The Shop.

Here is what our shop look like at UMass. Good times, small space.

MAKE IT RAIN!!!

So, another Friday comes, the day started out beautiful! Shorts and a sleeveless-t, nothings better. After the shop closed up a few of us rode out to NoHo to the Smith Bike Kitchen to say hello to the gals that work there. It was a nice ride, back roads not too hilly but burned the legs. We got there after a little search around campus, it must have looked a little odd for a pack of eight or so guys riding through the all girls campus, yelling at each other and not paying any attention to the people around us, I don't think people knew what to do when they saw us coming. Well, we find the Kitchen and introduce ourselves check out the space and start helping out with bikes. We were working outside then it began to rain. The Kitchen is no bigger than the Coop at UMass, but a little more out of the way and looks like Freddy lives there, but its a space and the girls there enjoy it. We say our goodbyes and are off to ride the 9 or so miles back to campus.


We get back, riding through some farms and nice mellow hills and some great flat sprints. It was raining pretty heavy at this point, so we jump onto the bike path ans I cruise back to my house, the path conveniently come out behind Amherst College a few doors down from my house. I take a shower, have a beer and re coop before heading out, grab a nice meal with Dorthy Mantooth and never call her again.

Well, now its raining really hard and it is Ten so time to hit the spoke, we don't get asked to move and hide under the over hang. We decide to hit one party and hang there as long as we can. its a friends house so we know it will be alright to be there all night. Route 9 in Amherst is a long stretch of strip malls and gas stations. It all starts with a big descent down a monster of a hill. We get going after our booze is picked up, the rain is still coming down hard and the roads are soaked, I forgot my rain pants and most everyone else didn't even have rain pants. Down the road we go, single file, not much talking or laughter going on like we usually do. I hang at the end of the line and look on as everyone rides on, my clothing beginning to collect the rain. I get into a rhythm, ten pedal strokes to every drop of rain from the brim of my cap. Smooth and fluid as the water around me. I just hang back, keep a mellow pace and just enjoy the hum and swish of the road. Then we get close to the house and I sprint to the front to show the group the drive way and we are there, damp and ready for a beer.

We enter and are welcomed, told the dryer was ours for the night and to toss our things in. This is nice, I grab a seat on the counter and don't really move say for another beer, or a quick dart outside.

Time to leave and we put our half dry clothes on and head back out into the cold rain night moving toward morning. We jump out onto Route 9, and jump on the bike path home. Bad idea, its dark and they mixed glass into the asphalt to lower the cost, this means a lot of flats, out comrade got one so we walked the three or so miles back with him. Well riding a bike drunk is easy, but walking one is a son of a bitch.

Next morning, wake up late and need to get to the Coop, 15 pieces of glass in my front tire, I walked, used the spare tube the day before. Just another Friday night, don't know the extent of it all until the morning.

HEY LANCE! THIS AINT THE TOUR DE FRANCE!

Another night another ride. We meet up, some are slow getting there and we aren't out and about until a little past 11. No matter the ride from my house was great, it had been raining all day and the roads were slick. We head out after a beer or two up College St. a large,steep, killer of a hill. Trough town and down through campus, there are a lot of "HEY LANCE" and "FAGS". Its fine, we were also called the "Green Hells Angles" a few times, that was kind of cool. With cool rain air and the spray from the wheel in front of you and a buzz from beer it was a nice ride. We head to out first party, just off campus, the place was packed, a band down stairs and a big mix of all sorts of people. We hang there, bumming everyone out, our friend cut a mullet the night before and made it his mission to get Red Neck wild, with a Bud heavy forties and short shorts he did just that. For the most part no one knows anyone at the party, but we manage to mingle in and talk to a few people before breaking into small groups outside. A little past midnight there are some bike cops spotted, needless to say they are sort of the carrier pigeons for the squad cars and it seemed the party was about to be swarmed. We assemble the team and head for our bike, it takes some time to get ourselves together and the bikes to be unpeeled from one another. Well it seemed we were not going fast enough for one host, and he began to yell at us, calling us a few names, but what he didn't understand is that at that time we were in a church parking lot having nothing to do with his party. Some people just want to start shit, we told him we were waiting for a friend to get his light that fell and we would be on our way. Back out into the cool air spray of April. We head further down the road to a house where we know good people live.The road there is an absolute shit storm of potholes and one of us gets a flat. This is where the night changed, we all went from being a little pissed off to realizing how fun this was. Though there was a flat we all pulled together, getting him a tube, levers, a pump wrench and getting him on the road, for a time. We get to the house and are welcome with open arms, not to many people there maybe ten and then the ten of us. Music was going and we fucking dance. Met a few people, danced and hand a good time.

Sometimes that is just how it goes on our Friday nights. No one thought we would be out, but we were, and in good numbers. We stuck together and helped each other out. Later on we went back to my house and just were loud and I don't really know if anyone said anything that made any sense other than goodbye, but it was fun and I thank you all again for these great night.