Welcome to Hell Week

Things didn't go as planned over the holiday break. I had an absolute awesome C-mas break, but riding wise didn't get done what I needed.

Thursday I took off and hit Snow Creek up for the first time this season. I was accompanied by my old friend Matt B... who you might remember from this last episode. Well this time ended much better, and we both had an awesome day on boards. I love snowboarding, and it felt so natural getting back on for the first time this season. I was hitting everything in the park, and they had an excellent set up with 7 hits in a run.

Friday was off, Saturday was off, and I finally managed to get back on the bike last night. It was on the trainer though, not 3 hours of gravel like I was hoping. We didn't get back home till 6, and we still had a ton of shit to do.

I managed an hour on the trainer though, followed by a short super secrete training circuit. The hour was pretty damn hard though. I had Eric's trainer, not my easy peazy bullshit trainer. I do cadence work on mine, but I maxed his out and did power time last night. I'm slating it as a 20 mile road ride. It was definently as hard if not harder than hitting the road for an hour.

By Hell Week I mean that this week will be hell. Let's just say 300 miles is the goal. Well now I only have 280 to go, and 5 days to get it done. Welcome to Hell my little buddies.

G

Weekends

Some weekends end up just like you'd planned, and sometimes not so much. This last weekend was pretty good.

Two good gravel rides Friday and Saturday, and a botched ride at Landahl, followed by an hour or so at Swope. Wasn't the 4 hours I was looking for, but my legs weren't feeling the greatest and it never really worked out. I got to ride though, and Swope is just about as close to perfect as it gets right now.

I do have one issue with Swope though, there's no damn toilets. Whats a man to do when he has to drop a duece? The leaves are crumply right now you know.

Buy parts for the new build up come February. How about seatpost options? I like Thomson's, but I'm going after a sub 23 pound build so I have to be selective on weight. I've thought about carbon, but not sure if it'll last under my ass. Any suggestions on stong light seatposts? I'm pretty sure I'm going with a Truvative Stylo bar, but won't know the stem until I get the bike in my hands and can play with different stem lengths. Also still up on the air on seats. I'm after a sub 150 gram seat with a 140+ width. They're out there...

Tires? I'm pretty sure I'm going to start on some Renegades. Really wanna try those out. Wheels are coming, brakes are ordered, and the cranks will likely be S-works. I'm pretty sure that covers it.

Lots of riding this week, and the Ralpha 500 challenge next week. 300 miles in a 6 day frame. I'm going to crush it.

G

We Need One of These

I'd like to do something like this. I think it would be a blast. Maybe not to the full extent of what these guys have done, but with a little planning I'm sure we could make something like this happen in KC.

Anyone have any ideas on how we get it started?

G

Sunday Sundown Ride

Yesterday was the second weekly installment of the Sunday Sundown ride at Landahl. Just a little thing I decided to start doing. Meet at 12:30, and ride till sunset.

Landahl was beautiful yesterday, and I couldn't have picked better riding partners. Trav, Jessie, Kevin, and Shawn met me, but unfortunatly they didn't stick around till the end.

Kevin had to leave early to head to the great state of Colorado. The rest of us finished up riding everything, along with multiple trips up the connector to the cars, and we rode the tasty connector twice, and only did the loop once.

The rest of the boys left, and I set back out and rode everything but Tasty again, which included in order Wills to Family down Daves and through Rim back up to the car. All in all a wonderful ride on snow. Speaking of which the snow was perfect. Just enough to classify it as a snow ride, but not enough to make it boggy. The rocks were slick but it made it more interesting. I only went down once, and it was a pretty stupid little bobble. Travis got a good laugh out of it though.

I felt good pushing the 34x18 on my Stumpy 29er. I'm really excited about building some massive power this winter on my SS and transfering that over into next season when I'll have 10 gears to play with and a double boinger to play on. My goal is to get to where I'm able to push a 34x17 gear on my Stumpy for 4+ hours.

Speaking of which, I'm in the process of getting the last few parts for the new stead. It's looking to be an awesome build, and I'm really interested to get the final weight when it's all said and done. What I'm guessing is a sub 23 pound double boinger 29er, with a 1x10 XX gearset. The biggest advantage of this new bike will be the wheelset. 1400 grams of carbon goodness! Match that with some 500 gram tires and I'll be looking at loosing well over half a pound per wheel over my last years racing wheelset.

Speaking of which I have a set of Ellsworth 29er wheels for sale. Super sweet wheelset. 1600 grams, blingy silver metallic hubs with oversized bearing. I'll start my price at $400. The retail is $900 I believe. I'll have them trued although they don't really need it.

That's all for now folks!

G

Snow, Bikes, Babes

Well more like Babe... As in Uno, singular.

This weekend Snow Creek opens. A couple of buddies and myself are going to go hang out. I bought a season pass last winter so I might as well use it. I'm going for my 50/50's to 180's off, 360's off hips, boardslides, and getting my grabs back. Nothing like the first session of the year to bring back the skills.

I'm riding bikes all weekend too, starting with a nice road ride today. I'm taking off work a little early. It's too damn nice outside and I've worked my tail off this week. I haven't ridden since Sunday. Needed some days to recover. Today will be chill, and I imagine Sunday we'll go tear up Landahl for multiple hours.

Jamie and I have the weekend off, and we don't have shit planned! It's great... It won't last long though, XMAS season is right around the corner.


I'm so sick of people judging MTBKRS, and calling us potheads. That's just ridiculous. I mean, really, where would they get that idea?

This bridge was nicer to me than the last.

Life is Great

Life is a funny thing. We really do take it for granted. Like all the time. Think about it, whens the last time you sat you butt in the dirt, sat quietly, and took in everything you have to be gracious for? I do it frequently.

Life is too short... Not many people understand that fully until they've come close to the end, or have had the unpleasent experience of loosing a close loved one unexpected. You really should get close to your guardian angel, mine is my best friend.

Almost on a daily basis we put ourselves in postitions that, if suddenly switched to worst case, can mean big consequences. Think about mountain biking. We really do put alot of faith in our skills. If it weren't for our abilities, one bad turn could end up in bad news.

Not to be a Debbie downer, but in the mist of fun and great times, don't forget what you truely have. It could be gone tommorow. Take todays ride and make it the best of your life. Every ride should be that way.

I'll leave you with images of a couple of awesome weeks of riding.

Now go enjoy life...

I Wasn't Ready for That

Sometimes in life you underestimate things. You don't really think things through only to find yourself knee deep in shit with no way out other than digging your self out one handfull of crap at a time.

