Titanium Addiction

2008-08-05T20:22:00.001-05:00

This widget has successfully logged in! Replace this text with your
first post.

You can use ⌘-B and ⌘-I to make text bold and
italic.

Finale

2008-07-11T10:44:00.001-05:00

I have concluded that I really am not interested in keeping a blog. My life just isn't that interesting to me, let alone the rest of the world. Maybe some day I will take it up again, time will tell.

BTW - 2nd place GC at the BC Bike Race, won stages 6 and 7. Age appropriate division of course.

Ciao!

Lemonade to Lemons

2008-03-09T16:26:00.006-05:00

I am aware that the expression is when given lemons, make lemonade. However, I have the overwhelming feeling of doing this backwards over the past week and a half. Last weekend was this:

With these good friends:

and:

For those of you keeping score at home, that is Aspen Mountain. I will let you all figure out who the players are.

That was last weekend, this week has been nothing but snow and crap for Toledo weather. Limited outside riding and having to return to this:

Back to the lemons.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed.....

2008-02-21T06:31:00.005-05:00

Sorry, nothing blue.

Here is my latest acquisition to be put together. It took longer than I would have hoped, but that is the way these things go some times. What is it you say? It is a Bontrager CX frame that I picked up off e-bay. It was made in San Jose and from what I can figure out, in the last year that Bontrager made frames themselves before selling out to the boys in Wisconsin.

I built it up with parts I had around. I know you purists are out there growling that I did not go with 'period' build. Somehow you will have to get over it, it would not have allowed the oh so clever title to this entry. Campy Chorus group, Bontrager Race X Lite cranks, Mavic rims on Chorus hubs, Thomson Seatpost, SLR saddle, and Deda bar.

Something new:

Something borrowed:

In case you are wondering, I borrowed the lovely purple cable hanger. I am waiting for a black one to come in.

Rhetorical question for the day: Why do people like to ride so early in the morning in the winter?

On the good news front - my storage area has been built at my shop. Now my collection of bikes can live in peace without being ridiculed by the other members of my household. "is that a new bike Dad?" is a fine question when asked of me in private, but can cause great troubles when asked in the wrong forum.

Slow and Hard

2008-01-19T15:17:00.001-05:00

Now that I have your attention - get your minds out of the gutter!! That would be my description of my ride at Brighton this morning. It was actually a lot of fun given the 17 degree temperature and blustery winds. There was about 1-2 inches of snow on the trail with very little underlying ice. It was completely rideable and I only missed a couple of small climbs where I couldn't carry any momentum into the hill. The downside of it was the constant work - no recovery whatsoever. Even slight downhills required pedaling. I ended up doing the Torn Shirt Loop twice and the Murray once. It took me almost 3 hours. My original plan was to try out a couple of different tire combinations, but once I saw the snow, I threw that idea out and just rode. I didn't think the feedback was going to be all that useful in the tire department.

I think I am having circulation problems in my hands and feet. They seem to be getting very cold more easily than I remember in the past. Even had trouble with warmers in place today.

Some day I will find people who are willing to ride with me on days like today. As Robert suggested, might be time to start a winter riding series. Maybe make it a competition - points awarded for miles, quality of miles (more points for trail rides than road rides), bonuses awarded for temperature extremes, ... I am open to suggestions.

Tough - Not so Much

2008-01-16T19:51:00.001-05:00

I like to think I am a reasonably tough rider. Able to get through 100 mile mtb races, etc. Lately I have been thinking I can hang with Danielle and Robert in the toughness department. This is my list of why I think I can at least lube their chains for them while they are getting ready for one of their marathon rides:

3.5 hours by myself in the rain/freezing rain
3 hours on wet roads on a windy 40 degree day
3.5 hours on a sub-30 degree day

But somehow none of that compares to riding in my basement. I have the hardest time doing workouts on the computrainer in my basement. I am only capable of at most 2 hours. And for that to happen, I have to really not pay attention to the time. I have learned that action and comedy movies are the best. I tried a 'chick' flick on Tuesday and it was a disaster. I have a problem in my house in that most of the movies we own are chick flicks. Might have something to do with the fact I am the only male mammal in a house of seven. Maybe I need to get some race dvd's or something.

Anybody have any suggestions to work on my mental focus?

Not feeling so creative in the blog department - duh.

What a Day!

2007-12-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

I love skiing on Christmas day. I am not Christian, so it is just another day for me. I am happy for everyone that gets to celebrate it, sad for those that have to work on what is a holiday for others, even more sad for those that have to work and the day means something more than a day off. I am generally happy for me on this day. The normal routine is going to a movie and having Chinese food - the only things generally open.

This year we are in Colorado and got to enjoy 8-10 inches of very dry powder on Christmas day. WOOOHOOO!!! It was great! Virtually no lift lines and lots of fresh snow to be found. Planning an early assault on the mountain today before everyone else gets there rear ends out. Hoping to convince someone to go with me, but if I have to go it alone, so be it.

I could go on about the skiing, but it might bore you, in case you weren't already bored.

I still don't understand....

2007-12-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was travel day for the family. A seemingly simple trip from Toledo to Aspen involving a car ride, two planes, and a shuttle bus. Not exactly a logistical nightmare by modern standards.

Everything started off just fine, even to the point of only one of my teenage daughters being bitchy at 6 in the morning ( a small miracle). I dropped off everyone at the curb with our mound of gear and proceeded to the parking garage - Another miracle - I found a spot in the garage without having to resort to parking outside! The check in went smoothly and I managed to make it through security just after the rest of the family - sometimes can be as much as a half hour difference.

Our flight to Minneapolis was delayed by 20 minutes waiting for someone to make their connection. Funny, they have never waited for me. I wonder what it takes to be on that list? We took off and it was a relatively smooth flight. Upon arrival, we had about 20 minutes to cross the MSP airport to our next plane. I was sent ahead for food and we all managed to make it. Now the fun begins.

Everybody has boarded the plane, but the door does not get closed. The pilot comes on the PA and announces that they have the wrong database in the control software for landing in Vail!!!! Hello - isn't there a checklist somewhere that should tell them this ahead of time. We are going to be delayed a half hour. No problem, we are not trying to catch another plane. Apparently loading the database is not quite as simple as putting some new software in your Mac. 3 hours later we are ready to go. During the 3 hours, they were kind enough to let us off the plane to search for some high quality terminal food. Funny thing was, they wouldn't tell us how long we could be away from the plane, they might leave at any moment - nice... While we were sitting there, I had the view of the luggage conveyor coming on our plane. Every now and then someone would come by and throw a suitcase or skis onto the conveyor - so they piled up. Keep in mind it was like 10 degrees, windy, and snowing at the time. At one point, a suitcase fell off one of the little trucks and lay on the tarmac about 75 feet from our plane for about 45 minutes. At least 10 luggage trucks drove right past it without stopping. So much for that increased terror threat and not leaving your bags unattended.

We finally took off and made it to Vail where we were to catch a shuttle to Aspen. That all went very smoothly, including hearing the horror story of a college kid coming in from Madison, it took him 36 hours. Made our trip look pretty simple.

A week of telemark skiing here I come!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Day 2 of Nats

2007-12-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

This was the big day for me. The race for the national championship. I had absolutely no hopes of winning, as the announcer said later in the day - this was the "Steve Tilford Invitational". With Steve in the front row and me in about the 10th row, time to just get some experience and have some fun. By the time we raced, 3pm, the course was pretty similar to the day before, lots of mud and grass. They had slightly altered one off camber section to give more options on how to attack it, but other than that, same routing.

From the start, it was going to be fun. Hauling up the hill to the first turn, the anticipation was high for the carnage to begin. Most everyone made it through the first turn onto the grass, not so for all the classes. The crashes began shortly thereafter and Tilly just rode away from the mere mortals in the crowd. I was doing a good job of picking people off and avoiding getting tangled in crashes for quite a while. Then I had one of my own. Not surprising given the slippery conditions, but it caused me to get tentative in my head. I proceeded to give back a few spots over the next couple of laps. I then screwed my head back on and started racing on the last lap. I managed to get a few of the places back and had some fun again. I ended up 34th. I am pretty confident I can do better, just a mental problem that can be corrected. Will I ever beat Steve Tilford, no.

Anne G. nailed 3rd place in her race, Anne S. nailed 6th in hers. A good day MI sceners in KC!!

Somewhere In There....

2007-12-13T16:22:00.000-05:00

Somewhere in this picture is a front derailleur:

Here is the rear derailleur:

The complete picture:

So the question is how did I make this mess. Wellllll, it was a beautiful day in Kansas City today. The sun was shining, and they just had a few days of freezing rain. I raced the last race of the day. The earlier races apparently were pretty icy and snowy. The temperature warmed up to the mid 30's and things began to melt. My start position was around 60 out of around 120. I have never been in a close quarters race with so many people before. There have been more at some of the longer races, but it is very different when you know you are going to be on a 1.9 mile circuit with so many people. The start was crazy, but manageable, nobody did anything stupid. The turn off the pavement was 90 degrees through a dip and up a rise, great potential for trouble so I purposefully stayed to the outside of the turn and all was good. I went down in an off camber turn on the first lap, recovered quickly and was back in business. It was to be a five lap race. The key was apply power when prudent and be smart the rest of the time. By the time it was over, I finished 9th.

I am pretty happy with the results, could have been a bit better without the fall, maybe 6 or 7, but not much better than that. It was a fun time, although the usual cyclocross pain was involved. Tomorrow is the big race!!

The Unveiling

2007-12-06T19:59:00.000-05:00

Here it is:
Force Group
Bontrager stem, bar and wheels
Eriksen seatpost (what did you think)
Selle Italia SLR saddle
Avid Jagwire cables
TRP Euro X brakes

Things that might change: saddle going to white, losing the jagwire 'covers', and changing from Bruce Gordon cable splitters to DaVinci. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

I know it's not titanium, but it sure is nice looking in my opinion. I am hoping to ride it a few times before I take it to nats as my backup bike.

2nd Trip to Columbus

2007-12-01T19:49:00.000-05:00

I made one of the few good decisions of my racing career this weekend. I decided to go to Columbus for a race rather than Waterford for the MI state champs. I think it is going to be a mess tomorrow! Good luck to all taking on the elements - i will be thinking about you while I enjoy Spamalot at the local theater.

The race today was in Upper Arlington at some park - I think it was called Lane Park. It was a tight little course with a lot of off camber turns, a barrier/hill run up, another set of barriers, and a couple of pavement sections. It was pretty fun actually, much better than last weekend in Granville. I raced the A race, and put myself at the back for the start. Since I don't know any of the players, no need to get in anybodies way too early. There were about 15 in the field. It became apparent within the first 1/2 lap that a guy in an Abercrombie & Fitch kit was going to win. He ran away with it. I had a good ride for the most part, with only a couple of small bobbles. I used a couple of guys to make my life easier for a few laps and then passed them. I rode with a couple of guys for probably 5 laps (out of 10 total). I attacked them coming into the bell lap on the start/finish straight and popped one guy on the barier/runup. The other guy was hanging tough until another little up hill where he bobbled and I gapped him off. He then fell in another turn and I rode away for what I think was 5th place. I had wanted to beat the guy that was 4th, but could not quite close down the gap. It was a beautiful sunny and cool day, tomorrow looks like a different story.

Time to start the final count down to nats!

Thank you Robert and Tailwind!!

2007-11-26T07:07:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I don't have worlds of experience in cyclocross racing, but I have done enough races to appreciate a decent course from a bad one. The Ohio state championship course was pretty darned Mickey Mouse. As Tim Saari put it, kind of like a backyard barbecue course. For those in the Toledo area, think Paige/Mark's house course (please don't take offense, just not a 'complete' course).

The start line had no more than 75 meters to the first 180 degree turn and uphill. The distance from the last turn to the finish line was about 30 meters. I did not stay for the finish of the elite race, but I hope there wasn't a sprint finish. It would be pretty dangerous in my opinion, think gravel/pavement in the last turn with metal barriers about 4 meters wide. In between the start and finish were a couple of nice sections interspersed between some fairly silly chicane sections. Add to this the way the starts were set up and you have a fairly poorly run state championship, in my humble opinion. The B, Masters 35, and Masters 45 were all on the course at the same time. The elite women and men were on the course at the same time. It was good for me to have that many people on the course when I was racing just to get a little more used to the jostling and positioning required in the turns, etc.

Now for the race. I had no idea what to expect of the competition in the M45 class since I have never raced cx in Ohio. Mark W. was there from the Flying Rhinos, so I knew at least one other person. We had a nice field, in the 15 person range. I was in the second row at the start and was in the top 5 as we made the first turn. It was a bit messy through the first lap figuring out who was in what group. Near the beginning of the 2nd lap, Mark and I were together and figured out that we were 2/3 with a bit of a gap to the 1st place guy. We had a bit of a gap on the 4th place guy, but not enough to forget about him. In the 4th lap, disaster struck. I came into an off camber turn a little too hot and went down. Although I was back up pretty quick, Mark had gapped me and the 4th place guy came by as I was getting going again. I was not able to get back on their wheel and ended up 4th. As is usually the case in cx, one small screw up can take you out of a spot or two. I felt I was riding okay other than that mistake. The 'sand' pit was actually an old clay tennis court that had been let go from a maintenance perspective. It ended up being no big deal as it was fairly moist and did not provide much of a problem once the path was ridden in.

