New Photos....Finally!!!!

So here you go. You can stop bugging the shit out of me to post some new photos. I didn't realize I had such a following. Shesh. Went out riding street with Tony Tyrant the other night. Here are some photos of what went down.


-curved wallride in the parking garage.


-Tony always 'inside icepicks' for the Lord.


-icepick with scary drop on the other side.


-some artsy shit right here yo!

By the by, if you're going to snag my photos for your website or your Myspace account, you'd BETTER give me a FUCKING BYLINE! I work damn hard at taking and working on these photos. If they're ending up in a place where other people are going to see them, I'd like other people to know who took them. I'd also appreciate you asking permission first. And maybe a link to this blog so interested parties can contact me if they want to contract me for work. Thanks. Enjoy!
PS- would anyone be interested in owning prints of any of the photos that they see here? I'm thinking of something like $20-$40 per print? Your choice of paper grade and size? Let me know if you'd be interested in something like this.
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

FOM! WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

How do you know when you've finally arrived? When you make Jeff's Friend Of the Month award. Apparantly I swept the month of August in Jeff's book. Head here to check out the offical word. As a side note, I ride to work every day! I want to thank all the people who made this possible, my agent and the millions of fans worldwide! Thank you, goodnight!

Updates, Updates, Updates!!!

So here we are. I've got lots to fill you in on so heeeeere we go!
Ghettodrome Pt I
-I went down to Ghettodrome two weeks ago for the first time. A bunch of track and fixed riders find spaces to race each other around only turning left (just like a velodrome). Throw in the fact that we're sneaking into these places, generally aren't supposed to be there, and have to deal with things like broken glass, avoiding the Fuzz, and not being able to see really well at all times, and you have the ghetto part. We run races like they do on a track, Miss-and-Out (Devil-Take-The-Hindmost or Elimination), Match Sprints, Scratch, and Pursuit. Fun stuff. Everyone who races is super mellow and just great folks to hang out, ride and race with. This week in particular we snuck into a high school track and ran the races there. The track was amazing, super grippy and nice even turns. There was no lighting so it was pitch black, save for when cars were passing by and the red lights we wore on our backs to keep from rear-ending each other. Good times.

Hartford Hardcore Alleycat.
-Last Saturday I raced in the Hartford messenger race. Super fun again! There were 5 of us who wound up racing together as a team. Karp, Linden, Karp's buddy from work, and even The Fuse showed up to throw down! He swung by with his wife and new bundle of joy who seemed happy just taking in all of the strange looking dirtbags with bikes that surrounded him. The route had us going all over the Hartford area from the hospital in Blue Hills, to the eastern part on Service Road, to the Whethersfield/Hartford line. Good times riding fast through traffic with friends is what its all about. At the end, I threw down my $5 to get in on the trackstand action. Out of 7 I was the 4th one out. Was super pissed at myself cause I know I could definitely give everyone else a run for their money no handed but my legs were so burned (just like everyone else, I know) I lost it. The next alleycat is in New Haven on Devil's Night. My chance to redeem myself.

Ghettodrome Pt II
-This past Monday my buddy Pat accompanied me to check out the race scene with me. We raced around Ikea parking lot. Much different than the previous week's track. The turns were WAAAAAAY tighter than what the track was like. I wound up pedal scraping and having to turn wide on most of the turns. Definitely not the safest thing. Not being able to keep a line is death for anyone else trying to out pace and pass. On the last race, Pat and I were running a Match Sprint. Best 2 of 3. He took the first race and on the second race, serious injury just barely grazed past my being. On the second to last turn I saw Pat accelerating and I knew that I had to lay it all out to be able to go to the tie breaker. I pushed with all I had, took the turn too hard and pedal struck like a motherfucker! All I remember is sitting bolt upright, taking one foot out of the clip and turning off my thinking. My muscle memory totally took over my body and straightened by bike out and gave me control of the bike again, letting me swerve and miss the carrage return by mere feet. Upon reaching the finish line, I was greeted with 'Holy crap, you OK?' 'Nice save!' Needless to say, it was the closest I want to be to wrecking at full speed on my fixed. I don't know how I saved it. Must have had a guardian angel (or two) looking out for me that night. Shorter cranks have been ordered and will be a welcome addition to my fixed for racing. I don't think I'll be able to race this coming Monday due to the logisitics of the order, but I'm considering shooting some film and video of the races.
That's about it. If anyone is interested in racing their track bike on Mondays please let me know and I'll set a space aside in the car for you. Oh yeah! Tony Tyrant and I rode some street tonight. Go check out his blog to see some of the photos he took while we were out.
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

