redemption on the wheel

close to the end-o-summer

2010-08-16T14:36:00.001-07:00

and i for one am glad to se it go. i've whinged enuf about all the various ways it sucked, so let us say i am looking forward to what comes ahead.

but, one last lookback at a sweet last dad-girl bonding ride, before she heads off to school. fitty one miles ( the luckiest number in bike racing, and my racing age next year when i git back on it . . . . ). beautiful first day of the cool breezes after the insane heat, too. also had 2 most cool unexpected friends stop by, one we hadn't seen in 12 years or so, and another for only months, but too long nonetheless.

so, bye bye girl !! daddy will miss you. we found a favorite ride-spot for a pic - not many door cty non-locals have seen this spot-o-interest - a gate of a most ominous and eerie nature tucked away in a wood of a seriously enchantedish threatening demeanor. i would tell you what is behind it, but i we woulda had to have looked back there to know . . . . . . . and i ain't going and MK damn sure ain't. vampires, most likely. perhaps witches, and possibly both.

there is only one story this week

2010-08-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

and that is the uncovering of surfin turf skatepark, in greenfield. i guess a road project took down the old building and LO !! contrary to rumour, the bowls were still entirely intact ( with a couple extensions missing. then, it picked up some press, teevee coverage, and a ton of guys with shovels dug out the smallest bowl.

only to have the powers that be knock the gravel back into it.

at this point the future is uncertain. i hear the roadway is NOT going over the site, so there is hope. this spot should be saved. it was one of the last great skateparks built before the bowlriding bust came ( due to insurance, land values, and other factors ). while small, some of its features were among the best ever built - and the park can hold its own among any mention of the best parks of all time. . . . marina del ray, cherry hill, getaway, you name it. to this day, the construction techniques used are a bit of a lost art, and the transitions and smoothness of the place is not felt in modern offerings.

letters are being written, and support sought with the biggest players in action sports. in cycling terms, this would be like uncovering a velodrome in NYC where major taylor once raced. god. i hope they do not blow this one. it's a one-time chance to restore a legendary and completely irreplaceable spot for everybody.

youtube " santa cruz streets on fire ", and witness. that was almost 20 years ago. this place rules.

what, no unicorns ??

2010-08-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

so, with my new firm resolution in mind, i set out for some ridin. a friend noted to me that jesse lalonde kick-started his fitness by winning the duo class at 24-9. i decided on a SLIGHTLY more modest approach to my own comeback effort, however.

above we see a small portion of the famed "bianca strada" of door cty, discovered by russell, and now a staple of every 50 mile ride outta town. i rounded up two suitable training companions, MK ( who has also been slacking off the bike for a year, albeit with far better reasons ) and - just in case MK has gotten back into shape without me knowing and thus likely to crush me - a raw beginner 20 y/o daughter of a friend of ours, who is also a D-1 heptathlete. first order of business was adjusting the heptathlete's new trek into ridable shape after the pathetic - nonexistant, really - job stadium did when they they sold it to her. talkin a saddle height 2 inches too low, etc etc. . . . . . sigh.

anyway, we headed up to see if those butterflies pictured above were still hanging out on the bianca strada, and to peer deep into the surrounding enchanted forest for unicorns. it was a fine ride indeed.

but - lemme just say - i still have no real idea what a heptathlon is . . . . . except to note that whateverthehell it might be, it leaves 20 y/o participants of it in crazy-good shape !! ill-fitting and dorked out trek aside, that girl was hammering. and, once we got her hooked onto the whole wheelsucking thing, she was smiling that smile that comes from experiencing the cool dynamic of a sweet road ride, on sweet roads, with everybody lookin out for each other for the very first time. she and MK are goin out for more this week ( the old man's job is done ).

ironically, after that we entertained the original founder of stadium bike for the eve - and reminiced about the days when that shop ( nowadays it is a store, not a shop ) was the most happenin around by far. how things change . . . . .

retire, or reinvent

2010-07-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

so, the question arises - do i keep this blog goin, or just let it fade away? obvious choice is the latter. but, a couple things have popped up to make me reconsider.

ya know, there is an old joke/sterotype amongst guys who finally realize that they not athletes, but instead old-guy-hobbyist racers. seems like after you reach a certain age, every year there is some guy who is newly divorced, and he's a freaking holy terror. leaned down, eating like a caveman, working out like he is on garmin slipstream, new bikes from the money he stashed from the wife, and pissed off to no end about all the rest of his money the ex got in the settlement. we've all seen him. guys like me - more or cruising along, very happily married, other stuff on our minds . . . . how we gonna compete with newly-divorced-guy ?

then, i have my awful year of riding to look back on. work issues kept me off the bike all spring, and into summer. big trouble getting back on the bike once outta the routine, complete loss of any remotest sense of shape i might have had, and at age 50 the very very real possibilty that once gone - it ain't coming back, period. don't laugh - at my age, it happens.

and now, my beloved strong frame and blacksheep fork might well be toast after being rear-ended on the back of the van.

i think that last thing is the final motherf*cking straw. i'm pissed. that bike is gonna be either fixed by the best tig-welding framebuilder on earth, or i will replace the thing. till then i'll ride on whatever rolls, but i gonna ride. i am gonna look back at this past BS season like recently-divorced-guy does the shafting he took in court. i am gonna saddle up, kimosabe, and ride. when winter comes i will XC ski till i collapse ( my refurbished rollerskiis are on the way . . . ), and i will march-hero next spring like it is 1999.

and i am gonna write about it. give it another year. yeah blogs ar so 2002, but i am lightyears more irrelevant that that on my best day, so who cares? will it be entertaining ?? dunno. but, i have been bouncing around a few cycling topics that seem to resonate ( read, annoy ) some people, and a few that some people actually agree with me on. i'll throw those in too. recently-divorced-guy best get on it, cuz this past season was worse for me, than him - and i was probably a lot worse person than he was to begin with - so next season we can have it out. i imagine i will tick some people off, already have, in fact. don't care.

it's a shame it took some a-hole wrecking one of the coolest bikes around to get my ass moving, but i can get another one, and it'll be just as cool, believe me. and in the meantime, my ass is moving again.

requiem

2010-07-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

my strong 29er SS frame is now a wall decoration. probably the blacksheep ti fork, too.

hiding in plain site

2010-07-10T03:43:00.001-07:00

when is the last time you saw a sugino cycloid chainting, in aluminum, in mint shape ?? trick question - unless you have invaded my secret basement vault where i have them stashed in the lab - you very likely have not. here we see the pristine and enigmatic ring monted up, ready for MK to jump back into racing after foolishly frittering away her 18th year doing schoolwork during her freshman year of college. ha !! here comes the pain.

noneof which gets to the heart of the matter - that being . . . .why on earth use a sugino cycloid chainring for ANYTHING, let alone a race-going bicycle ?? well, i have my reasons, and indeed like most of my reasons they are neither shared, understood, nor agreed upon by anybody. i used to tell the child the ring was a secret weapon, but long about age 12 she asked " dad, if our secret weapon was laughed off the face of the earth by everybody 20 years ago . . . . . is it really a secret weapon ??? "

funny kid. gotta admit, kinda smart, too. more like her mother every day.

well, THAT was cool.

2010-07-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

i have been racing mtn bikes more or less consistantly ( this year less . . . ) in WI for over 25 years straight. lookin back - not gonna lie - that year lemond won the TdF and then lined up a month later with us hacks to race the cheq40 in the mud was a pretty good weekend for WI mtn biking. B-U-T this past weekend at mt morris is without question a close runner up.

i think the best part was the story that the ever-classy Mrs Peters was telling. she watched the pro race with a racer outta texas' dad. this race-dad and kid have been hitting the natl race scene. and, the dad was stunned by the turnout of crazy cheeseheads. in particular, he noted that not only were the crowds the biggest and by FAR the loudest of any mtn bike in the country - he had never ever seen the ear-splitting roar that came for every local pro, as they looped around the course. he was dumfounded, and had to ask Mrs Peters " what IS that ?? "

WI is the best state in the usa in which to XC race a mtn bike. always has been, and still is. huge thanx and shout-out to don E, for letting a few more people than us know it. man, i hope he brings it back.

the other funny thing that happened was the look on MK's face, after being duly impressed by the pro racing scene and style when we reminded her of where she comes from. a little over 20 years ago, in the heyday of the sport, her MOTHER - then riding as a regional expert for suntour-ibis - could pretty much hang in the lead pro bunch . . . . . well OK lets say for 2/3rds of the race or so. those were the days !! when the girl asks . . . ." what happened ? ", we get to say - she stopped racing like that to have you. it was cool to see her comprehend what that meant.

little help from her friends

2010-06-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

since losing her road bike in a pink-slip street race in south bend, the girl has been riding on my most righteous back-up bike. a killer ride, to be sure, but a wee bit too big for her. so with her home for a few weeks we endeavored to remedy the situation. bein' a struggling college student and all, resources were limited. enter the amazingly cool world of cyclist buddies !! with a series of riding friends each piling on to help, this h'yar ride took shape. wahat's more amazing still is that my bike-snobism has rubbed off on the child, and so she has a certain bar that has to be met. luckily, said cycling buddies are pretty much as big a snobs as either of us, so no problem there !!

so, with help from russell, rick, marty out at prairie peddaler, singular cycles, dallas fowler at trikes2bikes, of course MOM, and a few more the girl is back ripping in style. those hoosierswill not know what hit em when she gets back to south bend. her vinatage ibis she rocks on the trails made them weep over their lame ass rides, and this bitchin steed will do the same. killer bare-knuckle no-nonsense wheels, rival parts doing the work, solid remaining bits to just last and work with blue-collar aplomb, and to tie it all together a frame older than the child, triple butted lugged steel made in nippon like a samurai sword and quite probably the best frame specialized ever made - every bit as good as all but the most boutique level frames made today.

thanx to all !!

half way to the wrong side of the grass

2010-06-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

i turned 50 this week. i looked up a few things that were going on the year i was born.

1. the flintstones premiered
2. ben hur was a hot movie
3. the aluminum can was invented
4. cassius clay ( not yet muhammed ali ) won his first pro fight
5. gas was a quarter a gallon, and a brand new mustang was 2300 bux.
6. the foolish pic above passed for olympic-level winter sport

pardon me, while i go heat up a bowl of stewed prunes and ovaltine.

week at camp calls for -

2010-06-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

lake owen drive every morning. i can't get away to ride camba singletrack, but this is pretty sweet.

if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin' !!

