Apprehension, Pain, Relief, and Accomplishment

I hope it feels like an accomplishment after its all done. Looks like I'm out a couple hundred bucks this October. And no beer ride either.

A little slow?

Since things are a little slow I'll share an additional story about the trip I made to Breck for the mtbr gathering.

After Friday's ride, Redstone, Lyons Chad and I headed to the grocery store to get some food, and I was walking around in a bit of post-ride daze when I found myself staring at the back of some kid's tshirt. It had a ton of logos all over it, including KFRX, which was driving me crazy because I knew I knew it but couldn't place it... As the kid was walking off at all came together that he must be from Lincoln. Well, kid had been talking to his dad, who was still standing there staring at something on the shelves, and i asked, "You guys must be from Lincoln?" He turned around saying yes, and all I stunned. Shocked. About all I could muster was an explanation of how I knew where they were from and a "Have a great vacation."

Why you ask? Because I found myself staring at someone entirely unexpected in a grocery store in Colorado: Officer Marti.

Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're....

REALLY lucky. I heard that "ting ting ting of something caught near the spokes, locked up the rear wheel to avoid damage and checked it out. No damage. Easiest way to get it out was to snap it off where it was at. Coulda been all kinds of ugly!

Trail work

Up in the Nederland Universe, the local mtb trail advocacy group has been busy signing. These were on the side of the 2 kiosks I went past.

Titus Motolite

here's a pic of the ML (4-5 inches of travel)..... i gotta admit that i had a friggin blast building up this sweet mo-fo. Dressed up with some decent parts, X9, Talas RLC, RP3, Avid BB-7's with Paul lovelevers. The wheels are some decent DTswiss 240's laced to 717's and 2.1 WTB's Epicwolf rubber....which obviously brings up the only neg. aspect of this frame, the rear tire clearence or lack of. I doubt you could safely run much wider of a tire then what's on it. How does it ride ???? Damn i wish i knew.

Bobblehead night

Here's a picture of Tara at the Osprey game last night in missoula...the first 750 or so folks that walked thru the gate came home with one of deez sweeet ass freebie bobblehead figures of some guy i've never heard of...pretty cool, huh ? Hell.....Johnson knows baseball better than i do and he was stumped too ! Anyway.... i'm still not quite able to ride a bike yet so i figured i got's to get my recreation on somehow. What's better than watching other have fun? So be safe kids...these hernia things ain't NO fun at all !

another road ride

I took it to the roads tonight on the cross bike. A customer of mine brought in his custom steel Seven Tsunami cross bike and said "pimp my ride." It's had me jonesing for a little steely cross styley. I headed south east into the farm country between here and Boulder for midwestern dirt and gravel road action. The ride was fantastic. I rolled in at dusk, heading west into the sunset. Anways, this is a little picture in the first 1/3 of the ride before I got to any dirt. I'd always wanted to snap a picture of this canopy. It's awesome. Every time you go thru it, it's as if the trees have just had a fresh haircut. Get's the ride started with a cozy feeling. ahhh.

just came across this old photo of talley with god 

Waterford 29 er!

I borrowed this picture from HERE. I go in search of it about once every two weeks. If i post it here i won't have to go lookin for it anymore. Anybody have an opinion on this bike or company?

and this is the power supply chassis. like i said they are both complete now. the pic isn't current but i thought i'd share...this box basically takes 120v60hz standard wall current and turns it into 12v3amps for the DaC.  

ok. this was taken to show progress. this is the digital to analog device that i am building. this is one of the two chassis that will be done soon. actually they are both done and i am too chicken shit to turn it on and see if it works or produces smoke. maybe tonight! 

this new addition to my commuter makes me happy. its stamped march 91 on the bottom. 

Headed to Crusty Butt

Oh sure, this way saves an hour or so, but you have to look at this on the way. Shoulda just stayed home.

Fore oh who?

On the way to that some trail with a lame name. The wife just wanted to make it to the lake (22 miles round trip for her, much climbing, etc). I could post some pics of flowers and singletrack, but the highlight of the day was dinner. And I've got no pictures of that. So here's the lake.

Teocalli

That daverill guy made mention of this ride on that other blog, so I thought I'd check it out. Who likes climbing for an hour and a half just to get an amazing downhill? Bike paths are easier! Don't go!

T.H. in the House!

Yup this pic was taken today! T. Hansen was the only one out at the course today wearing a Honker Hanger jersey. Good to see you back on the circut buddy! I do have to admit that I had flashbacks of TH doing the barrel salom on I-80 at full speed for $1. I sent TH a link to the site so he will be coming by to check stuff out he was asking about all of you peeps today.

Moots 29er

Don's 29er! Good job to you with a 5th place showing!

Good Job wolfman!

Good job today Matt 4th Place Sport Masters 35+ largest field at the race today.

from the seat

always all grins

she rides...he walks

saturday stroll

yo fellars !

