Jan 09, 2013 at 03:03 PM
Welcome Brendan. You can look forward to 6:15 am starts for the Spring Series!
Introduce Yourself, Post a Photo - Mugshots
Jan 14, 2013 at 01:41 AM
Hey there. I wanted to introduce myself, as I’ve just signed up. I’m Bruce and I live in Sunset Park. I’ve been racing for two seasons and am cat 4, and am certainly familiar with the team, and your jerseys, as I’ve raced with you guys enough times in Prospect and Central Park, and out at FBF.
And that’s in part why I wanted to join. I thought the races would probably be a little more fun if I was part of the team, and, well, your new kit looks pretty damn cool. I have signed up for Battenkill, and plan on going to other out-of-town races, and hope to find a small band of others who may want to go together. I hear the Bethel series is well run, and I’d love to go to some of the crits they have in Pennsylvania.
But for now, I’ll slog it out through the fog and rain, and worse, on the indoor trainer, and look forward to meeting up for the group rides.
I’m on a white and black orbea orca, and also ride a white and apple green trek 1.5
Jan 14, 2013 at 01:42 AM
Welcome Bruce!
Jan 14, 2013 at 03:04 AM
Bruce - did we ride together at Ride Brooklyn a few times?
Eric Ragot
Jan 14, 2013 at 04:33 AM
Hi Eric. We did ride a couple of times, in the early morning sessions with the tri folks. You confirmed my cat 4 upgrade on one of the mornings we rode together. I haven't been to one of the computrainer rides in a while because the weather's been good enough for upstate rides on Saturday.
Jan 14, 2013 at 10:06 PM
@Bruce- I like those early/pre season Bethel series races. In the unlikely event that I decide to race this coming season I'll definitely hit Bethel. I'll let you know in case you want to carpool up. I've seen Kissenas Ed Nolan and Ian Ellis, along with others who I can't recall at the moment, at those races in past years as well. And welcome by the way!
Jan 15, 2013 at 12:11 AM
Awesome - thanks for the welcome. Yes, please do let me know if you're going to Bethel - and I'll keep my eye out on the boards. I hope I'll have the Kissena kit by then.
And of course you're going to be racing this season! Are you kidding me? It's racing! Riding fast and then drafting off some wheel, seeing an opening and taking it to move up one length without even thinking about it, concentrating on the sound of your chain spinning and then, what's that? Is that a bird singing? You can smell grass, you just passed a jogger, Jesus, you're going 26mph on a road where you train at 19. Refocusing back on the race, riding hard again.
Yeah, that's racing.
Jan 15, 2013 at 09:21 PM
Adam said:Two fucking things.1) What does "Fred" mean?? I like Rapha stuff and was jealous when I saw Owens' Rapha gloves and jacket at our Christmas bash. Am I friends with Fred? I also have a bit of a love affair with neon colours at the moment, notably neon yellow.2) How on earth do you mofos find and use all these images in your posts. Firstly, I don't think i can even get a picture on the forum as I am incompetent. My forum highlight thus far has been changing my profile pic to that desert squirrel (not sure that's a real animal, may have made it up). Do you have an image library? Do you make them? Do you have a computer algorithm that you put in your 'meaning' and it produces a picture.
Adam,
WDC was once the first guy in this little drama. Quite a change for him: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek"Fred" is a moving target. Don't know if it started with old guys, racers, or bike shop employees. If you're wearing Rapha or fluo yellow, just make sure you've removed the reflectors on your bike, are free of greasy chainring marks on your right calf (on skin or clothing), have removed the "spoke protector" between your tallest cog and rear wheel, and aren't wearing sneakers while riding flat pedals on an ill-fitting carbon-fiber frameset.
Jan 15, 2013 at 10:34 PM
Jan 16, 2013 at 12:28 AM
yabba dabba do
Jan 16, 2013 at 04:10 AM
"Fred" is largely contextual, much like "Hipster."