That's pretty much been life for me lately. I'm in the mists of a comeback at work after losing a more than normal part of my business. You see in sales, alls it takes is a couple of big ones to bring you up, or down in my case.

A few months of coasting cost me big time.

Yesterday's cross race was pretty much the same way. I've been putting off training for cross due to a lack of motivation, and the fact that I've been having so much fun riding trails and gravel. We haven't had a fall this great in I don't know how long.

I decided to race the Open race yesterday. I figured I could at least mid pack it no problem. I was actually going to do the SS race before hand, but a nice wreck earlier in the week caused me to have a cross bike that was unrideable.

So I borrowed Kevins Specialized Carbon Crux. It was pretty much amazing. I got to spend a little over two and a half hours on it yesterday, ranging from riding ovals on the practice course, to racing it on a bumpy shitty cross course, and then spent an hour on it at the River Trails in Lawrence. Let me tell you, this bike is amazing all around. It did everything very well. The Specialized Captain tires proved to be great on the river trails and I was able to really push the bike hard into the corners while holding speed. No doubt I'll be buying one next year to race and ride on. Thanks to my boy Kev for hooking it up.

The race went pretty much like this. Start out strong, battle it out for a lap, and then hit the mud on the second lap and start my downward spiral from there. I'm happy we have people like Roger promoting races, but I really didn't care for his course. Thanks Roger, but that mud pit was ridiculous, the course was lacking fun, and it was tailored for the roadies no doubt. Not what I like in cross.

I lost a spot or two every lap after the mud pit. I really hate running. I hate running even more when it's through mud. No reason for that really. A couple of barriers would have done just fine.

I don't know where I finished but I do know it wasn't last. That's good at least.

So back to last week's wreck. All I have to say is my carbon front wheel is a hoss! Take a look at my wheel after the impact. This is the only sustained injury to it.

So here's what happend. I'm in KC riding with Trav and Steve. We're in some park I've never been to before and it's dark. We're doing two minute free style cross intervals. I'm leading. I run up a hill, jump back on, and heading back down the hill, watching closely as to not hit my head on an overhanging branch. I don't see a rock wall mid way down the hill. The rock wall has a 6 inch rock lip on it, followed by a three foot plus drop to a concrete path. Do the math, I'm 6'3, so from where I'm perched on my bike to the ground was about 8 feet. I went over the bars and fell that 8 feet to the ground. I ducked and rolled. I was saved by my guardian angel. Really, there's was a very high chance that wreck could have ended in me being in the hospital. I ended up with a scratch on my thigh, that's it. Well, and a bent fork and possibly a trashed frame, but that's a small price to pay for having my life.

We take for granted how lucky we can be as cyclists sometimes. Had not everything went perfectly right on that crash I could have ended up much much worse. Thank whomever you have to thank for your good fortunes sometimes. I know for the most part I end up really lucky in situations like that.

I'm pretty sure a fork isn't supposed to look like that.

Riding gravel with a 25 mph cross head wind. I needed a break. It's kinda wide open out here...


That's it for now, I'm tired of typing...

G

Randomness

My Itunes has been seriously screwed up lately. Super annoyed about it. Actually my whole computer has acted alot like red district lady of the night capable of giving you diseases you wouldn't even wish upon the biggest sandbagger. Silly crossers, 80+ responses to someone cutting barriers. Cross around here is alot like high school, full of drama.

This is what happens when you stick a tire between the grass and pavement at high speeds trying to turn. Carnage...

I've been on my cross bike 4 times now, and the only enjoyment I've found is riding it on trails. Maybe this rain will start my cross fire. As of now it won't be till November until I start racing.

Lots of riding... Trails are still prime. I took a high speed pedal to a stump tonight at Knob and sent myself flying into another sharp stump. Luckily I was six inches to short. I measured the distance traveled from the guilty stump to my final resting place. Over 15 feet. It was epic.

I get to ride Binder on Thursday which has got me pumped. I love that trail. Two full laps is the plan, and I'll need the lights to do it.

By the way, night riding is at it's all time most primo right now. Nothing beats cool 60 degree temps, and the crisp fall air in the middle of the night.

My favorite time to ride is the transition from light to dark. There's about 30 minutes in which the sun sets, and the woods start to darken. As the light fades your focus is at max, because you always must see how long you can go until you flick on the lights. High speed turns are meet with a slight uneaseness. Rock gardens require cat like reflexes, and the only thing you can focus in on is the fading trail just feet in front of your face.

And then the lights come on... And it's game time.

Go ride your bike.

G

Oh Boy

Man o man... It's really going to happen. Pair it with some 1400 gram carbon wheels and I think I may just have to enlope to it. Might as well marry it, it'll be my faithful compainion for at least two years.

To much goodness going on lately. Night riding has been off the chain, and trails have never been better... And to think you silly boys are riding circles in grass! Ha ha, you'll find me in the Ozarks Saturday, and Rockbridge Sunday. Come getcha some!

G

See Saw at Warsaw

Two seperate flats in the first half of the first lap... Check

Mile plus run though a rock garden.... Check

Patching my last remaining tube at the car... Check

Running 40psi in my tires on my rigid just to make sure as not to pinch flat again... Check

Becoming a human pinball on the roughest course to date... You betcha

Warsaw was brutal. Mac decided to make it a real man's course and go crazy with the rock gardens. The rigid wouldn't have been horrible, until I had to run 40psi. Took the lead nicely, put in a nice gap, flatted and watched everyone go by.

Felt good though, really good, but had to hold it back as to finish. At that point I had already lost the race, but if I got a finish, I got the points to take the overall series in the MWFTS.

Two overall series wins in a year... Oh ya boy

Not that it was a challenge, but like Doug Stone said, doesn't matter how fast you are if you don't show up.

You can always count me in...

G

Alternate Current Direct Current

If there's one thing I remember from my childhood it's the sounds of AC/DC blasting from my Pop's car stereo as we jammed to the likes of "Hells Bells", "Back in Black", "Thunderstruck" and more. I decided to make Back in Black my theme song last week as I plotted my redemtion on crap legs and bad races for the last month. I was ready to feel good again. Ready to pound pedals like I knew what I was doing instead of finding myself laid over on the side of the trail watching the race go by.

I did some pretty intense recovery workout last week. This consisted of little riding, lots of massage, foam rolling, no drinking beer, drinking 150+ ounces of water a day, good nutrition, lots of pills, and even some EMS. Apparently my roomate thought I was crazy when I whipped out the electric magnetic stimulator machine. Ever seen one? You place electrode patches on the muscles and it contracts the muscles through electrical current.

