Summer has been awesome. I went on a little bike trip for a while; went swimming at midnight; rode late into the morning with friends. Never nothing going on.
Some pics from my trip. Seattle and back: 3817 miles.
An insane cult bus out west. Check out these pics.
In a nutshell.
Haven't updated in 4 weeks. Lots has happened. The coffee bike is fully rigged up with a front dérailleur and working great. Thursday night rides have been awesome, usually ending with fire. Been addicted to street riding on the Trail or Park. Still planning on biking trip out west on about May 20. The warmth is here, and with it many more outdoor adventures and springtime shenanigans. Best spring-break ever; I'm not in school. Starting work in a week.
Just got back from North Carolina. Chris Z and I went on a little mountain biking vacation. We stayed at my uncle Bill's place outside of Asheville for 3 nights; it was super sweet, and they were awesome. Thanks guys.
The mountain biking trails were insanely sick. It seemed like a lot of people were into downhill trails. Most rides we did were some type of double track climb followed by an insane single track descent. Oh, yeah, most of the climbs were 2000+ vertical feet. It'd be like climbing for 45 minutes and descending in five. The downhills were fast as hell, with jumps and drop offs everywhere. So many opportunities to catch air. Every downhill was so much fun and totally worth the climb. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face; why would I want to.
We checked out a couple trail systems. Bent Creek Experimental forest was our first stop, located just south of Asheville. The trails here were more open than not (tight singletrack). There were so many trails everywhere here, and they weren't marked at all; we soon had no idea where we were. Luckily some guys in a parking area directed us to the supposed best down hill run. After about an hour of climbing we hit up the trail Green Lick. It was a good taste of what was to come: real flowy, wall rides, lots of jumps, even a double. So fast.
Next day, we checked out Dupont State Forest. This place had by far the best marked trail system we rode on; every trail intersection was labeled. We planned a couple 2 hour loops and busted em out. Dupont was tighter singletrack with some good singletrack climbs as well as the gravel road climbs. This one trail we did was all slick rock, no dirt at all; it was like university hill over and over and over and around the corner and, oh, shit, over and over again: definitely the most brutal climb. Coming down the other side was too sweet.
Then we ended up finding free roadside campsites in Pisgah National Forest. Apparently Pisgah is the place to go for mountain biking. We were actually in Brevard, NC at this point. We stopped in at this awesome bike shop called The Hub. The guys there were super helpful and even took us on a ride with them. One guy was a sponsored downhill racer and everything. They had full suspension freeride bikes and the whole deal. We ended up doing this insane downhill run. I don't even know how I could begin to describe the gnarliness of this trail. I don't think I blinked once, tears were streaming back from my eyes, it was so f'ing fast. Then we biked a bunch more.
Other things we did that were also awesome but dwarfed by the mountain biking: toured the Cane Creek factory; fully made in USA; those guys were awesome; gave us each a 110 headset for free; hit up NAHMBS on the way back; total sickness; bikes like works of art; had to be there; checked out my uncle's trout farm; successful.
In retrospect, I'm going back. $144 round trip on the Greyhound from Eau Claire to Asheville. I've seen people take bikes on the Greyhound before; there's plenty of cargo room under those things. Then I'd have to bike 40 miles or so with a loaded backpack to the free camping in Pisgah. Biking with a fully loaded backpack sucks ass, but it's gonna be so worth it. I'll just have to stay for a month to make the trip worthwhile.
ec velo represents at the stupor bowl
Stupor Bowl XII. Five of us went up to Minneapolis this year. It was, as expected, awesome. This year there were 23 checkpoints; we got 19 in the three hour cutoff.
Some asshole cut me off really close going over Hennepin Ave bridge, so I flicked him off. He freaked out hardcore. He got up ahead and got out of his car and tried to cut me off on foot just screaming at me. I just barely made it past him. He then proceeded to follow us for a couple miles in his car. We ended up just ignoring him completely cause he might have been some psychopath with a gun or something. Oh yeah, and his girlfriend was in the car with him the whole time. What a winner. Minnesota plates, 169-AV.
Other than that, the whole deal was awesome. Drank a bunch of beer and prairie-fires at the after party. (thanks Chris Z for being a designated driver) Saw some punk bands. EC Velo was truly represented on the dance floor; I thought those Minneapolis kids knew how to hang, yeah right.
Dave's got some pics up too.
Man, the sewing machine is incredible. When I first got it I was pretty disappointed. It came with no manual or anything and some plastic pieces were broken off and stuff. When I finally tried it the tension was super messed up. I toyed around with it for hours and read FAQs and whatnot on the internet. To make things worse, Singer claims my model number doesn't exist, so they have no documentation for it. Well, anyway, I finally was able to get the tension set right; I had to take apart part of the machine to set the bobbin tension as well as the upper tension. Now, it works awesome. It's handling heavy duty thick thread with no problems. And as a plus, the machine is fully mechanical, no computer chip crap here.
I've got a prototype bag nearly completed , but I ran out of webbing and tri-glides. For my first attempt at sewing heavy cordura and nylon webbing and such, the prototype is actually kick ass. I've definitely learned a thing or two about sewing technical gear, so the next bag is only gonna be better.
