I’m Done With Pisgah

For now.  I’ll go back soon.

Since the project at work that’s been kicking my ass is slowing down, it looks like I’m finally able to start riding regularly again.  Last night we got back to our Tuesday social ride and I couldn’t be happier.  Well, I would be happier if the trail we rode wasn’t full of unnecessary “improvements”, but whatever.  A ride is a ride, and it was still fun.  You know, despite the shitty trail work, I mean “improvements.” 

Before that ride though, I had to do a little bike work.

It’s been so long since I’d ridden my rigid that it still had the gear on it from the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek.

And that shit is way too spinny for anything around here, so I put on a more local-friendly cog.

So exciting, right?  Let’s keep going.  In honor of Star Wars Day this past Sunday, I finally got around to putting Darth Maul back on my bike, which coincidentally is also called Darth Maul.

Okay, I’m really trying to hard to come up with stuff to talk about.  That’s okay, because I made a video.

So yeah, I guess I’m not really done with Pisgah.

I had the setting on my GoPro wrong, which resulted in it not being in widescreen and also a choppyish video (aside from the roots and rocks making me bounce around.)  I’m not even sure if it really shows the gnar that is Black Mountain (but it does show how fast you can go on Thrift Cove.)  If you’ve ridden it, I guess you know.

Did you watch it all?  I mean, all of it?  I included a blooper at the end because even cool guys like me* crash from time to time**.

Anyway, I guess there’s a reason I don’t make videos more often.

See y’all tomorrow.

*I’m not a cool guy.  I don’t even play one on The Internets.

**I actually crash quite a bit.  This time I just got lucky enough to capture it on camera.  Too bad it wasn’t a violent crash.  You know, ‘cause I love y’all.

“Acting” Like A Pro

I’ve stumbled upon two videos in which I make an appearance. Sure, I make my own videos, but these clips were filmed by people other than me. Who the hell would do such a thing? Well, other than my own selfish self (what?), my racing pal Todd Tucker took some video from the Stump Jump race.


 I’m in it, but not for long (even though there’s quite a bit of footage.) You can see me sprinting off the start, and riding along up until I got passed at about the 2:40 mark. You can even see Lunchbox on the side of the trail taking photos at about the 2:50 mark.


 


 Yeah, I still think that my choice of (non) gears was silly. Oh yeah, I’m a “real” celebrity now. Check out this video from Bicycle Sport that was posted on BikeRumor for their Bike Shop Video Challenge. Looks like most of it was filmed during the Foundry Cycles launch party back in March. I’m there drooling over a bike, and there’s another scene where I’m talking to Dicky about how we’ll never drink tons of beer again.


 

I'll be signing autographs at a location near you soon.


That’s it for today. I was gonna skip posting all together, so this is better than nothing.


 Or not.

More Urban Assault Fun

I know, it was a week and a half ago. So what. With all the crap I had going on lately, I finally got around to editing my video from the New Belgium Urban Assault Ride. Just like the rest of my videos, it’s not a cinematic marvel or some shit like that. I basically had to take over an hour and a half of footage and edit it down to less than ten minutes. I have to keep things short to deal with the short attention span of most of y’all.

Check it:




I tried to keep all the good parts in there, and hopefully (if you weren’t there) you can see what the Urban Assault Ride was all about. It was a helluva lot of fun for sure, and I can’t wait until they come back again.


Oh yeah, I found the missing picture from the Uptown Cycles checkpoint. You know, the one where I got to pull Lunchbox around on a skateboard.




Yeah, we look sexy in our man-skirts.



Anyway, since I worked my ass off making that silly video, I’ll stop here.


See y’all tomorrow and such.

The Hunt For Bigfoot

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.

Trail Wars

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.

From A Certain Point Of View

Things can be different. While going through the footage from my GoPro that I captured at FATS, I started seeing the same old shit. A little front tire, the trail in front of me, and lots of yawning from boredom. While riding through the woods on a bike is hella fun, it’s not always fun to see it on camera. At one point on our ride I moved my camera to the seatpost, and aimed it backwards towards my rear tire. When I did it I told Lunchbox that I didn’t think that it would turn out worth a shit, but I tried it anyway. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw it.


