B-43 - World domination? You betcha.

It's The Final Countdown

2012-02-10T08:19:00.002-05:00

Yes, the final Countdown to the last Winter Series race. And in case you don’t already have that song stuck in your head from reading the title, I’ll be happy to oblige.

Anyway, the time has come to get out and race again, and hopefully I’ll be ready when I line up at the start on Sunday. As long as I have a decent showing, I should end up in the top five. They go five deep with the prizes, and I am currently sitting in 4th. I need to make sure I don’t do anything stupid. You know, like crash, flat, or quit. I’m gonna have to fight off the likes of Rodney B., Big Tater, Mr. Ryde, and a host of others gunning for me. It should be a blast.

I don’t have a race strategy, which is nothing new. I’ll probably stay up too late the night before drinking way too much beer, and I will most likely be hung over again when we race. It has worked so far, so why change it? Besides, I really like beer. A lot.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, racing.

It doesn’t look like there will be anymore rain for a while, so the trail should be super fast. The only bad thing is that it will be colder than a penguin’s ass in an ice storm. I’ll have to get all bundled up, so I hope the extra weight won’t affect my performance.

I better get my ass in gear.

That picture makes me laugh. It's funnier than homemade dog shit.

See y’all Monday.

Mental Health Day

2012-02-09T08:34:00.004-05:00

Sometimes you just gotta get away. After stressing over the little bit of friendly competition in the Winter Series and have a shit week at work, I had to do something about it. Getting out for a solo ride always seems to do the trick. Because of the rain over the weekend though, my local options were limited.

After much deliberation (which really came down to not wanting to drive too far), I headed out to Sherman Branch. I wanted a ride that wouldn’t challenge me too much, but keep me interested enough to want to turn the pedals. At first I regretted my decision, but after arriving in the parking lot I discovered that I would pretty much be alone out there.

I took it easy, but since I was on the single speed I had to work a little bit. It was a perfect ride. Nice, comfortable temps, great trail conditions, and best of all, solitude. I couldn’t hear anything else except the sound of my bike rolling through the woods.

It was just what I needed.

In other news, I busted out the “test bottle” of my home brew and poured it in a glass.

Looks and smells like beer, so it must be beer, right?

It was actually pretty good, but it’s not quite ready yet. It has a good flavor, a strong, hoppy bite, but it needs a little more time to condition. I figure that it needs about a week or two more and it will be highly drinkable. Well, it’s already drinkable, but I’m striving for perfection.

That's all for today.

Today’s post is shorter than usual, because well, I feel like making it shorter. You got something better?

Try Before You Buy

2012-02-08T08:28:00.006-05:00

I was asked recently to help with a demo here in the Charlotte area. You know, since I live here and all that. I figured that since the date, time, and location are all set, I should probably start letting people know. What am I talking about? Well, there’s a new kid on the block making some killer carbon bicycles.

Yup, Foundry Cycles, where they believe that “a bike is a tool, not a trophy.”

There are three bikes in the Foundry lineup, starting with the Auger:

(Also available in a disc brake version.)

For you road types they have the Ratchet:

And finally, the mountain bike tool. It’s called the Router:

Dirt Rag did a pretty awesome review of the Router, by the way. Check it out here

These bikes look pretty slick, even though they don’t have flashy paint schemes and graphics out the wazoo. The design is simple and to the point, and they look like they are a blast to ride. Do you wanna try one? Well, if you are close to Charlotte you can check out the demo.

Oh yeah, you want details. Here ya go:

Renaissance Park
1536 West Tyvola Road
Charlotte, NC 28210

Thursday, March 1st

3:00 p.m. until dark.

I’m not sure how many bikes, which sizes, etc. will be available, but you should come out anyway to learn a little bit about the Foundry brand. Jason Grantz, brand manager and Foundry Foreman, will be on site to answer any and all questions. He told me that this will be like a meet and greet, with some rides thrown in.

You’ll even get to hang out with me. Why would you want to miss that?

Before you ask, no, I don’t ride for Foundry (although they are looking for people.) I’m just helping a good friend spread the word about a cool new bike brand. If you want to learn more, go to the website or check out their Facepage.

Oh yeah, make sure you come to the demo.

Shiny And New

2012-02-07T08:13:00.006-05:00

I love getting new shit. Even if I don’t need anything, there’s something cool about getting stuff sent to me in the mail. I guess it’s kinda like being a kid at Christmas, except that I can celebrate all year.

A package showed up here at the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters da udda day:

After a full season of wearing shit out, it was time to get something new. You can only wash smelly things so many times before they become immune to it.

New gloves, and they are the cat’s ass. I’ve been wearing Lizard Skins gloves for quite a few years now, and I can’t see that changing any time soon. When I spotted the new G-Love gloves on the website, I just had to have them. They are very comfortable and lightweight, and of course I dig them because they are red. I like red. Reminds me of kitties.

No product review is needed, because you really don’t have to like the same shit as I do (but you should.) If you must have a review, then check out what Mountain Bike Action had to say about them.

For some reason they don’t show any gloves on the Lizard Skins website at the moment, but I’m looking into the matter. They recently did a makeover and made it all fancy schmancy, so I’m sure that the gloves fells through the cracks. Either that or I have the last pair in existence.

I also got some cool new bar end plugs for my single speed:

And a bunch of stickers for my beer fridge:

Speaking of new shit, I did a little shopping at the race on Sunday. One of the local race teams obtained a new tire sponsor, so they were selling the old (yet new) stuff on the cheap. It just so happens that I only ride the stuff they used to ride. Confused? Good.

While I don’t have any affiliation with Kenda tires, it’s the only tire I like to ride. Mostly because I am a creature of habit, and probably because I’m too afraid to try anything else. I got some great bargains on spare tires, and this way I can ride the shit outta them and never worry about not having replacements on hand.

In other news, we got rid of one of the bikes in our stable.

Yup, Little Miss Sunshine’s little-wheeled squishy bike has moved on to greener pastures. She’s decided to never again ride small wheels, so we sold it to someone who will put it to good use. She’s already taken the money and got herself a single speed frame. Last night she ordered a dissent AL Singlespeed 29er from Misfit Psycles. She test rode one on Sunday and seemed to like it.

The good news for me? I get to build another bike.

Now if only Lunchbox and I can get rid of our “other” bikes so we can get more new shit.

Such Lovely Weather

2012-02-06T08:37:00.009-05:00

To go for a mountain bike ride, er race.

Race number four in the Winter Series did not get me very excited for many reasons. First, it had been raining quite a bit leading up to Sunday, and I knew the trails wouldn’t be in pristine, racer boi condition. Also, I was tied for fourth overall in the series, which meant that I had to actually do well if I wanted to break that tie. I was in for a long day of tough racing, or so I thought.

We took off from the line, and no one was sprinting hard to get to the woods. I ended up going in the woods in sixth place, with Rodney B. right on my wheel (he’s the one tide with me in the overall standings.) That first lap was pretty odd. Local fast racer Ryan Kelly was leading our group, and he pretty much took it easy. The pace reminded me of the final stage of the Tour de France, except that we weren’t popping champagne and patting each other on the back. It was odd, and I was getting a little antsy having to go so slow in a race.

All photos by Lunchbox

As soon as we climbed out of the rocks and hit the fire road though, the pace picked up. I stepped it up myself, and passed one guy in my class. I knew the rest of the field was gunning for me, so I had to give it my best effort. We were finally going fast, and I had to actually concentrate to keep from busting my ass in the slick conditions.

I kept with the lead group for a couple of laps, until we started lapping guys from the class that left before ours. I also passed another guy in my class, and still had the leaders in my sights. I was full of determination, or too much beer from the night before. Either way I felt pretty good.

I went by another guy in my class on the fire road climb, and he tried to stick with me. Every time I turned a corner, I could see him back there. I stepped on it and put a bigger gap between us, but I (almost) ran into another problem: two guys hogging up the trail. I called out my pass, and they parted like the Red Sea, leaving me the sketchy option of shooting the gap between them to get by. I barely made it, and hauled ass to make up for the little bit of time I lost. I was pretty much in a full on sprint when I left the fire road.

When they called out one lap to go, I didn’t see anyone in my class behind me when I turned the corner. I pushed it even harder, and nearly busted my ass in a slick corner. I didn’t go down, but it did slow me down a bit. I continued my blistering pace, wondering how far ahead of me the leaders were. One more climb up the rocks and I was home free.

I saw one guy up ahead, so I shifted to a bigger gear and sprinted. I beat him across the line, but he was in another class. Damn it. I ended up in fourth place for the day, which broke the tie in the overall standings. The race was double points, so it looks like I’m cemented in fourth place overall. Well, unless something terrible happens next week.

Even though the trail was a little bit muddy, it was actually in pretty good shape. It wasn’t cold, so I really didn’t have anything to whine about. Maybe I’ll find something I can complain about and share it with y’all tomorrow.

It Might Take More Than Just Riding Fast

2012-02-03T08:14:00.002-05:00

Thanks Yoda, but my name’s not Luke.

This Sunday could be interesting. With shitty weather predicted, the turnout for the next race in the Winter Series could suffer a bit. That doesn’t make it any easier for me, since I will still have to go out and give it my best effort to even maintain my position in the series standings. The trails may be a bit sloppy, which could increase the danger factor. That actually sounds fun. Another factor that I can’t control (like the weather and trail conditions) is that I am on call for work again. Damn it.

I don’t have to run out to save a life like Little Miss Sunshine does when she is on call, but I still have to fix broken things when they break. I have to do it in a timely fashion, which means that if any calls come in for me prior to when I am supposed to race I may have to bail. If something comes in while I’m out there on the course, then they can wait for thirty minutes or so until I get done. Maybe that will help me turn out some fast lap times.

I’m not looking forward to racing in the rain, but at least I’m not in any pain. My knee seems to be all healed up from my last injury, and I’m prepared to attempt two races again (you know, if I don’t end up at work.) I only got out once this week for “training”, which consisted of some hot laps with the Dirty Party Cycle and Little Miss Sunshine, with a late addition of our pal Robbie (who came up with the Big Tater name, by the way.) I took the single speed out, which made it a little more difficult. I couldn’t duplicate my awesome 193 heart rate out there, but I betcha I can do it again on Sunday. May the Force be with me.

I probably could use some other help though, but I’m not sure what to do.

At least I won’t have to drink my own piss.

See y’all Monday.

It’s Gonna Be Busy

2012-02-02T08:08:00.004-05:00

But I can deal with it.

It’s already day two of February, and I’m still wondering where the time went. I’m so wrapped up in the 2012 Winter Short Track Series that I hadn’t really taken the time to look at what else is coming up. There are two races left in the series, and I was looking forward to a break until the Southern Classic Series starts in March. It looks like I won’t get much of one.

The last day of the Winter Series is the 12th. I was hoping to get in some good “training” leading up to the Killer 3 MTB Race in Sumter, SC on March 4th. I will still probably get to do that, but I have to start thinking about something else.

Yes, I’m heading down to the Atlanta area (Conyers, Georgia to be exact) to the Southeast Bike Expo on February 25th And yes, I know Dicky talked about this yesterday. Anyway, it’s being held at the Georgia International Horse Park, which was the site of the 1996 Olympic Games MTB cross country race. I’m pretty sure it’s not a horse show though.

From what I hear, the expo is mostly for mountain bikers, and it will be open to industry types and consumers. That means I don’t have to “know someone” just to get in. It also means that I can put my grubby hands all over cycling goodies from tons of manufacturers. For twenty five bucks (only twenty in advance), I can rub elbows with all sorts of cycling types, and most likely get tons of shit I can talk about here on the blog. Some of the proceeds are going to support the International Mountain Bicycling Association. Sounds like a win-win for me (and you.)

If you plan to attend, maybe I’ll run into you down there. If you’re not going, then you are a loser and care nothing about bikes. Perhaps you should go sign up right now.

In other news, I found out that I will have to skip a few of the Southern Classic races that I had previously planned on attending. The aforementioned Killer 3 MTB race in Sumter, SC is now a no-go, since I already have a previous commitment. Little Miss Sunshine and I will be out of town to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary that weekend. Although our trip will have us driving sorta on the way by Sumter, I couldn’t convince her to let me race on our anniversary weekend. I guess that wouldn’t be very romantic.

Also, the Bouldergeist race in Sanford, NC on March 25th is out of the question. I found out that I am on call for work that weekend, which means that I can’t really leave the Charlotte area. I may be able to get someone to cover it for me, but for now I’m out. I guess I’ll have to step it up for the rest of the series just to make up for the missing races. At least I still have one race I can do in March (Danville, VA.)

I had one more thing for today, but I’m still working on the details. Maybe I’ll be able to talk about it tomorrow, or I’ll just wait until next week. I got way too much shit going on anyway.

Try Not To Explode

2012-02-01T08:15:00.003-05:00

Okay, I was talking about me, not beer. Since I put a picture of bottles on here though, I guess I can talk about it for a minute.

I finally bottled my new IPA. After about ten days of fermentation, it was ready. It promises to be super bitter, but it still has a nice aroma. It tastes like a flat IPA now (since it hasn’t gone through the carbonation process yet), and hopefully the finished product will turn out just fine. I have a test bottle that I will try in about a week or so, and then I’ll know for sure. I can’t wait, but I am a little nervous. I hope the bottles don't explode while I'm away at work.

Back to the race, I did get on the course for race number two…without gears. After pushing a 193 heart rate and putting in my best lap time on my geared bike, my legs, lungs, and heart had been through enough. That didn’t stop me from getting out there again though.

I started out near the middle of the pack, and my legs were stiff as hell. After a few minutes of pedaling, I hit the downhill section and felt right at home. Once I reached that first climb though, I started to wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into. When I hit the fire road (for more climbing) a guy rode up beside me and asked if I was alright. I told him I was tired, and he said, “Why are you out here?”

Dumbass, it was my second race.

I promised myself at that if I could loosen up a bit during the race, that I would be sure to at least get by and finish ahead of him. As I crossed the start/finish line though, I wondered if I would even make it to the end. My legs hurt like hell, and I felt like I had no power. It’s like they didn’t even want to turn the pedals.

At that point I remembered a video I saw of pro cyclist Jens Voigt, and I told my legs to shut up.

My heart rate never got above 185 for this race (which was way better than 193 I guess), so at least I had that much going for me. As the race went on, I started feeling a bit better. Not good enough to compete, but I knew I could last the whole race. The fact that there were two separate cheering sections helped a lot, one led by Alex and his merry band of hecklers, and another led by Dale and Robbie, which later merged with the MadSS and his family. They kept me going on the climbs, and I wouldn’t have made it without them.

Photo credit: Alex Hawn

Eventually I caught up to the guy I mentioned earlier, and passed him on the fire road. He got by me again after the start/finish line, and rode into the woods ahead of me. He was slower than shit on the downhill stuff though (most likely because he was a dirt roadie and afraid of mountain bike trails), so I made sure to get by him again on the climbs…even if it meant that my heart would explode. When the time came (at the fire road again), I turned it on and left him. When I got on the trail, I made sure to put in a big gap (again with help from the cheering section.) When it was all over I crossed the line after nine laps, and I was exhausted.

I finished 17th out of 21 racers, which probably doesn’t sound that great. However, I did beat four people that didn’t race earlier in the day. That was a moral victory for me. I’m starting to think this single speed thing is the way to go.

I walked around like a zombie for a while afterwards, but eventually I started feeling good. Two races in one day with no knee issues and decent results? I’d call that a success.

If you don’t think that’s a success for me, then you probably haven’t been reading this shit long enough.

All Day Long

2012-01-31T08:16:00.007-05:00

You see, it’s not always about me around here. Mostly, but not always. The rest of the family got out and raced again on Sunday, and it looks like they had a blast. Little Miss Sunshine started the day off with a 10:00 race, and she felt pretty good. She took off with the group, and it looked like she was pacing herself (most likely to keep from breaking my heart rate record.) She hit the trail fast, and Lunchbox was out there to capture the action.

She was really giving it her all after a while, as you can see in this photo:

Six laps later, it was over. She raced hard, and didn’t feel like poo afterwards. With a solid 10th place finish, she did well out there. For someone that doesn’t normally race, she is getting pretty good at it…and fast. I see this season being a really good one for her.

I raced next, but I already talked about that. I did find a really cool picture though that makes me look like I’m riding a really tiny bike.

Photo credit: Alex Hawn

Anyway, Lunchbox was up next. I didn’t pressure him to get out there, either. He wanted to get out and see what he could do on the trail. Initially he wanted to race in the Clydesdale class with me (he’s like 215 lbs), but he decided to stick to the Junior class and “compete” against the small, frail, racer children out there.

He took off, fighting for position. I think he got into the woods around 6th, and held on for the ride.

