I like/hate the new Dave Matthews Band CD

Lets get Retarded!!!

Just kidding. I like that song, but that isn't what I'm talking about. As a white male in America, I'm supposed to like the Dave Matthews band. At least that is what the television told me. Normally that makes me want to run home to my security blanket music... you know... those soothing little ditties by the Sex Pistols, old Clash, Offspring, and Manfred Mann and the Earth Band. (Just kidding about the Manfred Mann thing).

I decided to do something a little different this time. I went out to Itunes and purchased the new Dave Matthews CD. I just listened to it for the first time and I really hated/liked it. I'm not sure which one yet, actually. It wasn't bad enough to make me shut it off, but it didn't have me rocking out all over my cube (probably a good thing for those that I work with). I get the feeling that I'll like it after listening to it a few times. I'm like that with some music. It has to grow on me.

I think REM is like that for me too. Back in the 1980s I bought an REM cd because I thought it would make me look cool and sensitive and attractive to this girl I had the hots for. The first time I listened to it, I HATED it! I don't mean that I mildly, kind-of hated it. I really despised it. I really had the hots for this girl though. Her name was Kim and she liked my motorcycle. So I listened to it again. It wasn't so bad. The third time I listened to it, I kinda liked it. Now it is one of my favorite CDs of all time.

Okay, as long as I'm jumping around with things, that kind of "I'm gonna listen to this so that some chick thinks I'm cool" thing NEVER really works. Never ever ever... except the above mentioned time with Kim. I think the motorcycle helped. Somehow finding a guy that "liked" the same music that she did and had a motorcycle did it for her. I guess that should have been a warning sign for me. We had fun for about three weeks, we both got bored, then went on to other things and people.

It does go down in history as the only time that I've ever had one of those hokey "guy trying to impress a girl" thing worked though... for me at least.

Uhhmmmm Dave Matthews.. I was talking about the Dave Matthews Band, right? Uhhmmm.. I'm guessing that my wife is gonna think I'm cool because I'm listening to this CD and maybe I'll get lucky this weekend. Yeah... I still like to call it getting lucky.

Lets get Stoooooooooopid!!! Yup. I'm back on that song again.

Pete

Tandemming...

Okay, I've been talking to Tom about getting a tandem. He wants to ride with his wife on the tandem and "the boy" in the trailer. Look at the MORE board if you're curious about that discussion.

All this talk about the tandem has me itching to get back out on it. I pilfered the handlebars for my geared monkey. I need grips and to fix a flont flat. I also need to unstick the seatpost.

I got some pretty serious chemicals for getting the post unstuck. I also got a new propane cartridge for my torch. That should roach the paint, but get the damn thing unstuck. I'll get that going this weekend. I want to get out and play on that... especially since I've got two stokers who are interested in riding it.

It would be cool to lead the Friday night rides on the tandem. That's my new goal... get it going for next Friday.

Talk to you later.

Pete

Days off are a good/bad thing.

Oy oy.

I'm slowly getting rid of my aches and pains from riding over the last few weeks. I took an easy week last week. I rode the road bike a few times and rode Fountainhead with Rick and Cory last Wed. The shoulder feels much better than it did last week. Taking it easy has been good for it.

I went out with Jay last night to get a ride in between rain storms. We hit Great Falls because their doubletrack is in good shape pretty much all the time. It also has plenty -o- climbing.

While the week off was great for my shoulder, taking that much time off when combined with getting minimal sleep from time at the hospital has KILLED my lungs. I felt like crapola last night. I had plenty of leg power, that wasn't a problem. I just had no lung at all.

I just need to get the kinks out. In the middle of the ride, I started feeling a bit better. I loosened up and had a few good climbs. After a while I found that I was tensing up in order to keep from twisting in a way that made my ribs hurt. Eventually I started cramping up as a result of trying to avoid the rib pain. I guess I need to approach that a little differently.

I did 45 minutes of yoga this morning and though that hurt, the ribs feel better today. Tomorrow night is another Great Falls/Riverbend ride. I'm going to try and get out early so I can get loosened up before others show up. Hopefully the rain will hold off a little.

In the immortal words of the Black Eyed Peas....

Lets get ignit. Lets get happy! Lets get stooopid! Lets get retarded! Lets get retarded in here!

Pete

Friends don't let white friends listen to hip-hop...

I'm white. I know it. I'm pretty much the poster child of whiteness. I can't dance for shit, I know it, but that doesn't stop me from trying. I love music, but I couldn't tap my foot to the beat if my life depended on it. Again, that doesn't stop me from trying.

I love my car. I love listening to music in my car. I have it wired up with so much equipment that most concert venus are envious.

This morning started an unfortunate series of events the likes of which caused the naming of my blog. (I'm such a drama queen... it isn't like anything really bad happened as a result of any of these events)

Event 1: I've been chasing down a ground-induced hum for a few months. I finally got it pretty well cleaned up. Only when I use my IPOD do I really have problems. That comes from using an unshielded IPOD adapter. I just have to rip out the dash to replace that.

Event 2: I blew a capacitor two days after fixing the ground issue. I should have had a 2farad cap in, and I only had 1. OOPS. It fizzled and just gave up the ghost. I took it out to prevent it from exploding or something. A cap is used to help prevent high powered amplifiers from sucking all the power from the car's electrical system. Without the cap, your headlights tend to dim to the beat of the music. In extreme cases... well I'll get to that in a few events.

Event 3: Wednesday is my early day. I go in at some freakish hour of the morning so that I can get off early and go see my buddy Chris. That means that I-66 is mine for the taking. I sometimes go a little over the speed limit and I almost always turn the music up loud enough to repel tailgaters.