All in all, a good day racing once again. The weather was nice, the place the race was held was a really interesting old mansion (Bryn Du Mansion) in Granville. It is really unfortunate that the promoter did such a poor job of setting up the course and the registration process was a joke as well. To the point of the trying to charge an extra $10 over the preregistration fee when nothing was said on any of the information prior to the race (near riot situation). Results were posted as handwritten sheets with nothing but bib numbers. Once again, thank you Robert!

What's been Up?

2007-11-19T19:37:00.000-05:00

Since my last post I have been to Boulder, raced at Munson and have a new bike.

I took my daughter to Boulder to see the University of Colorado. She has been accepted there and they even were kind enough to throw some scholarship money her way, so we thought we owed them a visit at the very least. We opted for the 'Student for a Day' tour program. We arrived on time for our big adventure - interestingly enough, they charged us $15 each for the privelege of the tour. They did a nice job of presenting the school, tour, presentations, etc. They even broke us into groups - students and parents, for a panel discussion led by a group of students. It was pretty interesting, especially after Erin and I compared notes afterward. Same questions were asked but from the opposite side of the answer. The students that led it were interesting and we learned a lot. It turns out the $15 must have been for the delicious meal we were served in the dorm. Let me just say, dorm food still stinks. We sat by ourselves at a fairly large table. We were joined by 3 Navy ROTC freshmen in their dress blues (in honor of veteran's day). They were friendly and provided some insight into the dorms, etc. that was very helpful and not spun by the marketing folks of the University.

That night we had dinner at Andy Hampsten's house. It was great fun and very helpful to get the town person's perspective of Boulder and the University. The next morning, Andy and I went for a ride. 4300 feet of climbing later, I was one happy camper! He is a great guy and was nice enough to not leave me in his dust.

Yesterday was the Munson Park race of the Tailwind Series. It was cold and windy as usual at Munson. The course was similar to last year with a couple of different twists. I felt reasonably well and hoped for a top ten since Jeff Weinert and Mike Wissink were out of town. I rode pretty solid with a few technical bobbles, but nothing too serious. I rode with Joel B. and Mark W. for the first few laps. Then dropped Joel and rode with Mark. After two more laps, I gapped Mark and rode the rest of the way by myself. I had visions of catching the 6/7 riders, but could not bring the gap down to the point of that being in the realm of possiblities. I was 8th, somewhat satisfied with the ending. The best race of the day was the masters 35. Ron put on a clinic in how to use strategy to win a race. It was great to watch.

Now for the big news, I received delivery on my custom Nobilette frame last Friday. I wanted a bike that I could travel with and have as many options as possible for ride options. I had Mark design it for cx geometry and clearances and S&S couplers for traveling ease. Here it is:

Here is a view of the head tube:

Believe me, photos do not do it justice. The finish was done by Spectrum Powderworks. These guys are amazing.

I hope to have it built up in the next week or so. Looking at a Force group and some set of wheels that I already have. We'll see.

Pondering this whole blog thing. Does anyone really care what I have to say? Does it really matter? Is it just some therapeutic egocentric excercise? Read it now, it may disappear.

It's a Team Thing

2007-11-05T09:28:00.000-05:00

Vet's Park is a really fun place for a cx race. It is in Ann Arbor, one of my favorite towns, and it has some interesting elevation changes. And as a bonus - no sand pits!

The plan for the weekend was to race Elite on Saturday and then see how I felt on Sunday to determine whether I raced Elite again or Masters. I went through the registration process and here is my number:

The same number that my team mate Ron drew down in Louisville! We definitely have a good team vibe going this year! If everyone were healthy, it would be even more fun.

I warmed up and thought the course was going to be fun. At the line it was the largest field since Davisburg, I think. At least it felt like a big field. Given my past performances, I was not expecting a whole lot, but I had certain people that I felt I should be able to handle. The first lap was it's usual fire fight - I'm just not that fast. As the race settled in, I figured out who my competition was and began to work on them. At the end of the day I ended up 14th out of 23 starters and was reasonably satisfied with my effort. I seem to do well on the runups, managing to pass people along the way. I had one very near disaster with about 3 laps to go - I heard one of my spikes catch the top of the first barrier on the run up. I managed to keep my balance and get through, providing some near entertainment for the crowd on the hill.

Sunday dawned a bit cooler than Saturday and I was feeling my age, so I opted for the Masters race. It would also provide for some more family time later in the day. This was a small field, I think 7 or 8 in the 45+ crowd and a nice women's field, 10-12 I think. The 35's had a group of around 15-18 and they were starting a minute ahead of us, so there was potential for traffic along the way. The Flying Rhinos were there in force, they had 3 in our group. The start was pretty exciting with me ending up 2nd wheel at the first turn. At the first fast section, I was trying to pass Joe Brown of the Rhinos and we nearly tangled up, fortunately we both can handle our bikes fairly well and nothing bad happened. It set the tone for what was to come. Keith Rigge attacked on the first lap and gapped Joe, Mark and I by a few seconds. I was concerned that I was going to get hammered by the Rhino boys if the chase was on, but decided to let them do the work for a while. On the second lap, i attacked on the run up and that was the end of that. I was in chase mode from there on out. I used the 35's when I could and slowly closed the gap on Keith. Catching him with 2 to go. I rode his wheel while I recovered and then attacked on the run up. Again, that was all I needed to drop him. Using the 35's even more on the last lap and a half. Along the way, I managed to bloody up my right knee without ever going down, some of the passing was a bit tight to say the least.

It was a fun weekend and I felt good about my efforts. When is the real cx weather going to get here?

Stony Race Report

2007-10-17T20:29:00.000-05:00

It was hot. I sucked. 'nuff said

Afraid of Heights!!

2007-10-17T19:46:00.000-05:00

The last day of the Vegas trip was going right at one of my biggest fears - heights. The agenda was to go to Zion Canyon to hike Angel's Landing and then go ride somewhere.

For the uninformed, Angel's Landing is a formation that is 1050 feet above the floor of Zion Canyon. It is accessed for the first 80% of the way by a walk/hike up a path that is pretty comfortable to walk. From there on up, it gets interesting. There are 'steps' cut into the rock in places, chains anchored along the way, and just plain scrambling with death being the reward for screwing up.

I'm not carrying it, you carry it:

View from the top:

Vegas Drake relaxing on top:

One of several chipmunks begging at the top - tough way to make a living:

From there we stopped for lunch just outside Zion Canyon and headed for the JEM trail. Billed to be nice riding, not as tough as Gooseberry. It became a little bet more challenging for me in the parking lot. As I rode over to the trailhead sign, I noticed some shifting difficulties. As I was starting to diagnose the problem, I noticed the derailleur at a slight angle - went to give it a nudge back into place and the hanger snapped. After a few minutes of wrenching - I was riding a single speed for the afternoon. The trail was a hoot - not too technical, lots of rollers and then we got to the Virgin River rim. We rode right along it, sometimes as close as a foot from the drop off (probably 100 feet down). It was very cool!! Here are some random photos from the day:

If you look carefully at the second to last photo - that is a van at the bottom of the canyon. I think someone forgot to set the parking brake.

The lesson for the day: I can overcome my fear of heights if I keep my concentration in the 5-10 foot range. Any more than that and my heart starts to come out of my throat.

Gooseberry Mesa

2007-10-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

This is a must ride place!! We had no real idea of what to expect, just people telling us that it was a great place to ride. Unfortuantely, I failed to take any photos on the trail and my helmet cam neglected to function once the boundary of the parking lot was passed.

Big Joe suiting up for the ride:

They said it would be a 3 hour ride, it was just short of that. There was some blood spilled in the group, but not excessive amounts. No broken bones, but a helmet needed to be replaced.

Here is a Google Earth view of the mesa:

It actually appears inverted in this photo due to the layers of Earth. I believe calcium carbonate and iron oxide are the white and red layers respectively. Very cool!! The dropoffs were in the 800 foot range. Riding within a couple of feet of the drops was intimidating but manageable. The most worrisome factor me was actually the wind - it was howling up the face in spots. I can't imagine if it was really windy that I would feel the least bit comfortable.

The day ended with a great dinner at the Painted Pony in St. George. Truly wonderful food with only average service.

Off to St. George, UT

2007-10-04T18:57:00.000-05:00

I went to the show for a couple of hours to meet with Kent. Purpose was to talk about the modifications to the seatpost design for carbon railed seats. Ended up wandering around to show each other what we thought was cool at the show - an absolute hoot!!

Had coffee with a friend that I went to college with and then time to leave Sin City.

A two hour drive from Sin City is the southern Utah city of St. George. A fast growing community of mostly retirees and Mormons (think Warren Jeffs) among some beautiful mountains near Zion Canyon. We knew it was going to be good when we spotted this sign across from our hotel:

We decided to pick up the bikes before the shop closed Friday evening. Once there, we decided to go on a short ride on a local trail to shake our legs out. We headed for Bear Claw Poppy trail just outside of town. Once again, GPS and map issues delayed our arrival at the trail, but not too bad. Here are the opening bike adventure photos:

Beginning of the trail system:

The sunset as I was getting back to the car:

The day ended with dinner at Two Fat Guys Pizza. Not great, but pretty darned good. It was a very good day!

Day Two in Vegas

2007-10-03T21:17:00.001-05:00

Okay, I know everyone is expecting lots of photos of the show - ain't happening here. Here is my one photo from day two:

I have no idea why I took it, but there it is.

The show was it's usual overwhelming self. Lots to see and do. My only real accomplishment was meeting with Schwalbe about their sponsorship of me for the coming year. Fun and exhausting day. Highlights: Krieg Cycling, Schwalbe, Rol Wheels, Select Cycling, Ergon, Deda, FSA, and others I can no longer remember.

4pm was the pool party. More like beer by the pool. Wasn't nearly as eventful as last year. Not a very sunny day, or hot enough. fun nonetheless. We headed to a great restaurant called Pieros at 6 for a 7 o'clock reservation. Purpose was to have a cocktail in the Monkey bar (so named for it's decor). Beginning of the end for one member of our party: "I'll have what he's having". Response: "One is not enough, and two is too many". The affected party did not make it to #2, but also does not remember ordering dinner. We had wine during dinner and capped it off with some grappa.

It was off to the crit race. We struggled again finding parking at the race. Mandaly Bay is HUGE! We finally got it done and headed for the race. Two of us made it near the start/finish area and had a good spot by the rail. We ran into Steve and Ron and had a great time. The previously affected party did not make it that far and stopped at the first spot they could find. The race had just started as we got there. It was very fast, of course my perspective is skewed - it wasn't like a cx race or a hundie. Comment from the inebriated member of the group as he watched with his head on the rail - "they're going too fast". There were many crashes and primes on nearly every lap. It was again a loud and rowdy crowd, although no racers picking up currency and beers from the crowd.

Jumbo-tron near the start finish line:

Hard to get a picture of the race, soooo fast:

We made it safely back to the Mirage and crashed hard.

Day One in Vegas

2007-10-03T20:56:00.000-05:00

It started like any other trip out of town. Everything was going smoothly until we got on the plane. The pilot came on and informed us that there was a maintenance problem that would be taken care of in a half an hour. Two hours later, we were informed that a tire had been changed along with the brakes on one of the wheels. I never even felt the plane getting jacked up - pretty amazing that they changed the tire on a 200,000lb machine with 200 people on board and I couldn't even feel it happening. Once the pilot was satisfied, we were off. The problem with this delay was that we were now late to the show. Instead of 5 hours the first day, we were reduced to 2.5 hours.

We got to the show and headed in to check out the show. We separated due to different interests and people to see. At the end of the day was Cross Vegas. The plan was to pick up the Eriksen's and head out to the race around 7ish. Even with a GPS unit in the car, we struggled to find there hotel. We finally found them at 7:30 and headed out. We completely missed the women's race (a trend). We found the beer garden and found a good spot at the top of a hill with a 180 degree turn. The race started and boy was it cool!! A front group of 11 formed and they lit it up!! Not that anyone else was particularly slow, but they couldn't bridge up. As the race developed, those further back began to pick up dollar bills and beers from the crowd. It was a loud and rowdy crowd!! Here is a picture of Molly Cameron with bills tucked in his lid and carrying a beer:

After the race, we headed for sushi. The Osaka Bistro is probably my favorite sushi place ever. We had nine of us and sat at a tatami table. We had a great waiter and basically we told him to just keep bringing whatever the chef was up for, we would let him know when we were done. Great conversation and food ended the evening around 2am.

What a great day!!!!

More to Come!

2007-09-29T08:04:00.000-05:00

"You are not well"

"Floor it"

"They're going too fast"

"Vegas Drake"

Just a few of the quotes for the trip, as soon as I get a cable to upload pics - I will have a complete post. Video included.

Good luck to everyone at Bloomer tomorrow!!