So, here is yet another video from the Forks Area Trail System. The beginning is the usual stuff, with Lunchbox jumping in front of me at one point. A little over halfway through though, I switched it up with the footage from my rear-facing camera. I really liked it.





Not too bad, I guess. I think that in the future I will try using different vantage points with the camera. I have a shitload of different mounting possibilities, so my aim is to try them all. You get to suffer through it all. Good for you, right?


As far as the ride went, I already told you that it was awesome. Originally I had planned to bring along my singlespeed, but at the last minute I grabbed my geared bike. I think I did it because I have much nicer parts on it than the singlespeed, which makes me enjoy the ride more. As far as the gears go though, I probably didn’t need them. I ended up staying in the same gear the whole time, which ended up being 32X18. I guess I’m really hooked on the singlespeed fad for sure now. I guess I should start planning on my next set of wheels (singlespeed specific, of course.) George, are you ready to build some?


On a more positive note, I did ride my singlespeed on a local trail last night. I loved it. The same, boring trail has been made new again by taking my gears away. It’s amazing how the simple things make everything all new and shiny again.


By the way, I won’t be here tomorrow. I have to get up at the crack of dark to head to Winston-Salem for work, and I don’t see myself getting up extra early to post up on here. See y’all Thursday.

I’ll Make You A Star

Day three of reporting on the Urban Assault Ride, but I promise this is the last of it. It’s time for the video, because well, I’m pretty much done talking about the event. I finally sat down at went through all of the footage on my GoPro, and I must say that it was a pain in the ass. After looking at almost two hours of video, I was able to edit it down to about ten minutes. I know most people don’t have an attention span that long, but I feel like I caught the most important stuff from the ride, uh, I mean race. I couldn’t get it any shorter than that.


I covered most of the route, and all of the checkpoints. I’m no Steven Spielberg, but I think it came out okay. I worked hard on the editing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a blockbuster.


If you look closely, you’ll see Dicky, Little Miss Sunshine, and Lunchbox (and of course my teammate the Dirty Party Cycle.) If you’re not one of the people I mentioned and you participated in the ride, you still might see yourself in there too. I’ll make you famous on the Internets.


Watch it now:





By the way, we ended up 34th out of close to 100 teams in our class. Not to shabby for a couple of mountain bikers that don’t know the big city all that well. I wish next year would hurry up and get here so we can do it again.


You will have to wait too. I have the next two days off, so that means no blogging. Maybe Mr. Shepherd will step in and catch us up with his racing adventures down in the Sunshine State, or maybe he won’t. Otherwise, I’ll be back here on Monday. See y’all then.

Testing

I’m busy. Way too busy to be on here posting a bunch of nonsense. I’m busy with other nonsense, if you must know. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Let’s just say that I’ve been looking for things, and planning for other things. It may be interesting, but most likely it will be about the same as usual around here.


Since I won’t be blessing you with my words, I’ll give you something else. Yes, another video. This is from my trip to Bent Creek a little while back. It’s the last of the footage I had from my GoPro, so I thought I should put it on the Internets. It’s from what I think is the best trail out there at Bent Creek, a little gem called Green’s Lick. The trail is fun, super fast, pucker your asshole kinda downhill. You go a lot faster than you want to on this section of singletrack goodness. The danger factor and penalty for failure is pretty high; just the way I like it.

The first park of the video is the trail, followed by a fast, smooth fireroad descent. Even though it’s fireroad, the loose gravel combined with excess speed can be tricky. I dig that. I also went in a different direction with the music, using a little Flogging Molly. Enjoy.





See y’all tomorrow with my weekend itinerary.

Media Day

With what’s left of my race season uncertain, I really don’t have a whole lot to talk about. That doesn’t usually stop me, so here goes. First off is my injury report. My hard headedness is not cured, and probably won’t be. My arm on the other hand, is better. While I’m not any sort of medical professional (I do work in a hospital though), I can tell you that it is healing up just fine. My wrist was probably just sprained, and the rest of the pain in my arm is gone. The swelling is down to an almost back to normal state. That means I’ll be back on the bike (and the skateboard) pretty soon. How soon? Maybe tonight for the bike, and whenever I get a chance for the skateboard. Until I do, here’s a reminder of how dangerous (and funny) skateboarding can be.