2010-06-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

i have been enjoying the big story about cancellara and his supposed electric motor, boosting him to victory. personally - i would love for the story to be true. take bike racin's cheating and get it out of the classless and tacky PED arena, and move it up alongside motorsports; the source of the title quote for this entry ( famed tuner and notorious cheater smokey yunick is source ). i mean, let's see some more creativity in our cheating !! make it something to be proud of - for example, f-landis' famous testoterone-patch-on-the-XXX has got to be the ultimate low-rent cheat in history. not because he cheated, but because of the horridly embarrassing way he did it.

my all-time favorite cheat, tho, was the kid ( OK, his dad . . . ) in the soapbox derby car back in '73. he had a wicked strong electromagnet in the nosepiece of his car, and a switch hidden in the roll-bar. he would switch it on, and when the metal plate holding the car at the start line would fall away, the car would get a little pull from the magnet ( !!! ). awesome !!! so, so wrong, on so many levels - you just have to love it. they only caught him because as the battery wore down, his times and starts became noticably slower.

so, please cancellara - let this business of you having an electric motor hidden on your bike be true. if people are racing, somebody's gonna be cheating - cycling NEEDS a good cheatin' story like the soapbox kid, or one of smokey yunicks legendary yarns. for god's sake, no more embarrassing stories about placing sticky medicinal patches on one's XXXX.

redemption via russell

2010-05-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

after a decent start to her college career at ND, the girl has been undergoing a fall from grace. first, they kept her over after class for some reason - to the tune of over a month and a half !! dunno how she got that far behind on her classwork, but there it is. then, while out running the mean streets of south bend all nite long like she routinely does, she ran into a bad crowd - and ended up street racing for pinks with them - in the process losing her road bike on a bad bet. as she wallowed in the shame of losing a pink-slip bike race to somebody from freaking INDIANA, russell swept in like the veritible Angel of Wheeled Redemption that he is - with this:

yeah, we had to update a couple things. the wayward kid could not get on with the righteous crit-bend ultra-narrow bar, nor the 36 hole front wheel. i give her a pass on needing the bar-con rear shifter, tho - like russell, bar-cons are always in Style. she is back at school finishing up her detention till the end of june, but had better not lose anymore street races !! that bike has some nice stuff on it - if she loses this stuff we will move while she is away, and not leave a forwarding address:

just beacuse . . . .

2010-05-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

frank zappa once sang:

"Just because the sun
Want a place in the sky
No reason to assume
I wouldn't give her a try"

with that kinda spirit in mind, we decided recently to go with the rage and jam a 29er wheel into the fork on gretchen's 26er on-one . . . . . just because.

well, not exactly. i originally designed my strong as a 69er, but that was on purpose. i need to know - what does doing it ghetto-style like pictured here, and how you see guys doing today actually do ??

for a given fork offset, and/or a given fork what it does is this: adds around 8.1 mm to the trail figure of the bike's front end. this is not a small change. it is about the difference in trail between a standard road bike and a touring bike ( 1.5 degrees of head angle, say, if you were to leave everything else the same ). speaking of which, it also relaxes the bike's head angle by a half degree actual. it does a few other things as well, regarding bb height, position, and weight distribution but those are minor or easily correctable to insignificant for a dirt-going bike, i think. some of them might even be improvements, depending on yer preferences. we need to correct the position from the photo, and get the rider contact points back where they belong. . . . bars back down, saddle back where it needs to be, etc.

anywayz - two ways of looking at the numbers game with regard to bike as converted - 1. a more stable platform on which to hammer and rail . . . or 2. a formerly nimble bike now handling like a dog.

personanly, i believe stability is VASTLY underrated. a stable bike is a fast bike. all bikes handle quick, or quick enuf - how can they not?? they weigh 20 pounds and are only a few feet long. just as with sporting motorcycles, very few people can actually use all the parking lot quickness in handling that most modern bikes possess. i've had that converstion with many a veteran builder. they Know, but usually build what the market tells people they want, instead.

so - i think we'll keep it like this. it rails.

redemption on the wheel(s) within a wheel

2010-05-21T12:12:00.001-07:00

seeking wheeled redemtion requires certain obligations. one of those obligations is this:

"" when skateable full-pipes are in town, drop what you are doing and go skate 'em !! "

i am fortunate to have a kid who is hip to this. not only that, but he knows what size full pipe is skateable, and what is not. in this modern world you gotta be sure to teach kids the right stuff, ya know (in case yer wondering - it is 8 ft diameter) ?? and so, when nicky spiied these with his keen eye and called to say some steel 8 foot full-pipes were in town, we grabbed the board and headed over to assess. never know what yer gonna find - maybe the pipes are full of concrete, maybe they have stuff welded in 'em, or maybe the construction guys on the job-site are gonna be jerks, or whathaveyou.

a number of years back, a barge full of beautiful 18 foot pipes docked in town. my buddy could not make the scene, so i hit them up myself, was chased away by the po-po and a hyperventilating tugboat captain muttering something about wrecking his million dollar cargo ( a skinny bald goof on a 34 inch piece of 8 ply maple and urethane is gonna hurt 1" thick steel ?? ) - and before my buddy could make it up they actually fired the tugboat back up and towed them across the bay and docked them behind a fence next to a navy minesweeper with its security detail. my man was still gonna try to session them . . . . but i noted that the navy guys carry 45 cal sidearms, and we had to sadly watch them sail away the next AM instead. i hope somebody else sessioned 'em at their next port-o-call . . . .

anyway, here we see nicky - a new-skool skater - throwing down hard over-vert in a vicious old-skool fashion. that is my boy !! over-vert realities with no flat-bottom - very very nice. lightning fast transition management/direction changes, and razor's-edge precision are called for in quarters that tite - and woefully few new-skoolers are up to the task.he's a punk, as russell or my man rick W will tell you anytime - but he does have his moments.

as the wise russel would say . . . .

2010-05-20T04:37:00.000-07:00

. . . it was a good day:

this as nice a urban in-town trail system as i have ever seen, rum village in south bend IN. very sweet banked over&under section pictured here -

2. chillin in as nice a place as can be -

3. new steel confers with old steel. both agree, steel is where it is at -

the perfect metaphor is sometimes hard to find . . .

2010-05-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

. . if you are not bob dylan. the picture above comes quite close to describing my current cycling form, tho. and this classic lyric from the great ray davies hits my recent state of mind ( not literally, but figuratively ):

Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize

I'm on a low budget
I'm on a low budget
I'm not cheap, you understand
I'm just a cut price person in a low budget land

as ray notes, circumstance can force a fellow's hand sometimes. in my case it has not been $$, but rather time, energy, resources/energy. they forced that hand into doing something and becoming something i have not been for many a year . . . . . . . . a guy-who-used-to-ride-bikes.

being a guy-who-used-to-ride-bikes is a suck-ass thing to be. something i never wish to be again. after umpteen years of riding and ( mostly badly ) racing bikes, i have known and do know plenty of this breed. i never wanted to count myself in their number, but it is easier than i thought to do so. the worst part of being a guy-who-used-to-ride-bikes is that you are no longer kin with the coolest people around anyplace - that being guys-who-do-ride-fooking-bikes. fortunately, in my case it was a planned short-term kinda thing, and it's over now !!

so, redemption on the wheel is reborn. it is sorely needed, too - the redemption part. my bikes never looked so good - every one of things reflects me in some way, and i cannot wait to rediscover them.

2010-04-19T17:11:00.001-07:00

2010-04-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

kinda fallen off the back a bit, gonna try and catch up. LBL. what a fun time it was. rain, driving wind, cowshit, riders from far and near, and a hunk of head cheese for the grand prize after the World's greatest Townline sprint. thanx to all.

one very very bright side during the hiatus has been nicky's official first self built bike - behold. not an easy build, either - it came as a bare frame which has both BMX and standard mtn/road specs scattered throughout, and he did everything from selecting the parts, to the wrenching itself. it is a fab bike to look at, and he styled it out just perfect with a little help from his friends. super-stylee, show me a cooler looking DJ bike and i'll buy you a smoothie at the cup.

despite that, here in these grease spots we see a beautiful representation and metaphor of my cycling efforts and current status thus far for 2010. in the words of vincent vega " i'm a fooking grease-spot !! "

so, redemption-wise, i see one last hope - fortunately it is a good one. this Lady will not let my sorry ass down:

we've all been there . . .

2010-04-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

the day the new frame arrives. such a sweetness it is !!

with ray's MKE only a short 7 months away, nicky is on it. plus, there are skateparks, and a newly constructed dirt jump at camp montee to shred in the meantime.

still in need of a few key parts, a new temporary sculpture takes over the living room, like an early michelangelo sketch.

cleared for flight operations

2010-03-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

this is the perch for my multi-time busted, crushed, double plated, screw-and-glued, cadaver-bone wedged mangled excuse for a right wrist - most recently pulverized between the hardware on 12/29/09. rode today - good to go. 2.5 hrs on bumpy semi-frozen dirt. i mean, i kinda hurt but i had other things hurting worse, so that is a go.

Ti (rigid) fork & drop bars, my friends. good for what ails ya, say i.

P.S. with all the very nice shots of everybody's new rides for the season floating around with various hot nouveau-bling parts and stuff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lemme just say, for those of a non-nouveau persuation - italy is where you get bling from.

the Ventoux of the western hemisphere

2010-03-24T16:22:00.001-07:00

here we see gretchen laughing in the face of the mighty brussels hill, in prep for L-B-L. why - if i am not mistaken - in the background there, you can nearly see the atlantic ocean. how many will die of exertion upon its fearsome slopes on apr 3rd ?? only one way to find out.

2010-03-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

can't find a pic for this one. triied google-image searching lazy, arrogant, pompous, and geo-centric but got nuthin.

i received my special feature velo-snooze " Ride and Race" guide this week. 65 of the best cycling events in the USA !! wow !!

funnily enuf, fully 1/3 of them are in CA or CO. so, according to the lazy and utterly clueless v-snooze staff, fully 33% of the greatest cycling scenes/events take place in 4% of these great 50 states. i guess a guy knows where to start at least !!

leaving the remaining lame-ass 96% percent of the 50 states with a paltry 66% of these must-do events. uhhhhhh . . . . . . . yeah.

velonews is fast closing on bicycling for putting out an inferior product/publication with every single issue.

the depressing part of going techno

2010-03-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

i shoulda known. last time i used a HRM was in 2002, when gretchen and i did the ironman. as most people know, there is a great portion of your brain that immediately turns off when you enter a triathlon, good taste in things bici being one them.

anyway, i am older now, and gretchen is back looking to see where she is at after a long layoff, and i once knew enuf - quite a bit in fact - about em in the pre-power meter era - and nashbar had nice simple ones for 30 buxon sale , so . . . . . . . presto.

here is the thing, tho. at my age, and vital stats, and an accurate max HR - when a person ciphers out the various zones and ranges and all that malarky like in the chart up there the answer from the equations comes back in a flashing display on the device as:

" DON'T BOTHER, YOU IDIOT. OR, IF YOU MUST, CALL YOUR LIFE INSURANCE GUY IMMEDIATELY " - and then of course the battery wore out. i hate those fooking things.

holding to the klingon family code of Honour . . . .

2010-03-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

as russell has sagely noted, the Burden of Shame on the House monT is great, with my riding around, fat, slow, and now wearing those shoes pictured below. an atlas-scale burden for young nicky to bear, indeed. fortuitously, here we see he is more than up to task. rolling to the local skatespots on a custom painted arai-adamo helmet themed hawk GT. for those of a non-motorsickle persuation . . . . this bike, 15 years ahead of it's time when it came out, is the second coolest motorcycle to ever come out of nippon ( the RC30 beeing cooler, naturally ). but, note how the lad still is able to rock that mofo like amadeaus.

with nicky holding up his end of deal like that, i could wear pink bunny slippers when i ride and he would STILL make up for it.

