A Slow Day

With the burrower gone doing all of the formal wedding planning stuff, and me waiting patiently by the phone to give her my input (as if it matters) it was been a quiet couple of days of me living like a bachelor.

I refuse to wear pants now, but I will save those pics for my pay site if you really care to look. I got up early all weekend, went to the home improvement stores, Queen City Bikes for a new chain, grocery shopping and was home by noon on Saturday. What did I do without football all Saturday?

I don't honestly remember, but you can be sure I wasn't wearing pants while doing it. I did find a few hours (mostly spent goofing off in the garage) to make a bike stand.

Sorry for the crappy pic, the burrower took the real camera and I had to make due using one of those cellular calling devices to take the picture.

Plus it gave me an excuse to be out in the fresh air of the garage and to use my circular saw.


Sunday was short track race 3 day. Since I had nothing better to do I was there for the start of the beginner mens class, almost 2 hours before my own race. You think I would have used that time to prepare and get warmed up. I didn't.

Also with the burrower gone I lost my photographer. Here are some pics by lunchbox. I should feel special as he didn't even take any of his dad. I guess he must like me better.


Looks the same as last week? well sure, but this week it was 70 degrees out and it was some awesome racing weather. And I finished the race. To bad I took 19 of 22. I still consider it a success as last year I was finishing last in beginner so I'm taking baby steps. 2 more races to go and then the after party at East Blvd Bar and Grill, the title sponsor, it was a good time last year and should be a good time this year. I think I should have enough garbage to keep you entertained tomorrow if you want to check in again, but I doubt it will be this high quality of post so don't get to disappointed tomorrow. I warned you.

Trip the the mountains

Its been a little cold and wet for biking up there, but cold and snowy means that I still get to have some fun. Jason, Ryan, and I took our annual ski trip to the mountains in Boone.


It started out waking up even earlier than I usually do on a work day to load up the car and head out. A little over two hours later we were at the base of the mountain and the weather was starting to get a little dicey. The wind was picking up around 35 mph, snow was starting to fall, the clouds rolled in. It did not look good for our trio of rugged winter outdoorsman.

Since we all had our own gear we paid for the lift ticket, got suited up, and got right on the lift with the foreboding weather.



After a 10 minute chair lift up, it was time to see if I remembered how to snowboard from a year ago. The answer was maybe.

All and all it was a good day, the sky cleared up, the wind stopped almost entirely, Skisugar wasn't making snow in our faces, I came home with no broken bones and only a bruised ass from falling on it.

Notice I am the only one with the helmet. I am also the most accident prone so it was a good choice to wear it. Trees do not discriminate against when your riding a snowboard or riding a bike. And I have hit a lot of trees on my bike.

It was a good day to take off work and go boarding, I got to use my equipment that I got while I was in Iowa (yes they have ski-able hills there) so it doesn't feel like a complete waste of a former xmas gift. Got to spend a day with my friends doing something we love and got to be outdoors in winter. It was a good day.

I think this will be the last post for the week. Tomorrow I need to get off work a little early to take the burrower to the airport and then I get to pretend to be a bachelor for a few days. I cant wait for her to get back though.....there will be a lot of dishes that need to be cleaned.

I thought of a clever title for this post...

But I forgot it. Besides, the fun pictures are already posted, they have action, adventure, disappointment. The only thing missing was a crash, so here you go.


You think I would learn my lesson, of working on a bike and then going out and racing on it. Well, I don't think I will ever learn that lesson. Anyway a recap of the mess that is my life on Saturday. It started out by getting some new bike racks by Inno. Remember the post from 2 weeks ago? Me either. But here was the end result.

I was tired of the tailgate of my high performance sport utility hatchback always being blocked by a hitch rack. I do understand the risk of putting one of these bad boys on and keeping my car garaged and I am willing to accept that risk.

Onto the biking news I did delay putting one of them on the kia in order to put the on the parts. Works pretty well except when you need to spin the pedals.


Of course I do need to say thanks to The Mutt over at B-43 for letting me use his tools to make this job go faster. And thank him for being an average bike mechanic.

He is for hire and works for beer in case anyone needs his magic touch.

Well the bike is put together, all I need to do is go get another chain and I should be in business for another mid-pack finish this Sunday. That is the goal anyway. My primary photographer is going out of town this weekend to work on stuff for the magical and exciting day which is my wedding day (and no I didn't say that stuff just to suck up, but now that I think about it I might need those brownie points when she comes home to a dirty house) So I might not have any pictures of me failing this time. But there should be a race report.

Oh, and I need to recap the trip to the mountains still, no biking this time though.

