X-mess Ride...

Burnsey Rollin'

Ran out on Christmas for a quick ride at SMP. It was freggin' chilly riding down the Lawrence hill. I about froze solid in that 1/2 mile. I then took the Mill Creek access trail into the park, climbed the hard hills up to Bluebird Point and then dove into the MTN Bike trails.

The Red trail was feeling good. I had finally adjusted my suspension fork to work as I like, and it was as if the rocks did not exist. Speaking of rocks not existing; There is a weird rock garden on the red trail, you know the one. It is a bizarre section of relatively flat single track through what appears to be an old pasture, and has a few dozen large rocks (approx 6-10" tall by anywhere from 1-3' wide) that look as though they were dumped across the landscape years ago. The line through the rocks is not really great due to this one lunker right in the middle of said trail that is just tall enough to bash your chain ring. The Red trail is relatively new, and this rock looks like it's been hacked at with an axe there are so many chain ring marks in it.

The Missing Rock...FOUND!

Going back to my 'rocks did not exist' comment; [The] trouble rock was gone. Someone had moved it (way) off the trail and left a crater in its place. I can't say that I was all that disappointed, but I am sure the other locals might have a fit about it. I took the liberty of filling in the hole where the rocks once lived, and the line through that section flows much better now, and is of course way easier (which is not as good). The rock was eventually located, about 20 yards off the trail.

Tim swears by the warmth of that ski helmet!

Just as I finished cleaning up the mess, Tim came around the corner on his new Moots SS and I joined him for a few miles of riding. We had a good time on the trail on a fairly nice Christmas day. It was good to get out and spin a little...

Junkyard Cyclocross...

My Bro Chasm turned me onto this lil' vid. Pretty much my idea of what CX should be...that is if I were ever too participate. This course is bad a$$...

Leg Explosion...

Had a great couple of rides over the weekend. Saturday I hit up Swope with Steve for a 2 hour ride that was great. Got to see Steve take a good fall on the newer technical section and thought he'd split his noggin in half, but I must have been seeing things because that tough ol' bird got up and tried the section two more times. Way to go Steve. We hit everything (that I know of) at Swope, including some new, un-burnt trails that we got fairly lost on (probably shouldn't have been riding them anyway). Had a great time on the SS and hope to make it out there again asap. My legs keep blowing up early...but as the ride went on, I felt better and better. It takes me a good hour + to get tuned to ride. No wonder I hate CX!

Steve entering 8-pins

Sunday I did a few hours of riding from my casa into Shawnee Mission Park. I did the Ogg Rd/ Hill, which about kicks your a$$ three times over, and that was the warm-up. I've even pulled my kid up Ogg before in the kid trailer, successfully, on my SS. Today I swear there was a dead cow strapped and being dragged behind my bike. F-ing horrendously hard climb!

I took a detour to see how things are going on the 'under-construction' freeride trail. Looking pretty cool with some rad potential. Lots of flowy ups and downs and the first stunt that some Eagle Scout built looks strong enough to drive a garbage truck over. Sweet.

Over to the XC trail and into the goods. Met a few familiar faces on the trail, which for a guy like me is always a good excuse to stop and chat for 30 seconds (rest), then off again to the races. I had a great time and as usual I was able to exit on the new Red trail, which is great, then onto my super secret rogue stuff back to my house. The climb back up the Lawrence hill, which is required when riding from my house, about killed me, as once again my freaking legs have been dying lately. I need to train..but then again, screw training...I have too much fun having fun, and when its not fun, forget about it!

Good Read...

What are you waiting for? The weather is COLD, the mood is DULL so YOU need to check out my OLD BLOG POSTS. I just spent some time looking back at the last few years of cycling on SingleSpeedPirate and man, there is some great and entertaining shit on here! Check it out!

Irie Land...

Ireland is to host the 2011 Single Speed Worlds....YES!

I've always wanted to go to the motherland and now I have better-than-average excuse.

Landahl Drift...