Springfield Oaks CX

2007-09-23T19:51:00.000-05:00

A beautiful day in the neighborhood to say the least. This is the site of my first ever cx race, so I had to make it back. For all you nostalgia freaks out there, my first cx race was last year. Still new to this gig, so I am still trying to make my own history. Decided to race Masters this time, discovered that B's don't pay and masters do.... I got to the line and since I am new to the Masters group, don't really know the players just yet. Matt Barolli and Joe Brown are really the only ones I can spot so far. At the line, Joe commented that there was a fair amount of out of town talent in the pool, okay by me.

The whistle blows and we are off. At the end of the first straight, I was 3rd or 4th wheel. By the time we got to the barriers, I was in front. I held that spot until about 1/2 way into the 2nd lap when I was caught by a guy from North Carolina. I grabbed his wheel and we had a nice gap going. The 2nd time through the barriers we were still tight and through the off camber stuff, until the last up hill. I dropped my chain and he dropped me like a bad habit. I could not catch back on. I just rode my race and maintained 2nd to the end. I had a little help from Adam in the 35's and used his wheel on the bell lap straight away as it appeared as if another guy was making up some ground on me. Turns out he flatted and ended up 5th.

Ron took 4th in the 35's and Rachel rode very well for "feeling like she got hit by a car" when she arrived at the venue, taking 7th. A good day for Bicilibre!!

Next reports will come from Sin City and Interbike. Should be good!

Still need to remember my camera.

1st CX Race of 2007!!

2007-09-16T20:15:00.000-05:00

Today was the first cx race in the neighborhood. The day started with picking up Rachel and Adam at Rachel's house. I was actually looking forward to the ride, I usually don't have anyone to ride with to the 100 mile races - go figure. The coffee was brewed and we were off. I don't think we were a mile into the ride when Rachel was already asleep in the back - might as well go by myself. Fortunately Adam was awake the whole ride and we had a nice chat.

Ithaca is actually not far from where I spent my formative years, so I had limited expectations for what it was going to be like. Turns out, the park was very near the middle of town and was a nice little city park wih an awesome playscape, a sledding hill and what I am pretty sure is a pad to put a skating rink in the winter.

We got the registration out of the way and proceeded to do an easy pre-ride before the c race. The course did not seem all that interesting at first blush. There were some odd transitions in some sections, and a particularly odd barrier section through some pine trees. We then saw a bit of the c race and got suited up. Then we jumped into a harder pre-ride/warmup. I managed to bite it at the step section - in warmup. Didn't manage to get out of the cleat - a bit embarassing to say the least. Slight loss of blood, but otherwise okay.

B's, Masters 35 and 45, and elite women were going at 11am. I had not idea how I was going to do. I was planning on racing the elite race later as well. The race started and they nearly forgot to get a rope out of our way as we entered the first turn. I had lined up behind Adam with the intention of letting him take the hole shot, it worked like a charm. I was in 3rd spot going into the first turn into the grass. Somehow Adam and the other guy in front of me were led astray by the other guy and I took the inside line and never looked back. I just kept pushing through the first couple of sections to the first barriers. We were still fairly together at that point. I cleared the barriers made the turn downhill and remounted. There was a left hand turn at the bottom - thank goodness I was in front at that point. I could hear the crash behind me. I pushed harder knowing they were in a jam at that point. I just kept pushing and was never in any real trouble from that point on. Technically it was a good race. I got better at my lines each time around and did not falter on any mounts/re-mounts. I managed to beat all the 35 and 45's and most of the B's who had a one minute head start on me.

After the race, my right calf became a complete knot and still is. I am pretty sure it is from my stupid crash in warmups. It kept me from toeing the line with the elites - a bit pissed about that, but I will recover with time and therapy.

The elite race was fun to watch. Wissink, Weinert and Saari took it to the rest of the field and stayed away. With about two laps to go, the W's put Saari too far into a hole and he never recovered. The W's got into a sprint finish from the stair runup to the finish that was won by Mike. A great finish!

Thanks to JB for putting on a great race and bring on the next race!!

I have to remember my camera next time!

What a Vacation!

2007-08-27T19:46:00.000-05:00

My coach gives me the week off. First time in a very long time that those words have come out of his keyboard. Absolutely nothing on the calendar for me last week. Struck me that I had a couple of options: a. Do nothing b. Do anything I wanted. I chose option b and had a nice week of riding just for the fun of it. Mind you, I neglected to take it easy on myself:

Monday: 1:30 of easy riding
Tuesday: Tuesday Night ride with the MVW - never an easy ride, hammer fest.
Wednesday: Easy ride on fixie
Thursday: NO RIDING
Friday: couple of hours of riding around on the fixie
Saturday: Sprint intervals with RS - not so pleasant
Sunday: Breakfast ride - similar to Tuesday, only almost 4 hours of riding

I think I need a vacation from my vacation. Now on to cx training!!

Read it Quick!

2007-08-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

Results

It won't last long.

The Good, The Bad, The Not so Pretty

2007-08-19T12:48:00.000-05:00

These guys asked me to race the 12 Hours of Pando with them. Why, you would have to ask them, I'm not sure either. I agreed, thinking, I can race 100 mile races, shouldn't be a big deal. I should have done a little more research before nodding my head. Maybe I was falling asleep and that was why my head was nodding?

Race day arrives and I had arranged to pick up Nate and his wife Meaghan on my way to the race. I woke up at 5:30 and got myself moving out the door in a timely fashion. Picked them up and off we went. Meaghan has been at these races before and would be referred to as our "pit bitch" shortly after the pit area was set up and functional. It turns out to be a self-inflicted moniker and done in good fun - they are a fun group to hang with!

Pando is a small ski resort near Grand Rapids. Certainly not as intimidating as Breckenridge, the last ski resort I raced at. I did a quick pre ride with Andy and realized that indeed, they were 4.5 mile laps, and they would be done at a high rate of speed. The loop starts with a sprint up the 'front' slope of the ski hill and immediately turns 180 degrees to come right back down along the tow rope line. Then it heads around the back on some two track, throw in some reasonably fun singletrack, a climb and descent on another ski slope and you pretty much have the circuit.

Here is what the start line looked like:

Somewhere near the middle of that group is Andy Brown - our lead off rider. His goal was to get the hole shot. He got it in front of Dan Jansen. Here is Andy on the downhill followed by Dan:

Once the race was on, we started with doing two laps each. The batting order was Andy, Nate, Eddie, then me in the anchor (I feared the worst). I realized somewhere along the way that the basic strategy was kind of like a cx race. Basically go to red line and pin it there for the entire lap/s. I was not prepared for that mentally. I have been training to ride all day, not sprint for short periods of time with rests in between. Off we go!

My first two lap times were pretty good. My goal for the day was to remain consistent with my times and not be a total load. We then switched to a one lap rotation. this meant riding for approximately 20 minutes, and then resting for 60. As the day progressed, we settled into a battle with a west coast team that was nip and tuck all along. My times were pretty solid, creeping up when night and rain rolled in. It got kind of unpleasant, 55 degrees and rain combined with dark are not the best conditions for anything, especially mtb racing. We survived. There was controversy on my last lap with the other team. They had a mechanical and had to cut the course to fix, thus aborting their lap, and having to start that lap over again. This erased the 10 minute deficit we had at that moment and put us back in the lead. Unfortunately, the official lap counters somehow screwed this up. At the end of the day, in the words of the promoter, "maybe got 2nd and the other team maybe got first". Not so pretty!!

All in all, the race was a lot of fun. I am hoping it was a good start to getting ready for cx season. It kind of felt like doing mini cx races for 12 hours. The ride home was TOUGH! We left Pando at around 1:30 and I got home at 5. Thank goodness Nate was willing to drive, still not sure what was in the chocolate chip muffins. I am now up to 3 hours of sleep and looking forward to my second nap of the day.

Miscellaneous Stuff

2007-08-15T06:04:00.000-05:00

1. My legs finally felt 'normal' riding yesterday

2. An exciting day ahead at Cedar Point - nothing like rubbing elbows with a bunch of people who wish they were on the Jerry Springer Show instead of at an amusement park.

3. Any suggestions on the best bike storage system? Space will be available for anyone that helps me build out some space at my shop to store bikes. The space will be sort of climate controlled.

4. I have a senior in high school now. I am accepting donations to fund her college education.

5. I might be looking for a tt bike to borrow next summer for the Sylvania Triatholon. One of my daughters' friends thinks it would be a great idea to compete - she is a very good swimmer, I am a mediocre bike rider, we will be looking for a very good runner. Applications being accepted.

6. I never new that riding a fixie would be so fun. It is also a bit dangerous - I have no idea how people (messengers) do it in a big city. I would be under a bus in no time.

7. How many bikes are too many to own? Is it one more than the number you currently own? Is there such a thing as too many?

I need some coffee - TTFN

Why Do I do This?

2007-08-05T06:43:00.000-05:00

Left for Wilderness 101 Friday morning with some pretty high hopes. After my disaster at Breckenridge, I was looking forward to a decent performance. I got registered Friday afternoon and headed for my hotel. The race starts in the town of Coburn and I was was staying in the town of Millheim. At the lovely Millheim hotel to be specific.

It is an interesting establishment. Built a long time ago, restaurant/bar on the first floor and rooms on the second and third floors. There is one bathroom/shower on each floor for the rooms to share! I was lucky that my room had a window air conditioner unit. Apparently not all the rooms have them. The room put me at a decided disadvantage for the race, it was pink! There was also a bird cage in the corner with a stuffed bird in it - what's up with that?

I had a decent dinner in the restaurant and retired to my room. I did my usual pre-race routine of getting my stuff organized. Bottles, gel flasks, etc. were put together so I would have minimal stuff to do in the morning. I slept okay, no better or worse than usual. I woke up before my alarm and had some breakfast. I woke up early enough that I was able to eat and get my morning stuff taken care and then lay back down for a 1/2 hour nap. Kind of nice. Headed for the race venue, about 10 minutes away.

I put my drop bags in what I thought were the right piles - must not have been paying attention. Warmed up a bit, never an overly important thing before a 100 mile race - usually 2-3 mile roll out to warm up and then many hours in the saddle anyway. Got to the start line in plenty of time. Tinker was there and the local gang, Eatough decided to sleep in - smart move. We rolled out on time. This course starts with a big climb right out of the chute. I was feeling pretty decent, set a nice steady pace that wasn't too much. I thought I was doing a good job of putting calories and electrolytes in my body. About mile 50 my world closed in on me. I did not have the bag I was anticipating at that stop, so I did not have the bottles I was hoping for. I had gotten behind on my calorie intake, I BONKED. I had not had that unpleasant experience before, nor do I want to have it again. I was in a bad way. Mile 50-75 was nothing but painful recovery and try to get calories into my body. Somehow I managed to get myself back into a ridable condition and finished pretty strong.

This course was not among my favorites. Incredibly long fire road climbs with very litte singletrack. Although the singletrack was a pain - rocks and roots do not make for smooth sailing. There were a couple of descents that were pretty scary! I do not like to downhill on rocks and loose sand, but that was what I had to deal with. I rode it pretty well all things considered. a: I rode it b: I did not fall in the process. Thanks to my disastrous nutrition work, I finished in around 10 hours - I had hoped for 8.5-9. Oh well, I at least finished and actually finished fairly strong given the middle portion.

On my way home, I managed to poach a shower from the Millheim hotel and hit the road. Stopping at a Dairy Queen for my now traditional post hundie meal:

For those keeping track at home: cheeseburger, fries, large shake, large diet coke, small coke. A couple of hours later I stopped for a Mountain Dew, ice cream sandwich, scone, and coffee. I am hoping to continue the eating today. I drove all the way home after the race - 6 hours. I would love to have slept in today, but my eyes were wide open at 6:15 and I could not get back to sleep. It is raining and I am looking forward to an afternoon nap listening to the rain.

I think it is time for me to make an honest evaluation of what I am doing by taking on these races. Do I enjoy it? Is it just the sense of accomplishment? The questions are endless, the answers not so easy to come up with.

Picked a Bad Day to Have a Bad Day

2007-07-22T13:03:00.000-05:00

I had been looking forward to the Breckenridge race for some time. Making some fairly serious sacrifices along the way to push my training and acclimating process.

I woke up this morning with a rumbly in my stomach. I thought I could get through it with a few trips to the can as part of the morning routine. All seemed well and I headed for the start area. I knew that I did not get a good breakfast in the stomach, but the way I was feeling, it wasn't going to happen.

Brief pause - I have the tv on some car race. Why do the track side announcers wear what appear to be racing unniforms? Are they flame proof or something?

Back to the story. The first loop of the Breckenridge race is about 25 miles with an advertised 4000 feet or so of climbing. The first climb is like 2500 feet all by itself, over like 3 miles. I was okay going up the climb, stayed within myself and just kept plugging along without getting stupid. Crested the top and now we got to go down. Have I said that I hate descending on rocky stuff? I have got to be the worst. Must have let 6 people pass me on the first section. Started to get more comfortable and then we start going back up again. Meanwhile my stomach has decided to not cooperate. Pit stop to empty it out. Yes, I puked. At this point, the energy is dropping and I can't put anything in my stomach. Keep pushing on. So much hike-a-bike that it was brutal, although I think my stomach was a bit happier walking. At about mile 10 I realized that my energy was fading badly due to lack of ability to put anything in the tank. I managed to limp into the transition area after 4:22 minutes. My GPS told me there was over 6000 feet of climbing. I was in a world of hurt and had no chance of another 75 miles.

