This is what it's all about

What I miss most about the East Coast is riding with folks who won't let the cold and snow get in the way of getting out for a spin.



Its awesome that the Trails are not sterilized, someone tried to make a wuss way around this log, but then someone fixed it!



Anyway, I linked up with Acura Matt and Solt for a quick loop in Bethlehem. The snow was a little slippery which made single speeding a bit difficult, but I got some good cardio in when it flattened out and it was a lot of fun trying to hold a line through the crust on the downhills!

Back To the East...

What is it with Long Islanders? I guess it starts with some lights, maybe the plastic frosty and a Santa, Then before you know it 30 percent of you pay is going to the Long Island Power authority so your house can be seen from space.



Any way, Its cold here. I am not very familiar with the good single track on long island and how it rides after snow so I checked out Pops indoor recumbent excercise bike. I got a pretty good work out and threw in some core work pushups, and miscelaneous abdominal exercises. I used to do a shit load of ab exercises in the military, i think its time to bring it back, especially during the crap weather.

Back from the East

3 Weeks and 10 pounds later, I am finally back in California




I brought my bike with me, but I didnt ride it. We drank a lot, worked then drank some more, saw the family. I got rained out of the post Thanksgiving MTN bike Ride at Sals, and never got around to riding again. The Single Speed is in NY, so maybe there will be some riding with My PA peeps when i head back for Christmas.

After 3 weeks off the bike i put in a pretty good effort to get back into the game this week with 5 days of riding this week and lots of climbing. Lost about five pounds this week.

United can Blow me.

Yeah, so I knew i had to fork up 175 Bones to bring my bike aboard, but you know i thought it was worth it since ill be back and forth to the east coast till new years, so was planning on leaving my bike at mom and pa's, but on top of the fee they charged me 25 bucks to check this as my second bag....talk about misleading. My first bag they charged me an additional 125 bucks for being overweight.....which i could of stuffed the extra 15 pounds in the bike box, but not in front of the agent...anyway the airlines suck....

Its cold here, i need to man up cause i love this stuff.

East Coast Bound

Buisness trip-

The Niner Sir nine is boxed up- along with every piece of cyoing clothing I own. Yeah Im soft. Its just over two years since I have ridden in the east coast fall/winter season. Time to get hard, never mind that sounds bad.

Actually I just forgot what the weather is exactly like in the woods at this time so Ill figure out what works. Most of my time will be spent in boston, so I am planning on hitting up some of the local trails there. Some of the exploration will be at night, so i better find some locals on the internets to show my ass around.

Im defintaely going to spend a day or to with my PA peeps at sals, so you all better be ready.

Some New Wheels

Big Al from bikeman came through with a hookup on some bontager race light 29er wheels for a great price, they look pretty sweet interesting how bontrager uses there there rim strip for tubless, its this big plastic ring. neat.

I think this is where I get ready for next year.......

Well, im starting to come off of 6 weeks of inactivity....mostly due to work travel, partly due to laziness and the opportunity to sit on my ass and drink beer.



We hit MT Hamilton today, its a 20 mile climb with about 4,000 feet of elevation gain. It was the typical brutal battle to the top between my riding buddies Joe and Ryan. Its not a very steep grade, but it takes almost two hours to get to the top, so we were pretty smoked when we got to the summit. It was a beautifull day, and Im glad to be back on the bike. The transition phase has begun.


Im starting dream about next years bikes. First on the list is to replace the Klein Frame, for something that fits me a little better, my buddy Dan hooked me up with this ride for a great price when I was in PA. I had a little incident where the derailleur broke and bent the hanger real good. The shop did a mediocre job straightening it out so I need a new frame.

It looks like the Salsa Podio is going to do the job.



The paint job is just sick!

Next up, we may be replacing the Mamasita for somthing with a little bit of cush. I really love the mamasita, but after getting my nuts slapped around for 10 hours in the Sierras this summer i have been dreaming of the Dos Niner -



Stage 3 of the Tour of California is Ripping through my Hoood!

Francois has reported that the Tour of California is coming up my favorite Road Climb in the Bay!. I spent a lot of time on Tunitas Creek Rd. the last two summers climbing up from the coast. Im trying to convince a few of my buds to pre-ride the entire stage - we shall see.