Event 4: After hearing the song in the movie Harold and Kumar go to White Castle for the last two months, I went to I-tunes and purchased the Black Eyed Peas CD "Elephunk". It contains the song "Lets Get Retarded". Just the title alone implies that the song is written specifically for me.

Disclaimer 1: I know that there should be a constitutional amendment banning white guys from listening to music like this. I'm living proof that the Supreme Court would uphold the validity of such a ban.

Event 5: I'm driving to work... a little fast... a little loud. I'm doing about 85mph and track 3 comes on. It is the song mentioned in Event 4.

Event 6: I turn the volume up a little louder.

Event 7: My car stalls. I'm at about 3500 rpm in 6th gear and moving at a fairly good clip and my car stalls. The idiot lights come on the dash, the headlights all but go out. the tach drops to zero and the speedometer needle is dropping fast.

Disclaimer 2: I knew this was coming. I wasn't surprised by having power issues in the car. I was a little surprised by the severity of it though.

End Result 1: I hit the clutch instantly. I turned the music down (it still sounded damn good even though the car had stopped running). I dropped the car into 5th gear and dumped the clutch. It roared back to life. I drove on with the volume set a little lower.

End Result 2: Daddy is going to get his baby a new deep cycle battery and a 2.5farad capacitor for the stereo system when he goes shopping next week.

Have a nice day.

Pete

The best thing about the new Star Wars movie....

Okay, the morning after I'm finding things that I liked about Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith.

First and foremost on that list was the preview for Fantastic 4. Jessica Alba is perfectly cast for this movie. She's perfect for the part. I must confess I have a pretty serious Jessica Alba thing.

It should be a fun movie.

What else did I like about the new Star Wars movie???? Jar Jar Binks didn't open his mouth for the whole movie. I don't have to worry about any anticipation about waiting for the DVD to come out.

Uhhmmmmm... I guess that's it.

You're beautiful because I love you.

Pete

Star Wars Episode 3: The Lost Hope

I won't rant for long. I'll just say that that movie was a HUGE dissappointment and I wasn't even expecting much.

Yoda's fight scenes were nowhere near as good as in Episode 2 (they were one of two redeeming factors of Episode 2. The other was Natalie Portman's wardrobe). The lizard thing that Obiwan was riding on one planet was really cool. Watching the droids put Darth Vader together was kind-of cool.

The one GREAT thing I can say about the movie was that Jar Jar Binks didn't open his mouth the whole time. He was seen, but not heard.

Oh well.

There'll be other movies to see later in the summer.

Pete

12 Hours of Lodi...

Hey People.

Sorry I've been off for a while. It has been a rediculously stressful time for me and I don't write well when I'm having a rough time. It just doesn't flow. Things are looking a bit up, so I think that I'll be writing a bit more.

Lodi was a great experience. I had a lot of fun. Many props to Jason for completing 8 laps in pretty miserable conditions. David and Bob completed 9 laps. David had some blistering laps on that ride. JoeP, Ricky and their partner (Markie?) won the sport class. Evan and his team took second in the sport team class. Kate took third in women's solo. Joe Foley's team had a rough time because one of their guys was injured and Joe took them to get a few stitches. That kinda nixed their performance. Joe did a few laps to finish out the day. I could tell he was really disappointed, but he's such a dang good natured guy that he didn't let it get him down. Denis rode until his lights failed, then he slept in his car. He got up in the morning and did 4 laps during the day. He sounded like he had fun doing the ride solo. I talked to Craig and he seemed like he had fun. He said it was pretty brutal. I didn't hear how his team did. Barbara said there were some fun times, but like many people I talked to, found it frustrating to have to stop and get out of the way of the faster riders all the time. It was really hard to get a flow going when you were having to hop off the bike all the time. There was really no room to pass on this course when you were in the woods. Kevin did some blistering laps. I saw him a few times over the night. He was the first person that I knew who passed me after my crash (more on that later). He stopped and talked to me for a few moments and that really helped. I was REALLY pissed at myself at that moment and that got me back in the right mindset. Kevin rode till his lights died, got some sleep, then come out and did some fast laps after sunrise. It seemed to have worked well for him. I don't know what his final count was, but he was moving really well every time I saw him.

Thanks to all that cheered me on. The course was GREAT! It was twisty and tight. There were TONS of roots. It flowed really well for the most part. I loved it on the pre-ride. The rain started, and things were made much more difficult. The roots all became like ice. There wasn't enough rain for stuff to get really muddy. The dirt portions of trail were perfectly tacky almost everywhere. The roots made it a bit tough, though.

There were many sections on the trail that were not conducive to wide handlebars. There were three spots between trees that were narrower than 28". For me, that means less than an inch of space on each side of my bars. Most of them were slightly offset so I could get one side through, then the other side. One spot was my nemesis early on (someone whacked it down late in the evening and it was significantly wider). On my second lap I hit the left side of my bars on a tree just hard enough to throw me off balance. I pivoted and hit my shoulder and ribs on the opposing tree. That displaced my already tender ribs and I had a miled disolcation of my shoulder.

The shoulder has been loose for years. It often pops out, then right back in again. It did this time, or so I though. I did another lap and a half on it before heading for the car for a much needed nap.

I put on dry clothes and crawled under a blanket in the front seat of Jason's car and slept for 90 minutes. I felt great when I got up. My shoulder and ribs were tender, but I felt strong. I went out with Jason and Denis for a daylight lap. I went pretty fast up the first set of climbs. When I got to the top, my shoulder started hurting again. I finished out that lap and started the next one. At the top of the initial climbs, I started hurting in a way that tells me I'm doing damage to myself. I did as much of that lap as I could, then called it quits. In all, I finished 5 laps.