His goal was to at least beat someone, so he pushed as hard as he could and tried to keep the group in sight. He kept a great pace, and didn’t really slow down too much over the course of the race. On one lap though, I waited for him to come by so I could get a photo. One of the “too fast for Juniors” racers tried to make a pass on a not-so-skilled rider, and caused a bit of a pile up. Lunchbox got caught up in it, and it knocked him back off the pack a bit. He got going again, and I got my photo.

I sprinted up the trail, hoping to catch him on the fire road climb. He was struggling to catch his breath a little, but he was riding strong.

One lap to go, and he was almost there. Alex Hawn was there to capture his photo again (along with providing a kick-ass cheering section) as he climbed over the rock garden.

He crossed the finish line in 13th place, which coincidentally is his lucky number. He also made his goal of beating someone, so he was pretty happy. I bet he’ll be up for a race this weekend too.

That’s it for today. Once again I’ve gone on too long, and I can’t blow it all at once. I’ll be back tomorrow with most likely will be a recap of my single speed “race.”

Cheers.

Do Or Die

2012-01-30T08:09:00.010-05:00

I’m getting ahead of myself…sorry.

I was pretty worried about race number three in the 2012 Winter Short Track Series, since I had no idea how my knee would hold up under race conditions. Since I had knee issues, I couldn’t really ride very much during the week either. I wondered if I could even compete at all. Turns out this race was better than I expected.

I felt great before the start, and decided that I would push it as hard as I could. For the first time ever in a race, I wore my heart rate monitor. I was always afraid of what I would see, but this time I figured why not. Turns out I would be surprised.

When we took off, I fought hard to get up front. I entered the single track in second place, and pushed hard to stay with the leader. The pack was pretty close together, and I would have to keep this fast pace to remain competitive. When I hit the climb out, I was feeling the effects of riding so hard. A couple of guys went by me on the fire road, and for the first time I glanced down at the display on the heart rate monitor. It read 191. Holy shit, I’m gonna die (I’ve never seen it that high before.)

As I crossed the line and headed out for lap two I was still moving fast. I couldn’t afford to take it easy to slow down my heart rate, so I pushed it even harder and tried to recover a little bit on the downhill.

Photo credit: Lunchbox

I was fighting to keep from getting dropped, and I knew that some guys were gunning for me. Mr. Ryde caught up to me on the fire road, and went right on by. I tried my best to stay with him, and I told myself I wasn’t about to let him out of my sight. I yelled to him that my heart rate was 191 (still), and I wondered how the hell I could keep this up. I stayed with him on the next lap, and decided I would catch him again on the fireroad even if it killed me. Meanwhile Lunchbox was still snapping photos.

When I hit the fireroad I made my move. I pushed as hard as I could possibly push, and I looked down again to check my heart rate. This time it read 193. Looks like I found my new max heart rate. I mashed by Mr. Ryde and left him way back somehow.

I crossed the start/finish line, rounded the corner in the parking lot, and saw that I was being hunted down. Mr. Ryde, Rodney B., Big John, and local bike shop owner Mark were making their move to catch me, so I made the decision to put it all out there. I took off as fast as I could, hoping to put a big gap between us.

My heart rate never got higher than 193, but it also never went below 180 the whole race. Eventually I saw no one in my class behind me, and I had just passed another guy in my group. When it was announced that we had one lap to go, I gave it everything I had left. I was having fun, even while maxing out my heart rate again.

I climbed up the fire road as fast as I could, constantly checking behind me to see if anyone had caught back up. I was all alone as I crossed the finish line, and I felt like my heart was gonna explode. Later when I checked the results, I found out that I had finished in a respectable 4th place. In fact, I had surpassed my personal best for a lap time out there, turning a 3:40 on one of my laps. I almost died to get it, but it was worth it.

I gave it my best effort, and ran my fastest time. I had no issues at all with my knee, and my fitness seemed to be just fine. Hopefully I can do the same thing next week.

It was a good day for racing. Little Miss Sunshine raced, and so did Lunchbox. I even decided to go back out on the single speed to wear out whatever legs I had left. More on that stuff tomorrow.

I’m tired.

Back In Action

2012-01-27T08:38:00.004-05:00

Photo credit: Alex Hawn

I’m ready. Well, sort of. After trying my best to get the old rusty knee back to normal, I think I can go out and race on Sunday. I’ve been riding a little, but nothing difficult or extreme. I’ve been working on powering up climbs to strengthen my legs, and it seems to be okay now. My bike fitness on the other hand, probably isn’t. I was afraid to do anything that would knock me off the healing train, so my rides have been of minimal effort.

I’ll probably look like this out there on Sunday:

Another photo by Alex

At least I had a cheering section. I damn sure needed it.

For those of you that are gunning for me in the next race, have at it. I’ll give it my best, and barring any further injury I may just be able to keep up. My fitness has taken a small hit, but it wasn’t that good to begin with. Come on out and give me a run for my money. I’ll try to make you work for it. I’m not promising anything, but you have been warned.

So yeah, it’s race weekend once again. If my knee holds up during the first race, then I’ll definitely line up in the single speed class again. I’ll need all the training I can get, because the real season starts in a little over a month. I’ll ramp up my training and try to get lots and lots of miles in. I’ll see if I can get Mr. Ryde and Big Tater to join me on the Uwharrie trails for some “training.” I bet I can get them to show up if I bring some beer.

Speaking of beer, I tasted a small sample of my new IPA (that’s still in the fermenter by the way.) While it’s nowhere near ready to consume, it does have some characteristics of beer. It’s definitely hoppy and bitter, and it just might turn out okay. I estimate that I still have about four days or so left in the fermentation process, at which time I’ll take another sample and go from there. I can’t wait to try my new IPA. If you actually know me (not just on the Internets), then you may get a sample of your very own. That is if it comes out alright.

See y’all Monday with a race report or something that resembles one.

If You Wish Hard Enough

2012-01-26T08:48:00.004-05:00

All your wildest dreams will come true.

Actually, my Grandma always told me to wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one fills up faster. That is far better logic in my opinion.

Anyway, back when I was talking about the Southern Classic Series schedule, I mentioned that I was disappointed that the race in Sanford was replacing the Uwharrie one again this year. I really wanted to “race” at Uwharrie, and I wondered why they couldn’t hold it there this year.

Well, it looks like I got what I wanted, since this has been added to the calendar:

Uwharrie, Troy, NC - June 10th

Oh hell yes. I'm so glad they added this race to the schedule. When the Winter Series is over, I planned to do most of my “training rides” at Uwharrie anyway, just for the difficulty factor. The local trails here don’t give me much of a challenge, so I plan to only ride them whenever I don’t have time to get outta town. Uwharrie is hella fun anyway, and if I ride my single speed out there I can double the pain. Oh joy.

In other news, the jury is still out on my new seat.

It’s okay so far, but it’s not exactly like the Silverado that I had on there (and moved over to my SS bike.) It doesn’t flare up in the back like the Silverado, so it is taking some getting used to. Hopefully I will dig it, and not have to get another new seat. At least I got it on the cheap though, and it does match my geared bike. That’s what’s important, you know.

The weather around here has cleared up a bit, but it probably won’t last long. Rain is in the forecast again for late tonight/tomorrow, but hopefully the short track will dry out before Sunday. I’m ready to ride again, and my knee is feeling much better. Little Miss Sunshine noticed George’s comment a few days ago about getting a foam roller, so she’s been leaving hers out for me to use. That, combined with stretching and some body-weight squats, has left my knee feeling almost normal. I’ve even been able to get out on the SS bike on my local trail, Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure. I no longer have pain when I mash on the climbs, so I should be okay. Screw that going to the doctor shit. Internet advice is the only way to go.

I have a pretty cool announcement coming up, but I’ll save it for next week. Let’s just say that I get to help with something here locally that’s pretty cool. And yes, it’s about bikes. See y’all tomorrow.

Nothing Else To Do Right Now

2012-01-25T08:42:00.004-05:00

Since the weather has been shitty and I haven’t been riding as much as I want to, I’ve turned to something I haven’t done in a long time. Brewing beer. I was on a brewing kick for a while, but stopped because I lost my mojo. My last batch was an attempt at an IPA (I’d only done pale ales up to that point), and it turned out pretty awful. I had an issue with the carbonation (and who knows what else), so the beer didn’t come out good at all. Out of 16 bottles, I think only about three of them were any good. My confidence in brewing took a hit, and I put my beer-making supplies away for a while. Now I was ready to try it again.

Instead of trying something easy to get me back into the swing of things, I decided to go all out and try another IPA. First though, I had to get the bottles ready.

Cleaning and sanitizing everything is a crucial step when brewing beer, so I made sure to take care of the bottles first. When it comes time to bottle, I don’t want to half-ass it because I’m pressed for time. When the bottles were all clean (the hardest part in my opinion), it was time to make the beer.

I started the boil, adding Cascade hops to it immediately. I continued to add hops to the boil over time, to give the beer bitterness, aroma, and flavor. I have a schedule for this but I’m not telling. It’s my little secret, but you can probably find out stuff like this on the Internets if you want to. There’s plenty of info out there.

I do love me some Cascade hops though.

I sniffed the empty bag for a while so I could get high off of hops. Pathetic.

I added the rest of the ingredients, which creates the wort (young beer for those of you not in the know.) After that it’s time to put everything in the fermenter and add the yeast.

While the yeast eats the sugar, the alcohol is created (blah blah blah and so forth.) It will take a little while, and then I may dry hop it to add a little more aroma and flavor. I haven’t decided for sure if I want to do that though. I like super bitter, hoppy beer, so I’m hoping that this batch comes out okay (even if I decide not to dry hop.) Every time I brew it’s like a game of chance, but I took notes on the last batch and used those to figure out where I went wrong. I did everything exactly like I was supposed to do, so if I don’t screw up the bottling process I should have a very good beer in a few weeks.

I’ll be sure to give a full report when it’s ready. I can’t wait that long though, so I had to grab something that was ready to drink.

If everything turns out like it’s supposed to, then maybe I’ll brew another batch as an offering to George when I head to Vermont this summer for Single Speed USA. He just might let me in the shop if I come bearing gifts. I’ll even share one with Dicky if he mentions me on his blog a few more times.

Tomorrow it’s back to your regularly scheduled programming. You know, bikes and junk.

The Aftermath

2012-01-24T08:45:00.003-05:00

I was happy and thought I felt good at the start.

The knee is feeling better, but I know my troubles are far from over. I’ve had knee problems off an on most of my adult life. I guess it stems from years of playing soccer and riding skateboards in my youth. When I went in the Army back in 1990, things progressively got worse. In 1991, I ended up having surgery on my right knee to repair damage that had accumulated over the years. It was probably a sketchy procedure (because it was done by Army doctors), but I ended up “back to normal” in a few weeks. I say back to normal because in the Army they pretty much make you go back to full speed once you get “medical clearance.” I don’t even know if I ever fully healed.

Years later, I would have issues off and on (including a little bit of arthritis.) I could usually tell if it was gonna rain, be cold, etc., but I learned to deal with it. If I spent too much time aggravating my knee, it would swell and I would have to stay off of it for a few days. About two years ago it started getting worse again, so I finally broke down and went to the doctor. I ended up getting a cortisone shot, and things were okay for a while. I guess I’m back to needing some kind of medical attention.

I will be better, and I’m not sure if I’ll end up visiting any kind of medical professional again unless I can’t walk and/or ride my bike at all. It’s way too early in the season to have this kind of trouble, and I don’t want to end up screwing it all up by having to stay off the bike. I stopped running quite a while ago to be able to keep biking, but maybe that’s not enough. I’ll figure something out I guess.

I other news, I guess my race wasn’t as bad as I thought. Sure, I went down a few places from last week, but I didn’t finish anywhere near DFL. I was able to keep riding, but I wasn’t able to stand up and power through the climbs. That’s what made it so hard to chase down the leaders and keep Big Tater off my wheel. I somehow survived, but there was no way in hell I could’ve raced in the single speed class. If I feel up to it, I’ll try to do both races this weekend. If not, then I guess I’ll just sit around on my ass and spectate. It kinda sucks to watch everyone else race and explain to them why I’m not.

I did find a few more photos of my “race” though:

It hurt like hell every time I pushed down the pedal, but I somehow kept going.

I was in the smallest gear possible, which meant that I was going really slow.

The above photos were found on the Winter Short Track Series Facebook page.

You might wonder what the hell I was wearing, since last week I was all decked out in my Bike29 kit. Well, since it was muddy out there on the Short Track, I didn’t want to ruin my kit (I did that once before a few years ago when I rode for someone else.) Instead, I opted for a plain black jersey and something that George sent me a while back.

It’s gonna be a long season, and I don’t want to race all year with a mud-spotted team kit. I’m not very good at laundry stuff, so I took the easy way out. I guess there are worse problems out there though.

See y’all tomorrow with more crap and nonsense.

I’m Afraid There’s Not Much To Tell

2012-01-23T07:51:00.005-05:00

As much as I want to give you a great story about a great race at the Winter Short Track, it ain’t gonna happen today. I did pretty well last week, so I guess the pressure was on to keep it up. Quite a few new people jumped into my category in yesterday’s race, and coupled with a wet trail from a shitload of rain the pressure was turned up even more. None of that shit really affected me though. Something else happened that was much, much worse.

The race started, and I wanted to get my ass in the woods first. I took off from the line, and I felt my right knee pop. As I rounded the corner to head to the singletrack, I was in a lot of pain. It hurt like hell when I stood up on the pedals, so I had to sit and spin. At that point I wasn’t about to catch the three or four guys ahead of me, and I even let two more go by. As bad as I wanted to sprint my way to a big gap, it wasn’t happening.

I was okay as long as I didn’t stand up and mash, so I knew I would be okay on the downhill stuff. The trail was a little sloppy, but manageable. I had Mr. Ryde hot on my wheel though, and I had to lose him somehow.

All photos by Lunchbox.

It didn’t take long before he caught up and passed me. After climbing out in the smallest gear possible, I was falling way behind. I let him go, and hoped that my knee would feel better so I could get back in the race. I stuck to the plan, which was to go as fast as I could on the downhill, and try to spin up the climbs until I felt better. I started passing some people, but they weren’t in my class.

Every lap made things worse. I couldn’t seem to pick up any speed, and I nearly got passed by more people in my class. One thing for sure, I wasn’t gonna let Big Tater catch me.

Big Tater (with his 65 pound bike) was back there somewhere, and I was afraid he would creep up on me in my weakened condition. I rode as fast as I could, and hoped that I could last through the race. Mr. Ryde wasn’t that far ahead anyway.

I wanted to go faster, but it wasn’t happening. My knee wasn’t getting any better (why would it), so I just held on to whatever I had and continued to enjoy the downhills.

When the call came for one lap to go, I was on my way out of the trail. I pushed as hard as I could without standing up, and managed to make it out with out totally destroying my knee. I ended up in 8th place, which I guess wasn’t so bad.

Was it worth it?

I dunno.

I guess I’ll have to see how my knee feels. So far it’s shitty.

When I hobbled around after my race, I noticed that one of my teammates was getting ready for his race.

Would I get to go up against him in my second race?

You probably already know the answer to that. See you tomorrow.

The Training Is Going Quite Well Thank You

2012-01-20T08:37:00.004-05:00

I don’t really need any help, either. With race number two in the 2012 Winter Short Track Series coming up this Sunday, I’ve been doing my best to get better. Since I have a full time job and can’t spend hours upon hours per day on the bike, I have to get creative. So, I strap my kid trailer on the back of the single speed and head out for some local urban action. This consists of local greenways and gravel trails, and has a pretty good amount of climbing.

So far, so good. I can get out an explore a bit, so the ride doesn’t get boring. The resistance provided by the trailer coupled with having only one gear seems to make me work harder, so it’s like I’m getting more actual “training” than I normally would. The best part? At the end of each ride I can make a beer run at my local grocery store.

The best feature of the trailer (other than providing the aforementioned resistance) is that it has seatbelts to keep my beer purchases nice and safe.

See?

A Happy Ending to my bike ride indeed.

In other news, I got my seat situation figured out. The new seat went on the geared bike as planned, and it looks pretty cool on there. According to Dicky it has a wiener slot. That’s good, because I can park my junk there while I race. What, you don’t carry hot dogs with you when you race?

I think I’m gonna like the new seat with the wiener slot. I just have to make sure people keep their fingers outta my hole. Bastards.

See y’all Monday with (hopefully) another race report.

I Went Shopping

2012-01-19T08:19:00.003-05:00

For bike parts, that is. I didn’t really need anything, but that doesn’t usually stop me. Okay, I think I might need one of these things.

Check out what showed up from Misfit Psycles da udda day:

While I am usually afraid of all things from Canada, I decided to give this a shot. A 19 tooth cog for my single speed bike might make things a little easier, but now I’m not so sure I want to use it yet. I survived 8 laps in a race riding an 18 tooth cog, so why would I even think about making it easier? The whole point of riding a single speed is to get stronger, so changing out to an easier cog is probably not a good idea. I guess I’ll just save it for another time.

