Cycling Stories: From Bike Troubles to RAGBRAI Triumphs - Fins Up to Jimmy, our advice on sun protection.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that riding is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now here are the original Cycling Men of Leisure Adam and Michael.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Hey, good to be with you sir.

Speaker 3: 1:30

Happy to be with you again, Adam how are you Doing good?

Speaker 2: 1:34

Um uh, you know I I have an update.

Speaker 3: 1:40

I'm going to assume that you have an update on your bicycle, which, if you have an update, that means you actually went out and brave the horrible road construction and got it to the shop.

Speaker 2: 1:54

Well, I would like to say that it actually is horrible road construction, but I did, I did do it. So the football game was at 330 here in the in Ann Arbor area, and I said the bike shop opens up at 11. I'm going to leave my house, go get a coffee. Was that the Michigan State game? No, are you kidding, are you? Are you kidding that guy's in so much trouble right now? Uh, I mean, the university just saved themselves 80 million over there in Lansing. Lansing just can't stay out of trouble Now. By the way, to be fair, university of Michigan got themselves in trouble too, but uh anyway, you got, you got your coffee.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Yeah, I got my coffee and and uh, headed on down and brave the construction and I made it to the shop about 10 56 and I walked in and a guy says, uh, how can I help you today? And I said I'm here for my, for my pre-diagnoses. Now do you want to take any guesses for the pre-diagnoses?

Speaker 3: 2:54

There was a lot of people saying a lot of things. I'm going to say you had to have things realigned and readjusted. I don't think the bottom bracket was broken. I think it just needed to be realigned and cleaned.

Speaker 2: 3:09

So what we had was we had three things. After the gentleman put it up on the on the rack I don't think you put them on the rack, but in the bike stand it sounds better to put it up on the rack. So, um, so what we had was a rear tire that had a pretty massive groove in it that I never really noticed. In Iowa we kept looking to see if there's anything from the noises, and what we're talking about is 500 miles. My bicycle made some awful noises and it literally started like 20 miles into to to Raghbri, and 500 miles of this squeaking duck, oh man. And what I think about is Shawshank Redemption, and you do.

Speaker 3: 3:48

Frank, yeah, I'm free.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Climbing through 500 of the most foul smelling, Okay, Anyway.

Speaker 2: 3:55

So, um, but yes, my bike, literally, and it would be really weird, Cause if you pedaled on one side of the bike, there would be no noise. If you pedaled on the other side of the bike, there would be noise. If you were coasting down a hill and you had the crank set at a one area, there would be no noise. If you had the crank set at the other area, or when your left foot was all the way down, it would be a noise. Right foot, all the way down, no noise. And so it was just really weird. I couldn't pinpoint it and I kept adjusting the brakes, like moving it, and anyway.

Speaker 2: 4:24

So took the bike in and we have three things the rear tire had a pretty nasty groove in it, meaning it was rubbing against something. So what the gentleman said is why don't we check out your rear hub? Why don't we see about that? He said I'm feeling some mass refraction here. I think it might be the rear hub. I don't think it's the bottom bracket. And I said, okay. He said but would you give me permission if we get into it? And it is the bottom bracket.

Speaker 2: 4:49

And I thought that was a silly question, but that's okay, Because I thought to myself no, I'm just going to let you have it and not fix it. But I decided, okay, this is one of those moments, Just shut your mouth. He's got your bike and he said but the gentleman was honest with me and said he's like my mechanic, who does all this, won't be back till Tuesday. Can we wait till Tuesday? So that was the pre-diagnosis, but now I have the official update because we are recording this. On Tuesday and on my way home the mechanic called me and now I have the official. Do you want to take a guess?

Speaker 3: 5:26

I'm sticking with what I said. I don't think it was enough that your bottom bracket would be completely destroyed. I just really think it needed to be cleaned and adjusted.

Speaker 2: 5:39

Well, I will tell you that the gentleman on my way home today replaced the bottom bracket and said that it was completely toast, to the point where I was one ride away from possibly seizing up. According to him, If it wasn't one ride, it was a couple of rides away from seizing up. But you're not wrong about. I just want to be fair about the cleaning and adjusting, because they took the entire rear hub apart and it was pretty loaded with grime and grease and needed to be cleaned up and adjusted. So it's a little bit of both it's bottom bracket and rear hub cleaning. But I know that I've reached. I've gotten some messages behind the scenes on what it was and apologize for being a slacker and not getting it down fast enough, but Ed had texted me behind the scenes and said what is it? So Ed is finding out right now as he's listening.

Speaker 3: 6:34

Surprise, ed, you are, you're right. Isn't that what he said it was?

Speaker 2: 6:37

Ed texts me right away and said that he had done a ride, and he said that he actually had a sound clip that he sent me and said that it sound like this. I said, yeah, it was pretty close. So Ed was our, ed nailed it so. But, yes, so I'm going to have to go pick that up, I think, saturday morning. Watch out for that road construction. Ah, listen, buddy, you're more than welcome to check out the Flexlane road construction on US 23. I'm not, I'm not. I'll even be honest where it is, it's it's six mile and 23. So go ahead and look, big guy.

Speaker 3: 7:13

I'm just saying road construction is not an excuse not to take your bike to the shop. Well, that's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 7:20

I choose to use a bike shop. That's an Ann Arbor. As you know, I live about 20 miles north of 15 miles, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, depending on the day, and sometimes it's not as easy to get back and forth like, ah, go there on the weekend. And then, of course, that golf course sure was calling me on the weekend. You liked priority, yeah, yeah, well, I mean, I haven't been like you, I've been.

Speaker 1: 7:46

I'm pretty proud of you, whoa, I'm pretty proud of you.

Speaker 2: 7:49

You've got out of some rides and done some rides, so I have I don't know, that's I assume, based upon giving me as much credit for not we're going with exactly what you said, good job Doing a lot of riding, so good job Appreciate you acknowledging that.

Speaker 2: 8:08

Well, anyway, so there we go 250 bucks and my bike is going to be back to to what it was. But listen, I'm excited. I have 16, almost 17,000 miles on the bike. It's 10 years old and this is the second time the bottom bracket's been done. So I'm excited. I think for Kentucky, when we go down, it's going to be, it's going to be great.

Speaker 3: 8:33

Well, I'm excited. I don't have to listen to the squeaking duck For miles.

Speaker 2: 8:37

The weather's not good. The bike will sit in the back of the van and I'll sit underneath the underneath the awning of your camper and enjoy myself a bourbon.

Speaker 3: 8:45

Hey, nothing wrong with that, it's win-win either way. Well, well, some exciting excitement going on here in the show All right, I'm listening because I'm waiting.

Speaker 3: 9:00

You know about I don't know. A couple of months ago we talked to Katie up in Carroll, iowa. She was on the committee that organized the event, coming through their town. They were a stopover town for Raghbrie 50th anniversary. We talked to her and she gave us kind of a behind the scenes look at what all they were doing, and that I was able to get her back. That's awesome, and you and I did in fact interview her. We did, and I am excited to play that interview because what we thought would be great is what is the aftermath of 30, 40,000, whatever the number is people coming through your town of 10,000,? How did it turn out? Was it a mess? Was there, you know? Did you spend two weeks picking up trash and I don't know, replacing divots and whatever else might have occurred?

Speaker 2: 10:00

So and the answer is yes. So anyways next, I'm just kidding, moving on. Why don't we, why don't we, why don't we pipe that up here and we'll bring Katie on now. Cool, hey, katie, good to be with you again.