There is a group ride tonight, and I’m gonna try my best to get there. It’s really close to home, so I really have no excuse. If I can hold on to the handlebars, I’m in. If I can’t, I’m probably in anyway. I told you I was hard headed, and if I get hurt worse then Little Miss Sunshine will probably say, “I told you so.” Being a medical professional herself, she knows better than I do. That’s what makes me somewhat of an idiot sometimes though; not listening to the sound advice of others.


Next up, is another video. This one is my own creation. I had a part two of my Uwharrie ride in the works, but YouTube disabled the audio because I didn’t have permission. Bastards. It wasn’t that great anyway. Since it was pretty much a total fail, I put together some slightly better footage from my trip to Bent Creek. It’s kinda long, but I wanted to capture the entire run on that particular trail. I get good and hauling ass on the last part, and every time I watch it I’m reminded why I like that place so much. If you can suffer through it, you may see why too.





That’s all folks.

Who Needs A Plan?

I do. Especially if it can keep me from eating a shitload of donuts. For the first time in a long time, I have a free weekend. I’m not even sure what to do with it. It’s been so long since I’ve had a weekend without a race or some other kind of event to attend that I wasn’t ready for it. I’ve been thinking of a few things I can do though.


I could try that new Hillbilly Handfishing fad:




Or take a trip to the beach with my Star Wars pals:




Speaking of Star Wars, I could take my ATAT for a walk:




Perhaps my old ass can do a little skateboarding:




Or the most fun of all, drinking and driving:





While all of these things may sound very appealing, I’ll probably just get in a little bike time. Or a lot of bike time. I’m thinking of a super-long, epic death road ride on Saturday. I could stay local and do my own little Tour de Charlotte, or perhaps I can take a trip to the mountains for a little riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Or, I can grab my mountain bike and take a little bit of a road trip. Maybe hit up Kitsuma, Warrior Creek, or even head back to Uwharrie. I haven’t made any plans, so the sky’s the limit right now.


I am really undecided at this point. I know one thing: I want some two-wheeled torture. With all this free time, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t. Speaking of torture, I made another video. This time, I ran my helmet cam when I rode in the Uwharrie National Forest last weekend. I made two videos, so here’s the first one.






Watching that kinda made me feel like I was there. Oh wait, I was. I’ll save the other one for sometime next week. Oh yeah, Monday is a holiday, so I’ll be back here Tuesday. See y’all then.

One Man Party

When I put up a video of my riding adventures, that’s usually what it is: a one man party. The last video I did though, was the small-screen debut of Lunchbox. It made for a much nicer video, and not just because he’s got skills. Nope, I noticed that videos of trail riding are much easier to watch when there is another rider to watch who’s actually in front of the camera. It just gives a better perspective, methinks.


Anyway, I put together yet another blockbuster film, but this time I am the star. The rest of the video I took at the Forks Area Trail System involved a different camera angle, and I am pleased with how it turned out. I basically mounted the camera on Lunchbox’s helmet and pointed it backwards. Now you get to stare at me the whole time. Excellent.





Okay, enough of the silly bullshit. Let’s get to the sillier bullshit: my pathetic video (and riding) skills. Enjoy.

Smooth Sailing

Well, it’s not sailing, but the trails at the Forks Area Trail System were smooth as a newborns bottom. Well, if you were so inclined to go around touching newborns’ bottoms just to see what they feel like. There were a few rocks and roots here and there, but most of the time it was just hard packed dirt with a small layer of pine needles on top. That made for a fast ride, with not very much effort. Like I said before, it was like a big-ass pump track with little pedaling required. I dig that shit sometimes, especially because I like to go really fast.


Anyway, I rode most of the day with my GoPro camera, and I finally got around to putting together some video. I have plenty of footage left, but I’ll probably bust the rest out next week. Oh yeah, there’s a special guest at around the 45 second mark. Enjoy.