"my mtn biking shoes are older than you are"

2010-03-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

racing singlespeeds with old dudes, and young - this has been one of my most fave lines ever. but, even with the feeble efforts applied to them, my shoes do actually wear out over enuf years. adding to the gettin'-ready-fer-spring stuff, then, was a new pair of shoes.

the price on sidi's has gone nuts - those are out.

for inspiration, i recalled back to my most fave ridin' shoes of all time, my andy hampsten replica lakes - i loved those rascals:

so, after a bit of a seach, i came up with the closest modern equivalent i could find - voila !!

going back to the billy "white shoes" johnson look for 2010. nice !!

don't just watch the hardmen . . .

2010-03-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

. . . . and the classics on versus. BE one, and DO one:

the route is not for the weak of spirit:

but the payoff includes the Ultimate townline sprint:

Luxemburg - Brussels - Luxemburg. Apr 3. stay tuned for harrowing details as they emerge.

friendly tip pt II

2010-03-07T05:25:00.001-08:00

keeping to the theme of cool new bike parts - here is another.

bar-tape. everybody uses it, everybody needs it, and some people even have a fave. but, few know there IS a best-in-show in the world of bar-tape. this is it. why ??

lemme answer with a question: is your bar tape as tough and comfy as your sidi shoes ?? lemme guess, that would be a hell to the no, it is not.

this stuff IS, because it made of the same material as your sidi's. san marco lorica is the bestest bar tape on the earth. you cannot wear it out ( unless you wear it on your feet instead of your sidi's, and even then it takes years, and will withstand untold mud, rocks, scrapes, and abuse until then). washable. NEVER moves/shifts around. yeah, it costs a bit more. so, eat mac&chees one nite this week instead of going out, and it's paid for - pretty cheap price-o-admission for perfection !! and, you will not have to replace it eveytime your bike lays on the ground. git some.

friendly tip

2010-03-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

always go for the good skins ( if yer bike's aluminum . . . don't bother . . . . . . ). 290 tpi goodness for the the bestest day-o-the year so far ride.

not XX more like 00 new bike stuff for me

2010-03-04T14:45:00.001-08:00

with the season fast approaching, i see everybody getting their junkie-like fix of new stuff on the bike, or new bikes.

me too - what is better than new bike stuff ?? i am hard at work on few new rides. but, i find myself off-target from the marketing machines of the modern industry just a tad. take this item - i will bet no sane person on this earth will be jonesing for it:

and indeed why would they ?? i may know that drop bars are the proper bar for ANY bicycle, be it on road or off - i never did understand why XC mtn bikers think they need more control from their handlebars than the guys riding paris-roubaix - but this is a Knowledge shared by very very ( very) few. this stem will make it happen. some might say a Knowledge that is held to belief by a very very ( very ) few is in fact not a Knowledge, but rather a Disturbance - and i would not argue.

similarly, you can keep you swanky new XX derailleurs. gimme this beauty every time for my new 2X7 69er:
the bestest mtn derailleur ever made? well, yes it is but i dunno - don't they all work the same ?? make no mistake, tho - it is bad-ass, flush with cold-forged goodness and dripping with they-don't-make-em-like-they-used-to nipponese Quality. plus, i have a brand new one sitting here in my lab . . . . . how much for that XX one again ?? ??

ah well - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. even if that beholder is a group population of 1. new bike stuff rules !!

nahmbs

2010-02-26T15:21:00.001-08:00

i am missing being at the NAHMBS. here is my fave guy from last year ( not surprisingly, he is nipponese ). he flat out rules:

he is not the most skilled builder, from a boutique-craftmanship level of lookin at things. maybe not the hippest guy - he looked earnestly bewildered and wanting desparately to be polite to everybody there. but his bikes were magic. steel bikes, filled with wonder and imagination and freshness. so so cool. so so utterly lacking in pretension ( hello seven and vanilla ), just love and vision and passion. dude's little booth was everything that is right with a handmade bike.

http://www.cs-cherubim.com/

i made this secret tape of russell . . . . .

2010-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

. . . . . down in the double-secret chamber of the rusty toolshed, when he thought nobody was around:

i gave him a chance to pay me off, but he refused. now his darkest secret is revealed - INDOOR ROLLERSKIING !! ??? !!

some are matheticians, some are carpenter's wives . . . . . .

2010-02-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

so, we made our first-ever f2f contact with an old friend that facebook put us in touch with. in this case, a female friend from a crew i used to run with maybe 30+ years ago. facebook seems to be a lot of whacky things, and according to one buddy maybe even a secretly dangerous thing. but in case of meeting for coffee with an old friend long lost to time and circumstance - it was cool. very fun.

in other news, nicky is taking the news of a Ray's Bike park a short drive away with massive stoke. even tho he regularly shreds various concrete parks already - he has responded to this most righteous news by selling off one frame, a bunch of parts, and is working resources and the interwebs most diligently in order to build up a kickass park-bike. he knows the bar is high - ain't no stink-bug bike comin out of the studio. he is looking at a stylee start . . . .

2010-02-18T15:44:00.000-08:00

it is simple enuf to see that sean white is haed&shoulders better than anybody in the half-pipe. it is not so well know that this is a newer situation. . . . he is pulling away from them, even after all these years. there was talk about the sick foam-pit private snowpipe and all, but here is the reason why:

over the last couple years, white has quietly become one of few legit world-class vert skaters in existance. this is extremely rare - most of them are old grizzled and time-tested guys. but white hucked himself like a madman into their midst over the past 4 years. vert skating is waaaaaaaayyyyy focking harder than snowboarding. it takes everything snowboarding does, but DEMANDS precision and CONTROL. there is no slopping nothing, at no time. the board is not tied to your feet. the ground is solid.

when you watch white, it is the fact that he rides like a skater that sets him apart. he lands with precision and pumps BOTH sides of the transition speed - nobody else does that - because they can't. he has board/body presence in the air like nobody else does, because he can do it with the board NOT tied to his feet.

so long as he keeps skating, and they don't, they will never catch him.

2010-02-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

it's been a while since we had the fun of getting somebody skate-skiin' for the first time. when we started, you had to chop down your own skiis to size, re-epoxy them together, and then go find a snowmobile trail or frozen lake to try and figure out to do it from some still photo's you might have seen someplace. things have moved on.

check out liz here, on her 2nd day. lots of good stuff goin on. more importantly, a whole lot of bad stuff NOT goin on !! note the lack of duck-walking, stinkbug-style, floundering, and generalized unpleasantness. she was wise to heed our counsel of forgeting about the poles, and forgetting about how fast she was going, and forgetting about the 'workout'.

dig the nice flat ski she is running on. that means she is balancing on it and it alone - not easy to do. dig also the rotation of the upper body in anticipation of the new ski goin' down, but the hips still running the old ski, kinda winding up for a powerful new drive, but not wasting any energy with excessive floundering or counter-rotationv - just a tight driven weight transfer about to happen. check out that upraised boot, close and tight to the body perfectly positioned to pivot outward and accept her center of gravity smoothly and with no energy loss as she glides out onto it - REALLY not easy to do !! nice forward position, too. most of all, dig how she looks like she doesn't really need those poles at all - the sure sign yer getting it right.

gotta be honest - i cain't take too much credit. when gretchen skiis no-poles she looks like ginger rogers. all liz had to do was watch that, and keep tryin.

sometimes i dig the modern way-o-doin things.

who, me ??

2010-02-05T16:40:00.001-08:00

thru what can only be described as an administrative oversight, i find my name on the covetted roster for the cheq 100. 3 months out, in the worst shape-o-my-life. on the other hand, i've never done a hundie mile mtn bike race, and always wanted to. plus, the entry fee is right up my alley. worst case, i die and my bones get picked clean by some possums in the cheq forest, which is fine by me.

i am reading something about GPS foolishness for the course, tho. i just got a cell phone a few months ago for god's sake - i leave GPS to NASA and do not want that manner of geegaw anywhere near my bikes. bikes were a form of ANTI-people knowing where you are at all times in my day, and i intend to keep it that way.

so i hope they will also have some paper plates with arrows stapled to the trees or somthin'.

little known fact

2010-02-02T17:45:00.001-08:00

the best snow for XC skate skiing in the USA falls not in colorado, nor utah, nor the san juans. it falls in the midwest.

for XC skatin', ya don't want pow. ya want some moisture. ya want some silkiness. and ya even want a little transitoned icy stuff tilled in there once in while. makes for a firmer, faster, perfect skate deck.

not only that, but the terrain is better, too. rolling, winding, rollicking - as opposed to crab-ass sideways on the side of gigantic goddam mountain.

take tonite . . . . a layer of ginzu-ized pulzerized icy speed, mixed together with an inch and a half of new-fallen small-sized flake snow and packed to gentle firmess, with a layer of another 1/2 inch of pure silk on top. too, too sweet. better than the mountains, indeed - we should groove on that.

to the lab, igor !!

2010-01-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

it has been a while since i felt right, and had use of my right arm. both are comin' 'round nicely tho, and i reckon it is time to venture out to the laboratory to assess the bike situation. MK may be rocking a two-bike approach to the season . . . . so i thought i would take stock of the available old parts and see if i cain't join her. 4 steel frames, 4 drop bars, maybe three bar-con shifters, various mismatched rim brakes, a thread-on freewheel, the smell of phil grease and a bitch-pile of soul.

where is spring !!

separated at birth pt III

2010-01-19T16:09:00.000-08:00

this is one i am particularly proud of. they do not call MKE's own JWM "the elusive one" for nothing. he is indeed rarely seen, even when you are on ride with him and maybe 2 or 3 others. or in a vehicle driving across the state to a dinky little SS race. few photos exist of him in captivity. witness this one, and note his uncanny ability to blend into any background - in this case by impersonating a towering Blue Spruce tree even as he rides his most righteous Singular steed:

BUT, as arlo guthrie once sang - that's not what i came to talk about. for this installment of SaB none other than MK her own bad-ass self was able to capture a pic of . . . not JWM's elusive self - but instead an even MORE rare shot of a JWM impersonator lurking amongst the stately confines of Notre Dame University. no word from MK on how this elusive lookalike responded to being immortalized inside her i-touch . . . but i have not heard from her since.

hunter thompson, quentin tarantino, gauguin . . . . .