After many years of careful study (thanks, NSF!) I've determined that a Fred is someone with similar trappings as yours, but whose comportment, accessorization, and affinities you deemed inferior to yours. Aspects of this are often purely arbitrary: the pie plate on the back of a new cassette smacks of Fredishness, though it is highly functional. Similarly, the hi-vis yellow windbreaker from PerformanceBike.com (one of the finest and most ubiquitous items of cycling clothing) is deemed a core piece of the Fred uniform. Stock is Fred. Popular is Fred. Retail is Fred.
Aspiration also seems to play a major part in constituting "Fredishness" - when ones grasps for, covets, or charges to their AmEx the tokens of cyclists a level "higher" than yours. To a cat4, Cat5's are Freds, to the feeble Cat3's who race with the 1's and 2's, the Cat4's are Freds, and to Jonathan Page, Dan Chabanov is a Fred. Having a bike deemed "above your level" is Fred. Spending $2k on carbon hoops when you've got a beer hoop around your middle is Fred. Wearing a pro-team kit without having monthly wire transfers into your checking account from said team . . . you got it: FRED!
All of this is to say that being a Fred at one point or another is unavoidable. I understand the state of Fredishness to be something of a Zen koan that forces us to hold opposing ideas in our mind at the same time: that we may look down on Freds, while knowing that we may be one. The best reaction to the issue of Fred is to let your freak flag fly, keep it weird, and learn to dish it out as well as you take it.
If God is on our side, we'll all be riding when we're 80 and will be too oblivious to notice that we're wearing Knicks jerseys over our Lands End polartecs.
Jan 16, 2013 at 07:35 PM
Hey guys, my names Jay I live in Crown Heights. I've been riding and training for years but have never raced or been part of a club. I'll probably jump on the next new member ride, I believe February 2?
I'm in Prospect Park early morning most weekdays and Saturdays. Only a couple rides over the GWB so far this winter. In the warmer months I make a lot of trips upstate, New Paltz, Woodstock, etc...
Jan 16, 2013 at 07:51 PM
WDC- put that on the Kissena site.
Jan 16, 2013 at 10:28 PM
Welcome jay.
Jan 17, 2013 at 01:11 AM
Welcome Jay!
Jan 17, 2013 at 02:23 AM
Fred: No bibs. Barely functional helmet. Baggy long-sleeve t-shirt from the Gap. Hairy legs. CRCA unattached jersey. Dropped on a simulated "race." Prompted a friend to comment "nice - you even wear your age in big block letters on your jersey."
Jan 17, 2013 at 02:39 AM
Yikes..I can't wait to get my KCC kit. So I can bury my CRCA ones.. haha When is the order period?? February?
Jan 17, 2013 at 02:56 AM
Hey, I resemble that remark...dstearns said:Fred: No bibs. Barely functional helmet. Baggy long-sleeve t-shirt from the Gap. Hairy legs. CRCA unattached jersey. Dropped on a simulated "race." Prompted a friend to comment "nice - you even wear your age in big block letters on your jersey."
Actually, during the hottest summer races, I prefer a pair of non-bib shorts. When I was on a club who got their clothing from Voler, I can say that their bibless shorts were cut high in the back so that you would never see any "fred-like" backside action. I don't even know if Champion offers a non-bib short.
Jan 17, 2013 at 04:31 AM
Feb 07, 2013 at 01:23 AM
Hey Everyone! My name is John Kelly and I'm glad to be a new member!
I'm late to the "Hey Everyone!" game - a winter bug and sudden travel for work dropped me out of the social media world for a bit after the last new member ride, but I'm glad to be back in the city and back in riding health! (albeit on the trainer for the last few days)
I'm a bike commuter for most of the year (10 miles from my apartment in Astoria to my office in the West Village has been a great way to start the day, but clearly I could stand to add a few laps in the park on my way in). Weekend rides to Nyack have been fun, but they drag a bit solo. I'm looking to develop my skills and start racing this year.
