When you crash, you might as well do it right. `

There are some things that I always make sure that I do right. Crashing a mountain bike is one of those things.

I'll make you read a ride report before I get to the crash though....

Accotink and Wakefield were on the menu today. I got off work early and was on the trails by 3pm. I wanted to get a few hours in at Accotink. The trails were in PERFECT shape with a few small exceptions. The power lines section at the west of Accotink has been massacred by the power company. The trail is just gone. I rode it in hopes of making a line that people could follow. It wasn't muddy, but it wasn't much fun either. There is also a mud hole right below the rock garden by the gas pumping station.

My goal was to ride all of the trails at Accotink. With very few exceptions, I took every turn available. I looped back around and did things 2 and 3 times. I GPS tracked it for fun. I lost the track for somewhere between 3 and 4 miles. There are plenty of trails that didn't show up on my map. I thought it was worth looking at though. It isn't, however, particularly useful.

Wakefield Map

I finally rolled back into Wakefield about 6pm. Rick and JoeP were getting ready to ride. I grabbed my battery, changed jerseys and headed out to scout a loop in the bowl with them. We looped around and had fun till about 6:30. I needed to tighten my chain and pick up folks for the group ride. This is where the fun began. :D

We had a really good group. I think it was Gary's second ride on a mountain bike. He did great. I think he got a bit frustrated with his pedals, but that technique will come.

We did two clockwise loops on the new trails and one counter clockwise. At the end of the counter clockwise loop, I tried to ride UP the steep drop in. When you're going up, is it a drop out? I thought I guessed the speed right. I wasn't quite fast enough though. The climb is rooted and steep and about 7 feet up. I got the front wheel up and the back wheel to the edge.... when I spun on a root. No amount of brake could hold me up there either. I went back down all 7 feet backwards and slammed onto my side. It knocked the wind out of me and bruised the back of my ribs a little. I went on to ride for another 1:20 mins. It was a fun ride and I wish I could have gone longer. My arms and ribs were hurting.

So there it is!

The ride was truly fantstic. I'm gonna go and EAT!

XOXO

Pete

I'm boring....

Greetings folks.

 

It has been a rough few weeks.  This time of year is always hard for me.  The rain tends to suck it out of me.  I'm psyched to be on the trails, but it just doesn't work out that way all the time.  I even resorted to putting together a road bike (EEEEEEEEEEEK).  I even rode it once or twice.  It is just hard to kick the depression. 

 

Here's what really threw me this week.  There's been a lot of activity at Fountainhead Park as spring approaches.  The trails are often open and we've ridden them many times.  Fountainhead night rides are starting tonight.  That opened the possibility of riding trails that are not normally open to bikes.  That means that the White trail is open to us when conditions permit. 

 

What that doesn't mean is that we get to ride the Blue trail.  That is the one I really miss.  It has been almost 15 years since I rode that trail.  Talk about a great ride!  It has a little of everything.  Most of all, it is just some great singletrack that flows.  

 

Why did this trail throw me for a loop?  Laura, John and I went hiking on the blue trail on Sunday.  We hiked about 3 miles of the trail then turned back.  Walking all the trails that we used to ride so often really hit home.  I found myself picking lines and looking at how the trails had changed over the years.  You heard a lot of this in my last post.  I don't mean to harp on it.  It just depressed me that the trail isn't open to us.

 

My rational mind (what little there is left of it) knows that the trail would take a lot of work to make it ridable and sustainable.  Many of the climbs are straight up the fall line ridge and haven't weathered well.  They would need to be moved to the side of the ridge and bench cut.  I wish MORE could undertake that even if we couldn't ride the trails.  I doubt that would happen though. 

 

Enough wollowing.  We're headed to Fruita in 21 days.  That makes me plenty happy.

 

thanks for reading.  GET OUT AND RIDE!!!!

 

Hugs and Kisses

 

Pete

 

Psychological self medication....

It has been an interesting few weeks. My blog entries have been a bit sparce of late because I don't write well when I'm feeling down. Not that I'm freaking Bill Shakespear when I'm feeling great or anything.

I decided to try some self medication today. They say music can have a big impact on your psyche (I dated a girl named Psyche once... She lived up to her name). My experiment today was to listen to a particular kind of music all day and see how it affected my mood. I wanted to test and see exactly how things work out.