Anyways I overdid that part a bit, and instead of doing a recovery session of 1-3 magnatude contractions, I did 6-8. My legs were sore as hell on Saturday, and slightly better on Sunday. I didn't care though, I felt great.

Knob Noster got a little rain on Saturday night, but really didn't matter. The trail was good, minus the exits of a few creeks, and the new section that was a bit boggy.

Good to see some KC folks down to race. I've been talking that race up all year, and some of the guys I expected didn't so, but some I didn't did. We only had 4 total experts, and I was the only Open guy. After trying to sneak into the 35+, I was rejected but we did all start at the same time.

I laid down the patented G-wiz start, and took to the singletrack first. I slowed down on the new section to get a nice recovery in and once we hit the classic track, I let my knowiness of the trail and fresh legs take to it. Luckily Barry reduced the race from 4 laps to 3, which was nice for me due to the climbs and my one gear.

That was the last I saw of the other guys. I rode my race clean minus one over the bar ride. It was on the only rocky climb and I came in way too hot the first lap. No biggie though, I was back on and riding fast shortly after.

I did everything well yesterday. My legs were spinning fast, they climbed well, and they held a nice pace. I came in at 1:40 with Doug Stone at 1:48, Todd Fridley at 1:50 something and Mitch a while after that with some flats.

Steve came down which I didn't expect. Always good to see that cat's mug. He did well, and while he couldn't quite beat Gary Lowden in his age group, he did beat all but 2 of the 40-49 year old Cat 2's.

Here's the money shot. I need to teach Steve how to properly take photos. It's not a photo unless you flash a crazy face.

My legs are back on... I'm going to race Warsaw this weekend. Apparently no one has been consistant in the MWFTS and with a finish at Warsaw, I'll have that Open Expert overall series wrapped up. Two series wins in one season... Not to shabby abby.

Here's to not racing cross yet!

G

SWOOP

Shoop, do, be doop, shoop e doop, doop e doop e doop e.

That's about the extent of my thoughts on the Swope race last weekend. This picture pretty much sums it up.

Riding strong, sitting 4th, pass third taking the hard line down Jawbreaker, riding behind Trav and Aaron comfortably, then I take a hard hit to the saddle, and it takes and ass dive. Try to fix it, and the craptastic bolt, and my fumbleness ended up stripping the bolt. Then it was two and a half laps of dealing with a seat that nosedived, then ass dived, then stayed center for a few minutes then did more diving. I choose to just take it easy and have fun.

I won the 19-29 Cat 1 race tho! Seacat DNF'd after the first lap because of flats. I officialy took the overall series win also. So did Travis. That's what Ethos does.

KNOB THIS WEEKEND! Fuck all you crossers... Tossers. Can't you just wait till its gets somewhat cool? Manions does sound super fun though, and had I already not told everyone I'll be at Knob, I'd so be going after that sweet Chrome jersey for the SS winner.

Either way, come rock Knob Noster witcha boy this weekend. It'll be soooooo amazing.

G

New Roadie Training Wheels

Saw these on an ol' boys bike a couple of weeks ago and loved the look. Flat black thru and thru. Turns out he was selling them, and I picked them up for a swift two bills.

Nothing special, just a heavy ass set of wheels to train on this winter. Ultegra hubs laced to Velocity B43 rims. No braking surface makes for a clean look and the rival brakes still hook up nicely. Something like over 2000 grams. They hold speed very nicely on decents and flats, but you sure can feel them on the hills...

Getting ready for KC Cup. Legs still don't like me, but I'm about to beat them into submission tonight at Swope.

Try this one on for size... Local area band. Cowboy Indian Bear, "Heart Be"

Later boils and guels

G

The Good, The Bad, The Fugly

Sometimes you just have to realize you have nothing to complain about, and no matter how shitty some things go, they are very trivial in the whole grand scheme of things. I'd like to bitch about last weekends race, and how I was sick coming into it, and how it wasn't suited for a SS or certainly not rigid, or how I knew it was going to suck from the git go, but I won't. In the words of the great Bob Saget, "You ever suck dick for weed man?" No man, I haven't, so therefore I really don't have shit to complain about. (for those who find that statement offensive, whatever, it's one of his greatest lines, compliments of Half Baked)

So the Good... Binder Tall Oaks Challenge rocked. Awesome weather, awesome trail conditions, and lots of good fun. Six of us Ethos folks came to conquer, and Travis and I took it to the house with the overall duo win. I even managed to pull out fastest lap, making for a nice paycheck overall, and a great feeling of my fitness. I was absolutely crushing the SS. Big thanks to Nick and ya'll for continuing to put on awesome races...

Bridges!


I beginning to think I rarely ever look up during a race.

Last weekend four of us drove for what seemed like forever to Tour De Lizard. Don't miss that shit next year, it's crazy awesome! I'll be bringing gears and a dually next year for sure though. It went horribly wrong for me, but Trav did put it down for Ethos, taking 1st in his age group and 3rd overall.

I haven't even seen these in Missouri yet... Crazy Kansans!

Not sure what's been in my system this last month or so, but when it strikes, it strikes hard. I've been downing tabs of Eldeberry like crazy and it's taken effect for sure. Some good ol' rest and recovery, some extreme parenting for prep, maybe even some crawbling, and I should be ready to come put it down for the KC Cup.

Someone told me it's my kind of course....

G

August Shananagans

It's been a few weeks... I've been sans laptop for the last week. Apparently too much bike porn cause yet another virus to strike my drive and leave me helplessly unable to do anything productive on my puter.

So I like blues... and one program our station does carry is the House of Blues Show. It's a staple for the ride to Sunday races. I caught this song on it the other day. It was aurally pleasing, not to be confused with this orally pleasing.

North Mississippi Allstars - "Shake Em' On Down"


So lets start with the first order of biznatch which was our Key Largo vacation. BA I tell ya, BA. I try to be hip to the latest lingo, kinda like FML. No need for FML here, mines been gravy.

Jamie and I spent the week down in the Keys with my family, which turned out to be more than we wanted sometimes, but overall an awesome time.

We did lots of this...


I caught like a hundred of these fella's. Was hoping for Moby, but that dick never showed.


This was our bounty.

Got to Scuba Dive but no pictures, all I can say is AMAZING! Unlimited visiablilty, and I caught my first lobster, and even spotted this bad boy. I take claim to finding him, but I let the others work their magic on catching him.

I went with my cuz Josh, whos a marine biologist down there. Apparently he has the best job in the world. He just dives and studies weird sea life all day. Hard life I tell ya. They wanted to measure and study that bad boy of a specimen, and said it's the largest they ever caught. I don't do anything but big...

