Yay for freakin sun!!!

Holy hell has it been a rough spring/early summer. As most of you know (since you live here anyway) this year has been sucky weather wise at best. We had two stellar weeks of sun in the early spring but since then it has been a downright mess. Looking on the bright side though is that since I've had little time to ride anyway, I'm hoping that all this rain has kept some of my competitors off the trails as well so when I race this weekend (yep, just realized this morning that I have a frickin race this weekend. I can already taste the vomit.) hopefully I'll only be off the back and not WAY THE FRICK off the back of the group. The best news is that the race is the most technical of the season with no climbing to speak of so I actually stand a chance of not embarassing myself and my family. Fingers crossed...

All the whining aside, we finally did see some sun this weekend. Friday was pretty sweet for our ride to Boston to visit my bro and his almost 1 yr old son and our first ever visit to the world of Ikea and it's never ending labarynth of all that is holy. I have to admit, the thought of Ikea sort of makes my bowels tremble because being a behomoth of a place it sort of goes against most of what I believe in but I do like cool stuff that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Saturday started out decent as well and I had dreams of getting out for a ride but before that could happen the sky opened up and we got frickin dumped on yet again. Enough so that a lot of driveways and roads were washed out. Good thing the state has all sorts of extra funds kicking around to rebuild roads...

Sunday also started out well but since we have no tv or internet at the moment we had no idea if we'd have a replay of Saturday....zzzzzzzz

Holy crap on a cracker was all that boring. Time to sum it up:

family went kayaking
I got a life jacket sunburn
no riding was had but I did squeeze in 1/2 hour of trail work.

there now, wasn't that much easier and less painful?

Sorry Bike Blog folks

I see that I'm getting linked a bit from bikeblogs.com today. I wish I could give you some good content but hey, I've been too busy lately to provide any good content. Ok, this blog was only ever so slightly better when I did have time to spend on this blather. My real limitation is writing talent and a very poor memory. You see, I think of many great, nay, outstanding post ideas while I twitter away my day but when bloggy time cometh my brain resembles a mid-west trailer park after a tornado hit. You can tell that at one time something was there but it doesn't seem to be of much value any more. Welcome to my brain, population zero. If you're still with me, by all means, read on.

Going the Opposite Way

Ever since I made the switch to a hardtail single speed, Steve (aka: killbill) has been subtly coercing me into getting a full suspension, geared 29'er. His feeling being that everybody is faster on a full sus. Why am I telling you this when I can cut and paste his e-mail:


Subject: The Bike You Would Kill It On...

Oh yes...
No maintenance(seriously), no bob, pure screaming bike. Same frame I have, but in 29r form. Probably around 5lbs. $1550 your cost. I know...I know...but one ride on that frame and you would never, ever look back at riding a hard tail. I'm glad you'll never get one as likely, your riding would go through the roof. Just trust me on that one.

Steven

Personally, I think it's cute that he calls himself Steven but I still prefer KillBill (a play on his last name). I have to admit that he may have a point and I'm certainly intrigued by the bike but I don't think I'll be hopping on one anytime soon. It sure is purty though and it comes in my favorite color!

Of course, he will be my direct competition once my racing season starts so maybe he's just trying to get in my head. You know, make me question my stupid (see he's done it already) decision to race a hardtail ss against full boingy gearies. Of course if Thom can do it, why can't I? Maybe because he's tougher than I am and a more talented cyclist...

The Birth of a Ride

For months, every time Marcy and I would ride together, she'd complain about her bike and say that she wanted a 29'er but she didn't want to spend the money on a new bike. I, of course, love to spend money on new bikes but didn't want to piss of the s.o. either so I had to hatch a devious plan. First, given my smittenness (is that a word???) with the Selma, my beloved Dos has been sitting un-loved for a couple of months so I knew I had a whole bike's worth of quality components to work with, the problem would be finding a frame that didn't break the bank. Well, my prayers were answers a little over a week ago when a Bikeman.com teammate e-mailed the team about a brand new (ok, he had a couple of rides on it) Dos Niner frame he was selling because he wanted to go full suspension. It was a super good deal and it was in the size I think Marcy needed so I took a gamble and bought it on the down low because I was using the whole deal as a birthday present.

