You Will Obey

Yes, I ride bikes. And, I drink beer. It is a lovely combination, and you should try it if you don’t already do so. Da udda day I went on a nice ride on my singlespeed, and it helped me get over the boredom that is my day job. With one part of my plan out of the way, I moved on to the next one.



Modus Hoperandi from the good people at Ska Brewing. Yes, it’s in a can and no, it’s not shitty beer. It is a fine, great quality India Pale Ale. Step the hell off, okay? Good beer does come in a can on occasion.


Next up, I had to do a little bicycle part replacement. An entire season of racing has pretty much worn out my grips, and made me want some new ones. Luckily, the great folks at Lizard Skins sent me a package:



See that? Worldwide, bitches.

These are the same grips I’ve been using for quite some time now, the North Shore Lock-On. In case you don’t pay attention, they will customize the lock rings with pretty much any text you want on there. They don’t just do it for Internets celebrities like me, they do it for you “regular folks.”



A side by side comparison of old and new shows you why I needed to change them:




In case you didn’t know, we love Lizard Skins here at B-43. I use their chainstay protectors, gloves, and of course their grips. If I ever make it out to their headquarters in Utah I will probably mop their floors too. If you want to be just like me you should go to their website or your local shop and get you some.


Coming up tomorrow, a look at an upcoming race. Yes, you thought my season was over, right? Well, you were mistaken. You should really pay attention.

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.

We Had To Get Away

It was just what we needed. Even though there are a shitload of trails close to us here in Charlotte, Lunchbox and I took the three hour drive down to the Augusta, Georgia area to ride some “different” singletrack at the Forks Area Trail System (FATS.) As always, it was well worth the trip. Since we were only going for the day, we didn’t have to bring that much stuff.





After a bit of a late start leaving Charlotte, we ended up on the trail at around 12:30. The plan was to take the closest loop, Great Wall, and use that as a warm up. It’s the kind of trail that wakes you up and gets you going, and actually requires quite a bit of thinking just staying upright. It’s super fast, and if you’re not careful you could find yourself flying off the trail with a quickness. We’ve ridden it before, so luckily we knew what to expect.





Since we were out for a joy ride of sorts, I planned on taking a lot of photos. Since Lunchbox was usually right behind me though, I had to speed up in a hurry to get far enough ahead of him to get a picture. Sometimes I had to cheat and use switchbacks, since he was keeping up with me quite nicely.





Notice that he’s wearing communist cycling clothing. For some reason he has a thing about Russia, so he was given this old-style (yet brand new) Russian Olympic jersey (with matching socks even.) He’s not a commie, but he likes feeling like he’s far superior to you out on the trail.



“In Soviet Russia, bike rides you.”


After riding that first loop, we headed back to the truck to refill our bottles. Even though it was only 70 degrees outside, we were sweating a lot for some reason. After our short break we headed back out, this time on the trail called Skinny. It was so fast and flowy that I didn’t even get a chance to get any photos. About two thirds of the way through it, it split off again to a loop called Brown Wave. A lot of people talk about this loop like it’s God’s gift to singletrack, and while we found it fun, we also thought that the other stuff out there was better.


After riding Brown Wave for a bit (and not shitting our pants), we passed a familiar section that winds down near the Savannah River. We decided to take a quick break to see if we could spot any of our favorite creatures, the alligator.






We hung out on the riverbank for a bit, and didn’t see shit. We figured that maybe the water was getting too cold out there, and the little reptilians headed a little further south. Damn it. I’m always down to play with the alligators. Maybe next time.



After that it was smooth sailing back to the trailhead. We only had about five miles to go, and we pushed it pretty hard. I only stopped a few times to change to position of my GoPro camera, and Lunchbox took one of those opportunities to get ahead of me and take my photo.




Way too much fun, for sure.


I took some video, but it’s gonna take a while to sort through it all. Hopefully I can have it finished by the end of this week. I experimented with a new camera angle thanks to a new mount I got, and I think it should look pretty cool. So, keep you’re eyes peeled for some more video action from yours truly.