I ride a comically large KHS Flite (61cm) and I'm usually in Black or Red Hincapie kit riding in the park or on 9W. Looking forward to riding with you guys!
Feb 07, 2013 at 01:29 AM
Welcome Sir John of the Unusually Large Bike. Many a man will soon be eager to make your acquaintance and partake of your magnificent draft 
Feb 07, 2013 at 01:33 AM
I totally call dibs on that draft. I remember there was this insanely windy stage race in the "plains of Delaware" a few years back, and I kept getting caught behind this pint-sized pipsqueek. I might as well have been riding solo.
Welcome aboard John!
Feb 07, 2013 at 02:38 AM
Welcome, John. My Orbea Orca is a 60 and I always marvel at how everyone is so nice to let me ride up front.
Feb 07, 2013 at 03:03 AM
Once I chased full-on for about a minute to get William's skinny ass wheel in the park while he and another very strong (and slight) ex-Kissena were doing a TTT. I lasted but a single lap in his "draft."
It was like that scene in Heat when Neil calls Van Zandt after getting double crossed: "I am talking to an empty telephone. Because there is a dead man on the other end of this fucking line." (You see, I was both the guy talking AND the dead man on the other end of the fucking line. And William's bike was the empty telephone. Are you following? Maybe it wasn't like that scene in Heat at all.)
But anyway, it was like drafting a riderless bike. Welcome to the club.
Feb 07, 2013 at 05:15 PM
Welcome, John!
Feb 08, 2013 at 09:00 PM
i don't shave my legs. you see, i put out so many thousands of watts for such sustained periods of time that the sheer force of the wind works instant depilatory action. the tubes on my bike are in fact solid rods rather than hollow tubes, the better to tolerate the ineffable power produced by bulging limbs. i wore bib shorts once, but when i got out of the saddle my herculean upper body caused the suspender straps to disintegrate.dstearns said:Fred: No bibs. Barely functional helmet. Baggy long-sleeve t-shirt from the Gap. Hairy legs. CRCA unattached jersey. Dropped on a simulated "race." Prompted a friend to comment "nice - you even wear your age in big block letters on your jersey."
my fluorescent jacket is sufficiently reflective to capture the attention of military and civilian satellites, eliminating the need to purchase expensive, temperamental equipment such as the Garmin 8000XX++ 2.0. i simply visually locate myself on google maps to track my rides.
-winifred
Feb 09, 2013 at 09:29 PM
"Goedemiddag" all,
I just joined last week after the new member ride. I used to race MTB in Europe / Netherlands when I was a junior long time ago. Recently I started bike riding again after not racing for over 10 years so I'm a bit rusty... I've registered in Cat 5 for Battenkill Tour & Classic, Hunter Mtn Spring classic and Gran Fondo NY.
Look fwd to joining you on the 9W trainingsrides and at the events.
Cheers
Floris
I just joined last week after the new member ride. I used to race MTB in Europe / Netherlands when I was a junior long time ago. Recently I started bike riding again after not racing for over 10 years so I'm a bit rusty... I've registered in Cat 5 for Battenkill Tour & Classic, Hunter Mtn Spring classic and Gran Fondo NY.
Look fwd to joining you on the 9W trainingsrides and at the events.
Cheers
Floris
Feb 09, 2013 at 09:40 PM
Welcome Floris. There are a handful of us in the club that still ride mountain bikes from time to time (in addition to road and/or cross). If you have a mountain bike and are interested in riding, let us know.
Feb 09, 2013 at 09:52 PM
Hi Neil - thanks, that sounds great. I did one H2H race last year and may be doing a couple more this season but road races are my primary focus. Let's keep in touch. Cheers, Floris
Feb 09, 2013 at 10:04 PM
Welcome Floris! You'll find some good company here: some have been racing since you started and never stopped; some just started and some took the same time off you did.
Battenkill is a blast; you'll love it.