Speaker 4: 10:18

Hey guys thanks.

Speaker 3: 10:19

Hey, good to see you. It's been a few weeks and you look well, so I'm guessing you have survived Raghbrie 50th Did you sell enough beer.

Speaker 2: 10:33

That's what. I want to know Did you sell enough beer?

Speaker 4: 10:35

There's a lot, of a lot of things we can talk about.

Speaker 2: 10:38

Okay, great.

Speaker 4: 10:39

We didn't sell as much as we thought we would sell, but, yes, we sold plenty. So good. We worked out well for us.

Speaker 3: 10:45

Was there an after party party?

Speaker 4: 10:48

with the extra or. There hasn't been yet. Last time they did, they did have one, but we actually we have a Budweiser distributor in town.

Speaker 3: 10:57

Oh.

Speaker 4: 10:58

So they did a really awesome job. They had all their guys working and a cold reefer truck right there, so they did a really good job. Monitoring, okay, we can put this out, and you know they didn't overload the coolers. Cool, they didn't have too much extra.

Speaker 3: 11:14

So that was.

Speaker 4: 11:15

It did a really good job helping with that. You know, except the end of the night you don't want those troughs of ice full of beer.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 11:23

Maybe, but Okay.

Speaker 3: 11:26

Well, we answered all the questions. Well, no, I'm kidding.

Speaker 2: 11:29

Well, we're kind of sad for all of our listeners and subscribers. When we got to Carol, we did look for someone in a green shirt and we asked for you, and I think you were at the high school at the time that we were in the main area and then Pizza Ranch was right behind your booth there and so, wouldn't you know it, air conditioning and pizza and ice water and the buffet kind of won for a little bit and then we came back out.

Speaker 2: 11:57

It was a toasty, so we enjoyed your library there and air conditioning.

Speaker 4: 12:02

So I actually have heard so many people that have gone to the library or went to the library that day and said it was awesome.

Speaker 3: 12:08

So the library had a blast. Coolest library there. I mean it's really awesome the way you've got like those big steps where you can kind of set and it's got the movie screen that they can. You know, it's just beautiful and it was nice and cool. So that made it even better.

Speaker 4: 12:22

That's what I heard. I really I wasn't expecting that, but that turned out to be a really neat thing to have, especially with the heat and it kind of just right there in the grass with the trees, so you had some shade outside and awesome.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Yeah, it was really neat. So tell me, if you don't mind the expectation of ridership, the riders that you thought that you would see, Was it what you thought you would see?

Speaker 4: 12:49

Yeah, like when you, it was really funny. So the way my day went I spent I started out the morning on Monday at the high school, which is where the main right right campground was, so at 6am that's when I started my day and I would say from six to seven it was like quiet, so just getting everything out, set up and then all of a sudden that first question or support vehicle came in at seven and it was like nonstop until bedtime, like it just was.

Speaker 4: 13:22

It was absolutely crazy the amount of people in town and the weird thing is I spent most of my day out at the high school, probably until about six or 6.30. And then I headed down to the celebration area or where the band was, and so I honestly didn't really drive around town and see everything. I get. You know, you see it in pieces and you see the steady flow of bikers. But to to truly grasp what the town looked like, I didn't really take in and my sister was staying here and she drove around town and took video of all the different places the parks, where there's just tents galore, and I'm just like. So I got to see that after the fact and wow, Well, and I'll say that you were.

Speaker 2: 14:10

You're geographically, if anyone doesn't realize, you were on the front end of the route and so throughout the week, people were dissipating and leaving the ride, and so you were still in the very hot thick of things, where it was still a very massive cycle load, in my opinion.

Speaker 4: 14:27

So I mean, yeah, you would think that there would be a break in of some sort, you know where, maybe just there would be no cyclists coming, and that was not the case. There might be a break where there was like maybe, oh, there's only two or three coming in the next 30 seconds, but then it was another wave of 15 to 20. It was just solid. I was blown away.

Speaker 2: 14:51

Really so. So, michael, I have to give the credit to Michael he had said you know, we really need to catch back up with Katie and see, you know, we've obviously talked to people before the ride and then we do the ride and then people just go okay, ride, ride. 50 is over. And it was kind of really neat because even today Raghbri put on an email that said relive your Raghbri 50 experience, share your picture. So talking to you today is is just really awesome in my opinion, because here we are asking and kudos to you again, michael. I mean, after everyone's left, normally the cyclists clean up after themselves. I mean, did you have a big old mess, or?

Speaker 4: 15:32

No it was awesome.

Speaker 4: 15:35

I can say this is the first Raghbribe been part of, like the planning committee or doing anything on that end. My day, tuesday, started at 5 am. I got out to the high school and all I can see was little headlamps, you know and hear the zippers for the tents and it was a steady stream of people leaving and by 9, 30 or 10. I mean, it was a ghost town. The garbage was either all picked up or it was all in at least bags and piles right by the cans that were coming to be picked up. The signs were down, I mean I think at 11 o'clock I went and ate lunch and people are like you wouldn't know. Anything happened here last night.

Speaker 2: 16:21

You wouldn't, it was so amazing because I thought oh you again.

Speaker 4: 16:24

You spent seven months preparing the weeks before setting up and then, oh well, it's done. July 26th at 11 o'clock. There it's just. It was amazing the writers are so respectful if there's just no sign of it even being here.

Speaker 3: 16:39

That's cool because we've often talked on many different rides about you know. We look at ourselves as trying to be very conscientious of going through these towns, you know, and cleaning up after ourselves and picking up after ourselves, and most of the time, you know, we see that happening, but we've always wondered is that really happening? Or when we leave, are we just oblivious and there's just trash everywhere that we didn't even see? So I'm glad to hear that we're cleaning up after ourselves when we come through your towns and aren't aren't trashing them or anything like that.

Speaker 4: 17:14

That's awesome From the north and the town to the south end it was. It was very simple. It was picked up. If the garbages were full, like said, the garbage was set next to the can. It wasn't garbage all around like the main camp garden. We'd have to go pick up piece by piece it was. It was very so, very that's awesome, very good.

Speaker 2: 17:34

So we know that. Bragg, where I presented, I believe, a check of 20 grand or 20, yeah a little over 20 thousand a little over 20 thousand. Cool, and so is that money earmarked for a special project or just to help out just in general um.

Speaker 4: 17:50

So with the community fund, um, we knew that they were going to make a donation. This whole time we didn't know how much. We knew it was up to our planning committee to decide which organization or organizations we wanted that to go to in our town. Um, and we honestly had a pretty easy time deciding. Both schools, uh, we asked a lot of throughout the process.

Speaker 4: 18:13

Uh, you know, the main camp ground being at our the carol high school and middle school, um, pork belly ventures utilized fairview and elementary school, um, we actually have two schools every time. We have a public school and a catholic school, and so then we have st Lawrence they served a meal. Um, kemper, their field house hosted a team, their high school hosted a team and they had food and showers. And so we felt, right off the bat, those two, the two school districts, were going to split. And then the last group that we kind of just thought about tail end and I don't know why, but was um the american legion or the legion, oh, nice. So those three organizations, all of them do a lot for our community all year around, and so that's how we landed on those three.

Speaker 2: 19:02

So we split it three ways did the, did the owner of the culvers, that he survived the weekend? I mean because because there was the big sun, the sunshades there and then people would go into culvers for a little bit to give, you know maybe some custard or whatever. Or and we walked in one time our buddy wanted a custard or ice cream or whatever and the line was like a u-shape around the back of the building and I was like I hope that guy made it alive out for the day yeah, he was.