It was so good to get away. Three hours is a long way to drive just to ride bikes, but it was well worth it. After riding all day we hit up a good local eating establishment in Augusta, the Carolina Ale House. Since we were in Georgia, I was a little confused by the name. Nevertheless, I had an awesome Greek pizza and washed it down with a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA.





It was a good day.

Get Outta Town

This weekend, we are all getting away. Starting this evening after work, Little Miss Sunshine is joining her Dirt Diva friends for their Fall Trip. They are headed somewhere deep in the mountains, for riding, campfires, giggling, pillow fights, and whatever else women do when men aren’t around to watch. The ladies do these trips twice a year, and manage to get in a ton of riding. Sounds fun, but it’s not for the boys.





Since we can’t tag along, Lunchbox and I are taking our own trip. When I informed my youngin’ that we had the weekend to ourselves, he seemed pleased to have some father and son time. We had a discussion regarding our weekend plans:


Me: What do you want to do?

Lunchbox: I dunno.

Me: We have all this free time and we can go anywhere.

LB: I know.

Me: Do you want to take a trip somewhere to ride our bikes?

LB: Yeah, that sounds good.

Me. How about DuPont? Bent Creek?

LB: Let’s go to FATS.

Me: Hell yeah!



Typical teenager. Can’t decide on anything right away. So, with minimal discussion, we decided that tomorrow morning we’ll head down to the Augusta, GA area to ride one of our most favorite trails. It doesn’t really take much planning, and that’s the kind of trip I prefer. We’ll have to get up early to make the three hour drive down there, and we’ll have plenty of time to ride.


The next day after making our plans I texted the Dirty Party Cycle to invite him along. He politely declined, since he already had plans to get his Party Cycle dirty elsewhere. I know he would love to head back down that way, but this time he’s gonna miss out. It’s not Electric Avenue, but we’re gonna rock down there anyway.





And then we’ll take it higher, bitches.

I Wasn’t Always This Way

While I do enjoy “sophisticated” brews nowadays, that hasn’t always been the case. Back when I first starting drinking beer, I gulped down whatever I could get my hands on (i.e. cheap or free.) That usually meant shit like Old Milwaukee’s Best, Schlitz, and the like. Even when I was old enough to buy my own, I always chose cost over quality. Hell, I thought all beer was the same back them, so I did go with the cheapest. Most of the time I went with malt liquor like Old English 800, St. Ides, and of course Schlitz Malt Liquor. Whatever would get me feeling good for the cheapest price I guess.


When I started making a little money as my career progressed, I jumped up to stuff like Samuel Adams and Red Stripe. Still not great, but much better as far as the taste goes. I didn’t normally drink beer at that point, but when I did it sure as hell wasn’t Dos Equis. Yuck. I was more of a liquor guy back then, which usually consisted of bottles of Jack Daniel’s or Jim Beam (I am a Southerner, you know.) I even enjoyed a good bottle of cognac now and then.


A few years ago, I started getting into beer again. The liquor took a back seat when I discovered IPAs and a whole new world of craft brews. As I started to refine my beer tastes, I found myself turning my nose up at the “mainstream” stuff. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I picked up lesser-known brews from the store while the masses went with whatever the hell was being marketed on the television. Yes, in a few short years I became a beer snob.



A while back, I tried to test my snobbishness by buying a Miller Lite. It was a horrible experience, and it forever cemented my status a choosy beer drinker. I guess I didn’t learn my lesson though, since I came home da udda day with this:




A beer in a paper bag from the local shit and get. What the hell was I doing? Something told me to unwrap my prize and reveal it to the Internets, so here goes:



PBR. Lots of people drink it (and enjoy it), so I figured why the hell not. People I know that actually have good taste in beer seem to dig it, so I just had to give it a shot. It’s been many moons since I’ve had anything from Pabst, and I had all but forgotten how it was. I would soon find out.


I poured it in a glass, mostly because I had to retain some form of beer snobbery whilst tasting “lesser” beers. Besides, I can’t bring myself to drink anything from a can these days. I brought the glass up to my nose to take a sniff. It smelled freaking terrible. I almost gagged as a matter of fact. No delightful aroma, and not really a resemblance of any beer I’ve had in the past few years. I wondered if I could even drink it.


