Jay Richards

Today was drop dead gorgeous. With the Star Trib blaring headlines sending anxiety and fear among the masses that severe weather is on the way, yesterday, I thought I would sneak a long ride in. Jonell was going to take the boys to swim lessons so a good excuse to ride the Tamarack refuge route through Ice Cracking and around Shell Lake, Detroit Lake route and meet her in town for a 3 hour ride. Well, I rolled into DL 15 min earlier than expected (must of been that CO2 from ND. HA!) and called Jonell and said I was going to head back for home and just meet me along the way. The ride, minus the stint on 34 was perfect. Light winds, temps in the lower 60's and total blue skies. When I turned north there was a big line of traffic moving like 15mph. I had a head wind so I drafted off the cars and made an attack to see what the hold up was. Some of my neighbors were hauling a old trailer house up to the rez and the truck they were using to pull it didn't quite have the guns to get much speed. So I thought I would draft behind the trailer house for as long as I could. It was sweet. I went from 15mph riding into a headwind to 25mph, heart rate staying the same. For moments I thought I was in this huge pack of like 200 like I have seen on tv during the TDF with a bunch of riders all juiced up flying like crazy.
I thought for sure the trailer was going to get up into the 40's but it never got over 35 as it tried to drop me and I was able to stay with it for the 5 miles until It slowed down so about 15 cars could go by. My average speed went from 18.3 to 18.8. Sweet. There was styrofoam flying out from time to time and some plywood pieces popped off now and then. Probably not the safest thing to do but it sure was fun. When the trailer house came to a complete stop. I had to stop too because there was so much traffic on the left and there was no way I could go right unless I pulled a Lance. So I passed the trailer house after all the cares went buy and the guys yelled out "don't follow my trailer next time" and I said "huh"? Back at 15 mph and headwind , I suddenly was in Richwood and Jonell comes by and I just waved her home since I was feeling good and thought it would only take me 15 more min to get home. 72 miles, just under 4 hours. Can't think of the last time I rode for four hours. Gol, that felt good.
Here is a sneak preview of the SNS-NIS Interface Adapter, compliments of Andrew Gerlach, manager for the Subaru Factory team.




Andy writes:
Salomon has developed an SNS-NIS Interface Adapter in order to make sure that all Salomon Nordic System (SNS) bindings can be mounted on any cross-country ski your customer desires. This thin, light, and flexible fiberglass plate is predrilled for all SNS bindings (except X-adv). The Salomon-NIS Interface Adapter allows for a flat, smooth and solid interface between Salomon Pilot and Profil bindings and any NIS (Nordic Integrated System) plated ski. Simply lay the Interface Adapter on a NIS plated ski, attach a Salomon jig, drill your holes, and then glue and screw the Salomon bindings onto the skis for an uncompromising link between boots, bindings and skis.
Salomon bindings can now continue to be mounted securely on any cross-country ski while conforming to the ISO 9119 norm. Furthermore, the Interface Adapter ensures that the Salomon Pilot's moving mechanisms slide under the binding without interference from NIS ridges." Should be interesting. Today I did a bunch of bobcat work in the afternoon and when I pulled into the shop, I sat on the VK Pro and dreamed about grooming. I can't wait, really.