The Sekine version 2.0. I had the Sekine powder-coated a couple months ago. This guy in Chippewa hooked it up for cheap. I built up some Surly hubs to Velocity deep v's. Probably going to switch it up when spring comes around and throw some brakes and a freewheel on it. I don't know yet.
About a year ago I was checking out bike porn on the internet and happened to stumble upon this bike. The Coffee Bike: distributed through Project Rwanda as a third world means of transportation. The bike looked awesome – like a Big Dummy but more versatile, not to mention cheaper. You can buy a Coffee Bike complete directly off of Project Rwanda's web site for $750. I actually got mine from a dude who's neighbors with Tom Rithcey.
The setup:
The Coffee Bike came pretty much ready to ride. Most of the components were lower end. I replaced nearly everything but the wheels, headset, handlebars, and seatpost. The original crankset was some kind of generic with a non-removable chainring: lame. Bottom bracket was a loose ball and cup type. It had a cheapo Sram dérailleur with a cheapo twist shifter. Saddle was some kind of comfort crap.
I bought a Dimension cyclocross crankset, a 34 tooth Surly ring, and a Spot ring-guard. I fashioned up a chain-guide to keep the chain on the front chainring. I replaced the crappy generic cassette with a crappy Shimano 8 speed cassette (12-32). I threw this old Deore rear dérailleur on it with a brand new Sun friction shifter. I replaced the crappy stock brake levers with Avid FR-5's, but kept the Promax v-brakes. I put on brand new ODI lock-on grips and a take-off WTB saddle.
Terry gave me a long board to mount on the back. It's made of bamboo and has super tough clear grip tape on top. It is awesome.
Issues:
I kept the wheels. Rear is 48 spoke, front is 36. Both are, unfortunately, the english axle size of 3/8” x 26tpi. They are loose ball and cone style, with no rubber seals or anything. Oh well, they'll work great for a long time as long as I repack the hubs regularly.
The Coffee Bike will probably only have one chainring in the front. The frame has some tubes coming from the bottom bracket that will interfere with any type of front dérailleur. Right now, the smallest chainring I can fit is a 34 tooth (110 bcd). The biggest a rear cassette goes to is 34 tooth; mine right now only goes 32. Will 34x32 or 34x34 be a low enough gearing to make fully loaded mountain passes? I hope so.
The rear v-brakes weren't hitting the rim properly when the rear wheel was all the way back in the dropouts. Rather than have to mount the wheel considerably farther ahead in the dropouts, I decided to move the brake boss location. I found this adapter in QBP that I mounted to a different part of the frame with hose clamps as seen below. The adapter is very secure, and the original brake bosses remain on the frame as a backup.
The Coffee Bike came with a motorcycle-style kickstand. The mounting position is kind of awkward and it doesn't operate very smoothly. I may be able to modify it to work better, but for right now I just don't have it on there.
The ride:
The Coffee bike is super stable. I took it over a bunch of snow and ice with no problem. Turning is almost just like a regular bike. The friction shifter works great. I made it up university hill with one more lower gear to spare. No complaints here.
Cargo system:
I bought two 80 liter widemouth drybags for cargo. I also recently purchased a sewing machine and ten yards of 1000 denier cordura nylon fabric on eBay. I plan on kind of copying the xtracycle bag system, but making it better and custom fit for the Coffee Bike. Right now I'm waiting on some of the hardware and webbing before I get sewing. It should work out well.
Future upgrades:
New front fork with disc-brake tabs. Front disc-brake. New front and rear wheels with standard metric 9x1 and 10x1 axles. Odometer. Possibly getting some new rear brake bosses permanently brazed on.
Hey, it's an update.
So, a lot's been happening since I last put anything up here I see. I'll just give a quick retelling.
Andy G and I hooked up with a ride to Madison in October. We stayed at Chris Z's place down there and raced this Halloween alleycat. It was awesome, to say the least. The Alleycat: Showed up at this dude's house downtown. This was the start and finish of the race. We were given our manifests about one minute prior to the start. There were three different manifests (same point, different order), and riders were started off in one minute splits of three riders all with different manifests. In other words, we were all on our own from the get-go. I thought I knew my way around, but soon discovered otherwise. After about twenty minutes of hard riding I stopped at a gas station to buy a map only to discover I had been going 20 minutes the wrong way. I figured out what was going on and hopped back on the bike only to drop the map out of my pocket somewhere. A bunch of riding, getting lost several times, asking numerous strangers for directions, a couple beers at checkpoints, and 3 hours later I finished. I had an awesome time, but the real fun was about to begin. The after-alleycat-party was off the hook. All kinds of prizes, more shitty beer than I've seen for some time, a Hulk Hogan cd, people drinking beer out cooking spoons, fights on the kitchen floor, an elken challenge. It was a good time.
I went up to Cable, WI in November to do some mountain biking. With who? Brett, me, Chris Z, Matt L, and Craig. It was sweet as well. First snowfall of the year and we were out mountain biking. Camped two nights and threw back a couple beers around the fire. Good times.
Last week I went to Tennessee with my neighbor Joe. We hiked the Appalachian trail for a couple days in Smokey Mountain National Park. It was supposed to be all nice and 50 degrees. Well, shit, it rained or snowed the entire time we were there, except, of course, for the last day. We once again narrowly evaded death in the wilderness, seriously. Other than that I had a lot of fun.
Thursday night rides continue on. I actually got the coffee bike. Been busy with projects and such. I'll post some pictures of the coffee bike up soon.