Laura came out Sunday morning. She was great and it was perfect that she was there. She could see that my shoulder wasn't right at the end. She told me so. I figured that I hadn't fully relocated it. Once I had that fixed, I felt MUCH better. Changing into dry clothes helped too. I then spent the rest of the morning helping pack up and get things ready for Jason's return. I cheered on some folks and helped a few people that looked like they could use a drink or food or technical help.

I really enjoyed the ride, but was completely frustrated by having to fight that much adversity. Had I one less thing to deal with, I think my results would have been a lot better (especially if that one thing would have been not injuring myself). That is the way things go, however. My preparations were almost perfect. The only thing I could have done better was to get more sleep leading up to the race. That wasn't possible with all the things going on at home. I ate perfectly for the race. I alternated between Extran and Amino Vital in the camelback. I had one of the these tablet things that help replace what you sweat off on each lap. I forget what they're really called. I call them "condoms" since they are packaged like condoms. I had one gel each lap. I was never hungry and I didn't have any dehydration problems. My legs felt GREAT the whole time. When I stopped for a nap, I ate a Boca Burger and drank a bottle of recovery drink. When I got off the bike at the end of my race, I had two bottles of recovery drink.

The drive home was easy. My stomach wasn't ready for much solid food, so I fed it what I was craving. That was..... Beef Jerky. I ate a whole bag while driving home. Jason napped and talked to me a bit. We unloaded my stuff at the house, then he drove home to his place. I hauled all my crap inside. Dumped the wet clothes on the floor by the washer, took a shower, ate a canteloupe and another boca burger, and went to bed. I guess I played with the cats a bit for a few minutes before bed. They could tell something was up. They were playing to humor me. Laura wasn't home yet, so I climbed into bed and slept. The cats curled up with me. It was nice. I slept pretty much straight through till morning. I don't often sleep more than 8 hours in a stretch. I had no problems sleeping 16 hours straight.

We'll see how my shoulder is feeling for riding this week. At this point it is more of a worry for me than my ribs. My shoulder is a bit tender right now, but I have most of my range of motion. My ribs basically feel like they did a few weeks ago. They've never stopped hurting since I fractured them 6 weeks ago, but they were hurting less in my daily life... mostly just when I breathe hard while riding. They'll settle back down.

If I got anyone's Lodi experience wrong, please let me know. I'll make corrections.

Thanks for reading. I'll write more soon.

Pete

Crappy Day? NO WAY

Yesterday it rained all day... really hard. That made for some big problems for us. First, we didn't get to ride. Second, when we headed for Goosberry Mesa to ride today, the dirt roads that lead to the trailhead was 6" deep in mud. We saw 4x4s turn around and head back instead of driving in. Our second choice in rides was in the high country and they got 6" of new snow yesterday while we got all that rain.

After driving around half the day, we headed off to do "The Loop". The Loop consists of Gould's Rim, the JEM trail and Hurricaine rim. It turned out to be the perfect loop. It was just under 22 miles. It started with a big climb, and finished with a big climb near the end of the loop. In between it was a really cool mix of buff singletrack, long, gradual downhills and small rock gardens. There were great views all the way around the loop. One of the coolest things is that it is a really wide open loop. What I mean by that is that you cover a lot of ground on the loop. You almost go 7 miles in one direction, turn, go 7 miles in a different direction, turn then go 7 miles back to the car.

The photos turned out great. I'll post them up when I get home.

The tough part of the trail was the way the different trail surfaces mixed together. On the JEM trail, there were long sections of swooping downhill that you just fly through like on a BMX track. Towards the bottom, however, there were some fairly large rock gardens tossed in. Jason's suspension saved him a few times when he flew into areas with too much speed. I had some good luck with a few of them... I was able to pick a good line through and bunny hop the worst of a few of the gardens. There were two in particular that pretty much ate me up though. I got two pinch flats from hitting too a rock garden going too fast. Luckily I carry tubes.

We had a blast and managed to get back in time to pick up a DVD, eat some pizza and watch a movie in the Hotel room.

Talk to you later.

Pete

Me like pain. ;)

What better way to follow an epic ride with lots of climbing than with an epic ride with even more climbing?

Since we lost almost a full day to the rain, we had to cram a little extra in towards the end of our stay in Fruita. This turned out to be one of those classic “Pete” rides that Jason makes fun of, but really enjoys. The idea is that we start with one trail and if we feel good, we go onto the next. If we feel good after that, we do another. The Kokopelli trail area has enough variety and places to bail out that you can really do that ride well. 33 miles and over 4000 feet of climbing later, we finished out the ride.

We started with a warm-up loop on Rustlers. This loop is a good, mellow and scenic ride that lets you get your legs and arms loose. After the riding yesterday, my arms needed it more than anything.

Moore Fun was next up. I think this was the ride that Jason was looking forward to more than anything we’d ridden so far. He’d heard so many good things about it and read a lot too. The lower part of the east side is pretty tough this early in the ride. Neither of us had fully warmed up and we were not really riding at our best yet. We walked a few of the rock moves and climbed quite a few too. It was really fun.

By the time we got towards the top, the riding skills were coming back to us. We topped out the first climb and snapped a few photos. There is a ¾ mile traverse between the first peak and the second. On the way there, I climbed up on some rocks and snapped a few photos looking down on Jason as he rode by. I thought about dropping a rock on his head, but I decided against it.

Then the fun began. The descent on Moore Fun is uhhhmmmm more fun than the climb. We had a blast on the rocks and switchbacks. There were some big ones we walked towards the bottom, but I rode a lot more this year than I did last.