Time to Get the Niner Rolling again

The Sir nine hasnt been ridden since i built up the mamasita. I finally got her built back up and i miss riding the steel frame.



I decided to put the Reba on the Mamasita since it has more travel, and the lefty is now on the Niner. I think it fits the one speed better.

Tahoe Sierra 100

Scenic Views, Lots of climbing, lots of fire roads....and lots of climbing.


Well, consitent with the 24 hours of Cool, Jimmy put on a really nice event with a very cool vibe.

After the typical pre-hunred miler rituals (Coffee, cereal, race to the bathroom, etc) I rolled to the start to see a lot of familar faces from the East Coast Hundred milers. Harlan and TomiMcmillar from PA, Tinker, and those famous guys from Trek.


The First 4o Miles were pretty fun. Nice Fire Road climbs in the shade followed by some really fun and fast fire road descents. It was very challenging as it was really dusty, making it very hard to see.



I caught up with Tomi for a quick photo op at nice scenic spot- this would be the last time I would see him as he was turning the cranks very well.



So it was pretty much a lot of fire roads. I caught up with tinker somwhere around mile 40 or so - He was planning to bail and told me to get him some help.

Around mile 50 I found a guy on the road unconscious. This was pretty scary. This guy caught me on the climb and we were racing pretty fast on the technical decents, really hauling ass. He got away from me on the next climb, then I started descending, doing about 30 MPH on the fire road. I came around the corner and saw the dude laying in the road. Eyes open, face banged up, but nobody home. Fortunately he was breathing. A few others gathered arouund and he began to come to. He was still out of it, he didnt remeber his name and mumbled something about a Mercedes. We were far from any check point, so I started to get worried, but luckily the search and rescue motos happened to be headed our way. By the time the motos got to us the guy was already standing, so we handed him off and got back to the race......at a munch slower pace thinking about what we just saw.



We all knew mile 69 was going to be bad from the elevation profile...and it was. I actually had to do a bit of walking near the top of the climb



Anyway, i rolled in around 10:20 something, the Garmin had 11,000 feet of elevation gain. Time to jump in the lake. Drink beer and eat hot dogs.

5 Hours of Single Track, Fire road and pavement......on the road bike

We did things a little different today when my friend Ryan sent out the email....He wanted to explore some of the dirt roads in the South bay, and we found them. I wasnt expecting to hit single track though, that was kind of fun.



We cleaned a lot of technical sections with the road bike slicks and got some cheers from the dudes on the mtn bikes. This was a good warmup for the Tahoe Sierra 100 next weekend. Ill post some more pics later

Grass Roots Racing - The Lake Sonoma Special

Well I actually got back in the saddle for a race last weekend at Lake Sonoma - Because of the heat, the race would start at 530 PM - this is my kind of race!

One big 14 Mile Loop and I don't have to get up at the but crack of dawn to get to the venue on time.

It was the Typcial chill Lake Sonoma Crew. If you zoom in you can see the guy with the Fish on his head.



I was sporting the Mamasita Single speed Setup and my heat went off with the Pro's and Experts in a field of about 15 in the massive group pictured below.




The race started out with a climb up that road pictured above followed by a hairy decent through some loose fire road then overgrown single track, then up some long wicked fire road that went forever. I have to admit i am a bit out of race shape so at this point i was turning purple and had to lay off the gas.

I guess i was sitting in last place at this point when the Sport Crew caught up with me, but at this point we entered some wicked technical single track downhill switch back and 3 guys in front of me went over the bars, so i got back ahead of them and dropped them. Then I got a flat and couldn't fix it. That was pretty much it.


I made my way to the road and road the flat in. I rolled across the finish line about 5 minutes before the race leader so people thought i was winning and started to clap and stuff.

Anyway beers and burgers soon followed all included in the 20 dollar race fee. Please check out the race next month, http://www.bikemonkey.net, Carlos puts on a kick ass event!



Oh almost forgot, my buddy roadie joe took second in sport and won this fresh melon.

Not a lot of riding going on.....

I hear ya dan..

yeah my project at work has been pretty crazy...so riding has been pretty much limited to the fun social rides when i can get out and the Rides with E....which are great, shes starting to get better.