Later.
Thursday night ride was awesome. We hit up more singletrack than we ever have before; it was dark for the most part too. The ride went all over the northwest side for an hour or so when we stopped to pick up some tasty beverages from Mega. Headed down to Riverview Drive from there. Hit up the Northwest Trails, the place I broke the PUSS; I took everyone down that very same trail. From Riverview we headed around to the north side of the airport to Hallie Ridge Estates, a super swank development. Apparently this place was build a couple years ago by Paul Ayres. It has a huge community center, a waterfall/fountain running 24/7, a 1.5 million dollar spec house just chilling, a bike trail leading down to a pavilion and beach on some secluded lake, and absolutely no residents: hell yeah.
We headed to the beach where we proceded to consume copious amounts of tasty beverages and build a bonfire. Zacher brought a hatchet in his bag without even knowing anything about what we were going to do beforehand: always prepared. This new guy came along too, and he was having a great time. Then after a couple hours we headed back to town. Made it home by 1:30am.
Did another adventure race this Saturday. Man, these things are fun. An insane test of one's mind and body. Rigel and I have gotten second twice now at other races, so we were ready to kick to some ass and win one of these damn things.
The Breakdown:
The race (SCARD – Super Cool Adventure Race of Doom) was put on by Al Wiberg from UWEC. The race started and ended at Camp Manitou located on Long Lake near the Chippewa county forest. Rigel and I had to attend this mandatory racer meeting at 10pm last night, and the race started at 6am this morning.
The Race:
6am. Every team gets a 100 piece puzzle to assemble. All cheesy fairy puzzles with glitter and everything. Rigel and I are busting out pieces like mad. A couple teams get done and out first. We finish, run outside and grab our bikes, and start biking to the first transition area. Bike five or so miles. Pass some teams. The first transition area was located at the Ice Age Trail Interpretive center off of County M. When we got there we found out we had to run around this mile long loop and look for these nine letters written on signs around the loop and unscramble the letters. Ran pretty hard. I never run anymore. Figured out the words pretty quick like (Eagle Lane was the answer). Then we had to bike to Eagle Lane down some fire roads and stuff. Another five miles or so and we were in first place. Arrived at Eagle Lane and was given a land navigation map with nine checkpoints on it. We took a bearing on one and took off running. Ankle deep in the marsh in minutes. We never found it. What the hell was going on? We ran back and forth all over this one area and couldn't find it. We decided to shoot to the next point and get a bearing from there. The next point looked easy because it was along this ridge line next to a huge marsh. Never found that either. Ran up and down the ridge line for over half an hour. Frustration. What should we do? Decided to return to the original transition area and start over after an hour of not finding anything. Took a speculated bearing and took off. Ran into the first point we were looking for. Took a bearing. Found more points. This one was in a waste deep swamp area. Al is awesome. We had some trouble with some points, but found them all decently quick. Got all nine and headed back three and half hours after heading out. We were in second place. No way. Only one other team had made it out before us. The left about 20 minutes earlier. We hopped on the bikes and pedaled down some logging roads. We had to go about 10 miles on these fire roads to the next transition area. We caught the guys that had a 20 minute lead on us. Next transition was just biking: about a ten mile ride down this four wheeler trailer. The trail was pretty sloppy. Then got to County M and took a left. Biked on paved roads for a couple miles to the next transition area. There we got another land nav map with 5 points. Took some bearings got some points. Got delayed on this one point for about half and hour but found it eventually. Got out of there and found we had been passed again. Some team had left 3 minutes ago. We grabbed the bikes and hammered. We caught them at the next transition area down the road. We had to put our bikes in the our canoe that they had brought there and paddle across Long Lake back to the camp, drop off our bikes, and leave on a canoe navigation section. We had nine points we had to get. We only saw eight on the map. What the hell? Maybe the last checkpoint was the finish? We didn't know. Lots of canoe portages from hell. Had to bushwhack carrying the canoe several times over a mile over steep hills and marshes. Got to one point and had to carry the canoe down this so called “mud trail.” This trail was basically a waste deep trail through a swamp for half a mile. It was actually kind of fun. Got done with that and headed back out on the water. There was only one checkpoint left, the finish we thought. Paddled like crazy there and finished. First place.
The rundown:
Took a shower, ate some food, and went down to watch other teams come in. We were talking to Al and we discovered that we had missed the last checkpoint on the canoing section. Another team had just come in and had been turned back minutes ago because they had done the same thing. No way. Why hadn't we been turned back? Shit, should we leave right now and race them? No. So we ended up not getting first place. Damn. Frustrating.
Overall:
Awesome. My knees are in pain, but that's all part of the fun. Adventure racing is off the hook
Today was the Autumn Alleycat. Organized solely by Derrik, an alleycat around here that I could race in. Hell, yeah. Showed up at Racy's at noon. Lots of bikers were already there. I was actually a little wired for this thing. A couple guys showed up on full carbon race machines – holy shit. 34 racers in all: bigger than the Valleycat. These things are just going to grow and grow.