Next up was Mack Ridge. There were more rocks and trials moves on that climb, though it is a little easier than Moore Fun. The view from the top was amazing. The descent was great, though not at all technical.

We both started to feel the miles a little at the bottom of Troybuilt. It took a little while to get used to climbing again. Jason did better than I did. I’d bruised my upper arm yesterday and it wasn’t working as well as I’d have liked. It was still good, but I wasn’t keeping up as well as I had in the past. The last climb to Lions loop was really tough. It was pretty loose and steep, so it was hard to keep a rhythm going.

The first part of Lions loop SUCKED! It had been torn up by 4 wheelers and cows after the rain and it was jackhammering me since I was riding the 0” suspension forks. Lyons would have been fun if it hadn’t been so chewed up.

Upper Handcuffs was the same way. We ended up riding for almost 5 miles on rock hard trails that were rough as heck. My arms were killing me. We pushed on and really enjoyed the rest of Handcuffs. The views from the edge of the cliffs are amazing on that ride.


Climbing up to Mary’s loop was another tough one, but really fun. By this time we’d been riding for 27 miles or so. We were running low on water and were ready for a break. Mary’s gave us that opportunity. It didn’t have much climbing and there was a lot of smooth singletrack to roll through.

Horsethief was last on the menu for the day. We’d ridden it twice earlier in the week, but wanted to ride all the trails at Kokopelli if we could. We were completely out of water by this time, but it was only a 4 mile loop. It was a blast and definitely a good way to close out the ride.

Riding down Mary’s and back over the ridge to the car was much welcomed. Oddly enough, my legs felt great. It was my arms that were hurting badly.

After all that, we went to Chic-Fil-A for pre-dinner, then Texas Road House for the real thing.

Talk to you later.

Pete

It takes a special kind of idiot.....

April 25, 2005: Day5: I predict that we’ll be encountering rocks today…

We went to the Lunch Loops area for a ride today. These trails are on the south side of Grand Junction. OH MY GOD What a ride!!! I’d seen Pete Fagerlin’s videos about a lot of these loops and they look pretty amazing. Most are quite technical with lots of rock stunts, drop-ins and stair steps both up and down.

After all the rain we’d had, we were looking forward to a great day with great weather. Mom Nature didn’t cooperate too well. Our goal was to climb a trail called The Ribbon. This is normally done as a shuttle run. Since we had only one car, and I didn’t want to ride up the road, we climbed lower Eagles Wings and then cut over to the Tabeguache doubletrack. These climbs were steady small and middle ring climbs. Each are punctuated with little rock steps here and there. Both Jason and I were a little rusty after an easy day yesterday. Neither of us really were handling the bikes so well. Fortunately that went away pretty quickly as we warmed up.

We hit the base of a hill called “The Widowmaker” and the clouds rolled in. It started raining. I was not happy. I had worked out some options though that would allow us to continue riding. One trail that I KNEW we would want to do was Holy Cross. This trail was designed by the same dude that did Moore Fun in Fruita. That means lots of big rocks, steps up and down and plenty of trials riding. We’re talking one freaking technical trail with some sweet sections of flowing single track between. We were in heaven.

When we got to the bottom, the weather looked much better. We started climbing up towards the top of The Ribbon again. When I say climb, I really mean climb. The trail climbs 3100 feet in about 8 miles. Most of the last three miles is climbing steep slick rock. That means that you’re in your granny gear and pedaling straight up the fall line.

I was happy to make it about 1/3 of the way up the widowmaker climb. It is steep and rock strewn. It is climbable. I got off line and sketched. I don’t know if I would have had the lungs for it or not, but I made it up the toughest section before stepping off (the story of my day for some of this).

At the top of Tabeguache, you hit the road for ¼ mile or so. A right turn down the Ribbon Connector made for a really amazing downhill. There were some sections that we walked, but others that were amazingly steep and twisty, but very rideable.

This trail skirts the base of a cliff that is home to the Eagles Wings trail. It got its name appropriately. From below we could see a nesting pair of golden eagles on the cliff. They were beautiful!!!

At the bottom of the connector, the trail turned up hill for good. This begins the last 3 miles of serious climbing.

It takes a special kind of idiot to ride this trail in the up direction. Everyone else either shuttles it or rides the road. I think going in the direction we did was a big strain on Grumpy J’s patience. I knew he’d be happy when we got to the top.

There were two sections of steep sandstone that we had to climb. That isn’t easy in cycling shoes. It was all we could do to scramble up with our bikes. The climb just kept going and going. It had me working to come up with an alternative that would give us a break when we got to the top.

I’m glad I studied my Fruita guide and Pete Fagerlin’s videos. They were very helpful. From the top, we rode down the road for about 3 miles to another trailhead. I figured we’d hit Gunny on the way down and enjoy some buff singletrack. On the road down from the Ribbon, we topped out at over 40mph. It didn’t suck at all. 

Gunny is a cool mix of really buff singletrack followed by sections of singletrack peppered with rocks. Between many of these sections are little rock stunts and stair steps. It keeps you on your toes. At the bottom, there is a really sketchy downhill section that is steep, rocky and a little twisty. We had fun picking our way down it.

This trail dumps us out at the exit of Holy Cross. We’d already done the climb out from that once. It is steep and twisty, but very fun. Just at the top when your lungs are hurting and your legs are on fire, there’s an 8” step up that you have to hop before you can finish out the climb. Very fun. Very challenging.

