May the road rise with you

This bike.......

Over that pass.....
What a way to end a day after some quick work up in Delta.

Aspen Camouflage

The special on-off "white kits" are in! I ran these as a special edition for BWR and we may migrate toward this kit in addition to our black kits.

Normally I wear mediums for both bibs and jersey, but the elastic around my arms is too tight on the mediums. This post shows large bibs and jersey, and the jersey is well too large for me - but the cuff on the arms isn't as tight as the medium, which has been a big problem for me.

A week ago, I cut out the elastic bands on two jersey cuffs and the result has been the perfect medium jersey, so I think I will stick with the mediums.

As for the bibs, I like the large bibs over the mediums - but again, it will take some tailoring as the stirrups are for too long of a body, so I will cut those down. Right now the bibs fall of my shoulder.

I'll post some of the modified medium jerseys and large bibs later. Now it's time to ride!

Hot Dog

"I had Sunny side up! I had Sunny side down. I Sunny side all zse way around!"
Ok, someone really named this place appropriately.
There is stuff like this all over.
And the green machine fit right in.
Unless you are tired. Whew at the end of 6 days of riding and I'm out of gas. I was even afraid Hall or Oates may even catch me on a climb. Wouldn't that suck?
There is some serious racism here though. I mean that is one Big-a-Tree!
Then an epic descent....still above the landing airplanes as well, so that was really cool to watch then land.
California dreaming.
Sweet singletrack, with pretty flowers. I do not work for the paparazzi any more though (union issues), so the gratuitous tongue kiss that went on between Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton went un-photographed. Thanks girls, it was much appreciated, BTW.
John Denver must have wrote a song or two about this place. You think?

Sitting around the campfire....
Or roaring forks at least.

PMCS

So on Saturday, I was having trouble descending at the Purgatory Challenge on the new White Brothers fork.

But then on Sunday I take out the Astrix and nail the descents on the "old" WB fork.

Hmmmm..... oh yeah, maybe I should check the pressures.

New fork: 150-psi

Old Fork: 90-psi

Doh!

I really should check stuff like this once in a while, eh?

Coastal Colorado

Somehow my ride in central Colorado turned into a ride that reminded me of coastal California.
But it's gonna take 3 more states, and one other country before it gets to the Ocean.
The singletrack was like this on the way up...and what a huge climb it was at the start!
Somewhere around here the weather started to give me a scare, but then it just turned blue and sunny.
The 32x19 was a very heavy cog for the start.
Permagrin!
And then I hit aspens. Too sweet to take pictures.
Where the women flock like the Salmon of Capistrano. Hey, I knew I was riding a coastal range!
But somewhere I missed a turn and had to take the pavement back. At least it was a bike path.

Trailhead 4 blocks from the hotel...which also has a brewpub on the ground floor.

Works sucks.

Feng Shui

The mark of a moderate man

is freedom from his own ideas.

Tolerant like the sky,

all-pervading like sunlight,

firm like a mountain,

supple like a tree in the wind,

he has no destination in view

and makes use of anything

life happens to bring his way.

Lao-Tzu

Purgatory Challenge

So what a race season it's been eh?

Show up Temecula a bit out of shape.

Show in Gallup ready to gallop and hear nothing but rain cancellations.

Show up in Cortez and break my back, and do not make the finish. After a whole slew of miscalculations, btw.

So how about just stay at home to race? Ok, let's try the inaugural 50-mile Purgatory Challenge. No SS categories, but pure age groups with me being in the old timers 40-49.

Well as expected the Durangotangs showed up in full force. Travis broke a chain and lost to Matt Shriver. I raced against old timers and the undercurrent of SSers - which amongst ourselves, we quickly counted the field. Large enough to have as our own field, but apparently no desire to do so by the promoter (ummm, just a hint - promote SS and your numbers may grow.). Oh well, I'd race against the entire field, and the group of SSers, and then the 15 total entrants in the 40+ age group.

Rain was to be had as well for this one and on Hermosa things got really muddy. I enjoyed every minute of it as the Showers Pass jacket kept me dry and warn and the 32x19 kept me spinning along just perfectly.

Six weeks after breaking my back, the result was good - I was there for the climbs, but was hanging back on the descents. Made for some tough work and in the end, but it was very fun overall.

Definitely have some room for improvement, but I needed some positive news and this provided at least a glimmer of hope for the season.

Work for Breckenridge will be focused and concentrated from here on out.

Add postage.

Great review in the LA Times. Too bad you have to ship from overseas, but wow - it comes with a bike rack too?

I am still looking for my Westy replacement.

Pint Night Rant V.3.7.2.4

It's time to make these official. I mean when one spends $1 for a fine pint of micro-brewed beer for a once a week over indulgence, there are bound to be some interesting comments that come forth from an innocent ten spot.

Instead of sending some email or making some forum post that I end up apologizing for, I decided to make my verbal transgressions short, and concise here and available to media outlets with out much searching involved.

