Transplant surgery....

Jackal removing the old organs....
Bottke's fixie. Yeah, he rides it to work....

Installing the new organs....

Bottke observing the surgery....

I planned go up to the shop tonight after I was done skiing and posting to the blog. About the time that I clicked the mouse over "publish this post" I also decided to take the Surly out for a ride. I put the headlight on it and told Judy that I'd be back in an hour or so. She said "whatever" and mentioned something about keeping my dinner warm in the oven. What a sweetheart! (It's code for "I'm not waiting for you to eat. I'll save what's left for you to eat when[if] you get back") It works for us....

I rolled out of the driveway and headed west toward Cedar Falls. I got up the street a ways and decided that as long as I was out and about I may as well ride to the shop and see what was going on with the rats. Not a whole lot, as it turns out. Jackal and Bottke were working tonight and Russ walked out the back door as I rolled the Surly in the front door. We sat and BS'd about cx racing and bikes for awhile when Jackal walked over with a bunch of "Surly Green" water bottle cages.... Yeah, I had my debit card with me and I had him transplant two of them onto the Surly. The red and yellow cages are gone. Replaced with matching green ones. Jackal mentioned something to Bottke about selling things like that to people who didn't really need them. I think he was saying "watch for the customer with SUCKER written all over his forehead". Ah well, they do look pretty cool.

Speaking of Bottke.... He's still riding to work, which is cool. Keep in mind that there is a lot of ice on the roads around here and that his fixie is running 700x28 road tires. No studs. No knobs. The man is fearless. He qualified his statement regarding "not having gone down" with a big "yet". Smart man. He did mention that he has some 700x40 studs coming. Good on ya, Bottke! A little bit of G-Ted must be rubbing off on ya, eh? I'm pretty sure he'll be riding to work all winter.... :)

I'm thinking about studs for the cx bike. I just can't make up my mind on it. The Surly is great with studs and it doesn't have gears to get all gunked up. We'll see.

Alright, that's really it for today.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!