We twisted down a few other trails and finally wound up on a new trail that rides the ridge above the parking area. At the end of the ridge it has 5 seriously tight, rocky and steep switchbacks. It was my own little slice of heaven. We took our time down this because we were both pretty tired. It was the perfect end to a perfect ride.

The rain held off. I took a jacket for both of us since I knew we’d be up in the high country and it might get chilly. We were about 150 feet below the snow line at the top of The Ribbon. We could see that it had snowed across the valley quite a bit. Those hills were white. There was a Chic-Fil-A about a mile from the car. We went and ate too much.

Jason had some great technical sections today. It was fun to watch him taking rock stairs and drop-ins with ease and confidence. There were some that we both walked, but I think we both rode a lot more than we would have a month ago.

Time to go to Borders and post this crap up on the blog. I’ll send photos too.

Pete

Rain Rain Go AWAY!!!!

April 24, 2005: Fruita Day 4: Rain rain go away.

It rained last night. We took it easy in the morning since we’d been up late doing stuff the night before. We needed a break. The rain cleared off early, and we hit the trails on the single speeds. J wasn’t very happy about that. He really wanted to be riding his 5.5. He cheered up when the trails were PERFECT!

We didn’t know how long the weather would hold, so we did a spin around Rustlers, Mary’s and Horsethief Bench. About 10 minutes from the top of Horsethief bench, the heavens opened. It started raining lightly, then the hail came. It got to be about pea sized before it started to ease up. Pea sized hail is enough to sting pretty good, but not enough to raise a welt. For that we were happy.

The trail turned into a small flash flood. It was easy to see how people get caught out in something like this. In 15 minutes the trails had rivers running down them. It wasn’t pretty.

The ride was spectacular, even if it was only about 11 miles long. J did some GREAT riding in front of the camera. He did one drop that he wasn’t expecting to be as big as it was. It looked like the new fork saved him. The photo shows it completely compressed. He did a great job of riding a big rock garden. The boy’s got skills. ;)

We drove to Moab to pick up the 5.5, paid the guys at Rim Cyclery with money for the repair, and beer for their trouble. They were happy. The bike looks great.

Our dinner was just weird. We went to Eddy McStiff’s and the hostess showed that she might not have been hired for her brains. She told us to wait for her here while she scouted a table. When she came back, she didn’t know who we were. She rattled on about something to do with big tables in the bar. I said, “So you don’t have a table for us?” She looked stunned and pointed in the next room and said it was in there. The meal went’ down hill from there. Our waitress was okay, not so much because she was giving us good service, but more because she was concentrating all her efforts on pissing off the people at the tables around us. Fortunately she didn’t have enough energy to put to pissing us off. She charged us 69 cents for chips and salsa that we didn’t get and she made us wait to pay her for the meal. Those crimes were pretty mild compared to the stuff the lady a few tables over was complaining about. Lets just say it was a less than relaxing dining experience.

Jason compared it with the night before. We’d eaten there because they had free WiFi. Last night the food was good and the service was very good… maybe too good. Have you ever had a server that was really flirty? The chick serving us was a bit over the top in that department. I got the feeling that I could have had a lap dance if I’d asked and the tip was right. That weirded me out a bit. At least we got our chips and salsa.

We blazed that place ASAP and went next door for coffee. Much better place. Mondo Café. Stop there when you get a chance. You won’t be sorry. Great coffee and great breakfast food. I’m happily typing there right now.

I need to go home and clean some muddy clothes off so we can ride tomorrow.

Talk to you later.

Pete

The first REAL Ride....

We slept in a little. We were up and around by 8am. I think we were both still on DC time… It was 10am there. Today we were heading to the 18road area. That meant a lot of short, steep climbs.

We started the day at Village Inn pancake house. The waitress laughed at my stupid jokes. She got a big tip. I ate a huge, bad for me breakfast. It was perfect. Jason was healthy. Whatever works!

We hit the trails by 10:30. We started out by going up Prime Cut to Chutes and Ladders. Prime cut was really fun, but tough for a warm-up. It was much easier the second time around.

Jason didn’t like the two tough climbs on Chutes and Ladders much. He rode both very well, but wasn’t really feeling the love for these hills. The chutes were pretty fun. I cleaned a tight, rocky switchback that I hadn’t been able to do before. The Monkey just inspires confidence.

Jason’s favorite part of the loop was heading out into the cow fields. This place was much like a BMX track. Lots of dips, jumps and berms. Jason hit almost 27 mph in this section.

We finished out the loop, climbed prime cut again, then headed for Joe’s ridge. Jay was a little scared of ithe drops on Joe’s. He’d read a lot about them, but hadn’t really seen them in person. He trooped right don them.

Lower Zippity was fun. The drops are a little worse than on Chutes and Ladders, and definitely not walkable. We had fun with them though. It was a little riding clinic in the middle of the day.

The cool part about lower zippity, is that I made it up the short, but extremely steep section in the middle. That was one of the things I was most proud of.

At the bottom of Lower Zippity we headed for Zippity West to ride all the way back to the top. This trail started out as boring doubletrack. It later becajme a perfect ribbon of singletrack heding for the top of Zippity.

We rode zippity from top to bottom. One section was sketchier than I remember… by a long shot. We stepped over the rocks, lined up for the drop and then rode it. The other drops were scary, but not impossible.

The ride total came out to 24.3 miles and about 3000 feet of climbing.

The one last comment that I had about today refers to something that Jay said on today’s ride. The conversation went something like this:

Grumpy J.: I almost crapped myself on that downhill.

Pete: It’s a good thing we’re doing this trail at the end of the day.

Grumpy J.: Why is that?

Pete: Because if you crap yourself, your bike shorts will work like a diaper.