So to start, my drunken observations of the week are summarized as follows:

I support some Right Wing causes. I mean that I want to make clear my opinions 0n abortion and gays in the military in one fell swoop.

I hereby announce that I am against the practice of gays in the military aborting their fetuses.

If two guys want to have an abortion, I believe they should just shut the hell up and get married, before they try to abort their unborn fetuses.

Thats what Reagan would have wanted.

I also believe that Salmon should not be allowed to get married.

The unholy spawn of the fatty and stinky red meat should only be available to obese heifers.

Grass and a lot of ass makes sense to under sexed bulls, but to a scaly bottom carp, shit-eating pebble dweller, just do your job and just make the bears fat.

Do not interrupt the Tuna food chain in any way shape or form.

We all know by now that Tuna is king, salmon is dung.

Finally, if Ralph Loren had a family ranch......do you think they all wear polo?

What if one of the son's shows up in Hilfiger?

How about a good round of Sears no-names for the black sheep of mi-familia?

I mean they all can flip up the collars of stupid looking golf shirts just to make the patriarch with the same first name of a comedian bus driver from the 1950s, happy?

Hey Norton...watch me flip up the collar of this polo shirt.

Hey, hey Ralphie my boy, these here salmon want to get married.

And how about Missy Giove get popped for 400-lbs of pot? That totally sucks.

Note: Last part edited the following A.M. because the author didn't understand what the hell he wrote......

I like BIG rides

Another High Point

Two bottles and a pump and a water filter.  Thats what more you need.

And then a whole shit load of women riders.
Take them to the high country.  (and then wait an hour up top, while they decide to break for food a few times.....)
Oh well, at least you can't make a wrong turn.
4 of the 5.  
It's dandelion season at 10k, btw.  8k?  Not so much.
Crossing streams come down to 2 options - blast through and get wet or slow down and roll through slowly.
But if you slow down then be prepared for the short steep that follows.
Or say eff it and known all river trails roll downhill.

The real High Point

Three bottles and a pump.  What more do you need?

Ok, a riding partner.  That makes sense.
Especially one who tries stuff you don't.
You will choose to lead or follow.  
If you stand then who will guide you?
da da da da....da dada da
Ripple

It ain't just for drinking anymore.

Eh, forget Ripple. here's something better.

This blog is getting back to it's roots.  I might just strike up the theme song someday soon.

BTW, the ride was great.  Even got to chat with Chris Wherry...who is a favorite of this here blog.  Roll Chris, Roll.  

Flowers to the Dead

The song may be one of the saddest tunes ever sung by the Dead, but damn if it isn't the most impressive tune from the Ipod when climbing.  Man this just builds and builds.....  

So with that in mind I hooked up with Shannon for a climb up to the "high point" on the Colorado Trail, which in a blog post referencing the both mountain biking and the Grateful Dead, "high point" certainly could have a dual meaning.  

But not here.

However we did get up and fly away, even if was on gears.

Which strangely now I don't want to post the pictures.  They need to be in another post.

I'm still jamming to Wharf Rat.

-end-

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Doesn't count for the Irish, Danes, or Belgians, people in mobile homes, or members of BWR.  

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Singletrack tinglesac

Good to be back on dirt - made my first run on singletrack today going up to Gudy's from Hoffheins. Worked out great because for work I needed to head west of town and look at some E.I.F.S. on a building. Turned out to be stucco...... Continue my roll-out and things felt good. Back tightened up as expected, and I'll see Elke later this afternoon for some work, but good to be back.
Rode the CT, downhill, but soon I'll be back to the full loop.
The steed....with the "awkward" bike pump.
Actually it fits in just right, and is tucked out of the way.
Rode food free again, and relied on the new and improved home made nuun-like drink. The Light Lemon-Lime stuff from Kroger is nearly calorie free, and I only fill the bottles up about 1/3 of the wat and then top off with water and 1 Hammer Enduralight scoop. Works out to about 15-cents a bottle, and much cheaper than the $1 a bottle retail for the real thing.

Project Dropout

Jeni's Kind.Cycles custom bike has one of the coolest setups you will ever find. It's the fully replaceable dropouts designed by Kavic, which is no longer around. The idea is that you can fully remove the geared dropouts and replace with track style sliders for riding singlespeed.

The plan of course is that you had to run rim brakes with the track style dropouts, because of the movement of the rear wheel and "fixed" nature of the disk brake.
Here is the geared dropout with the disk brake mounts.
As you can see you can replace the dropouts quite easily.
The problem in the set-up was one that we did not anticipate nearly 9 years ago when Jeni ordered the bike. The bike can run either 24-in, or 26-in wheels. Jeni had the rim brake "bosses" set-up for a 24-in rear wheel, so that means when in singlespeed mode, the only rear wheel able to be used is 24-in. But if she goes geared, she can run 26-in and disk brake.

