- Bad Idea Racing - HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

I hate to admit it sometimes, but I like what my friend Mike calls “Man Rock”. A little anger gets my blood going, and I can’t help it if it’s Clear Channel approved.

I found this (scroll down) the other day. I am an ignorant American, and I really had trouble guessing what language it is. A little help would be great as I need to stop the worldwide phenomenom that is “TEAM PENIS” from spreading any further.

The Mary bars came off The Fastest Bike in the World yesterday. Don’t get me wrong. They were comfy and nice, and a decent amount of shits and giggles were provided by their existence in my life. It was just too damn hard to carry a box (or boxes) on my bars at work with the funny shaped bars. I carry boxes everyday, and it just wasn’t a safe scenario. Back to what Guitar Ted (I think) referred to at one point as a broomstick.

Speaking of The Fastest Bike in the World– I got ready to go out for some “training” on Monday morning, and my front tire was soft. I knew it had to be a puncture, but I aired it up anyways hoping it would be fine. No luck. I heard a small amount of air rushing out. Upon inspection I found a torn sidewall in my dry-rotted front tire. Shit. I pulled out a new tire and tube and started making the swap. While trying to mount the new tire I heard a “PLOINK!” and after a quick inspection I found a broken spoke. Sometimes there’s no winning the game of life. I grabbed the front wheel off my road bike (hey, it’s good for something), aired it up, and headed out the door. Even the forces of nature are working against me.

Keep holding on
When my brain’s tickin’ like a bomb
Guess the black thoughts have come again to get me

Late Edit: I just found this pic of Nick the Stick (thanks Cass).

Apparently it took every bit of his will to live to out-wrestle me at the Icycle, and he was in a coma for 19 days (that’s just a rumor). If you see him tell him that I hope he feels better soon.  At least I had the ability to take off my footwear before I passed out.

Physically:

I’ve been feeling pretty good. Here’s the laundry list version:

My swollen pinky toe has gone into hybernation. Whodathunk that all I needed to do was stop wearing sandals at work when it’s twenty degrees.

My hands have fully recovered from Conyers. They feel like…ummm…hands now.

I can breathe like a human again. Whatever I did to my ribs at the Icycle has healed to the point where I no longer breathe like a huffing desert lizard. I’m still a little tender in that area, but I can breathe, sneeze, and yawn comfortably.

My legs feel fresh. I’m not really used to that. There’s usually a lingering fatigue in my muscles I just can’t shake. I’m ready to start putting in some mileage as long I can convince myself there’s a reason to head out the door.

My lower back hurts off and on. It’s been off for some time, and that’s been great, Doing my job really sucks when my lower back is throbbing.

Ah yes, my taint has been saddle sore free for over a month… maybe even two. I swear it has everything to do with riding the Brooks saddle at work. I usually have a full line up of regular sores, with occasional guest stars in my nether region. Not today baby! My taint’s as clean as Floyd Landis.

All my other sundrious bodily issues seem to be gone also. No sore balls (of my feet), my knees are nice and fluid, and my Lasik enhanced super vision eyeballs are no longer dry. Things are all good.

On the other hand…

Mentally:

I’m toast, I’m so friggin’ bored, I’m in need of a looooooooong ride. I normally have a big something or other planned for April (I think) so I have a good reason to get out and ride early. With my first race in May and La Ruta looming in the very distant November I just don’t really wanna be stacking on the miles in February. I need to get to the mountains and go out on a mini epic for my own mental health’s sake.

Oh well, life ain’t that bad. Like The Dude says “I could be just sitting at home with pee stains on my rug”.

Some background first: I tried the first Stan’s system back in 2001 when it was just packing and electrical tape and a valve. My plan was to use this “new technology” at the 24 Hours of Snowshoe which is the slimiest, rootiest, nastiest place in the world. Stan happened to be in Charlotte for the Coca Cola 600, and he stopped by to help me install it in my garage (he resembled Robert Duvall in my mind). My oversized Continental Surivor Pro blew off the rim four times that night (the first time it was in Stan’s hands when it blew off). I think we finally got them to seal, and I went to Snowshoe for a test ride. One of the tires blew off the rim while I was laying in bed at the hotel, so I gave up on that one. A few weeks later moments before the start I started getting a leak at the valve stem on the other one so I threw in a tube. Experiment #1 was a failure.