Next up is something I really didn’t need, but for some reason I just had to have it.

Yes, another new saddle. I have plenty of places to plant my ass around here, but this was a deal too good to pass up. The WTB Valcon seems very similar to the Silverado I currently run on my geared bike, so hopefully I will like it. I’ll probably put it on my geared bike, and put the Silverado on my SS bike (it currently has a PureV which is okay, but not great.)

I can never make up my mind on bike shit, but when I finally do find something I stick to it. The Silverado had become my favorite saddle, but I’m hoping that the Valcon is close enough to it and I won’t notice the difference or maybe even like it better. I always have to learn the hard way (by wasting money sometimes.)

In other news, last night I finished building a bike out of spare parts (sorry, no photos.) I had a lot of shit that wasn't being used, so I put all that shit on a frame that wasn't being used to build a bike that won't be used (by me anyway.) Maybe it can find its way to someone else that needs a bike. The wheels are too small for me anyway. More details another time if I feel like it.

I guess that’s it for today. I have to get back to my “training.”

Why Not Twice

2012-01-18T08:32:00.004-05:00

Since I caved into peer pressure and signed up for a second race on Sunday, I had no choice. I grabbed my single speed bike and set out to “race” with the rest of the crazies with one gear. As long as you do at least one lap, you can’t DNF. My goal was to do two laps before I died out there.

Lots of people said I was crazy for going back out there, but I saw it as extra training. Besides, a lot of people do more than one race at this event. I wasn’t special, but yeah, maybe I was crazy. I’m still pretty new to this single speed thing, but this is the best way I know to get better at it. We took off from the start line and I was somewhere in the middle of the pack, and I knew I would be good for most of the first lap since it was mostly downhill. Somehow though, I felt like I had been there before.

Photo credit: Tim Anderson

Yes, the usual crowd of hecklers still occupied the rock jump thingy, and I was glad to see them. In fact, they would keep me going throughout the race. Although there was a climb right after that spot, I knew I was near the end of each lap. I really appreciated their cheers and other nonsense (including the rogue trail work.)

That first climb wasn’t so bad, but I started to wonder if running a 32X18 for my second race of the day was a good idea. I knew it would wear me down as the race went on, but I only planned on being able to complete three laps anyway. Lap one was in the books, and I wasn’t in last place for some reason.

I sprinted past the finish line, putting on my best “It doesn’t hurt” face. Back in the woods, it was more downhill action. I felt fine so far, and I couldn’t wait to see the rock jump heckler crowd again. After another leg burning climb, I had lap two done. I was loosening up a bit, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep going for the whole race. I still enjoyed the berms out there though.

Photo credit: Winter Short Track Series Facebook page

I had no idea how much time had passed, but after climbing out again I had met my goal of three laps. For some reason though, I didn’t want to stop. As I passed the start/finish line again, the cheers must have motivated me to keep going. I decided that I would ride until either the race ended or I fell over from exhaustion, either of which would be a “good enough” effort. I still felt kinda okay, so why the hell not?

I don’t remember much about the rest of the race, other than getting lapped a couple of times by the leaders. I had no computer on my bike and no watch, so I had no idea how far I’d gone or how much time was left. I didn’t have anything to strive for, other than riding until it was over. When I was in the singletrack, I heard the announcer say, “One lap to go!” I was almost finished.

The final climb was painful, but I made it without walking. I even had enough energy to sprint for the finish with another guy in my class, but I’m not sure if I beat him there or not. It didn’t matter, because I went way past my goal of three laps. I ended up with eight for that single speed race, placing 19th out of 22. Not only did I finish, but I did it ahead of some people (who probably didn’t race earlier in the day.)

I was tired, but happy. This “training” thing is pretty fun because well, it didn’t feel like training. Now that I know I can do it, I’ll probably race both races for the rest of the series. I just have to make sure I eat more food and drink plenty of beer afterwards. That’s why I do this shit anyway.

Bring The Pain

2012-01-17T08:41:00.008-05:00

I mentioned that the 2012 Winter Short Track Series was just “training” for me, right? Well, what better way to train than to go all out for one race, then do it all over again later. That’s exactly what I did, and now I’m feeling the pain. Let’s start with the first race.

I wasn’t as nervous as I usually am before a race, but I still had the pre-race jitters. I didn’t plan to shock the world with my awesome mountain biking ability in the first race of the season, but I still wanted to do well. We lined up at the start, and I felt great. I had plenty of food in my belly from breakfast, and the temps had warmed up a bit before my group went off. When we were given the signal, I took off with the pack.

I didn’t plan to haul ass and fight for position, but somehow I ended up going into the woods in second place. I was right on the wheel of the guy in first place, and I nearly ran him over because I was way faster on the downhill stuff. I had no issues whatsoever, and I even felt like I could win it all.

Photo credit: Mike Gladden

Well, when we hit the climb out, I slipped a little and came unclipped from my pedals. A few guys went buy me, but I hurried back on the bike and got going again. It sucked to suddenly stop like that, and it took me a few minutes to recover. I started falling back, but I decided to settle in and grind it out. Maybe I could catch the leader again.

I don’t remember much about each individual lap, but I do remember a crowd of hecklers (led by Dicky) hanging around the new and improved jump. I did my best to hit the line the way such lines are supposed to be hit.

As the race went on, I started to get tired. Two months of barely training had taken its toll on me I guess. Local Clydesdale racer Rodney B. passed me on a climb, and left me in the dust. We usually keep about the same pace, but this time I couldn’t hang on. I let him go.

That didn’t stop me from having fun though.

Photo credit: Lunchbox

When I got into the downhill section, my super awesome skills let me get close enough to get him in my sights again. Coupled with the fact that I had just lapped some riders in the class that left before us, I started feeling good again. I turned it up and Rodney and I proceeded to battle on the way to the finish line.

I gave it all I had, and passed him on the way to the finish. I was shocked when I saw the results.

4th place. Not too bad, I guess.

I was beat ass tired, and started to have second thoughts about doing a second race out there. With about an hour and a half of rest though, I made myself sign up for the single speed race. I figured that it wouldn’t be too bad, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I’ll cut it off here and save the sufferfest for tomorrow. You have been warned.

All Or Nothing

2012-01-16T09:04:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was the first race in the 2012 Winter Short Track Series, and it was a family affair. I won’t make today’s post all about me though, and it’s for a couple of reasons. First, Little Miss Sunshine and Lunchbox did their racing thing and second, I don’t have any photos yet. Lunchbox got photos from my race, but he took off last night with my mom and has the camera. I’ll hopefully get those up here tomorrow.

The first race of the season is always the most difficult, so to even get out there and do it is tough. Little Miss Sunshine was really excited, but like most of us she was nervous too. Since she’s now racing for a new team this season, there was a lot more stress involved. All that goes away when the race starts though.

She took off at a pretty good pace, but she didn’t go all out. There was a huge group in her class, so she just took her time and made the best of the crowded conditions. I know one thing, she was happy to be racing the series this year on her new bike.

It was pretty freaking cold out there when she started, in case you were wondering why she was bundled up like she was going on an arctic expedition. She did warm up pretty quickly though, especially after the little bit of climbing out there.

She rode hard, even though it was tough to be out there in the cold for the first time this season. She held her ground and gave it her best.

Lunchbox probably got some better photos with his fancy new camera by the way, but those will most likely and up on here at a later date.

After thirty minutes, it was all over. She crossed the finish line in 13th place, far from DFL. I was proud of her, and I know she was glad to have that first race under her belt.

My race was next, but since I’m such a shitty storyteller you’ll have to wait until I get some photos.

Before I got ready to race, I grabbed the camera to document Lunchbox’s first race of the season. I didn’t even have to pressure him into racing…he wanted to on his own. He hasn’t been training (like most of us), but he was ready to give it his best.

His first lap was pretty fast, until the climb out. He wasn’t ready for this, but he still pushed himself out there. I had a short conversation with him on the fire road climb.

Me: Are you dying?

Lunchbox: Yes.

Me: Good, that means you are working hard enough.

He gave it his best for the thirty minute race, and kept up a good pace in the woods.

With one lap to go, he gave it all he had to sprint to the finish line. I think he ended up in 10th place, which also means he wasn’t DFL. He was happy to cross the finish line with everyone cheering for him (he’s pretty popular with the locals.)

Two races down, and I didn’t even talk about me. What the hell is this blog coming to? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that tomorrow is all about me. For now though, I am proud of my family for getting out there and riding hard to kick off the 2012 season. See y’all tomorrow.

I May Need An Ambulance

2012-01-13T10:03:00.003-05:00

Or a Beerbulance, whatever.

The 2012 Winter Short Track Series starts this Sunday, and of course I’m not ready. While it’s true that I’ve been riding more this offseason than I normally do, I’m still not ready for “racing.” I guess it’s a good thing I’m not planning to race.

Yes, I will be there. And yes, I will have a number on my bike. Would I call it “racing”? Not really. This series is more like a training ride for me. I can ramp up the heart rate and go all out with others around more than I would on my own. I don’t expect to have totally shitty results out there, but I sure as hell don’t expect to get on the podium.

If I feel okay after I race at 11:30 in the Clydesdale class, then I’ll strap a number to my single speed bike and go out again at 1:30. Two rides at “race” speed in one day should do me some good, or it could kill me. Either way I will have accomplished something. I hope to do this during the whole five race series, but the first time might make me think otherwise. While I may just hold my own in my own class, I have a feeling that the super fast single speed crowd will destroy me. I’m betting that I will get lapped by the leaders at least twice. Care to wager?

I’m really looking forward to seeing all of my racing pals again though, and believe it or not I’m looking forward to a nice long season. The offseason didn’t last as long as I thought it would, but I’m good with that.

Oh yeah, you still have time to take advantage of the special deal going on at DeFeet. Remember, you save 40% on the UnD-Lite base layer (long-sleeved.) Enter the promo code KEEPDRY and order up some warm, dry goodness.

Time is running out though. You have been warned.

The Hunt For Bigfoot

2012-01-12T08:33:00.001-05:00

He’s a scary looking sumbitch, huh?

On my trip to the Uwharrie Mountains da udda day, we searched the forest for the fabled Sasquatch. Rumor has that there’s one out there, and I’m trying my best to find one. We took to the mountain bikes and searched the trails for evidence.

Okay, we pretty much just rode our bikes out there. Bigfoot must have been hiding, or he’s way faster than us on two wheels. Bastard.

That’s it for today. I’m taking the easy way out with the video, so watch it again and pretend I wrote a whole bunch of words. See y’all tomorrow.

I Had A Little Accident

2012-01-11T08:42:00.004-05:00

I was just riding along, minding my own business, and bam...a stick jumped outta nowhere and attacked my bike. It grabbed my chain tensioner and ripped it off (breaking the derailleur hanger and shredding it in the process.)

And it broke my chain.

The worst was that it didn’t stop there. The tensioner lodged in my new rear wheel, bending the shit outta some spokes.

Damn.

The next day, I took my rear wheel to The Cycle Path for some emergency service. They were kind enough to replace the broken spokes and true the wheel, and did it with a quickness (I picked it up later that day.) They also sold me a new chain that I heard was “bombproof.”

I don’t normally use anything other than SRAM chains, but it was all they had. I tried to put everything back together, but I forgot about one thing.

Since I had no tensioner, I had two options. One was to find that “magic gear” using a half link, and the other was to pour syrup on shit to make it pancakes. I opted for the latter and made the most out of my busted up tensioner.

It worked fine for the most part. I had one little issue, but this is only temporary anyway.

This showed up Monday.

I had wanted to try this tensioner for a while, so I was glad it showed up. I don’t like it at all though. While I have complained (mostly to myself) about the Surly Singelator, this new-fangled spring tensioner is kind of a pain in the ass. The tension is way too high, and there is no way to adjust it. I have a few days to get it right before the Winter Series, but I’m starting to wonder if it will ever work. I thought single speed was supposed to be easy.

Well, my ass was saved again when Little Miss Sunshine brought this home from The Cycle Path yesterday:

Go with what you know, right?

I decided to change it up a bit this time though. I swapped out the “push down” spring with the “push up” one, and it made life a whole lot easier.

Skip-free and perfect tension. Now I’m ready to enjoy the single life once again.

At least all of my broken shit is fixed now. Big shout out to The Cycle Path for fixing my crap in a hurry (and providing me parts to replace other broken crap.) Go see Mark and Mike sometime and give them your money. They truly rock.

You know what else rocks? A new deal going on a DeFeet. Right now, you can save 40% on their long-sleeved UnD-Lite base layer. All you have to do is enter the coupon code KEEPDRY and you save instantly. Hurry up though, because this deal ends on the 15th. DeFeet base layers are the best, and they will keep you dry and warm when you ride (or run, walk, skip to the doughnut store, etc.)

I have one, and you should get one too.

Training Is For Suckers

2012-01-10T08:31:00.005-05:00

But I have to do a little more than drink beer to have a shot at a decent season. So, training it is. Saturday, the Space Cowboy and I headed out to the local short track to prepare for the Winter Series that starts this weekend. We were there for some “serious” training, so I didn’t even take one photo of our adventures out there.

We did some hot laps, socialized with some of the local riders, and called it a day…at least on the bikes. We loaded up our bikes for another mission, but my lack of paying attention almost cost me a new bike.

This just in: make sure you check the bike rack when you put bikes on them. Dumbass me. Oh well.

After nearly loosing my bike, we secured everything and got back on the road. Our destination? Well, it involved beer of course.

We stopped by our area’s newest local brewery, NoDa Brewing Company for a little post ride “recovery.” We just followed the signs to the Tap Room.

After sitting down at the bar, we decided to sample some beer. I tried a very interesting sweet potato ale (on tap from a "guest" brewery), and followed it up with a pint of their signature IPA, Hop Drop and Roll.

It was freaking awesome. Don’t you agree, officer?

We sat there a while, and the place started getting pretty crowded. We watched as they ran through the kegs to appease the thirsty customers.

After grabbing a growler of their NoDaRyeZ’d double rye India Pale Ale, we were out. I had some stuff to do at the house, but I think the Space Cowboy went back there later. If you get a chance while you’re in Charlotte, I suggest you stop by. I’ve been there several times already, and I am hooked. Well, it’s easy to get me hooked on good beer, so maybe you shouldn’t take my word for it.

So much for training, huh?

Cram It All In

2012-01-09T08:41:00.007-05:00

Well, I wouldn’t call it stupid, but I did ride quite a bit over the weekend. In fact, it was way too much for someone that isn’t supposed to be taking all of this shit seriously. I guess I’ll work backwards, starting with yesterday (which really wasn’t that serious.)

I started off yesterday with a little road ride, just to loosen my legs a little. It wasn’t an epic ride by any means, but I did push myself pretty hard while I was out. It was probably a bad idea, because I had other plans later on.

Yup, that’s right. Uwharrie. The recently reworked trails in the Uwharrie National Forest were my destination yesterday. Since it’s one of my favorite places to ride, I couldn’t pass up the invitation to ride there (thanks to Dennis and Tom.) They are small mountains, but mountains nonetheless.

I didn’t go there to study the ancient history of the Uwharries or search for Bigfoot (okay, I did). The main reason was to ride. I made my way back to the camp, which also doubles as the trailhead.

Down the long, lonely fire road.

Eventually I made it. Back in the day, I used to park at the road and ride the one and a half miles down the road to get to the trailhead. It’s so much better now that we can park down by the trail head (and avoid the boring fire road ride.)

We had a pretty good sized group, and we eventually made our way onto the trail. It wasn’t a race pace by any means, but it’s hard to maintain that kind of pace when the climbs kick your ass anyway. The best part about climbing for so long? Super fast, ears pinned back downhill. There are berms, slick rock, and wide open spaces, which give you plenty of opportunities to haul ass.

What about the ride? Yeah, it was good. I’ve been riding out there for years, but it’s way more fun now. And to top it off, it was 63 degrees around here. That is unheard of in January, so I’m glad I took advantage of it.

I did a little more “training” over the weekend, but as usual you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Time For Training

2012-01-06T08:00:00.004-05:00

Okay, not that kind of training. With a nice weekend on the horizon, it’s time for me to get out on the bike for some “quality time.” I’ve been riding a little bit during the week now, but it’s been really cold and I’m just not ready for long freezing night rides just yet. I’m easing into it. One good thing though, Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure is in my neighborhood. Lunchbox and I have been riding our short, but fun singletrack.

We didn’t bring a real camera, and my Android doesn’t really take good “action” shots in low light.

Lunchbox riding on one of the few roots out there.

I happened to get photographed in the exact same spot.

While we do have a decent trail literally around the corner from the house, I don’t plan on spending too much time there on the weekends (until the trail work resumes.) I’m thinking that on Saturday we’ll take ourselves over to the local short track for some hot laps in anticipation of the Winter Short Track Series starting in a little over a week. I’ll bring the single speed, so I can see how my 32X18 gearing will feel out there. I hope it works well, because I have no other cogs to swap out. I guess I should grab a few more. I know Bike29 has some. Maybe I’ll give George a call.