I wanted it to be something very dramatic. My goal was to push the envalope a little. I borrowed some Japanese pop music from a friend. WOW this stuff is interesting. I've actually really enjoyed listening to what can best be described as bubblegum love songs in Japanese. It has been going for 8 hours now, and I'm definitely feeling something.

If I go apeshit tonight and hack up the entire night ride, please tell my wife that I love her.

Hugs and Kisses,

Pete

I'm Boring...

Greetings folks.

It has been a rough few weeks. This time of year is always hard for me. The rain tends to suck it out of me. I'm psyched to be on the trails, but it just doesn't work out that way all the time. I even resorted to putting together a road bike (EEEEEEEEEEEK). I even rode it once or twice. It is just hard to kick the depression.

Here's what really threw me this week. There's been a lot of activity at Fountainhead Park as spring approaches. The trails are often open and we've ridden them many times. Fountainhead night rides are starting tonight. That opened the possibility of riding trails that are not normally open to bikes. That means that the White trail is open to us when conditions permit.

What that doesn't mean is that we get to ride the Blue trail. That is the one I really miss. It has been almost 15 years since I rode that trail. Talk about a great ride! It has a little of everything. Most of all, it is just some great singletrack that flows.

Why did this trail throw me for a loop? Laura, John and I went hiking on the blue trail on Sunday. We hiked about 3 miles of the trail then turned back. Walking all the trails that we used to ride so often really hit home. I found myself picking lines and looking at how the trails had changed over the years. You heard a lot of this in my last post. I don't mean to harp on it. It just depressed me that the trail isn't open to us.

My rational mind (what little there is left of it) knows that the trail would take a lot of work to make it ridable and sustainable. Many of the climbs are straight up the fall line ridge and haven't weathered well. They would need to be moved to the side of the ridge and bench cut. I wish MORE could undertake that even if we couldn't ride the trails. I doubt that would happen though.

Enough wollowing. We're headed to Fruita in 21 days. That makes me plenty happy.

thanks for reading. GET OUT AND RIDE!!!!

Hugs and Kisses

Pete

Two rides and a hike...

Night rides lately have been spectacular. Last thursday and this tuesday were particularly impressive. The new trails at Wakefield are great and with the weather cooperating, the turnout has been big.

Tuesday I was in the worst mood. Work had been awful that day and I really didn't want to talk to anyone. I was late and about 50 people called me about the ride. Traffic sucked and I was late. Everyone waited for me to start the ride even though I'd asked them to head out. I forgot Gary's cleats which made me feel like a clod. I know how excited he was to ride. I was psyched to see him out. I just shut up to keep from snapping at someone. Scud sold me some socks and that made me happier.

Once I got on the bike, everything was hunky dory. I just pedaled and didn't think too much. My legs were pretty tired after Saturday's death march. It took me an hour to warm up. I finally got it in gear and had fun with the small group that was with me.

Fountainhead night rides are on the menu for the spring. One of the trails that isn't normally open to bikes is going to be legal to ride. Since it rained, I decided to go for a trail run in order to photograph and map it. I had fun. The trails are fantastic. I went out on the blue trail which is not going to be open to bikes ever. It was a fun run/hike. By this time I was pretty tired since I had a full camelback and my camera rig with me. It was definitely worth the trip. Laura and I might go back and hike the blue trail on Sunday as our outing.

I got Jay to lead a ride at Lodi April 9th. That should be a fun one.

Take care.

Pete

Wednesday Night Rides are starting. :)

Fountainhead is on the menu next week. Could Elizabeth Furnace be too far behind? Things that make you say, "HMMMMMMMMmmmmmm"

Pete

Playing with a toy bike...

Well project eyesore is now complete. I finished building my road bike Sunday night. It was a pleasure to get that thing together at last. I probably should get a new seatpost for it... something lighter than the campy record that is in there. Other than that, the bike is ready for party action.

I took it out for a shakedown last night. 25 miles or so on the WOD trail was enough to reacquaint me with an old friend. That really isn't the best description. Someone really irreverent put it this way... Its like meeting an old girlfriend that you hadn't seen in 10 years, noticing that she's even hotter than when you knew her, and going to bed with her. (I put it more delicately than he did). That isn't too far off for me.