Ghettodrome Results...

So the results from ghettodrome are in....I got my ass kicked! Hard! I'm blaming it on my gearing. I'm not geared nearly hard enough to keep up with everyone. I realized this about half way to the course as I fell to the back of the group. On this night in particular our race track was a local high school track. Pitch black. No lights. You could see about 2 feet in front of you. We all had to wear glowing red tail lights to avoid crashing into each other. The first race was elimination. The last rider across the line gets eliminated. You go as many laps as you have riders remaining. There were about seven of us racing. I was the second one to get eliminated. We ran a loser bracket with the first four to get eliminated racing. After assessing my last race, my strategy changed. I knew that I wouldn't be able to catch anyone out in front of me so I went out hard off the front. Got passed by one guy, caught up to him, passed him and then got caught in the last lap with about a 16th of a mile to go. Spinning my ass off, trying to choke the vomit back down. Shouldn't have eaten so close to a race. I guess second isn't so bad for my first time out. Then we raced a regular 3 lap deal. First one across won. I thought there were four of us and was so happy that I wasn't DFL. When I asked how many of us were racing I was pretty disappointed when the reply was 'three'. I'm definitely heading back there next week with a bigger gearing for more of an edge. 53x16....Next race report: Hartford Hardcore, this saturday @ 6pm.
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

Sunday Evening Practice

So we got together tonight for our weekly practice session. Holy Crap! What an amazing experience! Definitely the strongest yet. We started off kinda shakey, but about 1/3'rd of the way through we tightened up. Two of the songs that we worked on previously have gotten MUCH stronger! There's still aways to go in terms of something finished to be considered 'recordable' quality (in my opinion). Not that songs of 'recordable quality' should be the benchmark of 'good' music, but you get my drift. After working on the two, Dave taught Sean and I guitar parts to a song that he's had 'burning' in his head for a bit. When we put it together, it was great! I always have a bit of trouble when learning new stuff on the spot. Especially when two parts are fitted together like puzzle pieces. My brain trys to listen exclusively to what the other part is doing, and I have to make a very conscious [sp?] effort to hear both parts together. When we were done exploring Dave's tune I was left noodling around with a progression that forced itself into my hands. I sometimes have moments where my hands move on their own and produce sounds from the guitar that I don't hear in my head first. I just have to go with it and see what happens. It's an amazing thing when I reflect on it. It's meditative to a point. I'm completely connected to the music that's happening at the moment. Once I realized that everyone was intently listening to what I was doing, I stiffened up and had to remind myself to breath again and relax. For whatever reason, I sometimes get caught off guard and lose the relaxed feel that I have when I play. Being in this relaxed state really allows me to keep my creative channel open. When I get stressed, I tend to lock into whatever feels safe because I get so afraid of making a mistake. Lately, I've been focusing of staying relaxed, not worrying about hitting wrong notes, making sure that I'm confident in what I'm playing. Every note I play is the correct one. A wise musician once told me that as long as you play every note like it's the 'right' one, there is no wrong note. Everything is coming together very quickly.

Ghettodrome....

Every monday night in Slew Haven, meet @ the green @ 7:30PM for Ghettodrome. Bunch of local track/fixed riders ride around and find empty parking lots to race each other in. Contact Devil's Gear for more info.