Lots of other fun shit, and then finished it off with the last day down at Key West where Jamie and I proceeded to see how many different bars we could hit in our 4 hour time frame. I was wasted...

So that was fun, much needed time off. A whole week without a bike! I thought about jacking some people as they rode by, but my better moral judgement told me I'd like to make it back to Missery, although the thought of a Key's jail sounded somewhat not so bad.

Came back, felt great on the bike, and then BAM! Head cold... I love that shit. Always before a race you actually give a shit on how you do. The Midwest SS Championship. I was ready for complete domination, but the few days leading up to the race were sketchy. Still had a clogged up head and not so good looking bowle movements. Ya, sick.

Long story short, 3rd of 67 total SS'ers. Worst race of the year for me feelings wise. I had no zip, and really had doubts on finishing. It's hard to stop when your top 3 though, and even through the blurry double vision, lack of being able to breath, and overall feeling of about to pass outness, I made it through the 3 laps.

Sooo Painful...

No so flossin...

Trying to dominate the BEAST! I was going to chug that shit but it's so damn nasty.

I would have loved to been on game, because Breslin was there and I think we could have rode each other into the ground. I had a decent start, gapped the feild and then just couldn't recover.

Oh well, still a decent result, just not what you want. I don't mind losing sometimes, but when you have others slotting you in top spot and you fail, it sucks. When you have yourself slotted in the top spot and fail, it sucks even more. And lastely when you get beat by a 19 year old who's new to riding, it puts the nail in the coffin. Turbo as your called, nice job man, keep it up...

I will revenge my lackluster showing. One thing I did learn was throwing down sub 33 minute laps should be easily doable at the Binder 6 hour race. My first lap was a 33, and I felt like crap on over half of it. Had I performed like I did at Sunflower and Croc Rock, I could have easily busted sub 32.

Off this weekend, I'm passing on Cruise the Blues, although you shouldn't. It's truely a spectacular race. I just have to much crap to get done around here. Being a responsible adult sucks. I just want to be a kid again...

Till next time

G

Racing Croc Rock

Musically I haven't posted much as of late. Mainly because nothing has excited me music wise. I haven't found any great gems lately. For the most part music sucks now days. Maybe that's just my thoughts, but great songs are a hard to come by, and great bands are even harder. For sake of you reading this I'll give you one of my old favorites....

Dio, "Holy Diver"

Don't judge me... Just put that shit on loud and rail some trails.

I've been feeling good as of late. I'm about to make Saturday weddings before Sunday races mandentory. I've had good luck these last couple of weeks.

Yesterday was Croc Rock up at Perry Lake put on by Lyle Reidy and some other fine folks. I've got to say they did a fine job. Nice trail, full of rocks, some ruts, fast fast fast flats, river trail, sketch creek crossings, and high speed gravel turns. That's pretty much a recipe for fun in my books. Kev, Amy and I headed up to do some damage and try to ride our legs into the ground.

They started us out with the 19-29 group and 30-39 group going at the same time with the rest of the experts going off a minute later.

I managed to flat during the pre-lap, and then found out my tube had a cut in it. Thanks to some good friends I was able patch it and get some spare tubes. With changing the flat, and fixing my loose chain, I managed to get to the front line with only minutes before the start.

I took the holeshot which seems to be the norm. I figured it wouldn't last long with Kent McNeile and Aaron E behind. It lasted for a couple of miles, then Kent passed, followed by Kevin L, both from Trek Omaha, and then Aaron. Not long after, Kent flatted followed by Aaron. It was just Kevin and I at that point.

I kept him at a 5 second gap leading into the 3rd of fourth lap, but fumbled on my bottle switch which gave him a little bigger gap. The 3rd lap was a blurry death lap for me. The rocks were killing me on my non-suspension bike, and it was everything I could do to keep a good pace. My back was about toast, and my hands felt like they had been beaten with a meat tendorizer. I lost sight of Kevin about mid-way through the lap.

Some goo and the last lap boost got me going again, along with alot of telling myself to quit being a pussy and that pain is just an imaginary crock of shit. The last lap was good, but I did get passed on the last damn hill by some other Trek Omaha guy. I tried to sprint him to the line, but my legs weren't having it. Turns out his was in the master end of the experts, and started a minute later anyways.

So all in all, pretty good shit on my end. 1st in the 19-29, and 3rd of 20 overall.

I beat Aaron, which was funny, because last week I told him I had his number. Pure luck, pure luck...

Later

G

Coincidences

It's funny how the world works sometimes... Sometimes in larger scales than others, but sometimes it's the little things that make you wonder. Not that I'm neccassarily wondering right now, but bored at work and having a few minutes to play around I googled riding dirty flying high. Just curious as to if this little read blog came up... It did, but not first.

Apparently Flying High and Riding Dirty got the top honors. Not sure how long the sites been around but it's a site based out of Tokoyo. And it's in english... And it has bike content. Weird. Not to mention it goes to a Play Burger blog post, which in itself is pretty cool. A burger joint that made burgers in a box you take home and put together like a game. I smell a money making scheme.

I'm not sure what prompted their decision to name their site Flying High and Riding Dirty. Could be similar to mine, which anymore doesn't pertain to my style. Well, still some, but this whole racer thing kinda got in the way. I like to go fast, and that requires a healthy lifestyle full of blueberries, rabbit food, and a healthy colon cleansing from time to time.

I did find this little gem on their site though. I used to skateboard. Before I rode bikes. I'm much better at riding bikes, but there was something to surfing a skateboard that I loved. Which is why I now snowboard, which I'm much better at than skateboarding.

Skateamation...

Skateboardanimation from Tilles Singer on Vimeo.

I had nowhere to go with this... Just wasting some more minutes...

G

Sunflower State Games

All in all Ethos ripped dirt and took top spots last weekend at the Sunflower Games mountain bike race. Well, there were only 9 or so experts, but I took 2nd, and Travis took 3rd. That's right, I beat Travis. Hallo-freaking-loo-ya. That's the first time this year, after a couple close calls.

Even better was I was able to hang on to Aarron Elwell's, (if you don't know, it doesn't matter), wheel for half of the race. He then broke loose at the start of lap 3 and started opening up the gap from there. Even on a bad day he's super strong.

Check out the write up over on the Ethos site, along with our newest sponsor, Weston Brewing Company. Super psyched to have these guys on board. They brew great beer, and we look forward to passing plenty of it out to you all in the future.

There's still alot of racing left this year. I've got 8 on the books so far, with that much plus some just in mountain bike racing coming up. It's going to be a great second half of the year. I can feel it...

Later for now

G

Get Your Oh Face On

That's right ladies and gents...