Speaker 3: 19:32

He was ground zero.

Speaker 4: 19:34

I know, and the funny thing is, every time I would see him leading up to the vent. I was joked. I'm like have you decided yet? Are you locking your doors and just keeping the door?

Speaker 1: 19:43

open. Are you gonna are?

Speaker 4: 19:44

you gonna lock and let people in. He's like I don't know, I gotta decide. And I was like I know what you'd want to do, obviously from an east standpoint, but he's like I just can't do that to people. He's an awesome guy that's awesome, he was excited, graciously said you know, because you know we do ask. We asked him to close off that parking lot at noon that day and uh, obviously he had a pretty good idea the day was gonna turn out okay for

Speaker 2: 20:12

you know?

Speaker 4: 20:13

uh, yeah, he was ready and willing, he was excited to help, so he's a really good guy that's cool, I mean he gives back to the community a lot too, so that's fun to be able to help a business that really invest back in the town as well so that's awesome, that's awesome one of the things that I'll go ahead, sorry.

Speaker 3: 20:29

I was gonna say, um, we, our charter was actually out at one of the other parks. Um, I don't remember what the name of the park was. I believe it was on the east side of northeast park. Northeast park, yeah.

Speaker 4: 20:41

I gotta come try to find you guys, but I ran out of time too that's all right.

Speaker 3: 20:46

I had it on my radar well, you know, you were you were a little busy we figured you had something else to do so that's okay. It was I'm like if I could get there um, but no, I was like the baseball diamond you have out there at northeast park. It's incredible. I was like, wow, this is. You had really nice park facilities. I've got to say that, uh, fantastic, I mean, it had that artificial I don't know what it's called um, but just the all it's.

Speaker 4: 21:14

It's an all that's. That's pretty new. It's called miracle field and it's a new all inclusive playground, so all the playground equipment and then the field. Can you know? So if there's kids in wheelchairs, nice different needs. That's what that's what that's for, so that just again we had a family in town raise a ton of money and um and just build that.

Speaker 2: 21:35

So it's really nice and really one of the one of the best pictures I took of all all ragbride was that from that park, because where we were there, well, there was a huge cornfield behind the park and we left about five 45.

Speaker 1: 21:47

That was a century day oh no, yeah, it was a century, yes, it was yep.

Speaker 2: 21:52

And then the sun came above the, the corn, just at the right area, and it was like the iridescent orange, beautiful, beautiful photograph in the morning. There was also a morning where, because it was a century and everybody was panicked, I got to get on the road. Got to get on the road, they left all of their luggage outside their charter semi truck and I have a picture of that too. It's like picture a semi truck and then picture like eight rows deeps of semi trucks worth of baggage, and so I thought that was just one of those pictures, but we we highly enjoyed ourselves. Um, one of the things that I was really surprised at is as the layout that you guys had, in my opinion, was great. It was. You had a long distance layout where people could just keep wandering down different this was to to clarify.

Speaker 3: 22:37

This was the layout of your celebration.

Speaker 4: 22:39

Yeah, area, yeah, yeah that was something you know. We we debated back and forth too. Um, you know where do you go, what do you do?

Speaker 4: 22:48

there's not a lot of shade in that area um, and then again with the numbers, not knowing exactly how many riders we were going to have, um, we really, the last time it came through our vendors didn't do well because they were off and then the beer garden was over in another. I mean, it was right there, but you couldn't get a beer and go eat your food where this one you could. You could have beer, you could walk and kind of explore all the vendors and and see the different things. So I'm glad to hear you like that because it seemed really neat. Again, I didn't even get a walk down to the vendor, the vendor, because it was so busy. Um, I ended up staying over by the info booth but uh, it looked really cool. Yeah, it was probably.

Speaker 3: 23:37

It was probably one of the best uh layouts as far as ragbrite went. As far as I'm concerned, adam might have a different opinion, but I it was just it flowed um. A lot of towns, you know, were limited on space and tried to like jam it into a small area. So I mean it's just bumper to bumper people and the lines are going out into the crowd flows, but um, but the way you guys had it spread out, I mean I think it was fantastic wonderful.

Speaker 2: 24:02

And no, I would agree, because I mean, while Storm Lake did a great job, if you remember, when we went through the vendor area with Storm Lake, we were arm in arm knocking into different people trying to get through the crowd and where you had it, it was wide open. As a matter of fact, I know there's probably somebody put a lot. Forgive me, I'm just gonna be honest here. I'm sure someone put a lot of time into a map and everything.

Speaker 1: 24:21

Well, I was just kind of.

Speaker 2: 24:22

I was just kind of wandering and I kept looking, I go, oh, look at that, look at that. I keep going, let's go over there, let's go over there. And truthfully, that's how we found your library, and because it was an extremely warm weekend, a bit warm evening, excuse me. Um, I'm like, hey, let's just see about the library. We walked in there and, um, I guess, when there's not rag bra, there's a projector inside there, and and then, just to give someone an idea what we're talking about, picture a set of stairs, but built at like five times the size, and so there's just big, massive, like stair step blocks, building blocks up, and so you could just kind of sit and lay and watch a movie.

Speaker 2: 24:57

I'm sure if rag bra wasn't wouldn't have been there. And so there we were, laying, laying down a little bit, sitting back, and all of a sudden, this is what we heard in five minutes the library closes, and we were like, no, no, that's not good. So then, truth be told, we visited your wall greens and picked up some cold beverages, like Gatorade, because we were, you know, extremely warm and and then headed back to the park for a libation. When we got back to the well, that's perfect.

Speaker 4: 25:29

I have to ask did you get to?

Speaker 2: 25:32

the distillery yes no, actually. Um, we had met somebody in a green shirt because you had told us those were.

Speaker 2: 25:40

You know the people that had the people to go to and she looked at us and said I don't even think it's open, we think it's closed. And I was like okay, and so we did not. We had heard it was like forgive me, but from where your location was downtown or that it was across the street from culvers, maybe two streets down, and then like go four or five blocks down and they told us that it was close, to be honest.

Speaker 4: 26:03

So oh no, he was out. He had a tent out front and oh man don't throw from wall greens. Oh, we were right there you're right there, man. I hate to say it well, we just trusted that was maybe he was, he was done maybe I think he had a Monday so next time we should have double checked our information.

Speaker 3: 26:28

Oh well, that's okay that's okay.

Speaker 4: 26:30

Normally they are closed on Mondays and I'm sure that's why that got you so yeah, so I.

Speaker 3: 26:37

One of the biggest questions I had was how did the table auction go?

Speaker 4: 26:43

um, not great, no, but you know. You know what? We got a lot of compliments on it. People love them, but I think, um, how do you get them?

Speaker 3: 26:53

that's it needs them to be with the logistics of that's okay because um they all got sold good so that's.

Speaker 4: 27:02

That's a good thing. We thought maybe they would bring in a little more, but um with everything, we're very close to having all of our bills in and and we still came out um ahead making a cool yeah are you glad you joined the committee?

Speaker 2: 27:16

what? Committee with a committee for rag where are you glad that you oh yeah, yeah, you know, for anyone who doesn't know, we in an earlier show we were able to interview, uh, katie and and, and you kind of just signed up for, like, oh, just see what this is all about are. Are you glad that you made that first move for that first meeting till today, or?