New Music

I'm wide awake, I'm restless, and I'm sick. So here I am! Tony T's been bugging the shit out of me to post something new here so here you go! I'm killing time til I get sleepy and can go back to bed so I've been surfing around some music sites as of late. Found this great band that's made up of former members of Grey Area among other bands, called The Arsons. Check 'em here. Good stuff.
Word em up!
PS-who's racing the Hartford Hardcore alleycat on 9/10/05? Be there motherfuckers! If you show up I promise to kick your ass in skids and trackstands! Suckas!

Same Artists, New Direction.

I got together with some of my old bandmates last night to start working on our new project. This has been a long time coming. It's come to fruition largely at the hands of The Monsiegnor. He's taken it upon himself to grab hold of the reigns logisticality. (Yes. I made it up). He's worked hard to get everyone together and to give the musical boulder the hard push that it needed to start it's roll down the hill. We all got together last night, picked up our instruments and started playing like there had never been a break. Granted, we're all getting aquainted again with ourselves and each other, but at the end of the night, we have the workings for a very sinister groove. Dave and I were talking after the practice concerning our tonal qualities. We both came to the agreement that tonight was the first time that both of our tones were very close to meshing together seamlessly. This did occur at several points, bought to our attention by the thought, 'Is that Dave making those noises, or is it me?' This is the first time that I've played with these guys with the newer amp. I have to say, it really helps me round out my sound and gives me a lot more creativity with my tone. Very much looking forward to the next practice.

PK's Dirt Haven PT II........PT 2.

Here are the remaining photos from the other night @ PK's.


Here's the one-footer. Sick.

Remember the tractor and the curved wall-ride? Here you go......




Sick stuff. We had a RIPPER of a session last night. Lots of people riding everywhere and everyone was going HUGE! I fired through 6 rolls of film in 2 hours. That's 162 exposures. Stay tuned for details.

Night Session...or not.

So we got together for a fun night of some street riding. Tony T and the usual suspects gathered together for some fun. It was balmy, temps around 90. Disgustingly humid. After deciding where we were off to, we were off! Within the first spot, Tony blew out his crank arm and we got harrassed by the po-po. I didn't even see him until someone told me he had been there. Those guys have seen it a million times before, a cop pulls up in a car, sits with his lights off in the adjacent parking lot, calls to the bike cops and then they try to box you in and ticket/arrest you. I guess it's eaiser/safer to corner some young kids on bikes staying out of trouble rather than heading into the north end to bag some drug dealers or gangbangers. I hope it gives them a real sense of civic pride to know that they caught a 15 year old kid who loves to ride his bike. Oh well. This coming Tues we've got another dirt session planned. Stay tuned for photos.

today, a part of me died.

i've lost my soulmate. the one that i wanted to spend the rest of my life with. it was so abrupt. unexpected. i was not prepared. i feel like i've been torn in two. completely empty. i already miss all of the small things we used to share. i think the small things are the ones that i will miss the most. she knew me so perfectly. everything about me. gone. four years worth of commitment flushed away by lies and deceit. this will take some time.

PK's Dirt Haven PT II........PT 1.

Hello. Another sick dirt session went down complete with some secret new obstacles. Here's the first set of photos. The second set will arrive when I want to give it to you. Keep checking back to find all the hot action! PS-I scored a new camera today. Expect to see some sequence shots soon (yes, it has a motor drive!). Enjoy!

-this is how Tony Tyrant warms up. Abubaca.


-footplant.


-tuck air.


-Tony T ain't takin no shit!


-David warming up. Footplant.


-6' out? Hell yeah. Did you say rock that shit one handed?...


-cool. Got that covered. What next? Did you say kill it one footed?....
You gots to wait for that until next time...until then, ponder this......


That's how we do here in Middlenoun!
Crazy shit to follow. Stay tuned.

Dirt Session @ PK's!