In other news, I just got the raddest shirt ever. Little Miss Sunshine ordered it for me for Christmas, but it showed up late. It was shipped from somewhere in Canada, so I guess it was held up in customs or something. That’s probably what happened to some other stuff she ordered for me from Canada. I’m still waiting for my other mystery present from there.

Anyway, check out my new shirt.

Star Wars and bikes, two of my favorite things of course. You can’t get anymore badass than Darth Vader riding a bicycle. Well, unless you ran into Boba Fett at the airport.

And on that note, I’m out. I’ll see y’all Monday or something like that.

The Home Stretch

2012-01-05T08:27:00.003-05:00

Let’s hope I can make it through.

With what is already shaping up to be a long season, it appears as if I only made it halfway. Shit, just listing the racing that I’ll be doing is wearing me out. With all of the traveling, racing, and beer drinking, I wonder if I will finish strong…or finish at all. I guess I'll let you know the rest of my proposed schedule.

It looks like I’ll have a little over a month to “recover" after the Riverfront Classic in May, with the next race coming up on…

June 23rd – Tree Shaker 12 Hour Race – Fort Mill, SC

The date of the Tree Shaker has been moved from the much cooler month of October to the hot as the Devil’s ass crack month of June. I’m not really digging the fact that I could end up riding for twelve hours in the summer, so I haven’t made up my mind about racing it yet. The other factor is the next race in the Southern Classic on…

June 24th – Tiger Rag – Clemson, SC

I don’t really remember much about racing down in Clemson last year, other than the fact that it was hot…and pretty tough. I got a great photo out of it though.

That photo is so last year.

Anyway, the worst part was trying to find beer in a dry town (on Sundays), so my memory of the day is pretty fuzzy (we eventually found beer and some good grub in a nearby city.) I may do Clemson again this year. It’s a helluva drive down there, but at least this time I’ll know what to expect. I guess it depends on how far I want to drive, and whether or not I do the Tree Shaker.

There are only two races in June on the calendar, and both of them are the same weekend. Shit. Moving on to July I guess.

July 15th – Battle of the Bikes at County Park – Greensboro, NC

This race wasn’t on the schedule last year. Hell, I’ve never ridden this trail either. I’ll most likely be in because a) I like to race on unfamiliar trails, and b) It’s only about an hour away. I’ll need all the riding time I can get anyway, because the big one is up next.

July 28th - Single Speed USA – Stowe, VT

Yep, that’s right, Single Speed USA. I’m heading to Vermont, the land of maple syrup, Bigfoot, and of course, George. I’ve never been there before, so I figured, “What the hell.” While I probably have no business participating in a race like this, I really shouldn’t be under any pressure to be all serious and do well. Like George told me one time, “We ride fucking bicycles.” That put it all in perspective for me. This will be a super long road trip (I don’t like to fly), and hopefully will involve a shitload of beer drinking (after the race, not while driving.) I will even get to finally visit the Bike29 mothership. Freaking awesome.

August has three races in the Southern Classic Series, but I’m skipping the first one at Fontana Village on August 5th. No interest in driving that far so early in the morning. I’ll find something else to do.

August 12th – Sizzler – Greensboro, NC

I did this one last year, and got my only DNF for the season when I broke my chain. I didn’t view that race as a waste of my time, since Lunchbox and I were already kind of passing by there on our way to vacation in Washington, D.C. I hope that this year’s race is much better. By the way, we’ll probably be doing the D.C. thing again afterwards.

August 26th – Dark Mountain – North Wilkesboro, NC

The season finale. I got on the podium last year, and I really enjoy the course there. I’m definitely in for that one, and hopefully I can end up with the win this time for the series.

October 6th – 6 Hour Grind on the Greenway – Fort Mill, SC

The date for this one was moved too, and I think I might enjoy it more because of this. I’m most likely in for it, and it should be the final race of my season.

That’s pretty much it. There are a few other races I may or may not do, but as you can see I have a pretty full plate already. I may even try to squeeze in a trip to Florida to ride with Mr. Shepherd, and this time I could possibly bring Little Miss Sunshine along. She will have a pretty busy schedule herself, especially since she is on a new team for the upcoming season. It’s gonna be busy as shit around here, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Bike All Over

2012-01-04T07:28:00.006-05:00

Looking at my upcoming schedule, it looks like once again I will be all over the place for races. I kinda dig the traveling, but it does take its toll on me at the end of the season. This year will actually be more traveling, which means more miles in my truck than on my bike. Maybe I should do something about that lopsided statistic.

Since I already mentioned my plans for January and February, I guess I can move on to March. That month kicks off with the Southern Classic.

March 4th – Killer 3 MTB Race – Sumter, SC

At a little over two and a half hours away, I hope it’s worth the drive. I’ve never ridden on the trails at the Manchester State Forest, so I have no idea what I’m in for. Since it’s the first race in the season though, I guess I’ll most likely be there. I hope the start time isn’t too early, or else it’s gonna be a long day.

March 11th – Angler’s Ridge – Danville, VA

Just one week later, I’ll be travelling to the state just north of me for the third year in a row. I like the trails in Danville, so I’m looking forward to this one.

March 25th – Bouldergeist – Sanford, NC

I’m a little disappointed with this one. Although I ended up on the podium last year, the trails weren’t really all that fun (for the length of the drive there anyway.) This race last year replaced Uwharrie on the schedule, so I was hoping that it would go away this year. I’d really like to have a Southern Classic Series race in Uwharrie, but it looks like it’s not gonna happen. Shit.

April 1st – Tsali Knobschorcer – Bryson City, NC

I’m out for this one. Too far to drive plus too early of a start time. Besides, I have a big event less than a week from then anyway. Plus, The New Belgium Urban Assault ride has been moved to this date. Probably in for that.

April 7th – 6 Hours of Warrior Creek – North Wilkesboro, NC

Taking a short break from the Southern Classic Series to race a six hour event should be lots of fun. I’m already signed up (duh, since they sold out so quickly), and I really love this event. This will be my third year in a row at Warrior Creek. Maybe we won’t get shitty weather again this year so I can actually ride dry trails.

April 22nd – Stump Jump – Spartanburg, SC

I did this one last year, and I wouldn’t miss it. It was a lot of fun, and now that I actually know the trail a little bit I might enjoy it even more.

April 29th – Harbison State Forest – Columbia, SC

This one was good last year (expect for my warm-up snafu), so I’m looking forward to it. You can haul ass on the mostly flat trails down there, so that’s a plus. I may even bring the single speed for it.

May 6th – Hobby Park – Winston-Salem, NC

This one was a bitch, but I had a good time. I can’t wait to climb that big ass Derby Hill again.

May 20th – Riverfront Classic – Charlotte, NC

Since this one pretty much in my backyard, I pretty much have to do it. I won it a few years back, so I should step it up if I plan on repeating that feat. Besides, it’s a fundraiser for our local club, the Tarheel Trailblazers.

I’ll stop here for now. It looks like a busy season so far, and there’s more to come. I just have to sort it all out. See y’all tomorrow.

Back Into The Swing Of Things

2012-01-03T08:31:00.005-05:00

And I don’t really mean work (or beer unfortunately.) It’s a new year, which means I should probably start looking at the race schedule for the upcoming season. I guess that means I should be training too. I got a little bit of that in over the weekend when I took my new bike trailer to the store for some uh, groceries.

That wasn’t the only riding I did the last few days though. On New Year’s Eve, I managed to drag my ass over to Sherman Branch for some single speed hot lap action. This was my first “real” trail ride on my new single speed wheels. Up until that point, I’d been riding on Captain Jim Bob’s Space adventure and the local greenway. Tough stuff, I know.

The ride was fun, except that I’ve been having some issues with my back. I don’t normally have back problems, so I was a little surprised that I was hurting. I didn’t do anything to aggravate my back or anything. It just starting hurting during the morning, and it progressively got worse. I thought that a ride would help loosen me up a bit, but it didn’t. I felt okay when I was sitting on the seat and pedaling, but as soon as the ride was over I went ride back to being in pain. In fact, I’m still hurting right now.

With a week full of nice weather (aside from cold temps), I hope I don’t have to ignore the bike just to get better. I’m pretty stubborn, so as long as I am physically able to load my bike on the truck and drive somewhere, I’ll probably still be riding. Let’s hope so, for your sake.

Back to the racing thing I guess. It looks like I’ll have a pretty busy schedule in the coming months. I can’t believe it’s time to get back into this shit already. The offseason didn’t seem to last long enough, but at least I didn’t put on too much weight or neglect my bike completely like in years past. I’ll find out if I’m ready in less than two weeks.

Yup, it’s time for the Winter Short Track Series again. Starting on January 15th, we’ll be mixing it up for the five-race series on the short track in the mud, snow, ice, and whatever else Mother Nature throws our way. Every once in a while we’ll get a nice dry day for racing, but most likely we’ll get the same old slop out there. It makes for a fun race though.

Once again there is a Clydesdale class, so that where I’ll be. After mixing it up with the rest of the big boys though, I’ll think I’ll change it up this year. Since the Single Speed class is scheduled to go off almost two hours after the larger fellas, I’m thinking of racing it too. Two races in one day? You betcha.

I probably have no business racing with the rest of the SS monsters here in Charlotte, but I kind of think that’s why I want to do it. I’ll consider it “training”, since there’s no way in hell I can hang with those super fast dudes on one gear (especially after I raced earlier.) It should be fun (I hope), and if anything I should have some good stories to tell.

As for the rest of my season, I’ll get into that another time. I have to sit down and plan this shit out anyway.

As for resolutions, I don’t really do that. You can change your life any day of the year. You don’t have to wait for the calendar to change to another year to do it. I hate change anyway.

End Of The Year

2011-12-30T07:54:00.003-05:00

I propose a toast to you, my dear readers. Whether you come here every day, every once in a while, or ended up here only once because you searched The Google for some kind of weird shit...I'm glad. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be talking to myself. It kinda feels like that sometimes anyway, but my stats tell me otherwise. Anyway, thanks a bunch for coming here everyday to read the nonsensical crap that spews from my brain. I really mean it too.

Moving on, I’d like to thank all the folks that have supported me over the past year. All of the companies over there to the left have helped me in one way or another, and I probably would be less than what I am today without them. Can you really be less than nothing? I doubt it. But anyway, some helped more than others, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not thankful for each and every one of them. There are also some individuals that helped me along the way, but I’ve always mentioned who they are and what they’ve done when they did it. Confused? Sorry.

2011 was a pretty awesome year. I pretty much gave up small wheels for good, and converted my geared bike to a 1X9. I got quite a few upgrades here and there for it, and eventually ended up with enough parts to build a second 29er…this time a singlespeed. Having two good bikes to use throughout the season has been really nice. Also, 2011 marked the debut of two more 29ers in our house…one for Lunchbox and one for Little Miss Sunshine. We all ride big wheels now. Even the Dirty Party Cycle and The Chili Man have gone the way of the 29er.

I upgraded the shit outta my road bike for some reason, and even started doing some group rides for training purposes. I nearly went out for my first-ever road race, but my better judgment prevailed. Maybe I’ll get the balls to do it next year. It is for the sake of training, after all.

My racing season wasn’t too bad either. I took second overall in the Southern Classic series, and managed to get on the podium a few times over the course of the year. I travelled all over the Southeast to race, and got to ride on some pretty sweet singletrack that I would have otherwise missed out on. I even did my first singlespeed race and survived. It was a good year for sure.

2012 should be better. January 1st is just another day, but it is the start of a new year. Most people look at this as a time to make a fresh start, and I guess I’ll be doing the same. I’ll do my best to get into more shit this year, especially so I will have something to talk about on here (to keep y’all coming back for more.) I promise to do my best not to fail.

I’m taking Monday off. I’ll be back on Tuesday with my plans for next year…hopefully.

Upgrade All The Things

2011-12-29T08:37:00.004-05:00

Yup, that’s pretty much what my Christmas list was all about. Well, in regards to the bike parts I asked for anyway. After getting a new set of singlespeed wheels, I still had other parts to install.

I got a new set of handlebars and a better stem for the SS bike.

After riding with a sub-par stem and handlebars (from the spare parts bin), I now have something much better. The bars are also wider, which makes the bike more comfortable to ride. Since I was already upgrading stuff, I decided to rob parts off of another bike I wasn’t using.

I didn’t think to ask for new brakes for Christmas, even though I had a set of shitty cable disc brakes on the SS (that worked kind of okay by the way.) I took the hydraulic brakes off of my little-wheeled squishy bike since they weren’t being used. Now they will get some trail time for sure.

Up next was an upgrade for my geared bike. It’s been a while since I’ve replaced any drivetrain parts on my primary race bike, so it needed some love. I got a new cassette and chain.

Since I am an awesome mechanic, it didn’t take long to change everything over. And while I was at it, I had to install something else.

Lunchbox got some new pedals for his 29er. See, I’m not the only one that had bike parts on the Christmas list.

While I did receive lots of stuff (both bike and non bike related), I’m pretty much done talking about all the new shit I got. Well, except for something that Lunchbox got for me.

What? A bike trailer? For kids? Don’t worry, we won’t be hearing the pitter patter of little feet here at B-43 anytime soon (and Lunchbox is way too big to ride in it.) I wanted a bike trailer for other reasons than having little kids to pull around.

And no, this is not gonna be attached to my singlespeed full time. I actually wanted a bike trailer so I can take trips to the grocery store, and a kid’s trailer seemed to be the best bet to keep the beer safe (it has seat belts in it.) I try to take my bike to the store whenever I can, but it’s been difficult to carry stuff home in a back pack. Now I can ride to and from the store with out dropping anything on the road.

Another use will be to haul tools to Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure when trail work resumes (in the near future.) Having a trailer attached to my bike can keep me from driving so much (and wasting gas), so this is just my little contribution to help save the environment. Besides, I can pull Dicky around town when he doesn’t feel like riding. He’s only four apples tall, so he’ll fit right in there.

I’ll be back tomorrow, probably with the obligatory “what kind of shit I got into this year” post. See y’all then.

Caught By Surprise

2011-12-28T08:21:00.004-05:00

Christmas was here before I knew it, and gone just as fast. The days leading up to the holiday gift exchange are always exciting, but not because I think I’m getting a whole bunch of new shit. The reality is, I like buying presents for other people. I’m always making my list, checking it twice, and not giving a shit if they are naughty or nice (because I already spent the money.) The people on my gift giving list deserve it, and I’m happy to oblige. When I make a list for myself (so other people can get me stuff), I normally don’t expect much. I usually just cave into the pressure of others that want to buy me stuff, but I am happier doing the giving than I am the receiving. Since this is my blog though, I’ll talk about all the cool shit I got.

Of course my list included new bike stuff, and most of it consisted of upgrades for my singlespeed bike. Since I’m really enjoying the one-geared life now, I felt like it’s time to put some nicer parts on my “other” bike. After opening almost all of my presents (bike and non-bike related), I had one left.

Lunchbox is smiling in the background because he knows something I don’t. Hmmmm.

When I opened the box, I was shocked to see what was inside. I learned that Little Miss Sunshine had been conspiring with George to make my Christmas pretty freaking awesome.

Look what was in the box:

Holy shit. Another set of Bike29 wheels (red Industry Nine hubs laced to Stan’s Arch rims. This time though, they are of the singlespeed-specific variety for my one-geared riding pleasure.

George went all creative (like the last time he built my wheels) and added a few personal touches.

The wheels on my geared bike have all black spokes, with four white spokes making a “rally stripe” around the valve stem. These new singlespeed wheels have all silver spokes, with four black spokes. I guess the rally stripe is my new thing, and I have George to thank for giving me my new “style.” He even used different colored nipples on the spokes to set everything apart.

All I had to do now was put them on.

I spent most of Monday installing new bike parts, which included my new wheels. I installed a new 18 tooth cog and spacers:

After mounting up my tires (which was way too easy), I put everything on the bike. And just like that I was ready to roll.

Wow, just wow. I am really happy to have such awesome wheels, and I am thankful that Little Miss Sunshine thought to get these for me. She is pretty awesome for sure. Big thanks to George too, because he worked his ass off to build these and ship them out lickity split (in time for Christmas.) Little Miss Sunshine told me he was pretty happy to have the opportunity to build another set of wheels for me too. He likes being creative, and he will build you a set too. Just don’t ask for the rally stripe, because that’s my thing, bitches.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more Christmas recap action, including something pretty cool that Lunchbox got for me.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-21T07:07:00.002-05:00

My cat is really thrilled to play Santa this year.

Yes, it’s Christmas time once again. Time for you to spend time with your family and friends, eat too much, and hopefully get a shitload of presents. No wonder this is most people’s favorite time of year. Things are slowing down at work for me, Lunchbox is out of school, and we are making our last minute preparations for Sunday’s festivities. I’m pretty excited. I feel like a kid at Christmas. Wait, never mind.