Well, down the hatch it went. I took a sip, and guess what? I actually enjoyed it. For a “shitty, cheap beer”, it wasn’t half bad. If had gone on smell alone I probably would have poured it right down the damn sink. Luckily I didn’t, and I finished the 24 ounces of inexpensive brew. Would it be good enough to get me to buy it regularly? Nope, but I would most likely drink one if there was nothing else available.


Lesson learned. Even though I like the finer stuff now, it’s not necessarily a bad thing if I lower my standards once in a while. So if you see me out somewhere drinking some shit beer, remember that I’m probably just doing it for the people that read this shit. How else am I gonna come up with stuff to talk about every day?

Come To The Dark Side

I've gone and done it again. I took the next step in singlespeeding. I finally took my one-geared 29er to one of the toughest trails in the area, the Whitewater Center. Okay, it’s not that tough, but it’s the best I can get without driving to the mountains. My first real trail ride on the SS was an easy one on a relatively flat trail, and I wanted to take it up a notch and see if I could handle it.


I got there after work (with the darkness fast approaching), so I wouldn’t have much time to ride. That meant that I had to hurry, and it also meant that I couldn’t spend any time walking up hills that were too hard to climb with one gear. I was a little worried whether or not I would make it, but I decided to try it anyway.


I started out with a slow spin from the parking lot. Well, as slow as I could go with a 32X18 anyway. It felt good, so I dropped into the trail and coasted downhill. After crossing a rock garden, I hit my first climb. It wasn’t much, but it did wake my legs up a little bit. After crossing a few bridges, I hit another climb. This time though, it was much steeper with a few switchbacks. I didn’t have any trouble at all. I was feeling good so far.


After a little bit of up and down, I came up to a long rocky climb. Back when I moved to Charlotte, I had trouble clearing that hill with a full compliment of gears. Since I only had one gear this time, I started to doubt myself. Instead of wussing out, I stood up and mashed…all the way to the top. When I reached the crest, I was giving it all I had. I made it. You know what? It felt awesome, like I had actually accomplished something on my bike for once.


I kept on, knowing that worse climbs were waiting for me. Up, down, up, down. I just kept mashing along. My legs were feeling it too, but I loved how hard I had to work out there. I really started to see why people love this singlespeed thing so much. I knew that if I kept it up, I could be come stronger. You know, more powerful than you could possibly imagine.





I don’t mean to get all Star Wars on you, but it felt that good. I’m not sure if I will give up the gears for good, but I definitely see a shitload more singlespeed rides in my future. If anything, it’s good training. Maybe I will even do a race with only one gear one of these days. That would probably be a total embarrassment though. Kinda like Boba Fett watching himself in Return of the Jedi.

Kids Ride Report

Sorry about missing yesterday. After being stuck in meetings all morning for work, I looked up at the time and figured that it was too late to post up anything here. I thought that maybe after checking a few times, y’all would move on. But, here I am today. Yippee.



Saturday was our annual Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day. It was a great event (as usual) and we had an awesome turnout. Just look at all the people out there ready to ride:





The main event sponsors were there, represented by tents from REI, the Tarheel Trailblazers and the Dirt Divas.



Trips For Kids was there too (another event sponsor.)


Paula from Trips For Kids made the announcements to get everything started.



Everyone divided up into groups based on ability and preferred riding distance, and we got ready to go. Lunchbox was the leader of the “blue” group, which took on all the intermediate-type trails.



I decided to ride along with that group as a sweeper, and it turned out to be pretty fun. Lunchbox had a ton of kids following him on the trail.







He was a great leader, and I was pretty proud of him for doing such a good job out there. He was once one of those smaller kids that needed a leader, and now he’s someone they can look up to (at 6'3", I guess that means literally too.)




After a bit of trail riding, we stopped to play on one of the fun spots out there.






Even though our ride was less than six miles, it was one of the best I’ve ever been on. When the kids had enough, it was time to get back to the parking lot for some lunch. People were already chowing down when we got there.







Big thanks to the Trailblazers and Dirt Divas that came out to lead the rides, REI for providing (and cooking) the food, and to Trips for Kids Charlotte for helping to get the whole thing organized (and bringing a ton of kids.) I can’t wait until next year.