Presenting my next bike.


The Specialized 2011 Epic S-Works Carbon 29er

I'm going to be so broke.

G

Oh, and if for some chance I see you on this bike before I get one, ride quickly away. I might just have to jack it off you.

Knob State Park

Great riding at Knob tonight before the monsoon hit. Got the mental course layout for the fat tire race. More details to come but I'm going out on a limb and saying it will be one of the better courses of the year. Fast, fast, fast and flowy with a couple doubletrack climbs and one killer. Some crazy fast downhills, one short tech section and lots of swooping fun turns. Oh ya baby, fat tire heaven.

From me to you via iPhone

Plastic Bikes Rule

So I'm convinced. If you can do this shit to a road steed, you can do anything to a plastic mountain ride... Enjoy.

State Champs

Wish I could say Ethos now had a couple, but we were forcefully made to race super strong guys this weekend. All in all it turned out pretty nice.

I was still recouping from the Down and Dirty race the weekend before at Warsaw. Pretty much went like this...

Took the holeshot out of 15 experts, some racer who I won't mention pulled a dick move causing me to wreck doing 20mph into a cedar tree, all the sport and ss class passes, I get up stumble around, get pissed, start raging, work my way back up to 2nd, flat, and end up 6th or so, 1st in the 19-29 only because Justin had two flats for the day. I felt good, but it was just one of those races.

I took the week off, and recovered. Somewhat. Still bruised and beaten a bit.

Friday Travis, Steve, and I headed to the STL for a pre ride of Castlewood. It rained crazy hard for 10 minutes when we showed up. Just enought to slick everything up real nice. The puncture from last weekend that I thought I had sealed came undone, causing me to put a tube in. The opening climb was bonkers, and I eventually opted to run a 34x20 instead of the 19. Figured it would be easier to spin faster instead of grind.

We had 14 Singlespeeders overall. Pretty stoked. Some super stiff comp, including Dan Miller, Dan Furhman, and a national champ Pro, Dejay Birch. Ya I pretty much figured he was going to dominate us all.

We take off, I can't climb for shit, my back wheel falls off at the top of the climb and I'm back off the front by 30 seconds. Pefucked! Manage to work hard and pass Nico from Team Segal and Dan F on the first doubletrack hill. I was raging nicely, and ended up behine Rock Wamsly, who pulled me along the rollercoster section. I noticed that Deejay was up in front and I yelled at Rock to catch "that dude". He did, and we made the pass. I was pretty stoked to be riding in front of a pro at this point.

Making the move on some experts.

It was hot. First lap was good, second lap was a little harder, and the third lap I developed a chain problem. I had popped the chain a few times during the race which didnt sound good. Guess it kinked a link, because on the last lap I dropped my chain 5 times. That was disheartning. I just kept thinking, great now Dan and Deejay are going to catch me. Well I rode like a bat out of hell on rollercoaster to make sure I gave myself extra time on the Grop hill. I noticed Dan F coming up on the last hill and buried myself. Then my chain came off again. I don't know how I held him off but I did. Came in 2nd.

First loser...

Not to bad though, I was happy with it all. I didn't have my climbing legs, which I normally do. Had I had, and had I not had dropped my chain 5 times, I might have been a threat to Dan Miller. As it was though, he beat me by 4 minutes. Super strong charger this year. Glad to see a good dude win it...

So ya, I guess I'm pretty much pro now. I mean Deejay is more of an endurance racer but a pros a pro. I don't think anyone thought we were taking him down, but three of us did. Both Dans and me. Guess Deejay wasn't used to the retarded high humidity we have here in Missery. It was crazy hot. Deejay was a cool dude though, definetly happy to have raced with him.

Travis had the stacked field of the day, he ended up 7th overall, and 6th in his class. Schottler won it. He's absolutely killing it right now. Steve had to pull due to the heat, along with a ton of other people. I don't really mind it, I can deal with it I guess.

Next up is Perry Lake, this Sunday. From the description, it sounds like a good course. Should be good for another 34x20 expert slaying session. I've been enjoying racing Expert on my SS this year. It's challenging, but rewarding. Knowing that I do what they do with one gear and do it just as well. Who knows, I may be a SS convict forever... RIP gears.

G

Sunshiny Days

I've been busy... To busy for my taste but what can you do. If I had it my way, I'd be laid back, sippin a 40 in the shade while listening to Snoop Dogg beat outta my boom box. That's a warm sunny day for ya. Instead I've been working go go go, and fitting in good rides here and there.

I forgot to post up about the Krug race, but you can find out how that went by clickin on that pretty Ethos logo over there ----- >

Bottom line was it was a bad ass race, and brutal to boot.

Then it was taking it easy for a couple of weekends. That was nice. No racing.

Last weekend Jamie and I did a little ride on the Katy while the Peddlars Jamboree was going on. That was nice. Jamie did awesome, busting out a 30 mile ride off the couch on her Walmart bike. I was impressed. She only complained a bit, mainly about her bum, but my bum hurt too so I can only imagine her's on that shit ass saddle.

Then Kev and I went out for a hot 45 mile gravel grinder the next day. I got a glove tan line. It's pretty sweet. Kevin got to experienc REAL gravel, none of that buff pussy shit. The kind that's hard to ride through and makes keeping it upright downright hard sometimes. It puts the pain on you, and hopefully the DK gravel is a little nicer to him.

Tuesday I took out to Warsaw to do some preriding so that I can give you, the loyal reader, a preview of the upcoming race this weekend. Prepare for fast, chattery, rocky, fun. I recommend a dually or lower tire pressure. It's a bad ass trail system, but jesus, it'll beat the hell out of you. No real big rocks, just a million billion small ones. Either way it's going to be a throw down. Mac even made an eleveated TT shoot to start the TT on Saturday. It was impressive. This cat puts on one hellava race, so I recommend you come down fool.

Last night I did the Spin Pizza ride up at Waldo with Trav and Jamie and some other people, one of which included a douchy wannabe who thought he was cool. That's besides the point. It was a good ride, something like 24.5 average on the main section. Pretty chill going out to the hammer grounds, and coming back, but for that 18 mile stretch, it was on. We almost got killed. Some jackass in an old hoopdy came flying around a corner, did a 180 hit a car on the oncoming lane and then sped off. What a dick. Luckily we were 30 seconds to late, and he passed us before failing the corner. The pizza at Spin Pizza is amazing... Well I didn't really eat it but I've heard so. Either way this Wednesday night ride is a must do. 30 miles and it leaves at 6:15.

So there you go homie, the almost bi-weekly G-Wiz update. Hope to see you this weekend... Find the dirt here.