I’m taking some time off, which means I won’t be around here to give you thought provoking words and controversial photos. You’ll have to find something else to do for the time being. After the big day arrives, I’ll hopefully be installing shiny new bike parts and drinking beer in my uh, bike room. I guess it’s like any other day around here.

So with that, I’m cutting today’s post short. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever else you celebrate. I’ll be back next Wednesday, and we’ll pick up where we left off. See y’all then.

Night Mission

2011-12-20T08:36:00.007-05:00

Getting home from work every day at dark means that if I want to ride my bike, I have to do it in the dark (duh.) Some days, I bring my bike with me to work and hit up a local trail. Most days, I figure I’ll just go home and grab my bike and head back out. By the time I get home though, I usually don’t feel like packing up the truck and driving back out to a local trail. I always have a backup plan, and it involves greenway riding. Most of it is paved, but there is a pretty good gravel section for me to get all mountain bikey on.

Just a short road ride from my house and I’m there. It’s very quiet and peaceful out there, and there are enough hills to make it worth my time and effort. After a little gravel action though, it’s back on the paved greenway. It has some pretty cool stuff, especially at night.

That’s the part where it goes under Interstate 85 here in Charlotte. It’s really cool going under it in the dark, since well, it’s all lit up.

I ride until the end, and I pop out in some park/soccer field place. There is a boardwalk at the end that goes through what looks like a swamp, and I kinda like riding on it (reminds me of Florida, minus the alligators.)

The best part about riding out there at night? All the critters. I saw no less than thirty deer, and a host of other unidentified animals. If you look closely in this photo, you can see little eyes staring back at me in the darkness.

Is this considered “training?” Yeah, I guess. I mean, I’m out on my bike you know. I’m riding pretty hard on my singlespeed, and I actually feel like I did something worthwhile. Besides, being all alone at night on a bike ride does wonders for me after a long day at work. It’s no substitute for actual trail riding, but at least it’s something. Now that Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure is finally complete, I can get in a short trail ride on the way out and on the way back (which I did last night.) Sounds like success to me.

In other news, I’ve been cleaning out my “bike room.” It’s nothing extravagant like the one over at Bad Idea Racing. In fact, it’s just a garage. But, it’s my garage, and it’s full of bicycle goodness (plus a beer fridge.)

Right now, there are twelve bikes and two unicycles out there. Two of those bikes are pending transfer to other locations, but the rest will stay. Why was I cleaning? Well, with the upcoming Christmas holiday, I need to make room for more bike parts. That’s pretty much all that was on my Christmas list, so I am hoping that I have enough room. I also needed some space to work on bikes (very well constructed homemade bike repair stand not pictured), in anticipation of installing the aforementioned new bike parts. At least now I have a really local place to test them.

See y’all tomorrow.

Looks Like We’re Done (For Now)

2011-12-19T08:58:00.005-05:00

So I can finally sit back and relax for a bit.

This weekend, we finished up the main loop at Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure. There wasn’t much left to do, but I feel like we actually accomplished something. After several weekends of digging in the dirt, we were on the home stretch.

We had to cut a short section (picture above) to get the loop back out of the woods, and all that was left was a little trimming. Lunchbox whipped out his trusty loppers and was ready to put the finishing touches on our trail.

He was basically cutting out small saplings and their remaining stumps, and also trimming up the corridor so we won’t get clotheslined when we ride. He really likes helping out.

He also likes doing his impression of Bigfoot.

Since it had rained a little bit late last week, the trail was kinda wet. We decided to wait until later in the afternoon to test it out. We got all gussied up in our actual mountain bike attire (helmets and clipless shoes), and gave it a proper ride. I didn’t get any photos, since we seemed to be in a bit of a hurry (I got called into work.) The next day though, the Dirty Party Cycle stopped by after some hot laps at Sherman Branch, and I convinced him to get out and ride our new neighborhood gem. We didn’t bother wearing “proper” mountain bike equipment this time though.

There was a photo of me taking a whiz in there, but you don’t want to see that. Okay, maybe you do.

With the main loop of Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure complete, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Coming in at around a quarter of a mile, it is pretty short. For being so small though, it is certainly packed full of fun. We spent the rest of our time out there flagging out the next phase of the trail. There will be a lot more fun packed into this trail, and we can’t wait to get started (or continue, whatever.) For now though, we’ll just admire our handy work.

This will be a really nice place to ride that’s close to home. The trail seems to hold up pretty well even when wet, so we can most likely ride here even when everything else in the area is in substandard shape. That’s good, because my ass really should be ramping up the training this time of year. I guess I’ll be making my self dizzy riding in circles on our short little trail. It’s much better than sitting on my ass getting fat, that’s for sure.

I Finally Won Something

2011-12-16T08:19:00.003-05:00

It has something to do with bikes, but nothing to do with racing them. Last week, there was a contest on Facebook from the folks at Honey Stinger. All you had to do was come up with your best Chuck Norris quote. I was one of the first to post mine up, and actually didn’t think it was so great.

“Chuck Norris doesn’t eat honey…he chews bees” was mine in case you don’t know who I am.

When I got home, I mentioned the contest to Lunchbox. When I told him what I posted, he laughed his ass off. He also proceeded to tell me all kinds of other Chuck Norris quotes that he had stored in his teenage brain (which was a lot.) Apparently Chuck Norris is quite popular with today’s youth. Anyway, my comment somehow got the most “likes”, but it was a close contest. I got an e-mail stating that I was the winner and that I could expect some waffley goodness coming my way. Awesome. I was pretty surprised since I don’t usually win shit.

A few days ago, I received my goodies.

I’ve used these waffles pretty regularly now (before the contest), and they are damn delicious. It was all I could do to keep from chowing down on the whole box right then and there. I put the box away so I wouldn’t be tempted, but I will definitely grab a few on my next ride.

Are the Honey Stinger people gonna be on board with me and my cycling adventures next season? Sadly, no. This was a one time thing, but I hear that they are accepting sponsorship applications. Maybe I should throw my hat in the ring because, you know, I have nothing better to do. I’ve been lacking a nutrition sponsor around here, so this could be the ticket. I guess the worst they could say is “Get the hell off my lawn!”

In other news, I have no set plans for the upcoming weekend (again.) I have some trailwork to complete on Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure, and I also need to actually get some riding in. The problem though, is that I am on call for work. If the work people will leave me alone, then I can get some “personal” stuff done. If not, then next week could be pretty boring for you around here. We shall see.

Set Your Phase To Stun

2011-12-15T07:05:00.004-05:00

Four. I mean set your phase to four, as in “Phase Four of Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure.” Another Sunday, another trail workday on our “secret” trail project (well, secret to anyone who doesn’t use the Internets or live nearby.) After my near frostbite-inducing road ride, Lunchbox was ready to get out and do some digging in the dirt. We tried to recruit The Chili Man, but he was run down from way too much working. I don’t blame him for not wanting to join us for even more work.

It had warmed up a bit after the short ride to the local woods, and we got even warmer once we started working. Phase four was a long, twisty downhill that shot you back into the woods, and we had already completed some of it last weekend (until we ran out of time.) The rest of the new section was cleared out, and the trailbuilding began. Lunchbox went through and trimmed the tree branches, making a nice path for us so we wouldn’t get decapitated. He does good work with those loppers.

We had quite a long section to build this time, but we made a lot of progress. After getting to a nice stopping point, we decided to test it out. Lunchbox went first.

Funny, the lighting in that photo makes it look like there is no trail. Let’s keep it that way.

After we both took a spin (no photos of me), we had a surprise visitor.

Yup, Little Miss Sunshine rode over to take a ride. She was preparing to take her bike over to Sherman Branch for some hot laps, but took a slight detour to test our new neighborhood trail. She seemed to like it, but had one slight complaint. It seems that the log rollover that I repaired last week was a little too steep. Upon further inspection, I realized what the issue was. Since Lunchbox has been testing on a 1X9 and me on a singlespeed, neither of us have a large chainring up front. Little Miss Sunshine, The Chili Man, and Chili Junior all have these hideous things, and they were hitting the top log with it. Lunchbox and I promptly dumbed it down a bit so it can be enjoyed by all.

Little Miss Sunshine parked her bike on the trail until we were finished, and made sure that we did a good job.

After she left, we got back to work. Since Phase Pour goes pretty far back in the woods, we were getting out of sight of our bikes and the tool stash. I grabbed everything I could, and told Lunchbox to walk the trail to make sure we didn’t need to make anymore “improvements.”

We got to the bottom of the hill, and we were faced with a dilemma. The brush is pretty thick, and it would require a shitload of clearing out. The other alternative was to cross through an old, half buried barbed wire fence, so we picked the lesser of two evils: clearing the trail. It was taking a lot longer than expected, and we had to call it a day. It looks like we only need another hour or so to get Phase Four completed, and then we can have a nice little uninterrupted loop to ride. After that it’s on to Phase Five.

We have big plans for Phase Five, but we have to finish the main trail first. I’m hoping that The Chili Man can help us out this weekend, because we’ll be building some features and will somehow have to transport them to the trail. I can’t wait.

Unpleasant Surprise

2011-12-14T08:32:00.003-05:00

Yep, that’s my truck getting towed. Normally I mostly talk about cycling stuff on here, but today I have to mention my latest adventure.

After running a few errands at lunch time, I started making my way back to work. Suddenly, my truck shut off. It sorta acted like it ran out of gas, but I knew I still had plenty. After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to start it back up, I had no choice but to coast down the hill and find spot to pull over. I didn’t get far enough off the road though (there was no place to pull off), so I sat there in the lane like a goon. I put on my flashers and hopped out to get out of harm’s way.

I whipped out my phone to call AAA (don’t use it very often but I’m glad I have it), but before I could dial some nice citizen stopped to see if he could help. He offered to tow me to a neighborhood, or even give me some gas. I thanked him for his help, but I suspected that my fuel pump had gone out. After making arrangements to have my truck towed to a shop near my house, another guy stopped to help. He was wearing a mechanic’s uniform from a local Chevrolet dealer.

He suspected the same thing as I did (the fuel pump), and crawled under my truck to bang on the fuel tank to try to get it going while I cranked it. He told me where he worked, and that they had the part in stock and could get it done right away. That sounded much better than possibly waiting for days at the other shop (like I have before with our other vehicles), so when the tow truck driver got there I made him change my destination.

I don’t normally promote non-cycling things here, but in this case I will. I ended up at Parks Chevrolet in Huntersville, which coincidentally was less than a mile away. Once upon a time I worked at a GM dealer, so I’ve always been “in the know” about shops and how they do business (and also how to avoid getting ripped off.) They were very friendly there, and really eager to help me get my truck fixed right away.

After checking me in and running a diagnostic, the faulty fuel pump theory was confirmed. They had the part in stock, and they put three of their best mechanics on it to get me back on the road in a hurry.

They gave me a ride back to my office to get my laptop (so I could do a little work while I waited), and told me it would be about two hours. Two hours was not even close. In a little over an hour, I had a new fuel pump installed and I was ready to go. The price wasn’t nearly as high as I expected, and it actually was a little cheaper than what I would have paid at the “other” shop. These guys were all about service, and went above and beyond.

Customer service seems to be a lost art these days. Most businesses (especially auto repair), seem to know that they have you by the balls and can do whatever they want. Not true in this case. I guess that’s why I felt like devoting a whole post to my experience, instead of the usual bike stuff. If you ever have a service need, then don’t hesitate to head on over to Parks. I’m a stickler for customer service, so the fact that I’m recommending any type of business should really mean something.

A new fuel pump wasn’t exactly what I wanted for Christmas, but it was something I definitely needed. I kinda need a vehicle to get back and forth to work, and of course to and from the trail. My truck is a pretty nice vehicle, and this is actually the only issue I’ve had with it. I guess since I spent so much money on my truck though, I may have to hold off on getting those new singlespeed wheels I've had my eye on. Damn it.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with my regularly scheduled cycling junk.

I Forced Myself To Do It

2011-12-13T08:29:00.004-05:00

I don’t mean to get all roadie on y’all, but I felt like it was time to get out for a ride on skinny tires. I occasionally bash road riding around here, but it’s all in good fun. I bought my road bike a few years ago to help with my overall cycling fitness, but I rarely take it out. When I get out on the road, it always seems like people are trying to run me over. I’m sure that everyone that rides on the road experiences this, but I really hate it. That’s probably why I prefer to be out on the trail.

Anyway, after sleeping in a little bit due to a Christmas party the night before, I decided that I wanted to get out and spin for a while. It was a cold and windy thirty nine degrees outside at 9:00 when I finally headed out, and I immediately regretted my decision. Riding on the road amplifies the wind and the cold, but I had already made up my mind to ride. Besides, I had plenty of clothing on.

I had tights, bib shorts, two pairs of wool socks, and shoe covers on the bottom. On the top it was a short sleeved base layer, a long sleeved thermal base layer, and my Cane Creek long sleeve winter jersey (along with a knit cap under my helmet.) I was warm in the house, but as soon as I stepped outside I felt cold again. I decided to get moving so I could warm up.

It didn’t take long for my body to get warm, but I felt like I was getting frostbite on my face. I had sunglasses on, so at least my eyeballs didn’t freeze. I took a nice loop on some local country roads, and I really enjoyed the scenery.

When I took this photo, my smartphone displayed, “Flash is disabled due to cold weather.”

I live on the outskirts of Charlotte, so it doesn’t take long to get away from the hustle and bustle of big city driving. Long, lonely country roads surround me, so at least I don’t have to fight traffic. This also reduces the risk of being struck by a car. And you know what? I was lucky this time. Not one texting soccer mom tried to kill me with their minivan. I call any ride where I don’t have a near death experience a success.

I only rode less than an hour, but it sure beat sitting around in the house getting fat off of Christmas cookies. Little Miss Sunshine was baking tons of holiday goodies, so I try my best to stay the hell out of the house and far away from the temptation when she does that. The only bad thing about my ride was the fact that I got some windburn on my face. Their seemed to be a headwind no matter which direction I rode, but I’ll call that “training.” Anything to help me keep from becoming a fat ass in the offseason.

I could’ve gone on longer, but I had other stuff to do. Of course, you’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out what that was. I can’t promise that it will be exciting. If you come here and read this every day, you already knew that.

Way Too Nice To Ride

2011-12-12T08:12:00.004-05:00

Well, to ride a road bike. I wasn’t about to waste my time riding on the road, despite the fact that I had little time to waste. I stayed up a little too late Friday night watching Star Wars, so I slept in a bit too long Saturday morning. It wasn’t a big deal, since it was in the 30’s outside anyway. When I finally left the house for Fisher Farm, it had warmed up a bit. Well, kinda.

When I got to the trail, I was ready to ride. Well, until I got out of my warm truck. It was still in the 40’s, and I brought plenty of stuff to wear. When I finally got dressed, I felt like ten pounds of shit stuffed into five pound bag. Up top I had a long-sleeved base layer, arm warmers, and a Twin Six jersey. On the bottom I had baggy shorts, knee warmers, and wool socks. I was still shivering for some reason, but I thought that I would warm up quickly. I just had to hurry up and get going.

Did I mention that I brought my singlespeed? I needed to work hard on the trail, so having only one gear would assure that I couldn’t take it easy out there. Even though I was a little cold, I got going and hoped I would warm up quickly. It was such a nice day out there, it didn’t take long for me to forget that I was cold.

So this is what it feels like to be a mountain bicyclist. It’s been so long since I had a good jaunt in the woods that I almost forgot. I really should do this kind of thing more often. My bike even seemed to be happy out there.

I did a few laps out there (basically until I got bored.) I wasn’t tearing it up (lap time-wise), but I made sure to push myself. I mashed up the climbs, and once again realized why I built up a singlespeed bike. I guess I’ll ask Santa for some upgrades for it. Until then, I’ll still ride it a bunch.

I’ve been neglecting my geared bike, but it’s not going away for good. In fact, I just have it a nice bath. Hopefully really soon I’ll put on the new tires that George sent me. I just can’t seem to find enough time to do everything. I can’t wait until winter is over, but it only the beginning. Damn it.

It Ain’t A Party Until…

2011-12-09T09:13:00.006-05:00

Lunchbox and the Space Cowboy show up.

So yeah, last night was the Queen City Bicycles annual Christmas party, and it was a great time as always. Great food, beer, and friends, all while we hung out in a bike shop. I think I ate way too much, but that’s not hard to do.

With tons of people milling about, it was kinda like an after race party, without the stinky, sweaty racers.

We were permitted to shop (even though it was after hours), and Lunchbox bought a new hat. He was happy to show it off to past Tarheel Trailblazers President Mr. Jim. Jim reads this poor excuse for a blog sometimes, so he might like the fact that I’m trying to make him famous on the Internets.

I even did a little shopping.