I am incredibly disappointed in my performance. Life will go on and I will recover, it just stings a bit at the moment.

Here is a picture looking up the Beaver Run area of Breckenridge - we rode above that large line of snow in the middle. Most of the first few miles of singletrack was above the tree line.

Thank you all for the words of encouragement leading up to this race - sorry to disappoint!!

Day Three in the Rockies

2007-07-21T19:47:00.000-05:00

The Hampsten brothers are a hoot to hang out with. They finally arrived yesterday afternoon around 4:30. By the time we were even thinking about riding, a steady rain had arrived. That extended the screwing around time at the shop. Getting Andy dialed in to his new 96er and all it's features. Getting Steve excited about the possibilities of mountain biking. He is pondering a move from Seattle to Boulder, going to need one for that move!

Dinner was a classic midwest feast of hamburgers and corn followed by ice cream. Katie is the best hostess ever!!!! The stories that were going around the table were very entertaining to say the least. We all managed to get over our depression about not getting a ride in that evening.

The next morning it was sunny and nice temperatures. We all gathered around the tv to catch the Tour. Nothing like watching it with a guy that has competed in the event to get a bit of insight. During the breaks we managed to get breakfast in and figure out what the ride schedule for the day was. Everyone was kind enough to take into consideration my race tomorrow. The final conclusion - road in the morning and they would go on a mountain bike ride in the afternoon. Everyone was pretty excited to ride together. Me in particular.

Here is a picture of the Eriksen mansion in the morning:

This is a picture looking down their driveway:

Yes, it is that remote. I can't tell you if bears poop in the woods, but I can tell you that they go in their driveway!!

Andy, Steve, and Kent headed down to the shop via the road commute, on bikes, and Katie and I drove down. It takes about the same amount of time to ride as it does to drive - might as well ride. The ride home could be a bit daunting if you are tired, there are a couple of tough pitches along the way.

Once we got to the shop, we put together the fleet of bikes - me on a borrowed bike and the rest on their bikes for what was billed as an easy road ride. We were going to do the Emerald Loop.

Here are a couple of pictures before the Grand Depart:

We rolled out of town for what turned out to be a really fun ride. I had a blast. There were a couple of climbs that got my legs opened up. I just hung out at the back while Andy and Kent did virtually all of the work. The reward for the climbs were some really fun descents. We road a fair amount of remarkably smooth dirt roads along the way. Never seen anything like them in my neighborhood. They were as smooth as many paved roads in OH/MI. I have to say, Andy was a great rider. His descending and climbing are clearly impressive. It ended up being about a 50 mile ride in beautiful conditions.

Afterwards we had lunch in town at an organic grocery store/deli. Delicious! After lunch they all started plotting out what they were going to cook up for dinner. The Hampsten's were going to be in charge of Saturday night dinner. The planning of it sounded so good that I briefly considered bagging the race and hanging out.

After goofing around for a while, we said our good byes and they headed back up the mountain for the afternoon mtb ride and I headed for Breckenridge.

Made it through registration and saw Tinker - there goes my podium position! I think I am ready, but tomorrow will tell.

TTFN!

Day Two of the Big Adventure

2007-07-20T12:01:00.001-05:00

Woke up early thanks to eastern standard time. Wandered around Steamboat for a bit and had a good breakfast at Winona's. Afterwards headed for Yampa Street - home of Kent Eriksen Cycles. Here is a view from about the middle of Yampa, which is one block off the main drag in Steamboat, of the local town hill. Note the 90m alpine jumps - holy smokes!

At the corner of Yampa and 12th is this lovely structure:

It is the original home of Moots Bicycles and the current home of the Orange Peel Bike Shop and Kent Eriksen Cycles. It is an interesting building to say the least. When I arrived I was greeted by this sign on the door:

Apparently Kent and Katie were sleeping in since I arrived well within operating hours. They arrived at last and the fun began. I spent the day with Kent finishing up my new bike. A few glitches along the way and it was all good in the end. Katies Mom made us sandwiches for lunch - she lives about 100 yards away in a very cool condo. Once it was built , I was itching to ride and fortunately so was Katie. We finally left the shop around 5:30 to head for their house where we would ride from. I will get pictures of the house up later.

The ride was very cool!! Started climbing very early and kept going up. Fortunately, the high altitude system I have been sleeping with seems to have worked. I was not sucking wind any more than that climb would have punished me at sea level. Great single track and jeep roads through mountain meadows and woods. An hour and a half later, we were back at their house. One small log pile incident had bent my derailleur hanger, but no other damage.

Here is the sunrise view from my room at their house:

Their house is 'off the grid', meaning only solar power. But you wouldn't know it. It is a remarkable house in an awesome location.

Tomorrow the Hampsten brothers show up, as in Andy and Steve. I am hoping to not die going for a ride with them.

A Mid-Summer Vacation

2007-07-18T22:39:00.000-05:00

I left the house at 4:15 this morning for Colorado. I was totally pumped for this trip and so far so good. The days highlights:

*The flight was on time, no obnoxious passengers and my baggage made it

*Stopped at a Denny's in Thornton. The waitress was seriously drunk (9am). Across the room a woman was on her cell phone talking very loudly about a 7 year old restraining order against an ex that he had violated recently. That segued (sp?) into a conversation about the custody issues surrounding three of her children - sounded like Children's Services was in the process of placing her children outside her home. Forunately the food was what I needed - I'll probably be sick as a dog tomorrow...

*Stopped at Mark Nobilette's in Longmont. For those who don't know, he is a frame builder of the Richard Sach's/Peter Weigle reputation. He does great work. He is in the process of building a cx frame with an S&S coupler for me. The purpose of the bike is to provide me with a bike that I can travel with easily without paying the airlines through the nose to take it with me. Mark is so low key it is amazing. Here is a picture of his shop:

The inside of his shop looks very similar to the exterior. Organization/cleanliness are not his strong suits. Building sweet steel frames is.

*Went from Longmont to Boulder. What a cool city!! Think Ann Arbor vibe with mountains in the background. I drove around the UC campus and generally killed time. Drove up a road called Canyons without any destination. It literally went up into a canyon. I pulled over into a roadside parking spot next to a stream. Here is a picture of the view from the rock I took a nap on:

Might have been 3 miles from the heart of Boulder. Twist my arm and I am moving.

*On the way back to town I ran into one of RS's buddies:

*Had an early dinner with an old babysitter for my daughters who just graduated from UC.

*Drove to Steamboat Springs for the next few days. I love driving in the mountains. Of the 3+ hours of driving, only about 30 minutes was on an interstate. I even passed a sign in one canyon that said to "Climb to Higher Ground in the event of Flash Flooding". You don't get those very often in Ohio.

Tomorrow I show up at Kent Eriksen Cycles to build up my new bike. Hopefully ride it some tomorrow. Hang out with Kent and Katie. Andy and Steve Hampsten are supposed to show up some time on Friday. Ride with them Friday and Saturday. Head to Breckenridge with Katie on Saturday and then get my legs ripped off on Sunday in the Breckenridge 100.

Updates as they occur!!

Happy Anniversary!!

2007-07-14T20:11:00.000-05:00

It is the 10th anniversary of the blog! What would life be without it?

Okay - Some Days I Get Bored

2007-07-11T15:19:00.001-05:00

Found this on You Tube. I love Monty Python and never quite understood Star Trek. Had the two been combined like this, I might have watched more Star Trek.

"Knights of the Round Table"

I am sure there would have been other converts along with me.

Quotes for the Day

2007-07-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

"I think I just got poison ivy on my butt"

"I'm looking at three trails, one goes over a bridge, one goes straight and one goes left, how do I get back to the car?"

"I hate mountain biking!"

"I'm no good at eating muff.....ins"

"I want to do a mountain bike race so I can kick somebody's ass"

Another day of adventure on the Potowatami trail - just a sampling of what you all missed while you were slaving away for the man.

Getting Closer to Completion

2007-07-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

My backyard has been a disaster since last fall. It began with the removal of a bunch of trees, the original wood deck and virtually the landscaping. Over the winter, we had the bed for a concrete patio in and some of the landscaping completed. This spring the goal was to get the patio in and finish the landscaping. Along the way, a hot tub was purchased. It was decided that the hot tube should be installed below grade for aesthetic reasons. A very large pit had to be dug prior to the patio being poured. All of that has been completed and a deck was built around the hot tub to cover up the hole, yet had to provide access if any maintenance needed to be done to the mechanicals of the tub. Here is the result:

The deck is made out of a wood called Ipe. It is a very cool looking wood, lots of grain. It is incredibly dense and heavy. The only treament was an oil sealant.

I spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon hanging out and reading back here. It will be even better once the grass starts to grow in. These guys are waiting for the grass as well - they are not allowed out into the hydra-seed.

It's Been a Bad 8 Days

2007-06-29T19:57:00.000-05:00

It started with one of my bikes getting ripped off last Thursday. It is still MIA and I really don't have much hope of getting it back. The insurance company is not exactly jumping over themselves to make me whole on the thing, but I am trying to be patient with them. Makes me wonder what they have been doing with my premiums for the past 15 years. I am hopeful that Kent will be able to have another frame ready for me for the Breckenridge race next month - keep your fingers crossed. All the parts are ordered....

Today was an even more tragic day for me. As has been chronicled in this forum previously, I am not overly 'tight' with the rest of my family (parents and brother). So.... I am out for a ride this morning and having an enjoyable time when I hear my cell ring. As is my custom, I dutifully ignore it until we come to a stopping point when I check to see who called. I thought I saw that it was my brother (it was my Dad), but that no voicemail was left. When I got to my office, I had a message from my Dad asking me to call him but that it was not an emergency. His voice sounded odd and he went so far as to tell me their schedule and to call him on his cell if it was after a certain time. Okay - he very rarely leaves me that much info so I am thinking lots of bad thoughts and that it is closer to an emergency than not. I finally get him on the phone and he asks me if I have spoken with my brother lately, which I hadn't (2 weeks). He then tells me that he is getting divorced and my soon to be ex-sister-in-law is moving to Rock Island, IL with my 3 nephews (where she is from). We talk about the surrounding issues and what he knows and doesn't and what I know and don't know. He then tells me that I am not supposed to know this, he was told by George (brother) that he shouldn't tell anyone.

Now I'm in a quandry. I want to call my bro right away and offer support in any way I can, but I can't violate the trust he has put in my parents. If he is going to them for support, I don't want him to stop and perhaps my ratting them out would cause that. I sit in my office and stew for an hour or so trying to come up with a reason to call him without coming out and blowing the confidence. As I am about to reach for the phone and see if he wants to play golf next week, he calls me. Phew on a very minor level. He then goes into the saga of what is going on and how it seems to be playing out so far.

It is not my life and I have no way of knowing what has been going on inside their house, but let me just say, it is going to suck for my brother and his three young boys. At this point, it looks like they will be living 8 hours away from him. Maybe their marriage wasn't meant to be, but that shouldn't mean that he is removed from their lives in such a dramatic fashion. The adults will almost always come out of these situations okay - it is the kids that are getting completely screwed. And may be screwed up in the future because of it.

I think it was in one of the Airplane movies - "I picked a bad week to quit drinking".

Oh Sh*t!!!

2007-06-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

I walked out of my office to get something out of my car this afternoon only to discover that some low-life had ripped off my Kent Eriksen 96er. My 29er was left on the rack is the only good news to come out of it. I am not optimistic about it's return, but please keep your eyes open for it in your travels. I have already ordered another one, irony being that I was on the phone with Kent about 10 minutes before I walked out to make the discovery. I am hoping to pick it up when I go out to race the Breckenridge 100. I am hopeful, but not optimistic.

Interesting question from teh police woman that came to investigate: Are you willing to prosecute? My answer: Hell yeah!

Not a big fan of Chain e-mails

2007-06-19T14:22:00.001-05:00

I received this from a friend the other day - there are so many positives in here, be sure to read slowly and pay attention.

One day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the
warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning
that sometimes there isn't anymore. No more hugs, no more special
moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more
"just one minute." Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used
up and goes away, never to return before we can say good-bye, or say "I
love you."
So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's
broken and heal it when it's sick. This is true for marriage ... and old
cars .. and children with bad report cards, and dogs with bad hips, and
aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it,
because we are worth it.
Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a classmate
we grew up with. There are just some things that make us happy, no
matter what.
Life is important, like people we know who are special. And so, we keep
them close!
I received this from someone who thought I was a 'keeper'! Then I sent
it to the people I think of in the same way. Now it's your turn to send
this to all those people who are "keepers" in your life. Suppose one
morning you never wake up, do all your friends know you love them?
I was thinking......... I could die today, tomorrow or next week, and I
wondered if I had any wounds needing to be healed, friendships that
needed rekindling or three words needing to be said.
Let every one of your friends know you love them. Even if you think they
don't love you back, you would be amazed at what those three little
words and a smile can do. And just in case GOD calls me home.
I LOVE YA!!!
Live today to the fullest because tomorrow is not promised. If you don't
like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you
think about it!