2010-01-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

and tim gunn are all personal heroes of mine, in the artist category. the painting above is my fave all time- i wonder where former art historian russl B jobs weighs in on the issue ?? anyway, since the good Dr is dead, and quentin is taking another umpteen years off after the stellar " basterds" film, and the Art Institute is several hours away i guess i will have to make do with Project Runway.

nice !!

i gotta say, sometimes i am disturbing, even to myself.

song remains the same

2010-01-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

i ran across this story recently. i didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

the various points of story are almost too unbelieveable to be real. a stellar and nationally recognized group of volunteers, doing everything by-the-book. thousands of man-hours. insane levels of hoop-jumping and good faith. every step of the way the model of new-school partnershipping and organization.

all completely thrown under the bus by the Wisconsin DNR at the first sign of a problem. not to be a droning old coot, but this isn't the first time. the Wisconsin DNR has a historic relationship with mtn biking that is overidingly awash in lies, covert and sophisticated back-room dirty deals, and a beyond blatant disregard and viscousness toward the individuals involved as users in the sport. they have done this for over a quarter of a century.

it is always a little surprising to me that the people active in advocacy today seem to prefer to ignore the history involved in this state, but i suppose it is for the best. acknowledging the bad blood that was shed by the bucketful in the early days when the DNR robbed mtn biking of everything would prevent the gains that they have managed to slowly claw back. nobody that took those brutal beatdowns in advocacy then is still in the game today. and even now, the HPT and other modern people are meeting with the DNR this very evening to attempt to continue to get them to throw a bone mtn biking's way, even after they watched the DNR run them down in their headlights and feast on their still breathing carcass. god bless those guys, maybe they will get something, and they are far better men than i am for walking back in there and trying. still, it pains me to see people making the same sucker mistakes we did - hint: never talk with or put in 5 minutes of time toward anything with DNR on a verbal agreement, guys - GET IT IN WRITING. and i don't care if they have a smiling smooth talking "trails coordinator" on the payroll these days - she is NOT ON OUR SIDE, OK ?? you don't need TmonT to tell you that, the "no biking" signs should suffice ( speaking of which - didja ever notice that when a new trail gets built it is always up to the hardworking cash-poor volunteers to procure signage because "there's no money" in the DNR - but when they close a trail the "no biking" signs spring forth like magic ?? ).

so sad, over 25 years later and they still play us like violins.

separated at birth, pt II

2010-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

has anybody ever seen these two in the same room together ??

1. green bay's coolest singlespeeder ben-g:

and 2. skateboarding & MTV mega-star rob dyrdek:

inconvience in animation

2010-01-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

as an update to the broken wrist . . . . . it now appears that i have reached the age where it is actually more advised to throw parts away as i wear them out, as opposed to bothering to fix them. which wouldn't be that alarming if we were talking about an appendix, or a hairy mole or something. but for guys at my age we now put actual parts of the skeletal structure ( freaking RIGHT ARM, no less )into that category. break a bone ?? screw it, lets just go in there and hack it out and toss it in the incinerator - i will evidently be better off. i gotta admit i did push for it a bit, as with the old haggerd bone in there i may not be able to ride, or least i would have to get a susp fork ( !!!!!!! ). screw that noise, say i. take that sucker on outta there !!!

gotta admit, it is appealing from the weight loss perspective. and bonus !!! instant improved flexibilty to boot. there are definately upsides to being so old that my animation of my decrepit body is little more than a medical inconvienience.

speaking of bonus, check out my 74 y/o dad's new ride:

mucho fun to drive. the old man walked into his local dealer and plunked down for it recently. not dead yet, i guess.

nice end to the year

2009-12-30T18:49:00.001-08:00

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.

in a fitting end to '09, i ate shit on an icy run at granite peak aboard my trusty jim rippey model snowboard, and broke my wrist. same one i had screwed together and re-assembled with a piece of cadaver bone back a couple summers ago. naturally, it is my right hand, so in addition to being refamiliarized with that unique brand of sickeningly sharp ache that keeps a guy up at nite, i also am enjoying the inconvienience that accompanies your dominant hand being less than dominant. new examples of this pop up all the time, such as trying to hold a cup of coffee, or open a sticky door. sweet.

not even my steven colbert wriststrong bracelet could save me.

so . . . . . . roller riding on the aero-bars is in order, maybe some running. brite side might be found in the fact that my swimming plan for the off-season is on a 6 week hold. :) and i can still XC ski, but it is gonna have to be no-poles sk8-skiing exclusively. a season of no-pole sk8-skiing is perhaps something only a singlespeeder would look forward to.

summbitch.

the best thing about swimming

2009-12-26T13:48:00.001-08:00

gretchen decided to go rogue on our new-year resolution, and dragged my sorry ass to the pool a week early.

it has been a little while since i was at the pool, and i forgot how much swimming has in common with pounding yourself on the knuckles with a giant hammer. that being, both of them feel so darn good once you stop doing it.

you can take the fondo out of italy . .

2009-12-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

but can you keep the italy in the fondo ??

i have watched and admired the gran fondo's since the days when they would be picured in winning magazine. now, after levi L's acclaimed gran fondo out in cali, they are popping up all over the place, including wisconsin. my initial impression was crazy-hell enthusiasm, but since then a few people have given me pause to wonder . . . . . .can this scene really transplant to america ??

i always perceived the whole bit about them to be true spectacles of gentleman-racing. probably "won" by a hi-profile recent ex-pro, but civilly and superbely and classily ridden by the masses. i know a lot of bike riders, but who other than russel fits that description on this side of the pond ?? what are the other 7999 guys gonna look like, and more importantly - RIDE like ??? !! ???

i dunno. maybe it'll be great, or maybe it'll be a nutcase crashfest of american hacks. maybe the only sure thing is i should really go to italy.

hate the game, not the playa

2009-12-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

enuf with the snowshoing, already.

people, walking on water frozen or otherwise, is not a legitimate sporting activity. need proof ?? ask a 3 year old what is cool about snow - he or she can tell you it is fun to slide on. need further proof ?? how bout his:

look familiar ?? now, i am sure this seemed a right fine idea at the time. " hey, let's make some shoes for walking on water, like snowshoes !! " but, sometimes you need to step away from a good idea. here is another attempt:

let's look at that again, just so we are clear:

there is a reason that instead of constucting a giant reed bubble, and walking to The New World those cats make boats. or outrigger canoes. or reed rafts. or whateverthehell - point being they didn't try and walk here. snow is no different - SLIDE on it, my friends, do not trudge.

what is that old joke about mopeds . . . . . ???

2009-12-17T15:20:00.000-08:00

. . . . something like "riding one is kinda fun - right to the moment somebody sees you doing it ( and yes i know the non-politically-correct versions of the joke, this is a family-friendly blog )".

anyway, there is little point in making fun of triathlons, as evidenced by this photo. plus, if you take every ridiculous part of the cycling world and condense it down - you have the triathlon cycling-market in its pure form. there is swimming involved, and getting off a perfectly good bike to run as well. the whole thing is beyond silly and foolish.

which is perhaps why i am gonna do one this summer.

honestly tho, i am in serious need of some quality time in getting back into some semblance of shape, and doing it from fear of dying in a half-ironman might be just the ticket. and, i have actually done one or two previously. just like the moped story, and tho it pains me to admit it, i had fun (and looked ridiculous). i expect more of the same. i am a horrible excuse for a triathlonist. i cannot swim without a wetsuit holding me up. luckily for me in triahlon-ing it is OK, even encouraged, to cheat by wearing a neoprene canoe on your person. i suck so bad at swimming when i use a kickboard i actually go backwards. pro swim-guru's have been rendered speechless by the shear ugliness of my flailing. back when gretchen and i did the ironman in madison a complete stranger told me i was going to die during our pre-race warm-up ( i am sure she was well intentioned ).

my feet are so wasted from being broken as a result of skateboarding my running is scarcely better than my swimming. i draft medium-speed walkers when i run to conserve energy.

i'd say the bike portion is my strength, but of course i cannot time-trial my way out of a wet paper bag.

on the brite side, it is in my hometown, and despite what you may hear, there are some cool people to be met in the otherwise vile arena of triatholism. in any event it doesn't matter - i stood on the scale the other day and desparate times call for desparate measures. all that flaling in the water that never did anything to me to deserve the abuse i am gonna be giving it, and innocent asphalt who my plodding feet will pummel might make lose a pound, and losing even one at this point instead of gaining another 20 a day like i have been doing will be worth it. Ok it won't be, but i'm doing it anyway.

if you give a moose a muffin

2009-12-13T14:08:00.001-08:00

if you are parent, you probably read that bokk, and the other couple - " If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", etc.

this pic could perhaps be titled "If you give a Snowboarder a Garbagepile".

it isthe launchramp nicky and his buddy came up with in a rush, with the last snowfall. my immediate commentary to it, as sawyer climbed the ladder to the top was " dude, you are going to eat shit so bad". he did not, and it actually sent them down to hit the press-box and following rail-hit pretty nicely. they have moved onto construct modern-day urban ramps, hips, and tow-in hits all over town, but this fine monument to 15 y/o energy remains outside our front door.

to the laboratory !!

2009-12-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

at one time, maybe back in te 90's, i was a bonfide ski-waxing guru. these were te days pre-stone grinding. it was as much alchemy as isaac newton trying to turn mercury vapour into gold. and, probably just as toxic, as we stuck out noses down into swirling chemical fumes and smoke of exotic flouro-carbons and gods knows what.

razor sharp metal scapers, quivers of hi-speed drill mounted brushes kept in hermetically sealed baggies, wax that cost more than heroin, and was more addicting. don't even ask about cost - cost was not an issue. and, pay to let somebody else wax your skiis ??? we would sooner have paid a cuban poolboy to . . . . . . well nevermind. ain't nobody touching the bottoms of my skiis.

but, no mofo ever out-glided my ass at the birkie. that was all that mattered.

nowadays i could give a crap. i'll put on anything, or nothing. things have moved on, and i have not kept up. but, if you want to do a glide-test sometime lemme know. take yer stone grinders and yer paid-for store wax job and i will dust off my old wizard-like madness. you ain't out gliding me if i don't want ya to.

scored a top-o-the-line crazy-hell set of poles today for a c-note at the ski-swap. too cool. ski poles are the only legit use of carbon other than stealth fighters that i know of. time to ski !!

nicky setting up the winter trainers - 1 outta 2

2009-12-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

it did not take much snow for nicky to get motivated to set up the home-trainer scene for himself for the winter. here he is getting a super-sweet little press-box snowboard feature put together for those backyard jib sessions. way nice !!

. . . . . he was a little less successful here, however, in following my suggestion that he get his "bike set up in the studio next to mom's for some trainer-time in front of the teevee". oh well . . . . .

public service anouncement - "snow"

2009-12-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

in case nobody noticed, teevee weather forecasting is no longer about forecasting weather. it is about selling teevee advertising time. hence, the "naming" of summertime rainstorms, and wintertime snow flurries. and of course, the insanely over-reaching snow predictions.

these cats, tho

http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/winter_wx.shtml

ain't selling no teevee time. bookmark it, and check the little percentage/date/snow amount maps. they are the best guess you are gonna get, and the best guess it is possible to make. they only go 3 days out, cuz guessing anything past that is stupid.

yer all welcome.

throwing down and living dreams

2009-12-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

somehow this weekend nicky managed to insert himself and his little kawi 110 playbike into the popular local x-mas parade. thus, he found himself rocking stylish tweaked extended wheelies down the mainstreet of his hometown, much to the delight of the kids and everybody hanging around the quaint parade, and he didn't even have to resort to throwing candy. plus the cops were stoking and slapped him on the back for his efforts, instead of chasing him into back alleys with their lights on - so what more could a 15 y/o want ?? good work if you can get it, and evidently he takes after his mother and managed to get it.

MK on the other hand, was throwing down herself in a manner most dignified - rocking handel's messiah as a rare freshman member of the chorale, in the ultra-posh debartolo performing art center of notre dame university. gretchen brought her mom down for the performance, and it doesn't get much nicer than that.

the kids are alright, and as my man russell would say - it was a good day.

aaaaaghhhhh my eyes !!