As a special bonus, the Dirt Divas were there to sign their calendars. Lunchbox made sure to get acquainted with them

There was even a special guest, Queen City Bicycle’s own Toughman Terry:

Little Miss Sunshine did a little shopping too, and had her eyes on a new bike.

It was fun, fun, fun. Big thanks to Bart for having a bunch of beer drinking cyclists in is shop for the evening. We pretty much hung out until the end, well at least until the end of the beer. The good beer didn’t last long, but some of the locals made a beer run. They showed up with PBR, so that was my cue to get the hell out of there. I wasn’t about to go from IPAs to PBRs. That would’ve been a recipe for disaster.

With all of this holiday stuff going on, it seems like my offseason training is getting pushed aside. I’ll make sure not to let that happen, since I have most of the day free tomorrow. D-Wayne wants me to head up to his neck of the woods for some riding, but I don’t think I can squeeze that in tomorrow. I have yet another holiday party to attend, so I might be cutting it close if I went out of town. It looks like I may stay local, or even head out to Uwharrie tomorrow morning. I don’t give a shit where I ride, as long as I get my bike out somewhere.

Oh yeah, of course I’ll be building some more trail. Full weekend report coming up on Monday.

When There’s Nowhere To Turn

2011-12-08T08:21:00.003-05:00

I choose beer.

Not much bike riding plus increased beer consumption means that my “offseason” is going down the shitter in a hurry. I really didn’t want this to happen, and it’s really my own fault. I have alternatives for when the trails close around here, but I’m just not that motivated I guess. We even have a trainer (it’s technically Little Miss Sunshine’s), but I refuse to use it. I’d rather not ride at all than sit in the house pedaling my ass off and going nowhere. I should do something about this lack of riding soon though, or else next season is gonna really suck.

I guess if I’m gonna mention beer, I might as well make myself useful around here and tell you what I’ve been drinking.

First up is the Yellow Snow IPA, from Rogue.

I’ve had it before, but I haven’t been able to find it locally up until recently. It’s very good, but not the tops on my list. With points for a clever name though, I’ll give it a thumbs up. However, this beer does not get a thumbs up. Yuck.

Next up is a brew from one of my favorite companies, New Belgium.

It’s called Fresh Hop, from their Lips of Faith series. I recently discovered this one, and I’m glad. It’s not as strong as the Ranger IPA, but it tastes freaking phenomenal. I may have found a new favorite IPA.

Lastly, I found an Imperial IPA that caters to my need for lots of alcohol and high drinkability. The Unearthly Imperial IPA from Southern Tier in New York State.

Little Miss Sunshine brought me a few of their fine brews the last time she took a trip back to Buffalo, and I really enjoyed them. Now, their beers are available all over my local area. This new concoction showed up on store shelves recently, and I’ve been a little more than hooked on it. With 9.5% abv, it doesn’t take much to get me going. I am definitely a hop head, and this one does not disappoint.

Speaking of beer, I’m going to a party tonight. The Queen City Bicycles annual holiday party is this evening, and it’s always a good time. Bart (the owner) always invites us local cycling folks to hang out in his shop to drink beer, eat good food, and socialize. He also encourages everyone to bring a canned good to donate to Loaves and Fishes. If you’re local, then I hope to see you there.

What, no bikes today? Well, not mine anyway. If you really have the need, then check out this video.

I’ll see y’all tomorrow.

All Business

2011-12-07T08:15:00.005-05:00

One thing that cut into my riding time over the weekend was trail building. Most people probably think that the trails they ride are built and maintained by some government entity, but that’s not the case at all. Most of the time it’s actual mountain bikers that build the trails they ride. Even though I had an opportunity to work on one of our “official” local trails, I chose to work on something else (sorry.) Yes, it’s back to my neighborhood trail.

I went out early Sunday morning, and looked over the stuff we had built already. Everything looked to be in fine shape, until I spotted one of the log rolls.

Shit. Was it vandalism? I thought for sure that the surrounding neighborhood riffraff had made an attempt to mark their territory. The damage was minimal, so it wouldn’t take much time to fix it. We weren’t quite finished with it anyway, as we had planned to return to pack some more dirt on it (we were pressed for time last week.) I later learned that The Chili Man and Junior Chili were riding over there, and Junior Chili’s small bicycle had actually clipped the top log and knocked it down. No worries, since Old Man Chili was the one that helped me build it in the first place. I packed in some more dirt and now it will last for a long time. Success.

With that little bit of maintenance out of the way, I turned my attention to phase four. I cleared the corridor of the new section, starting with a tight switchback turn that takes you back into the woods. I could envision the entire trail in my mind as I went along, but I couldn’t make the trail fast enough. About halfway through, Lunchbox showed up and I put him to work.

With his pair of trusty loppers, he trimmed all the trees around the new section. He removed a lot of stuff that would be in our way as we rode, and I didn’t really even have to tell him what to do. He rides bikes too you know, so he has a good idea what he’s doing when it comes to clearing the trail.

As we got deeper into the woods, I started seeing lots of different elevation changes on the property. This trail is gonna be so choice, but it won’t be easy. I’ve incorporated several tight switchback turns, so you’ll have to mind your p’s and q’s out there. I got a lot done in the two hours we spent out there.

The only thing left was to test ride it.

The little bit of trail we have so far is pretty freaking awesome. It flows well, but you have to stay on your toes in a few spots to avoid any mishaps. I haven't added any big features yet, but the actual trail part is really fun. So far, I’ve only been riding my singlespeed out there. There won’t be any super tough climbs, so my 32X18 gearing is perfect for it. The only thing left (other than actually finishing the trail) is to come up with a name for the place.

So far, we’ve been calling it “The Trail.” We’ve already started coming up with names for some of the features out there (more on that later), but we needed a name for the whole enchilada. After spending every day coming up with crap to put on this blog, I was having trouble coming up with anything even remotely creative. That’s when I turned to my fifteen year old son.

Me: The trail needs a name. You know, other than “The Trail.”

Lunchbox: Yup.

Me: I can’t think of anything. You got something?

Lunchbox: Yeah. What about “Captain Jim Bob’s Space Adventure”?

Me: I like it. Let’s go with that.

The name makes absolutely no sense at all. That’s okay, because it came from a wacky teenager. I haven’t told The Chili Man yet (I guess I just did), but I’m sure he will like it too. So I guess from now on we have a new moniker for our previously unnamed (or poorly named) trail project. I can’t wait to get back out there to work on it. Hell, I can wait to get back out there to ride it. When we get a little more of it finished, I can even do a few night rides. Sounds like it might be time to take The Chili Man on his first nighttime mountain biking adventure. Stay tuned.

One Ride

2011-12-06T08:21:00.005-05:00

That’s it. With all the “free time” I had over the weekend, I managed to get out on the bike just one time on a local trail. After a late Friday night (and after an exhausting week), I overslept on Saturday morning. Lunchbox and I had a ride planned, but were now pressed for time due to our laziness. We eventually got out of the house, and dropped by North Meck for a quick ride. I brought along my SS bike, so I knew at least I couldn’t dilly dally along in an easy gear. Lunchbox knew the deal, and was prepared for some “hot laps.”

After talking to the trail coordinator for a few minutes, we learned that he had been doing some improvements to the singletrack out there. We hopped on our bikes and took off. I felt great, and started regretting the fact that we slept in. I felt like I could ride all day, but we didn’t have the time for it. Damn it. At least we got a ride in.

Lunchbox was glad to be outside.

After that, we had to get to the North Meck Christmas parade. It’s become a holiday tradition of ours since we moved to North Carolina, so there’s no way I would miss it. It’s a small-town parade, and it reminds me a little bit of the one we had where I grew up. Mark from The Cycle Path always lets us hang out in front of his shop (it’s right along the parade route), so at least I get to be around bike stuff the whole time. Lunchbox even likes hanging around the shop. You never know what you might see.

This was your typical Southern parade:

Since he likes when I mention him on the Internets, I’ll post up a photo of our pal Billy Talley as he drove in the parade:

Although I didn’t get it in the photo, he was pulling a fancy boat behind that big ol’ truck. He’s representing Talley’s Pier 77 Marine, which sells fancy boats and fancy boating accessories.

Little did he know that there was a pirate ship about to take him out.

He won’t be smiling when those buccaneers catch up to him.

So yeah, that was my Saturday. This time of year, it seems as if cycling takes a backseat to all the holiday stuff (and shitty weather.) I’m really trying to get in more nighttime weekday riding, but it keeps raining right in the middle of the week and pissing all over my plans. I have a backup plan for this week, but that only comes into play if it’s not too cold. Riding in the rain isn’t too bad, but if you add cold temperatures then I have a hard time getting outside.

I may just have to tough it out this week, or else I could turn into a lardassian.

Or a Hutt…whatever.

Too much Star Wars, you say?

Piss off, I say.

Where Did It Go?

2011-12-05T08:31:00.003-05:00

My weekend, I mean. It seems like I hardly had one. When the sun started setting on the city of Charlotte Friday, it was time for me to go home and start my weekend. With no real plan, I thought I had plenty of time to make shit up as I went along. Since it’s dark by the time I get home and I didn’t charge my lights, a night ride was out of the question. That really didn’t matter, since Little Miss Sunshine informed me that it was time to go get our Christmas tree. Even though it wasn’t as exciting as a bike ride, I knew it would be an adventure.

Well, it wasn’t quite like that. It was actually pretty painless. Drive to a place that sells trees, look a bunch of trees, and pick out one that would fit in our house. The whole process took about ten minutes. And just like that we were on our way home with the tree.

The process of getting the decorations out of the attic took a lot longer though. I nearly fell down the stairs at one point when my knee gave out (I thought it was fully healed), and I almost punched a hole in the ceiling when it happened a second time while I was actually in the attic. After feeling like Clark Griswold, we eventually got everything down and started decorating.

It probably doesn’t surprise you that this is my favorite ornament:

Instead of looking like some fairy tale tree from one of those sappy movies, our tree actually looks like it belongs in a toy store. Most of the decorations are “non traditional”, including stuff from cartoons and of course Star Wars. That’s how we like to do it, and it’s been that way for years. Another family tradition we have is to watch this:

We don’t do things anywhere near normal around here, and I’m pretty proud of that. I hope today’s post got you in the Christmas spirit a little bit, because it’s gonna be here before you know it. It’s not snowing here in Charlotte, but with all of our holiday preparations it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Did I actually ride my bike this weekend? I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

First I gotta empty the shitter.

Free Time

2011-12-02T08:21:00.003-05:00

When I woke up da udda morning I found myself with some free time. Free time around here doesn’t mean sitting around drinking beer (okay, it does.) It was early in the morning, and I had a few things to do around my house. While I was out front, The Chili Man rolled up on his fancy new 29er and asked if I was working on “The Trail.” He meant the secret neighborhood trail I’ve been working on the last few weeks, no doubt.

I hadn’t had a chance to tell him about it, but he does read the blog. Since he lives a few houses away from me, it wasn’t hard for him to figure out where it was. He volunteered to join me for some trail work, which I was planning to do anyway. We grabbed our tools and set out for some diggin’.

This was my third week in a row out there, and things are coming along nicely. We are now on phase three (which was initially supposed to be phase two by the way.) Phase three is a long section with a slight downhill, and it was actually the first spot I saw on this piece of land that made me want to build trail there in the first place. Lunchbox and I had set aside some logs which would later turn into trail features, since I’ve had a vision of what this section should look like for quite some time now.

I cleared the corridor and flagged out some trail, and The Chili Man got busy harvesting dirt for a couple of jumps. He dug for a long time, which gave me an opportunity to cut the whole section I had been dreaming about. When I finished, I help pile the dirt over some log piles to make the jumps. The Chili Man did most of that backbreaking work, but I did contribute a little.

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

This section is pretty smooth, and it looks like you can get a lot of speed. The jump at the beginning was built on a drop off, so you get sent flying down the trail into the next jump. After that the trail winds around the outside of the property, and will eventually circle back into the middle of the property. I had to stop there, because that shit took a long time.

I’m looking forward to phase four of the build, because there is a nice valley in the middle of the woods. The plan is to wind back and forth through it, making good use of the natural elevation changes. We have a few more ideas for features, but I’ll probably hold off on building those until we get a good bit more trail cut. So far so good though.

I really appreciate the help of The Chili Man. We took a test ride out there, and he got a chance to see how much his hard work paid off. It’s really satisfying to ride a trail that you worked on, so I’m sure he’ll be back for many more workdays. Since it’s so close to where we live, I can’t see a reason why we won’t get it done soon.

In other news, George sent me a present for my birthday a while back. Well, since it showed up a few days before my birthday, I will assume that it was a present for such occasion. I am obviously Bike 29's most favorite team rider.

Tires. Yes.

This “offseason”, I thought I might need some knobbier tires for when the conditions around here get shitty. I rode the Kenda Nevegal back when I first jumped into the 29er “fad.” I found them slow and heavy, but they did grip like a monkey on a coconut tree. I decided that I would go with them again to help my “training.” Since they are a bit heavy (compared to the Slant Six I currently ride), it could help me get a little stronger over the next few months. Plus, I won’t be all sliding around in the muck when I ride in less than perfect conditions. I haven’t had a chance to put them on, so hopefully I can get to it this weekend.

Sounds like I have a lot of shit coming up, but that’s not really the case. Hell, I haven’t even mentioned actually riding my bike. I probably will, but I haven’t decided when and where just yet. I guess you’ll find out Monday.

Trail Wars

2011-12-01T08:11:00.003-05:00

Yesterday’s post probably sounded like we had a shit time out at FATS. Quite the opposite was true. Even though our ride was interrupted several times (and eventually cut short) by mechanical issues, it was still fun when we actually rode. Mr. Shepherd really enjoyed riding down there, and he can’t wait to get back. In fact, he said he wants to get his revenge on FATS as soon as possible. Well my friend, I’m ready when you are.

I ran my GoPro for the short time we rode, and I got a little bit of good video. Well, not good by real mountain biking standards, but good enough to make a kind of entertaining video. Since I am somewhat a Star Wars nerd, I put my own twist on it (or George Lucas’, whatever.) While we were riding trough the woods, I kept humming tunes from the movie. This gave me the idea to go all Star Warsy on y’all.

Check it.

By the way, that wasn't the crash that caused all the damage yesterday. Unfortunately I had moved my camera to my helmet before that, and I was riding in front. Damn it.

So yeah, that’s about it today. You’ve suffered through enough.

Snow Birds

2011-11-30T08:15:00.005-05:00

As you can see from the frost on Little Miss Sunshine’s vehicle, it was “ice cold” in Charlotte over the Thanksgiving holiday. We decided to get the flock outta town and fly south to the Forks Area Trail System (FATS) down near Augusta, Georgia to get away from the cold and ride some sweet flowy singletrack. This would be Mr. Shepherd’s first time on that particular trail, so he was looking forward to it. We got all geared up and hit the trail.

We started on the first loop, Great Wall, and it lived up to the hype. Plenty of fast, rolling downhill, and Mr. Shepherd was enjoying it. Well, that is until he crashed. I have footage from my GoPro of the crash, but I’m not finished editing it. A small log crossing surprised him, and he crashed ever so spectacularly. He hopped back up and we were on our way.

About three and a half miles in though, we had another incident. While traveling along a great speed, I slowed to take tight corner, and squeezed my bike between two trees. Mr. Shepherd was right on my tail, and he wasn’t so lucky.

He hit that tree square on, and escaped with only a few scrapes and cuts.

His bike didn’t fare so well though.

The impact bent the shit outta the chainrings and broke the drive side crank arm near one of the bolts.

With over four miles to go to the trailhead, we had a dilemma. Since Mr. Shepherd didn’t want to walk the whole way out, some improvisational repairs needed to be made. Since we had no fancy tools, it had to be done all “caveman” style.

Somehow those primitive tools worked, and the chainrings were sorta straight.

We started riding again, but it wasn’t long before the full extent of the crash damage was discovered. We had to stop for a looksie.

The damn rear derailleur broke in half.

It was time for another repair. Since his shifty bits were toast, we had to improvise. I pulled out my trusty chain tool and proceeded to turn his bike into a singlespeed.

I was riding my SS bike out there, so I welcomed the company. We discovered one more problem though: the chain had been damaged. I shortened it as best I could, and we got going again. I was happy to be riding, because I sure as hell didn’t plan on spending the whole day working on bikes. There was no beer on the side of the trail, so that made it difficult.

We enjoyed some more flowy goodness.

Not much later, Mr. Shepherd had to stop again. This time, the chain broke in half. It was damaged in multiple places, so fixing it was pretty much impossible. Since he’s a triathlete, he took the opportunity to work on his trail running.

After a painful few miles of Fred Flintstone style trail riding, we made it back to the trailhead. I brought up The Google on my smartphone, and we found a few area bike shops. It took the rest of the day to round up the replacement parts, so our riding was done. We had a few beers and some dinner, then headed back to Charlotte for some late-night mechanic work. At least this time we had the proper tools.