The Cascade Cream Puff 100 is next weekend, im registered and paid (a very steep fee i might add) but not sure if im going to be able to get up there. Its an 8 hour drive and i will need to take monday off to get back. Its going to be a real expensive drive with gas prices....fuck you only live once right?


At least the sales guys keep sending us beer

Well; I rode today

Left the house at 830 on the bike, climbed 2 to 3 K to get to the trail head, bombed some sweet single track for about 30 minutes then linked up with the mtbr norcal crew for some sweet Techy climbing.

Some awesome trail riding today- until i realized i lost the key to my apartment,so i had to bail, ride to my office call the landord wait for him to come.....its a good thing the fridge at work was loaded with beer. I ended up back at the house by 7 PM.


Its all good.

The World would have to wait for the Great Taste of Bud light and .......Clamato?

Wait no more folks, its here. Bud light and Clamato - in a can. Not really sure where this came from nor why you need it.

Racer 5 IPA

I think this is one of the best IPA's i have ever had. Brewed in Cloverdale, CA. It has a little bit of citrus twang too it I think, but its definately not one of those girly beers. Im going to drink about 6 so that i can forget that i wasn't tearing it up at French creek this weekend.

Holding on for dear life.....

So the wed road ride is the super fast race ride...with over a 100 people its pretty scary. To give you an idea, we showed up to corner of pagemill rd where we pick up the ride and waiting at the corner is Dylan Casey retired USPS rider Chatting away with some other dude in a slipstream chiptole kit. The ride made its way over to us an they took off to the front. The pace picked up and It really hurt.

I started out in the middle of the pack, were doing about 20 uphill and 35 on the flats, I looked around and Roadie Joe and my friend Ryan were nowhere to be seen. I didnt change positon at all and i suddenly went from middle to end of the back. We lost over half of the group. I was pretty stoked to get back to work and give them some shit for getting dropped, but damn that was fast.

A little Mount Hamilton Action.....

Well, 2 weeks ago I asked roadie joe if he would be up for a century this weekend and he surprised me. I Look forward Riding long with joe, cause its usually the only time that I can put the hurt on him. Well Joe came up with a nasty route, up and over Mount hamilton and into livermore.

The ride starts out with a 4,000 foot 20 mile climb up Mount Hamilton. We were joined by another friend Thorestein who has never completed a century before. Thorestien is a natural athlete who rides about half as much as Joe and I but can crush us on some of the shorter climbs.

The climb up hamilton started off at a pretty chill pace. On any given climb one of us usually attacks, but since we had a long day ahead of us everyone was showing some humility.....well up until i turned my IPOD on.....about an hour and a half into the climb no one was talking, I decided to turn the tunes on and well it was game on. I pulled away putting a hughe gap on roadie joe and T. I thought i was going to break free when about a mile from the Top I saw Joe, realing me in. He rolled up next to me and rolled on past.

at this piont we were getting really close to the observatory, you can see it getting closer and closer, and somtimes further away, making it difficult to judge the distance to the top.

Joe put a 100 yards on me and i couldn't tell if we were on the last switch back or not....I idnt thing I was going to be able to real him back in, but I gambled that we were on the last switch back and stood up and hammered...i was able to roll past joe about 100 feet from the top....phew..that was a smoker..


We headed down the back side of hamilton, it was awesome. we were out in the middele of nowhere

Coolest 24 (8 Hour Version)

Well we rolled into Cool, CA for the 8 hour race. It was hot, and exposed mostly double track with some single track and lots of dust. We started off behind the 24 hour folks and it was almost a total black out with the dust that was kicking around. I tried to chill for the first two laps since there were so many people to pass, i decided that it would be a waste of energy to Pass and then just get bogged down again. The dust was so bad that by the third lap i thought somehting in my rear wheel was dragging, but it seemed to work itself out.

This is my favorite photo, not because i look all bad ass and stuff but, if you look closely you can see my buddy roadie joe in the background.....way behind :)




Anyway, I finished in 11th place out of almost 50 I think, which i was pretty happy with since i wasnt super motivated to race on this course since it was really hot and pretty exposed (roadie type singltrack), so I kept a pretty conservative pace throughout the race but, it did start to hurt a bit


Jimmy did a great Job putting on the race, the vibe was absolutely amazing and so positive, with all of the money going to Cancer Research.