Speaker 4: 27:39

I mean, there was a month or six weeks in there that I thought, well, my husband helped encourage me, told you not to do it. Yeah, like I know I'm crazy, this is. It was a lot at times, but honestly, it was so fun and I find myself I haven't thought about it for a while, but reflecting back and thinking, okay, next time we'll do this, next time this. And everyone on the committee's like no, next time you'll do it. A couple of the people had this was their second go around. They're like this is on you next time. But yeah, I think, looking the last time they hosted was 2011, did I say?

Speaker 2: 28:21

And Carol, so it's been a while.

Speaker 4: 28:23

Where, if you in my mind, I'm like, well, now it's easy, like, bring it back next year, I know exactly what we need to do. You know, you kind of just have that method and even if five years pass, things change A lot change from 2011 to 2023. Technology, just the world we live in. I think in the next five years to 10 years, you know, hopefully we'll get it again and it'll be easier.

Speaker 3: 28:52

Well, make sure you write all those ideas down, because you remember them. But five, 10 years down the road you'll be like, oh, I had all these great ideas and I don't remember.

Speaker 4: 29:01

No I don't remember them yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:03

I was surprised. My phone worked almost the entire time we were there. I did not have you know. I told my wife before leaving. I'll do my best to stay in touch with you. My phone worked. I mean, more often than not my phone worked. So there was just a few times where in different, not in Carol per se, but just in different towns I mean of course Des Moines, a major city, and, and you know we were in Ames, major city. We expected that. But there were just a few times when we got to East of Des Moines, a couple of times were just lost, it for just a little bit. But I was surprised. I mean, it was, it was much better than I thought.

Speaker 4: 29:40

So yeah, I would say day of. There was just a few times where I couldn't send a text message, but it was for a brief, brief period. So yeah, that really surprised me. I was pleasantly surprised with that, for sure.

Speaker 2: 29:54

So you started your day at five AM. Here's a question I have Did you make it to the Port Tornadoes?

Speaker 4: 29:59

I was at the Port Tornadoes. I did.

Speaker 2: 30:01

You were Okay.

Speaker 4: 30:02

Yeah, so, and this is the other thing that was crazy which Reg Bremat everybody calls him Reg Bremat, you know. He got on stage at an admission and I had talked to him before an admission of the Port Tornadoes and he's like I am giving everybody a stern warning. He's like the heat, the headwinds, like we need writers to behave and to get on the road, because it was a big day Tuesday. Oh, yeah. Gonna be hot and writers listened.

Speaker 4: 30:34

I mean a lot of them left at intermission, honestly, and by let's see, I think they finished at 10, 10, 15, 1030, I'm trying to think, and our shuttles were, everyone was cleared out of there and done, I mean right on there, and I think we spent an hour cleaning up and I was home at 1145.

Speaker 2: 30:57

So there you go, there's our, there's Reg Bremat, there we go.

Speaker 4: 31:03

Yeah, reg Bremat and two. Did you guys know? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 31:06

And was was wonderful to us. That night we actually felt like celebrities. So here's what happened. We were at the route announcement party, as, as I'm sure, people from your town were.

Speaker 4: 31:17

Um and remember everyone. We had a couple.

Speaker 2: 31:20

Not only was it a snowstorm, but, holy macaroni, was it cold. And so Anne said hey, this is where I want you to come and this is when we can do the interview. And this time, and if you want to say one time in my life where I felt like a little bit of a celebrity, I'm like, oh my gosh, we got this interview. And we went back to the hotel and we were excited and and made it over there and did the interview, believe it or not. I edited the interview while Michael was driving back to his hometown, sitting next to him, I have my headphones on and I'm in me. By that night we had the interview up and so, um, it was, it was like my one celebrity, like whoo-hoo, that my cycling celebrity story. So we were, we were pretty excited about that.

Speaker 4: 32:01

So um, those two are. Those two are amazing and they came through and followed up with us, uh, last Tuesday or two weeks ago now my weeks get mixed up, but, um, just the amount of thought and foresight that they have of of where this right is now, you know, and they said, obviously 50, the 50th was the 50th. It's big. There was a huge turnout. Um, what do we expect going forward? You know, they're just kind of thinking through things and how do we keep it growing yet manageable? And they just are so in tune and in touch and have great ideas of how to keep this going, to make it easier on communities. Um, take some, you know, some burden off of our end, like this year they did the concert series with, they took care of all of that financially and setting that up, and so they have other really good ideas of how to ease some of that um on our end. So I really look forward for things to come with them and I think those two do a wonderful job.

Speaker 2: 33:07

So and and I I agree with you and here's what I would like to say. So, of course, the rag bride 50, I think what you had is a lot of people who had never been on something like this before their friends are like this is the 50th anniversary, we're going to just go do this cool thing. And I think a lot of people had shell shock like oh my gosh, the first couple of hills. They were probably like what am I?

Speaker 1: 33:27

doing out here.

Speaker 2: 33:29

You know 90 degrees outside and I'm baking out here on the, on the tarmac, so to speak. Um, so my question will be is moving forward this is not just to Katie, but to anybody who ever thinks about doing rag bride again what happens at rag bride 51, 52, 53, et cetera, et cetera? Um, obviously, the popularity of the 50 is not as much. Does does the popularity obviously go down? Does it go to pre COVID? You know pre COVID numbers, like you know the 10,000, do they go back to the lottery? These are questions that I kind of go back to myself. Is, I'm sure, from a standpoint of selling, it's easier on November 15th or whatever, to open it up and let people just sign up, because then you get those guaranteed people who sign up? Um, so I'm I'll be curious to see that in the future. What happens, honestly.

Speaker 4: 34:12

So yeah, and that's one thing we actually brought up to in our meeting with them is like so how do you do this? How do you know? Do you cut it off? Because I'm I'm looking at it from our town's perspective. We could handle it. Was it a stretch? It for different things? Yes, but if you put the size of a ride in a smaller town, you're struggling.

Speaker 1: 34:37

I mean.

Speaker 4: 34:38

I don't know how much of a smaller of a town could handle that. And so you know I talk about do you? Do you set a limit? And they're like, well, we could, but if people really want to go on the ride, they're going to go. Yeah, if you don't set that limit, you let people sign up, you're able to add amenities, provide more, you know, say, and get a better job of, get a better idea of who is coming on this ride. So that's one thing we talked about. So I don't think they'll limit it, but, yeah, who knows? Like you said, 50 was 50.

Speaker 2: 35:12

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 35:14

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 35:15

I know that throughout the week I promise you this as a as a gentleman who rode all week long the first day was some of the most insane amount of bicycles, bicyclists, whatever I mean wheelie bars, unicyclists, whatever that I'd ever seen anywhere at any time in my life. And throughout the week you could physically see a diminishing number of people either quitting early. And, of course, I felt really bad for Coralville I mean a horrible, horrible, horrible storm where the tornado sirens are going off. And we actually got really, really lucky that night. We did, we.

Speaker 2: 35:57

We came in and we came to where our charter had picked to camp, or whoever picks it, I don't know, but somebody had picked it to be there and we were in between like this apartment complex, like in the middle of this, like they call the green space, and just like a dirt field with little, very little grass, and I was looking at Michael and Michael was looking at me and our other buddy had already set up his tent. He's a big, strong a writer than we are, and but we also like to enjoy the whole ride, so we stop and take pictures and take everything, and so so here we were.