I should have the video of the actual ride finished by tomorrow, so I’ll post it up on here. I’m warning you though, it’s probably not that great (just like the rest of my videos.)

Cold Turkey

2011-11-29T08:04:00.005-05:00

While most people hung around the house on Thanksgiving morning preparing meals large enough to feed a small country, we made other plans (we actually had a turkey dinner with all the fixins the night before.) We picked up Mr. Shepherd in the morning, and headed up to the mountains for some Turkey Day singletrack. First though, we grabbed some lunchtime grub at a local supermarket. That place was full of folks doing their last minute meal shopping for the big dinner, and some of them went all out in the wardrobe department.

You couldn’t see it from this angle, but his pants said “Sexy” down the side. Wow.

Anyway, the plan was to ride Dark Mountain. We had plenty of reasons to be thankful, and mountain biking was one of them. Our merry little crew of myself, Mr. Shepherd, Little Miss Sunshine, and Lunchbox hit the trail on a chilly Thanksgiving morning.

Mr. Shepherd was happy to be riding back in North Carolina.

Little Miss Sunshine got to ride her Niner on those trails for the first time, and she loved it.

Dark Mountain is one of Lunchbox’s favorite places to ride, and he’s always glad to tag along when we go.

The trail was in good shape, even though there had been some rain in the area. There were quite a bit of leaves covering the singletrack though, so we made a few wrong turns here and there. Even though I was just there a week before, I had trouble finding my way around. Dumbass.

After realizing that we took one wrong turn that made us miss out on some trail, we decided to loop back around to hit it. Little Miss Sunshine decided to wait for us so she wouldn’t get lost.

We took off on our loop, and had a good time. There was a little bit of climbing in that section, but the super fast downhill action made it all worth it. When we finally made it back to the meeting point, Little Miss Sunshine was waiting to take photographs.

She captured me in “action.”

Followed by Mr. Shepherd:

And Lunchbox was running sweep:

After riding on the mountain for a while, we couldn’t wait to hit the very last section. It’s full of whoop de doos, jumps, and hella fast downhill shit. Before that though, Mr. Shepherd wanted to play on the rocks.

After that downhill section, we were dumped out onto the field by the lake. The sun was starting to go down on a great day of riding.

On the way home, the sun was barely visible over Lake Norman.

It was time for a feast, and feast we did. We had to replenish those calories we expended, right? The wife prepared a nice meal, and we ate, drank beer and wine, and reminisced about our ride. We also started planning the next day’s adventure, which would involve another road trip…this time with the Dirty Party Cycle. I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

We Got Right To It

2011-11-28T08:08:00.002-05:00

I told y’all last Friday that Mr. Shepherd was here. Instead of waiting until Turkey Day to ride, I met my good pal at one of our local trails for some night riding. This would be his first time on the trail in the dark, or so I thought.

While he was waiting for me to get to the trail, he decided to take a ride. The first lap was pretty normal I guess, but since the darkness was fast approaching (and I had all the lights in my possession), he had to take lap number two “Jedi Style” in the dark. He said it was pretty fun, so now I’m a little intrigued. I may just have to turn off my lights the next time I hit the trail in the dark. I’m down for some Jedi action.

Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. Well Yoda, I do. I’m reckless.

Anyway, I finally arrived at the trail. We put the extra light set on Mr. Shepherd’s bike and helmet, and we were ready to hit the trail. Instead of taking it easy on the first-time night rider, I took off a little fast. I didn’t go all out, but I wanted him to experience night riding “at speed.” We stopped a few times to keep it social and such, and he looked like he was having a good time.

The trail was a little greasy, and leaves covered the trail in a lot of places. Nevertheless, it was very fun. I love riding at night. I have to say that night riding is one of the only good things about this time of year. It gets dark way too early, but that does give me lots of time for riding in the dark. I can get used to that.

A nice little ride indeed, and Mr. Shepherd got to experience riding in the dark on the trail (with lights.) He seemed to enjoy it, but I wish we had more time to ride. Since we hadn’t seen each other in a while, we headed down to a local shopping establishment to grab some grub and a few beers. We used this time to plan the rest of our cycling adventures.

I’ll use the rest of the blog week to fill y’all in. I surely can’t spill the beans all at once. What the hell else will I talk about for the rest of the week?

I got some videos, some photos, and some crash action that changed our plans.

And of course there was beer.

Stay tuned.

The Boys Are Back In Town

2011-11-23T08:13:00.002-05:00

Well, one of them anyway. After a bit of a hiatus, Mr. Shepherd is back in North Carolina. I haven’t seen him since the last time I went to Florida, so it’s nice to have him up this way.

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, this is my last day here for the week. Thanksgiving isn’t just time for stuffing yourself and watching football. In fact, I don’t plan on doing either of those things. We had a discussion about what we should do when the old gang gets back together.

I was just sitting there drinking my coffee, eating my muffin, when I had what alcoholics refer to as a “moment of clarity.”

“We should ride fucking bicycles”, I said. “A lot. In fact, we should ride bicycles so much that other people who ride bicycles will see that we are bad motherfuckers.”

So ride bikes it is.

His stay here won’t be long, so as usual we will cram as much shit as we can into a short period of time. First up is a Turkey Day ride, followed by some kind of food (it probably won’t be Turkey, by the way.)

Friday will be a road trip, and we haven’t completely decided where. We have a few places in mind, but probably won’t decide until that morning. I’ll be sure to take lots of photos, and maybe some video.

Saturday morning, Mr. Shepherd is heading back down to the Sunshine State with the Dirty Party Cycle. The DPC decided on a vacation down that way, so Mr. Shepherd is hitching a ride. I should join them, but I think I’ll work on my neighborhood trail instead. I’ll probably get down there in the summer or something. I have a lot of travel plans for next year, and one of these days I’ll talk about them (including a trip this summer to the great white north.) For now it’s time for me to get the hell outta here.

Happy Thanksgiving, and I'll see y’all Monday.

*If you were offended by my use of the “f” word, then you are obviously not from around here. You must be from the country called What, but What ain’t no country I ever heard of. Do they speak English in What?

Exactly.

English motherfucker.

Changes

2011-11-22T08:03:00.005-05:00

After getting in a decent ride on Friday, I pretty much had all day Saturday to do some things around the house. Of course, those things involved bike stuff. First thing was to get rid of the shitty headset on my singlespeed bike.

Since I needed to take my geared bike apart for some maintenance, I took the Cane Creek headset off of it and put in on my SS.

Even with a blurry photo, it still looked better.

Notice the Bike29 bottle opener on the headset spacer stack. I took it off a while back and misplaced it somehow. Just as I was about to give up and ask for another one, I found it. You can get one for yourself here.

After cleaning and re greasing everything on The Big O, I put it back together…with my brand new 110 headset. The red really looks nice against the black frame.

After a quick tune-up, I was back in business. A clean bike is a happy bike.

Oops, I forgot to put my Awesome Strap back on the seatpost before I took the photo. Blasphemy. I can assure you it went right back on though.

I did add one more accessory though:

Yes, Lord Vader will now accompany me on my rides.

All that work actually didn’t take very long, so I grabbed some tools and rode over to my new “secret” trail for some work.

I had a few more sections planned out, so I got busy building trail.

Lunchbox rode over with me, and we got a lot done. I rerouted one section that I didn’t feel flowed very well, and we tested it out. We also used a downed tree to make a little rollover/jump. Lunchbox drew the shortest straw and ended up with the honor of testing our very first trail feature.

It didn’t move at all, probably because we packed it full of dirt for support. We even hit at full speed, and it makes for a nice jump. There is plenty of space to land on either side (the trail is designed to be ridden both directions.) We have several of these planned for the next phase too.

We spent about three hours on Saturday, and I went back Sunday morning to do a little bit more. I cut one more section of trail, and we will go back this weekend to put in some features. We’re even thinking about a ladder drop and a skinny. Basically we’ll cram as much shit as we can in our little neighborhood trail.

The trail is coming along nicely, and I’m really surprised at how well it rides. The Dirty Party Cycle even got in a ride, and he liked what he saw. We have our own little playground near the house, and it will only get better. Well, until something else comes along and grabs my attention. Hopefully I can keep up the excitement and stick to this.

Celebrated My Way

2011-11-21T08:16:00.005-05:00

With a day all to myself, I decided to head to Wilkesboro, NC for some riding on Friday. Sitting at the edge of the mountains, the trails out there are challenging enough to ride all day, but it wasn’t so far away that I felt like I would need to cut anything short. I could have my own little happy day. There was only one problem though…it was cold as shit.

I slept in a little since it was below freezing when I woke up, so that cut into my riding time. I’m not used to riding in the cold yet this season, so the small wait would do me a little good. I still had to scrape a little ice off my windshield though.

When I got there, it was still freaking cold. Since I went up in elevation a bit, I should have known that would be the case. It was around forty degrees, which I figured I could deal with. I put on a long sleeve base layer, arm warmers, and my long sleeve Cane Creek jersey (it’s warm and fuzzy inside.) On the bottom I went with shorts, leg warmers, wool socks and shoe covers. I was warm, but I felt like I overdressed. I headed over the dam to the trailhead for Dark Mountain.

Since I was trying to get close to forty miles for the day, I took off nice and slow. I wanted to conserve my energy for a long day in the saddle. The first few climbs hurt, but eventually I started to warm up and get my legs going. The trail was in good shape, except for the leaves everywhere. It was hard to follow sometimes.

Dark Mountain was fun as always, and I felt pretty good out there. Even though I was wearing a ton of clothing, I still didn’t get too warm. I headed over to the trailhead for the Overmountain Victory Trail (OVT.)

OVT is fun and fast, with a lot of ups, downs, twists and turns. There weren’t as many leaves on the trail, so I was able to haul ass. Well, until I almost hit a tree.

There was a pretty good-sized tree blocking the trail, and I was going pretty fast when I saw it. I found a way around it, and continued on my way. After riding the six mile trail (plus the two and a half mile loop off of it), I reached the end. I still had quite a ways to go on my journey, but I took the opportunity to take a break and refuel.

Now it was time for a small ride to the trail at Warrior Creek. They don’t connect through the woods, so you have to ride on the road a bit to get to the entrance. It was a nice break I guess.

All of a sudden, I saw a sign.

Uh, I mean I heard something. On the way to Warrior Creek, I started hearing gunshots. Not just one here and there, but a lot. As in, lots of people in the woods shooting guns lots of times.

Then I remembered seeing this sign earlier:

After thinking about it, I decided that I would be better off skipping Warrior Creek. With all the clothing I had on, it still wouldn’t be enough to stop a misguided bullet from a misguided hunter. I don’t usually ride in a bulletproof vest, so it would be in my best interest to turn around and head back. I would be nuttier than a squirrel turd if I rode any further.

I wasn’t really disappointed, since I still got in plenty of mileage. I only saw one other person out on the trail, so I was pretty much alone (other than the firing range action.) That’s exactly how I wanted to spend my day in the woods. I like riding with other people, but some days I just want to be all by myself. It was just what I needed on my birthday. Well, that and a nice hoppy beverage.

Cutting It Short

2011-11-17T07:26:00.003-05:00

This is the end of my work week. Tomorrow is my birthday, and for the first time in many years I’ve decided to take the day off (from work and blogging.) I was gonna hire some strippers and have a big party, but I couldn’t find anything that would get me “excited.”

So, I have a plan to do something on the bike. That’s not any different than anything else I’d be doing on my day off, so it sounds good to me. I’m heading to the mountains for some kind of an epic solo ride. I have all day to ride, so I can get lost, have a shitload of mechanicals, or pretty much anything else. As soon as I ship Lunchbox off to school in the wee hours of the morning, I’m hitting the road. Riding until I can’t ride any more seems like the best way to celebrate the first day of my 39th year on this planet. I’ll try to come up with a ride report or something, or maybe even a shitty video.

With a three day weekend, I can ride my ass off (and drink shitloads of beer to celebrate my birfday.) I’ll probably be too tired after tomorrow’s adventures though, so I have some mechanical action planned. I just got this yesterday:

What’s inside?

A new Cane Creek 110 headset. I have one on The Big O already, but this is sorta for an upgrade on my singlespeed bike. It has some generic Cane Creek knock off headset, and it’s about time I upgraded it. I’ll put the shiny new red one on The Big O to match the rest of the red accessories, and the black one will go on my singlespeed. Should be an easy enough, since all I have to do is swap out the top cap and bearings (it’s an integrated headset.)

That little act of mechanic work can’t possibly take all day, but I have other work to do. My bike is squeaking in a few places, so it’s time for a tear down and rebuild. That will be fun, since I like building bikes (and tearing shit up.) I also got some stuff from Bike29, but I’ll get to that next week.

After the bike work, the plan is to head over to my new “secret” trail and put in some more singletrack. The route has been marked, and now it’s time to lay some trail in them thar woods. I like construction.

I think I was just looking for an excuse to use this video clip, since it’s one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies, which talks about one of my other favorite movies.

Thanks to those of you that came over here looking to buy a Dirt Diva calendar. Since Dicky talked about it yesterday, my hits over here more than doubled. That’s pretty awesome, but more of you need to buy some. You can't just keep scouring the Internets for free previews and junk.

Anyway, I’ll see y’all Monday.

It’s A Secret

2011-11-16T08:13:00.004-05:00

But, it looks like I’m gonna blab it all over the Internets anyway.

Don’t worry though, I’ll use some Jedi Mind Trick action to keep you from remembering what you are about to read.

I found some land near the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters that’s just begging to have some trail on it. Actually I’ve been contemplating putting some singletrack on this particular piece of property for years, but I haven’t really been able to find the time. Now is the time.

It’s not much land, but it has potential. And while it won’t replace any of our fine local trail systems, it will be something close to the house that’s fun. The main use will probably be for top secret new parts testing, since now I usually just ride up and down the street when I install new shit. Now I can ride some “real” singletrack and do a proper test. If shit fails, then I can walk home in a matter of minutes.

Sunday was my first trail work day. I’ve walked the property several times before, and I have a good idea of how I want to route the trail. There is actually some good elevation change in there, along with the potential for technical trail features. For now though, I have to start small.

I took these photos, and did a little more finish work to the first section. After completing it, I rode back to the house to get Lunchbox. He put down his bowl of Fruity Pebbles, grabbed his bike, and we went for a little test ride.

Me: What do you think?

Lunchbox: Wow.

Me: What do you mean, “wow?”

LB: It’s pretty fun for being so short. Can we put some jumps in?

Me: Yup. Just be here for the next trail workday.

After laying out the next section, we found some good-sized logs to use as jumps/rollovers. The plan is to cut the next section of trail this weekend, and it will have some jumps, bermed turns, and a fast downhill section. I’m pretty excited about it, which explains why I’m posting about it up here. When it’s all finished, only a privileged few will get to partake in its goodness. It’s not a destination trail by any means, but if word gets out on its location it could see more traffic than I intended. You can bet your ass I don’t plan on blabbing that all over the Internets.

It’s designed to me my own private playground, and also for Lunchbox to get in a few laps after school without having someone drive him to one of our local trails. Trailbuilding is fun, and even better when it’s so close to home. While I’m not the master of trail design and construction, this should be good for me when nothing else is rideable. I should’ve done this a long time ago.

In other news, we did another night ride last night. I didn’t get a chance to go through the photos, but if they are worth a shit then I will have a ride report. If not, then I probably won’t have a damn thing to talk about. Tune in next time to see what happens.

One last thing. Dicky did a write-up for the new Dirt Diva calendars, with lots of previews and such. Don’t worry, no women were harmed in the cropping of photos. Go check it out, but make sure your boss isn’t watching over your shoulder.

After The Fall

2011-11-15T08:15:00.005-05:00

Yep, it’s fall around here. That’s not what I’m talking about though. My fall the other week left me with quite a bit of broken shit, and it was something I had to take care of.

You’ve seen the (not so) serious damage.

Broken bike computer:

My silly little bell:

And of course the most serious, my Mandalorian trail riding companion:

I had to get things right in the galaxy again, so I spent most of my free time last week gathering replacements. I can’t stand to have broken and/or missing shit on my bike.

First up was a new computer.

Nothing fancy, but it is just like the one I had. I didn’t have to do anything special to install it, other than removing the old one from the mount and snapping the new one in place. I love easy shit.

While I was at it, my Mandalorian dude healed up nicely, so I zip-tied his ass back to the bike. I assured him he won’t get hurt again, but I don’t think he’s buying it.

Last, but not least, is my new bell. I use a bell to warm other trail users that I’m approaching, and also on the rare occasion that I need to pass someone in a race.

Wow, real exciting.

What is exciting is the fact that I got a package from the folks at Clean Bottle da udda day. After a whole season of riding with their stuff, I’ve worn out my bottles. They still work fine, but all the rub marks from my bottle cage has made seeing the logo difficult. I’m all about whoring myself out for advertising, so I wanted some new bottles to display the logo proudly.

