Looking for a rear wheel. Anyone got a rear wheel?

Since Noah and I don't ride much, we are perfectly qualified to race track.

We went out on Friday night to race bicycles. Noah hadn't ridden a bike in a week and a half, and I hadn't ridden anything more than taking the kids to school in the trailer in that time, so I wasn't much better.

What the heck? We raced anyway.

Noah had decent speed, but he was racing against juniors who were 15+. That is, once they separated the juniors/youth from the adults. He races his ass off, though, and if he sticks with it, these will be part of the stories we tell when he's got his picture in the magazines or something.

On the way to the track, Noah asked if we could eat dinner out with the racers. A sort of tradition is for a group to go out to eat after the races. By and large, these are all folk of whom I enjoy their company, so I do like to go eat. But it is also that Noah is 9yrs old, and we need to get home to get him to bed. Plus, I want to see Chloe too.

Anyway, Noah asked if we could go out to eat after the races. I told him that if I finished in the money that we could go out. See, I pretty much knew that wasn't going to happen, so it was pretty easy to tell him, "Sure, if...."

Well, I only had enough cash to register Noah in his race and me for one category. Normally, I register for Masters and the 1,2's. Since I'm not training, the extra $3 to add another category is just ride time. I like that.

Well, with me only riding one category, I wasn't so fried in each race and I could actually hang on and not get dropped. A night of that got me 4th place and in the money. So Noah and I went out to eat.

I had a veggeburger, salad and water. Noah had a cheeseburger, french fries and root beer.

There was more racing on Saturday night at a new event called the Festival of Speed. This consisted of a 200m time trial and a 500m time trial as well as a kierin. Noah did the 200 and 500 while I did the 200 until the 175m point, and I had to pedal weird through the 500, and I didn't really get to do the keirin at all.

Noah busted out decent 200 and 500 time trials, but he really only had one other guy in his age group. With all juniors, Noah was 5th and 4th (I think). He won an XXL t-shirt!

I didn't get to really warm up since registration was overwhelmed by the unexpectedly large turout (for track, anyway), but I wasn't stressed by it at all. If that stuff is going to matter to me, then I need to train first. Nevertheless, I'd poured over gear charts and redicted times based upon certain rpm's and so forth that I had a good idea of where I'd be. Come game time, I wanted to leave nothing on the table, as I wanted to have a time of my absolute best to use as a benchmark in training.

In the 200 I thought I slipped my tire as I came out of turn 4 to get up to speed, and again out of turns 2 and 4 on the actual time trial. Weird, but I didn't really think anything of it, but it was a bit disconcerting to have something give like that when going all out. For just a split second there, it crossed my mind, "It'd be funny to crash going this hard and being on the track all by myself."

In the 500, it happened again 4 or 5 times as I ramped it up from 575m or so (you get to hit the starting line at full speed). I just assumed it was the cheap ass tires I'm using and the fact that I hadn't really run at it in the races like I was for this event. I sort of went at 90% through the first of the two laps, and since it didn't slip anymore, I tried to step on the gas for the last lap. Still wasn't happening. Felt like it was slipping even more. I tried to spin it up without really torquing the cranks. Whatever.

The last event of the night was the keirin. I wasn't going to do this event originally, as I figured we'd head home with Mama and the babies there watching and not wanting to stay out too late. However, things were running very late, and Mama took the attitude that if we were out that late, might as well do the event that I'm good at. And if I do say so myself, I'm pretty darn good at the keirin. And I wanted to make up for whatever was holding me back in the previous two events.

I got my buddy Mark to hold me for the start. The motorcycle comes around, and even though we're frickin crowded with 9 guys on the track, I get a great push and start without having to mix it up and half pedal as the group fell in behind the motorcycle. But the official signals a false start, and we roll back to the line to try again.

I get focused, and we get ready for the motorcycle again. It is going to be MY spot behind that bike, even if I did draw 6th position. MY spot.

About four pedal revolutions in and my cranks are just spinning. Like Lance says, "No chain." But in my case, it is "No cog." Spun that mf'r right off the hub. I'm out of the race 20m into it.

I coasted into the infield (which is very awkward on a track bike, since it isn't supposed to coast, and you don't have any brakes) and I'm thinking about how much a new wheel is going to cost and how quickly I just went from planning to be IN the money to being OUT of money. A few guys come up and tell me that I must have great power to do that to a cog. Um, yeah. Power. I'm trying to think of what a new hub is going to cost and where I'm going to get the money for that.

It was hard to be upset seeing Noah so happy. That dude wants it, I tell you.