The mamasita held up well. The lefty generated lots of interest and the Salsa Delgado ghetto tubless converstion held up

If your board......

Well if your board tommorow, you can see how Im doing by clickicin onRace updates, Karl from Ride424.com will be givin updates on the coolest 24 hour race but i dont know if he will be tracking the 8 hour guys like myself.

Caffeine....its not spicy enough.

Check it out, My Lefty came in!!! woot, so we mounted her up with the Project321 adapator and my buddy Thorstein cut the Steerer tube down to size on the Lathe in our machine shop. The lefty came with two Salsa Delgado wheels, I decided to put on the Hutchinson Pythons (i am stoked to find these in 29er sizse) and Convert them to Tubeless utilizing the Ghetto Stans tubless mehtod, it worked out very well, but they are a bit heavier then then Stans wheelset I was running previously, but they were destined to get mounted back on my single speed. I think a new wheelset will be a project down the road. I have heard a lot of horror stories with converting these wheels but i have had a lot of experience with the Ghetto method so we will see. If this works out well i may even try experimenting with valve stems and the stans yellow rim tape.





Going to break it in this weekend at the8 Hours of Cool

Sea Otter

You probably think there will be some awesome race story.

But I just went for the energy drinks.



There was also this really awesome band crankin out the rocky theme....



Ohh and the bamboo bike was really cool and stuff.

I was like....mr local today.

Yeah so i roll up to the local trail parking lot (Skeggs) and the lot is full with tents from Rocky Mountain, Specialized and Cannondale as well as Mikes Bikes from Palo Alto, turns out there is some demo day going on. Joe and I were on a mission to ride so we blew off the the demos and set off on a tempo for the next 2 and a half hours that was just below race pace.

Towards the end of the ride i see this kid in distress, hes on a brand new specialized bling bling XTR you name it demo bike but manged to break the chain, its a good thing I ran into him cause it would of been a long ride out. He was amazed that i had him up and running in 30 seconds. I had a power link in my saddle bag and it turns out when i looked at the chain that he must of broke the his power link because i didn't need a chain tool to remove an old link. Before he could even comprehend that his bike was fixed, joe and I were on our way.

We got a good 20 miles of single track in before we headed back to the car, where E was waiting in the toaster for our ride. She's getting better every week and we rolled out for another two hours of riding.

As we were about to head back to the lot, I saw the Cannondale crew looking at the Map trying to figure out where to ride, I tried to explain where to go to get to the good stuff, but after a few looks of huh...I told E to hang out while i gave these guys a quick guide to the beginning of the trail with some follow on directions.

When we got there, they were totally stoked and really excited that some stranger gave them a quick tour. I felt pretty good about it, Its hot and cold out here on the trails with the locals and i felt like a mountain embassador. When I left I thought, i should have thrown the car Keys to E and given these guys the grand tour.... oh well, Ill remember to do that next time.

Boggs 3

Saturday the folks at Bike Monkey Put on the third annual 8 hour race at the Boggs Demonstration Forest. About 400 people showed up in teams and Solo categories. The Course was a really sweet 9.2 Mile loop with about 1200 feet of climbing per lap. A mix of soft pine needle buff single track and rocky technical stuff with plenty of tight twisty descents.

Carlos Perez, is the man running the show and he he outdid himself just as he has at all of the lake sonoma races. Lots of really cool people, great food and beer afterwards and an awesome system for posting real time results in between laps.



E did a great job leting me know where I was at in between laps, I finished 5th in expert, with 8 Laps.

It was a rough race day, i had some knee trouble and after lap 6 I had to stand on all of the climbs, which wasn't a big deal since I am used to doing these races on my single speed. I finished lap 8 with 52 minutes remaining. The rules stated that you had to finsh the lap at this time, not just go out. My knee was toast and my previous lap was about an hour long so I figured it would be good to call it a day and save the knee.

I lost my Garmin Edge 305 during the race, it flew off my bars. I knew where it happend but I wasn't turning back. Bike people are so cool and it turns out it ended up back in Carlo s's hands.

This was also my first race drinking Gu20 instead of HEED, i was digging it, or at least i wasn't completely sick after getting bounced around all day.