Tony Tyant and I went over to PK's Backyard Dirt Haven for a little dirt jump session. Here's the maddness that ensued....

-Mr. Tyrant launching the first booter.

-David crossing up. Check the falcon flying overhead....


-clearing the set....


-Dave. 360. Tony T looking on.


-David and Tony riding back to take another run. Sun's starting to get lower. Mosquitos starting to bite....
After we shuffled some stuff around we rigged up a sub on the last set.


-PK himself-abubuca.


-Capt. Tyrant abub...


-David follows suit...

I've got some other sick stuff on an undeveloped roll that I'll post when I finish it off. Footplants, tail-taps, and other assorted goodies. Oh yeah! I should have some photos being published over @ Tyrant BMX. Not sure what Tony's using or if he's posted it up quite yet but head on over and check it!

amputation.

In talking with my Mom I found out that my Grandfather has lost his battle with the infection that's been plaguing his foot due to his Diabetes. He's in the hospital now and is going into surgery later today to have either part of, or his entire foot amputated. Christ, what the fuck is that like? I'd be an emotional wreck. Living your entire life and then looking down and suddenly realizing that after about a few hours worth of a surgeon's work you've got no foot left. That thing that helps you stand, walk, balance, jump, run, pedal, and kick is suddenly not there. The thing that's been there for 80 some-odd years of your life is suddenly gone. You know exactly what your foot feels like there. But suddenly, you know how it -should- feel to have something there. How the fuck do you deal with something like that? I hope that I (or you) never have to try and sort that kind of thing out. Please stay healthy. Love yourself.

Check it Bleed!

Hey,
By the way, check out Tony Tyrant's newest version of Tyrant BMX. It's the newest of new!
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

The SURLYist of All Blogs...

I pulled this from the Surly Bikes Blog. Enjoy!

Monday, August 01, 2005

To The Lady In The Minivan Who Almost Ran Me Over Last Friday:

I guess I must have been in your way. I mean, after all, bikes aren't really supposed to be on the roads anyway. You were in your car and in a big hurry to get to that stop sign 30 feet in front of you. It was rude of me to assume you would let me in even though I had plenty of space and clearly signalled. I should have gotten the message when you laid on the horn and kept creeping closer and closer...literally inches from my wheel. What was I thinking? I should have known when you leaned out your window, still honking, and yelled at me, telling me that you "ride a bike too, so (you) know." It was rude of me to argue with you for almost intentially running into me with your minivan. Those roads belong to you and you alone. I'm sorry to have made you so upset about costing you time that you sat at the stop sign and yelled at me for several minutes, while the other drivers behind you rolled their eyes and even started trying to go around you, creating an even more dangerous mess. It was very rude of me to assume that I am traffic too, and I hope next time you nail that stupid biker costing you precious seconds of your life, moments that you will never get back, moments that you could have spent yelling at other people or talking on your cell phone. The life or health of someone like me is less important than getting to soccer practice, and I see now the error of my ways.

-posted by Kenny Bloggins @ 1:08 PM

Kinda makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, don't it?

Comic Sans.....

If you aren't with us, then you're against us!

Will-o-rico street...

Went out riding with Jeff and Matt Barchus [sp?] tonight on the mean streets of Willi. Rode around the Eastern campus for a bit, found some interesting stuff to ride. I chickened out on an easy gap over a big curb to hill drop and kicked myself all the way home. Got to Jeff's a little late but he showed me a photo of Mr Barchus boosting Jeff's box jump and throwing a no-footed can-can for some flavor. Apparently it was the first time he'd every jumped Jeff's ramp to boot! Matt's a mellow dude and a super-ripper. He was busting bunnyhop 360's like it was his job. Also witnessed a sick bunnyhop tailwhip off a curb. Super smooth. Rode down to the main drag and saw a hairy post-accident scene investigation. It looked like a car cut off a motocycle and launched the rider over the hood. The bike was in a crumpled mess under the front end of the car and there were pools of blood that the FD tried to soak up. Not to mention a huge blood stained towel laying in the street. Scary shit! I think I was more repulsed at all of the people just hanging out watching what was going on. Don't you have anything better to do with your time than to stop and watch an accident scene?