The bike feels like a toy. 700x23c tires are freaking skinny. 44cm bars are so narrow. Sure the bike is big. It fits me like a glove. It just took me 30 minutes of riding before I felt right grabbing the bars and cranking out of the saddle. I was seriously rewarded when I did. Even with the stubby little 175mm cranks, the bike just got up and went. I definitely enjoyed the ability to spin on that bike. It is much easier to turn over 175mm cranks than 180s.

After riding out past Reston on the WOD and most of the way back home, I took to the roads instead of taking the bike paths home. There weren't too many cars out, so I pretty much had the lane to myself. I just put it in a big gear and wound her up a few times. The bike is a rocket, even if its rider is a bit on the porky side.

It'll be a little while before I'm ready to ride in a pack. The Tesch is such a lightning fast handling bike that I want to be really on my game with it... especially if there are some spazzes in the group. I really don't like hooking bars or rubbing tires with people. I'll keep the road rides to small groups of people I know and am cool with.

On another note, Gary finally got his frame and parts in. I got home from my ride a little after 8pm. Gary stopped by with a box of parts, a frame and a wheel. I told him I'd try to have it done for Thursday's ride. As it turned out, Laura had a lot of homework to do, so the kittens and I worked on his bike. Mao did a pretty good job of setting up the front Derailleur, but I had to do a little adjustment on it to keep it from rubbing. He hadn't worked with the SRAM push-button shifters before. Gracie was spot on with her rear derailleur setup. The cable routing was a little weird, but she got it right. I did the heavy lifting... bottom bracket, cranks, forks, stem bars. We finished up by midnight and took it for a short test ride.

The bike is great. It really went together well and felt solid in the yard and on the stairs. It is a little hard for me to really evaluate it since the top tube is about 6" too short for me. Oh well. I guess I'll let him have it back. ;) He accidentally got a 5" travel fork for a 4" travel frame. It won't be perfect, but it'll work for him. As his skills improve, I'll suggest that he go to a 4" travel air fork. By then he'll be ready for a big hit bike that can use the 5" travel fork. ;) Don't worry, I won't tell Tracee about your next bike purchase. ;)

Gary's going to show up tonight for the Tuesday night ride. Dominic is going to be back leading again. I'll sweep for him and then go off and do a ride on my own for later in the evening. I need to cycle the lights a little more and make sure that the batteries on the old niteriders are working properly.

Have a great day. I'll post up more later.

PEte

"I can crack a wallnut with my but."

This famous quote comes from Jean-Claude Van Damme during his cameo appearance on the ever popular TV Show "Friends". I think the only episode that I ever saw was this episode. In fact I somehow only remember that one little part of that episode. I think I changed the channel soon after that line, knowing in my heart that I had heard the best line ever to come out of that show.

Why, you might ask, am I talking about that one line? I feel like in a weird sort of dream world, I wish it would apply to me tonight. Jason, Denis, Chris, David and I rode a rather epic death march today. It was the first weekend that Schaeffer Farms was really open this year. The Hoyles Mill Connector was also open. That made it possible for us to ride from Jason's house to Schaeffer farms almost entirely on really nice trails. Alas, I'm just dreaming. Monkeys are more likely to fly out of my butt than any wallnut getting cracked. Actually, I might be able to if I have something hard in my back pocket and I sit on it. I'll give that a try.

The ride ended up being just over 34 miles in all and had over 2000 feet of climbing. Everyone rode really well, though some didn't do all of the loops on the way home. I wanted to finish as much as we could in Schaeffer. There were little bits of the yellow trail that we didn't loop back to hit. There is probably 1/4 mile of trails that we didn't ride in Schaeffer. There is another 1/3 mile of trails that we missed in Black Hills. We'll have to do that another week. At about 6 hours, this ride was plenty long for me.

For some reason, my preparation for this ride was great. Lots of sashimi, a little pizza and quite a few beers the night before was great. I didn't get much sleep, but that didn't seem to bother me after my warm-up. The warm-up took almost 2 hours though. My legs would let me heat them up some, but I didn't really get my power until we started into Schaeffer. That timing was pretty good because that was the part of the ride that I lead. I had to remind myself to hold back on some of the early climbs. I knew this was going to be a long day.

Here's a map of the ride. I'll post up more tomorrow with some photos.

Black Hills, Hoyles Mill and Schaeffer Farms Trails

Fond memories of someone else's childhood... aka Hocky Hair.

I was listening to NPR last night between Fountainhead and Wakefield. There was a great spot about a guy who grew up in Minnesota. There was one barbor in town that gave great hocky haircuts. You've seen them. It is the Canadian incarnation of what the rest of us down south call a mullet.