I got lots of complements on the Mamasita, everyone dug the Paint job, one woman was sitting on the side of the trail during my last lap and Yelled "Is that a 29er?" she was pumped....Salsa has that effect on woman.

Another weekend Braving the elements.....

It all started out with the wii bowling tornament at work, three big sreen tv's and 3 wiis setup for happy hour (they let us drink at work) and some sun outside for those not into bowling....


So, i have one of those toaster cars, the dancin rick is always talking about.....i just wanted to post this pick cause, I like to keep my bike with me at all times and even when i dont get to ride it, I like to look back at it and smile.




Saturday at got with roadie joe for a few hours of climbing, followed by a trip to the beach with E. We brought some chairs, wine and cheese and stuff....it was packed.




I rode to the trail on the mamasita today, that took about an hour and E met me with the toaster and her bike...shes making some progress, starting to let it go on the down hills and getting a little more consistent on the climbs....its time to get her some shoes...

The recipe for easter dinner called for either 2 teaspoons of Chicken Broth or Bourbon.......hmmmm i figured no sence in buying a can of Chicken broth and then throwing it away.

Green Beer

Yeah, I couldnt get into dumping food coloring into my beer. But it was going on, needless to say Yesterday was not a training day - We had some wicked Corned beef and lots of booze.

Day 2 on the Mamasita

The bike really felt dialed in today, I returned to Skeggs today with a few friends from work. The frame seems to fit me a bit better then the Niner, which was a medium, vs the large Mamasita, after about 2 hours of riding we headed back to the Parking lot and I picked up E.

We did a nice slow ride at her pace on the same loop we did last week. She did really well today, and showed a lot of improvement over last week. Im glad to get her into the woods, because I think Riding is an awesome way to get out and see nature, when she gets a little stronger it will be an awesome suplement to my longer training rides.

Popped the Jalapeno today

I snuck out for a quick ride- which ended up being a 3.5 hour ride. No lefty yet, but it rides real nice. Im not used to riding with gears. Im running a 1 x 9 setup, and didnt clean as much of the steep techy climbs that I usually do on the single speed. The gears were jumpin around, i guess due to some cable strech but I got her tuned up nicely now so tommorow should be a good ride with roadie joe followed by a slow loop with E.

Im diggin the SRAM XO shifters, I like the nice crisp click they make.

Back to the Beer

I got a surprise from Boris today at work - he was born in the Ukraine and we are always talking about weapons technology and stuff at work, since he was in the the Soviet army and I was in the US army. Anyway, im drinking it now and it feels like someone punched me in the face. Boris made it a point to get the Number 4. As i continue to type i must say it is growing on me, I might have to pick up a 6er.

Tragedy in the Bay Area

This totally sucks - my condolences to the families and friends, sorry for the buzkill bacon fans.

Sheriff's deputy hits cyclists, killing 2

Courtsey of he San Fran Chronicle

(03-09) 20:42 PDT Cupertino -- A rookie Santa Clara County deputy sheriff patrolling a winding Cupertino road Sunday morning veered into the opposite lane of traffic and struck three bicyclists, killing two, including a rising star in the Bay Area cycling community, authorities said.

Authorities did not release the names of the riders who were killed, but friends identified them as Kristy Gough, 30, of San Leandro and Matt Peterson, 29, of San Francisco. The third cyclist, whose name was not released, was listed in critical condition Sunday night at Stanford University Medical Center.

Gough was a professional triathlete who recently took up road racing and who friends said won every race she entered this year. She and Peterson, also an amateur road racing cyclist, both won their divisions in a March 1 road racing event in downtown Merced.

Gough, Peterson and the third cyclist were on a training ride on Stevens Canyon Road and had broken away from a group of eight others when they were struck by the on-duty deputy at about 10:25 a.m., friends of the riders said.

The unidentified deputy was driving northbound when his white cruiser accidentally crossed over the double yellow line between Montebello and Ricardo roads and hit the cyclists, said Sgt. Don Morrissey, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

The deputy, who has worked for the department for about 18 months, immediately began to offer assistance to the bicyclists and called for medical aid, Morrissey said.

"The deputy is very distraught over this right now," Morrissey said. "It's devastating for everybody involved." Morrissey did not know whether Stevens Canyon Road is a route the deputy normally patrols.