We kinda meandered around. Ripping up and down hills in the haze and quickly approaching twilight. Not looking for anything specific and found lots of stuff to fool around on. Reminds me of when I first got into BMX and how cool it is to just ride around and try to make cool stuff happen on different things. Not stressing about how good your tricks are or worrying about how much you think you suck. Not worrying about what time it was, what we have to get done or what time we have to be at work tomorrow. Just riding and having fun. Pointing things out: "Wouldn't be cool if you could ride up that, do this and then ride out there?" Gonna go put and extra headset spacer into my BMX rig to tighten shit up. Go listen to some Bouncing Souls, grab you rig and go explore, ride somewhere you've never ridden before or somewhere you thought was/is lame and make it cool. Go ride like you're twelve again!

New Sketch

-A sketch of my beautiful woman and her hell-raising minions.

My Video Debut...

So I'm making my video debut the end of August. Some of you may recall by ramblings about my friend Jeff shooting some footage of us longboarding for his new movie. It's taken a year to produce but he's finally having his release party and premier on the 27th of August. The movie is call Pick of the Litter. You can check out a small clip (with your's truly) here. It was fun shooting these clips. There are many more so if he puts up a vid for sale you should definitely cop one. I look pretty shakey cause it was the first time I got back on the longboard in about a year. If you look closely you can see my trucks speed-wobbling a bit in the first clip near the bottom of the turn. I was running them pretty loose prior to this session and forgot to tune them for hill drops. Fun stuff! Hope you enjoy!

July 4th Fireworks...

Here are shots from the 4th. Alcohol+Explosions=Fun!

-am I shaking or is the beer clouding my vision? Tony Tyrant getting warmed up.

Jam Photos

Here are the photos of the BMX/Trials jam that I promised a while back. Better late than...nevermind.


-this is Brian Yezerski (sorry if I screwed up your last name Brian!) I believe that he's currently ranked as the #2 trials rider in the US. He rides for Team USA. Here he's stalling just before dropping about 8 feet to flat. Sick!

-another angle of the drop.

-gapping A-Frame to A-Frame in rapid succession.

-Josh in mid hitchhiker link.

-Tony airing out the quarter.

-Mike Stock. Abubaca.

-Brian Arnwine quarter air.

-Tony 360 tailtap on the spine.

-Tony Tyant-one footer.



-Tony thinking about footplanting the post.

-did you know that Tony is part Leprechan? When he airs out of a spine, there's a beautiful rainbow.

Damn You McEwen!!!!

Raced home under cover of darkness at midnight from the Lady's house against a cool breeze in silent, car free streets. Listened to the wind through the trees as I took the whole lane on each street back home. I -heart- bikes.

4th o' Fun!!

Just got back from our 4th o' July ride with A-run and my lady. It was a good ride. A-run kept my legs on fire by sprinting up every hill that we came in contact with. Not having ridden consistantly over the past couple of weeks really left me at a disadvantage. Polo got postponed. Partly due to unpreparedness, and partly due to the inability to get in contact with 2 of our commrades [and other holiday plans getting into the mix]. This Sunday however, will be the beginning of chaos! Get yer sticks together damnit! We'll be checking out the colorful explosions over the river while dining on pizza and some cold ones while in the company of some fiends from work ie: Tony Tyrant and a couple of the service cats. Drop me a line if you can play on Sunday. More details to follow.

BACK ONLINE!!!

Have moved into the new place and it is exceedingly great! I love my new digs!! Close to work and a great layout. I'll post pictures for those too far away to visit soon. Feel free to send emails and such. Polo is coming! First match should be this weekend on Sunday or maybe Monday for the 4th. Get yo mallets together fools! Flyer to follow soon. Tomorrow is Ikea day. Gotta pick up some cool shit for the apt. Hope to see you all soon!
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

Relocation, Relaxation...