Speaker 2: 36:32

I'm like, oh my gosh, this would be a great night to have a hotel, and so we're all looking at each other and Michael goes to Expedia Sorry, I'm going to slam Expedia here, but I'm just going to be honest here Goes to Expedia and he finds a hotel and he says guys, do we want to do this? Everybody's in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got Venmo, we're in. We got three books, the hotel. We throw all of our stuff onto the truck, the charter truck. Yeah, my, my buddy Joe packs up his tent, packs up everything, and then we take our bikes and we ride it to this hotel that Expedia said that was available.

Speaker 2: 37:09

We get into the lobby, the storm is coming and the guy at the hotel, the gentleman behind the counter, says I'm so sorry, we don't have any rooms available, or woman, or whatever, but we don't, we don't have any rooms available. So now the storm is coming and all of our stuff's in the truck, and now we have our bikes and our backpacks on our back with one change of clothes for the next morning, and there's this guy in the lobby and he goes are you guys really looking for a room? And we're like yeah, actually we are. And he's like well, I actually have one on the other side of town which was by the Long Horn Steakhouse and everything else. And and we're like, okay, great. And so at first he said and it was a little bit nerve wracking because the storm is coming, remember he says it's about 15 miles away, or 15 minutes away or something like that. And so I'm, I'm looking while Michael is making the deal happen, I'm looking on my phone and like it's three miles away, we're cyclists.

Speaker 1: 38:07

That's not 15.

Speaker 2: 38:08

I don't know how he rides his bike, but I know how I ride mine and especially if a storm is coming, I'm not that slow, we can't get there.

Speaker 2: 38:15

That's right. So long story short, we ended up getting a, something I'd never even heard of, which was like, I think, a Dason plus or something like that, and I'm like, whatever, whatever it is, let's go. And within about eight minutes we're there. And so we're like you know what? We're going to go eat something. So why don't we all take showers? And so we take turns taking showers. We no longer get to the lobby. We're like, okay, let's go eat and the doors open up. So we ended up did. We ended up making it to the Long Horn, but we got lucky that night. But I point is I felt bad for Coralville. I mean, first of all, you know, bands couldn't play, and I'm not sure I've heard so many stories now for my friends where tents were being flown and broken. Our good friend had to sleep, Walter, he had to sleep inside of the gymnasium and so because his tent was MIA.

Speaker 3: 39:08

So and it happened early enough in the evenings that everybody had to go over to like the storm shelters and that type of thing. So a lot of people still hadn't eaten yet because they were going to eat when they go over and listen to the concert. And so, yeah, it was. We lucked out.

Speaker 4: 39:22

Yeah, we did, we got lucky. You do feel bad for that, like Coralville, because if that happened to us again, you think all that planning, everything that they did and the effort and energy they put in, and then it's like, well, okay, sorry, everybody's got to go in and take shelter and you don't sell the beer and you don't have all the fun, so that does stink for them.

Speaker 3: 39:46

Party's closed, everybody go home.

Speaker 4: 39:48

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:50

But on a bigger piece everybody was safe, so that's good. It could have been a lot worse so.

Speaker 4: 39:55

Matt. Matt did say in our wrap up meeting he goes. You know, if there was one town that I knew could handle it and be ready for it, he said it's Coralville, because they've hosted it quite a bit. He's like they know what they're doing and so he goes. You know we work so hard and it's part of our planning and every town's planning is what is the emergency storm protocol? And everybody's got it in place. But he's like Matt and he's like am I short time doing it? I've never had to see it actually operate. And he goes they did it right.

Speaker 2: 40:25

So good, good, good.

Speaker 3: 40:28

Well, in 2018, we did have to evacuate our tents, so yeah, so we've been on that end where you know it's. I don't know they're coming around and made us go. I don't remember what town it was, but we had to go to a facility or storm shelter.

Speaker 2: 40:41

So it happens, it was an electric company building and they opened their. I mean, they were phenomenal. They opened their offices for us and we got in there and I remember we were playing Hangman on the On the big whiteboard, on the whiteboard.

Speaker 4: 40:55

Yeah Well, let's make good memories.

Speaker 2: 40:59

That's right, oh, absolutely that's right, and from my standpoint, I just I personally thank you for, you know, spending a little bit of your time telling us a little bit after math, and so it sounds like you'd do it again, but you, you'd like a little gap, a little bit.

Speaker 4: 41:15

A little break, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:18

Well, it's good because I had talked to Adam and I was like I just have this vision that you know, the day after there's like 50 towns, people in this big you know mound of trash and they're out there with snow shovels loading it into dumpsters and things like that. So I'm glad to hear that everything is not that way. So that's awesome.

Speaker 4: 41:37

Oh, it's a, it's a huge. I will say it's a huge relief. You know, you can take a deep breath and be like, hey, we did this. And I will say, the people I've the writers super appreciative, super grateful, complimentary the people from our town if they weren't on the planning committee. Overall the feedback was really positive and you know that's always good to hear too, because we're trying to put on something that we think will be good and represent our town well, and so that was really nice to hear that people were proud of how it turned out and and they thought it went well.

Speaker 2: 42:15

So I, I, I mean, I'm, I'm one of the uh, cajillion billion writers and let me tell you I was impressed. I mean, everything looked awesome to me.

Speaker 4: 42:24

So well, thank you. Thank you so much, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 42:28

And we definitely thank you for coming back on the show and giving us kind of a wrap up. Um definitely gives us the full perspective of of what it's like to be a host town, both the planning and then the aftermath. So I'm glad it's all worked out well and hopefully have a couple of years before you have to uh to do this whole thing again.

Speaker 4: 42:49

Maybe next year I can ride there you go, there you go. It's a lot easier to find me when we will have more of the same goals in my ride Finding that distillery and be at the top of my list.

Speaker 2: 43:00

I guess I do have one curiosity question, because when we first met you, you, um were gracious enough to share uh, uh, holding up the rag bride Bible per se, and my question is did you have to turn that back in or is that something that you got to keep?

Speaker 3: 43:16

Oh no, oh, there it is. Oh, she's got it on her on her office shelf here. Oh boy Wow.

Speaker 2: 43:27

Oh boy.

Speaker 1: 43:27

It's there. Oh yes, there it is. Look at that.

Speaker 2: 43:30

Ladies and gentlemen, I see it myself, so that's awesome. Oh yeah, the rag bride beer.

Speaker 4: 43:36

I love it, I love it. I love it, and then uh, big wave. Matt and Anne actually gave us a little uh, appreciation gift, this Nice oh cool, nice. They gave all of us on our overnight committees, uh, kind of a paperweight, they said. Put it on your desk and anytime you think you can't do something, because it's hard Look at that. And a little inspiration because what we just pulled off was off.

Speaker 2: 44:00

So now I have a confession. I have one of those now too, and what had happened was is, when the writers finished, if you waited in the regular line for the tire dip, which I did not, but uh, if you waited in the regular line, they were passing those out. We didn't know they were passing those out until we were driving home. And, um, michael, uh, went to Kansas and my friend Joe and I came to Michigan and Joe's like oh man, we missed out on this. And he showed me. Well, just recently they emailed us all instead of you want to buy one, you just had to pay for shipping. And so I said well, you know what I wanted? The whole 50th experience of $5. I have one too, but I, but I did not work as hard as you did by putting on.

Speaker 4: 44:43

I don't know because I would. I would disagree, because I went to Des Moines, to Waterworks Park. I was like I'm going to set a keys in the lost and found, and the lost and found travels with the ride.