Anyone that isn't feeling well on Thursday, there will be a healing session at the Pickerel Lake trailhead of Poto beginning at 8:30am.

Cut Down - But not so Short This Time

2007-06-17T15:37:00.000-05:00

The Lumberjack 100 - what can I say, heat and sand are constants. Although this year, the heat was not too bad. The only really hot laps were 2 and 3 when the sun came out for a bit. The sand seemed much more prominent this year. Perhaps that was due to the routing being in the opposite direction this year. It made some climbs very difficult and depending on my approach, exercises in walking.

The reality: My goal for the day was to average 2 to 2:10 per lap. The first two laps went well. My pacing was good and hydration/nutrition seemed under control. The first lap is always tough at Big M due to the field stays together much longer than at other tracks. This creates problems on the climbs if someone falters in front of you, it sucks. At the start of the 2nd lap things thinned out enough where I could ride my race and things went much smoother. No worries on the descents.

At the beginning of the third lap, I made myself the mental note of going a bit more conservative in order to keep something in the tank for the bell lap. I think I went a bit too conservative and put myself into a spot that cost me a fair amount of time. My brain decided to slow my body waaaaay down and in retrospect I was riding to survive rather than to do well.

This is what I looked like at the end of the third lap, food in mouth:

The fourth lap I started out a little rough, carrying over from the 3rd. My stomach was not feeling very well. The thought of hurling definitley crossed my mind a couple of times. About halfway through the Inner Loop, I started to feel better and began pushing my pace again. I finished out the lap pretty well considering it was the end of the race. I did not achieve my goal, finishing in 8:53, 13 minutes of the 2:10 pace. I am looking forward to seeing my lap splits to see how bad the 3rd lap was.

Congratulations to Danielle for winning the women's race, I can't wait to see her results when she is actually racing and not just training. And to Paula for winning the SS class, someday I want to be that tough.

Huge thanks goes to Dennis (Anne's husband) and Andy. They managed the pit for me and made the race a lot more fun and certainly easier on the tranisitions between laps.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!!!!

One Cool Chiquita!!

2007-06-12T20:51:00.001-05:00

My morning was spent riding Poto with my favorite training partner. It was a blast this morning! Started out a little bit cool, but we had coffee on the way up. And reserved some for post ride in the awesome thermos - practicing for cx season. Pulled in to the Pickerel Lake lot with no one in sight. The ritual changing ceremony - with the usual laughs, until THE PURSE was allowed out of the bag. Oh my God, too funny! I wasn't sure we were going to be able to get on the bikes. Apparently there is a matching bag owned by another Bicilibre member that is appropriately labeled "Princess". Unfortunately for us, it was the Princess's birthday and she decided to go to the DMV to get her drivers license renewed.

The ride was a hoot! Pretty fast, some sand, flatted my rear tire (knew the tubeless had a hole, but aren't they supposed to seal themselves?). And one deep ass puddle about 40 feet long by upwards of 18-24 inches deep! It was some nasty looking water! Had to talk Rachel through it, but she is not only a Cool Chiquita, she is occassionally tough as well. It wasn't my fastest ride, but was technically sound and I really was primarily after a mechanical shakedown of the ride before Lumberjack.

I have to tell you, RS is getting to be a pretty good dirt rider. If she had a relatively updated bike, I think she could do some damage in races. Might have to let her borrow my 96er after Lumberjack to see how that works for her.

Post ride was a swim in Pickerel Lake. It was BEAUTIFUL!! What a way to end a ride. I need to figure out how to find lakes at the end of all my hot weather rides. Looking forward to doing it again next week! Anybody wants to join, shoot me an e-mail and I will let you know what day. Usually Tuesday or Thursday, but we are not very predictable that way.

I need to figure out how to put links into this thing.

I must have missed the announcement

2007-06-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

Am I the only one that missed this? Apparently I need to pay more attention to the world around me.

Nude cyclists protest around the world

By Susan Westemeyer

"As bare as you dare" was the motto Saturday for cyclists around the world who rode in major cities worldwide wearing as little they wanted.

"We face automobile traffic with our naked bodies as the best way of defending our dignity and exposing the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians as well as the negative consequences we all face due to dependence on oil and other forms of non-renewable energy, according to protest organizers on their website, worldnakedbikeride.org

Around 300 riders participated in Madrid, and some 400 in Paris, although most of the French riders were either fully clothed or merely topless. Over 200 bared all in Brighton, England, freeing themselves from their clothing as drivers should free themselves from their cars, according to a local organizer. Similar demonstrations were held Friday in Manchester, York, and Southampton.

The protest stretched beyond Europe, with protests also planned over the weekend in Mexico City, eight locations in Canada, and a multitude of cities in the US. Southern hemisphere nude riders could strut their stuff in March of this year.

According to the website, the ride is organized by a variety of groups, who "are only connected by their determination to all be naked on their bikes on WNBR Day, riding in celebration, jubilation to deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world to the masses. We have many great reasons to be celebrating, with all the glory of naked two-wheel sanity. It's time to join hundreds of naked compatriots in a free, non-sexual, fun bike ride!"

The dress code was up to the individual. "You decide what you are comfortable with. No one is excluded or discriminated against based on levels of clothing, body paint, or anything else for that matter!"

First time for everything

2007-06-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

Tonight was my first road race. It was put on by the Maumee Valley Wheelman. It was a 7 mile course of which we were to do 4 laps. There was a serious wind out of the south, 20-25 mph. I think I got my money's worth, $2.

I started out thinking I would hang at the back of the front group. About 3/4 of the way through the first lap, I realized my legs weren't on the same program. I made it through turn 1 on the 2nd lap and pretty much sat up. I then settled into a nice recovery ride (what the doctor ordered for training today anyway) and proceeded into my own little world. I was caught by a group of 5-6 after about 3/4 of a lap and we started working together to some extent. I say to some extent, because some clearly did not grasp the idea of a rotating pace line. This group lasted for about a lap until a couple dropped off. Somewhere we picked up a couple more so we were 6. Of the six, 4 had a clue and two were of little to no help. As it was, it was really three of us doing most of the work. Mike/Jeff and I kept the pace going, with me pushing more than they were probably comfortable with. I tried to lay it down on the third lap with jeff and promptly dropped my chain. They were nice enough to sit up and wait for me to chase back, with the help of Mike. Jeff and I tried another time to shred the group and they managed to hang on. On the last turn with the wind headed to the finish, I decided to give it everything I had to try to get rid of the group. Mike and Jeff held on nicely and the others were dropped. I think I had it around 36-37mph for about 3/4 of a mile. With about 100 meters to go, I felt Mike come around and just let him go. I am not a sprinter, nor is it beneficial for me to become one a this point. Come cx season, I will work on it.

Bottom line - I'll be doing some more of these. Pretty entertaining. Not as entertaining as racing my mtb, but not bad.

Lucy - You got some 'spainling to do!

2007-06-03T04:55:00.001-05:00

Someone needs to explain a couple of things to me: The first are packaging, the second and much more confusing is me (yes me).

On the packaging front, why are the plastic clam shell boxes that stuff from the bakery department at the grocery store so hard to open. And why are the heat sealed packaging on all kinds of different things virtually impossible to open with great risk of personal harm. The bakery packaging is really annoying very early in the morning when everyone else in my house is asleep. It is impossible to open without making a lot of noise. The heat sealed packages, ugh! Someone must have been drinking when they came up with these. It takes more than the average pair of scissors to open them, what is the point? Is someone really going to try to remove the item from the package in the store that often to justify the cost and pain/suffering that this type of packaging brings into play?

About me, what am I thinking when I do these hundred mile races? Why do I think it is a good thing to put my body and mind through this kind of pain. I rode the Mohican 100 yesterday and it was painful! I began cramping around mile 30 and barely held on to finish in 10:13. I must have thought about calling it a day a dozen times only to convince myself that I had to finish. I am still feeling the after affects of the cramping today, sore legs/arms. What is it my brain that thinks this is a good thing? I do enjoy the sense of accomplishment, but I don't feel it at the finish line. It's not until a few days later when someone will ask me how my weekend was or have I done anything interesting lately.

The back side of the Pleasant Hill Dam, nice Hike-a-Bike:

Now for the race report. For those of you with short memories (that's me), I hated last years Mohican. It had rained almost 6 inches in the 24 hours preceding last years race and it was miserable to say the least during the race. This year dawned a beautiful morning, even though it had rained the previous afternoon, things were looking good. It was going to be a hot one, so hydration was going to be vital. Things started well enough, the 'neutral' rollout only got to about 25mph on average before the start line. The first section of single track was much better this year, actually bench cut and pretty fun. Mohican is much tougher than most hundies due to the amount of single track, and very technical at that. At about mile 30, I began to cramp up. Various leg muscles were rebelling. I thought I was taking enough endurolytes, but maybe not. It got pretty bad a couple of time, off the bike and stretching. I somehow convinced myself to keep going. The good news came on the 'flats', my speed was actually pretty good. I managed to pick a few people off along the way and wasn't putting myself further in the hole. The singletrack was a problem, the constant acceleration and movement on the bike was painful, as in very. Lots of hills and pain later, I made it to aid station 5, the last one and only 10 miles to go. Sadly, I remembered what was in store, a nasty climb of about a mile, then a mile or two of easy riding, then 3 miles of nasty single track along the Mohican River. This piece of single track is unrideable in parts by me. I don't mean maybe I could if I hadn't come 95 miles to get here, I mean unrideable. It is rocky/rooty and hanging on the edge of the river. For me, with the cramps and fear factor, it translated into a fair amount of hike-a-bike. Any slips and my cramps fired up in a big way. I got through it and then came the fun, I actually started passing people. It ends at the base of the Pleasant Hill Dam. In the last mile before the dam, I passed one guy and then at the base of the dam, passed two more. On the hike up the dam, I passed another. Once on the road, I passed another. And then on the very last section of two-track, passed another. My day was not a total loss.

Nice looking legs!

Once someone figures out these great mysteries, please give me a clue.

New Arrow in the Quiver

2007-05-23T19:11:00.000-05:00

It was Kent Eriksen's birthday last Friday, unbeknownst to me. On his birthday, I was fortunate enough to receive this:

Today was my first ride on it. Holy smokes, what a fun ride!!! I built it up last weekend: SRAM X.0 rear derailleur, grip shifters, and rear cassette, Hayes El Camino brakes, Bontrager Mustang hoops, Schwalbe Little Albert in front and RAcing Ralph in the back, Eriksen seat post, Fizik Gobi saddle, Easton EC70 bar, ITM stem, Race Face bb, Crank Brothers Cobalt cranks and Eggbeater pedals, Nokon cables. Almost forgot, Maverick SC32 fork and Maverick rear end.

I was a little skeptical of how it would perform in terms of climbing in particular, but Kent was pretty emphatic that I would like it. Man oh, man. I turned Poto in 1:18 door to door, my best time ever and on a bike I had not ridden before. The climbing characteristics were quite surprising - seemed much quicker going up. The downhills were less bouncy, allowing me to carry more speed. The rubber was surprising as well. I could feel them begin to break loose, then they would hook up and off I went. There is a transition from the 'meat' of the tire to the sidewall knobs. Once they grab, look out. I don't think it is as fast on the flats, but I don't seem to do many races that are flat any more.

For those of you keeping score at home: 4 Eriksen bikes and I love them all.

Mohican in 10 days!!

For those of you doing Lumberjack - beware the surprise racer!

One last pic:

Oh, Cohutta!

2007-04-22T14:08:00.000-05:00

The adventure started Friday morning around 9:30 as I went to pick up Matt for the drive to Tennessee. It is a 9 hour drive to Cleveland, TN and the Ocoee Whitewater Rafting Center. Little did we know it's claim to fame is as the site of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic whitewater rafting competition. Seems like there ought to be a rule about if a state is going to host the Olympics, shouldn't all the events be in that state?

This is a picture of the 'run' for the rafting. Obviously no water is in the river at this point. It is part of the TVA system and that is how they were able to control it for the Olympics. The rocks along the banks were all cemented into place and they had run communications and power tunnels/conduits along the banks in the rocks. I don't recall watching it, but I am pretty sure you would not have been able to see them they disquised them so well in the rocks.

Back to the adventure, we got registered and ate some pasta and salad that they had at registration, thinking there were not many other options in the neighborhood (got lucky on that decision). We headed off to our hotel as the sun was beginning to fade. It was up a road called Greasy Creek Road - thank God it wasn't dark yet! We found the Cherokee Creek Inn with a little bit of luck. Thank goodness we chose the FJ for our cruising vehicle - the road to the Inn and then up to our room was very steep, an indication of things to come. We settled into our lovely room:

I think I heard dueling banjos in the background. It was very isolated and quiet, we were the only ones staying there. We settled in for what was a restless night of sleep for me.

We had a 7am start time so we ate what breakfast we had in our room, clif bar/breakfast bars to get a little bit of fuel in the tank. We also knew it was going to be chilly at the start, but warm at the end so dressing was a bit problematic, but we dealt with it.