Been super busy so here we go....
Got a place in Middlenoun and move there at the end of next week. Hoping that my NY connection will come along for the ride and maybe help move stuff around. Been packing slowly for the last two weeks. Been riding as much as I can. It's amazing how not having somewhere to really ground and reconnect to yourself after work and such affects your disposition and sanity. I feel like I've got so many things swirling around in my head; work things that I'm learning and trying to keep straight, what days I'm gonna head to my old apt to pack, when I need to have everything packed by/moving logisitics, etc. I could go on for a bit but I'm sure that you all get the picture. The simple act of riding has helped keep me sane for a short bit of time though. There's something about just being able to go out and spin. It takes your mind off of everything that's pressing down on you. Nothing else really matters at that time except that you keep your legs moving.

Bike polo is nearing its reality! I'm stoked that Pat is finding much joy in riding his new fixed around EVERYWHERE! He took the brakes off within the first few days of riding! Sick! Joe finally finished his new fixed machine and is also running brakeless to haunt a local watering hole near you! AARUN has probably finished his rig by the time you read this. We've decided that Sunday nights will be for bike polo. Haven't determined locations yet, but feel free to come ride with us Land Pirates! We'll probably be pillaging sometime around 5:30 to 6PM. Drop any of us a line if you want to partake. We'll be playing by Portland rules. If you're not familiar with the specifics of and subtleties [sp?] of bike polo then what the hell are you waiting for? Catch yourself up here. See you punks on the field!

Another cool event is coming up soon too! Check it:

Unfortunately I think that I'm working that night so I won't be able to see much of the action but feel free to stop by and check it out. Make sure you stop in and say hello! That's about all going on. Get out and ride and enjoy the cool weather!

Nighttime Street Session

Here's a small bit of the crazy shit that went down when I went out street riding with a few guys from work the other night...part II is on the way. Please excuse my shitty photos....still learning about shooting in almost complete darkness...enjoy!

New Stuff!

So I've got a bit of time to catch up with my last post and fill in the missing parts....Been working at Pedal Power about once a week for the past few weeks to learn all of the day to day operations and the computer system. It's really good. The computer software is great! They've got a program that allows you to search the bike inventory by category (ie road, hybrid, bmx, etc), size and pricepoint. Then the computer spits out matches to your search criteria and tells you how many are in stock and how many are built! Sick! I can also access this thing called the 'internet'. I guess you can check out information on vendors and their products and relay it to customers. Cool stuff. Good people to work with and lots of experience and info to share.

Went with Karp and his buddy Hans to check out the Subdivision BMX tradeshow last Thursday. It's in the middle of nowhere...Johnson City, NY. A totally depressed area of NY. Lots of warehouses and mills that closed down after the depression. I think Karp put it best when he said, 'I think I've seen all of these people on Cops at least once' refering to the city's inhabitants that were walking around as we were heading to the show. Met a few pro riders who where there reping the companies that they ride for. Pretty much everyone was super cool and fun to talk to. Got a chance to meet Steve Crandall from FBM. Karp drew some graphics for their new shirts and stuff so we got the mini tour of their warehouse. Lots of bike porn all over the place (the new stuff from Coalition, G-Sport hubs, everything from Fly Bikes). Met Greg Walsh from Coalition and Hell On Earth clothing. Super cool guy. Had some funny stories about guns, security guards and pit bulls (all at once) while attending a weird clothing industry show. Picked up a couple of shirts, some stickers and pins from Hell on Earth. They definitely had some of the best designs in the show. Got lunch at this cool little natural food store on the main drag. The employees were telling us that they got a phone call on Monday informing them that there would be a bunch of BMXer's wearing black, decending upon their shop on Thursday so they would have time to make proper arrangement for extra Hummus wraps, Tabouli and such. Had a great hummus wrap and stuffed our faces with some yummy organic nachos courtesy of Karp [thanks!]. After the tradeshow we checked out East Coast Terminal. Amazing ramp park upstairs from the FBM factory. Great riding going on there too. Highlights include rooting/embarassing the QBP BMX guys, watching lots of dudes tear up the mini-ramp, etc. The ride home seemed a lot faster than the ride there as just about any road trip with Karp and Hans is guaranteed to have you pissing your pants laughing. A million thanks go out to Karp for driving. I was wiped out by the time I got home and slept really well. A full day indeed.

