Layin Some Paint

Painted up a new canopy for my T-Rex 250. Wanted something visible to make flying easier.... I like how it turned out.....

2009 Wolfman Duathlon

I'd been getting ready for this event for a few months now. It has been 17 years since I did a running event. Plenty of cycling, but no running.

Well, my buddy who did the running leg of our team last year had another event to get to, so I had to do it on my own.

As can be expected, my running leg stunk. I think my time was 36:30 for 3 miles..... sheesh.... However, when I got on the bike, things really opened up. I passed a ton of people and really felt pretty good rolling along.

Unfortunately, I then got passed on the last run by many of the people I passed on the bike. C'est la vie!

All in all, it was a really good time though. I got to see a bunch of the guys from the MSTA forum and shoot the bull with 'em.

Next year, I'm going to do even better..... : )

Cool bikes in my shop

I help out friends with their bikes. I do small tune-ups for them and install the odd component or two as well. I've also helped quite a few with used bikes and getting them to running order.

In the past year, I've gotten to work on a Specialized Tarmac S-Works with SRAM Red and Zipp 404's that weighed in at 13.5lbs. I've worked on some badass tri-bikes too.

During the past week, I've been helping a buddy upgrade and tune his Cervelo for the upcoming tri-season. Its been fun.

When I started, the bike weighed in at just a smidge under 20lbs! Since then, I've added a KCNC cassette, KCNC brakes and a set of used Neuvation carbon aero tubular wheels shod with Zipp Tangente tires.

All up weight is now 17.96lbs and it definitely feels better.

The other interesting detail I found was that while my buddy is significantly faster than me, his bars are much higher than mine when on the tops. We're in the process now of looking to see how low we can get him and still keep his efficiency high. Low is useless if you can't breathe and pedal!

Shelby Forest - Forest of Pain.....

The past two weekends, I've hit the road hard. They were not long rides by distance, but by pain they were huge. We hit Shelby Forest and all the things that includes.

Last week, we hit Jackson Hill, the 3 Pigs and a long run down Watkins to finish up around 22miles worth of climbing.

Today, we headed out and did the same, however somehow JR set us up to do multiple loops of the 3 Pigs. I actually got better as the day went along and made it up the climbs in pretty good shape later in the ride, while having to walk portions of a few earlier.

This coming weekend is the Wolfman Duathlon. Should be a lot of fun. Maybe Amy will come out and take some pictures.....

Herb Parsons 3/07/09

I managed to get out this weekend and hit Herb Parsons. I was not planning on going out there (spur of the moment deal) but decided to anyway. When I got there, I rode in about a mile and decided it was too muddy, so I rode out.

When I got back to the parking lot, two college girls were getting ready to ride. They heckled me because I did not want to ride in the mud (don't care about mud, but I don't want to destroy my favorite trail).

So off I went again. I rode pretty hard the first lap and ran into SteveK putting in this new log bridge. Bridge is pretty nice. No one else seemed to be able to ride accross it though...?

In the end, I did two laps, when I was hoping to do 4.....

Oh yeah, the trail was in good shape except the holiday loop......