Did I mention we saw Tinker at the registration? Then the next morning, Chris Eatough and a couple of his boys, Mark Hendershot, a couple of Tinkers boys. Things were shaping up to be very exciting at the front of the race. The start was pretty tame - nobody did anything crazy on the rollout and the speed did not turn up until the singletrack was reached. The course had about 30-40 miles of singletrack and the balance was mostly fire roads. The tough part about this course was you were either going up, or going down, to the tune of 12,700 feet of climbing according to my data. The uphills were tough, but not impossible by any means. The downhills were a bit frightening. I can't count the number of times I was in a two wheel drift through corners basically praying that 1. a car was not coming the other way 2. I was going to be able to grab enough traction to avoid sliding off the road. I HATE DESCENDING ON GRAVEL ROADS!!

As far as my race, my nutrition was good and I avoided getting caught up in an overly hard effort at the start. My goal was 8:30 and I finished in 8:32. Along the way I stayed with my plan of not burying myself in the power department and was reasonably comfortable until the last 10 miles. Then my legs threatened to cramp up, but never actually locked up on me. I forgot to mention that at mile 13 I smacked my right knee on my crown and now it looks like I have two right knees. Fortunately I kept pedaling so it wouldn't have time to get stiff and I wouldn't have time to think about how much it was hurting.

I had the privelege of riding with Danielle Musto for a bit along the way which was nice. She was in a bit of a tussle for the women's crown, so I tried to help her out. I helped out by giving her my water bottle so she would not have to stop at the last aid station, but I almost really hurt her when she was on my wheel and I almost put us over the edge on a descent - I don't think she likes to descend on gravel roads any more than I do. She ended up beating the second place woman in a sprint - after 100 miles of riding!!

After the race, Matt and I drove all the way back to Toledo - whooo! It was nice to be in my own bed last night - but I still woke up at 6:30 ;-( Did manage an afternoon nap though!

I am hoping my knee is healthy enought to ride tomorrow - we shall see!

Not Such a Hard Decision

2007-04-06T17:04:00.000-05:00

This one may ramble a bit, so if interested - stick with me, otherwise, have a nice day!

This is a favorite sign of mine on the Murray Lake trail at Brighton Recreation Area. It provides the opportunity to either work hard for a very brief period, or skip and head on down the trail. In my particular case, I have never opted for the easy route, so I don't really know what it looks like. When I first started riding, the Hard way was just that, I struggled with it. Now, it is a non-event that I actually enjoy.

Why this discussion about a sign you ask - because (cue the Beatles please) Today is My Birthday. I am now the ripe old age of 46. To put it in perspective, twice as old as my training partner (for those of you that read the MI scene - my money is on Brazilian and she is VERY weak at descending on a mountain bike) and older than I would have figured I would make it to when I was a wee lad. Most that knew me as a wee lad would not have put money on me making it this far. Along the journey to this day, the easy/hard decision making process has been crossed many times. I would love to provide some pearl of wisdom as to which way I go, but alas, I have none. Let me just say, "it all depends". I have managed to get myself to a spot personally and professionally where I am comfortable. I try to avoid the big ups and the big downs.

This is a picture of me this morning on the Potowatomi trail at Pinckney Recreation Area. A little bit about my birthday philosophy - it's all about me. It doesn't really matter to me whether anyone enjoys MY day with me or not. I honestly don't care - family and friends all fall into this. It is the one day out of the year that I focus entirely on me and do what I want, when I want, and how I want. Every other day of the year, other people have a chance of getting my focus, but not on April 6th, unless it's an emergency. So for today, I drove up to Pinckney and rode the Poto, then rode over to Brighton Rec and rode Torn Shirt and Murray Lake and then rode back to Pinckney. It was cold, windy and snowy at times. I would have liked to have company, but not really. I needed to get prepared for the upcoming hundies that start in two weeks. I hope it is warmer in TN!!

Along the way I passed this intersection:

I thought it was hilarious. I am coached by Steve McGregor and the irony of having 'Darwin' on the same sign is too much. Is it evolution or coaching?

The one thing I like about my birthday from a group perspective is the creativity of gifts. This is a mug that my wife got me:

If I had only known this earlier in life!!

Could you live here?

2007-03-31T19:51:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of my daughter Allie's room. Keep in mind that I had just picked up 4 bath towels moments before. To give you a sense of it, the towels were in the areas where you can see the carpeting.

In the true confessions department - this was the first time I had poked my nose in her room in quite some time. I try to respect my daughter's privacy as much as possible. Marci has complained about this situation for some time and I have pretty much ignored it. I don't think I can any more. I think I am going to teach her how to do her own laundry and stop doing it for her - who knows what affect that will have, probably none other than I don't have to do her laundry any more. I feel badly for her first room mate. Can you imagine living in a dorm room with someone who keeps her room like this? I think I would be looking for a transfer as quick as possible.

Is it any wonder that she always thinks she needs more clothes? She can't find anything in this pig sty. Oh, I forgot to mention - she just cleaned it last weekend.

Teenagers are a steady state conundrum for me.

Smokin'!

2007-03-29T19:15:00.000-05:00

Okay, I don't know that for sure yet. I have only ridden it around the block so to speak. Tomorrow will be it's first official long ride.

Specifications:
Reynolds UL Fork
Reynolds Stratus DV wheels
Reynolds Ouzo Pro Handlebar
SRAM Rival Group
Ergomo Pro BB and computer
Ergomo crankset
Nokon cable set
Eriksen Sweetpost
Selle Italia SLR saddle

The sad part of this is that I will be selling my original Kent Eriksen designed bike - my Moots. Anybody interested - let me know and I will get you the specs.

Off to look at my new bike some more....

Sista Sista's

2007-03-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

I have a supplier in a fairly rough section of Cleveland that I go visit regularly. They are in a very old industrial area that borders a residential area that would best be described as impoverished (sp?). On my route to their plant I pass a catering business that is located in a run down looking row house. They have a hand painted sign indicating the existence of the business:

Sista Sista's Soul Food and Catering

"If your food isn't becoming to you then you should be coming to us"

One of these days I need to have lunch there.

Coming soon: latest Ti baby in the family!!!

Great Old Friends

2007-03-18T19:45:00.000-05:00

I just returned from an annual weekend in northern Michigan with a group of friends that I have known since 6th grade. We spent virtually every winter weekend of our youths skiing together and we get together once a year to spend some quality time together. We have been getting together on this trip for the past 22 years in one form or another. The fun begins in December when we begin negotiating the date of the trip, the e-mails are humorous and filled with inuendo.

Once the date is established, things settle down for a bit until about four weeks before the date. At that point things get a little more direct and to the point. There are some members of the group who have less than stellar reputations about showing up after they have comitted. They are abused mercilessly - knowing that if they don't show up they may be subjected to even more abuse on THE weekend if they are not in attendance. We are not beyond calling home and cell numbers at any hour. We don't really try to make points with our families at these moments and hopefully we don't get a spouse on the phone - that's a problem.

Once the weekend arrives, the cottage we stay at is opened by the owner around 9pm Thursday night and we begin arriving from there on. This year, four of us came up together in a van with 155k miles on it. Gregg, the owner, warned me and then the next two guys we picked up that the transmission was making noise and the master cylinder may need replacing - not good news, but he was intent on driving. The transmission began making serious noises as we got off I-75 at Gaylord. We muddled our way across M-32, struggling to get up even the slightest grade. We sort of coasted through the beautiful town of Elmira and tried to keep going. About half way between Elmira and 131 we were down to 10mph, blinkers on and hugging the shoulder. It was 2am!! A guy with Idaho plates stopped to see if we needed help. He looked like the guy from the movie Fargo (the murderer) only with long hair. There was nothing he could do to help us, so we called the cottage and asked them to come pick us up along with all our stuff. This was very much like calling the Stroh's delivery truck - these guys were hammered!! We made it to the cottage, leaving behind a dead 1998 Red Windstar Van. We finally crashed around 5am!! Very late for a group of old men.

We made it to Nubs the next day for an afternoon of great skiing. Followed by dinner at the Mitchell Street Pub in Petoskey. We were all asleep by 10pm that night - old men fade fast some days. Saturday was the St. Patrick's day festivities at Boyne Mt. Everyone headed there but me. I hung out at the cottage and then had a great ride around Lake Charlevoix ending at Boyne mt. It was a lot of fun to ride on real hills. One small directional problem (used the phone book map to figure out where I was going) caused me to ride about a mile on a 'seasonal' road that was very soft. The drunks in attendance at Boyne were scary - the numbers were unreal. There were a couple of MI state trooper cars and Charlevoix county sheriff cars in attendance. Amazing!! Sadly I forgot my camera.

The political discussions were a hoot through the weekend. We are a very diverse group in this area. The beauty of our group is that we can have seriously heated debates/discussions and nobody takes it personally. I am pretty sure that if any one of us was truly in need of help - the rest of us would do what ever was humanly possible to help each other get through their problems.

Great friends are among this world's most precious assets!! Those that you have, you should do what you can within your power to cultivate them and maintain them. We all have lots of acquaintances, but true friends are rare and should be cherished.

Generally Cool Bikes

2007-03-08T19:51:00.000-05:00

Here are some very cool paint jobs by a variety of builders:

These are both from a guy named David Kirk of Kirk Cycles. He does an interesting seat stay he calls terra plane, it is a radical s curve that is supposed to provide some vertical compliance.

These are by Brian Bayliss. His paint jobs are AMAZING. He also happened to win best in show, just not sure which bike it was. He's also a very good drummer. He anchored the band of framebuilders that played Friday night.

This process is a bit tedious for me, if you want to see other pictures, you'll have to let me know. Check out www.cyclingnews.com for more pictures. They are also much better than my photos. An 'attaboy (or girl)' to anyone that finds the picture of me in their collection.

How Much Do You Want to Ride Together?

2007-03-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

This was the most impressive bike at NAHBS in my opinion. A completely custom tandem by Bohemian Cycles. The paint appeared different colors depending on the angle viewed and lighting. The adjustability of virtually all critical rider/bike interfaces is amazing. Due to the size of the tubing, all the lugs are custom made, as are the BBs, rear bar attachment, the rear chainring, on and on.

This is the front bottom bracket. Not the adjusting screw at the back.

The rear double bottom bracket for maximum adjustability.

The rear handlebar - note the adjustable bracket.

The custom made rear chain ring. I believe it is a 90 tooth ring!

The photos really don't do this bike justice. It truly was beautiful and virtually completely custom made. Kent asked the guy what he would charge for such a creation. The answer was $23,000. You better really love riding with whomever you buy it for.

More later.

Whew!

2007-03-04T01:02:00.000-05:00

Two days of NAHBS and I am tired. Standing on my feet all day, talking about bikes and seat posts, it may sound like fun - okay it was! If you can arrange it at some point in your life, assuming you have an interest in all things bike related, want to learn some new things; you need to go to this show. It is amazing. The amount of talent in the room for making and designing bicycles. There were also a few head scratchers:

This is the display of a company called Thursday cycles. Note the outstanding use of cardboard. He had no stands for his bikes - oops. Either Kent or Katie was talking to him to see what he was about given the bizaar collection of bikes: bmx with a wierd fork, mtb, ss wierd design, etc. His response to who were his customers, "mostly crazy people". Here is one he did for a local sheep herder:

More later when I get back to T-town - need to get some sleep before I get schooled in climbing tomorrow. Me on a 29er and Kent and Katie on road bikes to do the Sierra Road climb. The trick in my back pocket is I am the one that knows the route.

NAHBS

2007-02-27T20:04:00.000-05:00

The next big excitement in my life starts on Thursday. I leave for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in San Jose. For those of you who don't know, this is THE gathering of custom framebuilders in this country. There will be builders from all over this country, Canada and a couple from Europe. There will be everything from Ti to steel to bamboo to aluminum to carbon frames on display. Most of the top names will be on display - Eriksen, Sachs, Vanilla, Baylis, Potts, etc. Also in the house will be some painters (Joe Bell, Spectrum Powderworks, etc.), frame component suppliers (Paragon, Sachs, Henry James Lugs, etc.), and some more technical suppliers (Reynolds Tubing, Columbus tubing, etc.).

You're probably wondering what in the world am I doing going to such a show. Well, my life occasionally works out in my favor. I was asked to work at the show by Kent Eriksen (my favorite Ti frame builder). I thought he was kidding at first, but realized he was serious when his wife followed up by asking me again. It so happens that I make some parts for his new Sweetpost that will make its' commercial debut at the show. Here is where my life is good - thanks to all the taxpayers in this great country who will be subidizing this trip as I write it off as a business expense. Sometimes I need to pinch myself!

So, not only will I be hanging out with Kent and Katie for the weekend - a good time in and of itself, I will be checking some of the sweetest bikes ever. Oh, and Saturday morning I am going to borrow one of Kent's show bikes to ride the Sierra Road climb of the Tour of California.

This is one of those rare times when it is good to be me!

Tough Night for a Dad

2007-02-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

Last night was the Coming Home dance at the high school my daughters go to. Once upon a day, we referred to this as a Sadie Hawkins Dance, never knew why. Bottom line, girls ask the guys. These are my daughters dressed up for the dance. Yes, these nights make me nervous. I remember my thought process at that age and I don't think todays teenage boys have changed much since then. As I try to explain on a regular basis - 'boys are pigs'. Some of you may try to deny it, but at the end of the day, it is true. Every 7 seconds, teenage boys are thinking about sex. For the 6 seconds in between, they are thinking about thinking about sex.