The race:
We received our manifest upon registration. 6 points: Derrik's house on Plum Street, Rod and Gun Park, Riverview Island Park, Underloud Boardshop, Budget Cameo Twin, and the east hill stairs. We also had to carry a water balloon with us and keep it intact. I planned on shooting through downtown first then to Riverview and around Dells Pond to Rod and Gun then Derrik's house then Racy's. Derrik started the race from some random parking lot near downtown: perfect. I was out pretty quick. I looked over and saw Ryan. First to the stairs: cut across the walking bridge, through some traffic, wrong way down a one way, red light, parking lot, stairs. Ryan was right there. We ran up looking for the checkpoint, looked around for a little bit, found it, but Ryan forgot his stamp card on his bike. I stamped my and ran down. I was on my own. It was the International Fall Festival in downtown and Barstow street was closed off. It was actually really busy. I cyclecrossed through the crowd to the theater, then out, got yelled at by a cop for running in the street with my bike. Went to Underloud, met some people that had gone there first. Up Madison hill to Omaha Street to Star all the way to 312 and Riverview. Hit the island. Crossing 312 I saw three guys coming the other way: the two guys on geared race bikes and some dude on a fixie; all drafting, damn. Old Wells to Folsom to 14th to Cameron to Rod and Gun. Had to drop my shorts and pose for a picture. Down that service road to Clairemont to Menomonie to Ferry to Plum. I pushed hard back to Racy's. As I was coming in from the west, I saw some dudes coming around the corner from the east: the dudes from the draftline – holy shit. I came in fast for a card hand off to Derrik. All of a sudden around the corner, a cop car, stopped right there. WTF? I laid the Steamroller down and slid on my as on the steps in front of Racy's. Grabbed my punch card and gave it to Derrik. Then the cop started yelling at the two guys on road bikes. Apparently they had run two red lights and failed to pull over several blocks ago. The cop was super pissed. I was dazed. Somehow the two guys just apologized a lot and got off with nothing. I ended up getting second place. I guess that guy on the fixie, Adam, had dropped the two other guys and come in just a minute before I had. It was a good time.
Then EC Velo went swimming. Ate at Mogie's. Loaded up with goods. Chilled at Andy's. Had some footdown and skid comps. Bars. Closed down. 2:30am.
EC Velo goes for a swim
Another fun filled Thursday night. Went west and around south and then east to Altoona. Then Andy took a digger. His Pista took some damage as well as his shoulder and side. Don't worry, he's alright and his bike will be running soon.
More broken Trail or Park stuff.
Two of these bent now. Gosh darn Trail or Park.
A rainy Saturday morning. The Blue Angels are in town. They sure are a waste of gas, but awesome to see probably. Biked out to the airport with Andy, Matt, and Kayla. Rained the entire time. Two flat tires. Roads closed off, but we made it through, like always. Cyclecrossed some sandy-muddy hillside in the rain. Hit some singletrack south of the airport. Air show canceled. Ha-ha, people in cars. Traffic jam for 2 hours.
More trouble on the Thursday night ride. About four minutes into the ride, cutting through campus, RJ got hit by a car. No one else saw it happen cause he was the tail. He was mostly unharmed with heavy damage to the bike. Cops, firetrucks, ambulances, ten emergency workers, and two hours later, the ride was underway again. Ryan got a ride home with the lady that hit him. We all took it easy and found a pavilion in Carson. Ended the night with 40's of Natty Ice in Phoenix Park.
Next Thursday: leaving a 7:00:00pm sharp; no accidents.
Derrik and I biked out to Cleghorn today to do a 21 mile road race. I raced on the steamroller; Derrik on the IRO. Ryan J. showed up too.
Synopsis:
Derrik and I both started in the back. I didn't really want to bring my brakeless fixed gear to attention before the start of the race. When it started it was all bottle-necked and hard to maneuver up to the front. Around a corner and a hill climb, I was in the middle of the pack. I looked up and saw some guys taking off: about 10 of them. I was all enclosed in the pack: riders on my right and left. I couldn't get out, shit. I yelled at this guy, “I need to get out now!” He let me out and I took off. This was maybe a bad move, cause I never caught the lead group. I was by myself for about a mile or more trying to catch them. Then Derrik caught up to me; then the rest of the pack was with us. Derrik and I took turns pulling. I looked back once and saw that we were pulling the whole pack, probably about 40 guys (and girls), no way. Then for a while Derrik, this one girl, Ryan, and I kept taking turns pulling the whole pack. At about mile 10, some people went down: two riders right behind me; I didn't see what happened. Then with about 7 miles left the big hills started. On the first major hill I took the lead. At the top I had a decent lead on the pack, a lead I might be able to keep. Shit, I didn't want to make a move this soon, but I just kept going with it. Another major hill and I passed some stranglers from the lead group. The rest of the race was a bunch of rolling hills. I was riding totally by myself for the last 20 minutes. It was sweet. I ended up first in my age group, ninth overall. Derrik wasn't far behind with thirteenth overall.
Road racing was super fun. I love the thrill of the draftline and high-speed close-quarters maneuvering. The steamroller did good. The ride goes on.
My birthday today. Brian got me a Dremel tool (not a cordless one either): hell yeah. This is one of the best gifts I've ever received for sure. Thanks dude.
Thursday night ride was off the hook. First I took everyone up Mount Tom for a beer. Then across Hastings bridge. Then Derrik went down: his face on a curb, shit. He was hurting for a while. Went through downtown and up to Carson park to say hi to Paul. Then over to Rod and Gun Park for more beers. And then, to the "Ultimate Spot, Fuck Yeah!" Went down a super treacherous rocky muddy hillside through dense brush in the dark. Made a fire. Cory passed out and fell out of a tree. Ended late.