2009-12-05T04:11:00.001-08:00

while it is true that i own a couple bikes so cool that grown Nipponese bicycle enthusiasts will throw themselves to the ground and weep with joy for just having seen them, i am a man that believes not only in redemption on the wheel, but retribution. hence, for a portion of the year i ride this horrid monstrosity - call it a form of bike ascetiscm . . . . bordering on bike self-flaggelation.

yes, those are aero-bars ( albeit very small ones ), and even more disturbing, those are an ancient set of powercranks mounted down there on the noodle-like bottom bracket of this poor old vitus. speaking of which, while it is made of aluminum and would by elemental nature normally deserve scorn and ridicule - it avoids that by having been ridden by sean kelly - if your aluminum bike was ridden by sean kelly, go ahaed and give it a pass - otherwise . . . . . . . .

anyway, i dare anybody to come up with a bike more vile than this collection of weirdness. living down there amongst the spiders and cobwebs of the Count-TmonT-Cristo isolation cell it serves as my torture device. it does feature 2 redeeming qualities, however. find them in the blurry photo, and i can get you a professional grade spork for a prize.

ok, i love to hate on the cowboys, trek, and the yankees . .

2009-12-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

. . . as much as the next guy. you do not ride around on a drop-bar mtn bike ( and actually believe it is everybody else who has it wrong ) for 25+ plus years because you like the mainstream.

but i gotta break ranks on the notre dame football team. sure, i am a total coattail bandwagon fan, it is true - to the degree i thought of them before MK went there i reckon i hated on them too. and, just so we are clear - i am still on record for saying the kid "shoulda gone to ripon". but goddammit if that place does not have some serious-ass Style. how much Style ?? get this:

several days before they jettisoned charlie weis and paid him off with a wad of stacks totalling several million like they were in the movie goodfella's, they called up the FAA and had em turn off their private jet's tracking info, so they could conduct job interviews in privacy like Gentlemen.

T-H-A-T, my friends, is style. Style.

mind you, i get the hating. plenty to hate on. but make no mistake, by hating you are being played - hating on the ND football product is by design, and from a media perspective haters and fans both equal $$. and, what ND understands is that while it is good to win, a great thing to win . . . . it is a far far better thing to matter. and matter they do, there can be no denying it. what they do best tho - is matter with Style.

whether it's the stacks-o-ten-thousand-dollar-bills they hand weis out in the garage ( was it 8 million, 18 million - who cares - as if it makes a diff to these guys !! ), the gassed up and ready private jet, turning off the aircraft's tracking device so they can meet prospective coaches in secret like the Illuminati, or even the mountains of free media coverage they pull in for themselves - i don't care which part of the story you look at - those dudes know what the fook they are doing, make no bones about it, and they pull it off like the Corleone family.

Style. nobody is even a distant 2nd.

" if i had a million dollars . . . . . . .

2009-11-24T15:46:00.001-08:00

. . . of course i would first buy gretchen a new fur coat ( but not a real fur coat that's cruel ). and if it is true like danny sez below that SurfnTurf's bowls are destroyed - i wonder if i would do what local ski-philanthropist TP does with that kinda money-to-burn. i ran out to check out some rumours i heard about ongoing work at cherry hills nordic. CHN is actually a one-man private ski area. dude owns a sizable chunk of woods, and has recently addded a derelict hilly orchard. he has a gigantic pole-barn, and a series of tents which house enough earth moving equipment to start a medium sized road contractor business. he has enuf state of the art xc-ski grooming equipment to supply a true destination resort. he has a staff of groundskeepers. he will groom nite and day when the snow flies, and will not stop until it is the best it can be.

all for fun, i guess. no idea. all i know is we can go ski for free on one the best ( maybe one of two best ) groomed trails in the state whenever we want. you can, too.

anyway, above we see is a nice newly constructed sweeping corner showing some of the already pool-table-like grassy trails, with the new section awaiting seed. the perfection of these trails is such that instead of needing my mtn bike i could ride the whole system in 2nd and 3rd gear on this:

if you are riding a XC ski trail in 3rd gear on a naked sport bike with wide road rubber for tires . . . . . . . that is a pretty goddam nicely built xc-ski trail !!

moving up a few years . . . . .

2009-11-23T14:36:00.000-08:00

i did manageto get a ride in this decade. it's been a while since i rode at winter park in kewaunee. at one time, trailbuilding genius jonathon V had an almost 8 mile loop out there, with another 3.5 miles a short 3/4 miles away, and plans to connect the two with a magical ribbon of imaginative singletrack that is/was his trademark.

but, political and redtape problems ended that. dark-souled dirtbag that i am, i knew it was too good to last - and i have been there only a handful of times since the demise of that stellar, if largely unknown trail system.

sucked for me, because i forgot if you wish to ride kewaunee, you gotta let the dew dry off the trail first. full-on granny-gear climbs and slick clay make for some tricky riding. add in the extra mass i am lugging around these days, no fitness, and a couple extra layers of blaze orange clothing and it made for a ridiculous display of profuse sweating, floundering, and a guiness book of world records-level effort for breathing hard.

still, my trusty steel steed with its super-trick component exotica from the nineties still rocking made it fun, and hi-lighted the fact that it was me, not the bike. some guys might think suntour XC-pro toeclip pedals and derailleur, flexy ti bar, and 8 speed era XTR ( complete with SRP Ti bolt kits thruoghout ) less than ideal by today's standards . . . . . but they were the hi-water mark for geared mtn bike parts, if ya ask me.

80's horror redemption

2009-11-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

just so we're clear. the 80's were not a complete embarrassment. behold !! there may have been a skateboard bowl or three created on this earth as good as this one, but there has never been one better.

as i alluded once before, this piece of heaven on earth is rumoured to still exist. legend has it the thing is intact, albeit filled with gravel and covered with a false floor inside its original building near the corner of loomis road and 8-94 in MKE. when i wasn't riding around in neon on my pink ibis, this was the place to be back then.

a rich dude is out there somplace who could do this right - buy the joint and get it dug back out, for god's sake. like when the sword excaliber was stuck in the stone awaiting Arthur, this world and existance is in a State of Darkness so long as this bowl remains buried.

speaking of neon . . .

2009-11-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

and youthful stupidity. here's a sweet shot of me and a single-malt fueled buddy riding in an undisclosed stretch of forest someplace in scotland from the mid-80's. rocking the fanny pack, lime green socks, and little plastic madonna bracelets, even. that is some viscious-hard smack to be laying down, and believe me when i say the scotsmen had no answer for it - plus, we had women-folk with us that could ride as well as any of em, and hold their own in the pub !! this may have one of the first itmes i could lay down the most excellent line of: "let's see if you can outride and outdrink our women, and then maybe we'll bother with ya".

if i can recapture one half of the skillz most mad that i possessed then . . . . . and can get within 20 odd lbs lo these 20 odd years later - look the fook out !!

bulletin board motivation

2009-11-19T18:17:00.000-08:00

right then. keeping in the theme of an attempt to drag my most sorry ass into some manner of shape before i hit 50, i thought maybe if i go back 25 years or so i could recapture that bounding spirit of the young and stupid. i never did lose the stupid part, but i could do with a little youthful motivation.

to that end, my bulletin board motivational poster looks something like this. a decent sized mtn bike race, at a venue most surprising. note the classy mode of strating, singlespeed style with no waves or classes, just one big neon coloured and lycra-helmet-covered mass.

name the venue and i will let you sit on russell's wheel for perhaps 10 miles at the upcoming Door County Century - Winter Edition

on like donkey kong

2009-11-15T07:35:00.001-08:00

right then. i held a little formal introduction today:

Mr Road, please allow me to introduce Mr. Rubber. Mr. Rubber, it is my pleasure to present Mr. Road.

it has been too long since these two hit it off in my presence, but that's all over now. with rubber meeting road, all i gotta do is join in. tripled up today,with a roller ski in the AM, ride mid day, and run in the eve. here comes the pain.

8th wonder of the world

2009-11-08T17:53:00.001-08:00

you know, while overdone, the taj mahal appears a right fine buidling. love the relecting pools. and, not having a green thumb at all, the hanging gardens of babylon have got to impress. but, as you can see in the pic, i am less impressed with those egyptian cats and their pyramids. no indeed. every year i create this monument to rival the pyramids in my front yard.

not only that, this year i did it in time to also bag a sweet ride at the stump farm on my ultrasweet strong SS, with my ultrafine wife. for that, i say the leafpile should bump into that 7th spot from the pryramids.

in other news. the WI mtn bike heisman trophy has got to go to none other than my man rick walls. not content to launch his stubby-legged most excellent self into the top ten of all WORS comps, he threw down HARD agin' those michiganders at iceman in the hyper-competitive middle-age-guys-who-ride-bikes-too-much class and went wire to wire for the V. crazy hell win. special mention to the Don. i am gonna take both as my inspiration back ta racin starting . . . . . . . let's say today. waytogo, fellas, and thanx mucho.

friendly hint tho - you can ride bikes, it is true - but do not mess with me when it comes to leaf rakin.

TdTosa and tactics, tactics

2009-11-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

back when the kids were young, they would on occasion participate in a thing called Destination Imagination. it is a deal where a group of kids put on a creative skit to meet a theme. they need to be clever, and funny, be creative and so forth.

anyway, unbekownst to them, the preferred placement/finishing spot that any not-insane parent/advisor would shoot for was the coveted 2nd place. ya wanted to make a good showing ( and maybe even grumble about the bad judging and how you were robbed ), but by all means you did NOT wish to win, and have to keep doing it and go on to all the finals and nationals and worlds, etc etc. no indeed - 2nd was the spot to aim for.

so it was with our killer TdT team, led again by rick W. we had everything in place. not one but two overly skinny fast/cool guys. a fat old guy, a hot female, a local color guy, and of course super local mo-fo team captain. we would not be denied, and we were not. when it appeared we might be bordering on trying too hard, the team pulled together and dug deep to find the inner strength to sit in the sun and eat grocery store sushi, in a hard-won effort to not win. and, we even had some last second heroics when, in the closing seconds where all would be decided, our playmaker rose to the occasion by sittting down and declaring we were done - and she wanted to eat some damn candy.

final place: 6th, with the top-5 sucker teams above us having to keep riding while we moved to superfan mode. a win for the ages.

so it's official - cyclocross is the new triathlon ??