Grumpy J: I didn’t need to hear that.

Arriving in Fruita....

We finally got here at noon as we went to the grocery store. I ran in, got water, apples and batteries. We headed out to the trails. We rode Rustler’s loop and Horsethief bench. The ride was perfect. We’d driving 3400 miles, lept for 4 hours and then went for an 11 mile ride pretty fast. Sounds extreme to me. :D

Ride was cut a little short because J had a problem with his shock mount. The rear shock was sliding to the side on the mount. I did a home depot fix for it. It’ll hold for a while. J is checking to see if he can find an Intense dealer in Moab, Grand Junction or St. George to get the dang thing fixed for real.

My local treasure moment of the day happened when I went shopping for apples and water. I was just going through self checkout and the grocery store lady came up to see if I needed help. When she finally figured out that I was doing okay, she decided to suggest a sale. In her own words…. “Ice and Firewood are very popular with people like you.” Bwahhahahahhahahaha She was being helpful. She was being polite. The words “people like you” let me know that I was a freaking alien to you. She didn’t mean it in a mean way. I didn’t take it in a mean way. I just thought it was really funny. She wasn’t very comfortable with me.

This brings up the question, what exactly was she talking about when se said "People like you"???? Here are my guesses...

1. People who don't bathe
2. People with more earings than her.
3. People who appear to be wearing alternate undergarments (the straps of my bib shorts were hanging out).

I'm open to suggestions if you can come up with something that she might have been talking about.

Home, Dinner, Fix bike, Sleep.

As a side note, Jason ate 7 White Castles around 1pm on April 21st. They did not make any attempt to leave his body until mid morning on April 23rd. What exactly were they doing in there all that time????

White Castles... the other beige meat. ;)

Pete

Chicken made into donuts... is there a more perfect food?

Until recently, I thought that A&W had the ultimate food product in their corn dog nuggets. Read on and find out that I may have been wrong...

We drove all day. I was stressed out from work enough that driving was therapeutic. I needed a lot of therapy.

White Castle: The other beige meat…. We stopped in St. Louis for White Castles. Brian helped us out with the location of the nearest one. We got 20 burgers and 4 fries and 2 drinks. I ate 1 order of fries and 14 burgers. I might have been able to eat more if I wasn’t sitting across from Jason. He makes me want to be healthy.

As a side note, Jason ate 6 White Castles on Thursday. He finally evacuated them some time Saturday morning. That can’t be healthy. ;)

They have a new product…. Chicken rings. Imagine chicken stamped into the shape of a donut. Donuts? Chicken? How can you go wrong with that combo?

We stopped again to catch a few hours of sleep right before the Colorado state line. The wind was so bad that we got horrible gas mileage. It was a fight to keep going. We finally stopped for another nap just before the Colorado boarder. We got almost 3 hours of sleep this time. The rest of the drive was cake.

The thing that was killer was the wind. We fought it the whole way. Driving at 80mph (in a 75mph zone) was a lot of work going into a 40mph headwind. My arms were tired by the time we got to Denver.

Just the thought of putting some distance between me and those chicken rings is plenty of motivation for me.

Pete

A rough start to what turned out to be a smooth drive...

As someone in a movie once said, “What a fucking nightmare!” Nothing went right when it came to getting going on this trip. Work was a pain, two stores didn’t have stuff I needed. The quick lube place weren’t open. I stirpped a skewer on the bike rack that we were taking to Utah and Colorado.

I finally got to Jasons and we got going a little before midnight. I drove till we got into Ohio. I needed a quick rest. I slept for 1:20 and awoke very relaxed and feeling great

Driving was definitely helping me exorcise some of the deamons of the last few weeks. My ribs were feeling okay and my mind was letting go a little. It is always hard to leave Laura at home. What made it harder this time is that it was my first time really leaving Gracie and Mao for more than a few days. Laura made it easier on me by saying that she needed a little extra time to study without feeling like she is neglecting me. I already miss the three of them.

More soon.

Pete

Something Stinky This Way Comes....

This is a story about the cutest kitten in the entire world. Anyone who knows me well, knows that we've got two 1-year old kittens -- Gracie and Mao. Mao is kind of a big brute of a cat, but Gracie is small and dainty. She embodies the true essence of cuteness. Here's a photo of her when she was 5 weeks old:


Little Gracie is cute in every imaginable way except for one. She likes things that smell. It is weird to have a fuzzy little, muppet-like kitten come up to you after a bike ride and shove her head into your skanky riding shoes because they smell good to her. Smelly armpits are her particular favorites. She loves morning breath. Many a morning I wake up to her whiskers tickling my nose because she's sniffing my nasty morning breath. It's like perfume to her.

Gracie is a bit of a finicky eater. Laura and I have come to the conclusion that she doesn't like the normal cat food. She likes the stuff that smells particularly disgusting.

Leave it to me to have a weird cat or two. Mao is a whole other problem. He's a real weirdo. More on that later.

I guess that's all for this topic.

Pete

A total waste of my time.

Tyler's suspension for doping came down today. I was posting on a thread with a few friends on the topic. I'll just post up what I wrote there.... Its better than typing it all out again here.
****************

Hey guys.

Jay, in a way you're right. I really fought with this in my mind as I've seen pretty much every cyclist that I at one point admired test positive for some sort of illegal substance use.

I came to the conclusion that I'm in no position to judge. I've sure done a lot of stupid things over the years. Stuff that if I were ever in a position of public scrutiny would be damned as much or worse than anything these guys do or have done. Have I ever competed at that level? No. Have I ever been subjected to the kinds of professional and career pressures that these guys have been? No. Can I even understand the pressure these guys have on them to win?... the pressure to support their team day after day for a season that lasts 10 months? Not even close.