Anyways... All the cool kids in town used to go to this guy to get their hair cut without telling their parents. The goal in was to have a good hockey haircut and missing teeth for picture day.

On one instance, the reporter had a tooth that was loose, but just wasn't coming out. He and his brother tied one end of a string to the tooth, the other end to the dog, then opened the door and let the dog loose. Out came the tooth!

His father was so angry. He took the kids to "Andy the barbor" to get a descent haircut. Andy had pictures of all the different haircuts that you could get all over the shop. You'd go and pick out what you wanted, then Andy would give you a buzz cut anyways.

This really brought back memories for me. As a relatively unattended child, I used to get weird haircuts all the time. Mom sometimes didn't notice for a few days. Then she'd give me that disappointed mom look and ask me what the neighbors will think. I guess they thought I was a weirdo. To my knowledge they didn't blame her.

I had mullets, mohawks, hippy hair. I even shaved my head a bunch of times. That one I did by myself. My piano teacher's husband was balding and had the band of hair that went around the back of his head. I did that one once. That only lasted hours, though. It looked pretty funny.

I need to go back there at some point. If only I didn't have to keep my job. I'm concentrating my efforts on some interesting facial hair. That'll have to do.

Love,

Pete

College is expensive, put your kids to work.

I've got lots of friends with kids. They're often complaining about the cost of raising kids these days. Their kids are not even approaching college age yet. I found some folks on Ebay that are finally doing something about the problem. They're putting their kids to work!

Ebay Art Auction

My personal favorite is "Deadly Robot Assasins".

Keep that in mind when you look at the art on the fridge.

Pete

Small miracles...

Okay. I just didn't have the heart to add to the length of that last post. I'm a mean SOB, but I'm not that mean.

Today I'm celebrating a weekaversary. My plan to change my eating habbits a little bit to support my cycling and haul less chunk up the climbs is paying off. Since starting this change 2 weeks ago, I've lost 6 pounds and I've spent one whole week under 220 pounds for the first time in many years. I'm down from a personal high of 235 last fall.

I'll ride better in Fruita if I'm hauling less up the hills. Who knows, I may shrink out of my new self-imposed nickname... Chunky Monkey. ;)

Thanks to all that make me chase them up the hills. You're an inspiration. You know who you are. :D

Pete aka Chunky Monkey

And on the 8th day, God made Fountainhead...

All blasphemy aside, I have to say that I really like riding at Fountainhead. It is a park in Northern Virginia that was one of MORE's first really big projects. Though it was originally designated a multi-use trail, our buds at Fairfax County Regional Park Authority decided to rebadge it as a Mountain Bike Only trail. Remind me someday to do a rant about what a bad thing that is. GRRRRRRRrrrr.

Today's blog entry isn't about bad things though. It is about the first chance I've had this year to really go out and stomp Fountainhead. The trails were PERFECT! David and I didn't encounter a single mud puddle, though the steep climb up from the picnic tables was a bit on the soft side. I came *this* close from making it up that thing too. I got my line wrong at the top and got on the bad side of a root and at that level of steepness, there is no coming back from that.

The Chunky Monkey was seriously in the zone today. That bike just ate up everything I could dish out. I can't wait to ride it with some more serious meats on it.

While I'm psychotically jumping from topic to topic, the coolest guy in the entire world (this week) aka Ricky sent me an e-mail reminding me that the WTB Exiwolves will be at Speedgoat on Thursday. My crack dealer (aka Beth Curry at speedgoat) also gave me a jingle to let me know they had arrived. Dang nice people. They help a serious bike part addict to really get hooked up. They should be here Friday in time for the Shed.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah... Fountainhead. While complaining that he was still hurting from the Great Falls and Riverbend climb fest on Sunday, My buddy David was a serious monster on the climbs. He stomped up pretty much everything and pushed me on the big climbs. I credit the chunky monkey for allowing me to gap him a time or two.

Our peaceful ride was interrupted by a phone call from his wife. "Where is the flashlight?" (David told her where it was and asked why she needed it.) It turns out that "his" son stuck something up his nose and it wasn't coming out. Yes, this is the same kid who had the "Bad things happen to people who eat their own poop" comment from my blog entry a few days ago. All is well in the end. Lisa was able to extract a piece of rubber over an inch long that had been lodged in the lad's nostril.