2009-10-27T18:58:00.001-07:00

so, it wasn't enuf when they started the cyclocross season in summer - now they are cancelled because of rain. uhhhhhh, yeah.

here is an idea, everybody get back on one of these here style bikes for 'cross for a while again, and see how it goes. if we get back to 'cross racing in summer and/or magnesium brakes stopping CF wheels in the 4/5 races we are gonna go back to the 1982 univega touring bikes again like we rode back in the day 'till we get it right, 'kay ??

triathletes out-gnarling 'cross racers. i never thought i'd see the day.

poetry on the wheel

2009-10-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

so much depends
upon
a crap can-
nondale

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chicken.

back in the crazy melee that inexplicably passsed for hi-skool-education in the mid-70's, i had one of those english teachers who was cool. he turned us on to authors such as kerouac, and richard brautigan ( if you have'nt read brautigan, for fuck's sake go do so !! ). he had kids over to his super-cool apt on weekends for all the things you can imagine. . . . . and for that i am certain he would be thrown in jail today; but he was alright. as i recall, we may have wasted a week of time studying the actual version of this william carlos W. poem. they just do not make hi-skool english teachers like that anymore. maybe for the better, but it is a cool ass poem just the same, and one i am gonna take as my motivation to kick off my re-launch from the doldrums of 09 into which i find myself. rock&roll.

i will buy ya smoothie at the muddy cup at iola 2010 if ya know the original poem without cheating.

don't mind me

2009-10-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

we did not go see the leadville movie last nite. i believe i am the only person who likes to pretend to be a bike rider who is finds the leadville 100 completely uninspiring. mind you, i have never been there. and of course i am certain that its grandeur and epicness is the grandest and most epic-est that ever was, and ever shall be. etc etc.

but, an out&back on bleak-ass rocky roads in the middle of noplace ?? i must say, i don't get it. and, i am not a complete stranger to doing stupid things just see what they are like . . . a series of do-one-and-be-done kinda deals . . . a marathon, an ironman triathlon, a 24 hr solo singlespeed race, and so forth. i did once meet a couple runner guys who had done the run thing there, and i admired their honesty when they reported that the race actually did suck, and was in actuality from its inception a bit of a stunt to get money into the dinky little town, and in truth nobody is sure why it took off like it did. i dunno, and by all means like i say don't mind me.

i would love to do the creampuff 100 someday, tho. THAT sounds like a cool race to me.

everything is gonna be OK

2009-10-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

i nabbed a sweet guvmint-conspiracy h1n1 nanobot mind-contolling injection for myself today. the way things have been going it can't hurt.

parts-bin rat-bike in progress

2009-10-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

the cold dark wet roads, and first snowflakes got me to notice i don't have a ride fit for those conditions. i mean i got the fixie, but wanted something to go ride in the crap up hills and stuff. couple options existing in the lab . . . . i hope a ridable bike emerges from this obviously high-precision operation.

rocky V

2009-10-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

after a prolonged hiatus, i decided this AM to find the comeback trail yet again. this should be interesting.

i made immediate progress, tho !! i identified a device in the studio as bearing a remarkable similarity to this "bicycle". they say you never forget how. giddy-up.

resurrection on the wheel

2009-09-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

allow me to introduce a close member of the family, and recent recipient of a very nice Resurrection from the dead ( only the second guy to get that sweet deal for himself in history that i am aware of ), scootie.

scootie is, externally and/or in this plane of existence, a 1962 honda 50cc step-thru. but he is much much more than that. he is a person or persona of a nature perhaps beyond human understanding. he came to me in the murky and vague period of the mid 70's. the specifics of how, and the details of legal title and so forth are shrouded in the twists of the quantum warp of the fabric of the universe which accompanies scootie, and in which he trully resides. one does not "own" scootie. he simply is by you, or he is not.

for the past 10 years, scootie was in my garage, inert and inactive to our perceptions. previous to that, he was in my brother's dank basement for perhaps 8 years or so in a similar state. prior to those spells and while awake, he was the coolest pit-bike in the world at venues such as road america, road atlanta, mid ohio, watkins glen and so forth, where he enjoyed being a star in the sports car racing world . . . before that he hung around the early years of the skateboard world. he is omni-talented.

this past weekend, as a way to avoid doing any actual work as gretchen and i cleaned the garage, nicky decided to start scootie up. 20 years of not running at all - just start him up. ummmm, yeah, ok nicky - you do that.

a splash of new gas, some fiddling with the carb ( which he knows nothing about ), and a few healthy pushes up&down the alley later . . . . . . . . . and scootie decided to awake. 20 years of quiet slumber, suddenly scootie deemed nicky worthy and putt putt putt putt - off he goes. since then we have actually cleaned the carb, and have been running a mysterious gas additive known as "sea-foam" thru him and scootie is ripping around like it is the pre-beatles days from which he came.

scootie rules. as does nicky.

now i need to go tell the friendly DMV guys to dig around in the basement someplace to find the title that hasn't been active since 1976 or so, and nicky will have the coolest commuter to ever exist in this most unworthyworld underneath him, come next spring when he gets his license. in the meantime, i need to ask scootie who was cooler to hang out with, jesus or elvis, or maybe hemingway or perhaps . . . . .well i dunno, i'll let you know.

a yearning for the simple days

2009-09-22T15:01:00.001-07:00

after a tiring week of various comminques concerning recent events, and with missing the cheq40 for one of the couple times over the past ump-twenty years . . . i find myself in a reflective mood.

so - little quiz, in that vein.

only one WI/MN ( she was pre-WORS )rider has ever won a NORBA / USA Cycling XC Mountain Bike National. she is pictured above. know who it is ??

bonus pints for knowing where her win took place, and which pro team picked her outta the obscurity of WI racing ( which was not that obscure in those days ).

and yes, she was faster than the people today ( obviously ).

featured rider of the week

2009-09-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

issue resolved. nevermind.

still life with carbide steel spearpoints, and heart-piercing daggers

2009-09-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

one can only wonder what MK's rommates are going to think, when her alarming looking scar-headed dad shows up to drop these little items off to brighten up her dorm-room. a poster with icicles, and a dagger thru a heart ?? this represents "comfort-decor" to her ?? well good, say i. as russell advised - " let them be the ones who feel the need to sleep with one eye open ". sound advice from the shedmaster.

as for the roller-ski poles . . . . well . . . . few things outside a 5 foot lightweight spear tipped with a razor sharp carbide steel spike say " personal- safety-spoken-here " with the same panache'. she could kill lions with those things if she needed to. take the hint, would be scumbag drunk assailants - or don't. hint #2; she's going for the eyes first, and she ain't gonna drop 'em - they're tied onto her hands . . . . . either way is fine with the old dad.

safety first.

2009-09-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

i am of the mike tyson schol of safety - always lead with the head. which is not to say i don't like or wear helmets. indeed i have numerous roller skiing helmets. they are painstaking made of fine woven cloth ( cotton ideally, with coolmax acceptable. i like a nice little brim on there, too. the graphic "campagnolo", "suntour" ( the old one, OK? ), or the belgian flag colours in a spiffy ribbon down the center are always a plus.

anyway - i will not compromise on any of this, because one can easily see above why i insist on one at all times. sure, my melon still has a little burn up there, no worries except prompting - among others - lamprey eel jokes at work. when is the last time you heard a good lamprey eel joke ??

patience, tactics, longboards, and back ridin ??

2009-09-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

nicky quit ridin, and racin road/XC bikes a few years ago. retired, more like. not that he stopped loving bikes - from from it. he just tended to street/park BMX and DJ/urban styles of ridin. if anything, his cycling thusly has been MORE of a lifetyle thing than straight up road/XC.

but, i always hoped he would find his way back. he might be on the way. above we see his new fixie he threw together one recent afternoon. went like this . . . . i meet him comin home from his job at the cool coffe shop in town. with him is a 20-something co-worker, with a longboard. i walk up, say hi, and grab the longboard from the young man. at this point the young man gives nick a look of grave concern, as in "dude-your-old-bald-dad-is-gonna-break-his-arm-in-this-parking-lot-like-every-oldbald-dumbass-dad-when-he-falls-off-my-longboard" sorta way.

now, indeed there are a LOT of things in the modern sk8 world i can't do - but ripping/shredding/sliding on a longboard in a low-slung-pivotal-z-boy style is not one of them. i proceed to do so. the young man is stunned. talk turns to bikes, fixies in particular . . . . . the young man has a shittily conveted fixie, and nick and i - as frank zappa would say: ". . . tell him how to do it right".

nick starts to think . . . . . . cool coffee shop job = style to work via longboard or fixie = not a bad thing. presto - a new fixie is born. i've been keeping the frame, and an ENO rear wheel around for just such a day. he went with the mustache bars for now, because i kept singing the line from the viral "performance" video to him . . . . . " you can barely fit your hands on the handlebars - you look kinda shaky, weaving thru cars ". of course many friends chime in wondering when he will start wearing girls pants . . . . . . " anodized chain? cards in your spokes? how can you ride, your pants are a joke". and so on. which is cool with nicky, he is fun. bubba should bring him a pair of meghans to try on at lake geneva next weekend! :)

mostly tho - he's back on the road. it's a start.

good day, and talking with, ot kicking a live horse

2009-09-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

gretchen and i loaded up the van with BMX bikes, DJ bikes, skateboards, and our own old-person style pedal bikes. we dropped the kids at a sweet skatepark in schofield, and then had a very very sweet ride at 9-mile for a few hours. i never know where i am out there, but we ended up hitting most everything.

it was G's first real trail ride since her foot surgery, she did well, and was stoking.

oddly, we paid 3 dollars to ride, not $350.00 there weren;t that any people there, a few groups of 2-6 riders whom we did not know. it was a nice day, and we would stop and talk with them. every group the subject of 24-9 and GG and that debacle came up. is was uncanny. it even came up somehow with some equestrians. i could give a shite one way or the other at this point but lemme tell ya, GG dug a deep ass hole for themselves on that deal. again and frankly i was amazed - we never brought it up.

i hit a few follow-the-leader runs with nicky back at the park, and we marvelled at their growing bag of BMX sk8park tricks/speed/height. howzabout a carve 12 feet up OVER-vert to vert-wall pocket manual, to 270 hip over a 10 foot wall with an extension to a tabletopped and tweaked 10to 56 foot spine transfer ?? that is some crazy shite.

during the procedings, i was fully dorked out with my portable XM radio listening like a hopeless sucker to my kid's new school's football game - which XM/sirius plays on The Catholic Channel", not a sports channel which i find hilarious. yelling "touchdown" every 6 minutes didn't help with the dork factor, but it was fun. it was MK's first football game EVER ( inclding hi-skool ) she was never remotely interested in even a packer game - but she is ranching out and digging college life. riding time is way down, but that's the way it is - se is geting a few hammerfests in. anyway, they make a freaking grand spectacle of it the f-ball thing there, by report, and MK loved it.

2 kinds of mechanics in the world . . .

2009-09-05T03:53:00.000-07:00

there is the "place for everything and everything in it's place" type.

and the type that works in a pigsty but knows where every washer, spring clip, tool and specialty part is, even without looking.

here we see nicky's style revealed mid-project - he is of the latter school. it would bother me more, but my brother was of the same school. and he could rebuild a MG's engine from the cylinders up with his tools scattered in the dirt at elkhart lake, and go win the june spints with it 5 min later. or dissemble a triumph tridents transmission on the side of a county lane, fix it, and put it back together with the ragtag band of shit pot-metal tools they ya gave to carry with you. when he died, 2 brothers and i cleaned HARDCORE his appt for 3 hours before we uncovered a trek 2300 hehad in there. so - he was of this school of mechanicing also, and it is the probably the only reason i do not kill nicky for it.

he has his new project in there someplace . . . . . more on that later.

just so we are clear . . . .

