have to love the detailing on the old steel frames. None of those ugly weld marks. Plus, down tube shift levers? Totally cool. Hell, even the Campy name looks nice on the brakes. And I bet you those suckers grab nice and tight on a long descent.

Enjoy your large meals. I believe you have a climb or two ahead of you and I believe you're in the land of the 360 degree wind.

I'm still sad because the Bops tour listing has my home town as Tentative. Damn Midwest.

5:13 PM  
Blogger 1568kathy said...

I doubt you're there long, but if you need a place to stay in Salt Lake - just call me. Love this site. You are so talented, Ian!

11:10 AM  
Blogger Frederick Ingram said...

I used to live in SLC; I can't believe the distances your are traveling and under what traffic conditions. It sounds dangerous and unpleasant. I did ride my bike from SLC to Bountiful once though.

5:46 PM  

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