Drop It Like It’s Hot

I’ve still been battling with chain drop issues, even though I thoughtI found a fix. After some local testing, I made a few more adjustments to my bike (and Lunchbox’s too.) When we rode at Dark Mountain during the Burn 24 Hour Race though, I dropped my chain five times. Lunchbox lost his three times, and we were both pretty frustrated. Hell, I even made a video out of it (including a bonus crash from me not paying attention.)





So yeah, this sucks. I was determined to keep trying to find the issue, since there was no way I wanted to go back to a full set of gears of front. There was one more thing to try though. I finally broke down and bought this:



A new Salsa singlespeed 32 tooth chainring. Non-ramped, non-pinned, for my riding pleasure. I tried everything else, and this was the last resort. I put it on last week, and got out for a ride at Fisher Farm (after the trail work day.) After beating the shit out of my bike on the roots and rocks out there, I thought maybe I had finally gotten it right. I didn’t drop my chain once, and that was encouraging. I wasn’t completely satisfied though, so I decided that one more test was in order.


When I rode at North Meck da udda night with the Dirt Divas, I thought that this would be the proving ground. This is the same place where I first tested the Awesome Strap, and it is a fine place for such testing because it is rooty as shit. On the first lap out there, Lunchbox and I rode together. I haven’t made the switch on his bike yet, so his bike would be the control in this experiment.


No dropped chains for me, five for the youngin’. He was pretty frustrated, but I told him that it was actually good news. Since my chain stayed put during the ride when his didn’t, that pretty much told me that I had found a solution. I told him I would get a singlespeed ring on his crankset as quick as I could.


I’m pretty happy I finally figured it out, but I’m a little pissed that I took so long to do it. That damn chain dropping issue cost me a podium spot in the Catawba Riverfront Classic, and it caused me countless hours of frustration on “normal” rides. That looks like the end of my bike issues for now, until something else pops up. It always does.

Video Daze

In an effort to take the easy way out today, I put together another video. During the weekend of the Burn24, I got in a few laps. On Sunday, I remembered that I have a camera to record my adventures. After running it for the entire lap, I ended up with plenty of footage. I put together a quick video clip to post up for today, and I’ll get to the good stuff later.

Hey, it’s Friday, so I’m taking it easy. Check it out, then go have yourself a weekend.

Snakes On A Trail

I still have some video left from the Ride With Me Series. Well, there is only one left. The best part about that last section was the multitude of snakes I found during the ride. In hindsight, I should have left in the snake wrangling part for you to see, but honestly I had way too much footage left. It wasn’t that exciting anyway. I had to get this guy off the trail so he wouldn’t get hurt:





I almost ran over him, and when I stopped he wouldn’t move any further off the trail. I tried to tell him that someone could still run over his tail, but it didn’t matter. He was pretty nice though, and didn’t seem to mind me moving him further into the woods. I said goodbye and headed down the trail.


Not long after that, I nearly ran over two more. These guys got the hell out of my way though.



After I took their picture, they took refuge under that log.



Just as well, since I didn’t want to have to move them myself. They watched me as I hopped on my bike and rode away.


Anyway, this post isn’t all about snakes. I did mention some video, so I guess I can show it to you. It’s quite a bit longer than the others in the series, so much that I had to use two different songs. I did that so I wouldn’t have to drag it out into another segment. This one is actually my favorite, especially the beginning. Check it out:





Yup, good times. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about my other favorite subject, beer. I have some new brew that needs drinking, and of course a discussion about it is in order. Cheers!

Rain Rain Go Away

This sucks. The weather has been quite shitty here in Charlotte the last few days, and I hate it. Plenty of rain equals no mountain bike riding. Aside from a little urban action on the Shitwagon (I’ll get that royalty check right out to you Dicky), I won’t be hitting up our local trails anytime soon. Lucky for me (and not so lucky for you), I have a solution. I can make things worse by watching my footage from a nice “dry” ride da udda day at Sherman Branch. I filmed most of my trail time out there, so I had ample footage to put together a part three in the “Ride With Me” series.