The Hadley has arrived at last. There was a slight issue with the front thru axle, but it was nothing a few custom made washers couldn't fix.
building the ultimate wheel
broken spoke
Eleven people on the ride tonight. Matt's b-day. Headed out to Elk Lake Tavern. Watched the Packer game. One dollar PBR's when the Packers got a touchdown. Go, Pack, go.
Matt's birthday shot
A rainy night ride.
What's going on? Long time 'eh? Just a little synopsis:
Thursday night rides have been awesome. This one time we lifted up a car and stuff. Chris Z moved to Madison, we all miss him a little. We biked to Derrik's mom's land outside of Chippewa and camped for a Thursday night ride one time. She had 120 PBRs on ice and the bonfire already blazing when we got there: score. I broke the PUSS bombing down this washed out sand hill. Fixed it mostly. I got pink deep v”s. I also bought a Surly Steamroller. Volunteered at the Firecracker as a course marshal. More kick ass Thursday rides. Work is fun. Raced on four person singlespeed team (Hold my beer watch this) at 24-9. Got first place as a singlespeed team. Summer is good.
Cable Classic this weekend. Z and I camped up there for the deal. We were both feeling strong and ready prerace. I had an awesome time and ended up getting second in my age group. Chris Z flatted less than I mile in: sixteen penny nail. The entire race passed him and he had to work his way up again: bummer; he passed a lot of people up though. Then campfired it up late into the night with our neighbors at the campground: some cool older dudes into mountain biking.
Big turnout for the Thursday night ride. One guy from the Wednesday night group actually showed up to check it out, but he didn't come riding with us. Biked out to Big Falls. We were going to cross the river with our bikes held over our heads, but the water was raging. Good times chilling on the rocks though.
I went biking on the Wednesday night road ride tonight. It meets at the Fairfax pool parking lot a 6 pm Wednesday nights. I read about it in the back of Volume One. It says it's something like “a recreational ride for riders of all ability levels and all kinds of bikes” – my ass. I was the only person of about 30 without spandex or carbon fiber. Only a few guys even knew or understood what a fixie was. A lot of people drove there.
The ride started out pretty chill. Everyone just talking and stuff. After about half and hour the pace started to pickup a little: sweet. I enjoy the thrill of fast road riding in packs: drafting and taking pulls and all. A couple big hills spread things out a little bit, but I was right near the front the whole time. Then, on this major hill two guys took off. Another guy towed behind them for a second or two and then made a break on his own. I was hardly even working at all, so I pulled up to the front guy and yelled, “how's it going?” He couldn't even talk he was breathing so hard, so I stood up and busted out of that place. I looked back at the top of the hill and couldn't see anyone. WTF?
Then it was downhill. About two miles of downhill where I got passed by just about everyone. Damn fixie, oh well sometimes the hard way is more fun and a better workout. I finally stuck with a group of four other dudes. We went through Fall Creek and took turns pulling on the way back to Eau Claire. They turned out to be alright and I had a good time biking with them too. I'm going to have to hit up that ride again fo' sho'.
The ValleyCat was awesome. I think Eau Claire was ready for this kind of thing, and it delivered all around. Local businesses donated over 500 dollars in prizes and t-shirt money. Everyone had a blast, and everyone got a prize and a t-shirt. Lots of drinking afterwards. A championship round of footdown with a bike going to the winner. Skid competition. Man, it was glorious.
Volume One did an excellent job with this video, which explains the race pretty well.
I took some pictures.
Awesome hammer session tonight. I wonder if full kit roadies could hang with us.
The first day of construction was awesome. I'm going to like this job for sure. It was crazy: I drove a huge-ass truck with a huge-ass trailer. I don't even remember the last time I drove. Don't worry I was real careful... But on the downside, I have to wake up a 5am tomorrow.
I quit Mancino's and start my new job in concrete tomorrow. Here we go.
Thursday night ride was a hammer fest today: awesome. Then ended up munching out below the new highway 53 bridge over Otter Creek in Altoona. Guinness, Doritos, and doughnut holes: mmmm. I eat like shit and never gain weight.
So the PUSS was chilling out in the stand, and I noticed water steadily dripping from the headtube through the headset bearings: not cool. I completely stripped the PUSS down and poured about a cup of water out of the down tube: really not cool. I opened the seal on the lower headset bearings only to find them packed with water soaked grease: super not cool. Somehow water had gotten in the frame and not been able to drain out. Fuck that, I drilled a hole in the bottom bracket myself to solve this problem. From now on, every bike I own is getting a bottom bracket hole drilled in it.
First ride out at Lowes Creek today. Trail conditions were great. I love single track mountain biking.
And then wasted about four hours of my life trying to get a seized seatpost out of a pista frame.