Speaker 1: 44:55

Okay.

Speaker 4: 44:56

The guy from Carol was looking for his keys. I'm like I know where they are.

Speaker 1: 44:59

Okay.

Speaker 4: 45:00

I was like there is a lost and found, but now they're in Des Moines. Well, I went down to Waterworks Park. So it was two days later and the heat was impressive.

Speaker 3: 45:10

That was a rough day.

Speaker 4: 45:12

I did not know how volunteers did it. I don't know how writers did it. I mean, you guys did the hard work, so that that ride it was crazy, but I went outside and was just sweating and yeah. So the one day.

Speaker 2: 45:29

I mean just being truthful with you. The one day that I just remember was Michael. Was that like Thursday or Friday or whatever. Thursday oh my gosh, 90 miles. I mean just coming into town, I mean I had zero energy and the heat was just coming from behind you on your back and it was just like, oh my gosh. And then you know, you think about it now and like, oh well, I'm home, I'm fine now, but at the time it seemed like the worst thing ever.

Speaker 4: 46:02

So no, I that I cannot imagine that just was. I guess that oppressive it's. You know we didn't have that that and Carol, thankfully you know it was not that hot.

Speaker 2: 46:21

I remember you saying to me that we're going to have a recovery ride coming into Carol. I remember, I remember the first time you and I talked about that and, sure enough, that was a beautiful day of riding. So it was. It was. It was fun coming in, we got in early, we got to enjoy Carol, we got to. A matter of fact, I like to say we were some of the first people to actually eat at that pizza range. We came into town on the shuttle bus and there was hardly nobody there. And then, as we were sitting in the back of pizza ranch enjoying the air conditioning and ice water, and repeatedly ice of water, and all of a sudden then, like it started to fill up, we're like okay, it's time to get out of here. And when we walked outside we were like whoa, where did everybody come from? You know so.

Speaker 4: 47:09

Yeah, it is as crazy how it just shows it, just all of a sudden, there it is so.

Speaker 2: 47:15

Yeah, well, cool. I'm so thankful. I really am. I know I said it, but I really mean on behalf of Michael and myself. You know we do this show for fun, we enjoy it and we really have never talked to somebody and saw right from the beginning stages, you know how you were chosen, and then put the committee together and then the actual ride and then talking to someone afterwards. So I, from my, from me and on behalf of Michael and I, I just want to say thank you so much.

Speaker 4: 47:45

So same same to you guys. I actually somebody's like oh, I said I have to go do a podcast tonight, and they're like right, right stuff, aren't you done with that. I was like, no, this is actually really fun.

Speaker 2: 47:57

I was like I can do a podcast and good, I'm glad that you, I'm glad you feel that way, cause sometimes, you know, people say, oh, you know, yeah, I'll be on your show or whatever, but this is fun for us and I'm glad that you are. So thank you.

Speaker 4: 48:09

Yeah, no, thank you guys for having me. So I do hope we get a meet in person someday and have a drink.

Speaker 2: 48:13

So I would love it.

Speaker 4: 48:14

Right, you better be texting me.

Speaker 3: 48:16

Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 4: 48:19

Awesome, awesome.

Speaker 3: 48:20

Well, what else we got, Adam that's it.

Speaker 2: 48:24

Well, that was really cool. You know, and I got to tell you I I'm not surprised that the cyclists kept everything clean. I'm really not. I mean, you and I do these things a lot. Everyone, we see, no matter what, when they're packing up, they're picking up all their garbage, throwing it away. So great to have her on again. That was fun, oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 48:44

Well, you know, I always thought that, like I said in the interview with her, I always thought that cyclists were very respectful, you know respective of that type of thing, and worked hard to do it. But then I've never been in a town after Raghbri has been through to like really verify that that was correct. So I'm glad to hear we're not trashing up people's towns A couple of things.

Speaker 2: 49:03

I'll say the fact that she was having lunch at 11 o'clock the next day and you could never tell that Raghbri had been there minus some signage it just amazes me. I mean, oh yeah, I mean okay, think about you and I as writers, or any of our subscribers or followers that are writers. I mean you spent weeks of getting all your stuff ready and putting stuff in, however you pack and however you do your things, and figuring out your family plans. Like you, you, you have children, so you got to make sure that, hey, you can't just leave, you can't leave your daughter in a closet. So you're set. I mean, wait a minute, I can't Well listen. You do, you, buddy, but I don't recommend that by any means, not at all. And your daughter's so independent now that she's going to, not only I think she'll flip the closet upside down.

Speaker 2: 49:50

So, but, but. But you know there's all kinds of things you had to plan. You know you and your wife figuring out, you know, childcare, and I mean just the amount of things that you got to put together for Raghbri, and then the next day she's having lunch like hey, everybody's gone, so it's just amazing, incredible, incredible.

Speaker 2: 50:09

Well, I think that for us, I think that puts Raghbri in the in the books. We've got the pre-planning. We've got the route announced. Forgive me, we've got the route announcement. We've got the pre-planning. We interviewed Matt about it. We actually interviewed Katie before we did the ride. We got to talk to someone from an area that Raghbri went after the ride. I think that I think that that does Raghbri close. We can close the books. Boom, all right, boom, close. Excellent. Speaking of closed, I'm going to bring up something a little bit sad here for a minute Thought about it the other day.

Speaker 3: 50:45

Did you? Yeah, yeah, great. We're going to talk about something sad. I thought about Michael the other day I did. I did Horrible.

Speaker 2: 50:53

I mean, people don't know that we have a playlist that we kind of share. We call it the Cycling man of Leisure Playlist the songs that we enjoy when we're hanging out. Many of those songs are Jimmy Buffett songs, your love of Jimmy Buffett. Of course, I obviously enjoy the music as well. Jimmy Buffett's performed with a numerous slew of thousands of people, or whatever, hundreds of people at least. When he passed I thought about you and I just want to say fins up to Jimmy.

Speaker 3: 51:26

You know, he's one of those people for me that you have a singer or songwriter or two or three that kind of create this album of your youth and that, well, jimmy Buffett was kind of that person for me that kind of created my musical album, so to speak, of my younger years. And yeah, it was really really sad to see him or hear about him departing, but his music will live on.

Speaker 2: 51:57

So I mean think of the empire that this guy built because he's like I don't want to work, I'll just play some music. And I mean he's got restaurants, time shares, cruises, resorts, senior living areas I don't know what you call it right now.

Speaker 3: 52:13

He's got beer.

Speaker 2: 52:15

Yeah, he's got. I mean Landshark beer and I mean Tequila, everything I mean so and we always think about him because Laura and I, as you know, have the time share in Florida and so go to Universal A lot. Of. My wife is a Harry Potter fan and we like to go to Universal and as well as does you know? Get me wrong, but I mean every time you know you pass, you got the plane on one side, and I always have to tell my wife the same story that I'm like that is actually Jimmy Buffett's actual plane, that was one of his planes, and every time she's like was it really? It looks like it's not real.

Speaker 1: 52:46

I'm like it's a real plane so.

Speaker 3: 52:50

He came along, I mean he created a fantastic empire. Yeah, it's really impressive because they did an interview with him for a few a few years back and early in his career he kind of went through a countryish phase. It didn't really work out. And then he moved on early in his career when he was making the video, come Monday he found somebody to shoot. It Didn't have any money. They needed a pickup truck for the, for the you know some of the video, and all he had was like this, $200 old, you know Sanford and Sun style, you know pickup truck. And so they used his old, beat up pickup truck in the video because he couldn't afford to, you know, rent a better one for the video. Right, and you know when he passed he could probably buy several dozen dealerships, yeah.