As is customary when a local law enforcement officer is involved in a fatal crash, the deputy was placed on paid administrative leave and the California Highway Patrol is conducting the investigation.

Peterson, a member of the Roaring Mouse Cycles racing team, was pronounced dead at the scene. Gough died several hours later at Stanford University Medical Center, where the third rider, a 20-year-old, was admitted with major injuries, according to CHP Officer Todd Thibodeau.

Roaring Mouse Cycles on Irving Street in San Francisco, a bicycle shop that sponsored the team to which Peterson belonged, posted word of his death on its Web site. His death was confirmed by David Parrish, president of the Roaring Mouse racing team.

Two of Gough's friends, Dave Mayer and Anthony Borba, rode with her on the Third Pillar Amateur Road Racing team but were not present on Sunday's ride. They spoke with her family and said that she died as a result of head injuries and internal bleeding and that she also suffered a severed leg.

Mayer, 30, of Portola Valley, and Borba, 32, of Campbell, stood outside the hospital Sunday afternoon and recalled a talented athlete who excelled at cycling, even though road racing was a relatively new sport for her.

"She's the strongest rider I ever rode with," Borba said. "The next level for her would have been the Olympic trials, and she had no ego about it."

The group of riders hit by the deputy on Sunday were on a stretch of road frequently used by cyclists, but also heavily traveled by gravel trucks en route to a nearby quarry. In 1996, a 46-year-old Cupertino man was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer rig while riding a bicycle near the scene of Sunday's accident.

Borba said his racing team regularly uses the road for training rides because it is considered safe.

"It has a large bicycle lane that is safe," he said. "That's why we ride that route every weekend."

Chris Wendt, 53, who lives near the scene of the crash, called the incident a tragedy.

"I don't want to say it was inevitable," he said. "But you do get a lot of (vehicles) and bikes up here. What was surprising is that it was a sheriff's deputy."

Anyone with information about the incident should call the CHP at (408) 467-5354, ext. 337.

E-mail the writers at metro@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

SO i got out this weekend with no real training plan, I have just been trying to make sure i get on big ride in a week. I was ready to throw it down on the road bike saturday, but decided to jump on the one speed and ride to the trail.

There is about 2000 feet of elevation gain from my house to the trail head, I ended up getting caught up in a big roadie ride, about 30 of them all kitted out, they rolled on by me on the flat road to the base of the climb with the typical Bay area roadietude of disgust that i was riding a MTN bike on the road. Well the road started to go up. it was time to kill the roadietude. I started picken off a few folks, they were acutally moving slow by roadie standards, but i was in Zone 5 trying to keep up on 2.3 knobies. A few folks were impressed and actually got some conversation going on the climb. One dude was really interested in my Niner and we talked about it for a while. about 3.4 of the way up though I popped and had to hang back, a few dudes caught up with me, but i was able to real the tail end back in with mad sprint to the top.


I was pretty smoked by the time I got to the trail, which has some bitchen climbs. so some folks chatted it up and road home.

LIve to train another day

After some familiy time at home depot, I was going to try and sneak out for a good 4 to 5 hours on the road bike, but I thought it would be good to get E out to the trail. I want her to really enjoy the California weather as much as I do. Its tough for me to find the time to ride with her since I am a racer dude and shes a totally newbie. But this is an investemnt. So i loaded up the Car with the Mountain bikes got everything packed and ready to go, then jumped on the road bike, I told E to give me a 20 minute head start and i headed to Skeggs. It worked out really well. This was the first time i brought her here, and I was surprsied how well she handeld some of the steep decents, and she was really deteremined to keep spinning on the climbs. It was slow, but it was fun and good to spend some time together in the woods. We got back to the car and I was off on the road bike. I still manged to get about 5 hours of saddle time so its all good.

Headset Press

Nut bolt and some washers, seemed to work allright, but you do have to tap the headset in a little nice and easy first to get it in the steerer tube, so that the tube can act as a guide. I might rig something up out of an old steerer to act as a guide next time.

Ohhh Mamasita!

The Mamasita arrived today, Special thanks to Salsa for supporting the Bikeman.com Team.

I was really suprrised at how sick the frame was when i pulled it out of the box. They did an amazing job integrating the carbon seat stays with the scandium frame, click on the pic below.



Cant wait to build her up