Completed (kind of) the Timber Wolf Adventure Race on Saturday. It was about the shittiest day possible for an adventure race: heavy snowfall, 25 mph winds, 20 degrees. The synopsis:
Rigel and I woke up at 3:30 am and drove two and a half hours to the race start, outside of Winter, WI. Weather conditions were shit. About 60 – 70 people were doing the race. Race started, first we had to run three miles down the road to the first transition area. We were in the middle of the pack at this point. We got topo map with control points plotted on it. Everyone was running down this logging road to find the first point. I took a bearing and Ridgal and I just started plowing through the woods. Adventure races are all bushwhacking; I don't know what everyone else was thinking taking the logging road. Within minutes we were knee deep in a marsh: oh well, what are you going to do? Our navigation was dead on, and we were both feeling strong. We got all the points and made it through that section in about an hour and a half. As we were running back with all the control points, one team asked us if we had found any points yet. No way! They hadn't gotten any. When we got back to the transition area, we were in second place. Some other team had come through ten minutes ago. We then had to get in our canoe and start paddling down the Flambeau. The river was super high and there were super headwinds. All I remember is that it really sucked. Our legs were soaking wet and it was 20 degrees. It was a suffer fest for sure. After two hours of canoing, we made it to the next transition area. Somehow we were now in first place; I never saw us pass anyone on the river. From here we had to bushwhack to our bikes about two miles away: more marsh and swampland. My right knee was getting messed up. I think all that time soaking wet in the canoe not moving it at all messed it up good. For a while I had to walk instead of run. We got to the bikes and had to change a tire as a part of the race: took about 3 minutes. On the bike my knee felt great and we pushed hard for about a half an hour to the next transition area. More land navigating: but this time we could bring our bikes into the woods. There were some logging trails we could use. We got one point and took a bearing for this far out point. We never found it. We criss crossed over the entire area for about an hour and still could not find it. I honestly think something was fucked up with the point: did it blow down in the wind, did the race organizers even put it up? We had to make our way out to a main road to regain our bearings. We were running along the road when some fire department guys drove by. They told us the race was called off because of dangerous conditions. Apparently about 25 people had gotten hypothermia and it was this big crisis or something. People had flipped their boats on the river and almost died, because emergency workers were too few and too overwhelmed. One team was still not accounted for: holy shit. We ended up taking second place because this one other team got a few more control points than us while we were looking for the one we never found. Guess what, they couldn't find it either. Where the hell was it?
I won a sweet diving knife that I altered into a tanto edge blade. Rigel won a Specialized floor pump.
Crank Brothers rule. A short history of my dealings with them:
Bought some brand new eggbeaters. They had plastic end caps that got all messed up. I sent them an email and they sent me an entire rebuild kit (with metal end caps) for free.
A spindle broke on me when I was installing a rebuild kit. I called them and they said they'd ship me a new one. They sent me not one, not two, but four brand new stainless spindles.
One of my eggbeaters broke. I sent it to them without calling them or anything. They sent me a new one for free.
Compared to my newly acquired new one, the other eggbeater from the pair sucked. I sent in the older one and they sent me a brand new one free.
Thanks for all the free stuff Crank Brothers.
Biked to Levis this weekend. Chris and I left on Friday in the rain and arrived six hours later, still in the rain. Good conditioning, I thought. The mountain bike trails were supposed to be opened, but the opening was postponed due to shitty weather and poor trail conditions.
This was my first ever bike touring/camping expedition. I rolled with the Sekine fully fixed and loaded. I sometimes wished I had a lower gear, but what the hell, we made it. Chris Z, however, rolled with this homemade trailer this one dude “welded” together. About 5 minutes on the way out of town, a weld failed. The trailer pulled so strongly to the left after this that towing it was as much an upper body workout as it was leg work. Chris couldn't even take one hand off his bars without going out of control: shitty. We even made a song up about it and everything. Apparently, the whole thing fell apart as he pulled into his driveway on the way home: what luck (or misfortune).
About the trip in the rain: I like misery. It makes everything else so bearable. Sometimes when I tell people about stuff like this, I don't know whether they believe me or not.
EC Bike Film Fest today: good turnout. Watched some good flicks.
Klunkerz was pretty cool; more than anything it made we want to ride my mountain bike ride fast down gravel mountain roads taking corners sideways. All just a butch of hippies too. Gary Fisher was talking about some house where he and two other guys lived and setup a shop in the living room. Bikes and parts everywhere: inside, outside, in the grass. Fuck yeah. Good movie about the history of mountain biking.
Next, Pedal, which I missed but have seen before. I remember enjoying it a lot, especially the part where that Eric (Evil E) dude shows that room down in the New York subways where he sleeps sometimes. That part is so hilarious: his commentary.
Joe Kid on a Stingray was decent too. I didn't really know anything about the creation of BMX and eventually freestyle. I love watching flatland tricks. You know that stuff must take hours upon hours of practice. Something I'd never really find the gratification doing but captivating to watch nonetheless. Personally I like a dirt jump bike like the Trail or Park over any BMX. The bigger wheels definitely allow you to go more places.
Red Light Go was worth seeing for sure. Basically it was about messengers and alleycats in New York City. A little about Monster Track and also a little about this 420 alleycat race. In the 420 race, held on 4-20, racers had to deliver fake drugs: a bag of basil leaves, some baking soda, some stamped paper. Crazy. Monster Track looked insane too: rush hour in New York City as the sun is going down.