Stan let me know he was working on an all new system. He was developing a prototype rubber rimstrip that he was hand assembling and gluing. I used them successfully, but my endurance racing was becoming less important and the strips were separating at the seam (they were just hand glued prototypes). I gave up on Stan’s and went back to “Yes Tubes” technology until I finally caved and bought into some heavy UST tires and wheels.

Now I’m doing the 29′er thing. Jeff at Industry Nine offered to send me some Flow rims so I could give them a whirl. I wanted a bigger contact patch than the Bonty Mustangs could give, and I was intrigued with tubeless again. I haven’t had too many sponsors in the past, and I’ve got to say Industry Nine has been outstanding. They even hooked me up with the tape and valves so I could give the tubeless thing another shot. I gave all that background info so you can see that this stuff isn’t new to me, and I’m not a total ingnoramous when it comes to playing with Stan’s spooge and tape.

Lacing up the Flow’s went pretty well, but one rim had a definite low spot I had to work around. In the end I got them all roundy-round and true as the New York Times (actually better than that). I watched the video on Stan’s site on how to apply the tape and then did it as easy as pie. I mounted a Rampage on the front and a Jones XR on the rear with a floor pump and minimal effort. The beads popped right into place with a re-assuring “ka-bloing!” So far so good.

I headed out to a local trail with 24/28 PSI front/rear. I ended up lowering the front by a couple squirts two minutes into the ride. I forgot just how fast converted standard tires feel on the trail. Nice. Just so you know, Jerry (Enoch) had warned me about the thin sidewalls on the Jones, and on my second lap on a not-so-technical trail I ripped the sidewall of my one month old tire. That never happened to me back in my Stan’s 26′er days, and I was running Airlight Pythons back then. Hmmmm… as I rode along with a duct tape boot I considered pitching the system when I got home, but I’ve got a couple of months before I do any big races. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

The thing that convinced me that this still might be worth it was that both beads stayed in place after the blowout. I think Stan really nailed the whole “Bead Socket Technology” thing. I feel like it would be really hard to roll a bead off the rim with his new rims. I went home and tried to mount up a few of Jerry’s toss off tires, but I had no luck. I ended up just putting another Rampage on the rear for now. It did not air up as easily as my first two successes. I had to remove the valve core to allow more air to enter the tire. Keep in mind that I am using a floor pump because if it doesn’t work with a common floor pump I don’t want to bother with it.

I will now be seeking out a new all purpose rear tire. I don’t want “different horses for different courses” if I can avoid it. I know the Rampage is heavy, but it is soooo confidence inspiring up front. Most of the races I have planned are in extreme environments or a 24 hour race where things will get real slippery at night. The bike dropped 1/2 a pound with the system alone (dropping the bike to 22.5lbs), and when I get my new frame that should be closer to 21.5lbs still running a Rampage and an 8″ front rotor. Yummy.

I was way too bored yesterday so I googled myself. It’s okay to google yourself, right? I mean everybody does it, don’t they? You won’t go blind, and it can be fun. So I’m googling around, and I found this mention of my name in a foreign biking forum (scroll down till you see the picture of me riding in the rocks). I think it’s in Finnish, but when I tried using an online translator it was hard to understand anything it spit out except “Team Penis”. I don’t think I want to change my nickname to Team Penis. Doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.

Gotta get out and ride tomorrow. Unfortunately my plans are up in the air till I hear from The Wonderboy. My fate lies in his dirty hands.

I was evidently more motivated by the photo I posted on Tuesday than I thought. I printed the photo of Levi out and taped it to the back of my messenger clipboard thing. Now whenever I see an abandoned cookie at work I just pull out my clipboard. Somehow I’ve got to remind myself about how I’m gonna look back in a few months and wished I would’ve gave two shits now. Does that make sense? Guess maybe I’m too tired and hungry to know. Up at 5:00am is going to be the plan for awhile. I won’t be right out the door for the time being, but I will be adding miles SLOWLY. Why slowly? Because I will be racing from May till November, and I think I might have some time to ramp things up a little slower than last year.

Hmmmm… what’s new?

I have my Flow rims mounted front and rear and I’m just waiting for the Stan’s strips so I can go tubeless before the weekend.

