Monday, January 28, 2008

Slides, Tahoe Sierra 100, Matty mo and the Mamasita

Spent the weekend at kirkwood, in a nut shell it was pretty awesome. Lots of Snow in the Sentinel Bowl and Palisades on Saturday. you really had to Hike to get to the Good stuff, but if you were willing, there were new tracks to be laid down every run.

Saturday night it started puking the winds were blowing hard so we figured it wouldnt be worth heading to kirkwood, but it seemed so beautifull in south lake that when I cleaned the car off we changed are minds and headed down. We a had few runs off of lift 6 which result in some sick deep turns in the sentinel bowl, but shortly after it was put on wind hold. Probably a good thing cause dudes skined up to the palisade bowl and triggered and avalanche. One dude went for a ride and just got banged up real good. We heard the Avy Sirens go off, that was kind of wierd, never heard those before.

We got in the car at around 2 PM to leave, they just opened up 88 East bound from Avy control, so we headed East. We were anticipating going West on 88 up to 89. Its a good thing cause about an hour later, two cars got caught in an avalanche on carson pass, which was in the east bound direction. Everyone was OK, but that would have ruined the trip.

Monday 3 other skiers kicked off a slide in the same place, I think this area was opend by patrol at this point. Only one guy got caught in the slide, and he made it out OK with a punctured lung.

Any way on a lighter note, Matt is getting his blog on at www.mattmorr.blogspot.com so look him up.


Also, got my confirmation Email from Jimmyboy at the Tahoe sierra 100. They are really going out of there way to accomadate out of state racers, so come out and race!
Oh and pulled the triger on my New Salsa Mamasita Frame, thanks to Salsa for supporting the bikman team, can't wait to start building her up.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Sharing the pain......

So it may not have been as Cold in the bay area as say in PA today, but i think I paid my dues today. Forcast called for rain all day, but I noticed a break in the weather from 10AM to 2PM, so I jumped on the road bike. I rolled out in a long sleeve jersey and knee warmers. I was very comfortable until I reached the top of the second climb. I should point out as I was climbing Old Lahonda, which generally takes me 20 Minutes, I rolled by two dudes all bundled up wearing Balaclavas and jackets. I laughed as I rolled by.

I got to the top and Made a left turn into the clouds. This was a big commitment, as it is directed me into what looked like rain. It also added on another hour and a half of riding more then the easy right turn I could of made. Well things didnt seem to bad, and i thought I was all core and stuff until it start drizilling and then that turned into a downpour....I felt really cool until that turned into sideways snow which I have never seen in the Bay Area. Followed by a 30 Minute decent on page mill, it got really cold......

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Bop bop bop boo bah.......

Thats my lame attempt at expressing the Price is right theme. I hope I don't start attracting a whole lot of prices is right fans to the blog now because its not really the direction I wanted to take this thing.


Anyway sold the Scalpel frame on Ebay today. A five year old frame sold for 400 bucks, to someone in South Africa. I know a few friends were interested in buying this frame from me, but I needed the money for my next project and I could not see selling my old crap for that much money to someone I like.



So the 2008 Race bike project is underway. This year I am going to mix it up a bit and ride gears on some of the longer race. A hard tail 29ern seems to be where its at. Since I am riding with the bikeman.com team this year it looks like Ill be going with the Mamasita!



So i bought this frame and fork from one of the Beaners, its a custom painted Caffeine 29er and a Lefty Carbon SL. I just bought it for the fork, the frame is an XL and will be way to big for me so this puppy is going to get thrown up on Ebay. Its shame, it such a hot paint job. I wonder if Salsa would ever consider doing something like that for the bikeman team.



You may be wondering how I am going to use the lefty on the Mamasita, since the steer is only 1 1/8". Project 321 makes a nice steerer that you replace on the lefty so it fits.