Unlike Return of the Jedi though (the real Episode III by the way), this video isn’t an epic story. Again, it’s just me wandering along some smooth singletrack here in Charlotte, with the occasional obstacle mixed in. My favorite part is around the 2:05 mark, where I got to ride one of my favorite features out there. Check it:





If you’re rained out like me, then this could be just what you need. If you suffer from motion sickness like The Chili Man (or just hate shitty videos), then you probably won’t like it. Whatever. I’m having fun making these, and at least I have something to watch when I can’t ride. See y’all tomorrow.

Ride With Me

I got out in the woods again this week for a little more “alone” time, and it was awesome. Little Miss Sunshine and Lunchbox were on the same trail (Sherman Branch), but they headed out before I did. Since I was riding solo, I actually remembered to bring along my GoPro HD HERO camera. The last few times I used it, I could never seem to get the right angle on my chest strap mount. That mean that the only thing you would see was my handlebars, and not much of the trail.


I remedied that though, by purchasing a helmet mount. I ran the camera the whole time, and I hoped like hell that the angle was right. I didn’t do any pre ride testing, so I was quite surprised that the video came out okay. Since I had like an hour of footage though, I had to spend quite a bit of time editing it down to about four minutes. I still have plenty of good video left to work with but for now I’ll show you a small portion of that fun ride. Just me, my bike, and the trail. Oh yeah, and you too, since you’re watching.





I still have a shitload of footage left, so look for more video action in the near future. I know you’re excited, ‘cause I am.

Just Peachy

Yes, it’s a giant peach-colored ass.

Well, the above photo was taken in Gaffney, SC (between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA.) I’ve been there all week working on a project for my real job. While it sucks to drive that far every day, it is nice to get out of the office for a while. The bad part is, there are no trails nearby, or even any bike shops to piss away my time during lunch. The good news is, I’ll be done down there by the end of the day. Whew.


Last night, I was actually able to get out and ride my bike. No roadie shit, or even an inside ride on the trainer either. I actually rode my mountain bike, but unfortunately it wasn’t on a trail. I took The Big O out for some urban mountain bike action. The goal was to ride for 30 minutes or more, and bust my ass trying to climb up hills and such. I figured that if I was gonna get better at this racing thing, I probably should ride more than once a week (that once a week being the actual race even.) While it wasn’t as good as riding on a trail, it was still pretty fun. The trails around here will probably be closed for the rest of the winter with all of the shitty weather we’ve had lately, so it looks like urban mountain biking might be my only option for a while. It’s better than nothing I guess.





Since I’ve bored you to death so far, I might as well keep going. When I took my video camera to Sherman Branch da udda day, I ended up with a lot more footage than I needed. Since I had nothing better to do (like riding), I took a little bit more of it and made another piece of shit video. Ladies and Gentlemen, the sequel:





Yeah, it sucks the big one, but whatever. Hopefully you were the slightest bit entertained. Now, I’m off to check out that Peachoid thingy again. See ya tomorrow.

My New Hero

I guess I kinda forgot to mention it since I was gone for quite a bit over the holidays, but I got a new toy for Christmas. Sure, Lunchbox got himself a brand new 29er, but I got something I wanted too. Santa (by way of Little Miss Sunshine and Lunchbox) provided me with something that could prove to be very useful here on the blog.



Yup, I finally got a real video camera. It’s the GoPro HD HERO, and I’m really happy to have it. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that if I actually use it I can provide some quality entertainment on here, as opposed to me just writing crap and nonsense all the time. I haven’t had a chance to ride with it yet, since (as you already know) the trails around here haven’t been rideable. I’m not sure when the inaugural video camera ride will be, but I’m hoping it’s soon.


When I finally get out on the trail, I’ll get a chance to film my pathetic riding in full high definition, and you’ll get to watch my misadventures from the comfort of your favorite computer chair. It’s a win-win for you, especially if I crash a lot and catch it on video (highly likely, you know.) Of course it has a helmet mount, but I also opted for the chest strap mount so you can feel like you’re riding along with me. Sadly, you’ll just have to imagine what it’s like for now until I can actually use it. In the meantime, I’ll be using it to capture photos of the elusive Skunk Ape Army.





Man, I can’t wait to get out riding again. Even my mechanic is feeling the effects of not riding (and drinking too much beer.)




Yup, we're officially going nutty around here now.