Stabby (the guy who rode the Wilderness 101on a 35lb six inch travel single speed) bought a Haro Mary 29′er over the weekend. He’s already raising the bar (alright, my bar) by busting over doubles and railing it like it’s second nature. He didn’t like the Mary bars that were on the bike so he gave them to me. They now reside on the Fastest Bike in the World. I’ve tried them upside down/stem upside down, right side up/stem upside down, and upside down/stem right side up. I think I’ll keep them on there as long as I continue to get some shits and giggles from them.

Fear my moustache handlebar

I am getting out for a ride early this morning. All I needed was a little motivation, and when I saw this I got it:

from cyclingnews.com

I am in no way comparing myself to Levi, but just look at the folds in his cheeks. That boy is lean in February so you know he’s cooking with gas. I watched him rip it up in Sunday’s prologue, and I found myself standing up and cheering. My boy’s starting to look kinda Lance-ish, donchathink? I got no excuses to not get out there and start today. Heaven forbid if I watch too much of the Tour of California I might even find myself out on a road ride in the next couple of weeks.

Look out Levi. The Dickman cometh.

“I call it the Industry One wheel. It may cost more than your old wooden wheel, but it is way stiffer.”

FYI: Speaking of fancy wheels, Industry Nine is in the process of updating their website.  Check out the really nice service manuals available for all you DIY’ers.

I spent the weekend in more of a parental mode than a rider mode.  It was our first weekend with Nia, and we had a lot of stuff to do.  I was fortunate enough to sneak out late Sunday afternoon to ride my bike for awhile.  Over the weekend I got all fired up about taking the long route to work starting today, but I woke up to 19 degrees.   In the words of the younger pre-Disney Eddie Murphy:

“I’ll take the zero.” 

I’ve got tons of cold weather gear, but I ain’t that anxious to use it.  Tomorrow it will be above freezing in the mornings, and it should stay that way the rest of the week.  I ate a ton of cake and ice cream over the weekend, but I guess I can wait another day to start whittling down the fat stores.

The Boy got himself a fancy new camera and he did get some photographic evidence that I did go out the door with my bike this weekend. 

and of course here’s a picture of Nia (Cindy Lou Who) helping us celebrate The Pie’s birthday on Saturday. 

BLOG.COM was down all morning so I got nothing for you. 

This is all the entertainment you will get.

Why are these guys so happy? There working on the plans for The Pie’s birthday celebration tomorrow.

Happy birthday Pie!!!!!

After staring at my post from yesterday I came up with the resolve to start riding to work earlier today. Sleep is overrated and I could use a change. The Pie pointed out that Nia is getting up at about the same time I would need to leave so she wouldn’t have anybody around while TP got ready for the day. Since we are still in the first week we agreed to keep our days the same for now, so it would seem I have avoided being out in the dark and cold for another few days.

It dawned on me yesterday that while most people are happy about the new daylight savings time rule it will have an ill effect on me. By scooting it up a few weeks that means that I will have to “train” in the dark (and cold) even more. I don’t really ride after work so the extension will do very little for me during the week. At least everybody else is happy.

This just in: Lee forwarded some photos from the First Annual Fontana Village Wrestlemania.  I heard there was a bike race the same weekend.

in Lee’s words:

“nick beat dick (in pajamas), and then dick tried to beat nick, but in the end dick got beat again. hooray for md 20/20. “

also in Lee’s words:

“night-time entertainment at the “icycle”……i think more people were watching wrestlemania than bothered to watch the night-time downhill.”

And in happy bike geek news I got my Flow rims from Industry 9 already.  I built the rear up last night, and all is good.  Now I just gotta get some rim tape and I’ll be all set.  Mmmmm good.

Crap, I dropped my camera the other day and now it takes images like this?!?!  I had to buy this camera when I was in Canada for the Trans Rockies last year as mine crapped out the day before the start.  Now I got to figure out how to warranty this stupid thing.

Day “training” started for 2007————February 1st

Extra miles ridden since——————–0

Expected extra miles for this week—–0

Level of concern at this point————-Minimal 

I’m not quite into my groove yet.   It’s pretty dark in the mornings,  and my level of resolve is low.  I don’t feel like being cold if it can be avoided.  My first BIG event isn’t till May this year, so early season miles are hard to come by.  March’s event (if I go) is the Georgia Single Speed Championship.  I just put it on the calender so I could have something to think about while doing extra miles in February.  I’ve discovered that if I don’t ride extra miles I don’t need anything to think about.  Hmmmm.. I think I’m on to something.