Also, recieved my ultrabadass Kuat NV rack a few weeks ago. I'll post up about how amazing it is soon. Let's just say it pretty much makes any other rack look like childs play. It's legit, to legit to quit.

Adios

G

Races You Dominate and Races You Survive

I think that once someone has raced long enough, he or she encounters both. Race you dominate, and races you survive. Wilson Lake was a race I survived. That being said, I can honestly admit it was the hardest XC race I've ever done, and third hardest race overall only losing to Syllamo and Ouachita.

Doug and the crew must first get my kudos. They put on a great race, and I guess they have good karma too, because the weather was spot on.

I've never ridden this course although we've had many spoiled plans on trying to get up there the last few months. We arrived Saturday around 2, checked into our lovely casa, and headed over to do the hill climb. Let me say that warming up for 10 minutes doesn't do much in regards to preparing for an all out assualt on a hill climb.


The crib. An old converted grain shed, into a nice little four bed bunkhouse.


The outhouse which I never did find my way into...

It was fun to line up and race up the hill though. I didn't do so well, had problems getting going, and then almost came to a complete stop on one of the grass switchbacks. I think I ended up at 2:27, just three seconds shy of Travis's 2:24 and not even close to Aaron's 2:10. Cam put down a 2:15. I think I was 5th overall or so... I had burning lungs, dead legs, and a smokers cough, but damn it was still a hoot.

We took a little ten mile preview ride after that. I stuck with Cam, Trav, and Aaron E. I felt amazing. Didn't even feel like I was putting in that much effort, and kept thinking, these hills aren't too bad. I should have know I would eat my words the next day.

We arrived at the race Sunday morning after an amazing nights sleep. Something about being out in the country makes me sleep well. It was quiet, minus the owners dog who I think was protecting us from unseen predators by barking non-stop all night long.

I did a short warmup, after learning from my warm up mistake last week at Neosho. We lined up, and all be damned, there was another SS Expert! I knew this dude was serious, mainly because he was rocking a 17 pound GF Superfly, and also because he kicked my ass on the hill climb the day before.

We took off and I spun my brains out. Too much road for my taste to start, specially going up agains 16 other geared experts. Then there were us two SS'ers. He got a good postition, my wasn't bad. I came into the trail in about 10th.

We bobbled the first tech section and come the first hill I was able to pass a few riders. The next hill I did the same, where upon I'd stumble into my finishing spot, 6th.

The race was long... 27 miles of Wilson Lake goodness. I felt pretty good for the first 8-10 miles but then hit a wall. My legs went dead and I lost contact of eventual 1st place 19-29 rider, Justin G. I caught him early and rode for him a bit, but once the hills really kicked in, he was gone.

The race was a blur, as that's the way surviving usually plays out. There were times where I cursed my choice to race Expert on a SS. There were times where I wondered why the hell I even put myself in those situations. Why would anyone want to hurt this bad? I'm going to quit. No, I'm not, because I'd never hear the end of it. That is the one up side of having a bunch of dickhead buddies who you ride and race with. They're never short on sharp blows to the ego if in fact you do puss out and DNF.

I eventually manned up and decided that I was going to finish, and damnit was I was going to do it in style. I knew I was in 3rd in my group, but what I didn't know was that just up ahead, Cam had to pull out do to a major bonk.

The first 17 mile lapped passed and Amber was spot on with my bottle handup. From there it was counting down the last 10 miles. I knew once I got to mile 7, I'd be home free. That was the turn off.

Those last 10 miles were actually not as bad as the last 7 of the first lap. I muscled my way up most of the hills, but did have to dismount and briskly walk some. I had cramp twinges starting at mile 12, and had to be super careful to ride smart and not entise the cramps to full bore, laying on the side of the trail in the fetal postition, debilatating cramps. That would cost me time, and places. I had made it this far and wasn't giving up ground now.

Once we hit the turn off, it was one more big climb and then costing flats to the finish. I pounded my sprint to the finish mainly out of a pure estatic feeling of being done. It was over, I had survived.

There are times when you want nothing more than to give in and break under pressure. Times when you don't think you have anything else left to give, and that the next step is throwing in the towel. I think what seperates the good from the best is that the best know how to break through the wall, and pull through it no matter how bad it hurts, or how horrible you feel. This was one of those races. It took every last mental ounce of energy I had to finish like I did, but the upside of pushing yourself past your known physical limit, is that next time, you know you can push just a little harder.

Ethos had a good showing, with Travis taking 2nd overall, and his age group to a raging Aaron Elwell, Kevin doing what he does best, and rocking the 40-49 sport group, and I managed 2nd in the 19-29 and 6th ove 18 overall experts. Cam had a bad day, shit happens, and he had to pull. Sometimes no matter how bad you want to, you really can't push on. Luckily for me, I managed, and now I'm feeling like my legs got ran over by the beer truck. Get strong little men, get strong...

G

One After Another After Another....

If you haven't had a chance to get out and ride or race over the past few weeks, then I appologize. My tales of dirt trechery and race mischief will probably only piss you off. I know, it sucks when life gets in the way and you can't get out and do what you want. But then again you are the chooser of what happens or doesn't so really, isn't it your fault you've missed out on all the fun?

It all started with the Lawrence River Trail Race. I really don't think you can find a fast trail to do a race on. Something like putting a rocket on the back of your bike, and pushing the boost button. Of course with one gear you're limited to the amount of fast fun you can have, but my 32x16 was still plenty of fun for me. Managed 1st of a pretty lame showing of singlespeeders. Not to say those who I raced where lame, at least they showed, but the amount of SS'ers was lame. Four total.

Fast forward to the next weekend and it was time for some Smithville lovin at Bone Bender. Not sure why they call it bone bender, as I'm pretty sure you can't bend bones, they only break. I guess it sounds cool. It was cool. Really fun fast trail with a bit of rocks and tech thrown in for fun. Even busted out the skinny skillz on the log ride at lap three. I had no ambition of racing for six hours so I went for the three hour solo SS. Did pretty well, and we actually had 11 racers in our class! Got first, to match Cam's and Travis's 1st, and Winkler's 1st. That dude has some serious problems. Anyone who can come in after six hours of racing only a few minutes behind the insanely fast duo of Cam and Trav, obviously has problems with being way too bad ass. He really needs to calm that down a notch. People are going to start assuming he's shooting dope through his toes and shit.


I guess the only pictures that were takin of me happened to be when I was stuffing my face with a cliff bar. That's what I'm good at though, stuffing my face. Some call me goose guts.


So that was fun... Then the rain finally put a damper on our parade of non stop dirt riding fun. Well it almost did.