Anybody who has read the blog for a while knows that my mechanical abilities are minimal at best and I had NEVER done a full bike build myself so I planned on having the friendly dudes at Bikeman do the swapping for me but, because of various things beyond my control (I'm impatient, oh wait, that is in my control) I was forced to build it myself. Lucky for me, I picked the frame up Friday and it just so happened that Marcy was out with some friends to I very quickly got to work with a bit of trepidation. Would I be the victor and exit the evening with a shiny, almost new, bike for the spousal unit or would I be crawling back to bikeman with my tail between my legs. Only time would tell.

The Dos pre-op.

The transplant recipient.

My first time ever pulling a crank (a bike crank at least). I've had the tool to do this for well over a year but never dared mess with the voo-doo magic happening in the lower regions.

Yada, yada, yada, I didn't take enough pictures.

The final product. Schwingy, schwing, schwing.
I am the victor!

Next up, Marcy's first ride.

Episode #2

Today brings you episode #2 of "Name that Drool". Last time, I asked you to determine what a substance was. It turned out to be a nasty "drool" from our residence crotch sniffer. Wait, I should be more specific, our four legged crotch sniffer. Well, this time you already know that it is drool, what you don't know is what is IN the drool. Please leave a comment with your guess. As always, wrong answers will be rewarded with snarky responses and an improbable correct answer will result in immediate disqualification. Good luck!

50%

As the spring has turned into (a soggy) summer and I continue to push my "real" training out week by week I've begun to wonder just how committed I am to racing this season. There's no question that I'll race, the real question is, am I going to be able to mentally give it my 100%? Well, over the weekend I got my answer. Marcy and I had a B free evening on Saturday and decided to head to the apartment at work to spend the evening where it is dry and slug free. While there, I had one (5 or 6) too many beers so a plan was hatched to finally wax my legs for the season. Marcy did the honors this year mostly because she likes to inflict pain on me. Halfway through the whole ordeal, we called it a night after having clipped and waxed only one leg. So, there's your answer, I'm 50% committed.

Marcy actually read the instructions first. That's a woman for ya.

Application

get ready!

this was supposed to be an action shot but I was too focused on screaming to focus on focusing.

tah dah!

In case you're wondering, today (four days later) the left leg is still hairy. I think I've found a new fashion statement.

This Just In

To be found in this month's issue of Maine Home and Design

Go Long and Go Soft

I didn't get a lick of riding in this weekend but I was able to squeeze a quick nine in with my parents and brother on father's day. During the round I managed to find the above pictured ball and I felt it was appropriate. Make of it what you will.

It's Not About the Bike

Ok, maybe it is, but at least it's not about THAT bike. (for the record, that book totally was about the bike. Who does he think he's kidding?) Today, we're going to talk about my much neglected road bike. Sure, I keep her in good running shape and occasionally give her a wash and sensuous rub down to get the road grime off but generally she's a neglected wench. Sometimes I ever giver her a little nipple tweak or two, she groans a bit when I do but I can tell she likes it. Well, the other day, her rear wheel developed a wobble. Seemed strange but I threw the wheel in the truing stand to give the nipples a tweak and had a bit of trouble getting the wobble out. Upon further inspection I found this:

what's that? Can't quite see it? How 'bout now?

That right there my friends, is a ugly scene just waiting to happen. Can you say catastrophic wheel failure? Despite that, I have to admit that I still did my afternoon interval session on the wheel. I already rode the bike in and if I didn't do my ride home I'd have to call for a ride and we all know that is not going to happen. Instead, I crossed my fingers, puckered my sphincter and went for it and thankfully I made it though unscathed. Now I just have to buy an el cheapo replacement since I have no road races planned for this season.

Ok, now I am going to talk about THAT bike. You knew that I wouldn't be able to hold off didn't you? Anyway, when I had the bike built up, the fork arrived at 100mm travel. The bike is designed for 80mm so I had planned to have it re spaced but now, after a few weeks of riding on it at the longer travel I don't think I'm going to have it done. Am I stupid? I guess my reason is that I LOVE the way it handles now and it feels plenty quick in the turning department already and I'm terrified that I won't like the feel after the switch. So what would you, my adoringly small fan base, do?