Uhhhhmmmmmmm Fountainhead? Yup! That's where I was. The only downer about the ride was a BIG HONKING TREE that fell towards the bottom of my favorite (least favorite) climb right after the picnic tables on the way back. I was looking forward to stomping that. I just don't have the skills to hop over a 4' log on that kind of climb... or any other kind of climb for that matter... even the downhill kind of climb (with a starbucks on the other side). Maybe someday.



Here's David going down Shock-a-Billy. It was perfect with a big old log at the top now. That makes it even more fun in my book. I like how I can take bird's eye views of people as they ride down.

We spun back to the car after the loop and then headed to Wakefield for the night ride. Dominic is still on the mends, though he's getting much faster these days. That meant that I was leading the ride. I kind of took the reigns early. I should have let Dominic hand them to me. I know, I'm an ass. Fortunately he's got a thick skin and he was okay with that.

The Wakefield ride was tough at first. Craig was leading the casual ride. I was going to lead the slightly less casual ride. Craig hadn't ridden or seen the new trails at all. I lead the whole group... all 30 of us... on a lap of Wakefield's newest trails. The trails were great, but I think some folks lost patience with that first lap. I should have just pointed and let him discover them. I know, I'm an ass. ;)

After that we picked up the pace a little. The faster group of 13 swelled to 15. We split it up. 2 went off on their own. Seven went with Ricky and Bunky. The rest stuck with me. We circled the bowl for a lap or two... my legs were still coming back to me after fountainhead. I really did a crappy job of eating for that ride. I'll do better tomorrow. The cliff bar finally kicked in when we hit the IMBA section of Wakefield near the parking lot. I went to stomp up the hill and SHAZAM!!! the bike actually moved forward. I looked down at my legs to see if I'd picked up an extra person to help with the pedaling. NOPE! It was just me. Weird.

I did my best over the next two laps through the new trails to drop Jason. It didn't work. "The Lung" was on my freaking wheel the whole way. We picked up Dominic again (who had dropped off) and went to do a loop on the upper creek trail. That was a fun spin. We hit the power lines and were hit with a surprise. A wise man said, not all surprises are good. The power company had hit the power lines pretty hard and with some big freaking equipment. What used to be a rutted and sketchy climb was now a rutted and sketchy climb with tractor treads all over it. I kind-of enjoyed the stomp up the hill. There was no chance of putting power down though. My legs were getting tired, the clif bar was running out and the tires were bouncing around enough that any attempt to stomp rewarded me with spinning wheels.

Half the group split to the car. That left David, Jim and Jason. This was my last opportunity to stomp for the night, so we hit the new trails again and I left it all out on the last lap. My legs didn't want to go. I made them. :) The pace was pretty good. The log hops were smooth, but not with the energy that I had earlier. Jason stuck with me for the whole thing. He threw me a bone at the end by saying that I'd made him work. :) He's a nice guy and a good friend. I guess I won't kill him and sell his vital organs to the mob quite yet. Oops. He's probably going to read this. IGNORE THAT LAST COMMENT GRUMPY J. You're completely safe with me. ;)

I guess this is the longest babble I've done in a while. Please take a moment out of your busy day to pat yourself on the back for making it through the whole damn thing. Now go do something useful with your day.

Make love, not leisure suits.

PEte

From the mouths of babes....

Quote for the day comes from my friend David's 5 year old son.

"Daddy, Bad things happen when you eat your own poop."

It isn't often that you find that kind of wisdom in one so young.

Pete

Party time!!!

Oy oy.

Laura and I are a little weird. When we're busy, the housework tends to get postponed... then postponed again because we don't really want to face it. I'm worse about it than Laura. My tollerance for slovenly living is pretty high. Since we had folks coming over Sunday, it all had to end. I'm going to spend the next 9 paragraphs detailing every detailed aspect of our house cleaning. NOT! We did it, its done, place looks great. That isn't so weird, you say.

Our weirdness is in that we tend to then over-entertain while the house is clean. "As long as the house is clean, lets have friends over!!!" So in addition to having a bunch of MTB degenerates over on Sunday, we're scheduled for a few other groups of people to come over before we slop the place up again.

The ride and dinner on Sunday was fun. I was bummed that Fountainhead turned out to be open after all. I called Friday afternoon and it was still closed. It was past the time when I could easily change the venue for the ride. I'd tried to change it and got my chops busted by a few people.

