Friday, March 30, 2012

Spring has Sprung...

While I await the repair of my springy-fork, It's off to ride some prime singletrack - fully rigid style. This will be day six of seven on a bike. No complaints! Hope to see some of you fools out on the trail, it's a prefect day.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Crash Master Flash...

Four days on the bike in a row; four on the new Specialized Tricross that I purchased over the weekend as my commuter and one on the Death Machine (fixed gear MTB). Feels GREAT to be getting in so much time with the wind on my face. It’s just good overall to be back on the bike after 8 weeks of bullshit with the knee (though I do go in for an MRI this week).
So backtracking to Sunday: New Bike and 40 miles of ‘wide single track’ as The Godfather calls ‘road’. I’m not so much interested in road riding – kinda sucks in my opinion; the sensory overload, people, traffic, the concrete. I much prefer dirt; to be in the woods enjoying getting away from it all. This whole commuting thing is good for the wallet and the body – but not for the mind. Now I understand why roadies are such closed minded jerks. I’d be wound-up tight enough to turn coal to diamonds if all I did was dodge traffic. What a shitty way to short-change your life.
Yeah, commuting… I’ll keep it up. It might help my tan.
Moving onto the goods – The Weekly Pirate Ride. Yes, it rained. Trails were a mud fest. MaxiThad showed face so it was game on. We spun our SS brains off in dire conditions on rogue trail. I felt for a time that I was somehow riding my bike in the bottom of a port-a-potty recently visited by a Clydesdale horse. Spinning, sliding and realizing all too quickly that ‘things really suck ass right now’. We evacuated the dirt and gained some nice grass and gravel action to at least get in some mileage.
The way I like rides to go down can be summed up to the following: Fun, Blood, Pain, Fun, Beer, Scary, Beer, Fun and Dirt. We pretty much had all that, minus the dirt part. I also pulled the Jack-ass-of-the-year-crash during our gravel romp. Have you ever drug a foot on your front or rear tire to knock off the accumulated mud? I sure the heck have, and during the P-ride I did it in lame fashion. Riding along I stuck foot to front tire. Being fixed, my crank rotates around and into my heel which proceeds to push my foot right into the spokes. I instantly stop vertically in a nose wheelie, somehow remove my foot from the wheel as I crash OTB into the gravel below as MaxiThad watches the action (probably laughing his ass off internally). What a flippin’ stupid thing to do. I don’t recommend this. Don’t do it. I blew one spoke and had a wobbly wheel for the remainder of our *126 mile ride. Plus my ego was hurt and at an all time low.
Yeah, well, The ride itself pretty much sucked, but it was good to hang with a friend and talk shit on at least one of the local bike shops while moving through the woods. We ended our ride with MaxiThad near-missing a copperhead on the trail, a quick ride up the Lawrence hill and then of course; booze and fire. Good Times! Thanks for coming out to ride Mr. Absorbent. Hope to see you (and the rest of you mutts) next Tuesday night.

* Mileage may or may not be totally accurate.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Rain = Boredom = New Bike...

Niner Air 9 Carbon, Licorice. Psyched!
And... The Reba XX is at the shop getting repaired.
Should be up and running by the time this damn rain stops!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Monday, March 19, 2012

Lucky Strike...

Today was my last visit to Physical Therapy for a knee injury. I'm still hurting quite a bit but have regained almost a full range of motion. I'm ready to get back at it 100%, but with this whole knee issue weighing in heavy on my mind ( remember Leadville ). I'm just a bit uneasy going into the 2012 race season thinking I can hammer..
Also weighing heavy is my whole bike debacle. The Reba XX fork on my Niner Air 9 Carbon has not worked right since I bought it. [It] is THE reason for my injury, so the fork has to be repaired which takes time. I'm also not psyched on how the Air 9 fits me, and am currently in negotiations with the shop to get into a different size frame, which costs more time and money. In a nut shell I'm freaking out about a bike, period. I'm not interested in racing my fixed gear mountain bike (at least not for every race) and fixie's are not friendly on the knees anyway. I guess I could build my Kona Unit back up from last season, but I'd like to have a new bike; an actual legitimate brand spanking new rig - my dream machine.
Moving onward... I did get out for a great two hour ride yesterday at SMP on the fixie. SMP is flippin' hard to ride fixed, there are rocks at every turn. I'd be willing to bet, that within the last year, I've touch peddle to stone at least *3,464 strikes. My old Crank Brothers Candy's are the proof, yet they take a licking and keep on ticking.
As per the norm, I usually check out the trail building progress at he park. Things are looking great at SMP. The Red trail is becoming one of the more challenging around. The newer sections, not yet open, are these great flowing bench cut sections of single track bliss. NOT the typical SMP feel at all. This stuffs gonna work you. I rode all of everything and had a great time. Felt good at times and weak at others. If you think you can or if you think you can't; you're right. I know I can  and am en route to overcoming this knee mind-f%&k. See you on the trails!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Back in Black...

Back by popular demand - The Weekly Pirate Ride. As per the norm (if you can call what we do normal) we will be meeting at the Pirates Lair, riding out for 1-2 hours of singletrack bliss, and upon returning we'll rehydrate whilst telling stories of our adventures and mishaps. Check the sidebar > for weekly ride time. Lights required (at least for a few more weeks), though it's possible we'll start out in the daylight. For those of you who are game-on, shoot me a comment or email as to what time works best for you. We will make a feable atttempt to coordinate so our crew is made up of the finest dirtbags the city has to offer.
The First Pirate Ride of 2012 will roll-out Tuesday, March 20th @ 7p.m.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Crashtards...

The craziness that went down Saturday night was just that; crazy. There were a handful of brave souls out racing in the dark, out of the box, having a good ol' time in the saddle. Full race report with some crappy photos to follow very soon. Until then you can live vicariously through Classic-Adam's race report HERE. Results are HERE. And if you want to bust-a-gut-r-nut; read THIS.
Here's a quote to define the race from a fellow racer, "An epic battle royale to be sure, a veritable muscle-raping jubilee".

Friday, March 9, 2012

Ready To Rumble...

Today is Saturday, a great day for riding bikes and Night Racing!

The Beast, labeled as such and ready for some Pirate action.


Monday, March 5, 2012

New Dirt...

It's pretty amazing what can be accomplished when a small group of friends get together to create a new place to ride bikes. With local trail conditions being in flux, I've been spearheading an operative to find and develop a small network of rainy-day rogue trail systems. The great thing about these trails is that  they are just begging to be ridden when you are bored of everything else, when the weather sucks and the real MTB trails are closed; or when you just want to escape the local scene and be alone in the woods.
Sunday was a great day to develop a fun loop near the Pirates Lair for such future activities as underground racing, night rides and shenanigans. CORE-bin, Farmer, The Manimal, Ranski, Justin, Beej, Billy and I rendezvoused with tools ready for a half-day of trail building followed by a few victory laps to enjoy the fruits of our labor. What was once a low lying partially wooded grassland dotted with deer trail and beaver dams now hosts a fun loop of glorious mountain bike sweetness. I want to thank my pals for showing up and helping sling dirt and grass for 5 hours to make this happen. We really kicked some major trail building ass. For those who are racing the last Pirate cXc race, you can thank them yourselves in person on Saturday night, when all things Pirate go down in the dark.
Here we have CORE-bin farting around on his dumpster bike catching some mini-air post trail building. This kid has more energy than a rabbit on hump-day; plays hard, works hard.
I'm psyched to be back riding, albeit the knee is hurting just enough to remind me not to crash. My fitness is crap but as always, still having fun. Hope to see all of you jerks Saturday night for the festivities that await. Cheers.