Lets start at the end and then work to the beginning...

I tend to do things backwards. Mostly because it is more work that way, and usually a better story. I learn my lessons the hard way. So instead of going in order of fun/exciting events in chronological order (thank you spell check for change chrological for me) of day off on Friday and going to the mountains, bike build, bike race, I am just going to reverse it.

And I will start at the very end and pictures probably say it best.

Picture courtesy of The Mutt



That summed up the race on Sunday. My first ever did not finish. I should have seen it coming, I was doing average at the race, all of the other new shiny shifty parts were working almost seamlessly considering there was no break in period, and then this happened. I blame my mechinic, which is me for trying to reuse a pin on the Shimano chain. By doing so it stretched it out and popped off. Score one for SRAM and quick links.

Up until then I was riding along, minding my own business. There were a lot of people out on the trail taking pictures and I managed to get a hold of some of them. This is the fun part of short track. Some of the crowds are still drunk and hollaring from the night before waiting for a crash. And they bring cameras.




Thank you Burrower and Lunchbox for the action shots


Another good one by the Burrower, stupid tree got in the way. She was waiting for the next lap to get another action shot, but alas, there was no more.


On the other hand, all of the other stuff in which I put on the short track bike held up good. I think I will just save those wasted 4 hours of my life for tomorrow. Here are some more pictures.



Thanks Alex Hawn for posting these public on the F-Book

Tomorrow, how I wasted my Saturday afternoon.

More progress, but still inadequate

Yup, the title about sums it up. Still putting more pieces/parts on the short track bike.


Mounted derailers and shifters, but didn't connect the two.

Put on the front tire, but still didn't align the brake to it.

Basically I am building a bike without actually doing actual building of it. It looks like progress is being made, but in reality, not much is happening.

Still on list of things to do.

Put on Casette - (I will probably do this one tonight while watching my rerun of Glee


Don't they all look happy? Well they don't have the short track race looming over them in 3 days.

Oh yeah, before got distracted, still on the to do list...

Chain - put on
Cranks - need to secure, then put on chain
Derailers - adjust - first need to secure cranks, then put on chain and cassette.
Grips - well, that one is just easy and within my capability.

In other news I got a mystery package from the UPS man.

No its not bike parts, but it is bike related. I would like to build that (great, another build project which is going to take to much time and effort.) before this weekend as well.

Anyway, I will keep you all updated with progress of the build as events unfold.

Setting myself up for Failure

I have found out it is hard to ride when your chain looks like this.


My mechanical skills are basically zero. Sometimes they are even less than that. I don't know why I got the bright idea to try and build a bike from the ground up, but I did.

And I have gotten past the point of no return. I wanted to build a hardtail for the Winter Short Track Series. And I probably should point out that I took 18 of 25 in sport class. I guess that is better than 14 of 15 in beginner class like last year. I probably could have even been in the top half of the pack if the Culprit wasn't acting up.

After a few runs to Sun and Ski to pick up some tools, it was time to let the destruction begin. Bottom brackets are a pain in the ass to remove. Especially when they haven't been serviced in 2 years.


After fighting with it for about 15 minutes finally got the SOB.


Then just a quick install of the new FSA 386 crankset. Still needs some work but just to get the pieces in place and off the floor.


Past the point of no return, now I have 2 un-ridable bikes.


Getting the bikes all naked.


And starting to build them back up.


I know its not much, but if I am able to get this close to ridable (is ridable a word?) It should be good to go for race 2 on Sunday. All I need to do is
1. Tighten the bottom bracket
2. Secure the cranks
2b. Add new chain
2c. add new cassette
3. Add shifty parts
4. Adjust shifty parts
5. Do something with brakes.

its not looking good folks.....

Racing Begins and other Shananagins

You say Shannagins one more time....


What kind of shannagins can you pull? Snow day for one. Due to the icy conditions, I took a much deserved day off. Mostly because I slid down the hill to my subdivision and decided it was best to go home and play video games.

The burrower and Rocky.

Although me and the Burrower are from up north, our dogs are definalty southern. Complete wusses and don't want to be out in the snow for any length of time.

The lead sled dog Jasper, who is just confused by the snow.

After going back the next few days to pretend to work it was time for the race 1 of the Winter Short Track season.

Due to the snow melting it was predicted it was going to be a mess. The prediction was right. Good news is that I am almost positive I didn't finish last, or even 2nd to last. Also good news is that the Culprit is still in good shape and didn't have any wrecks. The bad news is that I really need to put together my short track bike.