Great Falls and Riverbend were beautiful. The scenery was great and the singletrack in Riverbend was PERFECT! It was wonderfully buff and smooth, but with some serious climbing that needed to be negotiated. It isn't like Schaeffer where you have little rollers here and there. Pretty much all the climbs are a little steeper and longer. When you add in that there are a fair number of different trails upon which you can ride, there are plenty of options for doing loops.

This ride was split into two halves. The Great Falls end of the ride was pretty relaxed and mellow. Everyone went at their own pace and we all just regrouped in places. The doubletrack there is almost impossible to get lost on, so I just had fun moving up and down the pack riding with everyone in the group.

When we hit Riverbend, stuff changed a little. I really needed to lead from the front since there is a pretty good maze of trails to choose from. This is where the fun began. This is what I call a "Say When" ride. At the top of each of the longer climbs, I'd say "There's an easy out to the car if you want to head back, just say when you've had enough." A few people bit at that one after the first full loop through. One had to take the kids to the movies, the other had been sick for ages, so he needed a break.

I kept stomping up the hills with Jason on my wheel and people kept saying they were up for more. Everyone was feeling pretty good. Happy J. started the day in a bad way, but really worked into it nicely. I think he had fun and felt pretty good by the end. I need to go out and do a ride with just him one of these days. I miss hanging with him more. With group rides, it is hard to chat when I'm leading. We'll get the tandem out. That always seems to work well.

I knew exactly when everyone had enough when people looked at the climb up from the Riverbend parking lot. There were some unhappy noises. In true form, Jason took off in the lead. I hunted him down as best as I could. We finally stopped at the top of the second pitch. Everyone really rode that climb well. I knew they were tired, but they were serious troopers. There were easier ways that we could have gone, but I think it is good to finish a ride with something that challenges you. This section did. The third pitch went up the winding singletrack that is so fun on the way down. It was a good chance to enjoy it on the way up. The SS just ate it up.

The fireroad descent was a perfect end for the riding. It gave me time to go home and help Laura finish up getting ready for guests. It gave everyone else a chance to go home and shower.

Dinner was a lot of fun. Laura really enjoyed meeting everyone. I enjoyed meeting wives and girlfriends of people that I've been riding with for a while.

I woke up this morning and my legs felt great. I should have stomped a few more climbes. There's always next weekend. I'm contemplating doubling up with a ride at Gambrill with Dave and Jason followed by a spin at Schaeffer/Hoyles mill before the winter party. If conditions allow, I'm going to do it. The problem is that we'll have to ride hard at Gambrill in case Schaeffer and Hoyles mill are closed. If they're open, then we'll definitely be feeling it.

Thanks to all that made it for the ride and dinner last night. IT was fun hanging with you.

Here's today's animation:




Pete

JoeP is the coolest guy in the whole world.

I just thought I'd say that. He took some images that I'd made a while back and made them into an animated gif. I thought that was amazingly cool. In my neverending effort to be exactly like everyone that I think is cool, I got off my fat ass and figured out how to do it.



JoeP, my hat is off to you. Thanks for the inspiration.

Pete

Something special for a real fan of my blog. ;)

I heard through the grape vine that one of the readers of my blog really loves it when I post up song lyrics from what I happen to be listening to at the moment. So I thought I'd post up what's on the IPOD at the moment.

"We're looking for a new lead guitarist,
Oh! I can do it!
Am I fucking awesome, or what????
I'm so hot, I can't believe it!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
Next!"

XOXO

Pete

Song for the day....

"I'll relate this little bit,
It happens more than I'd like to admit,
Late at night, she knocks on my door,
She's drunk again and looking to score,
I know I should say no,
But its kinda hard when she's ready to go,
I may be dumb, but I'm not a dweeb,
I'm just a sucker with no self esteem."

Have a nice day.

Pete

It may be that my life is to serve as warning to others...

If you ever surf Despair.com, you're familiar with that line. It is the caption to a photo of a very large and quite dramatic ship wreck.

As I write this post, I'd like to honestly and with all my heart profess my undieing love for my wonderful wife. You'll understand later in this post.

The story begins like this...

I cleaned out the shop last night. I found it was getting cramped and hard to work wtih all those bikes and crap laying around. I migrated junk and tossed a HUGE PILE of trash. During the process I leaned all the bikes up against one wall. I really didn't pay much attention to this.