Since i'm still hobblin around, wounded, sore, and pissed cuz everyone is riding but me. I still decided i should push tracy out the door to hook up with Buchanan, Mike, Tara, and Aaron. Overwhich Falls was the ride destination and the last section of the trail spits you out on Crazy Creek. Judging by the smiles when the posse rolled in, it sure looked like everyone had a damn good time. Brian.....thanks for the race report today !

enjoy a few pics in reverse fashion

la-ter

Ok, so the day wasn't all bad. Made my goal of getting to some old railroad bridges near the divide.  

Unemployment is dangerous.

Over the bars at ~ 20mph. Lets see... Left elbow, shoulder, knee. Right knee, finger. Chin. Man boob. All scraped up and sore. Oh, and there's a bruise coming up through the palm of my hand. And in case your wondering how hard you have to eat shit to get a big rock stuck under your otherwise tight watch, well, pretty hard.

Turn that frown upside down!

I received an email from someone today that had song lyrics attached to it! It put a smile on my face on a day that was turning out pretty crappy until that point. Thought I would share the lyrics and a link to the song being the bboy fan that i am!


Oh baby, yea
Yo you know, I saw you that day you...
How's your Girl Mike?
Agh she's pretty nice man but I tell you yo
I saw the other Girl at Netty's the other day
And she had her shit together
I'm talkin bout hip hop pow
Boomin' system up top in the back
Agh hey there Georgie Girl
Georgie Girl
Agh baby you look so nice
You on the one
You got your shit together Georgie Girl
Yea you're looking so nice Georgie Girl
Georgie Girl you know you're
On the one
Oh hey lonely Girl
Yea that's right baby that was you the first time
You know i saw you all alone
I was on the boardwalk you know
You know you were looking, agh
Lookin a, agh a little bit lonely and uh
You was squirting the water in the clowns mouth and everything
But hey baby you know I would win the whole prize for you
The whole nine yards, the, the ski ball tickets
Everything baby, for you baby.

Netty’s Girl

one, two, three, four...

Three weeks, four broken spokes. First was rear non-drive side on the cross bike. Honestly, surprised I havn't toasted those wheels yet with the riding I've put them through. Then a rear spoke on my Enduro - Commando Run, probably just snagged a rock or something as it was a fast techy dh.

Then this weekend, in Leadville, on the 29'er. Hadn't ridden it since Laramie where it worked flawlessly. So, I hop on, feels good, and 10 minutes into an easy dirt road climb, one goes pop. What the!! So, I tie it off, luckily I'm still runnin the skinny tires so I can keep riding. Back on the bike, and POP again... WTF!! Four spokes away, rear tire rubbing in the stays badness this time. Turned around, jogged back to the Jeep. And that was the end of my riding this weekend. Except for teh 4wheelers, but that's another story!

Jones Pass VII

We cheated. The guys working at the bottom of the pass drove us up to the top. This thing can handle elevation, steep grades, 4 men, and 2 bikes, no problem. After this, we still had to figure out how to make it back down the snow bank. It had been warm enough that out tracks from 9.5 hours earlier had been erased. It all looked pretty steep and scary from above.

That's the ride. Believe me, it's much more attractive in these photos and looking back on the ride than it was at the time. I think I have it figured out how to do it with a lot less hiking for next summer...

Jones Pass VI

"No way I'm a carrying one of those, asshole! I'm tired enough as it is, I'm not carrying a big ass Moose antler on my back. I'll take a picture, though."

Jones Pass V

There were so many crossing this deep or deeper that we lost count. At least it was a warm day. This crossing is at about hour 6. Note lack of energy required to hold the bike high enough.

Jones Pass IV

LC enjoys one of the very few enjoyable sections spent descending. Note the smile. This was at about hour 3.

Jones Pass III - perspective

This shot was taken from the top of that next pass looking back at Jones Pass (you see the road coming down). It felt like a looong ways a way. Little did we know.

Jones Pass report, only a month late

So, this shot was taken at the top of Jones Pass. We're looking east back at the jeep, waaaay down there already. This is also the highest part of the ride. We're looking back at the car, knowing it'll be a long time before we enjoy it's heater again.

Jones Pass II

This is right at the start of the ride, the 10 hour deathmarch. At this point, we had just scrambled/clawed our way up a 15' not quite 45 degree snow slope. This shot is looking south down the Continental Divide Trail towards Jones Pass. We took a right at the pass and went down a road. This section of road was Stratus-able smooth.

Looking down in the valley on the right is our climbing route. We droppped to the bottom of the pass and climbed up that valley and climbed up to a pass on the far right where the mountains are kind of flattish.

Positively Unemployed

For a few extra days, at least, at the end of next week. I gots me a new job. Selling hippy alarm clocks. More responsibility means less mtbr/blog time, so forgive me if you don't see as much of me here after the 22nd.

I'm excited!

into the abyss

don't get off

mic keeps on truckin'

view from the top

headquarters

The setup at camp

Rocky Mountain High

MTBR Gathering was this weekend. These are my best pictures.

Some other pictures.
Some other pictures.
Some other pictures.
Some other pictures.


It was a pretty kick ass time. I was asked more than once if any of those Nebraska dudes showed up.

There's a new coozy in town. 

Purty good day!