A whole lotta nothin'

Yeah, I can say that and spell every word wrong because I can, and because I am a horrible speeler. On top of that, the title is true, there is a whole lotta nothing going on right now biking related. The holiday parties have calmed down as it is close to xmas, and me and the burrower are staying here for the holiday. Anybody in town that needs some psuedo family let me know, I am more than happy to bring the spiked egg nog and end up like Uncle Eddy.


Yeah, it has been a little chilly and wet around here to go riding the trails, and just to windy to want to try and brave the road. I did manage to get out on Sunday for a few miles on the road bike though, I only could stay out long enough to not feel some parts of my shins, mostly because I refuse to wear leggings.

I was able to pick up a good deal on a limited edition, long sleeve, south park cycles jacket. They are limited edition Bart has decided to move the location and change the name, so look for that coming up. Anyway he has a heck of a lot of deals on everything, mostly because why move stuff when you can sell it? Here is said jacket.

With under Armour, jersey, and that jacket my core was toasty in the 40 degree weather and blocked the wind pretty well.

In other news me, the burrower, and Erin and Angus went to the Lowes Motor Speedway Christmas lights spectacular. I really didnt care about the lights, but as soon as I found out I could drive on the track it brightened by day. I only hit 70mph the first time, but 80mph the second time we went through. Not bad for 1.8 liters of fury with 4 adults in the car. Here is the video.



If I am to lazy to write before X-mas, have a good one, and hope all of your bike part dreams come true.

Patrick

Ugly Sweater Time

Oh yes, with me being the scrooge I am (and I really am, not just playing around, Christmas is a lot of extra work in which I really don' care to put into my free time) I did take part in our 3rd annual ugly sweater Christmas party. Mostly because I enjoy getting a little tipsy.

There were the usual suspects there, The Burrower, J and A, Cashley, Erin,B-lee and Allison even some guest appearances by Benji (who is a roadie but I still talk with him), so former co-workers and new friends.

After getting rowdy and loud it was time for the White elephant exchange. This is where you see who your real friends are by who steals what. We were blessed with a lot of alcohol that got stolen, but the real gem of the exchange was this...


Thats right, the holiday gift everyone wants to give but no one wants to receive, the shake weight. Why did this get stolen multiple times? I have no clue, but pretty sure Frued knows.


After multiple fights over the shake weight, beer, and board games the night continues on down in the basement....

The burrowers gingerbread house.


The foosball table o' death

And the winners of the contest. He won because he had the ugliest pair of pants.

Other than that, I need to get back on the bike, like everyone around here, but it has just been so windy that it is not even fun to walk around, much less bike. And with 4 weeks till the winter series, I might be in the Clydesdale class with how much I have been "enjoying" the holiday. Until next time, keep watching the shake weight video.

Finally, the Reveal

I know last weeks suspense was just to much for many of you, and a few lucky souls had the opportunity to see what was in the works, they just were lucky enough to show up at our 3rd annual ugly sweater contest. Those post and pictures might just show up later this week if I get enough reader response, or just any proof someone reads this thing.

This year I am going to try and race 2 bikes. I am going for a short track/less than 20 mile 26inch hardtail, and a full suspension for anything longer than that or endurance races. I will make exceptions for the full squish when I race Beaty though. I hate that place.

Also I am going to try changing up the drivetrains, as I hinted last week. 2x9 here I come. Going with a 27/40 FSA afterburner.


I should be ok to handle anything in which Charlotte trails throw my way on a hard tail. I still do need to set build the thing. Another cool feature about new stuff is the SRAM cassette.



This will look pretty sweet as I was able to color match with my mavic wheels.

Style points count for the final standings right?


I asked the Mutt for some help over the weekend, but after I was speaking with Little Miss Sunshine on the F-Book she stated they had a holiday party in which they were in charge of making 17 trays of jello shots. I really can't blame him for putting his priorities in correct order. I did the same thing and wasn't in a whole lot of motivation to move off the couch due to my own previous nights activities.

Also this past weekend me and the burrower had a "required" church function for our marriage thingy coming up next year. Good news is that the weather was pretty crappy during it so I didn't feel like I missed anything. Bad news is that the weather was crappier on Sunday so couldn't ride at all this weekend. I am going a little stir crazy as I haven't been on the mountain bike since following the MaddSS and Mrs. MaddSS around Fisher farms for about 18 miles or so. It also has been bitterly windy so I haven't even had the motivation to ride the roadie to work in the morning. Hopefully I can get a few rides in before the winter series coming up in a month.

Also the Maxxis Southern Classic Series released their 2011 schedule, good news is that I should be able to hit most of those next year. Maybe between the extra road miles and not being as bad of shape as last year I can get some top 10 results when there is more than 10 people racing. It is a stretch goal, but one in which I have.

If I get the motivation, and have all of the participants in the ugly sweater participants sign releases I might just get back on the blog this week. And hopefully some more biking somehow. Good news though, the shortest day of the year is coming up, and that only means the days get longer, and more biking to be done!

Time for a Change

So comes the time of year where new parts for the ride are in order. I carefully (by guessing) calculated every mile spent on every bike so far this year and for the life of the bike.

I do this on the little guestimate tool on Bicycling dot com site. So far just short of 1000 miles for the year on all my bikes (a large push at the end playing roadie might make me get 1000 for the year)



It also tracks the miles on the individual bikes themselves. I have almost 1000 for the Culprit over the life of the bike. That is a lot of miles on a drivetrain. Sure I changed tires, wheels, brakes, but I haven't changed the drivetrain (does this give you a hint yet at the change?) What is it going to be? Doing the single speed thing? 2x10, 3x10? 3x9? There are just so many different options now a days it almost works to peoples advantage to have the different types.

The local UPS website says the man in brown daisy dukes is bringing me a package later today. Hopefully it will show up.

And hopefully I will be around to sign for the delivery.

Now the issue is how do I put said unnamed but hinted at parts on the bike? I might have to ask my neighbor as he enjoys putting together parts and then taking them off again. Or I might as The Mutt if I can borrow R2D2 for a few hours and pay him in adult beverages.

With the Short Track Series coming up in a month I should be good to go by putting it together then.

In other news, this Thursday is the Southpark Cycles annual holiday party. I am pretty sure all are invited as Bart posted on the THTB forum. Just bring some canned goods so that he can donate to charity. He also says that there is a major announcement. I could drop clues about what it is, but I honestly don't know. I am not one much for the Christmas time so waiting for presents and waiting for fun or good news really doesn't bother me.

Me and him get along great.

I also don't turn on the Christmas tree lights or the outside lights in which I put up. The burrower does enough of that for both of us spreading the holiday cheer and what-not. I just drink the holiday beer.

Final side note, ugly sweater x-mas party, my place, Dec 11 around 7. Let me know if you want to come. This is about as much holiday I can tolerate, an abscure amount of xmas lights on a sweatshirt plus being tipsy, knocking on neighbors doors singing carols, and even doing bad things to a reindeer. Those pictures are not allowed to be shown by court order.

Once I get everything figured out on how to work new stuff, I will post up pics and let you know, until then...Ralphie, don't shoot your eye out.