I made the last minute desicion of gathering a few cats from the Burg and heading down to Neosho for the Tour De Tick race. I haven't done that race in a few years, and the rain was killing all hopes of riding around here, so the three hour drive was worth it.

The race was cool. I did a pre 6 mile lap which I shouldn't have done. Felt great but burned more energy than I should have on a warm up. Took the lead from the git go, which was odd considering I was the only one with one gear. Held on great for a bit, was feeling like superman, until I had two fumbles back to back on a tech section. Lost five postitions and blew my heartrate up. Took forever to recover, but managed to work myself back to 3rd when Dan and Shot had simultanious flats. Oh the luck... Then worked into 2nd after taking over Little Arky on a hill. Eventually got pasted by Shot, who then later had another flat. Then pasted by Dan, then Little Arky, and lastly another racer. The last lap and a half reduced me to the likes of a 16 year old little girl. I didn't have the power to dominate the climbs and I was losing it fast. Still managed to get 7th of 14 overall experts. Not bad for a C race. I learned some shit which is worth something right?

The funniest part of the day happened at the start of the kids race. We were just getting suited up when we heard a girl start screaming at the top of her lungs and crying like a rabbit attacked by a pack of wolves. She was screaming for help and we could only imagine the worst. Three of us bolted through the thick brush to come to her aid. Turns out she was SOOOO upset that she was going to lose, and she wasn't winning that she figured crying and screaming would fix the problem. That girls dad might want to have a heart to heart talk... It's not about winning kiddo, but if you act like that again, you're banned for life!

So that's the latest skinny. I've been riding and working alot, Cam is moving to Colorado, I still haven't found any mushrooms which might be due to the lack of looking, and the rain can officialy go fuck off.

Wanna race bikes this weekend? Be at Wilson Lake. It's where all the cool kids will be.

Holy Shit

If this doesn't get your pecker hard for some racing tommorow, nothing will. So much has been going on, just haven't had time to post. For now, enjoy this piece of amazing riding. Makes me oh so gitty...

Chris Akrigg TEOCALI.0 from chris akrigg on Vimeo.

MIA

Not Paper Planes MIA, but in a sense missing like her since her one hit wonder pop on the scene.

Riding bikes... Yes I've actually been riding my bikes! The board has since been put up, and the chains have been lubed and tires aired. It's go go time.

Races have been cancelled, big bummer. Trav and I were supposed to go to Okie last weekend to duo a 6 hour but that was failed. Thought about going to NE this weekend until we found out the race was a one lap time trial.

Good ride Sunday with the boys in the hood of the Burg. 50+ miles of road goodness, and more training to get Kev in shape for the DK 200. Will I participate? Who knows, you might just see my name on the waiting list. Wait a fucking minute, 200+ miles of gravel in Kansas? Might need to re-think that plan. I'm still leaning towards following Kevin in a car getting drunk all day. That sounds more like it.

Trails will be dry this week! Yippie I Ki Ya! Got to hit some hot laps up last night. Crankset is toast, need a new one but biz has been slow so I might have to pull some strings.

My sights are set...

Help! Am I A Roadie???

Ha ha, the correct answer is B. NO! But I do love to go fast, and when the trails suck like a hoover with intense moisture, then yes, I do for a fact take to the road. I picked up a sweet deal at the beginning of last Summer on a full carbon K2 road bike. Sram Rival groupset, Easton Circuit wheelset, Sram carbon cranks, the full works, for only a grand. This thing is like a rocket on the roads compared to my old road machine, the Kona Jake. Guess a cyclocross bike isn't the most ideal road tearing machine. None the less I had an awesome weekend of riding the road. So I may not be a full time roadie, but when it comes down to it, I'll do anything to get a good ride in.

Saturday we spent the day in Jeff with my Mum and little sister. Jamie took the kids along with Mum and Libby, and they headed into town to see the capital and do some shopping while I went out and road the old roads of my day. The roads that I used to romp back when I lived in Jeff. I started at the house in Brazito, headed over to Honey Creek Road, to Tanner Bridge into town, over to Stadium where I hit up Red Wheel for a little break, some air in my tires, and some cliff shots. I started the ride with 40 pounds in both tires and didn't have a pump on me. From there it was up Edgewood, over to Country Club, to C and that's where it got interesting. I was hoping to hit Zion to Loesch but Loesch turned out to be gravel. So I backtracked a mile to Walnut Acres, which looked great for the first two miles and then turned to gravel. I said fuck it, it was only another few miles to my next turn and the gravel was super buff, so I took my full carbon road bike on a gravel grinder. Little did I know that down the next hill was fresh gravel that was unrideable. Another mile and a half of walking/running, some more riding, more walking, and a little more riding and I finally hit blacktop where I took D back home. Nothing like a little adventure. All in all it was a good 2 and a half hours of solid riding.

Yesterday was fun and interesting. I started the day at about 11 with an hour road ride from Jamies house. I hit B to 65 and then turned back around and rode back. It's about an hour ride exactly, right around 20 miles with 1000 feet of climbing. I rested for three hours, and then went back out and rode the same route again. This time I was treated to a spectacular sight. It was a group of 50,000+ geese tornadoing down into a field. If you've ever got to watch such a sight, you know how crazy cool it is. The noise alone they made was stunning, much less the wild funnel affect they show when coming in hot to land. It was the highlight of the day, and I wanted nothing else than a 12 gauge, extended magazine of about 12 shots, sitting silently as they approached, and then BAM, BAM, BAM. We're having goose tonight!

So after safely arriving home, I shot some pool with Jamie's bro, drank some brew, and three hours later turned on the computer, pulled up New World Disorder 3, and rode the trainer for an hour at a nice clip. Struggled a little, but that's everytime on the trainer. I don't enjoy riding in place. After that it was a core workout to finish off the day.

Three 1 hour workouts and a core workout. Good training for our first big race, the 24 Hours of Syllamo. I need to train according to the race which is why I broke up my workouts. At the race it will be an hour on, three off, and hour on, and such for 24 straight hours. FUN!!!!

More nice weather this week? What the fuck, I guess winter is finally on it's way out. Let us all pray.