We Still Ride was darker than the rest; about Critical Mass in New York and the cops being dicks. A little depressing almost. I'm not sure what to think of it. Many innocent people were arrested, some not even a part of the mass. The cops cutting bike locks right in front of the owners was fucked up; that pisses me off. Sure the mass is making a statement about cyclists rights and personal freedoms, but people were running red lights, which is illegal. What if all the people in cars ran red lights, would the cops just let it happen? Don't get me wrong, I think every car should be scrapped for 4130 tomorrow, but congress isn't exactly on my side for this one.
BIKE: where to begin? What a messed up deal that Black Label Bike Club. Could be fun for some people, but the main character guy was fucked up in the head kinda. Always getting drunk and fucked up, lost in life, trying to feel accepted. What was his deal anyway? There was a lot of the usage of “fuck” or “fucking” or “fucked” in BIKE; and a lot of grainy night vision shots of drunken fucked-up-edness.
MASH was a good finisher. It was mostly the same stuff over and over again but way more chill than BIKE. Riding fixie is awesome.
No sky
no earth - but still
snowflakes fall
- Hashin
Holy shit, there are 18 confirmed guests for the alleycat, which I'm now dubbing ValleyCat 08, on facebook. Granted, a bunch of people are probably going to flake out. Whatever happens happens, it'll be awesome, and I'll have fun.
I'm going to be doing another adventure race on April 26. This looks like a good one, and my ankle's doing alright. Adventure racing truly is the shit: another facet of the intensity that I love so much. I would strongly encourage everyone to partake in at least one in their lifetime.
the package
the card
the report
the pedal
Crank Brothers is awesome.
Christmas in April today: got a used Park truing stand, a brand new spoke tensiometer, and a brand new dishing gauge.
Time to build some wheels!
Critical Mass today, and I didn't forget. Actually, about 30 people didn't forget. It was a definitely a good crowd. The cops came and everything.
It's about that time again: time to get another bike. This time I'm going all out utilitarian: something to tour on perhaps as well. Check these out:
big dummy
coffee bike
They both look pretty heavy duty for sure. The Big Dummy is setup like an Xtracycle system. In my opinion that's kind of a drawback because you pretty much have to buy some Xtracycle accessories for the rear rack setup. The coffee bike could be rigged up however you wanted to. However, with heavy loads disc brakes would definitely be a plus; only the big dummy has disc brake mounts.
The coffee bike is $1000 complete from Scallywags. The Big Dummy would probably run around $1800, with the rack setup and all.
What to do?
What an awesome warm week followed by a snowstorm today. That's alright; I went cruising through the empty EC campus skidding around every corner again and again.
Some pictures for your viewing pleasure:
The American way: bigger, stronger, better, faster, NOW!
Another solid weekend of drinking bit the dust and left me tired as hell this morning. A fellow coworker turned 21 at midnight Saturday. College parties sure are different from what I've been getting used to. Am I getting too old to enjoy a clean crisp Keystone Light on tap? Hell no, but I still prefer Guinness.
I got some solid dancing in though: The Brat, Shenan's, even Scooters. Hell yeah, I got 3 girls to go to Scooters that had never been there before; they had a blast. In a rather unfortunate event, however, I lost my glasses as Shenan's on the dance floor. I now fully realize how blind I am without them and how much vision comes into play while biking, especially drunken biking at night. Near bar-close, I went back to Shenan's and miraculously found my glasses in a corner on the floor busted in half with a lens hanging out nearby: score.
I got around to thinking about dancing. I like to dance (to good dancing music, that is). Why? I like intense things. When I dance, I really put myself into it. It's kind of like a zone or a meditation almost. As a result, I don't dance well with others. All these girls and shit come up and try to grind on me: what the hell? Can't they see I'm in my own world. Well, I guess sometimes that's all good and all, but not right at the breakdown of some serious trance techno shit. Ahh, but then on the other hand again, sexual intensity can be awesome too. If a girl is getting close and all on the dance floor, I'll try to push it to the limit; sometimes this doesn't work out so well. Oh, well.
It was too cold for a bike ride tonight, so we went for a bike ride. Had to pull one of us out the dorms though. I knew he'd cum.
No drinking tonight, but two flat tires. The same tire. Two motorists actually stopped to see if we needed a hand: far out. One guy was just insistent on giving us a ride because it was “way too cold to be out here,” and “do you know how cold it is?”
Then, biked on Hastings Way from Bracket to Birch for a good run.
Sold that dollar bill for 25 bucks today. I have no need for a coin collection, but if you want to meet an interesting guy, go down to Legal Tender and Coin on Barstow street. I got some other coins I think I'll sling down there.
Check out some local BMX action. These guys are hitting it big. Bigger than I can yet... yet. Yeah, right.
What a crazy awesome weekend. I witnessed many great events and calamities.
Friday: Totally spaced off critical mass. I saw Jeremy on the walking bridge Friday morning, and I told him I was going for sure. I heard a bunch of people showed up too. But, then again, what the hell, I don't feel so bad. Them guys only go once a month; the Thursday night crew is more hardcore than that. But it is nice to see more fellow bikers getting out.
Went down to the suspension-hanging show at the Stones Throw. If you didn't go, you totally missed out. This guy suspended himself from the ceiling by four hooks through his upper back. I was right up front awestruck the whole time. He was getting high from pain.
Then I got around to thinking. All these guys think they're some tough shit, huh: all these piercing and tattoos. I almost view that kind of stuff as fake. How many people have really experienced real pain? What I'm talking about is when one pushes one's body to the ultimate physical limits. How many of them have experienced the pain one puts on oneself in hour 23 of a 24 mountain bike race? Or even the goddamn university hill, hungover as hell, at 8am? That's my kinda pain.