Currently looking for a new apartment in the Middlenoun area and running into lots of crap along the way. I had an interesting offer to relocate to West Haven to live with my Grandfather rent free. However, I think that the commute is quite a bit out of my way. Rent free would be nice, and it would be close to Kami while she's in Yale, but having to battle the rat racers into and home from work is a less than ideal proposition. I played that game for a few years while living in Will-o-rico, and New Smiton. Not fun. Checked out my buddy Jeff's new house. He did some work on it since I was there last. Looks awesome! He finished the second floor (carpet, new paint, etc) and cleared out a bunch of brush from his back yard. It looks fantastic! He's even got some dirt jumps built up on the side of his house. Should be good times when he gets them built up to where he wants them to be. Tomorrow is my last day at the Market. Gotta remember to drop off my key at close. Start full time @ PP Thursday. That's about it. If I haven't talked with you in a while hit me with an email and let me know what you've been up to!
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

Some Big Doin's

So things have been interesting (busy as per usual) lately. Probably the biggest news is that I will be changing jobs in about a month. This has NOTHING to do with poor working conditions, hating my job or a lack of money. I love the people I work with and really enjoy getting up to go to work every day for multiple reasons. But in the past couple of years I guess I kind of felt that something was missing. You all know about my obsession with beautiful, human powered, two wheeled machinery. Most of you are obsessed as well. I absolutely love working with bikes, so the summers around work have been fantastic. But when the summer draws to an end and we start getting ready for ski and snowboard season, I have a longing to still be focused on the bike end of things. It seems to me that every year this 'longing' sticks with me for a longer and longer period of time. So much so that I commuted (albeit not consistantly) through the winter and thought about what I wanted to do to my rides all winter long (when I usually think about snowboarding). I decided that because I am hopelessly obsessed with bikes, I should work with them year round. It was definitely a difficult decision to leave behind the job and the friends that I work with from the past five years, but working full time in a dedicated bike shop is where I feel I need to be. I will be starting at Pedal Power in mid May. Feel free to drop by and say hello!

On other news, I got my copy of the new Terrible One zine that contains some of my photo work. Head here to cop one. I could tell you which of my photos are in there, but just spend the measly eight bucks and get yourself a neat little zine you can put on your coffee table for guests to enjoy. $8 bucks for a zine you ask me?!!! Isn't that a bit expensive?! Not when you consider that it's a really nicely BOUND edition with GLOSSY pages and about 110 pages long! That's not all! If you order now you'll also receive a bunch of neato T-1 stickers that when applied properly, are sure to make your vehicle of choice the coolest on the block! But wait!, there's more! They'll also throw in a CD of music from Indie-rock sensations the Holy Ghost Revival! $8 for all that? They must be crazy! Or spend 23 bucks to get all of the aforementioned stuff, PLUS a limited edition T-shirt. What a deal! So I'm off to bed to finish reading my T-1 zine and then get some sleep. Hope that you all are doing well. Ride Fast, Ride Hard!

Passed By The Old Guys...

