Georgia Gould!

From Your Group Ride:
"On August 11th, Fort Collins resident, Georgia Gould, won the Olympic Bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. On August 25th, Fort Collins will celebrate her Olympic medal, her National Championship and send her to Worlds in style. Please join us at the North Ballroom at the Fort Collins Rio. Doors open at 7:00. Please get there early as the venue can only hold 130 people. There will be an interview, crowd Q and A and a photo/autograph session. A photographer and a limited number of posters will be provided."

Hoping to score a photos of T Pants and Georgia! Hope to see you all there!

Schwinn Approved

   
My family has it's share of vices. I personally can't stop myself from drinking sugar-free Red Bulls. In wifebeaters. While yelling at small children from my lawn.
   Curtis has a small problem with bikes. He rides them, collects them and loves just about everything about them. We've even converted our garage into a foster home for wayward bikes.
    This past 4th of July, Curtis' mom, sister and brother journeyed out to their homeland of Wisconsin and brought him back a little present. Uncle Jim had been holding on to this puppy since the 60's. All the brothers, Jim, Bob and Curtis' dad, Bill, had matching ones when they were kids and only Jim still had his. It's still in great shape and once Curtis put it all back together, it was totally rideable.

This sumbitch is extremely heavy! Frames are so freaking light nowadays, it's a wonder people could get anywhere in a timely manner back in the day. Curtis rode it to work and it added another twenty minutes onto his commute. And he apparently didn't have enough fat on his rump to deal with the brick of a seat. But it is such a beautiful bike! Great addition to our little bicycle family.

He is the hotness.

Tales from a wannabe racer

Just one tale, I guess. Yesterday, I rode my first mountain bike race at the New Belgium Short Track Races. First race ever actually, unless you count all the times I beat Curtis to the end of the block when I didn't tell him we were racing. Curtis has been killing in in the Men's Intermediate the last couple of weeks, so I thought I should give it a go. My friend Sarah rode with me and was amazing! I just rode her line tills she completely vanished from my sight. I never really ride for speed and haven't competed in anything since my third grade spelling bee, so I was completely intimidated by the course and my fellow riders. Add some rain early in the day making the course muddy and you have one dirty, angry Sara. I think around the second lap I cheered up and started to have fun. Curtis and my sister-in-law Elaine were there cheering me on and whenever anyone cheered for my friend Sarah, I just pretended they were my cheering section too. I felt quite popular. It was a blast to compete and I think I might not have gotten last. Hopefully my participant ribbon is in the mail!

Zombies + Bikes. It just makes sense....

This is Curtis' entry to the Specialized "Wheels of Fire" video contest. He had to come up with a 3 minute video promoting the 2011 Rockhopper. It's down to him and 4 other people! This was a complete blast to shoot! Curtis let me be a zombie and even trash our house. His brother, Russell was the star and was completely excited and dedicated to the project. Our friends, Adam, Jack, David and Jason, so graciously offered to be the other zombies.
Curtis really worked his butt off and it shows in this amazing video. I am so proud of him!!!
And really, bikes will be the best transportation in even of the undead apocalypse. They don't need gas, are much more mobile than cars and you can do some sweet jumps over dead bodies!

Know your rights!

Tomorrow at the Rio (7pm), Your Group Ride will be hosting a night with ColoBikeLaw's founder Brad Tucker. Tucker is an avid cyclist and attorney who will be addressing Colorado Vehicle Law and specifically how it pertains to cyclists.
From Your Group Ride's website -
"What are our rights as cyclists? What are our responsibilities? How do recent changes in Colorado state law affect group rides?   How do we as a community foster understanding and acceptance of recreational and competitive cycling on Colorado roads?   In short, how do we “Share the Road” and insure that those around us do the same?"

They will also be giving away t-shirts (above design) designed by my uber-talented husband Curtis. These shirts promote the "3 Feet to Pass" law passed in Colorado which makes it mandatory to give cyclists 3 feet when passing in your vehicle.
It's extremely important to be safe out on the road. And part of that is know the law and what exactly our rights are, as a cyclist and as a motorist. The more we are informed, the more cohesive relationship we can have with everyone on the road!
Come for a night of great food (free appetizers!), great people and great education. For more specifics on tomorrow, visit here. Hope to see yall there!

...

AHHHHHH!!!! Been gone for awhile. And summer is finally here!
-Bought a house. Love it.
-Was outside too long pulling the tons of weeds we have in our backyard. Burnt it.
-Went to the HOW Design Conference. Learned it.
-Got back on the bike and tackled Bingham Hill. Killed it then hurt it(my tuchas).
-Got up to Volume 6 of Fables. Read it. Yeah, you!
Looking forward to a summer of no wedding planning, barbeques, beer and bike rides.
Photo via here.