Kansas City was blessed with clear skies and 50+ degree temperatures on Thursday and Friday. In December that is just never a reality. I was so super F-ing psyched to get out and ride for hours and hours in the perfect weather on dusty trails. It never happened.
Saturday the temps dropped from 50+ down and down until well below stick-your-tongue-to-a-lamp-post temp. Snow was blowing with 40 m.p.h. wind gusts. Crazy! So much for taking advantage of that window of warm riding weather. Boo hoo, cry a freakin river.
Jesse, Travis, Garet, Kevin and I made plans to ride on Sunday. We knew it would be a challenge. We only had a dusting of snow, maybe a few inches at best, but with wind and a morning temp forecasted at 5 degrees, we planned for the worst and hoped for the best. Landahl was going to be the proving grounds and we were planning to tear it up until our toes froze.
Garet’s funny. He dawned his snowboarding helmet and camouflage balaclava to stay warm. Comedy is always a part of our rides…otherwise we’d all be 20 pounds lighter and be pulling a diamond out of our ass’ every other week; we don’t go there.
Landahl is one of Kansas City’s finest trails. The mix of ‘everything’ keep me coming back year after year. We started out on Rim Job, then Family Trail, on to Tasty Goodness and finished up on Swedish Erotica (I think this is what we did? I was the caboose so I just tried to keep up.) The tree roots and rocks (which are in abundance at Landahl) were all slick and would shift your bike suddenly from one side of the trail to another. I know I biffed hard at least twice, and the fellas had to of nailed snow covered dirt too…I was just in the back and never had the pleasure of the show. No one was hurt too bad and the ride was a success, even with Jesse’s mechanical issue; [He] lost two of his four chain ring bolts and almost a third. He rides a single speed, so there is some major power going down and with those bolts missing he bent his chain ring. Fortunately I carry this little bag of repair crap in my jersey pocket. I’ll post-up about the contents that later, but it will be some recommendations as to what is good to carry to be self sufficient on the trails. I happened to have a spare bolt and as far as the fourth…we rigged that crap back in order with a couple zip ties and he was good for the remainder of the ride. YES!
Our plan was to ride for an hour and a half, which we believed is all our exposed skin could take in the blistering cold. We ended up clocking-in just shy of three hours. It was a blast, My legs got blasted, bonked, cold. Good Times with the Original Ethos Posse, always good times.



Kill creek...

Killer time solo @ Kill Creek Today...

Three, Two9er, One...

Since I have no new and exciting rides to write about, I have been looking at old bike photos and thinking "maybe I should build another 29er, give those big wheels yet a third try". Maybe not...

Here's the last one I gave a go at. Custom Podium Frame made by Chris Chambers (That'd be Cameron Chambers uncle out of Denver, CO.) Helluva sweet ride...

And lets not forget about the Monkey...A tank but super fun.

I can't complain too much about the On-One Imbred...Wishing I still had all of these 29er's. Maybe I'd have learned how to ride one by now...

But, I do love the 26' bike. I always say "It's like riding a BMX for adults". I love the way I can toss the bike around with ease on technical terrain (my favorate). I love feeling all nimbly-bimbly like. I love how they blast off right from the start and I like the bike feeling small; not like I'm bare-back riding a giraffe. I've heard all the 29er hype, and I'm just not sold on it...yet, but at least I gave these three loyal steeds a go to see for myself.

Happy Trails!

Mobile image upload - test...

Surly Not...

Poor Harter... on his last hump day ride before he moves to a different state, on the trails he worked so hard to build, he goes and breaks his Karate Monkey...Sorry I was not there to heckle you Harter!



Rocket Man...

Garet made the mad dash into KC for the evening to 'ride bikes'. I was able to get a kitchen pass and join him, though we had to ride my local venue, the baby head death trail. I thought I was being a pussy always complaining about how much SMP beat my ass, every ride. This time it would be Garet making comments about the bumpy-ass workout. I feel better now.

The ride was fun, we cut it a mile or so short of the norm due to the temp dropping, for a total of only about 10 miles. We started out at about 8 p.m. and 32 degrees. When we arrived back at the house, it was near 20. My toes were freezing and I had what Ice Climbers refer to as the 'screaming cold barfees'. This is the feeling you get when your toes or fingers get so cold, then begin to re-warm. It hurts so bad you want to scream and makes you want to toss your cookies. Once rewarmed you are good to go.

All in all I had a fun ride. Garet...not too sure, though I now refer to him as the Rocket Man; this is because he can climb hills like a mutha-trucka! On the ride back to my casa there is a long climb that just zaps every last bit of energy you have. Rocket Man was a solid 150 yards ahead of me by the time he reached to top. Maybe I'm just slow.

And what of my newly installed suspension fork? All I can say is  'Amen to the squish'!