This past weekend the Root 66 race series held its second mountain bike race of the season @ Winding Trails in Farmington. Pat and I headed out there to try our hands at this race thing. I got up, ate, packed up my gear and my bike, caffeinated and headed out to the race. Got there around 8AM, got my number, aired up the tires and went out to pre-ride the course. Now all I read and had heard from other people who did the race last year was that it's flat and super fast. Well apparently things changed this year because there was a definite steep section that took me by surprise on the pre-ride. I finished the route noting little elements that could cause me trouble during the race. I met up with Pat on the way back to the parking lot. Put my bike in the stand that John C had so graciously lent me (thanks again John!) and cleaned my ride off. Pat and I stretched and hung out for a bit before the line up for our race. As we were lined up I was checking out some of the other bikes. A pretty good mix of stuff. Everything from the brand new XT group to older 7 speed rigs. Race starts and I try to stay with the lead group. Watch a kid spin 90 on a sandy patch and almost case it, not even 100 yards into the race. Great. Now I'm worried that someone's gonna lose control into me somewhere. At the 1/2 mile mark the pack kinda thinned out.

I'm riding behind this kid with a full Cannondale kit and full suspension rig. Just as we get to the first single-track section we pass his teammate leaned up against a tree heaving his guts. I guess that the 3 packs of Gu right before the start weren't such a great idea. We get to the steeps section and the kid leaves me in his dust as he just flows down the sketchy single track. Once we get to the climb though I get right on his ass. We turn to go up the next section of single track and he just stops dead on the trail. Wrong gear? Who knows. He grabs a tree and leans over to let me pass. He catches up to me a bit further in the race. I keep a pretty steady pace and he starts losing ground. Once we get to the end of the first lap, I sprint up the hill past the finish line and pour it on where it flattens out. He's way behind me and I never see him again for the rest of the race. I checked the standings and found out the he never finished. Mechanical? Poor nutrition? Alien abduction? Who knows? I went out a bit too hard in the beginning of the race. When I got the last 8th mile I could hear riders coming up behind me. I tried to keep the heat on to stay in front of them but started to feel my arms tingling. The last time I felt that was when I was under-nourished for a road ride and wound up dry-heaving on the side of the road for 10 mins a couple of years ago. I kept my pace to a manageable level, got passed by four guys from the age group above me, hung with them in the uphill singletrack section no problem. But once it flattened out, they took off on me. I wound up placing 9th out of a field of something like 21 in my age group. 50:59 for 9 miles (4.5 mile course @ two laps). Not bad for never having raced anything before. Had a great time and looking forward to riding in the next race in May. I found a couple of photos of me on the promoter's web site. Sorry for the small size but couldn't figure out how to enlarge them.


-beginning of the race. this is the top of the steep section. i look so focused (trying not to run the stupid photographer over who's framing up with one foot in the trail...fucker!)

-really starting to suck wind here...

That's it. Everyone should come out and race the next one. We'll get our own team started. Call ourselves Team Cock or something. Get out and ride!

Anger and French Fries

So here I am just getting over another small cold. Fourth one of the year! I don't understand it. I feel like I'm in great shape now riding into work, being active, eating relatively well, etc, and I got sick four times this winter! Oh well. It's been a bad cold year for everyone. I went with Joe and his lady to go see Henry Rollins @ Toads a bit ago. Great show. Only complaint is that we had to stand for something like the two hours that he was on stage. There were chairs out but not nearly enough for everyone. He told some great stories, almost made me piss my pants I was laughing so hard and made me think. Post show, we headed to Rudy's around the corner to ingest some greasy Frits [sp?]. All I have to say is 40 different kinds of dipping sauces! Good times. Got my first bike race this Sunday. If you're interested in seeing me flounder about all awkward-like feel free to come check it out: Winding Trails Fat Tire Classic, Sunday April 10th. My race goes off @ 10AM. Racing the beginners class. It's a brisk 10mi race and from what I hear the course is pretty fast. I'm anticipating it being pretty smooth and not really technical. If any of you have raced here in the past give me a shout about what I should expect. Got to go through my bike tonight and make a few changes here and there. I've got to go get ready to rock into work. Hope you're doing the same. High of 60 today! Nice!
RideFast! RideStrong!