Am I happy this is going on? Nope. It dissappoints the hell out of me. I can't condemn these guys or even blame them. We all have to live with the decisions that we make. They have to deal with the fact that there are people like me who just switch off the tour and professional cycling because of their actions.

I'm an idiot, but I'm not so daft to think that this makes a stick of difference to any of them.

I came to the conclusion that I'd rather ride than watch other people ride. I'd rather ride than watch other people do just about anything (certain establishments that provide adult entertainment excluded). Watching the tour, rooting for my favorite cyclist, buying and reading Velonudes, etc. is a waste of time for me that I could be using to get out in the woods for a ride.

I don't mean to be negative. I should just let these threads go by without comment. I tend to write what I feel. I thought it might fit here.

Sorry to ramble.

Pete

A huge waste of my time....

I was goofing on the Central VA Mountain biking board with some friends an the topic of Tyler Hamilton's suspension from professional cycling for doping came up. I've been rattling this stuff around in my brain for a while... since the Festina ordeal of 1997, but I've never figured out what it meant to me. My dissappointment is obvious. It is hard to see your heros turn out to be cheaters. I'd get depressed and vow not to watch next year. I'd always come back though. The excitement is always so much. I always wanted to think that these guys are great and somehow above all the doping. Then someone tests positive and I'm back at square one.

Here's how I responded to one of Jay's comments....

"Hey guys.

Jay, in a way you're right. I really fought with this in my mind as I've seen pretty much every cyclist that I at one point admired test positive for some sort of illegal substance use.

I came to the conclusion that I'm in no position to judge. I've sure done a lot of stupid things over the years. Stuff that if I were ever in a position of public scrutiny would be damned as much or worse than anything these guys do or have done. Have I ever competed at that level? No. Have I ever been subjected to the kinds of professional and career pressures that these guys have been? No. Can I even understand the pressure these guys have on them to win?... the pressure to support their team day after day for a season that lasts 10 months? Not even close.

Am I happy this is going on? Nope. It dissappoints the hell out of me. I can't condemn these guys or even blame them. We all have to live with the decisions that we make. They have to deal with the fact that there are people like me who just switch off the tour and professional cycling because of their actions.

I'm an idiot, but I'm not so daft to think that this makes a stick of difference to any of them.

I came to the conclusion that I'd rather ride than watch other people ride. I'd rather ride than watch other people do just about anything (certain establishments that provide adult entertainment excluded). ;) Watching the tour, rooting for my favorite cyclist, buying and reading Velonudes, etc. is a waste of time for me. That is time that I could be using to get out in the woods for a ride.

I don't mean to be negative. I should just let these threads go by without comment. I tend to write what I feel. I thought it might fit here.

Sorry to ramble.

Pete"

I'll read a few newspaper clippings about the tour this year. That's all I need. I just don't care that much. I'd rather hang out with my wife and cats or go for a long ride.

Pete

Jump Trail Photos.

Here's the link. Enjoy.

Jump Trail Pics

Pete

Breaking my own legs off. ;)

Not really... but I definitely got a good workout yesterday. Jason and I teamed up to lead a MORE ride at Black Hills, Hoyles Mill and Schaeffer farms. The terrain isn't really technical, though there are plenty of logs and a few good rock gardens, but the ride is tough because of its distance.

I figured there might be some folks that needed to cut out early, and others that need to resupply. To make this possible, I parked my car at Schaeffer, met Alexis and Denis and the three of us rode the 7.5 miles over to Black Hill Regional park for the ride meet. Jason started riding about the same time and met us in the middle. The 4 of us got a few warm-up miles for what was going to prove to be a long day. By my calculations, my total was going to be close to 50 miles for the day. Denis was going to be more than that since he rode his bike from home to Schaeffer. Jason's too was going to be pretty long because he had a few extra miles than the rest of us in the warm-up.

Warm-up.... that is a good idea. For an April morning, it was dang cold. It was 38 degrees when I got out of the car. How do you dress for a ride that starts at 38 and is supposed to peak at almost 70? Leg warmers and a wind breaker over the normal short sleeve jersey and bib shorts was my plan. It worked with a little help from a guardian angel. (I took my leg warmers off at the trailhead and one fell out. Some kind soul hung it on a branch and I picked it up on my way back).

I wanted to limit the group ot 12 people. I knew that wouldn't happen. It never does. I let a few extra people in. Some others showed with 4 people instead of the expected one. We had a group of almost 20 for the start. That worried me a little, but as long as everyone knew what we were in for, I figured we'd be okay.

One dropped off after Black Hill. She was keeping up just fine, but felt like she was having to work too hard to do so and might not make the full distance. She did a few extra loops at Black Hill and called it a day. We picked up 4 stragglers and headed for Hoyles Mill.

First on the menu is the jump section. I'll post up the photos from that. We had fun goofing with the table tops.

The rest of the Connector was just a bunch of fun. The creek crossing was low. Bill and a few others had oodles of fun on the big rock garden. I'm happy that James gave us the lowdown on some singletrack that we were missing at the soccer-plex end of the connector. He went out and flagged it so we could follow it easily. That was great because it really helped having 17 of us riding back and forth over it 2 or 4 times. The trail is new, so it needs to get ridden in. We definitely did that today.

There's a new section of trail by the lake that is fantastic. Instead of following the road, we got to follow the countours of the lake. The trailbuilder did a great job. There are lots of little woops and berms on the ride. It will be a fun and challenging trail when it gets ridden in a little. I had a blast with it even as is.