What, you might ask, is the point of this rambling?

The point is that I do, in fact, seem to have a problem. My wife got home from class about that time and the site of all my bicycles in one place at one time was a bit alarming to her... and to me.

Here's the list.

Santana Hardtail tandem
Ellsworth Truth
Ellsworth Id
ABM Comp-lite (custom geometry) converted to Single speed
ABM Comp-lite (custom geometry) geary (somewhat in pieces)
Karate Monkey 29er SS
Grove Hardcore fixed gear mountain bike
Cannondale F700(?) converted to single speed
Brew 180 proof converted to ss
Gary Fisher Cake
Manitou FS
1985 Diamond back apex
Voodoo Nzumbi Single speed
Tesch S20 custom road bike
One more that I can't remember off the top of my head

Neither my wife nor myself had seen all my bikes in one place at one time. They were liberally distributed around the shop. Oddly enough, we both just stood there and stared at them -- somewhat stunned. The cats were having fun climbing all over the place. Gracie was playing with the bells on the fixed gear.

I felt Laura shaking a bit. At first I thought she was crying. That would be my reaction if I was her. I turned to console her at her moment of need (see? I'm not such a horrible mate) and I noticed she was laughing.

What do you say at a time like this? I said nothing. I just held her in the face of this horror... both of us laughing.

She broke the silence.... "Wow! That's a lot of bikes."

Damn I knew I did the right thing by marrying that girl. After 13 years of marriage and 17 years living together, she still loves me for who I am. Am I the luckiest man on earth or what????

LenzSport just came out with a 5" travel freeride 29er. The first one is getting heat treated this week. If someone builds a fork for that badboy, bike #16 is already on the menu. Not really... Well maybe with next year's bonus.

In conclusion, I've found yet again, that I'm providing a public service to those who call me friend. As with many other things in my life, friends can point to me and tell their wife or girlfriend that things could be worse, they could have ME as their husband/boyfriend.

Have a nice day, dammit!

Pete

Post Script: While not all of these bikes are technically mine... Some have been donated by people who honestly have no intention of taking them back. Two belong to Julian (one I just gave him). One belongs to my friend Crashmore. His wife wasn't happy when his bike count hit 6. Thus the Cannondale sits at my house. I guess only 12 of the 15 would be considered "mine" in a court of law... unless you go by that "Possession is 9/10 of the law" thang. In my own defense, not all of these bikes are complete and ridable. Another strike against me though, is that I not only have all the parts to make them so, but they're not exactly bike salvage yard type parts.... and I've probably got spares for those too. Another thing in my favor is that I've got something in the works to get rid of the boxes and boxes of 1980s campy road racing wheels that have been collecting dust for all these years. Life is good!

Cool VW commercial that my buddy Kwan sent...

Every now and then a marketing guy gets it right. I liked what they did with the new MkV GTI commercial.

Hugs and Kisses,

Pete

Help a brudda out --- for purely selfish reasons...

Greetings residents of earth.

A good friend was expressing his discomfort with riding a really expensive bike for the reason that he might crash it and ruin it or it might get stolen. He had visions of getting bonked on the head and the bike being yanked from beneath his comatose body.

That got me thinking. (always a dangerous prospect)

I really need to work hard to protect my friends from danger. On the surface, this might sound like I'm being a good friend. I really do value the people I ride with more than what I could sell them for if a Pirate ship docked in Oldee Townee Alexandria. I need people to ride with in the snow. It helps having a road trip partner to drive when I get tired. If I need to mooch a bike off them or get them to come over to my house to pick up something heavy that would hurt my back.

With that in mind, I'm going to work hard to protect my friends from danger... at least the ones that have nice bikes... we'll maybe not if they're bikes that would fit me. ;)

XOXO

Pete

The new ride....

I gave you a glimps of the bike last week. I got out on it twice this weekend. OH MY FREAKING DOG that bike is sweet. The 29" wheels just roll over stuff. Things that I should have felt just roll by with barely a bump.

I didn't fare so well on the second ride. I was feeling a bit dogged and never really warmed up. An installation problem with my cranks sent me to the car for a wrench that wasn't there. I was seriously bummed. We stopped by Jason's place, tightenened the crankarms and headed for Great Falls and Riverbend to ride some hills.

