The Home Stretch

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

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

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.

Upgrade All The Things

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

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

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.