What we'd like to do now is find someone to machine a special dropout, similar to the one shown in the middle picture - but with 2 distinct features: it would be track-style slider - AND - the disk brake mounts, should be slotted to allow movement and adjustment of the disk brake relative to the rear wheel as it is moved in the slider for chain tensioning.

With this setup Jeni could run SS, Disk Brake, AND 26-in. wheel.

Make sense? Anyone know where to find a dropout maker? Anyone know where to find Brian at Kavic? Anyone with machine tools want to give this a go? Brendan?

Innuendo

There is something about the new frame pump that just seems wrong...........

Serenity Now

NO!

YES!

I believe the algorithm connects 20 gears to 666 if you divide by Jesus, multiply by Allah, and use 5 Pi Buddah over Satan + 2 Elvis.

The Original Growler - 2009 Edition

So with me being on the injured reserve list, I took on the role of support and race watcher, something that Jeni has done for me quite well over the years.

It was actually fun in it's own way, but I'd have rather been out there myself if given the chance. Watching races just leaves you with with an empty feeling, thinking of where you would have stacked up.

But the main focus was getting the nearly 9-year old Kind.Cycles bike ready to race for Jeni. The Kind weighed in at 20.5-lbs, which is pretty good considering some of the heavier bits on the trim out. With the exception of the brakes, front wheel, pedals, and handlebars/grips, this thing is OJ (Original Jeni). The Z.1 X-Fly has NEVER been touched or serviced in the nearly 9 years of riding. It worked flawlessly, of course. Why Marzocchi does not make this fork anymore is beyond me......there IS a market for it. BTW, this is most likely the world's ONLY 46-er, SingleSpeed.

So Jeni met up with Kera Durland, who was doing the 64-mile version, basically double of Jeni's 32-mile Half-Growler. But the girls chose right and went with one gear each. This picture is amazing when you think about it (click on it to expand). Two little girls amongst all these tall men....and the girls are on Singlespeed bikes and pretty much everyone else is on gears, and/or full suspension. There should be a motivational poster on this........
The race started in downtown Gunny, and had a 2.5- mile neutral start to the trails at Hartman Rocks. The finish would be 2-part, with the timed finished at Hartman, but the actual finish line downtown, with a neutral-finish back to the town center. Hey it's Colorado, and we always figure out ways to support the downtown business centers........

Mitch and Tracey set up the timer-chips in their usual professional fashion, and made the race easy to track. Why some races still use people and paper as timers is beyond me. Mavic, Ergon, and the Gunnison Trails people set up the rest of the start/finish/pit area. The 32-milers would have the timed finish here, and the 64-milers would pass through once, and then finish here.

Since I volunteered to help work the race, my job was to support the 64-milers as they pitted.

While we waited, I made some new friends. Lisa likes cats and dogs, and wanted to know if I did too.
In your best Tom Hanks voice can you say "There's no pink in mountain biking...."

Well if you beat everyone else then you can wear whatever the hell it is that you want! Durango's Travis Brown (and one of two former USA Olympians at the event) took the win, as usual and represented very well.
Thane, Yuki, and a few others came flying through like torpedos shortly thereafter.
The race mastermind, is in the process of masterminding.
Sonya came through smiling and enjoying the mud. I believe Lisa was at her pit wondering is she likes cats and dogs.
So I'd take bikes and fill up bottles, and hand out Honey Stinger products like it was crack. Most were appreciative, some thought I should move faster. Mehhhh....I tried.
The trails were soggy with lotsa of rain through the day.
And then our hero finished.
And she enjoyed the mud! But she still had to roll back to town on the neutral finish.
"Mr. Roarke....the plane, the plane!"
The girls started to form up a mini-peloton on the way back.
Jeni made a new racing buddy, who coincidentally lives across the street in Keystone from Brad Grohusky, a racing buddy of mine and someone that I met on this very course, while at the 2007 24-hours of the Sage (Mitch's event). It's a small community of like minded people.......
Random (un-aimed) shots, cut Jeff's head off.
For $1.53, and a used bottle opener - can you spot the bronze medal winning, USA Olympian?
The Durlands represented the Springs and consumed the free adult beverages. Kera was the ONLY woman tough enough to sign up AND finish the 64-miler Growler on a singlespeed. Way to go!
Fun times at the party afterward, hanging out with friends and swapping stories. Next year I hope to be in the action, but the key is that I'll be back in Gunnison. This race is fun!

Paparazzi

So it's pretty easy to figure out how to shoot a camera.

After that, it's a bit more difficult to actually get the shot in focus.

But once you do.....

Then it's up to you whether or not anyone even cares what it is that you shot!

That's what separates the P-R-O-S from the F-R-E-D-s. (Besides, of course, the spelling...)

Ok, that and $500

But if you are Paparazzi, it's also about clicking the camera relentlessly, and only afterward do you see if you actually have any photos worth a darn.

Most times you end up with boring shit like this.......
But if you were stalking a Hemperley, then this is golden.



But what if the freak decides to show his butt?
Sell it to the National Enquirer.