All In

It’s a new year.  Well, it’s a few days old, but whatever.  I’m not the type of person that makes resolutions, because quite frankly people that do that don’t usually stick to them.  However, I did make a promise to myself that I would ride more and get myself ready for the upcoming season.

I’m not sure what the “season” entails just yet, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have shit to do.

With rainy weather around here (again) I wondered if I would be able to get my ass out in the dirt.  I needed some alone time too.  I decided to head eats of here to the “little” mountains, Uwharrie.  It’s a fun place, and perfect for a ride all by my lonesome.  I dressed sorta warm, and when I started to get my shit together I grabbed my CamelBak to prepare for all day hydration.  I found a little surprise.

A Deviant Dales that I had forgotten about?  So rad.

I left it in my pack and took off.  I started off too cold, and quickly became too warm on the first set of climbs.  Once I headed downhill for a spell I cooled off again.  This is the part where I mention that my feet stayed the perfect temperature, thanks to DeFeet:

It was quite the adventure.  I climbed, descended, and had a great time.  I saw a few people here and there, but rode all by myself the entire day.  For being so close to Charlotte and riding in the old (and small) mountains , the views sorta reminded me of being in the “real” mountains.

Not my resolution (I don’t make those, remember?), but I got to ride in the dirt on the first day of the year.  The goal is to put many, many miles in on several of my bikes this year, and have fun in the process.  Maybe that means I have to be a little more serious?

I dunno.

I’ll ride, have fun, and make sure I don’t get burned out over dumb shit.

Happy New Year and all that.

Back Into The Swing Of Things

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

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.

It’s Been A Good One

Yes, this is the standard, “What I did this year” post, although I probably won’t get into too much detail (okay, I will.) First and foremost, I’d like to thank you, my loyal readers, for following along for the past year. I’ve picked up quite a few new visitors, and it makes me happy. If you didn’t come here every day and read this shit, I’d pretty much be talking to myself.


Second, I’d like to thank all of the folks listed over there on the left for their support. In one way or another, these fine organizations have helped me race, blog, and just ride for fun this past year. I don’t want to get into which one is better than the other, so I will just say thanks to you all. My dealings with you all have made this year fun and exciting.


What have I accomplished? Well, in the grand scheme of things, nothing. But, in my own little world of bicycling, it’s been a pretty good year. I started off last year by “racing” in the Winter Short Track Series with a piece of shit bike I built up, and it barely kept me out of last place (I’m sure my fitness had a lot to do with that though.)


In April, I competed in my first-ever solo endurance race, the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek. It was definitely a learning experience, and it was also one of the most difficult things I had ever done at the time. I didn’t do so well, but it made me fall in love with endurance racing. I guess that’s a good thing.


Shortly after that race, I built up my very own 29er. From that point on, my mountain biking became more complete. Eventually I committed to riding big wheels full time, and I’m not looking back. In fact, in May I competed in another 6 hour race (the Grind On The Greenway) with my new big-wheeled machine. Because of those bigger wheels, I did a little better. 29ers (and endurance racing) would be here to stay for me.


Back in June, I did my first race in the State of Virginia. It was good to race on a course that I had never ridden before, and I vowed that in the future I would do more races like that. During that same month, I won a silver medal in the North Carolina State Games. June was busy, but fun nonetheless.


July was the busiest by far. I entered the XTERRA Whitewater, and we also spent a week riding all over the place when Mr. Shepherd came to visit. Our adventures took us to the mountains several times, as well as on our local trails. We even did a nice road ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. A few weeks later, I headed down to Florida for some more riding, this time with Mr. Shepherd, Senor Oeste, and Lunchbox. That month flew by, but I got in a ton of riding.


August was a little shitty, as I broke two different bike frames. I bounced back from that though, and we ended up doing a lot of riding out in the mountains again. Things turned around the next month though, when I got to watch Little Miss Sunshine compete in her first triathlon. Also, I finally made the switch to tubeless tires.


October was chock full of good stuff, starting with our local Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day. Then it was time for my first crack at a solo 12 hour race, the Tree Shaker. I did better than expected, so now I’m looking for more long-distance events.


November was okay, but I broke a rib riding in the mountains. Also, Lunchbox broke his first bike frame. It wasn’t all bad though, since I eventually healed and got back to riding in the mountains. This month has been pretty uneventful as far as bikes go, but at least I’m still here talking about stuff I guess.


Sure, I only mentioned the good stuff (and not all of it), but that’s how I choose to remember 2010. That’s the beauty of writing about my own shit, I can tell it however I see it. I’m looking forward to an even bigger and better year for 2011, and I hope you’ll all stick around for it. That being said, I wish you all a Happy and Safe New Year. I’ll see y’all Monday.