The Only Warmth Is The Warmth I Buy

An old episode of The Simpsons featured a misprinted calendar that cursed the fictional town of Springfield with an extra month of winter called Smarch. In West Bend, we can relate. Spring began on Sunday, March 20 … technically. But this Sunday we had 4° wind chill at 8 a.m. and now, 48 hours later, we’re still below the freezing mark and we might need another 24 hours to break the spell. Wednesday is supposed to be 50-something by mid-afternoon, but wet. On Thursday we’ll be back into the 30s and we might see a little snow.

At least my house is warm again. After years of threats, my furnace finally (and loudly) died at 8 p.m. last Friday. Heading into such a cold weekend, the timing could not have been much worse. Cheapskate that I am, I wasn’t about to pay emergency labor rates. I bundled up for the weekend and called for service on Monday morning. The upper level of my home dropped from 70° to only 57° in the meantime. Fortunately, the lower level has electric baseboard heaters, so my home office stayed relatively comfortable. Installed in September 1995, the old furnace was the oldest system/appliance in my home. I watched for its demise since about 2013 and, more recently, I stockpiled cash for this eventuality. So, I can afford the replacement and now there’s peace-of-mind instead of anxiety.

Purchased in June 2001 when I moved into my current home, the refrigerator is now my oldest system/appliance. At 21 years old, it is past its life expectancy. But unlike the furnace, it has never shown any signs of stress, and it wouldn’t cost me thousands of dollars to replace. I hope it runs forever, even if it doesn’t match the newer appliances in my kitchen.

I watched every stage of the Absa Cape Epic last week and I was more than a little jealous of the mountain bikers who got to enjoy the warmth and bright sunshine of South Africa. Wisconsin’s road racing season will begin next Sunday, April 3, with a criterium in Kenosha, where 45° will be the afternoon high. Have fun with that. I’m not even tempted to ride right now, much less race. I’m going to finish the first quarter of 2022 with only 4 outdoor bike rides for a total of 104 miles. Those are my lowest first quarter totals since 2006. My cycling season is off to an awful start.

A New Retail Choice In West Bend

It is extraordinary that West Bend doesn’t have a proper sporting goods store. You have to wonder how many of us are traveling to Brookfield, Grafton, Wauwatosa, or West Allis to visit a Dick’s or a Dunham’s. Several years ago I heard a rumor that Dunham’s was going to open a West Bend store next to Walmart, but that hasn’t happened. Our last sporting goods store, MC Sports, opened in 1999 but closed soon after the Michigan-based chain filed for bankruptcy in 2017. If you’re into baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, and most other sports, then your gear options in West Bend are limited to the handful of things you can find at big box stores like Walmart, Meijer, and Fleet Farm.

Fortunately, West Bend has two very good bike shops: Pedal Moraine and Mountain Outfitters. And if you’re into snow sports, then Mountain Outfitters is a far superior choice to the big box stores. But it’s about to get some competition. Sierra is coming to town.

Sierra is owned by the same parent company that operates HomeGoods, HomeSense, Marshalls, and TJ Maxx. Its West Bend location will be in the former Shopko building. City leaders are justifiably delighted to see commerce coming back to that location. And Pedal Moraine shouldn’t worry too much about competition from Sierra, its new neighbor on South Main Street. We don’t know yet whether Sierra’s West Bend store will sell bicycles, but Sierra’s online offerings are all department store quality bikes from Pacific, the sorts of bikes already available at other big box stores. Mountain Outfitters has a little more to worry about. Sierra offers a wide range of products for snow sports, including snowshoes, downhill skis, and cross-country skis. Still, I expect Mountain Outfitters to win with better customer service and an even wider range of products that includes snowboards.

But there’s a niche that Pedal Moraine and Mountain Outfitters have never really explored: hiking and trail running. We have an amazing network of trails. The Ice Age Trail gets most of the attention, but it’s not the only place to go. If Sierra can appeal to local trail users, then it can find success in West Bend. It has a broad range of boots, shoes, backpacks, trekking poles, clothing, and accessories from top brands. Sierra also sells gear for hunting, fishing, and camping. The West Bend area already has several retail options for those activities, including a massive Cabela’s store in Richfield, but from a customer standpoint there’s no such thing as too many choices.

So, welcome Sierra! You’re not going to shake up the local cycling landscape, but there’s a place for you here.

Reunited (And It Feels So Good)

My endurance road bike is awesome. It’s a 2013 BMC granfondo GF02 that I purchased as “new, old stock” in early March 2014. And since then I have ridden 24,014 miles on it: 3,142 miles in the months before I began tracking on Garmin Connect, and 20,872 since December 26, 2014. It’s so lightweight, efficient, and reliable. I have had to replace only a few parts over the years. The bike was a steal at $1,600. I have more than gotten my money’s worth.

But I hadn’t reached for the BMC in a while. In 2021, my last ride on the BMC came on September 30. On October 1, I took my Trek Boone up to Eden and back on the Eisenbahn State Trail. Then I left the BMC at home when I went to Pennsylvania on vacation. My crash on October 7 stopped me from riding until October 30. I did only 8 rides for the remainder of the year, split between the Boone and my new mountain bike.

So, it was really nice to dust off the BMC on Tuesday and Wednesday for my first proper road rides of 2022. I had gone 165 days between rides on the BMC. Yikes! I blame the long Wisconsin winter for most of that delay, but I can’t say enough good things about Tuesday and Wednesday. Both were bright and sunny. Tuesday was only 50-something but there was almost no wind. Wednesday had much more wind, but because it came from the southwest it brought the warmest temperatures we have seen this year. West Bend hit 66° late in the afternoon, making Wednesday our first 60° day since December 16.

Now we’re going to cool off for a few days—this is March in Wisconsin, when any nice weather is more than we had a right to expect—but I’m eyeing up Sunday. A sunny, 55° afternoon with light winds sounds like another date with the BMC.

The (Apparently) Final 2022 ToAD Schedule

Yesterday the Tour of America’s Dairyland announced what should be the final schedule for 2022. Back in February, ToAD released an incomplete schedule that left June 21 and 22 open for speculation. And despite evidence that the June 21 races would take place in Menomonee Falls, yesterday’s schedule is complete with new races in West Allis and in Mount Pleasant (Racine County):

June 16: Janesville

June 17: East Troy

June 18: Grafton

June 19: Manitowoc

June 20: Milwaukee (Bay View)

June 21: West Allis

June 22: Mount Pleasant

June 23: Milwaukee (Brady Street)

June 24: Shorewood

June 25: Milwaukee (Downer Avenue)

June 26: Wauwatosa

First Outdoor Miles Of 2022

It’s always good to get those first outdoor miles of a new season. Today I rode 16 miles around West Bend on my mountain bike, opting for some extra rubber even though I didn’t venture off road. There’s still snow and ice in places, and I rode over a couple of spots that I probably would have walked around if I had chosen my road bike. Today was our warmest day so far this year, and low 50s plus low winds is not a bad combination in early March. But it was wet and dark. I felt a few raindrops from time to time and I didn’t trust the weather enough to venture far from home. Today wasn’t a great day; it was good enough. And the weather forecast almost demanded that I ride: by next weekend we could be back in the 20s with fresh snow on the ground.

Merchandise!

After two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheesehead Roubaix is coming back on Saturday, April 30. Celebrate its return with these cool T-shirts and stickers from Serpentijn Art & Athletics! A portion of the profits will benefit our hosts, the Newburg Fire Department.