They’ve added the option of black lids on the bottles, and redesigned the graphics. The bottle is still just as good, but they look a little bit better (in my worthless opinion.) You can still unscrew both ends to clean them better, and they are dishwasher safe. These are the only bottles I’ve ever been able to keep clean, since I have a habit of leaving stuff in them for days after a ride.

These bottles are available from fine retailers like REI and also from the Clean Bottle website for $9.95. If you order from the website you can buy three bottles and get one for free. You can even mix and match blue and black bottles. Plus, ten percent of their profits go to eco-friendly charities. New this year, you can have custom bottles printed. See the website for details.

I’m proud to say “No more riding dirty” again for another season.

I have some other items on the way, but they haven't arrived yet. So, this concludes today’s broadcast. Thanks for suffering through it.

Ribbon Cutting

2011-11-14T08:00:00.007-05:00

Saturday was the big day. We headed out to The Uwharrie National Forest for the big ol’ grand opening, and I was excited. Uwharrie is one of my favorite places to ride, and from what I’d heard it was much better. I guess the only way to find out was to ride.

Lunchbox, the Space Cowboy, and I hit the trail, and couldn’t wait to see what kind of improvements were done out there.

I saw a few surprises out there, like this freshly-made log ride:

And some slickrock:

And Lunchbox riding over the slickrock:

Wow, just wow. This trail has been reworked in such a way that makes it not only more sustainable, buy way more fun. Some may feel that it has been “dumbed-down”, but I say horseshit. Some roots may have been removed, and some rocky sections bypassed, but the trail definitely still has its same rugged charm. Besides, all the climbing is still there, as well as some super-fast, hauling ass downhill. The climbs are still just as challenging, since they used all parts of these ancient mountains for the new trails

So yeah, the trails are even more awesome that ever. The goal is to make Uwharrie a destination trail, and I think we are well on our way. I didn’t get as many photos on the trail as I wanted, but that should tell you how fun it was. I was too busy riding to worry about busting out the camera. Next time I'll bring my GoPro. By the way, there was a celebration in addition to the riding.

This new trail was made possible by local sponsors, our local clubs, the U.S. Forest Service, IMBA/SORBA, and a host of individuals and their efforts. We did have a ceremony, which included a huge check.

And yes, they cut the ribbon.

There was food, raffle prizes, and something that even surprised the shit outta me…a pushup contest.

Photo credit: Todd Tucker

Brian, host of the event and former owner of Middle Ring Cycles (I rode for them a while back), asked for anyone in the crowd that had participated in an XTERRA event in Uwharrie. I raised my hand, and (along with another guy) I was called to the head of the class. Brian said that we would do pushups for 20 seconds, and the winner would get a prize. “Aw shit”, I thought.

And we were off. I normally do pushups regularly as part of my upper body strength workout, and I can usually knock out 100 in a row. Since I hurt my wrist a while back though, I was worried about being able to even do one. I heard the cheers of the crowd though, and I couldn’t let my fans down. I got busy, and showed everyone how to do perfect pushups.

I guess all those years in the Army paid off.

I ended up with 21 in 20 seconds, but the other guy said he did 22 (he kept going after time expired.). The crowd saw it differently, and knew that I had won. To avoid any conflict, we both got a prize. I want a rematch though. I’m sure that I beat him, but I need him to know that. It’s always fun to humiliate your competition.

I walked out of there with a little bit of loot though.

I am the swag master, and I do pushups better than you.

Into The Night

2011-11-11T08:34:00.001-05:00

I got out for yet another night ride this week. This time, it was at Fisher Farm Park in Davidson, NC. I’ve never ridden there at night, but the local shop owner and trail coordinator started hosting weekly excursions at the park after the sun went down. I couldn’t pass it up.

We had a group of about nine or so, including my pal Mr. Ryde. He led us around the trail for a little while.

The temperature outside was cool, but not too cold. I took some photos while we were riding, but I didn’t use the flash for fear of messing up our night vision. It made for shitty pictures.

The ride wasn’t at a super fast pace, and we stopped every so often to regroup.

On the last lap I ran sweeper, which gave me more time to experiment with the lighting.

It was a great ride. I love riding at night for sure, and I definitely love riding two days in a row. Now, if I can only figure out a way to ride every day.

In other news, this weekend is the Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at the new Uwharrie trails in Troy, NC. These trails were fun before, but lots of grant money and professional-type trail work is turning that place into something much better. People from all over North Carolina will be there at high noon tomorrow for the festivities, which include riding (duh) and some food. There also may be some hobnobbing with the locals, and an impromptu hunt for Bigfoot may break out. Come join us.

Oh yeah, here’s an update for the Dirt Divas Calendar. You can pick one up at the following local establishments:

Cool Breeze Cyclery and the Trek Store of Charlotte

Queen City Bicycles

The Cycle Path

Blood Sweat Gears

One last thing. Happy Veterans Day to all of my fellow veterans. Thank you.

See y’all Monday.

More Nighttime Fun

2011-11-10T08:24:00.003-05:00

I went to a cyclocross race da udda night. Not to race, since I don’t do that type of riding. There is a local CX series here, and it’s located at the same park as one of our trails. We watched a little bit of the action, and it was kinda cool to see.

I still don’t see myself getting into it, but I understand why people do it. It’s difficult and it’s really great training. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t see any of this though:

That is the now-famous “second view.”

Anyway, we didn’t really go out just to watch cyclocross. Since we knew the park was open late, it was a prime opportunity for night riding.

Okay, sorry about that. I meant that it was our chance to ride our mountain bicycles in the dark on the trail. I got to take Lunchbox out for his first-ever night ride, and he was a little nervous about it. The Dirty Party Cycle and several other local cycling folks met us out there, and we took a spin out on the singletrack.

I didn’t get any photos since we were so busy riding, but I can tell you that Lunchbox had a blast. He had plenty of light, and actually did well out there. At one point on the ride he shot past the DPC and I on a long climb, then proceeded to drop our slow asses in the woods. That kid is fast, and he loves to let me know it. After talking about our ride on the way home, he agreed that night riding is the bee’s knees. That means we’ll be doing quite a bit of it in the near future. That’s good since it gets dark so early now.

On another note, I’ve been getting reminders lately that I’m not drinking enough beer. Throughout my travels around this fine city, I keep spotting subtle hits that I shouldn’t stray too far from the delicious hoppy beverage.

Well, so much for trying to cut back in the offseason. “Drink up” I say.

In other news, I wanted to mention that George wrote in interesting blog yesterday regarding the history of Bike29. I posed the question, and he answered it. Go read it. It’s a good story.

I’ll be back tomorrow with who knows what else. I’m sure I’ll shit out something good before then.

And The Sun Went Down

2011-11-09T08:21:00.004-05:00

After the ride on Saturday, it was time to party. With all the crashing behind me, I dug into the cooler and the beer started flowing. It was the best medicine ever. There was a ton of food too. We dug right in. After filling my belly, they held a big raffle for lots of prizes.

I bought lots of raffle tickets. Unlike the last couple of these events though, I didn’t win a damn thing. Lunchbox and Little Miss Sunshine took home some goodies, so I guess that means I can’t cry about my bad luck.

After the food and raffle, it was time to play with fire.

Actually we just gathered around it and finished off the beer in my cooler.

Then Lunchbox started doing magic tricks.

Now you see him…

Now you don’t…

Bike riding, beer, and food. I can’t think of a better way to party. There was something else going on out there though. Over the last few months, the Dirt Divas have been secretly working on a calendar. I say “secretly” because it’s a little risqué.

Apparently some ladies in the club gathered on several different occasions to photograph themselves for the calendar, but I received no other details. These photo sessions no doubt involved pillow fights and tickling, but the general public was not invited. Well, I finally got a chance to see the calendar. They went on sale for the first time at the party on Saturday.

Hmmm.

I peeked inside, and sure enough it was a calendar. It has dates, days of the week, and perfectly symmetrical squares. You know, all the stuff you would normally find in a calendar.

It was tastefully done. It’s not some perverted nudie calendar. The ladies are portrayed in a classy way. While I could go through and photograph all the pictures in there, I won’t. You’ll have to buy one. I can give you a sneak peek though.

Did you notice the Awesome Strap? Did you even notice that there was a bike in that picture? Hello? Are you there?

I’m not telling you which one of our local Divas that is. You’ll have to buy one and see for yourself. They will be for sale in a few local shops here in Charlotte, as well at some upcoming events. I’ll let you know when I know the exact locations. If you aren’t local and you want one, we can figure out a way to ship one to you. They are well worth the $20 investment (and they support the Dirt Divas.) Shoot me an e-mail -The Mutt 43 AT gmail DOT com. I’m sure you know not to use spaces and to replace the capitalized words with the appropriate Internets symbols, right?

Operators are standing by. Well, sitting, but whatever.

Crash Test Dummy

2011-11-08T08:18:00.008-05:00

Saturday was the big year-end party for the Tarheel Trailblazers and the Dirt Divas. The party consisted of multiple group rides, followed by food and drink. We got there early, and the groups started splitting up.

It was a little bit chilly out there, but Lunchbox thought we were riding at the North Pole or something.

I somehow ended up being the leader for our group, which was pretty small. I was happy to lead, especially since the group didn’t really feel like going out for hot laps. I’m still getting back into the swing of things from the 2011 Death Virus, so a nice leisurely pace sounded good.

The ride started out pretty normal, and we stopped every so often to regroup. I felt like the pace was okay, and no one in the group really complained. I felt pretty good out there, but I was having trouble with some of my “skills.” I guess I’m not fully recovered, and my balance seems to be the last thing coming back. As I led our group through a small rock garden, I made a stupid mistake. My front wheel fell into a little hole, and while I was standing up to pedal I ended up going over the bars. It was a slow crash, and I actually fell kinda gently to the ground. The part that really hurt though was when my bike fell on me, smashing my legs into the rocks beneath me. That shit hurt. Despite my knee swelling up and getting a little trail rash, I was able to continue the ride. I managed to break some shit on my bike though.

First was my bike computer:

Then I noticed that my bell had snapped clean off:

And worst of all, my little Mandalorian got his ass kicked too:

I felt like an ass for crashing. You know, since I was the ride leader and all. We kept going, and I thought the worst was behind me. After coming down a sketchy hill around a corner, I slipped on a root and bailed again. This time though, I hopped off my bike and tried to run it out. There was a long, sharp tree branch hanging on the side of the trail, and I ran right into it. I stabbed myself in the ribs, leaving a nice little mark. It hurt a lot worse than my endo. Damn it.

I didn’t have any of these issues when I raced on the same trail for twelve hours, so I can chalk my crashes up to my recovery. I felt like such a noob though, and it humbled me a bit. Maybe I won’t get elected “ride leader” next time. That way I can sit back and watch someone else crash right in front of me. Hopefully my group got a kick out of my mishaps. I wasn’t hurt too bad, so I was able to laugh about it.

What about the party? Well, you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to hear about that. There was an unveiling of sorts, so you don’t want to miss it. See y’all then.

The Big Disappointment

2011-11-07T08:21:00.006-05:00

Another Big Stampede has come and gone, and I wonder if this might be the last. Even though I wasn’t really in the market for anything, I was still looking forward to it. Turns out there was a lot of shit there I didn’t really want to see.

Yuck.

Sorry about that. Even if you include the hairy ass crack, there just wasn’t a whole lot going on at the Big Stampede this year. It seemed like vendor turnout was low, and there wasn’t a whole lot in the way of goods being sold. The stuff that was there was mostly roadie anyway, although there was a little bit of mountain bike stuff sprinkled in. It just wasn’t very busy.

To offset the cost of admission (five bucks), I wandered around looking for deals. I ended up spending money on shit for the other people in my group.

Little Miss Sunshine got some roadie shoes and pedals, and I bought Lunchbox some new gloves. Even though a few deals were had, I still didn’t feel like I accomplished anything. Besides, I didn’t get anything for myself yet.

I looked through everything for sale, and came close to buying a few things. I didn’t have anything in mind, but I eventually realized that I could start shopping for upgrades to my singlespeed bike. I looked for some new rear cogs, but the only ones I could find were 18 and 16 tooth. I have those sizes already, and I was on the lookout for at least a 17 and 19 tooth. Since I couldn’t find anything, I thought about other things on my one-geared bike that needed to be upgraded. After glancing over at a table full of suspension forks, I realized what I should have been searching for all along.

The shitty fork on my singlespeed was well, shitty, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to upgrade. I saw a fork that fit the bill, but I had used up most of my cash helping the rest of my crew buy things. I quickly started looking for an ATM machine. The Dirty Party Cycle had his skateboard in the car, so I grabbed it and set out to find some cash.

Although I couldn’t give a shit less about NASCRAP, it was kinda cool rolling around on a skateboard on the infield of the track where the swap meet was held.

After getting some more dough, I headed back to claim my prize. I got a helluva deal on a RockShox Reba Race.

It was in great shape, and I offered the proprietor eighty bucks for it (it was listed for $85.) He didn’t hesitate, and sold it to me right away. The fork was in awesome shape, and everything seemed to work just fine. It would quickly replace the current fork on my singlespeed.

Although it’s an older model fork, it’s way better than the one I had. Since I am a spectacular bike mechanic, I swapped out the forks in record time.

Even though I picked up a few things at the Big Stampede, I’m sill not convinced that it was worth my time. It seemed like there were far fewer attendees this year, and the items for sale weren’t as good. I almost felt like I wasted my time, but at least I got a better fork out of it. I also got to see lots of my cycling friends, which helped make the day a little bit better. I’m not sure if I’ll go next year. Hell, I’m not sure if there will be a next year. I guess I should start stocking up on parts so I don’t have to suffer anymore. I don’t like to be disappointed.

Time To Saddle Up

2011-11-04T08:52:00.000-04:00

I don’t ride horses, but I’m still getting ready. Once again, it’s time for the Big Stampede here in Charlotte. If you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about (usually people don’t), here is some info from the website:

What is the BIG STAMPEDE?

How about the biggest bicycle expo and swap to hit the Southeast! Big Stampede features 25,000 square feet of manufacturers, retailers, clubs/teams, and individuals buying, selling, and swapping new and used cycling and triathlon equipment. A place for YOU to sell your old gear, and buy or swap for new gear, plus a whole lot more!

I’m not in the “sell” category, but I sure as hell plan on being there. It’s like a big bicycle-themed flea market. I don’t really need any bike stuff, but I’m always down to sift through people’s used shit to find a deal on something I just can’t live without. Who knows what I’ll find.

In other news, I’m actually riding my bike this weekend. We’re having a party at one of our local trails. This will be the year-end party for the Tarheel Trailblazers and the Dirt Divas. It’s always a fun time. There will be riding, eating, beer drinking, and there are prizes to be won. Unlike most giveaways, I’m usually pretty lucky at this event. I always walk away with tons of bike-related shit I don’t need. It looks like I’ll have two days of bike junk hoarding.

Awesome.

Rest assured that when I get back here on Monday, I’ll have photos of drunken bicycle riding, errant bike parts shopping, and whatever the hell else I get into over the next two days. I somehow how to find a way to post a week’s worth of shit on here, don’t I?

Lost

2011-11-03T08:30:00.004-04:00

I travel quite a bit for my job. Most of it is local though, so I usually end up seeing the same old shit. No exotic locations with fancy new trail systems, no sun and sand, nothing special. It’s still nice not to be stuck in an office all the time though. Yesterday I had to head down to the South Carolina backcountry, to a place I’ve never been before. Once in a while I go to these types of locations, and I don’t usually have a problem finding them. After plugging the address into my (not-so) trusty GPS, I was off.

A forty five minute drive turned into two hours. I got hella lost. I ended up on some backwoods country road, and I thought I heard the sound of banjos. I looked up and this is what I saw.

Eventually I ended up on the main drag, and it wasn’t until driving up and down it for a bit did I finally find my destination. The issue I went there to fix took only five minutes, but I wasted half a day because of my stupidity. Luckily they pay me good money to wander around aimlessly looking for shit.

What does this have to do with bicycles? Absolutely nothing. I almost got in a ride yesterday, but I ran out of the house in such a hurry on the way to work that I forgot my bike. Yesterday was pretty much a fail, and I can live with that. There are plenty more days left on the calendar for me to fuck up.

I’m supposed to be getting back into the swing of things after fighting off the 2011 Death Virus. The riding part hasn’t quite panned out like I wanted it to, but I did jump back into another one of my many pleasures: beer.

I finally feel good enough to start drinking the hoppy goodness again, and I started off with a Loose Cannon IPA from Heavy Seas Brewing. It’s one of my favorites, and you would know that if you take the time to read this shit. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’m happy to have it back in the beer fridge.

Yesterday pretty much sucked (aside from the beer.) I guess I get a little pissy when I don’t get to ride my bike. Sorry about that. Things will get better, especially since I have a whole weekend of bicycle stuff planned. Stay tuned…or just hang around.