Monster Cross pics/race report

So here they finally are, pictures of the bike I have talked about for months, and made you wait for months to see. I had hoped to have the build pics too, but they werer lost when the hard drive went . This is one amazing ride. I went with the utilitarian green, thought it was fitting for the bike. My other Vulture has an amazingly wild skull theme to it so I thought that this one should be more toned down, letting the amazing craftsmanship speak for itself, that and the fact that it is a dedicated fixed gear bike, no posts or disc mounts in site on this one. This is a really bad picture of the head badge, its made of brass, and is a one of a kind.







Above here is the heart of the monster cross, look at that guy. I let Wade create what he wanted me to ride, I gave him the freedom to create, and this is what he put out, I know he rides off road fixed most of the time, follows suit that this is the kind of bike he would build. It fits 45c tires, not 29er tires, has a disc only front wheel. I am so stoked on this bike. That leads me in to my next topic, I had wanted to get out and ride the bike before I raced a cross race on it. So I rode it to and from work a bit, with no bar tape, I wanted to get this, but its all backrodered, so I eventually just put the black bar tape on it last night while preping the bike for todays race. I played with stem heights, and fit, but not much was need, being that it is an off road bike with drop bars, i had to raise it it up a bit. Lets just say today when I woke up to race after hanging out at StarCrossed last night, and thinking " oh shit what have I decided to atempt." Speaking of Star Crossed, my friend Craig, who ride for Counterbalance killed it in the B's race, winning it by a ways on a singlespeed bike. Congrats Craig. Craig is a super nice guy and is smiling while suffering, what a way to be. So back on topic, I woke up this morning thinking " oh shit", having not ridden the bike at speed or on singletrack I thought what most people think about riding fixed off road, wtf. So my directionaly challanged friend, keith showed up at 9am and we were off, after a little spilled coffee, and some chainring maintence by keith. We found our way to south seatac, got registered and warmed up by chasing craig around some of the trails. Then the course, it was more mountian bike ish by cross standards I was told. This being my first cross race I had nothing to compare it to. We line up, fimilar faces, bart from BC was there, craig, casey, who I had just met, and a handful of others. We were off, I thought the start would be a little more crazy, but we started behind the 45 b masters. We were soon in traffic, off our bikes and running sections that didn't need to be run. More sand, singletrack, run ups. All in all I had a great time. no crashes, carried good speed through the sand, running sucks, but all in all i had a great time. I got to be "the crazy guy on a fixed gear" I am sure they would have thought I was even crazier had they known if it was my first off road fixed gear ever. I ended up finishing 4th in the singlespeed class, i was happy with my finish. That said I think I will race again, wonder what the mud will be like. Wade thank you so much my brother, I can't wait to ride bikes with you. To my friends in the wake that I meet last night paul, kyle and adam, heres to next weekend at St Eds. Props to adam for rockin the fixie at Star Crossed last night. Brandon, of trackdaddy fame was there, we finally met and had the change to kick tire, brandon, nice to met you finally.