There's another new section that isn't open yet. We didn't touch it, but it looked prettty amazing. Turn out for the work day June 4th and we'll finish it off. That will cut out over a mile of road riding. It is definitely something that needs to get finished.

Once at Schaeffer, we hit the white loop. Everyone begged me to do the Whoops section going up-hill. I don't know why. The trail sucks in that direction. I was an ass and left that section for later when it could be ridden going downhill. I knew there was some new trail there that needed to be ridden in. More about that later.

Jason blew up another pedal. I know that pissed him off. I joked when I shouldn't have. Sorry Grumpy J. I didn't mean to piss you off. Glad you got it fixed and made it back up with us later.

We rode the rest of the white loop and yellow loop without incident. I had a tire going low and blew up a BRAND NEW PUMP(!!!) trying to fix it. I borrowed someone else's to get my fixx of air. We rode the red loop which needs to be done on a regular basis to keep it ridden in. It was pretty badly eroded at the bottom. I had no trouble riding it on the way down, but I blew it on the way back up. I'm still not used to riding with gears. It was one of three spots where I sketched because I wasn't ready with the right gear. I need to do something about that. MUST LEARN TO SHIFT GEARS!

Jason joined us again below the cell tower. He was riding his beater bike (Full XT Blur) and had a smile on his face. I think he was happy to be riding again.

At the 4-way, Bob was running into a time constraint. He lead a group back to the parking lot and gave them directions back to the cars. The rest of us picked up the pace a little on the climb out to the top of the white loop. That turned out to be a tough one for me. I felt great at the bottom, but by 1/2 way into the white loop, I was bonking pretty hard. The new Whoop section on the white is amazing. I can't imagine why anyone would want to ride that going uphill. What a bunch of jerks!

We got back to the car and re-supplied. I hopped up on extran and carboom and was ready to go. Everyone had one trip on the Connector left, I had two. I didn't make it all the way. I ran into a time constraint, and I was pretty tired. I turned around at the town of Boyds, about 4.5 miles into the connector.

My mileage for the day was just under 44 miles at an average pace of 9mph (8.9mph to be precise). I think that is one of the longest rides at a decent pace in many years.

David and Denis were going to ride back over together to get a few more miles in. I don't know what happened with that. I got in the car and was driving out and I saw David with his bike on the roof. He might have given Denis a ride home. Since both of them had a ton of miles in for the day, I don't blame them a bit. We worked pretty hard.

I did a similar ride last weekend on the single speed. Even though the mileage was a bit less... only about 34 miles, the ride felt much easier. I don't know if I ate better, or if the SS makes me stronger. There's a point at which I can't push harder on the SS. The geared bike doesn't allow me to do that. I don't think my average speed was much less, but I sure felt fresher. Who knows...

Jump Trail Pics

Thanks for reading. Thanks to all for a great ride. It takes a good group of people to make a ride like that happen. You people are the best!

Pete

I'm easily entertained: Part 69

I don't have to tell you folks that I'm infantile and easily entertained. I'll just prove it again. As always, Pictures say more than words.



Have a great weekend.

Pete

The Best Cannondale Product EVER!!!

I don't really know what my beef with Cannondale is. I just never really got into their stuff. I had one of their road bikes years ago. It was a fine bike, for a lumpy weld aluminum road bike. I raced it for over a year before selling it and getting something else.

My whole view of Cannondale has changed. The came out with something so great, so amazing, so mind bogglingly perfect, that I am now a HUGE Cannondale fan.

Are you read?

Are you sure?

Really?



I must be easily entertained.

I need to get a jersey to match.

Pete

More Monkeying around...

With the sale of my Id being final, and it OUT of the house for good, my Karatey Monkey was getting lonely. They were best buds in a mutant personification kinda way. Sooooo... I got my Karate Monkey a baby brother.

I purchased......

Drum roll please.........

Another Karate Monkey. This one is going to have gears though. I'm almost done building it. It should be a really fun bike to ride. When the Truth sells, then I'll get a suspension fork for it.

I basically took all the superlight stuff off of the Truth and am making a geared monkey with some high zoot stuff on it. I know that is a weird bike, but I needed something with gears to ride in Colorado and Utah on the days when I'm not SSing.

I'll post up photos when I get bored. All i have to do is build the wheels and it is DONE and ready for the trails. I may take it out tomorrow night.

Talk to you later.

Pete

Blogger purgatory and a GREAT ride today.

Greetings readers. Sorry I've been away. I've been fighting with some weird stuff lately and haven't taken the time to write. I've got a week and a half of inane things to post up, but I'm going to give you a break and talk about riding. :D

Jason and I have been going through some similar stuff. Neither of us has been particularly social of late. That's okay with us because we can hang out, ride and be anti-social together. It works pretty well.

Today's anti-social ride was a big one. After getting sick on the last epic ride, Jason wanted to try and get one more in before we ship off to Colorado. That ride was today.

We rode Black Hills/Hoyles Mill and Schaeffer again. it was just the two of us. We had a blast. We just rode and rode and rode. The final mileage was just over 35 miles and we did it over an hour faster than last time. You just move quicker in a small group. We just didn't really stop much at all.

The fun part was the creek crossing. It was very high the first time through. I rode it and it was up to the top of my 29er tires. Jason was wise. He took his shoes off and hiked across. I had to ride the rest of the day in wet shoes. Oh well. I had fun.

Oddly enough on the way back, the creek level was over a foot lower. Weird!

We're both pretty tired, but enjoyed the ride a ton. I think we're ready for Fruita and Utah.

Talk to y'all later. I have some fun stuff to post up from the last week or two.

pete

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