Speaker 2: 53:44

So while watching some of the footage and where I thought that, yes, I brought up something sad and I'm sorry for that, but while watching some of the footage, I saw some of the last few images they have of him outside. The man is covered head to toe with sun protection, including gloves, including arm legs, sun, I mean everything. It's 100% protected. And it got me reading about. After battling skin cancer for years before his death, margaritaville singer Jimmy Buffett died 76 from Merkel cell cancer. A statement on his website revealed Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare but aggressive form of skin cancer, according to the skin cancer foundation. So that's that's. Cbs news quoted that. But so it got me thinking about what we like to do, which is cycling and being out in the sun, and thinking about how I choose to wear sun arms and sun legs.

Speaker 3: 54:51

Is this going to be another pushing me to?

Speaker 2: 54:53

get a DeBrim, listen, I mean I have a DeBrim and if you want to be cool, I mean you go to the brimcom. That's D A, b, r I M Mcom and you get yourself one. Make sure it's fluorescent yellow. That is the official cycling minute of leisure. Color of the brim which is fluorescent yellow, you can be seen miles away. I mean, listen now, unlike this year, right Other years, you've been able to find me. This year, everybody had a DeBrim.

Speaker 3: 55:21

So yeah, bright yellow. Debrim right Yellow.

Speaker 2: 55:24

DeBrim and I saw on the expo day how many DeBrims were being sold. I'm like we're in one DeBrim nation, baby, we are here, so no.

Speaker 3: 55:33

I tease you about this. I've been to DeBrim but there's a very important reason. Number one, you know, the sun protection. But there's a very interesting story about why you wear that DeBrim.

Speaker 2: 55:44

Sure, sure, sure, I'll tell the story. So, 2016, as we just talked about planning for Raghbri, part of my planning was I had this Brainiac idea never shaved my head before, except for military school a little bit, but never shaved my head down to the level of this. Shave my head, but for some reason, I think you know what I'm going to do I'm going to shave my head, so I won't have as much hair and I'll stay cooler.

Speaker 3: 56:14

Yeah, that was a brilliant idea.

Speaker 2: 56:16

Oh yeah, it's brilliant.

Speaker 3: 56:17

All right, I think, chalk that up for on the big dummy because you look like you had been attacked by a Wolverine or a bear, when it was over.

Speaker 2: 56:28

It was just stupid. I mean, you talk about Sanford and the sun, you big dummy.

Speaker 1: 56:32

You big dummy.

Speaker 2: 56:33

I mean so literally. My helmet had these three or maybe I think it was five gas, but three of them were definitely pointing straight up to the sun of air. You know, airflow, venting, ventilation to get through I don't think that's a word, but ventilation to get through the top of my head. Well, it also meant that Mr Sun, hello, I'm Mr Sun and I'm going to come burn you Literally by the end of the week. I literally look, if you look at what Michigan Wolverine helmet looks like, yep, that's what the top of my head looks like, looks like something that just grabbed you and just with its claws, and it just pulled back.

Speaker 2: 57:11

But it's more than that I have. You know, I have skin. I have more freckles than anyone I know. I can't mull along without coming in and saying, hey, I got more freckles. So, yes, I have been a DeBrim wearer since Raghbriar 2016. I got burnt so bad, not just on my head, on my legs and my arms. It was since that day that I have rarely been seen riding a bike without sun arms, sun legs, DeBrim.

Speaker 3: 57:45

I've ridden many miles with you since 2016,. Hundreds, probably thousands. I've never seen you after 2016 without being protected.

Speaker 2: 57:56

So I was so miserable I literally, coming home, I never thought I would do something like that again. Now, of course, now I've done 10% of the Raghbriars, but at the point I never thought I'd come back. But you know the one thing I always forget I hate to admit this and usually the first week of August I'm walking around Michigan going, hey, my lips are peeling. I never put on lip balm. I packed it, I bought it. I've gone to the Raghbriar checklist and put it in my fanny pack or whatever, and I don't know.

Speaker 2: 58:30

We get into town and we get something to drink and we, okay, let's go, Come on, let's go. And then, like day five of the DeBrim DeBrim only goes from the sun down to the DeBrim, the DeBrim down to the ground. The sun bounces off the old 1973 stamped concrete because let me tell you, in Iowa they love to stamp their concrete of. When they report it In Michigan we're like, yeah, good luck, buddy, because we ain't bringing it back, we're not putting a date on it, but it'll bounce off the concrete and of course I pay the price.

Speaker 3: 59:03

So that's interesting, because as long as we've been riding, I mean occasionally, I'll forget to put sunscreen on my face or whatever. And I know you wear the DeBrim, you wear the arm sleeves, you wear the leg sleeves, that type of thing. I don't do it to brand, but I do do a skull cap because you know I don't want to try to put sunscreen in my hair. So you know that's important that you do it. But the other thing that's important and I don't think a lot of people look at it is when they're buying these sleeves, are they just sleeves or do they have some kind of protection in them? And I'm talking UPF protection.

Speaker 2: 59:45

Yeah, I think the answer to your question is probably both. I mean, sometimes when you buy, if you're a fisherman like you know, sports fisherman you go to the store and you see right on there, or you go to a water park, you'll see that I'll say like 50 SPF or 50 UVF or whatever, right on there, Amazon or the Jeff Bezos Space Company, as I like to call it. Sometimes when you buy the sunarms, clearly it's really reads right there 50 SPF, or you know 60 SPF or whatever, and sometimes it doesn't, Sometimes it doesn't say anything, but you know, but that's important?

Speaker 3: 1:00:25

Yeah, it is, because the UPF for the people who don't know UPF protection is ultraviolet protection factor, and what that does is it just gives you a percentage and that percentage will basically tell you the amount of radiation that's reaching your hand. So it helps block out that radiation. So it's important. And the other problem that comes in, and you know, is that is typically going to cost a little bit more money.

Speaker 2: 1:00:49

Sure.

Speaker 3: 1:00:50

And you know I look at myself. You know 10, 15 years ago, you know 10, $15, I probably would be like I'll just get the cheap thing, that kind of stuff. Nowadays I'm like you know, I look out for these kind of things, but I think it's important that when you're buying this stuff it's like anything else in cycling, you know, spend a little bit more money, get that extra protection. And I did find some interesting things about different things in cycling clothing that affect the UPF factor and I thought I'd share those with you if you're interested. I am interested. Okay, first one is color Darker and brighter, it's going to be better. You UPF protection.

Speaker 2: 1:01:31

Browns, blacks, blues and reds are really the best because they absorb that ultraviolet rays better and I think most people when they think about that, they're like black. I'm not wearing a black something outside, but actually I do have sun arms that are black. And, truthfully, when you're riding with them if nobody, if you're listening to this and you really enjoy riding and you're like, yeah, I've always thought about that, but I think they're they'd be restricting, you don't even know they're there.

Speaker 3: 1:01:58

Yeah, you really you just don't. And I've started wearing them. You've probably noticed I didn't used to wear them. Yeah, I mean, if it's a little chilly I tend to like think it's freezing. I've started wearing them and then for that purpose, and then I just got to the point where I just leave them on for most of the day, because the other thing is is, if it's really hot that day, you can wet them down and it helps, you know, kind of lower that core temperature for a longer period of time. The second thing is fit, and if you really think about this, when it makes sense, looser threads offer better protection. Typically in cycling, you know, a lot of people like to have the really tight stuff. What's doing is stretching the fibers of the fabric, which causes it the sun to be able to penetrate it better.