Then I won one hundred dollars in tattoos. Hell yeah, I'm getting one fo' sho'.
I took the long way out to Office Max on Saturday. Made some more alleycat flyers and such. Then I saw a crazy little showdown in front of Michaels. I was unlocking my bike and heard this argument going on in the parking lot. This guy was illegally parked literally six inches from this other van. The guy wasn't even in a valid parking spot. The lady who owned the van couldn't get in because the guy was six inches from her van. She was asking the guy to move, but he was being a dick.
It went like this:
Lady: Sir can you please move your van, I need to get into my car?
Guy: Just wait, I'm not moving anywhere.
Lady: But sir, I need to get into my van.
Guy: Be quiet, I'm waiting for my wife.
Lady: You aren't even in a parking spot.
Guy: Yes I am.
Lady: Why won't you let me in my van?
[blah, blah, blah, for a couple minutes]
Me: Ma'am, do you need any help.
Lady: Yes I need somebody to call the police, this guy won't let me in my car.
Me: I'm going in the store to do it right now.
Guy: [to me] Who are you? Get the fuck out of here.
Me: Sir, I'm going to call the cops.
Guy's wife: [walking out of the store] Oh, fucking wait people, I have a goddamn bad leg.
Then the guy's wife gets in the car and they takeoff. What a bunch of fucking crazy people. And the crazy thing was, I'd say the dicks were in their 60's. I talked to the lady for a little bit and then took off.
Later that night, I took the PUSS out for the first ride of 2008. Hell, first ride since my surgery. It was awesome. And then to the Stones Throw again for Bill's Birthday Bash. Did a bunch of dancing; my ankle is now sore as hell. On the ride home, I got followed by this cop. I did circles around the block a couple times and tried to act erratic so he would chase me down and then I would cross the walking bridge and loose him, but he never took the bait.
Then today I found a one dollar bill in the register that had no serial number or seal stamped on it. Huh???
Hey, long time no write, huh? I have too much going on to be writing on this damn thing all the time. Once upon a time I thought a blog might be cool to have. Now I see it's just another digital age time drain. Cell phones: hate em. E-mail: lame. If you wanna talk to me, good luck.
I'm still going to update this shit every once in a while, though. If you want something to checkout, checkout David's blog. He's got some good stuff.
yum
The Stupor Bowl was the shit. I don't think I've ever seen that many fixies in my entire life.
This weekend truly was awesome. My ankle is on the fast road to recovery, and the Stupor Bowl is coming up soon.
Thursday: Rode around Eau Claire and out to Office Max to print some more alleycat flyers. Ended up at Northwoods for beer and pie.
Friday: Beer at Z's. Sandblasted a frame. Tried rollers for the first time ever. Biked to the Barley Club. Ryan landed on his ass in the middle of the road when trying to wheelie all drunk. Stayed up til 4 am. Woke up with flour all over my face. What the hell?
Saturday: Biked to Chippewa for Leinie's tour. 8 people came out for the ride: hell yeah! Got back and started drinking (Mogie's, my place, Labor Temple, Scooters, Joynt). All I can say is no one I know parties like us bikers. We do it up good, making a scene and all: big pile a bikes, loud obscenities, slush and road grime soaked clothes, beer drinking straight from pitchers, dirty dancing. It was a good time all around.
Current temperature: 0°F.
Current windchill: -12°F.
Tonight's ride was a blast. A blast of kick-you-in-the-ass. We crossed Lake Altoona on bikes: hell yeah!
Rode out to Office Max and made some alleycat flyers today. You know, biking alone in the cold, in the night is almost like meditating. It's like a trance one falls into. I guess I do think about stuff though, but when I'm done I can never remember what I was thinking about.
Just got back from my first ride of 2008. Hell, it was my first ride since October 29th, the day before my surgery. Received the thumbs-up from my doc this morning, much to the GF's dismay.
Let me tell ya: riding is awesome. I almost forgot about the pain. I guess I fell out a shape just a little from 2 months of chillin. But after 2 hours of riding, I feel high; life is good. I'll be ready to rip some sweet sweet singletrack in no time.
Five riders this time. Here's the bikes at Borders.
Hello 2008.
Bye bye 2007.
A generous helping of snow. Just makes me want to ride even more. The streets are slick, but my bike is slicker.
Got the Sekine all ready to rock: put stem new stem on it with allen bolts instead of all rounded off hex bolts; took the pink tape off and threw on some rubber grips; repacked the bottom-bracket, new bearings and all; and finally changed my front tire (it was ready to go 6 months ago). How's that for a sentence? Like I said, she's ready to go.
Ankle Status: yellow.
Today I put a shoe on my right foot for the first time since October 30th, the day of my surgery. It felt awesome: the comfort and control of an athletic shoe. Can't quite walk right yet though. It's a long shot, but hopefully I'll be ready for this.
On another note, I'm adding these to my Christmas wish list.
Updated the site today. All valid transitional XHTML v1.0. Decided against strict XHTML because you can't use the "target" attribute to open a link in a new window. Lame.
Still using Microsoft IE? Get rid of that crap and jump on the bandwagon. Mozilla.