Getting ready to brave the elements, it's going to be 59 today, I may need arm warmers.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Tomicog

My Tomicog has Arrived! You might be asking yourself right now, WTF Is a Tomicog and who the F is tomi. I met Tomi a few years ago at the Shenandoah 100, I rolled a long side of him on a stretch of pavement where we introduced ourselves and recognized our names from MTBR and TGR. I was on my plush superlight and fast Cannondale Scalpel and Tomi was truckin away on a fixed gear mountain bike! Well naturally we drafted off of each other for a little bit. blah blah blah 2 years later and a few stupid hundred mile races on a fixed gear Mountain bike and tomi is now crankin out Steel Fixed gear Cogs that are pre-drilled to match the disk brake holes on your disc hub...so this allows you to make a flip flop hub.

Im impressed with the job he did, and the 18Tomi engraving is all snazzy and stuff. It came shipped complete on the side of a six pack box of Hazed and Infused from the Boulder beer Company...I guess tomi had to drink a few six packs before he got his order out.

Oh so tomi is using the funds from this project to fund his National Ultra Endurance Series effort this year, so you can buy a cog at http://tomicog.blogspot.com/


Sunday, January 13, 2008

The end of the creak - Carver EBB

So a while back I ordered the Carver EBB from bikeman.com, it got lost in the mail, they sent me another one and i slapped it on today. A lot of folks do not like the EBB due to the creaking. I tried Wrapping the EBB that came with the niner EBB with loads of Teflon tape. That worked for a while but eventually it wore through from adjusting the EBB when I would switch cogs.

I like the design of the Carver EBB. By turning the Set screw on the EBB it will expand inside the EBB Shell. As you can see in the Picture the shell is encased in nylon. This eliminates metal on metal movement responsible for creaking.



I am a bit concerned about the stress it may put on the frame. The EBB expands in an oval shape and you can see that the ebb changes shape a little bit. Anyway the first test ride was creakless so we shall see how it holds up.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

A little climbin

Roadie Joe and I did a little climbin today up Mt Hamilton, about 20 miles to the top for a little more then 4,000 feet of elevation gain.....it was chilly comin down. Not very steep, but after a while it started to burn

Friday, January 11, 2008

Train as you Fight

I have been wanting to do this for quite some time. About 2 months ago I ordered some parts from bikeman.com and UPS lost the shipment, Bikeman was kind enough to give me a credit and I finally got the parts. I used the Spot Brand Spacer kit with a Surly 15 tooth Cog and a KMC BMX Chain. Not sure how many teeth are on the big ring, but its big enough to make any road climb around here agony. It feels good to give life back to my old ride.

Monday, January 07, 2008

It was Deep at Kirkwood

So We headed up to Kirkwood this weekend, it was raining pretty hard the whole way up.


And then, bang it switched to Snow.



We got to kirkwood around 2PM on saturday, crossing carson pass was pretty sketch, we had to stop a few times due to white out. Limited terrain was open due to Avalanche control but it the snow was still coming down hard.



We got up early on Sunday anticipating that kirkwood would open up some more terrain, we ended up waiting at the Avy control gate before carson pass for about three hours due to an avalanche that they needed to clean up.


Caltrans was pretty cool, they ended up shuttling cars through the pass, fortunately we got there early and made the first shuttle.




The Pic above and below was taken right before the deepest turns I have ever made. We dropped in off of the Chutes from Lift 11 and traversed hard on the skiers left to the trees, we were the first ones over there. Below is a pic of Chris who I met on the lift. Thats him droping his pole straight down and hitting nothing. We then proceeded to rip through the trees while getting armpit deep the entire way down.



Heres E, Lookin all cool and stuff.....



Me Trying to look cool



Monday, they opend up the back side, and it was like Sunday all over again, but not as deep.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Well I made it into the SSWC 08

Yup I made the cut, not sure why, but Im in. Should be a good time.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

The First Ride of 2008 - Oat Hill Mine, Calistoga

I wanted to throw down a New Years Century today with a few of my Roadie friends, but after being Trapped indoors for a week in Canada, I really needed to hit the dirt. I met up with the MTBR Folks, Velocipus was kind enough to post the ride, and i was anxious to check out more trails in the wine country, hoping they would be as enjoyable as Skyline park (the SSWC 08 Venue)....Needless to say i was not disappointed!

The trail was extremely Rocky and very nice pitch, the 29 er single speed was lovin it! Anyway, a few pics below.