Joyride...

Saturday it rained all morning, a mere week from Cedar Cross. I've gotten in almost zero miles on the gravel bike. Why I do this to myself I do not know. Off-the-couch endurance gravel racing - lets see what happens. I'm fully game to give it my all, to finish, not last. 

I rode for a bit in the rain, on some pave' and gravel. Lots of puddles, cold feet and mud in my face. Good times. Psyched to get my ass handed to me in a few days. I have no doubts I can do it.

Tonight I'm going to ride dirt. Lots of dirt. Swope @ 5:30 then Wyco in the dark starting at 8. Come join me and the crew. Perfect weather, grueling fun.

Gravel Bike Build...

Here she is in all her glory - The Queen of gravel, the parts bike extraordinaire. 

(click to enlarge)

Cedar Cross (100+ miles of gravel and singletrack) is next weekend, then less than a month later is the Dirty Kanza (200 miles of gravel). This is what I put together to carry me to the finish. What you're looking at is more/less a fully rigid drop bar 29er single speed. A Singular Swift steel 29er frame, Niner carbon fork, On-One Midge dirt drops, Hope Hubs laced to Stans 29er rims, XT Cranks, Avid BB7 Mtn disc brakes w/Cane Creek levers, Thomson post, Specialized saddle, Salsa Ring & Clamp, Surly cog and Ritchey stem. I've added a third water bottle cage on the seat post and I'll run frame and seat bags during the race(s) so nothing is on my back (these are self-supported races). For gearing I'm going to try 34/16 and see what happens. For tires, I went with Specialized Renegade 1.8's set-up tubeless. I think these are narrow enough with small enough knobs to keep good speed even on pavement, but have enough volume to keep me from rattling my brains out during a long day on gravel and B roads. 

I'm pretty psyched to get in some miles on this little beast and see what it can do. I'd be interested in hearing about your gravel bike builds too, and what works/does not work for long days/high miles. If any of you folks have a super short, super high ride 31.8 "boner" stem, lemme know. It's a must for these drop bar 29ers and what I have going is a bit on the short side (that's what she said). Cheers!

Smooth Sailing...

Had a great few hours of riding LRT with my boys Handleballs, The Manimal, WhiteMike, The Silent Killer, Double-D and OTC yesterday. We'd made plans before hearing that most of the trail systems in KC had been opened, and some of the locals shit-talk the LRT due to is lack of technical riding - but we were game for having fun no matter what. Shit's been closed for weeks due to rain, and we needed our fix. The Lawrence River Trail is super-awesome, mega-fast and oh-so-smooth. My ass was beat-up from 6 hours at Clinton, so the sandy-goodness of the LRT was just the ticket. We busted out 2.5 hot laps, keeping the crew red-lined and having fun the whole time. I felt like a kid again on all of the jumps and berms that allowed almost zero braking. Double-D didn't crash, not even once. It was a good time, followed by a small feast care of Chipolte.

Last weekend was the Bonebender 3/6. I always race this event as it's one of my favorites. I was not having a good day in the saddle, so I'll leave it at that. I will say Congrats to my man OTC, pictured above. I just built-up a new SS machine for him. We made a deal that IF I had it completed prior to this race, he'd race. I held up my end of the bargain and OTC raced his elbows off in the 3-hr event with pride. Made Props to OTC for proving his manhood that fine day. I call him OTC due to his undying ability to do what you do with months of training Off The Couch. 

Thanks to Ranski for snapping a bunch of sweet race photos too!

I've got a few things on the list as soon as I get my head out-of-my-as to post-up in the next few weeks:

• Kuat NV & 2-Bike Add-On review
• A handfull of Race Reports
• Some Bitchin' photos
• My Dirty Kanza/Cedar Cross Drop Bar 29er
• Taddihogg Cycling Hats review
• SSP & Kona Grassroots Racing

Have a good week jerks! Get some dirt while you still can!

113 Miles of Misery...

I've yet to write a race report for last weeks pure awesomeness - a.k.a. Bonebender. I've yet to start training for anything other than punching dudes in the face. What I do know is that I'll be doing THIS event in a few weeks, and I'll be having a helluva good time. Maybe YOU should get your ass to this par-tay and ride your eye-balls off. Maybe you shouldn't - as I understand it's hard to leave the comforts of your moms basement when those depends make so much racket walking around in public, embarrassing.

Holy Shite...

Bonebender worked me like a minimum wage job. Race Ride report coming soon. Until then you can drool over my Gnar socks and this fine image by Randy Braley. Bukake!!!

Dirt Church V...

It happens on Sunday, BB36. I'll be there. 

Love this race, haven't missed one since it's birth. 

Come lap me and have a helluva great time! Cheers!

Sprung...

Shawnee Mission Park Quickie

Worked...

Tuesday was a crap day followed by a great night. We'll skip the day part and go directly to the evening where I met The Silent Killer at Swope to rally a lap of the goods, now that the trails have finally dried-out. I arrived about an hour early to do a warm-up lap only to discover I'd forgotten my cycling shorts (yeah, the padded chamois type). Not being shy or persuaded otherwise, I hit the trail.

This would be my first ride on the Kona Raijin with a new Specialized Chisel Carbon fork - fully rigid bike on the rockiest trails in the area (with no a$$ protection). I was in for it. The for performed great - better than the Niner carbon Id had in the past (which was a really sweet fork). Flossed the trail like old times and had a blast doing so.

The Silent Killer arrived five minutes early as is his norm. I slammed a beer and we were off for another lap and had Sarah, Cliff and Justin along with us. Super fun, good friends, awesome time.

The Silent Killer and I left Swope and headed back to the Lair where we'd meet The Manimal, G-Wiz, White Mike and Princess Bonerghost for the evenings Pirate Ride festivities. Pre-ride beers and etc. lead us out into the darkness for a few laps in both directions of last weeks Pirate cXc race course. Dry as a bone and fast rolling goodness, we enjoyed all of the hard climbs, bridges and single-track. We then headed over to SMP for a lap of the mountain bike trail and a quick attempt at the yet-to-be-climbed Maxithad Cutoff, where once yet again we were overcome by multiple failed attempts as we mocked and heckled each other like school kids.

Back at the Lair we swilled booze as provided first-aid to my bleeding taint. Damn! I'm glad I had my chamois for the second half of the night or I might have wound-up with a free sex-change operation, no unlike Princess Bonerghost.

Good times were had by all, thanks for coming out to play in the woods on bikes my friends. 4 hours on the bike. Worked.

I leave you with this fine post-race photo from the very first and controversial Bonebender race at SMV years ago. Hope to see all of you jerks out at Clinton next Sunday for Bonebender 2013. It's gonna be six-hours of pure fun-loving-pain!

In The Blink of an Eye...

The last few weeks have been CRAZY! Snow rides, Colorado road trip with Snowboarding, climbing, riding at 10,000 feet with the guys from Redstone Cyclery & REEB, racing and taking the podium at Gods Country, training for Bone Bender 6hr and the DK 200, and finally promoting what turned out to be a really kick-a$$ race last weekend. 

Time freakin' flies! 

Since I have had zero time to reflect upon these awesome experiences and write reports that might blow-your-mind, here are some images from the past few weeks to keep you going. Cheers! 

Weekly Pirate Ride...

OPEN INVITATION

Tuesday Night @ The Pirates Lair

8:00 p.m.

Night Ride. Moderate Pace. 2-ish hours. 

We will ride a bunch of rogue trail including the recent Pirate cXc race course.

Byob and campfire afterwards.

email me for more info.

Come prepared (lights, helmet, repair goods, hookers, peeps)

singlespeedpirate@gmail.com