All that was wrong with the morning was right by afternoon. We had a great time flying up and down the hills. Jason pushed me hard and it was all I could do to hang with him... even though he was alongside me. Someone can definitely push you when they're on your wheel. You know they're there and you just want to ride hard with them. It isn't a competitive thing for me... at least not competing with anyone but myself. It surely was an amazing day on the trails.

Possibly the biggest highlight was Julian joining in with us. He's been off for a while since he went back to school. It'll take him a ride or two to get his rhythm back, but he will.

I'm stuck in a meeting today. I wish I was at fountainhead going for a ride. I'll post photos later tonight.

Hugs and Kisses,

PEte

Quote for the day....

Steven Tyler to Uma Thurman...

"Look how those legs go all the way up and make an ass out of themselves. "

How can I top that?

Pete

Child - o- the 70s...

And 80s...

"And if you don't love me now,
You will never love me again,
I can still hear you saying,
You would never break the chain."

It is with those lyrics in mind, that I post the next photo....




I'll write more later. Enjoy.

Pete

I lost my lucky ball and chain.

"I lost my lucky ball and chain,
Now she's four years gone,
She's five feet tall and sick of me,
and all my rattling on,
She threw away her baby doll,
I held onto my pride,
but I was young and foolish then,
I feel old and foolish now.

Confidentially She never called me baby doll,
Confidentially I never had much pride,
But now I rock a barstool and I drink for two,
Just pondering this timebomb in my mind."

Just a short exerpt from what's coming through the headphones.

Pete

Too many projects and nowhere near enough time...

"I don't want your love,
I don't want your money,
I just want the key to your Ferrari."

Thomas Dolby is a freaking genius for that CD.

J and I went to the bike shop a few days ago and I picked up my Karate Monkey frame and fork. It was too good a deal to pass up. I also got Scottie's cake. I need to find a fork for it. Kevin may hit me with a serious slice of Marzocchi love. I haven't got confirmation on that yet though.

A big box of parts arrived for the the Monkey and the spanking started for real.

"Everyone needs to hold on tighter just to keep from being thrown to the wolves."

I did most of the build last night. I'm going to finish up tonight.

The Voodoo needs forks installed so that Julian can ride on Sunday. I think he's really going to like that bike. It'll fit him perfectly. I've got a bit of work to finish up on it, but it won't take too long.

I need to strip the ABM and send it and the cake to Scottie.

I just have a never-ending list of crap to do. Is it any wonder why my blog is out of date?

Have a nice day.

Pete

This morning's musical choice....

I'll just let my favorite lines do the talking...

"Did a large procession wave their torches as my head fell in the basket,
And was everybody dancing on the casket,

Now its over, I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want,
Or I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do."

Love,

Pete

Oh my aching back...

I should have known better. My back issues are such that I have to be careful when I'm doing a lot of stuff like trail work. I didn't overdo it on Saturday, but I was a pretty wiped out when I got home. I'm impressed with the guys and girls that pulled a double shift on Saturday. You're amazing.

I think we had over 40 people show fur the Wakefield trail work day on Saturday. IMBA is helping MORE do a complete re-design of the race course section of Wakefield. The trails are going to be SWEEEEEEET. In the next few weeks, we're going to be doing a lot of trail work to get things really set at WAkefield.

The old trails were impossible to maintain. No matter how much work we did on them, they always eroded and made a big mess. Winter time was always tough because we had to spend a lot of time off the bikes because it was too muddy to ride.

There's a whole long story about how this whole plan came around. I don't need to write it up again here. You can read it on the MORE web site.

Here are a few photos from our work day.


This section is going to be SWEEET. The trail to the left is going to be the mellow trail down. The trail to the right is the rooted drop-in. It may be a tough line-up too. I look forward to bailing on it often.


Dan was telling me how he is totally sick of the old photos of Roel doing trail work showing up on the MORE web site. He was pissed off that even after Roel moved to Pennsylvania, he is still getting all the press for doing trail work in our area. This photo is his effort to up-stage Roel. I think he's got a winner here. ;)


What the heck do you do with trails that are too muddy to maintain? Armor them!!! They dug way down and put a bed of big rocks and then are setting them in so they'll stay firm. It should work well. You can see how muddy things got this weekend.

Hopefully we'll get some riding in next weekend. We might head to Great Falls after the trail work day. It won't be that interesting, but it will be a workout.

Pete