Speaker 2: 1:02:39

So a little bit looser is better. I definitely agree on the fit and I'll tell you why. You know you and I usually try to work with. In this case, we went to Rack Brite with Joe and we usually tried to work together on hey, what are we going to wear? Jersey, wise, you know, and sometimes we've done like the cycling manner of leisure Jersey. Sometimes we we've done, you know, rise we've done before.

Speaker 2: 1:03:00

Anyways, the point is, we decided this year on the military appreciation day that we really thought for the 2018 Eagle Jersey screaming Eagle, screaming Eagle was was appropriate, and that Jersey has short arms, and so on, that Jersey for me at least, that short arms I don't know, maybe I don't know, maybe just for me it's got short arms, but the point is is I tried to pull my arm sleeves up so that that area between the bottom of my arm wouldn't be exposed to the sun as I was riding my bike and have my hand on the horns and stuff, and so I decided I want to pull that arm sleeve up. All day long, I kept making sure it was really tight. Well, not only did I leave a little spot open, but it ended up actually giving me like a little wear, blister, and so I think you're right. I think I think the size and wearing the right size of something is extremely important, but I'm very, very proud of myself, although, again, we compliance our inspections and test them out.

Speaker 3: 1:03:54

And the third thing you really got to look for is the fabric. The fabric does make a huge difference. More dense and tightly manufactured threads actually create a better protection. So, basically, synthetics and semi-synthetic fibers that's going to be things like your polyester, your lycra, your Coolmax are all going to be really good choices for that. Obviously, stay away from the cottons. The cottons are the worst, Don't you know?

Speaker 2: 1:04:22

I'm telling you the cotton people would not appreciate you saying that.

Speaker 3: 1:04:26

Well, I apologize to the cotton. You know the fabric of our live.

Speaker 3: 1:04:30

Yeah, exactly Whatever their organization is that promotes cotton, those are great to wear when you're hanging out or whatever, but for performance-wise, cotton is not the way to go. So, you know, wear the sunscreen, wear the lip balm, get glasses, make sure they have provide that UV protection. And the other final thing I'll leave you with is when you're putting on the sunscreen and I see people do this all the time they, you know, generally are standing up, they put on sunscreen and then you know they might go right under the edge of their shorts and then they set down and their bicycle shorts go two inches higher, yeah, and so they have a tan, but then they've got this inch and a half of burned leg because their shorts came up higher than where they applied the sunscreen.

Speaker 2: 1:05:15

Hey, that is a good look. I mean, you got the. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3: 1:05:21

So you know, in honor of Jimmy Buffett and all of that, we don't want anybody to get skin cancer, so we're just giving you some things to keep in mind when you're buying some new cycling gear.

Speaker 2: 1:05:35

So what I just heard you say was in honor of Jimmy Buffett, you're going to buy a DeBrim.

Speaker 3: 1:05:40

No, that's exactly what.

Speaker 4: 1:05:42

I heard, that's what.

Speaker 3: 1:05:44

I heard, yeah, w-w-w-debrimcom, d-a-b-r-i-m-mcom, that's what I heard you say Adam and I have had this discussion many, many, many times. I cannot pull off the DeBrim.

Speaker 2: 1:05:57

I am not a DeBrim guy. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3: 1:06:00

No, I mean it takes a certain guy to be able to pull it off. I can't do it, you know. I mean it's just like a lot of guys out there can wear kiltz. I can't do the kilt, I can't pull it off. It won't work for me. Well all right, I will wear the Hawaiian shirts, though you know I love those, but I'll pass on the DeBrim.

Speaker 2: 1:06:20

UPF 50 Plus Sun Protection at DeBrimcom D-A-B-R-I-Mcom. Stay cool and ride longer.

Speaker 3: 1:06:29

Listen, I'm not sponsored, but I was going to say are you being paid now by DeBrim and I didn't know about it?

Speaker 2: 1:06:35

No, but if someone from DeBrim is listening to this and you want me to push the DeBrim on a regular basis, I'm sure you can message us at the show.

Speaker 3: 1:06:42

You know, I've got 50,000 pictures of Adam with his DeBrim on. I'll send him out to you, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:06:48

I'm not afraid. But all right, you don't want to be cool and get yourself a DeBrim? Hey, there is a guy on here who's repelling with a DeBrim on the website. So I mean, this is not just a cycling apparatus.

Speaker 3: 1:07:00

It's not just for cyclists. That should be their slogan, or something DeBrim.

Speaker 2: 1:07:05

There's guys on horses wearing them. There's people cycling. Yeah, that's what a cowboy hat's for. There's somebody that says workplace sun safety. Looks like they're putting it around their hard helmet. But you know what they have here, and I've only seen this a couple of times. I always forget about it. Mine is a full DeBrim. I'm rocking a full DeBrim, but this one looks like a baseball cap DeBrim.

Speaker 3: 1:07:29

Oh, I've seen that where it's just like the bill of the hat in the front.

Speaker 2: 1:07:33

Would you be willing to wear that in honor of Jimmy?

Speaker 3: 1:07:38

I, just I, I the look just doesn't work for me, it really doesn't.

Speaker 2: 1:07:43

So All right, I'm just kidding. What's next for us?

Speaker 3: 1:07:48

Uh, what Two weeks We'll be in Kentucky. Yeah, right in the Bourbon Country burn.

Speaker 2: 1:07:52

Looking forward to that.

Speaker 3: 1:07:53

We'll see a lot of our friends A lot of our friends are scheduled to be there and we have some prior to the event. We're going to be getting out there a day or two early and we've got some distillery tours we're doing on our own yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:08:08

I think that would be good for our subscribers, listeners, followers. I think they might enjoy that. Well, I think we should just. Yeah, we'll do some recording out there.

Speaker 3: 1:08:18

We'll get to hook up with with Phil yes, who was on our show last, our last show, which was a great, great show. So we'll get to to meet back up with him and should be a good ride. I'm hoping, hoping the trees will be turning about that time. That would be awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:08:36

I mean Get some foliage going. Last year, the first day we went out, it was just absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, because we were there and we had driven so long, we went out and and and did the ride, but man though, if you remember that wind was that was whipping. So, yeah, I'm hoping we have good weather and and really looking forward to seeing a lot of our friends and and just getting to see you in person in 3D, I mean, no one knows, as we do the show on zoom if we're not in person. So I can see you on a 2D monitor, but 3D would be a be a lot better.

Speaker 3: 1:09:11

Michael 3D experience Got to, got to get that.

Speaker 2: 1:09:14

Now be careful. He tried that at Captain EO at Epcot and then they took that away, so you might want to be careful. What? You say there so all right, Different Michael, different Michael. So well, great, Listen. You know, I know that we always end the show in a special way, so I think we should do that now.

Speaker 3: 1:09:33

Yeah, exactly, let's, let's bring, let's bring back our guest. All right, here we go To end out.

Speaker 2: 1:09:40

The show Sounds good, let's go play now. The only thing I would say is if, if, Katie, what will? If you were with us? You know what we would always say. What will we say?

Speaker 4: 1:09:51

It's a great day for a bike ride. Thank you so very much Excellent Thank you Appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 1:09:56

Thank you guys. Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on road adventures with cycling men of leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please subscribe to the show on the podcast app of your choice.