My youngest daughter ended up not going with her date, he was stuck in Cincinnati at a debate tournament/match/whatever. I dodged a bullet there. She still went to the dance, but without a hound dog on a leash.

My older daughter had asked a seemingly nice young boy. I remember being a seemingly nice young boy at one time, my theory was if I wasn't nice to the parents, I had no chance getting what I really was after. They had dinner at our house with 5 other couples. They were pretty entertaining - girls who couldn't walk in heels and boys in coats and ties (some have to wear them to school every day). They almost didn't make it to the dance - not in any hurry to eat etc., until someone happened to read the 'bid' and realized that if they weren't there by 10pm, they would not be allowed in the dance.

Here is the whole group - I don't think I was the only nervous father!

The next four years are going to be very hard on me.

A Funny Day in the Life....

2007-02-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

Actually more than a day, but funny day was the best I could do.

Started with a planned ride on the Towpath along the Maumee River with Jamie and Rachel. There were supposed to be more participants, but they decided in the middle of the night before to change the start time without letting us know in a timely fashion. Perhaps there is a message in there. The starting temperature was a balmy -13 Celsius, with a slight breeze pushing the wind chill into the -22 range. DFC By the time the three of us piled into my FJ, it looked like we were going camping for a week! Jamie brought the java and we were off. Listening to Johnny Cash and chatting away. At the trailhead the suiting up was uneventful, bonus of heated bathrooms to change in for the less hardy. Once we were rolling, the first 10 minutes were dreadful - ice cream headache, frozen eyeballs, etc. Eventually warmed up and had a nice ride. Waited for Jamie at one point and recognized the fact she was no longer having fun, so we turned it around and rode back, total ride time of a little over an hour. I am sure that there are many who would be disappointed with us, but you will just have to get over it, we did. Back at the car, recognition of the fact that although we had a ton of crap, none of us had any civilian clothes to speak of. Coffee and muffins were the order of the moment, so off we went to the thriving metropolis of Waterville on a quest. On the way we got to experience the joy of Rachel's new thermos - very nice, but the coffee pretty much sucked (decaf). You might want to be nice to us next fall at the cross races if you want to have a chance at this bonus! In Waterville, I (checking my manhood at the door) asked for directions for a coffee place that had recently moved. We found it and proceeded in. Did I mention Rachel's outfit? So bummed I did not have a camera, multicolored cowboy boots over her cycling tights with her cycling jacket and knit cap. Truly a sight for sore eyes - made you forget that your eyes were hurting before. We were truly the picture of style amongst the local Waterville populous - I think we probably made them nervous. We eventually made it home. I was very close to taking a nap at Rachel's house - she has the most awesome chair/blanket combination. Very dangerous post ride and breakfast.

My evening was going to be a movie (The Departed) and dinner with Marci's sister and brother-in-law. The movie was good (I like Jack Nicholson) and dinner was at Bistro Wasabi. It was a fun evening with a funny incident at the restaurant. This is a male moment, so females may or may not be able to relate. At the restaurant (Bistro Wasabi), the men's restroom has a stool and a urinal side-by-side with no barrier between them. This would tell me that if I was the first one in, I should lock the door behind me. I entered and lo and behold, there was a guy at the urinal. At that point, retreat was an option, but would have been a bit awkward, if I had only known what was going to happen... So I 'whip it out' at the stool and proceed to take care of business. Now I believe in certain man rules, one of which is no talking while peeing unless you know the person. And keep in mind, there is no barrier and not much space between the stool and the urinal. This guy proceeds to ask me how my evening is going, weather, etc. I couldn't shut down the sphincter muscles fast enough to get out of there. For the women that might take the time to read this - other rules include, don't use side-by-side urinals if there are others available, strict conversation rules, no cold water jokes....

This morning is going well too. Here is a picture of a new addition to our household.

I love waffles. It doesn't matter what time of day, I can eat waffles. My only requirement is pure maple syrup, none of the simulated crap. I made a double batch of batter this morning and was in pig heaven, throw in a few Morningstar breakfast links, good coffee and you will one big aaahhhhh from me. As the beer commercial says, "it just doesn't get any better."

I hope you all have a great day!!!!

Inquiring Minds Probably Don't Want to Know

2007-02-04T07:55:00.000-05:00

I am asked more than I care to recount what it is that i do. I have come to accept the answer of as little as posssible so that I can do what I want as much as I want is not really socially acceptable in most circles. Oddly enough, when you answer that your company runs screw machines, their are usually two responses - blank stare followed by 'Oh', or some crack about 'screw' machines with some polite giggling. It gets better when I tell them they are automatic screw machines when I get that second response.

This is a 1970 vintage screw machine:

We have a fleet of these that we use to make parts that go into automobiles, medical devices, bicycles, various types of equipment, and laboratory equipment. Additionally, we have a couple of vertical machining centers to use for secondary operations.

2004 Vertical Machining Center:

Using these machines and some others, we make parts from plastic, steel, stainless steel, brass, aluminum and some other materials.

Here are some parts that will end up on Kent Eriksen Cycles seat posts:

My wife asks me when I am going to retire, what's my plan. I have a pretty standard answer that is not always accepted. Why should I retire? I like what I do at work (ownership has its' privileges), it provides a nice lifestyle for my family (helps that Marci is an attorney), I have good employees, and I can do what I want pretty much when I want. I'm also too young to not have some place to go for the next however many years.

Life is good - health, financial security, and family!! Not necessarily in that order - and good friends.

The Blah of my life

2007-01-28T07:06:00.000-05:00

I live a pretty boring existence. Some may argue differently, maybe it's a lack of creativity. Since my last post, not much has happened that is inspiring me to words of either humor or wisdom. To summarize: booked in about 5% of my sales for the year on Monday (yeehaw!), good training week (except my tp going down on the ice on Wednesday), nice ride on the breakfast ride yesterday (good legs and conversation), nobody too pissed at me that I know of.

We are having a couple of teenage girls stay at our house for the weekend for a youth convention. For those of you doing the math out there, that means there are now 8 females in my house to me being the only male. The good news is that two are dogs and one is a cat. The bad/good part is that 4 are teenagers. The funny part was that they had some free time yesterday afternoon (3 hours, remember the number) before the evening program (services and a dance). The two guests (my daughters were out of the house) spent 2 hours getting ready (yes they were actively getting ready - showers, hair dryers, etc.) before going over to our friends house for dinner. When we got to their house (they had 5 boys staying at their house), introductions were made. Now keep in mind that this is less than an hour before they have to be at the evening program, and it will take 10 minutes to drive there, so really looking at about 40 minutes to departure time and dinner needs to be consumed in that time. NONE of the boys was even considering getting dressed yet. My guess is that their last shower was probably the day before at the most recent.

What is it about society that puts this pressure on females? Are they doing it for themselves? Do they really think males are so shallow as to be influenced by such efforts? The good news out of this is that my daughter changed and got ready in under 2 minutes after her gymnastics meet at some flea bag gym in Rossford.

Maybe I do have some influence after all.

I'm baaaaack

2007-01-20T08:49:00.000-05:00

I know there was a lot of concern over my well being over the past few weeks. Rest assured, i am fine. My life just isn't as interesting as others who have addiction issues with this particular medium.

I have been staying on track with my riding - even though my TP has been quite negligent this year. Riding pretty strong for January all things considered. To date I have only ridden in the basement on two days. Unfortunately, I think that number will be increasing in the near future. I am working my way through a nice head cold and the outside ride yesterday with Jamie was much more painful than it should have been considering the effort I was putting out. The tough part is getting back into the strength training. Yesterday was shoulder and core work - the arms they are a crying today.

On the fun front, I am typing this on my new MacBook Pro. What a sweet machine!! I have only worked in the WinTel world for the past 15 years, so I am having some fun with this. It is amazing in that I have to use Windows to access my office remotely. It can be done easily using Parallels and running Explorer inside of that. The next big trick will be seeing if I can get some Windows programs to seamlessly slide onto this machine to run inside of Parallels. I am hopeful, but not optimistic, that I can get my Computrainer programs, and Ergomo related programs over. I will keep you posted. I also want to figure out how to use the silly little camera that is sitting in front of me on this thing - give me some time.

16 Year Old Daughters

2006-12-29T13:45:00.000-05:00

This is my daughter a few days ago while on vacation in Colorado. She is a classic female teenager in my mind. One minute she is laughing and having a ball (above), the next she is sullen and withdrawn (below). During the week we spent in CO, she went from having a day of fun with me (small miracle) on the slopes, to basically not speaking to anyone the following day. Some day I hope to have a better understanding of just how this happens. Is it hormones? The extra chromosome of a female? My guess is that if I can figure it out, I could become very rich selling how to 'even out' the imbalances of the mood.

Another thing that is funny about my daughter, she has more pictures of herself on her camera than anything or anybody else. She will strike some goofy 'gangsta' (her phrase) pose and snap a picture of herself. The boys in the family we were vacationing with were merciless in their teasing when they learned that one. I don't think they will change her behavior on this one. What she does with the pictures, I have no idea.

Loving 45 degrees and grey skies!! Small caliber weapon anyone?

46 hours of Bliss

2006-12-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

I left Toledo at 5pm on Thursday headed for a buddies cottage on Lake Charlevoix. This is what my FJ looked like on departure: Two pair of tele skis and my 29er with the associated gear. Goal: 6 for 1 day at Boyne on Friday and a nice mtb ride on Saturday on my way home.

Made it to East Jordan safely and hung with my buddy Blair. We have known each other since 6th grade, so even though we only see each other a couple of times a year, it is always a good time. We woke up Friday to 40 degrees and rain at the cottage. The first contact with Andy Brown was he was driving in rain as well, occasionally getting snowflakes. We headed out for breakfast and made the call to take our ski stuff. Mediocre breakfast was followed by a drive in the rain to Boyne, spirits were down and we were figuring out how to spend our day. We got to the parking lot and called Andy to see where he was - half an hour away. By the time he got there, the rain had stopped and it was time to strap on the boards. It turned out to be a pretty decent day of spring skiing, unfortunately for the Boyne folks, it is only December. We managed to get lots of turns in since the lines were not too bad. Wore ourselves (at least the older legs in the group) by about 3 and called it a day.

Woke up the next morning to a warm and dry day. Closed up the cottage, went to breakfast and then headed south. Uneventful drive. Ground was looking dry enough as I drove south so I stopped off at Brighton Rec. to see how the trails were. They were in mint condition, apparently no rain on them like there was up north. I rode both loops and felt a little sluggish after doing lunges for a few hours the day before on my tele skis. When I finished, it turns out to have been one of my best times ever. Must have been riding better than it felt.

Not a bad couple of days for living in beautiful northwest Ohio!!!!

Cheap Entertainment

2006-12-12T06:14:00.000-05:00

This was probably the cheapest entertainment I have had in some time. Watching my 6 year old nephew play hockey for an hour was an absolute hoot! They are at the stage where they are just beginning to understand their positions on the ice and how to skate reasonably well. The funny part is when one goes down, they inevitably take down at least one and up to 3 or 4 others and you get a pile of kids trying to stand back up. That's my brother as the 'on ice' coach standing behind his son.

The cheap part is that they are not my kids, I get to just show up and watch. My brother gets to pay the freight. This is his oldest and he has twin boys (age 4) who are chomping at the bit to get going in the sport as well. My only hope for him is that none of them decide they want to be a goalie, I understand that gets real expensive.

No one got lost!

2006-12-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a great day for riding. A light dusting of snow on the ground and I had not ridden my 29er in about 6 weeks, I think it missed me. Between cross racing and some tlc for it, it just didn't make it out of the house. The tlc was well worth it. It was returned to the womb to get refinished from top to bottom - b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!! I also sent the shock out to get refurbished and some adjustments made, new shim stack and new rebound spring primarily. It performed as anticipated - a bit quicker and livelier feel, but not bouncy.

After much negotiation, Island Lake was ruled out (good on a cross bike, but pretty boring on a mtb). Unfortunately, that meant we weren't going to get to ride with Tom (sorry Tom). The conclusion was the city loop in A2. The funny thing about that is that Rachel gets lost very easily and in fact got really lost the last time we did this ride. With that in mind, we headed to A2 with plenty of cold weather gear and our bikes. The ride up was its' usual entertaining event, but the real entertainment begins when we park. We parked at Mack Pool, a nice public pool in A2 that is convenient to the route I know for the loop. Inevitably, we are laughing pretty hard within minutes - it can be triggered by anything - music, the kid using the remote to the family car James Bond style (behind the back, under the leg, etc.), stories about items sold at garage sales when we were kids, or the people parking right next to us with five open spaces further away while we are changing(showtime). What should be a simple 3-5 minute process ends up taking 15-25 before we know what hit us.