Due to all of the mud getting into the drivetrain, and the fact my drivetrain needs to be replaced anyway it made for an interesting couple of laps in which I got a lot of chain suck. What that means is that the chain just stopped moving. Making it difficult to ride up hills. Which apparently is part of mountain biking, about half of it actually. In addition to the bike ride as exercise I also was able to get a jog in...in mountain bike shoes, while pulling the Culprit up around the rock garden.

I could continue to tell you how dirty and messy it was, but I think I will just show you. It tends to be easier this way. BTW, the Culprit started the race as a white bike.

The start.


I am taking this race way to seriously...


Taken at "High and Tight"




Dont ride the trails after a rainfall...or thaw.


The bike got a sponge bath after this ride.

And thank you Burrower for taking the pics, and more important doing the laundry.

So Begins A New Year? Maybe I should get a new attitude.

New years is supposed to bring a new resolution. I dont have one. Even though it is a few days after I guess I could make one. I mean, I have all year to break it so why the rush to make it?

Maybe I could shave?


Dishes?

Nah, the burrower took care of those. She says she always waits for the "dish fairy" to show up. I guess it didn't happen this time.

Ah screw it, not even going to bother making one besides to always drink beer and always have a good time. Although I might break it by drinking rum...

Anyway since Santa (and by Santa I mean fiancée and family) were pretty good to me even though it was a tough year financially for all of us, I got some good stuff. Although the burrower didn't get me anything biking related, I did get a nice watch holder. I think she just didn't want to keep organizing all of them on the dresser.

The rent's got me a kick-ass remote.

Then the sister and grandma chipped in and got me some long legged-mandex and hat.


So that means I get to ride to work in almost comfort. Which is good because I did ride to work Monday-Thursday. I am still trying to justify the cost of that road bike. With gas prices rising, it shouldn't be long now. It also gives me a chance to ride and get in shape for the short track series. I tried to stick with the usual routine I had late last year. Monday hill climbs, Tuesday sprints on the green-way.

Wednesday I did a change of pace and went with a run with my former marine buddy who kicked my ass. I am still sore which made for a fun ride into work and home.

So after all of this I should make the biking resolution of not sucking at races. Well, after my performance last year it shouldn't be to hard to do.

I am also going to spend the next few days updating the look of the blog, maybe add a calendar. You know, make it look like I actually know what I am doing instead of just winging it every week. Anyway, see you all on the short track in 2 weeks.

The Usual End of the Year Thank You

I was sooooo close to my goal of 1000 all purpose miles this year, off by less than 4. Of course that means that I would have to get an official odometer for both my bikes, and I just don't see myself doing that. So I might have hit my goal, or I could be way off. Either way I don't care.

But this was a good year for me riding. Considering this was my 2nd full year riding a mountain bike and moving up a class for racing, I think I did ok. More importantly I had fun and made a lot of new biking friends.

Southpark Cycles....err...Queen City Cycles kept my bike going all year long. Even better than that, Bart didn't kick me off the team this year for all of my lackluster race performances. Appreciate that.

I raced out of town a lot this past year and it was nice to see some other trails and what they had to offer. I am glad for all of the work that the Tarheel Trailblazers do to make all of the trails in this area top notch.

I did my first 6 hour endurance race at Warrior Creek. It was the most fun I had suffering since my last endurance race, the Rivers Edge 50 mile marathon, which I did again this year. I smashed last years time by over an hour. Progress? Maybe, but I also learned a lot about how to ride, and more importantly, nutrition. Who would have thought that food and drink during a 5 hour race would be important in 95 degree heat?

I went out to Colorado and competed in the USA Cycling National Cross Country race. That was an adventure.

I guess this is the part where I put down goals for this coming year...well I don't have any besides get faster. At least it is obtainable as Speed Racer I am not. At least not on my bike, but I am downing beers, so it all evens out. It is going to be a busy year traveling on the personal front. My wedding in Iowa, honeymoon somewhere warm TBD, Cashley's wedding in Boston, then possible weddings in Jersey? Illinois?

How am I supposed to work those into my biking schedule? I signed up for the 6 hours of warrior Creek again, one of the lucky few who got in before it sold out in 36 hours. maybe the Burn 24, as I really want to make myself suffer (depends on the honeymoon schedule as I doubt the Burrower will let me bring a bike with us) Tree, Shaker, Grind on the Greenway, all of these are potential endurance races that I would like to do.

In additon to the Southpark cycles gang, all of the other shops in the area that make Charlotte an amazing place to ride a mountain bike, my sponsors as well. And all of my loyal 4 readers. I will try to make these post more entertaining for you, even if I have to distract with a lot of pretty colors and shiny objects