2009-09-04T14:20:00.001-07:00

i enjoyed the artful DVS sk8boarding video making the rounds. it is beautiful, and artful in the extreme. i see why a designer as talented as jesse posted it. it might win second place in cool sk8spot film.

but T-H-I-S pic is first place. T-H-I-S is the vince-lombardi-trophy of sk8 related film. there is no debate. this photo INVENTED skateboarding, defined it, and changed the world forever. anything in popular or ( especially ) underground culture that exists today that combines aggresion, style, speed, grace, grit, balls, skill, and the pure act of being outside the norm for the pure sheer hell and fun of it came from this photo. that is a fook of a lot of things, but is is the truth.

one image. black&white. the man who according to stacy peralta God himself put on this earth and said "let there be sk8boarders".

rusty tool shed fabrications

2009-09-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

on their wat to school, russel insisted MK and G stopped by the shed for a care package. MK was nervous as to what it could be, naturally . . . . .

but behold !! the sweetest campus cummuter one could ever wish for. only the most discerning of eyes will note that under that spiffed up old 3 speed frame there lurk ultra-trick SS BMX hubs/wheels, the beautiful crescent handlebar, the wholly trick crank with chinguard, etc etc. and russell always knows the secret ingredient - love. just as when rick and liz hit her with the original iceman artwork from hero jesse L for her dorm wall, MK was choked up beyond words with this ultrafine goin' away present.

reports from scool indicate she is already known as the girl who rides that yellow bike with the basket stuffed full really fast everywhere you look. she sez she can't help it - it makes her smile and feel like people at home are pulling for her everytime she gets on it. in a lot of way, she is the country-cousin-at-the-big-city-wedding, so to speak at an elite-level school - but having the coolest campus ride east of the missippi makes up for it.

as the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers ( ya'll BETTER know who they are . . .) used to ( sort of . . ) say" " having a cool-ass bike in times of no money, is a hell of a lot better than having money, but a crappy bike ". russell has my girl covered.

indy fab

2009-09-03T05:34:00.001-07:00

oh wait, that name is already taken ?? dang. anyway - here is a set of new-skool large-diameter rollerskiis that nicky and his buddy made for me in the garage. not bad, eh ?? the colour is their trademark "playboy-blue", BTW. i am told the alloy wheel hubs will soon be picking up the blue, in a nod to hipster deep-V rims everywhere - perhaps i will print "all you haters suck my balls" on them afterwords !!

the wheels i got at cost from a generous supplier, when i explained the plan of having the kids making them. otherwise, they observed a friend's set of $350 marwi's along with a few pics of other rollerskiis, and had at it. their design and execution is superior to everything by the marwi's IMHO. observe the carefully dropped shafts for a lower - better - center of gravity, for example. nice work by anybody, and they slay skiis costing $250 and more in this and nearly every other every way. keep in mind they ( nicky and sawyer ) are 15 years old, and had a budget of pocket change. i'll take them sk8boarding in schofield maybe, and buy em lunch at wendy's - nice deal !!

more plans are in the works to actually move them past the benchmark marwi's and thus make them the best rollerskiis on this earth. think foam injection into the shaft for vibration damping first off. maybe some experiental wood shafts down the road ?? other laminates ?? awesome job. oh yeah, they ski great as is !!

houston, we have spearation

2009-08-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

here we see MK as the spent ( very ) solid fuel booster rockets finish their job, and fall to the sea. she has parlayed herself into a spot far far beyond our means, and imagination. she did it with help from many who read this, so thank you all very much indeed.

in other words, the kid is a now a freshman at notre dame, and by all reports she is digging it the most. as for me, with time-sink of a kid gone, trainin' for 2010 started today. :)

sabbatical

2009-08-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

well now. that was a wee might longer sabbatical from the blog than i anticipated. i am not even certain anybody even looks at blogs anymore - let alone this one. but, with my man T bates getting back into it maybe i will too.

this photo depicts how the summer has gone for me. the discerning eye will notice a pronounced S-bend there on the right seatstay of MK's sweet singular 29er. mind you, there are not many 17 y/o's who have an ultra-cool bike company design a prototype frame around them, and give it to them them pre-production to ride/test/own. indeed there aren't many people, period - but MK is one of them. of those few, it is a smaller subset yet who have their dad run the bike over with a mini-van and bend it all to shite. . . . . . . .

on the bright side . . . . . none other than Carl Strong has offered to fix said bike. Carl is a NAHMBS winner, and sits comfortably among the very very top tier of framebulders on this earth - if it can be done, nobody on this earth can do it better.

maybe a good omen. i needed one.

not a normal guy

2009-07-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

a friend asked if i was an armstrong fan. i will say, MK grew up during his reign, and we have spentmany summers as dad and daughter together watching and cheering for him. on the other hand, he is certainly the "new york yankees" of cycling, and so it's hard to get behind that.

but to me, none of that matters. this is what matters to me:

this is a bicycle racer who has both bill cinton and george bush on speed dial. desmond tutu, too. if he needed to, he could get freaking obama on the phone inside of 10 minutes, i will wager. a BICYCLE RACER.

the degree to which the cycling community fails to celebrate that one of our own has reached the levels LA has in world astonishes me. and, i believe what livestrong has done for Hope in the human condition is as great as anybody living today. every day, right now - somebody someplace is being told they have cancer. every one of them can walk to their car with with their loved one, and instead of lip-service bullshit can honestly say to themselves - " you know, if that lance armstrong guy can win the TdF 7 times after what he had, maybe i can beat this summbitch too." it is real. i think he deserves a nobel prize for that. name me one living person who has done more for Hope than LA.

but, i am not a new york yankee fan. no.

separated at birth ??

2009-07-12T05:59:00.001-07:00

we taped the 1st mtn top finish, and watched it late so i am sure everybody has had their say on AC's attack from the back at andorra. my own ?? that crazy little dude went completely sarah palin on that old man lance mcain. too wild.

almost not woth it

2009-07-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

well the week back from vaca was a living hell, as per usual. brite sdie being looking forward kwickly to the SS chmpnship race at levis trow. i never get there anymore except for this race. it is odd, because i still think they are the best trails in the region, but of course nowadays you have to drive past so many other good areas to get there and . . . . . . . . . just doesn't happen.

the SS race was down in numbers. sad to see but oh well. in my opinion WI never did get the whole idea of a SS chmpnship race quite right to begin with. it has been way too serious, and it has been a race of the hardcore instead of a relaxed kinda deal like we experienced back at say, SSWC. the idea that you were not gonna win was MORE a reason for people to go, and not less like it has seemed to evolved to. no matter.

MK had a solid ride, she liked her gear. she won the first 2 SSWC's, was gone last year when she was on very good form. this year of course her form is yet to come, and she got beat by a stronger rider in katie. so, there are now 2 two-time winners Fe of SSWC, maybe MK can use her collgiate cycling experience next season as she leaves the jr ranks to make it a race for the showdown. amy plato raced, and that was cool - MK and amy were the original 2 Fe racing SSers in WI and battled way back to when MK was 13 or 14. she really liked that and after katie and her very intimidating bike-racer-legs took off MK just found a groove and edged amy for 2nd.

i rode an easy gear, seeing as my season is noplace, and was off the back having a great time by myself. i did glimpse rick W once a few switchbacks ahead of me, but was never that close and i just enjoyed the ride. we hit a nicely air conditioned but otherwise nondescript place for huge platters of poor excuses for chicago dogs for lunch, and enjoyed the stunned appearance of the elusive one who broke in his sweet new singular in grand style. thassit. time to go fix the pool.

2009-07-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

so camp is over. long tiring drive home sat eve. i wish i was at eau claire, and it woulda been doable, but too draining - time to come home. the last evening they hold a contest, and the last event is "best trick" - being numerous shots one-by-one at whatever you can throw down on this selected feature of the park. i could not get any action shots, so i will have to describe what went down.

it was a tie - 2 kids wer going at it. the feature consists of a 11 ft high double-bank set-up . . .from steepish to near vertical( at this angle you cannot actually see the last near-vert 5 feet of the bank ), with a 6 foot quarterpipe in the middle as a kinda launch. on top is a 3 foot deck to a wall.

kid no 1 was a little fellow, and he lauched off the 6 foot quarter-pipe, spun a 540 frontside ( facing the wall - hard to dos ), and landed up on the deck in a "disaster" - that being the is board half on the steep re-entry, and the other half up on the deck. he then nudged the rear of the board up and onto the plummeting steep re-entry.

kid no 2 was bigger, and fast. he went for the burly approach rather than tricker. he blassted off the quarter-pipe, sailed clear over the remaining 5 feet of nera-ver banking, across the deck, up another 4 feet or so and onto the steel wall near the middle of the signs you see there. he planted his feet, , compressed, and leapt back off the wall across the deck. at precisely the right moment, he found the balls to put his board back under his feet as he sailed down past the lip of the banking/wall, using the tail of the board as it hit the lip as a placement tool before unbelievably putting his other foot on the front of the board as he re-enters the ultra steep banking blind and plummeting super fast and hard - a slam here woulda been very very bad.

they do this to win a hat. unbelievable.

anyway, cycle related here is the dirt-jump section of the park. i am so happy to be a part of this place. they run 2-3000 kids thru here a sumer and every of them shows that every other time toy here about there "nothing for kids to do" or people bitch about "kids-these-days" is ful of it. this tiny gem of a camp in the middle of nowhere proves it. most ofthese kids have nothing like at home, nick - surely doesn;t. they look inside, and they find it, and they bring it out. i have great hope.

battle of the week

2009-07-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

the classic camp battle is the highly anticipated skater vs gymnast dodgeball showdown. as in most battles, they are won or lost on the3 degree to which one underestimates his/her enemy.

in the case of the skaters . . . . they forget that these girls have spent half their waking lives working out their upper bodies and body coordination. they have arms like cannons, and they do not throw like girls. surprise !!

the gymnasts, on the other hand have an undeappreciation of the inherant anarchy ( read; willingness to cheat ) within the very definition of skateboarding.

mayhem ensues.

in the event they get over - payback for the skaters comes friday AM, when the even MORE highly anticipated "Skater's Rules" match takes place between the skate staff ( who have put up with these rambunctious punks all week , and the skater-campers. the skater staff have a decade of that aforementioned prepensity to anarchy on the campers . . . . . . . . . . . guess who takes the beatdown ??

anyway, 40 miles or so of pristine aspahlt, and free hot breakfast waiting for me when i got done at dawn. nice.

out-marketing notre-dame ??