Snow, Snow, Snow

So I got to do a bit of snowboarding Friday, Saturday, and then on Sunday. No riding... Which sucks. Oh well, I guess I'll make up this week. Friday was a little hour rail jam using a rail I found down at the bike shop. It was a little to short but I got to have a bit of fun. Saturday, in the mist of non stop running around, I got to set up this little bit at the farm. It was fun, I only got to ride for about fourty five minutes, but did get one decent shot. This one, a little one eighty over the black barrel with a nose tap on the way down.
Sunday was no fun. Matt and I headed to Snow Creek in Weston, which seemed to take forever. I did pick up a good deal on a new Burton coat at Dicks on the way up. We arrived to the most extensive terrain park we've seen from either one of these Missouri joints. They had it all. Unfortunatly before I was comfortable to start doing more advance shit, Matt decided to hit the big jump. I told him not to, to wait until later when we were fully warmed up. The result... A dislocated shoulder. So after about 45 minutes of riding we had to get him down the hill, to the car, and to the hospital. He wasn't a happy camper. After spending three hours in the hospital I wasn't either. Oh well, shit happens. I'm glad it wasn't anything worse, but he'll be out for the next couple of months. Guess I'll have to find another shredding partner. Anybody out there board? G

More Press for Kuat

Not just a week ago I caught a glimps of the new Kuat NV bike rack in Bicycle magazine. Now, this morning I catch a blog on it at Bikerumor.com. These guys are going to go huge, and I'm stoked to have the NV coming my way soon. Yup, should have it in a few weeks, and I have to say I'm super excited to be supporting these guys this year, and having them support me.

Check out the Bikerumor report here.

Weekend Shredding

Sweatshop Union... There's a different group for you. Rap, not usually a genre I'm huge about but this group has some pretty strong songs, with lyrics that dive deeper than the typical "Making money, slappin hunnies, shoot up the block, and slingin rocks" rap bullshit. Water streets a great place to start album wise, with songs like Oh My and Comes and Goes. "And we slave in the old workforce, and pay for a government that don't work for us" Deep...

So this last week was about as awesome as any this month. I got to ride trails on Tuesday, trainer on Wednesday, a utmost kickass ride with Sean on Thursday at SMP, and then some snow riding at Bothwell Lodge in Sedalia on Saturday. This is a cool 3.5 mile loop that throws fast buff trail at you and then rocky tech sections too. The snow and ice made things interesting, and I cleared everything at least once which was a task on the SS given the conditions. There was about an inch of snow on the ground.


For some reason my hand experienced pain from the cold worse than I can ever recall. I guess getting dressed outside without my gloves left them cold before I even started and it went downhill fast after that. I wore my same glove set up and it wasn't that cold so I was a little confused. Thank god for Bothwell's super awesome heated bathroom. It was a life save, and once re-heated, my hands were good for three more laps. Check this sweet trail off Highway 65 just a few miles north of Sedalia if you're ever in the area.

Here's my winter riding gear, bib knickers, long sleeve jersy, and my bib Carharts, and old school Jeff City Flying Service jacket. I look like a hillbilly, but I'm at least a warm one, and suprisingly comfortable too!

Sunday I joined forces with three buddies from Columbia to hit Hidden Valley up in the Lou for some snowboarding. The snow was the best I've ever seen in Missouri and thanks to the big air comp on Saturday, they had some awesome jumps set up. It was one of those days were everything came together. The weather was Spring like, and my boarding was top knotch, the best ever. We didn't even take pics because we decided everything was going so smoothly that we didn't want to screw the mojo up with dealing with taking pics. So we rode hard, and shredded. I managed to pull a nice 360 off a kicker, and pulled the 50-50 to boardslide on one of the kinked rails. All in all it was an awesome day, but I did make one mistake which led to this...

A nice chunk out of my new to this season Omatic Celebrity snowboard. It was partly my fault, I was trying to do a switch 180 nose tap on a rail and got off balance and slammed the nose of my board into the front of the rail. I cut the excess off and still rode confidently for the rest of the day. This board has progressed my skills emensly this year, and it feels amazing. Hopefully they can help me out on getting me on a new board soon.

This week looks interesting weather wise, a little to warm for my taste. My B-day is Saturday, the big 23. Hopefully we can take to Snow Creek all day Friday for more snow action...

Because Sometimes...

You just have to spin the legs out.

Wanna waste some time? Go to www.bikerumor.com It's all about bikes baby!

Darkness, Trail, and a SS

The sun went down, the lights came on, the ground froze, and we tore up dirt once again since what seems like 1990. It's been too long since my last dirt encounter, the last time we rode trails they had 6 inches of snow on them.

The new set of Juicy's look good, feel good, and should be a good upgrade for the new year. My old juicy's had seen some wear. On a sad note, the Fox fork didn't fit. I need 220mm of steerer, and it only had 180. Shame on me for not checking first. Marco was one cool dude about it though and took the fork back. I found another on Ebay for under 500 so I guess I'm not to bad off.

Wish I could post pics from last night but I forgot my camera. Truely awesome riding can be had in the small town of Warrensburg. There are three trail systems and if you link them up, you have one serious trail ride. We poached one of the local golf courses, and the sand was froze. Can you say sailing? Launch a frozen sand trap and see what hangtime you get. The snow was frozen too, enabling launching through parking lots. I like to get air, maybe I need a DJ bike??? Nooo...


Here's a new one. The ninja mask! Find out more at http://www.talusoutdoor.com/. You'll see me rocking one if this weather stays cold.

Sunshine, Road, and a SS

It seems like forever since getting out and riding outdoors. I've dabbled in it, but yesterday was the first good ride of the year. Really, the first good ride since early December. We headed out for a blustery and windy 3 hour ride. The first hour and a half was rough, with strong headwinds, but the second half was gravy. The Jake SS was a blast, I need to take the mud crosses off, but the 42x16 was perfect.

Also took delivery of this last night... Let the fun begin suckas!

Posting Frenzy!

I'm on a roll... Wanna see more snowboard pics? Betcha did. Here's a few. Working on the year end video finale... Figured I'd throw in a few shots.

Get Your Ass Kicked

Wanna? Wanna? Huh? I'll be buying this download in the next few days so I'll be able to tell you more about it. I saw it about a month ago, but that was during my bike hyatus, so I didn't think much about it. I did the first video training ride in years last night and actually had fun on the trainer. I have a felling this is going to kick ass. A good review is up at www.bikerumor.com. Enjoy, no go get your ass kicked!

For Your Boredom Pleasure

Yup, I've been a bit uninteresting as of late. Too busy to post up anything worthwhile, and still in the process of putting together the 09-10 snowboard season edit. We've got a few good shots and videos, and some lackluster ones, but all in all we're having a blast shooting footage of doing what we love in winter, snowboarding.

This is pretty lame, but it was done in a 30 minute block of time in between gettting moved in my new place in Warrensburg. I built a little kicker to shoot over this little drainage creek in one of the park. I was just stoked to still see snow when everywhere else there was none. Built the kicker and sent it. Not enough speed to do much, but just enough to clear.