Success!!!

The Co-Op art show was a huge success! The place was packed with hipsters as far as the eye could see. There was so much amazing art there too! Fort Collins is chock full of talented people. And they even let me hang around them for awhile.

I don't know how, but my piece got bought! Excuse the crappy scan job. It looks better in person, I swear. Thank you to however bought it and thank you so much to my super supportive friends who came down to hang. I stole these pictures from the Co-Op's website, go here to see the rest!

Co-Op Art Show

If you live in the greater Fort Collins/Cheyenne area, I invite you to attend the 1st Ever Bike Co-Op Art Show on April 2nd! There will be live music, beer from O'Dells, and some cool local art. I'm submitting a piece, but don't let that turn you off.
For those not familiar, the Fort Collins Bike Co-Op is a non-profit organization who's goal is "building community through bicycling." One of their coolest programs is their "Earn-A-Bike" program. Just like it sounds, you volunteer to earn a bike! For more info on the art show or the co-op, visit the co-op's website here.
When bicycles and art combine, it's a beautiful thing, so I hope to see yall there!

Curtis made this baby for the back of our wedding invites. Caped crusader meets mohawked cyclist. Watch out!

Hey A$#hole.

Best day ever.

I don't mean to brag, but our wedding was the best ever. It was silly and fun and too perfect. Between the bike parade, goofy vows and the kazoo playing wedding party, we had the time of our lives! Too many amazing pics to show, but here are some of my favorites. More pics can be seen here and here.

Nothing helps a girl get ready to get hitched like rocking out to the Avett Brothers.

I am now married to this amazing man, who ended his beautiful vows with,
"You can do side bends or sit-ups, but please don't lose that butt."

Bike parade! After the ceremony, we all hopped on bikes and rode around old town Fort Collins. Everyone in our path was super excited for us and we had some people join in on our little procession. Cops even held up traffic for us. Guess cops don't hate all Heidemans!

Reception = Party Time, Excellent.

Centerpieces consisted of place cards with the names of superhero couples, a notebook for people to draw us some pictures, bicycle chocolates and little dinos.

Now the real fun starts.

The Cool Kids

I've just gone from bridal mode to wannabe mommy mode. How cool is this kid?! This is how I imagine not-made-yet Curtis Jr, only with more falling.
My heart grew two sizes after watching this video. His 360s are my absolute favorite.

Pic and video via.

Experimenting

with tilt shift photoshopping. With questionable results.

Curtisaraus Cruisers!

We finally got our cruisers painted and took them out for their inaugural ride on Sunday. They couldn't be any more perfect. My only worry is that I might not love my children as much as I love these bikes. We are still figuring out what to name them. Any suggestions?

Here's my baby. She used to be a gross magenta with lame blue decals and now she is just beautiful. Curtisaraus logo on the back fender is my favorite part.

Curtis' mean machine! His used to be just a flat black. Now, it's candy orange and looks so badass with all the black accents. I looooove the spray over logo look!

And what do you do when you are riding the bikes of your dreams on a killer day?

Drink, duh.

Yes Yes Yes

Found my latest wedding accessory! Via Heist.

Cruisers...

...were painted last night. I say without any full-of-myselfness, they are BAD ASS. Curtis' brother in law, Mike, let us paint them ourselves (with his help of course) in his shop.

Hopefully I'll post pics soon.

{Insert a million smiley face emoticons}

Soapstone!

Curtis, Russell and I all went riding at the new natural area, Soapstone yesterday. The whole area was beautiful and green due to all the recent rain. The trails were brand new so they were a blast to ride on. I'm still pretty green when it comes to mountain biking, but Curtis and Russell were very patient co-riders. And I need some new padded shorts cause my spandex just looks stupid. But my helmet looks legit. All in all, a great afternoon.
Who wants to ride with me this summer?!?!

Bike trails?! We don't need no stinking bike trails!

Pssshh...you know Russell was making a smooch face too. Ice cream and high fives to follow.

Can you see him?!

Success!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeew!  My first ride with clipless pedals was a success!  And I didn't eat it once.  Being attached to my bike definitely makes me pay more attention to my surroundings since I know I can't just bail off my bike at a moment's notice.  And I feel much more powerful on the road.  Now I just need to get faster...

Clipless Pedals

Attempted usage of clipless pedals was an ultimate failure last night. I wasn't even moving and I fell on my ass, right foot still clipped into the pedal. Gave up and traded potential glory for beer and So You Think You Can Dance. To my credit, it was getting dark...or darkish...

But today is another day. I only hope the ride with Curtis and April doesn't result with me in a ditch. Molly-approved helmet will be a must for this venture.

Wish me luck.