2009-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

yeah yeah, MK is goin to ND. but no - i have not gone ND-parent-mad, despite my ever so stylee NDish plaid knee warmers you see me sporting here. i dunno if they make them or not ( tho based on this pic it obvious they should ). no indeed. instead i came to the northwoods where i ride at 4:45 in the AM before camp opens, and forgot my knee warmers/tights. oops. a kwik trip tp the lost-and-found, an even kwicker modification on a long sleeve shirt with my bangage-scissors netted me these hi-end warmers.

and yes, a normal shirt-sleeve does hang loose on my chicken leg.

suffering vs pain

2009-06-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

bike racing is a sport of glory, exhiliration, thrill, skill and daring - but mostly about suffering. if you are not suffering, you are not bike racing. skateboarding, has all the good stuff too, but instead of suffering, skateboarding substitutes outright pain as its constant. if you are skating, you are in pain - it is not an avoidable thing. witness, for example, this small feature pictured above, known as a "euro-gap". the idea is you pop your board either up or down off this little gap at the top of an incline, adding fun and difficulty . . maybe slip a fancy little extra trick into the opping of the board and so on. today, i was gonna get a pic of nicky going into the giant foam pit. problem being, the launch ramp into th foam pit is very steep, and 2 srories high - so, i was trying to match his speed with my own for a clear shot, ya know? i was pumping downwards 2 levels of the park after dropping in and i . . . forgot . . . the euro gap was on the last little decline. i went off the gap going fast, looking the otherway. my board stopped, but i proceeded downwards and forwards. i met the ground very quickly indeed !! that hurt. but, it is aslo skateboarding . . . . writh around a bit and walk it off is the preferred post-bail action. hello, pain.

slightly shaken after that, the best i could was this lame pic of nicky on his way into the foam pit after a a sweet grab. the ceiling above him is plastered in stickers, from him and guys before him. foam pits are cool.

on a brighter note - there is a bird's nest right outside our office door. the eggs hatched yesterday, and here are the little birdies taking a nap - or maybe closing their eyes from an electronic flass 2 inches from their little baby birdie eyeballs. hope i didn't blind the little guys.

2009-06-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

sick ?? this where you will find the nurse. the bowl- brand new!! - sweetness !!

the kids can do all that flippy and railslide bizness on this stuff. the park is super-modern-sophisticated in that everybody can ride most everything and have fun, like a modern mtn bike trail. too cool.

making it look easy

2009-06-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

to the untrained eye, it may appear that being medically responsible for the well being of 250 hi-performance gymnasts and skateboarders is easier than it sounds - such as pictured here. the truth of course, is that we are just that good. it is a living hell - - - - - - - really.

camp ride

2009-06-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

miles and miles of this:

traffic was heavy:
digs for the week:

the quiver - well part of it . .

2009-06-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

i am not much on regrets, but one is this: i wish to god i'd have held onto every skatedeck i ever owned. an original fibreglas z-flex, my powell/peralta beamer. . .etc etc worst part is i dunno what even happened to most of them. . . damn.

anyway, nicky and i am getting ready to head off for one of favorites weeks of the summer - CAMP !! i think i briefly mentioned the place in the early months of the blog. we have been going for around 8 years. i am camp nurse with one other poor sucker ( 250 gymnsatics and skaters killing it 8-10 hours will lead to a lot of injury ). we do it because we love these young people. we often sleep like 3-4 hrs a nite on average. we deal with all the usual camp stuff like bee stings, swimmers itch, hoemsickness, puking from eating nerd-ropes all day . . . . . but with the added trauma that comes from 13 foot vert ramps, and national ( and even olympic )-level gymastics, which quite frankly have to be seen up close to be believed. also. we deal with comple wack-job parents that leave us and the hosp staff astounded in their ( near lack of ) parenting approach to their young "protoges". the camp itself is beyond professional. it is an amazingly smooth and positive environment - staffed largely by younger college age kids that give me great hope for the future and are great fun to be around, headed by the most can-do adults i have ever worked with. tho i am very near dead when we leave, i still miss the place and its energy.

but i digress - and more importantly i do get to skate and the skating is very very good indeed. here we see my quiver, in various states of readiness. this is not a trifling quiver of decks my friends, no indeed. in cycling terms any one of these sticks could hold its own with a pegoretti. so then: left-to-right:

1. duane peters model from beer city, his best ever ( yes, in milw ). duane's nickname is the Master of Disaster. he was and is the baddest ass skater who ever lived. tho his era was a bit past mine, his influence and energy and attitude are undeniable in popular culture even today in so many area's, for which he receives nothing. without duane peters, freestyle motocross would have ended with evel kneivel, for example

2. original santa monica airlines longboard, from the man skip engblom himself. you are not gonna find one these, anyplace. if ya don't know who engblom is, go watch the z-boys movies, skip was the founder and soul of the youthful z-boys, who invented action sports. it is the coolest longboard ever made and ever will be. perfect for cruising camp - gotta get the big 70mm 78 duro krypto' wheels on there.

3. later alva pool deck - after TA obtained his company back for himself. if ya look careful, you can see he signed if for me. it really belongs on a wall.

4. my custom designed and built factory 13. this thing kicks ass. it is everthing - long old-scool wheelbase, narrow thin light chassis, takes modern low/fast-turning trucks . . . . it'll go anyplace. plus, do yourself a huge internet favor and go bump around the facory 13 website, this guy is one of us. if it is not the coolest websites you see this week i'll buy ya cup of coffee at the cup. or, i may decide to have nicky kick you shins for being such an idiot and/or liar - we would be doing you favour either way, so you are welcome.

gentlemen racing.

2009-06-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

bike racing is a funny thing, ya have good years, bad years, you are perhaps planning to kill it but life gets in the way, and then years where for some reason you are just flying. persoanlly, my my ratio is about 1 decent year outta every five. luckily for me, next year is number five . . . . . .

in the meantime, however, i find myself enjoying the season immensely. mostly because i am now 2-for-2 on railing around two superfine race venues wheel-to-wheel with russell, much like we see in the gentlmen road racers pictured above. a different era obviuously, but like many things in life it is but a state of mind. note the classy machine, no quarter is ever asked for, buit it is often given anyway. the civilized manner in which man and machine react in harmony with each other and the racing cicuit. limits are reached, pushed, but never past the point of undude risk to any of the above. perhaps past what is resonable engine/body wise, but in our cases that will heal with the nearest brawurst, by and large

respect, competition, appreciation of one's rivals who are also great friends, mutual improvement, and appe\riciation a beautiful and terribly hard sport full of too many excellent people too mention anyway - all in all one the Better things in Life, lost largely to time - but still around if ya want it.

as arlo guthrie once said . . .

2009-06-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

"i'm not proud"

this is what a 24 tooth endless cog looks like. i expect i will be seeing a lot more of it this weekend, as i walk along uphill with my sorry ass breathing the breath of ten thousand lungs, draped across my top tube. yee ha !!

tranquilo

2009-06-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

with all that school stuff outta the way - and work easing into it's new system - time to ride !! only 3-4 months behind the Plan, but seein' as we made the Plan up to begin with . . . . . . we'll just go ahead and say starting riding in June is exactly what we had in mind.

easy miles thru the cherry blossoms. yeah we both are woefully outta shape, but with average scenery like this it could be worse.

"all you haters suck my balls"

2009-06-08T11:30:00.001-07:00

i attended my first ever hi-skool graduation yesterday. i did not go to my own graduation - truth be told i am not sure they even gave us one. i sure wouldn't have, had i been them !! in my day ( and at my school ) the situation would have just as likely ended in somebody setting fire to place as anything. i suppose you could say that am not of the "kids of today are such a problem" school of thinking - the band of fook-ups, gypsies, criminals and worthless punks that made up any random group of youths i knew in the 1970's were indeed a greater threat to Society than the kids i know nowadays - as evidenced by the horrid mash-up of the world as we know it today. it alsways amuses me that the same people who will go on and on about "kids these days" are invariably the very same ones who gave us the screwed up world we live in . . . . . . as if the kids had anything to do with it !!

as it happens, i know quite a few Youth of Today, and at this particular gathering of them, my own daughter MK was throwing down hard. sitting there in the packed gymnasium, i sincerely doubt any other guy was in as sweet a spot as i found myself. MK was not only valedictorian, but also absolutely slayed the House as featured vocal soloist during the procedings ( far lower left ).

and indeed no other dad in the place had the experience of watching his kid stand up from the front spot in the class, stroll back to the choir, make people cry with her beautiful soulful singing, and then stride back up to the stage center with poise like michelle obama, to lay down a charming, humble, all inclusive and classy address to her peers ( no, she did not tell them to suck her balls . . . . ) anyway as for the other dads, it must suck to be them, because it flat out kicked ass to be me.

getting into their heads

2009-06-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

there was a race last weekend, and it occurs to me that i am beholden to enter it into the blog. i sat it out, while antibiotics swirled amongst my unmentionable bits, ridding me of dis-ease. but, it is not as if i wasn't on the job !! as the defending comp SSer at this fine venue, i took it upon myself to strike fear and intimidation into my fellow competitor's souls. amy D captured me laying down a most viscious Vibe in the photo above. "fear this", indeed.

speaking of whom ( comp/open SSers ), the 09 season most-improved award has got to go to the raging mark burkholtz. holy fright that guy is flying. for god's sake even i beat him a time or two last year. but he is ripping legs off guys half his age and stuffing them down their throats this year. nice !!

also worthy of award at rhinelander was a guy i spiied along with rick W and russell. dude finishes his citizen race - rolls thru the chute - immediately wheels to a abrupt halt - vaults off his bike - and slams the KICKSTAND down with authority as if he is spiking the ball in the end zone during a superbowl. that guy ruled.

MK raced, but her lack of miles is catching up with her. she suffered and underwent a savage beatdown, which is what bike racing is all about.

if anybody has a right to be pissed at God, it's the loons

2009-06-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

so, MK and i are lying in a fine state of Tranquilo on the pier at camp tesomas, before pre-riding the WORS race. we are watching a loon. it floats, takes a big ass breath, and disappears under the water for a minute or so, travelling 30 yards before popping back up to the surface. it does not appear to have caught any fish to eat, so it does it again, and again, etc. presumably, this is the loon's life. it seemed like a rather poor life, or perhaps a very sad Cosmic Joke on the poor loon - here he is, full of feathers, no fins, no gills, no hands to grasp with or anything and he has to try and eek out a life for himself from what he can out-swim on the bottom of a goddam lake . . . . how is bird supposed to outswim a fish, anyway . . . WTF ?? it would be like trying to catch fish while tarred&feathered with yer hands tied behind yer back.

if i were a loon, i would have to ask:

"tell me God, why exactly couldn't you have Created me in such a way that i could just eat fooking pinecones - like the ones i see sitting plain as day by the zillion on the ( dry ) shoreline over there ??"

kidney

2009-05-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

this is not my kidney, but rather the greatest kidney of all time, the original dogbowl where much of sports/lifestyle culture was born. without this place, there would be no snowboarding, no surf-related clothing/style, and alternative music would have ended with the beach boys.

my own kidneys are a different story. many years back, i was a vegetarian for 10-15 years or so. when you are a vegetarian, your pee is often basic, as opposed to acidic. thus, you are prone to urinary tract infections at times - which i indeed contracted. once you get one, or several - you are more likely to repeat. i am repeating. it hurts like all fooking hell, too. no wonder i have been dragging ass so bad !! the rhinelander WORS race is questionable - looks like i'll be doing hand-ups. we'll see.

what are we, animals ??

2009-05-23T13:57:00.001-07:00

'kay then - i reckon ihave been riding and enjoying the sort of bike that doesn't have a kickstand for 30-sumthin years or so. and yet, up until gretchen nabbed this most Righteous bike rack this very week, i have been leaning those bikes on stuff over all those decades like a barbarian.

no more !!

the girl and i enjoyed a fine memorial day weekend ride today, and parked our weapons thusly like civilized aristocrats before and after. nice !!