I digress, the ride was a lot of fun. The snow provided enough lubrication to the trail to make you pay attention, yet not so much as to make it any extra work. Unfortunately, it covered up the puddles with a thin layer of ice and snow that made them hard to see and avoid. Mud and ice were a small problem, no biggie. Discovery for the day: Rachel hates going downhill. As much as I have ridden with her, that one had never been spelled out quite so clearly as yesterday. Something to be worked on.

The best part of the day no question: Zingerman's Bakehouse and Creamery. I have been to Zingerman's many, many times, but never these operations. Now that I know where they are, I will do my best to continue to support the A2 economy by going there. I easily could have spent a couple of hundred dollars without a doubt. For breakfast this morning - two slices of chocolate/cherry bread toasted with butter. What a way to get going in the morning!

The end of the beginning

2006-12-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

It was a chilly day at Waterford yesterday. I was actually hoping there was going to be some snow on the ground to provide some extra entertainment. Instead, all we had was wind and cold. It was a day that required copious amounts of warming oil. The application session in the car with my training partner was just delightful. A fun way to start any day.

The preride revealed that it was still windy and cold. I was hoping that would change, but it didn't. The course was not really to my strengths, lots of long straight sections that require road skills and lots of power if you want to close gaps, or maintain them. Fortunately, Andy Brown and I were able to convince Dave to do call ups for the B's so when we showed up at the line was not going to be so important, althought we were there early anyway. At the whistle, the usual group shot to the front, Andy, JB, Joel, Eric, and myself. We managed to establish a gap and started working. Eric tumbled in the ravine at one point, but got back up to the group. At some point, JB and Joel dropped back, leaving Eric, Andy and I. On the second lap or early in the third, Eric put the hammer down and took off. Andy and I tried to get back on, but could not catch him initially. The reason I couldn't get us back up was that Andy's Mom kept yelling at me to slow down when I was in front, always listen to the Mom. At that point, the theory was that he would fade and come back to us if we were smart and kept working together. We may have been smart, but he was a helluva lot stronger yesterday. He never even thought about coming back to us, just rode off into the sunset as the expression goes. At that point, my thinking was to put myself in position to sprint for second with Andy. That was going according to plan until the last set of barriers. A slight bobble and I had visions of doing a Seaman into the barrier. That was enough to relegate me to 3rd. All in all, a pretty good race, not a great one for me. Props to Eric for crushing us, watch out in the Elites next year, the guy is tough.

In the Elite women, Rachel rode a great tactical race starting with the Masters. She almost caught Ann after spotting her a minute at the start. I think the final gap was around 15 seconds. Great race! The elite men's race had a smaller field than I had anticipated. The blue wave did their thing for a while, but the Wiz rained on that parade and rode a strong race to take a relatively easy second place. Jay Moncel rode a strong race and was just off the podium by a step. Great ride Jay!

Happy birthday and thanks to Robert at Tailwind for a great series!

Back to the title, this was my first cross campaign and I have to say, what a hoot! I found it to be populated by a great group of people who are out to compete hard and have some fun along the way. I am looking forward to continuing to race in cross in the years to come.

I spaced on taking any photos of the day - only some video of my tp going through the barriers. These can be had for the right price.

48 Hours of Purgatory

2006-11-24T10:27:00.000-05:00

Those of you that have good relationships with your parents, I applaud you. I hope that when I am older, my children will have some respect for me and a nice, healthy relationship. Unfortunately, I do not have that relationship with my parents. Short of laying on a couch for many days to analyze the issues, let's just say that there is a serious lack of respect on my part toward my parents, and consequently, I try to limit my time with them to the extent that I can while making sure that my children get to know them and have some sort of relationship with them.

My 48 hours started with a trip to Somerset Mall on Wednesday with my teenage daughters to meet my parents for some shopping and bonding. As explained above, the bonding thing was not going to be any fun and I hate malls. The upside was going to be some time with my girls and that can be fun most of the time. My parents are 80 years old and do not move quite as quickly as they used to, so it was going to be a sloooow trip around the mall. We made it to lunch and then split up to go our separate ways. They were going to spend the next two nights at my house, so no problem having some time away.

Everybody made it back to the house by late afternoon for some real close time. The preparations for Thanksgiving Day provided a fair amount of diversion to keep everyone from going off the deep end. There were no real battles. The only problem was a trend that continued through the next day and a half of my mother following my wife around like a puppy dog. Unfortunately, a very judgemental and harsh puppy dog. Somehow my wife did not snap mentally or verbally.

Thanksgiving Day was actually pretty fun once the afternoon came around. My brother's family showed up mid afternoon with his boys (4 year old twins and a 6 year old) and they provided plenty of entertainment. By 6:30 all 22 of us sat down to a great feast and all got along. This includes my parents getting along with my in-laws whom they have told me they do not like at all in the past. After cleaning up and sitting down at the end of the night, my father said what a great time he had and what wonderful people my wifes' family were. Thank God I had my hip waders on, it was getting deep.

To my relief, they left this morning at 9am and there was no blood drawn. I don't think there were even any harsh words spoken. The mental stress on me was incredible!! I rode early yesterday morning and tried to do some attack intervals, I struggled mightily due to a lack of sleep the night before. The stress of my parents visiting was palpable. Looking forward to riding this afternoon. Hopefully I recover in time for Bloomer on Sunday.

Happy Holidays!

Freezing at the Line

2006-11-13T06:49:00.000-05:00

The start of the Munson Park race. My jacket was removed a good 5 minutes too early, need to talk to Dave about telling us how much time until the actual whistle blows so I don't shiver me timbers quite so much. By the way, what is the right way to put on the number? I was advised that mine was on upside down. Seems to me that it is all a matter of perspective.

By far the best part of this race was having my youngest daughter there. In the fog of a race, I usually don't remember hearing people cheering very much. I have very distinct memories of hearing Allison's voice every time I came near the hill. It was awesome!! The other voice that I remember from this race is Dave mentioning at least a couple of times how old I was when he called out my name. Don't know if that is a good or a bad thing. I also remember hearing members of next year's team and that is always cool - just no recollection of specifics, probably telling me to get my a$$ moving.

At the end of the day, I felt like I had a pretty good race. No stupid mistakes or technical problems. Power was good. Hats off to Eric and Taylor for riding good races - Eric in particular. He rode away from us. Taylor is going to be a very good rider if he sticks with it. I had no idea he was as young as he is, turning 14 next month (younger than my youngest daughter). Should I feel good about beating a 13 year old? Would I feel better if he had beaten me? For those keeping score at home, the combined age of 1st and 3rd was still 11 years younger than me. Good, bad, or indifferent, just the facts.

Peanut butter 1 vs. Pre-baited 0

2006-11-10T05:47:00.000-05:00

Game on

2006-11-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Here's the deal, I was pretty well taken aback when my tp had a small rodent viciously attack the chamois in a favorite pair of knickers. Some of you were probably wishing you were the rodent - those in that category please resume your porn surfing. Now it seems I am a victim as well. The good news is, no clothing has been damaged. The bad news, mouse droppings in a desk drawer - blekkkk!!!

I have had mice in my shop before, we are next to a vacant lot and every fall as the temperature begins to drop, they think we are some sort of homeless shelter and they move in. Give us a month and we catch a couple and never have to deal with them again until the next fall. This year upon discovery, I trotted to my local hardware store to get some new traps (once I get a mouse in one, I throw mouse and trap out together). Lo and behold, technology has apparently reached the rodent catching industry. The only traps (I don't like the sticky/poisonous ones) were 'pre-baited', no need to put cheese or anything on them. The yellow thing on the trap is supposed to attract the varmints to the trap. Are mice really that stupid? Being the cynic that I am and wanting to make sure I catch the suckers, I am going to try one without any additional bait and one with some crunchy peanut butter.

Results to be posted as they become available.

Not the greatest photos..

2006-11-07T13:14:00.000-05:00

These photos do not do justice to this frame. I am not a photographer, don't pretend to be one, and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I just like to ride bikes.

Newest Fix

2006-11-07T06:31:00.000-05:00

I just received my latest fix yesterday. Sorry for the lack of photos, battery is dead in the camera and this is the only one that I got before I paid attention to that little detail.

Once again a frame by Kent Eriksen. Wanted a little bit snappier bike than my Moots so I worked with Kent on altering a few things toward that end. Slightly steeper seat tube and head tube angles. Shortened up the head tube for aesthetic reasons. As soon as I get the final dimensions, I will post them. As far as the bits and pieces that are coming: SRAM Rival group, Reynolds UL fork, Reynolds carbon bar, Selle Italia SLR saddle, Eriksen post, Ergomo BB and crankset, Reynolds Stratus wheelset, and most likely a moots stem (until Kent comes up with his own).

On another front, also feeding the addiction, but not ti. I have a Vanilla frame on order - unfortunately not due for two years (technically 25 months at this point, but who's counting). I spoke with Sacha yesterday about tubing since I know very little about steel tubing. The conversation was very cool, he is incredibly knowledgeable and very easy to talk to. I am looking forward to working with him on what I visualize as a work of art that I also get to ride and enjoy. You should check out his work http://www.vanillabicycles.com/. I first saw his work in person at Interbike this year. He made a child's tricycle in conjunction with Phil Wood that was amazing. He also had a bike in the Brooks saddle booth that was stunning in its' beauty.

Here's to hoping my training partner wants to go for coffee instead of riding in the rain this morning!

Iceman Went

2006-11-05T07:25:00.000-05:00

For those that have not done this race, it is one of the more well run races I have participated in. From packet pick up to getting the results posted, things seemed to flow remarkable well given the number of people. 17 years of experience probably helps.

Congratulations to Ron on a great ride in the singlespeed class!!! He laid it out like there was no tomorrow.

My results were mediocre. I was 23rd in my class, met my goal but it was nothing exciting. In retrospect, I do not feel like I pushed hard enough coming off the climbs and didn't bury people after I passed them on the climb. My biggest problem was not winning the race to the start line. Clearly there is a lot of strategy when you are dealing with about 200 riders in a wave. I ended up starting from about the 5th row. The most successful people at the start rolled up at the back of the wave in front of ours and then just sat there while they started, leaving them at the front of our start. Lesson learned.

Now for the reality check of this race. Shouldn't there be some sort of minimum percentage of singletrack required for a race to be called a mountain bike race? I don't think there was more than 2 miles of single track out of the 28.5 total. A time trial conducted on dirt roads ought to have its' own name instead of mountain bike race, perhaps a Dirt Time Trial? There needs to be more technical terrain to maintain my interest. I am impressed that there is such a cult following of this race. The people that run it have clearly done their marketing homework and have gotten people to buy into what is for the most part a very dull mountain bike race. It strikes me that there is enough terrain in northern Lower Michigan to put together some great long singletrack race possibilities. Would you be able to run 2000 people on it? Good question and not one for me to answer. If you could the race to the start line would be even more important, but the riding would be a whole lot more interesting.

My apologies to Andy Brown - I think I called him 'Dave' after the race - not thinking clearly at that moment.

Idle thoughts:

What is the name of a group of turkeys?

I hate burning the roof of my mouth - not only does it hurt at the time, it is annoying for days to come.

I took my camera to the race and never got it out, maybe next time.

Ode to a training partner

2006-11-03T06:09:00.000-05:00

If you don't already have a training partner, I highly recommend that you find one. The benefits are tremendous. You will become a better rider and racer. On those days when you don't really feel like getting on the bike, you know that someone is counting on you to show up, and if you don't due to some lame excuse, you will be berated for it. Along the way of many miles and hours, you will develop a bond and friendship that should last a lifetime. A good training partner will hold your confidences as you hold theirs. The trust evolves over time to allow conversation on a broad range of political, religious, and personal topics. The opinions are respected at all times even though the exchanges can be excited.

Even though the 'ride plan' for the day may not be the same, the value of having someone to head out with is amazing. Knowing that you have someone to comiserate with as you get through one more interval, is some consolation where otherwise there would be only your own grey matter to overcome. Then on race day to hear the voice screaming at you as you feel like puking, priceless.

I am very fortunate to have found such a training partner.

The Way

2006-11-01T21:13:00.000-05:00

If you have any thoughts about doing the Trans Rockies in 2007, this is the only way to go. It is the way Hotel Whiskey travels - DELUXE.
Register for the TR now, it will be sold out by January.

Why

2006-10-31T18:42:00.000-05:00

I must confess to a problem. It is evident by the title of this blog. I like titanium bikes to a degree that is probably not healthy financially. It is a serious issue for me, rather than sticking with road and mtb versions, I took up cyclocross so that I could get another ti bike. I used to scoff at those who had a pair of basketball shoes, a pair of tennis shoes, and another pair of 'casual' tennis shoes. Now I have joined the party, only with specialized titanium bikes. I have tried to explain my problem to people, but very few understand. Those that understand are usually next to me on the starting line in bad weather, ready to race until we drop.

All of my bikes have been built by Kent Eriksen , in my opinion the finest builder of ti bikes on the planet. The quality of the welds combined with his incredible knowledge of the material and its' properties produces a ti bike that is second to none. His ability to manipulate the tubing on the chainstays of my 29er provide plenty of mud clearance for whatever size tire I want to run, unlike many ti 29ers I have seen. The front derailleurs usually look like mud catchers they are so close to the tire.

Is there a ti anonymous program anywhere?